Hong Kong: Bonds forged with central ministries

Chief Executive John Lee concluded his Beijing visit today, saying the support and attention given by the central ministries and institutions is a strong impetus for Hong Kongs development.



In a press release, Mr Lee described the trip as opening a new chapter for effective communication and co-operation between the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and central ministries and institutions, and paving the way for better and stronger collaboration.



Together with Mainland counterparts, departments and bureaus will spare no effort in solving problems, he stressed.



Mr Lee said that it was his first time to attend the opening and closing meetings of the National Peoples Congress in the capacity of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR. It was also his first visit to Beijing as the Chief Executive since the full resumption of normal travel between the Mainland and Hong Kong, during which he called on 11 central ministries and institutions in seven days.



Additionally, noting that this is the first time he led eight directors of bureaus on an official visit, Mr Lee said he believes the trip represented the Hong Kong SAR Governments respect and gratitude to the central ministries and institutions, his dedication towards enhancing communication and building mutual trust between the Hong Kong SAR Government and the central ministries and institutions, as well as Hong Kongs proactive approach to integrating into national development.



Before departing the capital, Mr Lee met Minister of Justice He Rong.



The Chief Executive thanked the Ministry of Justice for its continuous support to the Hong Kong SAR Governments work, and for deepening exchanges and collaboration between legal professions in the Mainland and Hong Kong.

He made it clear that the Hong Kong SAR Government will continue to leverage the institutional advantages brought by the citys common law system and global connections to consolidate its position as an international centre for legal and dispute resolution services in the Asia-Pacific region, as set out in the National 14th Five-Year Plan.



The Hong Kong SAR Government will also fully support and co-operate with the International Organisation for Mediation Preparatory Office set up in Hong Kong last month, in order to support the country in developing international mediation and nurturing talent in the practice of foreign-related legal affairs, with a view to integrating into the overall national development, he added.



Separately, the Chief Executive expressed his gratitude to all central ministries and institutions for their warm hospitality, and to the Hong Kong & Macao Affairs Office of the State Council for its strong support and co-ordination of his visit to Beijing.



Mr Lee is scheduled to return to Hong Kong this afternoon.

This story has been published on: 2023-03-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Brazilian president to visit China

China Daily) 09:54, March 18, 2023

At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will pay a state visit to China from March 26 to 31, the Foreign Ministry announced on Friday.

China and Brazil share a wide range of common interests and shared duties in bolstering common development, Chinese officials said.

"China-Brazil relations have maintained stable development for nearly half a century since the establishment of diplomatic relations in the face of changes in the global landscape," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.

"Pragmatic cooperation in various fields has been fruitful and has set a role model of unity and cooperation among major developing countries joining hands for development," Wang told reporters on Friday.

It is believed that the Brazilian president's China visit will usher in a new era and a new future for China-Brazil relations, Wang said.

Brazil is China's ninth-largest trading partner and China is Brazil's largest. According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs of China, the bilateral trade volume in 2022 reached $171.49 billion, up 4.9 percent year-on-year.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
OTTAWA, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Canadian senators Victor Oh and Yuen Pau Woo Thursday called attention to the injustice committed against early Chinese Canadians and contemporary prejudices.

Holding a press conference in Ottawa, the two senators announced a national remembrance ceremony on June 23 to mark the 100th Anniversary of the introduction of the Chinese Immigration Act, 1923.

The act, also known as the "Chinese Exclusion Act," was a Canadian Act of Parliament passed in 1923 banning most forms of Chinese immigration to Canada.

"This ceremony presents an opportunity to recognize the injustice committed against early Chinese Canadians, while increasing Canadians' knowledge of our shared history, while celebrating the many accomplishments of our community over the past 100 years," Oh said at the press conference.

Woo gave some background on the importance of the event, saying: "The act was the culmination of a series of racist laws passed by the Government of Canada as early as 1885." He explained why he felt it appropriate for the ceremony to be held in the Senate.

Stressing the importance of the Senate of Canada to take the lead in remembering the 100th anniversary, Woo wrote in his social media that "the event will recall a dark period in our history. It's an occasion to recognize the longstanding relationship between Chinese and Indigenous peoples, enhance belonging, and call attention to contemporary prejudices."

Action! Chinese Canadians Together (ACCT) Chair Teresa Woo-Paw, whose own family was affected at the time by those historic events, spoke about the effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act on Chinese-Canadians living in Canada.

"Their existence in Canada during this time period was one of enduring heightened racial stereotyping and individual and institutional racism. An example of the latter is the Dominion Election Act of 1920 which denied the Chinese in Canada and many other racialized minorities, the right to run for the Canadian Parliament," she said.

The event will be held in the Senate of Canada Chamber and will be attended by members of the Chinese community from across the country, as well as Members of Parliament, senators, and other dignitaries.

A proposal has been submitted to the Government of Canada for the commissioning of a commemorative plaque to mark the 100th anniversary. Specially prepared performances will take place and be live streamed to mark the occasion.

The senators also announced the launch of a website that serves as a non-partisan hub for groups across the country to post information about events and activities related to the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

According to Canadian Museum of Immigration, the act virtually restricted all Chinese immigration to Canada by narrowly defining the acceptable categories of Chinese immigrants. It is estimated that only 15 Chinese immigrants gained entry into Canada between 1923 and 1946. The act was repealed in 1947. 
A photo of Tioni Theus was displayed on a program during her funeral in January 2022 in Inglewood. A new study, commissioned after the killing of Theus, a 16-year-old Black girl who was fatally shot and left alongside a South Los Angeles freeway, reveals that Black women and girls remain at higher risk of victimization than any other demographic. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Even as the rate of serious crime in Los Angeles trends downward, Black women and girls remain at higher risk of victimization than any other demographic, according to a report by the city's civil rights department.

At the same time, the report said, their deaths and disappearances receive far less attention from law enforcement and the news media than other races.

The findings reflect the additional burdens placed on Black women, who are forced to overcome "financial instability, income inequality, housing insecurity, and a myriad of other potential social safety risks," even as they navigate the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on communities of color, according to the report.

"Black women experience a unique position of precarity as a result of decades of discrimination, grounded both in racism and sexism," the report said.

Councilmembers Curren Price and Marqueece Harris-Dawson commissioned the study last year after the killing of Tioni Theus, a 16-year-old Black girl who was fatally shot and left alongside a South Los Angeles freeway.

Citing LAPD statistics, the report found that while Black women make up about 4.3% of the city's population, they often account for 25% to 33% of its victims of violence.

Over the period from January 2011 through August 2022, 481 women were killed in L.A. Nearly a third, or 158, of those victims were Black, and the deaths were concentrated in poorer neighborhoods, according to the report. Many were killed in acts of intimate partner violence. The number of Latina women murdered jumped by more than 38% in that span, but Black women were "statistically the most overrepresented" when compared to their share of the population, the report said.

Black women were the victims in about a third of the 62,264 aggravated assaults with female victims reported to the LAPD during the period. They were nearly two times more likely to be seriously injured in an assault than women of other races.

"Basically, when things go wrong, women of color, particularly Black women, get the worst of it," said Capri Maddox, executive director of the city's civil rights department, whose full name is the civil + human rights and equity department. "This is just another example of how we are 'othered.' I mean, we deal with biases in the workplace, biases in medicine and even biases in how to protect our personal safety."

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Racial disparities in violent crime rates are nothing new in L.A. Statistics about disproportionate bloodshed in Black and Latino neighborhoods have historically been wielded by civic and police leaders to push more aggressive policing there.

But after the social tumult of the past few years, the report reflects a change in political discourse over the role of police and what public safety will look like in the future. Its authors argue that the city should increase funding to community groups working to address these disparities, which drive crime, and to explore "alternative community responses to domestic violence that do not require calling the police," said the report, which was presented to the City Council's civil rights committee on Friday.

The report recommended investing in prevention strategies such as youth development and empowerment, educating healthcare professionals on how to spot victims of abuse, and victim-centered responses to violence that don't "retraumatize the survivor."

The report urged the LAPD to revisit some of its policies for handling domestic violence and to strengthen its ties with community organizations that provide crisis intervention and violence prevention services.

The findings were hardly unexpected, said Marsha Mitchell, communications director for the nonprofit advocacy group Community Coalition.

"There is a history of non-action regarding violence against [B]lack women," Mitchell said in an email. She noted that indifference by police and the news media to Black grief dates at least as far back as the so-called Grim Sleeper serial murders, when the LAPD kept the slayings quiet despite suspicions that a killer was stalking young Black women.

For Bernita Walker, the lack of empathy toward Black women is no surprise in a country that has been slow to come to terms with the racism embedded deeply in its history.

"We know that there is a problem with Black womens lives not being covered extensively as they should be by the news media, said Walker, who runs Project: PeaceMakers Inc., a domestic violence organization based in South L.A. Sometimes the voices of Black women who find themselves in cycles of abuse are ignored until it's too late, because people feel that were overexaggerating"  and police don't always treat these cases with the same urgency, she said.

The report offers a glimmer of optimism  the LAPD solved 77 of 81 homicides of Black women between 2016 and 2022. But it cast doubt on the accuracy of LAPD statistics due to reporting inconsistencies and also pointed out that many crimes go unreported, particularly in communities of color. Fractured trust in law enforcement remains a key issue in some Black and Latino communities.

Theus was last seen on Jan. 7, 2022. She had told a family member that she was going to a party with a friend.

Because her body was discovered on an onramp to the 110 Freeway, the California Highway Patrol is investigating the case.

The report said that news articles, which started as a trickle, overemphasized the possibility that "theft and prostitution" could have played a role in her death.

Such "victim-blaming" language and framing "normalizes" violent acts against other Black women, the report said.

Longtime community organizer Najee Ali said the report "only confirmed what Black activists have known for decades."

The fatal stabbing of a young white woman named Brianna Kupfer around the same time made headlines around the country. According to Ali, news coverage of Theus' death only picked up after he and her family began publicly calling out the "hypocrisy."

After that, city and county leaders pledged tens of thousands of dollars in reward money for information leading to an arrest.

Nafeesah Kincy, Theus' cousin, said she is glad that Theus is still on people's minds but that the loss has been hard.

Here I am, a Black woman who has to go out every day and cope and deal with all this depression, knowing that my life dont matter, Kincy said. Tioni was a beautiful soul, and she didnt deserve this, and I just want her name to stay out there and stay alive, and I just hope that it being reported on, it jars someones memory.

Another cousin, Solona Theus, said that people should stop judging a slain teenager who was dealing with her mother's death.

"A lot of people wanna speak and say, 'Oh well, she was online, or she was dressed this way, or she was out there in the streets,'" Solona Theus said. But she was a human being. A lot of these girls are just human beings."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A broken lower story window marks the location of Friday's fatal shooting, the second within 36-hours in Great Falls

In the span of just 36 hours two people have been gunned down in Great Falls. The most recent fatal shooting occurred early Friday evening in a neighborhood on the far western edge of the city, beneath the northeast corner of the Great Falls International Airport, which stands atop Gore Hill.

The Great Falls Police Department (GFPD) issued a public alert warning of police activity in response to a "serious incident" near the 1400 block of 3rd West Hill Drive at approximately 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Shortly after 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 18, GFPD released the following update.

"Last night, March 17, at approximately 5:40 p.m., 911 dispatchers received reports of neighbors hearing gunshots coming from a residence in the 1400 block of 3rd West Hill Drive," the update states. "Upon arrival, officers discovered one person deceased from what appeared to be a gunshot wound. Officers quickly identified a suspect and learned that person had left the residence only minutes before."

Friday night's fatal shooting occurred at a residence below the northeast corner of the Great Falls International airport.

"Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies worked together and at approximately 11 p.m. last night a lengthy pursuit and standoff ended in Pondera County when the suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

"GFPD detectives are leading the investigation into the homicide that occurred at 3rd West Hill Drive. Community members should expect to see police activity at the residence throughout the day. Montana Department of Criminal Justice - Division of Criminal Investigation is leading the death investigation in Pondera County.

"Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter will release the name of the decedent in Great Falls when he determines it is appropriate to do so. To protect the integrity of the investigation, we are unable to share further details at this time.

"We appreciate the community's cooperation and concern for all involved."

The scene of Friday night's fatal shooting in Great Falls.

This is the fourth shooting in Great Falls since Feb. 21, when a 14-year-old middle school student shot a 15-year-old Great Falls High School student in the stomach while the victim was walking to school.

Story continues

Two weeks later, on the afternoon of March 7, Great Falls police officer Tanner Lee was seriously injured after being shot twice in the chest and once in the arm while pursuing a fugitive near the intersection of 12th Street and 5th Avenue South. The suspect, Jacob Kain Bradley was subsequently shot in the head by a responding officer and remains in critical condition.

And on Thursday morning at approximately 5:15 a.m. an unidentified victim was shot and killed at the intersection of 9th Ave. S. and 15th Street near a Town Pump convenience store. Great Falls police have not said whether any of these incidents are related or whether they occurred due to independent circumstance.

The Great Falls Tribune will update these stories as more information becomes available.

This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: Second fatal shooting in two days. Great Falls reels in crime wave
Young Thug

A picture of Jeffrey Williams, better known by his stage name Young Thug, has gone viral as the rappers physical appearance has changed while behind bars.

The post Viral Picture of Young Thug Shows His Appearance Has Changed Since Hes Been In Jail The Past 10 Months appeared first on Blavity.

While White was on a video call with the Atlanta artist on Sunday, she snapped a photo of the 31-year-old. She then posted it with the words My Heart, followed by a red heart emoji.

The image quickly circulated and began trending online due to the Hot rappers new muscles. Before being locked up, Williams was on the skinnier side, but its obvious hes been in the gym working on his fitness to pass the time behind bars while he awaits trial for his high-profile case as hes gotten swole. In the picture, he showed off his added weight in the gym by flexing his biceps.

On May 9, he was arrested and charged by Fulty County police with conspiring to violate the states Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and being involved in an Atlanta street gang that committed criminal acts.

Following his arrest, authorities searched his home. What they found added one more count of participating in street gang activity and three counts of violating the Georgia Controlled Substances Act, possession of a firearm while committing a felony and possession of a machine gun. These charges were rolled into his RICO case as more evidence of his violent activity as the alleged co-founder of the Young Slime Life (YSL) gang.

In addition, Young Stoner Life Records artist Gunna was among the 28 arrested and named in the 65-count indictment connected to the alleged YSL crimes. He was released in December 2022 after agreeing to sign a plea deal, which the public criticized him for. He shot back at critics declaring he didnt snitch on his friend.

While I have agreed to always be truthful, I want to make it perfectly clear that I have NOT made any statements, have NOT been interviewed, have NOT cooperated, have NOT agreed to testify or be a witness for or against any party in the case and have absolutely NO intention of being involved in the trial process in any way, Gunna said in a statement reported XXL Magazine.

The trial is expected to take considerable time due to the nature of the crimes, and over 300 witnesses are set to take the stand, according to XXL Magazine.
Putin and Xi Jinping plan to meet on March 20-22 in Moscow

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Xi plan to meet in Moscow on March 20-22 during the Chinese leaders state visit to Russia.

Read also: China unready to arm Russia right now  Kuleba

The Kremlin announced there would be the signing of bilateral documents and discussion of topical issues during meeting with the Chinese leader, while the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Xis visit to Moscow would be focused on promoting peace.

Meanwhile, Chinese companies have reportedly sold rifles, drone parts, and equipment to Russian entities that could be used for military purposes, and Western intelligence agencies have stated that Chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment to Russia, ISW wrote.

According to ISW analysts, Xi is expected to discuss with Putin and Russian officials potential strategies to bypass Western sanctions, which would enable the sale and provision of Chinese equipment to Russia.

Read also: China supplied rifles and body armor to Russia in 2022, Politico reports

Previously, ISW analysts concluded that during a visit to Beijing on March 1, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko and Xi signed a package of 16 agreements that could facilitate the circumvention of Russian sanctions by moving Chinese products through Belarus.

Xi also likely aims to promote Chinese efforts aiming to position China as an impartial third-party mediator for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, ISW analysts noted.

Read also: ISW reveals Chinas vital role in propping up Russias military industry

China released a comprehensive 12-point peace plan ahead on the anniversary of Ukraines full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation. The plan includes a proposal for a ceasefire, lifting of sanctions, and the restarting of negotiations.

However, it remains unclear what more definitive Chinese proposals for a negotiated settlement to the war would encompass, ISW wrote.

Analysts have suggested that Xi may attempt to leverage his recent success in reconciling Iran and Saudi Arabias diplomatic ties to potentially mediate the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Story continues

The meeting with Xi will be Putins first with a major world leader since an arrest warrant for him on charges of war crimes was issued by the International Criminal Court on March 17.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Washington state has been experiencing drastically higher cases of auto theft since last summer. In fact, it saw the third-highest rate of thefts across all states in 2022.

Recently The News Tribune has reported on a slew of crimes and reckless activity involving stolen vehicles. A man in Tacoma was driving and crashed into and killed the driver of another vehicle earlier this month. Then on Sunday, two teenage boys who were robbing a Gig Harbor gas station fled the scene in a stolen car, crashed it into a building during a police pursuit and fled into a forest on foot.

Over 1 million vehicles were stolen in 2022, equating to an estimated $8.9 billion worth of vehicle losses from thefts. Read more: https://t.co/jY8vpJQkVu pic.twitter.com/bTZTpRkzUW  NICB (@insurancecrime) March 13, 2023

Local law enforcement says there are two main reasons for it.

Last summer, users on social media apps like TikTok began sharing tactics to exploit vulnerabilities in vehicles produced by Kia and Hyundai. These videos essentially hand criminals a blueprint on how to steal certain types of cars.

Additionally, a law went into effect July 2021 that specifies when and how law enforcement can use force in specific situations. The legislation, HB 1310, was a direct response to the nationwide uproar against excessive use of police force. The law aims to keep police from abuses of power.

Although the new legislation puts law enforcements permissible use of force in check, its had the unintended effect of emboldening criminals to go all out, says Sgt. Darren Moss, spokesperson with the Pierce County Sheriffs Department. Moss says that a few years ago, if a police officer signaled someone driving a car to pull over, they would. Now, thieves are acting with more confidence.

Story continues

Its just out of hand, Moss said in an interview. [Criminals] just pulled over in the past. Now that youve told them they dont have to pull over because theres nothing thatd happen if they dont, they take off. Its a no-brainer.

Rise in WA auto theft

Although vehicle theft is a nationwide issue, such crimes were notably more severe in the Evergreen State than most other locales. Last week, the National Insurance Crime Bureau released its Vehicle Theft Trend Report for 2022, showing that Washington experienced the third-highest rate of auto thefts in the country last year at 46,939. Washington is just behind California at first place for auto thefts in 2022 and Texas at second  both states have a much higher population than Washington.

The Evergreen State also saw a 31% increase in vehicle thefts compared to 2021, the second-highest percent increase behind Illinois at 35%.

Last week, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) released its 2022 Vehicle Theft Trend Report. Washington ranks third in the nation for most vehicles stolen, behind California and Texas, which have significantly larger populations.



More: https://t.co/O8usJp4Gy7 pic.twitter.com/jznbvXOsWH  Puget Sound ATTF (@PugetSoundATTF) March 13, 2023

The report also identifies the nations top 10 metro areas for stolen vehicles. It listed Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue at seventh, comprising 30,572 of the states total thefts, or about 65%.

We are seeing vehicle theft numbers that we havent seen in nearly 15 years, and there is very little deterrent to stop criminals from committing these acts as they are just property crimes, like shoplifting, David J. Glawe, president and CEO of the National Insurance Crime Bureau, stated in the report.

Why vehicles are stolen

There were 748 reported car thefts in Pierce County in February, an average of 75 a day, according to case numbers from the Puget Sound Auto Theft Task Force. This metric is a slight decrease from January and December, with the latter month experiencing the highest number of thefts for 2022.

Pierce County has experienced the second-highest rate of stolen vehicles in the state, behind King County, according to Sgt. Jeff Carroll with the task force.

The auto theft stats for February 2023 are in. There were 748 vehicles reported stolen in Pierce County and 1,351 reported stolen in King County. That's an average of about 75 per day! More: https://t.co/kjAUvCOAYZ pic.twitter.com/Wffvaqq4mA  Puget Sound ATTF (@PugetSoundATTF) March 13, 2023

Even though thefts have gradually decreased, their frequency is still way too high, Moss says. Moss says that the rate of auto theft so far this year is around three times higher compared to the same period in 2021. He points to the social media videos as a primary reason for the crime increase.

Vehicles are mostly being stolen outside apartment complexes and in low-income communities, Moss says. The effects are devastating.

We have an extra 600 people [a month] getting their car stolen  their lives are getting ruined, Moss says in an interview. Theyre losing their jobs. They cant take their kids to daycare. Anybody whose car gets stolen in one of these apartment complexes, that doesnt make a lot of money  that can do a whole lot of damage to their livelihood. And I think thats missed when we just talked about numbers.

Criminals are flouting the law more aggressively, especially when approached by law enforcement, Moss says.

A couple of years ago, no one would have even thought to ram a police car to get away, Moss says. It wasnt even a thought, and now its just normal.

DRIVER OF STOLEN BOX TRUCK REPEATEDLY RAMS TWO PATROL CARS



Full story: https://t.co/HxTRXfYzvt pic.twitter.com/QJN1eMIU3K  Pierce Co Sheriff (@PierceSheriff) March 7, 2023

How to spot, report a stolen vehicle

The Puget Sound Auto Theft Task Force regularly investigates tips from the public about suspicious vehicle activity. But not everyone may know what a stolen vehicle looks like or what characterizes suspicious behavior.

The main thing is, know your area, know your community, and then when things look out of place, thats when you take some kind of action, Carroll said in an interview.

Carroll says to be suspicious of vehicles that:

Have no license plates

Have smashed windows

Have popped door handles

Are parked strangely or in weird places, like up against a dumpster

Arent normally in your neighborhood

Carroll says to keep ones neighborhood safe, its important to talk to neighbors and know who you live around. If you notice someone who constantly has different vehicles coming and going, that could be a sign of something fishy.

Preventing auto theft

Tacoma police also have advice on how to keep your vehicle safe from thieves:

Park in well-lit areas or a locked garage

Keep windows closed

Never leave a running car unattended

Use anti-theft devices such as a steering wheel lock

Install a vehicle tracking device

Install a kill-switch immobilizer

In February, Hyundai announced its offering free anti-theft software upgrades to many of its models. The software upgrade will install an ignition kill that immobilizes the engine, which fixes the security oversight that criminals are exploiting. Updates are available now for some models, with the rest are arriving in June.

Starting today, we are rolling out a free anti-theft software upgrade that prevents certain Hyundai vehicles from starting during a method of theft recently popularized on TikTok and other social media channels. Learn more about this software upgrade here: https://t.co/43stzSXpVj  Hyundai USA (@Hyundai) February 14, 2023

In the meantime, the Puget Sound Task Force is distributing free steering wheel locks at more than a dozen police departments in Pierce and in King counties. People with certain Hyundai and Kia vehicle owners just need to bring their registration and key to claim one.

The following police departments have received locks:
Washington states annual assessment of the water safety at public marine beach areas is in  and theres good news for most of the 59 beaches sampled during the 2022 season.

The Beach Environmental Assessment, Communication & Health program, or BEACH, found that 91.5 percent of marine beaches sampled in 2022 were at passing levels for safety. That represents a 14.5% improvement from 2021, one of the worst years on record. In fact, 2015 was the last time that safety levels were as poor.

BEACH monitors and checks for fecal matter to ensure safe swimming levels. Fecal matter can come from dogs, humans, seagulls and seals. The areas being monitored are sampled repeatedly between Memorial Day and Labor Day every year.

People who are kayaking, swimming, scuba diving or windsurfing can get sick with ailments like a skin rash, gastroenteritis, upper respiratory infections and other illnesses if the water has an unsafe level of fecal matter.

BEACH Annual Report Summary for sampling year 2022.

A beach with unsafe levels can be also be a risk for people who are just walking along the shore beachcombing or shellfishing. Theres an even greater risk for children and people who are immunocompromised. Pets can also be affected.

The BEACH program is run under the Washington State Department of Ecology, and monitors marine water for swimming and playing through partnerships with counties and local partners like the Surfrider Foundation.

The BEACH annual report evaluates the previous year of sampling for safe levels of fecal matter. The sampled beaches from the 2022 report are in 12 counties throughout the state, including Pierce, Thurston, King and Whatcom counties.

A beach is considered passing if it has no more than one sampling event that exceeds the swimming standard.

How do you know if a marine beach is safe?

Aside from minding warning signs that are posted when testing levels say a beach isnt safe, its recommended to check the BEACH monitoring websites interactive map for updates.

Story continues

Places with a closure are marked in red, caution areas are yellow and locations that are safe are marked in green.

When youre at a beach and coming into contact with sand and water, even if you arent swimming, its recommended to keep your hands washed, especially if you are eating or drinking.

How did Thurston County beaches do in 2022?

Thurston County is home to two marine beach areas that were monitored by Ecologys BEACH program in 2022. Thurston County Public Health and Social Services monitored Burfoot County Park, and Squaxin Park was sampled by Surfrider volunteers.

A public swimming advisory is issued when enterococcus (fecal matter) levels exceed 104 per 100 mL of water.

Here are the reports on each area:

Burfoot Park

Burfoot Parks 1,100 feet of saltwater beach and water access to Budd Inlet are part of the sprawling 65-acre property that includes a playground, nature trails and picnic spots with barbecues. There were 15 samples taken of the marine area at Burfoot Park in the 2022 sampling season, with excellent results for all sample periods.

Squaxin Park

Formerly known as Priest Point Park, Squaxin Park is home to 314 acres of trails and forested areas that includes a one-mile-long saltwater beachfront where you can see views of downtown Olympia and the state capitol buildings.

During the 2022 sampling season, Squaxin Park beach was monitored by volunteers from the Surfrider Foundation. They sampled the beach 14 times, and on August 14 the results exceeded a safe swimming standard. The park has a permanent swim advisory due to its proximity to outfall from a sewage treatment plant, so a warning sign was already in place. Surfrider volunteers found that the beach met safe swim standards for the other 13 periods it was sampled.
Washington states annual assessment of the water safety at public marine beach areas is in  and theres good news for most of the 59 beaches sampled during the 2022 season.

The Beach Environmental Assessment, Communication & Health program, or BEACH, found that 91.5 percent of marine beaches sampled in 2022 were at passing levels for safety. That represents a 14.5% improvement from 2021, one of the worst years on record. In fact, 2015 was the last time that safety levels were as poor.

BEACH monitors and checks for fecal matter to ensure safe swimming levels. Fecal matter can come from dogs, humans, seagulls and seals. The areas being monitored are sampled repeatedly between Memorial Day and Labor Day every year.

People who are kayaking, swimming, scuba diving or windsurfing can get sick with ailments like a skin rash, gastroenteritis, upper respiratory infections and other illnesses if the water has an unsafe level of fecal matter.

BEACH Annual Report Summary for sampling year 2022.

A beach with unsafe levels can be also be a risk for people who are just walking along the shore beachcombing or shellfishing. Theres an even greater risk for children and people who are immunocompromised. Pets can also be affected.

The BEACH program is run under the Washington State Department of Ecology, and monitors marine water for swimming and playing through partnerships with counties and local partners like the Surfrider Foundation.

The BEACH annual report evaluates the previous year of sampling for safe levels of fecal matter. The sampled beaches from the 2022 report are in 12 counties throughout the state, including Pierce, Thurston, King and Whatcom counties.

A beach is considered passing if it has no more than one sampling event that exceeds the swimming standard.

How do you know if a marine beach is safe?

Aside from minding warning signs that are posted when testing levels say a beach isnt safe, its recommended to check the BEACH monitoring websites interactive map for updates.

Story continues

Places with a closure are marked in red, caution areas are yellow and locations that are safe are marked in green.

When youre at a beach and coming into contact with sand and water, even if you arent swimming, its recommended to keep your hands washed, especially if you are eating or drinking.

Beachcombers walk on the rocks at low tide at Larrabee State Park, south of Bellingham, in 2009.

How did Whatcom County beaches do in 2022?

Whatcom County is home to four marine beach areas that are monitored by Ecologys BEACH program. They include:

Birch Bay County Beach Park

A 4.1-acre waterfront park with views of Birch Bay is known for its kite festival, sand sculpture competition and more. In 2020 and 2021 the park was closed for improvements, but opened again in 2022. The Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce regularly posts updates about events.

Birch Bay Beach Park was sampled a total of eight times during the 2022 sampling season by the Whatcom County Health Department. The park met the standard for excellent for all testing periods.

Larrabee State Park

Nestled on the seaward side of Chuckanut Mountain, Larrabee State Park sits on Samish Bay with views of the San Juan Islands. The 2,748-acre park offers boating, shellfishing, diving and more. The 8,100 feet of saltwater beach is near train tracks that see over a dozen trains a day go past.

Larrabee was sampled 14 times during the 2022 monitoring season by volunteers from the Surfrider Foundation. Two of those samples, on July 18 and Aug. 1, exceeded the safe standard for swimming. Subsequent sampling after the July 18 event showed better results. Resampling after the Aug. 1 event showed that the results were still high, which triggered an advisory. All other sampling periods met the safe swimming standard.

Little Squalicum Park beach

This park and marine area just off Eldridge Avenue have been undergoing improvements in recent years, but it still has consistent to low bacteria levels, according to Ecology, and, from time to time, it has high bacteria spikes. This beach has a permanent swimming advisory because of that.

Of the nine times Little Squalicum Park beach was sampled in the 2022 season by Surfrider Foundation volunteers, there were three events when the water exceeded safe swimming levels. On June 6, June 14 and June 27 the water quality at the beach was above the EPA standards. Other sampling events in 2022 found that the water met safe swimming standards.

Port of Bellingham Marine Park

This 1.9-acre waterfront park in Fairhaven near the Bellingham Cruise Terminal offers kayaking, beachcombing and a renovated picnic shelter.

The Whatcom County Health Department sampled the beach eight times in the 2022 sampling season. The results showed the beach had very good water quality for all sampling events and met the standard for safe swimming.
I got on my knees and kneeled, asking the Lord to save my son.

April 11, 2021 was a day that completely shattered Jemeka Halls life. On that day, her son Demetrius Daniels was the victim of a drive-by shooting.

She said her son was ...very wise and a respectful young man with an old mans soul.

Hall was one of the dozens of people who came to the civic center on a cold, windy Saturday to participate in an event hosted by 100 Women On The Move, Inc. in hopes of raising awareness of violence in Columbus. Fourteen people have died in violent homicides this year.

Cars with the names of homicide victims written on their sides were escorted through Columbus streets by Muscogee County Sheriffs deputies. Vehicles pulled to the side of the road as the motorcade drove by.

Columbus Police Chief Freddie Blackmon speaks Saturday afternoon to participants in the Stop the Violence Motorcade event after they returned to the parking lot at the Columbus Civic Center. 03/18/2023

Columbus Police Chief Freddie Blackmon told the crowd it takes the entire community to address violence. He said the police department would, ...go continuously into our high crime areas and arrest those individuals who are taking part in violent criminal activity.

He said authorities will indict those taking part in gangs or gang-related activities.

Where theres hopelessness, we have to be able to work together and restore hope in every person in our community, Blackmon said.

Shirley Davis, president of 100 Women on the Move Inc., speaks with participants in the Stop the Violence Motorcade event after they returned to the Columbus Civic Center.

Muscogee County Sheriff Greg Countryman spoke at the event as well, emphasizing that Columbus must address poverty, violence and mental health issues, all with the same tenacity.

He told attendees that the homicide rate decreased from 2021 to 2022 and that his office seized more than 313 firearms from gang members and others, as well as $2.3 million worth of drugs in last year.

We want to let the drug dealers, we want to let the gang members, and we want to let these people that have criminal enterprises in Columbus, Georgia/Muscogee County know that were not playing with you, he said.

Pastor Thaddeus Spencer stood before the crowd, taking off his jacket to illustrate a point:

There comes a time you got to get out of your comfort zone, he said.

Story continues

Spencer went on to ask the audience to make a difference in the problem before re-donning his coat.

Its time to dress up, its time to get up, and its time to shut up and get to moving, he said. Its a job for all of us.
Ukraine flag over rubble. Getty Images

The UN has released a new report describing crimes committed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The report details war crimes including torture and rape of civilians, and deportation of children.

The invasion has created more refugees and displaced more people than the world has seen since WWII.

More than a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a new report released by the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine found evidence of war crimes including the systemic rape, torture, and murder of civilians and indiscriminate attacks on infrastructure that have left millions displaced.

More people have fled Ukraine or been displaced within the country since the start of the war than the world has seen since WWII, according to the United Nations.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that, as of February 21, about eight million refugees from Ukraine have been displaced across Europe  of which around 90 percent are women and children. In addition, there are about 5.4 million people currently displaced across Ukraine who remain in the country.

"Nearly 18 million people in Ukraine are in need of humanitarian assistance and faced particularly harsh conditions during winter months," the report reads. "The conflict has impacted people's right to health, education, adequate housing, food, and water. Some vulnerable groups, such as older persons, children, persons with disabilities, and persons belonging to minorities, have been particularly affected. No region of the country has been spared by the conflict."

As of February 15, OHCHR had recorded 8,006 civilians killed and 13,287 injured in Ukraine since the invasion began on February 24 last year, though the report indicates officials believe the actual figures are "considerably higher."

To complete its report, members of the United Nations commission visited 56 communities impacted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and completed interviews with 348 women and 247 men. Investigators reported seeing "sites of destruction, graves, places of detention and torture, as well as weapon remnants," according to a statement from the UN emailed to Insider.

Story continues

The report noted that two instances of alleged war crimes committed by Ukrainian forces were investigated, but evidence suggests that "Russian authorities have committed a wide range of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in many regions of Ukraine and in the Russian Federation," according to the report, including "willful killings, attacks on civilians, unlawful confinement, torture, rape, and forced transfers and deportations of children."

"They punished innocent people; now those who are guilty, if they are still alive, need to be punished to the fullest extent," A man, whose father was executed by Russian armed forces in the Izium region, told members of the commission, according to a statement from the UN emailed to Insider.

The International Criminal Court, a tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands, issued an international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on Friday, accusing Russia's leader of war crimes and calling for him to stand trial  though it is unlikely he will do so, as Russia, like the US, does not recognize the authority of the ICC.

Due to his failure to control the military members who committed the acts, Putin is allegedly responsible for the war crime of forcibly deporting children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, the ICC said in a Friday statement.

A State Department spokesperson told Insider "there is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible must be held accountable," adding that the United States "determinations regarding war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine are separate from the ICC's independent decisions on matters before it."

The spokesperson did not respond to Insider's request for information about what action, if any, the State Department may take to hold Putin accountable for war crimes committed in Ukraine.

Representatives for the ICC declined to answer Insider's questions regarding the likelihood Putin will face a trial for the war crimes he is accused of.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 18)  Miss Universe 2022 RBonney Gabriel says she cant wait to meet her Filipino fans as she confirmed that she will visit the Philippines in May.

I grew up going to the Philippines just as a child and just going on a vacation there, and to actually be somewhat an inspiration to the people in the Philippines now is amazing, the Filipino-American beauty queen said in an interview with a local lifestyle show in Houston, Texas.

Actually, I will be visiting the Philippines soon in May," she also said. "Were gonna have a huge event there as Miss Universe, so Im really excited. For all the Filipinos tuning in, I cannot wait to meet you."

Gabriel was born in Texas to a Filipino father and an American mother.

She was the 9th Miss Universe winner from the United States and was also the first Filipino-American to win the Miss USA title.

During the Miss Universe pageant held Jan. 14 in New Orleans in the state of Louisiana, Gabriel had Filipino designers Patrick Isorena and Rian Fernandez make her national costume and evening gowns, respectively.
The Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse and turmoil in the banking industry are providing a moment for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to jump back into the spotlight.

And Warren, who rose to prominence as a consumer protection advocate and has long made headlines for hammering banks, is seizing the opportunity.

Over the past week, the Massachusetts progressive and one-time presidential candidate has launched a wide-ranging offensive.

She unveiled legislation to repeal a 2018 deregulation law signed by former President Trump that raised the threshold for banks subject to federal scrutiny from $50 billion to $250 billion.

She has been a constant presence on cable news, with more appearances set for this weekends Sunday show circuit, penned an op-ed in The New York Times and has pressed former SVB CEO Greg Becker on his lobbying for the 2018 rollback of regulations.

To a number of Senate Democrats, she is an invaluable voice on the subject.

Very important, Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), a backer of Warrens new banking proposal, told The Hill. Shes got not only a great commitment to consumers and families, more broadly shes got a lot of expertise and is a great messenger and advocate on these issues.

But Warrens ongoing criticism is poised to cause a headache for President Biden and other Senate Democrats, especially those who voted for the 2018 rollback and are up for reelection in 2024.

In total, 12 sitting senators who caucus with the Democrats voted for the bill  including Sen. Kirsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), who voted for it in the House  which raised the asset threshold to $250 billion so SVB and dozens of other banks were exempted from the strict federal oversight.

Warrens legislation, the Secure Viable Banking Act, was introduced in the House by progressive Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.). Despite the warm welcome from some corners of the party, it hasnt been embraced by Democratic leadership.

When asked if he supports Warrens blueprint, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters that strong legislation is needed, but that any bill must be bipartisan.

Story continues

Still, leadership is keenly aware of Warren amid this period of banking tumult. After The Hill noted that Warren has been vocal on the subject this week, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), the No. 3-ranked Senate Democrat quipped, Has she really?

Shes always a respected voice, certainly, Stabenow, who voted for the 2018 bill, said. [The question is] what exactly are we trying to solve?  I am so grateful that we have President Biden and his team in place. They acted very swiftly and I think in an incredibly competent job to be able to move quickly to calm the waters.

Biden on Monday blamed the Trump administration for the rollbacks of Dodd-Frank and called on Congress and regulators to strengthen the rules for banks to make it less likely that this kind of bank failure will happen again.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday said the White House has seen bipartisan support on a piece of legislation, the [Warren]-Porter bill. No Republicans had signed onto the bill as of Friday.

Jean-Pierre wouldnt say if the SVB failure could have been avoided if the Dodd-Frank regulations werent rolled back but said the White House will speak on its stance on the $250,000 deposit insurance limit  which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) waived for SVB depositors  in the next few days.

The White House is looking at the Warren bill, as well as other regulatory changes, an administration official told The Hill, but wouldnt say if Biden supports the Massachusetts Democrats legislation.

Dozens of Senate and House Democrats have since co-sponsored Warrens bill, but it will be a non-starter in the GOP-controlled House or face a Republican filibuster in the Senate.

We appreciate their leadership in putting ideas on the table, the official said. The Obama-Biden Administration put in place tough requirements after the 2008 financial crisis to make sure that sort of crisis would not happen again. Unfortunately, the last Administration rolled back some of them. As the President said, Congress and regulators must strengthen rules for larger banks so this doesnt happen again.

When Warren ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 before dropping out and endorsing Biden, the difference between her views and the presidents on issues like regulating banks were on display. Biden, who honed in on messaging that he is a centrist and believes in capitalism, was joined on the debate stages by Warren, who has a long history of fighting back against the practices of banks that she adamantly argues are predatory.

Throughout the Biden administration, Warren has been at odds in particular with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, an official appointed under Trump but in whom Biden has stressed he has full confidence. She opposed Powells nomination in 2018, warning at the time that he would weaken financial regulations, and since then has been his fiercest critic in the Senate and has berated him during various hearings.

Warren called on Powell this week to recuse himself from the internal review of the SVB failure, arguing that his actions directly contributed to the situation because the Fed chair has signaled that he would support easing bank regulations.

Powell reportedly pushed to not include a phrase mentioning regulatory failures in a press release on Sunday night that was put out jointly by the Fed, Treasury Department and the FDIC, arguing he wanted to focus instead on the actions being taken. Warren tweeted that the Fed chairmans attempt to muzzle government officials was completely inappropriate.

Congress needs to step in to fix these mistakes before things get even worse, she added.

Meanwhile, Warren cited Biden specifically calling on Congress to act after the SVB failure for her decision to introduce her legislation.

President Biden called on Congress to strengthen the rules for banks, and Im proposing legislation to do just that by repealing the core of Trumps bank law, she said in a statement on Tuesday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Screenshot: The First Take

Pokemon bids farewell to a legend next week. In Japan, the final episode of the two-and-a-half-decade-old Pokemon anime to star Ash Ketchum (or Satoshi, as hes known over there) will broadcast, paving the way for a new series. But the voice behind the forever-young Pokemon trainer is sending him out in style.



While a few English-language voice actors have shared in Ashs legacy in the dub of the Pokemon anime, Rica Matsumoto has voiced the character since the very beginning in Japanand she also sang the shows very first opening song there, Mezase Pokemon Master, or Aim to Be a Pokemon Master. As iconic as our own original theme was culturally, Mezase Pokemon Master has returned multiple times in the original animeand a new version recorded by Matsumoto has become the theme song for the final episodes of the current epilogue series bidding farewell to Ash, itself titled Pokemon: Aim to Be a Pokemon Master.

Read more



SatoshiCV:Rica Matsumoto - Mezase Pokemon Master -with my friends- / THE FIRST TAKE

And now, you can hear Matsumoto belt it out in the video above, for the popular Japanese music YouTube channel, the First Takewhich invites stars to perform their iconic tracks live in a single take. She is, of course, accompanied by a small chorus of Pokemon plushes as she sings, including some notable ones special to Ashs journey, like Greninja, Ho-oh, current team members (like Dragonite, Lucario, and Gengar), and, of course, Pikachu.

Its just a very sweet way to mark a time as the Pokemon fandom prepares to bid farewell to its hero.





Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

More from Gizmodo

Story continues

Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin this week will make his first appearance before Congress to discuss the White Houses fiscal 2024 budget request, which includes a record $842 billion for military operations.

Austins appearance before the House Appropriations Committee is likely to be a tense one. Thursday wont be the first time the defense secretary has faced direct criticism from Republican lawmakers in his two-plus years on the job, but it will be the first time he faces that questioning with Republicans in the majority.

Along with the budget request, Austin is expected to field questions about military recruiting challenges, U.S. support of Ukraine and Defense Department initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion, a topic that has been a specific target of conservatives. House Armed Services Committee members have a separate hearing on the topic later the same day.

Austin wont be the only Cabinet official on Capitol Hill this week to discuss next years budget plans. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to appear before several committees to talk about his department priorities, while VA Secretary Denis McDonough is expected to testify before the House Veterans Affairs Committee Thursday on veteran programming needs.

Wednesday, March 22



Senate Armed Services  9:30 a.m.  106 Dirksen

Recruiting Challenges

Service officials will testify on progress in meeting fiscal 2023 recruiting goals and long-term recruiting challenges.



Senate Appropriations  10 a.m.  138 Dirksen

State Department Budget

State Department officials will testify on the fiscal 2024 budget request.



Senate Judiciary  2:30 p.m.  226 Dirksen

U.S. Refugee Admissions

Administration officials will testify on current U.S. policies regarding refugee admissions.



Senate Armed Services  2:30 p.m.  222 Russell

DOD Small Business Base

Farooq Mitha, director of the Defense Departments Office of Small Business Programs, and service officials will testify on challenges for the militarys industrial base.



Senate Foreign Relations 2:30 p.m.  419 Dirksen

State Department Budget

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will testify on current department operations and the fiscal 2024 budget request.



Senate Veterans' Affairs  3 p.m.  418 Russell

VA Recruitment and Retention

Department officials will testify on staff recruiting and retention efforts.



Thursday, March 23



Senate Armed Services  9:30 a.m.  G-50 Dirksen

Northern/Southern Command

Gen. Glen VanHerckhead of U.S. Northern Command, Gen. Laura Richardson, head of U.S. Southern Command, will testify on current operations and the fiscal 2024 budget request.



House Veterans' Affairs  10 a.m.  390 Cannon

VA Budget

Department officials will testify on the fiscal 2024 budget request.



House Appropriations  10 a.m.  2359 Rayburn

Defense Budget

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley will testify on the fiscal 2024 budget request.



House Armed Services  10 a.m.  2118 Rayburn

Africa and Central Command

Gen. Michael Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, and Gen. Michael Langley, head of U.S. Africa Command, will testify on current operations and the fiscal 2024 budget request.



House Foreign Affairs  10 a.m.  Visitors Center H210

State Department Budget

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will testify on current department operations and the fiscal 2024 budget request.



House Appropriations  2 p.m.  2359 Rayburn

State Department Budget

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will testify on current department operations and the fiscal 2024 budget request.



House Appropriations  2 p.m.  2358-C Rayburn

Army Family Housing

Army officials will testify on current family housing challenges and future plans for construction.



House Foreign Affairs  2 p.m.  Visitors Center H210

U.S.-Pacific Engagement

State Department officials will testify on U.S. engagement with Pacific nations and Chinese island acquisition in the region.



House Armed Services  3 p.m.  2118 Rayburn

Diversity-Equity-Inclusion Programs

Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel Gilbert Cisneros Jr. and service officials will testify on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and training within the military.



House Armed Services  3:30 p.m.  2212 Rayburn

Military Information Technologies

Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition William LaPlante will testify on cyber and information technology plans in the fiscal 2024 budget request.




Whatever you do, don't call it a bank bailout.

Americans gripped their wallets this week when the now-shuttered Silicon Valley Bank announced they had suffered $1.8 billion in after-tax losses.

The White House worked feverishly to avoid comparisons to the financial crisis of 2008 and any mention of the b-word, as President Joe Biden defended his administration's actions to rescue depositors.

And as USA TODAY exclusively reported Friday, both the Democratic National Committee and the president's 2020 campaign pledged to return roughly $44,000 in donations tied to SVB executives.

Stay in the conversation on politics: Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter

Elsewhere, the 2024 campaign saw an intriguing wrinkle emerge on the GOP side as Ukraine is increasingly becoming the dividing line for presidential hopefuls.

Republicans traditionally have been the party known to oppose Russian aggression, but a more skeptical wing has emerged thanks largely to former President Donald Trump.

TikTok remains at the forefront of U.S. leaders minds as the Biden administration is looking to pick a fight with the social media giant.

What happened this week in politics?

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank struck a nerve in Washington and on Wall Street as Biden avoids calling his administration's actions a bailout

U.S. military aid to Ukraine is emerging as one of the first and most critical differences among the current and potential pool of GOP presidential candidates.

The Biden administration is threatening to ban TikTok if its Chinese owners don't sell their stake in the video-sharing app.

Off-year elections in three states could give Republicans a boost or offer Democrats some much-needed lessons ahead of 2024.

Black voters are the most loyal voting bloc for Democrats, and a survey given exclusively to USA TODAY sheds light on what their top priorities are.

Story continues

White House: 'This is not a bailout'

The Biden administration helped SVB depositors by using bank premiums and interest earned on funds invested in U.S. government obligations.

They argue this is not akin to the time Congress purchased failing assets of big banks and other financial institutions because taxpayers aren't on the hook.

Money: SVB fallout. Yellen tells Congress that banking system 'remains sound,' savings 'remain safe'

More: Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank executives gave thousands to Democrats and Republicans

"This is not a bailout," White house press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "This is not 2008 at all."

But liberal commentator Paul Krugman, an economist, gave Biden the side-eye. He said where the money comes from "doesnt change the reality" that the government rescued depositors when it shouldn't have.

"Yes, it was a bailout," Krugman said.

Ukraine splits GOP 2024 hopefuls

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis isn't a presidential candidate yet, but he put a spotlight on a growing chasm in the possible Republican 2024 presidential primary field.

"The Biden administrations virtual 'blank check' funding of this conflict for 'as long as it takes,' without any defined objectives or accountability, distracts from our countrys most pressing challenges," DeSantis said in a statement this week.

Helping Ukraine in its war against Russia is becoming a dividing line among the GOP.

Elections: GOP 2024. Who's running? Who hasn't announced? Who's considering?

More: Trump's blistering attacks on Gov. Ron DeSantis continue. Will he ever hit back?

You have DeSantis and others, such as Sen. Tim Scott, on one side voicing skepticism about the growing cost. Likewise, Trump has said Europe should foot more of the bill pay toward Ukraine defense (and remit past differences to the U.S.).

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Others, like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, pivot to say China is the bigger threat.

The traditional GOP hawks, namely former Vice President Mike Pence and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is running for president, argue the U.S. must stand firm in its support to Ukraine.

Dems, GOP eager for 'off-year' races

Most voters won't have an election in 2023, but the statewide races in Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi cannot be overlooked.

The latter two favor Republicans, according to political forecasters which could mark a momentum shift after a midterm election that failed to deliver the sweeping majorities the GOP had hoped to attain.

Politics: Kentucky lawmakers pass bill to make state '2nd Amendment Sanctuary'

More: Arizona governors says state lacks expertise to conduct executions

But Democrats aren't letting the "off-year" elections go without a fight as they brace for a tough Senate map in 2024.

There best bet is Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat who holds an unusually strong popularity rating in state Trump won decisively in 2020.

Democrats also openly suggest Mississippi could be an upset given Republican incumbent Tate Reeves's low approval numbers, but GOP officials say that is a "mirage."

What do Black voters want?

If Biden and the Democrats want to make it through 2024 they might want to pay close attention to what their most loyal base.

WASHINGTON, DC: Voting Rights activists, led by U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) (C), stage a protest on Capitol Hill, July 15, 2021 (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

In a survey of Black voters shared exclusively with USA TODAY, Black to the Future Action Fund and HIT Strategies found 44% said gun control legislation was a top priority.

Nation: Black women created the term 'reproductive justice.' Now, it's driving a national conversation

But what's most telling is the question of crime and public safety, which continues to be a wedge issue for Republicans.

The poll found 35% of Black voters want to shift funding for police to preventative measures like mental health support and social work. Just 20% wanted to increase police funding to reduce crime.

TikTok ban gaining momentum

One of the few areas of bipartisanship between U.S. officials this year has been cracking down on TikTok.

A growing concern is that the Chinese-owned appdownloaded by more than 100 million people in Americais being used by spy on private user data and spread misinformation.

Tech: TikTok says Biden administration is threatening US ban if Chinese owners don't sell stakes

More: Don't ban TikTok from Americans' phones, says NH governor and possible 2024 GOP candidate

The White House joined that chorus Wednesday when it reportedly threatened a total ban if its owners don't sell their stakes in the company.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu takes part in a panel discussion during a Republican Governors Association conference on Nov. 15, 2022, in Orlando, Fla.

But some U.S. leaders aren't sure blocking TikTok is the best idea.

"The app should not be banned in the United States," New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a potential 2024 president contender, told USA TODAY.

By the way, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before Congress next week.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Did Biden bailout SVB?; Ukraine divides GOP field; U.S. may ban TikTok
The author on the St. Peter Stiftskulinarium's patio lounge. Alexandra Lacouture

I ate at the world's oldest restaurant, St. Peter Stiftskulinarium, in Salzburg, Austria.

First documented in 803, past diners include Christopher Columbus and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

I like it so much, I've been twice, and think it's an unforgettable experience with incredible food.

St. Peter Stiftskulinarium is famous for being the oldest restaurant in the world. While visiting Salzburg, locals persuaded me to try it, and it's become one of my favorite restaurants.

The author in Salzburg, Austria. Alexandra Lacouture

One of my favorite restaurants in the world also happens to be the oldest.

The 1,200-year-old St. Peter Stiftskulinarium in Salzburg, Austria, was first documented in a letter to Charlemagne, known as the father of Europe, in 803 and I've been lucky enough to eat here twice.

I didn't know St. Peter Stiftskulinarium existed before my first trip to Salzburg, and only learned about it from locals I asked for food recommendations. They raved about it and shared its fascinating history. I knew I had to experience it for myself.

While Sobrino de Botin in Madrid holds the record for the oldest, continuously-running restaurant in the world, St. Peter Stiftskulinarium is actually older.

Sobrino de Botin in Madrid. Flickr/Ronald Woan

Sobrino de Botin in Madrid is the oldest, continuously-running restaurant in the world, but St. Peter Stiftskulinarium is actually older. It just doesn't hold this title because it was forced to close a few times throughout its history.

French troops, for example, were given quarters here during the Napoleonic wars. Nevertheless, St. Peter Stiftskulinarium opened 922 years before Sobrino de Botin and therefore boasts the earliest opening date of any restaurant in the world.

The grounds surrounding St. Peter Stiftskulinarum are even older than the restaurant.

St. Peter Stiftskulinarium didnt always accept money in exchange for food when it first opened. Alexandra Lacouture

St. Peter Stiftskulinarum is located within the walls of St. Peter's Abbey, which was built into the Monchsberg, a mountain in the city's center.

The Abbey was built in 696, making it the oldest monastery in the German-speaking world. Some say it's the oldest continuously-active monastery north of the Alps.

Story continues

St. Peter Stiftskulinarium was both a restaurant and an inn at the time of its inception, and the neighborhood around St. Peter's Abbey is the oldest quarter in Salzburg today.

I've always been fascinated by the restaurant's history, which is cloaked in legend.

The restaurant is steeped in history. Alexandra Lacouture

It is said that Christopher Columbus, Johann Georg Faust, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were patrons of St. Peter Stiftskulinarum. It has also served cardinals, bishops, princes, kings, and in more modern times, Bill Clinton, Clint Eastwood, and many others. Locals told me that the president of Austria and other European political figures dine here as well.

As I learned more about the restaurant's storied past, I found much of its legacy is cloaked in legend.

For example, St. Peter Stiftskulinarium didn't always accept money in exchange for food when it first opened. It was customary to serve food to religious travelers, who would often stay and help at the monastery while passing through.

And Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's sister, Nannerl, wrote in her diary in 1786 that their family met here for dinner.

Michael Haydn, a famous composer, also lived and performed music in the "Haydn Room," which is located next to the Baroque Hall. Baroque Hall is a candle-lit concert hall in St. Peter's Stiftskulinarium where special event Mozart dinner concerts are held today.

Today, St. Peter Stiftskulinarium is a hip, upscale restaurant that serves both traditional Austrian dishes and modern cuisine.

The author was impressed by the restaurant's decor. Alexandra Lacouture

Today, St. Peter Stiftskulinarium is known for its significant history and past clientele, as well as traditional, yet modern Austrian cuisine.

The regular menu includes a variety of dishes like steak, pasta, venison, beef, chicken, duck, and seafood, as well as vegetarian and vegan options.

Dinner prices are between 22 and 49. There is a second menu for multi-course meals. These luxury dining experiences range from 62 to 153.

From dining here I've learned that their most popular traditional dish is Tafelspitz, beef boiled in a broth that's served with creamed spinach, minced apples, and horseradish. Other popular Austrian dishes include wiener schnitzel, Marillenknoedel (apricot dumplings), and Salzburger Nockerln, which is a meringue-like dessert made with eggs and sugar.

On my most recent trip to St. Peter Stiftskulinarium, I made a reservation a week before I arrived in Salzburg.

The restaurants ancient stone carvings. Alexandra Lacouture

I've been to Salzburg twice and dined at St. Peter Stiftskulinarium once during each trip.

My most recent trip to Salzburg was this past winter. I was there for five days, and I made a reservation a week before I arrived.

I was eager to return to St. Peter Stiftskulinarium after the great experience I had the first time, which was in the fall.

I was excited to be within its incredible atmosphere again, eat delicious food, and further explore the sense of mystery I felt while dining in this legendary establishment.

Getting a reservation at the oldest restaurant in the world isn't as hard as you might think.

Its easier to make a reservation during the off-season. Alexandra Lacouture

In my experience, getting a reservation is surprisingly easy, likely because the restaurant can seat 620 people.

Restaurant staff did tell me, however, me that weekend brunch reservations tend to fill up fairly quickly.

When making a reservation, I was told that it's not possible to make requests to sit in specific rooms, but it's permitted to explore the restaurant regardless of where you dine.

To get to the restaurant from my hotel, I had to cross the Makartsteg, a bridge over the Salzach River with beautiful views of Salzburg's Old Town.

A view from the Makartsteg Bridge. Alexandra Lacouture

In my opinion, Salzburg is an amazing and underrated city. It's relatively small and I think it can be explored in one to two days.

During my trip to Salzburg this past winter, I stayed in Neustadt, which is Salzburg's New Town.

St. Peter Stiftskulinarium is in Salzburg's Old Town, so I just had to cross the bridge to get there.

I thought the views across the water were beautiful, and the walk throughout Old Town was picturesque. The cobblestone streets felt intimate and storybook-like, lined with atmospheric shops, eateries, and residences.

St. Peter Stiftskulinarium isn't visible from the streets of Salzburg, which I think makes it seem secretive and exclusive.

A view of St. Peter's Church. Alexandra Lacouture

I knew from my first visit that St. Peter Stiftskulinarium isn't visible from the street. Its entrance is located in a tucked-away courtyard inside St. Peter's Abbey.

As I neared the restaurant's location, I saw a beautiful church with a stunning bell tower, which is St. Peter's Church. St. Peter's Abbey, which houses the restaurant, is an extension of St. Peter's Church.

Apple maps led me to an archway of a large pink and cream fortress.

The archway. Alexandra Lacouture

The first time I walked to this restaurant, I was skeptical that it was located through this archway, since it seemed an unlikely place for a restaurant.

The second time I visited, I was so excited to walk through the archway again knowing what was on the other side.

The archway opens into the abbey's beautiful courtyard.

The abbey's courtyard. Alexandra Lacouture

The archway leads into a beautiful courtyard surrounded by an enormous pink and cream-colored fortress on all four sides. This building is St. Peter's Abbey and Monastery, and the restaurant is located inside.

The abbey and monastery were built into the Monchsberg mountain during the 7th century. I didn't know this the first time I walked into the courtyard, so I was surprised to see what looked like rocky cliffs directly above it.

Across the courtyard, I saw a turquoise plaque with the number 803, the year the restaurant was established.

The entrance was underneath the turquoise plaque. Alexandra Lacouture

The walk across the courtyard to the restaurant felt suspenseful.

It was hard to believe that I was entering a building that originated in the year 803. When I walked through the archway under the turquoise plaque, I was greeted by a friendly host who walked me to my table.

The restaurant has 11 uniquely furnished and distinct dining rooms.

One of 11 dining rooms. Alexandra Lacouture

Inside St. Peter Stiftskulinarium, there are 11 different and distinctly-furnished dining rooms.

I find that each of them has its own personality and fascinating story to tell.

The two oldest dining rooms are carved into the stone cliffs under the Hohensalzburg Fortress. The most recently-built dining room was added in the 1600s.

One of the dining spaces is a patio lounge. I think it's a hip spot for outdoor dining with a funky nightlife vibe.

The patio lounge has comfortable chairs and cozy throw blankets. Alexandra Lacouture

Upon entering the restaurant, the first thing I saw was a beautiful outdoor patio lounge that I learned it was once the abbey's entry courtyard for monks and religious travelers.

I sat in this lounge area during my first visit in the fall and loved the look of it, with comfortable couches, benches, and chairs covered in colorful, textured throw blankets, faux fur, and pillows.

It reminded me of a hip, upscale New York City bar  and also an ancient church.

The most recent time I ate here was in winter, and the patio decor appeared whimsical with Christmas trees, twinkly lights, and other festive fixtures.

The winter decor included nutcracker statues, large ornaments, and trees. Alexandra Lacouture

When I first ate on the patio, the decor felt summery with neon lights, straw light fixtures, and jungle-themed art.

But when I returned in winter, the look was updated to reflect the new season. I thought the changing design kept the restaurant feeling fresh and exciting.

Inside, I find the interior design to be eclectic, yet elegant.

A dining area at St. Peter Stiftskulinarium. Alexandra Lacouture

Claus Haslauer and his wife Veronika Kirchmair-Haslauer signed the first-ever lease for the restaurant in 1992 at the age of just 25. Veronika began a design transformation of the restaurant space in 1999.

I'm happy that I visited the restaurant during two different seasons. It was obvious to me that the interiors are updated regularly, as well. I was mesmerized by the bold, deep color palette, as well as unique, peculiar artifacts I spotted throughout the restaurant.

While I enjoyed the patio in the fall, for my winter visit, I sat in one of the traditional dining rooms.

Locals and tourists alike come to this restaurant. Alexandra Lacouture

The hostess led me to a table in a dining room called Pralatenstube that holds 24 guests, and is connected to other dining areas.

The walls and ceiling were crafted from dark, polished wood with intricately-carved designs. I liked the deep blue and burgundy accents, and colorful flower arrangements.

I thought this dining room had a quiet, laid-back energy. It didn't look as large compared to some of the other rooms, which I thought made it feel more intimate. My reservation was early in the evening, so there were a few empty tables around me.

Although I really enjoyed my experience in the traditional dining room, next time, I'll go back to the patio where I found the atmosphere to be more lively and exciting.

I started my meal with a cocktail.

The author's cocktail. Alexandra Lacouture.

I started my meal with a cocktail I found to be refreshing and not-too-sweet.

Afterward, I enjoyed a glass of Gruner Veltliner, Austria's popular white wine and go-to choice in restaurants. St. Peter Stiftskulinarium has been famous for its wine collection as well; it currently has over 600 wines.

While I waited for my meal, I ate homemade bread.

The author ordered bread served with olive oil and butter. Alexandra Lacouture

This homemade bread starter came with an extra charge, but I think it's worth it. I thought the bread was warm and delicious with the perfect crunch, and it came with olive, butter, and a second butter made with beets.

I did a quick Google search at the restaurant and was surprised to learn that Austria is known for baking the world's greatest bread beginning hundreds of years ago. Austrian artisan bread later arrived in France and Italy courtesy of the Austrian-Hungarian empire.

For dinner, I ordered the national dish of Austria called Tafelspitz, a beef dish that was plated in front of me.

The author's Tafelspitz dish. Alexandra Lacouture

Tafelspitz is beef that is cut from the rump and has a characteristic layer of fat on one side. I ordered this dish because it's one of the most popular dishes in Austria that has been creatively plated in front of customers for hundreds of years.

According to the Austrian government, Tafelspitz may have first appeared in Hotel Sacher in Vienna, sometime around the middle to end of the 19th century.

The beef was cooked in a copper pot with marrow bones, vegetables, and herbs. I thought the flavorful broth was one of the best parts of the meal.

The Tafelspitz accompanied by sauces. Alexandra Lacouture

At the table, the server first smeared creamed spinach onto my plate. Next, they served a large spoonful of a thick white sauce made with milk, bread, raw egg yolk, mustard, vinegar, pepper, salt, and a pinch of sugar.

They then placed the meat on the center of the plate, alongside the spinach and white sauce, and covered it with vegetables as well as the broth it was cooked in. I was given two additional sauces to accompany my Tafelspitz  an apple-horseradish sauce and a sauce made with chives.

I ordered Apfelstrudel for dessert, a traditional Austrian apple strudel.

The author's apple strudel. Alexandra Lacouture

To cap off my meal, I ordered the restaurant's homemade apple strudel.

I thought the pastry shell was flakey and light, and the apple filling was gooey, delicious, and warm. The strudel was served with whipped cream and a rich vanilla sauce, and I ate every last drop.

I liked it a lot, but I plan to order their famous meringue-like dessert, Salzburger Nockerln, the next time I visit due to its high reputation.

The meal cost around 75, which I thought was reasonably priced.

The author thought her meal was reasonably priced for the food and overall experience. Alexandra Lacouture

This price, which is about $80 USD included the Tafelzpitz, which was 30, as well as a bread starter, cocktail, glass of wine, and dessert.

I think it was a good value, especially considering the restaurant's ancient history and fame.

After I ate and paid for my meal, I explored the restaurant.

Richardstube was the monasterys wine cellar 1,200 years ago. Alexandra Lacouture

I found myself in Richardstube, which was the monastery's wine cellar 1,200 years ago.

Richardstube is used as a dining room today and is essentially the same as it was back then, except for the some new, trendy decor. I found the ambiance here to be relaxed and intimate.

Overall, I felt an enchanting, almost eerie feeling as I walked around a restaurant that has served generations of people, dating back to the dark ages.

A dimly-lit red hallway. Alexandra Lacouture

For me, St. Peter Stiftskulinarium evokes feelings of mystery and enchantment. It felt exciting, and like a journey back in time. Some rooms felt crypt-like with ancient stone arches, pillars, and hallways, while others starkly contrasted that feeling with trendy magazine-worthy decor.

Exploring the restaurant after my meal was one of the best parts of the experience.

St. Peter Stiftskulinarium also hosts Mozart dinner concerts, which I'd love to attend next time.

The restaurant hosts Mozart dinner concerts. Alexandra Lacouture

St. Peter Stiftskulinarium hosts Mozart dinner concerts in the restaurant's Baroque Hall, which is one of the only concert halls in Salzburg that is still illuminated by candlelight. The concerts feature costumed music performances and a three-course candlelit dinner based on recipes from the 18th century.

The musical program takes place multiple nights per week, and is performed by Amadeus Consort Salzburg in three parts before and in between the dinner courses. Each part is dedicated to a famous Mozart opera. You must make a reservation to attend.

After two back-to-back great meals, I highly recommend visiting St. Peter Stiftskulinarium.

A dining area inside St. Peter Stiftskulinarium. Alexandra Lacouture

I absolutely loved my experience at St. Peter Stiftskulinarium. The food, drinks, and ambiance were phenomenal, and I thought it was thrilling to experience a piece of ancient history.

I highly recommend making a reservation here while in Salzburg for a great meal and a fascinating opportunity to learn about the history of Salzburg.

Read the original article on Insider
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The United States, its Western allies and experts shone a spotlight on the dire human rights situation and increasing repression in North Korea at a U.N. meeting Friday that China and Russia denounced as a politicized move likely to further escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula.

China blocked the U.S. from broadcasting the informal Security Council meeting globally on the internet, a decision criticized by U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield as an attempt to hide North Koreas atrocities from the world.

Webcasting requires agreement by all 15 council members. But the U.S. envoy said Beijings effort was in vain because the meeting will be made public, and the U.S. and many others will continue to speak out against Pyongyangs human rights abuses and threats to international peace.

James Turpin, a senior official in the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the ongoing tensions on the Korean peninsula pose a threat to regional and international peace and security, and these tensions cannot be separated from the dire human rights situation in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the Norths official name.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, North Korea has been isolated. The United Nations has no international staff in the country and Turpin said this coincides with an increase in the repression of civil and political rights.

He pointed to stronger government measures to prevent people from getting access to information from the outside world, an extreme level of surveillance, people's homes being subjected to random search for material not authorized by the state, and punishments for anyone trying to exercise basic rights including freedom of expression, religion and peaceful assembly.

Elizabeth Salmon, the U.N. special investigator on human rights in North Korea, also stressed the interdependence of international peace and security and human rights, saying peace and denuclearization cant be addressed without considering the current human rights violations.

Story continues

She told the meeting that the limited information available shows the suffering of the North Korean people has increased and their already limited liberties have declined. Access to food, medicine and health care remains a priority concern, people have frozen to death during the cold spells in January, and some didnt have money to heat their homes while others were forced to live on the streets because they sold their homes as a last resort.

Xing Jisheng, a counsellor at Chinas U.N. Mission, criticized the U.S. for discussing human rights in the Security Council whose mandate is ensuring international peace and security, saying it is not constructive in any way. Instead of easing tension, he said, it may rather intensify the conflict, and therefore its an irresponsible move.

Using U.N. WebTV for live broadcast is a waste of U.N. resources, Xing added, saying if countries are really concerned about the situation on the Korean peninsula and well-being of the people they should work to relaunch dialogue, de-escalate tensions, and support lifting sanctions that affect the livelihood of North Koreans and the country's deteriorating humanitarian situation.

Stepan Kuzmenkov, a senior counsellor at Russias U.N. Mission, echoed Chinas opposition to having the Security Council discuss human rights and said there were no grounds for convening the meeting which has a clear anti-North Korean bent.

He accused the U.S. of using human rights to settle scores with the governments not to their liking and condemned what he called streams of disinformation about North Korea disseminated by the U.S. and its allies on the pretext that theyre trying to protect human rights.

What we see is that the United States, South Korea and Japan are engaging in aggressive, militaristic activities, thereby whipping up tensions in northeastern Asia, putting the security of countries in the region at risk, Kuzmenov said. The Americans are ignoring initiatives which would help ease tensions as well as the substantive and constructive signals (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un is sending, which could bring about possible de-escalation.

Americas Thomas-Greenfield countered that the regimes widespread human rights abuses and its threats to our collective security could not be clearer.

North Korea's ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs threaten international peace and security and are inextricably linked to the regimes human rights abuses, she said.

In the DPRK, the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction always, always trumps human rights and humanitarian needs of its people, Thomas-Greenfield said.
For Womens History Month, theGrio explores the political terrain of why a woman has yet to occupy the Oval Office.

For decades, nations have been led by women, from Canada and the United Kingdom to Germany and France, but in its nearly 250 years, the United States has never elected a female president.

While female U.S. political trailblazers, like Shirley Chisholm in 1972 and Hillary Clinton in 2016, have attempted to reach the highest office in the land, the possibility of a Madam President remains elusive in America.

For Womens History Month, theGrio explored the political terrain to understand why a woman has yet to find a path to the Oval Office.

Why has America never elected a woman president?

US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton makes a concession speech after being defeated by Republican presidential-elect Donald Trump as her running-mate Tim Kaine(R) and former president Bill Clinton look on in New York on November 9, 2016. / AFP / JEWEL SAMAD (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images)

One of the major differences between the U.S. and other countries that have elected a woman as head of state is that some countries have gender quotas, says Nadia E. Brown, a political science professor at Georgetown University. These quotas are intended to boost representation in political systems where women are historically underrepresented.

Brown told theGrio these quotas allow women to be elected to national positions, adding, the population just doesnt think about women as being incapable to lead in the way that the United States does.

She continued, Some of these things are structural that the United States could put into place, and then others are cultural. Because we dont have those structures in place, we fall back on cultural norms [and] gender socialization that really remove women from top leadership positions.

Brown argues that the lack of structural systems that propel women into public office has created an American society where we dont imagine that [women] can do the job.

The other barrier, she said, is good old-fashioned sexism, where some people still believe that women have a specific place in public life or they dont have any place in public life.

Aimee Allison, founder and president of She the People, a political advocacy group for women of color, told theGrio that for a woman to ascend to the White House, women have to continue the work of building power within political parties.

Story continues

We exist as Black people in a system of white supremacy and as women in a system of patriarchy, said Allison. Thats not just about personal feelings or personal interactions, but is about the way that institutions are set up and those institutions determine whos in leadership.

Allison recalled a saying from Jesse Jackson, Sr., while working on his 1988 presidential campaign in which he said, you can try to change the leaders beliefs and attitudes, or you can change the leaders themselves.

She explained, It means taking over leadership of political parties at the state and the national level to literally change the system to enable women to get that seat.

The history of women running for president

Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm Announcing her Candidacy for U.S. Presidential Nomination, Thomas J. OHalloran, January 25, 1972. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Women in politics like Chisholm and Clinton broke barriers for women with presidential ambitions, particularly Chisholm, who was the first Black woman to run for president and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party nomination. Before her, Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to seek a major political partys nomination when she ran as a Republican in 1964.

Chisholm, however, has been credited for being the forebearer for candidates like Clinton, who in 2016 became the first woman to become a presidential nominee of any party.

Allison explained, The reason why we need to credit her is because she dared to imagine a democracy where someone who looked like her  Black, a woman, child of immigrants, a person who was dedicated and answering the call to public service  could assemble a multiracial voting coalition.

Chisholm, she said, embraced issues that ranged in equality, gender justice, economic justice, racial justice  and she inspired a whole generation.

In modern politics, more and more women are running for president. In the 2020 presidential cycle, there was a record number of women candidates running as Democrats, including then-U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, then-U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and author Marianne Williamson.

With each woman who throws her hat into the race, it helps society reimagine that there can be a woman president, Brown said.

However, she noted, these women in their own right have faced really vitriolic, sexist attacks, and several other women have faced the intersection of race and gender, very specific attacks.

The image of women presidential candidates also normalizes the idea for younger generations, Brown argued.

Hillary Clinton receiving the Democratic nomination for the presidency has opened up a realm of possibility for many young people, which is a lot different than Gen X [who] didnt grow up seeing this, she explained.

The rise of madam vice president

Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States, steps off the plane before the start of the Munich Security Conference (MSC). (Photo by Angelika Warmuth/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Political experts agree that the rise of now-Vice President Harris as Americas first woman vice president is helping to shift attitudes about women leaders and, more specifically, their ability to envision a female president someday  whether she is Harris or someone else.

Its probably closer than we imagine, said Allison, who said that Harris is well positioned as second-in-line to the presidency.

While President Joe Biden is almost certain to run for reelection with Harris in 2024, many also expect to see her run for the high office when her time as vice president ends.

Vice President Kamala Harris is demonstrating that she has the chops to lead on domestic policy as well as foreign policy and can effectively speak on behalf of the interests of the U.S. on the global stage, Allison said. Thats very important when you look at her positioning and her readiness to lead in the top spot.

Allison highlighted the vice presidents leadership role in the White Houses work around reproductive rights after the Supreme Court overturned the protected right to an abortion and her personal work in uplifting the issue of Black maternal health.

However, Brown cautioned that while the Biden-Harris administration has accomplished a lot  even comparing their landmark policies to that of President Franklin D. Roosevelt  Harris faces a tough road to the presidency in the future.

They dont get credit for [their accomplishments], said Brown, who pointed to a polarizing news media landscape.

Kamala Harris, as part of the Biden administration, can really stand on a really excellent policy record, but it hasnt reached the minds and hearts of many Americans, she added. Because of that, I think that both she and Biden must continually make the case that they deserve to be elected.

The role of Black women in electing a female president

Supporter Stephanie Smith holds up a sign during a Biden-Harris voter mobilization drive-in event in Las Vegas on October 2, 2020. (Photo by Ronda Churchill / AFP) (Photo by RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP via Getty Images)

While its unclear when America will elect a woman for president, Allison says it wont be done without the support of Black and brown women.

If theres going to be a woman president, I believe its going to be through the only party that represents Black women and Black people significantly, and thats the Democratic Party, said Allison.

To the extent that leaders and the whole ecosystem of politics embrace and include and uplift Black and brown women as the drivers of this new possibility, and they invest in that and they understand our value, thats when it becomes more and more possible for a woman to take that top seat.

Allison continued, The Democratic Party base is 25% Black. Black people are the force of the Democratic Party, and Black women are the majority there in terms of not only voters but organizers, leaders, people engaging everyday people in issues and who are holding that vision for the country of democracy and representation and inclusion.

She argued that Hillary Clintons 2016 loss was partly due to the lack of investment in Black women throughout the campaign cycle.

The Democratic Party of 2016 and before did not recognize the unique power and influence and potential of Black womens leadership, said Allison. And as a result, you have a Democratic Party that did not deeply invest in making sure to turn out the Black vote, uplifting organizers for including our agenda in the issues, fighting voter suppression, and letting Black women, in particular, lead in terms of shaping the results of elections.

Women in the 2024 presidential cycle and beyond

Marianne Williamson speaks as she endorses Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during a campaign rally at Vic Mathias Shores Park on February 23, 2020 in Austin, Texas. With early voting underway in Texas, Sanders is holding four rallies in the delegate-rich state this weekend before traveling on to South Carolina. Texas holds their primary on Super Tuesday March 3rd, along with over a dozen other states. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Though the 2024 presidential election is still 21 months away, two women have already announced their campaigns for the White House.

Former South Carolina governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination in February. Author and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson, who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020, announced earlier this month that she would challenge President Biden in a primary.

Brown said that regardless of their policy stance or viability as candidates, both Haley and Williamson continue pushing the political arc for women.

Its showing there are smart, capable women who want to serve their country, said Brown.

However, she said, it matters how media are talking about these candidates. She explained, if women are only talked about as fringe candidates, regardless of their characteristics and qualities, it diminishes the role modeling effect.

While she expects to see more movement on the Republican side related to womens performance in the 2024 presidential cycle, Brown noted that Republican women have a different identity to gender and sexism than Democrats.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley arrives on stage at her first campaign event on February 15, 2023 in Charleston, South Carolina. Former South Carolina Governor and United Nations ambassador Haley, officially announced her candidacy yesterday, making her the first Republican opponent to challenge former U.S. President Donald Trump. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Nikki Haley will play up gender in some ways, but then go back to saying I can do the same job as a man, dont look at me as a woman candidate, Im just a qualified candidate  thats a typical Republican mantra, she explained.

Allison said its important for female presidential candidates to advance a feminist agenda, advance a racial justice agenda [and] advance an economic equality agenda.

She added, Because otherwise, the representation just stays what it is.

Allison said that as South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley reluctantly removed the Confederate flag from the state capital after a white supremacist murdered members of a Black church; since then, shes been really mimicking MAGA talking points, denigrating Black people, denigrating immigrants, and committing herself to a kind of politics that would further entrench white power and white supremacy.

She added, Thats not the kind of woman or woman of color that would bring change.  women of color are more savvy than that  we want a woman president, we want to imagine that, but we want one that is committed to our future, building a new kind of America and helping us to make that real.

Gerren Keith Gaynor

Gerren Keith Gaynor is the Managing Editor of Politics and White House Correspondent at theGrio. He is based in Washington, D.C.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post Why has America never elected a woman president? appeared first on TheGrio.
Word with AI.

Theres a lot of mystery and glamour surrounding the future of artificial intelligence, which suddenly looks to be gaining capabilities at an incredible pace. Yet the nonstop product announcements now coming from Big Tech have largely been centered around quotidian office tasks like making spreadsheets or managing Gmail or creating PowerPoint slides.

While thats disappointing on some level, its a perfectly reasonable business strategy.

Read more

Microsoft, recently, integrated OpenAIs technology into its office tools like Word and Excel. Flashy its not. But by staying in their domain, techs giants can remain competitive while quickly releasing products to the public.

Keeping it simple

While AI technology is improving at speed, companies like Microsoft are quick to admit that mistakes will be made. Factual errors generated in AI content remain a problem, for example.

Software companies presumably could troubleshoot those kinds of issues easily when it comes to building a slide deck or summarizing a business meeting. When it comes to higher-stakes applications, the technical problems become more difficult to solve.

I worry most about mistakes in high-stakes situations, like legal or medical diagnoses, said Graham Neubig, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon. Humans make mistakes in those cases, too, he added.

AI applications remain limited for now

When OpenAI released ChatGPT-4 earlier this week, the startup said additional capabilities could lead to new risks, suggesting that more problems will come with pushing the limits of AI.

If the upshot is that big tech will be conservative in how it unleashes AI to the masses, it seems a sensible tradeoff.

The current work-related applications of AI are still useful, even with the occasional bug. Google Translate was introduced in 2006 and it still makes mistakessometimes hilariously so. That doesnt mean it isnt useful, said Neubig.

Story continues

Meanwhile, the next batch of AI integrations in the workplace, if not all that exciting, promises to at least be helpful for productivity. The technology is pretty impressive already, said Neubig.

More from Quartz

Sign up for Quartz's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
British American Tobacco p.l.c. (LON:BATS) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. The ex-dividend date is one business day before the record date, which is the cut-off date for shareholders to be present on the company's books to be eligible for a dividend payment. The ex-dividend date is an important date to be aware of as any purchase of the stock made on or after this date might mean a late settlement that doesn't show on the record date. Therefore, if you purchase British American Tobacco's shares on or after the 23rd of March, you won't be eligible to receive the dividend, when it is paid on the 3rd of May.

The company's next dividend payment will be UK0.58 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed UK2.31 to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, British American Tobacco has a trailing yield of approximately 7.8% on its current stock price of 29.485. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. That's why we should always check whether the dividend payments appear sustainable, and if the company is growing.

See our latest analysis for British American Tobacco

Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. British American Tobacco paid out more than half (74%) of its earnings last year, which is a regular payout ratio for most companies. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. Dividends consumed 50% of the company's free cash flow last year, which is within a normal range for most dividend-paying organisations.

It's positive to see that British American Tobacco's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut.

Story continues

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Businesses with shrinking earnings are tricky from a dividend perspective. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. British American Tobacco's earnings have collapsed faster than Wile E Coyote's schemes to trap the Road Runner; down a tremendous 31% a year over the past five years.

Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. In the past 10 years, British American Tobacco has increased its dividend at approximately 6.2% a year on average. Growing the dividend payout ratio while earnings are declining can deliver nice returns for a while, but it's always worth checking for when the company can't increase the payout ratio any more - because then the music stops.

Final Takeaway

From a dividend perspective, should investors buy or avoid British American Tobacco? While earnings per share are shrinking, it's encouraging to see that at least British American Tobacco's dividend appears sustainable, with earnings and cashflow payout ratios that are within reasonable bounds. Bottom line: British American Tobacco has some unfortunate characteristics that we think could lead to sub-optimal outcomes for dividend investors.

Although, if you're still interested in British American Tobacco and want to know more, you'll find it very useful to know what risks this stock faces. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for British American Tobacco you should know about.

If you're in the market for strong dividend payers, we recommend checking our selection of top dividend stocks.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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Shou Zi Chew and the TikTok logo. Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images; OLIVIER DOULIERY/Getty Images

More Western governments have banned TikTok from official devices.

That's a pretty overt indication they think the app spies for China.

TikTok denies it feeds user data to China, but the drip-drip of revelations hasn't helped.

Some of the most powerful Western governments have more or less decided that TikTok spies on people.

It's hard to conclude anything else after the US, the EU, Canada, the UK, Belgium, France, and the Czech Republic have either mandated or advised officials to delete the app from their phones, all in the space of four months.

The suspicion is that TikTok's owner ByteDance is in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party and shares data about Western users with China. China has fewer safeguards around personal data. It also has a history of corporate and political espionage on the West.

The US, where TikTok has more than 100 million active users, has banned the app from government devices since last November. The Biden administration is now pushing for a full ban if the app doesn't sell or divest any Chinese stakes.

The UK and New Zealand, key security partners for the US in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, have decided to up the ante on TikTok too this week by also banning the app from government devices. France is weighing up a similar move.

There's more than just spying fears. The app is a stand-in for poor relations with China and, to a lesser degree, a fear that Chinese tech may supersede Western tech.

"TikTok is the unlucky lightning rod for the geopolitical tension at the moment," said Ben Greenstone, managing director at public policy consultancy Taso Advisory and a former UK government official.

And the app hasn't helped itself.

Drip-drip revelations suggest TikTok isn't totally kosher

There's been a steady flow of damning stories about TikTok and its ultimate parent firm ByteDance, which is headquartered in Beijing.

ByteDance hasn't precisely detailed its ownership but, according to the Financial Times, is owned by a mix of global investors, while 20% is owned by employees, and another 20% by founders Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo.

Story continues

This week, an anonymous former risk manager at TikTok said that information about the app's millions of American users still could be exposed to China, despite internal efforts to wall off US user data, the Washington Post reported. The data-safeguarding plan, known as Project Texas, is costing TikTok $1.5 billion and involves hiving off US data in Oracle servers with government oversight. But, the person said, TikTok would need to be totally re-engineered to be fully leakproof, the Post reported. (A TikTok spokesperson said anyone who left when this employee did wouldn't be fully briefed on Project Texas.)

In 2021, "TikTok Boom" author and journalist Chris Stokel-Walker outlined in Insider that TikTok does transfer European and American data to China, though not necessarily in a wholesale fashion. One source told the author that data from a small number of Western users that could identify them made its way onto an internal-messaging system at ByteDance.

In December, TikTok admitted that some ByteDance staff in the US and China gained access to personal data of journalists in a bid to monitor their location and expose company leaks. A spokesperson said four employees who accessed the data had been fired, CNN reported at the time.

TikTok has maintained the app doesn't spy on individuals, and has pointed to the steps it's taking to hive off user information.

Theo Bertram, TikTok's vice president for public policy in Europe, tweeted on Thursday that the app does not "collect any more data than other apps."

FCC commissioner Brendan Carr responded to Bertram asking if "any member of the CCP accessed non-public US or EU user data from inside China." Bertram is yet to respond.

Western powers are skeptical of TikTok's defense

In the US, deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco has pointed to a national security law in China that requires companies to make data available to the government as a clear reason not to use an app owned by a company headquartered in China.

"If a company is operating in China and is collecting your data, it's a good bet that the Chinese government is accessing it," she said during a panel discussion last month.

British lawmaker Oliver Dowden, meanwhile, said "the security of sensitive government information must come first" when outlining the reasons for the UK's ban. New Zealand's reasoning has been more vague, with politicians told that "the risks are not acceptable" after the government conducted its own analysis and discussions.

"TikTok has burned a lot of trust by dragging its heels on promises made in 2020 and due to the string of revelations about its aggressive harvesting of user data," Jamie MacEwan, senior media analyst at Enders Analysis, told Insider.

Some of the accusations being leveled at TikTok apply, to some extent, to any social-media platform. US social-media services normalized the aggressive harvesting of user data, and routinely hand over information to international governments.

But at a broader level, Taso's Greenstone notes, a ban is a useful tool for Western powers to say they're "fighting back against China's dominance,'' especially as the US will be aware its global dominance is genuinely challenged by a rising China.

If lawmakers remain skeptical about TikTok's safeguarding of user data, or the app fails to find a buyer in a pinch  its viability in its most popular markets looks increasingly slim.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 18)  An illegal possession of firearms complaint lodged against Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. was dismissed, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Saturday.

In a media forum, DOJ spokesperson Mico Clavano explained that the complaint lacked basis.

However, he reiterated that the lawmaker, who has been tagged in the spate of killings in his province, is not yet off the hook as he is still facing several other complaints.

"Na-dismiss po 'yung isang kaso of illegal possession of firearms," Clavano told reporters. "But like I mentioned a while ago, there are eight other cases against the congressman, isa lang po 'yun."

"It goes to show na wala tayong pinipilit dito," he also said. "Kung manipis ang kaso, especially in this case na wala namang conspiracy to possess firearms, dini-dismiss ng DOJ 'yon dahil wala naman talagang basis."

[Translation: One case of illegal possession of firearms was dismissed but like I mentioned a while ago, there are eight other cases against the congressman, that's just one. It goes to show that we are not forcing anything here. If the case is not strong, especially in this case that there was no conspiracy to possess firearms, the DOJ dismisses that because there is no basis.]

Teves and his two sons were earlier slapped with complaints for illegal possession of firearms and explosives, which stemmed from police raids on the lawmaker's properties in Bayawan City, where firearms and explosives were confiscated.

PNP to explore legal remedies

The Philippine National Police (PNP)  which filed the complaint against Teves  said it has yet to receive a copy of the DOJ resolution.

"If this is true, we respect the findings and disposition of the DOJ on this particular case," PNP spokesperson Jean Fajardo said in a media briefing also on Saturday.

She added that once the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) receives a copy, it will "exhaust all available legal remedies."

Fajardo said the CIDG is confident it has strong evidence to back the complaints.

Major development on Degamo slay case

Meanwhile, Clavano stressed that Teves is "still considered as one of the suspects and mastermind" in the assassination of provincial governor Roel Degamo.

Teves' camp has repeatedly denied this allegation.

The PNP, on the other hand, said the public can expect a "major development" in the murder case "in the coming days."
Willem Dafoe said hes open to playing Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, again if everything was right.

Dafoe, played the Green Goblin in the 2002 film Spider-Man and again in the 2021 movie Spider-Man: No Way Home, explained his feelings toward his iconic performance as the villain during an interview with Inverse published this week.

I mean, thats a great role, Dafoe said.

I liked the fact that its a double role both times. Twenty years ago, and fairly recently, both times [were] very different experiences, but I had a good time on both.

Dafoe, who stars in the newly-released film Inside, has been open about his love for the role in the past.

He told Vanity Fair in 2019 that he did a screen test for the part in Spider-Man from his hotel room in Spain.

Thats how I got the role, I had to fight for that role, Dafoe said.

My friends were like, Really? Youre going to make a cartoon movie? Some of them snobbed it, but I thought, No, thisll be cool, this is interesting. Movies from comics were not a normal thing. It felt like something new.

Dafoe, among several actors considered for the part, including Nicolas Cage and John Malkovich, told GQ in 2019 that his more interesting role in Spider-Man was his one as a father.

You could play these scenes where it would switch from comedy to drama in a line, said Dafoe, who referred to the Thanksgiving dinner scene.

Theres a couple of scenes that still make me laugh because theyre so double-edged, and they go back and forth between being really heavy and really kind of silly. And the movie is filled with that.

Related...
A New Hanover County jury found a 37-year-old man guilty of kidnapping and assault for his role in a 2021 attack.

Following a five-day trial in New Hanover County Superior Court, a jury found a 37-year-old Wilmington man guilty of kidnapping and assault for his role in a 2021 attack on a disabled woman.

Jawaun Howard Hill attacked the woman on Jan. 21, 2021, at her home, according to a Friday news release from District Attorney Ben David. In addition to breaking the victim's orbital socket and multiple ribs, the attack also left her with a collapsed lung, the release stated.

Hill was convicted of first-degree kidnapping and assault inflicting serious bodily injury. The victim also reported Hill had sexually assaulted her during the attack, but the jury found Hill not guilty of first-degree rape.

Read this:After months of quiet, what's next for Wilmington's west bank?

He was sentenced to serve 18 to 24 years in prison.

According to the district attorney's office, Hill and the victim knew one another  she had allowed him and his girlfriend to stay at her home at times.

The victim was found by a friend who stopped by to check on her and heard her cries for help, according to the release. She was found with her wrists and ankles bound together with duct tape, the release states.

Victims who are living on the margins of society are so vulnerable and often expect not to be believed," said Assistant District Attorney Connie Jordan, who prosecuted the case for the state. "Many of these victims never report violent crimes against them. Our office firmly believes that there is no one undeserving of protection.

Judge R. Kent Harrell presided over the case.

Reach reporter Jamey Cross at jbcross@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington man to serve prison time for attacking disabled woman
Allison Raskin is a writer and content creator. She was diagnosed with OCD when she was 4. Alexis Dickey

Allison Raskin has lived with obsessive compulsive disorder for 29 years.

She has intrusive thoughts and compulsions about her environment being germ-free, which can make it difficult to date, she said.

Now living with her fiance, Raskin said giving herself grace and asking for help have changed her life for the better.

Allison Raskin watched as her fiance rolled his suitcase into their home. When the side of the luggage swept against his pant leg, Raskin froze in place.

Her mind swirled with thoughts about where the suitcase had been, like the grimy shed in their backyard and germ-filled airports.

"Can you wash your pants?" she asked him.

Raskin, a 33-year-old writer and content creator, was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder when she was four years old. She told Insider she's spent most of her life navigating intrusive thoughts and compulsions, mainly about her world becoming contaminated and a fear of being alone.

What is obsessive compulsive disorder?

Obsessive compulsive disorder is a largely misunderstood condition in which a person has recurring and unwanted thoughts, ideas, or sensations that they feel driven to stop through a repetitive action, or compulsion, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Someone with OCD feels the need to act on compulsions, like washing hands, checking on something, or counting to a specific number, so much that it interferes with their daily functioning and social life. If they don't act on them, they feel extreme distress, according to the APA.

For Raskin, her obsessive thoughts and compulsions revolve around germs and contamination. As she dated in her twenties, she noticed how her OCD and anxiety impacted her ability to feel secure in romantic relationships. But it wasn't until she started taking antidepressants again in her mid-twenties and going to therapy that Raskin was able to challenge her intrusive thoughts and feel confident enough to experience the uncertainty dating without spiraling, she told Insider.

Story continues

Now she's able to tell herself, "My fiance is not his pants," and better cope with the discomfort of her intrusive germ-related thoughts without always having to act on them, Raskin said. She told Insider she wanted to document her personal growth for others who could relate, while also offering advice. Raskin wrote "Overthinking About You: Navigating Romantic Relationships When You Have Anxiety, OCD, and/or Depression," a book that's part memoir and part self-help, which was released in May 2022.

Raskin told Insider she still has bad mental health days where her intrusive thoughts  "If I touch the dirty floor, I'll die," for instance  seem too overwhelming, but she's also happily engaged to a partner. More importantly, she said she's happy with herself.

Obsessive thoughts about contamination made the early stages of dating agonizing, Raskin said

Psychology experts have yet to pinpoint the causes of OCD, or why certain people develop specific compulsions, but they believe it could be related to a mixture of factors including environment, genetics, and brain chemistry, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

In her book, Raskin said she was diagnosed after an extreme strep throat infection landed her in the hospital. Doctors told her the infection altered her brain chemistry, and she started to fixate on "debilitating neurosis, self-hate, and depression that followed me into adulthood."

Though she was able to manage her symptoms in her professional life, always getting good grades in school and landing a job at Buzzfeed in 2015, Raskin said her dating life revealed the depths of her compulsions.

She said the early stages of dating were a mental battle. She couldn't bring herself to have sleepovers with a new love interest because that meant confronting the germs in their homes, or her love interest seeing her act out her compulsions in her own home, Raskin said. She struggled with sharing the extent of her obsessive thoughts and compulsions with dates, fearing she'd say too much too soon and they would judge her.

When someone became her boyfriend, Raskin said her anxiety (which can often be linked to OCD) kicked into high gear. She'd stay up all night wondering where they were or why they didn't respond to her texts, then convince herself they were injured, dead, or didn't care about her at all. She said that getting older, getting back on antidepressants, and attending therapy regularly has helped her move away from the extreme thinking that would influence her unhealthy behaviors.

Instead of telling herself she was a "terrible person" for acting on a compulsion, Raskin started "allowing for a lot more gray" in her life. She began to acknowledge things she wanted to change, like how she worked through obsessive thoughts about cleanliness, without feeling the need to vilify herself for a slip up, she told Insider.

When her OCD 'flares up,' self-compassion, medication, and support from her fiance help

Raskin said she's lived with her fiance for a year and it's still an "ongoing push and pull" with how they navigate her OCD symptoms.

For Raskin, the key to finding helpful ways to cope with her intrusive thoughts and compulsions started with practicing self-compassion, she told Insider. Now that she's easier on herself, she finds it easier to be honest with loved ones, like her fiance, about what she's experiencing in any given moment.

On days when Raskin feels stressed or overwhelmed, she said she has trouble challenging her obsessive thoughts. When that happens, she tells her partner "Today is a really bad OCD day" so they have open communication about it. Her partner gives her more space than usual to act out her compulsion or speak up about obsessive thoughts, she said.

When Raskin feels good, she said she challenges herself to avoid acting on her obsessive thoughts. She said she finds it helpful that her partner challenges her in kind ways too, like telling her when a request to wash his pants or clean something in their home feels like too much.

"Vocalizing what it is that I want him to do, while simultaneously acknowledging that it's my mental illness and I know it's not a fair ask, it releases some of the pressure," Raskin said. She said she used to stop herself from vocalizing her obsessive thoughts and compulsions, but noticed that "talking about it more openly takes away some of the power."

Read the original article on Insider
Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast

It is dicey constitutional business to criminalize words. The courts have done so only in exceptional circumstances, but on April 19, 2023, the Supreme Court will re-examine the constitutional boundaries for criminalizing words that terrorize. On that date, the Court will hear argument in Counterman v Colorado; the case focuses on the true threats doctrine and the right of speakers to invoke First Amendment protection for speech that puts the target in fear of life or limb.

Beginning in 2014, and over the next two years, Billy Raymond Counterman posted dozens of messages on the Facebook page of a local Colorado musician. The posts, sometimes accompanied by pictures, clearly indicate a man obsessed with his target:

Was that you in the white Jeep?

Ive had tapped phone lines before. What do you fear?

Im currently unsupervised. I know, it freaks me out too, but the possibilities are endless.

How can I take your interest in me seriously if you keep going back to my rejected existence?

Fuck off permanently.

Your arrogance offends anyone in my position.

Youre not being good for human relations. Die. Dont need you.

Staying in cyber life is going to kill you. Come out for coffee. You have my number.

The artist, identified in court documents as C.W., alerted law enforcement and was granted a protective order against Counterman. Finally, in May 2016, he was arrested. At trial, C.W. testified that she was alarmed by Counterman and afraid that he would injure or even kill her. In fact, she canceled a number of performances because she feared for her safety. In 2021, Counterman was convicted of stalking C.W. and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.

What the Left Keeps Getting Wrong About Free Speech

Counterman appealed his conviction defending his Facebook posts as pure speech, which are protected against criminal prosecution by the First Amendment. The state appeals court found that, in context, the posts indicated Counterman felt entitled to C.W.s attention not just online but in person as well. Additionally, in his more agitated posts, the court found that Counterman evidenced a disregard for his victims life. The state court upheld the conviction and ruled the posts were true threats, unprotected by the First Amendment.

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True threats are one of only a very few categories of speech to which the First Amendment offers no sanctuary. The First Amendment requires tolerance of fear and hate. The constitutional philosophy undergirding the First Amendment is that the best remedy to bad speech is more speech. The courts have been careful to allow speakers breathing space so that expression of thoughts and ideas have wide berth in the marketplace of ideasthat they are subject to debate and critique in the hopes that false narratives fail to thrive. Of course, it is a somewhat naive view. In fact, particularly in this era of siloed political communities, hate, misinformation, and disinformation thrive. Still, to punish such expression may not eliminate it; rather, it will often simply drive it underground.

The criminalization of true threat speech is not aimed at crude or offensive speech; it is not directed at vitriolic or hyperbolic speech. True threats are not merely language that intimidates or frightens. In fact, threatening language is often expressed during emotional confrontations, and while it might cause great anxiety or anger in the target, it falls short of terrorizing. The fear produced by a true threat is similar to the fear produced by a physically threatened assault. The target of a person waving a fist, a gun, or a knife will fear for their bodily safety. A true threat breeds the same kind of panic. So too, does the most venomous hate speech.

In Countermans final appeal of his conviction, the Supreme Court will have an opportunity to extend guidelines criminalizing true threats so that, at last, constitutional protection will be withdrawn from the most dangerous hate speech. Indeed, the court has supported prosecution against a speaker whose words incite illegal action, provokes another with fighting words, or defames another causing injury to reputation. In these circumstances, particularly when an individual is prosecuted for inciting illegal action, the court has crafted clear guidelines. A speaker can be punished for inciting a riot only if the speaker intended to incite a riot, choosing words that urge a crowd to illegal action in an incendiary situation and the speech is likely to incite the crowd to violence.

Guidelines similar to those used to criminalize speech that incites illegal activity can be applied to criminalize the worst kind of hate speech. Hate speech should be criminalized when the speaker intends to put the victim in fear of life or limb, choosing words that in context are terrorizing and likely to cause panic in the target. Doing so would not lead to big brother government control of expression so that only that which conforms to government orthodoxy enjoys first amendment protection. Instead, an extension of the true threat doctrine would withdraw first amendment armor only from the most heinous speechthat which generates terror. Placing menacing speech of any kind, including bullying, stalking or hate, outside of constitutional safeguards provides balance where little currently exists and offers the constitutional breathing room even to targets of hate so that they too can enjoy democratic liberties.

When speech has reached a level that is not tolerable in a civilized society, failure to delimit or encumber a speaker is more harmful than providing entrance to the marketplace of ideas. So that, when the remedy of more speech to bad speech is unavailable, or when expression is so menacing that its targets, like C.W., cannot enjoy the liberties that democracy provides, the government has the power, doubtless the responsibility, to step in and provide correctives. Terrorizing speech does not add to the marketplace of ideas. Terrorizing speech forces the market to contract. Intimidated targets are not going to participate in the marketplace of ideas for fear that the vitriol is merely the set up to real physical harm or death.

Concerns that, if they fear prosecution, the speech of haters and internet stalkers like Billy Raymond Counterman will be chilled so that they will refrain from tormenting their targets seems to be the whole point. Withdrawing constitutional protection and criminalizing speech that is intended to, and in fact does, elicit terror from the target is logical and fair. And it is about time.

Lynn Greenky is associate teaching professor at Syracuse University in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies. She teaches a beloved undergraduate course about the First Amendment and is the author of the book When Freedom Speaks. You can follow her on Instagram @lynngreenky and Twitter @LGreenky.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The U.S. Department of Transportation released its 2022 Air Travel Consumer Report on Thursday.

Utilizing operational data from reporting carriers, the DOT found the best and worst performing airlines in on-time arrivals and cancelations.

AMERICAN AIRLINES REPORTEDLY PREPARED TO INCREASE PILOT PAY RATES FOLLOWING DELTAS NEW CONTRACT

Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-800 commercial aircraft as seen on final approach landing at New York JFK John F Kennedy International Airport.

Delta Airlines had the highest on-time arrival rate with 77.5% of flights. Delta was followed by American Airlines at 73.7% and United Airlines at 71.8%.

Conversely, Frontier Airlines had the lowest on-time arrival rate at 56.6%, followed by Allegiant Air at 57.2% and Hawaiian Airlines at 58.1%.

BUTTIGEIG ACKNOWLEDGES MORE MISTAKES THAN USUAL WITH CLOSE CALLS AT AIRPORTS

READ ON THE FOX BUSINESS APP

The American Airlines logo is seen at John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) in Queens, New York.

"For calendar year 2022, the reporting marketing carriers posted an on-time arrival rate of 76.72% down from 78.97% for the same period in pre-pandemic 2019," the DOT reported.

American Airlines boasted the lowest flight cancellation rate at only 1.8%. American was followed by JetBlue Airways at 1.9% and Delta Air Lines at 2.9%.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

A Southwest Airlines passenger jet lands at Chicago Midway International Airport in Chicago, Illinois.

On the reverse, Southwest Airlines had the highest rate of cancellation with a staggering 14.6%, after a massive system meltdown in December. This was followed by Alaska Airlines with 7.6% and Allegiant Air at 5.3%.

"For calendar year 2022, the reporting marketing carriers posted a cancellation rate of 2.7%, up from 1.9% for the same period in pre-pandemic 2019," the DOT reported.

FOX Business reached out to Southwest Airlines and Frontier Airlines for comment.
Amid a nationwide battle over medication abortion, Wyoming's governor signed into law Friday a state ban on abortion pills in what appears to be the country's first such state law.

Medication abortions make up well over half of all abortion procedures. Fifteen states have limited access to abortion pills, including six that require an in-person physician visit, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that supports abortion rights.

Advocates on both sides of the abortion debate are awaiting a decision in a closely watched lawsuit that could force the major abortion pill mifepristone off the market nationwide. A Texas judge heard arguments in the case this week, and a ruling could come at any time.

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, at least 13 states are currently enforcing abortion bans at any point in pregnancy while one more, Georgia, bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.

In states including Arizona, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming, courts have put on hold the enforcement of bans or severe restrictions of abortion rights.

Meanwhile, a South Carolina bill that would allow the death penalty for people who have abortions is losing support among Republican lawmakers. And states including New Mexico and North Dakota had recent wins for abortion access advocates.

THREATS TO MEDICATION ABORTION: Hearing in lawsuit that could force major abortion pill off market nationwide

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon gives the State of the State address to the Wyoming Legislature on March 2, 2021, inside the state Capitol in Cheyenne, Wy. Late Friday, March 17, 2023, Gordon signed a bill prohibiting abortion pills in the state and also allowed a separate measure restricting abortion to become law without his signature. (Michael Cummo/The Wyoming Tribune Eagle via AP, File)

Wyoming Gov. signs bill prohibiting abortion pills

The new Wyoming law makes the manufacturing, distribution and sale of abortion pills a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $9,000. But it exempts people who take abortion pills themselves from criminal liability.

The ban on abortion pills will take effect in July, though legal action challenging the law may delay that.

Gordon also on Friday allowed another anti-abortion bill to become law by leaving it unsigned for three days. This sweeping bill strengthens bans against using government funds for abortion care. It also bans the distribution or sale of abortion pills with penalties of up to $20,000 and five years in prison. Gordon acknowledged the discrepancies between the two bills may create confusion in a letter.

Story continues

Julie Burkhart, president of Wellspring Health Access, the state's only procedural abortion clinic, said the clinic is working with their legal team to discuss next steps. She said she is "dismayed and outraged" by the decision.

"Abortion is health care, no matter what these laws say," she said in a statement.

WHAT IS 'REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE': Black women coined the term that's now driving a national conversation

South Carolina bill allowing death penalty for abortion loses support

A South Carolina bill that would make a person who has an abortion eligible for the death penalty was introduced in January won support among 21 House Republicans. Many of these lawmakers have since asked to remove their names from the legislation.

Nine Republicans who had co-sponsored the bill have pulled out, saying they don't support the bill's existing language and aim to prosecute or charge people for their own abortions, NBC News reported. It is unlikely the bill will become law.

SOUTH CAROLINA WOMAN ARRESTED: Arrest draws attention to criminalization of self-managed abortions

Wins for abortion rights advocates in New Mexico, North Dakota

Among recent wins for abortion access advocates, New Mexico passed a bill Friday that aims to safeguard abortion providers and patients from out-of-state interference. The bill will now go to the desk of the state's Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is expected to sign it into law.

The North Dakota Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court's ruling that blocks the state's abortion "trigger ban" from going into effect, saying the state's constitution includes a fundamental right to abortion to preserve the life and health of the mother. But the injunction on the abortion ban is temporary while a lawsuit over its constitutionality proceeds.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Wyoming governor signs bill banning abortion pills
Getty Images

Wyoming became the first state to ban abortion pills after a bill became law on Friday.

The "Life is a Human Right Act" makes prescribing or selling abortion pills a felony.

Gov. Mark Gordon said he "acted without bias and after extensive prayer" in allowing the bill to pass.

Amid an ongoing battle against abortion-inducing medication taking place across the country, Wyoming has become the first state to ban abortion medication after the "Life is a Human Right Act" became state law on Friday night.

Governor Mark Gordon refused to veto the bill, which prompted the ban to automatically become law after it sat unsigned for three days without being returned to the state legislature for review.

Under the "Life is a Human Right Act," which modifies an existing abortion ban in the state, prescribing or selling abortion medications  including mifepristone and misoprostol  is a felony punishable by 5 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $20,000.

The bill "will become law without my signature as it seems to be the will of the legislature," Gordon said in a Friday letter to Chuck Gray, Wyoming's Secretary of State. However, he added, "I believe now more than ever that if the legislature seeks final resolution on this important issue, it ultimately may have to come through a constitutional amendment."

On Friday, Gordon signed into law the "Prohibiting chemical abortions" bill, which makes the manufacturing, distribution, and sale of chemical abortion drugs a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months imprisonment and a fine of up to $9,0000. It is unclear if any abortion medication is currently manufactured in Wyoming.

"I have acted without bias and after extensive prayer, to allow these bills to become law," Gordon's letter to Gray added, citing his pro-life voting record.

Representatives for Gordon declined to answer Insider's detailed request for comment regarding the bills becoming law, instead saying in a statement that the Governor "believes that if the Legislature wants finality on this issue it should put a constitutional amendment before the people and let them decide if they want to add an abortion ban to the state's constitution."

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Wyoming was the first territory in the United States to grant women the right to vote, according to the National Parks Service, after passing a law offering women suffrage in 1869  before the region even achieved statehood. It now becomes the first state to ban abortion-inducing medications as legal battles play out in Texas and beyond over similar proposed bans elsewhere.

Representatives for Gray, and Representative Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, who sponsored the "Life is a Human Right Act," did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) signed a bill Friday to ban abortion pills from being used in the state, becoming the first in the country to specifically prohibit that form of abortion outside of a full ban on the procedure.

Blanket bans on all forms of abortion have already taken effect in 13 states, and 15 states have placed restrictions on access to abortion pills, but Wyoming is the first to sign off on separate legislation outlawing the pills, which have become the most common method for abortion.

Conservatives have pushed back against access to abortion pills in recent months following the initial prohibitions on abortion going into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

A U.S. district judge in Texas heard a legal challenge earlier this week to the Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) approval of mifepristone, a drug that blocks hormones necessary for pregnancy. Mifepristone is one of two abortion pills available nationwide and has been used by more than 3 million women since the FDA approved it to induce abortion up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy in 2000.

Wyomings ban on abortion pills is set to take effect in July if legal action does not block it.

Gordon said in a release that he also allowed an updated abortion ban to go into effect that will prohibit the procedure in all cases except for instances of rape, incest, a lethal fetal anomaly that will prevent the fetus from surviving and to protect the life of the mother.

Anyone who performs an abortion in violation of the law could face up to five years in prison or a $20,000 fine or both.

The law seeks to replace a trigger abortion ban that went into effect after Roe was overturned but has been put on pause by the courts amid lawsuits arguing it violates the state constitution.

Gordon said he is concerned the new law will cause a new lawsuit to be filed and further delay a determination about the constitutionality of an abortion ban in Wyoming. He said the legislature has been continually making minor tweaks to the states abortion law each year, delaying a final decision from the courts.

Story continues

He said the legislature should place a constitutional amendment referendum on the ballot for the people of the state to decide if they want a ban in the state constitution.

If the Legislature wants to expressly address how the Wyoming Constitution treats abortion and defines healthcare, then those issues should be vetted through the amendment process laid out in Article 20 of the Wyoming Constitution and voted on directly by the people, Gordon said.

Antonio Serrano, the advocacy director for the Wyoming American Civil Liberties Union, slammed Gordons decision to sign the abortion pill ban.

A persons health, not politics, should guide important medical decisions  including the decision to have an abortion, Serrano said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Wyoming governor Mark Gordon has signed a bill prohibiting abortion pills in the Republican-led state on Friday, citing the Life is a Human Right Act.

It is the first US state to ban the use of abortion pills.

The abortion pill law in Wyoming will take effect from 1 July and make it illegal to prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion.

The law states that doctors or anyone else found guilty of prescribing the medicines and violating the latest law will be charged with a misdemeanour, punishable by up to six months in prison and will be slapped with a $9,000 (7,387) fine.

Pregnant patients will be exempt from charges and penalties, according to the law.

I have acted without bias and after extensive prayer, to allow these bills to become law, the governor said in a letter to Wyomings secretary of state.

The governor also allowed a separate measure restricting access to abortion to become a law without his signature amid rising control over abortion by Republican states and anti-abortion groups.

The law, which kicks in on Sunday, would ban abortion under most circumstances, rendering the medical termination of an unwanted pregnancy a felony.

The latter law, governor Gordon said, dubbed the Life is a Human Right Act would result in a lawsuit that will delay any resolution to the constitutionality of the abortion ban in Wyoming.

Abortion pills account for more than of the recent medical termination of pregnancy in the US, preliminary data in a report by the Guttmacher Institute showed in February last year amid crackdown on abortion by the Republican camp and states.

The pills accounted for more than 54 per cent of all medical abortions carried out in the US, which requires a two-pill method up to 10 weeks of gestation, the report found, confirming the process to be the most accessible and reliable method to end pregnancies among the US population.

Governor Gordons move to render abortion pills inaccessible comes in the wake of a federal judges questioning of a Christian groups effort to overturn the decades-old US approval of a leading abortion drug mifepristone.

Story continues

Wyoming ACLU advocacy director Antonio Serrano slammed governor Gordons decision to sign the law.

"A persons health, not politics, should guide important medical decisions  including the decision to have an abortion," Mr Serrano said in a statement.

Restrictions on abortion have scaled up significantly after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade in June last year, stripping off the law protecting the right to abortion for nearly five decades.

At least 12 states are now enforcing bans on abortion at any point in pregnancy, and one more, Georgia, bans it once cardiac activity can be detected, or at about six weeks gestation.

Courts have put on hold enforcement of abortion bans or deep restrictions in Arizona, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming. Idaho courts have forced the state to allow abortions during medical emergencies.
Late on Friday, Wyoming governor Mark Gordon (R.) signed into law a ban of abortion pills. He also allowed another abortion bill to become law without his signature.

Pills like mifepristone are the most common method of ending a pregnancy and they are becoming one of the most important fronts in the fight over abortion.

It shall be unlawful to prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion on any person, reads the Wyoming law. A doctor or any other person who violates this provision is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $9,000 fine. The woman upon whom the abortion is performed will not be criminally prosecuted.

The law does not cover morning-after pills or treatment to protect a woman whose health is at imminent risk. Additionally, the law contains incest and sexual-assault exceptions.

The bill was proposed in the wake of Wyomings trigger ban on nearly all abortions being blocked in court last year. A final decision in that case is still pending. Gordon, who signed the trigger ban, has said he is strongly pro-life.

The Wyoming governor allowed another bill to become law Friday without his signature. This bill bans the distribution or sale of abortion pills and proposes penalties of up to $20,000, five years in prison, or both. According to the Washington Post, Gordon said discrepancies between the two bills may prove problematic and that he expects them to be challenged in court.

The governor added that a referendum on the issue is needed: I believe this question needs to be decided as soon as possible so that the issue of abortion in Wyoming can be finally resolved, and that is best done with a vote of the people.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs case, abortion pills, which account for half of all U.S. abortions, have become increasingly contentious. The pills have been banned in 13 states as part of larger blanket bans on all forms of abortion, and 15 additional states have limited access to them, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Story continues

In Texas, a federal judge is considering a request from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to revoke or suspend the Food and Drug Administrations approval of mifepristone and misoprostol.

The lawsuit claims that the FDA never had the authority to approve of the two-pill regimen when it did so nearly a quarter century ago. ADF also says the FDA failed to properly study the safety of the regimen, and for almost two decades stonewalled doctors who were attempting to challenge its approval.

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk heard arguments in the case Wednesday. In an effort to avoid disruptions, he tried to keep plans for the hearing quiet until the night before.

Earlier this month, California governor Gavin Newsom threatened to boycott Walgreens after the pharmacy chain wrote to nearly two dozen Republican attorneys general saying it would not dispense in their states, where pharmacists cannot legally dispense the pills.

National Review confirmed with Walgreens that while it is not currently dispensing abortion pills anywhere in the country, it is seeking certification from the FDA to do so in states where the practice remains legal.

More from National Review
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 18)  The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it is investigating the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) for allowing the sunken oil tanker MT Princess Empress to sail without a permit to operate.

The DOJ is looking into possible collusion with concerned government agencies for allowing the ship to sail without the required permit, DOJ spokesperson Mico Clavano said in an interview on Friday.

MARINA previously confirmed in a Senate hearing that MT Princess Empress still has a pending application to amend its Certificate of Public Convenience (CPC).

But its owner, RDC Reield Marine Services, maintained that MT Princess Empress obtained a CPC from Marina in November 2022.

It also refused to comment on the possibility of collusion between the PCG and the MARINA.

READ: Ship that caused Mindoro oil spill has no permit to operate  MARINA

Meanwhile, Clavano also confirmed that DOJ has created an inter-agency committee to monitor the oil spill investigation.

Aside from PCG and MARINA, Clavano said the committee will involve the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Department of Health (DOH), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA), and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

"We will wait for reports for these involved agencies doon sa kanilang scope para magkaroon tayo ng mas malinaw na picture dito sa ating issue ng oil spill," he said.

[Translation: We will wait for reports for these involved agencies on their scope so that we can have a clearer picture on our oil spill issue.]

Sanctions

Clavano also confirmed that owners of the oil tanker will possibly face nine sanctions, six of which are criminal liabilities and three are civil liabilities.

Klarong klaro na may negligence dito," he declared. "Dahil without even looking at the necessary documents nakita natin na itong MT Empress Princess was made of mere scrap. Parang basura na ginawang oil tanker.

[Translation: It is very clear that there is negligence here. Because without even looking at the necessary documents we saw that this MT Empress Princess was made of mere scrap. It's like garbage turned into an oil tanker.]

Some of the laws the oil tanker may have violated include:

- Oil Pollution Compensation Act

- Clean Water Act

- Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act

- Marine Pollution Decree

- Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Control Act

- Philippine Fisheries Code

- Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas Systems Act

Clavano said it is also subjected to a Writ of Kalikasan  a legal remedy issued if the constitutional right to a healthy ecology is violated or threatened.

He added that the DOJ will also look at the angle of insurance fraud allegedly perpetrated by the shipping company.

We are looking at the possibility of misrepresentation by the owners of the MT Princess Empress, RDC Rield Marine Services, regarding their alleged $1 billion liability insurance for the ship as pointed out during a senate hearing earlier this week, he said.

READ: DOJ: Case buildup underway vs. owner of sunken tanker

CNN Philippines Senior Correspondent Anjo Alimario and Digital Producer Raheema Velasco contributed to this report.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to travel to Moscow next week to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin  his first visit to Russia since Kremlin troops invaded Ukraine.

The March 20 to 22 visit, also Xis first foreign trip since winning a third term as president, is seen by the West as a show of Beijings support for Moscow in its ailing war against Kyiv.

Much speculation has been made as to the nature of the trip, with western officials warning that it may signal China is considering giving Russia military assistance for the fight.

But China, which is trying to present itself as a neutral arbiter of the conflict, has denied such claims, even as it has refused to condemn the invasion.

Whatever the outcome, the meeting is sure to intensify ties between the two leaders who have already met 39 times prior  including over a year ago in Beijing at the Feb. 4, 2022, opening of the Olympics Games. At that encounter, held shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine, the two declared a no limits partnership.

Here are the things Putin and Xi seek to gain from their joint meeting and one curveball ahead of it:

Putin wants the weapons

After launching an attack on Ukraine a year ago, Putin found himself with a limited pool of friends, a size that matters when it comes to Moscows ability to import and resupply critical arms and munitions in the fight.

China so far has held off on providing such lethal aid, instead choosing to support Russia through boosted trade and extra joint wargames.

But Western officials have recently started to warn that Beijing could soon move to give Moscow military assistance  with next weeks meeting a possible ideal venue for the two to make such an announcement.

Also setting off alarms were comments from Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who recently accused the U.S. of hypocrisy in warning China against supplying weapons to Russia, pointing to the Biden administration supplying weapons to Taiwan.

Story continues

Its something that we will watch for, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Monday, referring to any glimmers of a weapons agreement between the two nations. Obviously, Russia has its own interests in trying to pull other countries into this conflict if it can, but our position is the same whether or not they meet.

The prospect is worrisome to U.S. officials as Chinese weapons, while not seen as able to hand a decisive win to Putin, could draw out the conflict, draining American weapons, aid resources and public goodwill toward helping Ukraine in the fight.

Xi wants to grow his reputation as a peacemaker

Fresh off a Chinese-brokered deal for Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume diplomatic relations, announced earlier this week, Xi now turns his eye to the Ukraine-Russia war.

Without mentioning the embattled country, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Xis visit is partially to promote peace, with conversations to touch on major regional and international issues.

Xis government has already released a so called peace plan for Ukraine, a 12-point agenda for a political resolution of the Ukraine crisis, that has largely gone ignored in the west.

And in a phone call on Thursday, senior Chinese diplomat Qin Gang told his Ukrainian counterpart that Beijing hopes all parties will remain calm, rational and restrained, and resume peace talks as soon as possible, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.

But the United States and NATO remain wary of Chinas push to mediate as Beijing has yet to condemn Russia for the war, or even to outwardly call the conflict such, instead deferring to Russias insistence it is a special military operation.

Further drawing western skepticism, China has repeatedly sided with Russia and blocked international action against Moscow for the war.

Both want a new world order

One likely outcome of the Xi-Putin meeting is a public recommitment of the twos partnership, seen as vital for them to counter what they see as the Wests unfair meddling in their affairs.

Xis visit to Russia  and the Chinese support that comes with it  means to act as a challenge to the U.S. and its allies, who have sought to squeeze Moscows economy with crippling sanctions.

The relationship is symbiotic, as Russia, in turn, offers China more weight on the international stage and backing in its own aggressive maneuvers, particularly in the South China Sea.

As the world enters a new period of turbulence and change, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and an important power, the significance and influence of China-Russia relations go far beyond the bilateral scope, Chinas foreign ministry said in the announcement of the Xi visit.

Ryan Hass, a senior fellow with Washington D.C.-based think tank Brookings, said securing Russia as Chinas partner is fundamental to Xis vision of national rejuvenation.

China views the United States as the principal obstacle to its rise, Hass writes.

Xi likely also sees the benefit of Russia distracting Americas strategic focus away from China. Neither Beijing nor Moscow can deal with the United States and its partners on its own; they both would rather stand together to deal with external pressure than face it alone, he added.

Shaking things up  Xi set to meet with international fugitive

The Xi-Putin meeting was announced hours ahead of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing an arrest warrant for the Russian president over allegations of war crimes related to unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.

The arrest warrant  one of the first charges against Putin for war crimes in Ukraine  means Xi is now meeting with an international fugitive come Monday.

Typically, such a warrant brings with it an important element of public shaming  a signal to other countries to carefully consider their dealings with an individual under investigation, according to international law experts.

From now on, the Russian president has the official status of a suspect in committing an international crime  illegal deportation and displacement of Ukrainian children, Ukraines Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin wrote on Facebook.

This means that outside Russia, Putin should be arrested and brought to court. And world leaders will think three times before shaking his hand or sitting with him at the negotiating table. The world has received a signal that the Russian regime is criminal and its leadership and allies will be brought to justice.

Theres little chance Putin will be brought into custody of an international court of law, and its also unlikely the warrant will greatly impact the meeting or Beijings position toward Moscow. But the legal move could put pressure on the two countries on the world stage.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former President Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland in March. (The Washington Post via Getty Images)

YouTube has reinstated former President Trump's channel, allowing him to upload videos ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the video platform announced Friday.

A host of social media sites banned Trump from their platforms after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. YouTube had cited "concerns about the ongoing potential for violence" and violation of its "policies for inciting violence."

In its decision to reverse course, YouTube  which is owned by Google  acknowledged it had considered such threat of violence but wanted to give voters a fair opportunity to hear from major presidential candidates. The move echoed a similar decision from Meta Platforms, which in January let Trump back on Facebook and Instagram. Trump announced his 2024 run in November.

"Starting today, the Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content," YouTube said in a statement on Twitter. "We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election."

"This channel will continue to be subject to our policies, just like any other channel on YouTube," YouTube added.

Shortly after it was reinstated, Trump's channel uploaded a campaign commercial titled, "I'M BACK!" The spot features news footage of Trump speaking to a crowd on election night in 2016. Trump also posted the video to his Facebook page, its first activity in more than two years.

"Sorry to keep you waiting  complicating business," Trump said in the archived footage before an advertisement flashed for the campaign's texting service.

In December, the House panel investigating the events of Jan. 6 recommended that Trump be criminally prosecuted for his role in the insurrection, in which a mob violently attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Even so, Trump is considered a front-runner in the Republican primary race. He has not yet been charged.

Story continues

Twitter, which had also banned Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection, reinstated him in November after new owner and chief executive Elon Musk polled users about whether the former POTUS should be brought back. Twitter had been Trump's preferred platform during his presidency. However, the Truth Social founder has not used his Twitter account since it was reactivated; his last tweet was days after the Capitol attack.

After Trump was reinstated on Twitter, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) responded to Musks poll by tweeting video of the attack on the Capitol.

She tweeted that when Trump was last on Twitter, the site was used to incite an insurrection, multiple people died, the Vice President of the United States was nearly assassinated, and hundreds were injured but I guess thats not enough for you to answer the question. Twitter poll it is.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, imposed sanctions against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

Source: Zelensky's decree

Details: Sanctions against al-Assad will last for 10 years.

This blocks al-Assad's assets available in Ukraine, prohibits any trade transactions, etc.

In addition to the president, sanctions have been imposed against 70-year-old Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous and Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.

In total, there are 300 people on the new sanctions list, including 3 Syrians, Russians and 1 Ukrainian [Victor Slobolinsky from Crimea, who also has a Russian citizenship  ed.].

In another addition, 141 legal entities were sanctioned, including 2 from the occupied Crimea: the autonomous non-profit organisation Institute of Marine Instrumentation and Robotics and Yevpatoriia Aircraft Repair Plant.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
The Lynchburg Fire Department recently received a road map to the invisible, in the words of Battalion Chief David Jackson  brand-new thermal imaging cameras.

Earlier this year, the department purchased 15 new Seek Attack Pro model thermal imaging cameras for $45,000 in total, covered by an Aid to Localities grant, which is provided to fire departments throughout the commonwealth through the Virginia Department of Fire Programs.

While Jackson said the department has used similar cameras for about 20 years, the new cameras come with technology used in the military.

According to the department, the waterproof cameras feature a 320-by-340 high-resolution thermal sensor, 76,800 temperature pixels for maximum clarity and sensitivity on the pictures, a 57-degree field of view and operate with one button.

Jackson said these new cameras give firefighters the highest level of information you can get in the most simple manner.

Battalion Chief Kenny Turner was one of the leaders in securing the new cameras. Turner said the previous models had become unreliable for service calls, leading the department to launch a committee to start the process of selecting new cameras in November 2022.

We ask a lot of our firefighters every day, Turner said. We ask them to put their lives in danger to protect, you know, their coworkers and citizens and visitors. So we felt like we needed to give them a better product to do that.

Turner said the department tested six different models of cameras in real-life situations and concluded on the Attack Pro model, which he said is a first-generation camera from a newer company. But the use of military-grade thermal technology on this version stood out for the committee.

The clarity of the view that the camera presented, the quickness that it can pick up heat changes, just many factors put this camera out in front of the rest by a pretty good margin, Turner added.

Turner said all of the departments frontline fire apparatus  ladder trucks, engines, heavy rescue unit and battalion chief vehicles  have one of the cameras on board.

With this technology, Turner said firefighters can use the cameras in zero visibility to locate trapped citizens; monitor heat thermals to see where heat is escaping from; and to even potentially save another firefighter from a blaze.

Without those, Turner said, very often youll just go right past any victim laying in the floor. But with the cameras and the heat signatures in the new technology, it gives you a very clear view of what youre scanning. And potentially victims stand out very quick and clear.

The department also can use the cameras to pick up water leaks behind walls, as the cameras can register differences in temperature that could lead to electrical problems, Turner said.

Battalion Chief Jackson was the battalion chief on duty for a fire in February at Masterbrand Cabinets in Lynchburg, where the cameras were put to use to identify exactly where the fire was.

When they first got there, there was some light, wispy smoke. But using a thermal imager allowed them to actually identify where in that wall space the fire was at. It was enclosed on one side and enclosed on another, Jackson said.

That thermal imager just gives us that ability to see the heat inside and lets us pinpoint where the efforts of suppression needs to go, he said.

According to both Jackson and Turner, all firefighters are trained to use the cameras, and the cameras typically have a lifespan of three to five years. They also have a maintenance plan to check them out every six months for any damage or upgrades needed.

Both chiefs expressed their gratitude to city leadership for their commitment to ensuring the department has the top of the line technology to keep citizens safe.

The technology that comes so fast with these things is something that we are trying as a department to stay ahead of and stay in pace with, so that were providing the best possible service that we can to the citizens of Lynchburg at any time, Jackson said.

Turner said of the city that the commitment to us gives me the ability to commit my firefighters to life-and-death situations every day, knowing that Im giving them the best technology that I can give them.

Im very gracious to city council and the fire chief for allowing me to get this committee up and spend taxpayer dollars on equipment that ultimately potentially can be used to save their lives.
Now that the family [of the victim] has had the private opportunity to view the tragic video, and with their blessing and encouragement, I plan to release the video at the beginning of the week, Dinwiddie Commonwealths Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill told The Times-Dispatch.

On Thursday, Irvo N. Otienos family viewed the video in Baskervills office before holding a news conference. Flanked by their attorneys and supporters, outside the Dinwiddie County Courthouse, they described the final minutes of his life as the videotape showed deputies piling up on top of him even though he was wearing handcuffs and leg irons.

Caroline Ouko, Otienos mother, said the video showed her son being tortured and treated worse than a dog.

Her eldest son and Otienos brother, Leon Ochieng, said what he watched was a killing. I did not think in my lifetime Id witness my own blood brother being murdered, he said.

The nationally known civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has partnered with local civil rights attorney Mark Krudys to represent the family, described the video as a commentary on how inhuman law enforcement officials treat people who are having a mental health crisis as criminals.

The video has not yet been provided to the defendants attorneys, but it will be made available through the discovery process, which enables the defense lawyers to see all prosecutions evidence.

So much has been made of this video, said attorney Peter Baruch, who is representing Deputy Bradley Disse with co-counsel Edward Nickel.

They show the plaintiffs attorneys the video. But were representing these people charged with murder that are locked up. Its really disappointing. It seems like its more important to curry public favor, to try the case in the media, instead of letting the criminal justice process work the way its supposed to work.

In other developments, three special management technicians for Central State Hospital who were charged Thursday with second-degree murder in Otienos death continued to be held without bail Friday until their arraignments Tuesday in Dinwiddie Circuit Court.

A judge was not available Friday to arraign the men, Baskervill said.

According to their job descriptions provided by state officials, Darian M. Blackwell, 23, of Petersburg; Wavie L. Jones, 34, of Chesterfield; and Sadarius D. Williams, 27, of Dinwiddie are employed at Central State Hospital to assist with maintaining a safe, secure and therapeutic environment for patients housed in the maximum-security building.

Their duties include providing therapeutic and physical interventions when needed while also assisting with monitoring and engagement activities with patients.

The hospital employees were charged two days after the seven Henrico County sheriffs deputies were charged with also charged with second degree murder.

Baskervill will seek indictments against all 10 defendants on second-degree murder when the Dinwiddie grand jury convenes Tuesday.

Attorneys Cary Bowen and Edward Nickel successfully argued on Wednesday for Circuit Judge Joseph M. Teefey Jr. to grant their clients bail. Deputies Jermaine Branch, 45, and Bradley Disse, 43, were later released from jail on $15,000 and $10,000 bond, respectively.

Deputies Randy Boyer, 57; Dwayne Bramble, 37; and Brandon Rodgers, 48, have bond hearings scheduled for Tuesday. Tabitha Levere, 50; and Kaiyell Sanders, 30, are scheduled to appear Wednesday to determine whether they are represented by counsel.
A 13-year-old has been charged with first-degree murder in the 2022 death of a 4-year-old sibling, the Danville Police Department reported Friday morning.

Authorities wrote in a news release that the charge was lodged after "the juveniles confession earlier this week about suffocating the victim." That confession came following an ongoing investigation.

The names of the juvenile suspect and victim were not disclosed.

In August 2022, Danville Police Department investigators and members of the crime scene responded to an unidentified home where the 4-year-old was found in a room without a pulse.

The young child also was not breathing.

The 4-year-old was taken to Sovah Health-Danville and then airlifted to another medical facility. The child later died, police said.

The juvenile facing charges was arrested in another jurisdiction, but police did not say where.

The suspect will be transferred to W.W. Moore Detention Center in Danville pending trial.

The Danville Police Department did not provide answers to questions from the Register & Bee including the exact date of the incident and where the home was located.

"Due to the nature of the incident involving juveniles, the press release that was sent is all the information we are going to be able to release," Matt Bell, a spokesperson for the department, wrote in an email response to the Register & Bee.

Under Virginia law, authorities must shield the identity of juvenile victims of crimes.

Authorities did not initially provide any other details in the news release.
The governorship candidate of the Labour Party for Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has disclosed that an agent of the party in the ongoing governorship poll in the state has been shot dead.

The LP candidate, who said the election process is fraught with voters intimidation and suppression, alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the police are complicit in the killing.

Addressing Lagosian in a video recorded at the partys situation room, Rhodes-Vivour accused the electoral body and the security agencies of provoking the people.

He said, From all over Lagos, we are getting distressing reports of voters intimidation, voters suppression. In Apapa, one of our agent was shot, and he is dead, and the worrying thing about this is that the Police and INEC are complicit in this.

The reason we are doing this video is that it is important that INEC, and the Police know that they are provoking Lagosians right
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 18)  The southern city of Marawi now has two new barangays after voters said yes to their creation in the plebiscite held on Saturday.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said 948 voters were in favor of forming Brgy. Boganga II from the existing Brgy. Boganga, which has a population of 6,320 and 992 registered voters.

A total of 473 voters also agreed to forming Brgy. Datu Dadiligan from the existing Brgy. Sagonsongan, which has a population of 7,137 and 480 registered voters.

Voter turnout was 95.72% in Bonganga and 99.16% in Sagonsongan, according to the poll body.

"Democracy is alive here in Marawi City," Comelec chairman George Garcia told the media.

The creation of the two barangays is linked to the aftermath of the 2017 Marawi siege, the Comelec said.

In May 2017, Islamic State-linked gunmen seized the city and waged war against Philippine military forces until October 2017. Many residents were displaced during that time, which led to an increase in population of barangays Boganga and Sagonsongan.

Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, who was in charge of the plebiscite, said the high voter turnout was not surprising based on her experience in the Bangsamoro region.

"Heto dito sa plebesito it's their clamor naman," Ferolino said. "So lalo na walang opposition, parang nagkakaisa sila to cast their vote and to finally have what they want na meron ng additional barangays that will cater, address their needs naman."

[Translation: They clamored for this plebiscite. So there's no opposition, and they became united to cast their vote and to finally have what they want, which is additional barangays that will cater to and address their needs.]

Marawi City Mayor Majul Gandamra earlier said the creation of the two new barangays would help facilitate the delivery of welfare and social services to those displaced by the siege.

"If in case sa isang barangay, may ayuda na dumadating, hindi po nagkakasya 'yung ayuda. Mas mabuti na 'yung ma-separate 'yung iba para sa iba rin may ayuda rin na darating," Asmin Barao Saumay, a resident of Brgy. Sagonsongan, told CNN Philippines.

[Translation: If aid is coming to a barangay, it's not enough. It's better that the barangays would be separated so that everyone would receive aid.]

The Comelec added that the plebiscite was the first exclusively local electoral exercise in Marawi City after it was liberated in October 2017, following the 2019 and 2022 national and local elections and the 2018 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE).

There were no reports of peace and order disturbances, or incidents involving vote counting during the exercise.

Poll watchdog National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections observed the same but noted the lack of express lanes for senior citizens, persons with disabilities and pregnant women, and emergency accessible polling places.

Garcia said the new villages should now have internal revenue allotment, which is the annual share of local governments out of the proceeds from national internal revenue taxes.

"At the same time, kailangan dito natin isasama na rin 'yan sa BSKEMas mahahati na kung saka-sakali 'yung mga botante. At hindi na ganun kadami ang botante sa bawat presinto," Garcia added.

[Translation: At the same time, these barangays should also be included in the BSKEVoters will be divided and there would be fewer voters in the precincts.]

CNN Philippines correspondent Paige Javier contributed to this report.
A vehicle pursuit that began in Mills County, Iowa, ended with the driver crashing into the Plattsmouth toll bridge on the Nebraska side.

According to a press release from the Cass County Sheriffs Office, deputies was alerted to a pursuit entering Cass County around 5:35 p.m. Wednesday. Deputies in Mills County had attempted to stop a 27-year-old Council Bluffs man in a 2020 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck near Tabor, Iowa, when he reportedly fled west on Old Highway 34.

The Mills County Sheriffs Office, Fremont County (Iowa) Sheriffs Office and the Iowa State Patrol were involved in the pursuit throughout Mills County.

When the truck crossed the Plattsmouth toll bridge, the driver failed to negotiate the sharp left turn toward the toll booth. The truck crashed after striking an embankment.

The man was able to exit the vehicle on his own, but he was transported to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for treatment of injuries suffered in the crash. His condition is currently unknown, and the crash is being investigated by the Cass County Sheriffs Office.

Charges are pending against the man in both Iowa and Nebraska, according to the Cass County Sheriffs Office. As of noon Friday, charges had not yet been filed in Nebraska.
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Two weeks of national mourning has been declared in Malawi for the hundreds of people killed and hundreds of thousands more displaced by Cyclone Freddy, likely the longest lasting in the southern hemisphere.

In a televised address this week, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera also ordered all flags to fly at half-staff for the first week and announced he would head efforts to assist Malawians affected by the record storm. Chakwera said the decision to declare the extended period of mourning came after he witnessed the scale of devastation from the cyclone and the agony victims went through to save their lives.

Appealing to Malawians not to lose hope, the president also said he will make sure that all those who are stranded and trapped are brought to safety. To that end, Chakwera also noted that the about $1.6 million released by the government to assist the victims was not enough, and appealed for global support to assist the thousands of people now in evacuation camps.

Cyclone Freddy was a record-breaking storm that made its way into the southern African country and its eastern neighbor Mozambique last weekend. Weather experts in Malawi say Cyclone Freddy has now gone and that the rains are due to an incoming weather front from Congo.

As of Thursday, there have been more than 300 documented deaths in both countries and nearly 90,000 people have been displaced as their homes were swept away. The cyclone caused widespread devastation in Malawi, including critical infrastructure, with roads having been cut off and electricity poles fallen down. Some private citizens, multinational companies as well as the United Nations and United States Agency for International Development have started providing some relief.
The United States and its Western allies must demonstrate they can deliver results in Africas Sahel region, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said during his visit to Niger, pledging humanitarian assistance for displaced people and support for the countrys efforts to combat violent extremism.

Blinkens trip to the West African country  the first ever by a US secretary of state  comes amid regional security crisis and growing influence of the Russian Wagner mercenary group. Washington has pursued a comprehensive approach that focuses on security but also on good governance, on development, upon creating opportunity on being responsive to the needs of people, the US top diplomat said in Niamey, the countrys capital and largest city, in an apparent effort to strike a contrast with what the Wagner Group could offer the region.

During an earlier meeting with Nigers President Mohamed Bazoum, Blinken announced a raft of regional initiatives, including $150m in new humanitarian assistance for the Sahel, bringing the total to $233m for the fiscal year, according to the US Department of State.

Blinkens trip to Niger follows his visit, earlier this week, to Ethiopia, which is seen as part of a wider pledge by US President Joe Bidens administration to better engage with Africa.

To that end, Blinken pledged the US assistance to make Nigers law enforcement more effective in combating terrorism, strengthening border security, enhancing counternarcotics capacity, stemming trafficking, and helping to investigate, prosecute and ultimately reduce terrorism and violent extremism.

Blinkens trip also comes amid growing disillusionment over European, and mainly French, involvement in the region, stoked in part by successive military coups in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso. In 2022, French troops and a French-led European Union Takuba task force withdrew from Mali. French troops also withdrew from Burkina Faso in February.
The Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) praised, during its 49th session held in Nouakchott, March 16-17, the commendable efforts made by King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, in support of the Palestinian cause.

The ministers also hailed the role played by Bayt Mal Al-Quds Al-Sharif Agency in preserving the Holy Citys religious character and in supporting the resistance of its inhabitants.

The Council stressed the centrality of the role of the Al-Quds Committee, in the face of the serious measures taken by the Israeli authorities in the Holy City.

Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, who led the Moroccan delegation to the OIC council, stressed the centrality of the Palestinian cause for Morocco and renewed its firm and unwavering support for Palestine.

Morocco, in view of developments in the Palestinian territories, reaffirms the centrality of the just Palestinian cause and its firm and consistent position towards it, he said.

Morocco, in light of developments in the Palestinian territories, considers the Palestinian issue as a real challenge facing the joint Islamic action, which involves combining efforts to revive the peace process in the Middle East with the aim of achieving a fair and comprehensive settlement, he said, adding that this will be possible only by adopting a realistic vision and a pragmatic perception, as part of a collective effort and a unified discourse, which stands apart from the sterile outbidding and the odious political instrumentalization that would harm the Palestinian cause instead of serving it.

Touching on struggle against terrorism and extremism, Bourita said that the Kingdom has always chosen the path of moderation and fairness and has made it a beacon that illuminates its directions.

In this sense, he recalled that Morocco has implemented since 2003 a comprehensive and multidimensional strategy that has proved effective in countering terrorism and extremism and has made its experience available to brotherly and friendly countries, especially in Africa. In this connection, Morocco has mobilized two important institutions that contribute to the strengthening of spiritual security and the fight against extremist ideology in Africa, namely the Mohammed VI Foundation of African Ulema, which is present in more than 32 African countries, and the Rabat-based Mohammed VI Institute for the Training of Imams, Mourshidin and Mourshidat, which has opened its doors to African theologians, particularly from Sahel countries.

He reiterated Moroccos call to the Islamic countries to increase cooperation in order to eradicate terrorism and block the way to extremist groups that seek to distort the image of Islam and present it as a religion of extremism, which fuels hatred and racism against Muslims worldwide and encourages extremist intellectual and political tendencies to offend the sacred symbols of the Islamic religion.

The Moroccan top diplomat who called for inter-Islamic solidarity to face up all challenges and fulfil the developmental and social goals of member states, renewed Moroccos full willingness to adhere to all initiatives to develop joint Islamic action and meet the legitimate aspirations of peoples to security and stability.

He also reiterated the Kingdoms support for all initiatives and good offices aimed at advancing the peace process in a number of Islamic countries that are still experiencing wars and conflicts, as part of its principles regarding the preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Islamic countries, non-interference in their internal affairs and the resolution of disputes and conflicts through peaceful and diplomatic means.

The Kingdom stresses the importance of pursuing the reform dynamic within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, according to a participatory vision, based on consensus and a long-term vision, far from the logic of tensions and rivalries that would affect our cohesion and union, he said.

He renewed Moroccos full willingness to adhere to all initiatives to develop joint Islamic action and meet the legitimate aspirations of peoples to security and stability.

He also reiterated the Kingdoms support for all initiatives and good offices aimed at advancing the peace process in a number of Islamic countries that are still experiencing wars and conflicts, the optimal goal, according to him, is to adhere to its principles consisting of the preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Islamic countries, non-interference in their internal affairs and the resolution of disputes and conflicts by peaceful and diplomatic means.
The building of the Walmart Distribution Center in North Platte was a factor leading to the establishment of Sustainable Beef packing plant, now under construction 20 years later.

That became an important link in connecting the cow-calf producer with the consumer in a new, sustainable business model, said members of a panel at TD Angus on Thursday night.

In the meantime, it has taken a lot of work by a lot of people  along with a challenge from former Governor Ricketts  to arrive where we are now.

In 2019, Tryon rancher Rusty Kemp was on a Vietnamese trade mission with the governor, and Ricketts challenged him to do something to help cattle producers and dent shortages in the U.S. beef industrys processing capacity.

Kemp took that challenge to heart, and became a founder of Sustainable Beef.

Some of our bull customers used to not know where North Platte is, said Trey Wasserburger, owner of TD Angus and another Sustainable Beef founder, before introducing Thursdays panel. They do now.

A big motivation for founders is giving the next generation an opportunity, said Cassie Lapaseotes, a cattle feeder in Bridgeport. Her familys business, Lapaseotes Inc. is a member of Dinklage Feedyards and a founding family of Sustainable Beef.

Problems in the supply chain became more pronounced in 2020, when there were pandemic-related packing plant closures across the country. Plants that were open had all the cattle they could process.

Meanwhile, the prices ranchers were receiving for their cattle went down at the same time beef prices in the grocery store shot up.

The Sustainable Beefs model, breaks the cycle of up and down, said panelist Andrew Wasserburger, a rancher and owner of Bootheel 7 Livestock in Lusk, Wyoming. I always envisioned something similar to this, he said.

A lot of people approached my family, about becoming a founding family of Sustainable Beef, said Lapaseotes. It wasnt sold to us on day one, but, finally, Our family got on board. I think it was a great marriage. Im excited.

When the pandemic hit, I got a feeling a lot of people were going to want to build packing plants, said Bill Rupp, another Sustainable Beef founder. He is a member and manager of Live Better Beef, LLC, a consulting company that helps with developing meat processing companies. A former president of Cargill Beef and JBS Beef, he is also a 2021 inductee into the National Provisioners Meat Packer Hall of Fame.

Thirteen (groups) approached us and we said no. Then there was this team here in Nebraska, Rupp said.

LBB convinced them that the 500 head per day plant that they had proposed was not big enough. It needed to be at least 1,500 per day in order to be competitive.

Then, when Walmart got involved it made a lot of difference. The large retailer announced on Aug. 31, 2022, that they would acquire a minority stake in Sustainable Beef LLC. Walmart clearly was an enabler, Rupp said.

I am one of you, said Walmarts Director of Cattle Management and Procurement Grant Keenan, a panelist on Thursday night. They hired me off the back of a horse and the back of a feed truck.

Walmarts standard is choice Angus, presented to the customer on black trays in the meat section.

Walmart writes specifics on what they want every product to be, Keenan said. It has to be tender, flavorful and wholesome, he said.

Customers want uniformity and consistency of price and quality, Keenan said. However, in this industry theres always been a large disconnect between the producer and the consumer. Were trying to throw down these barriers.

Were able to share information throughout the supply chain, he said. Walmart connects the gate to the plate.

Walmart looked at partnering with Sustainable Beef as an incredible opportunity, Keenan said.

Its been a great experience working with them (Walmart), Lapaseotes said, although she was concerned at first about a big corporation dictating what they want. It helped when they said, You guys are cattle feeders. Do what youre good at.

Its more about the standards than the breed, and weve gone beyond a black hide, Rupp said.

Its got to work for Walmart, the packer, the feeder and the cow-calf guy.

Were designing that grid thats going to meet specifications, Rupp said. Theres 400,000 head (per year) out there that will meet those specifications. It will be great value for people who participate in it.

As for the cattle producer, Were creating a product thats more uniform, Andrew Wasserburger said.

To shorten calving time, Weve started lessening the time bulls are out (from 60 days) to 40-45 days. Were working with Trey to get bulls that are willing to travel, to get their job down out in big pastures. Our parameters are pretty tight, he said. Our pregnancy rates have gone up, and Our high marbling heifers breed better.

To see what weve done with our cow herd and replacement heifers in a short amount of time, is very satisfying, Wasserburger said.

Were looking to procure more cattle that fit the plant, added Lapaseotes.

As for the design of the plant, They build these plants way too big (nowadays). Were building the right size, Rupp said. Still, there will be plenty of space for each animal, along with room to add new technologies later on, he said.

Were going to do a one-shift operation, Rupp added. Night shifts are killing these plants. In a lot of ways were going to go down a divergent path.

Were (also) working to figure out how to sell cuts that normally dont sell in the U.S.

He would also like to see Sustainable Beef capitalize on what might otherwise be waste products. Can we engineer a Made in America leather boot? he wondered.

As for tallow, were talking with the oil companies  is there a way to blend it in a diesel product and fuel Walmart trucks?

We went to Colorado State and sat down with Dr. Kim Stackhouse-Lawson, director of CSUs AgNext, which was formed to find ways to feed 12.3 billion people by 2100, through innovative and sustainable solutions in animal agriculture. We want to do things that are (effective and) pervasive across the entire supply chain, Rupp said.

The outside design of the plant is done, Rupp said, and now were fine-tuning the inside.

By and large, we feel pretty good about where were at, and We believe were going to evolve over time. We see sustainability as an evolution, not a revolution.

Were going to bring technology in to make the right cut out of the right animal. The variability in a live animal can be large, he said.

They are also looking at the best way to track efficiencies in the plant and to trace animals through the supply chain.

Weve recently been putting EID (electronic identification) in cattle at the ranch level, Lapaseotes added.

Our approach is to be commonsensical and build on the good things already being done, while tailoring our approach to match Walmart specifications, Rupp said. Do things right and the outcome will be right.

Eventually, I envision a Sustainable Beef label, Keenan said. I expect to see Sustainable Beef on the menu in places like Cedar Room restaurant in North Platte, later on.

With Walmart Distribution Center close by, the operation is well positioned to supply stores throughout Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Kansas, Colorado and other states, Keenan said. At the same time, the location helps to limit the carbon footprint of the operation.

In addition, Being here and building from the ground up gives efficiency, Rupp said.

The most obvious activity at the site now, is hauling in fill dirt. However, some prefabricated walls will start showing up in late April, Rupp said, then more people will start taking notice. The plant is expected to be ready for operation in early 2025.

Were building a neat plan  a plant of the future, Rupp said.

Although still two years away, it will soon be here, Trey Wasserburger said, and bulls selling tomorrow will sire calves that go through the plant.

Its going to be a big impact on the whole state, Lapaseotes said. Im very honored to be a part of it.

People make this industry what it is. Its the creme de la creme project, Rupp added.
A substitute teacher has been arrested and alleged with touching two 11-year-old students inappropriately at Opelika Middle School in November.

The teacher was arrested March 13 and faces multiple charges according to the related court deposition dated March 14. Opelika City Schools on March 15 released a statement saying the substitute has not been hired since the date of the incident and that OCS has cooperated fully with the criminal investigation.

Charles Edward Rusty Baker Jr, 59, of Opelika, faces three charges alleging him of school employee sexual contact, and two charges alleging him of sex abuse on a child less than 12 years old. The total bond for all of Bakers charges came to $145,000.

The charges against Baker stem from a Nov. 17, 2022, incident when he was working as a substitute teacher for a sixth-grade class at Opelika Middle School.

According to a court deposition, Baker was accused by two students of touching them on the buttocks in a stairway at Opelika Middle School. The deposition stated that the students, both 11 years old, were in the class Baker was substituting for.

On the day of the incident, Opelika Middle School Principal Keith York contacted the schools resource officer in regard to the students accusation of sexual misconduct on Bakers part.

According to the deposition one of the students gave a written statement alleging Baker took her and three other students to a bathroom upstairs while leaving the rest of the class unattended. While on the stairwell, Baker allegedly lifted a students shirt and touched her buttocks. Two other students say he inappropriately touched their lower backs and hips. Court documents say the students statements corroborated with each other.

A statement released by Opelika City Schools affirmed that Baker was not an employee of the school system and was hired by an outside agency.

After the alleged incident was reported, Mr. Baker was asked to leave the school and has not returned to school property, the statement said. In addition, he has not been hired as a substitute teacher at any Opelika City School since that date. Opelika City Schools has cooperated fully with the investigation.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 18)  The Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) denied any involvement in the alleged harassment and intimidation of a women's group leader.

The OPAPRU said the story detailed by the Gabriela Women's Party on Facebook on Friday was a "baseless, irresponsible, and unfounded accusation."

"Moreso, mere allegations not supported by appropriate evidence is considered hearsay and only a ploy to mislead the public," the agency added.

After immediately looking into the matter, the OPAPRU said it found that there was no formal complaint from Gabriela.

"We urge organizations like Gabriela to follow procedures that have long existed when making complaints against our personnel or any official of the government," the office added.

Gabriela earlier said Elizabeth Maynigo, the president of its local chapter in Marikina City, was forced into a vehicle by people claiming to be from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process or OPAPP  which had been renamed into OPAPRU in 2021.

The incident allegedly happened on March 15, when Maynigo was in a hospital to take care of her father, according to the women's group.

Gabriela said Maynigo was questioned about her organization's activities, and was presented with a list of people who will face rebellion complaints.

It added that Maynigo was threatened with an arrest warrant for rebellion if she refused to become a government agent who would report on Gabriela's activities.

"Habang siya ay tinatanong sa loob ng sasakyan, sinabi ni Maynigo na may iba pang mga lalaki na naka-antabay sa labas ng sasakyan," Gabriela said.

[Translation: While she was being questioned, Maynigo said there were other men outside securing the vehicle.]

She was escorted back to the hospital but the individuals were still constantly calling her phone, Gabriela told CNN Philippines.

"Ang iskemang ito ay katulad din ng ginawa sa aming mga lider at miyembro sa Bagac, Bataan na pinilit ng OPAPP at ng NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict) na lumantad bilang mga pekeng rebeldeng sumuko," the group said. "Kamakailan, maraming miyembro at pinuno ng Gabriela Women's Party sa Marikina City ang nakaranas din ng harassment mula sa pwersa ng estado, kabilang ang Gabriela Women's Party Deputy Secretary General para sa Luzon at incumbent barangay kagawad Libby Dipon."

[Translation: This scheme is similar to previous incidents in Bagac, Bataan, where our leaders and members were forced by OPAPP and the NTF-ELCAC to pose as rebel surrenderers. Many of our members and leaders in Marikina City also recently experienced harassment from state forces, including Gabriela Women's Party Deputy Secretary General for Luzon and incumbent barangay councilor Libby Dipon.]

"Maghahain kami ng resolusyon upang maglunsad ng isang congressional inquiry hinggil sa insidenteng ito, kasabay ng pagsasampa ng pormal na reklamo sa iba't ibang ahensya hinggil dito," Gabriela added.

[Translation: We will file a resolution calling for a congressional inquiry on this incident, and we will file a formal complaint against various agencies.]
Georgias Fort Benning recently announced that the Secretary of Defense approved the recommendation to rename the fort after Hal and Julie Moore, recognizing the military couples contributions.

During a ceremony at Doughboy Stadium on May 11, Fort Benning will officially become Fort Moore.

Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore fought as Infantry in Korea, Cavalry in Vietnam and was a paratrooper while his wife Julie served as a Red Cross volunteer in Army hospitals and dental clinics and supported other Army wives who received news that their husband had been killed.

The couple was married in 1949, and both have been laid to rest in the Fort Benning Cemetery along with the service members who were killed in action at Landing Zone Xray in Vietnam as well as Julies parents.

As a unique command team, Hal and Julie Moore exemplified an extraordinary combination of courage, fighting spirit, and devotion to the welfare of those who serve this Nation and their families, the Fort Moore website states.

Hal grew up in Bardstown, Ky. and entered the United States Military Academy in 1942. Eventually, he was deployed from Fort Benning to the Korean War in 1952 and joined the 7th Infantry Division where he participated in the bloody outpost battles, including Pork Chop Hill, Alligator Jaws and others, according to the website.

During the Korean War, he commanded Rifle and Heavy Mortar companies, served as a Regimental S3, Division Assistant G3 and earned two Bronze Star Medals for Valor.

The website states that Hal is best known for his leadership in the first major battle of the Vietnam War in the Ia Drang Valley in 1965.

It was a fight to the death against over 2,000 enemy furiously determined to destroy the vastly outnumbered 7th Cavalry, the website says. After a three-day bloodbath, the enemy quit the field, leaving over six hundred of their dead. Hal was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during the fight. Promoted to Colonel, Hal assumed command of the 3rd Brigade and led it through several campaigns in 1966, during which he matured the Airmobile concept. His operational success caused several publications to call him the General Patton of Vietnam.

He also received another Bronze Star Medal for Valor after rescuing a wounded solder under heavy automatic and small arms weapons fire, received individual awards of the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm and received the Purple Heart.

Julie grew up in a military family with a father who fought in WW2. After marrying Hal, they began their own military journey while raising a family.

The website states that Julie is most known for her leadership in supporting families of the fallen, especially grieving Army wives who received notices of a combat death after the Ia Drang Valley battle.

After seeing the callous way the telegrams were delivered by taxi, the website says Julie was horrified with the practice and followed every taxi to offer comfort to the widows and attended every local funeral of every soldier lost in combat in her husbands command. Through her efforts, the Army changed its policy.

In 2020, there was a push to rename Confederate Bases like Fort Benning, which is named after Confederate General Henry L. Benning, and the Naming Commission was tasked with selecting names that represent and honor heroism, sacrifices and values of the Armys men and women

The Moore family was contacted about renaming the fort after Hal Moore.

While honored, we refused unless Fort Benning was named for both Hal and Julie Moore, the website stated. You see, they were an inseparable command team. Without each other, they would not have achieved what they did. Therefore, naming Benning for just Hal would overlook the equally significant contributions and sacrifices of Julie.

The initiative to honor both Hal and Julie was led by their three sons Dave, Greg and Steve Moore.

The Secretary of Defense approved the recommendation to rename Fort Benning to Fort Moore in honor of both Hal and Julie Moore to highlight the critical role of the military family as a whole.

The name change was set in motion by the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.

There can be no better way to inspire the men and women who will train to defend our nation, and particularly to provide recognition to the widows of our Nations fallen, than to name our installation for a couple who exemplifies Americas highest standards of courage, character, and compassion  Hal and Julia Moore, Fort Bennings commanding general, Maj. Gen. Curtis Buzzard said in a release.

There are also plans in the works to make adjustments to multiple real property, buildings and roads, as part of a multi-phased process to implement all approved recommendations of the Naming Commission, authorized by the NDAA, and directed by the Department of Defense, the release said.

These changes will be completed by January 2024.
The poop emoji brings me so much joy. I can't wait to declare some opinions on here as shit lol.



Edited at 2023-03-18 01:46 am (UTC)

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people get way too upset about the thumbs down emoji (literally the softest way to show your displeasure with something). they're gonna cry when they start getting dumps

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It's such a happy little poop, though!

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love that we have not 1 but 2 different sick face emojis

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Frank said "alright you whiners HERE YOU GO"

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Frank does read!

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I didnt understand this part



and a surprise emoji that will help us later (and is apparently not recognized by Microsoft)



Do you mean an emoji that conveys surprise! or do you mean a secret emoji that will be revealed later lol 

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All you ONTD Professors must be proud. Y'all have us out here writing dissertations defending out interpretations of your artpop okays, pigeons and pawprints, lmao!



ONTD University has reached new heights, brining literacy, education, and passionate discourse among the masses.



Edited at 2023-03-18 01:32 pm (UTC)

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I wanted the  one more, so this is perfect

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I think the lesson here is: complain enough and loudly and eventually you'll get what you want!

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I figure the nauseated face is for "That's disgusting." like when someone doesn't like a certain type of food. The puking one is is for like when Leo is dating another 20 year old.

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I need the option to be able to convey "I am about to puke" AND "I am currently puking."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49837898









...Unless we change it to acknowledge it and then use it for desantis/trump/etc. stuff? The "ok" symbol is actually a hate symbol so maybe replace it with something else?...Unless we change it to acknowledge it and then use it for desantis/trump/etc. stuff?

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I actually hate how they took a harmless "okay" gesture and turned into that >:(

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same. I've used it recently without thinking (because for most of my life it was okay and commonly used) and now I'm wondering whether people thought I meant anything by it. it used to be harmless. I hate that it's not harmless anymore.

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Dude, it's still the OK symbol. They only succeed in turning it into that if non-white supremacists stop using it. For fuck's sake, they don't need the help.

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The fuck!? I didn't know anything about this

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GOD do they have to ruin EVERYTHING???

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That is so weirdin my country (95% Black population) it is the governing partys main symbol

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Im not giving up ok  irl



I know what it means amongst MAGA but theyre not in my life. I still use it with texts between my friends or family because I know we all mean it as originally intended. I hate that its been co-opted.

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oh noo. i didn't know any of that. i've used this along with the chef kiss one (this ) to illustrate that something is so good it's beyond exquisite. ah crap



maybe they should just replace the 'ok' hand with the 'chef kiss' hand! i'd like that.

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IT MEANS "GUCCI" IT MEANS "GUCCI"

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Noooo Ive been using it as chefs kiss.



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Why would I care what crazy people do? It's a an ok symbol

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i use it one of three ways:

1) perfect, good job

2) perfect, good job/s

3) referencing twice's "yes or yes"

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 when I heard that lady talk about desantis BDE and then told the audience to ask their kids what it means (on john oliver desantis video)

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Its not "actually" a hate symbol. Its "actually" the ok symbol that some bad people use inappropriately within their fringes. Im fine with it staying and being used as properly intended because those people intentionally adopt symbols and things that other people use, and turn them into things like this on purpose. You're just giving them power.



Edited at 2023-03-18 04:32 am (UTC)

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it's a part of sign language so like fuck am i going to let those braindead bigots take it

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It's used in diving to mean ok

Oh and the rest of the world

Why would we ever stop using it and give more credit to maga fuckers

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While I'll let the team know about the concern, I'd like to mention a few things.

First, different gestures share different meanings all over the world. And in the vast majority of countries the 'okay' sign means okay.

The second point follows the first one  if in one country some political group hijacks a gesture, it doesn't mean that other 250 countries should immediately follow and change their communication patterns and traditions

So, I won't be surprised if the team finds the okay issue weird, since Trump and American alt right stuff is on the other side of the planet for them

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I thought that the OK symbol meant OK but for good Italian food? I'll stop using it for anything from now on. I've only used the symbol when I was messaging my friend who's married to an Italian and now lives in Rome.

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The pigeon is bird behavior/chasing crumbs







The pawprints are cute!! but I honestly don't know what they could represent? cuteness? The ghost emoji is a shrug vibe for me \_()_/The pigeon is bird behavior/chasing crumbsThe pawprints are cute!! but I honestly don't know what they could represent? cuteness?

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i was going to come in and ask what are we using the bird emoji for



i could see it being used for a shrug emoji

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Most people I know is the paw prints to show that they've seen your message and express positive reaction towards it.

Like a polite and sincere nod.



Others use it when they talk about animals.

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Excuse you, are pigeons not animals?!

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Ghost emoji for me would for people who really think they said something but it's nothing

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Pigeon is meant to be a positive reaction or a negative one because you can interpret it as either:



[ Spoiler (click to open) ]

(a) Playfulness -- "I like this cute comment. Here is a cute pigeon to bless your day"; a companion of the playful Ghost but while still playful, it's a slightly more dignified type of playfulness because pigeons are proud, regal creatures who know how to strut.



(b) Passive aggressiveness -- "Coo... coo...", as in "Cool, cool... anyways, moving on...", aka "Sure, Jan... whatever you say...". It could also mean "chasing crumbs" like some of you mentioned.





The Ghost:



[ Spoiler (click to open) ] - It's goofy. It's playful. It's fun.

- "Your joke/sarcasm/sass has killed me. I am now dead from laugher/amusement."



The Pawprints are definitely positive. I'm thinking more along the lines of:



[ Spoiler (click to open) ] - "YAS!! Lemme get my hands/paws all over that!!" for thirsts posts

- Parasocial playful banter with whatever animal is posted





The Okay one I could do without.



[ Spoiler (click to open) ] We already have a lot of positive Reacts and if we're to interpret it as a passive-aggressive one, the Thumbs Up seems way more effective and personal if you wanna end a convo you did not sign up for.





(I'm so sorry for all the edits!! I didn't have my morning coffee yet and messed up my <>'s)





Edited at 2023-03-18 02:21 pm (UTC) I just wanna know if theis meant to be a positive reaction or a negative one because you can interpret it as either:TheTheare definitely positive. I'm thinking more along the lines of:Theone I could do without.

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The ghost emoji feels like a "YAY!" emoji to me.

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I see that too!

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Its little arms are very celebratory!

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YAY in the afterlife lol

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lol I could see the  being a simple okay or a very passive aggressive okay/K lol

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It seems so passive aggressive to me.

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lol yeah I used on someone and immediately switched cause I don't want the person to get the wrong impression lol :S

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That's definitely how I use it

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thats how i use it lol

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it gives me "sure jan"

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I will let you decide why I used it  I am just here to cause chaos

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Like that Jennifer Lawrence okay gif

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https://youtu.be/wg3oGNeOsWM I see it as something that is sharp because of this Adventure Time episode

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I know people who use the heart emoji in a passive aggressive way.

To think of it, I know people who even breathe in a passive aggressive way. Dunno how they manage it

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I read it as passive aggressive when I got one on one of my comments lol

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I love the pigeon reaction.



It could mean anything.

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it's essentially an artpop emoji. I LOVE IT

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Going batshit birdshit

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If u lost ur pet pidgin /its dead in front yard my Iowa farm JUST DISCOVERED here r identifiers Right leg Blue 2020/3089/AU2020/SHE ///LEFT LEG GREEN BAND NO PRINTED INFO. Sorry for bad news  Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) September 19, 2020 Same Im gonna use it when the comment is utter chaos like when it brings to mind this word salad

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dead dove?

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I'm sticking with perched

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It will play with their minds, I love it

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ha artpop could mean anything





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a little mourning dove just moved into a space in my living room window between my box air conditioner and outside wall and Im going to use this reaction to tell my STORY



(shes so cute)

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For me it's very "yeah idk what to say about this" in response to a comment that you're not sure how to feel about. I think it's a more powerful weapon than we think lol

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So does that make it playful or passive-aggressive? :s

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I thought it was a little dust sweeper, and will continue to do so

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im imagining it like *crickets* like everyone evacuated the streets because this comment was so off baae and all thats left is rubbish floating in the wind and pigeons pecking around

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Crucifix for those you need Jesus type of comments.

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Hard disagree. I believe in a separation between church and state (and by state, I mean ONTD).

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What about it meaning, you need non-religious spiritual assistance to fix your soul?

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ia & I would use it as this basically

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Shouldn't we get a wheel so Jesus can take it?

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Or I repel you

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I wish to be given pigeons on every comment I make

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same

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 - spooky comments or for when youre being silly

 - for cute animal comments, like that animal is so precious its left paw prints on my heart 

 - for any bird related comments, any comment you want to acknowledge but you cant think of anything to write and all other reacts dont apply, or I like this comment and also like birds

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which is the beauty of the pigeon



the pigeon means whatever I want it to meanwhich is the beauty of the pigeon

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Wait maybe pigeon should mean "feed the birds, feed the birds" as in keep the tea coming

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she is beauty, she is grace, she is everything!!!

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Im high as hell and genuinely thought that was Stephen Fry in the gif 

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yes

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I was going to suggest the pigeon can be our art pop.

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The pigeon reaction is amazing. her artpop could mean anything!

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That's the point. The pigeon could mean anything. Let people be puzzled!

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I like the paw prints!



I feel like the poop is too cheerful. Unless I'm cheerfully telling you your comment is shit? I don't know.

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Even bad things should be said politely. We're all civilised people here ;)

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You know what, you're right. I stand corrected!

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Lol I love this post

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Keep the paw prints! They're cute.



I just need you all to know that if you get a pigeon from me, it is absolutely a chirp. It is absolute derogatory.





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pigeon react but because I like this (not derogatory)

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This is what I've been thinking about since the pigeon showed up.

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Too bad people are so in love with the pigeon because I just realized it could be a tongue in cheek reference to flipping the bird.

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I really think at this point it's whatever you want it to be! The versatility! It'll keep us all on our pigeon toes!

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For many years, the successive leaders of Kyrgyzstan could not capitalize on their countrys strategic location along the shortest route connecting China to Central Asia and further onward to the Middle East and Europe. Now, hopes are cautiously mounting that this might be changing. Current Kyrgyzstani President Sadyr Japarov is determined to redefine his countrys role in regional and wider international relations, as evidenced by his signing of agreements with the likes of Uzbekistan and China, among others, regarding improved cooperation on infrastructure and transit development (Akipress.com, February 7, 2022; Newscentralasia.net, January 28). This renewed optimism is based on the announced plans that, by the end of 2023, Kyrgyzstan will begin the construction of its part of the strategic ChinaKyrgyzstanUzbekistan railway line (The Diplomat, September 26, 2022). Although the details of the funding mechanism for this project remain unclear, Kyrgyzstani officials are confident that all matters will be gradually resolved.

When Japarov was elected president of Kyrgyzstan in January 2022, he identified nationalizing the Kumtor mine, one of the largest gold mines in the world; settling border disputes with neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan; and completing the ChinaKyrgyzstanUzbekistan railway as his top foreign policy priorities. So far, his record has been rather impressive on these fronts. Last year, the Kyrgyzstani government reached a formal settlement with Canadian mining company Centerra over the nationalization of Kumtor, which had been bogged down in corruption and environmental disputes for more than two decades. Full control of the mine and its gold export revenues will significantly increase the countrys economic and financial independence (President.kg, April 4, 2022).

In late January 2023, during Uzbekistani President Shavkat Mirziyoyevs state visit to Bishkek, both leaders exchanged notifications on the completion of domestic procedures for the ratification of a historic border demarcation agreement between the two neighbors, whose relations have even grown to the level of comprehensive strategic partners since then. The Kyrgyzstani-Uzbekistani border deal could potentially give a strong push for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to reach a similar compromise on their border dispute, despite the fact that the two fought at least two short, but extremely violent border wars in the Ferghana Valley in April 2021 and again in September 2022. These clashes resulted in the combined deaths of over 150 people on both sides. The fertile lands of the Ferghana Valley are shared by Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and foreign experts have long regarded it as a potentially conflict-prone territory at the junction of these three states. Japarov has repeatedly stated that the treaty on the Kyrgyzstani-Uzbekistani border serves as an example for negotiating a similar agreement on the delimitation of Kyrgyzstans border with Tajikistan (Gazeta.uz, January 27).

It is believed that China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have settled all technical issues related to the construction of the railway line, including considerations on the railways route inside Kyrgyzstani territory and the size of the railway track gauge (Eurasianet, September 15, 2022). This leaves only the funding mechanism to still be negotiated after the feasibility study by China is completed this summer. The fact that Chinese engineers have set up offices in Bishkek and are active on the ground attests to the fact that, this time, all parties seem committed to seeing this project through. The final feasibility study by the Design and Survey Institute of the China Railway Group is expected to be complete by June 1 (24.kg, January 22).

Once the railway line is completed, it will not only bring hundreds of millions in transit revenue to Kyrgyzstan but will also turn the country from landlocked to land-linked, connecting the East with the West. This connection will also completely redefine Bishkeks geopolitical position not only in Central Asia but also throughout wider Eurasia.

Due to these circumstances, Bishkek could be looking beyond Central Asia. In 2023, Japarov is expected to travel to Iran and Pakistan. Both are Shanghai Cooperation Organization members that have been attempting to woo the Central Asian countries due to the potential linkage of regional transit corridors to Iranian and Pakistani seaports for trade with the wider world. Notably, both Tehran and Islamabad are supplying various military equipment and arms, including drones, to Tajikistan, currently Kyrgyzstans regional rival (24.kg, February 2; Ru.irna.ir, February 5).

During meetings in September 2022 between Kyrgyzstani and Iranian officials to boost trade and transport links, as a goodwill gesture, the Iranian authorities allocated a plot of land at the Port of Bandar Abbas for Kyrgyzstan. Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi also pledged to share with Bishkek his countrys scientific and technological achievements and expertise, including in the military sphere (Ru.irna.ir, September 15, 2022). The fact that Iran stayed neutral during the Kyrgyzstani-Tajikistani border clashes and did not openly support Tajikistan, which is linguistically close to Tehran, was noticed by Bishkek, which accused its neighbor of initiating the fighting. Iranian military officials gave their assurances to the Kyrgyzstani government that they consistently reiterate to Dushanbe that the Iranian Ababil-2 drones being supplied to Tajikistan are not to be used against Kyrgyzstan. They also reassured Bishkek that these drones are only equipped to carry out reconnaissance functions (24.kg, November 10, 2022).

Linking up the railway networks of Central Asia with Irans and Pakistans seaports has been a long-standing strategic goal of the Central Asian countries (Nikkei, March 18, 2021; Eurasianet, May 4, 2021). Currently, railway lines from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are connected to the Iranian Port of Bandar Abbas through Turkmenistan. The importance of these linkages has increased as the northern routes passing through Russia have become untenable due to Russias brutal war against Ukraine. Possible railway connections to Pakistani ports through Afghanistan are still on the drawing board, with Uzbekistan doing most of the heavy lifting (The Diplomat, July 26, 2022).

Overall, if the political situation in Kyrgyzstan remains stable with Japarov at the helm, beginning construction on the ChinaKyrgyzstanUzbekistan railway line will mark yet another key milestone for the country in achieving its delineated foreign policy goals.

By the Jamestown Foundation

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Farmworkers were leading a five-day, 45-mile trek on foot this week from one of the poorest communities in Florida to a mansion-lined, oceanfront town that is one of the richest in an effort to pressure retailers to leverage their purchasing power for better worker pay and working conditions.

The farmworkers said they were marching to highlight the Fair Food Program, which has enlisted companies like McDonalds, Walmart, Taco Bell and Whole Foods to use their clout with growers to ensure better working conditions and wages for farmworkers. They hoped to use the march to pressure other companies, like Publix, Wendys and Kroger, to join the program that started in 2011.

The march began Tuesday from the farming community of Pahokee, one of the poorest in Florida, where the median household income is around $30,000. The marchs launching point was a camp where farmworkers were coerced into working for barely any pay by a labor contractor who was convicted and sentenced last year to almost 10 years in prison. The contractor confiscated the Mexican farmworkers passports, demanded exorbitant fees from them and threatened them with deportation or false arrest, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The marchers were on schedule to arrive Saturday in the town of Palm Beach, which has a median household income of almost $169,000 and is lined with the mansions of the rich and famous, including billionaire Nelson Peltz, who is Wendys chairman, and former President Donald Trump.

According to the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which organized the march, the program has ensured that farmworkers are paid for the hours they work; guaranteed them on-the-job safety measures such as shade, water and access to bathrooms; and has reduced the threats of sexual assault, harassment and forced labor under armed guards in the fields where tomatoes and other crops are harvested. Immokalee is a southwest Florida farming town in the heart of the states tomato-growing area.

Growers have benefited since it reduces turnover and improves productivity, according to the coalition.
CARTER LAKE  The Carter Lake Fire Department, Carter Lake Police Department, Council Bluffs Community School District and Pottawattamie County Sheriffs Office collaborated on an active shooter training exercise last week at Carter Lake Elementary School to get a glimpse of what they would need to do if the unthinkable happened.

Students were off for spring break and were not present for the exercise Wednesday. Volunteers  along with Principal Teresa Hamilton  were sent into the building to portray students and shooting victims. Key cards are needed to enter the building when it is locked, but police officers have access cards to get in.

We have a lot of staff members and a couple (volunteers) from the community, said Tim Hamilton, chief of student and family services for Council Bluffs schools.

A command center was set up in the Carter Lake Community Center, and Fire Department and law enforcement officials watched a huge monitor that showed whatever was in front of the buildings many security cameras.

This gives us a chance to try out our new security equipment, Tim Hamilton said. We have the ability to monitor all doors at all times. We will have video now, so we can go back and see, what would we do differently?The actual incident commanders  Carter Lake Assistant Fire Chief David Huey, Carter Lake Police Sgt. Gary Chambers and Phil Newton, Fire Department training coordinator  spent a lot of time outside watching the EMTs and other participants as they entered and exited the school and wheeled out volunteer victims. Initially, volunteers were taken to the community center for triage. A police officer was among the wounded but was still able to walk.

There were two suspects in the dramatized incident. In the training scenario, the suspects had used pipe bombs to break into the school. At one point, two officers could be seen on the security monitor sliding along a wall in a hallway, guns drawn as they approached a corner. In the exercise, they used paint guns that resembled their usual service weapons.

Eventually, Huey announced that the threat had been eliminated and, later, that the building had been cleared and EMTs could enter the building and look for wounded.

Thomas Jefferson High School Principal Mike Naughton was at the scene observing the exercise.

I just wanted to see the process  try to understand how the whole process worked, he said. It was a really good event to be able to see it and imagine how that might look at (our) school. It really kind of created a timeline of what events might be like.

Five or six Thomas Jefferson High School teachers and a similar number of high school students volunteered for the exercise, Naughton said.

The incident commanders called participants into the Carter Lake Public Library afterward to answer questions.

A few of the officers discussed possible locations for families to wait to see their loved ones. They mentioned City Hall, a nearby church and other buildings.

The whole point is reunification, Huey said.

It was the Fire Departments fourth mass casualty training exercise, Huey said. They had done one practicing what to do if a tornado hit a trailer park in town and one on responding to a plane crash (due to the communitys proximity to Eppley Airfield), to name a couple.

We try to do one every two to three years on mass casualties, he said.However, this was the first time Carter Lake partners had held an exercise in the school, Huey said.

Weve been wanting to do one in cooperation with the police and the school, he said. Weve been planning this for about six months.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  Record snowfall and rain have helped to loosen droughts grip on parts of the western U.S. as national forecasters and climate experts warned that some areas should expect more flooding as the snow begins to melt.

The winter precipitation wiped out exceptional and extreme drought in California for the first time since 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday in a seasonal, nationwide outlook that came as parts of the state are under water. In neighboring Nevada, flood warnings were in effect and rushing water prompted some evacuations overnight in one of Arizona's tourist towns.

Elsewhere, NOAA's forecast warned of elevated flood risks from heavy snowpack this spring in the upper Midwest along the Mississippi River from Minnesota south to Missouri.

Despite the receding drought, experts cautioned that the relief may be only a blip as the long-term effects persist from what has been a stubborn dry streak.

Groundwater and reservoir storage levels  which take much longer to bounce back  remain at historic lows. It could be more than a year before the extra moisture has an effect on the shoreline at Lake Mead that straddles Arizona and Nevada. And it's unlikely that water managers will have enough wiggle room to wind back the clock on proposals for limiting water use.

That's because water release and retention operations for the massive reservoir and its upstream sibling  Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border  already are set for the year. The reservoirs are used to manage Colorado River water deliveries to 40 million people in seven U.S. states and Mexico.

Lake Powell could gain 35 feet as snow melts and makes its way into tributaries and rivers over the next three months. How much it rises will depend on soil moisture levels, future precipitation, temperatures and evaporation losses.

Paul Miller, a hydrologist with the National Weather Services Colorado Basin River Forecast Center, said that sounds like a lot of water for one of the nation's largest reservoirs, but it still will be only one-third full.

Its definitely moving in the right direction, but were far from filling the reservoirs in the Colorado River system and were far from being at a comfortable point from a water supply perspective, Miller said during Thursday's NOAA briefing.

Federal forecasters outlined other predictions for temperature, precipitation and drought over the next three months, saying the spring wet season is expected to improve drought conditions across parts of the northern and central Plains and Florida could see dryness disappear there by the end of June.

Overall, the West has been more dry than wet for more than 20 years, and many areas will still feel the consequences. The northern Rockies and parts of Washington state will likely see drought expand over the spring, while areas of extreme to exceptional drought are likely to persist across parts of the southern High Plains.

An emergency declaration in Oregon warns of higher risks for water shortages and wildfires in the central part of the state, and pockets of central Utah, southeastern Colorado and eastern New Mexico are still dealing with extreme drought.

Ranchers in the arid state already are planning for another dry year, and some residents are still reeling from a historic wildfire season.

Jon Gottschalck, chief of the operational prediction branch at NOAAs Climate Prediction Center, said the start of the fire season in the Southwestern U.S. likely will be delayed.

But it doesnt mean that it couldnt end up being a very strong season, he said. It's just likely to be a more muted beginning for sure.

Gottschalck said warmer than average temperatures are forecasted for New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas to the Gulf Coast and up the eastern seaboard, as well as in Hawaii and northern Alaska. Lower than normal temperatures are probable, he said, for North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota and the Great Basin region.

The real standout this winter has been the Great Basin, which stretches from the Sierra Nevada to the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. It has recorded more snow this season than the past two seasons combined. Thats notable given that over the last decade, only two years  2017 and 2019  had snowpack above the median.

Weve pretty much blown past all kinds of averages and normals in the Lower Colorado Basin, Miller said, not unlike other western basins.

Tony Caligiuri, president of the preservation group Colorado Open Lands, said all the recent precipitation shouldn't derail work to recharge groundwater supplies.

The problem or the danger in these episodic wet year events is that it can reduce the feeling of urgency to address the longer-term issues of water usage and water conservation," he said.

The group is experimenting in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, the headwaters of the Rio Grande. One of North America's longest rivers, the Rio Grande and its reservoirs have been struggling due to meager snowpack, long-term drought and constant demands. It went dry over the summer in Albuquerque, and managers had no extra water to supplement flows.

Colorado Open Lands reached an agreement with a farmer to retire his land and stop irrigating roughly 1,000 acres. Caligiuri said the idea is to take a major straw out of the aquifer, which will enable the savings to sustain other farms in the district so they no longer face the threat of having to turn off their wells.

Weve seen where we can have multiple good years in place like the San Luis Valley when it comes to rainfall or snowpack and then one drought year can erase a decade of progress, he said. So you just cant stick your head in the sand just because youre having one good wet year.

A look at the West's megadrought The West's megadrought Almost all of the West is experiencing drought Low-reservoir levels impact water availability and hydroelectricity generation Dry landscapes heighten wildfire risk Farmers are confronting water scarcity Wildlife populations are also impacted
The Nebraska National Guards Camp Ashland training site has risen out of the mud, again.

On stilts.

Guard leaders  with help from Gov. Jim Pillen and Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts, along with other dignitaries  snipped a ribbon Friday, signifying the end of the $62 million reconstruction project that followed the destruction of the 1,184-acre military facility in the March 2019 flooding.

This facility is about resilience, Ricketts told a crowd gathered in a new building with an expansive view of the Platte River, just a few feet away. This ribbon-cutting today represents that grit, that resilience that Nebraskans have, to build back better.

The reconstruction marks a nearly complete makeover for a training camp the National Guard has used for more than 100 years. Pillen predicted that Camp Ashland, and these buildings, would last for another 100 years.

This was an extraordinary place that got pummeled, Pillen said. Kudos (for) making really, really good lemonade out of lemons.

The $35 million piece of the project dedicated Friday involved the construction of seven new classroom, barracks and administrative buildings to replace 28 single-story structures that were inundated during the first Camp Ashland flood in 2015, rebuilt, then destroyed again in 2019.

Other projects already have been completed, including a new gym and maintenance building, additional hotel-style barracks, and repairs to existing buildings and infrastructure.

The new buildings sit on 9-foot stilts  high enough that engineers believe the buildings wont be touched if Camp Ashland should flood yet again. The interior floors are raised another 3 feet.

The Army Corps of Engineers also spent $8.5 million to extend a 7-foot concrete bulkhead that runs inside the Platte River levee, covering the entire length of the camp.

It normally takes about five-plus years to do one project, said Col. Christopher Weskamp, the Nebraska National Guards construction, facilities and maintenance officer. In that four-year period, we cleaned up a mess, built a levee and rebuilt a camp.

Maj. Gen. Daryl Bohac, the Nebraska Guards adjutant general, credited Nebraskas congressional delegation with securing the reconstruction funds.

Sen. Fischer made sure the National Guard was not forgotten, Bohac said. We have amazing facilities that will be the envy of the nation.

Camp Ashland is a regional training hub used by more than 100,000 soldiers each year taking leadership courses. They come from the active-duty Army, Army Reserve as well as from the National Guards of several neighboring states as well as Nebraska.

The camp gained national attention 11 months after the flood when 57 Americans were quarantined in one of the surviving buildings there in February 2020 after being evacuated from Wuhan, China, the earliest hot spot in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Camp Ashlands location, just off of Interstate 80 between Omaha and Lincoln, makes it easy to get to.

But the location also has been its Achilles heel, especially in the last decade. It sits alongside the Platte River, which is shallow and flood-prone.

The destructive flood of 2019 began after Salt Creek, which borders Camp Ashland on the south, spilled over into the camp March 13. For the next three days, the swollen Platte clawed away at the earthen levee protecting the base on the east.

Eventually, the river ripped a wide gash in the levee and sent a torrent of water through the abandoned camp. It sloshed 2 to 4 feet higher than floodgates that had been installed after the 2015 flood, which at the time was called a once-in-1,000-years event.

Floodwaters reached a depth of up to 8 feet. Every building was damaged except for a few that had been built on stilts in the 1990s  even historic Memorial Hall, which was built in 1929 and had escaped damage in previous floods. Twenty-two had to be demolished.

Fischer recalled the devastation she witnessed four years ago, touring the facility in the wake of the flood.

This wasnt just harm to Camp Ashland, it was harm to the country, and our readiness, she said. We tried to get some good results from that horrible situation we saw here. This is such a positive result.

Despite the double-barreled disaster, Guard officials didnt seriously consider abandoning Camp Ashland, Bohac said. The state had invested a lot of money in roads, utilities and other infrastructure that would be costly to rebuild  assuming a suitable site could even be found.

I have 1,100 reasons for rebuilding here. Its 1,100 acres that we own, said. This is the right place for us. This is historic.

Close Col. Shane Martin on planks that were damaged by floodwaters at Memorial Hall at Camp Ashland, the Nebraska National Guards training site. Col. Shane M. Martin, construction and facilities management officer at the Nebraska National Guard, shows the erosion caused by flooding at Camp Ashland. Robert Diaz of Lincoln, with New Horizons Enterprises, removes water in a classroom and barracks area at the training site. Cleanup is underway using $4 million in emergency funds. A request had been submitted to rebuild; the funds would come from federal tax dollars. Col. Shane M. Martin, construction and facilities management officer at the Nebraska National Guard, gives a tour of the flood damage at the Guards Camp Ashland training site. On the right is a new body of water created by the flooding. Sand is left after waters receded. Crews fill the area around Camp Ashland's breached levee with dirt on Wednesday. Flood debris along the shore of the Platte River near Camp Ashland. Josh Gropp, left, and Robert Diaz of New Horizons Enterprises remove water that was used in flood cleanup in a building at Camp Ashland. Col. Shane Martin surveys the damage. At top, sand is left after waters receded. At right, Martin and Maj. Scott Ingalsbe near erosion along the Platte River. Training has continued at facilities in Hastings and Mead, but they are too small or not configured properly to work long term. Col. Shane Martin surveys the damage. The flood swept away a running trail at Camp Ashland along the Platte River. The Salt Creek also overflowed during last month's record flooding, so water poured into the base from multiple directions. A caution sign is displayed above a floor in Memorial Hall at Camp Ashland that was damaged in the flooding. Two feet of water inundated the 90-year-old building, causing $400,000 in damage. Larry Vrtiska, environmental program manager at the Nebraska Army National, uses an Argo ATV to get through deep sand at Camp Ashland that the floodwaters left behind. Col. Shane M. Martin, left, and Maj. Scott Ingalsbe during a tour of flood damage at Camp Ashland. Workers hope to remove drywall and insulation at Camp Ashland before mold grows. Camp Ashlands concrete arena. A plan to rebuild Camp Ashland includes constructing buildings on stilts. Buildings now on stilts stayed dry, even during the March flooding, Col. Shane Martin said. Col. Shane M. Martin, left, and Maj. Scott Ingalsbe of the Nebraska National Guard in an outdoor arena at flooded Camp Ashland that seats 3,000 people. Camp Ashland begins to recover after flood The Nebraska National Guard has submitted a bill for the reconstruction of the flood-prone Camp Ashland training site on the Platte River, in Ashland, Nebraska. Col. Shane Martin on planks that were damaged by floodwaters at Memorial Hall at Camp Ashland, the Nebraska National Guards training site. Col. Shane M. Martin, construction and facilities management officer at the Nebraska National Guard, shows the erosion caused by flooding at Camp Ashland. Robert Diaz of Lincoln, with New Horizons Enterprises, removes water in a classroom and barracks area at the training site. Cleanup is underway using $4 million in emergency funds. A request had been submitted to rebuild; the funds would come from federal tax dollars. Col. Shane M. Martin, construction and facilities management officer at the Nebraska National Guard, gives a tour of the flood damage at the Guards Camp Ashland training site. On the right is a new body of water created by the flooding. Sand is left after waters receded. Crews fill the area around Camp Ashland's breached levee with dirt on Wednesday. Flood debris along the shore of the Platte River near Camp Ashland. Josh Gropp, left, and Robert Diaz of New Horizons Enterprises remove water that was used in flood cleanup in a building at Camp Ashland. Col. Shane Martin surveys the damage. At top, sand is left after waters receded. At right, Martin and Maj. Scott Ingalsbe near erosion along the Platte River. Training has continued at facilities in Hastings and Mead, but they are too small or not configured properly to work long term. Col. Shane Martin surveys the damage. The flood swept away a running trail at Camp Ashland along the Platte River. The Salt Creek also overflowed during last month's record flooding, so water poured into the base from multiple directions. A caution sign is displayed above a floor in Memorial Hall at Camp Ashland that was damaged in the flooding. Two feet of water inundated the 90-year-old building, causing $400,000 in damage. Larry Vrtiska, environmental program manager at the Nebraska Army National, uses an Argo ATV to get through deep sand at Camp Ashland that the floodwaters left behind. Col. Shane M. Martin, left, and Maj. Scott Ingalsbe during a tour of flood damage at Camp Ashland. Workers hope to remove drywall and insulation at Camp Ashland before mold grows. Camp Ashlands concrete arena. A plan to rebuild Camp Ashland includes constructing buildings on stilts. Buildings now on stilts stayed dry, even during the March flooding, Col. Shane Martin said. Col. Shane M. Martin, left, and Maj. Scott Ingalsbe of the Nebraska National Guard in an outdoor arena at flooded Camp Ashland that seats 3,000 people.
The Nebraska National Guard said goodbye Friday to 13 of its soldiers deploying to Germany to help train Ukrainian soldiers in their struggle to fend off a Russian invasion.

Gov. Jim Pillen and U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts joined Guard leaders and family members for a sendoff ceremony at the headquarters of the 1st Squadron, 134th Cavalry Regiment on the units base near Yutan, Nebraska.

Your mission ahead is really important, Pillen said. I know youre going to be incredibly successful.

Maj. Cody Cade, who works as a historian for the Nebraska National Guard, will lead the team in its work at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in southeastern Germany. The Nebraskans will help teach their Armed Forces Ukraine counterparts as part of a new combined-arms training program.

That training is designed to better prepare the Ukrainian forces to launch an offensive or counter any surge in Russian attacks. Theyll be gone for up to one year.

Many members of the Ukrainian armed forces are civilians who were quickly sent to front-line combat units despite having little or no military training.

Its a unique mission that will have real-world consequences for the people of Ukraine, Cade said.

In a January visit to Grafenwoehr to mark the start of the combined-arms training, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described it as a key to helping Ukraine retake territory in the eastern and southern part of the country.

This support is really important for Ukraine to be able to defend itself, Milley said.

The U.S. had been doing combined-arms training inside Ukraine before the Russian invasion, Cade said. But after the war began, U.S. National Guard and special operations forces serving as trainers left the country.

The new training is a continuation of that effort, which also involves other European allies. Previously, the U.S. had focused mostly on training Ukrainian forces how to use and maintain certain weapons systems, including howitzers, armored vehicles and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS.

The Nebraska team wont be the first Guard soldiers the Ukrainian forces have worked with. Ricketts said the California National Guard has a military-to-military relationship with Armed Forces Ukraine that dates back 30 years. The Nebraska National Guard has similar partnership programs with the militaries of the Czech Republic and Rwanda.

To help the Ukrainians after the Russian invasion, California Guard leaders set up a 24-hour emergency operations center to provide daily advice. They also sent ballistic vests, helmets and portable field hospitals to Ukraine.

The Ukrainians have fought bravely for the past year. And a large part of that was because of the training they received for the last several decades from the California National Guard, Ricketts said. The aggression of Russia cannot be allowed to stand.

Cade said the soldiers will leave Monday for several weeks of preparation and training in Arkansas and Texas before heading to Germany.

This will be the longest deployment of Capt. Jon Gronewolds 15-year National Guard career.

Im excited to assist the Ukrainians fight for freedom, he said. It really is such a good mission, to help others who are in need right now.

Gronewold said its hard to leave behind his wife, Emily, and 14-month-old daughter, Ada, in Lincoln  although cellphones and the internet make it possible to keep in closer touch than when Gronewolds father, retired Brig. Gen. Scott Gronewold, deployed to Bosnia and Iraq two decades ago.

Theres a piece of me thats incredibly proud of him, Emily Gronewold said. But having a daughter now, it makes me emotional thinking that hell be missing a year of her growing up.

Scott Gronewold said it is harder to send a son off on deployment than to go himself.

What he will see, the experiences he will have, theyre unique, he said. Their mission has real-world implications. I told (Jon), what you do matters.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.

Photos: 90 Nebraska National Guard soldiers returned from Iraq in July 2017
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 18)  The Philippine government will ask Interpol to issue a Blue Notice against the suspects in the assassination of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo, a Department of Justice (DOJ) official said Saturday.

"So, all those that are in relation to the Degamo slay, we have taken concrete steps na maglabas po ng international lookout bulletin, pinapag-usapan po natin ang paglagay ng mga tao sa blue list, sa Interpol 'no," DOJ spokesperson Mico Clavano told a media briefing.

[Translation: So, all those that are in relation to the Degamo slay, we have taken concrete steps to issue an international lookout bulletin. We are now considering placing people on Interpol's blue list.]

Interpol Notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information.

A Blue Notice means "to collect additional information about a person's identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation."

Clavano said this will help the government monitor the movements of the suspects - who include Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves.

Teves was tagged as the alleged mastermind. He flew to the US late last month for medical treatment, but the travel authority issued to him by the House of Representatives expired on March 9.

The lawmaker has asked for a two-month leave, citing a "very grave security threat" to his life and family.

Clavano said Teves has "the presumption of innocence until proven guilty."

"We cannot condemnwe have to let the wheels of justice turn. Hindi tayo pwede mag-convict sa media agad-agad, kailangan po dumaan sa tamang proseso [We cannot just publicly convict someone, due process must be followed," he added.

Aside from Teves, at least 10 more people are also being investigated for Degamo's killing, according to Clavano.

"Lumalabas po sa mga statements na mayroon po tayong parang layering na tinatawag 'no. So, mayroon po tayong mga gunmen, mga directly involved po doon sa assassination bilang driver, lookout tapos meron ho tayong handler or parang middleman 'no na tinatawag. So ito iyong nagsisilbing parang layer of security doon sa ating mastermind," he said.

[Translation: Based on the statements, there is a so-called layering. We have gunmen who were directly involved in the assassination. They acted as driver, lookout then there was a handler or middleman. So these appear to be a layer of security to our mastermind.]
How Time Flies is a daily feature looking back at Pantagraph archives to revisit what was happening in our community and region. 100 years ago

March 18, 1923: Local merchants and window decorators are now busy making the final arrangements for the opening of the Fall Style show. The unveiling of the display windows will take place at 7:30 on Wednesday evening and during the following three days, the shoppers of Central Illinois will have the opportunity of viewing the latest creations.

75 years ago

March 18, 1948: McLean Countys board of supervisors OKd installation of a memorial drinking fountain on the sidewalk east of the courthouse in Bloomington. The memorial will be placed by the Pearl Harbor chapter of McLean County War Mothers. The memorial to McLean County dead of World War II will be unveiled Oct. 19.

50 years agoMarch 18, 1973: William F. Killian told Normal City Council that hell go to court to get his 85-acre farm detached from the municipality. Two Killian tracts were among four parcels of town surrounded land annexed by the council.

25 years ago

March 18, 1998: When Normal Community West High School students elected Arin Rader this years homecoming king, it was just part of what has become a Rader family tradition. Not only was Arin crowned king at this years Normal West powder puff game, but both of his siblings and his mother were also elected homecoming royalty when they attended Normal Community High School. The pressure was on, Arin said. They talked about it for years: Youve got to finish it.

101 years ago: See vintage Pantagraph ads from 1922 Gerthart's Union Gas and Electric Co. Hoover Dr. J.A. Moore Dentists Moberly & Klenner W.P. Garretson W.H. Roland Pease's Candy Thor 32 Electric Washing Machine The Kaiser's Story of the War Ike Livingston & Sons Gossard Corsets Cat'n Fiddle 'Stolen Moments' Case Model X The Johnson Transfer & Fuel Co. The Pantagraph want ads Franklin Motor Car Co. 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' Calumet Baking Powder Mayer Livingston & Co. Newsmarket 'The Emperor Jones' 'California Fig Syrup'
An Accra High Court has convicted five persons arrested in the Volta Region for their participation in activities aimed at usurping the executive powers of Ghana.



The five were among a host of individuals arrested in connection with a violent demonstration organised by secessionist group, Homeland Study Group (HSG), which led to an attack on the Aveyime and Mepe police stations armoury in the Volta Region where they stole a number of weapons, ammunitions, a police patrol vehicle, among others after they managed to overpower the police officers on duty.



Ebenezer Gblorkpor, Afetorgbor Kpogo, Joseph Nyamewu, Wisdom Kuvor and Israel Bessah Kpexor were dragged before the court on charges of attending meetings of a prohibited organisation contrary to section 2(1)(b) of SMCD 20, and making contributions to the funds of a prohibited organisation.



They were also charged for participating in the campaign of a prohibited organisation contrary to section 2(1)(d) and being a member of a prohibited organisation contrary to section 2(1)(i) of SMCD 20.



The accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges, but the court presided over by Justice Mary Yanzuh, at the end of the trial held that the Attorney Generals Office was able to prove the charges levelled against the accused persons.



The court subsequently found the accused persons guilty and convicted them. It, however, deferred their sentencing to March 21, 2023.



The convicts are facing a fine of up to GH12,000 or up to five years imprisonment. The court is also empowered to hand both a fine and prison sentence to the convicts.



Per the prosecutions facts, the accused persons had plans to secede from Ghana and pursuant to that had divided themselves into various groups to carry out their plans.



On September 25, 2020, one of the groups including the accused persons, while armed went to the Aveyime and Mepe police stations where they overpowered police officers on duty and freed cell inmates.



The convicts then went into the armoury and stole 17 AK47 assault rifles, five pump action guns, one shotgun, two Mack 3 gun, three SMG rifles, 11 rubber bullets, 25 rounds of 37mm tear gas cartridges, about 300 rounds of AK47 ammunition and a police patrol vehicle at the Aveyime police station.



They also stole a police patrol vehicle with registration number GP 195, proceeded to attack the barracks and made away with monies and other items belonging to the police residents and their families.



A police team was sent from Sogakokpe to restore calm at Aveyime and Mepe but when they reached Aveyime, the team was attacked by members of Western Togoland Restoration Front (WTRF), an offshoot of HSG.



The facts said three police officers were injured and their leader, Chief Superintendent Dennis Fiakpui, was shot.



In the midst of the road blockage and attacks on Aveyime and Mepe police stations, the WTRF members also jubilated and chanted freedom freedom.

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com/









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Featured Video
Nigerians return to the polls today, 2023 to elect state governors across the country, with all the 109 seats of the Senate of Nigeria up for grabs.



The election is for 28 of the country's 36 states whose governors are among the most influential politicians in Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy and largest oil producer.



All the 18 political parties have fielded candidates for the 28 governorship/deputy governorship seats in 28 states out of 36 and 993 State Houses of Assembly constituencies in the 36 states.



The first phase of Nigerias 2023 General Elections was held on Saturday, February 25, when President-elect, Bola Tinubu, and federal lawmakers were elected. Next is governorship.



The second phase of the elections which was scheduled for March 11, 2023 was postponed to be held on Saturday, March 18, 2023 and on that day, new governors will be elected for 28 of Nigerias 36 states. New lawmakers will also be elected for the Houses of Assembly in the 36 states.



States not holding elections



Governorship elections are not holding this time in Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun and Ondo, as polls to the offices of governors of these states are held off-cycle and not part of the general election.



The Presidential, some Senate and House elections took place concurrently on February 25, 2023. State assembly elections (36 states) and gubernatorial elections (28 states) will be held on March 18, and gubernatorial elections will be held in Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa states in the fall of 2023.



Nigeria is a federal republic in the sense that there is both a national government and governments of its 36 states and it utilises the form of government in which the people hold power, but elect representatives to exercise and utilise that power with the executive power exercised by the president.



Government structure



The President is the head of state, the head of government, and also the head of a multi-party system and Nigerian politics takes place within a framework of a federal, presidential, representative democratic republic, in which executive power is exercised by the government.



Legislative power is held by the federal government and the two chambers of the legislature: the House of Representatives and the Senate, the legislative branch of Nigeria is responsible for and possesses powers for the formulation and making of laws Together, the two chambers make up the law-making body in Nigeria, called the national assembly, which serves as a check on the executive arm of government, The National Assembly of Nigeria (NASS) is the democratically elected body that represents the interests of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and its people, makes laws for Nigeria and holds the Government of Nigeria to account.



Electoral System



The Senate is composed of 109 members elected to four-year terms by simple majority vote. Each state is divided into three senatorial districts, each electing one senator. One senator is also elected from the Federal Capital Territory.



The House of Representatives is composed of 360 members elected by simple majority vote in single-member constituencies and they serve four-year terms.



During the last election in 2019, the All Progressives Congress (APC) won a majority with 64 seats. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won 44 seats, and the Young Progressives Party (YPP) won a single seat, reducing the number of parties represented in the Senate from 6 to 3. Voter turnout was 35.66 per cent.



Disputed presidential election



Two weeks after a disputed presidential election which saw the former Senator of Lagos, Bola Tinubu of the APC emerge as the President-elect but the main focus of the governorship elections is on the race to lead Lagos, the country's economic heartbeat and wealthiest state and control budgets larger than those of small nations.



The Ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party's Bola Tinubu was declared winner of the presidential election with 39 per cent of the vote. But he lost in his home state of Lagos to opposition candidate Peter Obi of the Labour Party, which is aiming to upset APC again in the state.



Lagos is important for Tinubu because it is where he built his political and financial powerbase, serving two terms as governor until 2007 and playing a key role in picking every successor since. Losing Lagos could erode Tinubu's influence in the state of more than 20 million people.



Race for Lagos state



According to analysts, it is unprecedented that the party of a sitting Nigerian president doesn't control his home state. Tinubu, through the APC and its predecessor parties, has always been in charge of Lagos politics."



Lagos is the commercial hub of Africa's biggest economy, has a flourishing tech sector, generates the most revenue in Nigeria and has the continent's biggest deep seaport. It is also where Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, is building a multi-billion dollar oil refining complex.



Buoyed by Obi's performance in Lagos, the Labour Party's Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, an architect and political activist, will battle it out with APC incumbent Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who has been in the ranks of the Lagos state government for two decades.



Sitting governors



The APC has sitting governors in 21 states, while the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) has 14. The Labour Party is aiming to win its first governorships in this cycle. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be under scrutiny after its handling of the February 25 vote.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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Featured Video
The Minister of State designate at the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Osei Bonsu Amoah has led a team to inspect the Kejetia Market as a result of the fire outbreak on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.



He announced the setting up of a committee to probe the cause of the fire against future occurrences.

Mr. Amoah toured the place to have first hand information on the situation regarding the damage caused by the fire.



The fire was said to have sparked at about 4:30 pm Wednesday which affected many shops and wares worth millions of cedis.



Speaking with the media after the tour, Mr. Amoah was in full support of the setting up of a committee by the Minister of Local Government, Dan Botwe to investigate the cause of the fire outbreak and recommend measures to avert future occurrences.



The minister of state designate expressed concern about the extent of damage caused by the fire saying that the Committee would work to deal with the situation by identifying the challenges in the market and recommend effective measures to address them.



He appealed to the affected traders to remain calm as authorities put things together to find solution to their problems.



The Minister of state designate assured the traders of government support to deal with their current predicament.



Meanwhile, the Ashanti Regional Fire Command said it has initiated Investigations to unravel the cause of the fire.



O.B Amoah toured the market together with A.C. Ntim, a Deputy Minister of Local Government, Director General of NADMO, Nana Agyemang Prempeh, the MCE of KMA, Sam Pyne, senior officials of the security services, the contractors and consultants of the project among others.



Initial reports are expected from the fire service, NADMO, the police service, the management of the Kumasi City Market Limited, the consultants among others.

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
Former Finance Minister and NDC flagbearer hopeful Dr Kwabena Duffuor has commiserated with traders who were affected by the fire outbreak at the Kejetia Central Market yesterday.



Speaking on Adom FM's Dwaso Nsem show, Dr Duffuor said the incident was a very unfortunate one.



He indicated his connection with the Kejetia Market project as it is one of the last projects, he worked on during the administration of the Late Prof. Mills.



"The Kejetia Market is very dear to my heart because it is one of the last projects, I worked on under the Late Prof Mills, Dr Duffuor said.



The aspiring NDC Leader called on the government to immediately provide the needed support for the affected traders.



Dr Duffuor also called on Mayor of Kumasi and the management of the market to take all necessary steps to protect lives and properties.

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
Investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas has served notice of appealing a judgement against him in a defamatory case.



He had fife a defamation case against Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong.



He said his lawyers have carefully studied the judgment and concluded that the judge moved into the arena of criminal prosecution hence the need to appeal the case.



He further reminded Kennedy Agyapong that the defamation suit filed against him in the United State of America is ongoing.



Anas said this after rejecting the High Court ruling on the case he filed against Mr Agyapong.



My team and I and the lawyers have carefully studied the judgment delivered by the court and we are unanimous that the judge made an overreach and descended into the arena and made criminal pronouncements about me as If I was standing a criminal trial.



He also justified the MP accusing me of the murder of JB Danquah, murder of 20 Chinese nationals. We are filing an appeal because there was no evidence provided, Anas said in a video recording responding to the judgment.



He added, last year we also filed another defamation case against the MP in the United States where he made similar defamatory statements against me. The case is ongoing.



This comes after an Accra High Court on Wednesday, March 15 dismissed the GH25 million defamation suit against Kennedy Ohene Agyapong brought by Anas.



The judge, Justice Eric Baah, held that Anas failed to prove that Ken Agyapong defamed him by airing the documentary  Who watches the watchman  but rather, the documentary exposed shady deals that Anas and his associates were involved in.



This was after Anas, in 2018, sued the New Patriotic Party (NPP) lawmaker for allegedly defaming him.



Anas prayed to the court to award GH25 million against Mr Agyapong to compensate him for the defamatory material published against him by the MP.



The court concluded that what Anas is engaged in is not investigative journalism but rather investigative terrorism and that Agyapong was justified to call Anas a blackmailer, corrupt, an extortionist, and evil.



I find the claims by the plaintiff [Anas Aremeyaw Anas) meritless and they are hereby dismissed, Justice Baah ruled.

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 Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini, has thrown a challenge to the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, to redeem his pledge to the Muslim community in Ghana.



He said that it is time for the vice president to come to the aid of the community by ensuring that the new fare of GH75,000 for potential pilgrims looking to go for the 2023 Hajj in Mecca, is reviewed.



He explained that it is necessary that Dr Bawumia comes through for the Muslim community, as a way of fulfilling his campaign promise to them before he came into government.



The MP also described the new fare as insensitive and inflated.



I have done some checks, and it is clear that the fares that have been announced this year is insensitive and has been inflated. I think His Excellency, the Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, must stand out to be counted.



And, Im calling on him in particular because in his campaigns to be vice president, he made it a point to promise Muslim communities that he was going to represent them at the Jubilee House, and that he was going to represent their interests. The time has come for him to stand out to be counted as especially it relates to the performance of Hajj, he said.



Alhassan Suhuyini also explained that when he was a member of the Ghana Hajj Board Board, one of the interventions they undertook was to ensure that there was a special exchange rate allotted to them so that all potential pilgrims enjoy some discounts.



He also said that at the time the current government took over from them, the fare for Muslim pilgrims was at $3,450, making the new charges unacceptable.



Previously, what government did, because I was a member of the committee, was even in some cases, provide a special exchange rate for the Hajj Board, so that they could maintain the price at a level that Muslims who wanted to undertake this religious mandate, could afford to.



But to announce GHc75,000 fare for Hajj this year, at a time when we are going through the economic troubles that we all know, is simply insensitive and unfair. In fact, this government inherited the Hajj fare at $3,450 in 2016. Today, they are demanding $6,500; that is insensitive, that is unacceptable."



The Tamale North MP also stressed that Ghanas current fare for pilgrims is the highest in the sub-region and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia must do everything possible to ensure that this is reviewed.



Togo is paying less, Nigeria is paying less, Ivory Coast is paying less, even people flying from the United States of America are paying less than Ghana is expected to pay. I think it is time for the vice president to actually honour his pledge to Muslim community, he said.







Source: ghanaweb.com









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Featured Video
Budding South African producer, Thuto Moloi, aka Thuto the Human, has experienced what many will call A groundbreaking moment in his career.



The talented DJ and Producer was announced the winner of the Remy Martin Producers contest Season 2 and outdoored at a grand ceremony in Dubai this week.



Thuto the Human survived an intense boot camp and triumphed in a 3-way beat battle in Joburg.



As part of his winning package, the Ke Dipatjie hitmaker will be working with Emirati Born musician Freek and international DJ duo Major league DJZ on a mixtape in the UAE.



Alastair Coombe, head of digital marketing and Ecommerce for Remy Martin, echoed that the brand does not expect any future profit from Thuto but only want to see him capitalize on the platform given him to excel.



It is not on us to expect future returns or anything like that. I think it's just to get the guys out there,and see them grow and access the support and general tools at his disposal, That's the expectation, he answered



A team of creative community leaders & collaborators welcomed the artistes and producers to Dubai at an exclusive yacht experience hosted by Remy Martin with support from The Dubai Tourism represented by Prince Tonye Princewill Tjt, Guests included the local creatives, Media personalities & influencers from Africa.



Major League DJz and Thuto the Human are expected to host a half-day session in the coming days jamming with local superstars like Freek, Abri, and other entertainers.

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
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 18)  The arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Russian President Vladimir Putin should serve as a "fair warning" to defenders of the Duterte drug war, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said on Saturday.

"The arrest warrant for President Putin is a strong message to the global community that the world will not idly watch while war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity are being committed within territories of individual countries," the senator said.

The ICC on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova for an alleged scheme to forcibly deport over 16,000 Ukrainian children to Russia.

Russia is not a member of the ICC and the tribunal does not conduct trials in absentia, so charged officials would either have to be handed over by Moscow or arrested outside of Russia.

Hontiveros stressed that ICC member states "are duty bound to arrest those upon whom warrants are served" when they come into their territory.

"I can only hope that there is something to be learned from this. To those who continue to deny justice to victims of State-sponsored abuses, including the excesses of a failed Drug War, consider this fair warning," she added.

The ICC has authorized the resumption of the probe into former President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug campaign that killed thousands of people.

RELATED: After ICC's move, ex-Pres. Duterte reiterates stand to only face local courts

But the government stands firm in its position that the ICC no longer has jurisdiction over the Philippines since the country already withdrew from the Rome Statutethe treaty that established the international tribunal.

EXPLAINER: ICC and its authority

Manila also has no intention of rejoining the ICC, according to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself.

RELATED: Marcos refusal to cooperate with ICC probe a disincentive to foreign investors  lawmaker
MOREAU  A Moreau man was arrested on Wednesday after allegedly threatening police with a rifle.

At 11:47 p.m. Saturday, New York State Police responded to a home in the town of Moreau for reports of a domestic dispute.

According to police, when troopers arrived, the victim exited the home and told them that David C. Fuller, 59, was still inside and threatened to use a firearm to injure police officers.

After a brief period, he came out of the home and was arrested.

Police said further investigation led to the discovery of an illegally possessed noncompliant rifle and a high-capacity magazine inside the home. Those firearms, along with additional legally owned guns, were seized as a result of a court order.

Fuller was charged with two felony counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

He was arraigned at Moreau Town Court and taken to the Saratoga County Jail in lieu of $1,000 cash bail, $5,000 bond or $10,000 partially secured bond.
QUEENSBURY  The Old Quaker Burial Grounds at the southwest corner of Bay and Quaker roads in Queensbury, near the CVS pharmacy, has no gravestones, keeping with the Quaker tradition of simplicity.

Over time, the lack of gravestones caused the historical significance of the parcel to be overlooked.

Longtime Queensbury Historian Marilyn Van Dyke, who died Monday at age 92, spearheaded the prevention of the cemetery, where Abraham Wing, founder of Queensbury and Glens Falls, and about 80 other early Quaker settlers are buried, from being bulldozed for development in the late 1990s.

When construction of the CVS plaza was being planned, she located a historic record documenting the burial grounds was on the parcel, brought in state archeologists to confirm the location, and convinced the developer to leave that section of the site undeveloped.

She later spearheaded erecting a historic marker at the site and getting the site listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Longtime Queensbury historian honored QUEENSBURY  At 86, Marilyn Van Dyke is finally, reluctantly retiring.

It was a historians nightmare, Van Dyke recalled in 2017. They went through with machinery and went right through there.

Fellow historians on Thursday praised Van Dyke as a detail-oriented researcher with remarkable organizational skills who was tenacious, yet kind.

She was a grand lady  and also a first-class historian. She really set the bar for all of us, said Teri Podnorzki Rogers, a historian and writer who was executive director of Warren County Historical Society from 2017 to 2022.

Van Dyke was Queensbury historian from 1991 to 2017 and was co-founder and first vice president of Warren County Historical Society, which was chartered in December 1997.

Van Dyke later was president and executive director of the society and was instrumental through its four locations  first at the 19th century former home of civil engineer Lawrence Belden Black and then at The Shirt Factory in Glens Falls.

Later the society was located at a former Queensbury firehouse on Sunnyside Road, and currently at a county-owned building on Gurney Lane.

It was a labor of love, and you could see it on her face each time she talked about the history of the town, said state Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, a former Queensbury supervisor. Ive never met anyone that loved the history of the town more than her.

Even after Van Dyke retired, on paper, in 2017, she remained active in the society, making arrangements for Rogers to give her a ride every day the society was open.

She was in her late 80s, but she didnt want to miss a day of work, Rogers said.

She goes definitely down as one of my best people, said Queensbury Supervisor John Strough, who worked with Van Dyke on planning the 250th anniversary of Queensbury celebration in 2012, the Warren County bicentennial celebration in 2013, and was co-editor with VanDyke and two others of a book about the history of the Queensbury Union Free School District.

Strough said VanDyke taught him that it is important not to rush historic research.

It was a lot of hours  but I enjoyed those hours.  She taught me to be a better researcher than I had been, he said. She worked tirelessly to promote the history of our town and our country.  Her legacy will be with us forever.

VanDyke conducted a program through the New York State Association of Public Historians to orient new public historians, said Tisha Dolton, historian at The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls.

Marilyn was just so gracious in passing along her knowledge, she said.

Dolton, formerly Greenwich historian, said Van Dyke taught her the importance of specializing in an aspect of history that one has a passion for, because there is not enough time to become an expert on everything.

Thats when my research in suffrage started and its proceeded over now in Warren County, she said.

Van Dyke was a mentor to many public historians, said Rogers, formerly Malta historian.

Marilyn was really the one who trained me to be a public historian, she said. She was a mentor, a colleague, a best girlfriend.

She said Van Dyke taught her organizational skills and advised her to start with studying her historical roots.

The county has lost a significant voice and a significant champion in her death, said Patrick Dowd, who edited the book Warren County New York: Its People & Their History Over Time, which The Warren County Historical Society published in 2009.

Van Dyke was among those who spearheaded the eight-year project.

So many of these stories were able to be easily accessed rather than being in someones note book or in a file folder, he said.

Dowd, who is related to Van Dyke through marriage, said Van Dyke was a great storyteller.

She was a beloved family member who always had incredible stories at the ready, not just about family but about the community.

She was generous about sharing her research, including things she would come across relating to his family history, Dowd said.

She would pick up tidbits of this and tidbits of that and say, Did you know that? and I, invariably, would not.

Van Dyke was active in numerous history and genealogy organizations and with Girl Scouts.

In 2007, the Adirondack Girl Scout Council honored Van Dyke as a Women of Distinction.

In 1997, the New York State Association of Municipal Historians honored her as Outstanding Historian, and in 2009 The Chapman museum in Glens Falls honored her for Outstanding Contributions to Local History.

The research room at The Warren County Historical Society was named in Van Dykes honor.

She was active in the preservation and restoration of the Civil War Soldiers Monument in Glens Falls, and in placing 12 historical markers around Queensbury.

She developed historical exhibits on The Ellis Island Experience, WW II Remembering the Beginning, Brick Manufacturing in Queensbury, Hovey Pond Timeline, Ice Harvesting in Queensbury, Supervisors of Queensbury, Hamlet of Oneida, Jenkins Mills, Waterways of Queensbury, Churches in Queensbury, Age of Transportation Through the Years, and Highways and Byways in Queensbury.
March in the North Country is maple sugaring time, when maple trees are tapped and the sap is boiled down to sweet amber syrup. For the 27th year, the Upper Hudson Maple Producers are hosting their annual open house weekends March 18-19 and 25-26.

Six sugar houses in Washington County, two in Warren County, and one in northern Saratoga County will welcome visitors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both weekends. Conditions permitting, wood and oil-fired evaporators will be reducing the collected sap to syrup. The woods outside may be snowy, but the sugar houses will be filled with fragrant steam. Visitors can watch the intricate process and purchase bottled syrup and maple goods such as candy, sugar, and cream. Sugar houses may also offer short walking tours of their sugarbush, maple recipes, wagon rides, and pancake breakfasts.

This years Washington County participants are Battle Hill Maple, Fort Ann; Dry Brook Sugar House, Salem; Grottollis Maple, Middle Granville; Mapleland Farms, Salem; Rathbuns Maple Sugar House, Whitehall; and Wild Hill Maple, Salem. Todd Hill Maple and Valley Road Maple Farm, both in Thurman, are in Warren County, and Maple Valley Farm is in Corinth in northern Saratoga County.

Pancake breakfasts with real maple syrup will be served at Dry Brook Sugar House, Grottolis Maple, Maple Valley Farm, and Rathbuns Maple Sugar House. There is a fee for breakfast. Dry Brook Sugar House, Maple Valley Farm, and Rathbuns Maple Sugar House will have wagon rides.

The self-guided tour is free. Outdoor activities depend on the weather, and boiling is based on how much sap the farm has on hand. For breakfast and the best chance to watch the boiling, plan on coming in the morning. Dress for cold, possibly damp weather and mud. Most sugar houses are on back roads, so have a good map or navigation system.

For more information about the tour and individual producers, visit https://upperhudsonmaple.com/spring-maple-open-house weekends/ or, for the Washington County Maple Trail, https://washingtoncounty.fun/new-york-maple-season-2021/. The tour is hosted by the New York State Maple Producers Association with funding from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.
More than 85 people attended the 2023 Woman of Distinction event March 11, hosted by the Atlantic County Branch of the American Association of University Women at the Carriage House in Galloway Township.

The luncheon honored longtime AAUW member Evelyn Lynn Caterson, whose accomplishments include being Atlantic Countys first female judge and the first woman elected City Council president of Absecon. In addition, she has served as assistant prosecutor for Atlantic County, president of the Atlantic County Bar Association and president of the Atlantic County League of Municipalities.

Catersons career in law started after she graduated from Rutgers School of Law in 1980 and opened her own private practice, specializing in nonprofit law.

Atlantic County Commissioner Chairman John Risley recognized Catersons volunteer hours in the community.

She has given so many hours of pro bono work to those in need. If you want something done, give it to Lynn, Risley said.

Caterson also received praise from faith leaders in the United Methodist Church, of which she is a member.

Lynn is a person who can grab peoples attention. She has given herself to people, God, community and the church, said Bishop John Schol, representing the Greater New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church School.

Caterson was presented with a ceramic plate created by MudGirls Studios of Atlantic City. The platter showcases Catersons favorite quote from the late South African leader Nelson Mandela: I never lose. I either win, or I learn.
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Soon we will no longer integrate with Facebook for story comments. The commenting option is not going away, however, readers will need to register for a FREE site account to continue sharing their thoughts and feedback on stories. If you already have an account (i.e. current subscribers, posting in obituary guestbooks, for submitting community events), you may use that login, otherwise, you will be prompted to create a new account.
ATLANTIC CITY  Mayor Marty Small Sr. said Saturday that Councilman MD Hossain Morsheds legal problems are between him and the FBI, and would not say whether he will ask Morshed to resign.

I am aware of the charges against Councilman Morshed (Friday). However, throughout my career I have consistently not commented on the legal situation of others, Small said Saturday.

Morshed, who is up for reelection this year, was charged Friday by the U.S. Attorneys Office with falsifying voter registrations, making false statements to the FBI about interactions with prospective voters and submitting false unemployment benefits claims with the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

City Council President Aaron Sporty Randolph declined to comment Saturday afternoon on the charges brought against Morshed.

Atlantic County Democratic Chairman Michael Suleiman, on the other hand, called for Morshed to resign late Friday.

While Councilman Morshed is entitled to a fair and impartial trial, and while everyone is innocent until proven guilty, it is clear that he can no longer effectively represent the residents of Atlantic Citys 4th Ward, Suleiman said. He needs to resign.

Sixth Ward Councilman Jesse Kurtz, the only Republican on council, said its clear Morshed needs to resign.

Kurtz referenced the domestic violence charges Morshed is facing on top of the most recent charges and said he was waiting for a resolution on that. Morshed was charged in September with assaulting his wife.

It shows a consistent pattern of not abiding by the law, Kurtz said. As council people, we are tasked with passing, changing and removing laws. Were law givers.

Small said it is a matter between Morshed and the FBI, and called it a distraction.

Our focus is to continue the tremendous progress weve made as an organization and continue to make it a Great Day Here in The City of Atlantic City, Small said, leaning on his catchphrase.

Asked whether he will ask Morshed to resign and give up his race for reelection, Small declined further comment.

The Atlantic City Democratic Committee voted to support Morshed during a meeting Tuesday over challengers Charles Garrett, Abusaed Asduha and Torres Mayfield.

For the good of the party, and on behalf of his constituents, maybe he needs to step aside at this time and focus on his legal issues and his family, county Commissioner Ernest Coursey said Saturday. Courseys district includes Morsheds 4th Ward in the city.

Coursey works as Smalls chief of staff.

Morshed, 49, was accused of providing a prospective voter with an already filled-out voter registration form for his ward, even though the voter did not live in that ward nor at the address on the form, the U.S. Attorneys Office said in a news release.

He is also accused of lying to the FBI when approached about the voter fraud accusations.

Morshed was lastly accused of accepting $39,000 in benefits from the New Jersey Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program despite being paid as a councilman and earning additional money on the side as a driver.

Political briefs: Polistina ticket to kick off reelection campaign The 2nd Legislative District team will kick off its reelection campaign Thursday in Smithville.

Morshed did not respond to a request for comment Friday evening. He was scheduled to appear Friday in Camden federal court before U.S. District Judge Ann Marie Donio.

According to court documents, in April 2019, in advance of the June primary election, Morshed gave a prospective voter a state voter registration application that had already been filled out and that falsely asserted the prospective voter had a residential address in the 4th Ward even though that person did not live there. Documents allege Morshed urged the prospective voter to sign the application anyway.

Subsequently, Morshed visited the prospective voter and their actual residence that wasnt in the 4th Ward and presented them a vote-by-mail application to sign that included the same information as the registration application and listed another false Atlantic City address for where the mail-in ballot should be sent to the voter, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

The Atlantic County superintendent of elections subsequently received the falsified voter registration application, and the county Board of Elections received the mail-in ballot that counted toward the June 2019 primary, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

Lawfully recorded conversations between the voter and Morshed revealed possible questioning by law enforcement, and Morshed directed the voter to lie about where they lived and about who filled out the voter forms Morshed had given them, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

When Morshed was approached by the FBI, he said he had never provided any voter documents to any prospective voter, never assisted any prospective voter in filling out those documents and never collected any documents from a prospective voter, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

Assault charges against Atlantic City councilman reduced ATLANTIC CITY  Charges against Councilman MD Hossain Morshed were downgraded and remanded t

Morshed also falsely said he never asked residents of municipalities outside Atlantic City to register to vote in the 4th Ward, documents alleged.

From April 2020 through September 2021, Morshed defrauded the Department of Labor of $39,208 in unemployment benefits to which he wasnt entitled, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

False voter registration and false statements can each carry a potential maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gain or loss from the offense. Wire fraud carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Atlantic City Councilman MD Hossain Morshed was charged Friday by the U.S. Attorneys Office with falsifying voter registrations, making false statements to the FBI about interactions with prospective voters and submitting false unemployment benefits claims with the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Morshed, 49, the resorts 4th Ward councilman, was accused of providing a prospective voter with an already filled-out voter registration form for his ward, even though the voter did not live in that ward nor at the address on the form, the U.S. Attorneys Office said in a news release.

He is also accused of lying to the FBI when approached about the voter fraud accusations.

Morshed was lastly accused of accepting benefits from the New Jersey Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program despite being paid as a councilman and earning additional money on the side as a driver.

Morshed did not respond to a request for comment Friday evening. He was scheduled to appear Friday in Camden federal court before U.S. District Judge Ann Marie Donio.

According to court documents, in April 2019, in advance of the June primary election, Morshed gave a prospective voter a state voter registration application that had already been filled out and that falsely asserted the prospective voter had a residential address in the 4th Ward even though that person did not live there. Documents allege Morshed urged the prospective voter to sign the application anyway.

Subsequently, Morshed visited the prospective voter and their actual residence that wasnt in the 4th Ward and presented them a vote-by-mail application to sign that included the same information as the registration application and listed another false Atlantic City address for where the mail-in ballot should be sent to the voter.

The Atlantic County superintendent of elections subsequently received the falsified voter registration application, and the county Board of Elections received the mail-in ballot that counted toward the June 2019 primary, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

Lawfully recorded conversations between the voter and Morshed revealed possible questioning by law enforcement, and Morshed directed the voter to lie about where they lived and about who filled out the voter forms Morshed had given them, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

When Morshed was approached by the FBI, he said he had never provided any voter documents to any prospective voter, never assisted any prospective voter in filling out those documents and never collected any documents from a prospective voter, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

Morshed also falsely said he never asked residents of municipalities outside Atlantic City to register to vote in the 4th Ward, documents alleged.

From April 2020 through September 2021, Morshed defrauded the Department of Labor of $39,208 in unemployment benefits to which he wasnt entitled, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

Religious leaders, state officials discuss reporting hate crimes in Atlantic City ATLANTIC CITY  It was a blue sky day in the resort Friday, as Councilman Kaleem Shabazz put it.

False voter registration and false statements can each carry a potential maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gain or loss from the offense. Wire fraud carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Morshed is up for reelection in this Novembers primary election. The Atlantic City Democratic Committee voted to support Morshed during a meeting Tuesday over challengers Charles Garrett, Abusaed Asduha and Torres Mayfield.

Atlantic County Democratic Chairman Michael Suleiman called for Morshed to resign late Friday.

"While Councilman Morshed is entitled to a fair and impartial trial, and while everyone is innocent until proven guilty, it is clear that he can no longer effectively represent the residents of Atlantic City's Fourth Ward," Suleiman said. "He needs to resign."

Morshed was charged in September with assaulting his wife in their home and with endangering the welfare of a child. The 12-year-old allegedly recorded Morsheds assault on his wife, identified in court papers as L.N., and was pushed and hit by the councilman as a result. L.N. alleged Morshed grabbed and bent her arm, causing her pain; pulled her hair and struck her in the leg. The child endangerment charge was downgraded in January to simple assault.

In July 2021, Morshed said he was assaulted in a parking lot at Atlantic and Florida avenues by six people after leaving Masjid Al-Hera mosque.

Morshed said the confrontation was because the alleged suspects were upset with Morshed being among the members of council introducing an ordinance that summer that would end the needle exchange program in the city.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday batted for communal harmony, saying that India would deliver to the world the message that "there is one God but different paths to attain Him".

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday batted for communal harmony, saying that India would deliver to the world the message that "there is one God but different paths to attain Him".



He further underlined the Vedas' acknowledgement of various paths undertaken by people to realise spiritual truth and asserted that the world needs this understanding at this time of conflicts.



In his remarks after releasing the Hindi and Urdu translations of "Samveda" here, he said: "One should not fight over different means and this is the message which is relevant for all and is something that India has to offer to others."



Bhagwat quoted various parables from to ancient sacred texts to stress that the same truth can be perceived differently by different people.



Citing a story, he said various persons can approach the top of a mountain using different paths. While they may believe that others have taken the wrong way, the one on the top can see that everybody is climbing towards the same goal, he said.



The Urdu translation of the third of the Vedas has been done by film writer and director Iqbal Durrani, who has been associated with various big budget Hindi movies.
Despite pandemic, Capital economy doing well

As the Budget session of Delhi Assembly began on Friday, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena in his inaugural address underlined the work of the AAP government in the education sector.

Saxena said that due to the Delhi governments keen focus on the education sector, the students have performed well.

Despite the COVID pandemic, Delhis economy has been doing well. The government worked in construction, real estate, electric vehicles and other sectors. The government has performed well in the field of quality of education. In 12th and 10th classes, 98 and 97 percent results have been reported. A separate education board of Delhi has been created. Delhi has performed well in the education sector in the past five years, said L-G Saxena in his address.

He added, In the field of social security, the government is working for inclusive development. A total of 4.08 lakh people have been given pension under the old age assistance scheme. Financial assistance has also been provided to 3.50 lakh distressed women.

In the area of infrastructure, Delhi L-G said, several underpasses, flyovers have been constructed in Delhi. Total 1,35,000 CCTV cameras have been installed across the city. Total 500 national flags were put up all over Delhi on the 75th Independence Day. About 20,000 rooms were made in the government schools. The Kejriwal government laid a new pipeline of 34 km, WTP scheme of Chandrawal and Wazirabad which is about to be completed.

My government has placed public transport and modernly designed infrastructure among its most important objectives. Delhi Transport Corporation has a total fleet of 4,010 buses, out of which 3,760 are low-floor buses and 250 are e-buses with zero emission. 1,500 additional electric buses are being added, Saxena said while addressing the House. IANS

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BJP legislators marshalled out

The budget session of the Delhi Assembly began on Friday on a stormy note as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs resorted to sloganeering demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel ordered to marshall out three BJP MLAs -- Jitendra Mahajan, Anil Bajpai and O.P. Sharma -- to bring order to the House.
Protests continue by both treasury benches and Oppn members over RaGas remarks & Adani issue

Parliament was adjourned for the day on Friday amid continued protests by both treasury benches and opposition members over Rahul Gandhis remarks and Adani issue.

Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned within 20 minutes amid ruckus.

The BJP MPs raised slogans in both the Houses demanding an apology from the Congress leader, while the opposition MPs continued to target the Centre over the Adani issue.

Though speaker Om Birla tried to run the proceedings by announcing Question Hour and asked Congress MP Manish Tewari to put up his question, he adjourned the House after around 20 minutes amid chaos.

Parliament will now reconvene on March 20.

The adjournment meant that the entire weeks proceedings were washed out without any business having been transacted in both the Houses.

In an unprecedented move, the ruling BJP members have been stalling the proceedings in both Houses, seeking Congress MP Rahul Gandhis apology over his remarks on democracy in London.

The Congress-led opposition has been protesting over the governments silence on the Adani Enterprises issue. It has been seeking a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the matter.

Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi were present in the Lower House.

Rahul Gandhi had met Birla on Thursday, seeking time to speak in Parliament.

He had later said that he wants to respond to allegations against him inside the House, but the BJP is adamant that he apologises first.

Meanwhile, leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday sought to know why the BJP was scared to hold discussions in Parliament.

Police serve notice to Rahul

After Rahul Gandhi mentioned about the victims of sexual harassment in his Bharat Jodo Yatra speech in January in Srinagar, the Delhi Police have visited him twice and waited for hours to serve the necessary notice to get the details.

Gandhi part of anti-nationalist toolkit, alleges Nadda

Intensifying the attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his statement at Cambridge University about India, BJP National President J.P. Nadda said that Rahul Gandhi has become a permanent part of this anti-nationalist toolkit. IANS

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Congress moves privilege notice against Modi in RS

Congress MP K.C. Venugopal on Friday submitted a breach of privilege notice against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Rajya Sabha for his alleged derogatory remarks against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
(CNN)  The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.

The court said there "are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility" for the alleged crimes, for having committed them directly alongside others, and for "his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts."

The ICC charges, which relate to an alleged practice that CNN and others have reported on, are the first to be formally lodged against officials in Moscow since it began its unprovoked attack on Ukraine last year.

The Kremlin has labeled the ICC's actions as "outrageous and unacceptable."

"We consider the very posing of the question outrageous and unacceptable. Russia, like a number of states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and, accordingly, any decisions of this kind are null and void for the Russian Federation from the point of view of law," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tweeted on Friday.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the ICC for its "historic" decision, saying in his nightly address on Friday that Ukraine's investigations also suggest the Kremlin had direct involvement in the forced deportation of children into Russia.

"In the criminal proceedings being investigated by our law enforcement officers, more than 16,000 forced deportations of Ukrainian children by the occupier have already been recorded. But the real, full number of deportees may be much higher," he said. "Such a criminal operation would have been impossible without the order of the highest leader of the terrorist state."

The message from Friday's warrants "must be that basic principles of humanity bind everybody," Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said in an exclusive interview with CNN later on Friday.

"Nobody should feel they have a free pass. Nobody should feel they can enact with abandon. And definitely nobody should feel they can act and commit genocide or crimes against humanity or war crimes with impunity," he told CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward at the Hague.

Asked if he believed that one day Putin would be in the dock, Khan pointed to historic trials of Nazi war criminals, former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic, and former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, among others.

"All of them were mighty, powerful individuals and yet they found themselves in courtrooms," he said.

Russia -- like the US, Ukraine and China -- is not a member of the ICC. As the court does not conduct trials in absentia, any Russian officials charged would either have to be handed over by Moscow or arrested outside of Russia.

War crime allegations

One senior Ukrainian official told CNN on Monday that Kyiv has been pushing the ICC for some time to seek arrest warrants against Russian individuals in relation to the war in Ukraine.

The Russian government doesn't deny taking Ukrainian children and has made their adoption by Russian families a centerpiece of propaganda.

In April, the office of Lvova-Belova, the Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, said that around 600 children from Ukraine had been placed in orphanages in Kursk and Nizhny Novgorod before being sent to live with families in the Moscow region.

As of mid-October, 800 children from Ukraine's eastern Donbas area were living in the Moscow region, many with families, according to the Moscow regional governor.

Some of the children have ended up thousands of miles and several time zones away from Ukraine. According to Lvova-Belova's office, Ukrainian kids have been sent to live in institutions and with foster families in 19 different Russian regions, including Novosibirsk, Omsk and Tyumen regions in Siberia and Murmansk in the Arctic.

Lvova-Belova dismissed the ICC's arrest warrant against her, saying it was "great" that the international community appreciated her work for children, according to Russian state news agency TASS on Friday.

"It's great that the international community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country, that we do not leave them in the war zones, that we take them out, that we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people," she said to reporters, according to TASS. "There were sanctions against all countries, even Japan, in relation to me, now there is an arrest warrant, I wonder what will happen next. And we continue to work."

Zelensky's Chief of Staff, Andry Yermak, said on Telegram on Friday that the arrest warrant issued for Putin was "just the beginning."

"The world has received a signal that the Russian regime is criminal and that its leadership and accomplices will be brought to justice," Ukrainian General Prosecutor, Andriy Kostin, added in a post on Facebook on Friday.

"This means that Putin must be arrested outside of Russia and brought to trial. And world leaders will think twice before shaking his hand or sitting down with him at the negotiating table."

Human Rights Watch called the ICC decision a "wakeup call to others committing abuses or covering them up."

"This is a big day for the many victims of crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine since 2014. With these arrest warrants, the ICC has made Putin a wanted man and taken its first step to end the impunity that has emboldened perpetrators in Russia's war against Ukraine for far too long," Balkees Jarrah, the NGO's Associate International Justice Director, said in a statement Friday.

"The warrants send a clear message that giving orders to commit or tolerating serious crimes against civilians may lead to a prison cell in The Hague. The court's warrants are a wakeup call to others committing abuses or covering them up that their day in court may be coming, regardless of their rank or position," Jarrah said.

Court of 'last resort'

Moscow rejected the warrant on Friday. Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the ministry of foreign affairs, said the court has "no meaning" for the country, "including from a "legal point of view." Russia withdrew from the ICC treaty under a directive signed by Putin in 2016.

"Russia is not a member of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it. Russia does not cooperate with this body, and possible [pretences] for arrest coming from the International Court of Justice will be legally null and void for us," she said.

Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and Deputy Chair of the Security Council of Russia, wrote on Twitter: "The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. No need to explain WHERE this paper should be used" along with a toilet paper emoji.

News of the warrants was welcomed on the streets of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Friday but some expressed doubts over whether it would result in action.

Victoria Tkachenko, a 64-year-old museum worker, told CNN the warrants were "great news" but was realistic about how long legal proceedings could take.

"I support and welcome the news because Ukraine is fighting an aggressor. The year of war has shown that even with all the help, this fight is a difficult one," Tkachenko said. "All legal proceedings are long and detailed work. Even if it takes a long time, I am still optimistic about the outcome."

Twenty-year-old student and teacher Olexandra Zahubynoga praised the ICC for raising awareness of the issue, telling CNN: "The fact that this is being brought to the public is good and I support it. I would like to believe (that the arrest warrant will bring practical results), but to be honest, I have my doubts, because most international organizations are very concerned, they say a lot of things, but I personally do not see any obvious action."

Meanwhile, Serhii Voloshenyuk, a 44-year-old businessman, said that while he believes the arrest warrants are "meaningful and important," he doesn't think they will be seen that way in Moscow.

"Russia is a criminal country itself and it behaves by its own rules," he said.

He added: "I would like Putin to be jailed and serve time in prison, just like the Yugoslavian war criminals are jailed in Hague."

ICC President Judge Piotr Hofmanski told CNN on Friday that the ICC's arrest warrants were "not magic wands" but that he believed in their "deterrence" effects amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine as they act as a sort of "sanction" on the individuals.

Asked whether the ICC is asking signatory countries to arrest Putin if he travels to them, Hofmanski referred to ICC statute, saying: "All state parties have the legal obligation to cooperate fully with the court, which means that they're obliged to execute arrest warrants issued by the court. And it is indeed one of the most important effects of the arrest warrants, that is a kind of sanction, because the person cannot leave the country."

"There are 123 states, two-thirds of the states of the world in which he will not be saved," Hofmanski continued.

Located in The Hague, Netherlands, and created by a treaty called the Rome Statute first brought before the United Nations, the ICC operates independently. Most countries on Earth -- 123 of them -- are parties to the treaty, but there are very large and notable exceptions, including Russia.

The ICC is meant to be a court of "last resort" and is not meant to replace a country's justice system. The court, which has 18 judges serving nine-year terms, tries four types of crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and war crimes.

The UN on Thursday found in a report that Russia has "committed a wide range of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law" in Ukraine.

The report claims that the war crimes perpetrated by the Russians included "attacks on civilians and energy-related infrastructure, wilful killings, unlawful confinement, torture, rape and other sexual violence, as well as unlawful transfers and deportations of children."

Its findings also documented a small number of violations perpetrated by the Ukrainian forces, "including likely indiscriminate attacks and two incidents qualifying as war crimes, where Russian prisoners of war were shot, wounded and tortured," the United Nations Human Rights statement said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "ICC issues war crimes arrest warrant for Putin for alleged deportation of Ukrainian children"
CAMBRIDGE, Ill.  A Kewanee man entered a negotiated plea to unlawful restraint and aggravated criminal sexual abuse Friday in Henry County Circuit Court and was sentenced to three years in prison.

David A. Rounds Jr. was sentenced to concurrent three-year prison terms on each of the two charges. He will also have one year of mandatory supervised release on the Class 4 felony unlawful restraint charge as well as a $500 fine and assessments. On the Class 2 felony sexual abuse charge he will also have a one-year mandatory supervised release, a $75 fine and be required to register as a sex offender for life.

According to court records, on Sept. 30, 2022, a 15-year-old female in Kewanee asked Rounds for a ride home to Atkinson, but instead he took her to his house and would not let her leave for hours, at one time holding her down on his bed while he touched her. She escaped and flagged down a Kewanee police officer, who returned to the residence with her where Rounds was located and admitted to picking up the minor and taking her home.

Charges of Class 2 felony kidnapping, Class 1 felony attempted aggravated criminal sexual assault, a second count of Class 2 felony aggravated criminal sexual abuse and a misdemeanor charge of criminal sexual abuse were dismissed.

Rounds applied for a waiver of assessments, but Judge Terry Patton denied it, noting Rounds' $56,000 inheritance.

I don't find there is substantial hardship, the judge said.

Charges were filed Sept. 30, 2022.
Rock Island police are asking the public to keep an eye out for a wanted fugitive who is considered dangerous.

Jacob Martin, 20, was seen by an officer in the 800 block of 11th Street around 6:30 p.m. Thursday driving a stolen Honda CRV. According to a news release from the police department, Martin began following the officer's marked squad car, attempting to cause an accident and provoke a police pursuit.

The officer attempted to avoid the situation, but Martin reengaged the officer in the 1100 block of 13th Avenue, intentionally striking the driver's side causing significant damage to the squad car and endangering the officer's life.

A pursuit was authorized, and officers pursued Martin through Rock Island onto the Rock Island-Milan Parkway, where speeds exceeded 100 mph. But because of inclement weather, officers reduced their speed to avoid the risk of serious injury and lost sight of the vehicle.

Martin has several active warrants for his arrest pertaining to aggravated assault, aggravated unlawful use of weapons, fleeing or attempting to elude officers, motor vehicle theft and unlawful possession of vehicle parts known to be stolen.

Martin has engaged in numerous attempts over the past seven months to provoke officers into pursuing him, often swerving directly at officers on foot or in a squad car.

Rock Island Police Department officials are asking anyone with information on Martin's whereabouts to contact the police department at 309-732-2677. People also can call Crime Stoppers at 309-762-9500.
Brig. Gen. Scott Petrik, director of the Joint Staff for the South Dakota National Guard, retired after 39 years of service this month. He was honored with a retirement ceremony on March 4 at the Joint Force Headquarters on Camp Rapid.

Maj. Gen. Jeff Marlette, South Dakota National Guard Adjutant General, presented Petrik the Legion of Merit award for Petrik's 39 years of outstanding service. Marlette thanked Petrik and his family for their service and commitment to the South Dakota National Guard.

Petrik held several key leadership and staff positions during his career, including the Officer Candidate School Battalion commander, 196th Regional Training Institute commander, Army Chief of Staff, and director of the Joint Staff.

Petrik deployed to Afghanistan in 2004-2005 with the 109th Engineer Group. He received multiple awards including the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

Petrik began his military service in 1983 with the 109th Engineer Group as a combat wire installer before receiving his commission as an engineer officer in July 1990 from the South Dakota Military Academy. Petrik has a bachelor of science degree in business management from Black Hills State University and a master's degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.

The Petrik family has a history of military service. Petrik's father, Brig. Gen. Stan Petrik, retired from the South Dakota National Guard as the Army Assistant Adjutant General and Scott and Tina Petrik's son Garrett was recently promoted to captain and serves as the 881st Headquarters Company commander in the South Dakota National Guard.

During his retirement ceremony, Petrik's children praised their father for his dedication to the military and his family.

"The most fortunate thing of being a member of the South Dakota National Guard is this is a family-based organization," Scott Petrik said. "The Guard is an extended family, and I would not have had the career that I did without the support of both my family and the Guard family."
A Bronx, New York man who was convicted of three Rapid City murders is requesting a new trial, arguing that the state failed to disclose information about a witness that could have impacted the verdict.

On Jan. 26, a Pennington County jury convicted Arnson Absolu, 37, of the 2020 murders of Charles Red Willow, 26, of Rapid City, Ashley Nagy, 29, of Greeley, Colorado, and Dakota Zaiser, 22, of Rapid City. On Feb. 24, he was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences and fined a total of $150,000 dollars.

Red Willow and Nagy were found shot dead in a vehicle at Thomson Park on Aug. 24, 2020. About a month later, Zaiser was found buried in a makeshift grave near Sheridan lake.

The motion for a new trial, filed on March 6, argues that the state should have informed the defense that a witness who testified in the trial was "at least a person of interest in a November 2022 homicide and at most was a suspect of the same, with the investigation ongoing."

A person of interest is someone law enforcement believes has information that will significantly affect an investigation. A suspect is someone that law enforcement has reason to believe is responsible for the crime.

Timothy Rensch, Absolu's defense attorney, wrote that the information "changes the entire flavor of the prime witness's testimony," and would have opened up the opportunity for defense to argue the witness was "saying what he was saying in part to avoid additional charges and/or curry government favor."

Rensch argued that there was prejudice on the part of the state because they didn't provide the information even though they had it. The document alleges that Absolu was "greatly prejudiced without said information."

"Here, the worry of being charged with another murder by the very office with whom he was cooperating goes directly to bias and consideration and... would have proved devastating," Rensch wrote.

Senior Pennington County State's Attorney Roxanne Hammond, who was the lead prosecutor in the case, said that the state disagrees with the defense's assessment.

The state's deadline to submit a reply is March 31. The defense will then have a chance to respond by April 14.
Ironclad Coffee is officially open for business at Richmond International Airport with three brand-new spots. The Richmond-based roasting company partnered with Delaware North, which manages food service operations for the airport.

Ironclad opened locations in the A and B concourses along with a pre-security cafe in the atrium. The three outlets were previously occupied by Caribou Coffee.

Ironclads flagship cafe in Shockoe Bottom opened in July 2018 after the husband-and-wife ownership team spent two-and-a-half years perfecting their style of roasting. Its second location opened in 2022 at 2100 John Rolfe Parkway in western Henrico County.

My wife and I established Ironclad in the autumn of 2015 after spending almost five years in the Republic of Ireland. We brought back a literal world of coffee experience with the determined intention to offer a unique coffee experience with uncommon levels of customer service, said Ryan ORourke, owner of Ironclad Coffee Roasters. Having a major presence in our beloved hometown airport is a major step for us in representing Richmond and sharing our passion more broadly.

Ironclads menu at the airport features Ironclads drip coffee, known as JetBrew, its bare-knuckle espresso, and tea-based drinks like masala chai lattes, matcha lattes and premium loose leaf teas.

The ORourkes created something truly special in Ironclad Coffee Roasters, said Johanna Wheeler, general manager for Delaware North at RIC. We know travelers will really appreciate getting a true taste of the town with the three Ironclad locations conveniently located throughout the airport.

Top five weekend events: St. Patrick's Day at The Answer, Hardywood, O'Toole's and more St. Patrick's Day Weekend at OTooles Virginia Opera "La Traviata" The Answer Brewpub St. Patricks Day Celebration The Acrobats of Cirque-tacular St. Patrick's Day Celebration at Hardywood West Creek
In February, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan refused to dismiss a federal lawsuit brought against an employer who allegedly declined to accommodate an employee who wouldnt use a co-workers chosen pronouns due to a declared religious conflict.

The plaintiff, Denise Haskins, worked for Bio Blood Components until February 2021. Her job required her to routinely interact with another employee, referred to as RS in the case. Haskins and RS knew each other for several years. In February 2021, RS, who was born female, told co-workers that he identifies as a man and wanted to be referred to by his male pronouns.

Haskins is a believing Christian who sincerely believes that she cannot live a lie and remain within the truth, according to the case. The lawsuit further alleges that Haskins believes that living a lie and being forced to repeat that lie out loud with her own lips is a significant violation of her right to practice her religion. This religious belief resulted in Haskins refusing to use male pronouns when referring to RS.

Haskins was notified that RS, who felt bullied or harassed, filed a complaint against Haskins, although the specific conduct by Haskins supporting those allegations is unclear. Haskins responded to the complaint that she had a right to free speech and could not have her speech compelled to tell a lie because she was a believing Christian who will not live a lie. Haskins alleges she asked for a religious accommodation, but the employer denied that request without any consideration and asked Haskins to write a letter of resignation. After Haskins refused to resign, the employer terminated her employment.

Haskins alleged the employer refused to accommodate her religion under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The employer moved to dismiss the case as not stating a legal claim.

Haskins alleged she has a religious belief that conflicted with her employers requirement that she use her co-workers preferred gender pronouns. She also alleged that she informed her employer of this conflict and that her employer terminated her without offering any accommodation.

The employer responded that it could not reasonably accommodate Haskins beliefs without suffering an undue hardship because allowing Haskins to continue working for the employer while refusing to refer to her co-workers by their preferred pronouns would expose it to liability under Title VII.

Specifically, the employer argued that using improper pronouns to refer to RS or other transgender employees would amount to unlawful harassment under Title VII, citing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has written that intentionally and repeatedly using the wrong name and pronouns to refer to a transgender employee could contribute to an unlawful hostile work environment.

In refusing to dismiss the case, the court held, At this stage, however, it is not clear whether and to what extent [Haskins] used, or intended to use, any pronouns when referring to RS. [Haskins] does not describe the details of RSs complaint about her. Moreover, individuals working directly with one another generally use names rather than pronouns. As such, the court cannot assess the nature of the hardship.

In her complaint, Haskins alleged that her employer could have allowed her to simply tell [RS] the truth . . . that she- he- cannot change the work of the Lord to suit a personal whim or accommodate a mental illness or belief system. The court held that telling RS that his gender identity is a personal whim or a mental illness might qualify as harassment under Title VII, and allowing Plaintiff to do this likely would not be a reasonable accommodation even if it did not violate Title VII. However, Plaintiff alleges other possible accommodations in her complaint, including transfer to another work location. While the employer claimed this accommodation was not reasonable, the court determined that a jury should make that determination.

The case will now proceed to trial to determine whether the employer could provide a reasonable accommodation without an undue hardship.

This case is an important reminder to employers about their legal obligations and sometimes seemingly conflicting ones. Employers cannot simply ignore an employees request for a reasonable accommodation based on religion, even if the employer disagrees with the employees religious beliefs or if the accommodation might require some creativity to protect the interests of both employees.

The sincerity of the religious belief should not generally be questioned. Employers should focus on whether there is a reasonable accommodation by engaging in the interactive process, and then determining an accommodation that will not cause an undue burden  which is currently defined as more than a de minimis cost.

The U.S. Supreme Court has recently agreed to hear a case regarding religious accommodations to determine whether the current undue hardship standard should be upheld, which is a lower standard than the burden applied under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Richmond-area business expansions, openings and closings RICH Nail Lounge Sycamore Jewelers, Midlothian Mi Casita Restaurant Ironclad Coffee Grit Coffee Rockler Woodworking and Hardware Boiling Crab Richmond Blue Cow Ice Cream Co. Suzy Sno Diablo Doughnuts RVA The Brass Tap Graybo's Sports Cards Blue Ridge Cyclery BigWife's Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams CarLotz Acacia Midtown Zoom Room Richmond Torchy's Tacos Planet Fitness Raising Canes Chicken Fingers Three Notch'd Brewing Retail or Resell Marshalls Raising Cane's My Favorite Muffin Mattress King Anthony's on the Hill The Mill on MacArthur
For National Vietnam War Veterans Day, the Virginia War Memorial will host an event featuring the author of We Came Home: The Firsthand Stories of Vietnam POWs.

The free event is scheduled March 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the war memorial at 621 S. Belvidere St.

Author Barbara Powers Wyatt will speak about her book and also will be available to sign copies. Guests will be invited to view the war memorials new exhibit, 50 Years Beyond: The Vietnam Veteran Experience, following the presentation.
IN THE NEWS

Teacher shot by 6-year-old awarded grant

The first-grade teacher shot by a 6-year-old student at a Newport News school has received the Hero Teacher Award from The Uvalde Foundation For Kids. Abigail Zwerner was wounded at Richneck Elementary School in January. The Uvalde Foundation was started after 19 students and two teachers were killed in a Texas school shooting in May. The grant is for nonviolent programming in schools.

WRONG WAY: The Federal Aviation Administration announced Tuesday that it is investigating after a taxiing Republic Airways Embraer 175 took a wrong turn at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington on March 7 and crossed a runway where a United Airbus A319 was preparing to take off. Both planes ended up continuing to their destinations without incident.

RECOGNIZE: Virginia Commonwealth University has created a project to recognize enslaved laborers who built and maintained the medical school. "Project Gabriel is an opportunity to continue to acknowledge the institution's past, engage continuously with our community in a dialogue regarding actionable recommendations and make meaningful changes that reflect the inclusive public university and health system that we are today," said VCU President Michael Rao. Then-Gov. Ralph Northam signed a law requiring the state's five oldest public colleges to examine the extent to which slavery impacted their schools, to commemorate the enslaved, and to establish a scholarship or economic program to benefit descendants.

THEY SAID ...

"Wherever we were, that's where the bugs were. We were the swarm. Even the crew was feeling it and they had first-world luxuries of clothing and anything they could use as barriers. It was rough."

 Janis Holcombe, 38, who grew up in Stafford County and is appearing on the survival show "Naked and Afraid" on Discovery in April. She spent 21 days in the wild of southwestern Guyana.

"Think about all the poor cherry producers who lose most of their crop."

 Corey Riedel, agricultural extension agent for Virginia Cooperative Extension, about how a recent cold snap may impact farmers who had plants and trees bloom during warm weather in February and March.

BY THE NUMBERS

$4.9 million

Amount in legal expenses and fees that a judge approved being paid to lawyers who won a civil rights challenge against the organizers of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

2.5 million

Gallons of wastewater released into a canal connected to the Elizabeth River from a damaged pipe, according to the Hampton Roads Sanitation District. A large tugboat hooked the 20-inch cast-iron pressurized pipe with its anchor.

$24.7 million

Gaming revenue generated by the new Rivers Casino Portsmouth during its first full month of operation, according to a state Lottery Board report.

ODDS AND ENDS

ARRESTED: A Stafford man who has five prior drunken driving convictions was arrested after falling asleep at a fast-food drive-thru in Stafford County, police said. A Stafford sheriff's deputy found the 32-year-old asleep behind the wheel at 12:42 a.m. on March 12 at the McDonalds in the 400 block of Chatham Heights Road, police said. He was charged with DUI, driving on a revoked license, two counts of refusal and two counts of obstructing justice.

MONEY: Professorships, scholarships, affordable housing initiatives and other projects have been awarded more than $66 million through the University of Virginia Strategic Investment Fund, it was announced. The fund was set up in 2016 to support a 2030 university strategic plan.

IN THE NEWS

10 charged in patient's death

Prosecutors have filed second-degree murder charges against seven Henrico County sheriff's deputies and three workers at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County after a 28-year-old man died in custody. Irvo Otieno died during the intake process at the mental hospital south of Richmond on March 6. Prosecutors said he was held down for 12 minutes and suffocated.

Ben Crump, who represented George Floyd's family, is now working with Otieno's.

It is truly shocking that nearly three years after the brutal killing of George Floyd by police, another family is grieving a loved one who allegedly died in nearly the exact same manner  being pinned down by police for 12 agonizing minutes," Crump said.

They called on the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene, saying Otieno's constitutional rights were violated.

What I saw today was heartbreaking, America. It was disturbing. It was traumatic. My son was tortured," said Otieno's mother, Caroline Ouko.

LAWSUIT: Former Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. is suing the Baptist Lynchburg school for $8.6 million, saying he did not get retirement benefits he was owed. Falwell resigned from the position in 2020 after a series of scandals.

The lawsuit said Falwell helped increase enrollment and make the school financially sound, but "Liberty wrongfully has denied and withheld the benefits to which Mr. Falwell is entitled." Liberty, which was founded by Falwell's father, Jerry Falwell Sr., said in a statement that the school "is confident it is not legally required to pay these funds and will file the appropriate responses with the federal court.
Family members of Irvo Otieno and their lawyers on Tuesday called for mental health reform and steps to be taken to avoid a repeat of what happened to the 28-year-old Henrico County man who died earlier this month in a Central State Hospital intake room.

A mental health crisis should not be a death sentence, civil rights attorney Ben Crump said during a press conference the First Baptist Church of South Richmond. We dont want anybody else in America whose family is dealing with a mental health crisis to be killed by the very people who are supposed to help them.

The comments came after the release of a video from the mental hospital showing Otieno being pinned to the floor prior to his death on March 6. A Dinwiddie County grand jury on Tuesday indicted seven Henrico County deputies and three hospital workers on second-degree murder charges in a case that has garnered national attention.

Crump, who also represented the family of George Floyd, has said Otienos treatment has close parallels with Floyds killing in police custody in Minneapolis in 2020.

It is not lost on anybody who saw that video today, the fact that it was so unnecessary, Crump said Tuesday. Irvo was handcuffed at the wrist, he had leg irons on, he was facedown. Why did they feel it was necessary to put all their weight on him, for some of the officers to put their knee on his neck?

Caleb Kershner, a defense attorney for deputy Randy Boyer, was critical of the video being released and took issue with Dinwiddie County Commonwealths Attorney Ann Baskervill.

Its going to be more difficult to find a jury that has not been tainted or read a particular news story of any sort. So Im disappointed in it, he said earlier Tuesday after the court hearing in Dinwiddie County.

Otienos mother Caroline Ouko on Tuesday called the indicted deputies and hospital employees thugs and monsters.

I was happy to hear that they were indicted, Ouko said. That is just the beginning step.

Attorney Mark Krudys said he was troubled by the individuals who stood by and watched as the officers pushed down on Otieno.

Everybody has an obligation to intervene in that circumstance, to say no, thats not right, Krudys said. But nobody intervened. And then when his body was lifeless, and his pants were dangling on him, they didnt do anything for an appreciable period of time.

Krudys said his team is looking into possible body camera footage from Henrico police regarding a March 3 incident, when Otieno was transported from his Henrico home to Henrico Doctors Hospital.

Ouko said she was excluded in the process of advocating for her son, noting that she made four attempts to see him while he was at Henrico hospital.

In mental health and mental distress, your child needs you, Ouko said. Seeing me could have made have made a big difference.

Instead, Otieno was taken to the Henrico Jail and later to Central State. Krudys said the deputies were not wearing body cameras at either location.

My thoughts on the untimely death of Irvo Otieno: pic.twitter.com/4mGiKiLq7e  Mayor Levar M. Stoney (@LevarStoney) March 21, 2023

Henrico NAACP Vice President Monica Hutchinson during the Tuesday press conference said: Jail is not, nor has it ever been, the best place for those having a mental health crisis. We must eliminate the use of jail as a response to a mental health crisis and mental illness, and instead work to improve access to community-based crisis centers.

Otienos brother Leon Ochieng urged Gov. Glenn Youngkin to make mental health a priority, pointing out Youngkins recent comments calling Otienos death heart-wrenching.

If you really do empathize and feel what we feel, do something, Ochieng said. Let your state be an example  all we need to do is make this an agenda to put pressure on lawmakers to invite our communities to have families who are ambassadors for mental health.

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney in a social media post on Tuesday said: "Irvo Otieno should be alive today. His life was taken in a place where he should have been safe. We need accountability and we need more mental health resources."
Chickahominy Falls is growing again, with three local builders bringing a variety of new housing products to the nations only active-adult agri-community.

The 180-acre development, which is located in Hanover County near the intersection of U.S. Route 1 and Cedar Lane, offers low-maintenance, one-floor living and resort-style amenities with a working farm at its core. Five years after its initial groundbreaking, it remains the only agri-community in Central Virginia.

The communitys distinctive neighborhoods offer homebuyers a wide range of options.

Lakeside-based StyleCraft Homes recently opened a new neighborhood called The Burroughs, which will have 54 paired, villa-style homes when its completed.

Goochland County-based Boone Homes is constructing custom carriage homes in the communitys Little Meadows neighborhood, which it launched in 2021. Its also building homes in the Pine Springs neighborhood, which opened last year.

And Richmond-based Cornerstone Homes is building 54 Craftsman-style townhomes in the new Westwoods neighborhood, as well as carriage homes in Pine Springs. (Cornerstone Homes is a sister company of The Crescent Group, which is developing Chickahominy Falls.)

StyleCraft previously built attached and detached condominiums in the development, and Cornerstone has completed neighborhoods of carriage homes and attached condos.

The range of housing types is wide because we want to offer a variety of products and price points to meet the needs of active-adult buyers, said Kirsten Nease, director of marketing for Cornerstone Homes.

Home prices in the community range from $399,000 to $900,000.

In addition to Woodside Farms, which has a barn with a professional demonstration kitchen, amenities in Chickahominy Falls include a resort-style clubhouse called the Farmhouse with a swimming pool, a fitness center, a fire pit, a silo bar and an event lawn. A dog park, pocket parks and more than nine miles of walking trails enhance the amenities package.

The Farmhouse, which was designed with an outcropping of matching buildings, received a 2022 Silver Award for Best Community Amenity from The National Association of Home Builders, as part of its Best of 55+ Awards.

Were a small regional builder competing against large national builders, Nease said. We were proud to be recognized for our exceptional amenity design.

Earlier this month, the community also received Best Community (251 to 500 homes) and Best Community Amenity awards from the Home Building Association of Richmond.

House stats and sales

Cornerstone will offer three floorplans in its Westwoods townhomes, which will be spread across 18 three-home buildings. The floorplans for the outer homes in each building are based on award-winning plans that Cornerstone has built previously. The homes will offer nearly 1,800 square feet of living space, as well as an oversized two-car garage. Prices start in the mid-$400,000s.

The floorplan for the interior home is new and offers 1,500 square feet of living space, although buyers have the option to add a 500-square-foot bonus suite over the garage. Prices start at $399,900.

Cornerstone opened Westwoods to sales in late February.

Its been received very well, Nease said. We anticipate sales to be strong there.

The paired villas in StyleCrafts Burroughs neighborhood will feature a first-floor layout  exclusive to Chickahominy Falls and based on one of the companys most popular  that highlights relaxed living and entertaining with an open-concept design.

The homes will be completed in Craftsman, Shingle, Cottage and Farmhouse architectural styles and will feature three bedrooms, three baths and 2,000 square feet of living space, said Kathryn Catherwood, StyleCrafts director of sales and marketing.

Prices will start in in the upper $400,000s.

StyleCraft is opening sales to its VIP list today, and it will open to the general public on March 21. It plans to complete a model home later this spring.

Chickahominy Falls unique combination of resort-style amenities and a working farm is key to its strong sales and continued growth, Nease said.
(CNN)  President Joe Biden said earlier this week he was planning to speak "soon" with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

But before his staff even began planning for the call, another meeting was taking shape: the Chinese government announced Xi plans to travel Monday to Russia for a three-day summit with President Vladimir Putin as Xi works to cast himself as a potential peacemaker in the Ukraine war.

In Washington, officials view Xi's intentions with deep skepticism; China has refused to condemn the war and instead claimed Moscow was provoked into invading Ukraine. After China announced Xi's visit to Russia by saying he was traveling "for the sake of peace," the White House worked to preempt attempts to frame the Xi-Putin meeting as a peacemaking mission, suggesting any framework offered by Beijing would be weighted toward Russia and bad for Ukraine.

"As they begin to plan out their agenda, we certainly want to express how concerned we would be by any proposals from (China) that would ... be one sided and reflect only the Russian perspective," said John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

He said such a Chinese proposal could include some type of ceasefire, which he said would merely provide a way for Russia to regroup before launching a reprisal.

"A ceasefire now is effectively the ratification of Russian conquest," he said.

The Putin-Xi summit itself did not come as a surprise to the White House since there have been reports such a meeting could occur for weeks. Still, there remain deep concerns the "no limits" partnership Xi and Putin have cemented during previous meetings could deepen during face-to-face talks.

And there is a growing fear that further Chinese intervention in the conflict would fundamentally change the battlefield dynamics -- or at least prolong the war at a moment when political appetite in the West for supporting Ukraine is being tested.

Xi has remained Putin's best antidote to US-led attempts at isolating Russia. Even Friday's decision by the International Criminal Court to issue a warrant for Putin -- meant in part to prompt world leaders to "think twice before shaking his hand or sitting down with him at the negotiating table" -- didn't appear likely to deter him from his support.

So far, officials have said there hasn't been any indication that Beijing has made a final decision to assist Moscow's war efforts with lethal aid. But they have been considering it, according to American officials, who have been monitoring intelligence on a day-to-day basis for indications that Xi is going forward.

Next week's meeting could provide a venue for such an announcement.

"It's something that we will watch for," US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said this week. "Obviously, Russia has its own interests in trying to pull other countries into this conflict if it can, but our position is the same whether or not they meet."

But some US officials consider it possible that the meeting could push off any imminent lethal Chinese support for Russia, given Xi's efforts to cast the trip as one seeking peace.

The concern among US officials is not necessarily that Chinese weapons would help Russia land a decisive win in Ukraine. Instead, the worry is that lethal aid from Beijing would bog down the war in a way that would serve Moscow.

A drawn-out war could also benefit China if American resources and attention are consumed in Ukraine, instead of in Asia, where Beijing has become increasingly assertive militarily. And while China has not provided lethal support to Russia up until this point, it has been willing to import large sums of Russian energy, which has allowed Moscow's fiscal revenues to increase over the last year -- despite sanctions implemented by the US and its European allies.

It is against that backdrop Biden has repeatedly warned Xi against siding with Russia in the war, including during a phone call in March 2022 and in their face-to-face meeting last November in Bali, their only face-to-face since Biden took office.

Biden's desire to keep lines of communication open with China -- including through regular telephone calls with Xi -- is currently the administration's primary objective in dealing with Beijing, according to officials, who say the risk of military or diplomatic miscalculation is higher when the two sides aren't talking.

Yet even those efforts have been taken off course in recent months with the cancellation of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing due to the Chinese spy balloon that crossed over the US. American officials initially said the meeting would be rescheduled, but more than a month later there remains no new date on the calendar.

US officials have also been using their regular diplomatic channels to encourage a conversation between Xi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, believing it would be useful to hear the Ukrainian perspective directly from him. Xi has not had a single phone call with Zelensky since the Ukraine war began.

"We think that it's important that China has the perspective of Ukraine. Clearly, Russia's motivations are nefarious," Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told CNN on Friday. "They illegally invaded and have occupied Ukraine. We hope that President Xi and the Chinese government would be able to have the benefit of understanding what exactly the impact of their support to Russia is having."

It remains unclear when those conversations might occur, however. White House officials said there haven't been any logistical arrangements to set up a call between Biden and Xi. And there is little question that the deep personal affinity between Putin and Xi has helped enhance closer ties between their nations as they each warn of encroaching American influence.

Before the war began, the two men issued a 5,000-word statement declaring their relationship had "no limits." Since then, China has provided diplomatic support for Russia, and the US sanctioned a Chinese company for providing satellite imagery to the Russian mercenary Wagner Group.

This story was first published on CNN.com. "Biden administration skeptical of Xis intentions ahead of his summit with Putin"
Mexico not affected by sudden collapse of U.S. banks

Mexico City, Mexico  Mexico has not been affected by the sudden collapse of the U.S. Silicone Valley Bank last week. At the recent 86th Banking Convention organized by the Association of Banks of Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador listed the economic strengths of the country.

Some of his points included historical average monthly wages (16,000 peso per month), an increase in IMSS registration (more than 21 million), low unemployment rate (2.9 percent), old age pensions of 71 percent of Mexican families, an increase in tax remittances and in infrastructure projects.

During the meeting held in the International Congress Center in Merida, the President stressed that Mexico is one of the most attractive countries for foreign investment due to current economic conditions.

Last year it grew at a rate of 3.1 percent. Its not to brag, but we had higher growth than the United States and China. We also continue without contracting additional public debt. The public debt has grown less than in the last three six-year terms, he said.

When inaugurating the work of the 86th Banking Convention, President Lopez Obrador endorsed the commitment to maintain the operating standards of the banks in Mexico.

Continue to do legal business in Mexico, continue to obtain legitimate and reasonable profits, lets all continue promoting progress with justice in our country. () May the results, the work of this convention be for the benefit of individuals, families, companies and the people of Mexico, he said.

He also pointed out that his government has not increased taxes, fuel, gas and electricity prices, which has been in order to protect the popular economy.

As a result of these measures, he said, there is political stability. In addition, security work continues to reduce the crime rate, particularly homicides, kidnappings and robbery, thanks to attention to the causes of violence with special emphasis on young people.

The Association of Banks of Mexico (ABM) affirmed that the country has a stable financial system and has not registered any outflow of savers, despite the banking crisis in the United States due to the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

There is no risk of contagion due to the closure of the banks in the US. We will see this crisis pass from afar, as in 2008 and 2009, said Daniel Becker, President of the organization.

Within the framework of the 86th Banking Convention, the headline affirmed that Mexico is fine, and therefore, the increase in housing credit will continue, which in 2022 reached 147,000 new approved applications.

AMLO during the 86th Banking Convention. Photo: AMLO March 16, 2023.

The nominal growth of credit was 11%, reaching 1.2 billion pesos. This benefited 4.5 million people with a delinquency rate of 2.6 percent, he detailed.

In addition, he highlighted the importance of financial inclusion and that the credit will increase the availability of resources for families in Mexico by 35%.

We have more than 20 years without any problem or financial risk, which contributes to the stability of the country.

Regarding the effect on the Fintech sector, Becker pointed out that all will be well received among banks, as long as they correctly manage risk.

Unanimously, the ABM Board assured that they are ready to serve companies that are arriving in Mexico due to nearshoring. The relocation of supply chains to our country would represent up to an additional 50 billion dollars of investment, added the president.

Likewise, he estimated that up to 100 billion pesos can be received for this phenomenon in supply chains.

Eduardo Osuna, director of BBVA Mexico, clarified that it is still not clear how many companies are setting up in the country. However, the addition of Tesla to the national territory is of the utmost importance.
More than 600 scientists discuss development and innovation at STS in Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico  Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon inaugurated the plenary session of the STS forum, High Level Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Mexican Foreign Ministry.

There, he highlighted the importance of technological development and innovation in Mexico to face future challenges.

The opening ceremony was attended by the president of the STS forum, Hiroshi Komiyama, the president of Grupo America Movil/Telmex, Carlos Slim Domit. the Executive Vice President of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Mio Kawada, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Edmundo de Alba Alcaraz and as presenter, the General Director of Cooperation Policy of Amexcid, Javier Davila Torres.

During his participation, Secretary Ebrard asserted that if in Latin America we cannot develop an adequate scientific base and networks to develop vaccines or treatments, for example against COVID or other risks in the future, we are going to be left behind. We are not going to to have the technology that others developed at the same time.

We need to do this for ourselves, whatever the cost, right now. Lets not forget the lessons [], we can work together with the scientific community around the world, he said.

Within the framework of the STS, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard also inaugurated the room for the Latin American Innovation and Patents Exhibition, where he spoke with exhibitors about the advances of science and technology for the benefit of people.

Ebrard during STS forum. Photo: SRE March 15, 2023.

In this room, they also focused on promoting work on scientific and technological patents, with the aim of increasing the number of registrations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Among the exhibitors are the Autonomous Metropolitan University, the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition Salvador Zubiran, the Institute of Chemistry of the UNAM, the Center for Engineering and Industrial Development (Cidesi), Dereum, Cinvestav and the Swiss Embassy in Mexico.

Also there was OCTOPY, RED OTT, Eturnity, Nutrix, Rea Diagnostics SA, Leading House for the Latin American Region, University of St. Gallen, Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (UANL), ITESO, UAE Morelos, University of Berlin, the Chemical Society of Mexico, AC and the Consortium of Innovative Health Scientists, among many others.

The objective of the STS forum is to develop a global human network based on shared values that creates a space for a direct and clear dialogue about the advancement of science and technology for the benefit of humanity.

Ebrard at STS forum. Photo: SRE March 15, 2023.

The first edition of the STS forum was held at the Mexican Foreign Ministry in March 2020, thanks to the efforts made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico with the STS Forum and the Embassy of Japan in Mexico.

In a statement, Ebrard said that Switzerland, the forums guest country, plays an important role internationally in the field of science and innovation. With its cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions, its universities, research centers and start-ups, Switzerland has been leading the World Economic Forums (WEF) annual ranking of global competitiveness for 12 years. By sharing experiences, Switzerland and Mexico can take innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean to another level.
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" " University of Virginia engineer Jim Smith and Dr. Rebecca Dillingham, co-directors of PureMadi, are shown with one of the ceramic water filters their company makes and distributes in South Africa for communities with little access to clean water. University of Virginia

Food and shelter are crucial for living, but nobody can survive for very long without water. That's why, since the beginning of history, civilizations have lived near abundant sources of H20.

But it's not enough just to have plenty of it. The same water that gives life can also make people sick or even kill them, if it contains dangerous substances or disease-causing microbes. And since people use water for activities such as irrigating crops, washing and waste disposal, sources of water close to a human population can easily become contaminated [source: Hassan].

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As a result, humans have been trying to purify water for thousands of years. As far back as 1500 B.C., Egyptians used the chemical alum to filter suspended sediment out of their drinking water. But it wasn't until the late 1800s and early 1900s that scientists figured out that microbes caused illnesses and that water could be treated with chlorine or ozone to eliminate them [source: Environmental Protection Agency].

While the water that comes out of taps in most countries now is clean and safe, about 11 percent of the world's population -- 783 million people -- still doesn't have access to potable water, according to a 2012 United Nations study. So scientists are developing new methods of obtaining water and purifying it. Here are 10 of the most promising technologies.
The Ski Bees Ski Team kick off their only show of the year carrying flags as they glide across the water on Thursday, March 16, 2023 on Lake McQueeney. The team put in one last show before the drawdown that is slated to begin on Monday, March 27, 2023.
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'Trip for peace' set to bolster Russian ties

10:04, March 18, 2023 By Mo Jingxi, Ren Qi ( Chinadaily.com.cn

President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Russia from Monday to Wednesday, a trip expected to further deepen mutual trust, boost bilateral cooperation and contribute to building a multipolar world.

"At a time when the world is entering a period of uncertainty and transformation, the significance and influence of the China-Russia relationship goes far beyond the bilateral scope," Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Friday.

It will be Xi's first overseas trip since he was elected Chinese president last week and also his first visit to Russia since the Ukraine crisis broke out in February last year.

According to the spokesman, during the visit, Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin will have an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations and major international and regional affairs.

Li Yonghui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies, said the China-Russia relationship is an exceptional and important one among state-to-state relations.

"Under the guidance of the two heads of state, bilateral ties between the two countries have withstood tests and are steadily moving forward," Li said.

She added that in recent years China-Russia relations have witnessed growing political mutual trust and fruitful results of cooperation in various fields, including trade and the economy, finance, agriculture, science and technology, as well as cultural exchanges.

Bilateral trade between China and Russia hit a record high of $190 billion last year, according to the General Administration of Customs.

Wang, the ministry spokesman, said the Chinese president's visit will be "a trip for peace" as the two countries practice true multilateralism and promote greater democracy in international relations on the basis of non-alliance, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties.

He refuted some Western politicians' smearing of Sino-Russian relations, saying that the two countries' strategic partnership for coordination will benefit the two peoples and the world at large.

"It is entirely different from what certain countries have been doing, including holding on to a Cold War mentality, ganging up with other countries, forming small cliques and stirring up bloc confrontations, and engaging in hegemonic, domineering and bullying practices," Wang said.

On the Ukraine issue, the spokesman said China will uphold an objective and fair position and play a constructive role in promoting peace talks.

"We always believe that political dialogue is the only way to resolve conflicts and disputes. Acts such as fanning the flames, imposing unilateral sanctions and maximum pressure will only intensify tensions and make things worse," he said.

When asked about media reports that China will provide military support and dual-use equipment to Russia, Wang said China-Russia cooperation is completely above board and serves the purpose of delivering benefits to both peoples and promoting global growth.

"It shall be free from distraction or coercion from any third party," he said. He added that China always handles exports of military items in a prudent and responsible manner and regulates exports of dual-use items in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.

"Our consistent position and practice stand in sharp contrast with the acts of certain countries that apply double standards on arms sales and keep adding fuel to the fire of the Ukraine crisis," Wang said.

Stepan Gusamov, CEO of Ozon Global, a major Russian online retailer, said that Xi's visit is a symbol of increasing cooperation between the two countries, leading to good trade prospects. He said that since China optimized its COVID-19 response measures, "I think we will foresee a significant upgrade of partnership by both sides."

According to Gusamov, Russian consumers have a huge demand for Chinese-made goods, and this opens a golden window of opportunity for Chinese foreign trade companies and brands to enter the Russian market. He added that "now it's the best time for Chinese brands and manufacturers to enter the Russian market".

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
(CNN)  The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor believes Russian President Vladimir Putin could stand trial for alleged crimes committed during Russia's war in Ukraine, he told CNN on Friday, despite Moscow's arguments that it is not subject to the court's decisions.

In an interview with CNN's Clarissa Ward, Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan pointed to historic trials of Nazi war criminals, former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic, and former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, among others.

"All of them were mighty, powerful individuals and yet they found themselves in courtrooms," he said.

The ICC issued arrest warrants on Friday for Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia  a practice the Russian government has defended as saving them while denying that the deportations are forced.

The move has already made history by making Putin the first head of state of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to be issued with an arrest warrant, Khan pointed out.

Created to try genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and war crimes, the ICC is known as the world's "court of last resort." Though 123 countries are parties to the treaty that brought the court into existence, there are significant exceptions including Russia, the United States, Ukraine, and China. Russia withdrew from the ICC treaty under a directive signed by Putin in 2016.

The Kremlin on Friday rejected the arrest warrants as "unacceptable," arguing that it is not subject to the ICC's decisions.

"Russia, like a number of states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and, accordingly, any decisions of this kind are null and void for the Russian Federation from the point of view of law," spokesman Dmitry Peskov tweeted on Friday.

But Khan said it doesn't matter. "Article 27 of the Rome Statute makes it very clear that the official position of an individual is irrelevant to the jurisdiction of the court. The independent judges of the court have also found it appropriate" to issue the warrant, he added.

The court does not conduct trials in absentia, so Russian officials charged would either have to be handed over by Moscow or arrested outside of Russia. But ICC judges could still allow confirmation hearings  where judges assess the evidence before a trial  to proceed without them, Khan said.

The chief prosecutor also acknowledged the speed with which he has brought charges over Russia's actions in Ukraine -- notable for a court that has been often criticized for its bureaucracy.

"I think the ICC has been pedestrian in some respects and we need to accelerate," Khan said.

He said that he had been traveling in Bangladesh to investigate crimes against the Rohingya in February when he decided that the Ukrainian case could not wait.

"From the information that was coming to me from multiple sources, we had to move forward. ... When I got back to the Hague on February 28, I made it clear that I was applying to open an investigation. And I also invited states to refer the matter to my office because that would accelerate the ability for us to move forward and investigate."

Referrals came flooding in. "Within 48 hours, 39 state parties referred the Ukraine situation to my office, and it's now 43 from different parts of the world  from Japan, from Latin America, and from Europe. So that's one-third of all state parties to the court," he said.

"The simple reality is that these crimes have not been hidden," Khan also said.

Lvova-Belova, Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights, dismissed the ICC's arrest warrant against her on Friday, saying it was "great" that the international community recognized her work removing children from war zones, Russian state news agency TASS reported Friday.

"It's great that the international community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country, that we do not leave them in the war zones, that we take them out, that we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people," she said to reporters, according to TASS.

Lvova-Belova regularly visits Russian-occupied Ukraine, and the Russian government has boasted of her personally escorting planeloads of children back from the country. Putin has given Lvova-Belova the power to use unspecified "additional measures" to identify children who lack parental care in the four Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed.

UNICEF, the United Nations' children's organization, has said that "adoption should never occur during or immediately after emergencies," and that during upheaval, children separated from their parents cannot be assumed to be orphans. The UN furthermore considers forcibly transferring another country's population within or beyond its borders to be a war crime.

Thousands of Ukrainian children have been subjected to forced deportations by Russia, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who hailed the ICC's decision in his nightly address on Friday.

"In the criminal proceedings being investigated by our law enforcement officers, more than 16,000 forced deportations of Ukrainian children by the occupier have already been recorded. But the real, full number of deportees may be much higher," he said.

"Such a criminal operation would have been impossible without the order of the highest leader of the terrorist state," Zelensky added, in reference to Putin.

Despite the abundance of referrals that Khan says led him to open the case, the prosecutor emphasized that the presumption of innocence still applies.

"I would just encourage any individual in any situation before the court who has been accused and who's a suspect: If you believe you're innocent, surrender, clear your name."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Russia scoffs but Putin could stand trial for alleged war crimes, ICC chief prosecutor says."
SACRAMENTO, Calif.  Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday announced the selection of Utah-based generic drug manufacturer Civica to produce low-cost insulin for California, an unprecedented move that makes good on his promise to put state government in direct competition with the brand-name drug companies that dominate the market.

People should not be forced to go into debt to get lifesaving prescriptions, Newsom said. Californians will have access to some of the most inexpensive insulin available, helping them save thousands of dollars each year.

The contract, with an initial cost of $50 million that Newsom and his fellow Democratic lawmakers approved last year, calls for Civica to manufacture state-branded insulin and make the lifesaving drug available to any Californian who needs it, regardless of insurance coverage, by mail order and at local pharmacies. But insulin is just the beginning. Newsom said the state will also look to produce the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone.

Allan Coukell, Civicas senior vice president of public policy, told KHN that the nonprofit drugmaker is also in talks with the Newsom administration to potentially produce other generic medications, but he declined to elaborate, saying the company is focused on making cheap insulin widely available first.

We are very excited about this partnership with the state of California, Coukell said. Were not looking to have 100% of the market, but we do want 100% of people to have access to fair insulin prices.

As insulin costs for consumers have soared, Democratic lawmakers and activists have called on the industry to rein in prices. Just weeks after President Joe Biden attacked Big Pharma for jacking up insulin prices, the three drugmakers that control the insulin market  Eli Lilly and Co., Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi  announced they would slash the list prices of some products.

Newsom, who has previously accused the pharmaceutical industry of gouging Californians with sky-high prices, argued that the launch of the states generic drug label, CalRx, will add competition and apply pressure on the industry. Administration officials declined to say when Californias insulin products would be available, but experts say it could be as soon as 2025. Coukell said the state-branded medication will still require approval from the FDA, which can take roughly 10 months.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which lobbies on behalf of brand-name companies, blasted Californias move. Reid Porter, senior director of state public affairs for PhRMA, said Newsom just wants to score political points.

If the governor wants to impact what patients pay for insulins and other medicines meaningfully, he should expand his focus to others in the system that often make patients pay more than they do for medicines, Porter said, blaming pharmaceutical go-between companies, known as pharmacy benefit managers, that negotiate with manufacturers on behalf of insurers for rebates and discounts on drugs.

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, which represents pharmacy benefit managers argued in turn that its pharmaceutical companies that are to blame for high prices.

Drug pricing experts, however, say pharmacy benefit managers and drugmakers share the blame.

Newsom administration officials say that inflated insulin costs force some to pay as much as $300 per vial or $500 for a box of injectable pens, and that too many Californians with diabetes skip or ration their medication. Doing so can lead to blindness, amputations, and life-threatening conditions such as heart disease and kidney failure. Nearly 10% of California adults have diabetes.

Civica is developing three types of generic insulin, known as a biosimilar, which will be available both in vials and in injectable pens. They are expected to be interchangeable with brand-name products including Lantus, Humalog, and NovoLog. Coukell said the company would make the drug available for no more than $30 a vial, or $55 for five injectable pens.

Newsom said the states insulin will save many patients $2,000 to $4,000 a year, though critical questions about how California would get the products into the hands of consumers remain unanswered, including how it would persuade pharmacies, insurers, and retailers to distribute the drugs.

Last year, Newsom also secured $50 million in seed money to build a facility to manufacture insulin; Coukell said Civica is exploring building a plant in California.

Californias move, though never been tried by a state government, could be blunted by recent industry decisions to lower insulin prices. In March, Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi vowed to cut prices, with Lilly offering a vial at $25 per month; Novo Nordisk promising major reductions to bring the price of a particular generic vial to $48; and Sanofi also slashing prices, with one vial pegged at $64.

The governors office said it will cost the state $30 per vial to manufacture and distribute insulin and it will be sold at that price. Doing so, the administration argues, will prevent the egregious cost-shifting that happens in traditional pharmaceutical price games.

Drug pricing experts said generic production in California could further lower costs for insulin, and benefit people with high-deductible health insurance plans or no insurance.

This is an extraordinary move in the pharmaceutical industry, not just for insulin but potentially for all kinds of drugs, said Robin Feldman, a professor at the University of California College of the Law-San Francisco. Its a very difficult industry to disrupt, but California is poised to do just that.

This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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This story can be republished for free (details).
ROCK RAPIDS, Iowa  State law enforcement authorities have launched an investigation into a person who has had contact with Central Lyon Community School students.

Superintendent Brent Jorth said in a news release that he was informed by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation that a non-district employee who has had interactions with students is under investigation.

"We know that our entire school community is as stunned as we were by this news," Jorth said in the news release.

No details of the circumstances of the interactions, what type of activity may have occurred or the grade level of the students involved were given. The allegations are considered to be severe, according to the news release, and the person who is under investigation no longer has access to students or school facilities.

DCI special agent in charge Steve Van Otterloo said the investigation is ongoing and he could not release any details about the allegations or the suspect. No arrests have been made, Van Otterloo said.

The school district is cooperating with the DCI, and Jorth said he could not comment any further on the investigation.
SIOUX CITY  A judge has found a Sioux City man guilty of setting a fire that severely damaged an after-hours club.

In a verdict filed Friday, District Judge Tod Deck found Valon Jackson guilty of second-degree arson, first-degree criminal mischief and third-degree burglary for the Aug. 22, 2021, fire at the Esquire Club.

Sentencing was scheduled for May 12 in Woodbury County District Court.

Deck presided over the February trial and ruled that evidence overwhelmingly showed Jackson, 37, entered the club at 414 W. Seventh St., and lighted three incendiary devices, spreading them throughout the club. The building, which was empty at the time, sustained more than $100,000 in fire, smoke and heat damage. The fire caused approximately $20,000 in damage to personal property.

Jackson had been at the club hours earlier and returned after it had closed with another man who remains unidentified. After his arrest, Jackson described to police the three bottles of fuel stuffed with rags he used to start the fire and where he placed him before he and the other man left the building.

Jackson told police he set the fire so the building could no longer be used as an after-hours club because he believed it was being operated in a manner that was detrimental to the community.

The case was suspended for several months to determine if Jackson was mentally competent to stand trial.
ONAWA, Iowa  Jeff Pratt's fishing boat just might make it out of the garage this summer.

His duties as Monona County sheriff often kept him too busy to put his boat in the water as often as he would have liked. They also cut into spending time with his grandchildren.

He'll have more time for both come March 31, when he retires after more than 22 years in office.

"I'm ready to relax and do something different," said Pratt, who was first elected sheriff in 2000.

A Sioux City native and 1984 West High graduate, Pratt, 57, said the timing was right to retire now rather than waiting until his current term expires.

He said he's reached the maximum level for state employee retirement benefits and has been offered an opportunity to join a friend in the insurance business, a way to continue to provide protection to Monona County residents, but in a different way and at a slower pace.

"I think it will be good stress relief," Pratt said.

By retiring mid term, it gives the next sheriff a chance to serve and decide if he or she likes the job enough to run for election in 2024.

Pratt's 33-year law enforcement career will have been spent entirely in Monona County. He began working in the Onawa Police Department in 1990 before joining the sheriff's office in 1993. He rejoined the Onawa police force in 1996, ascending to the chief's position before he was elected sheriff and spent the past two decades in the office, overseeing a 24-person staff.

During that tenure, he was involved in the response to major tornadoes at the Little Sioux Scout Ranch near Blencoe in 2008 and in Mapleton in 2011. Missouri River flooding in 2011 also required long hours spent monitoring the rising waters and subsequent cleanup.

Pratt said he developed lasting friendships working with other responders during those events. He'll miss being part of that response team, but plans on remaining involved as a volunteer rather than in a law enforcement capacity. He decided that when he retires, he's hanging up his gun belt for good.

"I have enjoyed doing what I do. I have enjoyed working with the people in the county. Monona County is a great place to live," he said.

Monona County Board of Supervisors chairman Bo Fox said the board will announce plans for Pratt's replacement on March 31. The board could appoint a new sheriff or call for a special election to fill the office.
WASHINGTON  When Elise Joshi was at the White House last year, her eyes welled with happy tears as President Joe Biden hosted thousands of supporters to celebrate groundbreaking legislation targeting climate change.

"In that moment, I felt a lot of hope that the administration was listening to us," said Joshi, a California college student who is a leader of Gen-Z for Change, a coalition of young activists on social media.

Now Joshi is planning to return to Washington, but for a very different reason. She's outraged that administration officials approved the Willow project, a large-scale oil drilling proposal in Alaska, and she's organizing demonstrations with compatriots from around the country.

Biden, who is expected to announce a reelection bid, faces tension as he balances honoring his promises on climate change with meeting the nation's energy needs.

He made fighting global warming a central part of his agenda, and White House officials are quick to defend efforts to put the United States on track for steep emissions reductions in coming years.

But the decision on Willow alienated supporters, particularly young activists.

"There is disappointment. There is anger. There is frustration," said Lori Lodes, the executive director of Climate Power, an environmental advocacy group aligned with the administration.

But, she added, "what's happened on climate in the past year is nothing short of revolutionary," including hundreds of billions of financial incentives for clean energy in last year's legislation, and Republicans refused to confront the problem of global warming.

When it comes to the 2024 election, "I don't really think there's a choice," Lodes said. "If you care about the climate, there's not a choice."

White House officials acknowledged the indignation over Willow, which became a focal point for activism in recent weeks. They emphasized that ConocoPhillips has held leases in that area of Alaska for decades, strengthening the company's legal right to drill.

"The president kept his word where he can by law," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday, adding that Biden "has done more on climate change than any other president in history."

Regulators focused on paring down the project's footprint during the approval process. The final decision includes three drill sites, down from the originally proposed five, and the company relinquished about 68,000 acres of other leases as part of the deal.

Administration officials also paired the announcement with a conservation plan that bars drilling in 3 million acres of the Arctic Ocean and seeks new rules on 13 million acres of Alaska land.

While the White House said legal issues largely drove the Willow decision, there were other factors.

Gas prices spiked after Russia invaded Ukraine, a reminder of how global energy markets can become weaponized during conflict. Biden responded by urging companies to produce more oil in the U.S. Willow could generate 180,000 barrels a day once it becomes operational in the coming years.

More pressure came from the Alaska congressional delegation, which includes two Republican senators and one Democratic representative. Sen. Dan Sullivan told Fox News that he pressed Biden on how he could justify blocking Willow when the administration also lifted sanctions to allow oil imports from Venezuela, which Sullivan called "one of the most polluting places to produce oil anywhere in the world."

White House officials said the Willow project won't prevent the U.S. from meeting Biden's ambitious goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and a recent government study said the country will be able to produce 80% of its electricity without fossil fuels by 2030.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's video explaining the Willow decision was viewed more than 100,000 times on Twitter as of Thursday afternoon.

However, Joshi's post on TikTok, which described Biden as having "just slapped young people in the face," was viewed more than 860,000 times.

A TikTok video by environmentalist Alex Haraus was viewed more than 270,000 times.

"What the hell man?" he said, addressing Biden. "You approved Willow. The one thing that millions of people wrote in asking you not to do over the last three weeks?"

"The youth vote is not a given if they keep doing things like this," he said.

Environmental groups sued in a renewed effort to block Willow.

Christy Goldfuss, chief policy impact officer at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the problem for Biden is that other efforts to reduce emissions, such as raising vehicle mileage standards, have not received the same attention as Willow.

Biden also canceled a permit for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, effectively ending the project, and he placed more land off-limits to development.

Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, said some environmentalists already were frustrated by Biden's decisions to allow other oil projects, such as the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Line 3 project in the Upper Midwest.

"These are open wounds, and (Willow's approval) just adds to it," she said.

In an Associated Press-NORC poll from February, most Democrats said they approved of how Biden is handling both his job as president and climate change. But Democrats ages 18 through 34 were less favorable on both marks.

Most expensive climate disasters in recent decades Most expensive climate disasters in recent decades #50. Midwest, Plains, and Southeast drought (2006) #49. Southeast drought (1983) #48. Hurricane Opal #47. Hurricane Fran #46. Western/Southern Plains drought and heatwave (2022) #45. Western drought and heatwave (2021) #44. US drought (2008) #43. South Plains severe weather #42. Hurricane Georges #41. Western wildfires #40. East Coast blizzard and severe weather #39. Hurricane Floyd #38. Hurricane Jeanne #37. Midwest/Southeast tornadoes #36. Hurricane Matthew #35. Louisiana flooding #34. Missouri River and North Central flooding #33. Central severe weather - Derecho #32. Western/Plains drought and heat wave (2013) #31. Southeast/Ohio Valley/Midwest tornadoes #30. Midwest flooding (2008) #29. Tropical Storm Allison #28. US drought (2002) #27. Hurricane Frances #26. Southern Plains/Southwest drought and heat wave #25. Hurricane Irene #24. Western wildfires - California, Oregon, Washington firestorms (2020) #23. Hurricane Hugo #22. Western wildfires, California firestorm (2017) #21. Hurricane Charley #20. Northwest, Central, Eastern winter storm and cold wave #19. Hurricane Laura #18. Hurricane Rita #17. Western wildfires, California firestorm (2018) #16. Hurricane Florence #15. Hurricane Wilma #14. Hurricane Michael #13. Hurricane Ivan #12. Central/Eastern drought and heat wave (1980) #11. US drought and heat wave (2012) #10. Hurricane Ike #9. Midwest flooding (1993) #8. US drought and heat wave (1988) #7. Hurricane Andrew #6. Hurricane Irma #5. Hurricane Ida #4. Hurricane Sandy #3. Hurricane Maria #2. Hurricane Harvey #1. Hurricane Katrina
As the Nebraska Legislature heads toward a debate over whether the state should drastically limit abortion access, one lawmaker is looking to give voters a say on the matter.

The Legislatures Health and Human Services Committee held a public hearing Thursday on two amendments that would enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution. Both were introduced by Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha, who has led opposition to recent attempts to restrict abortion access in the state.

Legislative Resolution 18CA seeks to amend Nebraskas Bill of Rights, adding the words reproductive freedom to the list of each individuals inalienable rights. LR19CA would add a new section to the state constitution, establishing a persons right to make decisions related to their pregnancy, including contraception and abortion, and prohibiting the state from penalizing individuals based on those decisions.

If passed by lawmakers  an outcome that even Hunt acknowledged is improbable  each proposal would then go on the ballot in 2024 for voter approval. Legislative action is one of two ways to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot in Nebraska, with the other being a petition drive.

This is an issue that the Supreme Court has said goes to the states, Hunt said. And I think in Nebraska, the ultimate authority has to be the people.

Thursdays hearing drew dozens to testify both for and against each resolution. In addition, hundreds submitted written comments online, with more than 100 of them supporting both proposals, and more than 400 opposing each one.

Aside from Hunts proposals, lawmakers are embroiled in a debate about LB626, which would ban most abortions in the state at about six weeks of pregnancy, once embryonic cardiac activity can be detected.

While Hunts amendments are unlikely to make it out of committee, the fate of LB626 was thrown into question this week. A presumed supporter of the bill, Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston, introduced an amendment to LB626 on Wednesday that would ban abortions at 12 weeks instead of six. Riepe told reporters that he had signers remorse about co-sponsoring the legislation.

Losing Riepes support would threaten the ability of LB626 to overcome a filibuster, but he clarified Thursday that he does plan to support the bill in a cloture vote.

Hunt said she opposes LB626 and Riepes amendment.

Abortion rights have been a weighty topic in Nebraska the past two legislative sessions. The debate took on a new sense of urgency after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade in June.

Officials on both sides of debate have claimed the majority of Nebraskans agree with them, presenting competing data sets that paint different pictures on where public opinion stands.

Hunt argued that if LB626s supporters are confident that the majority of voters agree with them, they shouldnt be opposed to putting the issue on the ballot.

If thats true, lets let them tell us, Hunt said.

Several supporters of the proposed constitutional amendments echoed that sentiment. Lisa Lewis, with the Jewish Federation of Omaha, argued that increasing restrictions on abortion would also be restricting Jewish traditions, which she said values a womans life over all else.

Meanwhile, opponents voiced many of the same arguments made in support of LB626: that everyone has an inherent right to life, and abortions end some of those lives. Several people argued that language in the proposals contradicts the inalienable right to life already established in the states Bill of Rights.

We cannot disregard that abortion is a death sentence, said opponent Steve Davies.

Opponents also criticized the resolutions for not placing any limitations on abortions, leading several testifiers to conclude that the proposals would effectively allow abortions up to full term. Hunt said she did not want to regulate that aspect of the law, as she believes the courts should decide that limitation.

Hunt conceded she does not believe her resolutions will advance out of committee  the same committee that advanced LB626 several weeks ago. However, she expressed confidence that abortion rights will still make it on the Nebraska ballot through other means, such as a ballot initiative.

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On July 20, 1984, a small group of protesters, many dressed in homemade costumes reminiscent of concentration camp prisoner uniforms, demonstrated against a meeting of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council in Washington. Seen from the hindsight of 2023, when both historical ignorance about the history of the Holocaust and outright Holocaust denial are on the rise in the United States, it might seem reasonable to assume that these protesters against the Holocaust Memorial Council were motivated by far-right ideologies.

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But rather than advocating against Holocaust remembrance altogether, these demonstrators were there to call for a more inclusive reckoning with Nazi Germanys legacy. Carrying signs that read US Gypsies Demand Representation on Holocaust Memorial Council and Why No Gypsy RepresentativesRacism Betrays Ideal of Holocaust Memorial Council, these Romani activists had gathered in Washington to insist that the genocide of Europes Roma be commemorated alongside the genocide of Europes Jews.

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The fact that approximately 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime during World War II is well-known to educated Americans. Much less well-known are the facts of Roma persecution during World War II. Historians estimate that between 250,000 and 500,000 Romani people were systematically murdered by the German regime, out of a prewar European population of perhaps 1 million.

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And yet the large-scale polls designed to measure American knowledge of the Holocaust rarely ask about Roma persecution at all, an omission that points toward the broad ignorance of this major, genocidal chapter in modern history. Not until 1982 did West Germany officially acknowledge that the Roma had been victims of a genocide at all. Against the backdrop of this illiteracy, and of the continued discrimination that Roma faced in Europe during the decades after World War II, those activists converged outside the Holocaust Memorial Councils meeting in 1984 to demand that the injustices committed against their community not be relegated to a historical footnote, known only to specialist scholars, but that they receive the public commemoration they deserve.

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In his new book, Rain of Ash: Roma, Jews, and the Holocaust, historian Ari Joskowicza professor at Vanderbilt University and the grandson of Jewish holocaust survivorsprovides the first comprehensive account of the complicated, often contradictory, relationships between Jews and Roma during and after their genocides under Nazi Germany. Drawing on exhaustive research from primary sources in several languages, Joskowicz offers a fascinating and often heartbreaking account of the Roma struggle for justice and restitution in the face of persecution. Along the way, he offers insight on vital questions whose relevance extends far beyond the legacy of World War II, as he explores how different victims of the same oppressor can act in solidarity with one another, even as the circumstances of their oppression force them into competition for finite resources and for public recognition of an idealized victimhood.

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The extreme postwar injustices Joskowicz presents do not make for easy reading and are often infuriating. He describes the 1956 decision by West Germanys Federal Court of Justice (the entity that was, in that country, analogous to the Supreme Court of the United States), which ruled that Nazi deportations of Roma from Germany to foreign countries and concentration camps before 1943 were not necessarily racially motivated, because it was an established fact that Gypsies were asocial. (In 1971, delegates at the inaugural World Romani Congress voted unanimously to support a declaration that the word Gypsy is pejorative and that the terms Roma and Romani are preferable. Following Joskowiczs approach, this review uses that standard contemporary terminology, while putting the word Gypsy in quotation marks when referring to historical usages.)

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This court ruling relied on a perverse form of logic to legitimize German persecution of Romani people. Unlike the Nazi mistreatment and genocide of Jews, the West German court claimed, which were caused exclusively by bigotry, Nazi deportations of Roma were at least initially based on reasonable concern over Roma criminality, even if the Nazi response to that criminality was sometimes too extreme. The court failed to consider the obvious truth that this concern over Roma criminality was itself a symptom of bigotry and instead claimed that Gypsies, because of their supposed asocial behavior, had instigated their own oppression. In doing so, this ruling made it much harder for Roma to receive the compensation, such as financial restitution for stolen property, to which they were entitled.

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This was not the only instance Joskowicz discusses of Nazi-era anti-Roma measures being legitimized by postwar European governments. In 1947, the Bavarian parliament unanimously voted to ask the American occupation authorities to build a prison at the site of the Dachau concentration camp as a facility for the internment and reeducation of work-shy individuals, a term often used as a euphemism for Roma. The Americans, already disturbed by Bavarian anti-Roma policy, rejected this request. And in France, the administrators of some Roma prison camps kept their inmates incarcerated after the war had ended; until 1969, Joskowicz writes, the French state even maintained the same registration system for so-called nomads that was previously used by  the Vichy regime during the Second World War. Over and over again, Rain of Ash shows the brutal ways that anti-Roma bigotry continued after the fall of Nazism.

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But Rain of Ash also describes the Jews who fought for the rights of those of their fellow victims of the Nazi regime who werent Jewish. Kurt May, a German Jewish World War I veteran and lawyer who had survived the war in Palestine and returned to Frankfurt afterward to help victims of Nazism fight for compensation, orchestrated the attempt to overturn the 1956 court ruling that had blamed the Roma for their own victimization. He coordinated a diverse network of both Jewish and non-Jewish lawyers and scholars in order to correct the courts egregious error, and wrote in a letter, It relieves my conscience to know that these Gypsies, who were hunted down by the Nazis, will finally get their right.

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The great virtue of Joskowiczs book, alongside the comprehensiveness of its research, is its refusal to reduce any of the weighty issues it discusses to abstractions, or to stray from the complex and often contradictory human experiences at stake. Instead, Joskowicz grounds his account in the lives of the people whose suffering and whose activism animate his scholarship. That letter by May, quoted above, was written to Hans Buchheim, a German historian who used his expertise to demonstrate that Nazi persecution of Roma was motivated essentially by racial animus.

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In this, Buchheim acted as an ally to the victims of Nazism. But real human experiences are more complex than simple categories of victim, ally, and perpetrator allow for, as Joskowicz suggests when he notes that Buchheim had served as a Nazi soldier and was close to Reinhard Gehlen, who supported an assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler while also directing the German militarys intelligence operations on its eastern front, where many of the worst massacres and abuses of Jews and Roma took place. As Joskowicz writes, these contradictions are a living monument to the paradoxes of German attempts to rebuild a democratic society from the ruins of a racist dictatorship with mass appeal.

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Joskowicz treats his Jewish and Roma subjects with as much nuance, insisting that human lives cannot be reduced to neat categories in a hierarchy of persecution and victimhood. He describes instances of violence between Jews and Roma under Nazi occupation, as in Elie Wiesels description of a Romani guard at Auschwitz beating Wiesels father, and writes movingly of the fact that many Jewish victims at Auschwitz envied the Roma who were incarcerated alongside them, because Auschwitzs Gypsy camp allowed its prisoners to remain with their families.

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But the brutal liquidation of the Gypsy camp, on the night of Aug. 2, 1944, in which the SS murdered two-thirds of Auschwitzs Roma inmates and dispersed the rest among other concentration camps, caused many Jews in Auschwitz to shift from seeing Roma as an abstract category of relatively privileged competitors for survival, and to view them instead as fellow victims who deserved empathy and solidarity. Few Jews saw the murder of their Roma fellow inmates on that August night, but a number vividly remembered hearing their screams. Many Jewish witnesses, Joskowicz summarizes, described the night as the worst they experienced in Auschwitz, largely based on the sounds they heard. Against a system of oppression that functioned in part by pitting Roma and Jews against each other, the tangible encounter with each others suffering forced these distinct groups to see each other as allies rather than as competitors.

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We should not presume, Joskowicz writes, that people who have experienced oppression or persecution will necessarily have a greater capacity to hear others stories of suffering or to feel connected to other victims. Indeed, his book is full of anecdotes about Holocaust survivors and their descendants whose trauma makes them less receptive, not more, to empathy with other victims of oppression. The hesitancy within the Holocaust Memorial Council to include the Roma genocide fully within their narrative of the Holocaustthe target of that 1984 protestis just one example of this. But Joskowicz provides even more counterexamples of the ways that different victims of the same oppressor can come together in mutual support.

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Though the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington still does not include Roma experiences in the ways that many survivors and their family members would prefer, it has become one of the worlds preeminent centers for academic research about Roma persecution. Without the archives that the Holocaust Memorial Council has gathered, and the research it supports, much less would be known today about the fate of Romani people under Nazi fascism.

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This is the broader lesson Rain of Ash offers, beyond the particulars of its scholarship: supporting others based on abstracted categories of victimhood is much less meaningful than learning about the realities of human experience, injustice, and cruelty. As Joskowicz writes, empathy without knowledge is fleeting. He ends his book, after surveying much depressing material, with an inspiring discussion of the 21st-century Roma-Jewish activism and solidarity that has arisen out of a willingness for Romani and Jews to hear each others stories, in all their contradiction and complexity.

In 2009 and 2010, when the French government led by Nicolas Sarkozy deported thousands of non-French Romani to Romania and Bulgaria and destroyed dozens of Roma settlements, the Union of French Jewish Students (known by its French acronym, UEJF) joined forces with the umbrella organization of French Romani groups in order to protest this injustice. These joint demonstrations initiated a new era of solidarity, and in 2011 UEJF and its Roma partners organized a shared journey to Holocaust memorial sites in Poland.

Joskowicz writes that, Unlike their predecessors thirty years ago, Romani activists today have every reason to expect their Jewish counterparts to know something about their struggles and believe in their shared interests. Roma and Jews regularly form alliances that would have made little sense before the Nazi era, and had little traction in the decades immediately after the war. As far-right and ethnonationalist movements gain power and publicity across the world, such inter-group activism is increasingly urgent. The Roma-Jewish alliances Joskowicz describes present a model of how different groups of victims can meet one another not as competitors for restitution, or for public acknowledgement of marginalization, but rather as allies in the struggle for a more just world.
New York Citys latest celebrity fascination is fluffy, on the loose, and remarkably adept at hunting rodents. After escaping from Central Park Zoo and establishing himself in Central Park in February, Flaco has captured the imaginations of New Yorkers, amassing large crowds eager to see him enjoy his newfound freedom. But, as Lady Gaga showed us all in her 2009 magnum opus, celebrity can have serious downsides. Is Flacos fame more harmful than hurtful?

All the attention could make it hard for the Eurasian Eagle Owl to get a bite to eat. Rochelle Thomas, the Greenwich Center Director for the Audubon Society, says that crowds could raise his profile, meaning that hes more visible to prey, and this could impact his late-night hunting abilities. She described a phenomenon known as mobbing where birds like blue jays will make a call alerting prey animals that theres an owl nearbyand theyre more likely to do this when there are a lot of people around. This means that Flaco could have to spend more energy hunting than he would if he were left alone.

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In general, humans observing a bird or a coyote or whatever is not really good for the animal, said Ted Floyd, the Editor at Birding Magazine. As is the case for humans, its just harder for animals to relax if theyre surrounded by fans constantly. The attention could result in Flaco having to spend energy looking for hiding spots. All that energy expenditure, in turn, leads to the need for more food. All this means that owls should probably have a limited relationship with the internet. In an email, Dustin Partridge, Director of Conservation & Science at NYC Audubon, told me that because owls are easily disturbed, we do not condone the public posting of owl locations, like on social media or listserves.

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However, Flacos fame could benefit other birds. Thomas described owls like Flaco as charismatic megafauna, which can act as an expressive proxy for other birds and wildlife. Flaco may prompt people to also pay attention to other kinds of urban wildlife that didnt escape from the zoo. In a sort of sad irony for Flaco, a lot of the educational value from celeb birds is in raising awareness around the challenges that urban birds, especially hunters, face. Rodenticide meant to combat rats can find its way into the raptors that eat them; window collisions kill more than 90,000 birds a year; cars are an ever-present threat. In 2021, another celebrity owl, Barry the barred owl, was killed from a vehicle collision that may have been caused in part by a buildup of rat poison in her body.

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The dramatic downfall of a celeb bird, while tragic, can spur people to take action to protect urban birds. According to Partridge, you can make your windows safer by making them more visible, like letting them be dirty or applying bird-friendly film. You can also reach out to your building management to ask if rodenticide is being used try to get them to reduce how much they use. Finally, you can make extra efforts to turn off as many lights as possible at night, as they can confuse migratory birds and cause more window collisions.

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Educational value aside, theres also something to be said for just appreciating the aesthetic beauty of seeing an owl in the wild. Seeing one is just an incredibly bewitching, arresting moment, Floyd said.

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All of this was starting to make me really want to see Flaco for myself, but I felt conflicted about possibly adding to the crowds. Despite their warnings, experts I spoke to told me that it is possible to observe birds like Flaco in a way that minimizes disruption to them. Thomas calls it owl-iquette and it includes not getting too close, not playing owl calls loudly, and keeping an eye out for agitated behaviors like if its staring at you. (Luckily, Flaco is very girthy, so hes easy to spot while keeping a solid distance.)

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Emboldened, I decided to journey into the wilds of Central Park. After spotting a small throng of people, I knew I had found my quarry. There were about 18 people keeping a 10 foot radius from a tree where Flaco was hanging out. I was pleasantly surprised by how quiet people were, speaking in hushed tones only intermittently, though there was a flood of camera shutters when he moved his head or coughed up a pellet. Most of them brought binoculars and professional-looking cameras, and I quickly realized that I was sorely underprepared with my glasses and iPhone camera. But even with just my eyes, I understood what Floyd meant by how striking he was, and I found it very difficult to walk away after half an hour of just staring at an owl. Maybe birders are onto something. That said, I would feel uncomfortable with continuing to crowd Flacos space. I think this will be the last time I go out looking for Flaco myself, though I will still fawn over photos other people take.

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In our conversation, Partridge encouraged people to enjoy the other birds in Central Park. Even before I found Flaco, I found myself looking more carefully at the other birds on my way, especially the common ones Ive grown accustomed to. Flaco is magnificent, but hes far from the only wonder of the park. When I asked Partridge what his favorite bird is, he said that right now, its the American Woodcock, which is currently visible in Central Park as it stops on its migration North. I didnt find any on my latest sojourn, but I think Ill try to see one of those nextfrom a distance.
A hunting party in Haywood County led by Jeff Teague broke the previous western North Carolina record on Oct. 18, 2022, when they took down a 695-pound black bear. It was just the second day of North Carolina's open season.
The world's only Love Bank burned down during a huge fire on Saturday.

A fire engulfs Banka Lasky, or Love Bank in English, on the March 18 morning in Banska Stiavnica, central Slovakia. (Source: Facebook/Eduard Heger)

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The Love Bank, a popular tourist attraction in the historical centre of Banska Stiavnica, has been destroyed after the old building in which this unique bank is housed went up in flames on Saturday morning.

Due to the strong wind, hilly terrain, narrow streets and old houses attached to one another, the fire spread across several structures along the roofs. It lasted several hours before firefighters managed to contain the fire.

The cause of the fire is not yet known. The Banska Bystrica Region Police said it was probably a short circuit. Some people on Facebook suggested that the fire could have been prevented if the electrical system maintenance in the building had not been neglected.

Many volunteers, soldiers and firefighters, both from Banska Stiavnica and nearby towns, tried to put out the fire in the UNESCO town on Saturday.

Banska Stiavnica, with a rich mining history, and the surrounding technical monuments, were inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1993.

Soon after the fire broke out, the central Slovak town asked local people via Facebook to come and help save exhibits from the Jozef Kollar Art Gallery. The gallery is located several metres from the Love Bank. The Dennik N daily estimates that up to 300 people created a human chain to help save the exhibits. They are now stored in the Old Castle. Volunteers also helped save valuable exhibits from the Slovak Mining Archives, a building right next to the Love Bank.

The Love Bank is located on Holy Trinity Square, the towns main square. Several other buildings caught fire, including a music school, pizzeria, and the Eleuzina cultural centre . The centre is located above the Love Bank and offers a splendid view of the hilly town.

Up to now, five roofs belonging to national cultural monuments have already burned down, the interim Culture Minister Natalia Milanova said on Saturday afternoon. The Slovak Mining Museum and one gallery remain in acute danger.

Shortly before 17:00, interim PM Eduard Heger announced that the major fire was under control, the TASR news agency wrote. Seven buildings in total caught fire and are now damaged, the interim prime minister added. Firefighters will remain in the area until Sunday morning.

On Saturday, the Donio fundraising website launched an initiative to raise money for the town. Heger also said that his cabinet will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss how the interim government will help.

[Banska Stiavnica] is a jewel of our cultural heritage, many tourists come to visit, Heger said. We want this town to continue to prosper from tourism.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky tweeted on Saturday that Czechia is ready to help as well.

For now, the centre of Banska Stiavnica remains closed to the public until further notice, the town said.

The Love Bank, the only such bank in the world, stores several thousands of love stories from around the world. The project is inspired by and devoted to the longest love poem in the world. Written in 1844 by Slovak poet Andrej Sladkovic, Marina is 2,900 verses long.
(CNN)  Japan has moved hundreds of troops, including missile units, into a new base built on a remote island near China and Taiwan as its seeks to bolster its defensive capabilities in the region.

Up to 570 Ground Self-Defense Force members will be stationed at the newly established garrison on Ishigaki island in Okinawa prefecture, the countrys military said, confirming the troops moved in on Thursday.

Ishigaki, which is famous among holidaymakers and scuba divers for its tropical waters, is located just 200 kilometers south of the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, an uninhabited island chain also claimed by China and Taiwan.

The islands, which are known in China as the Diaoyu Islands and Diaoyutai in Taiwan, have become one of the focus points of increasing tensions in the region.

Among the units dispatched on Thursday were missile squads capable of launching land-to-ship and land-to-air missiles, according to the Japanese forces.

Japan has been ramping up the construction of military bases in Okinawa, the band of 150 islands that curves to the south of Japans main islands in the East China Sea.

The Ishigaki base is Japans fourth such military station since 2016 when the Yonaguni outpost was staffed with 160 troops to conduct coastal surveillance.

Two more bases in Amami Oshima and Miyakojima followed in 2019, where medium-range surface-to-air guided missiles and type 12 short-range surface-to-ship guided missiles were stationed.

Speaking to CNN last year, Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, Japans Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) chief of staff, said the extra defense capability was needed to send a strong message to territorial rivals.

We must protect our countrys territorial sovereignty at all costs. And, we need to send our message that we will firmly defend our country, he said.

Regional tensions

The waters sandwiched between Japan, mainland China and Taiwan have long been a contentious point.

According to Japans Ministry of Defense, the number of Chinese warships spotted within the islands contiguous zone, defined as within 24 nautical miles of its coast, has gone up from about 20 two decades ago to 71 in 2021.

Chinas Foreign Ministry has told CNN that the Chinese Coast Guards patrols around the waters surrounding the islands were an appropriate exercise of Chinas sovereign right.

Matters were further complicated by Beijings souring relationship with Taiwan following former US House speaker Nancy Pelosis visit last year to the self-ruled island, triggering Chinas furious response to step up military exercises in the region.

Chinas ruling Communist Party has never controlled Taiwan, but claims the democratic island as its own territory and does not rule out taking it by force if necessary.

China is also increasing its presence in the skies around Taiwan, repeatedly sending warplanes into the islands air defense identification zone (ADIZ), prompting Taipei to deploy combat air patrol planes, issue radio warnings and activate air defense missile systems.

Japan has also scrambled fighter jets in response to Chinese aircraft approaching its airspace.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Japan moves missile capable troops into remote island base as regional tensions rise"
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230317/world-council-of-churches-concerned-about-oppression-of-monks-in-kiev-pechersk-lavra-1108521640.html

World Council of Churches Concerned About Oppression of Monks in Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

World Council of Churches Concerned About Oppression of Monks in Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Jerry Pillay on Friday questioned the Ukrainian government's respect for freedom of belief after it tried to evict the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

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On March 10, the National Kiev-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Preserve in Ukraine ordered the monks based in the monastery to leave it by March 29 after an interdepartmental Ukrainian commission accused the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of violating the terms of an agreement on the use of state property. Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said the monks could stay in the Lavra if they joined the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), a decision that might be "stimulated through the joint work of specialists and law enforcement officers."The WCC will continue to monitor the situation and respond to its development in accordance with international principles for the protection of human rights and freedom of religion, Pillay added.The Russian Orthodox Church says the UOC is a "self-governing church with the rights of broad autonomy" within the Moscow Patriarchate. However, in the wake of the military operation that Russia launched in Ukraine a year ago, the UOC said that it was independent from the Moscow Patriarchate and did not support the conflict. In January, the Ukrainian government submitted a bill to parliament that seeks to ban the UOC in Ukraine if its connection with Russia is proven.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/blood-and-chaos-russian-journalist-recounts-2003-baghdad-bombings-1108536205.html

Blood and Chaos: Russian Journalist Recounts 2003 Baghdad Bombings

Blood and Chaos: Russian Journalist Recounts 2003 Baghdad Bombings

The Russian television reporter was in Baghdad on the morning of March 20, 2003. As American bombs began to pound the Iraqi capital, Minakov found himself at the center of the massive shelling.

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20 years since us invasion of iraq

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He sought to leave the city as part of a Russian diplomatic convoy on April 6. However, as the Russian convoy began heading towards the Jordanian border, it came under fire - presumably by US troops. The attack resulted in several Russian diplomatic personnel being heavily wounded.Sputnik sat down with Minakov, who is now a political observer with the Russian state TV broadcaster VGTRK, to talk about the early days of the US invasion of Iraq and why the adventure went horribly wrong.Sputnik: You were the first journalist in the world to cover the beginning of the bombing of Baghdad. Do you remember that day? How did it go?Alexander Minakov: You know, about three days before the big event, there was already a tense, heated atmosphere in Baghdad among journalists. Everybody knew very well that there was going to be a very serious war and there was going to be serious bombing of Baghdad.There is an important point here that explains a lot about why I was the first journalist to cover the beginning of the bombing of Baghdad. The Iraqi authorities forced all journalists to stay in the two largest hotels in Baghdad. Understandably, to keep everyone under control. I understood that if I ended up there, in that "birdhouse," it would be very difficult to work. We paid for our rooms. That is, we officially registered and paid as if we lived there. But a few days earlier, under the cover of night, we went to live with my driver, Omar, an Iraqi, in a private house in southwest Baghdad.Coincidentally, it was the night of March 19-20 that I decided to sleep in the car. Something inside me was telling me to do that. Somehow I was already "tuned in" to this war or something, I don't know. The cameraman, the sound man and the driver slept in the house, and I slept in the car. Then at about 5:30, or a little earlier, I opened my eyes and heard a distant rumbling, like an airplane. Nothing like that had been heard in Baghdad lately, and I knew immediately that it was no accident. I rushed to my satellite phone and began calling Vesti, the newsroom in Moscow. Just as the phone signal was about to "go up" to the satellite, I heard the first explosions. It was about 300-400 meters away. I was immediately put on the air. I began to tell them that "the first bombs began to fall," and so on.And of course at that moment I didn't even know if I was the first or not, I just reported that bombs had fallen in my neighborhood. And then when the cameraman went up to the roof of the building, he started shooting, there were other explosions. In other areas of Baghdad: not only bombs, but cruise missiles were hitting there. I mean, it was quite a massive strike.Sputnik: On April 6, 2003, the Russian diplomatic convoy with Russia's ambassador to Iraq, Vladimir Titorenko, came under fire on its way to Fallujah. Practically everything indicated that it had been shelled by American troops. You were in that convoy. How did it all happen? Were the Americans really shooting?Alexander Minakov: March 20 and April 6 are now important days for me. Also, on April 6, our diplomats with whom we were in that situation and I are still in touch by phone. We consider it our second "birthday" because we were in a very serious situation.My tour of duty was coming to an end, and my colleague Andrey Medvedev was going to replace me. It was very difficult because Baghdad was already surrounded by American troops and there was fighting on the outskirts. Our diplomats came to us and offered to evacuate because the embassy itself was being evacuated. They coordinated the withdrawal of this convoy from Baghdad with the American troops and with the Iraqi troops, the so-called green corridor. We agreed, and we finally left at about 9 a.m. on April 6. There were six embassy cars and two [Chevrolet] Suburban press cars in the convoy. Everything was quiet, and we relaxed and began to think that we would get on the highway, drive to Jordan, and fly back to our native Moscow.And at some point, massive shelling started. Within seconds, there wasn't a single piece of glass left in the car. It felt like the bullets were flying between all of us. Since we were at the end of the column, I wasn't very aware of what was going on up ahead. As soon as the attack started  from machine guns  we jumped out of the car. And then more massive shooting started, including mortar fire. I even have footage in my archive of a shell exploding literally 50 meters away from us.Of course, we recorded everything we could in that situation. It lasted about 25 minutes; we couldn't lift our heads. But I could see that the diplomats in front of us and our journalists were also hiding on the side of the road. Then the shooting started to die down. Another 35 minutes passed and everything calmed down.I crawled over to the first car in which the ambassador was riding and saw the driver's head resting on the steering wheel. I realized he had been badly wounded or killed. I raised him up and he was moaning, his shirt was covered with blood. He had two gunshot wounds. Thank God we always carry a first aid kit. I bandaged him up as fast as I could to stop the bleeding. There were two civilian cars in front of us, and four people were killed in them. The ambassador's driver, Vladimir Arkhipov, was wounded, and another diplomat was badly wounded in the head by shrapnel. Two of the cars were completely disabled.And then, about 15 minutes later, an armored column of US troops passed by.Sputnik: Was it clear at the time who was firing the guns?Alexander Minakov: At that point, it became clear to us. We have worked in wars for a long time and we know that any armored column, especially one like this, is usually accompanied by special forces who go ahead and monitor the situation to make sure there are no saboteurs. And we realized that it was a group of US special forces that accompanied this armored column that opened fire on us.Sputnik: The media reported that bullets from American M-16 rifles were found at the scene of the shooting. Is this true?Alexander Minakov: We found them in our cars. There was no need to look for them. Ambassador Vladimir Titorenko showed these bullets directly to the camera. They were, of course, M-16 bullets.Sputnik: The Americans declared that the fight against terrorism was one of the main goals of the invasion of Iraq. Although Moscow did not support the invasion itself, it had repeatedly declared its solidarity with the United States in the fight against terrorism. Why were the coalition forces - American and Australian soldiers in Iraq - so rough on the Russians in the end? The shooting of the convoy was not the only example of hostility, was it?Alexander Minakov: Well, you know, the Americans, they didn't just treat the Russians that way, they didn't single anybody out. They treated everybody like that, you know? As many times as we encountered the US military - very rarely were they polite. It was always a very rude way of communicating.Here is a vivid example of how they view other people's lives, especially the lives of journalists. They knew very well that many foreign journalists - European, American, Russian - lived in the Palestine Hotel. And when on April 8 [2003] an American Abrams tank opened direct fire from a bridge on the Palestine Hotel, three people were killed: two Spanish journalists and a Reuters camera operator - a good friend of mine, a Ukrainian named Taras Protsyuk, with whom we used to work in Chechnya. Several people were wounded, a Japanese man lost his leg. Why in the world would they fire on a hotel that posed no danger to anyone? That's why they have this arrogant, geopolitical style, just like they had then and they have now.Sputnik: Has the world, America, and the Middle East learned the lessons of the Iraq War?Alexander Minakov: Everyone understood very well that the Americans had simply "blown up" the region. I remember months before the war started, people from other parts of the country came to Central Park in Baghdad for Ramadan. It was a celebration, people were happy. It was a normal, peaceful country.Of course, they had their problems there. But they didn't have such serious problems in terms of life before the war. Saddam Hussein used his authoritarianism to hold the differences between the Shiites, the Sunnis, and the Kurds. These three regions had very different interests, ambitions, and cultural attitudes. Understandably, the methods he used to contain their differences were quite harsh, and sometimes brutal. But after the Americans "brought down" Saddam Hussein's regime, chaos ensued.When you go out to shoot some scenes, you get an explosion on the way: a hotel was blown up, there was a terrorist attack, some groups were fighting each other. Then they blew up an American convoy, shot at it, and so on. The country went from maybe a totalitarian country to a chaotic country where blood started to flow. When I made my documentary "Russian Iraq" in 2004, I kind of foresaw that this would happen, but in fact, it wasn't that hard to predict.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230317/us-squandered-its-unipolar-moment-by-sowing-destruction-over-last-25-years-1108510611.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/senior-iraqi-military-tells-sputnik-about-american-crimes-during-2003-invasion-of-iraq-1108538945.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/corrupted-icc-is-a-tool-to-be-used-by-nato-leaders-but-never-against-them-1108527736.html

'Corrupted' ICC Is a Tool to Be 'Used by NATO Leaders, But Never Against Them'

'Corrupted' ICC Is a Tool to Be 'Used by NATO Leaders, But Never Against Them'

NATO is using "corrupted International Criminal Court against Russia, said Tim Anderson, Director of the Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies.

2023-03-18T11:03+0000

2023-03-18T11:03+0000

2023-03-18T11:03+0000

analysis

russia

vladimir putin

ukraine

international criminal court (icc)

rodrigo duterte

omar bashir

2003 invasion of iraq

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The International Criminal Court (ICC), which on 17 March put out "orders of arrest" against Russian President Vladimir Putin and childrens rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, has been captured by states belonging to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to serve its purpose, writer and academic Tim Anderson told Sputnik.The ICC justified its decision on the grounds of alleged "unlawful deportation" of Ukrainian children from the conflict zone to Russia, despite Moscow repeatedly insisting that it is trying to relocate civilians, including children, away from frontline areas. Russias officials and diplomats have publicly highlighted that residents often face indiscriminate shelling attacks by the Kiev regime on civilian infrastructure.The expert was referring to documented OPCW efforts to censor and smear agency whistleblowers who revealed that the watchdogs report on the April 2018 chemical attack in Douma, Syria, was doctored to implicate the Assad government. Furthermore, the timing of the move by the Hague-based ICC against Russias President has been likened to "some kind of sick joke" by Anderson. Coming on the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, he said it could only serve as a reminder that the court in question was a tool to be "used by NATO leaders and never against them".The fact that US President Joe Biden vocally supported the ICC's "arrest warrant" against Vladimir Putin, saying on Friday that it is "justified", is a typical case of double standards wielded by Washington, Dr Marco Marsili, Researcher at Ca Foscari University of Venice, told Sputnik.He also recalled how Moscow earlier dismissed the warrants, saying The Hague's decrees were "legally null and void", since Russia is not a party to the ICC's Rome Statute and has no obligations under it, and is not engaged in cooperation with this body."South Africa, Burundi and The Gambia (2016), Russia (2016) and the Philippines (2018) withdrew from the ICC, accusing it of being an instrument of political pressure of Western powers. They revoked their withdrawal. Russia did not," recalled the associate fellow at the Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis, adding:As for "double standards" at play, Dr Marco Marsili quoted remarks made by US officials denying the ICC's authority over the US and its ally Israel.Indeed, Pompeo, under the presidency of Donald Trump, fumed in June 2020 that, "the ICC and the world will see that we are determined to prevent having Americans and our friends and allies in Israel and elsewhere hauled in by this corrupt ICC".However, according to the former election observer for the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the US "supported" the ICC's targeting of President Putin, but "denied the Court prosecutor and her assistants the authorization for entering the country to investigate American political and military leaders for alleged crimes committed in the war on terror on foreign soil (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc).""This is double standards," Marsili concluded

https://sputnikglobe.com/20220320/on-anniversary-of-invasion-of-iraq-arab-league-ex-chief-reflects-on-us-lies---miscalculations-1094037461.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20200602/pompeo-us-will-stop-corrupt-icc-from-probing-americans-israelis-for-alleged-war-crimes-1079500166.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/absurd-icc-warrant-under-us-aegis-proves-russia-faces-implacable-enemy-it-must-defeat-1108526617.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/icc-has-been-weaponized-to-buttress-us-imperialism--deserves-to-be-abolished-1108529397.html

ICC Has Been 'Weaponized to Buttress US Imperialism' & 'Deserves to be Abolished'

ICC Has Been 'Weaponized to Buttress US Imperialism' & 'Deserves to be Abolished'

The ICC has been 'weaponized to buttress US imperialism, and as such, deserves to be abolished, said Professor Alfred de Zayas, former UN Independent Expert on International Order.

2023-03-18T09:53+0000

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2023-03-18T10:38+0000

analysis

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The decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to seek indictment of Russias President Vladimir Putin "may be the last nail in the coffin of the ICCs credibility," according to Professor Alfred de Zayas, former UN independent expert on international order.Based in the Dutch city of The Hague, the ICC on March 17 purported to charge Putin, as well as his children's rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, with "unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population" over reports that Ukrainian children were taken from parts of western Russia that had previously seceded from Ukraine and joined the Russian Federation. Moscow has dismissed the ICC's "warrants of arrest," with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeatedly stating that Russia is not a party to the ICC and its jurisdiction is not recognized by Moscow."No one from the West was ever indicted" after the establishment of the ICC in 2002, Alfred de Zayas pointed out to Sputnik.At this point, the professor rolled off several names that he believed deserved indictment for a plethora of war crimes.The current prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Asad Ahmad Khan KC, a British lawyer specializing in international criminal law who has served in the post since 2021, has blatantly "demonstrated his bias by discontinuing investigation of war crimes by the US in Afghanistan, but continuing investigations against Taliban*," Professor Alfred de Zayas clarified.The prolific author also deplored the fact that while in his previous publications he had advocated for the establishment of the International Criminal Court, he has now been made aware of how the ICC has been "politicized and made irrelevant."After the International Criminal Court issued its "warrants of arrest" against President Vladimir Putin and his children's rights commissioner, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced on Friday that, "Decisions of the International Criminal Court have no significance for our country, including from a legal point of view... Russia is not a party to the ICC's Rome Statute and bears no obligations under it."As for the purported "unlawful transfer" of Ukrainian children, Western officials and media, along with Kiev regime officials, have been claiming for months that Russia has been "stealing" these minors by relocating them from the conflict zone's front lines. Moscow has repeatedly explained that the civilians are threatened with regular shelling attacks by Ukrainian forces - hence the relocation."We do our best to keep young citizens in families, and in cases of the absence or death of parents and relatives, to transfer orphans to guardianship. We are ensuring the protection of their lives and well-being," the Russian Embassy in the US said last month.* organization under UN sanctions for terrorism.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/indulging-in-cruelty-us-atrocities-in-iraqi-prison-of-abu-ghraib-1108228265.html

Indulging in Cruelty: US Atrocities in Iraqi Prison of Abu Ghraib

Indulging in Cruelty: US Atrocities in Iraqi Prison of Abu Ghraib

Indulging in Cruelty: US Atrocities in Iraqi Prison of Abu Ghraib

2023-03-18T14:00+0000

2023-03-18T14:00+0000

2023-03-18T14:00+0000

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In March 2003, the United States launched a full-scale invasion of Iraq, ignoring international laws and the UN's opinion. The campaign revealed the fact that while Washington was waxing lyrical about "humanitarian" values, the American military had something very different in mind.The most notorious offense occurred in the Abu Ghraib facility on the outskirts of Baghdad, where American atrocities included sexual and psychological abuse of former Iraqi troops.When these facts became public, American society - already opposed to the war in Iraq - was horrified. The crimes in Abu Ghraib were exposed by a number of independent journalists, including prominent investigative writer Seymour Hersh, who called his report 'The Chain of Command', implying that the problem was not unique but systemic.According to reports, so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" were authorized by those in high command to "extract" classified information quickly. Perpetrators were put on trial but their sentences were in no way commensurate with their crimes. And those who issued inhumane orders - high-ranking military and political officials - were never brought to justice.The famous psychologist Philip Zimbardo participated in the investigation and concluded that Abu Ghraib was part of a bigger picture  the system of humiliation and culture of domination in American army.

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indulging in cruelty: us atrocities in iraqi prison of abu ghraib
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/moscow-to-insist-on-receiving-nord-stream-probe-results-from-sweden-1108537392.html

Moscow to Insist on Receiving Nord Stream Probe Results From Sweden

Moscow to Insist on Receiving Nord Stream Probe Results From Sweden

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Moscow will continue to demand Denmark answer its questions on the Nord Stream sabotage despite Copenhagen's refusal to let Russia join the... 18.03.2023, Sputnik International

2023-03-18T12:56+0000

2023-03-18T12:56+0000

2023-03-18T13:04+0000

nord stream sabotage

nord stream

nord stream pipeline

us

russia

us-russia relations

european union (eu)

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Zakharova added that only a multilateral and open international investigation involving Russian specialists would be able to provide the public with objective and credible data on the motives, executors and organizers of the sabotage. The spokeswoman also said that the Danish authorities have not yet provided any plausible answers or investigation results. On Thursday, Danish media reported, citing Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, that Copenhagen would not allow Moscow to take part in the investigation on the Nord Stream explosions. Rasmussen said that the probe conducted by Denmark, Sweden and Germany "can be trusted," claiming these countries respect the rule of law. The Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, built to deliver gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, have been out of action since they were hit by explosions last September. Nord Stream's operator, Nord Stream AG, said that the damage was unprecedented and it was impossible to estimate the time repairs might take. Russia considers the explosions of the two pipelines an act of international terrorism. The official results of the investigation are not out yet, but Pulitzer Prize-winning US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a report in February, which pointed to the US and Norway as the culprits. According to the report, US navy divers planted explosives to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines during NATO Baltops exercises in the summer of 2022, and Norway activated them three months later. The report added that US President Joe Biden had decided to sabotage the Nord Streams after more than nine months of secret discussions with the national security team. A number of Western media outlets reported that a "pro-Ukrainian group" could have been responsible for blowing up the pipelines.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230316/germanys-afd-calls-for-creation-of-commission-to-investigate-attacks-on-nord-streams-1108485404.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/peace-protest-against-uss-militarism-sanctions-policy-taking-place-in-washington-1108550657.html

Peace Protest Against US's Militarism, Sanctions Policy Taking Place in Washington

Peace Protest Against US's Militarism, Sanctions Policy Taking Place in Washington

A peace demonstration is taking place in Washington on Saturday as people are protesting against US's military support for Ukraine and its aggressive actions against numerous countries, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

2023-03-18T21:26+0000

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2023-03-18T21:48+0000

us

washington

political protest

public protest

protest

peaceful protests

militarism

sanctions

20 years since us invasion of iraq

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People have gathered in the city center, carrying coffins wrapped in the flags of the countries where the US has sent its troops in the past 20 years. Protesters are also holding banners that read: "Feed the People, Not the Pentagon," "Fund People's Needs, Not the War Machine," "Disband NATO."Participants of the demonstration are demanding that the US stop sending money and weapons to fuel the Ukraine conflict, end "militarism and sanctions," including the ones imposed against Syria, and avoid escalation in relations with China, among other things.The organizers stated that the protest aimed to warn people of the threat of a "global war," while also raising public awareness of "the human and financial toll of US militarism at home and abroad." The protest coincided with the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, the organizers added.The US has been the most active military supporter of Ukraine since the start of Moscow's military operation there in February 2022. Over the past year, Washington has supplied Ukraine with military equipment worth more than $50 billion, excluding other types of assistance worth tens of billions of dollars.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/russia-agreed-to-extend-grain-deal-only-for-60-days-moscow-stresses-1108547395.html

Russia Agreed to Extend Grain Deal Only for 60 Days, Moscow Stresses

Russia Agreed to Extend Grain Deal Only for 60 Days, Moscow Stresses

Russia has agreed to extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative for 60 days instead of 120, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik on Saturday, adding that all parties to the grain deal have been notified.

2023-03-18T16:53+0000

2023-03-18T16:53+0000

2023-03-18T16:53+0000

istanbul grain deal

russia

ukraine

turkiye

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This comes in response to other sides claiming that the deal was prolonged for 120 days - for instance, this is alleged by a statement from United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.In the meantime, Russian media also reported that the prolongation only stipulates a 60-day period, citing documents signed by Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia.The grain deal signed between Russia, Turkiye, Ukraine, and the United Nations in July 2022 was due to be renewed for 120 days on March 18 unless either of the signatories object. Russia said on Monday it did not mind extending the deal, but only for 60 days, which was confirmed by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday.The accord provides for the export of Ukrainian grain, food, and fertilizers over the Black Sea from three ports, including Odessa. The package agreement also includes a memorandum of understanding between Russia and the UN to unblock Russian grain and fertilizer exports via the Black Sea.As much as 25 million tons of grain and other food products have been delivered to 45 nations since July 2022 thanks to the deal, according to Dujarric.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/russia-plans-to-bring-up-monstrous-lie-behind-us-invasion-of-iraq-at-security-council-meeting-1108548048.html

Russia Plans to Bring Up 'Monstrous Lie' Behind US Invasion of Iraq at Security Council Meeting

Russia Plans to Bring Up 'Monstrous Lie' Behind US Invasion of Iraq at Security Council Meeting

March 19-20 will mark the anniversary of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq on the pretext of Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction programs" and purported support for terrorism. 20 years on, with trillions of dollars spent and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead, many US officials now sheepishly admit that the war was based on a lie.

2023-03-18T17:31+0000

2023-03-18T17:31+0000

2023-03-18T19:28+0000

20 years since us invasion of iraq

dmitry polyanskiy

iraq war

anniversary

the united nations (un)

united nations security council

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Russia plans to mark the anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq by bringing it up at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Russian Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy has announced.March 20 marks the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, carried out on the basis of a monstrous lie before the Security Council, in which Secretary of State Colin Powell shook a test tube in front of everyone claiming it to be a sample of a lethal weapon found in Iraq. No one has answered for the grave consequences of the invasion on Iraq and the entire Middle East. However, the notorious rules-based order, or rather lawlessness in the interests of the United States and its allies, has strengthened, the diplomat wrote on Telegram channel.The US invasion of Iraq began with a massive aerial bombardment on March 19, and was followed March 20 by a ground invasion, wrapping up with President George W. Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech on board an aircraft carrier on May 1, 2003.The US and its "coalition of the willing" allies spent the next eight years fighting an unrelenting insurgency, with the war costing the lives of over 4,700 US and allied servicemen, and hundreds of thousands or even millions of Iraqis. The Iraq War was one of the most expensive wars in US history, briefly strengthening, but ultimately undermining, Washingtons position as the preeminent military and economic power in the world after the end of the Cold War. The chaos resulting from the invasion ultimately gave rise to Daesh*, a radical Islamist terrorist group which spread terror and destruction across western Iraq and eastern Syria before being defeated by a broad and diverse coalition of nations and militias.Russia helped lead the international opposition to the US invasion of Iraq from the outset, joining with US allies France and Germany to oppose the invasion and calling for a continuation of UN weapons inspectors' work to allay US concerns about Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction," which Bush administration officials later admitted were just a pretext for war. The illegal nature of the war in Iraq is something that has clearly remained on the mind of the former president, who admitted in a slip of the tongue gaffe last year that the attack on Iraq constituted "a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion."* Aka IS/ISIS, a terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230205/making-the-case-for-war-20-years-ago-colin-powell-lied-to-the-un-1106970009.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230317/us-squandered-its-unipolar-moment-by-sowing-destruction-over-last-25-years-1108510611.html

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(CNN)  In a monumental ruling Friday, a federal judge ordered Donald Trump attorney Evan Corcoran to provide additional testimony as part of an investigation into the former US president's handling of classified documents, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

Corcoran has the potential to become one of the most crucial witnesses in special counsel Jack Smith's criminal investigation into possible mishandling of classified records after the Trump presidency and obstruction of justice.

District Judge Beryl Howell said in an order under seal that Justice Department prosecutors have met the threshold for the crime-fraud exception for Corcoran, the source said.

The scope of what DOJ will be allowed to ask, however, was not immediately clear. Trump's team is expected to appeal and ask for the judge's order to be stayed while legal proceedings play out.

The decision hands Trump yet another loss under seal in court as his team and allies have tried to hold off Smith's investigators from learning about direct conversations the former president had with some of his closest advisers.

The development is particularly notable because of accusations prosecutors would have made about Trump as they argued to the judge for the grand jury testimony.

A Trump spokesperson said the ruling is a "violation of due process."

"Whenever prosecutors target the attorneys, that's usually a good indication their underlying case is very weak. If they had a real case, they wouldn't need to play corrupt games with the Constitution. Every American has the right to consult with counsel and have candid discussions -- this promotes adherence to the law," the spokesperson said.

Corcoran, an attorney-turned-witness, had previously testified to the grand jury but declined to answer some questions, citing attorney-client privilege. The department argued to the judge he should not be able to avoid answering, because his discussions with the former president may have been part of an attempt to plan a crime.

Howell's ruling is one of her last on sealed grand jury disputes as chief judge. The Obama appointee has repeatedly green-lit Justice Department requests to pursue information about Trump's actions during her tenure as chief of the DC District Court, but she rotates out of the administrative role on Friday.

When Corcoran first testified to the grand jury in January, he was asked about what happened in the lead-up to the August search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.

Corcoran had drafted a statement in June that attested Trump's team had done a "diligent search" of boxes moved from the White House to Florida and that all classified documents had been returned. Christina Bobb, the attorney who signed the letter, added the caveat, "to the best of my knowledge."

After that, the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago and found hundreds of government records, including classified material, raising questions about the lawyer's attestation.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Trump attorney ordered to testify before grand jury investigating former president"
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/russian-lancet-kamikaze-drone-destroys-ukrainian-mlrs-mod-1108526476.html

Russian Lancet Kamikaze Drone Destroys Ukrainian MLRS: Video

Russian Lancet Kamikaze Drone Destroys Ukrainian MLRS: Video

A Russian Lancet kamikaze drone has destroyed a Ukrainian multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) with a high-precision strike in the Avdeevka direction

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The ministry released video footage on Saturday of a Czechoslovakia-produced RM-70 multiple rocket launcher getting hit and subsequently destroyed by the Russian loitering munition. The ministry added that the Russian loitering munition is effectively used to destroy the military equipment of the Ukrainian troops, such as artillery pieces, tanks, armored vehicles, and air defense systems. Earlier this month, an informed source told Sputnik that Russian loitering munition Izdeliye-52 (Lancet) had been modernized based on the experience of using it during the special military operation in Ukraine. The basic version of the drone has been significantly upgraded and now has a more powerful warhead, a new optoelectronic guidance system and a control system with new software.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/say-no-to-endless-wars-rally-held-in-washington-to-mark-20-years-of-iraq-invasion-1108527190.html

'Say NO to Endless Wars' Rally Held in Washington to Mark 20 Years of Iraq Invasion

'Say NO to Endless Wars' Rally Held in Washington to Mark 20 Years of Iraq Invasion

Sputnik goes live from Washington, DC as a national coalition of anti-war organizations and Iraq war veterans hold a rally under the slogan Say NO to Endless Wars.

2023-03-18T17:03+0000

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Sputnik comes live from Washington, DC as a national coalition of anti-war organizations and Iraq war veterans hold a rally under the slogan 'Say NO to Endless Wars'. Participants are demanding an end to the funding of the "war machine" amid growing global tensions. The event is taking place a day before the 20th anniversary of the 2003 Iraq War.Follow Sputnik's Live Feed to Find Out More!

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'Say NO to Endless Wars' Rally Held in Washington to Mark 20 Years of Iraq Invasion 'Say NO to Endless Wars' Rally Held in Washington to Mark 20 Years of Iraq Invasion 2023-03-18T17:03+0000 true PT1S

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/senior-iraqi-military-tells-sputnik-about-american-crimes-during-2003-invasion-of-iraq-1108538945.html

Senior Iraqi Military Officer Tells Sputnik About American Crimes During 2003 Invasion of Iraq

Senior Iraqi Military Officer Tells Sputnik About American Crimes During 2003 Invasion of Iraq

Decades before the fall of Baghdad, the US nurtured plans to destroy Iraq. Even 20 years after the US invasion of Iraq, the wounds continue to bleed - the... 18.03.2023, Sputnik International

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Sputnik spoke to Brigadier General Ayad al-Tufan, commander of the Iraqi Army's 7th Border Guard Brigade, about the wounds that left an indelible mark on the memory of every Iraqi, military and civilian. His job was to secure a 574-kilometer stretch from the Iraqi-Jordanian border to the middle of the Iraqi-Saudi border. There were 22 border posts: they were the most dangerous areas of confrontation with US troops before they arrived in Baghdad. He witnessed American crimes during the occupation.He dates the beginning of the American invasion not from March 20, as internationally recognized, but from March 17. According to his recollections, it was March 17, 2003, when the first signs of military aggression appeared.Sputnik: Did you expect a ground operation by US troops in Iraq after years of blockade and exhaustion of the army amid active news reports that the country had weapons of mass destruction?Ayad al-Tufan: It would be wrong and short-sighted to say that the American war in Iraq began on March 17, 2003, and ended on April 9. It actually began on August 2, 1990, when the Iraqi army invaded Kuwait. This was the forerunner to all the tragedies Iraq has experienced since leaving the neighboring country.There was a blockade during the whole period after the operation in Kuwait, and it was very tight. And the Iraqi army was the first to suffer, both in terms of training and exercises. Even the air force didn't have a winter or summer training system.Sputnik: What do you think about the arguments and reasons given by the US for going to war against Iraq?Ayad al-Tufan: Time has shown that all the reasons for starting the war were fabricated. And here I would like to quote US Secretary of State [Colin] Powell, who was shaking a test tube during the Security Council meeting. He said that this moment marked the end of his political and military career and that it was the saddest decision he had ever made.Meanwhile, despite claims that they made mistakes, they cannot be considered spontaneous. The US planned the collapse of Iraq.Sputnik: As a commander in the Iraqi army, how did you prepare for the war and what happened after the American ground operation began?Ayad al-Tufan: There was a moment that I want to talk about for the first time: at 2 a.m. on March 17, 2003, two or three hours before the American bombing of Baghdad, two American helicopters flew in from the Ruwayshid Air Base in Jordan and two from a military base in the Arar region of Saudi Arabia. They destroyed all the outposts where the personnel of the 7th Brigade, which I commanded, were stationed.We were forced to withdraw the remaining forces. At the same time, the destroyed outposts were monitoring American reconnaissance operations on the Jordanian and Saudi fronts. And before that, these aircraft had been operating at a certain distance on Saudi and Jordanian territory. We understood that the US aircraft carriers were not moving in the area except to carry out important strategic tasks. We had already observed these movements and realized that war was inevitable.Sputnik: What was going on as the Americans prepared to enter Baghdad?Ayad al-Tufan: US occupation forces used excessive force, using medium and heavy weapons near residential areas in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit this in time of war.They used all kinds of weapons against the civilian population in order to lower their morale and make them refuse to support the fighting Iraqi army. That is why their bombings targeted not only military installations, but also cities, and because the Americans had already committed massacres in Iraq before 2003.Among them was the so-called Highway of Death massacre, when the Iraqi army withdrew from Kuwait under Russian mediation and UN supervision. It resulted in thousands of deaths and the destruction of tens of thousands of pieces of equipment. The airstrikes that followed did not discriminate between military and civilian targets, and many other crimes were committed at the time, especially in the southern and central provinces, which received the bulk of US bombing.Sputnik: What was it like in the first hours after US troops approached Baghdad?Ayad al-Tufan: By that time, most of the Iraqi troops had been redeployed to neighboring areas, and we had multiple contingency plans for every situation.An important factor that gave the Americans an advantage was the huge difference in weapons. When they could not get through the Umm Qasr sector, they managed to enter the desert near Nasiriyah and As-Samawah until they reached the outskirts of Najaf. Then they reached the Karbala desert and from there to Musayyib and on to Baghdad. Their military equipment provided them with supplies and ammunition.We did not have even the simplest of air defenses in the face of considerable US air superiority. It is fair to say that the tragedy of the blockade had had a negative impact on the Iraqi army in terms of its lack of weapons. Nevertheless, the tenacity that our military showed from March 17 to April 9 was a symbol of the tenacity of the Iraqi soldier defending his country.Sputnik: Did Iraqis greet Americans with flowers, as George W. Bush tried to portray?Ayad al-Tufan: All these rumors had nothing to do with reality and were only spread to break the morale of the Iraqi people and army. The invaders robbed us of our dignity and sovereignty, took the lives of thousands of Iraqis and are still committing atrocities. And their crimes and treachery know no end.And this was not only true of the US forces, but also of the PMCs, who attacked and killed civilians for no reason.How many massacres were committed in the heart of Baghdad? America's atrocities in Iraq are shameful and disgraceful. We saw it in 1991, when they bombed the Amiriyah shelter. And all their crimes confirm that they are an army based on the violation of human rights and the constant humiliation of the weak.Sputnik: Did you have a plan prepared in advance to defend Baghdad?Ayad al-Tufan: Yes, but the plan to defend Baghdad was limited. Little was known about it, so the Americans quickly moved into Baghdad after arriving at the airport and from there into the government compound.We know that many of the units that were present in the Anbar, Salah Al-Din, and Kirkuk governorates did not fight. After the US troops arrived at the government headquarters, they laid down their weapons because there was no point in fighting anymore.Sputnik: What are the most serious crimes against humanity committed by US occupation forces since their arrival in Baghdad?Ayad al-Tufan: Perhaps one of the most heinous crimes committed by US troops occurred during the battle for Baghdad Airport. The Iraqis set up a very large ambush there after receiving information that 12 American Chinook helicopters had arrived at the airport full of soldiers.As soon as they landed, the Iraqi soldiers fired a massive electrical charge, incinerating 11 American helicopters and the soldiers on board, and only one managed to escape the trap.During the second battle at the airport, Iraqi fighters managed to capture a large number of soldiers, killing more than 200....The Americans then resorted to the use of chemical weapons that literally melted human flesh. I saw many burnt skeletons with my own eyes. And it looked very strange, especially since the area where the fighting took place was later turned into a no-go zone for all Iraqis.Five years later, US troops issued tenders to deliver soil from outside the city. It was delivered to the Americans, who unloaded the dirt and brought it back. The price per wagon reached $1,000.In order to hide all traces of the chemical weapons crime, the soil in the area was replaced to a depth of 5-10 meters.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230205/making-the-case-for-war-20-years-ago-colin-powell-lied-to-the-un-1106970009.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230317/us-squandered-its-unipolar-moment-by-sowing-destruction-over-last-25-years-1108510611.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/seymour-hersh-triples-down-and-points-out-biden-blew-up-the-nord-stream-pipeline-1108523231.html

Seymour Hersh Triples Down and Points Out Biden Blew Up the Nord Stream Pipeline

Seymour Hersh Triples Down and Points Out Biden Blew Up the Nord Stream Pipeline

On todays episode of The Backstory, host Lee Stranahan discussed current events including The Wire actor Lance Reddick passing away, and the ICC issuing "an... 18.03.2023, Sputnik International

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Seymour Hersh Triples Down and Points Out Biden Blew up the Nord Stream Pipeline On todays episode of The Backstory, host Lee Stranahan discussed current events including The Wire actor Lance Reddick passing away, and the ICC issuing an arrest warrant for President Putin.

Mark Sleboda - International Relations and Security Analyst | ICC Issues "Arrest Warrant" for President Putin, Drone Footage, and ChinaTyler Nixon - Attorney, Media Relations Specialist | Suspicious Activity Reports, Trump Attacks the Deep State, and Hunter Biden uses LawfareIn the first hour, Lee spoke with Mark Sleboda about the "arrest warrant" issued for President Putin, an American surveillance drone, and Finland will join NATO. Mark criticized the ICC and compared it to a kangaroo court. Mark talked about the details of the Iran-Saudi Arabia deal and how China was able to assist with brokering the deal.In the second hour, Lee spoke with Tyler Nixon about St. Patrick's day, Joe Biden brought up Beau Biden, and Ron DeSantis. Tyler discussed the numerous Biden suspicious activity reports and the growing number of Biden family members involved in the corruption. Tyler spoke about Hunter Biden's attorneys and Hunter suing the computer shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.comThe views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.

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radio, cdc, china, ukraine, gop, nato, peace, 
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/spacex-loses-lawsuit-against-ukrainian-company-starlink-over-name-reports-say-1108530380.html

SpaceX Loses Lawsuit Against Ukrainian Company Starlink Over Name, Reports Say

SpaceX Loses Lawsuit Against Ukrainian Company Starlink Over Name, Reports Say

Ukrainian IT company Starlink won a lawsuit in which Elon Musk's SpaceX required the firm to rebrand itself, Ukrainian media reported on Saturday, citing court documents.

2023-03-18T09:02+0000

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According to the Ukrainian online news outlet, the Kiev Economic Court rejected SpaceX's claim for early termination of registration of its Ukrainian namesake in early March. In November, Ukrainian media reported that SpaceX, which operates Starlink, filed a lawsuit against Starlink LLC and intellectual property agency Ukrpatent citing trademark infringement. However, the Ukrainian Starlink filed for trademark registration in 2010 and was registered a year later, while Musk's Starlink Ukraine obtained the rights to its trademark in 2020. The founder of Starlink LLC said, as quoted by Ukrainian media, that SpaceX officials contacted him back in 2021, urging him to ditch the brand name. The owner did not rule out negotiations with the US company on condition that he would be compensated for the losses associated with rebranding. Starlink is a next generation satellite network designed to provide broadband internet access across the world, launched by SpaceX in February 2018. After the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine, Starlink stations have been providing the Ukrainian forces with access to satellite internet.

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starlink won a lawsuit, elon musk's spacex
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/sy-hersh-slams-stupid-nyt-story-on-ukrainian-trace-behind-nord-stream-blasts-1108535831.html

Sy Hersh Slams Stupid NYT Story on Ukrainian Trace Behind Nord Stream Blasts

Sy Hersh Slams Stupid NYT Story on Ukrainian Trace Behind Nord Stream Blasts

The veteran investigative journalist penned a series of explosive Substack pieces last month revealing direct US complicity in the Nord Stream pipeline attacks.

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Seymour Hersh says he has even more details corroborating the Biden administrations involvement in the Nord Stream sabotage attacks, but cannot share them for fear of outing his sources.I know what I wrote is true. I know that it is right. I know the meetings I have described and the details of what happened in Norway. Ive been involved with the intelligence community for 50 years, the 85-year-old veteran journalist said, addressing the smear campaign being run against him by the legacy media in the wake of his bombshell Nord Stream-related publications.The veteran investigative journalist, one of the few in the contemporary US media landscape who still believes in the medias role as the fourth estate, also took aim at the legacy media for ignoring his story in fealty to power. If 90 percent of editors were fired, wed be much better off, because theyre so afraid to write anything critical of Biden, thinking theyre going to put a Republican back in the White House, he said.Hersh said the attack on Nord Stream was a signal to the Western Europeans from Biden  that if they didnt want to go all the way in the conflict with Russia, the US would cut them off. He did it. And the price for that will be very high in Europe. Europe will not have the gas it needs and you will have to pay more for it, he said.Hersh, a sympathizer of the Democratic Party when it comes to social, environmental, and immigration issues, characterized Bidens foreign policy as a disaster, with Washingtons badmouthing of China and Russia ultimately helping to weld the two of them together. As for the crisis in Ukraine, the journalist expects the NATO proxy conflict to fail. Russia is going to win this war, he said.Seymour Hersh published his first piece on the Nord Stream attacks on February 8, detailing how US Navy divers laid the explosives that blew up the pipelines in June 2022 under the cover of NATOs BALTOPS drills, with a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance aircraft triggering them to explode three months later. Hersh subsequently wrote several follow-up stories with additional information and historical context.US and German media rolled out their own stories this month, citing intelligence officials, claiming that a pro-Ukrainian group without any ties to Kiev blew up the pipelines independently using a rented yacht. Moscow dismissed these stories as disinformation designed to divert attention from the real perpetrators, and repeated long-standing calls for thorough and transparent probes into the acts of terror.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230316/im-telling-you-he-did-it-seymour-hersh-slams-biden-as-nord-stream-bomber-at-national-press-club-1108441421.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230316/chancellor-scholz-claims-germany-independent-from-russian-fuel-after-8-months-1108466682.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/tanzania--india-switch-from-us-dollar-to-local-currencies-in-bilateral-trade-1108545100.html

Tanzania & India Switch From US Dollar to Local Currencies in Bilateral Trade

Tanzania & India Switch From US Dollar to Local Currencies in Bilateral Trade

India and Tanzania have reached an agreement to conduct bilateral trade using their respective currencies, a move that is set to boost trade between the two countries.

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In a move that could have far-reaching implications for the economies of Tanzania and India, the two nations have agreed to a new bilateral trade settlement arrangement that allows them to use their own currencies in transactions, the High Commission of India in Dar es Salaam said in a press release.The new bilateral trade settlement arrangement allows for the use of the Tanzanian shilling and Indian rupee in transactions. India is one of Tanzania's largest trading partners, with bilateral trade valued at 10.4 trillion Tanzanian shillings (about $4.5 billion) for the year ending March 2022, according to the Indian commission.Between April 2021 and March 2022, Tanzania's exports to India were estimated at 5.1 trillion Tanzanian shillings (about $2.2 billion), while the East African country's imports from the South Asian country were about 5.3 trillion shillings (about $2.3 billion), according to the Dar es Salaam-based commission.Tanzanian banks and businesses will now be able to make full use of the new trade framework, allowing for seamless payment in domestic currencies, said Binaya Pradhan, India's high commissioner to Tanzania.The Indian official expects that the use of local currencies will not only conserve foreign exchange, but also boost bilateral trade.Tanzania exports minerals, particularly gold, and agricultural products to India, while India exports petroleum products, medicines, and engineering goods to the African country. According to Donath Olomi, a trade and economist, using local currencies in trade transactions will help Tanzania avoid using dollars from its foreign currency reserves, boosting exchange rate predictability, which is critical in international trade. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has authorized banks in India to open Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SRVA) in Tanzania, according to a press release posted on the Indian High Commission's website. Tanzanian banks will be required to open SRVAs in India by approaching authorized Indian banks, which will, in turn, approach the RBI for approval with details of the agreement. The Bank of Baroda, which operates branches in Tanzania, has received the RBI's approval for opening SRVAs for its foreign branches and subsidiaries in various countries, including Tanzania, the press release added.This mechanism is now applicable to 18 countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Botswana, Mauritius, Seychelles, Fiji, Germany, Guyana, Israel, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Oman, Russia, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom. The Indian High Commission is set to hold a stakeholders' consultation meeting on March 24 to reveal details of the bilateral trade mechanism using local currencies.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20221121/tanzanian-president-declares-foreign-policy-changes-amid-wrenching-politics-of-superpower-states-1104479032.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/terrorists-lose-russian-iranian-chinese-commandos-train-to-take-down-pirates-in-joint-drills-1108543160.html

Terrorists Lose: Russian, Iranian, Chinese Commandos Train to Take Down Pirates in Joint Drills

Terrorists Lose: Russian, Iranian, Chinese Commandos Train to Take Down Pirates in Joint Drills

The three countries have been holding their annual Maritime Security Belt drills since 2019, and plan to expand them to include more countries in 2024. 18.03.2023, Sputnik International

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Russian, Iranian and Chinese naval forces showed off their military prowess and ability to act in concert in large-scale drills held Thursday through Saturday.Footage from the 'Marine Security Belt' exercises shows warships from the three countries on joint maneuvers, engaging simulated hostile naval and aerial targets, and mounting a commando raid on a pair of cargo ships taken over by simulated pirates. The latter operation was overseen by Irans Sahand destroyer command ship, and saw commandos boarding the hijacked vessels from small boats and by rappelling from helicopters.Today we have successfully conducted joint tactical and operational exercises in this drill. In addition to joint operations, tactical training and other planned activities, we have had shooting exercises in day and night, PHOTOEX and communication training. We had perfect synergy in conducting the joint drill with Russia and China, Rear Admiral Mostafa Tajeddini, the exercises spokesman, told Iranian media.The exercises wrapped up on Saturday with a parade featuring Iranian Navy and Revolutionary Guard Navy vessels, Russian and Chinese warships before Irans Jamaran destroyer.The Russian units involved included the Admiral Gorshkov frigate and Kama support vessel, while China sent its Nanning destroyer.Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, commander of the Iranian Navy, told reporters Saturday that Tehran expects even more countries to join the drills next year. Irani praised the exercises Russian and Chinese participants for the great tactical coordination they showed operating with Iranian forces, and said that during the exercises, not a single uninvited foreign warship was seen in the region.Iran has dramatically ramped up its security cooperation with Russia, China, and other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization alliance in recent years, while simultaneously jealously guarding its independence in foreign affairs and military matters. Last year, the Islamic Republic signed new strategic partnership treaties with both Moscow and Beijing.Tehran has also been stretching its sea legs, enhancing its power projection capabilities globally via a series of innovative asymmetric warship designs  including by creating military vessels from converted cargo and oil tanker ships.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230310/lapid-says-resumption-of-saudi-iranian-relations-a-dangerous-failure-of-israels-foreign-policy--1108275005.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/us-african-military-drills-are-sinister-expert-says-1108530663.html

US African Military Drills are 'Sinister', Expert Says

US African Military Drills are 'Sinister', Expert Says

The US-led military drills held in Ghana and Ivory Coast are not serving the interests of African people, as drills' main purpose is to turn Africans against Russia, expert tells Sputnik.

2023-03-18T15:27+0000

2023-03-18T15:27+0000

2023-03-18T21:29+0000

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The US-led military drills held in Ghana and Ivory Coast are not serving the interests of African people, as the drills' main purpose is to turn Africans against Russia, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, General Secretary of the Socialist Movement of Ghana, Director of Pan-African Television, Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Ghana, tells Sputnik. The United States and its partners from 29 African countries are holding annual maritime drills, dubbed Flintlock, in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The exercises are focused on tactical training for special operations, said US Special Operations Command Africa's commander Rear Adm. Jamie Sands. This is the first time for the US to hold joint maritime exercises on the continent.According to the expert, the US-led drills are an unsuccessful attempt of Washington to regain influence in the continent, as the the US ignores African countries' specific features, resorting to country-continent approach.According to Boris Ghislain Kabre, Consultant-Researcher-Trainer, Sahel Specialist, Expert in Peace Operations, Community Mediation and Conflict Sensitivity, the latest US activity towards the continent results from a number of goals the country is trying to achieve, including the strive to lower Russian and Chinese presence on the continent.France  a key Washington's ally within the NATO alliance  has seen its military presence in West Africa deteriorating since 2022, with French troops withdrawing from Mali and Burkina Faso on demand of local military governments and against the backdrop of protesters saying that the European army was unable to counter the terrorist threat in the region. Ahead of his recent African tour, French President Emmanuel Macron announced reorganization of French military presence in Africa under a "new security partnership".Among other reasons for the US to organize the drills, Kabre has named the need to find a new region where America can establish its powers. According to the expert, the Middle East and the Near East used to be the US zones of influence. Since the country has lost its powers there, it seeks to "deploy elsewhere", the expert says.According to Kabre, the US has lost its earlier influence on the continent.The expert notes that young Africans today realise how strong Africa is. Moreover, they understand that relations with China and Russia are important for the continent, expert says. In his turn, Pratt outlines the historical preconditions of such negative attitude towards the US and the West overall among some Africans .In addition, Pratt recalls the history West's slave trade that also left a mark on Africans' perception of western countries policies towards the continent. According to the expert, for the US it will not be an easy task to replace China and Russia as African partners. Unlike America, Russia and China do not try to oversee or even control African nations' internal policy, their democracy issues and the relevant matters, the expert says.According to Kabre, it's hardly possible to call US-Africa relations a "partnership" despite the US pledges to invest "$6.5 billion to support peace, security and governance in Africa".Recalling on Joe Biden's speech at the United States-Africa Leaders Summit held in December 13-15, 2022, the expert outlined that the US president's words indicated the partnership does not yet exist. The three-day summit, hosting 49 African leaders in the US capital, Washington D.C., ended with Biden's speech, where he, among other issues, outlined the US strive to increase the level of its presence on the continent.Pratt highlights the fact that "partnership" is not a correct word to call Africa-US relations, as the US foreign policy is characterized by a high number of political conditions for cooperation.Assessing the overall situation with the US troops having been deployed in African countries for years, Pratt states that Africa does not need American military to stay there.Kabre outlines that the US has slight chances on the development of relations with African nations due to their "double standards" policy.This year's Flintlock training has come roughly a month after Russia and China had conducted their second joint maritime drills with South Africa, hosted by the Southern African country 25-27 February.Ahead of the trilateral drills in South Africa, David Feldmann, a spokesperson for the US Embassy in the country, said that Washington was concerned about South Africa's plans to hold joint naval exercises with Russia and China. During his recent African tour, Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov put an emphasis on the US "double standards" policy, saying that "US colleagues believe that only they can conduct exercises around the world."In May 2022, the United States adopted a bill to counter "malign activities" of Russia in Africa hindering the achievement of the United States' goals and interests. In accordance with the bill, the America may penalize African nations for interaction with Russia in various areas.At a meeting with the US president Joe Biden in September 2022, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa criticized the bill, calling it a "misplaced type of legislation."African countries' distrust of US respect for sovereignty was also highlighted by Jacob Mudenda, speaker of the National Assembly of Zimbabwe. He said that African countries reacted with disgust to the May 2022 bill, as it violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries willing to cooperate with Russia.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230316/us-using-intrusive-approach-to-south-sudan-russias-un-security-council-representative-says-1108461525.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230317/russia-republic-of-the-congo-to-agree-on-oil-pipeline-construction-russian-envoy-says--1108504321.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/us-military-operation-against-saddam-hussein-operation-iraqi-freedom-1108502478.html

US Military Operation Against Saddam Hussein: Operation Iraqi Freedom

US Military Operation Against Saddam Hussein: Operation Iraqi Freedom

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, US President George W. Bush repeatedly declared that the official policy of the Washington administration was regime change in Iraq and that the White House intended to use all means at its disposal to achieve this goal.

2023-03-18T14:00+0000

2023-03-18T14:00+0000

2023-03-18T14:00+0000

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The American leader accused Saddam Hussein of continuing to oppress Shiites and Kurds, and Baghdad of supporting and organizing terrorist groups in Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. The White House also accused Iraq of hiding weapons of mass destruction from UN inspectors.Iraqi Freedom was a land and air operation by the anti-Iraq coalition forces (the US, the UK and several other countries) aimed at destroying the political regime of Saddam Hussein and seizing key assets (major cities, oil production areas) on the territory of Iraq. Official Washington initially called the military operation in Iraq "Shock and Awe". It was later renamed Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Official Baghdad dubbed the war "Harb al-Hawasim", the Final War".On January 29, 2002, US President George W. Bush delivered his annual State of the Union address in which he used the term "axis of evil" to refer to three countries seeking nuclear weapons - Iran, Iraq and the DPRK. He said the price of indifference towards them would be "catastrophic".In February, US Secretary of State Colin Powell first spoke of a possible "regime change" in Iraq to "ensure the free development of the Iraqi people.On September 12, George W. Bush told the UN General Assembly that there is a "grave danger" posed by Saddam Hussein. According to Bush, military action would be inevitable in the event of Baghdad's refusal to comply with UN disarmament demands.On October 17, the US Senate approved the largest increase in military funding in 20 years, by $37.5 billion to $355.1 billion. Earlier, Bush signed a congressional resolution authorizing the use of force against Hussein. The order to create a joint force was given by the Secretary of Defense through the US Joint Chiefs of Staff on December 24, 2002, but by that time the movement of forces and facilities to the Persian Gulf was in full swing. By the time hostilities began, the deployment of naval and air forces was complete.On January 28, 2003, in an address to the nation, Bush promised to provide evidence that Baghdad was hiding weapons of mass destruction. The US president also offered to lead an anti-Iraq coalition in the event of a military conflict.On February 5, 2003, US Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the United Nations and stated that the United States had ample evidence of Iraq's production of weapons of mass destruction.The US Secretary of State demonstrated a vial containing "anthrax" to illustrate the point. The "evidence" presented by the US side did not impress the UN Security Council, and it did not authorize the United States to use force.On March 17, 2003, President George W. Bush issued an ultimatum giving Saddam Hussein and his sons Uday and Qusay 48 hours to voluntarily leave Iraq, or the United States and the coalition would take military action. The ultimatum expired at 4 a.m. Moscow time on March 20.On March 19, US President George W. Bush made a televised address and announced the start of a military operation against Iraq. The US said that more than 35 countries around the world supported the decision to use military force against Iraq.That same day, the US-led coalition forces entered the demilitarized zone on the border between Kuwait and Iraq. The expeditionary force was commanded by General Tommy Franks.On the night of March 20, 2003, without the approval of the UN Security Council and against the opinion of the world community, the US launched Operation Iraqi Freedom by launching massive, selective, ground-based bomb and missile attacks on Iraq's governmental and military infrastructure.The naval armada was deployed in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It consisted of a total of 81 warships, including three aircraft carriers of the US Navy and one of the British Navy, nine surface ships, and eight nuclear submarines; 13 pennant ships were concentrated in the northern Red Sea; seven warships, including two aircraft carriers and four sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM) carriers, were concentrated in the eastern Mediterranean. A total of six aircraft carriers with 278 strike aircraft and 36 SLCM carriers with up to 1,100 missiles were concentrated in the region. At the same time, there were approximately 900 missiles directly on ships and up to 200 missiles on supply vehicles.The deployed air group consisted of more than 700 combat aircraft, including approximately 550 tactical strike aircraft from the US, UK and Australian Air Forces based at air bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and 43 strategic bombers from the US Air Force based in the UK, US, and Oman.Coalition air and naval forces had a total of about 875 combat aircraft and more than 1,000 sea- and air-launched cruise missiles.The ground contingent of the invasion force numbered 280,000 troops, up to 500 tanks, over 1,200 armored combat vehicles, approximately 900 cannons, MLRS and mortars, over 900 helicopters, and up to 200 surface-to-air missile systems.They were opposed by the Iraqi army, which numbered 389,000 soldiers, 40,000 to 60,000 paramilitary and police units, and 650,000 reservists. The Iraqi army had about 2,500 tanks (most of them obsolete T-55 and T-62 tanks), about 1,700 BMP-1 and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, and about 2,500 artillery pieces over 100 mm caliber. The Iraqi Army had about 300 combat aircraft (mostly Mirage F-1EQ, MiG-29, MiG-25, MiG-23, and MiG-21), 100 attack helicopters, and about 300 transport helicopters.Coalition ground forces, supported by aircraft, advanced rapidly in two converging directions toward the Iraqi capital. The Allies enjoyed complete air superiority and an advantage in the quality of their weapons and the organization of their forces. By April 5, the Americans were in Baghdad and the British were completing the capture of Basra. By April 8 (18 days into the operation), organized resistance by Iraqi forces had ceased and had become pockets of resistance.Baghdad fell on April 9. Two days later, invasion forces captured Kirkuk and Mosul. On April 14, the Americans completed the storming of Tikrit. On May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush announced the end of hostilities and the beginning of the military occupation of Iraq aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.After the intervention of the US forces, Saddam Hussein hid from his pursuers for 249 days in the basement of a house near his hometown of Tikrit (about 200 km from Baghdad). As a result of a special operation, the dictator was found by US soldiers. On December 14, 2003, he was brought to the capital of Iraq and tried on July 1, 2004. On November 5, 2006, the Iraqi High Tribunal found Hussein guilty of killing 148 Shiites in the city of Al-Dujailah in 1982 and sentenced him to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out at 6:00 a.m. local time, and footage of the execution went around the world, causing outrage in Russia and European nations.The destruction of Iraq's armed forces and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was only the beginning of a long conflict - a guerrilla war began almost immediately in the country. Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) caused the most casualties for coalition forces. They were placed on the side of the road and detonated as an American convoy or patrol passed. In 2006, a full-blown civil war began in Iraq.The number of U.S. troops permanently stationed on Iraqi territory during the war ranged from 100,000 to 150,000. Their numbers peaked in 2007 during the surge of troops to fight the insurgency.During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama's main promise was to withdraw troops from Iraq. Since the beginning of Barack Obama's presidency in the winter of 2009, 90,000 troops have been withdrawn from the country. After August 31, 2010, the number of US contingent was less than 50,000 soldiers.On August 31, 2010, President Obama gave a speech to the nation announcing the end of the active phase of the military operation in Iraq.A ceremony held near Baghdad on December 15, 2011 marked the departure of American troops from Iraq and the formal end of the war in that country. During the ceremony, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta lowered the flag of the US contingent in Iraq, symbolically marking the end of the mission.On December 18, 2011, the last US military convoys left Iraq.At various times, up to 49 countries participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The largest contingents were from the United Kingdom (up to 45,000 troops), Italy (up to 3,200 troops), Poland (up to 2,500 troops), Georgia (up to 2,000 troops), and Australia (up to 2,000 troops).The maximum size of the US military contingent in Iraq was 170,000 troops.According to the US Department of Defense, 4,431 servicemen have died and approximately 32,000 have been wounded during the war in Iraq. Official British casualties were 179 soldiers, 136 of whom were killed in action.According to some reports, the rest of the coalition countries lost 139 people. Figures on Iraqi casualties vary. The American media give different figures for Iraq's total losses in the war: from 100,000 to 300,000 people, including civilians. At the same time, according to the World Health Organization, as many as 223,000 Iraqis died as a result of the war between 2003 and 2006 alone. International experts estimate that the war in Iraq has claimed the lives of between 1 and 1.4 million of Iraq's citizens.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230205/former-pakistani-foreign-minister-says-us-pressured-unsc-on-iraq-in-2003-1106986128.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230302/bipartisan-us-senate-group-says-its-able-to-end-force-authorizations-behind-1991-2003-iraq-wars-1107955926.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230308/us-lawmakers-applaud-senate-panel-for-passing-bill-to-end-gulf-iraq-war-authorizations-1108192179.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/us-special-operations-command-orders-53mln-more-in-munitions-reports-pentagon-1108524191.html

US Special Operations Command Orders $53Mln More in Munitions, Reports Pentagon

US Special Operations Command Orders $53Mln More in Munitions, Reports Pentagon

Ultimate Training Munitions has won a $53.7mln contract to supply munitions to the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM), the Defense Department said in a press release.

2023-03-18T00:09+0000

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2023-04-13T12:45+0000

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The munitions are being purchased in support of SOCOM special operations forces acquisition, technology and logistics, the release said."The majority of the work will be performed in Somerville, New Jersey. As cited in Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition for Force-on-Force Ammunition executed by SOCOMs Director of Procurement," the release added.The US Special Operations Command based at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida will supervise execution of the contract, according to the release.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230318/us-stance-on-icc-arrest-warrant-for-putin-reminds-of-schizophrenia-russian-embassy-says-1108525509.html

US Stance on ICC 'Arrest Warrant' for Putin Reminds of Schizophrenia, Russian Embassy Says

US Stance on ICC 'Arrest Warrant' for Putin Reminds of Schizophrenia, Russian Embassy Says

US support of the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin is "reminiscent of sluggish schizophrenia," the Russian Embassy in the United States says.

2023-03-18T03:38+0000

2023-03-18T03:38+0000

2023-03-18T04:39+0000

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On Friday, the ICC issued an order for Putin as well as Russias Childrens Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on the grounds of alleged "unlawful deportation" of Ukrainian children to Russia. US President Joe Biden said on Friday that the arrest warrant is "justified." The embassy emphasized that Washington supports the "unprecedented legal bacchanalia" unleashed by the ICC in order to protect its own geopolitical interests, despite the fact that neither the US, nor Russia, recognize the court's jurisdiction. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the ICC "warrants" to arrest Putin and Lvova-Belova are legally null and void as Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute and has no obligations under it, nor does it cooperate with the ICC. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly stated that Russia is not a party to the ICC and its jurisdiction is not recognized by Moscow, so any of its decisions against the country are null from the legal point of view.

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Weekly News Wrap-Up; China's Middle East Peace Deal; US Drone Down; Bank Crisis

Weekly News Wrap-Up; China's Middle East Peace Deal; US Drone Down; Bank Crisis

China's Middle East deal with Saudi Arabia and Iran dominated the news as tensions between the Washington neocons and Russia was raised over a drone incident... 18.03.2023, Sputnik International

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Weekly News Wrap-Up; China's Middle East Peace Deal; US Drone Down; Bank Crisis China's Middle East deal with Saudi Arabia and Iran dominated the news as tensions between the Washington neocons and Russia was raised over a drone incident over the Black Sea and SVB Bank collapsed.

Caleb Maupin, journalist, and political analyst, joins us to discuss this week's important news stories. An anti-imperialist gathering is about to kick off in DC. Also, neoliberal capitalism is on the verge of collapse and the Chinese have scored a major diplomatic win in the Middle East.Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor of Economics and Politics at St. Mary's College in California, joins us to discuss this week's important news stories. The banking crisis in the US seems to have spread to Europe as the mega-giant Credit Suisse has fallen into instability. Also, Saudi Arabia pushes back against US hegemony.Brian Berletic, ex-US Marine Corps independent geopolitical researcher and writer based in Bangkok, joins us to discuss this week's important news stories. US regime change operations in the Asian region are being thwarted. Also, Australia is acting in fear of US imperialism and the West is pushing Ukraine into a deadly trap.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. The President of China is traveling to Moscow to sign some important agreements. Also, the US is saying that China must be prevented from building a naval base in Africa while both France and England are erupting in nationwide protests.Ajamu Baraka, 2016 US vice presidential candidate for the Green Party, and Dr. Margaret Flowers, activist, and editor of "PopularResistance.org," come together to discuss this week's important news stories. The world moves towards a peaceful transition to multipolarity as the US Empire continues on a path of violent coercion. We discuss the importance of the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Also, the US eyes the natural resources in Latin America, and China is moving the world towards peace and stability.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.comThe views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.

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A pair of Netherlands imports bookended a training triple for Francis Guillemette during the 10-race card at The Raceway at Western Fair District on Friday night.

Guillemette's three-win night included close victories with five-year-old trotters Lincoln Transsr NL ($9.90, Brett MacDonald) in the fourth race and Lions Wish NL ($4.70, Tyler Borth) in the finale -- both owned by Pieter Delis of Almere, Netherlands.

A back-to-back winner since joining the Guillemette barn this month, Steve Adams's 10-year-old claiming mare Howmacfiesty ($10.30, J Harris) also gave the Guelph, Ont. trainer a victory in the fifth race pace.

Following a career-best season in 2022 with 55 wins and more than a half-million in purse earnings, Guillemette's stable has recorded 24 wins and more than $200,000 in earnings so far this year.

To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Western Fair Raceway.
A consistent competitor in the Fillies & Mares Preferred ranks since arriving on the Woodbine Mohawk Park scene late last year, Need To Breathe made bank with another top effort in Friday night's feature, taking the lion's share of the $30,000 purse.

Driver Travis Cullen hustled Need To Breathe off the gate from post seven and touched down on top heading into the first turn, prompting Major League N and Ed Hensley to tip from the two-hole and loop to the lead as they passed the quarter pole in :28.1. Need To Breathe was breathing down Hensley's neck down the backstretch as they passed the half in :57 half and she retook command at three-quarters in 1:25.1 before drawing off for the 1:53.4 victory by 2-1/4 lengths.

Need To Breathe paid $7.20 to win as the 5-2 second choice. Style For A Mile (Doug McNair), the even-money favourite after her Preferred upset last week, got up late to finish second over fellow Richard Moreau trainee Lock Bridge (Louis-Philippe Roy).

Trained by Jodie Cullen, Need To Breathe has now won half of her eight starts this year with four other top-three finishes for seasonal earnings totalling $86,450, making her the top money-earning mare in Canada to date.

Since joining the Cullen stable last fall, the former Indiana Sires Stakes champion has been top three in 14 of her 15 starts, finishing fourth by just a half-length in her only off-the-board placing.

The four-year-old Riggins-Christie Hanover mare is owned by Paul Sanders of Surrey, B.C., A1stable of Dundas, Ont., and Blair Kidd of Miniota, Man.

To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
A stakes star from Atlantic Canada making her Ontario debut and performers returning to the local scene headlined the qualifying action on Saturday (March 18) at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

After posting 20 wins during her two- and three-year-old campaigns  including 14 straight as a sophomore  Therealprincess made her first appearance for her new connections. The daughter of Source Of Pride - Deviliciously Good posted a wire-to-wire in her four-year-old debut, carving out fractions of :27.4, 1:00.1 and 1:30.2 before sprinting home in :28.4 to trip the timer in 1:59.1.

Jonathan Drury engineered the winning effort behind Therealprincess, who was purchased after her sophomore stakes season concluded by Ontario's Frank Brundle. Carmen Auciello now trains.

The fastest time this morning came from a trotter; not just any trotter, however, one of the fastest trotters in track history. Logan Park, who boasts a mark of 1:51.2 and fell a length short of Locatelli in his 1:50.4 track record tying score the last time he raced, made his five-year-old debut during the Saturday session. Doug McNair pointed Logan park to the lead and the duo was never seriously tested. A six-length lead at the top of the stretch widened to 10 at the wire, with the mile timed in 1:57.3.

A winner of 12 races and more than $720,000 lifetime, Logan Park (Archangel - Rite Outa The Park) is now trained by Kyle Fellows for Outofthepark Stable of Rockwood, Reg Higgs of Strathroy and Arpad Szabo of Bradford, Ont.

Logan Park's former stablemate Warrawee Vital was also making his five-year-old debut in qualifying action, but he was upstaged by flashy four-year-old Magical Arthur. A 1:55 winner last week, Magical Arthur and driver James MacDonald sat third for the majority of today's test and then angled out in the stretch in a attempt to haul down pacesetter Arties Ideal (Damien MacLellan). With a :29.1 final panel, Magical Arthur forged to the lead and held off Warrawee Vital (Trevor Henry) by a nose in 1:57.4. Arties Ideal was a good third, just a half-length back.

Anthony Beaton trains Magical Arthur (Artspeak - Lido Magic) for breeder/owner David Lumsden of Ancaster, Ont. The pacer owns a mark of 1:50.3 taken at three with $343,010 in earnings.

The full video stream of the qualifying session is available below.

For results from the qualifying session, click the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers).
A Kimball County District Court jury found a 37-year-old Kimball man guilty of manslaughter in the Jan. 3, 2022, shooting of his wife.

After deliberations on Thursday, March 16, the jury found William Shane Serrano, 37, of Kimball, guilty of charges of manslaughter, a Class IIA felony; two counts of attempted terroristic threats, a Class IV felony; and possession of a firearm while committing a felony, a Class II felony. He was acquitted of a charge of first-degree murder.

Charges stemmed from the Jan. 3, 2022, shooting of 21-year-old Tessa Ghering. Kimball Police had responded about 8:30 p.m. to a residence in the 600 block of S. Oak Street and made contact with Serrano, who told police he had accidentally shot his wife and she was dead. Upon entering the residence, police located the womans body, lying face down on a bed in the bedroom. She had been shot in the head one time, according to court documents.

An investigation determined that Serrano had been involved in an argument with his ex-wife and her boyfriends mother via phone call and text messages prior to the shooting. The two had been arguing about custodial arrangements regarding the children, and Serrano had allegedly threatened to harm them.

The mans two minor sons were present at the time of the shooting, and witnessed the events prior to the shooting. They described their dad Serrano as angrily throwing his phone against the wall during the shooting and Serrano also told police he had thrown his phone. The boys told police they heard a conversation in which Ghering reminded Serrano that a 20-gauge shotgun was in the rafters of a garage. Serrano retrieved the shotgun and a backpack containing shells for the gun. The boys told police they could hear their father loading the shotgun. As he walked through the living room, they said, he was carrying the gun in a broken, or open, fashion.

Serrano told police he was trying to determine if the gun was loaded when it accidentally discharged and the projectile from the shotgun struck Gehring, who was sitting on the bed. When police examined the weapon, one single spent shell was found in the shotgun and 20 live shells were located in the backpack.

Charges involving threats involved the statements that Serrano is accused of having made during the arguments he had with his ex-wife and to her boyfriends mother. The investigation revealed that two days prior to the shooting, Serrano had made statements that he would shoot up his ex-wifes home, though the woman told police she did not feel threatened by his statements. During the argument on the day of the shooting, Serrano was accused of telling one of the women, Im coming after you.

Trial in the case occurred Tuesday and Wednesday in Kimball County Court.

Prosecutor Doug Warner, an assistant attorney general with the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office, presented the case against Serrano. Serrano was represented by Kelly Breen, attorney with the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, and Stacy Bach, public defender.

Jurors heard testimony in the case Tuesday and Wednesday and deliberated on Thursday.

Serrano is scheduled for sentencing on May 2.
The 2023 Legislatures final week of public hearings includes a measure by state Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard to give parents state money to pay for public or private education.

State lawmakers, currently on a four-day weekend, will hear the last of 820 bills or constitutional amendments through Friday. Nebraska Public Media livestreams of the sessions may be seen via the Unicameral website at nebraskalegislature.gov.

Chances are remote that measures receiving hearings in the upcoming week will see floor action before the 2024 session. Senators had to choose their 2023 individual priority bills by March 14.

Erdman will introduce Legislative Bill 177, dubbed the My Student, My Choice Act, to the Education Committee Tuesday. Its hearing schedule starts at 1:30 p.m. CT (12:30 p.m. MT) in Room 1525 of Lincolns State Capitol.

The measure would use state general funds to finance a Follow the Student Fund, which would receive 55% of the adjusted K-12 per-pupil cost to educate Nebraska students.

Those students or their parents would receive a smartcard to use exclusively for tuition, curriculum and supplies to attend either private or public schools.

Under LB 177, school districts would retain property tax powers to raise the other 45% of per-pupil costs.

Theyd also receive funds from a new School Stabilization Fund, through Nebraskas state aid formula, up to 35% of the Follow the Student Fund.
Over the years, grappling with dynamic challenges across business and industrial world, as India is witnessing the dawn of positive developments today, given the increasing investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, and acknowledge able boom of IT & ITES sector, including others, the job world is deluged with favourable opportunities to economy. Technology and digitalization of systems & processes are effectively serving as the fuel to drive this. Moreover, while the latest hiring trends highlight maximum recruitments happening in the Telecom, BFSI, Manufacturing, and Retail sectors, Talent Buffet- a staffing & recruitment firm, also strengthens its position leveraging the best talent pool for client organizations.Established in 2018, Talent Buffet is extensively empowered to critically understanding the manpower recruitment process and delivering to clients the best candidate, by unlocking the best talent, backed by Rajeev Agarwal& Bhagyasree Mitapalli(Co-Founders, Talent Buffet) acknowledgeable 12+ years of experience in the recruitment field. While the companys focus primarily lies in the IT sector, majorly emphasizing on SAP, Microsoft technology & JAVA, it has the resources to meet client bottom to top level employee requirements with the best possible staffing solutions. Within ERP, SAP is something, the company

is actively stressing on. While being able to understand the industry in and out, I realized how to grab the troubling career phase as a choice to be able to provide multiple opportunities to a single candidate and let them choose what best suits them, and it resulted in the inception of Talent Buffet, asserts Bhagyasree.



Automation has always been the main idea/agenda for organizations to grow steadier & stronger while getting tiresome work done, hence Talent Buffet is keenly emphasizing on evolving through automation & deploying human resources on higher productive task through a streamlined process. With every touch of automation, the way Talent Buffet previews data/facts & figures, its decision making is proficiently refining & progressing with a more data driven & practical approach rather an interaction based. However, no company is complete without its high performing team, and Talent Buffet can proudly talk about its team members as readily active resources, always ready for the extra mile run. The firm has a team size of overall eleven recruiters that cater to multiple clients who are specialized in full time placements to contract hirings. We follow a very clear culture of no micro management and give the freedom to employees to work & feel at home, aiming for a longer haul together. Now, weve moved to a permanent work-from-home model for all our employees, be it Recruiters or our IT consultants. With the current bench of remote workers Talent Buffet holds an edge regarding quality work in the market, adds Rajeev.



Started in the US but seen to have a global effect, followed through the western countries to developing countries like India, indeed Great Resignation had an opportunity in its silver lining of adversity. Talent Buffet was impacted due to the global recession but survived viewing it as an opportunity."We enjoyed being the devils advocate, getting everyone a win-win situation. Having understood the gap between organizations and candidates the Great resignation has given us a chance to advocate not just one but both sides, asserts Rajeev.



Future Roadmap

Crafting a positive growth plan ahead, the company wants to become an ITES company and serve multiple organizations helping them to reinvent their products. Its also in the process to introducing the Resume making and Learning & Development courses in its service portfolio. Our blueprint for future keeps us abreast of the technology trends, as we believe speed to be the new competency & skill as new currency, while quality being our core value that keeps the business going for us and our clients, says Bhagyasree.


Crystal Ferguson stood at the podium to address the countys board of supervisors last week. Her nerves were evident but she was determined to use her voice.

The Smyth County native told the supervisors that shes just figuring out she has a voice and that while its scary to do so shes going to use it.

Ferguson used her voice again this week in a forum with Attorney General Jason Miyares about Smyth Countys Fentanyl Awareness program.

On both occasions, Ferguson began by acknowledging, Im a person in recovery.

Shes also helping others struggling with addiction and moving into recovery. Ferguson works with the Mount Rogers Health District in its Comprehensive Harm Reduction program as a peer recovery specialist.

For the supervisors, she wanted to address their use of opioid abatement funds that come to the county from legal settlements with drug manufacturers and distributors.

In order for me to get well, she said, I had to leave this area and go out of state.

Today, shes passionate about creating options for people to get better here.

Saying there arent many resources locally for people in recovery, Ferguson told the supervisors that shed also like to see some of the abatement funds go toward bolstering those services.

Ferguson told officials she plans to do her part to help others, especially by sharing her recovery story. Recovery, she said, is an option. Your life can be so much better.

On that point, she said, Im trying to be as loud as I can.

Telling the supervisors that shes striving to be a productive citizen of Smyth County, Ferguson said she plans to use her voice when she can even when it shakes.

The supervisors lauded Ferguson for her efforts.

Supervisor Courtney Widener, who also works for the sheriffs office, said hed followed Fergusons journey for a long time. Her involvement in recovery is getting other people involved, he said.

Widener thanked Ferguson for her courage to speak up.

Of the abatement funds, he said, Were truly seeing the benefit of what this can mean to our community.

Supervisor Lori Deel also expressed her appreciation to Ferguson and said that from an economic development perspective investing in peoples better lives brings a larger return on the investment than money spent on keeping them in jail cells.

When Ferguson addressed the gathering with the attorney general, she described Southwest Virginia as little but mighty. We love deeply here, she declared.

On that occasion, emotion came through in tears and smiles as she recounted a moment on Aug. 22, 2019, when she stopped to watch a volleyball scrimmage.

Reading from her journal, Ferguson told of loving the sounds of the play, of even later getting a rush at the memory of hearing the smack as a player connected with the ball. She wondered if others were as happy as she was at the wonder of everyday living. Being there, she read, was as if Id walked into a Christmas party.

From her journal and the tremor in Fergusons voice, her greatest gift was making eye contact with Ezrah Pennington as she was playing and Pennington smiling at her. Ferguson knew she was happy to see me.

That moment to me, she read, seemed like forever.

In her writing, Ferguson acknowledged missing school dances, holidays and so much more, but she also told of praying for others to find the feeling she experienced in that moment. She defined that feeling as Peace, love, joy.

Thats recovery, she declared.

Incredible and brave was how Miyares described Ferguson. He assured her that he believed in a faith of second chances.

That may have been a gift to her, but the smile she received once again from Pennington, who was speaking at the forum as Marion Senior High Schools SCA president, and the later hug they exchanged may have once again reminded Ferguson of Christmas.
A Copper Hill woman found not guilty on a grand larceny charge by reason of insanity last year was granted conditional release from mental health facilities Tuesday with regular monitoring by the court, Commonwealths Attorney and the Virginia Department of Mental Health.

In 2019, Lavern Denise Beaver borrowed a car without permission of the owner and drove to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to save a relative from a threat prosecutors said did not exist. Psychologists hired by the defense argued that she suffered paranoia and did not know right from wrong when she stole the car.

The court found her not guilty on Nov. 15, 2022.

The state argued on March 14 that she should remain in one of Virginias mental health facilities for monitoring and review, but the defense filed a motion for conditional release with monitoring. Two doctors provided written reports supporting the argument.

Another health professional from Western State Hospital in Staunton, Virginia, appeared in court to support keeping her in custody with additional monitoring.

Defense attorney Fred Kellerman said that Beaver did not have a criminal record before the car theft in 2019 and said she had not caused any problems for the four years that followed.

Commonwealths Attorney Eric Branscom said that continued onsite monitoring by a state hospital like Western State protects both Beaver and the commonwealth.

If released, Branscom said, Beaver should be monitored with quarterly reports to the court.

Floyd Circuit Court Judge Mike Fleenor granted conditional release with reviews on June 20 and again on Sept. 20.

In another case on March 14, James Garfield Shumate was found guilty of violating his probation after he stopped showing up for meetings with his probation officer, changed his residence without notifying the court and was on the run as a fugitive from Aug. 24, 2018, until April 4, 2022.

Branscom told the court Shumate had two years of his probation remaining when he absconded and was on the run for nearly five years.

Fleenor revoked Shumates probation, sent him to prison for 1 year and three months and nine more months suspended.

In a plea bargain, Richard Anthony Sheppard agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor trespass charge after it was reduced from a felony. The judge accepted the deal and gave Sheppard a 12-month suspended sentence.

Two scheduled sentencings were continued, along with several other cases.
Menu items include a gazpacho, consisting of strawberries and Pipirrana, a popular summer salad from Southern Spain, and a Basque-style cheesecake topped with strawberries.

Jaleos executive team, including Head Chef Kristopher Anderson and General Manager Mario Bernal, worked closely with Southern Hills Farm to design the menu during peak Strawberry season.

The pair visited Southern Hill Farms in February, handpicking strawberries to ensure absolute freshness.

All the dishes on the Festival de Fresas menu feature strawberries from Southern Hill Farms, located in Clermont, Florida, just southwest of Orlando. Southern Hill Farms is a family owned and operated u-pick and commercially harvested blueberry, strawberry, peach and seasonal vegetable farm. They currently have 40 acres of blueberry bushes, five acres of peaches, 15 acres of strawberries and one acre of blooming sunflowers on the 120-acre farm, open for u-pick December-May.

We spoke with Jaleo Disney Springs Head Chef Kristopher Anderson about his background and the new special Strawberry menu partnership with Southern Hill Farms in an interview below  check it out!

Ricky Ly: Tell us about your background  how did you end up in Orlando?

Chef Kristopher Anderson: Growing up I never wanted to be a chef. It wasnt until I received my first job in the kitchen at 16  just as a way to make money over the summer  that I considered it.

Fast forward two years, and it was time for me to go off to college. I really excelled in the kitchen, and I enjoyed going to work more than I enjoyed going to school. I was always afraid to tell my parents that I wanted to be a chef. They wanted me to go the traditional route of going to college and focusing on a degree. I met them halfway.

I ended up attending Le Corden Bleu College of Culinary Arts here in Orlando, and thats pretty much how my career started. I worked at Emeril Lagasses Tchoup Chop for four years. This is where I held my first sous chef position in 2015. Emerils eventually closed in 2017. I had a small stint at Seito Sushi in Baldwin Park before Jose Andres Group called me in 2018, to help open Jaleo Disney Springs.

In 2021, I opened Jaleo Chicago as the Executive Sous Chef, and then in March 2022, I headed back down to Disney to take on the role of Head Chef at Jaleo Disney Springs.

What is your inspiration behind this strawberry menu?

The inspiration behind the menu comes from a mindset of simplicity, where we try and let the product shine without adding too many different flavors to the actual product. We also want to pay homage to classic Spanish dishes, such as Fresas con Nata (strawberries and cream), which had a huge influence.

We know what Jose likes and how he treats the product. For the chefs and I, we always pay close attention to a few main points when creating dishes. First, we talk about the product. And with the strawberries from Southern Hills Farms, we didnt have to do much to create beautiful dishes. Next, we think about Jaleo, our brand and making sure we are staying in the realm of Joses vision.

This doesnt mean we cant limit our creations, but we want to make sure what we are doing makes sense for our restaurant and guests. There are some dishes on the menu that are Jaleo classics and some where we stepped a little outside the box to create something new that works for our restaurant.

Tell us about Southern Hill Farms  Why is the relationship with Southern Hill Farms important?

At the end of 2022, the chef team and I talked about some goals that we had for 2023. One of the main points was getting more of the locals from Orlando to come and try our restaurant. Sometimes its hard to get people to come out to Disney from the other side of town. We are not a small restaurant.

And even doing things like a festival for two weeks takes a lot of prep. We are serving anywhere from 800 to 1,300 guests a day.

We want to show the local Orlando community that even though we are a big restaurant, we can still specialize in local ingredients and make special plates that are off our menu for guests to enjoy.

What are your upcoming plans for the menu in the future?

We have one of the biggest menu changes that this restaurant has ever seen coming at the end of March. We have over 10 new dishes coming to the menu. I am really excited about our Paellas also.

In the past, we offered only 1 paella and we plated it on a small plate. Now we will have 5 paellas readily available, and they will be ordered by the Full Pan. Each pan feeds six to eight people.

Guests will enjoy the real experience of enjoying the paella straight out of the pan. We have a lot of ideas and goals this year to get our name to the local crowd of Orlando, and we are excited!
Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue is holding an open house Monday giving citizens the chance to meet four finalists for the departments new fire chief.

Light refreshments will be served at the event from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Cowlitz 2 main station at 701 Vine St. in Kelso.

The four chief candidates are:

Jerry Cole, Columbia River Fire & Rescue battalion chief and Rainier mayor.

David Foster, retired fire chief of Village Fire Department in Houston.

Scott Goldstein, fire chief at Montgomery County Fire & Rescue, Rockville, Maryland.

John Kevin Nalder, retired fire chief Palm Springs Fire Department, Palm Springs, California.

Residents can speak to the candidates and offer thoughts on comment cards.

Former fire chief Scott Neves resigned in December, after about two years in the position. Battalion Chief James Graham is serving as interim chief.

Cowlitz 2 serves about 34,000 people in Kelso and unincorporated Cowlitz County.
Kalama City Councilmember Matthew Michael Merz, 42, was found guilty of two felonies  computer trespass and data theft  Friday in Cowlitz County Superior Court. His sentencing is scheduled for April 28.

In the course of the two-day trial, the jury found the sitting councilman guilty of accessing the email account of another city councilmember in an effort to uncover misconduct involving the Kalama police. After the verdict, city officials asked Merz to step down from the office he was elected to in 2019.

A Cowlitz County Sheriffs Office Uniform Incident Report says Merz implicated himself in the illegal act by guessing the password and accessing Kalama City Councilmember Jon Stanfills city email account in March 2022.

Merz told a Cowlitz County deputy he breached the account by assuming city email passwords were similar, the probable cause report states.

He told The Daily News, during the initial two-hour meeting with deputies, he thought he was there to provide evidence as a witness, and then asked, who walks into a police department and confesses crimes?

According to the deputys report, Merz is that person, as he provided the official with a flash drive that contained emails and files including [a] PowerPoint presentation involving the Kalama Police Department obtained from Stanfills account.

Merzs allegations

Merz has claimed the findings show the city illegally created a shadow committee to advise the police, which city officials continue to deny. The city reports the committee was legitimately created to get citizen input on the police departments five-year strategic plan.

Merz allegedly told deputies one of his motives to access the email account was because he felt the Kalama Police Department was not helping him with a man who was cyberstalking him. Merz said Kalama Police Chief Ralph Herrera was keeping other people in the loop, but Im not told anything, about the stalker.

According to court documents, Christopher Charles Jensen, 52, of Salem, Oregon, was arrested after sending text messages threatening to kill Merz and even drove to Merzs uncles home. In September, Jensen pleaded guilty to cyberstalking Merz in December 2021 and he was sentenced to 90 days in local jail, according to court records.

Merzs verdict

Merz has maintained the charges brought against him are a political witch hunt to protect the sheriffs friends, and that the Kalama swamp is alive and well.

Merz had a small group with him when the verdict came down, including his father Michael Merz, who told The Daily News the process is the punishment.

As the jury deliberated his fate, Merz told The Daily News, Im like Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull... put me in Ray.

In the film, boxer LaMotta is washed up, and at the end recites the line from the film On the Waterfront, I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody ... 

Coni McMaster, the Kalama City Clerk and Treasurer, who testified at the trial, told The Daily News she agreed with the verdict and when asked if Merz should be removed from the Kalama City Council, she simply said yes.

Stanfill, whose email account Merz was convicted of hacking into, told The Daily News he is still processing the verdict but is relieved the trial has concluded. Stanfill said Merz seemed not to take responsibility for what he did.

Kalama City Administrator Adam Smee issued a statement on behalf of the city after the verdict, requesting Merz step down from office.

The statements says under Washington state code, the conviction of a public officer of any felony or malfeasance in office would ... result in the forfeiture of his office and disqualification from holding any public office in the future. Given his conviction, the city will expect Mr. Merz to follow the laws of the state and submit his resignation. Elected officials should be above reproach and act ethically in all actions in their service to the public.
Fibre Federal Credit Union released its community impact report for 2022 earlier this month. The annual report documents the credit unions donations to the communities in which it operates, including in Longview, Kelso and Castle Rock.

The credit union reports it has 110,000 members and 16 financial services centers in Oregon and Washington.

Last year, Fibre gave $219,000 to 194 different organizations. Members pursuing higher education got $11,000 in scholarship aid from Fibre, and individual departments donated an additional $6,000 to local agencies like schools, support shelters, senior centers and animal shelters.

The company reports 156 volunteers from Fibre volunteered for a combined 1,727 hours at 68 events which supported a combined 90 organizations. The credit union provided financial education and materials at no cost to 834 adults and 2,464 K-12 students.
WOODLAND  The Woodland City Council appointed Aaron Alderman, 53, to the council Monday, filling the empty seat left behind by Karl Chapman when he resigned last month.

The council voted five to one to appoint Alderman, with Councilmember Melissa Doughty being the lone no vote.

The next Woodland City Council meeting, Aldermans first, is scheduled for Monday.

Councilmember Monte Smith said one of the five candidates had a possible conflict of interest, a big determining factor in his decision to vote for Alderman.

Alderman told the council he grew up in Woodland, born [and] raised here, and he was a product of the Woodland School District.

A veteran of the first Gulf War, Alderman did a short stint as a police officer. He said he served on the board of directors for Castle Rock-Toutle little league and joined the Toutle Fire Department reaching the rank of lieutenant.

Alderman told the council he left the firefighting profession after getting old and beat up. Now, he is a logger.

Councilmember J.J. Burke asked Alderman what he does when he disagrees with another person.

The biggest thing you need to realize with disagreements, especially in this format, you got to have respect for one another, said Alderman.

Councilman DeAnna Holland asked Alderman if there were any issues Woodland is currently facing that he, as a council member, would like to focus on.

Alderman replied, the biggest to me is the growth and infrastructure of this town.

Weird to say for myself, an old timer in this town that would like to see it stay livable, but you might of have your head in the sand if you think youre not going to grow, said Alderman.

Editor's note: This story has been updated after the print deadline to include Alderman's age and profession.
It was not a coincidence that the the launch of the Brazos County Public Defenders Office on Friday fell on the 60th anniversary of the Gideon v. Wainwright Supreme Court ruling, wherein Clarence Earl Gideon won constitutional right to an attorney.

Opening a public defenders office is the countys part in fulfilling a promise that the Supreme Court made, Chief Public Defender Nathan Wood said. Our constitution requires that if the governments going to charge somebody with a crime that the government will also provide them with an attorney if they cant afford to hire one themselves.

Wood said this is how justice is able to remain fair and unbiased based on a persons financial situation. Wood is a former felony prosecutor who will now be the managing lawyer in a law firm, carrying a docket of cases and shifting his focus from prosecution to defense.

On this side of the coin, I am more focused on mercy than I am on accountability and trying to paint a holistic picture of our clients lives, protecting the innocent from prosecution and standing up for constitutional rights for everybody, Wood said.

As a result of the temporary court closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of the Brazos County population, Wood said there has been an increase in active felony cases with a decrease in the number of attorneys.

Funding for the office came from a $2 million grant through the Texas Indigent Defense Commission.

So we have more cases being filed into the criminal justice system; meanwhile, in the last five or six years, we have experienced a decline in the total number of attorneys who are capable and qualified to handle those cases, Wood said. Its been kind of an overwhelming situation for our courts and for our defense bar because their numbers have dwindled.

Even though the office just began accepting cases this week, Wood said he already has a few goals in mind.

By the end of this year, Id like to be taking 25% of new cases where defendants are unable to hire private attorneys, Wood said. Id like to be fully on the wheel taking misdemeanors, felonies and aggravated felonies.

The wheel refers to a list of attorneys qualified to defend various levels of charges in Brazos County.

Additionally, Wood said he would like for the office to become certified and approved for capital representation, as well as eventually convert it from a county public defenders office to a regional public defenders office that provides representation to people across Brazos Valley.

I think we can handle things very efficiently from our point of view, Wood said. This is basically a law firm thats being set up with the sole function of representing clients who are unable to afford attorneys for themselves, so its a specialized niche that we can become very knowledgeable and efficient about.

The processDana Zachary, associate court judge for Associate Court 1 and specialty court program judge whose office oversees indigent defense and compliance, pointed out that indigent defense is not new to Brazos County; rather, the public defenders office is here to support the system. Zachary outlined the process of how indigent defense works and how the addition of a public defenders office will serve the community.

First, the Justice of the Peace will ask if the defendant would like an attorney. If the answer is yes, the defendant will fill out an application to determine if they can afford a private attorney or not.

Zacharys office receives and reviews the applications, makes the appointments for qualified indigents within three days and notifies the appointed attorney, who is asked to make contact within 10 days.

Were not setup to take walk-in clients, Wood said. People can walk in, and well be happy to talk to them about how to go to the court and request a court-appointed attorney, but there are still private lawyers in Brazos County that are still handling a lot of court-appointed cases.

Brazos County has what they call the wheel, or a list of attorneys who are qualified to defend the various levels of charges.

If you look at our indigent defense plan, to be on each list, the attorneys have to meet certain qualifications, she said.

This means that the public defenders office will be another name on that wheel, she said, and the wheel rotates itself to allow appointments to be dispersed equally amongst attorneys. With that, Zachary added that the office will also be a great resource for both defendants and other private defense attorneys.

Recognizing that the countys current indigent defense system has been successful, Brazos County Judge Duane Peters said it was the recommendation of the judges to expand the pool of defense attorneys.

That doesnt mean that there wont be any outside, private defense attorneys that will actually get hired, because there will be. But this gives us an office thats going to be actually picking up cases, Peters said. The goal is to make sure that all defendants who have a constitutional right to be defended; were going to make sure that that happens here.

The Brazos County Public Defenders Office is located inside the Brazos County Administration Building at 200 S. Texas Ave. in Bryan.
Of the 22,000 plus traffic stops conducted in College Station in 2022, all stops complied with state law, according to the citys police chief.

While annual variance can be expected due to the ever-changing environment, a historical review of data reveals remarkable similarities in data analysis across 10 years of data, College Station Police Chief Billy Couch told the city council last week. Overall, the comprehensive analysis of data demonstrates that the College Station Police Department has complied with the Texas Racial Profiling Law and all of its requirements.

Couch relayed the CSPDs 2022 Traffic Contact Report during a March 9 council meeting, and said in 2021 the department conducted 22,683 traffic stops, compared to 22,140 traffic stops in 2022.

Each year the police department employs an independent consultant to analyze traffic contact data and develop the traffic report. The report indicates that the department is in compliance with state law and continues to employ best practice strategies. Since January 1, 2002, the CSPD in accordance with Texas Racial Profiling Law  also known as Senate Bill 1074  has been required to implement and mandate policy and procedures to satisfy the requirements of the law.

From the report we have learned that the College Station Police Department is in compliance with the Senate Bill 1074 and the Sandra Bland Act, Couch said. CSPD does post in our lobby and on our website as well as the data on our citations and warnings, and the process on how to file a complaint on a racial profiling violation.

In 2022, the department did not receive any racial profiling complaints, as they provide all officers instruction on a certified Racial Profiling curriculum, Couch said. The department conducts periodic audits of collected data throughout the year; and supervisors regularly conduct video reviews of body worn and in-car videos, he said.

As stated by our consultant, it is very difficult to detect specific individual behavior with aggregate-level data, he said. What the report does is it looks at three different types of analysis that were conducted, first was the evaluation of the 2022 motor vehicle contacts, and from the data what we found is we have slightly over 20,000 traffic contacts in 2022.

This particular analysis measured, as required by the law, shows the number and percentage of whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans, who came in contact with the police involving a motor vehicle and were issued a citation, a warning or were arrested in 2022, Couch said.

The second type of analysis was based on a comparison of 2022 contact data with a particular baseline, he said. The selection we made on the baseline is the Fair Roads Standard, which has initially been recommended by several civil rights groups in Texas.

The Fair Roads Standard is based on data obtained through the U.S. Census Bureau in 2020, relevant to the number of households that have access to vehicles while controlling race and ethnicity; and is used relevant to College Station, he said.

The third type of analysis was conducted while comparing the pattern on searches performed as a result of a motor vehicle contact.

The trends on the contacts were as follows, most contacts were made with white males, most were contacts with whites, and police officers did not know the race or ethnicity of the individual prior to the stop, Couch said. The most frequent reason for the stop was moving traffic violations, and most contacts occur on our city streets.

Most stops did not involve a search and of those searches made, most were made with probable cause, he said. Contraband was located in approximately half of the searches. Drugs comprised the largest share of contraband. Most stops resulted in written warnings, followed by citations, he said.

Most arrests were based on violation of the Penal Code. Use of force that resulted in bodily injury did occur during one traffic stop, he told the council. The searches in this analysis showed that they did produce contraband 55% of the time, he said. Of those searches that did produce contraband, the majority involved Black contacts followed by white contacts.
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A construction worker died after falling from a bridge at the Contemplative Commons project site at the University of Virginia on Tuesday, a university spokesman told The Daily Progress in a statement.

The worker fell Tuesday, March 14, from the west connector bridge that leads to the Ridley Building, which houses the School of Education and Human Development, and was transported to UVa Medical Center, where he later died from his injuries. His name has not been released.

The entire Hourigan team extends our deepest condolences to the family and friends who lost a loved one, as well as all workers who were impacted by this unfortunate incident, said Bryan Jones, President of Hourigan Construction at Hourigan. The Virginia Occupational Safety and Health Administration began its investigation on Wednesday. We are fully cooperating with the investigators and actively communicating with the University.

The Hourigan group, hired by the university, began laying the groundwork for the east tower of the new Commons in November 2022.

UVa spokesman Brian Coy told The Daily Progress that the Contemplative Commons construction manager, Hourigan, is conducting a thorough investigation into the incident alongside the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Keeping University employees and contractors safe on the job is a core value here at UVa and we are working with all of our construction partners to review this incident and apply what we learn to improve workplace safety going forward, Coy said in a statement to The Daily Progress.

The university broke ground on the Contemplative Commons in October 2021, two years after announcing the initial design for the new building. Located at the Dell pond on Emmett Street, the commons will be a hybrid space for learning and relaxation that is woven into the environment where it is located.

UVa is currently constructing a series of bridges that will connect high-traffic areas of university grounds with pedestrian bridges.

The university began installing another pedestrian bridge that will connect the Contemplative Commons with Newcomb Hall on central Grounds. The central Grounds connector is expected to be complete by the summer of 2024, according to University project manager Sarita Herman.

The 57,000-square-foot Commons is scheduled to open this fall and will add to the Contemplative Sciences Center, Coy said.
Early this year, I introduced LB249, a bill to reform and improve the Nebraska Rural Workforce Housing Investment Act, and to send more funding to that program. I am happy to share with you that the bill was voted out of the Business and Labor Committee last week, with six senators in favor and one senator absent from the executive session.

No senator voted against it.

The bill was the result of a lot of work from partners in the community who wanted to see improvements to the program, who my office and I worked with in developing and getting the bill moved forward. All that work meant that the sole group which was initially in opposition to the legislation was able to have their concerns resolved with an amendment which we proposed to the committee.

Additionally last week, my colleague Sen. Teresa Ibach announced that she was designating LB249 as her personal priority bill. With more than 800 bills introduced this year, even in our longer 90-day session, there simply would not be enough time for the legislature to consider every bill, even if the various committees only advanced a few hundred to the whole legislature.

Considering the ongoing filibusters which have been undertaken on even non-controversial legislation, the number of bills which we will have time to debate and vote on is further diminished. While it is by no means a guarantee, a priority designation gives a bill a much better chance of being voted on in a busy year, and prioritized bills are given preference when the Speaker sets the agendas throughout the session.

I am very grateful to Sen. Ibach for designating LB249 a priority, and for her appreciation of how important this legislation has the potential to be for so much of Nebraska.

The current wording of the Rural Workforce Housing Investment Act limits any one nonprofit development organization to $1 million dollars per two-year period. With only a handful of nonprofits in Nebraska dedicated to building workforce housing in rural communities, this was somewhat of a hindrance to the program. LB249 raises that limit to $5 million dollars, as well as removing the limit of one grant per organization per cycle. The bill also somewhat reforms the previous prohibition on stacking Rural Workforce Housing Fund dollars with other types of grants and funding. Lastly, it directs $20 million dollars to the fund.

We will see in the coming weeks if there is the time and, to some extent, the good fortune to see LB 249 across the finish line. The ordering of bills on the agendas, the decisions of the appropriations committee and, later, the whole legislature, and the promises of continued filibusters against every single bill regardless of content or topic will all determine if this bill is successful.

As always, please dont hesitate to contact me or my office if you have any questions or concerns about legislation in Nebraska. My email is tbriese@leg.ne.gov and my office phone is 402-471-2631. I always enjoy hearing from my constituents. When calling or writing, be sure to let my staff and me know where youre from in the 41st district, as messages and emails from constituents always take top priority for me.
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Paul Gramling recalls his early days showing cattle at the Orangeburg County Fair with his father. He developed respect for the fair and its agricultural history.

He has built on that foundation and worked throughout much of his life to help preserve the fairs agricultural traditions.

Gramling, a member of the Orangeburg County Fair Association, was presented with the 2022 SC Fair Association Person of the Year award during the annual joint Georgia-SC Fair Association meeting in Greenville on Jan. 28.

From starting a commercial calf club to his involvement with the local 4-H youth program, Gramlings association with the Orangeburg County Fair has included serving as overseer of the cattle barn and his current service as the go-to guy for the maintenance of its buildings and grounds.

I do a little bit of everything

Throughout the years, he has seemingly done everything, but the 78-year-old said he has a good support system and a desire for the county fair to go and grow.

My passion for this place is to see it go and grow, but weve got to get people from Orangeburg. Weve got to get them back behind us again. Thats why I try to keep it as nice out here as I can with the maintenance, Gramling said.

Id say 50 percent of the people that come in here I know, or they know me because Ive been involved in the community with 4-H and with farming, he said.

The retired dairy farmer said his award was a delightful surprise, but not something he was seeking.

It was the biggest surprise Ive had in a long time. I told them I would get em back for this. I didnt expect nothing like that. I wasnt doing it for nothing like this. Its an honor to get it. I just do what has to be done, he said.

His late father, S.W. Gramling Sr., was on the Orangeburg County Fair board of directors and led the efforts to have the cattle barn constructed. Gramling Sr. also headed up the cattle barn activities for many years, including having his son show his own cows there.

That was back in the late 50s and early 60s. My daddy had been over the cow barn since, I think, the late 1930s. My whole family grew up showing cows here. I had a brother that actually went to Waterloo, Iowa showing cows, Gramling said.

He continued, When I got out of school, I went to work and got married. I was out of it for a while, but my daddy was still here at the cow barn until the mid-1980s. Then he just got tired of it, and he didnt have any family in it.

Some others ran it for a while, but agriculture in Orangeburg County was going downhill. There were no families that were really interested in it.

Gramling is one of four children who grew up on a dairy farm.

My brother was on the farm til 1995, but my daddy died in 1986. But then my sisters, one of them married a military person, and then my youngest sister married an agricultural fella that milked cows below Bowman. She was involved with it, her children were involved with it.

My children were involved it. Then I had my grandchildren that actually showed cows. I had about five out of the eight that actually showed cows (at the fairgrounds) and did a lot of the other agricultural things: seed art, produce, chickens. My grandchildren are not strangers to the farm, he said.

Gramling and his wife, Savon, began work on what would become a commercial calf club.

Me and my wife came up here, I would say it was the late 90s. I walked in the cow barn over there, and the first sign I saw said, Beaufort County welcomes you. Well, that lit my fire. I couldnt stand that, he said, noting that he wanted dairy cows from the local Orangeburg County area to be shown.

I went to the manager of the fair and I asked, If I bring the cows up here to show in this barn, will yall pay the premium? I wont charge yall to bring these cows up here. You just pay the premium for the children to show them. Well, they agreed to it, Gramling said.

He said a fire was then lit to expose children to dairy cows and getting them show ready.

Me and my wife took over the cow barn. For probably 10 or 15 years, when people walked into the fairground, they didnt care about the rides, they didnt care about the food. They walked to the cow barn to see what was next over because we changed it up every year, Gramling said.

We never had the same thing. We had from antique trucks to fish as the centerpiece in the cattle barn. Then I started up a little 4-H Club. We kept along there until I had somebody to come in and take it over for me. So I turned it over to them.

Me and my wife stayed in the cow barn. We just did the cow barn and took care of all of that. I brought a cow up here to show people about milking cows. That was the hit of the barn for about five or six years. ... We have been involved in it heavy since then, he said.

His involvement with 4-H included Gramling allowing kids from the community to come to his dairy farm and work with the calves. He and his wife also brought youth to the local fair to see the inner workings of a cattle show.

That was an experience of a lifetime for me and my wife. I mean, we had city children come to the farm. I would let them have a calf, and they would show the calf for two years. When they first came there, they were like in a strange country, Gramling said.

They got out the car running, trying to catch these calves. If anybody knows about calves and stuff like that, you dont run behind them to try to catch them. When I did get them caught up, then they started working with them and started enjoying it, he said.

Gramling continued, Right now today Ive got several of my old 4-Hers that are in agricultural-related programs in South Carolina. It makes me and my wife feel proud. Shes had as much to do with it as I did because she had the idea about some of the things around here. I just followed up through with them.

It was around 2010 that Gramling became a member of the Orangeburg County Fair Association board of directors. His wife serves as the associations secretary/treasurer.

He still serves the fair today, including everything from maintaining shrubbery and cutting grass to tending to electrical and plumbing needs.

It keeps me active. Im not the manager of the cow barn anymore. Weve got another person thats doing that. Me and my wife have stepped back. We are on the board of directors at the fairground, and both of us are people persons. We can interact with anybody, anytime, anywhere. Thats what it takes to keep a lot of this going, Gramling said.

His goal is to get more people interested in agriculture and what is going on out here.

I know agriculture is going downhill in Orangeburg County, and agriculture is what this whole fair is about, but weve got to show people that there is still some agriculture in and around Orangeburg and Bamberg and Calhoun counties and Dorchester County. Were not just only an Orangeburg County Fair. We are a multi-county fair, Gramling said.

He does not consider what he does a job.

Anytime you consider that you are enjoying yourself, thats not a job. ... I do plumbing. I do electrical work. I do a little bit of everything. I do whatever has to be done from cleaning up the grounds to meeting some of the big to-do people, Gramling said.

Getting the fairgrounds cleaned up after big events such as the Grand American Coon Hunt, which brings thousands of people to the area, is among his maintenance duties.

We have about two to three weeks of solid cleaning that we have to do. We have to get the shavings out the cow barn, we have to get the grounds cleaned back up from the paper and everything on the grounds.

I have got two fellas that help me. One of them has been with the fairgrounds since he was 16 years old. They are my main two go-to fellas. I dont do all this myself, said Gramling, who will be 79 in August.

Ive had my wife helping pick up paper  and even the city administrator out here helping pick up paper. If they come and offer to help, I sure let them, he said.

Tremendous zeal and enthusiasm

Dr. Gene Atkinson of Orangeburg, a longtime member of the Orangeburg County Fair Association board of directors, said Gramling is deserving of his state award.

Building and grounds maintenance is just a part of what he has done at the fair.

For the last several years, he has spearheaded all of these duties to keep our facilities and fairgrounds in respectable order. As our fair has rented out our facilities for both public and private events, Paul always stays on site with these rental events the entire time to be able to repair various things that pop up, Atkinson said.

During all events held at our fairgrounds, Paul is Johnny-on-the-spot to fix and repair any services needed, as well as coordinating the electrician who is on site the entire time. He also coordinates a plumber who is on call, he said.

Atkinson said Gramling is the consummate professional who helps take care of everything from big problems to the smallest details.

Paul is truly a blessing to our county fair. We would not be able to function without him and his tremendous enthusiasm and zeal for the betterment of the Orangeburg County Fair Association, he said.

E. Matt Stokes, president of the Orangeburg County Fair Association, said Gramling is a special individual whose award is long overdue and well deserved.

Paul Gramling is a special individual who always keeps a smile on his face and an undertone of charm in his voice. He is an encyclopedia of knowledge to all people and association members who would like to know anything about the Orangeburg County Fair Association, he said.

Stokes said Gramlings knowledge includes everything from when and where to spray for ants to the locations of water and electrical lines and the names of midway carnivals and sideshows from 60 years ago.

He has always been involved at some level since he was a young lad. Paul is truly the man for all seasons at our Orangeburg County Fair Association. Paul has served in many capacities on the Board of Directors of the Orangeburg County Fair Association. During fair week in early October, he and his family move to the campground and stay here the entire week.

I don't recall him leaving the grounds unless he may need to go back to his farm to check on the progress there. When the fair is over on that Sunday, Paul is just hitting his stride getting everything ship shape for the next event when that Monday rolls around, the association president said.

Stokes said Gramlings legacy will be one of service above self.

He is the epitome of this old adage. He dedicates countless hours to the betterment of the Orangeburg County Fair Associations mission by giving tirelessly of himself with little to no remuneration. Should Paul ever decide to retire, he will always be held in such high esteem as fellow Orangeburg County Fair Association members who gave so much and received so little, he said.

Gramling said he thinks his late father would be proud of him and his service. He said he and wife will keep going as long as their health and the good Lord will let them.

Both of us have got some age on us, and Im trying to get some young people involved in it. I would love to get some more young people involved in agriculture and everything. My wife has kind of pretty well taken over the antique building over here for the last three years. Shes done a wonderful job over there. Again, she comes up with the ideas, and I help pull it through, he said, smiling.

Savon said, We have antique tractors, and then this past year we had different seeds and let people identify the seeds. Then, around the wall, we had what some of them looked like when they were grown. ... We just try to make it as educational as possible. The fairground actually got an award for that building this year.

Gramling recalled the work of longtime caretaker Glenn Bates and longtime fair manager Sam Fogle, both of whom he admired.

The man I admired the most about this fairground was Mr. Glenn Bates. He was the maintenance person of this fairground for umpteen years. ... Between him and Sam Fogle, if you want to call anybody Mr. Orangeburg County Fair, it would be Sam Fogle or Glenn Bates because he kept this ground as nice as it could be kept, he said.

Gramling said it his hope to revitalize interest in agriculture, something which Stokes said he is already working to do.

As most folks are aware, the presence of agricultural exhibits has waned over the years at the Orangeburg County Fair. This is due in part to the decline of family livestock and dairy operations not only in Orangeburg County, but throughout the nation, Stokes said.

He continued, Through partnerships with the Clemson University Extension, South Carolina State University 1890 Research and Extension, South Carolina Department of Agriculture and the South Carolina Farm Bureau, the association, with Paul's guidance, is doing all that we can do to make sure that we keep agriculture and agricultural-related activities as close to the forefront as possible of our Orangeburg County Fair program each year.

These are the challenges that we face in a world that is continuing to move toward a more corporate-type agricultural base.

Gramling and Savon have a blended family which includes his two children, her two children and their eight grandchildren. He knows exactly what legacy he wants to leave for them.

That I was a good farmer, a good dad and that I was a good person to this fairground, he said.
The S.C. Department of Transportation is planning to replace the Bull Swamp Road bridge over Caw Caw Swamp at a cost of more than $7 million.

The bridge between St. Matthews and North is considered structurally deficient, but it is not considered functionally obsolete. It is load restricted.

According to the SCDOT, a structurally deficient bridge has one or more structural defects that require attention. This status does not mean the bridge is unsafe for vehicle traffic.

The right-of-way acquisition for the project will begin in the fall of 2023, with construction expected to begin in the summer of 2024.

The project is expected to last 18 months.

The estimated construction cost for the bridge replacement is just under $7.2 million. The project is being funded through the SCDOT's Federal Bridge program.

During the project, motorists will have to detour onto Columbia Road, Murph Mill Road and Kennerly Road.

SCDOT will hold a public information meeting about the project on March 23.

The meeting will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Calhoun County Community Development Center, located at 101 Courthouse Drive in Saint Matthews.

The meeting will have a drop-in type of format with displays for viewing and citizens will have the opportunity to provide written comments. There will be no formal presentation at the meeting.

The public comment period for the project will run through April 7. SCDOT will consider all comments received before the close of business on April 7.

Comments received after the comment closing date will be considered to the extent practicable, but SCDOT may issue a final plan at any time after the close of the comment period.

Written comments can be provided in the following ways:

 Filling out a comment card and dropping it in the comment box at the public information meeting

 Mailing comments to: Alex Bennett, SCDOT Project Manager at 955 Park Street, P.O. Box 191, Columbia, SC 29202-0191

Additional information concerning the project may be obtained by contacting Alex Bennett at: 803-737-3231 or email: BennettJA@scdot.org
Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College is changing the way its instructors teach and students learn with seven-week terms starting this fall.

The new academic schedule is designed to improve student success while helping students move more quickly from college to career.

Instead of taking four or five classes at one time in a standard 15-week semester, full-time students will complete two or three classes each seven-week term. Part-time students will only need to complete one or two classes each term. A week off between terms breaks up the semester.

Financial aid will continue to be awarded based on the number of hours a student takes per semester.

President Dr. Walt Tobin said the shorter terms are in response to the evolving needs of OCtech students.

Weve learned that by reducing the number of courses students take at a given time, reducing the time spent completing those courses and creating sections between traditional terms, students tend to be more successful and have the opportunity to progress through their program faster, Tobin said.

Research has been clear about the benefits, and our faculty who have adopted courses in this format in previous semesters have experienced greater student satisfaction and success. I believe well have data that aligns with that of colleges across the country using seven-week terms, he said.

Billy Ethridge, dean of Business, Computer Technology, Education and Public Service, said most programs in his division piloted seven-week classes this spring, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Weve had fewer students at the end of the term asking to make up work because theyre taking fewer classes at once, he said. Students have a bit more work to complete on their own, but theyre able to retain the information and perform better on tests because their attention isnt divided between as many subjects.

Stephanie Philips, dean of Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing Technology, said what stood out most to her about seven-week terms was student retention.

I started with 15 students in one of my seven-week classes and ended the term with 15 students, she said. Typically, I have a few students who drop the course each semester.

Exam grades were also about 10 percent higher on average than in previous semesters.

Some classes in select degree and diploma programs will continue to be offered in the traditional 15-week format. Apprenticeships and other work-based learning programs will also continue to run in the semester model.

With seven-week classes, I was able to focus more because I had to do my work right then and there. It helped me stay on track, said Shameeka Barnes, an Early Care and Education student and working mother who piloted a seven-week course on exceptional children this spring.

I went to campus one day a week, and I had the rest of the week to finish up the work I had to do for the class, she said. Seven-week classes are better for me because I have more time to spend with my kids, getting them set with their homework and activities.

OCtech offers a number of certificates and diplomas that provide short-term career training with options to continue working toward a degree, and scholarships and grants are available that help students attend at little or no cost.

Summer and fall registration is open. Students can apply by visiting octech.edu or calling 803-535-1234.
(TBTCO) - Tai My, nhung nguoi gui tien a lua chon nhung ga khong lo tai chinh lam iem en an toan sau mot vai vu pha san ngan hang vao thang truoc. Mot loat bao cao doanh thu cua cac ngan hang cong bo trong tuan nay se cho thay ap luc ve chi phi van hanh oi voi cac ngan hang cang thang en muc nao.
Edge has some very user-hostile defaults, at least for the type of user who doesnt want extra ads and doesnt want to send personal data to Microsoft just for funsies.

Did you know that out-of-the-box, Edge will transmit the content of your text boxes on web pages to the Microsoft Editor service for the purpose of grammatical suggestions? I have no idea how this concept got past legal but hey, its on by default now.

The list of settings you have to change to keep Edge under control keeps getting longer. I know this because I keep using it against my better judgement. At the end of this post Ill explain why that is. First lets have a tour of these hostile defaults.

Here we go

On first launch Edge asks you off the bat whether you want to send a bunch of information to Microsoft. Note that the user I was testing this on doesnt have a Microsoft account. Does this just create some sort of ephemeral Edge account? I unchecked this box of course, and still ended up with all the other default settings Im about to show you.

After completing the first-time setup, heres the beautiful landing page youre presented with. Clearly the first things I will want are Disney Plus and SHOPPING, plus whatever that ridiculous thing is that JB HiFi is selling. Okay, whatever, lets try to clean this up.

We can turn off the sidebar of Microsoft nonsense on the right by clicking the button at the bottom. Its a start.

Now lets click that cog in the top-right. Show promoted links? Why on earth would I want that?

All right! Now a lot of junk in the middle is gone. Seeya Disney.

Scrolling down that settings menu a bit further theres something about Content. Whatever it is, it sounds communicable. Lets turn it off.

Microsoft may earn an affiliate commission if you purchase something through links on this page.

I downloaded this browser to earn Microsoft affiliate link revenue? Seriously?

Oh hey this is looking pretty good now. Whats with that random exchange rate in the corner though? If I click on it it takes me to MSN Money, which is definitely a website I visit all the time when Microsoft isnt encouraging me to.

Aha if I turn off Show greeting then the exchange rate disappears. That makes sense.

Okay, our homepage is looking pretty good. I can search on Bing (which is honestly quite a good search engine) and access my recent sites. Nice.

Lets cruise on over to the actual Settings and see what we can find. Theres quite a lot of these; well start with the Profiles page.

Saving my credit card sounds useful. Express checkout though? Yeah I dont need my browser scavenging for coupons for me. Well turn that one off thanks.

Share browsing data with other Windows features? In my world, what happens in the browser stays in the browser. Thatll be an off thanks.

Services, services, services. I want absolutely none of these. They all sound like excuses to send Microsoft extra information about what Im doing.

Next lets click in to that Address bar and search at the bottom.

Why should we let the user simply locate the URL from their browser history? That would waste a fresh opportunity to tell Bing that were looking for it! Big off for that top item.

Now, theres a very boring-looking section of the settings called Languages. Yawn. Who would look at that?

Oh wait its just SENDING WHAT I TYPE TO A MICROSOFT CLOUD SERVICE EVEN IF IM NOT ON A MICROSOFT WEBSITE. Definitely what I expected from my browser.

One last thing: you might have noticed that all of these screenshots have an obnoxious blue Bing logo in the top-right corner. This appeared very recently and its how you access the new Bing AI-powered chatbot. I cant count it as a bad default because in their rush to ship the feature they didnt bother to include a setting to hide this toolbar item.

Why Ive been using Edge

It would be reasonable to ask why Im using Edge given all this nonsense. Its a fair point. Brave or Firefox with uBlock Origin are definitely more aligned with my expectations.

Partly its personal whim. I have a pet theory that a good way to weather the rampant complexity and insecurity of modern computing is to limit your vendors. Microsoft is good at security (yes, really) and I have complete trust in the supply chain of their first-party software. Since Im broadly happy with the M365 Family service, I think its a logical default to put all my data and vendor trust in one basket and watch that basketif I can stomach all of the apps in question.

Partly Im hoping that somebody at Microsoft will wake up to the unrealised potential of Edge and start treating it like Safari: a utility that end users can trust to have their back and preserve their privacy in as many circumstances as possible. Apple doesnt try to make revenue from Safari because they dont need to. Microsoft doesnt need to either. If they offered privacy-enhanced ad-blocking Chromium with opt-in MS integration I think they would eat Chromes lunch. Its a strict improvement in every way and I would absolutely love to see it. Instead they foist this incoherent rapacious mess on us where its ambiguous whether the real customers are end users or Microsofts advertising partners.

The single biggest fumble remains Edge Secure Network. Apples Private Relay uses encryption to provide a VPN where cryptography ensures that nobody can see both your source IP and the requested URL. Google Ones VPN does the same thing. As Ive written about before, Microsoft just uses Cloudflare as a simple proxy who can see everything. Are they even trying?

I want to see a coherent competitor to the Apple consumer ecosystem. Come on Microsoft, you can do it.
Gov. Mark Gordon allowed the most sweeping abortion measure in the states history to become law without his signature on Friday, stressing his pro-life beliefs while also expressing concern the law will delay a final resolution on the question of abortions constitutionality in Wyoming.

Before the governor had even taken action on the bill, lawyers representing the same plaintiffs involved in a legal challenge to last years abortion ban had filed suit against the new law in Teton County.

Gordon noted in his Friday letter that the Legislature may ultimately have to seek a resolution to the issue of abortion through a constitutional amendment.

If the Legislature wants to expressly address how the Wyoming Constitution treats abortion and defines healthcare, then those issues should be vetted through the amendment process laid out in Article 20 of the Wyoming Constitution and voted on directly by the people, he wrote.

The Republican governor also signed into law Friday a ban on medication abortions  the most common type of abortion performed in Wyoming. That bill, like the more expansive anti-abortion measure, includes an exemption for rape and incest victims.

The broader Life is a Human Right Act  legislation sponsored by Wyoming Freedom Caucus member Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams  was designed to end the practice of abortion sooner than the states existing abortion trigger ban by attempting to clarify some of the legal questions that have come up in court challenges to the law. But that design prompted some observers  including a handful of pro-life lawmakers who are also attorneys  to question its constitutionality.

The original version of the Life is a Human Right Act would have erased rape and incest exemptions currently on the books and given some lawmakers standing to intervene in legal challenges to the legislation. But those provisions were changed after the bill reached the Wyoming Senate last month.

The new law, which repeals last years abortion trigger legislation, bans abortions except in cases of rape and incest, or if the mothers life is in danger. It also provides exceptions for certain medical circumstances, such as when the fetus has a lethal anomaly.

Anyone who violates the law would be guilty of a felony punishable by a fine of up to $20,000 or imprisonment of up to five years, or both. Medical professionals who illegally perform an abortion under the new law would have their license to practice in Wyoming revoked. Women upon whom any abortion is performed wouldnt be subject to these penalties.

Currently, only one Jackson clinic provides abortions in Wyoming. A second clinic was set to open in Casper, but it was delayed after someone set fire to the building last year.

Compromises and changes

Sponsors of the bill in the House fought adamantly against adding changes to the legislation, with Rodriguez-Williams going so far as to call one amendment, which would have made the bill another trigger law, unfriendly to the pro-life movement.

But after reaching a compromise with Senate President Ogden Driskill, who had stalled the legislation in the upper chamber for some time, legislative backers added rape and incest exemptions into the bill, though the law requires that cases of rape and incest be reported to law enforcement before a legal abortion could be performed. Later on, lawmakers in the Senate stripped out provisions that gave the Legislature more power over judicial matters  language that some said would violate separation-of-powers principles in the U.S. Constitution.

The laws findings and purposes section states that life begins at conception, and that abortion is not a form of health care  a constitutional assertion thats likely to be decided by the courts.

In 2012, Wyoming added an amendment to its state constitution that was meant to protect Wyomingites from having to enroll in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) against their will.

Lawyers challenging last years abortion trigger ban, which went into effect briefly before being blocked by a Teton County judge, have pointed to the amendment as a protection of health care rights for Wyomingites and argued that abortion is a form of health care.

Gordon said in his letter that hes not convinced the findings in the new law are a substitute for an expression of the people when it comes to constitutional matters.

Starting over?

Many lawmakers voiced concern that the Life is a Human Right Act aimed to interfere in that pending litigation, with some warning that the legislation will only serve to reset the legal clock and potentially prolong the practice of abortion in the state.

Sponsors of the bill, however, have asserted that the Life is a Human Right Act has a stronger legal backbone compared to House Bill 92  last years abortion trigger ban law  and will fare better than that legislation under legal scrutiny.

Gordon told the Star-Tribune at the end of this years session that he still needed more time to weigh the situation when asked if the bills definition of abortion  the main constitutional question that remains in the legislation  could cause a hang up for its passage into law.

I have to review that bill carefully, Gordon said. Mind you, we currently have a bill thats being litigated, and I need to weigh all of that. This issue needs to be settled.

Gordon expressed concern in his Friday letter that the Life is a Human Right Act will complicate and delay the resolution of legal questions that have come up in the lawsuit over last years trigger ban.

These questions need to be decided as soon as possible so that the issue of abortion in Wyoming can finally be resolved, he wrote, noting that it remains to be seen if the new law provides a better legal framework for a favorable court determination...

Depending on the courts answers, either the Legislature has exercised its constitutional authority over abortion or alternatively, the Legislature can proceed to settle the questions directly through presenting a constitutional amendment to the voters of Wyoming.

On Friday morning, lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging last years abortion trigger ban pre-emptively filed a new complaint against the Life is a Human Right Act. The same plaintiffs  which include Wyoming health care providers, an abortion fund and Wyoming women  are listed on the new complaint, which asks for an emergency hearing and block on the new abortion ban.

Many of the arguments echo those that came up in their lawsuit against last years trigger law, including assertions that the law is unconstitutionally vague and that abortion is health care, despite the bans attempt to state that it isnt. The complaint then addresses new provisions of the ban, such as the reporting requirements for cases of rape and incest.

Even if a sexual assault is self-evident  for instance, a minor becomes pregnant by a person not a minor, which may be statutory rape  she must go through the harassing procedural hurdle of submitting and obtaining a copy of a police report before she can receive reproductive health care, the complaint says.

The complaint also scrutinizes the laws assertion that life begins at conception  a concept which plaintiffs argue is distinct to certain Christian denominations...

The Wyoming Criminal Abortion Ban is expressly based on the proposition that life begins at conception and that a fertilized egg is a full person entitled to all rights of Wyoming citizens, the complaint says.

This viewpoint is distinct to certain Christian denominations, and is not shared by other religious denominations, including many Christians, Jews and Muslims, among others. The Wyoming Ban therefore imposes a sectarian religious view on all Wyoming citizens, and coerces all citizens to conform their most personal and intimate actions to this sectarian view even if their own religious beliefs are different, or if they hold no such religious beliefs.

Medication abortions

Gordon also signed into law a bill that bans medication abortions in the state. Wyoming becomes the first state in the nation to do so, according to the New York Times.

The law, which was sponsored by Riverton Republican Sen. Tim Salazar, bans chemical abortion procedures in Wyoming. Anyone who violates the rule would be subject to a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months of imprisonment or up to a $9,000 fine, or both. Lawmakers rejected an attempt to lower that fine to $750.

These restrictions wouldnt apply to the treatment of a natural miscarriage, treatment in cases where a persons pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or if their health or life is in danger. That exception doesnt hold for psychological or emotional conditions.

They also wouldnt apply to contraceptives that a person might use before conception, or before a pregnancy can be confirmed through conventional medical testing.

Salazar sponsored a similar bill last year, during the session in which the Legislature passed the states abortion trigger ban. His bill this year had 38 cosponsors, many of whom were freshmen lawmakers.

PHOTOS: Abortion in Wyoming Pro-choice protest Abortions rights protest Abortion-rights protesters The Women's Health Center and Family Care Clinic of Jackson Pro-life Protest Pro-life Protest Abortion-rights protest Abortion-rights protest Abortion-rights protest Abortion clinic fire Abortion-rights protest Abortion-rights protest Pro-life Protest Pro-life Protest Pro-life Protest Pro-life Protest Pro-life Protest
The return of wolves to the West has always been contentious, and the deaths last fall of more than 40 cattle in western Colorado alarmed ranchers. But heres the true story: Wolves did not kill those cattle found dead near Meeker.

After months of investigation, the state agency, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, found no evidence of wolves in the area at all.

Yet when the news of the cattle deaths went public last October, the agency issued a press release stating it was investigating a report of dead domestic cow calves on White River National Forest lands near Meeker that show damage consistent with wolf depredation.

A month later, the agencys northwest regional manager testified before the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission that though some of the cattle had injuries that appeared to come from wolves, he added: Its perplexing; its confusing; its frustrating, trying to figure out exactly what occurred in this incident. The story of wolves as the culprits, however, made national headlines.

Wolves are coming back to the state naturally and because in 2020, the public passed Prop 114, mandating restoration of wolves by the end of this year. Through a Colorado Open Records Act request, the Humane Society of the United States obtained documents and photos about the livestock deaths, and shared them with Carter Niemeyer, an expert on wolf-livestock conflict. He is also a member of the states Technical Working Group on wolf restoration.

In his Feb. 14 report, Niemeyer found that the evidence at Meeker is inconsistent with wolf attacks. Niemeyer and veterinarians concluded that the cattle more likely died from brisket disease, which commonly afflicts cattle living at high altitudes.

Misunderstandings like this one, which lasted weeks, arent helpful. Do wolves ever come into conflict with livestock? Yes, but it is relatively rare. In the Northern Rockies where wolves are established, they account for less than 1% of cattle losses. Disease, birthing problems, weather and theft take nine times as many cattle than all predators combined, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In Washington state, which is home to at least 33 wolf packs after nearly 15 years of wolf recovery, more than 80% of the packs have no conflict with livestock in an average year.

Overall, the threat of wolves to the livestock industry is negligible. For the few livestock producers who are impacted by wolves, it is, of course, economically painful and time consuming.

But options exist for ranchers to safeguard their livestock. Old-fashioned riding the range to drive off wolf packs, cleaning up carcasses so they dont attract wolves, penning up livestock at night, installing scare devices, and using guard dogs are all deterrents that can work.

Unfortunately, data from the United States Department of Agriculture suggest that few livestock owners use these effective, non-lethal mitigation measures.

But many livestock producers across the west  in southern Alberta, the Big Wood River Drainage of Idaho, the Tom Miner Basin and Blackfoot Valley of Montana and elsewhere  do use a variety of these deterrents, which make it possible for their herds to live alongside both wolves and grizzly bears.

To its credit, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has produced a resource guide for livestock producers. To do an even better job as wolves integrate into western Colorado, the state must improve the way it investigates livestock deaths.

These investigations must be timely and transparent  as in other Western states such as Washington  and without scapegoating. The Colorado legislature could do its part, too, by providing funding for a trained, rapid-response team that would immediately investigate livestock injuries and deaths.

According to Niemeyer, authorities must respond as if they were investigating a crime scene  checking out dead livestock within 24 hours to prevent losing evidence from tissue decomposition or scavengers.

Only when a cause is determined, based on evidence, should information be made public. If wolf recovery is going to be successful for both wolves and people, everyone involved  livestock producers, wolf advocates, agencies  must work together. What happened in Meeker has been a valuable lesson in what not to do.
In recent years, politics in Wyoming have taken a hard turn to the right. Democracy has tilted heavily toward individual liberty often at the expense of general welfare.

When our founding fathers developed the Constitution, they strove to achieve a balance between these two important values as reflected in the Preamble: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Unionpromote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

But if you listen to some Wyoming legislators today, you would be led to believe the Constitution is only about protecting individual liberty. That sentiment became obvious during recent House of Representatives debates on HB 66 (prohibiting mask, vaccine and testing requirements) and HB 143 (restricting CDC authority).

Comments made by Freedom Caucus legislators promoting these bills reflect their mindset. The primary sponsor said: We the people are taking back our liberty. Another legislator proclaimed: This is a hill to die on.

Even when they were reminded the Supreme Court recently affirmed the federal governments authority to withhold Medicaid and Medicare funds if public health requirements are not adhered to (and most healthcare facilities could not survive without these funds), many legislators continued to support these bills. The primary sponsor said: we must make a choice between their dollars and our freedom. Another legislator, seemingly oblivious to fiscal reality and the fact that thousands would lose services, accused healthcare providers of putting themselves in a vulnerable position by utilizing a business model that relies too heavily on Medicaid and Medicare funding.

When an amendment was proposed to require state government to provide $847 million to compensate healthcare providers if Medicaid and Medicare payments were lost, most of the supporters of HB 66 voted against the amendment. Apparently, they were willing to risk the destruction of the entire public health and healthcare infrastructure in Wyoming to take back our liberty. Ironically while many residents were advocating for Medicaid expansion, the House of Representatives was seriously considering eliminating funding for both Medicaid and Medicare. Thankfully reasonable voices prevailed, but HB 66 and HB 143 came very close to passing.

So yes, Wyoming, we have a problem. The Freedom Caucus and other extremists within the GOP have a lopsided view of the proper balance between me the person and we the people. Clearly, they dont value the vital need for government to act on behalf of the common good. While we all cherish our liberty, individual liberty is not enough! We also need public health protections, a good healthcare infrastructure and other government programs to enhance general welfare.

To make matters worse, their lopsided definition of individual liberty is inconsistent. They will fight for medical freedom against public health regulations (which could save thousands of lives), but they insist an unwanted pregnancy be carried to full term thereby disregarding the will of the mother. At the same time, they are stingy with government services to assist with raising the child.

Another example of GOP extremism during the legislative session was the quest to obtain more power by ending cross-over voting in order to suppress dissenting voices. The thirst for more power was so strong that Senate leaders resurrected a seldom used rule to re-refer HB 103 to a friendly committee after it had already died in another committee. Wyoming voters will now be prohibited from changing party affiliation after the candidate filing deadline in early May  before they even know the candidates positions on the issues. Bill supporters would like you to believe this bill was about political fairness. They ask, why should someone from outside a party be allowed to select another partys candidates? They are missing the point. A better question is, why should a voter not be allowed to change his/her mind at the last minute?

The GOP is unrecognizable from the party we joined decades ago. In an effort to enforce purity, party advocates use bullying language such as RINO and Biden-Republican to suppress dissenting voices. Those attempts at thought-control are unacceptable! Do they really think that people with many years of education and professional experience are going to forgo lessons learned elsewhere to adhere blindly to their anti-science and anti-government values?

The extremists within the GOP are leading us down the wrong path! They promote a self-serving view of individual liberty often at the expense of general welfare. Combine that with an insatiable thirst for more power and the political climate in Wyoming portends poorly for our future.
Former commissioner of police (CoP) Gary Griffith on Saturday said Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds was incorrect when he said that a crime plan is the responsibility of the CoP.

Griffith said a Minister of National Security formulates policies to ensure that the law enforcement agencies can operationalise them.
Once again I must extend congratulations to Dr Keith Rowley for recognising and rewarding excellence in performance.

Just recently Richie Sookhai was chosen as a senator, and Friday he was made a minister in the Ministry of Works. Everyone knows this is a very prestigious promotion, and working in this ministry is both demanding and taxing.
When Tucson artist Lex Gjurasic first received an email from Gov. Katie Hobbs' team, she thought it was a scam.

As it turns out, the email was real. Gov. Hobbs was reaching out, hoping Gjurasic would create an inclusive design to put on new merchandise.

"I was pretty amazed," Gjurasic says. "I was like, 'Kathleen Marie Hobbs knows who I am?' and (her team member) was like, 'Yes, she loves your work.' That, to me, was a little mind-blowing because I really admire Katie Hobbs, even prior to being governor  all the work she's done at the state level.

"As a Tucson artist, it's easy to feel tucked away," Gjurasic says. "Phoenix is a big city, and also as an artist not being on either coast. If you're not in New York or LA, you definitely get overlooked."

The goal for the design was inclusivity  the imagery wouldn't be focused on a campaign or an issue.

"I was the first artist they reached out to," Gjurasic says. "They said, hey we want to do collabs with Arizona-based artists and you're our guinea pig, basically."

Ultimately, Gjurasic created a design that she feels is both unifying and joyful. The words "Arizona For Everyone" are bubbly, surrounded by colorful flowers sitting inside the shape of Arizona.

"I wanted it to reflect me as an artist. I wanted it to definitely speak to Arizona," Gjurasic says.

The design is inspired by a commission project that Gjurasic created for an event at the Tucson Museum of Art in October  a backdrop for attendees to pose in front of. When she posted photos of the backdrop, people suggested she turn the design into fabric.

"I was like, they want to wear that imagery so this is solid inspiration to pull from," she says. "I was like, what would my friend's mom want to wear? What would my friend's teenage daughter want to wear? What would I want to wear? I wanted it to really encompass every cool person I know."

Gjurasic hand-painted the design for the governor's office, then digitized it for the shirts, tote bags and stickers that are available to purchase online. Proceeds from the merchandise are donated to Katie Hobbs for Governor.

Hobbs' team gave Gjurasic full creative control for the design  "they just wanted me to bring my heart to the project," she says.

"I always think that's the best way," she says. "If anyone ever thinks about commissioning a project, find someone you love  and believe in them."
An Arizona Auditor Generals report showed Tucson Unified School Districts percentage of instructional spending increased last year  to its highest level since 2007  while its administrative spending percentage is the lowest on record with the auditor.

The data comes from the School District Spending Analysis for fiscal year 2022, in which the auditor general largely focused on districts operational spending such as classroom instruction, administration, student and instruction support, food service and transportation expenses.

Unlike TUSD, more than half of Arizona school districts decreased the percentage of dollars spent on classroom instruction compared to the previous year, the report showed.

The classroom spending was the highest amount that weve invested, percentage-wise, in the classroom in 15 years, Ricky Hernandez, TUSDs chief financial officer, told the districts governing board March 14.

The fiscal year 2022 was the lowest administrative spending percentage that weve had, ever, in state auditor reports going back to 2001, he added.

Instructional spending: 54.3%

The state auditor general has tracked Arizona school districts spending since 2001. The most recent report showed that 118 of 206 school districts decreased their instructional spending percentage in 2022 compared to 2021.

Instructional spending refers to money invested in paying teachers, aides, substitutes and other instruction staff, resources and activities.

In TUSD, according to the state report, instructional spending totaled 54.3%, the highest since 2007 when the district invested the same percentage.

Its also essentially on par with the statewide average of instructional spending for fiscal year 2022, which was 54.5% across Arizona.

In the state report, school districts were categorized into operational peer groups to help create meaningful comparisons across districts. Hernandez said TUSDs peer group consisted of 11 very large urban or suburban school districts of 15,000 students or more, which included Mesa, Phoenix Union, Scottsdale and Chandler school districts.

TUSDs instructional spending was lower than its peer groups average of 57%.

Among the nine major Pima County school districts, TUSDs instruction spending was sixth on the list, with the Amphitheater, Vail and Sunnyside school districts showing lower percentages.

TUSDs highest instructional spending percentage on record with the auditor was in 2005, at 55.4%.

Other categories that were also counted in overall classroom spending included student support, such as counselors and nurses, and instruction support, such as librarians and curriculum development services.

In 2022, a total of 9.7% of TUSDs budget went towards student support, while 7.9% was put towards instruction support.

Adding those totals to TUSDs instruction spending put its percentage of overall classroom spending at 71.9%.

Administrative: 8.6%

The administration spending percentage for TUSD was 8.6% in 2022. That was also lower than the statewide average of 10.2%.

TUSD was also the Pima County school district with the lowest administration spending percentage. The other local school districts with the lowest administration spending percentages were Marana with 8.7%, Flowing Wells with 9.6% and Amphitheater with 9.8%.

TUSD board member Natalie Luna Rose said she appreciated the information about administration costs, considering that theres constantly talk about too many administrators, too many people are getting paid over six figures.

Administration spending refers to money paid to superintendents, school principals, and other administrative personnel and services.

While the report did not include the administration spending percentage for TUSDs peer group, the district spent more dollars on administration expenses compared to its peer groups average. On average, the peer group spent about $921 per student for administration costs, while TUSD spent an average of $1,026 per student.

Hernandez said there were a couple of factors that contributed to that higher number compared to the peer group.

A thing to consider is that administration expenses include school administrators, principals, our office managers, Hernandez said. In this peer group, TUSD has the highest number of school campuses out of all of the others.
Roughly 12% of Pima County residents ages 16-25 are not in school or employed, and are often involved in the court system.

A Pima County program aims to reach these disengaged youths. It has partnered with a nonprofit job center and career development organization to increase opportunities for participants.

The one-year program, Pima Cycle Breaker, operates under the guidance of Pima County School Superintendent Dustin Williams.

A goal of Cycle Breaker is to decease the rate of recidivism for youths and young adults involved in the justice system by providing educational services, skills training, employment opportunities and needs-based aid in the form of transportation, housing, food and other areas, to foster a successful transition into the workforce.

Theres a saying in life that 'youre locked up and you throw away the key', Williams said. Our mission and goal is to just help people get back on track and help them be productive members of our societies, but also help them be comfortable with themselves and feel confident that they can do some really good things.

The partnership with nonprofit Pipeline AZ means extensive opportunities for Pima Cycle Breaker's clients, including resources and employment connections through a streamlined job skills exploration platform.

Pipelines extensive network of employers provides the youths with tailored job suggestions based on their profile of skills, which is akin to a resume. Pima County employers can also feature job opportunities specifically for Cycle Breaker participants on a designated page of Pipeline's online platform.

One of the largest financial contributors to Pima Cycle Breaker is Potoff Private Philanthropy, which provided seed money to get the program up and running. Other major contributors and partners include the National Retail Federation and the Center for the Future of Arizona, which helped bring the partnership with Pipeline AZ to fruition.

Goodwill of Southern Arizona is one of the largest employers registered with Pipeline AZ, alongside about 7,000 other companies, according to Katie Belous, Pipeline AZ research analyst.

Pipeline AZ is reaching out to employers associated with the National Retail Federation, informing them of the benefits and advantages of the system so they can add even more jobs to the platform, Belous said.

For Cycle Breaker, we are super excited to offer customizations with site resources, entirely directed for registrants on the Cycle Breaker portion of Pipeline, Belous said. With the technology and the infrastructure, were really hoping to enable those strong connection points, and to facilitate the outstanding work thats already underway with the superintendents office and the Pima County team.

Pima Cycle Breaker is helmed by Monica Wright, an educator with about 38 years of experience, who is passionate about the opportunity to help young people who need a little extra assistance. Wrights goal is to help provide participants with the resources and support they need to create sustainable futures for themselves.

I really want to make sure that we provide people with services and help, Wright said. If its handholding, thats what we do. We handhold you through the whole process to make you feel that you are valued, that you belong somewhere, that you are a part of something bigger than what youre leaving.

Pima Cycle Breaker centers its program around three pillars: education, support systems and job placement. Success is determined by how active a participant is in each of these scenarios.

We know that with those three attributes, we can make someone successful and break that cycle, and put somebody back in the community, Williams said.

In order to provide more empirical evidence of success, Wright said she will use a structured process to keep clients on track and engage in each of the pillars. This plan features a 90-day process that includes 36 hours of education, job training, check-in days and time inside the classroom.

Participants will not be removed from the program after 90 days, as achieving a GED or diploma may take longer than that time period. The timeline is not meant to hurry or rush applicants, Wright said, but rather to give them a sense of priority and help guide them.

With kids, if you dont provide a timeline, oftentimes they can just willy-nilly themselves through this stuff, Wright said. We want to make it not in a hurry, but we want to make it like 'it should be important for you right now to make these moves'.

Some of the support systems offered to participants include advising services, educational help with classwork, and various other accommodations to help achieve success. Wright mentioned, for example, that Pima Cycle Breaker will accommodate clients by paying for transportation through Uber or Lyft so that clients can attend their employment opportunities or job interviews without stressing about how they can get there on time.

Additionally, when clients go through the program, they are given a $250 stipend to help pay for rent, food or other miscellaneous expenses, providing them with a little extra peace of mind financially so they can focus on completing their required work.

The program faces some challenges in keeping some clients active and connected. Wright noted. Many participants face unique and difficult circumstances that make it hard to stay on track, so addressing those dilemmas in a helpful way is key for future success.

The challenges for us are making sure we can keep people on track and making sure that were keeping people connected, Williams said. Controlling an individual and what happens in their life, especially when theres already a lot of trauma in their life, makes it really, really challenging.

When they complete the program, clients receive certification, along with either their GED or high school diploma. That, coupled with the resources provided by Cycle Breaker and Pipeline AZs job network, allows them to begin their next steps in the workforce.
PHOENIX  Gov. Katie Hobbs has forbidden all state agencies under her control from discriminating against workers based on their hair texture and style.

In signing the executive order Friday, Hobbs said she wants to make sure Black state employees as well as workers for companies that contract with state government will be able to wear their natural hair without fear of discrimination.

More importantly is the message this sends to all Black women, men and children that you deserve to be comfortable wearing your natural hair at school and in the workplace without being perceived as unprofessional or suffering other negative consequences, the Democratic governor said.

Nothing in her order affects the policies of other levels of government, or of private employers, which are beyond her unilateral control. Nor does it preclude schools from establishing their own rules and regulations about hair for staff and students.

But Hobbs said it could provide a basis for action by others.

Im hopeful that this order will set an example for other employers also committed to building an Arizona for everyone, she said, as well as for the Republican-controlled Legislature to address these inequities for all Arizonans.

Willing to look into more

Hobbs acknowledged her order is focused on Black hairstyles and does not address how other employees can be discriminated against because of their hair.

Hobbs said there already are certain protections in state law, such as a 2021 law that allows Native American students to wear tribal regalia to graduation ceremonies. But nothing in that measure addresses hair.

Were certainly willing to look into more, she said when asked by a reporter about other groups, including Rostafarians with dreadlocks, Sikhs who must maintain uncut and untrimmed hair, and Hasidic Jews with side curls known as payos.

She repeated her hope that her executive order will spur legislation to end this kind of inequity across the board.

The governor made it clear she was acting because there appears to be a special problem for Black workers and contractors.

A Black woman is 80% more likely to change her natural hair to meet social norms or expectations at work, Hobbs said. Black women are 1.5 times more likely to be sent home, or know of a Black woman sent home from the workplace because of her hair. And one in two Black children have experienced hair discrimination as early as 5 years old. And the impact can last a lifetime.

Hair is part of who we are

The move was praised by Neal Lester, a professor at Arizona State University who specializes in African-American literature and cultural studies. Lester, the co-author of Hair Stories, a catalog prepared for the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, said the order recognizes the reality of discrimination that occurs now based on how some Black people are perceived.

All this is to say, we are not our hair, he said at the signing of the executive order. But our hair is part of who we are and how we are.

Lester read off a litany of situations across the country where people were turned away from restaurants because of their hair and students were forced to cut it.

Thank you, Governor Hobbs, for making Black folks and our hair (have) one less hurdle to jump over in many workplaces and social spaces, he said.

Hobbs said the provisions should take effect by June 1, giving the state Department of Administration, which oversees state employees and contracts, time to write the necessary rules.
PHOENIX  A conservative advocacy group founded by the Koch brothers is asking a federal judge to quash a new voter-approved campaign finance law aimed at exposing dark money contributions for political purposes.

Americans for Prosperity contends the First Amendment protects the right of individuals to donate to advocacy organizations without fear their identities will be disclosed.

In a new lawsuit, they say Proposition 211 trammels that right by subjecting countless Americans nationwide to governmental doxxing for doing nothing more than supporting their chosen non-profit organizations and charities. Doxxing means to publicly identify or publish private information about someone.

The group, founded by billionaire conservative activists Charles and David Koch, wants U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver to block the Citizens Clean Elections Commission from enforcing the law, which was approved by Arizona voters by a nearly 3-1 margin in November.

The lawsuit is the second effort by special interest groups to kill the law.

A separate lawsuit filed by the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and the Center for Arizona Policy is pending in Maricopa County Superior Court. It contends the initiative runs afoul of a state constitutional right of privacy. The judge in that case is set to hear arguments in May.

Donors may fear reprisals

Voters in November closed what some consider to be a loophole in state campaign finance laws.

Arizona has for years required that the names be made public of those who give at least $50 to political campaigns, or to support or oppose ballot measures. That includes in-kind contributions, where organizations, rather than giving money to a cause, run their own commercials.

But that law said only the name of the organization need be made public, not the individuals or corporations who donated to the group. Many commercials identify the sponsors by only a bland-sounding organizational name, with viewers given no clue as to who was really financing them.

Proposition 211 requires public disclosure of anyone who has given at least $5,000 to one of these front groups. Potentially more significant, it requires any group making political expenditures to trace the cash back to its original source, no matter how many hands it passed through.

Americans for Prosperity and its affiliated foundation say that is harmful to the organization and its donors, who may fear reprisals.

Some people publicly associated with the plaintiffs have faced boycotts, character attacks, personal threats, and worse as a result, its attorneys told Silver. Others simply have no desire for their giving to be made public.

Many donors have insisted their identities remain confidential, the lawsuit says.

This assurance of confidentiality is vitally important and enables plaintiffs continued robust participation in the public sphere  whereas Proposition 211s compelled disclosures vitiate this understanding and threaten to chill continued donations and support for plaintiffs, it says.

The group says there are other problems. The lawsuit says the initiative used the phrase campaign media spending as the trigger for when disclosure is required. That means not just any public communication that promotes, supports, attacks or opposes a candidate within six months of an election, the suit says, but also any communication that merely refers to a clearly identified candidate between 90 days before a primary right through the general election.

The law lacks guardrails to ensure that the speech it regulates has a sufficient nexus to the asserted interests, specific to the electoral context, that Arizona purports to have in the required donor information, the lawsuit states. The unduly broad reach of Proposition 211 ventures far beyond anything the First Amendment permits.

Confuses voters

The groups lawyers have another legal theory.

They note that Proposition 211 was advertised as providing Arizonans with needed information, even to the point of being dubbed by its sponsors as the Voters Right to Know Act. But the net effect, they argue, would be just the reverse.

Far from improving voters knowledge, Proposition 211 stands affirmatively to mislead interested voters by directly tying donors to candidates and issues those donors may support only glancingly, or not at all, the complaint alleges.

Anyway, it contends, the sheer volume of information about donors that Proposition 211 would produce wouldnt help given voters likely inability to appreciate any contributors beyond direct donors.

The measure ties the names of individuals and corporations who give to a group for what could be a plethora of reasons to everything that group does in the future, the lawsuit says.

Proposition 211 chills protected speech and confuses voters, in violation of the First Amendment, the lawsuit states.

There was no immediate response to this suit.

But in legal filings in the previously filed state court case, attorney Chanele Reyes, representing the sponsors of Proposition 211, said there is nothing unconstitutional about ensuring that voters know who is trying to influence elections.

Reyes pointed out the state has had financial disclosure laws for years, all of which have been upheld by multiple courts. All Proposition 211 does, Reyes said, is pull back the curtain to ensure that voters know not just the name of an organization listed as the direct source of money, but the individuals, organizations and corporations who are really providing the financing.
On May 28, 2022, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover composed a news release announcing the exoneration of Louis Taylor, who was convicted for setting the 1970 Pioneer Hotel fire.

She sounded convinced of the righteousness of the decision, but she never published the release.

Then on Aug. 3, she wrote another news release announcing she would not exonerate Taylor, sounding equally convinced of the opposite decision.

The explanation for why she changed her mind has been the subject of curiosity and speculation since then. Conover has said she was simply preparing for different possible outcomes.

Its not just idle wonder: Exonerating Taylor would have meant he is no longer legally responsible for 28 deaths and would have opened up Pima County to liability for the 42 years he spent in prison.

Now Tucsonans have an explanation, probably partial but also plausible, for the reversal. And it came from a surprising source: Nina Trasoff, the former TV news anchor and Tucson City Council member.

Trasoff wrote two affidavits for two separate cases involving Louis Taylor in recent weeks, both about her work on the May, 2022 news release announcing the exoneration.

The key one, written March 9, says this: Conover told me she had not gone forward with the original press release, which had been scheduled for May 28, because Phoenix lawyers had threatened bar discipline and possible disbarment if she went forward with the plan to exonerate Mr. Taylor.

Trasoffs affidavit was explosive because it suggested that Conover walked up to the edge of exonerating Taylor before deciding not to because it threatened her own career.

Conover has neither confirmed nor denied that she said this. She initially accepted an interview request for Friday, then said she could not go ahead because of the pending litigation between Taylor and Pima County and the likelihood that she will be deposed in coming weeks or months.

Her statement earlier this week, after Trasoffs affidavit was filed in Pima County Superior Court, was this:

High-level prosecutorial decisions made by county attorneys and district attorneys across the nation often draw strong and sometimes fierce opinions. In performing my duties as prosecutor, Ive proven my willingness and availability to listen to diverse feedback. However, Ive also proven that I make decisions based on facts and the law. While I carefully consider the opinions of my senior leadership team and the opinions of interested members of the community, the ultimate decisions I make are my own.

Again, she didnt deny saying that to Trasoff. She said being county attorney is a tough and complicated job  which it sure is, especially when you flip-flop on a crucial, sensitive decision like exonerating Taylor.

Exoneration needed to seek damages

Conover, now in her third year as the countys top prosecutor, campaigned in part on bringing justice for Taylor, convicted as a teen in 1972 for setting the Pioneer Hotel fire and killing 28 people.

His conviction has long been a cause celebre around Arizona  considered dubious because of an investigators racism, questionable investigative techniques and doubts that the fire was caused by arson at all.

Though Taylor was released from prison in 2013 after pleading no contest to the charges, he was never exonerated. He filed a federal civil suit against the county in 2015 that is continuing, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said he could not collect damages for his imprisonment as long as his no-contest plea stood.

In other words, he would have to be exonerated.

Before Conover took office in January 2021, representatives of outgoing county attorney Barbara LaWalls office contended that legal ethics prohibited her from getting involved in Taylors civil suit against the county.

Normally, a county attorney and her deputies would be expected to defend the county, but Conover had said during the campaign that she worked briefly on Taylors case when she was a law student and she also said during the campaign the county attorneys office had fumbled Taylors exoneration. LaWalls team found that she had a conflict of interest, and they passed the civil case off to outside attorneys.

Conover assigned former aide Gabriel Jack Chin to review Taylors conviction and make a recommendation about exoneration anyway.

Family, lawyers told of planned exoneration

Over Memorial Day weekend, 2022, Conover and her team had reached a conclusion and were preparing to announce the exoneration.

This would be a momentous decision not just because Taylor would no longer be considered culpable for the deadly fire, but also because of the likelihood it would mean a bigger payout by the county in Taylors lawsuit.

On Saturday, May 28, Conover had put together a news release, with Trasoffs help, that read like this: Last week, I concluded that the Pima County Attorneys office could no longer support the criminal conviction against Louis Taylor in the pioneer Hotel fire of 1970.

And then, as I have done the last 18 months for any family member who has lost someone and found themselves entangled in the criminal justice system, I started placing calls all across the country to anyone we could find who was impacted on that unholy night in December of 1970 when 29 souls were lost to the fire that has plagued our community ever since.

Indeed, Conover went so far as to alert Taylors lawyers and some victims family members that she planned to exonerate Taylor. Then suddenly over that weekend, plans changed. She decided not to proceed with exoneration the next week.

On Aug. 3, the day after an executive session with the Pima County Board of Supervisors discussing the Taylor case, she announced she was not going to exonerate Taylor after all.

Speculation likely to continue

When news of Trasoffs latest affidavit broke, suspicion naturally drifted toward Nick Acedo. He is the Chandler-based attorney who took over defending Pima County in the Louis Taylor civil case at the end of LaWalls tenure.

Could he be a Phoenix lawyer who threatened Conover with a Bar complaint?

Neither Pima County nor its attorneys have ever threatened Ms. Conover, Acedo told me Thursday.

He specified, when I asked, that he had not threatened to report Conover to the State Bar.

Did something happen in the Aug. 2 supervisors meeting when they discussed the Taylor case in executive session? We dont know  state law forbids them from publicly discussing what happened in executive session.

All we know is that on May 28, Conover sounded convinced that an exoneration of Taylor was justified. But on Aug 3. she was convinced of the opposite: The review of the Taylor criminal case is complete and did not find any new evidence of innocence. Therefore, no further action will be taken in the Taylor criminal case.

It was odd, to say the least  and upsetting to Conovers former political allies representing Taylor. They sought an explanation and found Trasoffs account, one that is not edifying if you believe that a prosecutor should stand for justice, come what may.

But undoubtedly this is not final word, just the beginning of an understanding of why Taylor remains responsible, instead of exonerated, for the Pioneer Hotel fire.

Photos of the 1970 Pioneer Hotel fire in downtown Tucson
A Tucson dog walker, age 58, suffered a broken leg when a javelina charged, the Arizona Game & Fish Department reported.

The blind-side attack occurred about 7 a.m. on March 7 near Craycroft Road and 22nd Street, the department said Friday on Twitter.

Javelina think dogs are coyotes and defend themselves against the perceived predators, the March 17 tweet said. Victims get hurt when defending their dogs. Go the other way ASAP when javelina are seen.

In this case, the injured person was treated and released, the departments statement said. No further details were given.

In September 2022, two people were bitten by javelina in the Tucson area while walking their dogs in separate incidents, state wildlife officials reported then.

One, an 11-year-old girl who was walking with her mother, was treated for minor injuries at a local hospital after being bitten near Campbell Avenue and Skyline Drive.

That came two days after a woman and her dog were attacked from behind by a javelina on La Cholla Boulevard near Magee Road. The woman was left with a 2-inch gash on her thigh and her dog with a leg wound, both of which required treatment but no hospitalization, according to Arizona Daily Star archives.

Game and Fish Department spokesman Mark Hart explained then that javelinas are not normally aggressive toward people, but they will react instinctively to perceived threats.

They have a keen sense of smell, but they dont see very well, he said. They cant distinguish the difference between a dog and a coyote, and a coyote is a natural enemy.
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP)  One by one, the presenters inside the crowded hotel ballroom shared their computer screens and promised to show how easy it is to hack into voting systems across the U.S.

Drawing gasps from the crowd, they highlighted theoretical vulnerabilities and problems from past elections. But instead of tailoring their efforts to improve election security, they argued that all voting machines should be eliminated  a message that was wrapped in conspiracies about elections being rigged to favor certain candidates.

We are at war. The only thing that's not flying right now is bullets, said Mark Finchem, a Republican candidate for secretary of state in Arizona last year who continues to contest his loss and was the final speaker of the daylong conference.

Finchem was among a group of Republican candidates running for governor, secretary of state or state attorney who disputed the outcome of the 2020 election and who lost in a clean sweep last November in important political battleground states, including Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Yet deep distrust about U.S. elections persists among Republicans, skepticism fueled by former President Donald Trumps false claims and by allies who have been traveling the country meeting with community groups and holding forums like the one recently just outside Nashville, attended by some 250 people.

As the nation barrels toward the next presidential election, the election conspiracy movement that mushroomed after the last one shows no signs of slowing down. Millions have been convinced that any election in which their preferred candidate loses has been somehow rigged against them, a belief that has fed efforts among conservatives to ditch voting machines and to halt or delay certification of election results.

Voters who know the truth about our elections have faith in them, said Liz Iacobucci, election security program manager with the voter advocacy group Common Cause. But the people who have been led into disbelief  those people can be led into other things, like Jan. 6.

Trump, running for the White House for the third time, has signaled that the 2020 election will remain an integral part of his 2024 presidential bid. In a recent call with reporters about a new book, Trump pointed to polls that show a sizable number of people believe the 2020 election was stolen, even though there is no such evidence.

Im an election denier, Trump said. Youve got a lot of election deniers in this country and theyre not happy about whats happened.

Trump allies such as MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn remain prominent voices calling for a ban on voting machines. They want hand-marked paper ballots counted individually without the aid of machines by poll workers in the nearly 180,000 voting precincts across the country.

We all have the same agenda, to get our elections fair and transparent and where they cant be hacked, said Lindell, who recently announced plans to form what he calls an election crime bureau to bring his myriad legal, cybersecurity and legislative efforts under one organization.

In an interview, Lindell said he has spent $40 million since the 2020 election investigating fraud claims and supporting efforts to ban voting machines. He said he is taking out loans to continue to fund the work.

During an America First Forum held last month in South Carolina, Flynn told those gathered at a Charleston hotel that they were fighting not only Democrats but fellow Republicans who are dismissive of their concerns about the 2020 election.

Our Republican Party, they want to move on, Flynn said via video conference. And frankly, the American people are not going to move on.

An investigation by the AP and the PBS series Frontline last year examined how Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, was traveling the country spreading conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and vaccines as he builds a movement based on Christian nationalist ideas. He relies in part on groups such as The America Project and Americas Future.

The America Project was launched in 2021 by Patrick Byrne, founder of Overstock.com. Byrne said elections remain a top priority for the group, though it also will focus on border issues. Asked how much he's planning to spend ahead of the 2024 election, Byrne told the AP, There is no budget.

I have no children, no wife, he said. Theres no point in me saving it for anything.

Recently filed tax forms do not detail where the group's $7.7 million in revenue came from that year, but Byrne and Michael Flynn's brother, Joseph Flynn, told the AP that most of it came from Byrne himself. The group reported giving $2.75 million to Cyber Ninjas for a partisan and much-criticized review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix.

Michael Flynn is now focused on the nonprofit group he leads, Americas Future, and other projects, according to his brother. That group reported raising $2.3 million in 2021 and paying out $1.2 million in grants, including just under $1 million to Cyber Ninjas.

Others who have been central in the effort to raise doubts about the accuracy of elections also have been active this year. Among them is Douglas Frank, an Ohio math and science educator, who said on his social media account that he met with various groups in six states in January, seven states in February and planned to be in eight states in March.

At the Tennessee forum, Kathy Harms, one of the event organizers, took the stage to talk about why she is fighting to get rid of voting machines.

I dont do this for me. I would rather just be a grandmother at home, said Harms, who lives in the county where the conference was held. I have granddaughters I do this for because I want them to have what I have. I dont want a banana republic.

Presentations by people who work in information technology claimed election officials have little security knowledge or experience.

One of them, Mark Cook, walked attendees through the voting process, pointing out potential threats and playing a video he said was of an Iranian whistleblower accessing U.S. voter registration data to fraudulently request and submit military ballots.

Cook said the video had some real components to it and could be legitimate. He did not mention that an influx of duplicate military ballots would be readily apparent because election workers log each person who casts a ballot, meaning a second ballot that appears to be cast by the same person would be caught.

There are thousands of ways to exploit these systems, Cook said, dismissing security steps taken by election officials as a shell game and smoke and mirrors to distract us.

Election officials acknowledge that vulnerabilities exist, but say multiple defenses are in place to thwart attempted manipulation or detect malicious activity.

Election officials and their partners understand that the goal isnt to create a perfect election system, but one that ensures that any attack on the election system doesnt exceed the ability to detect and recover from it. said David Levine, a former local election official who is now a fellow with the Alliance for Securing Democracy.

Among those listening to the presentations at the Tennessee conference was Luann Adler, a retired educator and school administrator who said she has lost confidence in elections after reading articles and watching videos online about voting machines. She has been advocating in her community to ban voting machines and limit voting to a single day.

Serving as a poll worker last year, Adler said, she did not observe any problems. Still, the experience did not change her mind.

As we have seen today, a machine can be manipulated, Adler said. Im not pointing the finger at any individual or any community as being nefarious, but I dont trust the machine.

Associated Press writers Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island; Nicholas Riccardi in Denver; and Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

Associated Press coverage of democracy receives support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
HKSAR, Macao SAR chief executives support formation of Hong Kong and Macao work office of CPC Central Committee

Xinhua) 11:28, March 18, 2023

HONG KONG, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) John Lee and Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Ho Iat Seng on Thursday expressed firm support for the formation of the Hong Kong and Macao work office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

A Hong Kong and Macao work office of the CPC Central Committee will be formed on the basis of the existing Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, according to a plan on reforming Party and state institutions released by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. The new office will function as a working body of the CPC Central Committee.

Lee thanked the central authorities for their deepest care for Hong Kong, and for the great importance they attach to implementing "one country, two systems."

Lee said that along the new journey the country has embarked on towards fully building a great modern socialist country, the central authorities' plan of reform pertaining to the Hong Kong and Macao work office fully demonstrates the central authorities' resolute, full and faithful implementation of the "one country, two systems" policy, laying a more solid foundation for the steadfast and successful implementation of it.

The central authorities always serve the best interests of Hong Kong and its citizens, Lee noted, adding that the HKSAR government will remain committed to governing Hong Kong in accordance with the law, safeguarding national security, implementing "patriots administering Hong Kong," spearheading economic development, and improving people's livelihood, Lee said.

Ho expressed his gratitude to the central authorities for the importance they have attached to "one country, two systems" practices in the two SARs, noting that the reform demonstrates the central authorities' commitment to fully and faithfully implementing the policy of "one country, two systems".

Ho vowed to fully and firmly implement the "one country, two systems" policy to ensure the long-term economic and social prosperity and stability of Macao, and make new contributions to the steady and sustained development of "one country, two systems" practices with Macao characteristics.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  A predawn shooting at a Columbus night club left two people dead and four wounded, Ohio authorities said.

Officers responded shortly after 5 a.m. Saturday to an after-hours club called Tha Plug on the city's south side, emergency dispatchers said. One person died at the scene and another was dropped off at Nationwide Children's Hospital and was later pronounced dead, dispatchers said.

Two other victims were taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center and two more to the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, authorities said. There was no immediate word on their conditions.

The ages of the victims and other details weren't immediately available. No arrests have been reported.
PITTSBURGH (AP)  A retrial is scheduled to begin Tuesday in western Pennsylvania in the death of an off-duty Pittsburgh police officer shot and killed in a street confrontation more than 3 1/2 years ago.

Attorneys for Christian Bey, 34, sought and were granted a mistrial ruling by an Allegheny County judge last week after a prosecution witness mentioned that she had known the defendant since he moved into the neighborhood after having been released from prison.

Prosecutors said jury selection for the retrial began the next day and was completed Friday.

Bey is charged with homicide in the July 2019 shooting that killed 36-year-old Officer Calvin Hall after an apparent dispute at a Homewood block party. Hall was off-duty at the time and visiting friends on the street.

In the first trial, a prosecutor told jurors that DNA on the murder weapon matched that of the defendant, the Tribune-Review reported. Defense attorney Carmen Robinson, however, said the case was about a rush to judgment and a biased investigation.

Prosecutors last month notified the court that they no longer intended to seek the death penalty if the defendant is convicted of first-degree murder.
Describing the situation as daunting, a federal judge told attorneys for the state of Oklahoma and the poultry industry on Friday that it was time to come up with a resolution to pollution problems plaguing the Illinois River and Lake Tenkiller.

Its time to get a resolution to this matter and get some benefit for everyone involved, U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell said during a hearing in Tulsa federal court.

Frizzells comments came after Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond informed the court that negotiations with poultry industry attorneys had begun since the judge in January sided with the state on most matters in a nearly 18-year-old civil lawsuit that alleged poultry waste had polluted waters in the Illinois River watershed.

Drummond said that while both parties had been negotiating in good faith on a solution that satisfies all sides, he asked Frizzell to grant them an additional 90 days to come up with something to present to the court.

Frizzell scheduled the next hearing on the matter for June 16.

The brief hearing Friday comes nearly two months after Frizzell determined that the overuse of poultry waste to fertilize fields in the Illinois River watershed constituted a public nuisance and a trespass on the waters in the Oklahoma portion of the watershed.

The judge also determined that the poultry companies had violated Oklahoma pollution laws and that the state was entitled to injunctive relief for each violation. Each violation carries a civil penalty of not more than $10,000.

In issuing the ruling, Frizzell found that the 11 poultry companies still named in the lawsuit have known or should reasonably have known since at least the mid-to-late 1980s that phosphorus in the runoff of land-applied poultry waste injures the waters of the Illinois River watershed.

Poultry waste is a combination of poultry excrement and poultry litter, which sometimes consists of wood shavings or rice hulls used to absorb liquids, according to Frizzells ruling.

The state of Oklahoma, under then-Attorney General Drew Edmondson, sued 14 poultry companies in federal court in 2005 to try to stop the poultry industry from over-applying poultry waste to land in the Illinois River watershed, consisting of 1 million acres straddling northeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas.

The state claimed that poultry waste was being overapplied as fertilizer to ranchers fields in the watershed. While the phosphorus-rich fertilizer was a cheap way to fertilize cover crops for cattle, saturation of the fields with the waste resulted in runoff polluting streams in the watershed, Frizzell ruled.

Excess amounts of phosphorus has over time polluted Lake Tenkiller, the Illinois River and its tributaries, causing excess algae and blue-green bacteria, Frizzell said in his decision.

In issuing his ruling, he asked attorneys for both sides to meet and attempt to reach an agreement regarding remedies to be imposed in this action.

Frizzell indicated that he will decide the matter on his own if both sides cant come up with a solution that meets his approval.

Despite the rulings having come more than 13 years after the conclusion of the bench trial in the case, the judge mentioned a recent personal experience that told him the problem still exists.

Frizzell said while driving home from Bentonville, Arkansas, recently, he noticed that poultry waste had been placed on farmland that had too much of a slope to reduce runoff potential.

The judge asked whether the parties had looked at a plan developed after the city of Tulsa successfully sued the poultry industry and the city of Decatur, Arkansas, in 2001 over phosphorus pollution in the watersheds that feed Eucha and Spavinaw lakes, which supply drinking water to the city.

Frizzell also suggested that some agreement to truck out poultry waste from the watershed ought to be in the plan that Oklahoma and poultry officials decide upon.

Drummond said everything was on the table at this point in the states discussions with poultry industry officials.

Robert George, an attorney for Georges companies  among the defendants  told the judge in response to a question that a nonprofit organization supported by the poultry industry had exported more than 1 million tons of poultry litter out of the watershed.

Trial testimony indicated that more than 1.1 billion birds owned by the poultry companies in the watershed between 2000 and 2007 generated from 354,000 to 528,000 tons of waste per year.

There were about 1,900 grow houses in the watershed at the time of the trial, with about 425 of them in Oklahoma and the balance in Arkansas.

Drummond said he hoped to reach a settlement in the matter but noted that Frizzell would be the first to be notified should the parties reach an impasse.

Frizzell asked that attorneys for both parties submit a joint status report on the progress of negotiations seven days before the June hearing.

The 11 poultry companies still named as defendants in the lawsuit are Tyson Foods Inc., Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cal-Maine Foods Inc., Cargill Inc., Cargill Turkey Production LLC, Georges Inc., Georges Farms Inc., Peterson Farms Inc. and Simmons Foods Inc.

Peterson Farms sold to Simmons Foods in 2008, according to the ruling, while Cal-Maine Foods has had no production in the watershed since 2005. Cargill Inc., meanwhile, transferred its turkey business in the watershed to Cargill Turkey Production in 2004 and currently has no contracts with any growers in the watershed, according to Frizzells ruling.
Having lost ground on neighboring states due to a decade of cuts, Oklahoma higher education officials hope that a growing emphasis on meeting workforce needs will fuel a funding revival.

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, the coordinating board for the states 25 public colleges and universities, recently released its fiscal year 2024 budget request, with a focus on Oklahomas projected workforce needs in health care and STEM fields.

At $985.99 million, it represents an 11.9% (or $105 million) increase over last years adjusted appropriation.

After years of cuts, followed by a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would mark the third straight year of increases.

We have begun that climb back to what we hope would be a competitive level of funding for Oklahoma, said Allison Garrett, higher education chancellor. To get the entire amount that were seeking would not be the end of where wed like to go, but it sure moves us a whole lot closer.

To be sure, she said, the state would still have quite a hole to dig itself out of.

At its funding peak 15 years ago, Oklahomas higher education budget was topping a billion dollars annually.

Compared to the all-time high  $1.05 billion in fiscal year 2008  this years request would still be over $65 million less.

Moreover, compared to surrounding states, Oklahoma runs at over $400 million below the regional average, or $3,613 less per student ($5,838 vs. $9,451).

What being so far behind regionally has cost the state in graduates is hard to say, Garrett said.

But currently, just 26% of Oklahomans have a bachelors degree, which is 5% below the regional rate.

That would be one way to look at it, she said. Maybe wed be about 5% above even where we were able to drive the numbers.

The funding situation traces back to that peak year of 2008, which coincided with the onset of a national recession.

Between 2008 and 2019, Oklahoma higher ed sustained some of the biggest cuts in the nation, with allocations trimmed by 35.3%, or $3,515,per student.

Slower than many states to begin restoring those cuts, Oklahoma was further hamstrung by COVID-19. Cuts linked to the pandemic led to the states lowest higher ed allocation since 2000  fiscal year 2021s $770.04 million.

Huge role to play

However, more recently, state leaders seem to be reprioritizing higher education, and Garrett is hopeful that the funding will follow.

Gov. Kevin Stitt, in his annual State of the State address in February, emphasized higher educations importance to the state economically, calling for increases in enrollment and more graduates in critical fields with an eye toward meeting industry needs.

Said Garrett: Im really, really pleased that there is this discussion about workforce happening at the statewide level. Clearly its something thats been on the governors mind, and higher ed has a huge role to play.

With that in mind, the primary objective of the current budget request is to produce more college graduates to address Oklahomas evolving workforce demands, she said.

Included would be $26.3 million for critical workforce development initiatives. That includes funds to expand the capacity of nursing education programs and medical residencies to address the states shortage of registered nurses and physicians, and support efforts to increase enrollment and graduation in STEM disciplines.

The request also prioritizes adult degrees, with funding for scholarships for adults nearing completion of a college degree or pursuing an industry-recognized credential or certificate.

Garrett said: Weve got a lot of adults in the state who have not completed a degree. For Oklahoma to be competitive with other states just based on the numbers, we need to up our percentage of degrees in our working-age adult population. Thats going to be really critical in the next few years.

Helping adults pursue or complete degrees, she added, is more possible now than it ever has been. State higher education institutions, taking advantage of advances in technology, currently offer over 300 online programs at the associate or bachelors level that adults can complete without ever having to set foot in a classroom.

One thing that shouldnt be overlooked in talking about the era of funding cuts, Garrett said, is how well Oklahoma institutions did in spite of it all.

During that period of cuts  and despite declining enrollments  the system increased the number of degrees awarded, including a 47% increase in STEM bachelors degrees.

Its a remarkable achievement, given our funding in comparison to some other states, Garrett said.

To build on it, the regents recently unveiled a new systemwide strategic plan that sets a goal of increasing degrees 10% over the next seven years in STEM and critical occupations.

The current and future budget requests will be key to achieving that, Garrett said.

She said regents have been pleased with how receptive lawmakers have been to talk about and understand what Oklahoma looks like compared to other states and what we intend to do with the funding request if granted.

If we receive it, I think we could do amazing things with it, Garrett added.

Higher ed is ready to be a terrific partner, and we look forward to those discussions continuing at the statewide level.

Higher ed funding Oklahoma public higher education allocations by fiscal year: 2008: $1,050,970,669 2009: $1,039,886,280 2010: $1,001,948,530* 2011: $953,666,030* 2012: $945,160,277 2013: $955,260,277 2014: $988,549,007 2015: $987,523,284 2016: $963,412,106 2017: $810,002,210 2018: $768,878,666 2019: $776,707,167 2020: $802,070,058 2021: $770,414,742 2022: $812,819,822 2023: $873,405,812 2024: $985,997,882 (requested) *Without ARRA Federal Stimulus Funding Source: Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
OKLAHOMA CITY  A pair of proposed administrative rules targeting library content and disclosure requirements for school staff received a largely chilly reception Friday at listening sessions hosted by the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

However, State Superintendent Ryan Walters and all but two members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education were not present to hear those comments.

Is it really a hearing if no one is here to hear the voices of the people who want to weigh in? Noble Public Schools teacher and parent Erika Wright asked rhetorically after thanking board members Kendra Wesson and Suzanne Reynolds for their attendance. I get that some of the state board members have day jobs,  but the fact that Superintendent Walters is not sitting in that chair is infuriating to me.

All of these people have taken time from their spring breaks to be here.

After the listening sessions, a spokesman for the Oklahoma State Department of Education said Walters was instead meeting with families in rural Oklahoma on Friday.

The meetings were video recorded, and the officials will have access to them should they choose to view them.

During the 90-minute morning session, 15 of the 20 speakers objected to a proposed rule change that would penalize the accreditation status of an individual school or a district as a whole if it is found to have library materials deemed to be pornographic or excessively sexualized.

The definition of pornographic in the proposed rules is similar to the states legal definition of obscene materials.

Additionally, districts would be required to have a written policy for reviewing any library materials and responding to complaints regarding books or other items in their collections. Most school districts, including Tulsa, Union, Bixby and Owasso, already have policies in place for addressing challenged school materials.

As drafted, districts and CareerTech sites could also be penalized if they fail to annually provide a complete listing of all library materials available districtwide to the Oklahoma State Department of Education

These rules are a solution in search of a problem, Tulsa TRAICE Academy librarian Michelle McCain said. I can assure you that students arent coming to a school library looking for pornography. There are much easier ways for them to access it, including on their own personal cellphones.

The afternoon session drew an overflow crowd to weigh in on a proposed rule that, according to a February press release from Walters office, is meant to reinforce a 2014 measure known as the Oklahoma Parents Bill of Rights.

Among the rules proposed provisions, school district employees would be required to disclose any changes or information regarding a childs health, social or psychological development to parents or guardians within 30 days. The language of the proposed rule specifically includes gender identity information, including the students preferred names or pronouns while at school.

The proposal also would require schools to allow parents to inspect sexual education classroom materials and to have schools honor their written objections in whole or in part to sex ed or any other instruction questioning beliefs or practices in sex, morality, or religion without excluding students from the parts of instruction not objected to by the parent.

Of the eight commenters who voiced support for the rule Friday afternoon, several made it clear that they want to be kept informed about all changes in their students lives, regardless of whether they agree with them.

Parents rights do not stop at the school door, Edmond resident Tracey Montgomery said. Parents have a legal and moral obligation to decide whats best for their children in all areas of their life.

Conversely, many of the two dozen commenters who voiced opposition to the proposed rule change noted that their concerns were not because they necessarily wanted all students to hide information from their parents.

Instead, their objections were focused on students who would be at risk for bullying, homelessness or abuse if their gender identity or sexuality  or assumptions about them  were revealed without their consent.

Everything youve heard so far is true that this will decimate student safety, Sergio Ruben Martinez said. It is unbelievable to me that this body is spending time and resources to actively hurt children. I have never seen anything in my entire life move with such blatant disregard for the lives of students.

Now that you know, its impossible for me to think about how you could turn away and ignore this.

Both proposed rules contain a provision that willful noncompliance is grounds for the State Board of Education to penalize a school districts accreditation. However, neither rule provides a definition for willful or how that determination will be reached.

Administrative rules are written by state agencies to help them carry out existing laws.

Both proposed rules are subject to approval by both the State Board of Education and the Oklahoma Legislature before enactment.

The session fell over spring break, and several high school students and recent graduates made a point to attend Friday. Among them was the last speaker of the day, Midwest City Carl Albert High School senior Savannah Wallace, who urged the board members in attendance to keep one specific population in mind when weighing both proposed rules.

Keep in mind who you are affecting with these decisions, because no one has asked us what we think, she said. Please keep us in mind. Dont forget about us when you have these big topics at hand.
Pushing a walker into a chilly breeze Friday morning, Patricia Hendricks waited at the curb, unable to reach a Food Bank truck in the parking lot near her apartment northwest of downtown Tulsa.

But the chef wasnt going to let her leave hungry. He packed several bags of prepared meals and ran across the parking lot to deliver them.

These will last me a good while, Hendricks said. I eat like a bird.

The Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma is redoubling efforts to distribute meals and groceries across the Tulsa area after emergency SNAP benefits, which began early in the COVID-19 pandemic, expired at the end of February. This week alone, the local nonprofit prepared 2,500 emergency meal boxes, provided an additional 25 tons of fresh produce and distributed 21,000 frozen meals in response to the return of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to its pre-pandemic levels.

Oklahoma will receive $50 million less per month in SNAP funding from the federal government, Food Bank official said.

I double-checked that number because I thought it had to be a typo, said Food Bank spokeswoman Diana Capra. I didnt think it could be that big.

Nationwide, however, food assistance programs will lose $2.5 billion a month, she said. Families with children will lose an average $223 in monthly benefits, while seniors will lose an average of $168 a month.

By definition, of course, emergency funding was never meant to be permanent. The additional SNAP resources were only meant to ease the economic impact of COVID-19.

But the emergency funds are expiring as food prices rise and wages remain stagnant, putting family budgets under more and more stress, said Calvin Moore, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma.

If youve had that extra money in your budget for three years and all of a sudden its cut off, Moore said, its a financial cliff for those families.

The Food Bank provides food to more than 400 partner agencies to distribute meals and groceries across 24 counties of eastern Oklahoma.

The cuts in SNAP funding will require a substantial response from the Food Bank and its partners, Moore said.

Families should not have to make a choice between keeping their lights on or feeding their kids, he said. Seniors should not have to make a choice between keeping the lights on, purchasing medicine or buying food.

Video: Millions at risk of slipping into poverty after pandemic SNAP benefits end
Trang Bom District in Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam welcomed a cargo train from Chinas Shangdong Province for the first time on Thursday morning. Addressing a ceremony to welcome the train, Wei Huaxiang, Consul General of China in Ho Chi Minh City, said the first arrival of the Chinese freight train will help promote rail transport cooperation and better trade between Vietnam and China. The QiLu Eurasian freight train, operated by Shandong Hi-Speed Group, serves as a bridge linking Vietnams Dong Nai with Chinas Shangdong and will open up trade and investment opportunities for both sides, the Chinese diplomat said. We hope that relevant parties will join hands to make the most use of the QiLu freight train, creating higher values and promoting cooperation and development between the two countries, the Chinese consul general continued. Nguyen Thi Hoang, vice-chairwoman of the Peoples Committee of Dong Nai, the provincial government, said the Vietnamese province applauded the launch of the Shangdong-Trang Bom rail route and expected to receive more trains to the Trang Bom station. The launch of the freight train will also contribute to strengthening economic cooperation and friendship between Dong Nai and its Chinese partners, Hoang added. Nguyen Thi Hoang (R, 2nd), vice-chairwoman of the Peoples Committee of Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam, discusses opportunities to invest in Dong Nai with Wei Huaxiang, Consul General of China in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: H.M. / Tuoi Tre Dong Nai, which shares its border with Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, can be conveniently reached by road, sea, and air. It holds great potential for economic growth through future transportation routes such as a North-South express railway, a light rail track linking Ho Chi Minh Citys Thu Thiem New Urban Area with Long Thanh District in Dong Nai, Hoang said. Given its enormous potential, Dong Nai is ready to foster win-win cooperation with investors to spur its economic growth, especially in the industrial and logistics sectors, the vice-chair stated. Hoang told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the first freight train from China carried a wide range of goods, including farm produce, between the two countries. Its arrival will pave the way for Dong Nai to speed up efforts to build a major transshipment facility covering over 614ha in Trang Bom. It is projected to become a transshipment warehouse in Southeast Asia, said Hoang. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Trang Bom District in Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam welcomed a cargo train from Chinas Shangdong Province for the first time on Thursday morning.

Addressing a ceremony to welcome the train, Wei Huaxiang, Consul General of China in Ho Chi Minh City, said the first arrival of the Chinese freight train will help promote rail transport cooperation and better trade between Vietnam and China.

The QiLu Eurasian freight train, operated by Shandong Hi-Speed Group, serves as a bridge linking Vietnams Dong Nai with Chinas Shangdong and will open up trade and investment opportunities for both sides, the Chinese diplomat said.

We hope that relevant parties will join hands to make the most use of the QiLu freight train, creating higher values and promoting cooperation and development between the two countries, the Chinese consul general continued.

Nguyen Thi Hoang, vice-chairwoman of the Peoples Committee of Dong Nai, the provincial government, said the Vietnamese province applauded the launch of the Shangdong-Trang Bom rail route and expected to receive more trains to the Trang Bom station.

The launch of the freight train will also contribute to strengthening economic cooperation and friendship between Dong Nai and its Chinese partners, Hoang added.

Nguyen Thi Hoang (R, 2nd), vice-chairwoman of the Peoples Committee of Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam, discusses opportunities to invest in Dong Nai with Wei Huaxiang, Consul General of China in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: H.M. / Tuoi Tre

Dong Nai, which shares its border with Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, can be conveniently reached by road, sea, and air.

It holds great potential for economic growth through future transportation routes such as a North-South express railway, a light rail track linking Ho Chi Minh Citys Thu Thiem New Urban Area with Long Thanh District in Dong Nai, Hoang said.

Given its enormous potential, Dong Nai is ready to foster win-win cooperation with investors to spur its economic growth, especially in the industrial and logistics sectors, the vice-chair stated.

Hoang told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the first freight train from China carried a wide range of goods, including farm produce, between the two countries.

Its arrival will pave the way for Dong Nai to speed up efforts to build a major transshipment facility covering over 614ha in Trang Bom.

It is projected to become a transshipment warehouse in Southeast Asia, said Hoang.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Green-Smart-Mobility Joint Stock Company (GSM), Vietnamese tycoon Pham Nhat Vuongs newly founded business, has announced the fees for its electric vehicle (EV) rental and taxi services which will use VinFast electric cars and scooters. GSM was established earlier this month by Vuong, chairman of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup, with a charter capital of VND3 trillion (US$126 million). The new firm is set to launch operations in Hanoi next month using 10,000 electric cars and 100,000 electric scooters produced by Vingroups automaking arm VinFast. According to a price list GSM recently sent to its corporate customers, VinFast models VF e34, VF5, and VF8 Eco will be used for GSMs rental and taxi services. GSM also noted that there will be a mileage allowance of 2,500km for these services. The monthly rate to rent a VF e34 is VND11 million ($464), the EV batteries for the vehicle cost VND3.16 million ($133) per month to rent, and drivers will be charged VND1,265 (5 cents) per kilometer over 2,500km. The VinFast VF5 model will cost renters a monthly fee of VND9.5 million ($401) for the vehicle and VND2.7 million ($113) for the battery. Drivers will be charged VND1,082 (4 cents) for every kilometer over 2,500km. Those who rent the VinFast VF8 Eco will need to pay VND20 million ($848) per month plus VND4.64 million ($197) for the EV battery. The cost for per kilometer over 2,500km is VND1,850 (7 cents). The company has yet to announce fees for individual customers. GSM general director Nguyen Van Thanh said GSM plans to further improve Vietnams green and smart transportation system by offering more electric vehicle services to local residents at reasonable prices. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Green-Smart-Mobility Joint Stock Company (GSM), Vietnamese tycoon Pham Nhat Vuongs newly founded business, has announced the fees for its electric vehicle (EV) rental and taxi services which will use VinFast electric cars and scooters.

GSM was established earlier this month by Vuong, chairman of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup, with a charter capital of VND3 trillion (US$126 million).

The new firm is set to launch operations in Hanoi next month using 10,000 electric cars and 100,000 electric scooters produced by Vingroups automaking arm VinFast.

According to a price list GSM recently sent to its corporate customers, VinFast models VF e34, VF5, and VF8 Eco will be used for GSMs rental and taxi services. GSM also noted that there will be a mileage allowance of 2,500km for these services.

The monthly rate to rent a VF e34 is VND11 million ($464), the EV batteries for the vehicle cost VND3.16 million ($133) per month to rent, and drivers will be charged VND1,265 (5 cents) per kilometer over 2,500km.

The VinFast VF5 model will cost renters a monthly fee of VND9.5 million ($401) for the vehicle and VND2.7 million ($113) for the battery. Drivers will be charged VND1,082 (4 cents) for every kilometer over 2,500km.

Those who rent the VinFast VF8 Eco will need to pay VND20 million ($848) per month plus VND4.64 million ($197) for the EV battery. The cost for per kilometer over 2,500km is VND1,850 (7 cents).

The company has yet to announce fees for individual customers.

GSM general director Nguyen Van Thanh said GSM plans to further improve Vietnams green and smart transportation system by offering more electric vehicle services to local residents at reasonable prices.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City has carried out more than 1,100 organ transplants over the past 30 years, with a high success rate equivalent to the figures recorded in other countries, said hospital director Nguyen Tri Thuc at its 30th kidneyversary on Thursday morning. The event gathered representatives of Vietnams Ministry of Health, the municipal government, and leading experts on organ transplantation in the country. Organ transplants record high success rates Given the support of experts at home and abroad, the hospital managed to perform a kidney transplant in its first two cases on December 28 and 29, 1992, just a few days after the countrys first organ transplant was done, Thuc recalled. This milestone helped lay a solid foundation for the strong growth of the hospitals kidney and organ transplantation. The number of organ transplants has risen over time and exceeded 1,100 to date. Cho Ray Hospital was also a pioneer in adopting measures to expand a source of donated kidneys. For instance, it conducted a kidney transplant from a brain-dead donor in 2008, from a non-heart-beating donor in 2015, a cross-over transplantation in 2017 or an ABO incompatible transplant in 2021, among others. Professors, associate professors, and doctors are honored and receive flower bouquets, certificates of merit for their contribution to laying the foundation for kidney transplantation at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, March 16, 2023. Photo: Duyen Phan / Tuoi Tre Besides, to develop its source of donated kidneys and create fairness in organ transplantation, the hospital set up a management unit for human organ transplantation in 2014, developing its kidney transplantation division into one of the countrys top kidney transplantation centers. The hospital has adopted many new techniques to enhance its medical treatment quality, such as laparoscopy, robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery for kidney removal, and pre-emptive kidney transplantation, while developing protocols for treating and caring for post-transplantation patients. The hospital has also made efforts to build successor teams, coordinate with many organ transplantation centers worldwide, and offer support to over 10 domestic centers to further advance kidney transplantation. Donated organs are priceless presents Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said organ transplants would not have been done successfully without organ donors. The health official expressed his gratitude to those who have donated and will donate their tissues or organs to save many lives. Since the countrys first organ transplant was conducted in 1992 at Vietnam Military Medical University in Hanoi, organ transplantation has become a routine medical technique, the deputy health minister said. Organ donation is like a priceless gift. It is not only a noble practice but also helps save thousands of people on the verge of death. Nguyen Tri Thuc (C), director of Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, presents flower bouquets to organ donors at the hospitals 30th kidneyversary on March 16, 2023. Photo: Duyen Phan / Tuoi Tre Nguyen Truong Son, former Deputy Minister of Health, affirmed that organ transplantation techniques are really necessary for society. Organ transplantation is also deemed an invaluable asset and is the connection between the lives of brain-dead donors and those of the recipients. Given organ transplantation results, Thuc said that the recipients could return to their normal life and continue to contribute to their families and society. Kidney transplantation is considered among the top 10 significant achievements of mankind in the 20th century, the hospital director added. Number of organ donors inches up According to Deputy Minister of Health Thuan, the number of people registering for organ donation soared to 62,555 last year from only 265 in 2014, with Cho Ray Hospital recording the highest figure, at around 50 percent. In the world, some 40,000 organ transplants are performed annually and around 460,000 people are living thanks to one or several donated organs. At the event, the government of Ho Chi Minh City honored and presented certificates of merit to 17 professors, associate professors, and doctors for their contribution to laying the foundation for kidney transplantation at Cho Ray Hospital. This photo features the longest-lived kidney transplant patient in Vietnam, who underwent the transplant over 25 years ago and now lives a happy life with the family. Photo: Duyen Phan / Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City has carried out more than 1,100 organ transplants over the past 30 years, with a high success rate equivalent to the figures recorded in other countries, said hospital director Nguyen Tri Thuc at its 30th kidneyversary on Thursday morning.

The event gathered representatives of Vietnams Ministry of Health, the municipal government, and leading experts on organ transplantation in the country.

Organ transplants record high success rates

Given the support of experts at home and abroad, the hospital managed to perform a kidney transplant in its first two cases on December 28 and 29, 1992, just a few days after the countrys first organ transplant was done, Thuc recalled.

This milestone helped lay a solid foundation for the strong growth of the hospitals kidney and organ transplantation. The number of organ transplants has risen over time and exceeded 1,100 to date.

Cho Ray Hospital was also a pioneer in adopting measures to expand a source of donated kidneys. For instance, it conducted a kidney transplant from a brain-dead donor in 2008, from a non-heart-beating donor in 2015, a cross-over transplantation in 2017 or an ABO incompatible transplant in 2021, among others.

Professors, associate professors, and doctors are honored and receive flower bouquets, certificates of merit for their contribution to laying the foundation for kidney transplantation at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, March 16, 2023. Photo: Duyen Phan / Tuoi Tre

Besides, to develop its source of donated kidneys and create fairness in organ transplantation, the hospital set up a management unit for human organ transplantation in 2014, developing its kidney transplantation division into one of the countrys top kidney transplantation centers.

The hospital has adopted many new techniques to enhance its medical treatment quality, such as laparoscopy, robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery for kidney removal, and pre-emptive kidney transplantation, while developing protocols for treating and caring for post-transplantation patients.

The hospital has also made efforts to build successor teams, coordinate with many organ transplantation centers worldwide, and offer support to over 10 domestic centers to further advance kidney transplantation.

Donated organs are priceless presents

Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said organ transplants would not have been done successfully without organ donors. The health official expressed his gratitude to those who have donated and will donate their tissues or organs to save many lives.

Since the countrys first organ transplant was conducted in 1992 at Vietnam Military Medical University in Hanoi, organ transplantation has become a routine medical technique, the deputy health minister said.

Organ donation is like a priceless gift.

It is not only a noble practice but also helps save thousands of people on the verge of death.

Nguyen Tri Thuc (C), director of Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, presents flower bouquets to organ donors at the hospitals 30th kidneyversary on March 16, 2023. Photo: Duyen Phan / Tuoi Tre

Nguyen Truong Son, former Deputy Minister of Health, affirmed that organ transplantation techniques are really necessary for society. Organ transplantation is also deemed an invaluable asset and is the connection between the lives of brain-dead donors and those of the recipients.

Given organ transplantation results, Thuc said that the recipients could return to their normal life and continue to contribute to their families and society.

Kidney transplantation is considered among the top 10 significant achievements of mankind in the 20th century, the hospital director added.

Number of organ donors inches up

According to Deputy Minister of Health Thuan, the number of people registering for organ donation soared to 62,555 last year from only 265 in 2014, with Cho Ray Hospital recording the highest figure, at around 50 percent.

In the world, some 40,000 organ transplants are performed annually and around 460,000 people are living thanks to one or several donated organs.

At the event, the government of Ho Chi Minh City honored and presented certificates of merit to 17 professors, associate professors, and doctors for their contribution to laying the foundation for kidney transplantation at Cho Ray Hospital.

This photo features the longest-lived kidney transplant patient in Vietnam, who underwent the transplant over 25 years ago and now lives a happy life with the family. Photo: Duyen Phan / Tuoi Tre

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
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The Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation (EVNHCMC) has called on local residents not to burn waste near power grids to ensure safety of the people and the citys power distribution networks. EVNHCMC made this move after power grid fires and massive blackouts occurred as a result of some local residents burning waste and votive papers in areas through which power grid systems pass. Two incidents like this have been reported in the city in the year to date, resulting in widespread outages, Bui Trung Kien, deputy head of EVNHCMC, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Saturday morning. The first one took place on February 2 when passers-by discovered a huge fire on the Pham Van Dong Boulevard section running through Ward 13, Binh Thanh District due to local people burning waste under the Rach Lang Bridge. The flames then spread to part of an electric wire bundle, causing a power failure in the area and neighboring sites. The second was reported on February 21 in an area under the Dien Bien Phu Bridge in District 1. Underground electric cables in the area caught fire from the remains of votive papers that local people had burned on the bridge. These underground electric cables supply power to inner-city areas, including the headquarters of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee. Aside from causing massive blackouts, such incidents could also pose a threat to passers-by, Kien said. Statistics from state utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN) showed that the country last year reported 79 power-related accidents due to locals violations of power grid safety regulations. These accidents left 30 dead and 65 others injured. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

The Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation (EVNHCMC) has called on local residents not to burn waste near power grids to ensure safety of the people and the citys power distribution networks.

EVNHCMC made this move after power grid fires and massive blackouts occurred as a result of some local residents burning waste and votive papers in areas through which power grid systems pass.

Two incidents like this have been reported in the city in the year to date, resulting in widespread outages, Bui Trung Kien, deputy head of EVNHCMC, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Saturday morning.

The first one took place on February 2 when passers-by discovered a huge fire on the Pham Van Dong Boulevard section running through Ward 13, Binh Thanh District due to local people burning waste under the Rach Lang Bridge.

The flames then spread to part of an electric wire bundle, causing a power failure in the area and neighboring sites.

The second was reported on February 21 in an area under the Dien Bien Phu Bridge in District 1.

Underground electric cables in the area caught fire from the remains of votive papers that local people had burned on the bridge.

These underground electric cables supply power to inner-city areas, including the headquarters of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee.

Aside from causing massive blackouts, such incidents could also pose a threat to passers-by, Kien said.

Statistics from state utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN) showed that the country last year reported 79 power-related accidents due to locals violations of power grid safety regulations.

These accidents left 30 dead and 65 others injured.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Police in Thai Binh Province, northern Vietnam said on Friday that they had arrested and initiated legal proceedings against a Buddhist monk for the illegal possession of narcotics. Police officers of Dong Hung District in Thai Binh caught Nguyen Thanh Duc, 41, red-handed illegally possessing 0.1476 grams of methamphetamine at the beginning of this month. Duc declared that he is a monk and the abbot of Co Son Pagoda in Tien Lang District, Hai Phong City, which borders Thai Binh. Dong Hung police officers reached out to the Religious Affairs Department of Hai Phong and the chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in the city to verify the declaration. The response from the Religious Affairs Department of Hai Phong confirmed that Duc was officially recognized as a Buddhist by the chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in the city in 2017 and was given the Buddhist name Thich Ban Tinh. Since April 2021, he has resided and participated in religious activities at Co Son Pagoda given the approval of the chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in Tien Lang District. Duc has been held in custody and investigated for the illegal possession of narcotics. While the Religious Affairs Department of Hai Phong has required the chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in the city to verify Ducs drugs possession following his arrest, a senior monk, who was referred to by the department as Ducs preceptor, denied any relationship with the man and any involvement in his case. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Police in Thai Binh Province, northern Vietnam said on Friday that they had arrested and initiated legal proceedings against a Buddhist monk for the illegal possession of narcotics.

Police officers of Dong Hung District in Thai Binh caught Nguyen Thanh Duc, 41, red-handed illegally possessing 0.1476 grams of methamphetamine at the beginning of this month.

Duc declared that he is a monk and the abbot of Co Son Pagoda in Tien Lang District, Hai Phong City, which borders Thai Binh.

Dong Hung police officers reached out to the Religious Affairs Department of Hai Phong and the chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in the city to verify the declaration.

The response from the Religious Affairs Department of Hai Phong confirmed that Duc was officially recognized as a Buddhist by the chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in the city in 2017 and was given the Buddhist name Thich Ban Tinh.

Since April 2021, he has resided and participated in religious activities at Co Son Pagoda given the approval of the chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in Tien Lang District.

Duc has been held in custody and investigated for the illegal possession of narcotics.

While the Religious Affairs Department of Hai Phong has required the chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in the city to verify Ducs drugs possession following his arrest, a senior monk, who was referred to by the department as Ducs preceptor, denied any relationship with the man and any involvement in his case.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
L to R: Peter OBrien, Brian Walsh, Rick Maier (10 drama boss), Guy Pearce.

Neighbours patriarch Alan Fletcher has paid tribute to the late Brian Walsh who died suddenly this past week in Sydney.

Walsh was an early young publicist for the soap when 10 network found it was not performing well in Sydney.

Walsh cleverly arranged for cast members to begin making shopping centre appearances to spike the shows audience numbers -effectively avoiding it from the axe at 10.

What an incredible shock. He was the sum of television in a way. What he achieved at Foxtel, in particular, and for Australian drama will live in our memories forever, Fletcher tells TV Tonight.

For a lot of people Brian occupied a similar position to Hector Crawford and Reg Grundy. He was a pillar of the Australian film & TV community.

Its such a shock. Life can be so tenuous.

Walsh even ran an inspired Nominate Your Neighbour competition in which prize winners saw stars such as Guy Pearce, Stefan Dennis, Peter OBrien & Elaine Smith land on their doorstep to hand over TV sets!

The marketing worked. Neighbours became a hit going to to attract a 37 year legacy.
Q+A is live from Sydney on Monday, unpacking the secrets of life, the universe and everything as world-renowned physicist Brian Greene joins the panel, plus former host of Hypotheticals, Geoffrey Robertson.

Australia has committed the next three decades and $368 billion to AUKUS, linking the nations future inextricably to the US. But while 30 years is several lifetimes in politics, its a mere blip in the bigger picture of the universe. So how wise is this investment? What sort of innovations will outpace the subs deal? Are submarines simply yesterdays technology?

Greene says that future of our species relies upon the depth and nuance of our engagement with the world  is this pact making Australias world smaller or bigger? Is there a better way to equip the next generation for the difficult times ahead than just throwing money at the defence budget?

Meanwhile, parliament returns for another sitting week  some tough budget decisions will have to be made. What programs could be cut to help fund the subs deal? And in NSW, voters are preparing to cast their ballot in the state election how will Dominic Perrottets national push for cashless poker machines play out?

Panellists:

Brian Greene, Physicist and best-selling author;

Geoffrey Robertson, Human Rights lawyer, academic and author;

Matt Keogh, Minister for Defence Personnel;

Dai Le, Independent MP for Fowler;

and Kirsten Banks, Science communicator.

Monday, March 20 at 9.35pm on ABC.
US character actor Lance Reddick, best known for Oz, The Wire, Bosch and John Wick has died, aged 60.

He died suddenly on Friday his publicist said in a statement, due to natural causes.

Reddicks breakthrough role in 2000 was as Johnny Basil, a doomed undercover officer sent to prison who becomes an addict in Oz.

I was never interested in television, he said in 2011.

I always saw it as a means to an end. Like so many actors, I was only interested in doing theatre and film.

But Oz changed television. It was the beginning of HBOs reign on quality, edgy, artistic stuff. Stuff that harkens back to great cinema of the 60s and 70s.

When the opportunity for Oz came up, I jumped. And when I read the pilot for The Wire, as a guy that never wanted to be on television, I realised I had to be on this show.

On The Wire he played Lt Cedric Daniels, on Fringe he was special agent Phillip Broyles, and he featured as Deputy Chief Irvin Irving in Bosch.

His other TV credits included Lost, Wilfred, Law & Order, American Horror Story, Key & Peele, Numb3rs, CSI: Miami, Castle, Young Sheldon, Resident Evil, The West Wing and the film One Night in Miami.

He played the multi-skilled Continental Hotel concierge Charon in the John Wick movies, plus roles in Oldboy, White House Down, I Dreamed of Africa, The Way of War, The Siege, Godzilla vs Kong, Great Expectations.

Im an artist at heart, he once told the Los Angeles Times in 2009. I feel that Im very good at what I do.

When I went to drama school, I knew I was at least as talented as other students, but because I was a Black man and I wasnt pretty, I knew I would have to work my butt off to be the best that I would be, and to be noticed.

Source: ABC
Scotland and Italy round off their Guinness Six Nations campaign at BT Murrayfield on Saturday.

Here, the PA news agency looks at some key talking points ahead of the Edinburgh showdown.

Third place at stake for Scots

Victory will almost certainly see Scotland secure a third-place finish in the championship for the first time since 2018. It will also be the first time since then they have won three of their five matches. If that scenario comes to pass, it means they will have come up short only against the two highest-ranked teams in the world, Ireland and France, so they can begin the countdown to the World Cup in a positive frame of mind.

No Hogg or Russell

Scotland will be without Stuart Hogg (left) and Finn Russell (Jane Barlow/PA)

Scotland have not gone into a Six Nations match without either of their two influential backs Stuart Hogg and Finn Russell since 2019. They will be missing the pair this weekend due to injuries that forced them off in the closing stages of last weekends defeat by Ireland. As it was in the summer tour of South America, with several big names rested, the depth of the squad will be tested this weekend. Ollie Smith takes over from Hogg at full-back while Blair Kinghorn replaces Russell at stand-off.

Blair switch project continues

Blair Kinghorn will start at fly-half (Andrew Milligan/PA)

The versatile Blair Kinghorn was deployed in the number 10 jersey for five consecutive Tests last year but, since the return of Russell to the fold midway through the Autumn Series, the plan to mould the Edinburgh man into a stand-off option for Scotland appeared to have been shelved. Kinghorn has been used more often from the bench as a full-back in this tournament and was instead expected to take the place of Hogg at number 15, but Gregor Townsend has once again placed his faith in the 26-year-old to pull the strings at fly-half. Given Russells excellent recent form, Kinghorn has big boots to fill and is sure to be closely scrutinised.

Story continues

First-choice locks out

Grant Gilchrist is suspended (Adam Davy/PA)

Scotland are missing another influential duo in the shape of second-rowers Grant Gilchrist, who is suspended, and Richie Gray, who is injured. Sam Skinner and Johnny Gray, who has deputised for Gilchrist since his red card in Paris, are the two locks chosen to start against Italy, with Scott Cummings, who came on against Ireland last weekend, on the bench. The Scots are confident they have enough cover to deal with the absence of the experienced duo.

Italian passion

 Seven minutes played, 21-0 to Italy  Who can remember this crazy start to a match, back in 2007?#SCOvITA | #GuinnessSixNations pic.twitter.com/4rt1r4FNZ9  Guinness Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 16, 2023

Italy have lost all four of their matches so far, but they are generally deemed to have been competitive throughout the campaign, including against the heavyweights of Ireland and France. They finished last seasons Six Nations with a headline-grabbing win away to Wales and will be hoping to claim some form of consolation this time round at BT Murrayfield, a stadium where they have previously experienced victory in 2007 and 2015.
Emma Raducanu will not feature in Great Britains Billie Jean King Cup Finals qualifying tie against France next month.

Captain Anne Keothavong has named the same team which reached the semi-finals in September and said former US Open champion Raducanu was unavailable for the tie in Coventry from April 14-15.

Raducanu said after her opening victory in Indian Wells that she did not even know when the tie was, a comment which did not appear to go down well with Keothavong.

The former British number one responded to one report of the comment with a thinking face emoji on social media. She then separately posted, seemingly in reference to that: My communication skills are generally good in case anyone was wondering.

Explaining her decision to keep faith with Harriet Dart, Heather Watson, Katie Boulter, Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls, Keothavong said: Im pleased to name the same team as the one we had four months ago in Glasgow where we gelled so well, and the team spirit was electric.

There were some memorable performances across the week to help us reach the semi-finals.

Harriet showed us what shes capable of by beating the likes of (Paula) Badosa and (Ajla) Tomljanovic.

We saw Alicia and Olivia make their Cup debut, where they brought so much energy to the court and demonstrated how important doubles is. Katie and Heather have a proven track record in this competition and are enthusiastic as ever to be part of this team.

Story continues

Great Britains Harriet Dart celebrates after beating Australias Ajla Tomljanovic during the semi-finals of the Billie Jean King Cup in Glasgow (Jane Barlow/PA)

While Emma is unavailable for this tie we look forward to seeing her back on the team in the near future.

Raducanu, who missed Novembers Finals in Glasgow due to a wrist injury, reached the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open this week before losing to world number one Iga Swiatek.

Her absence will once again draw attention to her burgeoning commercial portfolio, with the 20-year-old set to compete the following week on indoor clay in Stuttgart at a tournament owned by her sponsors Porsche.

Britain will go into the tie as significant underdogs, with France led by world number five Caroline Garcia, who is supported by Alize Cornet, Kristina Mladenovic and Clara Burel.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's energy regulator has ruled out a gas supply emergency for the current winter but cannot give the all clear for the 2023/24 season, its president told a German newspaper.

"We cannot rule out a gas shortage for the next winter. Risk factors are that the winter of 2023/24 could be very cold, that households and companies aren't saving enough," Klaus Mueller told Rheinische Post.

Additional risks could be posed in case Germany's planned liquefied natural gas import infrastructure does not work and if neighbouring countries require supply support from Europe's biggest economy down the line.

Germany has so far successfully tackled Russia's move to end most of its gas supplies to the country, benefiting from warm temperatures, lower demand and alternative suppliers jumping in.

German gas storage levels currently stand at 63.89%, way above critical thresholds that would justify Berlin cracking down on gas consumption, which is mainly due to a relatively warm temperatures over the past months.

Households and companies, however, are still being asked to use less.

"The biggest risk is the weather. We cannot rely on the next winter being as mild again. When it's cold, many households immediately stop saving. In ... October they saved more than 20% gas, in ... December only 7%," Mueller said.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Meet the students fighting against the 'musical genocide' in Afghanistan

Young Afghan musicians keep fighting against what they call a "cultural genocide" in their country.

58 students of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (Anim) have begun a new life in Braga, Portugal, a year and a half after having fled their home country. Their safety was in question once Afghanistan's rich musical culture came under threat as the Taliban banned music.

The students keep protesting in exile.

"We are here to save our music," says 19-year-old Rami holding his rubab, a traditional stringed instrument made of wood and inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

When in a country the music is banned and the entire nation is silenced, it's nothing short of a cultural and musical genocide.

"The Taliban are saying that music is haram (ed: forbidden by Islamic law). The music is haram, they didn't allow the music, they didn't allow the women to work, they didn't allow the young girls to study," adds Rami.

Music including pop was allowed in the past two decades in Afghanistan until the Taliban's return to power in August 2021.

"When Taliban reached the gates of Kabul, it was clear that we should get out," recalls Anim director Ahmad Sarmast, who did everything possible to evacuate the students and staff of the music institute.

"When in a country the music is banned and the entire nation is silenced, it's nothing short of a cultural and musical genocide," adds Sarmast, who has made it his mission to safeguard his country's musical heritage and to recreate in Portugal the music school he founded in Afghanistan in 2010.

'Our music is not dead'

Ramiz, taking a break from his rubab practice, is optimistic and hopes one day to return to Afghanistan "and show our music is not dead".

But his mood darkens when he thinks about his family back home. He hopes they will soon be able to join him in Portugal as "life is too dangerous for them".

Story continues

He speaks to his mother every day.

"One night if she didn't listen to my voice, she won't sleep," says the young man, whose father and two brothers are also musicians.

'Each performance is a protest'

The exiled students have been welcomed at the Braga Music Conservatory, where they continue to play music as an act of resistance.

"Each performance of our school is a protest against what is happening in Afghanistan," Sarmast says.

One of those acts of musical protest came earlier this month in a concert with celebrated Japanese-born violinist Midori Goto.

Watch the video above to see how these students keep fighting for their music and cultural heritage.
Britain's interior minister, Home Secretary Suella Braverman, is heading to Rwanda Friday for talks about Britains 140 million (160 million) deal to send refugees to Rwanda.

She is set to underline her commitment to Britain's deal with Rwanda, which her predecessor Priti Patel struck in April 2022.

The government hopes that the decisive -- and divisive -- measure will stop tens of thousands of migrants reaching Britain in boats across the English Channel.

Last week, Braverman said she could not make a definitive statement on whether the 'Illegal Migration Bill' was compatible with the ECHR.

The governments plan to detain and remove people who arrive "irregularly" on small boats by crossing the Channel is likely to violate protections ensured by the treaty, such as limits on detention and nonrefoulement.

Describing the current process as "deeply flawed", she said the government had initiated discussions with the ECHR, following its intervention last year to block plans to send some asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

Members of the British government have said they want to pull out of the ECHR to allow for a highly controversial crackdown on migration.

Despite the Conservative governments promises to take back control of its borders following the 2016 Brexit referendum, the UK government has struggled to get a grip on the issue. The UK has recorded a significant increase in illegal channel boat crossings in recent years, with 45,000 migrants reaching Britains shores last year.

What is so controversial about the Rwanda deal?

In June 2022, the British government was thwarted in its attempt to send a handful of migrants on a charter plane more than 6,4000 km to Rwanda, after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) stepped in to issue injunctions, meaning the flight was cancelled.

Story continues

London struck a deal with Rwanda in April to sends tens of thousands of asylum seekers who arrived illegally in Britain to the East African country to have their claims processed. The British government says the plan will stem the flow of migrants who make dangerous trips across the English Channel from France.

The United Nations refugee chief has called the policy "catastrophic", the entire leadership of the Church of England denounced it as immoral and shameful, and media reports have said Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, had privately described the plan as appalling.

The government argues the policy will smash the business model of people-smuggling networks, but political opponents say it is a divisive stunt and an expensive shambles.

The European courts late intervention has also led some in Britain's ruling Conservative Party to call for the UK to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights altogether.

The prime minister at the time, Boris Johnson, said that nothing was being ruled out.
(Bloomberg) --

Most Read from Bloomberg

US authorities are working with their Swiss counterparts as they seek to hammer out a deal for UBS Group AG to buy all or part of its struggling rival Credit Suisse Group AG, according to people familiar with the matter.

A tie-up between the two banks would be of interest to Washington regulators because both lenders have operations in the US and are considered systemically important in Switzerland. American officials may seek to weigh in on matters that could impact final terms of any deal, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the confidential conversations.

Representatives for the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department declined to comment.

The time scale for agreement is fluid. The goal is for an announcement of a deal between the two banks by Sunday evening at the latest, according to a person familiar with the matter, who also asked not to be identified discussing the talks. The Financial Times reported that a deal could emerge as soon as Saturday evening.

As the drama plays out in Europe, US officials are dealing with their own banking crisis at home following the collapse of three mid-sized lenders this month. On Friday, President Joe Biden sought to instill calm, telling reporters that the situation had improved after authorities took extraordinary measures.

--With assistance from Christopher Condon.

(Updates with Treasury declining to comment in the third paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

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A ruling on the legality of Emmanuel Macron's controversial pension reforms is expected today after nationwide protests and strikes continued on Thursday.

The president's bid to increase the state pension age from 62 to 64 is facing its final test from the Constitutional Council.

Rubbish collectors and transport workers were on strike in Paris yesterday, while river traffic was blocked on the Rhine river.

France has seen widespread protests after the government invoked Article 49.3 to push the changes through without a vote by MPs last month.

Here, Sky News explains why the reforms have sparked demonstrations and looks at how France's situation compares to other European countries, including the UK.

What is the retirement age in France - and how is it changing?

France's state retirement age is 62 - much lower than many of its European neighbours. In the UK it's 66, Germany and Italy 67, and Spain 65.

French workers can receive a state pension from the age of 62, but it will be less if that person has not made the required number of contributions.

Aged 67, they are entitled to the full state pension regardless of their contributions.

Mr Macron's changes will see the age that workers can receive a state pension increase to 64.

This will be done gradually by three months a year from September 2023 until September 2030.

The number of years someone will have to make contributions to get the full state pension will increase from 42 to 43 in 2027.

Read more:

French protests reach dramatic climax

What is Article 49.3 and why did Macron use it?

Article 49.3 is a part of the French constitution that enables a government to pass a law without a vote by MPs in the National Assembly.

It was introduced by Charles de Gaulle in 1958 to bring about greater political stability and expand government powers.

It has been used more than 80 times since its inception, most notably by former socialist prime minister Michel Rocard 28 times between 1988 and 1991 under then president Francois Mitterrand.

Story continues

Mr Macron's former prime minister Edouard Philippe tried to use it for pension reform in March 2020 but failed when the COVID pandemic broke out.

The French president's current PM, Elisabeth Borne, announced the proposed pension changes on 10 January.

Just minutes before they were due to be voted on in the National Assembly in March, she announced they would be forced through with Article 49.3 instead, causing outrage.

This is because her party, and Mr Macron's - En Marche - lost its absolute majority at last year's election and they had no guarantee of getting it through, despite it passing in the Senate.

The 2020 bid to change the pension system had already failed and resulted in the longest strikes in French history.

What is Macron's argument?

France's generous welfare state has long weighed heavily on the economy and workforce.

In the third quarter of 2022, national debt stood at 113.4% of GDP - more than in the UK (100.2%), Germany (66.6%), and similar to struggling economies like Spain (115.6%) and Portugal (120.1%).

It also means the workforce is shrinking. There are only 1.7 workers for every pensioner in France, down from 2.1 in 2000.

"This is Macron's flagship policy," David S Bell, emeritus professor of French government and politics at the University of Leeds, tells Sky News.

"He wants to push it through before he steps down at the end of this term.

"But the problem isn't an immediate crisis - it's a future burden based on economic projections. It's the opposite to the way politics works, which is to focus on the immediate, headline-grabbing issues.

"His argument is that unless these reforms are made, and the French working life is made longer, the country won't be able to afford it."

Addressing strikes on French TV, Mr Macron argued: "This reform isn't a luxury, it's not a pleasure, it's a necessity. The longer we wait, the more [the deficit] will deteriorate."

'Heated and passionate' issue

France has enjoyed a lower-than-average retirement age since the Mitterrand presidency in the 1980s, when it was brought down to 60.

Since then, along with favourable unemployment benefits and the 35-hour working week, it has become a staunchly defended "right" in the eyes of the public.

Prof Bell says: "The expectations of the French state are different to the ones in the UK.

"It's expected that the state has certain functions and duties and pulling the rug out from under that, has seen people asking. 'Well, why do that?'"

There is also a degree of doubt over the reliability of economic forecasts, he adds.

For years, politicians have tried and failed to get pension reform through in the hope of improving public finances.

In 1995, Jacques Chirac faced mass strikes and was ultimately unsuccessful. His successor Nicolas Sarkozy succeeded in increasing retirement age from 60 to 62 in 2010, but faced a huge backlash.

French commentator Agnes Poirier says: "The French are very fortunate and probably don't realise how fortunate they are.

"This would just put France closer into line with its European neighbours.

"But pension reform is a very heated and passionate topic in France, probably because most people here - apart from the very, very rich - rely on state pensions.

"There is no such thing as the individual private schemes you get in the UK or the US."

What happens now?

When the government invokes Article 49.3, MPs can trigger a vote of no confidence. Two motions were tabled - but neither passed.

Only 278 MPs, mainly from the left and far right of French politics, voted for the first, falling just short of the 287 needed to bring down the government. The second from Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party also failed.

In his TV address, Mr Macron said the reforms would have to be adopted "by the end of the year".

Their final test will be on Friday when they are put before the Constitutional Council.

Read more:

Macron is either brave or foolhardy - analysis

'Millennial' and 'Generation X' votes at risk if UK follows France

The council is made up of nine people - three appointed by the president, three by the head of the National Assembly (lower house of parliament), and three by the head of the Senate (upper house of parliament).

Largely former lawyers, business people, senior civil servants and ex-politicians, they oversee the final stage of approving any new law - and consider whether it adheres to the constitution.

Although they can block it, this is very rare, with government sources claiming it will be given the green light.

There is one final mechanism unions can use to stop the bill going through - a referendum - but for this they would have to get the approval of both the council and 10% of voters within the next nine months.

It has not been successfully used since it was introduced in 2015.

If the council approves the pension reforms, the government could formally adopt them in the coming days.

The government hopes this would bring an end to nationwide protests.

But there is no guarantee the disruption will end.
Precentor Kyle Hanlon , Iain Lendrum (compere) and Judith Anderson.

Fivemiletown Royal British Legion (RBL) held a concert in Fivemiletown College last Friday, March 10 to launch their new book, Fivemiletown Remembers  100 Years of Uniform and Service.

The book tells the history of Fivemiletown RBL and service in the local community. The launch was attended by an large crowd, in excess of 400 people.

Compere for the evening, Iain Lendrum, opened proceedings by welcoming everyone, especially the Lord Lieutenant for Co. Fermanagh, Lord Brookeborough, and the Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Co. Tyrone, Frances Nolan.

The first act of the evening saw Precentor Kyle Hanlen and Judith Anderson perform two beautiful renditions of There is a higher Throne and O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

They were then followed by Irvine Memorial Pipe Band, the current All-Ireland Grade 4B Champions, who performed a medley of traditional marching tunes and jigs.

The third act of the evening was Donna Thompson, from Castlecaulfield  the current music teacher at Fivemiletown College.

She performed a haunting musical version of John McCraes classic poem, In Flanders Field. This was followed by, He will hold me fast.

Cavenaleck Pipe Band  one of only six Brian Boru pipe bands in Northern Ireland  entertained the large crowd with a selection of military marches, including a crowd favourite, Killaloe.

The Murley Band played a number of classic military marches, including The Great Escape, and finished with the theme to the film Saving Private Ryan, the haunting tune: Hymn to the Fallen.

This was accompanied with a slide show of pictures of former and current members of Fivemiletown RBL.

The last seven slides included Private Eva Martin, who taught at Fivemiletown College, and six local RUC men who were murdered during The Troubles.

The evening closed with speeches from Lord Brookeborough and special guest speaker Danny Kinahan, the Veterans Commissioner for Northern Ireland.

Mark Byers, the author, then thanked everyone who had helped him to compile the book.

Story continues

The book is for sale in Ballylurgan Hardware, Beattys Spar and Fivemiletown Royal British Legion.

Mr. Byers also commissioned an extra 100 books of his previous book, Fivemiletowns Fallen, which tells the story of the 72 names recorded on Fivemiletown Community War Memorial.

Get a treat with our March sale - 3 for three months digital subscription. Click here to subscribe
Lewis Hamilton on the grid with his hands to his head. Bahrain March 2023 Credit: Alamy

Heikki Kovalainen has backed Lewis Hamilton to turn Mercedes fortunes around, the former F1 driver adamant the Briton isnt going anywhere next season.

Following a lacklustre Bahrain Grand Prix with Hamilton crossing the line in fifth place, over 50s down on the race winner, speculation about his future and whether he wants to continue plugging away with Mercedes ramped up.

There has been suggestion that the seven-time World Champion could turn to Ferrari to seek his eighth World title while others believe he could just call it quits.

Kovalainen doesnt see either of those happening.

The former McLaren driver, Hamiltons team-mate for two seasons in 2008 and 2009, believes the driver is as motivated as ever before especially as now hes the challenge of turning a struggling Mercedes team into race winners.

Personally, I dont see that coming  to me, hes committed to Mercedes, the Finn told Mirror Sport.

I met him in Hungary last year and we had a good chat there. Without going into detail of what was said in a private conversation, the body language and the feel I got from him, I just felt that this is something that he wants to turn around.

He wants to turn things around for Mercedes and thats going to tick another box on his resume  to show that its not that hes only been driving good cars and making the most of the good cars, but that he can actually turn a struggling team around and lead that team.

Thats the reason why Im thinking hes not going to change.

I feel he wants to turn this thing around with Mercedes and then he can show the world that he can turn a struggling team into a winning team again.

Its going to be exciting to watch and I one hundred percent believe he has the skill and the will.

If anyone, he can probably do it.

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Although theres been a lot of speculation about Hamiltons future, the 38-year-old has always maintained hes not quitting Mercedes and that hes up for the challenge.

Story continues

He reiterated that in the build-up to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

I still have 100% belief in this team, and theyre my family and Ive been here a long time, he said, so I dont plan on going anywhere else.

As for his criticism after Bahrain in which he accused the team of not listening to him, he explained: In hindsight, I think looking back [it] wasnt necessarily the best choice of words.

Of course, there are times where youre not in agreement with certain team members, but whats important is that we continue to communicate, we continue to pull together.

He added: Weve seen the proof is in the pudding, weve seen where the performance is and how people are extracting the performance, and weve got to now start making some bold decisions, some big moves in order to close the gap to these guys.

The article Former team-mate: If anyone can turn Mercedes around, its Lewis Hamilton appeared first on Planetf1.com.
Hungary and Turkey ratify Finland's NATO membership separately from Sweden

Read also: Russian aggression against Ukraine could escalate into World War, warns Hungarys Orban

This means that Hungary is following Turkeys example and will approve Finland's entry into the alliance separately from Sweden.

The head of the ruling Fidesz party in the parliament, Mate Kocsis, confirmed that his party will consider the issues of ratifying the protocols of Finland and Sweden joining NATO separately.

"On behalf of the Fidesz group, I would like to inform you that we have decided to support Finland's accession to NATO, he wrote on Facebook.

Read also: Slovakia becomes second NATO member to send MiG-29 jets to Ukraine

We will postpone the vote in parliament on this issue until March 27, when we (will) vote unanimously in favor."

Read also: Russia loses up to 1,500 troops every day fighting in Bakhmut, NATO assesses

Kocsis added the decision regarding Sweden's accession to NATO will be made by later.

Earlier on March 17, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country is starting the process of ratifying the protocol on Finland's accession to NATO.

At the same time, Ankara and Budapest arent planning to ratify the accession to NATO of another Scandinavian country  Sweden.

Read also: Ukraines victory most important step to joining NATO, Polish defense minister

Sweden and Finland simultaneously filed bids to join NATO in May 2022 amid Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. Applications must be ratified by the parliaments of all NATO member states.

Hungary and Turkey are the only remaining allies to ratify Sweden and Finland joining the alliance.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Voters in Kazakhstan will go to the polls on Sunday, casting their ballots in a snap election, the first since deadly unrest gripped the resource-rich Central Asian nation a year ago.

The vote comes after a short but active campaign for seats in the reconfigured lower house of parliament, and falls on the third anniversary of the resignation as president of Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Nazarbayev had led Kazakhstan since independence following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and established immense influence. His successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, was widely expected to continue Nazarbayev's authoritarian course and even renamed the capital as Nur-Sultan in his predecessor's honor.

But the country's political landscape changed markedly after a wave of violence in January 2022 when provincial protests initially sparked by a fuel price hike engulfed other cities, notably the commercial capital, Almaty, and became overtly political as demonstrators shouted Old man out! in reference to Nazarbayev.

More than 220 people, mostly protesters, died as police harshly put down the unrest.

Amid the violence, Tokayev removed Nazarbayev from his powerful post as head of the national security council. He restored the capitals previous name of Astana, and the parliament repealed a law granting Nazarbayev and his family immunity from prosecution.

Tokayev also initiated reforms to strengthen the parliament, reduce presidential powers and limit the presidency to a single seven-year term. Under the reforms, a third of the lower house of parliament's 98 seats will be chosen in single-mandate races rather than by party list.

Tokayev's Amanat party holds the overwhelming majority of seats in the current parliament and the rest belong to parties that are largely loyal to Amanat. Although opinion surveys indicate that Amanat will remain the largest party in the new parliament, the likely final balance is unclear.

Story continues

More than 400 candidates, most of them self-nominated, are competing in the single-mandate races, and the national elections commission authorized two additional parties to enter the proportional contest.

The widened competition appears to have energised the electorate.

Although electioneering was allowed to start only in mid-February, the campaign so far appears lively, in particular online and in the single-mandate electoral districts with a large number of candidates, said an assessment from the elections observation mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Candidates have raised a wide array of issues including further political reforms, housing and rising food prices, and the country does not show a clear path forward. But many are encouraged by the expanded election opportunity.

There is hope that the upcoming parliamentary election that will be held under the new mixed electoral system will bring change and facilitate democratization and political liberalization in Kazakhstan, analyst Assel Nussopova wrote for the Astana Times newspaper.
(REUTERS)

Darwin Nunez has withdrawn from Uruguays national squad in a potential injury blow for Liverpool.

The South Americans confirmed his early exit from their setup on Friday night ahead of friendlies with Japan and South Korea.

Jurgen Klopp had taken Nunez, 23, off during the second half of the Reds Champions League defeat to Real Madrid in midweek but did not indicate any fitness issues for his player - instead citing him performing not at the absolute top level.

The striker was due a weekend off anyway with Liverpool not in FA Cup or Premier League action.

Both Uruguay and Liverpool have released statements confirming his release from international duty, and he will undergo treatment at the Reds training base.

Reports in Nunezs homeland indicate he has suffered a cut to his ankle.

Club America forward Jonathan Rodriguez has been named as his replacement in the Uruguay squad.

Liverpool next play on April 1 in a Premier League trip to Manchester City before an away game at Chelsea three days later.
Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed President of Belarus, will visit Russia to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on 6 April.

Source: Russian-language business daily newspaper Vedomosti, citing their own sources

Details: Putin will meet with Lukashenko on 6 April at a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State [a supranational union of Belarus and Russia aimed at deepening the relationship between the two states through integration in economic and defence policy], as two sources close to Putins administration and diplomatic circles told the newspaper.

As the sources state, the agenda will include issues related to the joint fight against sanctions pressure and security. The last face-to-face meeting between Putin and Lukashenko occurred on 19 December 2022.

Background: Since late January, Lukashenko has visited the UAE, Zimbabwe, China and Iran, meeting with the leaders of these countries, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, on 1 March.

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This is a locator map of Israel and the Palestinian Territories. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

JERUSALEM (AP)  The Israeli military said Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket toward southern Israel Saturday evening.

The rocket fell and exploded in an open area, triggering warning sirens in the Nahal Oz community to the east of Gaza City.

There were no reports of casualties or damage. The Israeli military usually responds to such rocket fire with airstrikes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, raising the possibility of further violence just ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The rocket attack comes a day before Israeli and Palestinian officials are set to meet in Egypt in a U.S.-backed effort to defuse violence that has soared especially in the West Bank and east Jerusalem for nearly a year.

The meeting in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh is a follow-up to last months meeting in Jordan for the same purpose. However, deadly Israeli raids in the West Bank and Palestinian attacks continued since the Feb. 26 meeting in Aqaba. Twenty-three Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed in the ongoing bloodshed since then.

Since the start of this year, 85 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed 14 people in the same period.

According to an Associated Press tally, about half of the Palestinians killed this year were affiliated with militant groups. Israel says most of the dead were militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions, some in their early teens, and others not involved in confrontations, including three men over 60, have also been killed.

Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to the leading Israeli rights group BTselem. Palestinian attacks against Israelis during that same time killed 30 people.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their future independent state.
Elena Rybakina is through to her second final of the year after upsetting world number one Iga Swiatek 6-2 6-2 in Friday's Indian Wells Open semi-final.

Rybakina, 25, added to her terrific recent head-to-head record against the 21-year-old Polish superstar, now with three consecutive straight sets victories since December.

The reigning Wimbledon champion, who became Kazakhstan's first grand slam winner, was all over Swiatek's serve from the jump.

The top seed ended up winning just 42 per cent (18-of-43) of her total service points, with Rybakina converting all five of her break point opportunities.

After taking the opening frame, Rybakina slammed the door shut by running out to a 5-0 lead in the second, hitting five aces in the set while Swiatek had just one for the match.

Rybakina will next face world number two Aryna Sabalenka in the decider after the Belarusian made similar light work of world number seven Maria Sakkari.

Sabalenka, who has dropped only one set en route to the final, needed just 85 minutes to advance 6-2 6-3. She created 10 break point opportunities compared to Sakkari's four, with the Greek talent not able to pull another rabbit out of the hat after four consecutive three-set victories.

It will be the sixth overall meeting between Rybakina and Sabalenka, and a rematch from the Australian Open final, when Sabalenka took it 4-6 6-3 6-4 to extend her head-to-head advantage to 4-1.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lifted Turkey's veto on Finlands application to join Nato.

Having previously blocked the northern European country's application for months, claiming that it had supported "terrorists," the Turkish president hailed Finland's "authentic and concrete steps" on Turkish security on Friday (17 March.)

Any new member must to secure the approval of all 30 Nato members.

Finland applied to join the alliance with Sweden amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Erdogan continues to refuse to support Sweden.

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(AP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his government will move forward with ratifying Finlands Nato application, paving the way for the country to join the military bloc ahead of Sweden.

The breakthrough came as he met his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinisto, in Ankara this week.

Both Finland and Sweden applied to join Nato in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine, abandoning decades of nonalignment. Nato requires the unanimous approval of its 30 members to expand.

The Turkish government had accused both Sweden and Finland of being too soft on groups that it deems to be terror organisations but expressed more reservations about Sweden.

When it comes to fulfilling its pledges in the trilateral memorandum of understanding, we have seen that Finland has taken authentic and concrete steps, Mr Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara following his meeting with his Finnish counterpart.

This sensitivity for our countrys security and, based on the progress that has been made in the protocol for Finlands accession to Nato, we have decided to initiate the ratification process in our parliament, the president added.

Finlands application can now go to the Turkish parliament, where the presidents party and its allies hold a majority.

Ratification is expected before Turkey holds its presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 14.

Commenting on Turkeys willingness to consider ratifying Swedens accession to Nato, Mr Erdogan said it would depend on the solid steps Sweden will take.

Explaining the difference between the Nordic countries, he claimed that Sweden had embraced terrorism, citing demonstrations by supporters of Kurdish militants on the streets of Stockholm.

Such demonstrations do not take place in Finland, he said. For that reason we had to consider (Finland) separately from Sweden.
(Bloomberg) --

Most Read from Bloomberg

Russian President Vladimir Putin made an unexpected visit to the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol over the weekend after an unannounced trip to Crimea, according to state media coverage.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin, citing his alleged role in unlawfully deporting thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia. The Kremlin, which doesnt recognize the courts judgments, termed the move unacceptable. US President Joe Biden called the arrest warrant for Putin justified.

(See RSAN on the Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.)

Key Developments

Putin Makes Surprise Crimea Visit on Annexation Anniversary

Ukraine Grain Deal Renewed, Clearing Way for Continued Exports

ADM Restarts Oilseed Crushing Plant in Ukraine After a Year

Xi to Visit Russia for First Time Since Putin Invaded Ukraine

NATO Edges Closer to Expansion as Turkey Backs Finlands Bid

(All times CET)

Putin Makes Surprise Visit to Occupied Ukrainian City (6 a.m.)

Putin flew into Mariupol in Donetsk province, a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine, in the surprise visit following his tour to Crimea this weekend, Tass reported on Sunday.

Putin reviewed construction and restoration work in Mariupol, the site of one of the bloodiest battles since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Tass said. The site of one of the bloodiest battles since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

Ukrainian Premier Announces Cabinet Changes (5 p.m.)

Oleksandr Kamyshin, former chief executive officer of the national railway company Ukrzaliznytsia, will be appointed next week as Ukraines minister for strategic industries, said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Story continues

All top officials visiting Kyiv use Ukrzaliznytsia to get to the capital from Poland, since Ukraines passenger airports have been closed since the first day of Russias invasion.

Shmyhal, who met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiys party on Saturday to discuss his cabinets changes, also said Ukraines minister of education will be replaced.

Ukraine Grain Export Deal Renewed; Duration in Debate (3:30 p.m.)

The agreement allowing Ukraine to export grains and other crops out of key Black Sea ports was renewed hours before it was due to expire.

While Ukraines infrastructure minister said the pact, originally brokered last summer by Turkey and the UN, has been extended for four months, Russias foreign ministry spokeswoman said the agreement was for 60 days.

Read more: Ukraine Grain Deal Renewed, Clearing Way for Continued Exports

Putin Flies to Crimea for Reunification Event, Russian TV Says (2 p.m.)

Vladimir Putin made an unannounced visit to Sevastopol in Crimea on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the peninsulas 2014 annexation by Russia, according to a video posted on state television.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said on Friday that the Russian leader planned to take part in celebrations via video link.

Russia, China, Iran Wrap Up Naval Exercises in Arabian Sea (12:43 p.m.)

Russia, China and Iran have completed a fourth round of naval exercises in the Arabian Sea, Interfax reported, citing Russias defense ministry. Iranian media reported that the drills, dubbed Marine Security Belt 2023, included nighttime shooting operations against aerial targets.

The Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the Chinese destroyer Nanjing took part in exercises, held on Thursday and Friday. The war games follow others last month involving Russia, China and South Africa, where the Gorshkov, which is fitted with hypersonic Zircon missiles, was also deployed.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week is making his first state visit to Russia since it invaded Ukraine, while there are concerns that China may start supplying military aid to Moscow.

Germany, Japan Welcome Putin Arrest Warrant (11:30 a.m.)

The leaders of Japan and Germany jointly welcomed the decision by the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for his alleged role in unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children to Russia.

No one is above the law. This is also an important principle of international law, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters after talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Kishida said his government was following the investigation with great interest.

US, Ukrainian Officials Discuss Battlefield, Kyivs Military Needs

Top US officials including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held a video meeting with Ukraines president and his chief of staff, defense minister and top military commanders.

The participants, who also included Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraines armed forces and top ground and air defense commanders, discussed Kyiv military needs, including weapons and ammunition, chief of staff Andriy Yermak on Telegram.

The officials held detailed discussions on the situation on the battlefield, including the most difficult combat operations, and about the urgent needs of Ukrainian army, Yermak said.

Russia Launches Drone Attack Overnight (8 a.m.)

Air-raid sirens sounded widely across Ukraine on Saturday morning.

Russia launched an attack with 16 Iranian-made single-use drones on Friday night from the Bryansk region and the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov, Ukraines air defence force said on Saturday. Kyivs forces shot down 11 drones in the central, eastern and western regions.

Two drones significantly damaged critical infrastructure in Novomoskovsk in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, regional head Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram. Three drones hit buildings near Yavoriv in the far western Lviv region. Yavoriv is 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Polish border and close to Ukraines largest military training facility.

Biden Says Putins Arrest Warrant From ICC is Justified (8 a.m.)

President Joe Biden said Friday the International Criminal Court arrest warrant, accusing Russias Vladimir Putin of war crimes, was justified.

Neither the US nor Russia has signed onto the ICCs Rome Statute, so the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court is limited in both countries.

He clearly committed war crimes, Biden said outside the White House on Friday night. He called the warrant justified, adding that although the US doesnt recognize the court, I think it makes a very strong point.

Russia Likely to Widen Conscription Efforts, UK Says (7 a.m.)

Russia may be preparing to facilitate wider military conscription to resource its military requirements, the UK defense ministry said in a Twitter update.

The UK noted that Russias Duma introduced a bill to change the age bracket of men eligible for conscription to 21 to 30 years, against the current 18 to 27. If passed, the measure would come into effect in January.

Many 18 to 21 year old men currently claim exemption from the draft due to being in higher education. The authorities are highly likely changing the age bracket to bolster troop numbers by ensuring that students are eventually forced to serve, the UK said.

ADM Restarts Ukraine Oilseed Crushing Plant (11 p.m.)

US commodities firm Archer-Daniels-Midland has reopened its oilseed crushing plant in southern Ukraine, in another sign that crop trading companies are feeling more optimistic about the outlook for shipments out of the country.

The Chornomorsk plant has recently resumed operations, a spokeswoman for ADM said Friday. Russias invasion of Ukraine forced the company to suspend its operations last year.

Read more: ADM Restarts Oilseed Crushing Plant in Ukraine After a Year

--With assistance from Jinshan Hong.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
The Iraq war has faded. Most people, if they think about it at all, think that Blair lied and that the war was terribly and obviously wrong; but it no longer carries as much emotional weight as it did.

As Janan Ganesh wrote in the Financial Times, it has not defined a generation in the way that Vietnam did. It has not left a cultural mark in film and music. Partly, that is because Vietnam was a conscript war in which tens of thousands of Americans died; but it scarred Europe too, when no European country took part.

As each cohort of students passes through the Blair Years course at Kings College London that I have helped teach since Tony Blair left office 16 years ago, their objections to the war become more formulaic. They are more interested in how Blair won elections than in why he fought a bad war.

Yet the war has left its mark. Obviously, it changed Iraq and left thousands dead in the sectarian strife that followed. No one can know what would have happened if Saddam Hussein had been left alone (although Bashar al-Assads civil war in Syria provides one analogy); but what did happen came about because of the US-led intervention.

But it also changed us in less obvious ways. By us I mean we British; I dont think it had as much effect on Americans. Which is paradoxical, because the one point that I hope our students will retain from our classes  apart from the fact that Blair did not lie  is that the war was a US operation that was going ahead whatever the British parliament decided.

The British decision was whether or not to be part of military action that was happening anyway. There is a British-centrism about a lot of the 20th-anniversary comment. Yesterday, David Clark wrote an article headlined: On this day 20 years ago, Robin Cook tried to stop the Iraq war. He tried to stop Britain taking part in the war; he couldnt have stopped the war itself.

Blair himself encouraged the impression that it was his war. Hence the identification of him with it, despite the decision to join the Americans being a collective one made by cabinet and parliament  albeit in defiance of public opinion, which is where its true weakness lay.

Story continues

That gap between elite and public opinion is why the war had a lasting effect. The gap was filled with stories about deception and oil and deals signed in blood, all of which helped to undermine trust in politicians in Britain even further than it had already been weakened. It didnt have the same effect in America, mainly I think because the country felt under direct attack on 9/11 in a way that we did not. For Americans, a pre-emptive strike against possible threats made more sense and meant that the war had more public support.

Iraq had more direct effects on our politics too. It helped to delegitimise Blair and therefore Blairism within the Labour Party, as one (Blairite) former special adviser said to me. It freed the party from thinking it had to compete with the Conservatives for swing voters  the Tories were more pro-war than Labour was: Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Howard, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson all supported military action (Johnson even criticised Blair for wasting time at the UN). That led to Ed Miliband as leader and, when that didnt work, to the quasi-pacifism of Jeremy Corbyn.

I am not sure about the theory that if someone other than the Eurosceptic Corbyn had been Labour leader at the time of the EU referendum the result would have been different but, even so, the effect of Iraq on British politics has been significant.

That is why I think the most important lesson from the Iraq war is one that is hardly mentioned in the Chilcot report. It is one that Blair himself accepted a few years ago. He set out the case for military intervention in the Chicago speech at the time of Kosovo, when Natos campaign saved the Kosovars from murderous persecution by Slobodan Milosevic. War is an imperfect instrument for righting humanitarian distress; but armed force is sometimes the only means of dealing with dictators, he said. But it has to meet these tests, he said: we need to be sure of our case; military action must be a last resort; we should be prepared for the long term; and it should be in the national interest.

But there was another test that any war must meet, which is that it must be supported by the public at home. Or, as Blair put it in an interview with Steve Bloomfield, formerly of The Independent, in 2019: It is difficult to do this if its going to be a long-term project, and your own country is divided about it. Iraq never reliably met that test.
LOSS: The names of Worcestershire soldiers who died during the First World War's Battle of Gheluvelt will be honoured at the unveiling and re-dedication of the memorial in Belgium (Image: Worcester City Council)

A MEMORIAL to soldiers who died in a First World War battle which helped 'turn the tide' is to be unveiled by Worcester's Mayor in Belgium.

Cllr Adrian Gregson is to visit Belgium next week to unveil the memorial to Worcestershire soldiers who died at the Battle of Gheluvelt.

He will be joined by representatives from Worcestershire Ambassadors, the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association and the 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment at the ceremony which will be held at Geluveld, Zonnebeke, at 2pm on Friday, March 24.

The memorial, which features the names of the 34 men of the 2nd Battalion The Worcestershire Regiment killed at Gheluvelt, has been renovated and extended and will be unveiled and re-dedicated.

READ MORE: Unique propeller grave marker to be loaned to a Belgian museum

Later that evening, the mayor will lay a wreath at the Menin Gate Last Post Ceremony, which is held every evening.

The Battle of Gheluvelt, after which Worcesters Gheluvelt Park is named, took place in October 1914.

Around 400 soldiers from the 2nd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment fought at Gheluvelt.

Their counterattack saved Ypres from capture and the British Army from defeat.

Weary from two months of hard marching and fighting, unshaven, unwashed and in torn uniforms but good spirits and with plenty of ammunition, they forced the young and inexperienced German enemy to withdraw and, with the few soldiers of the battalion of South Wales Borderers who had been left behind in the retreat, they cleared the area of enemy.

The heroic success of the 2nd Battalions counterattack turned the course of the war, helping Allied forces to organise a more substantial defence against the Germans.

Mayor of Worcester, Cllr Gregson said: It is a great honour to be unveiling the renovated memorial commemorating the Battle of Gheluvelt and the brave soldiers from the Worcestershire Regiment who died there in a battle which helped turn the tide of the First World War during one of the British Armys darkest hours.

The memorial in Geluveld was privately funded and we felt it needed renovation. The memorial now has two new panels and a brick surround, thanks to funding from the Worcestershire Ambassadors, the Mercian Regiment, Worcester City Council and the Worcestershire World War 100 project.
World Cultural Day: Celebrating diversity - Alexis Irvine, The Tiffin Girls' School (Image: Alexis Irvine)

Last Friday (10th March), students and teachers celebrated World Cultural Day together at The Tiffin Girls' School in Kingston. This year was only the second in which it was celebrated at the school, but already the school's 'Diversity leads' managed to succesfully organise and coordinate a wide variety of events spread across the day. The 'Diversity leads' are student advocates for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion within the school community, who are elected by their forms annually. At the Tiffin Girls' School, World Cultural Day is an event designed to encourage students and staff to celebrate and share their cultural roots with their friends and peers, and has been widely anticipated and enjoyed across the last two years.

A lot of planning went into the day, and last Friday was the culmination of months of hard work from the Diversity leads and staff involved. Events across the day included an International Food Stall, where students brought in traditional food from their culture, which was then sold at lunchtime, with all proceeds being donated towards The Tiffin Girls' School's partner school in Nepal. All of the food was nut-free, with vegetarian and vegan options and food priced at 1, to encourage everyone to partake in the celebration of their and their friends' culture. The food stall featured foods from all around the world- as the Diversity leads themselves said, buying something from here was "a great way to learn and appreciate the diversity shared within our school."

A face painting stall in the school's foyer was also present in the day's itinerary, before school and at recess, where students and staff could get a flag painted on their cheek, to proudly wear throughout the celebrations. Flags cost 50p each, and once again the proceeds went towards the school's partner school in Nepal.

Each form within the school also participated in a competition: one where they decorated their form room door in response to a brief of a certain country that they were meant to honour on the door. For example, the form '11B' was given the brief of Mexico, and decorated their door in accordance with this theme. A panel of judges then voted on which form best responded to their brief. Due to the loaning of several cultural artefacts and family heirlooms to the school, from students and staff, the Diversity leads were also able to set up a 'World Cultural Day' display in the foyer, which fully embraced the diverse variety of cultural backgrounds present amongst the school community. The day's events drew to a close with the Talent Show at lunchtime, featuring a variety of musicians and dancers from different cultural backgrounds, who performed traditional dances or musical compositions in front of their peers. Admission to the talent show was free and it was definitely one of the day's highlights, however another strong contender, and perhaps the thing that made The Tiffin Girls' School's 'World Cultural Day' stand out from cultural celebrations at other schools, was the removal of the requirement to wear school uniform on the day, with the school instead encouraging students to wear something that reflects their culture. While many students opted to wear traditional clothing on the day, others opted to wear an outfit specific to a special religious or cultural event, such as a saree, with others also arriving at school in sporting shirts showing support for a local or international team.

When she was asked about what her favourite aspect of they day was, student Alvira Salman, 15, replied that she liked seeing everyone in their cultural clothing, saying that "everyone felt really pretty, really self-confident and proud of their culture and they felt elegant and nice in their clothes, and I think that's quite empowering because it goes against the beauty standard and shows that everyone can look really nice. Especially in traditional clothes, it's like 'their culture is part of what makes them pretty'."

At The Tiffin Girls' School, the students and staff celebrated World Cultural Day last Friday as an opportunity to expand their knowledge of cultural diversity and emphasise how this diversity within the school only strengthens their community. World Cultural Day at The Tiffin Girls' School this year is certainly an occasion to remember, for all the right reasons. Do you see your school or workplace celebrating anything like this anytime soon? Maybe you can advocate for one such World Cultural Day, just like the Diversity leads at The Tiffin Girls' School did...




This week's Torah portion, Vayakhel-Pekudei, brings us to the end of Exodus. The first part, Vayakhel, begins:

     - And Moshe yakhel / convened the whole edah / congregation of the children of Israel... (Ex. 35:1)

The word yak'hel shares a root with the word kahal, community: its almost saying that Moshe communified them. Meanwhile, edah (translated here as congregation) can also mean witness. To me this implies that bearing witness to each other and to each others' needs is part of what makes a community, or maybe what turns a congregation into a community. The second part of our double Torah portion, Pekudei, begins:

     - These were the pkudei / accountings of the Mishkan of witnessing... (Ex. 38:21)

Pakad can mean to take note of or to record, and what follows is a record of what went into the mishkan and the ark: the gold, purple, and crimson yarns, acacia wood and fine linen. Its a list of the freewill offerings from everyone whose heart was moved. But this isnt just about the physical structure; its also about building community. Being in community asks us to really see each others needs, and in response, to give freely of our stuff and our skill.

Mishkan is a word we're going to be hearing a lot of, for a while. It's often translated as "tabernacle;" its the portable sanctuary our ancestors built to carry in the desert. Mishkan shares a root with shekhunah (neighbohood) and Shekhinah (the Presence of God dwelling within and among us.) Let them make Me a sacred place so that I may dwell within them. (Exodus 25:8) The word for dwell shares a root with mishkan and Shekhinah too.

Here it's called a Mishkan of Edut, a holy place of witnessing. Theres that theme of bearing witness again. Torah is telling us that if we want to constitute community, each of us has to bring whatever we've got. And I think Torah's reiterating that a core function of a community is to bear witness: to see each other, and take action to help each other. Once we see someones need, we have to take it seriously and try to meet it in whatever ways we can.

I'm grateful to the architects of our synagogue building who ensured that people in wheelchairs -- and people with strollers -- aren't barred from entry or from coming onto the bimah. Most of us who live long enough will need mobility aids eventually, so being all on one level helps everyone but to me what matters is that we try to meet each others needs whether or not we will ever share them. Thats what it means to be in community.

We make sure theres gluten-free food, and a non-alcoholic beverage option, at kiddush and at seder. We use our sound system in the building, and enable closed captioning in Zoom services. We ensure that there are changing tables in all the bathrooms. These are all ways that we try to take care of each other. Even if some of us dont experience those needs, we do our best for those who do. Thats what it means to be in community.

In Jewish legal thinking, theres a concept called kal vhomer. (In Latin this is called a fortiori, going from the weaker case to the stronger one.) For instance, in Torah Moshe says to God, my own people wont listen to me; how much less likely it is that Pharaoh would listen?! If its our responsibility to meet each others relatively minor needs, how much more so is it our responsibility to meet each others needs in matters of survival and human dignity?

Across the US, trans and gender-non-conforming people are under threat. Political violence and eliminationism are on the rise. (By eliminationism, I mean the belief that a group of people should be eradicated.) There are nearly 370 bills on the table targeting trans people. Thank God, not in Massachusetts  but if proponents of those bills rise to national power they could harm trans folks here, just as they could erase our right to reproductive healthcare.

Those who seek to take away rights tend not to stop after taking rights or self-determination away from a single group. In the early 1900s, American eugenicists began sterilizing disabled women. By the end of that century, eugenics movements in this country had sterilized 70,000 immigrants, Black and Indigenous people, poor white people, people with disabilities, and survivors of rape and sexual assault. Our eugenics policies even inspired Hitler's.

Meanwhile, transphobia has become a recruiting tool for today's neo-Nazis. Where there is willingness to dehumanize any group of people, there is increased readiness to dehumanize others too. Look at Victor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary: proudly "illiberal" and Christian nationalist. He's also anti-LGBTQ+, anti-immigrant, opposed to the "mixing" of races. Or, closer to home: white supremacist Nick Fuentes recently proclaimed that Judaism has "got to go."

As Dr. King taught, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. This is a practical truth, because injustice tends to metastasize. Its also a spiritual truth. Were all connected. Either we all have the right to life, self-determination, and human dignity, or none of us do. If theres a movement to take rights away from any of us, it impacts all of us. If theres a movement to wipe out any of us, it impacts all of us. This too is what it means to be in community.

Every time Im reminded that some people want to eliminate other groups of people, my heart breaks again. And yet my spirit is lifted by genuine allyship: when non-Jews resist antisemitism, when people without a uterus stand up for bodily autonomy, when cisgender people protect the dignity and rights of trans people. (I wrote earlier this week that its our job to build a mishkan of safety.) Standing up for each other is part of what it means to be in community.

At the end of our doubled Torah portion we get the verse weve been singing tonight:

For the cloud of God was on the mishkan by day, and fire was there by night In the eyes of all the house of Israel, in all of their journeyings. (Exodus 40:38)

The mishkan becomes a kind of beacon. Atop it and within it theres a cloud of divine glory during the day, and a blazing fire by night. Thats where the book of Exodus ends.

Even without that pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, our community can be a beacon, too. When we meet each others needs, when we engage in learning and prayer and justice together, we invite Shekhinah in. We create a community where the divine presence dwells within us and among us. Then the light of our mitzvot serves as our pillar of fire, our ner tamid / eternal lamp, shining our way out of the wilderness and toward the Promised Land.

This is the d'varling that I offered at Kabbalat Shabbat services at Congregation Beth Israel of the Berkshires. (Cross-posted to the From the Rabbi blog.)

Shared with gratitude to my Bayit hevruta partners who talked with me about community and witnessing, to brainstorming partners on Jwitter, and to the historian friends in my pocket.
A NANG  The central and Central Highlands region has been designated as one of the areas for fast economic and sustainable development, along with remarkable climate change resilience.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang spoke at the Viet Nam Connect Forum  Breakthroughs for central Viet Nam  in the central city on March 17, emphasising that the region plays a crucial role in promoting rapid and sustainable growth.

The region needs to adopt green growth in agriculture, forestry, processing industries, the blue sea economy and tourism, Quang said. By 2045, the region should become the largest centre of high-tech industries, services and international cooperation in Asia.

Drastic breakthroughs are necessary in the action plans of the provinces in the region to achieve sustainable goals in the future.

He noted that this year will mark a turning point in the country's master plan for the national digital transformation process, which will create new value.

The central and Central Highlands region should focus on key areas of green and digital transformation for overall sustainable development goals, in line with the country's 'green' growth, he added.

Quang said Viet Nam has set targets for sustainable development in terms of the digital economy, circular economy and 'green' growth as global trends in 2021-2030.

Viet Nam has committed to achieving 'zero' carbon by the middle of the 21st century, reducing methane emissions, declaring forests and land use, as well as transitioning from coal-fired thermal power to renewable energy, he said.

The deputy PM also said that the country's digital economy was valued at US$23 billion in 2022 and is expected to increase to $49 billion in 2025.

He suggested that the central and Central Highlands region should promote a twin approach of 'green' and digital transformation for sustainable economic growth strategies.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ha Kim Ngoc said green economy and digital transition has been booming in the world, and Viet Nam has to adapt from natural resources-based economy to greener growth.

He said the country needs funds, green technology and knowledge for its green and digital transforming process.

Speaking at the forum, operations manager of World Bank in Viet Nam, Stefanie Stallmeister said:Natural risks to coastal communities are substantial and increasing. Nationwide, disasters cause well-being losses of $11 billion every year, with 60 per cent of this occurring in coastal regions.

Investments in adaptation are absolutely necessary to deal with immediate and worsening challenges. An action plan and national investment programme are needed to address the risks and opportunities of coastal development is urgently needed, she added.

Investments are regional, not provincial in nature because it is very hard to invest in coastal protection measures province by province. It is very hard to invest in river management province by province.

Stallmeister added: Over the last 30 years, Viet Nam has lost half its mangroves, mainly to deforestation and clearing for shrimp ponds. Even though Viet Nam is a low emitter of greenhouse for gases by global standards, the carbon intensity of growth is rising and this is a problem for a globalized economy.

I need to underscore the importance of lowering the carbon footprint of Vietnamese exports to ensure that Vietnamese exports remain competitive. Consumers, importers, and investors pay increasing attention to climate change mitigation efforts and may start deserting highly polluting countries and industries going forward. The World Bank is eager to support the central region of Viet Nam as you seek to continue your impressive development path.

Trailing Viet Nams zero carbon emission commitment, LEGO Group has been building a new LEGO factory sustainability with energy-efficient equipment and solar power, water, and waste in the southern Binh Duong Province.

Vice President and Programme Lead for LEGO Group in Viet Nam, Preben Elnef said its also a challenge in reaching zero carbon factory, and it needs supports from central government and local authorities in reaching the green target.

Lam ong Provincial peoples committee unveiled that low-and efficient energy consumption high-tech agriculture, smart and organic farming has been used in the past two decades.

The province is trailblazing in agro-tourism as a 5ha farm could host 3 million visitors in exploring smart farming per year.

General director of Qalcomm Viet Nam-Laos and Cambodia, Thieu Phuong Nam, said investing in technology will help businesses reducing energy use and emissions in following the countrys zero carbon target.

Chairman of the digital sub-committee, Euro Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam said Vietnamese business can co-operation with European investors in agriculture, wind power in growing net-zero targets by 2050.

At the forum, the organisers presented golden dragon awards to top 50 outstanding FDI enterprises in Viet Nam.  VNS
HCM CITY  The HCM City Peoples Council has discussed feasible measures to address the issue of encroachment into drainage systems and litter in the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal.

Last week, the Urban Committee of the municipal Peoples Council had a working session to inspect the management, maintenance and operational tasks at Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe flood-tide control station based on Phu My Street and the Binh Trieu flood-tide control station on inh Bo Linh Street in Binh Thanh District.

Deputy Director of the citys Department of Construction ang Phu Thanh said certain districts have low terrain, along with continuous ground subsidence, leading to limits in drainage flows and negative impacts on maintenance and dredging activities of the citys drainage system.

In addition, due to the impact of climate change, unprecedentedly high precipitation in a short time has made it difficult for the drainage system to function smoothly.

Land encroachment into the drainage system infrastructure through illegal construction works still exists. In addition, illegal discharge of waste on canals is blocking water flows.

The current law violations receive no punishments as there are not yet any sanctions for acts of damaging the drainage system.

Thanh proposed a more synchronous cross-level management of drainage canals in order to have more power for maintenance and dredging tasks to ensure water flows. This will contribute to the fight against urban flooding.

It also needs to promote communication to raise the publics awareness about environmental protection and prevent residents from illegally littering in canals and streets.

He also petitioned the Ministry of Construction to add more content into the sanction decree for actions that negatively affect drainage flow, such as disposing construction waste into manholes and sewers.

At the working session, many experts proposed the Urban Infrastructure Construction Investment Projects Management Unit to evaluate the performance of six flood-tide control stations and the handling of littering and land encroachment into drainage systems.

Reports should be submitted to the municipal Peoples Committee in a timely manner.

Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe flood-tide control station is established on the confluence of two branches of Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal and Van Thanh Canal.

The station plays a key role in preventing urban flooding due to high tides in the districts of Tan Binh, Binh Thanh, Go Vap, Phu Nhuan, 1, 3, and 10.

Once heavily polluted and dubbed a "dead canal" back in the 1950s, the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal had been revitalised following an expensive clean-up project.

The canal is now considered to be one of the most beautiful canals in the city and has even become a tourist attraction.

There are more than 1.2 million residents living along the canal.

Experts have proposed using the canal as a reservoir to regulate water as urban floods have become more serious during the rainy season in the city.  VNS
HA NOI  The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in co-operation with the Viet Nam Musicians Association have launched a song writing contest to create a theme song for Vietnamese businessmen.

The contest is open to all amateur and professional Vietnamese composers of all ages and from all walks of life, who reside in and outside the country.

Composer Nguyen uc Trinh, chairman of the association, will act as head of the jury.

The entries should express patriotism, nationalism, the will and desire to rise, praise the morals and culture of Vietnamese businessmen, and help spread morality and culture among a new generation of businessmen.

The songs should be associated with the nations development periods, aiming to build a strong business community, and a wealthy and prosperous nation.

The first prize is VN200 million in cash (US$8,400), while second prize is VN50 million, third prize is VN20 million, and five encouragement prizes will be VN10 million each. The award ceremony will be held on October 13, 2023, the Vietnamese Businessmens Day.

The entries should be sent to the organisers between March 17 and July 31, 2023.

Pham Tan Cong, President of VCCI, said the contest aims to choose a common song for Viet Nams businessmen and enterprises to encourage their spirit and build up cultural identity for the community in the process of making the country a developed and prosperous country.

Composer o Hong Quan, President of the Viet Nam Union of Literature & Arts Associations, highly appreciated the contests significance. He called for the participantion of all amateur and professional composers throughout the country.

"We have had songs that caught the breath of people, including the most popular songs like Tien Quan Ca (Marching Song) by Van Cao and Giai Phong ien Bien (Liberating ien Bien) by o Nhuan. The national spirit has been the guideline for composers in their creativity, he said.

Information about the contest will be published on the websites of VCCI, the association and other media channels.

The winning song will be heard in all ceremonies and events hosted by the community of Vietnamese businessmen and enterprises. VNS
HA NOI  A proposal to incorporate more information into citizen identification cards has garnered much attention at the ongoing 21st session of the National Assembly Standing Committee held in Ha Noi.

Despite widespread support for the proposal, concerns regarding the security of sensitive data have also been raised.

During this session, the committee discussed the proposed policies which aim to amend regulations without altering the crux of the law, said Hoang Thanh Tung, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Legal Affairs.

While most of the Standing Committee members agreed with the proposed policy to add more information to the card, many expressed concerns about the potential of data leaks.

They suggested only granting the right to access information in the card to serve management work and transactions of the citizen in specific cases.

Identification card for citizens under 14

During the session, participants also discussed the proposal to issue citizen identification cards to people under 14.

The majority of them agreed that the need for citizen identification cards among this age group shouldn't be further considered given the cost and the fact that it would be optional anyway.

However, Minister of Public Security To Lam highlighted certain issues when identification cards are unavailable for those under 14.

Not having any identity information outside passport and birth certificate makes it difficult for children in many activities, including travelling by plane or going to school, Minister Lam said.

He also stressed the new ambition of ASEAN is to allow citizens to travel within the area by identity cards, noting that it is necessary to provide children under 14 with identification cards.

Regarding concerns over the change in appearance, the ministry suggested the expiration date for the citizenship card for children in this age group could be in five years instead of 10 years for adults.

The ministry is also considering issuing 'green cards' for Viet Nam to manage people with Vietnamese citizenship who have foreign origins, minister Lam said.

The Bill on Citizen Identification will be submitted to the 5th session of the 15th National Assembly for debate and approved at the 6th session to be held in October this year.

The Law on Citizen Identification took effect on January 1, 2016, and includes regulations on citizen identification, the citizen identification database and the national population database and the management and use of citizens identity cards.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam always values the promotion of friendly relations and strategic partnership with Australia, a long-standing traditional partner and one of the countries forming comprehensive strategic partnership with ASEAN, President Vo Van Thuong told Australian Ambassador to Viet Nam Andrew Goledzinowski during a reception in Ha Noi on Friday.

President Thuong thanked Australia for being the second largest donor of COVID-19 vaccines to Viet Nam with 26.4 million doses, thus helping the country drive back the pandemic and recover socio-economic development.

He said two-way trade between the two countries hit US$16.1 billion last year. With 579 projects worth nearly $1.98 billion, Australia ranked 20th out of 139 countries and territories investing in Viet Nam. During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, Australia increased the supply of official development assistance to Viet Nam by 18 per cent and assisted the country in development cooperation projects, especially in improving livelihoods and clean water supply. In particular, Australia assisted Viet Nam in United Nations peacekeeping missions.

Speaking highly of the Australian Governments scholarship programmes, Thuong said a number of Australian educational establishments have contributed to the training of Vietnamese management officials.

The host suggested enhancing collaboration in fields of each countrys strength such as climate change, environment, agriculture and tourism to match bilateral strategic partnership.

Viet Nam will actively fight corruption, fine-tune laws, create the best business environment to attract more foreign investors, including those from Australia, he said.

Goledzinowski, for his part, said 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties and he will actively contribute to bilateral relationship.

He proposed further coordination in UN peacekeeping missions, national defence-security, personnel training, climate change and use of renewable energy.

The guest wished to receive support from the Vietnamese ministries and agencies in Australias investment projects in the country.

As mining is Viet Nams strength while Australia has modern technology, he wished to reinforce bilateral cooperation in this field to raise two-way trade.  VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese Minister of Public Security General To Lam hosted a reception in Ha Noi on Friday for Lao Deputy Minister of Public Security Sen. Lieut. Gen Kongthong Phongvichit.

Earlier, Phongvichit co-chaired the 13th Viet Nam-Laos security cooperation conference in the central city of a Nang earlier this week.

Minister Lam hailed the successful organisation of the conference with the signing of the minutes that covered new cooperation areas such as fighting cybercrime, wrongful and distorted allegations on social media, and State management on foreign non-governmental organisations that violate national security of the two countries.

Viet Nam has consistently maintained a special friendship with Laos, and stays ready to help Laos overcome current difficulties, continue with socio-economic development, diversify and multilateralise foreign relations to improve its position and role within ASEAN, he said, adding that Viet Nam is willing to help Laos ensure its security and order during its ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2024.

Lam stressed that the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security wants to work with the Lao counterpart to maintain independence, self-reliance, political stability and relationships with other countries; prevent external forces from taking advantage of one country to harm the security and stability of the other as well as ties between the two nations.

He wished that Laos will help Viet Nam address issues related to strategic interests.

The host asked the two countries public security forces to maintain their traditional and close relations on the basis of high political trust and mutual respect.

The minister believed that they will fulfil tasks assigned by the two ministries on the back of great bilateral friendship and special solidarity.

Phongvichit, for his part, wished that both sides would maintain regular meetings between public security forces in localities sharing the border.

He vowed to consistently prevent hostile and reactionary forces from taking advantage of one country to undermine the political stability and social security and order of the other, as well as harm the bilateral relationship.  VNS
HCM CITY  Cho Ray Hospital has the highest number of registered organ donors in the country, according to the Viet Nam National Coordinating Centre for Human Organ Transplantation.

As many as 62,555 people registered to donate organs in Viet Nam last year, compared to just 265 in 2014. Cho Ray Hospital posted about half of the total registrations.

Since the first kidney transplant on February 28, 1992, the hospital has conducted 1,127 kidney transplants.

Among those, a total of 70 organs were transplanted from brain dead patients or those who had dysfunctional hearts.

The hospital has cooperated with transplant centres in the Republic of Korea, Japan, Taiwan (China), Australia, the US, and Spain, among others, to send doctors and nurses on study and experience exchange programmes.

Tran Van Thuan, deputy health minister, said the operation, which is becoming a routine technique at many hospitals across the country, especially Cho Ray, has contributed to reviving many of those patients with organ failure.

Organ donated for those who have organ dysfunction is a priceless gift. It is not only a noble gesture, but also prolongs the lives of sick people who seem to have lost all hope in life.

With the spirit of kindness and sharing, many people have decided to donate organs, contributing to changing the lives of unfortunate patients who are waiting for donated organs, he said.

Nguyen Tri Thuc, the hospitals director, said the hospital has maintained good cooperation with airlines, police and health authorities to deliver the donor organ across the country.

Cho Ray Hospital has pioneered in innovating solutions to utilise the sources of organs donated. In 2008, the hospital succeeded in transplanting organs from brain dead patients.

They also successfully performed transplantation from a donor with cardiac arrest on June 18, 2015, a cross-donor transplant on January 11, 2017 and ABO blood type incompatibility on December 29, 2021.

In Viet Nam, anyone over 18 years old can register to donate their organs after death or brain death.

Two official centres offering official registration for organ donors are Viet Nam-Germany Hospital in Ha Noi and Cho Ray Hospital in HCM City.  VNS
by Nguyen My Ha

Before Monday, the winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor Ke Huy Quan was known among cinema circles in Viet Nam as Quan Ke Huy.

Born in Sai Gon (now Ho Chi Minh City) to parents of Chinese ancestry who left the country in 1978, he was just seven when he left with his family on a boat.

There was a wave that drove hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority Hoa (Vietnamese people of Chinese origin) to leave Viet Nam following border conflicts in the southwest and north.

After spending a year in a refugee camp, he arrived in the US, where at 11 years of age, he was picked to play in Steven Spielberg's film Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom alongside Harrison Ford.

After two roles that shot him to child stardom in the US in 1984 and 1985, roles were few and far between. But he didn't sit there to wait for the roles to come. During the long acting hiatus, he worked as a stunt coordinator and went to the University of Southern California to study for a degree in acting.

Little did people know that he even came back to Viet Nam in 1996 to act in an action film called Hong Hai Tac, or Red Pirates, alongside other actors including martial artist-actor Ly Hung and actress Truong Ngoc Anh.

As people say, one cannot choose your place of birth, but you can choose where to settle. And for Quan and his family, their chosen destination was the US.

As soon as his name was voiced at the Oscars, several online newspapers in Viet Nam quickly uploaded the news, saying an American of Vietnamese descent became the first Asian man to win an Oscar in an individual category. Arguments over identity and ethnicity soon broke out online.

The overall sentiment was positive and happy for him. But many cinema fans were quick to say that Quan never tells the public that he is Vietnamese. His online biography only says he's American with Chinese roots and that he speaks English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese.

Others say he was born in Viet Nam and as a result he's Vietnamese by birth, which was true until he left the country. Today, many children of expats living in Viet Nam could be born to foreign parents, but they are not Vietnamese by birth as Viet Nam does not have a law giving newborns citizenship as a birthright.

In the US, where the "right of the soil" has been thoroughly followed, children born in the US have citizenship. It explains the reasons why many pregnant women from other countries want to give birth to their children on US soil. Leaving legal matters aside, one may apply to be a citizen of a certain country due to better living or working conditions, but a homeland in one's heart stays private to each individual.

Quan has not mentioned his ties with Viet Nam nor ties to his birthplace, yet his Oscar win is a huge deal to the Vietnamese community with Chinese roots even in the US. Some feel proud of him, saying he's making all the sufferings and contributions of the community worthwhile. Others feel that they only bear the Chinese surname, but they speak Vietnamese among themselves and consider themselves Vietnamese at heart.

Just last week, here in Ha Noi, we met one such person. He was one of the Vietnamese 'boat people' with Chinese ancestry leaving Viet Nam in 1978 at 19 years of age, just like Quan and his family.

Hong uc Thanh was born in Sai Gon in 1958 to Chinese parents in a large family of nine children, he was doted on with everything a wealthy family could give to the youngest boy.

The difference between them is that Thanh was rescued at sea by a Norwegian ship and he ended up settling down in a small town near Oslo and has been living there ever since. Self-taught in the art of drawing on finished porcelain, Thanh unconsciously revived a school of painting, which he was later told by Chinese masters, belonged to a lost school of art known as Lingnan.

We should applaud those overcoming so many adversities to become successful like Quan or Thanh. Being Vietnamese or Chinese should not matter so much. It's up to the individual person to discuss his/her home country as he/she sees fit, and not for us to speculate.

It was coincidence that we spoke with Thanh, the artist who paints on ceramics and fine bone china, who now keeps coming back to Viet Nam to spread his craft and find new apprentices.

These days, Thanh splits his time between Taiwan and the Bat Trang Ceramics village in the suburbs of Ha Noi. He was getting ready for an exhibition next week when he communicated with a Bat Trang master artisan for the first time.

Thanh said that when he lived in Norway, he didn't miss much the life he left behind as a teenager. "I was the youngest and got all the love and care from my family, I didn't know how to care for others," he said.

Now his extended family lives all over the world, including in Europe and America, and he said he kept returning to Viet Nam to teach his art, and all of his three children have chosen a different way to earn a living.

Thanh's attempt to go back to Viet Nam to find peace of mind is not unique. Among those who would rather put the painful days at sea behind them, there are others who returned on a soul-searching quest, looking for some kind of closure, or peace perhaps.

One of our colleagues has reunited with her childhood neighbour, who now resides in the US; a musician came back to Ha Noi to take her loved ones' ashes to reunite with them in Canada; and another former 'boat people' returned to help disadvantaged children find homes. The stories of these people are all around us.

If people want to acknowledge their personal Vietnamese heritage or not, it is surely up to them and not for others to pontificate on. We, as observers, can only wish them good luck.

Finally, whether it is realising the 'American dream' like Quan Ke Huy, or searching for the meaning of art by returning to Viet Nam like Hong uc Thanh, these are their choices and we should respect them. VNS
A Waco man was indicted on a murder charge Thursday in the August 2021 death of a man found with a gunshot wound after a car crash in a southwest Waco neighborhood.

A McLennan County grand jury indicted Jeremiah Darnel Walker, 24, on a first-degree felony charge of murder in the Aug. 23, 2021, death of Dusty Bethke, 39, of Waco.

First responders found Bethke with a gunshot wound after he had crashed his car into a fence in the 3100 block of Daughtrey Avenue, police reported at the time.

Officers responded at 3:15 p.m. to the crash in a residential area a few blocks behind the H-E-B at Valley Mills Drive and Interstate 35. Bethke was taken to a local hospital, where he died later that day, police reported.

The U.S. Marshals Service Lone Star Fugitive Task Force arrested Walker on a murder charge Jan. 11, 2022. He was released Feb. 28, 2022, from McLennan County Jail on $150,000 bond, records show.
An evening in January that began with belligerence toward family members could send a McLennan County man to prison for 25 years or longer, as a grand jury indicted him on a felony charges and prosecutors added enhancements bumping up the minimum sentence if he is convicted.

A McLennan County grand jury on Thursday indicted Kenneth James Smith, 30, on a second-degree felony charge of assault of a police officer in a Jan. 21 incident at his familys home in the 9100 block of Rock Creek Road outside Waco, records show.

Additional counts in the indictment include two counts of third-degree felony harassing a public servant and Class A misdemeanor resisting arrest, according to his indictment. The McLennan County District Attorneys office also added enhancements based on Smiths 2019 felony conviction for a felon possessing a firearm and his 2012 felony robbery conviction.

The enhancements raise the minimum punishment from 5 years in prison to 25 years and make probation very unlikely, according to statute.

Smith has remained jailed on $30,000 bond since his Jan. 21 arrest, jail records show.

McLennan County deputies reported Smiths family members called them out to their home on Rock Creek Road a few minutes before 5 p.m. Jan. 21, reporting Smith was being belligerent and combative. When they arrived, Smith struggled with deputies, according to his arrest affidavit. One deputy sustained an abrasion to his right arm, and Smith spit on others, the affidavit says.

While transporting Smith to jail, deputies used a safety restraint system on Smith to prevent injury to themselves or to Smith, his affidavit says. Once booked in McLennan County Jail, Smith continued to be combative with corrections personnel in the jail, and they placed him into an emergency restraint chair, according to the affidavit.
Local independent bankers say they have little, if anything, in common with failing Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, both with billions of dollars in assets and a niche customer base heavy on tech.

Though hardly mom-and-pop establishments, independents serve people who live and work in the community, not venture capitalists, said Central National Bank CEO Joe Nesbitt. I think the Central Texas community is knowledgeable and knows the difference between a speculative investment bank in California and New York and the local banking industry.

Silicon Valley Bank, with $209 billion in assets, and Signature Bank, with $110 billion, created shockwaves with their descent into insolvency. Stocks in regional banks plummeted initially, and regulators sought to assure bank customers coast to coast that the sky was not falling.

Some area bankers said they heard from customers, wondering what it all meant for their accounts. Nothing was the prevailing response.

Several joined in issuing a press release titled, Good News For Waco: Your Banks Are Strong. Signatories besides Nesbitt were Todd Moore, chairman and CEO of Alliance Bank Central Texas; Dana Hassell, president and CEO of American Bank; David Lacy, president and CEO of Community Bank & Trust; and Joe Barrow, chairman and CEO of The First National Bank of Central Texas.

The events of the past week are another example of why where you choose to bank matters, the press release says. Community bankers live and work in the communities we serve. We bring in local deposits and loans while managing our risk so that we remain safe and sound in any environment.

Banking locally is always a wise decision.

In the case of Silicon Valley and Signature, a panic started when the publicly traded banks stock prices started falling, Moore said.

Thats completely different from community banks, which do the same thing weve been doing for decades, Moore said.

He said the crises involving Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank may serve as teaching moments. He said customers with only a cursory understanding of how banks work may have sought more information and clarity.

A more educated consumer is not a bad thing, Moore said.

The New York Times reported the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. invoked a systemic risk exception, which means the government can make uninsured depositors whole. FDIC coverage is typically limited to $250,000 per account. The newspaper said the move was meant to allay fears of jittery customers of these banks and the industry as a whole.

Asked if the FDIC, the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve may have deemed these banks too large to fail, Barrow said, The people in power thought they were. They thought there would be systemic problems if they did not go in and shore things up. I can appreciate that. But what concerns me a little bit is this: When is a bank too big to fail? Is ours? Those with assets over $100 billion, $200 billion? Only those in New York or Los Angeles? How about those in Waco or Temple?

He said the answer to those questions is above his pay grade.

Were concerned with running a bank that is safe and sound, giving investors and depositors a good return, Barrow said.

The press release bankers signed says Silicon Valley Bank and Signature are extremely large banks that focus on servicing the tech sector, tech start-up companies, and non-traditional bank activities.

They both saw extreme growth over the past few years and their funding base can fluctuate very rapidly depending on investors appetite for start-up companies. We saw this week how dangerous that can be.

Some have likened closings this month to the financial crisis in 2008, when the federal government spent billions on bank bailouts. The New York Times reported taxpayers bore the brunt of that assistance, while fees paid by banks to the FDIC will assist the two banks now in question.

In 2008, it was an asset problem, Moore said. This was a confidence problem involving the volatility of the deposit base.

Nesbitt said the decision by local bankers to sign a statement assuring customers of the safety of their institutions made him proud.

Likewise Moore said he looks forward to a meeting soon with a peer group of independent bankers who talk about industry issues.

It will be interesting to get their take, he said. Im not sure many markets would have this community spirit, another reason I enjoy living in Waco.
NEW YORK  Former President Donald Trump will be holding the first rally of his 2024 campaign later this month in Waco, Texas.

The rally, announced Friday, will be held the evening of Saturday, March 25, in a Republican state where the former president has a large following, increasing the chances of a packed house. The event will be held at Waco Regional Airport.

The rally comes as Trump is facing the possibility of becoming the first former president in U.S. history to be indicted, with law enforcement officials in New York currently making security preparations for the possibility of legal action in the coming weeks.

Waco holds deep symbolism as the site of the 1993 Waco massacre, when federal agents seized a compound of the Branch Davidians, a religious cult. The siege 10 miles east of the city lasted 51 days and ended with the deaths of cult leader David Koresh and 80 of his followers in a fire 30 years ago next month.

Its not clear that the citys history played a role in Trump's decision. Trump has made numerous visits to the state over the years and Waco is part of McLennan County, which Trump won in 2020 by more than 23 points.

But Trump has long railed against federal law enforcement. When his Mar-a-Lago club was searched by the FBI last summer as part of an investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents, he broke the news by declaring that his home was "currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.

Trump spent the first months of his campaign rarely leaving his Florida club, but has begun to make visits to early-voting states. On Monday, he took his first trip to Iowa, which will hold the Republican Party's first nominating contest.

The rally plans come as Trump is facing a series of investigations, including one in New York that appears to be nearing its conclusion.

Porn actor Stormy Daniels met Wednesday with Manhattan prosecutors who are investigating a $130,000 hush money payment made on Trumps behalf. That same day, Michael Cohen, the former Trump attorney who orchestrated the payment, delivered a second day of testimony before a New York grand jury.

The payment was made in 2016, as Trumps first presidential campaign was in its final weeks and Daniels was negotiating to appear on television to air her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump has denied the allegation and blasted the investigation as politically motivated.
Its common for legislators to introduce bills that they know wont pass but that have a symbolic value, like renaming a bridge or freeway to honor a constituent. Every so often, however, they propose something intended to become law that is so wholly idiotic and antisocial that it is the very personification of politicians irresponsibility. Two examples come to mind, one at the end of the 19th century, the other in February.

In 1897, the lower house of Indianas legislature, the General Assembly, voted to declare 3.2 the legal value of pi, a constant that defines what a circle is  the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It is the same for every circle: 3.14159 followed by an infinite number of digits.

Edward J. Goodwin, an amateur mathematician, persuaded Indiana state Rep. Taylor I. Record to introduce a bill in the states General Assembly of 1897 to make Goodwins own claimed pi value a matter of state law. It passed unanimously.

Before the bill could receive the imprimatur of the Indiana Senate, however, by chance, it came to the attention of Purdue University math professor Clarence A. Waldo, who happened to be in the capital to request funding for the Indiana Academy of Science. He gave the senators a brief geometry lesson about the basis of pi, and the senators decided to postpone the vote indefinitely, which killed the bill and saved Indiana from the inconvenience of never again being able to legally build a sound bridge, building or highway.

The second example is legislation introduced last month that would make it a criminal misdemeanor to administer a COVID-19 or other mRNA vaccine in Idaho. State Sen. Tammy Nichols and state Rep. Judy Boyle, both Republicans, have co-sponsored House Bill 154 for Idaho, which states simply: A person may not provide or administer a vaccine developed using messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology for use in an individual or any other mammal in this state. A person who violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Thus, the prohibition would apply not only to COVID-19 vaccines for humans but also, for example, to mRNA vaccines to prevent rabies or parvovirus in dogs. Several ironies in this proposed legislation argue strongly against its passage.

First, it comes at a time when we need to continue to try to control the pandemic, which has abated somewhat but certainly has not ended. Vaccines are essential to that effort, and the most widely used ones are produced with mRNA technology.

Second, Idaho has fared poorly in both controlling the pandemic, with more than half a million reported COVID-19 cases (which is surely a significant underestimate) and more than 5,400 deaths, and in vaccinating its population. It has the sixth-lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates among U.S. states and territories, with only 57 percent of the population fully vaccinated, and booster rates are far lower.

Third, data presented at the February meeting of the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices showed conclusively that the benefits of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, billions of doses of which have been administered worldwide, far outweigh the risks. In addition to the documentation from the CDC and FDA, the New England Journal of Medicine has a COVID-19 Vaccine Resource Center that offers a variety of articles documenting the safety and importance of vaccination.

Finally, HB 154 did not single out COVID-19 vaccines specifically but would also apply to future human and veterinary mRNA vaccines  all of which would have had to go through an onerous government evaluation and approval process before reaching a single person or mammal in Idaho.

In summary, HB 154 deserves the same fate as Indianas 19th-century pi bill  banishment to the terrible legislation hall of fame. And at the next election, Idahoans should think carefully about the suitability of Nichols and Boyle to hold public office.
Todays Iraq is a world away from the terror that followed the U.S. invasion to depose Saddam Hussein 20 years ago this week. A new generation is eager to turn away from the sectarianism of the past and heal the nations divisions. In dozens of Associated Press interviews this month from Baghdad to Fallujah, young Iraqis deplored the loss of stability that followed Saddams ouster and the occupation. But most said the war is behind them, and they were hopeful about nascent freedoms and opportunities to pursue their dreams.
It turns out that the residents of Donbass, including children, were supposed to die under the bombs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and in no case should they leave the danger zones. This is not my statement, the International Criminal Court in The Hague thinks so. And saving the children of Donbass is classified by them as deportation. Of course, I always knew and said that in the West all tails were between their legs for fear of cowboys, but here the news is not strange, but rather ridiculously absurd: bombing children is not a crime, but saving them is deportation.

For these children, comrade Hague parasites, you should have nominated Vladimir Vladimirovich for the Nobel Peace Prize. Already in Russia, we have sheltered and fed the children of Donbass, and sent them to schools. And you could not even humanly accept Ukrainian refugees by the entire European Union.

Although what to take from you? The international judicial instance showed that it does not have an independent status, but deftly caved in under the overseas master, in a hurry carrying out his commands. Moreover, they were in such a hurry to lick his hand that they did not have time to work on the wording.

All this pompous democracy and liberalism is a lie and a circus clowning. The EU, NATO, UN and other similar organizations and associations have long demonstrated that they are not independent, impartial, uncensored. Execute orders synchronously and always unipolarly. Again and again they show their true colors. These are just different puppets, which are controlled from the inside by the same hand of the West.

I call on normal citizens of Europe (normal in every sense, mentally healthy, without fog in their heads and pants) to take the situation into their own hands and change these puppet regimes. Build new states with pure doctrines without any deviations, minorities, deflections under other peoples ambitions, in which Russia is your friend, not your enemy. Then you dont have to be afraid of her.

Until then, be afraid.

Yes, I almost forgot, you can at least erase your elbows, painting your orders. The weather doesnt change us here. Putin is OUR PRESIDENT! Russia  POWER!

Kadyrov
Brief conclusions: there is no international convention on this topic. The Chicago Convention of 1944 and other international documents do not regulate these issues. By the way, let me remind you that the Americans destroyed the Open Skies Treaty, which gave the right to military inspections.

Domestic legislation is only being formed.

But the Air Code uses the terms prohibited zones and restricted zones. So, in accordance with Art. 15 VC establishes prohibited zones, dangerous zones (areas of ranges, blasting operations, etc.), zones of restrictions on aircraft flights and other elements of the airspace structure established for carrying out activities in the airspace. This is done by the government. Drones must also follow these rules. Especially during the period of hostilities, which is known to all users of the airspace. Moreover, it is sometimes difficult to fix the moment of entry by plane or UAV into the territorial sea.

And this is part of our territory to which our sovereignty extends.

In general, speaking in a simple way, the Americans are completely out of their minds. And to stand on ceremony with them is wrong. Although military contacts are needed, of course. Especially against the backdrop of statements by American bastards like Senator Graham that it is necessary to shoot down Russian planes. By the way, aviation accidents sometimes happen with such creatures. 

Medvedev
Former US National Security Council adviser hinted that if PRC troops enter Taiwan, the US will destroy local semiconductor factories

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/03/13/us-natsec-advisor-taiwan-semiconductor-china/

The United States and its allies will never allow these factories to fall into Chinese hands, former White House national security adviser OBrien told the Semafor news agency.

OBrien went on to compare the destruction of Taiwans Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to Winston Churchills bombing of the French navy after the countrys surrender to Nazi Germany.

As tensions escalate across the Taiwan Strait, the US Treasury has published at least two studies on the overall impact of the Taiwan War on the market and the US National Security Council is conducting a study on semiconductors and US dependence on TSMC.

TSMCs advanced chips are used in all major US defense systems and platforms, making them an important building block of the American empire.

Given these facts, it is highly likely that the destruction of Taiwans chip factories will be the most devastating act of economic sabotage in history.

Last year, the most downloaded U.S. Army War College article called for a similarly ruthless strategy. To begin with, the United States and Taiwan should develop plans for a targeted scorched earth strategy that would not only make Taiwan unattractive if it was ever taken by force, but would also make maintenance much more expensive, the paper suggested .

The most effective way to do this would be to threaten to destroy facilities owned by the Taiwan Semiconductor Company, the worlds most important chip manufacturer and Chinas most important supplier.
Weather Alert

...WINTER MAKES A BRIEF RETURN THIS WEEK... Another cold storm moves into the region Monday into Tuesday bringing gusty winds, significantly cooler temperatures, and chances for rain and snow showers. * WIND: Gusty southwest winds this afternoon and evening will be even stronger on Monday and Monday night. Please see the Wind Advisories for additional details. Gusty west winds to continue Tuesday and Wednesday as well. * SNOW: The word most of us don't want to hear at this point. Yes, snow will move into the region Monday night into Tuesday morning, mainly in the Sierra from Tioga Pass north, northeast California, and far northern Nevada near the Oregon border. Totals along the northern Sierra crest may reach 5 to 10 inches, with 1 to 4 inches possible in northeast CA west of US-395 and the Tahoe Basin. The question remains how much will stick to roadways given the recent warmth and mid-April sun angle. Expect slowdowns in the Sierra Monday night during the period of heaviest snowfall. Spotty light rain and snow showers are possible into western Nevada. * COLD: Temperatures will drop about 20 degrees by Tuesday, with the winds making it feel that much colder. There is a 50-80% chance of sub-freezing overnight lows Tuesday night and Wednesday night even in lower valley locations. You may want to turn off irrigation and protect exposed pipes, along with any new sensitive vegetation.

...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM MONDAY TO 8 AM PDT TUESDAY... * CHANGES...None. * WHAT...For Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning, southwest to west winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph expected. Wind prone locations may see gusts to 65 mph. * WHERE...Lassen-Eastern Plumas-Eastern Sierra Counties and Greater Reno-Carson City-Minden Area. * WHEN...From 1 PM Monday to 8 AM PDT Tuesday. * IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Travel will be difficult for high profile vehicles Monday afternoon and evening along I-80, I-580, and US-395. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Now is the time to secure loose outdoor items such as patio furniture and trash cans before winds increase which could blow these items away. The best thing to do is prepare ahead of time by making sure you have extra food and water on hand, flashlights with spare batteries and/or candles in the event of a power outage. &&
Ebenezer Scrooge lived a hard life. Abandoned at Christmas at his boarding school, Scrooge learned to live for himself.

This approach to life led to great financial success. But Scrooge was reviled and had no friends. And the future, well, the future was even darker.

We know all of this because one Christmas Eve Scrooge was visited by three specters. One his past, one his present and the last his future.

What scared him the most was his future. So, he asked the ghostly specter, was this future set in stone, or could it be changed?

Our nations future seems burdened by the rising costs of entitlements. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will need to be funded by a shrinking base of workers.

So, we ask, is this future set in stone, or can it be changed? There are many policy wonks sounding the alarm on entitlements. There have also been some politicians.

I say have been, as in the past tense, because right now those politicians are running from their past words.

In his State of the Union address, President Biden said some Republicans wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare. This was immediately met with a shout of liar and various attempts to look shocked and disgusted.

This display suggests that Social Security seems to be the third rail of politics. And yet, with no change, the specters have shown us what the future looks like.

President Biden himself has suggested one change. Wage earners pay 6.2% of their incomes to social security and 1.45% to Medicare. Their employers do the same.

Self-employed people pay 12.4% and 2.9% of their earnings for the same cause. Both types of earners do not need to pay the 6.2% or 12.4% above an earnings limit.

The president has suggested eliminating the earnings limit. He crossed his heart and hoped to die if he raised taxes on those earnings less than $400,000, so this added tax would apply only when earnings exceed $400,000.

This creates a donut hole. The tax ends at a certain level of earnings, and then returns at $400,000. Hole earnings are exempt.

But this would still be a 6.2% or 12.4% tax increase for high earners. That may be a second third rail.

Others have suggested raising the eligibility age for Medicare, and the full retirement age for Social Security. After all, they say, people are living longer.

Turns out that recently, Americans have not been living longer. And the Medicare start age may be increasingly important given challenges to finding affordable health care.

But we must do something! One approach that gets surprisingly little attention outside of think tanks is bending the curve on health care costs.

Politicians like to tell us that the United States has the greatest health care system in the world. The truth is that it does not. Americans get lower quality heath care at higher costs than the rest of the developed world.

Projections of a bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid assume no change in the future growth of costs. Changing this assumption is a potential game changer.

There is something called the rule of 72. By dividing 72 by a growth rate, one can ballpark how long it takes for something to double in value.

If health care cost grows at 8% per year, it doubles in 9 years (72/9). That means quadruple in 18 years and growth to 16 times in 36 years.

At growth of 6% per year it will double in 12 years and grow by 8 times in 36 years. A growth of 4% will double in 18 years and quadruple in 36 years.

So if we project health care entitlement costs out 36 years, the growth in cost can range from four times current costs to 16 times just by changing the annual growth assumption from 4% to 8%.

What can America do to halve the annual increase in health care costs? The ability to answer this question may be the difference between a solvent Medicare and a Scroogian disaster.

The greatest beneficiary of Scrooges changed heart was not Scrooge himself, it was Tiny Tim. Perhaps some creative solutions to our future health care costs can save many more.

Jim Hamill is the director of Tax Practice at Reynolds, Hix & Co. in Albuquerque. He can be reached at jimhamill@rhcocpa.com.
As polarization and gridlock continue to grip national politics, Americans are increasingly looking to states to remedy the nations most significant challenges. The burden has fallen to states like New Mexico to address complex issues such as health care, infrastructure, education, crime, water policy, voting rights, energy, abortion and the environment. Indeed, states responses to our most recent crisis  the coronavirus pandemic  illustrates just how consequential state-level policymaking and implementation are for the average American.

In a Feb. 14 editorial, NM needs to know what a modern Legislature delivers, the Journal questioned whether legislators and voters have enough information to move toward modernizing our state Legislature. As the authors of the report they reference, we suggest there is an abundance of knowledge on the subject, something our exhaustive analysis of over 70 years of published research on the subject of legislative professionalism details. We dont need more data or study; we need action.

State legislatures need the capacity to deal with complex policy issues. Currently, New Mexicos Legislature is one of the least professionalized, or modernized, in the nation. Designed over 100 years ago, ours is the only legislature that does not pay its legislators a salary, has the third shortest legislative sessions in the nation, and is in the bottom third of total staff provided to legislators. Proposals are before our state legislators this session that would address our legislatures lack of capacity, and that would help rebalance the checks and balances system.

The challenge is that like any major change to political institutions, modernizing our Legislature will result in a variety of important  and often competing  consequences. Professional legislatures tend to advantage incumbents. But they also encourage challengers to run, thus decreasing the number of uncontested elections and giving voters more choice. At present, the pipeline of candidates favors those who have time to serve and discourages those who might want to serve but cant because balancing legislative life, family responsibilities, and regular careers is impossible. Yes, modernization will likely increase campaign spending in elections. But it will also produce more capable lawmaking, more effective bargaining with governors, greater oversight of executive branch agencies, and better constituency service.

In short, modernizing our Legislature would give our representatives the capacity they need to push back against outside interests, including lobbyists and the executive branch, allowing them to be more responsive to the New Mexicans who elect them. Adding staff and days in session will immediately increase the ability of the Legislature to function more effectively because it will enhance its ability to research policy challenges and alternative solutions to them. The effects of legislator pay on legislative capacity are less clear, but paying people for their work is the fair thing to do.

The complexity of the policy challenges our state faces requires that our Legislature have greater capacity to act. Indeed, the Journals recent editorial highlights a recurrent problem, which is that we cant accomplish something new in a single session. There is no need to kick the can down the road, however. Modernizing our Legislature will strengthen the ability of our elected representatives to respond to complex public policy problems in a timely fashion, and the time to act is now.
Dorothy Jensen Blanchard is getting more than just a birthday cake when she turns 100 years old on Saturday.

The centenarian will also receive the Military Womens Memorial Living Legend Award in a ceremony at the local senior assisted living facility where she resides.

The award recognizes women who served in the military and whose contributions to national defense are inspirational. The award program is part of the Military Womens Memorial and will be presented to Blanchard by Retired Major General Dee Ann McWilliams, the former president of the memorial.

Blanchard joined the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in 1943 and remained in the service until 1952, when her daughter was born. A division of the U.S. Navy, WAVES was created during World War II, freeing up male personnel for sea duty.

Blanchards daughter, Linda Blanchard, talked about the military service of her mother, who is in frail health and was unable to speak directly with the Journal.

Blanchard, the former Dorothy Jensen, was known as Dot by family and friends. She grew up in Milltown, New Jersey, where there was a big military tradition in the town, as well as in her family, Linda said. Dots father, Louis Theodore Jensen, was a veteran of World War I, and other family members served in various branches of the armed forces.

But it wasnt just their examples that motivated Blanchard  it was also the large, colorful recruiting posters with illustrations of women in naval uniforms and the stirring words imploring women to Join the WAVES and Your country needs you now, said Linda.

Within a few weeks, her mother had finished her training at Hunter College in New York City, was saluted by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and was sporting a uniform like the women in the posters.

Her first assignment was with the Merchant Shipping Intelligence Office in the Pentagon. She was later promoted in rank to chief petty officer and was appointed as the private secretary to Admiral Arleigh Burke, who was responsible for all official naval correspondences, including those marked as top secret.

It was while working for Burke in the Pentagon that Blanchard met the man whom she would marry, fellow Navy chief petty officer Earl Harrison Blanchard. He worked at the Pentagon as an aerographer, analyzing atmospheric and oceanic data. Ironically, said Linda, they met while her mother was caught outside in a rainstorm while carrying a bag of groceries. Her father was in a passing car and offered her a ride back to her barracks.

He didnt even know her name, but they talked and he was totally smitten with her, Linda said. It took him six months to find where in the sprawling building she worked, and another six months until they were married.

In 1949, with the atomic age picking up energy, Blanchard became part of the team for John F. Floberg, the newly appointed assistant secretary of the Navy. Floberg was a graduate of the U.S. armed forces atomic weapons training center at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. As Flobergs point-person, Blanchards administrative duties included setting and tracking his agenda, editing his speeches and touring naval installations around the world with her boss, Linda said.

With the birth of her daughter in 1952, Blanchard left the WAVES, although her husband Earl remained in the Navy for another decade and the family moved around, living in London, Hawaii and various locales in mainland United States. When Earl left the military the family settled in Chapel Hill, where Blanchard worked for the University of North Carolina.

She basically ran their psychology lab as its administrative assistant and she worked on grant writing, kept the budget and distributed money, said Linda. She kind of took care of everything, relying on skills that she got in the military.

Blanchards husband died in 1989, and in 2000 she moved to Albuquerque to be closer to her daughter.

Even at age 100, my mother still has very fond memories of the military and has often said that her years in the WAVES were some of the best, most exciting and rewarding times of her life, Linda said.

And she still appreciates when people occasionally offer the salutation, Thank you for your service.
Were doomed. Were absolutely doomed, said Dan Brockett, recalling how he felt when he heard the Sandia Speedway was up for sale last year.

Brockett, a stunt driver who organizes car drifting events, worried that without an owner, the racetrack would fall into disrepair. Besides Sandia Speedway, the nearest tracks to Albuquerque are in Deming and Pueblo, Colorado.

I was like, I am going to have to move, Brockett said. Im gonna have to move out of the city and go somewhere where theres a racetrack because, as of January 1, nobody was holding the lease and the gates were closed.

But just a few weeks later, Brockett owned the place  along with fellow car enthusiasts Mike Ossell, owner of Larimer St. Garage in Denver, and Jim Guthrie, president of Car Crafters. The three pulled together $2.45 million to buy and renovate the property under a new name Suika Circuit.

I have a sickness.  Ive raced my whole life, Guthrie said. Ive got two vintage race cars, a Spec Miata and a late model Mustang, so I still have it bad  and I knew that if I didnt buy it, and no one else was going to buy it, that it was going to be a long day in a truck, trailering somewhere to have some fun instead of a 20-minute drive down the road.

Suika is the Japanese word for watermelon, paying homage to the Sandia Speedway name. The park, which includes two paved oval tracks, half- and quarter-mile respectively, a three-eights-mile dirt oval track, a 1.7 mile road course and a skid pad, was previously owned by the Sandia Motorsports Park Board of Directors, which built the track in 2000.

Brockett, Guthrie and Ossell have been updating the park since the purchase, including increased safety features and improved amenities. The work has been completed with the help of many volunteers from the community.

Brockett has also been updating the website and social media. Now, patrons can buy their tickets online.

Despite the ongoing renovations, racing hasnt stopped at Suika Circuit. As the team finishes one section, Guthrie said, they open it up for events. In the past weeks, theyve hosted a drift event and a Southwest Motorsports race.

We had the first SWMS winter series event three weeks ago, Guthrie said. And that was a smashing success. They have never had that kind of a car turnout.

Brockett said the reaction on social media about the purchase has been overwhelming. His own drift event at the track had a massive turnout.

The story I was hearing on all of these posts was just, You just saved hundreds of peoples passion,' Brockett said. The impact was enormous, and I think thats playing into why the events are so big  its like people realize that there are passionate people in charge that want to have the track grow, and want to see it prosper for once.
A judge sentenced Steven Candelaria to 26 years in prison Friday, rejecting his claim that he fired a fatal gunshot in self defense during a 2020 dispute.

A jury found Candelaria, 31, guilty in November of second-degree murder and other charges in the shooting death of Luciano Montoya Jr., 39.

Candelaria and his brother arrived at Montoyas apartment seeking revenge for an earlier beating, prosecutors told jurors during his trial.

Candelaria also pistol-whipped a woman before the brothers fired more than a dozen gunshots at Montoyas apartment, prosecutors said. One of those gunshots fatally injured Montoya.

Second Judicial District Judge Lucy Solimon told Candelaria on Friday that jurors rejected his claim that Montoya fired the first shot.

I know you are still maintaining your innocence, but you have 12 people who did not believe you and convicted you with respect to some of the crimes, Solimon said.

Candelaria went to Montoyas home armed with a firearm with the intention to do something, she said.

Perhaps it went down not the way you expected, but it did go down, Solimon said. And the jury does not believe that it was self defense.

Candelaria apologized to members of Montoyas family shortly before he was sentenced.

I tried to accept responsibility as best I can, Candelaria said. But in my heart, I feel that is not all my fault and Im not the person the state is trying to make me out to be.

Candelarias girlfriend, Raquel Martinez-Chavez, testified at trial that Candelaria struck her the night before the homicide.

That beating prompted Martinez-Chavez to move out of Candelarias home and seek help from Montoya, with whom she had two children, she said.

Martinez-Chavez also had a son with Candelaria, she testified. Jurors also convicted Candelaria of child abuse because his son was in Montoyas apartment at the time of the shooting.

On Nov. 17, 2020, Candelaria and his brother armed themselves and drove to Montoyas apartment in the 1100 block of Louisiana SE, just north of Gibson.

Candelarias brother, Brandon Candelaria, 28, faces charges including first-degree murder in the same incident. His trial is scheduled in June.

Martinez-Chavez told jurors that Candelaria approached her outside the apartment and struck her in the forehead with a pistol. Gunfire rang out moments later, she said.

Candelarias attorney, Stephen Lane, told jurors that Montoya emerged from his apartment and fired gunshots, initiating a gunfight that fatally wounded Montoya. The Candelaria brothers returned fire in self-defense, Lane said.

Solimon said Friday that Montoya had a right to defend Martinez-Chavez when she was attacked.

I think what happened is that (Montoya) saw you beating up on Raquel and came out to assist, Solimon said. And hes allowed to assist someone who is getting basically pistol whipped and she was loud and needing help.
Valentin Gogo Anaya, whos on the autism spectrum, is still mastering reading at 17 years old.

But in rural Socorro, where his family lives, Anayas father says its difficult to get the professional support his son needs, leading to the high school senior going through seven special education directors and eight aides between his first grade year and now.

The way I see it, he could have been valedictorian.  Hes really smart, Valentin Val Anaya said of his son. He isnt educated as well as he could have been. The education hes got  it is a result of his community more than it is of his school.

Anaya paints a picture of frustrating experiences and spotty special education providers that ultimately drove his family to move his son to online learning, from which hes expected to graduate this year. When he does, he hopes to go on to Central New Mexico Community College.

There is a bill that could help streamline teacher training, funding and other resources for students like Anayas son, he said  if it could just get off the House floors to-do list.

If passed, House Bill 285  dubbed the Special Education Act  would establish a new office within the state Public Education Department that would collaborate with other state agencies on handling many aspects of special education.

That would include monitoring how money intended for special education is spent, tracking the academic progress of students with disabilities, as well as coordinating efforts to recruit special education professionals. Many of the offices duties would require collaboration with agencies like the Children, Youth and Families Department and other divisions in the PED.

The bill would also get the ball rolling on paying educators, teaching assistants and other school staff who work with special education students on differential levels.

But HB 285 appears to have stalled on the House floor, after being given the go-ahead by the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee last Friday.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has strongly urged lawmakers to act on the bill.

We are quickly running out of time, she said in a Wednesday news release. Further study is not going to solve this problem, and the time for the Legislature to act is now.

The bills faced some turbulence on its journey through the Roundhouse.

Some have questioned why its needed, arguing that it calls for work to be done that should already be in place.

If these activities have not been going on, then theres no law in the country or in the state that we can pass to make people collaborate, Rep. Brian Baca, R-Los Lunas, said during an early March committee meeting. I dont understand how this differs from our current situation.

Supporters of the bill have cited lagging student achievement among special education students, along with a 2018 court decision finding that students with disabilities werent being provided a sufficient education system by the state, in asking for the bill to be pushed forward.

Almost 18% of New Mexico students receive special education, according to PED data.

The bill  which includes provisions that the special education office would work to make sure school districts provide culturally and linguistically relevant services for students with disabilities  has garnered some support from tribal leaders.

It also had backing from American Federation of Teachers New Mexico, whose president, Whitney Holland, said the bill would be a powerful advocacy tool for families.

Its disappointing, she said of the bills apparent stall on the House floor. At a minimum, I think it started the conversation, and I think theres going to be work done in the interim around this topic. But yeah, it was sad,

With only hours left in the legislative session, its not clear if the bill will make it into law during this session. But Anaya said that wont spell the end of the fight.

Some of these issues that weve had, weve had for 30 or 40 years, he said. So if it doesnt work now, we got next session.
SANTA FE  With the clock ticking toward adjournment of their 60-day session, New Mexico lawmakers pushed toward final approval a hard-fought deal on a massive tax package that would provide $500 rebates to taxpayers and a phased-in reduction to the tax consumers pay on most goods and services.

After a group of six legislators  three House members and three senators  held several open negotiating sessions over the course of Friday, they agreed late in the day on changes to the states film incentive program and a pared-back alcohol tax hike that had emerged as key sticking points.

With the deal in place, the Senate then voted 33-9 shortly after midnight to sign off on the final version. A similar House vote was expected Saturday morning, with the session set to end at noon.

Senate Minority Leader Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, lauded Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for her role in helping broker a deal on the tax package, which he said would provide a yearly tax cut of about $1 billion once its fully phased in by 2027.

Things happen up here; you change your mind sometimes, Brandt said during the late-night floor debate. A lot of the things that I asked for I got, so I appreciate that.

Other legislators said they didnt agree with all parts of the tax package, but said its good provisions outweighed the bad.

Each of us have our own opinions, but its time to compromise and get this done, Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said during one of the conference committee meetings held to craft a compromise on the bill.

The tax package, House Bill 547, includes more than 20 provisions  ranging from a tax break for teachers purchases of school supplies to an expanded child tax credit  and represents lawmakers latest attempt at providing financial relief to taxpayers amid an oil-fueled state revenue windfall.

But deciding which tax pieces to include in the package prove to be a politically challenging task.

Earlier this week, Lujan Grisham urged legislators to trim back the tax package, saying it cuts too deep, too quickly and could lead to future spending cuts if revenue levels decline.

In order to accomplish that, the group of six legislators appointed to hammer out a compromise agreed to phase in a 0.5 percentage point reduction in the states gross receipts tax over the next four years. Those tax cuts could also be automatically undone if revenue levels drop significantly.

They also agreed to scale back a 5 cent-per drink alcohol tax hike that had been proposed by the Senate.

In its place, they settled on a 20% alcohol tax increase that would impose about a one-cent per drink increase on beer, and roughly a two-cent per drink increase on spirits. Revenue generated by the tax hike would be used to bolster alcohol treatment programs in a state with the nations highest per capita rate of alcohol-related deaths.

Wirth acknowledged the tax hike would be smaller than advocates had pushed for, but said it would mark New Mexicos first alcohol tax increase in roughly 30 years.

I look at this is a first step not the end, Wirth said.

But other senators expressed disappointment, saying the proposed alcohol tax increase would do little to discourage consumption.

We had an opportunity to make transformational change to address a huge social problem in our state, and we didnt do it, said Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque.

Film incentives and rebates play starring role

A proposed expansion to New Mexicos film incentive program was another one of the key areas of dispute between the two legislative chambers.

The House initially balked at the Senates attempt to add to the tax package several different film-related provisions, including a gradual increase in the maximum state spending per year on rebates for direct, in-state expenditures.

But House negotiators relented Friday after reaching a deal on a plan that triples the amount of allowable incentives per film project  from $5 million to $15 million  for productions by Netflix or other studios that are members of a state film partnership.

The plan would also limit the amount of annual spending on such productions to no more than $40 million per year.

While the group of legislative tax negotiators sparred on film incentives and the proposed alcohol tax increase, there was little to no debate about rebates.

Under the tax package, all New Mexicans who filed 2021 tax returns would get $500 rebate checks by this spring. Married couples filing jointly would receive $1,000 checks.

I think were all in agreement we want to leave rebates where theyre at, Brandt said.

Legislative deal-making in the open

The conference committee meetings  there were five meetings spread over Thursday and Friday  were open to lobbyists and media members under a 2009 law that requires public access to legislative gatherings that, previously, had occurred behind closed doors.

The negotiating sessions were tense at times, including when Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, bristled at suggestions by state Economic Development Secretary Alicia Keyes that a failure to approve changes to the states film incentive program could lead some productions to bypass the state.

He also accused senators of pulling a poor use of a race card when they proposed adding a Native American film incentive provision.

But the sessions also featured lighter moments, including references to Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr. on film sets in New Mexico.

And involved lawmakers said the negotiations had been as transparent as possible, even under deadline pressure.

We wanted the negotiation to take place in public, Brandt told the Journal.
SANTA FE  New Mexico will abolish juvenile life sentences without the possibility of parole under legislation signed into law Friday by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The bill ensures that people sent to prison for a serious crime committed when they were 14 to 17 years old could make the case that they deserve a second chance.

They would get a parole hearing 15 to 25 years into a long sentence, depending on the severity of the underlying conviction.

I am very grateful to the governor for recognizing that incarcerated individuals who made horrible mistakes as children are deserving of hope and the possibility of redemption, said Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, an Albuquerque Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill.

A similar proposal failed last year. But the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico and other supporters developed a revised version this year to address some of the opposition.

We are overjoyed that New Mexico has made this important choice to believe in redemption, said Denali Wilson, a staff attorney at the ACLU. So many of the people impacted by this bill have already been in prison for decades, many for longer than I have been alive. For them, today marks the first day of hope.
Legislation that would fund a feasibility study of operating state-administered health coverage plans through Medicaid is now headed to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams desk.

House Bill 400, known as Medicaid Forward, was approved by the Senate 24-15 on Thursday.

Health care costs are one of the biggest financial burdens for working families in New Mexico, Rep. Reena Szczepanski, D-Santa Fe, said in a statement. This legislation will help New Mexico chart a path to an innovative new program, bringing substantial federal resources to the state to provide more affordable care for more of our families.

The legislation in its original form would have expanded Medicaid eligibility to those who do not qualify for full Medicaid coverage and whose household income is 133% above the federal poverty. But in its amended form, the approved legislation now focuses on studying the potential impacts and outlining the New Mexico Human Services Departments operational needs for administering such a program.

That includes looking at the potential effects on individuals, group- and self-insured health insurance markets  including the states health insurance exchange  and the health benefits programs provided to state and local public employees, among others. The study would also focus on reimbursement rates for health care providers.

The HSD secretary would conduct the study alongside other key stakeholders, such as the superintendent of insurance, the Medicaid Advisory Committee and representatives of Indian nations, tribes and pueblos.

The study, which has a $500,000 special appropriation, and a proposed program design would need to be reported to the Legislative Finance Committee and the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee by October 2024.

Along with Szczepanski, Democratic lawmakers Javier Martinez, Siah Correa Hemphill, Patricia Roybal Caballero and Leo Jaramillo co-sponsored the legislation, which now heads to the governor.
Legislation aimed at renaming the New Mexico Human Services Department and adding divisions from other state departments in an effort to unify health care purchasing, regulation and policy is now headed to the governors desk.

The state House on Thursday approved Senate Bill 16, which will effectively rename human services to the Health Care Authority Department and includes the addition of other divisions from the state Department of Health and General Services Department. The bill, expected to be signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham who endorsed the legislation in February, was first approved by the Senate on March 6 before receiving final approval from the House this week.

According to the legislation, which is sponsored by Democrats Sen. Elizabeth Stefanics of Cerrillos and Rep. Elizabeth Thomson of Albuquerque, the Health Improvement Division and Developmental Disabilities Division from DOH, as well as the State Health Benefits Division from GSD, would fall under the purview of the Health Care Authority Department. Moreover, the Groups Benefits Committee and the Health Policy Commission would also be included under the newly formed department.

The passing of Senate Bill 16 follows remarks from the governors State of the State address in January in which she called for the creation of a new health care agency to move New Mexico closer to universal health care.

Consolidating purchasing, oversight and health care policy in one department creates an exceptional opportunity to leverage the states purchasing power and other policy tools to make high quality health care affordable and more accessible to all, the governor previously said.

A spokeswoman for the governor was unable to be reached Friday for comment on when the bill might be signed. But recommended organizational changes and statutory changes would need to be reported to two legislative committees by November and a final report would be due to the Legislature by January 2024.
SANTA FE  An enormous tax package authorizing $500 rebate checks zoomed through the Roundhouse in the final hours of the 60-day session Saturday, as New Mexico lawmakers adopted a hard-fought compromise.

But hundreds of others bill died at adjournment, failing to make it across the finish line.

The casualties include legislation to establish a 14-day waiting period for gun sales, open primaries and an independent office to scrutinize New Mexicos troubled child-welfare agency. Proposals to pay lawmakers a salary and lengthen legislative sessions also died without a vote.

The $1 billion tax package came together in a series of meetings between lawmakers  three from the House, three from the Senate  over the final 24 hours.

Each chamber ultimately agreed to 67 pages of amendments that will cut taxes for personal income below $66,500 per year for single individuals, expand film and child tax credits, and phase in a reduced gross receipts tax rate. It also includes some tax increases to partially offset the cuts, including changes to the capital gains deduction and a higher liquor tax.

The legislation, House Bill 547, would deliver $500 rebate checks to individual tax filers and $1,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Altogether, the tax changes are expected to cost the state about $1.1 billion in annual revenue when fully phased in over five years. The Senate approved the changes about 12:30 a.m., and the House agreed a little after 9 a.m. after an hour of debate.

Everyone is going to get a real tax cut, Republican Rep. Jason Harper of Rio Rancho said. Theres so much in here we can be proud of.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who had pushed for even larger tax rebates, said Saturday she was still reviewing the tax bill, adding, Theres a lot in there.

Shift in House tone

The session featured an entirely new leadership lineup for both parties in the House. Albuquerque Democrat Javier Martinez won election as House speaker on the opening day, and Republican Rep. Ryan Lane of Aztec took over as minority leader.

Members of both parties described a shift in tone this session.

We had long, heated debates. We had committee meetings that were rough at times, Martinez said, but we tried our best to keep that temperature down. Thats something Im proud of.

Lawmakers in the House engaged in less procedural conflict this session, and the proposed budget and tax bills picked up at least some bipartisan support.

We do things  this year  in the House together, said Rep. Derrick Lente, a Sandia Pueblo Democrat who led the chambers work on tax legislation.

Legislators of both parties offered applause on the final night when Rep. Art De La Cruz, D-Albuquerque, thanked Martinez and Lane for their work. Unlike last year, the House didnt have any all-night sessions that kept members in the Capitol past sunrise.

The latest night wrapped up at 2:30 a.m.

This year frankly has been a more productive and humane session, De La Cruz said.

Lane, the new minority leader, said he and Martinez are about as far apart on policy priorities as anyone in the chamber. But he said the speaker kept his word and communicated well with Republican leaders.

I appreciate the change of culture thats happened in this body, Lane said.

Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, said she saw improved cooperation in her chamber, too.

She credited Senate Minority Leader Greg Baca, R-Belen, with helping craft a bipartisan update to the states medical malpractice law and Senate Minority Whip Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, with playing an important role in the tax package.

The Senate spent its final hours of the session passing a slew of non-controversial bills, including a proposal to make the smell of roasting green chile the official state aroma.

Sen. Mark Moores, R-Albuquerque, called it the stinkiest bill of the session and said it had rightfully opened up legislators to public allegations of wasting time on frivolous matters.

But supporters said the bill, which has drawn international media attention, could end up bolstering New Mexicos mystique and tourism allure.

Conflict on crime strategy

Sharp disagreements on abortion rights, election legislation and firearms restrictions produced testy debate throughout the session.

Democratic lawmakers sent the governor two bills intended to strengthen access to abortion and gender-affirming care, an election measure that expands automatic voter registration and a law requiring gun owners to keep firearms out of childrens reach.

Republicans blasted the Democratic majorities for rejecting proposals to reshape New Mexicos pretrial detention law and stiffen criminal penalties.

Rep. Bill Rehm, R-Albuquerque, said lawmakers talked tough on crime this session but didnt do much.

Our constituents are really demanding we make the streets safer, he said.

Perhaps the most significant anti-crime bill is a proposal passed by lawmakers to crack down on organized retail theft through new criminal penalties.

Some Democratic lawmakers expressed disappointment in what didnt make survive the session. A host of gun restrictions  such as raising the age to buy certain weapons, prohibiting firearms at polling places and establishing a two-week waiting period for firearm sales  failed to make it through.

A proposal to open primaries to independent voters cleared the Senate for the first time but stalled in a House committee, without reaching the full chamber for a vote.

Proposals to revise the structure of the Legislature  through constitutional amendments that would establish a salary and lengthen election-year sessions from 30 to 60 days  also failed, as did legislation on clean fuels and environmental protection.

Stewart, the Senate president pro tem, said she was particularly disappointed in the lack of progress on climate change legislation.

We dont have time to waste, she said. Were seeing the impact of climate change all around us.

Lujan Grisham has until April 7 to act on bills passed in the final days of the session.

Lawmakers passed 246 bills this session  a 56% increase over 2021, a session conducted under strict COVID-19 restrictions.
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The Cash Money Records boss, whose real name is Bryan Christopher Williams, urges the magazine to respect him and other hip-hop CEOs after because they 'made the way for these rappers to be supa stars.'

Mar 18, 2023

AceShowbiz - Birdman wants some recognition. The Cash Money Records boss urged Billboard to respect him and other hip-hop CEOs while calling himself "the best."

On Thursday, March 16, the 54-year-old wrote on Instagram, "@billboard I see [you] did 10 best rappers which is well respeked." He added, "But what about tha CEO who made tha way for these rappers to be Supa stars fought tha battle behind doors so they kan be super stars."

"Put some respek on my name and stop playin with me," he continued in the since-deleted post. "I'm tha best to ever doit nothing but love for all CEO ever in 50yrs of hip hop we held it down cash money rich gang STUNNAMAN tha best ever #THEGOATMAKER I doit do 4MS GLADYS #dont lie @cashmoneyofficial."

Hours later, Birdman shared a screenshot of a best CEOs list, which showed him at the top spot. However, he disagreed that Sean "P. Diddy" Combs deserved second place.

"P from @QC should be 2nd no doubt no shade jus bein real gangsta CMRG," the emcee, whose real name is Bryan Christopher Williams, penned in the caption. "My [opinion] @cashmoneyofficial."

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The 'Paris in Love' star was shocked when discovering she appeared on the front page of the adult magazine after turning down multiple offers from Hugh Hefner.

Mar 18, 2023

AceShowbiz - Paris Hilton broke down in tears over her Playboy cover because she had no idea her picture was going to be used. The 42-year-old socialite has claimed she turned down a seven-figure offer from Playboy boss Hugh Hefner to shed her clothes for the raunchy magazine, so she was shocked when, years later, she saw herself on the front of the March 2005 issue wearing a red corset and fishnet tights because she had no idea her picture was going to be featured.

"Hef really wanted me to do a Playboy cover. He kept offering me more and more money, saying I wouldn't have to be totally naked, just topless. And then saying, I didn't have to be topless, just sheer. And then saying I could wear whatever lingerie I wanted," she explained in her new book "Paris: The Memoir".

"Even when he offered seven figures, I turned it down, because I knew my mom would lose her mind ...I had already been branded as a s**t after the sex tape. I felt like a Playboy pictorial would just cement that in people's minds."

Paris claims she was blindsided by the 2005 cover and only found out about when a friend got in touch to compliment her on the snap. She went on, "I was like: 'Whut?' ... Hef had 'honoured' me with the Sex Star of the Year Award, which means they can claim it's 'news' and not a pictorial. He got a picture from an old test shoot with a woman photographer ... My parents were p*****, and I cried, but none of us confronted him [Hefner], because you just didn't do that."

Hefner died in 2017 and Playboy is now under new management. Bosses of the publication have since addressed Paris' claims in a statement to PEOPLE which read, "While the current management does not know what occurred surrounding that cover, the claim does not reflect our values nor how the company operates today."

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The 'Justice League' actor competes against Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, and Bradley Cooper in a 'fiercely competitive' daily word games and explains why he avoids social media.

Mar 18, 2023

AceShowbiz - Ben Affleck becomes a member of a "fiercely competitive" celebrity Wordle group. The "Argo" actor has opened up he is among a band of Hollywood actors including Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, and Bradley Cooper who compete in daily word games and, although he expected to "do fairly well," Affleck has admitted he "was seriously humbled" when he realised how good the other members are.

"I was invited to join a cool little red velvet rope celebrity Wordle group. Matt [Damon]'s one of them. Jason Bateman and Bradley [Cooper], and  actually, the first rule of Wordle is don't talk about Wordle. Unless you get it in three guesses," he explained in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Affleck added that he didn't think his competitors would be very good but they soon changed his mind. He went on, "I used to do the crossword compulsively in the mornings and think I was good at word games. And let's face it, going up against actors, it's not a high bar."

"I expected to do fairly well, so I was seriously humbled. You have to do the Wordle, the Quordle and the Octordle, and add up your score, and then whoever gets the lowest score wins for the day. It's fiercely competitive, and there's a lot of mockery and derision. So I'm in training."

During the interview, Affleck also opened up about social media and insisted he is too worried about doing something wrong to ever start posting on Instagram.

He explained, "My wife's [Jennifer Lopez] a genius at that [Instagram]. I don't know if there's anybody who understands Instagram better than her. In fact, she gave me a talk this morning before this interview. She thinks that because of experiences that I've had, I've become very guarded. And she's right. I view these things as land mines, where if you say one wrong thing, your career might be over."

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The 'This Is Paris' star explains she created a 'dumb' blonde alter ego with a 'Barbie perfect life' as she was desperate to overcome teenage trauma of being abused.

Mar 18, 2023

AceShowbiz - Paris Hilton invented a character with a "Barbie perfect life" as a "trauma response." The 42-year-old heiress explains she dealt with her teenage trauma of being abused, including being sexually groomed by a teacher aged 14, by creating a persona that couldn't be farther from the "shy" person she really is.

She felt pressured to keep playing the role because her "dumb" blonde alter-ego was "magnified" when she starred in the reality series "The Simple Life" in the noughties alongside pal Nicole Richie.

Speaking on Magic Radio to promote her tell-all tome, "Paris: The Memoir", she said, "I think a lot of that character stems back to being a teenager and a trauma response and developing this kind of Barbie perfect life, so I wouldn't have to think about what I went through."

"And then getting the 'Simple Life' then it got magnified to the whole world where I had to continue playing that character year after year, and then I kind of just got stuck in it... I am very shy, people don't know that about me. I am such a naturally shy person so when I play the character it's like I am someone else and I don't get as shy."

Paris recently spoke for the first time about being knocked out with the date rape drug Rohypnol when she was a teen. The multi-millionaire - who had her first child, son Phoenix, with her 42-year-old venture capitalist husband Carter Reum in January - also revealed she was kissed in her teens by a predatory teacher who bombarded her with phone calls.

She told the February issue of Glamour magazine about being drugged as a teen after she and her friends met a group of men at the Century City Mall in Los Angeles, "We would go there almost every weekend. That was our favourite thing to do and these (older) guys would always just be hanging around the stores..."

"We'd talk to them, give them our beeper numbers. And then one day, they invited us to their house and we're drinking these berry wine coolers. I didn't drink or anything back then, but then when I had maybe one or two sips, I just immediately started feeling dizzy and woozy. I don't know what he put in there, I'm assuming it was a roofie (Rohypnol)."

Paris added she woke a few hours later and found her friend had left, but she had memories of being abused. She said, "I remembered it. I have visions of him on top of me, covering my mouth, being like, 'You're dreaming, you're dreaming,' and whispering that in my ear."

The incident happened when Paris was sent to live with her maternal grandmother after she says she was targeted by a teacher. One night when he lured her to his car she said they kissed before her mum and dad drove up - and chased them at 100mph.

Paris first revealed details of her abusive past in her 2020 YouTube documentary, "This Is Paris" - including abuse she suffered during her two years at schools for troubled teens, as well as being the victim of a leaked sex tape.

You can hear the full interview with Paris Hilton on Magic Radio Breakfast on Tuesday, March 21 from 8 AM.

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The actor, who was best known for his roles on 'The Wire', 'Bosch', Netflix's 'Resident Evil' and the 'John Wick' film franchise, was found dead at his home on Friday, March 17.

Mar 18, 2023

AceShowbiz - The "John Wick" team has lost one of its talents. Lance Reddick passed away at the age of 60 and upon learning the devastating news, Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski offered their condolences in a statement.

"We are deeply saddened and heartbroken at the loss of our beloved friend and colleague Lance Reddick," the pair said in a joint statement. "He was the consummate professional and a joy to work with. Our love and prayers are with his wife Stephanie, his children, family and friends. We dedicate the film to his loving memory. We will miss him dearly."

Lionsgate, the studio behind the "John Wick" franchise, stated, "The world of Wick would not be what it is without Lance Reddick and the unparalleled depth he brought to Charon's humanity and unflappable charisma." It added, "Lance leaves behind an indelible legacy and hugely impressive body of work, but we will remember him as our lovely, joyful friend and Concierge. Were stunned and heartbroken, and our deepest condolences go to his beloved family and his fans all around the world."

Also paying tribute to Lance was his co-star on "The Wire", Wendell Pierce. "A man of great strength and grace. As talented a musician as he was an actor. The epitome of class. An sudden unexpected sharp painful grief for our artistic family. An unimaginable suffering for his personal family and loved ones. Godspeed my friend. You made your mark here. RIP," Wendell tweeted.

Lance's death was confirmed by his representative. "Acclaimed actor Lance Reddick passed away suddenly this morning from natural causes," read the statement. "Lance was best known for his roles in The Wire, Bosch, Netflix's Resident Evil and the John Wick films."

"He is survived by his wife Stephanie Reddick and children Yvonne Nicole Reddick and Christopher Reddick," it continued. "Lance will be greatly missed. Please respect his family's privacy at this time."

According to TMZ, Lance was found dead on Friday morning around 9.30 A.M. His body was discovered at his Studio City home. The cause of his death has yet to be revealed.

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The Andhra Pradesh government would conduct a detailed audit on all 37 branches of the Margadarsi Chit Funds Pvt Ltd under Section 61 (4) of the Chit Funds Act, 1982. (Representational image: Pixabay)

VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh government would conduct a detailed audit on all 37 branches of the Margadarsi Chit Funds Pvt Ltd under Section 61 (4) of the Chit Funds Act, 1982.

A chit auditor has been appointed under Section 61 (2) of the Act, to take the matter forward.

In a statement from the office of the commissioner and inspector general of registration and stamps here on Friday, the commissioner said the preliminary report of the qualified chartered accountant made it clear that MCFPL committed large-scale violations. "Hence, there was a need for a detailed audit report to unearth the irregularities committed by the company."

The qualified auditor came up with findings in the audit as per financial statements and accordingly, an amount of 459.98 crore was invested in mutual funds, government securities and equity instruments including subsidiaries and associates.

The company disclosed a list of three subsidiaries including Margadarsi Chits Pvt Ltd Chennai; Margadarsi Chits (Karnataka) Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru and Ushakiron Media Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad.

As per the list of shareholders, in Ushakiron Media Pvt Ltd alone, the company invested a share capital of 2 crores, amounting to 88.5 per cent of the paid-up capital. The company was not engaged in chit fund business and it was carrying on other businesses through the subsidiary.

The auditor, as per bank statements, noticed that the onward transfers into mutual funds and fixed deposits took place. For example, 29 crores were transferred to ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund on April 9, 2021, from the current account of No. 347701010023032 of Union Bank of India, Ramkote Branch in Hyderabad.

The sources of this transfer were the funds received from the branches.

Based on such findings, it was observed that MCFPL had been diverting the subscribers money for its personal gains and was committing offences under various provisions of law. It was placing the hard-earned money of the gullible subscribers at risk.

Assistant registrars of chits from Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Eluru, Vijayawada, Guntur, Palnadu, Kurnool and Anantapur lodged complaints with the CID for further investigation.
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U.S. President Joe Biden says 'it's justified,' after International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin for alleged unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.

Mar 18, 2023

AceShowbiz - Joe Biden has reacted to ICC's arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. Supporting the move, the U.S. President said that "it's justified" that Putin is wanted by International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

"Well, I think it's justified, but the question is it's not recognized internationally by us either," Biden told reporters before departing the White House for a weekend trip to Delaware on Friday, March 17. He noted that the U.S. is not signed up to the ICC, "but I think it makes a very strong point."

When asked whether he thought Putin should be tried for war crimes related to his bloody invasion of Ukraine, the president did not answer directly but said it was clear the Russian leader did commit war crimes. "He's clearly committed war crimes," he stated.

The Hague issued a warrant for Russian leader Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children's rights, on suspicion of unlawful abduction and deportation of children, and the illegal transfer of people from Ukraine to Russia.

The ICC said in a statement on Friday that Putin and Lvova-Belova are "allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes," the Netherlands-based court said.

The warrant was issued following a year-long investigation by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan into war crimes and genocide committed by Russian forces in the former Soviet state. It's the ICC's first warrant related to the Kremlin's war in Ukraine.

Khan told BBC, "Children can't be treated as the spoils of war, they can't be deported." The ICC prosecutor added, "This type of crime doesn't need one to be a lawyer, one needs to be human being to know how egregious it is."

However, it is highly unlikely that Putin and Lvova-Belova will be facing trial at the ICC. Russia is not a signed member of the ICC and does not recognize the court's jurisdiction or extradite its nationals.

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In some new pictures that circulate online, the hit Netflix series is filming Prince William and Kate Middleton's first meeting as production for the new season is currently underway.

Mar 18, 2023

AceShowbiz - Season 6 of "The Crown" will gradually shift its focus on the younger British royal family members. In some new pictures that circulated online, the hit Netflix series is filming Prince William and Kate Middleton's first meeting as production for the new season is currently underway.

In one of the behind-the-scenes images, Ed McVey's William and Meg Bellamy's Kate were seen recreating the couple's first encounter at St Andrews school in Scotland back in 2001. The two actors had a strong resemblance with the royals.

During the Wednesday, March 17 filming, Meg's Kate dressed in a green jacket that she paired with denim jeans and a maroon top. She was pictured walking in front of Ed's William while holding a book in one of her hands as she carried a shoulder bag.

As for Ed's William, he donned a navy jacket with a maroon vest and a blue shirt underneath. He was sitting down with some friends while looking at Meg's Kate as she passed by.

'The Netflix' filmed Prince William and Kate Middleton's first meeting.

"When I first met Kate, I knew there was something very special about her, and then I knew there was possibly something I wanted to explore there, but we ended up being friends for a while," William said during the couple's 2010 engagement interview with ITV News. The Duke of Cambridge added, "That was a good sort of foundation. I do genuinely believe now that being friends with [each other] is a massive advantage."

"I at the time wasn't very happy about it, but actually it made me a stronger person," the Duchess added during the same interview. "You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn't realized-I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you're younger-and I really valued that time for me, as well." William and Kate, who started dating in 2003, "took a break" following graduation before they eventually tied the knot in April 2011.

Season 5 of "The Crown" ended with Prince Charles (Dominic West) and Diana's (Elizabeth Debicki) marriage ending. The show will further delve into the late '90s and early 2000s for the royal family.

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The 'Jurassic Park' actor has offered update on his condition following cancer diagnosis announcement, saying he's good and has returned to work as his cancer is in remission.

Mar 18, 2023

AceShowbiz - Sam Neill gives update on his health condition, explaining his cancer is in remission. The 75-year-old actor announced his diagnosis with stage-three blood cancer in his new memoir, "Did I Ever Tell You This?", admitting that he feared passing away before the book was even released.

The star has since posted on Instagram to reveal that he has been in remission for the past eight months and is "very happy to be going back to work."

He wrote, "Hi I'm Sam Neill, actor of sorts, vintner, and an author as it happens. And my news seems to be all over the news at the moment, and it's sort of 'Cancer ! Cancer! Cancer!' Which is slightly tiresome because as you see, I am alive and well and I have been in remission for eight months, which feels really good."

"And I'm alive and kicking and I'm going to work. I'm very happy to be going back to work. We start filming in seven days time. I'm doing a thing called 'Apples Never Fall' with Annette Bening, and a really wonderful cast. So here I am, and I just wish the headline wasn't 'that thing' so much, because the main thing is that I have written this book, it's called 'Did I Ever Tell You This?' "

Sam explained that he wrote the book to keep himself occupied while he was undergoing treatment but he doesn't want to be defined by his illness. He said, "It does mention cancer because that's the sort of context in which I wrote it."

"But I didn't really mean to write a book, I needed something to do while I was undergoing treatment, and I am used to going to work and I suddenly couldn't go to work. So that's why I wrote the book, and I have to say there's been great response to it."

"People seem to love it, which is great. I was very nervous, obviously as a first time author. Anyway, I think it's fun. We sub-titled it 'Movies, Life, Love and Other Catastrophes. So it gives you an idea of all the crazy things that have happened to me."

"The tone of the book is one of surprise. I never thought that I would have a career as an actor, let alone an actor on screen. But that's kind of what happened and I am full of gratitude looking back on this life, and that's what the book is about."

"I hope you enjoy it. I enjoyed reading the audiobook the other day, I hadn't looked at the book for quite a while but I found it more entertaining than I expected. And I would look through the glass window at the audio engineer / producer and he seemed to be cracking up a lot so I take that as a good sign. So I hope you enjoy it, and let's not worry too much about 'all that' because I'm fine. Okay!"

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The former 'Desperate Housewives' actress is passionate about political and social issues but the brunette beauty rules out launching a career as politician.

Mar 19, 2023

AceShowbiz - Eva Longoria believes she has "way more power as a citizen than as a politician." The 48-year-old actress shows massive interest in political and social issues - but Eva doesn't have any ambition to become a politician.

"It's so divisive, and I don't see how there's faith in politicians in this moment. I can see where voter apathy comes in ... For me, I really strongly believe the most powerful part of democracy is the citizen. We have way more power as a citizen than as a politician," she explains on "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?".

The brunette beauty also insisted that she doesn't "speak for Latinos." Eva - who is the daughter of Mexican parents - reflected, "I am an activist and an advocate for many things and many causes but I don't speak for Latinos. And I think that's what politicians get wrong, is they want to speak for people. 'I speak for women, I speak for Latinos.' I don't do any of those things."

"And what I try to encourage politicians to do is not knock on our door every four years with a taco truck and try to get our vote. Don't say our vote matters when our lives don't matter. You have to engage in these communities. Every day, not every four years."

Eva previously claimed that she can "make a difference" even if she doesn't pursue a career in politics. The "Desperate Housewives" star said, "Here's the thing, the reality is you don't have to be a politician to be political. And I think that's the biggest myth. People go, 'You should run for office so you can make a difference.' I am making a difference."

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Filmmaker Matt Ruskin talks about the movie starring Keira Knightley and his approach to adapting the true story into the big screen in the historical drama.

Mar 19, 2023

AceShowbiz - Matt Ruskin explains it was important not to "humanise" a serial killer in "Boston Strangler". The filmmaker has directed the historical crime drama based on the infamous Boston Strangler murders that rocked the US city during the 1960s.

The film focuses on Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley), the reporter who broke the story of the strangler. McLaughlin challenged the sexism of the era and pursued the story at personal risk along with fellow reporter Jean Cole to uncover corruption that cast doubt on the identity of the strangler.

And the director has insisted it's not just a "serial killer" film but the story of a journalist fighting to be taken seriously as an investigative reporter and keeping the women of the Massachusetts city "informed."

He told The Wrap, "It's a serial killer story, but it's also a journalism story. I did not approach this film with the intention of trying to humanise a serial killer or pull people into their world so they knew what made them tick."

"This is very much a story about a journalist who proved to the world her ability as a serious investigative reporter through the course of breaking the story and working tirelessly to keep the city, and keep women, informed. It's very much through that through that lens."

Ruskin explained, "It's very important to be respectful of depicting real people, of women who are victims of horrible crimes. One of the things that was so interesting about Loretta and Jean's reporting was they were really the only women covering this story, and they always looked at these crimes from a human perspective. They wanted to know who these women were in a way that many of the other journalists didn't pursue."

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In a new interview, the 'Quantico' actress says she has learned to accept that she will never be able to completely get over the 2013 passing of her beloved father Ashok.

Mar 19, 2023

AceShowbiz - Priyanka Chopra doesn't think she will be able to overcome the death of her father. The 40-year-old actress mourned the loss of her dad Ashok - who served as a doctor in the Indian Army - when he died of cancer at the age of 62 in 2013 and admitted that a decade on the only way she has been able to cope with the tragedy is by acknowledging that she just has to learn to live with it.

"I lost my dad in 2013. One thing that helped me navigate that grief was understanding that you never overcome it. You just kind of have to learn to keep it in your backpack," she told this week's edition of UsWeekly magazine.

Meanwhile, the "Love Again" star is married to former Disney Channel actor Nick Jonas and has 14-month-old daughter Malti Marie with him and explained that it "takes a village" of a support network around her to be able to balance motherhood and her career.

Asked how she manages to "juggle" it all, she said, "You just do. I was raised by my grandparents when my mom and dad worked, and we do the same. My mom's around, and Nick's parents come in when we travel. But I also can't do as many things as I used to because I like to get home for bath time and be there when [Malti] wakes up."

"My mom's around, and Nick's parents come in when we travel. It takes a village. I used to take time in the morning to have a cup of coffee in silence, even if it's just 10 minutes, where it's my time without the world coming at you. Now I play with my daughter - nothing bad can happen when we're snuggling and giggling."

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Celebrity

The 'John Wick' actor appreciates fans' love but the 58-year-old action star insists he's not perfect despite his reputation as one of the nicest men in Hollywood.

Mar 19, 2023

AceShowbiz - Keanu Reeves says being "hangry" is one of his biggest flaws. Despite known as one of the nicest men in Hollywood, the "Point Break" actor, 58, stressed during the New York premiere of his new film "John Wick: Chapter 4" he is far from perfect.

"Obviously, no one is perfect, but I appreciate the goodwill. Of course I get hangry," he told Page Six at the event on Wednesday, March 15 night. He added about his amazement over the success of the John Wick franchise, "It's amazing, it's incredible, it's very special."

When asked what keeps him coming back to the action role - which involves a rigorous fitness regime that probably explains why he is "hangry," Keanu said, "Love. I love action, I love movie action, I especially love 'John Wick' action, so whatever it takes. I've got lots of bruises. I like me some bruises. Bruises are fun!"

Despite Keanu's love of his fans' support, the "Speed" actor was last month forced to get a temporary restraining order against an alleged stalker who trespassed onto his property numerous times in a bid to prove they are related.

The actor's lawyer Mathew Rosengart appeared in court to seek protection for Keanu and his artist girlfriend Alexandra Grant, 49, from 38-year-old Bryan Dixon, who has allegedly been "harassing" the couple "for months."

Keanu recently said he keeps playing dog-mad hitman John Wick as he "likes his grief." He told Metro, "I like his humour, I like his will, I like his grief and it's really fun to play him in these films, these films are fun."

The actor started playing the assassin in 2014's "John Wick", which saw the character come out of retirement and go on a rampage to get revenge on the gangsters who killed his beloved dog, as it was given to him by his dying wife. In the fourth instalment of the franchise, John battles to wipe out shadowy hitman organisation the High Table.

Keanu, who has been dating Alexandra for more than a year, has had his share of tragedies. In 1999, his long-term actress girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, gave birth to their daughter Ava, who was stillborn. The couple broke up soon after and, two years later, Jennifer was killed in a car accident aged 28. Until Alexandra, Keanu hadn't been linked to any other long-term partners.

He told The Guardian in 2019 about using his experience in his acting, "With any character, the way I think about it is, you have the role on the page, you have the vision of the director and you have your life experience."

When asked if he brought his experience of loss to John Wick, he confirmed, "Oh yeah." And when his interviewer asked him what it is about grief that interests him, Keanu replied, "Well, for the character and in life, it's about the love of the person you're grieving for, and any time you can keep company with that fire, it is warm. I absolutely relate to that, and I don't think you ever work through it. Grief and loss, those are things that don't ever go away. They stay with you."

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Irans extra-territorial targeting of journalists in the UK, Germany and across Europe has attracted criticism and concern at the 52nd session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in Geneva.

At a side event to the session on Friday 17 March, jointly hosted by BBC World Service and Deutsche Welle (DW), serious concerns were raised regarding Irans significant increase in threats directed towards BBC News Persian and DW staff since Mahsa Aminis death in Iran in September 2022 and the subsequent protests seen across the country. Escalating risks to journalists reporting on Iran, outside Iran, were discussed with State missions to the United Nations in Geneva.

Speaking by video at the event, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Professor Javaid Rehman, said that Irans actions against BBC Persian journalists violate the provisions of the international covenants, treaties and obligations, to which Iran is a state party and signatory: I am extremely concerned that such attacks to silence journalists violate the fundamental rights of journalists and are an assault on the principles of transparency, democracy and accountability. It is also regrettable that, in these circumstances, there is a chilling effect that is produced on the work of other journalists in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and indeed elsewhere, who are reporting on the country, and may deter them from reporting on issues of public interest and of public importance.

In his video address, BBC World Service News Controller, Tarik Kafala, said that the pressures on the BBC Persian staff have never been greater and that there are constant attempts to undermine the audiences trust in BBC Persian and challenge the motivation for its work: We stand with all of our BBC Persian journalists and we stand by their journalism. We will not tolerate abuse, wherever it comes from. We will absolutely support our staff. We object to any action by the Iranian authorities aimed at targeting them, their families and our journalism in the strongest possible terms. We welcome the UNs consistent support for BBC Persian staff and their families and will continue to make our case to the world community until this completely unacceptable harassment ends.

Head of DW Persian Service, Yalda Zarbakhch, said at the event: We are extremely concerned about the safety of our staff at DW Persian working in Germany and their families living in Iran. Since DW has been put on the sanctions list by the Iranian government, classifying journalists as terrorists for doing their legitimate work, we have seen a new level of threats. Family members are brought in sometimes daily by the authorities for interrogations. Pressure on our staff is constant. DW urges to recognise the paramount importance of independent reporting out of Iran and for the Iranian people, and that the safety of journalists and the freedom of the media is non-negotiable.

Since 2017, BBC World Service has filed a number of UN complaints over the treatment of BBC News Persian staff and their families, represented by Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC and Jennifer Robinson at Doughty Street Chambers, and supported by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC and Jennifer Robinson, counsel for BBC World Service, stated: The targeting of BBC journalists by Iran is unlawful and designed to stifle and censor independent and objective reporting on events in Iran. The death threats, arbitrary detention of family members and economic sanctions imposed on BBC News Persian journalists violate international law and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Irans targeting and harassment of journalists inside and outside of Iran has now spread beyond that directed at BBC News Persian, underlining the need for urgent action from the UN and UN member states.

Jeremy Dear, IFJ Deputy General Secretary, stressed in his video address the need for the special rapporteurs to understand the societal impact of the Iranian regimes action in denying citizens, at home and abroad, the right to independent information. But also governments in the UK, Germany and other countries need to take more seriously too the threats to journalists and their families. He pledged the IFJs continued support for all those journalists at risk until they can report freely from London, from Bonn, or from Tehran.

NUJ General Secretary, Michelle Stanistreet, comments: The escalation in the targeting of UK-based journalists by Iran and the weaponising of their families is of enormous concern to the NUJ. It is having a profound impact on all journalists affected, impeding their daily lives and causing deep anxiety and strain for them and their loved ones. Irans strategic threats are clearly intended to send a collective message to journalists and media outlets that work hard to report and shine a light on events in Iran. The NUJ calls on the UN and its member states to act robustly to bring this targeting and abuse to an end.

BBC News Persian is a multimedia news and current-affairs service with a weekly audience of 18.9m (BBC Global Audience Measure 2022). As part of BBC World Service, it delivers accurate and impartial news, information and analysis from a global perspective to Persian-speakers around the world.
Scholars call for exchanges across Straits

China Daily) 13:20, March 18, 2023

In-depth dialogue between mainland, Taiwan urged to cement culture bond

Experts from both sides of the Taiwan Straits called for enhancing face-to-face exchanges and promoting in-depth interaction between academia on both sides.

They made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the "Cross-Straits Scholars Face-to-face" series of academic activities in Xiamen, Fujian province, on Friday.

Co-held by Xiamen University and the Academy of Chinese Culture, these activities aim to enhance in-depth dialogue between scholars from the mainland and Taiwan.

Fang Ying, the assistant to the president of Xiamen University, said that the series of activities will promote and resume normal academic exchanges between the two sides of the Straits, deepen the in-depth interaction between the academic circles, advance the two sides to jointly carry forward Chinese culture, and promote mutual understanding.

Fang said that Chinese culture is the common root and also an important bond to maintain national feelings of compatriots on both sides of the Straits, which requires both sides to uphold and carry forward the traditions.

Liu Yingfeng, head of the department of scientific research management at the Academy of Chinese Culture, said that once the door of cross-Straits exchanges is opened, it will never be closed. With the easing of the pandemic, people on both sides are more eager to look forward to exchanges and cooperation, and economic exchanges across the Taiwan Straits are bound to blossom.

Chen Yiyuan, a professor at the Department of Chinese Literature at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, said that holding these activities will promote the common cultural identity of the two sides and strengthen mutual understanding.

Scholars from the two sides of the Straits have had many opportunities for academic exchanges, but face-to-face communications were hampered by the pandemic during the past three years, he said.

"It is time for us to resume face-to-face talks and share our ideas. I hope more relevant activities will be held in different cities such as Beijing and Taipei," he said.

"Academic studies, such as the historical population studies in Fujian and Taiwan, allow us to understand the common past together, so that we can cherish the present and develop together toward a more harmonious and beautiful future, and I think that is what scholars from both sides should do," he said.

While people on both sides of the Straits are calling for peaceful exchanges, Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party and relevant departments are pushing forward the amendment process of a "defense mobilization act", which will turn the island into a battlefield, said protesters from the island.

About 300 people from dozens of parties and groups protested at the "Executive Yuan" Thursday morning in Taipei, demanding the authorities in Taiwan put a stop to the amendment.

Protesters said that under the amended law, Taiwan will enter a wartime curfew in normal times and people's freedom of the press, speech, thought, movement and capital flows will be restricted.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
The intent is to help the young generation to know about Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and his ideology to uplift the suppressed sections of the society. File Image/DC

Vijayawada: All schools in the state will soon have a lesson on the life of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

Making the announcement during question hour in the AP Legislative Council here on Saturday, minister for social welfare Merugu Nagarjuna said that he will take up proposal to the notice of the Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy as several legislators expressed their intent to honour the Dalit icon in a befitting manner. The intent was to help the young generation to know about him and his ideology to uplift the suppressed sections of the society.

The minister informed the council that though the previous Telugu Desam government intended to set up a 125 ft statue of Ambedkar at Amaravati, it failed to do so. It is the YSRC government that has decided to install a bronze statue of Ambedkar at Swaraj maidan in the city with an outlay of Rs 268.46 crore. This will be coming over 19 acres of land site and an 80 ft pedestal will hold the 125 ft tall statue. Works are progressing at a brisk pace so that the statue can be unveiled on April 14 commemorating the birth anniversary of the architect of the Indian constitution.

YSRC member Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad lauded the initiative and said Ambedkar was a symbol of social justice. Pointing out that NCERT had already brought a book on Dr Ambedkar in English, he felt that there was a need to translate the book into Telugu. He urged the state government to provide financial incentives to dalits going in for inter-caste marriages.

Several members, including M. Arun Kumar and Lakshmana Rao urged the government to restore Ambedkar Study Circles in addition to setting up a library at the venue where the statue of Ambedkar was coming up.

YSRC member Pandula Ravindra Babu described Dr. Ambedkar as the worlds greatest economist and expressed concern that was only being projected as a champion of dalit rights in the country.
Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande paid homage to Lt Colonel VVB Reddy who was among the two pilots killed when a Cheetah helicopter of the Army crashed in Arunachal Pradesh. (DC)

Hyderabad: Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande on Saturday paid homage to Lt Colonel VVB Reddy who was among the two pilots killed when a Cheetah helicopter of the Army crashed in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Army Chief paid homage to Lt Colonel Reddy at the latter's residence at Malkajgiri here, according to a Defence release.

The mortal remains of Lt Colonel Reddy arrived at the Begumpet Air Force Station here Friday night. Homage was paid to Lt Col Reddy with full military honours.

The body was then taken to his residence at Malkajgiri here.

Reddy had passed out of the National Defence Academy (NDA) and served in the Army for about 20 years, family sources said.

He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Reddy was a native of Bommala Ramaram village in Yadadri-Bhongir district of Telangana, family sources said.

Reddy and his co-pilot Major Jayanth A were killed when the helicopter crashed near Mandala in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday morning.
Israel, as a sovereign nation, is more than capable of executing its own electorally-mandated policies  or so one would think. Not so fast.

As fully evidenced within recent analyses regarding the interference/funding by Americas powerful left, to thwart long overdue, righteous judicial reform in Israel  found here, here, and here  similarly, the leftist junta in control of Americas educational apparatus has captured Israels school system too. Mind you, even the State religious system (where most Jewish national religious parents send their children) cannot escape the lefts infection. Tentacled grasp.

Belatedly, as non-comatose Americans (yes, to their utter horror) have come to realize, the Deep State Mafia has a total vise-grip/strangle-hold upon the educational system. Lock, stock, and barrel. Resultant, it is impossible to ignore their brazen, in-your-face warping; the bitter fruits of their years-long, stealth-like encroachment/co-option of the hearts and minds of generations of American students, wherever the indoctrinators heretofore skulked. Pointedly, lets call an ace an ace and a spade a spade.

Incontestably, lets place partial onus where it belongs. Fair is fair. Were it not for the inaction/inertia and unfathomable silence of so-called conservative leaders, Americas kiddies (by extension, the heirs of the greatest freedom-based country, bar none) wouldnt be in grave peril. While they played footsie, destructive radical forces went in for the killfor years on end! Top prize: generations of mis-educated foot soldiers. In plain-speak, the rotten chickens have come home to roost; free to bend/mold generations to their will.

As such, it would be intellectually and morally dishonest to solely drop the blame at the lefts doors  after all, die-hard radicals who worship the tenets of cultural Marxism are only acting true to form. Got that?

Still yet, for those who prefer visual/audio aids, well, the following podcast This is how the left is taking control of public schools is more than an instructive lesson, sans any poppycock to boot.

Now that that is established, the question becomes: where does the pollution of Israels progeny enter the fray? Better yet: where doesnt it?

In a nutshell, akin to their radical counterparts in the U.S., Israels hard-left is fully cognizant of the necessity to march through the school system. While Marxist theory, slowly but surely, is brought into the classrooms, a main obsession is the normalization of transgenderism via the highly militant LGBTQ+ movement.

As excerpted by this writer:

As an American-Israeli, these ears are, first and foremost, attuned to both nations. Alas, when it became known that an innocent, confused child was encouraged to transition from a girl into a boy (within an affluent community as one of Tel Avivs outer burbs), well, blood-boiling barely describes it at this end.

The headline read, Transgender school scandal: Education claims leading Rabbi approved situation  from the article:

Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, the former Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan, has published his initial response to the saga of the girl masquerading as a boy in a state-religious school in a highly sought after town in central Israel, news of which was broken in the BSheva magazine (affiliated with the Hebrew-language version of Israel National News) two weeks ago. In Rabbi Ariels letter, it is clear that, contrary to what the Education Ministry has been claiming, he is opposed to the girl remaining in the class. This situation of a girl dressed up as a boy, in boys clothes, is impossible and has no place in halachah [Jewish law], Rabbi Ariel wrote. A boy is a boy and a girl is a girl. Since this case relates to a young girl [in third grade], the situation must be handled with great sensitivity. There is no question of continuing to allow this girl to be incorporated into a class together with other boys, he concluded.

And whether the Education Ministry  truth be told, known for its left-ward bent  is covering its behind due to the ensuing backlash and kerfuffle, or the Rabbi realizes that he has been caught tolerating the intolerable, likely, it will never be known, that is, at least, within the public arena.

But what is a certainty and of grave concern and import to the majority mainstream public in Israel, is the absolute fact that the poisonous effects of what goes down in America will, inevitably, and eventually, reach Israels public and private recesses.

Previously featured at Israel National News:

At this critical juncture in history, it should be crystal clear: traditional leaning Jews (as well as non-Jews, in general, conservatives) are living in Dystopian times. This is the case on a multiplicity of levels. Nonetheless, some must be considered stand-alone exhibits.

So much so, that the lede to LGBTQIA + is not our cause celebre, written by Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer, a prolific writer and thinker, commences thusly:

This article should not really be deemed controversial, but it possibly is the most daring I ever have [sic] published. It is time. If the words below resonate, know you are not alone.

Think about that. When a man of Rabbi Fischers professional and learned stature feels compelled to voice that the aforementioned is possibly the most daring I have ever published, a reasonable conclusion is that it was written hesitantlycautiously. It might even be akin to an apologia  How can this be?

After years spent exploring and exposing the insidious creep of the issue at hand  the infiltration and penetration of the LGBTQIA agenda into the West in general and the Jewish community in specific  I wish to posit that there are American benefactors, funded in part by the American taxpayer, advancing the perversion of Israels youth and the obliteration of its traditional culture.

The New Israel Fund is the highly malignant entry-feeder and mischief-maker, that is, for all things radical in Israel. If anything, its the umbrella organization that lends a tailwind through their touchy-feely moniker; their stated goal is to drive meaningful social change and transform Israel into a leftist entity. Conspicuously, the eventual erasure of the Jewish homeland and traditional values is plotted within its confines. Dont ever forget that.

So much so, its U.S. offices span coast-to-coast. Why is that? From the groups Contact page:

The New Israel Fund has active regions across the United States and the world.

It is this (indirect and direct) foreign funding from Americas top-dogs (political and like-minded anti-Zionist/anti-semitic forces) which funnels into the leftist organs within Israel. Imagine that. (Interestingly, Ruth Bader Ginsburg's estate finds itself on the NIF donor list.)

As constructed, it is beyond the pale that said vicious umbrella organization is considered a tax-exempt NGO! (For the record: its Federal ID Number is: 94-2607722.)

Effectively, American taxpayers are encouraged to fund the destruction of Israel through tax-deductible donations! So, if the above is not considered foreign interference, there is no such thing. And, as it happens, Israels current Knesset is attempting to thwart NIFs (and others) nefarious efforts.

Most significantly, if all people of conscience, Jews and non-Jews alike, are appalled by even a fraction of the above, it is imperative to step up and inform your representatives, on all levels of government.

Silence is not an option!

Adina Kutnicki is an investigative journalist, living in Israel since 2008. Her work concentrates on militant Islamic jihad and its western knock-on effects, as well as the red/green alliance. She is the co-author of BANNED: How Facebook Enables Militant Islamic Jihad, She blogs at: Adina Kutnicki, A Zionist & Conservative Blog (www.adinakutnicki.com) and is an op-ed contributor at several news sites.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.
Gain-of-function research should continue. Such is the opinion of the Biden White House, as explained in this press conference at the end of February. It is "important to help prevent future pandemics," says communications man John Kirby.

Last fall, researchers in Boston went public about creating new variants of COVID-19, while in a recent letter, over 150 prominent virologists joined together to air their concerns that new regulations might "overly restrict the ability of scientists to generate the knowledge needed to protect ourselves from these pathogens."

By now, most serious people are in agreement that the 2019 coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan. Even federal agencies like the FBI are falling into line. The evidence for what happened is overwhelming.

To begin with, the bats that host the virus's nearest relatives don't live near Wuhan itself, but 1,100 miles away, along the border between China and Laos, in just the place where the Wuhan researchers repeatedly went to collect wild bat viruses for their gain-of-function experiments. Then include the fact that, shortly after the first outbreak, the Chinese authorities deleted their viral genome archives. Why do that if you don't have something to hide? And we shouldn't forget about China's dismal lab safety protocols. And so forth.

For the first year after COVID appeared, mainstream outlets like CNN and Twitter censored these things for political reasons. After President Trump left office, the taboo was relaxed, and now even mainstream opinion is coalescing around the lab leak theory.

China, obviously, doesn't come away looking good, but the United States isn't off the hook, either. It was the U.S. government that funded this research, and the only reason that Chinese scientists were doing it in the first place was because so many American scientists  whom the Chinese see as their superiors  had devoted their careers to making gain-of-function research look necessary, important, and safe.

How do people in the pure and applied sciences advance their careers? By doing the things that the higher-ups consider necessary, important, and safe.

And when a lot of high-status people have clustered around a set of prestigious ideas, it's rare for anything as mundane as evidence or results to break the prestige of those ideas. Hence the fact that, even after three years of COVID, nearly all of the leading authorities on gain-of-function research are still in favor of gain-of-function research.

In the kind of country that America once was, it would be a surprise if a man like Anthony Fauci were able to escape impeachment for repeatedly lying to Congress about this research and his own role in promoting and funding it. But nowadays, Fauci not only got to spend the remainder of his career as the No. 1 expert authority on the crisis he helped create, but also retired as perhaps the most admired medical professional in the country.

To be a scientific expert is to be a self-watching watchman. Way too many people will keep on trusting you no matter what you actually do with that trust. There is no accountability.

Also, hardly anyone thinks about the fact that people who make careers out of a particular field of research are often emotionally incapable of processing evidence that what they're doing isn't necessary, important, and safe  and that it might actually be useless or even harmful.

Obviously, the problem of biased expertise is not new. It existed in the 1950s, when lobotomies were common, and in the late 1800s, when it was normal for women to be institutionalized for "nymphomania," and even all the way back in the late Middle Ages, when the default response to unexplained illnesses (whether physical or mental) was to find some evil-looking person in the village and try her for witchcraft.

The people who earned a living by performing lobotomies had a much higher opinion of lobotomy than the general population. The people who ran late-19th-century asylums soberly insisted that all those women who were being locked up for experiencing sexual desire to the same degree that men did really had a mental disorder and really needed treatment.

And of course Heinrich Kramer, author of the Malleus Maleficarum (by far the number-one witch-hunting guide of all time) could give you all kinds of evidence to back up his claims that witchcraft was the top threat to the peace and order of Europe, and also his claims that if judges at witch trials carefully followed the handbook he had written for them, there would be hardly any risk of innocent people being executed by mistake.

In the end, these people's life's work ended up in history's dustbin because not everybody trusted the experts.

By now we know that you shouldn't listen uncritically when a man who's spent his life hunting witches tells you how to hunt witches, or when a doctor who's earned his way to fame by performing lobotomies tells you about how lobotomies are usually beneficial and only rarely harmful. And so forth.

One can only wish for this kind of levelheadedness in the medical controversies of the present day.

Consider the debate over childhood ADHD and the drugs (mainly stimulants like Ritalin, Adderall, etc.) that are used to treat it. The overwhelming opinion within the psychiatric industry is that the ADHD diagnosis is scientifically sound, and that the drugs (which have of course been very well studied) are effective and safe.

Outside the industry, there's a lot more suspicion. People with common sense know that children are, by nature, more rambunctious and distractible than adults, and that half of them are more so than the average child. They know that these traits (despite being burdensome for children in the present-day school system) are not a mental disorder. And they suspect that it might be a bad idea to start a child on a lifetime of hard drug dependency in order to improve his performance in grade school.

Curiously, there is a lot of scientific research that supports this point of view. We know, for instance, that the academic benefits of ADHD treatment usually last for only a year or two (unlike the ill effects of drug dependency, which last a lifetime). We know that stimulants suppress children's physical growth. And we know that prolonged drug dependency during childhood leads to anomalies in brain development, including permanent deficiencies of the same neurotransmitters that the drug is boosting in the short term.

We also know that the drugs are damaging the dopaminergic system, which regulates rewards/pleasure, so that drugged children can grow up to suffer from low motivation, erratic moods, and depression.

Also, we know that the diagnostic criteria for ADHD are sketchy. (For instance, one Canadian study found that children born in December, who are constantly being compared to classmates a little older than themselves, are 47 percent more likely to be medicated for ADHD than children born in January.)

Do the majority of psychiatrists (and pediatricians, etc.) make serious attempts to confront these findings?

No. They just produce more handbooks about how to use the drugs "properly" and more studies showing that ADHD drugs achieve their short-term goal of producing a quiet, well behaved child. But they avoid putting serious thought into the ethical question of whether all this damage is an acceptable price to pay.

It isn't very different from how, even after three years of COVID, almost everybody involved in gain-of-function research has steadfastly refused to change his mind about gain-of-function research.

And then there is the lying. It is well known that Dr. Fauci lied to Congress in an attempt to cover up U.S. funding of gain-of-function research in China. Likewise, many of the key researchers involved in promoting ADHD medication have lied about taking several million dollars in under-the-table "consulting fees" from drug manufacturers.

The guilty parties include Dr. Joseph Biederman, the chair of pediatric psychopharmacology at Harvard, whose prestige probably did more than anyone else's to normalize Ritalin prescriptions for small children. Even after he was exposed for taking $1.6 million in undisclosed payments, nothing ever happened to him. He was not disciplined by his institution, and his professional honors continued to pile up.

Yet there are still a lot of ordinary Americans who, when presented with all this information  about either ADHD or COVID  will just hem and haw and finally say something like "I trust the experts."

Perhaps, in the case of ADHD, they will then declare their faith that a treatment that has been studied and used by so many thousands of well credentialed people for such a long time is very unlikely to be harmful.

My own point of view is somewhat different. I think that, when so many thousands of well credentialed people devote their careers to something, it becomes very unlikely that any amount of evidence will convince them that the thing in question is harmful.

And when I see a long string of news stories about prominent people saying that gain-of-function research should continue, it only confirms my hypothesis.

It's too late to save the seven million or so people who have died worldwide from COVID-19. And it's too late to save the roughly equal number of American children who will spend the rest of their lives dealing with drug-induced mental disfigurement because they squirmed too much or had bad handwriting in elementary school.

But if Americans don't want these kinds of things to keep happening, then now is the time to wake up, and to stop "trusting the experts" in the same naive way that they have hitherto done.

Twilight Patriot is the pen name for a young American who lives in Georgia, where he is currently working toward a graduate degree. You can read more of his writings at his Substack.

Image: MSNBC via YouTube, CC BY 3.0 (cropped).
Last year, the Dutch government announced that it would seize 30% of Dutch farms to save the climate. This year, polling shows that the newly formed Boer-Burger Beweging (BBB), the farmers party, will be the largest single party in Parliament. However, the nature of the parliamentary system is that they still wont have power, as its likely that two leftist parties will join for a voting majority.

For a long time, Ive said that the left is returning us to a medieval world, one in which the world is dominated by a small group of rich, all-powerful aristocrats. The remainder of the people consists of a slightly larger group of tradespeople (i.e., the middle class), and a huge cohort of powerless, impoverished people who live in a world of darkness and hunger.

Ive since rethought my theory. Were not medieval, were Roman. The medieval world was a Biblical world, while we have reverted to a pagan world, complete with Earth worship and an intense focus on child sexuality. Ironically, though, its the powerful peoples Earth worship, though, that may change Hollands political system for the better.

Image: Tractor protest in Holland. YouTube screen grab.

Most people dont pay much attention to Holland, because its a very small country. That it was one of the most ideologically free countries in the world at the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Enlightenment, as well as one of the wealthiest (probably thanks to its ideological liberty), doesnt matter much when its just a corner of the European Union.

For that reason, nobody really noticed when the Dutch Parliament passed a law declaring that cattle farmingthat is, providing nutrient-rich food for Holland and other countriesis killing Mother Gaia and must be ended. However, the cow patties hit the fan last summer, and for good reason:

According to calculations done by the Finance ministry, a whopping 11 200 livestock farmers will be forced to shut down by the government to reduce nitrogen emissions in order to meet European environmental rules. Another 17 600 farmers would need to reduce the amount of animals they keep to meet these climate goals. And this is bad. Because there are about 54 000 farms in the Netherlands, meaning that around 1/5 of all farms will be forced to shut down and almost 1/3 of farms forced to scale down and reduce livestock. Meaning that thousands and thousands of farmers will be losing their livelihoods in order to meet government climate goals.

The Dutch farmers opposed this madness heroically, with massive tractor protests, as well as protests using manure, a point only a farmer can really make.

Many of the Dutch people, being wiser than their politicians, were not angered by the protests, despite any inconvenience they caused. What upset them was the specter of pre-modern starvation. Thats probably why the BBB did very well in the last election:

As initial polling results show, Dutch farmers delivered a stunning blow to the countrys pro-EU establishment by emerging as the biggest political force in Wednesdays regional elections. The Boer-Burger Beweging (BBB), or Farmer-Citizen Movement, is set to become the largest party in the countrys senate, winning more seats than Prime Minister Mark Ruttes ruling conservative VVD party. According to exit polls, the farmers party will get more than 15 seats in a 75-seat senate, a body that has the power to block legislation passed by the lower house of parliament. The BoerBurgerBeweging (Farmer-Citizen Movement), also known as the BBB, won almost 20 per cent of the vote, giving it 15 seats in the Senate, the upper house of parliament, The Times of London reported.

But all is not wonderful in the lowlands. Holland has a parliamentary system, not a winner take all system. Getting lots of people into government doesnt mean you get what you want (kind of like what happens when conservatives vote in Republicans, only to see them side with Democrats). Parliamentary systems are all about coalitions and, in this case, the second largest voting bloc will be the Groen-Links party (that is, the greenies). The third largest party is the VVD party, the current ruling partythe same one that went along with the Gaia worship in the first place.

Steven Hayward explains what that means:

So Dutch farmers did what every identifiable interest group does in a parliamentary system: they formed their own political party, Farmer-Citizen Movement Party, or BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) in Dutch. In a high-turnout election earlier this week, the BBB collected 20 percent of the vote, the largest of any party on the ballot, and 15 of 75 seats in the Dutch Senate. However, the Green Party and a left-labor party also won 15 seats, and are said likely to be part of an ideologically incoherent four-party coalition with current Prime Minister Mark Ruttes conservative VVD party. In other words, business as usual may continue. This is example 12,186 of why I hate multi-party parliamentary systems.

In leftist land, even when you win, you lose. But perhaps in the next election, as the crazy green leftists continue to return Holland to a pre-modern state, the BBB will get enough votes to bring some sanity back to Dutch politics, and food back to the Dutch people.
I was on vacation when Judge Stuart Duncan appeared at Stanford Law School at the invitation of the Federalist Society. As you all know, he was greeted with strident, often obscene slogans and personal invective, all of which culminated with the associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion joining with the students to say that Duncan was so hate-filled that, while theory dictated he should be heard, in fact, he wasnt worth it. Afterward, the students harassed the dean who eventually apologized to Judge Duncan, only for them to become hysterical and paranoid when their names became public. Stanford is training its students to be members of Maos Red Guard, rather than lawyers in a representative, constitutional democracy.

I entered law school almost 40 years ago. During my first year there, I learned two things Ive never forgotten. Both have guided my career. The first came about when our torts professor called upon a very shy student to discuss a malpractice case involving a hysterectomy gone wrong. The case, in a straightforward fashion, used words for the female reproductive system: vagina, uterus, ovaries, etc. Every time the word vagina came up in the discussion, the student (who was brilliant) just choked. Va-va-va.

Very kindly, the professor explained to the whole class that, as lawyers, we exist to serve the clients needs. In that service, there should be nothing we cannot or will not hear or say. To do otherwiseto ignore arguments that we need to hear so that we can counter them or to censor ourselves over words or ideas that embarrass usis a breach of our fiduciary duty to our clients, not to mention potential malpractice. In the clients service, if what we say is true or we reasonably believe it to be true, there is nothing we should ignore or, provided its legal, refuse to say.

Image: Justice and the law by Freepik.

The second thing I learned was that all people, even hateful ones, deserve a lawyer. That came up in my criminal law class. Back then, the University of Texas at Austin was a conservative institution, unlike todays hard-left institution, so most of the students in the class were law and order types. Somehow, the question came up in crim law about the morality of representing someone known to be criminal or just plain evil.

Im paraphrasing, so I dont remember the professors exact words, but Ive never forgotten the gist. In the criminal context, the government holds all the cards because it pays and controls the police, the courthouse, the judge, the jailer, and the executioner. The only balance against that overwhelming power is the jury and the defense attorney. And regarding the latters role, our professor said, that no one should ever have to stand alone before the majesty and power of the law without a friend at his side. The defense lawyer is that friend.

In other words, as lawyers, we must listen to, grapple with, and understand even ideas and people that are offensive to us. Otherwise, there is no counter to a government on a mission.

At Stanford Law, todays students are not being taught that it is their fiduciary and constitutional duty to listen to the other side, even if that means they will be unable to understand and intelligently counter an opponents arguments as part of defending their client. They also dont understand that our legal system works only if this willingness to listen goes both waysthat is, the opposition will listen to their words, not to agree, but to offer the best challenge possible for his or her client. If you wont listen, you are failing your own (potential) client.

Instead, Stanfords Red Guard students are learning the lesson of all tyrants: Silence the opposition. Stanford has ceased to be a law school in the honored and ancient Common Law tradition that we inherited from the British. Its students (and perhaps the professors) probably dont know or care that our second president, John Adams, who was white (bad) but not a slaveholder (less bad), ably defended the British soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre, even though Adams was already a staunch patriot at the time.

Adams listened to his clients and studied the evidence. Based on that, and on honest testimony from people who took seriously the oath they swore on the Bible (the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God), won an acquittal by proving that the soldiers acted in self-defense. In his summing up to the jury, Adams spoke words that should be inscribed everywhere that truth matters:

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

One other thing to remember about these Stanford students: like all bullies, they are also cowards. Aaron Sibarium, who wrote about them for the Free Beacon, had to school these future lawyers about free speech and the public square:

On Sunday, I identified board members of the Stanford National Lawyers Guild--one of the groups responsible for the posters--who in a public statement described the protest as "Stanford Law School at its best."



A few hours later, the board demanded I redact their names.  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023

"You do not have our permission to reference or quote any portion of this email in a future piece," she added.



Needless to say, that's not how the First Amendment works.  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023

We received a note from Mary Cate Hickman demanding that we "anonymize the face of the student in the red hoodie" because "California is a two-party consent state, and you have no right to publish this student's identity/likeness/face without consent."  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023

There is no presumption of privacy in a law school classroom where student activists are snapping photographs and posting them to Instagram, especially in the wake of a nationally televised protest at your law school.  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023
A few days ago, after Russia downed a U.S. drone, Lindsey Graham said the U.S. should do what he believes Reagan would have done: Shoot down any Russian aircraft threatening a U.S. asset. However, a veteran of the Cold War experienced just such a scenario and wrote to let me know that Reagan would not have countenanced Grahams suggestion.

Heres Grahams imaginary take on Ronald Reagans approach:

Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Graham what would have been Americas Reagan-era response to a drone takedown, courtesy of the Russians. Without much deliberation, Graham said, Well, we should hold them accountable and say that if you ever get near another U.S. aircraft flying in international waters, your airplane would be shot down. What would Ronald Reagan do right now? He would start shooting Russian planes down if they were threatening our assets.

In response, I received an email from someone who served during that era (and who proved his bona fides to me). For professional reasons, however, he asked to remain anonymous. The following is his analysis of the Reagan-era way to deal with in-air Russian threats:

Senator Lindsey Graham needs to choose his words carefully. He is drawing lines in the sand that have the potential to lead us to WWIII. After the recent downing of a U.S. Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) by a Russian SU-27 fighter, he proposed shooting down any Russian planes approaching our aircraft in international airspace. He further opines that this is what President Reagan would have done.

I disagree with Senator Grahams assessment as to what President Reagan would do. In the early 1980s, I was an Electronic Warfare Officer and Mission Director flying Peacetime Aerial Reconnaissance Program (PARPRO) missions. We flew RC-135s (modified Boeing 707), collecting Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) in international airspace. I have attached a photo from one such mission in October 1983.

I took the photo, from the RC-135s overwing hatch. It shows a Soviet SU-15 Flagon fighter aircraft sitting off our wingtip over the Sea of Japan. We were unarmed and he was heavily armed, as you can see. Under Senator Grahams proposed rules of engagement, we should have had F-14s or F-15s shoot down the Soviet fighter because he approached us in international airspace.

Mind you, this photo was taken less than a month after the Soviets shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (Boeing 747) after it accidentally overflew Soviet airspace over Sakhalin Island. The Soviets claimed they mistook Flight 007 for an RC-135. In fact, the fighter in the photo was from the same squadron that shot down the 747.

Many Americans were killed by that awful mistake, including a U.S. Congressman. The Soviets were embarrassed and were condemned by the entire world, but President Reagan did not start WWIII over this incident and did not try to shoot down Russian aircraft in international airspace for simply approaching U.S. aircraft.

Make no mistake, the Soviets did not like us being in the area. They used aggressive tactics against us, similar to what they did against the RPA. They would fly underneath us and pitch up suddenly in front of our noses or thump us by pulling in front of us and then lighting their afterburners to shake our aircraft violently. We were careful to maintain our course and not provoke them in any way. We filed formal protests but did not escalate the situation.

My point is, the Russians recent aggressive actions are nothing new. In my opinion, there is a good chance it was simply pilot error that the Russian fighter ran into the RPA. We dont know what damage was done to the Russian fighter. He could have easily lost control, similar to what happened to a Chinese fighter when it collided with a Navy EP-3 in 2001. It would be a risky maneuver to do on purpose. I think Senator Graham should take a step back before proposing dangerous rules of engagement that could trigger WWIII.

My correspondents point is that, while we must be ready, willing, and able to defend ourselves, because it is dangerous to be too weak, the last thing we should do is rush the U.S. into a full-on hot war with a nuclear power over an ambiguous interaction. And thats the Reagan-era way to do things.
Tim Walz, Minnesotas Democratic governor, recently signed Executive Order 23-03, effectively making Minnesota a sanctuary state for gender-transitioning treatments and procedures. Several of the bills provisions require various health organizations to provide such services-- and forbid them from sharing information with other states that have banned such treatment for minors.

Both Walz and Minnesota's lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan, also a Democrat (of course), spoke at a press conference celebrating the signing.

Walz sniffed: In this state, hate has no home. In this state, love and acceptance is what we preach.

Is it? Are they? Might want to ask the taxpayers if thats the case. Or all those who have been victimized by violentand othercrimes due to a general disdain for law enforcement. And the North Star state certainly isnt a sanctuary for fiscal conservatives, or those with traditional social, cultural, or religious values.

Not to be outdone, Flanagan stated: When our children tell us who they are, it is our job as grown-ups to listen and to believe them. Thats what it means to be a good parent.

Yes, encouraging the permanent genital mutilation of your young children has understandably long been considered the standard forand hallmark of-- good parentingin the (hopefully) rare instances when the good parents havent chosen to abort their offspring. (Minnesota is also a sanctuary state for abortions!)

If a good parent now encourages their confused childs self-mutilation, what else qualifies as good parenting in our depraved brave new world? Should good parents offer their kids a pack of Marlboros? A pint of 151 rum? Urge them to take the Tide Pod challenge and go play in the street? Let them do whatever they want, because all the other kids are doing it?

Perhaps progressives would like to see a new version of the classic Mr. Potato Head doll introduced. One with which the kiddies could lop offand add onvarious body partswilly-nilly (so-to-speak). This would allow them to design in advance the specific gender and body types they themselves wish to be going forward. The new woke dolls penises, vaginas, clitorises, breasts, buttocks, noses, etc., would of course come in various colors and sizes, thereby affording the youngsters a nearly limitless number of combinations and endless hours of inclusive fun! Accessories such as pins, buttons, and posters would also be part of the deluxe kit (only $5 more!), and would come with messages like My body, my choice, Keep your hands off my uterus, Love is love, Yes, I am polysexual. Jealous? and Pigs in a blanket, fry em like bacon. (New from Hasbro!)

In actuality, a good parents job as a grown-up is to do whats best for his or her child in the long run, not succumb to tantrums, peer pressure, or the hatred of the woke mafia. A good parent loves his or her child enough that he or she will accept being ostracized by the New Jacobins. A good parent will talk to, explain, counsel, and tutor their offspring. That is what good parents do for their children, to help them prepare for adulthood, when they are free to make decisions entirely on their own.

Good parenting doesnt involve kowtowing to trite phrases or new fads. Nor does it include puberty blockers or elective surgical alterations of a childs genitals.

Hopefully we can transition from that notion as quickly as many bought into it.

Image: Governor Tom Wolf, via Flickr // CC BY 2.0
March 21, the first day of spring, also marks Nowruz, or the beginning of a new year on the Iranian calendar.

As the Iranian people begin their year 1402, the promise of change is still in the air, but so is the threat of greater reprisals by Irans repressive theocracy. It remains to be seen which of those two trends will come out on top, and whether the nation will ultimately realize the promise inherent in the holidays name, which translates to new day.

The answer to that question may depend in large part on the actions that Western powers take in the coming days. Appropriate action depends upon an accurate understanding of the situation as it exists today, and unfortunately, both Western lawmakers and the international media have inconsistent track records when it comes to recognizing what the Iranian people and the clerical regime are each capable of.

There has been a resurgence in popular unrest in recent weeks, as activists marked 40 days since the execution of two protesters, and public attention then moved squarely towards the mass poisoning of schoolgirls throughout the country.

That latter phenomenon began on November 30 but has grown considerably worse since then, with dozens of schools across ten provinces apparently being attacked last Saturday alone. The incidents are widely assumed to be punishment, either by regime authorities or their supporters, for women and girls playing such a prominent role in the protests that broke out in September after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was killed by morality police for wearing her mandatory hijab too loosely.

Some Western NGOs, as well as institutions like the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom, have voiced agreement that Iranian authorities are, at a minimum, tolerating the gas attacks that are evidently intended to shut down girls schools and discourage future on-campus activism. But these statements are at odds with prior reporting which gave the Iranian regime entirely too much credit in terms of its willingness to adopt reforms and compromise with protesters.

The uprisings initial focus on Aminis killing prompted countless women throughout the country to remove and often burn their hijabs, leading to much speculation that the regime would not be able to restore the status quo even after protests died down. After a few months, that speculation gave way to reports that the morality police had been disbanded and that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had expressed openness to changes in the forced veiling law. Both reports proved to be false.

The claim about an end to morality patrols was credited to Irans attorney general, but it was never in his authority to disband the institution, and his remarks most likely referred to pending changes to its name, leadership, or operations.

Claims about Khameneis openness to such compromise were even harder to substantiate, because they emerged in the wake of a speech wherein he explicitly stated that the hijab remains an inviolable necessity. In fact, the supreme leader was urging his followers not to stoke further public backlash by punishing women as apostates, but to focus on bringing them back into the fold, whether by persuasion or conversion. It is a directive that is surely consistent with the idea of poisoning schoolgirls in an effort to terrorize them into compliance.

The misreporting on Khameneis December speech is reminiscent of a longstanding Western trend of assuming that Tehran is capable of internal reform.

Traditionally, the most optimistic Western policymakers have espoused the view that Tehran could be compelled to reform through engagement with its so-called moderate political faction. It is especially ridiculous to suggest that Khamenei himself could be the agent of that change, but this seems to be the view that some people have adopted by default since the supreme leader and the Revolutionary Guards consolidated power and pushed virtually all the supposed reformist out of government during the past two election cycles.

In 2021, Ebrahim Raisi was appointed president of the Islamic Republic, amidst massive popular outcry which condemned him as the butcher of Tehran on account of his role in the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, as well as the mass murder of 1,500 protesters in November 2019. Amnesty International condemned the election as a grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran, yet Western policy still did not change to reflect the reality that Irans theocratic system is fundamentally incapable of reform.

This reality was articulated last week by the Resistance leader Maryam Rajavi, who has been designated by the National Council of Resistance of Iran to serve as transitional president following the regimes overthrow. Speaking before a congressional hearing that presented a bipartisan resolution in support of the ongoing uprising, Rajavi said: 

The world has witnessed that, despite killing and imprisonment the Iranian regime has neither the intent nor the capability to offer any solutions. Instead, the mullahs only know one path, which is more torture, execution, and repression. The increased repression, coupled with the regime's disastrous economic policies and corruption, has only deepened the divide between the Iranian people and the ruling theocracy.

This means that there is still time for the U.S. government, along with the United Kingdom, the European Union, and its member states, to adopt policies that align with the recent congressional resolution, and to provide genuine support for Iranian protesters, beyond the mere verbal condemnation of human rights abuses which has been predominant so far.

Under the previous administration, the U.S. took a crucial first step by designating the Revolutionary Guards  the entity most responsible for crackdowns on dissent inside Iran  as a terrorist organization. Now, the current administration should urge all U.S. allies to follow suit and to join in multilateral efforts to weaken Irans repressive institutions while empowering its civilian population. If Western powers take prudent steps in that direction, it is all but certain that the forthcoming Iranian calendar year will truly mark a new day for that nation.

Image: Twitter video screen shot
A funny thing happened at the daily White House press briefing. Here is the story:

Frustration over the top among the White House press. They say President Biden has a long pattern of refusing to answer their questions. I mean, this is their job every day. They show up to ask him questions. Here he is ignoring them again during his meeting with the Irish Prime Minister. So when he doesn't do the walkaway, you just get the lifted eyebrow. He's not going to take a question, no. They're investigating his family members for sketchy business dealings with China. But just yesterday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre promised this time, today would be different.

But it won't be different. Why should it be different?

Back in the election of 2020, the media allowed Mr. Biden to run a basement campaign because of COVID. It was more than that. It was a campaign of doing interviews with selected and friendly reporters. For example, did Mr. Biden do an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday? Wallace always did good, strong interviews and asked good questions. The media participated in keeping the candidate from answering the kinds of questions they were always showering Mr. Trump with.

Why doesn't President Biden take their questions today? He never did, and that's why he walks away each time. Honestly, he thinks they are in the tank for him, and that's the way it is, as a famous nightly news host used to say.

PS: Check out my blog for posts, podcasts, and videos.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Considering how egregiously parents' rights have been trampled in recent years, federal parental rights legislation recently reintroduced in Congress sounds promising, but its premise is dangerous. In fact, it could result in eroding parents' God-given rights to direct the upbringing of their children.

The precedent for parental rights legislation was initiated by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, whose bill was dubbed by critics the "Don't Say Gay" bill. A noteworthy feature of the DeSantis law is that it prohibits sexuality education in kindergarten through third grade (five- through nine-year-olds). It is hard to believe that we need a law to prohibit sexuality education for children who, at these young ages, aren't even thinking about sexuality, but nonetheless it is necessary.

Governor DeSantis has done more for protecting children and our country's freedom than any governor I have observed in my lifetime. He has been right on education policy on many fronts and continues to take the lead on commonsense education policy. But the reality is that parental rights are determined by our Creator, not the government. Despite such good intentions from leaders like DeSantis, any parental rights legislation is flawed at its inception, suggesting that parents' rights are determined by government rather than the fundamental, inalienable rights of parents afforded by their Creator.

Prominent conservative legal scholar Joanna Martin, J.D. recently published an article titled "A Massive Transfer of Power over Children from Parents to Governments," where she discusses similar concerns with parental rights legislation. She writes specifically about the bill passed by the North Carolina Senate, saying, "[W]hat SB 49 does is to transfer power over children from parents to governments. Parents' 'rights' consist of the privilege of being notified of decisions made respecting their children by governments; and they are granted certain rights to challenge some of the decisions."

At last count, seventy-three Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives are sponsors of the federal parental rights bill, filed March 1, 2023. Several bill sponsors are also Freedom Caucus members, which raises the question: have they read the bill? Do they understand the implication of government delineating parental authority?

Right now, when parents file lawsuits citing an infringement of their parental rights, they do so on "a fundamental inalienable right" basis. According to the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, "[w]e have at least a century of U.S. constitutional jurisprudence explaining that the history and culture of Western civilization reflects a strong tradition of parental rights, and the U.S. Supreme Court has described parental rights as 'beyond debate as an enduring American tradition.'"

If parental rights laws are passed, the point of debate becomes the content and context of that law, not the fundamental right. We could end up arguing whether or not a school counselor has the right to assist children in accessing medical "treatment" like gender transitioning drugs and surgeries, based on some loophole in the new law. Fundamental, inalienable rights do not have loopholes.

The mission for the nonprofit organization where I serve as president is to close the U.S. Department of Education and end all federal education mandates. This is the mission because we understand that nefarious pedagogies originate and are pushed onto states by federal agencies incentivized with federal dollars.

Federal parental rights legislation creates more federal education mandates. This is a step in the wrong direction if our goal is to restore parental and local control of education.

The federal Republican bill, which passed out of committee 25 to 17, now moves to the full House. In the meantime, the Democrats have offered alternative legislation, which touts "inclusive, safe, and responsive public schools ... and protecting the civil rights of students and families."

I like the simplicity of the Republican bill, but when reading explanations offered by leading advocates for parental rights legislation, they make it clear that these rights already exist!

One persuasive point in the federal legislation is parental ability to influence what the child experiences within a public school. But this is a local control issue. We must hold school boards accountable. After all, the true implementation of this control must happen at the local level. A rogue teacher who ignores approved parental restrictions will not face a federal law. But school boards could set policy to fire him.

U.S. Parents Involved in Education seeks to return education to its proper local roots and restore parental authority over their children's education by helping parents and local communities to escape federal and other national influences.

Sheri Few is the founder and president of United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE), whose mission is to end the U.S. Department of Education and all federal education mandates. USPIE has established 20 state chapters and is growing rapidly amid the national outcry from parents who want to regain control of their children's education. Few is a nationally recognized leader on education policy and is often quoted in conservative media. Few has spent much of the last year exposing Critical Race Theory and serving as executive producer for the new documentary film titled Truth & Lies in American Education.

Image: Eric Ward.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur (PTI file image)

Kochi: Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Saturday urged the media fraternity in the country to remain cautious and desist from giving its space to narratives that threaten the nation's integrity.

Substandard and illogical opinions, delivered freely from within or abroad, could not destroy the democratic nature of the country, he added.

"I urge the media fraternity to remain cautious and desist from giving its space intentionally or unintentionally to such voices and narratives that have the potential to threaten the integrity of India," he said.

The minister was speaking while participating as a special guest in the centenary celebrations of eminent Malayalam daily "Mathrubhumi".

He said there is a proverb that facts are sacred and opinion is free.

"I want to emphasise here that the democratic nature of our great nation will always remain a fact, no matter how many substandard and illogical opinions are delivered freely from within or abroad," Thakur added.
Reactions to Ron DeSantis's controversial answers to Tucker Carlson's questions on Ukraine came fast and furious. Every one of his potential rivals, including Mike Pence, Nikki Hailey, Chris Christie, and many others, came out denouncing the governor's position. So did the leftist media  but they are not being honest about what the governor's position actually is.

With Ron DeSantis yet to announce his presidential run, he is already much farther ahead in the polls than his main rivals, aside from Donald Trump. The governor's popularity and ability to deliver for the party are unprecedented in recent history. So far, his policies have been so effective that his opponents have had no lines of to attack against him.

The governor's comments on Ukraine were the first "controversial" (by conservative standards) move he made in four years. That caused the Wall Street Journal editorial board to conclude that it was his "first big mistake." But was it "a first big mistake," or was it just the first issue that Republicans don't universally agree on?

Here are a few quotes from the WSJ.

Then how to explain his puzzling surrender this week to the Trumpian temptation of American retreat?

That statement itself is puzzling, considering that President Trump never advocated for "American retreat." His foreign policy was smart, calculating, and aggressive. The world's worst actors, like Putin, feared him  and thus, under Trump's watch, the world was much more stable. If the WSJ needs a definition of "American retreat," all it has to do is look at Obama's and Biden's foreign policy blunders. Whether you believe that Putin would have invaded Ukraine with Trump in office, Trump's foreign policy successes are hard to deny. If Mr. DeSantis (or any candidate) did embrace Trump's foreign policy, he would be wise in doing so.

That's not too strong a way to describe his decision to call the war in Ukraine a "territorial dispute" that isn't a vital U.S. interest.

Democrats immediately labeled Mr. DeSantis's comments as describing the Russian invasion as "territorial dispute"  but it is, at best, a loose interpretation of his words. While the governor would have been wise to clarify his statement, he was arguably talking about the Donbass conflict, which was defined as such for years. While the WSJ may disagree with his definition, misrepresenting his words in a way he never meant them is not an honest way of disagreeing.

Moreover, defining a conflict as "not a vital U.S. interest" is in no way "a retreat" or "isolationism." Very few people would argue that every conflict on Earth is equally vital for the U.S. to be involved in. Saying that some conflicts have higher priority is not "flirting with isolationism."

If you argue that a deranged villain with a nuclear arsenal does indeed present a danger to the world, I share your view. I agree that deterring Putin is a vital U.S. interest, and I disagree with Mr. DeSantis and other conservatives who think otherwise. However, before I accuse any of them of "isolationism," I want to understand what policy they are proposing.

In his comments, Governor DeSantis criticized the current policy, but he stopped short of proposing a policy of his own. In that, he did not act at all different from the people who are now criticizing him. Considering that a state governor likely lacks the intelligence necessary to define foreign policy. That was not in any way disingenuous. The governor, quite simply, gave as ambiguous an answer as he could possibly give, which is the opposite of what the media are accusing him of.

Mr. DeSantis drew the line at giving Ukraine offensive weapons  and this is not a controversial position. Do other Republican candidates who criticized the governor support this policy, knowing that it will likely lead to the deadly escalation of the conflict, resulting in many more casualties? None of the candidates went on the record saying that. Instead, they chose to denounce another candidate in very general terms rather than articulating their own specific proposals. While I disagree with some of the language the governor used, I will withhold my judgement until he, and other candidates, unveil their specific goals, and the means to achieve them, vis-a-vis Ukraine.

[DeSantis] called for "peace," albeit without explaining how to avoid making it a peace of the grave for Ukrainians if the West withdraws its support while Vladimir Putin advances.

Any kind of "peace" in Ukraine requires at least some (and likely heavy) U.S. involvement. I don't think that if you are honest, you would suggest that what the governor means by "peace" is surrendering a sovereign country to an evil dictator. To me, hearing "without question, peace should be the objective" is way more reassuring than financing a bloody war with no end in sight, which is the policy of the current administration.

Mr. Biden hasn't helped public support for Ukraine by tethering his case to bromides about democracy and international "rules," rather than the U.S. national interest. ... He also hasn't made a dispassionate case for why keeping an adversary like Mr. Putin off the NATO border and degrading his military power makes the U.S. safer. Mr. DeSantis has a point that Mr. Biden doesn't have "defined objectives" in Ukraine  other than giving it enough arms to resist but not enough to drive Russia out of the country. This is a recipe for extended conflict.

The WSJ is correct in pointing out that Biden's Ukraine policy has been an abject failure, at least as far as explaining it to the American people. If Republicans are not on board with his policy, it is solely the fault of Mr. Biden. He utterly failed to articulate how billions of dollars in aid has helped Ukrainians, has brought the war closer to the end, or what "the end" even looks like. An inept president who made a habit of lying to his people, and demonstrated complete incompetence at solving any problem, would be better advised than expecting people to blindly trust him with handling a bloody war.

While many prominent Republicans are attacking Governor DeSantis for his comments, it is safe to say that their own policy prescriptions for ending Ukraine war would not be very different from the governor's as it stands today. It will become quite clear when the debates roll around and the candidates will be asked for concrete proposals rather than vague slogans.

This could become less a policy issue than a matter of character. What does Ron DeSantis believe, anyway?

If you follow Governor DeSantis closely, as the WSJ clearly does not, the suggestion that he lacks character, that he believes in appeasing evil dictators, that he will ever advocate for "American retreat," or that he will ever "surrender to Trumpian right"  or anybody else, for that matter  sounds outlandish and grotesque.

Tanya Berlaga is a freelance writer, translator, and a publisher and is currently a contributor to Right Wire Report, The Liberty Loft, and Free Speech Movement.

Image: Ron DeSantis. Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Agriculture minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy. (Image Source:Twitter)

VIJAYAWADA: Agriculture minister Kakani Govardhan has reiterated the state governments claim that AP recorded a gross state domestic product (GSDP) growth rate of 16.22 per cent in 2022-23.

This was as per advance estimates, when compared with the previous years GSDP, he said on Friday, in a strong retort to the Opposition Telugu Desam members submission that no growth was evident in the state in the past four years of the YSRC rule. "The state government was unable to pay wages to its employees on the first day of every month," the TD members had said to stress their point.

Taking part in the discussions on the motion of thanks to the Governors address of the legislature, the minister said in the legislative council that the YSRC government was according to top priority to education, health and agriculture.

Referring to the implementation of the Amma Vodi scheme, wherein 15,000 was being deposited in the bank accounts of mothers who send their children to school, and not to fields to do labour, he asked the TD members why their leader Chandrababu Naidu did not implement such schemes during his term as CM.

He slammed the TD for imposing a ceiling of 35,000 in the fee reimbursement scheme during Naidus rule.

Legislator DMV Prasad who moved the motion of thanks to the Governor, lauded the CM for introducing the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme for welfare funds disbursals, avoiding the role of intermediaries, so as to help the beneficiaries get the money directly into their bank accounts.

He said CM Jagan mentioned a class war was about the fight between the rich and the poor and underlined the need to eradicate the caste system.

YSRC MLC Varudu Kalyani lauded Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy for fulfilling 98.5 per cent of his poll promises and wished that he should become the permanent CM for Andhra Pradesh.

TD MLC K.E. Prabhakar said the Governors address missed certain key facts about the state. The legislator disagreed with the states claim of a GSDP growth of 16.22 per cent, by saying that, if so, it should be reflected in a rise in revenue, which did not happen anyway.

"There was no economic growth in AP, no growth in infrastructure and no new road has been laid.

As for education, Class X pass percentage recorded at 93.63 per cent during the TD term was way above the 64 per cent in 2021-22 under the YSR Congress term. Nearly 2.31 lakh inter-students failed in 2022-23, a sad commentary on the quality of higher education being provided in the state now. The governor was misled by the state government in several respects and it made him read out a statement that hid several facts about AP," he said

MLC Lakshmana Rao said that there was less development in major sectors. Tenant farmers were being subjected to a lot of injustice as they were not getting any support from the state government due to certain faulty norms. The quality of school bags and shoes given to the students was not good. The government must release salaries to government employees on the first of every month, he said, and wondered as to why the 12th PRC was not mentioned in the budget.

TD MLC Ashok Babu said Dr BR Ambedkar should have specified certain additional norms for preparing the budget so as to avoid controversy and confusion as in the case of the GSDP growth rate.

Referring to the annual Status of Education Report 2022, he said the quality of education for classes V and VIII was falling as there was a shortage of teachers.

He asked the government to notify the District Selection Committee and take up recruitment of teachers to fill up the vacancies in government schools.
US President Joe Biden has joined Britain in welcoming the International Criminal Courts (ICC) decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine.

Mr Biden said Mr Putin had clearly committed war crimes and the warrant, although not recognised in the US, was justified and made a very strong point.

His remarks came after UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said it was essential that those at the top of the regime in Moscow were held to account for the atrocities which have taken place since the invasion a year ago.

The Hague-based ICC said it was issuing the warrant for the arrest of the Russian leader over the alleged abduction and deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Those responsible for horrific war crimes in Ukraine must be brought to justice. We welcome the step taken by the independent ICC to hold those at the top of the Russian regime, including Vladimir Putin, to account. Work must continue to investigate the atrocities committed.  James Cleverly (@JamesCleverly) March 17, 2023

The charges were immediately dismissed by the Kremlin  which does not recognise the ICC  as legally void.

However, Mr Cleverly said in a statement posted on social media: Those responsible for horrific war crimes in Ukraine must be brought to justice.

We welcome the step taken by the independent ICC to hold those at the top of the Russian regime, including Vladimir Putin, to account.

Work must continue to investigate the atrocities committed.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, also backed the move.

I welcome the International Criminal Courts decision to open war crime cases against Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian figures for their barbaric actions in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/gm6owNZ98h  Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) March 17, 2023

Todays announcement sends an important message: there will no hiding place for Putin and his cronies and the world is determined to make them pay for what they have done, he said.

These cases are just the tip of the iceberg. One day Putin will face justice: until then, the focus of all who believe in Ukraines liberty and freedom must continue to be on ensuring her victory.

While there is no immediate prospect of Mr Putin facing arrest, legal experts have pointed to the examples of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and Liberias president Charles Taylor as international leaders who wound up in the dock in The Hague.

Dominic Raab, the Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, told the BBC: It is, I suspect, going to be a long journey but people said that about Yugoslavia and Rwanda and many of those people responsible for the carnage ended up in the dock of a court.

In the short term it will be very hard for President Putin to move around the world because there are so many countries who are parties to the ICC who will be duty bound to arrest him.
A barrister, who previously represented high-profile figures including former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, has admitted buying drugs from some of his clients.

Henry Hendron, 42, was remanded in custody after pleading guilty to three counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence and count of possessing Class A drugs at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday, the Metropolitan Police said.

Messages from Hendron were found on the phone of a suspected drug dealer, who the barrister was representing in a criminal case, asking him to supply him with drugs.

Henry Hendrons client list included Tory MP Nadine Dorries (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

An investigation found evidence he was also buying drugs from another client he was representing.

Detective Inspector Lewis Sanderson said: At the time of his arrest Hendron was a serving barrister.

The behaviour displayed by Hendron, while acting for the Bar, was unacceptable, unethical and illegal.

Actions like his can tarnish the reputation of all those involved in the criminal justice system and the whole team were determined to bring him to account.

As a result of the hard work and thorough investigation, Hendron has been now been made to face the consequences of his actions.

Hendron, who was called to the Bar in 2006, was known for representing prominent clients including the Earl of Cardigan.

He acted for Tory MP Ms Dorries, who later served as culture secretary, in a civil matter in 2009, according to reports.

But his career floundered after his 18-year-old boyfriend Miguel Jimenez was found dead at the flat the couple shared in Pump Court, Temple, in the City of London, after taking a lethal cocktail of so-called chemsex party drugs.

He admitted buying 1,000 worth of M-cat or Meow Meow and GBL from award-winning BBC producer Alex Parkin and was sentenced to 140 hours of unpaid work at the Old Bailey in 2016.

Parkin was sentenced to 200 hours.

Hendron, from Soho, central London, is expected to be sentenced for the latest charges on April 17.

At a previous hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court last year, prosecutor Tom Broomfield said they related to Hendron encouraging the supply of Class A, crystal methamphetamine, and Class C, GBL, drugs from a former client of Mr Hendron, who was a practising barrister at the time.

Police said officers arrested a man in 2021 on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A, B and C drugs and forensically examined his phone, which contained messages from Hendron asking the suspect, his client, to supply him with drugs.

The investigation later found evidence from 2020, showing Hendron was buying drugs from another one of his clients.

Hendron was suspended by the Bar Standards Board for three years following his 2016 convictions.

He was reprimanded and prohibited from undertaking public access work for two years following a disciplinary hearing in 2021 after holding himself out as a barrister on websites while suspended.
The Home Secretary has reaffirmed her commitment to the controversial Rwanda deportation policy as she visits the country while the 140 million deal remains embroiled in legal battles.

Suella Braverman said the plan will act as a powerful deterrent against dangerous and illegal journeys ahead of her trip to the African nation on Friday.

The visit is her first to the country as Home Secretary after her predecessor Priti Patel signed the agreement in April last year in a bid to deter small boat crossings.

Charity Freedom from Torture has joined a number of media outlets in their criticism of the publicly-funded visit, labelling it a showboat trip after the Independent said outlets such as the BBC, The Guardian and Daily Mirror were not invited.

Priti Patel and Rwandan minister for foreign affairs and international co-operation Vincent Biruta, signing the deal (Flora Thompson/PA)

Doubling down on her commitment to the Rwanda deportation policy, Ms Braverman said: The UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership is a ground-breaking approach that will act as a powerful deterrent against dangerous and illegal journeys such as small boat crossings.

It will also support people to rebuild their lives in a new country, and provide a boost to Rwandas fast-growing economy through a significant investment in jobs, skills, and opportunities.

I am visiting Rwanda this weekend to reinforce the Governments commitment to the partnership as part of our plan to stop the boats and discuss plans to operationalise our agreement shortly.

The Desir Resort Hotel in Kigali, where it is believed migrants from the UK are expected to be taken when they arrive (Victoria Jones/PA)

Ms Braverman also hit back at critics of the deal, saying Rwanda can hold many thousands of migrants  although none have yet been relocated.

She said: The suggestion that Rwanda can only take 200 people is a completely false narrative peddled by critics who want to scrap the deal.

Rwanda has the capacity to resettle many thousands of people, and can quickly stand up accommodation once flights begin.

During her trip, the Home Secretary is due to meet President Paul Kagame and her counterpart Vincent Biruta to discuss the deal.

We will discuss all aspects of the partnership, which is not just about deterring illegal and dangerous journeys to the UK, but about ensuring those genuinely in need of protection are supported to build a new life in Rwanda, Ms Braverman said.

She is also due to speak with those leading on accommodation projects to house migrants as well as speak with refugees who have settled in the country.

Ms Braverman will meet with investment start-up professionals and entrepreneurs, to discuss the range of business and employment opportunities available in Rwanda.

Continuing to detail her support for the plan, she said: Within three to six months, the Rwandan government will ensure that migrants are housed and integrated into local communities.

I am looking forward to seeing some of the new, modern housing developments being built in Kigali, which will be used to house some of those resettled in Rwanda.

The governments plan to forcibly remove migrants to the African nation is currently grounded by the courts  with asylum seekers being told on Tuesday they could appeal against Home Office decisions to relocate them.

A group of individuals from countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria are aiming to overturn rulings made by two High Court judges in December  who dismissed a series of legal bids against the Governments plan.

After details emerged of the Home Secretarys trip to Rwanda, Sonya Sceats, chief executive at Freedom from Torture, described the policy as a cash-for-humans scheme.

She said: Braverman is jetting off on a showboat trip to Rwanda the very week that the Court of Appeal has accepted that there are serious questions to be answered over the legality of this Governments cash-for-humans scheme.

Following the outpouring of support for Gary Lineker and his compassionate stand on behalf of refugees, this Government knows it is on the back foot and is once again ramping up the cruelty to distract from their own failures.

Rather than pushing through this inhumane and unworkable policy, ministers should focus on establishing safe routes to the UK and tackling the unacceptable backlog of asylum claims, so people fleeing war and persecution can rebuild their lives with dignity.
Strong demand for low-cost eastern European destinations is driving a surge in the number of UK families booking city breaks, according to an online holiday company.

Thomas Cook said family city break bookings so far this year are around 40% higher compared with the same period in 2022.

This is partly due to a three-fold increase in Krakow trips, while demand for Budapest has doubled.

Half of New York holidays booked with Thomas Cook are by families, compared with just one in seven this time last year.

Other urban centres popular with families this year include Athens and Paris.

Rome remains the companys most in-demand city break location despite bookings decreasing by a third year-on-year.

Thomas Cooks head of product Emma King said: While beach breaks remain number one for families, were seeing that the cities of Europe and beyond are pulling in the family crowds this year.

Whether its capturing world-famous sights or exploring the culture and history of the worlds most captivating streets and piazzas, it seems families are making up for lost time.

Were also seeing families spread their wings beyond the typical city break destinations and explore alternative getaways to places like Krakow, Budapest and Athens, all of which offer great value and rich history to explore.
A fifth person has been detained in connection with the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old man in south-east London.

Kai Osibodu, 23, has been charged with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder following the death of Kai McGinley in Erith.

Metropolitan Police officers were called to Pembroke Road in the area at around 8.50pm on February 9, where Mr McGinley was found with gunshot wounds.

London Ambulance Service also attended and medics attempted to treat Mr McGinley, but he died at the scene.

The Met previously charged four people in connection with the shooting.

Enriko Spahiu, 20, of Elmhurst, Belvedere and Jalees Selby-Gangera, 18, of Woodfield Close, Erith were charged with murder and attempted murder on March 9.

Kai McGinley (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Connor Brooks, 20, of Horsa Road, Erith, and Bradlee Reeve, 33, of Chapman Road, Erith, were charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder on March 11.

A plea hearing is scheduled for May 30 at the Old Bailey with a trial to follow at the same court on January 3 2024.

Officers have also arrested three other people in connection to the murder, who have since all either been bailed or released without further action.

A 16-year-old girl was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender on March 9, and a 53-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.

Both have been bailed pending further inquiries.

A 17-year-old male arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder was released with no further action.

Inquiries into the circumstances remain ongoing.

Osibodu, of Riverdale Road, Erith, south-east London, appeared at Bromley Magistrates Court on Saturday, speaking to confirm his name, address and date of birth during the brief hearing.

He was remanded in custody ahead of his next court appearance at the Old Bailey on March 21.
The impact of roadkill is far more shocking than previously thought, researchers have warned, based on an analysis of animal populations worldwide.

Collisions with vehicles on the road was found to be the most common cause of death in almost a third (28%) of all 150 animals populations studied  ahead of disease, hunting, and predation.

The researchers said their findings, recently published in the journal Biological Reviews, indicate that some mammal populations could as a result reach a tipping point  a critical threshold that when crossed could become irreversible.

Lead researcher Lauren Moore, of Nottingham Trent Universitys School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences, said: The extent of roadkill is far more shocking than wed previously imagined and it is clear that it is implicated in a possible tipping point for some wild populations.

While sometimes the raw numbers of animals killed may appear relatively low, roadkill can, directly and indirectly, contribute to mortality rates outnumbering reproduction rates, making populations vulnerable.

Ms Moore and her colleagues reviewed 83 studies investigating mammal deaths across 69 species.

Of the 83 studies, two that focused on the UK found that 29% of polecat mortalities and 25% of hedgehog mortalities were due to roads, while 9% of the hedgehog population was killed on roads.

The study found that 25% of hedgehog mortalities in the UK were due to roads (Chris Jackson/PA)

Ms Moore said the polecat research showed that the time, money, and effort put in to rehabilitate injured or sick creatures was negated by roads, and that efforts to reinforce or reintroduce threatened species will be limited by roads.

Globally, species most likely to be killed on roads included Tasmanian devils (native to Australia), Virginia opossums, San Clemente island foxes (native to California), African wild dogs (native to sub-Saharan Africa), and fox squirrels (native to North America).

The team also found that across some populations of animals, up to 80% of all known mortality was due to collisions with vehicles.

More than half (58%) of all fox squirrel deaths in the populations were attributed to vehicles, along with almost half (46%) of Virginia opossum deaths, the study showed.

For the Iberian lynx in Spain  classed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)  59% and 80% of total deaths in two populations were due to vehicle collisions.

Meanwhile, 38% of endangered African wild dog and 48% of near-threatened San Clemente island fox populations were killed on roads.

Of 50 Tasmanian devils  classed as endangered  released into the wild from captive breeding programmes, the researchers found 38% were killed on roads.

The growth rate of vulnerable giant anteater populations in Brazil was halved due to vehicle collisions, scientists said (Chris Young/PA)

The team also said the growth rate of vulnerable giant anteater populations in Brazil was halved due to vehicle collisions and if this continues, populations are likely to go extinct in around 10 years.

Other species also likely to be killed on roads included common genets, western quolls, common wallaroos, grey wolves, grey foxes, American black bears, and pumas.

Dr Silviu Petrovan, study co-author and senior researcher at the University of Cambridge, said: We all see roadkill when driving but, as this study shows, this mortality can have very different impacts for different species.

Ms Moore added: The effect of roads on wild animal populations are one of the most pressing contemporary conservation issues and with road networks increasing globally we need to urgently address this.

Quantifying the impact of roadkill in this way is important in order to help influence road planning management and decisions, along with future mitigation work.
The Liberal Democrats are calling on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to scrap planned tax cuts for banks to fund a pay rise for carers.

In a speech to the partys spring conference in York, Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney will say ministers could comfortably afford a 2-an-hour pay rise for social care workers commissioned by local authorities if they took back money from the banks.

The party said an analysis of figures in the Office for Budget Responsibilitys latest forecasts showed dropping a cut in the bank surcharge  confirmed by Mr Hunt in the Budget on Wednesday  and reversing a previous Conservative reduction to the bank levy could bring in up to 3.8 billion a year.

It said this would enable the Government to cover the cost of recruiting 150,000 additional care workers at the new higher rate of pay at a time when there are 165,000 vacancies in the sector.

Ms Olney said: Its baffling that this Conservative Government is pressing ahead with handing out billions in tax cuts for the big banks, while the NHS is crumbling and families struggle to pay the bills.

It shows yet again that Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are staggeringly out of touch and have their priorities totally wrong.

Fixing our broken social care system needs to be top of the agenda. The Chancellor needs to go back to the drawing board with these plans.

This money would be far better spent funding a pay rise for carers and investing in our NHS.
Author Michael Rosen has echoed Gary Linekers statement about perceived parallels between the language used surrounding the Governments immigration policies and Nazi Germany, while speaking on a stage outside Downing Street.

The former childrens laureate cited Lineker during a speech which condemned the Illegal Migration Bill and Suella Bravermans rhetoric to hundreds of protesters who had marched to Whitehall.

Rosen, 76, addressed the crowd after a speech by the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who now sits as an independent MP after losing the whip.

The Were Going On A Bear Hunt author said: Suella Braverman stood in the House (of Commons) and talked vaguely of connections of people coming in the small boats and drug crime.

Notice also Bravermans use of the word obsession  she said she had an obsession with the planes leaving for Rwanda.

Thats precisely to soften us all up to the idea that importing people to another country is legitimate, its legal, and someone in the highest office in the land, if she can have this obsession, it must be right, and legal, and sane, when in actual fact, its irrational.

People have asked, as we know, with Gary Lineker, is it the language of Germany in the 1930s?

He used the words not dissimilar  he didnt say it was identical.

There was talk then of people being inevitably or habitualy criminal who had to be got rid of.

Speaking with the PA news agency shortly afterwards, Mr Rosen said he attended the protest because he felt it was very important to show we stand by refugees by opposing the Illegal Migration Bill.

He said: I think that this Government is playing a very dangerous game, theyre stoking peoples fears, particularly fears of the stranger.

This is a very old game of scapegoating and blaming people  vulnerable people  and saying to people who are poor and people who are unhappy: the cause of your poverty and the cause of your unhappiness are these people arriving in small boats.

This is what the Government does to shore up power, theyre very, very nervous that theyre going to lose power.

It was a game that was played during the 1940s, there was a word which circulated around fascists in the 1930s, a German word, fremdmoral, which means alien morals.

In a tweet shared on March 7, Lineker, 62, described the immigration bill as an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.

He was temporarily taken off air by the BBC in a subsequent row over impartiality, but returned to screens on Saturday to present coverage of an FA Cup match between Manchester City and Burnley.

The Illegal Migration Bill, introduced last week, states that refugees who arrive in the UK through unauthorised means  such as crossing the English Channel in a boat  will have their asylum claims deemed inadmissible.
Nicola Sturgeon says it was right for her husband to announce his resignation

Nicola Sturgeon has said her husband Peter Murrell was right to announce his immediate resignation as chief executive of the party she leads.

Mr Murrell said on Saturday he was stepping down from his role with immediate effect, following suggestions the partys ruling National Executive Committee was considering a vote of no confidence in him.

It comes amid a row over SNP membership numbers, sparked by the divisive battle currently taking place to replace Ms Sturgeon as both SNP leader and Scottish First Minister.

Ms Sturgeon told Sky News Mr Murrell had obviously taken responsibility for the recent issue with membership.

She added: He had intended to step down when there was a new leader but I think he was right to make that announcement today.

Ms Sturgeon continued: Peter has been a key part of the electoral success we have achieved in recent years and I know there will be a recognition of that across the party.

Michael Russell, the partys current president who has previously served as chief executive and a Scottish Government minister, will take over the operation of SNP headquarters until a permanent replacement for Mr Murrell is found.

It follows the departure of the SNP media chief Murray Foote, on Friday amid a row over the partys declining membership numbers.

Mr Murrell has been the partys chief executive for more than 20 years.

In a statement on Saturday, Mr Murrell said: Responsibility for the SNPs responses to media queries about our membership number lies with me as chief executive.

While there was no intent to mislead, I accept that this has been the outcome. I have therefore decided to confirm my intention to step down as chief executive with immediate effect.

I had not planned to confirm this decision until after the leadership election.

Mr Murrell said there had been no intent to mislead (Andy Buchanan/PA)

However, as my future has become a distraction from the campaign I have concluded that I should stand down now, so the party can focus fully on issues about Scotlands future.

The election contest is being run by the national secretary and I have had no role in it at any point.

I am very proud of what has been achieved in my time as chief executive and of the part I have played in securing the electoral success the party has enjoyed over almost two decades.

Earlier this week it emerged that the party had lost 30,000 members in just over a year.

Mr Foote said that after speaking to the partys HQ, he had issued responses to the media which had serious issues and he later decided there was a serious impediment to his role.

Mr Murrell has been the partys chief executive for two decades (Daniel Leal/PA)

On Thursday the party said membership as of February 15 this year was 72,186, having fallen from 103,884 in 2021.

This corroborated a story in the Sunday Mail in February about the SNP losing 30,000 members, something Mr Foote had strongly denied at the time.

Earlier this week two of the candidates seeking to replace Ms Sturgeon, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan, raised concerns about the integrity of the election.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf, widely viewed as the favourite for the top job among the party hierarchy, dismissed these as baseless smears.

Ms Regan said: Eight years ago was the point where it was unacceptable to have the husband of the party leader as the CEO.

 Eight years ago was the point where it was unacceptable to have the husband of the party leader as the CEO. I am encouraged to see the democratic foundations of the party now asserting their rightful function. The SNP is more than capable of https://t.co/DmIUjguXaz https://t.co/SovqNGYZK5 pic.twitter.com/kMob035SL0  Ash Regan MSP (@AshReganSNP) March 18, 2023

I am encouraged to see the democratic foundations of the party now asserting their rightful function.

The SNP is more than capable of surviving this, as long as we stick true to our roots, and we uphold the values of our members.

SNP leadership candidate Kate Forbes told BBC Radio 4s PM the party owed a debt of gratitude to Mr Murrell following news of his resignation.

But she added: From the very beginning, I have said that theres an appetite for the party to be refreshed.

That meant that along with Ms Sturgeons exit it was right that we saw a refresh of individuals in key positions of leadership across the party.

Mr Yousaf praised the outgoing chief executive as an outstanding servant of the independence movement.

The Health Secretary said: I agree with Peter that it is time for him to move on and make way for a new leader to appoint a new chief executive as passionate about the SNP and the cause of independence as he has been.

Jackie Baillie said the SNP is tearing itself apart (Lesley Martin/PA)

Meanwhile, the SNPs political opponents highlighted that the partys finances are still being investigated.

Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy MSP said: A fish rots from the head down and the same applies to the SNP.

Peter Murrells resignation is long overdue, but there remain serious questions for him to answer, not least over the missing 600,000 from party accounts.

The brutal, shambolic SNP leadership election appears to have been the tipping point thats forced the First Ministers husband to quit before he was pushed.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: This latest resignation of a top SNP figure goes to show that the wheels have fallen off the SNP wagon.

When Scotland most needs responsible governance, the SNP has turned inward and begun to tear itself apart.

Critics of the SNP under Nicola Sturgeons leadership, both inside and outside the party, have long questioned whether it is appropriate to have the same household holding both the roles of chief executive and leader.

During parliamentary hearings into the harassment inquiry around Alex Salmond, Mr Murrells role came under further scrutiny.

At one point he was accused of giving contradictory evidence to a Holyrood committee investigating the Scottish Governments botched handling of harassment allegations against Mr Salmond.
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Jan. 3, 2019, in Palm Beach, Fla. Authorities are preparing for the possibility that former President Donald Trump could be indicted and arraigned as early as next week on charges stemming from a New York City grand jury investigation into hush money paid on his behalf, four law enforcement officials said Friday, March 17, 2023. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

NEW YORK (AP)  Donald Trump said in a social media post that he expects to be arrested Tuesday as a New York prosecutor is eyeing charges in a case examining hush money paid to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president. Trump provided no evidence that suggested he was directly informed of a pending arrest and did not say how he knew of such plans.

But in a Saturday morning message on his Truth Social network, Trump noted illegal leaks from the Manhattan district attorney's office that he said indicate THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK.

Danielle Filson of the district attorney's office said prosecutors will decline to confirm or comment on questions pertaining to Trumps post, as well as potential charges. A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

The indictment of Trump, 76, would be an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings. It is likely to galvanize critics who say Trump, a 2024 presidential candidate, lied and cheated his way to the top and to embolden supporters who feel the Republican is being unfairly targeted by a Democratic prosecutor.

In his social media post, Trump repeated his lies that the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden was stolen and he urged his followers to PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK! That language evoked the message from the then-president that preceded the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 when his supporters broke through doors and windows of that building and left officers beaten and bloodied as they tried to stop the certification of the election.

Law enforcement officials in New York have been making security preparations for the possibility that Trump could be indicted.

There has been no public announcement of any time frame for the grand jurys secret work in the case, including any potential vote on whether to indict the ex-president.

Trump's posting echoes one made last summer when he broke the news on Truth Social that the FBI was searching his home as part of an investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents.

The grand jury in Manhattan has been hearing from witnesses, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who says he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to silence them about sexual encounters they said they had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump denies the encounters occurred, says he did nothing wrong and has cast the investigation as a witch hunt by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republicans 2024 presidential campaign.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Trumps company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the womens allegations quiet.

Daniels and at least two former Trump aides  onetime political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokesperson Hope Hicks  are among witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks.

Cohen has said that at Trumps direction, he arranged payments totaling $280,000 to porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the payouts were to buy their silence about Trump, who was then in the thick of his first presidential campaign.

Cohen and federal prosecutors said the company paid him $420,000 to reimburse him for the $130,000 payment to Daniels and to cover bonuses and other supposed expenses. The company classified those payments internally as legal expenses. The $150,000 payment to McDougal was made by the then-publisher of the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer, which kept her story from coming to light.

Federal prosecutors agreed not to prosecute the Enquirers corporate parent in exchange for its cooperation in a campaign finance investigation that led to charges against Cohen in 2018. Prosecutors said the payments to Daniels and McDougal amounted to impermissible, unrecorded gifts to Trumps election effort.

Cohen pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors never charged Trump with any crime. ___

Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao. (Photo:Twitter/@MinisterKTR)

HYDERABAD: Information and technology minister K.T. Rama Rao on Saturday said there could well be a "criminal conspiracy" to defame the government through engineering question paper leaks at the TSPSC.

"As BRS party, we asked the director general of police for a probe into this aspect. The accused No. 2 in this case, A Rajashekar Reddy, is active in the BJP. There are many pictures of (him) taking part in BJP activities," Rama Rao told a news conference, while displaying a few pictures showing Rajashekar Reddy with BJP workers.

Slamming state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who is demanding Rama Raos dismissal from the state Cabinet, Rama Rao said, "As IT minister, am I responsible for every IT company in the state? What connection do I have? If there are mistakes in the Intermediate board, they say the IT minister is responsible and now, the same is the case with the TSPSC."

Rama Rao also said that it was not just in Telangana state that question papers were leaked. "The same happened in Gujarat, where papers were leaked 13 times," he said.

He said Sanjay was trying to create doubts in the minds of the unemployed by seeking a judicial probe. "The Special Investigation Team is still investigating. How can they say they have no faith in the SIT? What are their objections and doubts?" Rama Rao asked.

"We appeal to all political parties not to play with the lives of our children for political gain. The polls are just another six or seven months away. People know what is happening and will do what they have to do," Rama Rao said.

He also took aim at the BJP government at the Centre saying "the promise of two crore jobs a year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi fell by the wayside and instead, Modi said the jobless can start selling pakoras."

He said the state BJP does not know how TSPSC is a constitutional body, and that the government has no role in its functioning except posting an IAS officer as the Public Service Commissions secretary.
A police watchdog is investigating alleged comments made by a senior officer about the bulk of rape complaints being regretful sex.

Sir Stephen House denies making the comments to a Home Office adviser at a Scotland Yard meeting in January 2022  when he was Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is looking into the accusation, which was raised earlier this month.

IOPC regional director Mel Palmer said: The allegation that these comments were made by a very senior police officer is of significant public concern, which may impact on public confidence in policing and so it is important that they are subject to an independent investigation.

Sir Stephen House visited a police station in south-east London with then prime minister Boris Johnson in August 2022 (PA)

Sir Stephen and the Met have been informed of the decision to investigate.

Professor Betsy Stanko, an adviser appointed by the Home Office to conduct Operation Soteria  a report on the way the police responds to rape cases, told Channel 4 News that Sir Stephen made the comments at a meeting with top officers.

She said: It felt as if he was trying to minimise what the problem was, not taking it seriously.

He used terms to describe  or a term to describe  what he thought the bulk of the rape complaints were, which was the term regretful sex.

Met Police Deputy Commissioner Dame Lynne Owens, referring the matter to the IPOC earlier this month, said: Rape is a horrific offence that has a devastating and lasting impact. The comments included in the Operation Soteria Bluestone report are wholly unacceptable.

We recognise that they risk further undermining the confidence of victims to come forward and that is deeply regrettable.

Findings from Operation Soteria declared some officers displayed a culture of disbelieving victims.

In a statement to Channel 4 News earlier this month, Sir Stephen, a former chief constable of Police Scotland, said: I have dedicated over four decades of public service to protecting the public from predatory offenders.

I categorically deny using the phrase regretful sex.

These are not words I have ever used in relation to rape or sexual assault and the reason I am so certain that I did not say this is because I simply do not believe it. I find the phrase abhorrent.

I find this characterisation of me to be deeply upsetting, and colleagues who know me know how untrue it is.
In the final hours before a deadline to surrender to federal prison, former Theranos executive Ramesh Sunny Balwani has delayed his incarceration on multiple fraud convictions.

The delay was triggered on Thursday  the same day Balwani was ordered to report to custody  when the former blood-testing company chief operating officer filed a notice in a California district court asserting his right to remain free pending an appeal of his convictions, filed on Wednesday.

Please take notice that defendant Sunny Ramesh Balwanis Bureau of Prisons reporting date of March 16, 2023, has been automatically stayed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by operation of the Ninth Circuit Rules, a court document filed in San Jose federal district court states.

Former Theranos President and COO Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani leaves after a hearing at a federal court in San Jose, California, U.S., July 17, 2019. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

U.S. federal district court Judge Edward Davila, who presided over Balwanis trial as well as an earlier trial against his co-defendant, Theranos founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, previously denied Balwanis request to remain out of custody while his case plays out on appeal. Davila had ordered Balwani to self-surrender to federal prison on March 16, 2023, no later than 2:00 p.m. PT.

In July, a federal jury convicted Balwani on twelve counts of fraud and conspiracy against Theranos investors and customers. Davila handed down the former COOs sentence of nearly 13 years in prison in December. On March 9, Davila denied Balwanis district court request to remain out of custody pending appeal.

In his appeal to the Ninth Circuit, Balwani argues that his jury trial was unfair for multiple reasons.

For one, he says, Judge Davila should not have admitted evidence showing that federal health care regulators cited Theranos laboratory for violations concerning traditional blood-testing technology, given that he was indicted on charges alleging fraud related to Theranos proprietary technology.

The district courts admission of evidence distinct from the charges in the indictment presents a substantial question, Balwanis appeal states. The substantial question about the scope of the indictment, he argues, is likely to result in a new trial on all charges.

Balwani also argues that Davila should have prevented certain testimony offered by former Theranos employees Erika Cheung, Mark Pandori, and Adam Rosendorff. The witnesses, he said, were permitted to offer expert-type testimony, even thought they were qualified only to testify as lay witnesses.

Balwani also states that Davila wrongly excluded testimony concerning the post-Theranos employment of Theranos' former laboratory director, Dr. Adam Rosendorff, which would have revealed Rosendorffs bias.

In additional rationale, the former executive argues that Davilia improperly denied his motion to suppress evidence showing Theranos customer complaints, test results, and regulatory reports, and improperly failed to correct the testimony of investors who mischaracterized Holmes statements about military use of Theranos blood-testing technology. Holmes pitch to investors about Theranos use of its technology in medivac helicopters used aspirational language, Balwani states, though investors characterized her words as if the technology had already been deployed.

Holmes was convicted by a federal jury in a separate trial that concluded before Balwani's, in January 2022. Her jury returned guilty verdicts on four of 11 counts of fraud.

"They misled investors, they misled patients," U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila said during Balwani's sentencing hearing in San Jose, California, according to NBC News.

Balwani, who started dating Holmes soon after she dropped out of Stanford University at the age of 19, made millions as an executive during the dot-com boom. He lost millions of dollars in his own investments in Theranos. During sentencing, his lawyers argued that Balwani's sentence should not be enhanced for investor losses because he left the company before investors officially lost their money.

Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed.

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AUSTIN, Texas  The annual South by Southwest (SXSW) 10-day event in Austin, Texas, runs rampant with free drink tickets, celebrity sightings, parties with strobe lights, and live music performances, which bring an injection of consumer spending to the city.

This year, the festival and conference started in full force with those positive vibes flowing. Then, midway through the event, Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB) collapsed, and things got weird  and not in the way suggested by Austin's unofficial slogan, "Keep Austin Weird."

By Sunday afternoon, the pressure was mounting following Silicon Valley Bank's failure, and companies that were customers of SVB reached a critical point in which they had to make potentially detrimental business decisions.

Roku (ROKU), for example, had nearly $500 million tied up at SVB. It probably didnt foresee its cash evaporating when it planned its SXSW experience in downtown Austin. The company was showcasing its latest technology while uncertainty over its business operations loomed large.

Signal and Cipher CEO Ian Beacraft warned that there was little time and that government officials needed to act fast.

"Monday is D-Day for a lot of companies," Beacraft told Yahoo Finance prior to the actions taken by the FDIC, Treasury, and the Federal Reserve to stabilize the banking system. "Within weeks, we'll start to see shops closing up. And within months, we'll see the ripple effects across the rest of the economy."

A sigh of relief arrived hours later for Roku and many other companies at SXSW when the FDIC assured SVB customers that they would have access to all of their funds.

But as the after-effects of the Silicon Valley Bank crisis continued to play out, dealmaking remained a top priority at SXSW as entrepreneurs sought out their next infusion of capital, venture capitalists scouted out the next major tech business, and mega-cap tech businesses hosted flashy events.

"I do think that the next few years are probably, in venture capital, going to be the best vintage years in the past decade," Lux Capital Co-Founder Josh Wolfe told Yahoo Finance. "Why? You've got lots of firms that know what they're doing, and their reputations are rising, and their access and their networks are growing at a time when prices are coming down. And when prices go down and valuations get lower, your future returns  if you're right or lucky  can be very high. So very optimistic for the future of venture."

Attendees use the escalator during the Austin Convention at the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas, U.S. March 16, 2023. REUTERS/Nuri Vallbona

SXSW puts Austin, autonomous vehicles on display

Despite the turmoil in the financial sector, SXSW continued along its post-pandemic comeback to show off the latest technology  and its host city, Austin.

For Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, who has returned for a second term more than two decades after his first term, concerns of a bust echoed his experience from the dot-com bubble.

It does feel like 'Back to the Future' for me, Watson told Yahoo Finance at SXSW. I was mayor and kind of navigated through the first big tech boom. And then shortly after I left, there was the bubble burst on that. And we were just becoming a big city. We were becoming the place that people were looking to for the information and knowledge economy."

"Now, we are a big city and we have all of that diversity, he added. Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Dell (DELL), Tesla (TSLA), and AMD (AMD) logos featured across some of the citys largest real estate properties provide a visible reminder of the technology companies that have set up shop in the state.

A general view of the city of Austin along the Colorado River in Austin, Texas, October 25, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Austin might see another leg of growth from a new wave of technological advancements. Artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, and autonomous vehicles were just a few examples of innovation on display during SXSW.

With each new advancement, Watson said he aims to foster a city that embraces creativity.

"Austin's unofficial motto is Keep Austin Weird," he said. "I've always interpreted that as 'Keep Austin Creative' because those first ideas that you hear the first time you hear them, most of the time people say, Whoa, that's kind of weird, though it becomes something really big. And this is a town that embraces that.

Driverless cars and other forms of autonomous mobility have become one type of technology at the forefront in Austin and at SXSW.

In 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk decided to move his company's headquarters to the city following a fallout with California legislators and a rebuke of COVID-19 policies. The innovative business and its technology have left a mark on the city.

Watson told Yahoo Finance that he has taken test rides in Waymo autonomous vehicles during his time in the Texas Senate.

Waymo, which started as Google's self-driving unit, has since relocated away from Austin. However, in recent weeks, three different autonomous vehicle representatives have scheduled visits or meetings with the mayor, all vying for the ear of the city leadership.

"Seriously, this week, I've had three different entities call [to talk] to me, including Tesla on that," Watson said. "It's gonna happen, and it's gonna happen soon."



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President Biden denied that his family received more than $1 million in payments from accounts related to Hunter Bidens business associate Rob Walker and their Chinese business ventures in 2017, even though financial records indicate otherwise.

On Thursday, GOP lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee revealed that they had obtained bank documents showing that Hunter Biden, the president's brother Jim, and Hallie Biden, the widow of his son Beau, received payments from Hunter's business associate Rob Walker and their joint venture with Chinese energy firm CEFC. A spokesperson for Hunter Biden's legal team confirmed the payments Thursday but emphasized that the recipients' accounts "belonged to Hunter, his uncle and Hallie  nobody else."

However, Biden denied that the payments were made when confronted by a reporter on the White House lawn Friday.

"That's not true," the president said, when asked about the GOP lawmakers' findings.

BIDEN FAMILY RECEIVED MORE THAN $1M FROM HUNTER ASSOCIATE AFTER 2017 CHINA WIRE: HOUSE OVERSIGHT

President Biden speaks with reporters before departing from the South Lawn of the White House on Marine One on March 17, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The president denied that members of his family received more than $1 million in payments from Hunter Biden's business associate, who was linked to a Chinese firm.

Financial records that Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed from Bank of America say otherwise.

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The records revealed that on March 1, 2017, less than two months after then-Vice President Joe Biden left office, State Energy HK Limited, a separate Chinese company, wired $3 million to Robinson Walker, LLC.

"The next day, Robinson Walker, LLC wired $1,065,000 to European Energy and Infrastructure Group in Abu Dhabi, a company associated with James Gilliar," a memo from the committee states.

Gilliar was a business partner of Hunter Biden involved in his foreign business ventures.

HUNTER BIDEN: SUBPOENAED BANK OF AMERICA RECORDS OPENED 'NEW AVENUES' OF INVESTIGATION, HOUSE OVERSIGHT SAYS

"After the Robinson Walker, LLC account received $3 million from State Energy HK Limited, Biden family members and their companies began receiving incremental payments over a period of approximately three months," the memo states. "The recipients of the money included Hallie Biden, companies associated with Hunter Biden and James Biden, and an unknown bank account identified as Biden."

Republican lawmakers say they are probing whether the Biden family leveraged Joe Biden's former position as vice president to make lucrative deals with foreign nationals.



The White House in a statement did not deny the findings, but blasted the committee's investigation into the Biden family.

"After a disgusting attack lamenting that the Presidents deceased son Beau was never prosecuted while he was alive, Congressman Comer has now decided to go after Beaus widow," said White House spokesman Ian Sams said, referring to comments Comer made earlier this month about the late Beau Biden's campaign contributions.

HUNTER BIDEN: TREASURY TO GIVE HOUSE OVERSIGHT ACCESS TO SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS, COMER SAYS

"Instead of bizarrely attacking the Presidents family, perhaps House Republicans should focus on working with the President to deliver results for American families on important priorities like lowering costs and strengthening health care," Sams said.

Hunter Biden's legal team accused Republicans of pushing a "baseless right-wing conspiracy theory," even as they confirmed that the payments had happened.

"Hunter Biden, a private citizen with every right to pursue his own business endeavors, joined several business partners in seeking a joint venture with a privately-owned, legitimate energy company in China," the spokesperson said. "As part of that joint venture, Hunter received his portion of good faith seed funds which he shared with his uncle, James Biden, and Hallie Biden, with whom he was involved with at the time, and sharing expenses."

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
While former President Jimmy Carter, 98, is in hospice care at his home, many people are reminiscing about the impact he had on the nation, the world and their own lives.

One of those people is Dickey Betts, an iconic rock star who believes Carter was a rock star in his own right.

Betts, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, served as lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the group  and may be best known for writing and singing the hit song Ramblin Man.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, who at the age of 78 lives in Florida and is retired from music, remembers getting to know Carter when he was the governor of Georgia.

He really liked the Allman Brothers Band. We kind of, to him, represent musically the state of Georgia. He come to the studio one night and we were all excited about him coming by to hear our new record we were working on, and he came by and really enjoyed himself, Betts told Yahoo News exclusively in a phone interview.

Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter visits Capricorn Records, circa 1974. Left to right, Carter, Capricorn co-founder Phil Walden, producer-engineer Johnny Sandlin and Dickey Betts. (Herb Kossover/Getty Images)

Carter returned later and said hed spoken to their manager about the possibility of having the band perform for his campaign  for president.

Well, that tickled the hell out of us, Betts said. We said, Wow, you know, a Georgia boy elected president, we liked that idea. We experienced him as the governor, so we knew what kind of guy he was. He put some sunshine back into Georgias reputation, we became a good place to go. We said, 'Yeah, well do some shows.'

Betts believed Carter was a great person to represent Georgia, a state that had long contended with a reputation for racism and negative stereotypes. Carter won the bid for the 1976 Democratic nomination before going on to win the general election on Nov. 2 of that year.

Presidential candidates have often had well-known music for their rallies, and in some cases have had celebrity musicians backing them with concerts and, more recently, social media posts. But Carter, originally a peanut farmer from Plains, Ga., took his affinity for music to the next level by aligning himself with artists he respected.

Carter, sporting an Allman Brothers Band T-shirt, talks with the press on Jekyll Island, Ga., shortly after the 1976 Democratic convention. (Wally McNamee/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

A documentary by Mary Wharton, Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President, highlights how his famous friends like Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffett helped him get elected. In the film, he singles out one group in particular.

The Allman Brothers helped put me in the White House by raising money when I didnt have any, Carter says.

The bands impact was a direct one: They gave him a big boost with a benefit concert, showcased in the film, that they performed on Nov. 25, 1975, at the Providence Civic Center in Rhode Island. Another scene shows Betts performing a solo country classic during a Capricorn Records picnic attended by Carter.

Douglas Brinkley, who interviewed Carter and wrote The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the White House, said their impact on his campaign was bigger than just a benefit concert  they helped him reach new audiences.

Betts performing in New Haven, Conn., in 1975. (in Costello/Redferns)

The Allman Brothers were at the pinnacle of their fame. They were a very hot and kinetic band. Southern rock was in the zeitgeist with Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top and major countrified Southern acts, Brinkley told Yahoo News.

The Allman Brothers Band formed in 1969 in Jacksonville, Fla., and eventually based themselves in Macon, Ga., a small city that has produced some of the most iconic R&B and rock legends.

The founding members were Duane Allman (slide guitar and lead guitar) and his brother Gregg (vocals, keyboards, songwriting), as well as Betts (lead guitar, vocals, songwriting), Berry Oakley (bass), Butch Trucks (drums) and Jaimoe Johanson (drums). Along with classic Southern rock, the group drew heavily on blues, jazz and country.

Jimmy Carter loved Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts because they were neighbors, and they developed a keen fellowship, Brinkley said. Carter was a father in that era with three sons, and they were all Allman Brothers fanatics. No matter who you are and youre a father, you want to show off to your kids, and the fact that Jimmy Carter's hanging out with the Allman Brothers just was downright cool.

Carter with his family on election night 1976 in Atlanta. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The big thing is that President Carter, coming from Sumter County, Ga., when he entered politics, he became close with Phil Walden of Capricorn Records. Walden was one of Carter's earliest backers when he ran for governor and president.

The groups first two albums, "The Allman Brothers Band" and "Idlewild South," didnt hit on a national scale, but their 1971 live release At Fillmore East was a breakthrough.

Their 1973 studio release Brothers and Sisters included Bettss hit single Ramblin' Man and the instrumental Jessica, both of which put the group on the map. Internal turmoil, including substance abuse issues, overtook them soon after, and the group dissolved in 1976.

Carter and Gregg Allman developed a particular kinship, and Carter respected it, Brinkley added. It mattered because Gregg Allman had alcohol problems and drug problems, but so did Jimmy Carter's nephew. So Carter was always very sympathetic to people going through alcohol and drug rehab or never held it against you or looked down on you. ... Gregg Allman became like a friend and adviser to Carter, because President Carter, if he takes you in friendship, its a real deal.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Gregg Allman told the bands archivist, Kirk West, that Jimmy Carter didnt mind being seen with us at all, despite being set up for ridicule by his opponents for hanging out with a bunch of hippie drug users.

Betts at the Peach Music Festival in Scranton, Pa., in 2018. (Jay Blakesberg/MediaPunch)

Carter returned to Macon for Gregg Allmans funeral on June 3, 2017. The former band frontman, who was once married to Cher and had five children, died at the age of 69. This was the last time Carter and Betts saw each other.

I cant say enough good about the man, Betts said. When Gregg passed away, Jimmy Carter came to his funeral. ... That brother showed a lot of character to me. Here he is, almost 90 years old or so, and one of the guys who helped him be president, he never forgot it. He had one bodyguard there that I saw with him. He was a great guy.

As much as Carter appreciated the "Ramblin' Man," Betts valued him as a giving person who maintained his generosity post-presidency.

God, hes done so much more after he was president, you know, with [Habitat for Humanity]. Ive never heard of another president doing much good work after their term was up, but he did.

Carter, accompanied by his wife, Rosalynn, visits Capricorn Records in 1974. (Herb Kossover/Getty Images)

Betts, who wishes the family the best, said its kind of strange talking about someone as if hes died already, but also said you dont have to wait for someone to die to talk about the good theyve done.

Hes one of the people that Im really grateful to have met, and honored to be considered a friend of his. I got a couple of letters he wrote to me hanging on my wall and postcards, Christmas cards. You don't get a Christmas card from the president, thats kind of an unusual thing, you know, he said.

Hes 98 years old. I mean, he had a good life. ... I have fond memories of Jimmy Carter, and thats about all I can say.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Friday that it has arrested 220 illegal immigrants in a nine-day enforcement operation with criminal convictions that include rape and murder.

ICE said its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had apprehended 220 "removable noncitizens" with convictions including domestic violence, sexual abuse, burglary, gun crimes, drug trafficking and driving under the influence. The arrests took place between March 4 and March 13.

Those arrested included a 64-year-old Mexican national convicted last year of sexual abuse of a victim under 13, a 37-year-old Mexican with a conviction for attempted murder, and a 65-year-old Mexican with convictions for second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Also arrested was a 49-year-old Mexican with convictions for battery and felony rape of spouse by force/fear.

Other illegal immigrants arrested included a 20-year-old Cuban with a conviction last year for second-degree murder, a 33-year-old Nicaraguan with a conviction of armed burglary, a 50-year-old El Salvadoran convicted of sexual abuse and sexual contact with a child under 11, and a 44-year-old Mexican convicted of sex crimes with a child under 11.

ICE DEPORTATIONS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CRIMINALS DROPPING SHARPLY UNDER BIDEN

June 2, 2022: ICE agents conduct an enforcement operation in the U.S. interior.

ICE said the operation shows how the agency is focused "on smart, effective immigration enforcement that protects the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of our communities and integrity of federal immigration law."

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"Our teams weigh various factors during targeting and apprehension to ensure we are enforcing U.S. immigration laws humanely, effectively, and with the utmost professionalism," ERO Executive Associate Director Corey Price said in a statement.

ICE DEPORTATIONS REMAINED WELL BELOW TRUMP-ERA LEVELS IN FY 2022, AMID HISTORIC BORDER CRISIS

ICEs ERO arrested 46,396 illegal immigrants with criminal histories last year. The agency said that those included 198,498 associated charges and convictions.

However, ICEs footprint has been reduced under the Biden administration. The administration, after failing to put a moratorium on deportations, narrowed ICE priorities to recent border crossers, national security threats and public safety threats. Those guidelines have now been blocked by a federal judge.

People walk near the U.S.-Mexico border wall at Friendship Park before being replaced in Playas de Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on Feb. 16, 2023.

A recent budget overview by DHS showed that ICEs deportations of criminal illegal immigrants are being reduced.

In fiscal 2020, the last full year of the Trump administration, the agency aimed to deport 151,000 convicted criminal illegal immigrants, and deported just over 100,000. In fiscal 2021, the target was 97,440 and just 39,149 were removed. By 2022, the first full fiscal year of the Biden administration, the target had dropped to 91,500, and just over 38,000 had been deported.

FORMER TRUMP OFFICIALS SKEPTICAL OF BIDEN ADMIN'S REPORTED PLAN TO RESUME MIGRANT FAMILY DETENTION

The agency has now lowered the targets for fiscal 2023 and 2024 to just 29,393 deportations for each year.

In an explanatory note, ICE said it is taking "every action possible to reduce factors that detract from removal performance, including constant efforts to obtain increased levels of cooperation from foreign countries and increasing the frequency of transport for detainees where possible."

The agency suggested that hiring more deportation officers and attorneys to improve docket management could help reduce "roadblocks and inefficiencies" before suggesting that policy changes by the Biden administration, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic , have been responsible for the drop in numbers.

"However, it is important to note that significantly low removal numbers is more the result of environmental factors and policy environment than operational performance," it said.

Meanwhile, ICE's sister DHS agency  Customs and Border Protection (CBP)  announced on Friday that Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector had arrested four gang members and a sex offender among the migrants they encountered this week. One of the men is a 41-year-old Mexican with a prior conviction for sexual abuse of a minor in Indiana, while agents in McAllen also arrested a Paisas, MS-13 and Wild Mexicans gang member from El Salvador, along with a Mexican with a prior conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and manslaughter.

That comes just days after Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told lawmakers that the southern border is not under operational control.
The doctors removed the cataracts and implanted custom lenses for the King penguins in likely a first of its kind for the species (Screengrab: Facebook/ Mandai Wildlife Reserve)

Authorities at Singapore zoo have successfully fitted three elderly king penguins with custom eye lenses during a first-such ever surgery to remove cataracts in the eyes of aquatic birds, officials said.

The three elderly penguins are among a total six who were operated for cataract surgery two months ago and have since fully recovered, the officials said.

After being diagnosed with cataracts last year, six of our senior penguins underwent successful surgery to help them regain their sight. We are so glad to see they have since made a full recovery, the vets with the Mandai wildlife group said.

Not only does this procedure help to enhance their overall well-being and quality of life, but it would also aid in the penguins transition to their new home in #BirdParadise when they move, the wildlife group said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

These include King penguins aged 20 and old and three Humboldt penguins aged between seven and 13 and residing at Singapores Jurong Bird Park.

The wildlife group said that during the delicate procedures, the doctors removed the cataracts and implanted custom lenses for the King penguins in likely a first of its kind for the species.

Post surgery, the patients recuperated in a separate den where keepers gave eye drops twice a day, the wildlife group said.

It added that zookeepers carried out follow up checks two months later and found that the penguins had recovered well, to ultimately discharge them to rejoin the colony.

A medical condition affecting both people and animals, cataracts cause cloudy areas in the eye and impair sight.

Veterinarian Ellen Rasidi told CNN that the doctors noticed the cloudiness in their (eyes) and as a result, they were having difficulty seeing things in front of them.

A veterinary ophthalmologist Gladys Boo who was also a part of the surgery said that the king penguins received custom-made intraocular lens implants, which she considered a milestone in veterinary medicine.
FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President Trump holds a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa

By Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump said he expects to be arrested on Tuesday in a case brought by the Manhattan district attorney's office, and called on his supporters to protest, according to a post on Truth Social on Saturday.

A spokesperson for the district attorney's office declined to comment.

Trump said, without providing evidence, that "illegal leaks" from the Manhattan district attorney's office indicated that he would be arrested. He did not say what the charges would be.

"Illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorney's office ... indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven ... the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week," Trump wrote.

"Protest, take our nation back!" Trump said.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office earlier this year began presenting evidence to a grand jury investigating a $130,000 payment that Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the waning days of Trump's 2016 campaign.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says she had an affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair happened.

Trump was Republican president from 2017 to 2021 and has said he will make a bid to return to the White House in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

Bragg's office earlier this month invited Trump to testify before the grand jury probing the hush money payments, according to Trump's lawyer, Susan Necheles. Legal experts said that was a sign that an indictment was close.

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance violations tied to his arranging payments to Daniels and another woman, among other crimes. He has said Trump directed him to make the payments. The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan did not charge Trump with a crime.

Cohen testified before the grand jury on Monday and again on Wednesday, according to his lawyer, Lanny Davis. Grand jury proceedings are not public.

Daniels' lawyer said she spoke with prosecutors last week.

LEGAL WOES

The probe is one of several legal woes Trump faces as he seeks the Republican nomination for the presidency.

Trump is also confronting a state-level criminal probe in Georgia over efforts to overturn the 2020 results in that state.

A special counsel named by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is currently investigating Trump's handling of classified government documents after leaving office, as well s his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Bragg's office last year won the conviction of the Trump Organization on tax fraud charges. But Bragg declined to charge Trump himself with financial crimes related to his business practices, prompting two prosecutors who worked on the probe to resign.

Trump leads his early rivals for his party's nomination, holding the support of 43% of Republicans in a February Reuters/Ipsos poll, compared with 31% for his nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not yet announced his candidacy.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Gareth Jones, Frances Kerry and Daniel Wallis)


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The proposal for creation of DMF is under consideration with Ministry of Defence. (ANI/Representational image)

NEW DELHI: The defence ministry is working with the finance ministry in order to operationalise the Non-Lapsable Defence Modernisation Fund (DMF).

The Fifteenth Finance Commission of India in 2021 in a report tabled in the Parliament had recommended setting up a Rs 2.38 lakh crore non-lapsable Modernisation Fund for Defence and Internal Security (MFDIS) to bridge the gap between projected budgetary requirements and budget allocated for defence and internal security.

"The proposal for creation of DMF is under consideration with Ministry of Defence," defence ministry informed Parliament in a written reply.

"DMF will be available for modernization of Defence Forces and would supplement the regular yearly budgetary allocations by eliminating any uncertainty in provisioning of adequate funds for various defence capability development and infrastructure projects, " it added. Defence ministry for long had been demanding setting up of such a fund due to long trajectory of military modernisation.

The money for the fund is supposed to come from Consolidated Fund of India, disinvestment proceeds of defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs), proceeds from the monetisation of surplus defence land, including realisation of arrears of payment for defence land used by State governments among others.
YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. Egypt and Turkey want to fully normalize relations, ARMENPRESS reports the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said.

"Egypt and Turkey have strong intentions to restore bilateral relations," Shoukry said during a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Cairo.

The Egyptian Foreign Minister added that Cairo and Ankara "have the political will to start the path of full normalization of relations" between the two countries.
YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. The Bulgaria-Serbia gas link will be launched on schedule in October, said caretaker Minister of Energy Rosen Hristov during the inspection of the progress of the activities for the construction of the gas interconnection near Dobroslavtsi village. According to him, the project is progressing on schedule, even slightly ahead. "We are absolutely sure that the project will be completed on time on the Bulgarian side and within the budget."

Minister Hristov pointed out that the capacity of the gas link is 1.8 billion cubic metres per year. A large-scale analysis of the gas market in Southeastern and Central Europe is currently being carried out with eight European countries in order for other countries to diversify their gas supplies, as Bulgaria has done, and is now ready to build an additional compressor station on the interconnector to increase its capacity to 3.2 bcm.

The project is being managed the same way as the construction of the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector, which has made it possible to catch up with the backlog. "All structures are working closely and we exchange information on a regular basis, so we are not only controlling but also supporting the process," Minister Hristov added. He pointed out that there are currently no concerns about the completion of the project. The gas link will allow the flow to be reversed, i.e. Bulgaria can also buy gas from Serbia. However, the minister clarified that the interconnector is mainly planned to be used in the Bulgaria-Serbia direction, as the Serbian side is still dependent on Russian gas and they have reserved capacity at the Alexandroupolis terminal that Bulgaria is building. "This possibility of reverse supplies gives us an additional security in case we need to supply gas from Central Europe," Rosen Hristov explained.

The construction of the interconnector was launched on February 1. The pipe will be almost 170 kilometres long, 62 kilometres of which are on the territory of Bulgaria. The interconnector starts from Novi Iskar and will connect to the Serbian gas pipeline network at the city of Nis.
The ICC said that its pre-trial chamber found there were reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for war crime

The Hague: The International Criminal Court said on Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine.

The court said in a statement that Putin is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

It also issued a warrant Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.

The ICC said that its pre-trial chamber found there were reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children.
File photo of CM KCR. (Photo: Twitter)

HYDERABAD: BRS leaders are making elaborate arrangements to ensure that the public meeting of party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao in Kandhar-Loha in Maharashtra on March 26 is a grand success. The CM is likely to announce the party's foray into Maharashtra electoral politics by contesting the local body elections to be held in April-May.

Ministers and party MLAs from undivided Nizamabad and Adilabad districts have been entrusted with the responsibility of making arrangements and mobilising crowds for the meeting. They were asked to camp in Loha for a week.

Armoor MLA A. Jeevan Reddy visited Loha on Friday to finalise the site venue. He was accompanied by BRS general secretary Himanshu Tiwari, party Maharashtra Kisan Cell president Manik Kadam and local leaders.

This will be the second public meeting of CM in Maharashtra; he held the first public meeting in Nanded on February 5.

Jeevan Reddy said that a large number of senior leaders from various political parties who were inspired by BRS agenda and CM's vision would join the BRS on the occasion.

Among them are former MLA and NCP Kisan Cell president Shankar Anna Dhondge, former MLA Naganath Gisewada, Maharashtra NCP youth secretary Shivaraj Dhongde, NCP Nanded district president Datta Pawar, NCP Nanded city president Shivadas Dharmapurkar, NCP spokesperson Sunil Patil and several others from NCP and other political parties, he said.

On March 14, a few leaders from Maharashtra met Rao at Pragathi Bhavan and expressed their willingness to join the BRS.

The CM discussed with the Maharashtra leaders the party agenda, his vision and action plan for the country as well as Maharashtra if BRS is elected to power. He asked them to focus on building the party from the grassroots level in Maharashtra.
This is the government's likely response to the effects of the rapidly aging population on the welfare system. Survey: 74% of respondents want retirement under 55; only 6% accept it over 61. Reform to raise the retirement age to 65 under consideration: it would have strong social and economic effects.

Beijing (AsiaNews) - Most Chinese do not want to retire later in life: however, the government is likely to intervene in this reard to curb the economic and social effects of an aging population. According to a recent Life Times survey, published by Nikkei Asia, 74 percent of respondents think it is okay to retire from work before age 55 and only 6 percent over 61.

The Chinese mood is not disimilar to many French people who have staged protests against the reform that is expected to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. This was also demonstrated by the massive protests in February, when thousands of retirees protested in Wuhan (Hubei) and Dalian (Liaoning) over cuts decided by provincial authorities to their health benefits.

Employees in China today retire at 60 and women at 55. The national average retirement age is 54, 11 less than in advanced countries.

The problem for a Chinese society aging at a very rapid rate is that it will have less labor to push the economy and pay those already retired. Right now in China there are 2.26 workers contributing to an elderly person's allowance: it is estimated that within 20 years there will be 1.25.

Estimates are that within the next 10 years about 228 million Chinese will retire. The government is studying a possible response so as not to endanger the welfare system. The one most considered involves retirement for everyone at age 65 in the next 30 years.

As in the West, lengthening a person's working life has two main implications: the first is that there will be fewer grandparents to support and help young families with children. The second is that there will be fewer and fewer jobs for those entering the labor market-a problem in China, where youth unemployment is nearly 19 percent.
Saudi and US officials say Iran is cutting off supplies to the rebel group, a decision that could mark the end of fighting and be the first step for a stable and lasting truce. First reactions come from Israel, where Mossads former chief describes the deal as a startling step and calls on Israeli leaders to shift the countrys policy vis-a-vis Iran.

Riyadh (AsiaNews)  Action on the Yemen war should have been first real step in the thaw between Saudi Arabia and Iran, experts say. And this seems to be the case.

Iran has in fact agreed to stop sending weapons to Houthi rebels who are fighting the Saudi-backed Yemeni government, Saudi and US officials say.

According to the Wall Street Journal, by stopping to arm the Houthis, Iran could put pressure on the militant group to strike a deal to end the war.

For years, Saudi Arabia and Iran have backed the warring parties in Yemen, fuelling a conflict that has had disastrous humanitarian consequences beyond the country's borders, with Houthis firing rockets into Saudi territory.

The spokesman of the Iranian delegation to the UN refused to answer any question relating to arms shipments since Tehran has always denied that it has militarily aided the Houthis.

Nevertheless, when Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to resume diplomatic relations last week, Yemen was a key part of the deal; what is more, a Saudi official, on condition of anonymity, said that he expected Tehran to respect the existing UN arms embargo.

For experts, this would make it harder for the Houthis to continue fighting and would enable the parties to respect a truce that expired a few months ago.

Both the United States and Saudi Arabia can now focus on Iran, to see if it keeps its commitment while the two rivals reopen their respective embassies in the next two months.

The resumption of Saudi-Iran relations gives a boost to the prospect of a [Yemen] deal in the near future, while Irans approach to the conflict will be kind of a litmus test for the success of last weeks diplomatic deal, one US official is quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, flew first to Tehran earlier this week to discuss Irans role in ending the war, then to Riyadh.

Last Wednesday, special US envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking met with Saudi officials in Riyadh to make another attempt to jumpstart stalled peace talks and breathe new life in the formal truce that expired last October. However hard, the aim is to get a ceasefire before Ramadan, which begins next week.

The Chinese-brokered agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia has also had some echoes in Israel. For Efraim Halevy, the former director of Israels Mossad spy agency, this is an opportunity for his country to explore the possibilities of a rapprochement with Iran following what he calls a very startling development.

Speaking to CNN, he said that Israeli leaders should put aside any prejudice about the agreement itself, but focus instead on finding ways of working with it.

For the former Mossad boss, Israel should understand what it is that brought the Iranians to their rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, and realise that the time has come [. . .] to seek a different policy towards Iran by exploring in a concealed manner ways to bridge the gap with its erstwhile enemy.
The Benefits of Being Friends With Someone Before You Start Dating

7 Benefits of Being Friends With Someone *Before* You Start Dating Them

Contrary to popular belief, the friend zone is not always where romance goes to die.

From easier communication to increased authenticity, being friends with someone before you start dating can come with benefits. (And no, not the benefits you may be thinking of  at least not right away).

Romantic relationships are formed on more than sexual chemistry alone, as love requires mutual respect, trust, honesty, and loyalty, which are also the key foundations of a friendship, according to Shannon Fish, dating expert at Plenty of Fish.

Being friends before dating offers an opportunity to truly get to know someone in a low-pressure way and allow a potential connection to blossom naturally, without expectations.

RELATED: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Out of the Friend Zone

Not convinced its a good idea? Here are seven benefits of starting off as friends.

It Creates a Low-Pressure Environment

When youre exploring a connection with the intention of getting romantically involved, the stakes are high. When you form a friendship, it creates a lower-pressure environment for a relationship to form.

Meeting like-minded individuals, having interesting conversations and focusing on being friends with someone first removes any heightened emotions and expectations, adds Fish.

Instead of questioning where things are heading or scrutinizing your date to find red flags, you get time and space to get to know each other on a deeper level.

It Allows You to Make Better Decisions

Dr. Krista Jordan, Ph.D., says that being friends before dating also helps you bypass the chemical cocktail that happens when you first get involved and feel butterflies.

While the surge of feel-good brain chemicals can be euphoric, it can also cloud your judgment and wont necessarily lead to selecting a long-term partner who is a good match.

What nature wants is short-term mating, Jordan says. If what you want is a long-term partner, then not only can you not rely on nature, you may also need to work against it.

By starting off as friends, you avoid this change in brain chemistry and can evaluate a potential partner with the same regulated mental state that one would use to evaluate a job or long-term financial investment, she adds. That might not sound sexy, but with divorce rates in excess of 50%, it may save you a lot of heartache in the long run.

The nice part about the friends-before-benefits strategy is that if you really do hit it off and discover that there is romantic potential between you, youll get to enjoy your physical connection and attraction with a solid foundation.

It Allows for Authenticity

When youre dating, youre likely striving to put your best foot forward  but sometimes this can lead us astray from our authentic selves, says Fish.

When youre friends, youre not as polished in front of each other. Witnessing each other in all your imperfect glory sets the tone for deep, meaningful connection and a lasting relationship filled with emotional safety.

Plus, as Fish puts it, a relationship that begins with such raw authenticity is a surefire way to know if you are compatible or not.

Communication Is More Effective

You know that communication can make or break relationships. When youre friends before lovers, you learn how to most effectively talk with each other, according to Jordan. This can help you navigate emotionally charged discussions down the road if you do end up dating.

Fish agrees: With friends, theres no classic internal debate about whether youre texting too much, too little, or panicking to your besties because they havent messaged you today. Communicating as friends first allows you to establish a pattern of contact that works for you both and removes the overthinking and overanalyzing behind simply pressing send and without the fear of rejection and embarrassment.

RELATED: Can You Date Someone After Being Friends First?

A Mutual Respect Exists

You wouldnt ghost or breadcrumb a friend, would you? When you start off as friends, there is a foundation of mutual respect. This allows the relationship to flourish from a really good place, according to Fish.

Would you disappear off the face of a friends Earth? Or arrive 30 minutes late to dinner without an explanation? The answer is likely no, so you can be sure that when exploring a romantic connection, similar standards will be maintained.

In a dating world that can be brutal, thats a good thing.

No First-Date Nerves

Another fun benefit of being friends before you start dating is that you skip first-date jitters. This is great news if the idea of meeting a stranger makes you nauseous from anxiety. Dating your friend doesnt quite happen in the same way.

You already share a connection with this person and enjoy spending time with them, so you can head into your first date with ease and rest assured that whether sparks are flying or not, youll have a whole lot of fun, says Fish.

Its Easier to Mix Your Circles

Finally, an underrated benefit of a friendship-first approach is that its easier to mix your circles. People are more likely to introduce a friend to other friends and family, says Jordan.

Introducing a dating partner to our circle of important people holds a certain status signifier and lots of people wait a month or more into dating to do that. The problem with this is that you are already getting invested in the relationship before seeing if your friends and family even like this person, she adds.

RELATED: How to Ask Your Friend Out

In that sense, starting off as friends gives you an advantage when it comes to blending your lives down the road. Its true that it wont always work out. Sometimes youll realize you just want to remain friends. Or one person will end up developing feelings that arent mutual.

But if you discover that you have romantic potential and are both on the same page, your foundation of friendship will give you a platform to have a successful long-term relationship.

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Photo: Andre Cros

Photo: European Space Agency

Photo: European Space Agency

Photo: European Space Agency

It's hard to fathom the ESA venturing on their own to build a human-crewed, re-useable space vehicle that didn't involve NASA or their own Space Shuttle. But we'll be darned. It came far closer to reality than most NASA junkies realize. Today, let's tell the story of the ESA's Hermes reusable space plane, the pint-sized Euro shuttle that could have flown alongside Columbia, Discovery , Atlantis, and Endeavor.In many ways, the history of the European Space Agency parallels that of NASA. In the same way, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) transformed into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the ESA has its roots in a primordial organization called the European Space Research Organization (ESRO). Established in 1964, the group consisted of the national air and space research groups of western Europe's most powerful nations in aerospace manufacturing.Some of the more powerful nations in this alliance had the ability to operate more or less autonomously among their international colleagues. These high-ranking nations had the ability to start their own bespoke research initiatives independently of the rest of the member states. The most notable among this group had to be the French Centre National D'etudes Spatiales (CNES). Their particularly spirited ambitions to operate without the help of NASA aided greatly in the development of the Ariane launch system in 1973.As one of the first non-American or Soviet commercial satellite launch systems, the Ariane 1 was nothing short of a game changer. With five powerful Viking-5 liquid rocket engines between its first and second stages and 623,157 lbs (2,771.940 kN) of thrust on offer, the Ariane 1 slotted well into the same role Soviet Soyuz and American Delta rockets in launching satellites into geosynchronous low-Earth orbit (LEO).But deep down, by the time of the ESA's founding in 1975, their engineers knew the Ariane platform had a much higher performance ceiling than a few LEO weather or spy satellites. In their heart of hearts, ESA engineers craved to develop something along the lines of what they'd been hearing NASA was up to at that time. Of course, the Space Shuttle Enterprise atmospheric test bed for the American shuttle program made its first test flight only a year later.Two proposals ultimately came across the desks of ESA's top brass. One for a traditional pressurized crew capsule a la the Apollo Command and Service Module, and one for a fully reusable human-crewed space plane similar in concept to that of the American Space Shuttle orbiters. It'd take until 1985 for a formal decision to be made on what direction to take the project. But in the end, the lauded French aerospace manufacturer Aerospatiale was chosen to build what became known as Hermes.The more petrolhead minded among us might remember Aerospatiale as the team behind the carbon fiber chassis for the Bugatti EB110 . Their other claims to fame include the Dauphin multirole helicopter and being one-half of the team behind the Concorde supersonic passenger airliner. So to say, a team of amateurs, this group was clearly not. As the primary contractor for Hermes, Aerospatiale was flanked by the Dassault-Breguet group. Today, they're known as Dassault Aviation.Famous for their Mirage and later Rafael line of fighters, Dassault was perfectly suited to the task of working out the aerodynamics and the makeup of the Hermes' all-important heat shield. On the booster rocket side of things, the pan-European group which developed the Ariane 1 all merged into the Arianespace group in 1980. Their job was to construct a novel heavy-launch booster vehicle capable of doing what the American Shuttle's SRBs and main engines did.What resulted was the Ariane 5. Using a mixture of solid and liquid rocket propellant, this flagship of the ESA's fleet jetted 1,590,000 lbs (7,080 kN) of thrust at launch. Ariane 5's two stages were powered by particularly beefy Vulacain engines and could theoretically lift Hermes' 21,000 kg (46,000 lb) airframe with a 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) payload in tow, including astronauts. But just as the ESA began formulating a final design, the tragic loss of the American Shuttle Challenger threw a monkey wrench into proceedings.Questions on why ejection seats were starkly absent from the doomed STS 51-L mission plagued media investigations into the incident. These questions were simply too big to ignore for the ESA, who promptly redesigned the six-person cabin to instead accommodate a three-person team with a dedicated ejection seat for each crew member. Additionally, a completely novel rear-mounted Resource Module was designed to be mounted at the shuttle's rear.Like the Service Module on the Apollo Spacecraft , this Resource Module would double as extra living space for astronauts while also housing space for storage and scientific experiments while the bulk of the cargo was stored in an unpressurized rear compartment. This module would be jettisoned before re-entry, which ultimately meant the craft wouldn't be 100 percent reusable. As part of the first phase of a two-part development cycle due to end in 1990, Hermes' cockpit was designed with a litany of liquid crystal displays and digital readouts where there might have once been gauges and dials.Like the Space Shuttle, which was the first ever to do so, Hermes was due to use a fly-by-wire system that replaced mechanical flight and throttle controls with wireless systems operated by low-latency input sensors and actuators. With the fuel and life support reserves to operate in space anywhere from 30 to 90 days, the ESA hoped to be operating Hermes in LEO alongside the Space Shuttle by the mid-1990s or possibly the early 2000s.The first phase of the Hermes design study didn't finish until 1991, by which time only a few non-functional mockups had been constructed. Had the Soviet Union not fallen at almost exactly the same time, it's possible Hermes could have seen a functioning atmospheric test model vis-a-vis like Space Shuttle Enterprise before 1995. But the day the Iron Curtain fell forever, the future of the entire Hermes program was immediately in doubt.Before long, the post-Soviet Russian Roscosmos agreed to team up with NASA to merge their next-gen space station program into the International Space Station. When the ESA was absorbed into that whole affair, it rendered any form of European shuttle essentially pointless. Interestingly, the ESA's Columbus Space Station Concept, which Hermes could have potentially docked with, was also canceled in 1991. Its design was integrated into the ISS in 2008.In the end, it's doubtful in hindsight that Hermes could have ever gotten off the ground. But at the time, the ESA had every intention of challenging NASA's supremacy in space. But as all global space agencies learned post-1991, the whole space travel business works best when every nation contributes something. Meanwhile, the Ariane 5 launch vehicle designed for Hermes went on to be the halo vehicle of the ESA fleet.A rocket that, as recently as 2021, was launching multi-billion dollar American space telescopes to well past LEO with uncanny precision. By virtue of launching the James Webb Space Telescope, it's hard to call the fruits of the Hermes project a total failure.If there were ever a silver lining for a failed spacecraft initiative, that's a pretty darn good one. Meanwhile, you can still check out a 1/7th scale model of the Hermes shuttle on display at the Aeroport de Bordeaux-Merignac in Bordeaux, France.Check back soon for more spacecraft profiles here on autoevolution.
Photo: Boeing

Since its introduction almost half a century ago, the Apache turned into one of the most important aerial assets of the U.S. Army, but also of its allies. The fleet of some 1,200 such machines deployed globally celebrated earlier this month going over the five million flight hours milestone - and thats no small feat no matter the machine were talking about, military or otherwise.Described by its current maker, Boeing , as the most advanced multirole combat helicopter in the world, it is scheduled to be around for a lot longer still. The most recent variant of the machine, the sixth already, is called AH-64E, and this one will keep rolling off the assembly lines at least until 2028. That means these weapons platforms will stay in service until the 2060s, and thats just a few years short of the family turning 100!The AH-64E configuration of the aircraft can seat a crew of two people, sending them into combat at speeds of 173 mph (280 kph). Most importantly, the crew doesnt go into to fight empty-handed, but armed with an impressive arsenal of weapons: 16 Hellfire missiles, 76 2.75-inch rockets, and 1,200 30 mm chain gun rounds that exit the helicopters barrels at a rate of 650 per minute.And thats just the standard equipment. Earlier in February, the helicopter flew and fired a the Spike non-line-of-sight self-guided missile, which it will start using on a regular basis for warfighting sometime in late 2024.Some AH-64E Apaches are made new from scratch, and these mostly go to allied nations, while others are remanufactured versions, mostly for use by the helicopters largest operator, the American military.At the end of last week Boing announced no less than 115 AH-64Es have been ordered by the Army, with the option of 15 more to join the fleet. Boeing will soon start rolling these fighting machines off assembly lines in Mesa, Arizona, but it will also make 54 of them for foreign nations, including for a country thats never had them before: Australia. The southern hemisphere continent thus becomes the 18th nation to opt for this attack helicopter.As per Boeing, the contract announced on Friday is worth $1.9 billion, but has the potential to increase to more than $3.8 billion with future obligations.
kWh

Photo: Bobcat

Photo: Bobcat

This news should be about the worlds first all-electric skid-steer loader. Its name is Bobcat S7X, and it was unveiled at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2023. Its the little brother of last years T7X and is powered by a 60.5lithium-ion battery.It can operate for up to eight hours between charges, and it takes ten hours to fully charge its battery. The electric drive motors torque is as much as three times greater than traditional loaders, outperforming its diesel-powered equivalents.Right, that should sum it up, nice to see you S7X, goodbye. Now lets focus on the other Bobcat showcased on the largest construction show in North America! Because this concept should have been a star at SEMA Show.First of all, its named RogueX. I dont think that Rogue from X-Men would have been interested in such machinery. But, as far as the construction sector is concerned, this concept is really wild. Because its an autonomous vehicle, it doesnt need an operator cab.This has tremendous implications at the design level. Compared to similar vehicles, the RogueX is very low, so it can go places where other vehicles cant. Just think about the recent earthquakes in Turkey and how helpful such machinery could be.It could also be used in environments that pose a high hazard to human health, like chemical or radioactive sites. Because its very compact and its tracks make it capable on any type of terrain, it could pave the way for other vehicles.But mostly, it was conceived to break all the rules and with consideration for the worksite of the future. So, its a glimpse into the future of remote operation jobs in construction. One scenario is a human operator can accomplish more using several autonomous machines.But were not here to start a they want to steal our jobs! debate. The Bobcat RogueX concept is interesting because its said to not use any hydraulics. Theres no technical detail, but at least we can tell you its using advanced kinematics. Whatever that means.Another advantage of dropping the operator cab is that RogueX combines both vertical-path and radial-path lift capabilities, a unique functionality that places this utilitarian concept in a category all its own. I know, it doesnt sound exciting like less than 2 seconds to 60 mph, but that will do.The guys from Bobcat state that RogueX is just the beginning of what they call a framework for what is possible. It means in the near future well get to see other iterations of this concept. Until then, we urge filmmakers to cast it as the sidekick of the next Terminator. Because RogueX looks up to the task.
SUV

The legendary four-wheel drive series has been around  as a response to the American jeep  since 1951 and is today the carmakers longest-running series in active duty. With more than 10 million units delivered, the cult following is not only unsurprising, but also dutifully deserved. But, most likely, since even toddlers have heard about the Land Cruiser, you probably already know that.What is really interesting is that Toyota currently separates the Land Cruiser lifestyle based on various regions. For example, the latest (and arguably greatest) J300 iteration has not been allowed to live the American dream because Toyota thought the new Lexus LX600 will do. Additionally, Europe, for example, only has access to the smaller full-size Land Cruiser Prado version that traces its origins from the light-duty variant of the 70 Series of the 1980s.Introduced in 1990 via the J70 codename, the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado is currently offered since 2009 as the J150-based fourth generation. And logic, of course, tells us that it has grown severely long in the tooth, just like the normal Land Cruiser did before it ahead of the J300s arrival. Now, it is only logical to assume that its younger sibling is next in line for a complete overhaul after almost a decade and a half on the market.Naturally, the rumor mill is hard at work about the next Prado installment and, according to speculation, it could launch at home in Japan during the summer for a global start of deliveries toward the end of the year. Interestingly, the whispers also talk about the potential apparition of the Prado in North America as a 2024 model year, even though it already has its Lexus counterpart  the GX series. Well, it remains to be seen which of these bits of info pan out.Until then, for those who are not patient enough to wait for the official OEM presentation, we have a solution (or two) stemming from the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. As such, independently from each other, the MV Auto and TopElectricSUV channels on YouTube share a cool Toyota trait  they CGI-discuss the next Prado with rendering arguments. And both hosts make for a compelling yet completely different case for their hypothetical next-generationAs far as the good folks at MV Auto are concerned, the upcoming Toyota Land Cruiser Prado could adopt the rugged yet popular styling of the XK70 Tundra pickup truck and XK80 Sequoia off-road SUV, but also retain some of the design traits that made the current generation (in)famous. That could bode well for the U.S. audience and establish a family connection across segments.Meanwhile, the news specialists from TopElectricSUV believe that everyone  including the Americans  would rather have the Prado as a baby J300 Land Cruiser and CGI-acted accordingly. The outlet also shares useful information regarding the potential technical details, including the hypothetical appearance of not one, but two hybrid powertrains. And, of course, one of the biggest suspects could be the 2024 Grand Highlanders 362-horsepower Hybrid Max powertrain which pairs electric motors with a feisty 2.4-liter turbocharged four-pot.
Photo: Burgess Yachts

Photo: Burgess Yachts

Photo: Burgess Yachts

Few other superyachts are as famous as Flag, which is also the highest-profile and most spectacular, if not new, entry in the Feadship lineup. Its a favorite celebrity haunt that has hosted everyone whos anyone in recent years, from momager Kris Jenner to international supermodel Gigi Hadid and F1 champ Lewis Hamilton, a very popular charter platform, and a floating piece of art. As it so happens, its also on the market  and has been for more than a year, after the current owner listed it in late 2021.That owner is none other than Tommy Hilfiger, the world-famous designer and multi-millionaire, who has put a very recognizable spin on the old vessel. As famous and beautiful as Flag is, it is anything but new, having been delivered to the original owner in 2000. The fact that, 23 years on, its still making headlines speaks volumes for its gorgeous and timeless design, and outstanding performance.Flag started out as Cakewalk or Hull 784, a special commission for Denver-based private equity king Charles Gallagher, who tired of it less than a year after delivery. Flag might be a spectacular vessel today, but at the time of its launch as Cakewalk, it was record-breaking : it was the biggest yacht built in the United States since the 1930s. This meant that Gallagher had no issue selling it quickly, for a reported $215 million, which makes the $46 million current asking pale by comparison.Gallagher moved on to bigger things  and a bigger boat , and Cakewalk went on to become Fortunato, under businessman Frank Fertittas ownership, and then Faith, after Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll bought it. Stroll was a business partner of Hilfigers, so Faith changed hands between the two in 2017, which is also when it was renamed Flag.The vessel has been through several refits over the years, with the most recent one in 2022, prior to the listing . The most impressive of the bunch, as well as the most relevant, is the refit that Hilfiger oversaw, which led to turning the superyacht into his own private, signature toy. For that, he brought in Chahan Minassian, the creative director from Ralph Lauren and designer of luxury hotels and residences. Minassian is the original designer of the interior too, so he got to upgrade his previous work, making it more luxurious and elegant, airy yet sophisticated, and infused with the Hilfiger color scheme.Flag has a steel hull and aluminum superstructure, based on a naval architecture by Feadship and Royal Van Lent, and an exterior design by De Voogt, with clear classical influences. The raised bow makes it easily recognizable, but also helps it appear longer than its 62 meters (203 feet).With an interior volume of 1,078 GT, Faith offers flexible accommodation for 14 to 18 guests across seven staterooms, including the owners suite, and a range of amenities that bespeak the fact that it was designed for multi-generational use. A crew of 17 is always on hand, stationed in separate quarters  including a private chef that can take requests for special menus.The long list of amenities includes a fully- and professionally-equipped gym, and the possibility to expand it on deck as outdoor Pilates and yoga studio, a large beach club, an oversize swimming pool with a large wraparound tanning area, a couple of bars, formal and informal lounges and dining areas, a BBQ area, and a packed garage. That garage offers the gamut of water toys, from inflatables to SeaBobs and jetskis, which makes Flag the perfect family vacation vehicle  and destination in itself.The most impressive part about Flag is the styling and the quality of the work throughout, as the video tour at the bottom of the page will show. The interior of this superyacht isnt just a shameless or outrageous display of wealth, but premium-quality work with a focus on style and comfort, and on offering an outstanding experience. A good example in this sense is the aft deck bar area, with the leather-wrapped bar with hidden, integrated oversize TV screen, and the two nearby cabinets, one with scotch and whiskey and the other for cigars.From day one, but especially since Hilfiger bought it, Faith has become one of the most popular charter platforms on the market, and a celebrity magnet in the truest sense of the word. Its also been maintained impeccably and it still delivers a punch in terms of performance. Power comes from twin 2,000 hp Caterpillar engines, taking it to a top speed of 16 knots (18.4 mph / 29.6 kph). At cruising speed, range is of over 6,800 nautical miles (7,825 miles / 12,593 km). Not too shabby for an oldtimer like Faith.
Whereas some custom projects will turn out to be relatively straightforward, the CB750-based endeavor youre seeing here was a real headache for Federal Moto. For starters, Hondas classic UJM  a 1974 model , to be exact  had been unintentionally disfigured by the previous owner, whod attempted a DIY cafe racer conversion, but messed up in spectacular fashion.Moreover, the motorcycles 736cc inline-four lost the will to live following a few test rides, and the Federal crew became too busy with commissions from customers to get it running again. After about a year, Shaun Brandts specialists decided to hand things over to a mechanic, but youd be utterly mistaken to think that was the end of it!Several months had passed and little to nothing was being done, so it became clear the said mechanic was up to something shady. He tried to scam the Chicago-based shop, and their project was still at square one a couple of years after the donor bike was bought. The guys took matters into their own hands, finally overcoming the setbacks to make some real progress.A proper engine rebuild took place to resurrect the 67-hp four-banger, which is now equipped with a 73 MY CB750s repurposed Keihin carbs and a heat-wrapped exhaust system. Fabricated out of stainless steel, the handmade four-into-one pipework runs into a high-end GP Extreme silencer supplied by Danmoto.Out back, the creatures suspension arrangement got beefed up with aftermarket shocks, while its front end received the forks of a later Honda CB750F and a Cognito Moto top clamp. For ample stopping power at twelve oclock, Federal installed a twin-disc braking system with phenolic caliper pistons, stainless-steel lines, and drilled rotors from Godffreys Garage.The bodywork side of things is a bit of a Frankenstein ordeal, with a 1972 CB750s fuel tank sitting center-stage. It fronts a tailor-made saddle wrapped in brown upholstery, behind which youll see the retrofitted tail unit of a Kawasaki KZ1000 from 78. All this rear-end equipment is placed atop a modified subframe, along with an LED lighting strip and turn signals neatly mounted below the tail.Over at the opposite pole, theres a vintage Gold Wing headlamp complete with a grilled cover that looks the part. Clip-on handlebars can be found in the cockpit area, featuring a stylish pair of Biltwell grips and Posh switchgear. The electrics are linked to a new wiring harness, and the paint job comes courtesy of Gus Abarca.Having (at last) obtained its current form in 2017, the machine was nicknamed Dark Passenger following the projects completion. To say that getting it to this stage was challenging would be a gross understatement, but the fruit of Federal Motos labor was, most certainly, worth the effort. And then again: the harder the task gets, the more satisfying the reward is.
Earlier this week, GM CEO Mary Barra met with U.S. senators in a bid to push legislation that would speed up the deployment of driverless vehicles on U.S. roads. GM's Cruise subsidiary operates a robotaxi service in San Francisco and is preparing to launch an autonomous driving pod without a steering wheel or pedals. However, it cannot do that unless legislation is adopted to expand the number of self-driving vehicles that could be deployed with exemptions. While Cruise can operate a commercial service in certain restricted areas, it has a cap on the number of self-driving cars it can have on the streets.Restrictions imposed on autonomous vehicles stifle autonomous driving development. As others have warned before, the U.S. risks lagging behind China in self-driving. In China, autonomous-driving companies don't face similar restraints. Recently, Baidu announced it got a license to expand robotaxi services in Beijing, China's capital. Baidu's service, named Apollo Go, is already live in several major Chinese cities. Its self-driving vehicles complete an average of more than 15 rides per vehicle per day, on par with traditional ride-hailing services. Apollo Go has been previously approved to operate in Wuhan and Chongqing. With the Beijing permit, Apollo Go is the first service worldwide to deploy driverless vehicles in a capital city. For now, Baidu will only operate 10 driverless cars in Beijing's Yizhuang Economic Development Zone but intends to expand its offering in China's capital city. Yizhuang is one of the most active hubs for autonomous driving in China.Baidu says it has accumulated more than 50 million kilometers (31 million miles) of Level 4 autonomous driving since 2013, when it deployed its autonomous driving technology. To put things in perspective, GM's Cruise boasted about having about 700,000 fully-autonomous miles as of December 2022. Baidu announced that it would have the largest fully driverless taxi service area in 2023, aiming to expand service to 65 cities by 2025 and 100 cities by 2030.In the U.S., where legislation limits the number of autonomous vehicles companies can operate, GM's Cruise is struggling to expand its services. At the same time, other robotaxi services have disappeared or have been forced to lay off employees. Argo AI, an autonomous driving startup backed by Ford and Volkswagen, has left the market after burning billions to develop driverless vehicles. Eventually, Ford decided to use the staff and know how to develop new driver-assist features for its cars. At the same time, Waymo has announced laying off 8% of its staff this year.
A small alligator swims in the collected water around the dilapidated infrastructure of the B-5 orphan well site in the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge in Lottie, La., Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter.
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Broadcaster Jon Snow says he hasnt found age relevant to late fatherhood (Channel 4/PA)   Channel 4 News

Former Channel 4 news anchor Jon Snow says he hasnt found age relevant to his relationship with his children, after fathering his third child in his seventies.

The veteran journalist and broadcaster, 75, says having his most recent child Tafara wasnt easy but that following the birth life felt complete.

Snow welcomed Tafara in 2021 with his wife Dr Precious Lunga.

The veteran journalist and broadcaster, 75, said following the birth of his third child, life felt complete (PA)   Jonathan Brady

Speaking to Saga Magazine, he discussed his relationship with his parents, children and grandchildren.

There are three very small people in my life  two grandsons, aged one and three, and a son, Tafara, who is two-going-on-five, he said.

Hes got his mums brain and my extrovert nature. I love how you can already have great conversations with him.

Having him wasnt easy but we persisted because, at 48, my wife is a good deal younger than me and she very much wanted and deserved a baby. When he was born, life felt complete.

Snow added that he felt completely at ease with late fatherhood and was not worried about dropping his son, or being exhausted.

I havent found age relevant to my relationship with my son or grandsons, he said.

Is being a grandad different to being a dad? Not really. In the end, its all love, isnt it?

The full interview with Jon Snow can be read online and in the April 2023 edition of Saga Magazine, which celebrates the experiences of people over 50.
A host of online impersonators have left Hollywood actor Liam Neeson terrified of social media, the Co Antrim man has said.

The Oscar-nominated actor - who has starred in Taken, Star Wars, Batman Begins and Schindlers List  has appeared on ITVs The Jonathan Ross Show ahead of the launch of his new film Marlowe.

Asked if he was ever tempted to create his own social media account, the 70-year-old said he was apprehensive at the thought.

"Im terrified. There are some people pretending to be me, he said.

The new film follows a detective noir narrative centred around a brooding, down-on-his-luck detective who is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress.

Set in 1939 California against the backdrop of World War II, the movie features everything from corrupt studio ambassadors, drug smuggling, gangsters, love affairs, missing persons, and a mother-daughter feud.

Liam Neeson Teaches Jimmy How to Throw a Fake Punch

The Ballymena man admitted he had never read any of the Raymond Chandler book series on which the film is based.

"Marlowe is Phillip Marlowe. Hes a private investigator. It was first invented by Raymond Chandler, he told The Jonathan Ross Show.

"Im an avid reader but Im ashamed to say that I hadnt read any chapter until I was offered the film. Hes a private eye but a bit shady but has a code of ethics.

The film is reported to be Neesons 100th release, but the veteran actor said a few documentaries meant he had breached the milestone already.

"Theres a few documentaries in there too. Somebody told me this a few months ago but I'm actually up to 103 now, he said.

"Ive loved all of them. Some of the movies were so-so, some were very good I thought but Ive always come away with a positive. I love movie crews, actors are ok but movie crews I adore.

Neil Jordan (L) and Liam Neeson arrive at the UK premiere of "Marlowe". Pic: Kate Green/Getty Images   Kate Green/Getty Images

Asked about his fitness regime, Neeson said he has had a walking partner in New York for the past 15 years.

"I'm not a gym rat. I mainly do 35 minutes every day. Power walking, he said.

"I live in New York so Im in the city. I have a walking partner, a lovely lady called Amy - weve been walking for 15 or 16 years. I met her husband for the first time at this premiere of a movie of mine.

"I saw Amy and I went over to her and I saw him and said Jay, I have to tell you right now. Amy and I are not having an affair. All we do is walk around the park!

The NI actor also revealed he had come close to starring in a film alongside Jackie Chan, but had backed out due to his age.

"They sent me a script saying Jackie Chan is doing this and going to shoot in China. I read this script and it was back-to-back action for 22 year-olds. Im not doing this, Im 70 years of age, he said.

It comes after Neesons candid interview on Thursday during which he raised eyebrows in Northern Ireland with his assertion that a united Ireland will happen.

"I think it will happen. I think Britain will be pleased. I think it could happen, yeah. But you know, everybody has to be appeased. The Protestants in Northern Ireland have a strong voice, he told Sky News.

I hear them, I know where they are coming from and they have to be respected. If there is going to be a united Ireland, their voice has to be heard and they need to be represented if a united Ireland comes about.
Mindset experts approach to success: Anything is possible in life just believe in yourself
If feelgood fiction is something you reach for, then make sure Sheena Wilkinsons Mrs Harts Marriage Bureau is on your radar. The adult debut for the award-winning writer follows the ups and downs of April McVey, who is hired by matchmaker Martha to invigorate her business.

But this is 1930s Britain, theres a dearth of eligible men, and some of the bureaus clients have exacting standards. Fortunately, April offers a warmth and vigour to Marthas life  personally and professionally.

With her Northern Irish witticisms  at some stage, a character scolds her for overusing the word wee  April proudly declares she hasnt a romantic bone in her body.

When widower Fabian arrives at the bureau, his needs will put Martha and Aprils matchmaking skills to the ultimate test.

Mrs Harts has been dubbed a witty, romantic comedy but its smart too, Sheenas characters do not suffer fools.

When I was writing it, the kind of the phrase that I kept having in mind was feminist feelgood, says the author, who lives by the shores of Lough Neagh.

I wanted to write something uplifting, but I also wanted it to be smart, feminist and kind of politically engaged with it with a small p.

I love reading historical fiction. And my last three novels, which were for young people, they were kind of politics with a large p if you like because they were they were all written for the decade of centenary.

So it was actually really refreshing to be able to write and bring in the politics because all our lives, every single day, are governed by politics. But to make it I suppose a bit more on the periphery or a bit less obvious.

Author Sheena Wilkinson

Sheenas adult debut is one where youll root for all characters and when reading, they feel like a joy to craft.

Martha and Fabian are obviously probably more conventional, but April was a joy to write about because shes so well meaning. But she is naive and she doesnt necessarily see the obstacles in her way.

And then obviously [Aprils landlady] Felicity, shes intent on being a fearsome spinster and she very much does things on her own terms.

But the beauty of her book is that characterisation is nuanced, flawed and, as Sheena says, as human as possible. This is in part thanks to her detailed knowledge of the people shes written into life.

By the time I start writing, with my characters I knew them really, really well. And if I didnt I couldnt expect them to come off a page for the reader.

Sometimes I plan something and then I end up writing something slightly different because as you say, the characters do take on their own kind of life.

Sheena, an award-winner for her eight previous novels, including the Childrens Books Ireland Book of the Year for Grounded, says that writing her debut for adults was more difficult.

I would actually argue that I find it easier; easier in the sense that it was there was a lot more freedom, she says.

Now, theres no sex or anything, its not really that kind of book. To be honest, even when I was writing my historical novels for teenagers, I wasnt constantly thinking, would a teenager understand this? because that would have been death to the book, but at the same time, I had to have some sort of awareness of the reader.

I think with the adult book, it was just lovely because basically the reader is me  not me as I was 40 years ago, but me as I am now, because its very much a book for, and I dont make any bones about this, women. I know that its a book thats going to appeal more to women and Ive absolutely no issue with that at all.

It was definitely not harder writing for adults. Ive always tried with all my fiction, Ive always really cared about the craft of prose, and Ive always cared about language and imagery.

So I never ever compromised in that when I was writing for young people. So in terms of style and everything, it didnt really feel terribly different.

The big difference is that it was it was a good bit longer than most of my young adult fiction, which meant that I had longer to, I suppose, maybe just go into that bit more depth, a bit more detail.

Its not that you would ever have any padding but an adult reader may be more interested in some of those small details and going into a bit more depth, more introspection than you would get away with in a book for young people.

Fiction geared towards young adults tends to be immediate; theres no time for carefully calculated decisions.

One of the really good things about writing for young people is it did teach me the importance of there being a good story.

This book, its got quite a charming sort of premise, a marriage bureau, and its quite a nice setting in Yorkshire in the 1930s and the characters are witty and charming. But all of that is no good if you dont have a damn good story. So I did make sure that theres plenty happening.

Whats also important is ensuring all characters have a story arc, about which Sheena was keen to do even for secondary characters.

For example, the character of the Colonel who we dont actually see in the book. Theres a running joke that they cant get anyone for the Colonel. And then one day; I hadnt even planned this, but one day I thought its about time we got someone from the Colonel and then this woman, Thomasina, just strode into the into the marriage bureau.

It was really good fun just making sure there was enough going on in the bureau and making sure that I was matching people up and finding not even just partners for them but finding futures for them which may not have been marriage. I didnt want it to be a book where the only happy ending with marriage; in fact, I was very much railing against that.

Mrs Harts Marriage Bureau by Sheena Wilkinson

Research on the historical period is something Sheena loves  if Im sitting in the evening, Ill pick up a book about social history. Its my kind of my go-to place.

If I go anywhere, I love folk museums. Im not so interested in the big sweeping things in history; for me, its always the little domestic details. What did they eat? What were their clothes like?

Social and political unrest percolate throughout the novel, as do themes such as financial fraud  something that sounds unexpectedly modern and that enhances the plot.

I love books that are very, very firmly of their period, and could only have taken place in that way at that time, says Sheena, but that also have something to say to us about the modern world.

Obviously the whole area of online dating, particularly with romance fraud, something it seems middle aged women, and Im a middle aged woman, are particularly vulnerable to.

Its not something I, thank God, have direct experience of because even though I was single for 20 years, I never ever did any online dating. But I did find out, just from reading a book, not about marriage bureaus, but through the lonely hearts columns, there have always been conmen, there have always been fraudsters. It was really important to me to write about how that same kind of fraud might have happened 90 years ago.

Sheenas sparse language enables her to put across insightful moments  theres a touching comment on the number of Aprils good work dresses for example.

Its my ninth novel. Obviously, Im hoping to get a buzz around it as a debut because its being marketed as a debut, but also I do know my craft and language has always been really important to me, says Sheena.

I will spend time; not in the first draft, in the first draft I just go for it and its all over the place, its messy and theres gaps and theres things I havent found out yet. But by the time I get to the final draft, I will be really, really crafting every single phrase.

Another overarching theme is female friendship  the importance of having a 1930s-style cheerleader in your vicinity, and to remind you of your strengths whenever things turn sour.

Im so glad that you picked up on that because yes, Ive always seen it as a book about connection and friendship is really important to me.

My own friendships have always been really important to me.

Im 54 and I got married when I was 53, so I had a long time of being on my own, very happily on my own.

One of the characters talks about that she wasnt lonely exactly but it was quite an effort not to be. I know what that effort is like, what its like to have to work hard to stay on the right side of loneliness when not only youre a single person but particularly when youre a single person because the world is very much built for couples. My friendships have always been really, really important to me.

I started the book in April 2020. I dont think that a coincidence. It was an idea that I had a while, but I think the particular thing about that time was obviously we were all in lockdown, and I was really thinking about the importance of human connection.

I did my PhD many, many years ago on female friendship in literature so it has always been something that Ive been interested in.

Sheena Wilkson with husband Seamus on their wedding day

Local readers will feel especially connected to April, whose range of phrases  and others reactions  will have you chuckling.

Theres a very practical reason why I set it in England. I had written three novels, which very much engaged with things like cultural identity, religion, politics, blah, blah, blah. And to be honest, I wanted to get away from that.

But theres no way that I could have written about a marriage bureau in Northern Ireland without just being either a Catholic marriage bureau or a Protestant marriage bureau and I just really wanted to get away from that whole issue. Then I thought, well, what fun to take a girl who does think in that way and put her in a context which is really quite different and where people dont think in that way.

I did have quite a lot of fun when she and Martha talk about religion and that kind of thing. I did have quite a lot of fun with that. The things that she says are the things that I remember my granny saying, the things that I hear people say older people in the countryside, that kind of thing.

I deliberately fictionalised the town that April is from so no one can say people from that town wouldnt use that expression. Theres a real warmth with how April speaks.

Mrs Harts Marriage Bureau by Sheena Wilkinson (HarperCollins Ireland, 14.99) is available now
Police are appealing for information and witnesses following the incident in the Adelaide Street area in the early hours of Saturday morning.

At around 3.50am, two women were walking in the area when the man, armed with a knife, approached one of them and grabbed her handbag before making off on foot.

The other woman gave chase, and the suspect eventually stopped and threatened to stab her. He then made off from the scene.

The handbag was later discovered set alight in the Cromac Street area.

Sergeant Earley said: The suspect has been described as being aged in his 20s, of slim build, and approximately 5 ft 8 ins in height. He was said to have been wearing dark coloured tracksuit bottoms and a dark coloured hoodie.

He continued: Enquiries are continuing, and we are appealing to anyone who was in the area at the time, and who may have seen anything, to get in touch.

The number to call is 101, quoting reference number 468 of 18/03/23.

Alternatively, you can submit a report online using the non-emergency reporting form via http://www.psni.police.uk/makeareport/.

Crimestoppers can also be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111.
The PSNI have said they are treating a fire at a property in Co Londonderry as arson with intent to endanger life.

The blaze occurred in the Deramore Drive area of the city on Friday, with both police and members from the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service attending.

There were no reported injuries and no one was inside the property at the time of the fire.

A police spokesperson said: Had that not been the case, it could have resulted in very serious consequences.

At this time, we are treating this report as arson with intent to endanger life, and our enquiries to establish the circumstances of what happened are continuing they added.

We are appealing to anyone who may have any information which may assist, or who may have witnessed any suspicious activity in the area at the time, to call 101, quoting reference number 1750 of 17/03/23.

"Alternatively, information can also be provided by calling the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

"You can also submit a report online using our non-emergency reporting form via www.psni.police.uk/makeareport.

Meanwhile, police have said they are investigating a separate report of arson in Portrush on Friday, which they also believe had intent to endanger life.

The fire occurred at a property in the Glenbush Drive area and caused its roof to partially collapse as a result.

No one was inside the property at the time, and no injuries were reported but the occupants of the adjoining properties were evacuated due to smoke as a precaution.

Two garden sheds and an oil tank were also destroyed.

A police spokesperson said: Had this fire spread, the consequences could have been devastating, and an investigation is now underway to establish the circumstances of this reckless incident, which we are treating as arson with intent to endanger life at this time.

We are appealing to anyone who was in the area at the time and saw anything suspicious, or who may have any information which might assist us, to contact detectives on 101, and quote reference number 2087 of 17/03/23.
The BBC has insisted its programming will not be influenced by politics after the mother of the corporations regional interim director announced she is standing as a TUV candidate in Mays council elections.

Adam Smyth became director of BBC Northern Ireland on an interim basis in January 2022 and has worked for the public broadcaster for 27 years.

On Friday, the Belfast Telegraph revealed his mum Anne is running in East Belfasts Titanic ward where the party believes it has an excellent chance of winning a seat in the May ballot.

Read more BBC NI chiefs mum set to run in elections as TUV candidate

The 72-year-old, whose husband Clifford is a leading Orange historian, stressed that the couples politics should not be confused with their sons opinions.

Now, Mr Smyths employer has offered assurances that impartiality will not be compromised at Broadcasting House.

The parents of BBC staff are entitled to their own views and beliefs, a BBC spokesperson told this newspaper.

None of this affects BBC decision-making or output.

Mrs Smyth, who has known TUV leader Jim Allister from the early 1970s when they were members of the DUP association at Queens University along with Sammy Wilson, previously said her four children were raised to be free-thinking.

They were never rail-roaded into sharing our views. Adam is very much his own man with his own opinions, she said.

We have friendly arguments  even heated discussions  from time to time. Adam has a reputation for being completely impartial, fair-minded, and even-handed in his job.

The Glasgow-born pensioner, who drifted away from unionist politics after graduating with a law degree in the early 1970s before becoming a civil servant, was the daughter of a senior Orangeman and met her husband through the institution.

She said she is looking forward to the election battle.

I became active in the TUV about four years ago and am now secretary of its Belfast branch, Mrs Smyth said.

I have always held Jim Allister in high regard, and I admire the partys strong moral stance on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.

BBC Broadcasting House, Belfast

The TUV candidate also endorsed support for the partys position on the protocol bill.

Im very much in agreement with the partys principled stance on opposing an Irish Sea border and on sharing power with Sinn Fein, she said.

I was initially hesitant when asked to stand for election because Im 72 and I like to see young people coming forward.

But I think I bring real life experience to the table, and its a bit hypocritical to complain about how things are and not be prepared to step up to the mark yourself.

Mrs Smyths son Adam, who began his career as a reporter, is a highly respected figure in BBC NI.

He was appointed head of news and current affairs here in 2018 and tasked with leading regional output across television, radio and digital platforms.

However, last year Mr Smyth was accused by the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland of snubbing the community after he defended the corporations decision to axe live coverage of the Twelfth which his father once provided the commentary for.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was among unionist politicians who urged the BBC to reconsider, but the broadcasting organisation stuck to its decision.
Thai officials, experts hail new opportunities brought by Chinese modernization

Xinhua) 13:44, March 18, 2023

BANGKOK, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese modernization has provided new opportunities for making important contributions to global peace and development, said Thai officials and experts.

As the world's second-largest economy, China is closely connected to the global supply chain, and its economic and trade policies have a far-reaching impact on the global and regional economy, said Danuch Tanterdtid, vice minister of Thailand's Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, at a seminar on Friday.

Thailand-China innovation cooperation will become an important driving force for regional development, "especially as Chinese modernization provides another option for modernization development," Danuch said.

Wirun Phichaiwongphakdee, director of the Thailand-China Research Center of the Belt and Road Initiative, said Chinese-style modernization, encompasses all aspects of Chinese life, and has become the most important platform for many countries to achieve connectivity, making enormous contributions to promoting global peace and development.

"Chinese modernization is a modernization path tailored to China's national circumstances that offers many valuable lessons to developing countries," said Wirun.

Chaiyasit Tantayakul, advisor of the Horticultural Science Society of Thailand, said, "China and ASEAN have friendly cooperation, and Chinese modernization will bring more development opportunities to ASEAN countries."

Chinese modernization is reflected in substantial improvements in people's quality of life, said Thitinan Chankoson, vice dean for research, strategy and organizational development, Srinakharinwirot University, noting that it also represents modernization towards common prosperity.

The seminar "Chinese Modernization and New Opportunities for the World" was organized by China Media Group Asia-Pacific and gathered more than 100 guests from politics, academia, media and business, discussing in-depth topics related to the global significance of Chinese-style modernization.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
SNP leadership candidate Kate Forbes has acknowledged extraordinary turmoil in the party, amid reports its chief executive Peter Murrell could face a vote of no confidence.

Mr Murrell, who is Nicola Sturgeons husband, is reportedly facing demands from members of the partys ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) to announce a date for his departure.

SNP media chief Murray Foote left on Friday amid a row over the partys membership numbers.

Mr Foote said that after speaking to the partys HQ, he had issued responses to the media which had serious issues and he later decided there was a serious impediment to his role.

On Thursday, the party revealed membership as of February 15 this year was 72,186, having fallen from 103,884 in 2021.

Peter Murrell is the SNPs chief executive (Andy Buchanan)   Andy Buchanan

This corroborated a story in the Sunday Mail in February around the SNP losing 30,000 members, something Mr Foote had strongly denied at the time.

On Saturday, Ms Forbes issued an open letter to SNP members who had yet to cast their vote.

She said: Many of you, like me, will be hurt and bemused by the extraordinary turmoil in our party over the last days.

If anyone was in any doubt that this needs to be a change election for the SNP, recent events and resignations confirm the core message of my campaign: continuity wont cut it.

She continued: I love the SNP, and I am passionate about Scotlands future as an independent, fair and wealthy nation.

A few years ago, scandal rocked the SNP and I was asked to step up and deliver the budget with only a few hours notice.

I did it, for my party and for the people of this country. That is the mark of who I am. I will not shy away from difficult times.

Instead I find the solution and give it my all.

I have a great deal of respect for the two other candidates, but I am the only candidate who can truly deliver change as First Minister.

Ms Forbes, who is on maternity leave from her government role as Finance Secretary, pledged to reform the party and committed to independent auditing of membership and finances.

In her letter, she referred to stepping in at late notice to deliver the Scottish Governments budget following the sudden resignation of then-finance secretary Derek Mackay in 2020, after it was revealed he had sent hundreds of messages to a teenage boy.

On Saturday, the Herald newspaper reported an unnamed senior member of the NEC who said: We have the numbers. Theres not a hope in hell that Peter can survive a no confidence motion.

The newspaper said that rebel NEC members are calling for Mr Murrell to set a date for his departure by the end of Saturday.

Mr Murrell has been the partys chief executive for more than 20 years.

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Ash Regan, one of the other candidates in the race, tweeted about the report that NEC members were calling on Mr Murrell to go.

She said: I am encouraged to see the democratic foundations of the party now asserting their rightful functions.

Fellow leadership candidate Humza Yousaf addressed Mr Footes departure on Friday.

He said Mr Foote has been outstanding since joining the SNP media team and that he would be sorely missed.

Mr Yousaf added: Reform of our HQ operations has been a key part of my campaign. With fresh party leadership should come a fresh approach to our HQ operation.
The Stone of Destiny officially returned to Scotland in 1996 (Chris Bacon/PA)   Chris Bacon

The son of the man who famously smuggled the Stone of Destiny back to Scotland from Westminster Abbey says his father would not want it to be returned to London for the Kings coronation.

Ian Hamilton, who died last year, broke into the abbey in 1950 and removed the stone, alongside a group of students.

The stone was used to inaugurate Scottish royalty for centuries, before being removed from the country by King Edward I in 1296.

It is currently on display in Edinburgh Castle after being officially returned to Scotland in 1996.

However there are plans for the stone to be moved to Westminster Abbey for the coronation, with a guarantee it will return to Scotland afterwards.

The stone was smuggled back to Scotland in 1950 (Chris Bacon/PA)   PA

Ian Hamiltons son Jamie told the BBC: I think his view would be, its ridiculous.

He added: If people want to be crowned on it they should come to Scotland and be crowned on it. I think that would be his standpoint.

Historic Environment Scotland are the custodians of the ancient stone, which is displayed alongside Scotlands crown jewels.

Head of collections Kathy Richmond told the broadcaster: We have a royal warrant which says that the stone is to be kept in Scotland and its to be transported back to Westminster Abbey for any future coronation.

Earlier this month former first minister and Alba Party leader Alex Salmond said the stone should not be used in the Kings coronation.

Mr Salmond admitted it was not his most serious policy but that the Scottish Government should refuse any request for the stone, due to the refusal to allow a second independence referendum.
The extension of a deal enabling Ukraine to export grain is crucial to ensuring global food supplies and keeping prices from spiralling, the United Nations humanitarian chief has said, on the eve of the agreements expiration.

Russias UN ambassador reiterated that Moscow is ready to extend the deal, but only for 60 days, just half the 120 days in the agreement.

The original 120-day agreement was renewed last November and expires on Saturday.

It would be automatically extended for another 120 days unless one of the parties objects  and Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said Russia has formally objected.

UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths said it was vital for the UN-Russia memorandum to be fully implemented.

A lorry unloads grain in a granary in the village of Zghurivka, Ukraine (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)   Efrem Lukatsky

He opened the Security Council meeting on Friday saying the Black Sea grain initiative has seen global food prices continue to fall.

Under the initiative, close to 25 million metric tons of foodstuff have been exported since last August and the UN World Food Programme has been able to transport more than half a million metric tons of wheat to support humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen, Mr Griffiths said.

There has been meaningful progress, but impediments remain, notably with regard to payment systems, he said, stressing that UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres and trade chief Rebeca Grynspan are sparing no effort to facilitate its full implementation.

Mr Nebenzias briefing to the UN Security Council, reiterating what a Russian delegation told senior UN officials at a meeting in Geneva on Monday, reinforced the Kremlins insistence on reducing the duration of the deal to hold out for changes on how the package is working.

The UN and Turkey brokered the deal between the warring countries last July that allows Ukraine  one of the worlds key breadbaskets  to ship food and fertiliser from three of its Black Sea ports.

A separate memorandum of understanding between the UN and Russia is aimed at overcoming obstacles to Moscows shipments of fertiliser to global markets.

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Mr Nebenzia said the memorandum is simply not working and the UN has to recognise it has no leverage to exempt Russian agricultural export operations from Western sanctions and its efforts have not produced results.

He also claimed that the Ukraine grain export deal had been transformed from a humanitarian initiative to help developing countries facing escalating food prices to a commercial operation benefiting the worlds four leading Western agro-business corporations.

As a result, Mr Nebenzia said Russia has officially informed the Turkish and Ukrainian sides through a note that it does not object to extending the Black Sea grain initiative, but just for 60 days, until May 18.

If Brussels, Washington and London are genuinely interested to continue the export of food from Ukraine through the maritime humanitarian corridor, then they have two months to exempt from their sanctions the entire chain of operations which accompany the Russian agricultural sector, the Russian envoy said.

Otherwise, we fail to understand how the package concept of the secretary-general of the United Nations will work through these simple agreements.

US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield countered that the world knows that Russias food exports are at least as high as their pre-war levels, adding when we hear the Russian government say they are being held back from exporting grain, from exporting fertiliser, the numbers show its just not true.

When it comes to sanctions we have gone to extraordinary lengths to communicate the clear carveouts for food and fertiliser to governments and to the private sector, she said. Simply put, sanctions are not the issue.

She also criticised Russia for delaying shipping from Ukrainian ports, which increases transportation costs.
Poor St Patrick  he didnt have a lot of luck in the abduction stakes. When he was sixteen he was kidnapped by pirates and brought to Ireland from his home in Britain. Many years after his death, he was hijacked again and taken from Ireland to the US which now hosts whats seen as the saints foremost annual celebration.
US President Joe Biden is backing Irelands bid to complete the Six Nations Grand Slam today.

Mr Biden wished Andy Farrells side luck ahead of the Saturday teatime clash with England in Dublin.

He was speaking at a St Patricks Day engagement in Washington.

At one event, the President introduced his distant relative and ex-Ireland and Lions fullback Rob Kearney, saying: "We've even got a few of my distant Irish cousins here today Rob stand up. I want to see you after this, pal.

You know, Rob, I expect, we know - and this is no offence to anyone in the room - who we are rooting for in the Grand Slam match between Ireland and England.

Mr Biden has welcomed Kearney to the White House before, and has displayed an Irish rugby ball in the Oval Office.

And in November 2021, the President wished Ireland luck against New Zealand, and then called to congratulate them after their 29-20 victory over the All Blacks at the Aviva Stadium.

A sellout crowd will pack into the Aviva as Ireland aim for a fourth Grand Slam against England this evening.

It is Ireland captain Johnny Sextons last Six Nations game and he can secure his place in Irish sporting history by becoming the first skipper to win a Grand Slam in Dublin.

Ireland previously completed the Grand Slam at Ravenhill in Belfast in 1948, 2009 in Cardiff and in London in 2018.

England are coming off the back of their worst home defeat in 113 years of Test rugby against France last week.
An Irish Goodbye star James Martin with the film's Oscar on the Late Late Show's St Patrick's Day Special. Picture Andres Poveda

Hollywood megastar Liam Neeson has heaped praise on the newly-crowned Oscar-winners behind celebrated home-grown movie An Irish Goodbye.

The Oscar-nominated A-lister from Ballymena (70) also spoke of his admiration for Lisa McGees hit TV series Derry Girls, in which he had a cameo role, and revealed hes not a huge fan of St Patricks Day celebrations.

An Irish Goodbye scooped best short film at last weekends Oscars and Liam was glowing about its NI contingent.

Star James Martin and director Ross White are both from Belfast with the cast also including Seamus OHara, from Newry, and Game of Thrones star Michelle Fairley from Coleraine.

Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on RTEs Late Late Show on Friday, he said: I was so proud, 14 nominations (for Irish projects), An Irish Goodbye was beautiful and it won the Oscar, terrific, I was really proud and it deserved to win it, many congratulations.

Liam was joined on the show by James Martin as well as Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee.

The Taken star spoke fondly of his time on the hit Channel 4 comedy and how he came to know of it thanks to old flame Dame Helen Mirren.

Liam Neeson Teaches Jimmy How to Throw a Fake Punch

What a great series it was, honestly," he said: This up and coming actress called Dame Helen Mirren said to me about three years ago have you seen this Derry Girls!? Just watch it, I did and got absolutely hooked.

As much as I laughed I also shed tears, here was this bunch of young people determined to be young people despite all this havoc and hell that was going on Derry.

I just thought it was brilliant, when I started watching it I got in touch with my British agent Sue Latimer and said Sue, Ill be whatever, a beggar on the streets but would you ever get me on the show.

Anyway push and come to shove and they gave me this police guy from Ballymena strangely enough, it was a stretch, he joked.

In a wide-ranging interview Liam also revealed his frustration with Northern Ireland politics insisting MLAs should get back to work, spoke of his admiration for the Good Friday Agreement and his weariness around the NI Protocol debate.

The Star Wars and Schindlers List star described the GFA as amazing and recognised around the world, adding: I try to (stay up to date), certainly with the whole protocol and stuff.

Theres a part of you that wants to say come on for Gods sake were talking about sausages here, you know theres sh*t going on in the Middle East and Ukraine, but theyre working their way through it.

Theres no border and theres going to be a green lane and a red lane, how many months did that take to think of? Get back to work for Gods sake.

Yous are drawing a salary, get back to work and represent the people, all the people.

Liam was chatting to Ryan ahead of the release of his 100th film, Marlowe, a drama based on iconic private detective Phillip Marlowe who was made famous by Raymond Chandler novels like The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye.

Fridays Late Late Show was a bumper St Patricks edition and despite being always Irish Liam revealed he shies away from the celebrations when hes at home in New York City.

He added: You know its funny I live in New York, Ive been there for 32 years I guess, St Paddys Day I always avoid it.

The Americans theyre brilliant but they just go overboard, rivers turn green, a few drinks are taken, I do avoid it but I say a wee prayer for St Patrick obviously.
Pierce Brosnan surprised locals and staff when he popped into the pub on the Glenshane Pass

Staff and punters at The Ponderosa Bar on the Glenshane Pass were left shaken and stirred when Pierce Brosnan popped in for a pint earlier in the week.

The former James Bond star took time to pose for snaps at the pub, which at 946ft above sea level is the highest bar on the island of Ireland.

The 69-year-old has been touring Ireland while filming the romantic comedy Four Letters of Love with Helena Bonham Carter. Hes been spotted in shops, cafes and bars in Donegal, picking up some tweed and visiting the Shandon Hotel Spa in Dunfanaghy with wife Keely.

The star, who was in Northern Ireland last year filming The Last Rifleman, about a WWII veteran who escapes his care home in Northern Ireland to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France, also called into The Salthouse Hotel in Ballycastle.
According to the Mishnah, If a sentence of death is to be pronounced, it a criminal charge cannot be concluded before the following day" (Mishnah, "Sanhedrin" IV, 1). This would allow for other witnesses or a defense to support the accused. But the trial of Jesus was conducted in under nine hours.

5. The judges were not impartial.

The Sanhedrin were the ones bringing the charges and the ones holding the trial. As Mendelsohn comments:

"The only prosecutors were the witnesses in the crime. The witnesses constituted the charge. There was no formal indictment until these witnesses spoke in the public assembly. When they spoke, and the evidence of two agreed together, it formed the legal charge, libel, or indictment." (Mendelsohn in "The Criminal Jurisprudence of the Ancient Hebrews," p.110)

The New Testament witness shows that the Sanhedrin were already determined to crucify him. This was hardly a fair or impartial trial.

6. The indictments against Jesus were false or unproven.

What exactly were the charges against Jesus? When He was before the Sanhedrin, the charge was blasphemy. According to Mark 14:58, two false witnesses misquoted Jesus and said he was going to destroy the temple.

Furthermore, the very fact that the Sanhedrin went looking for witnesses to accuse Jesus has the entire procedure backward. Witnesses were to bring charges, and then the trial begins. There should have been two or three witnesses, and they had to agree upon the details. But according to Matthew 26:65, the standard was not meant, but the Sanhedrin said there was no more need for witnesses.

They heard what they wanted to hear. They did not give a chance for any defense and went forward with execution based upon the testimony of false witnesses. This points to another illegal aspect

Photo Credit: iStock/Getty Images Plus/leolintang
Voters dealt a hammer blow to the Dutch establishment in Wednesdays regional elections, propelling the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB) to become the largest party in the Senate in just its first election.

Exit polls projected the movement will win 15 seats in the Dutch upper chamber as voters sent a clear message to Mark Ruttes government over its planned nitrogen emissions laws campaigners say will devastate the countrys agricultural sector.

The Dutch have clearly shown that they are fed up with the policy, BBB leader Caroline van der Plas told De Telegraaf late on Wednesday. Im going to party.

The turnaround has started. The voters have spoken and have denounced support of this government, she added in a tweet.

She did very well, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte admitted, whose Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) saw its projected seats fall from the current 12 to 10.

Government coalition parties didnt fare much better. The liberal party, Democrats 66 (D66), is projected to drop a seat, as is the Christian Union (CU), while the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) is expected to drop four seats from its current nine.

With a collective seat share of just 24, the government coalition has fallen well short of a majority. It will now have to rely on working with opposition parties on specific legislative proposals to push through government policy.

They are killing our farmers  Dutch midterm elections could see farmers emerge victorious and PM Rutte lose power

What started as a grassroots farmers protest against damaging environmental rules could bring the Dutch government to its knees

The Senate wields considerable influence in the Netherlands, unlike many other European nations. While it cannot initiate legislation, it has the power to block government policy, and Thursdays election suggests a period of sustained political stalemate for the country.

One victim of the election night was Thierry Baudets Freedom For Democracy (FvD) party. It saw its core voter base capitulate and is expected to lose 10 of its 12 seats. The collapse suggests the surge in support for BBB is to a large degree off the back of deep anti-government and right-wing sentiment.
About 100 metres off the point between Tamarama and Bondi Beach, beneath a light cloud of tawny-coloured jelly-blubbers and a thick shoal of yellowtail scad, two grey nurse sharks sheltered under a rock overhang on Saturday morning.

They were oblivious to the free-divers struggling to hold their breath long enough to take clear photos of them 10 metres beneath the swell.

Two young grey nurse sharks amid a school of fish 10 metres underwater off the headland at South Bondi on Saturday. Credit: Duncan Heuer & Edwina Pickles

The sharks were young, both smaller than two metres long, and presented no threat despite the fierce-looking teeth that once led them to be killed on sight.

So many were killed, and their breeding cycle so slow, that the timid creatures are now critically endangered in NSW.
The China-brokered deal, which a Saudi official cites that Iran must comply with as Beijing is not someone to cross. Last Wednesday, the official mentioned that the deal is crucial for the two Arab states and that the effort is a breakthrough.

China-brokered Deal a Keystone to Different Middle East

Both Tehran and Riyadh, under the diplomatic overtures of Beijing last Friday, had reestablished ties in talks held there. Predictably the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned the diplomatic coup of Beijing and even said it would lead to Middle Eastern stability, reported Asharo Al-Awsat.

Blinken spoke to media in Ethiopia and told AFP this statement. Called an impetus to lessen tensions for less conflict and stop the Iranians is a positive move, noted France 24.

The KSA official said that China and US are crucial partners for the Kingdom. He added that they discourage any misunderstanding between them. He claimed the US was informed before the deal was signed a week ago.

Iran Plays Crucial Part in China's Diplomatic Drives

Details reveal that Chinese leader Xi Jinping overtures, last year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to offer a mediator between the Kingdom and Tehran. It would entail reestablishing ties with both agreeing, cited Yahoo News.

Xi clarified that their superpower status gives clout to Saudi and Tehran entering a deal. The Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, said it would suit Chinese leverage in the Gulf region.

Read Also: EU, Arab Countries Laud Restoration of Saudi Arabia-Iran Diplomatic Ties

Unlike the other superpower, which has less than good relations with the two Arab countries, Beijing positions itself in a sweet spot to bridge differences. Iran for one has more confidence in China and it means a lot to make a deal. It makes an ideal match for the end goal. But this meeting that cemented cooperation by two rivals has not been without effort to iron out, said the unnamed Saudi.

Though not highlighted in the Jordan regional summit when the two parties did talk on the sidelines last December. The Saudi foreign minister spoke to Iran's deputy president in Brazil and when Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was in Beijing in February.

Chinese influence has grown, and it holds such a deal together. Another is Beijing will want no conflict but for the Middle East to prosper for security and stability.

The source says the diplomatic talks in Beijing had five sessions that thresh out significant divides between the two rival Arab states. Such topics are Yemen, media, and the Chinese roles as main points, but it did not include the nuclear deal, as noted.

Two months from now, both countries would get diplomatic links up and proceed with the deal. Keep out of each other affairs and sovereign rights too.

Last Wednesday, the Iranian Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Alireza Enayati about a meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah and Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian will take about consular relations.

He told Iranian media that more discussions are needed before another meeting with a probable third party to be present or not. A Saudi official stressed that Iran needs to comply with China brokered deal to benefit from it entirely.

Related Article: Ex-Saudi Intel Chief Doubts US Intentions on Iran-Saudi Talks

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More than 3.6 million Australians have failed to return their bowel cancer early detection test kits, as experts warn the nation has reported the most severe drop in a decade of people using the preventative screening tool.

Recent figures released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showed more than 6 million Australians, aged between 50 and 74, were sent a kit to screen for the disease themselves at home, but less than 2.5 million, or roughly 41 per cent, returned the test.

Helen Page-Wood says a bowel cancer home kit saved her life. She was left gobsmacked when her test came back positive for colon cancer. Credit: Joe Armao

Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance executive director Professor Grant McArthur said even a tiny decline in people undertaking preventative screening can have significant implications on the number of Australians that may end up dying or becoming seriously ill from bowel cancer.

A small percentage change in screening still affects a very large number of people, for a very common cancer like bowel cancer, that often develops without warning signs, McArthur said.
Not every system is perfect but this is the best system developed by the judiciary, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said on Saturday while defending the Collegium system of judges appointing judges, a major bone of contention between the government and judiciary.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave, 2023, the CJI said the object of the Collegium system was to maintain independence and that can be done by insulating it from outside influences.

"As the Chief Justice, I have to take the system as it is given to us... I am not saying every system is perfect but this is the best system we have developed. The object of this system was to maintain independence which is a cardinal value. We have to insulate the judiciary from outside influences if the judiciary has to be independent. That is the underlying feature of Collegium," Chandrachud said.

Amid the tussle between the government and the judiciary, the CJI also responded to Law Minister Kiren Rijiju voicing displeasure over the Supreme Court Collegium revealing the government's reasons for not approving the names recommended by it for appointment as judges of constitutional courts.

"He has a perception. I have a perception and there is bound to be a difference of perceptions. And what's wrong in having a difference of perceptions? We have to deal with perceptions even within the judiciary. I dare say there is a difference of perception within the government. But we all deal with it with a sense of robust statesmanship.

"I do not want to join issues with the law minister for his perception. I respect his perception and I am sure he has respect for ours as well. The reason why we put this (the reasons cited by govt. to reject names for judgeship) on the SC website is the desire of the present Collegium to meet the criticism that we lack transparency and a genuine belief that opening of the processes will foster greater confidence in the citizens," the CJI said.

Also Read SC appointments: What is the collegium system, and how does it work? What is the Supreme Court Collegium system? Law minister Rijiju suggests inclusion of govt representatives in collegium DY Chandrachud to succeed UU Lalit as the next Chief Justice of India Is it time to rethink the collegium system of judicial appointments? 80,000 cases pending in CESTAT; Govt to set committee to reduce litigation Water, livelihoods dry up for fish farmers of East Kolkata Wetlands AIIMS-Delhi to set up state-of-art robotic surgery training facility Govt should be responsible, not compulsive litigant: SC judge Maheshwari Election Commission's full bench to visit Assam for delimitation exercise

The 50th CJI also took questions on the controversy over the the SC Collegium's reiteration of openly gay senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal for appointment as a judge of the Delhi High Court after it was rejected by the government.

Chandrachud said the sexual orientation of a candidate for judgeship has nothing to do with his ability.

"The candidate (Kirpal) you are referring to, every aspect which was mentioned in the report of the Intelligence Bureau was in the public domain. The candidate in question is open about his sexual orientation. So, when the IB flagged something, we were not really opening up IB sources of information. What could be the danger? Someone might say if you put the IB report in public domain, you might be compromising the sources of information of the IB on the issues of national security. Somebody's life may be in danger.

" This was not a case like that. The IB report dwelt on the sexual orientation of an openly declared gay candidate for prospective judgeship. It's known to the entire profession and widely reported in the media. All that we said in the resolution was that the sexual orientation of a candidate has nothing to do with the ability or the constitutional entitlement of the candidate to assume a high constitution post of a high court judge," he said.

In January, the Supreme Court Collegium had reiterated its November 11, 2021 recommendation for appointing Kirpal as a judge of the Delhi High Court, rejecting the Centre's contention that though homosexuality stands decriminalised in India, same-sex marriage is still bereft of recognition.

When asked how independent is India's judiciary and was there any kind of pressure from the government, the CJI said there is absolutely no pressure from the government on how to decide cases.

"In my 23 years of being a judge, no one has told me how to decide a case. I won't even talk to a colleague who is presiding over a case and ask what's going on in that case. There are some lines which we draw for ourselves. That's part of our training...

"There is no question of pressure from the executive arm of the government. I hope I am speaking for the rest of the system as well. There is absolutely no pressure from the government. The Election Commission judgment is proof that there is no pressure on the judiciary," CJI said.

The Supreme Court had recently ruled that the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and election commissioners will be done by the President on the advice of a committee comprising the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India.

On the issue of challenges the judiciary is facing with 4.32 crore cases pending, the CJI said it is true that there is a large backlog of cases but it shows the faith of the people in coming to the courts for justice.

"We should be discharging the faith of the people by being more efficient and reducing the backlog. It also shows there is a dearth of infrastructure in the judiciary. Our judge to population ratio is not commensurate with what it should be in a country like ours. There is a lack of infrastructure in the district judiciary.

"We need to completely modernise the Indian judiciary. Our model for judicial administration has been based on the colonial model which we have inherited from the British. That colonial model now has to give way because justice is not just a sovereign function but also an essential service," he said.

Elaborating on the process of appointments, Chandrachud said parameters which are applied for selection of judges are well defined.

"First we look at merit. We look at the professional competence of the judge. We constantly analyse the judgements of the High Court judge when they come up in the appeal before us. We access those judgements. In the Collegium, we all read the judgements at the same time. We circulate the judgements of the High Court judges who are in the zone of consideration," he said.

Chandrachud said the second aspect which is looked at by the Collegium is seniority and the third aspect is the broader sense of inclusion in terms of gender, marginalised communities, scheduled castes and tribes etc but that is not at the cost of sacrificing merit.

"Fourth, to the extent possible, we try to give adequate representation to different high courts, states, and regions. While considering appointment of a judge, we consult puisne (ranked lower in seniority) judges routed through the same high court. There is equal involvement of all the stakeholders in the system," he said.

On the issue of trolling of apex court judges on social media, the CJI said it is important not be affected by the cacophony of extreme views.

"I don't follow Twitter. I think it's important for us not to be affected by the cacophony of extreme views which you sometimes find on Twitter. I think social media is a product of time, not just of technology. Nowadays, there is live tweeting of every word which is being said in the court and that puts an enormous amount of burden on us as well," the CJI said.

Several opposition MPs recently asked President Droupadi Murmu for immediate action over social media trolling of Chandrachud while he was deliberating on a case related to the governor's role in Maharashtra during the formation of the Eknath Shinde government.

On constant criticism of judges taking long vacations, the CJI said judges of the Supreme Court in India sit for 200 days a year and their vacations are spent thinking about the cases, reading about the case laws and reflecting on the impact of their work on society.

"The work that we do between 10.30 am and 4 pm in the Supreme Court is only a fraction of the work that we do. In order to be ready to deal with the cases which are going to come up the next day, we spent an equal amount of time in the evenings reading for the next day. Without exception, all judges in the Supreme Court work for seven days a week," the CJI said.

Chandrachud said most of the time during vacations is spent on preparing for judgments. PTI PKS



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Prior to the delimitation exercise of constituencies in Assam, the full bench of the Election Commission of India will meet and hold discussion with various stakeholders, including political parties and civil society.

According to an official release on Saturday, the full bench of the Election Commission, comprising Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar and two Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel, will be visiting Assam from March 26 to 28 to hold talks with various sections.

"The Commission has decided to visit Assam for knowing the ground reality and expectations of the stakeholders and general public on the ongoing delimitation exercise in the state," it added.

The Election Commission of India has been entrusted for the delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies of Assam.

"During this period, the Commission will interact with political parties, public representatives, civil societies, social organizations and state administration officials, including District Election Officers and Deputy Commissioners, to gather first hand information," the release said.

In order to receive inputs concerning the ongoing process of delimitation, the Commission expects that all stakeholders will cooperate in the endeavour and will provide valuable suggestions so that the task is completed timely, it added.

Also Read SC begins live streaming of constitutional bench cases on Sept 27 Delimitation panel submits to Centre final report on redrawing MCD wards What is a constitution bench? EC begins delimitation of assembly, parliamentary constituencies in Assam Article 143: What are constitution benches; when and why are they formed IMD asks farmers of Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh to postpone harvesting Delhi budget to focus on cleaning of Yamuna, removal of landfill garbage DDMA discusses preparedness for earthquake, prevailing H3N2 Flu situation NGT asks Kochi Municipal Corporation to pay Rs 100 cr damage compensation NGT forms committee to verify facts about air pollution around AIIMS, Delhi

The preliminary works to start the delimitation exercise have begun and the final job will begin after the CEC's visit in the last week of this month, a senior official from the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer told PTI.

On December 31, 2022, the Assam Cabinet had decided to merge four districts with their parents from where they were carved out and made separate districts. Biswanath with Sonitpur, Hojai with Nagaon, Tamulpur with Baksa and Bajali with Barpeta were merged.

The decisions to merge the districts were taken just a day before the Election Commission had imposed a ban on creating new administrative units in Assam from January 1, 2023 as the poll panel would undertake the delimitation exercise in the state.

The administrative jurisdiction of some villages and a few towns were also changed at the state cabinet meeting, held in New Delhi.

In March this year, the Gauhati High Court issued two notices to the Assam government asking to explain why it had dissolved Hojai and Biswanath districts within four weeks.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday said the coastal state has the potential to become a hub for defence manufacturing, creating employment opportunities and also strengthening India's defence capabilities.

Addressing the inaugural function of the 3rd Manohar Parrikar Memorial Lecture here, he said Goa's strategic location provides several advantages to key industries, including defence. With unique strategies, Goa has the potential to become a place for defence manufacturing, creating employment opportunities and also strengthen India's defence capabilities, he said. The chief minister said the Union government is committed to encourage self-reliance in defence manufacturing as a part of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make In India initiatives. To achieve this, we need trained manpower and we must focus on building competent individuals at the operational level to deploy, direct, review and update the resource effectively, he said. Sawant said quality of workforce is essential for effective utilization of technology and services.

With its advanced infrastructure and tailor-made demographic locations, Goa has strong prospects of becoming a logistic hub of India, he said, adding the state already houses the Maritime Cluster, which is likely to generate additional 3,000 jobs. Goa's infrastructure, including air, water and road connectivity, provides strategic advantages to India's defence industry. The naval base in Goa is strategically important for the Indian Navy, providing forward operating base for its ships and submarines to monitor and patrol the Western Coast and the Arabian Sea, he said.
Supreme Court judge Justice Dinesh Maheshwari Saturday said the government should act as a responsible and not compulsive litigant.

He also asked tribunals to ensure their decisions bring finality to justice delivery.

The top court judge, who was speaking as chief guest at an event here to commemorate 40 years of Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), said the executive should implement its litigation policy in a manner that it does not remain just a letter.

He said clarity and finality in decision making by tribunals will reduce pendency of cases.

Merely doing away with a few of low tax-effect matters will not be yielding the results which we are looking at. When we look at our litigation policy, we have to make those commitments there and particularly the mandates there that the government as a whole has to project itself and deal with the things as a responsible litigant rather than being a compulsive litigant, Justice Maheshwari said.

Asserting that a change in the approach of the government towards litigation will help things take yet better shape, Justice Maheshwari clarified being a responsible litigant does not mean that it would simply be curtailing or avoiding litigation as disputes are bound to come up in a civil society.

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The judge added the responsibility on adjudicatory bodies is equally serious and tribunals are required to deliver decisions in a manner as if they are the last court and last recourse.

A judgement of tribunal with all clarity and bringing about finality in decision making will go a long way in reducing arrears or backlog of cases, he said.

Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, in his address, suggested that tribunals embrace technology to address the issue of delay.

I may take this opportunity to suggest that tribunals, like courts, must embrace technology and must strive to evolve better process through technology. I am hopeful that it would make tribunals not only better accessible to litigants but also address issue of delay to a great extent, he said.

He also called upon the members of the bar to strive for specialisation in law.

The event, which was held in the Delhi High Court auditorium, was attended by several dignitaries including high court judge Justice Yashwant Varma and officials of the Ministry of Finance.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Friday asked the Narendra Modi-led Central government how Kiran Patel, who impersonated a PMO official, obtained Z plus security and roamed in Jammu and Kashmir for 4 months.

Conman Kiran Patel went to military posts in the Uri sector passing himself as a senior functionary of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and was accorded complete government protocols, he said.

Tejashwi Yadav also shared a photograph of Kiran Patel purportedly standing with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

"What is the relation between Kiran Patel and Amit Shah? How he obtained Z plus security from the government and how he became the Special Secretary in the PMO. It is a serious security lapse and the Narendra Modi government needs to answer it," he said.

"The Narendra Modi government has sent all central agencies to target opposition leaders but the security agencies have to take care of this. I firmly believe that Kiran Bhai Patel obtained confidential and classified information which is a serious threat to the nation," Tejashwi Yadav claimed.

The impostor arrested on Thursday for posing as a top official of the PMO was on his third 'VVIP' visit to Jammu and Kashmir when his luck failed him, an official said on Friday.

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Patel was picked up from the Lalit Grand Palace Hotel in Srinagar after the police got suspicious about his credentials.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Saturday urged the media fraternity in the country to remain cautious and desist from giving its space to narratives that threaten the nation's integrity.

Substandard and illogical opinions, delivered freely from within or abroad, could not destroy the democratic nature of the country, he added.

"I urge the media fraternity to remain cautious and desist from giving its space intentionally or unintentionally to such voices and narratives that have the potential to threaten the integrity of India," he said.

The minister was speaking while participating as a special guest in the centenary celebrations of eminent Malayalam daily "Mathrubhumi".

He said there is a proverb that facts are sacred and opinion is free.

"I want to emphasise here that the democratic nature of our great nation will always remain a fact, no matter how many substandard and illogical opinions are delivered freely from within or abroad," Thakur added.
Russia has warned the IAEA over the last ten years that the natural uranium kept in a Libyan site is in danger of missing. The loss of 2.5 tons of Libyan uranium under the nuclear watchdog's auspices was declared last Wednesday and fears over nukes were expressed.

IAEA To Secure Natural Uranium From Theft

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the nuclear material in an unknown location in Libya was taken mysteriously, reported by Sputnik News.

The scheduled March 14 UN inspection in Libya was canceled last year due to security threats. In a confidential statement, nuclear watchdog inspectors say that about ten drums equal 2.5 tons of naturally occurring nuclear material as uranium ore concentrate (UOC). It was stated that Libya had it stored where it is now missing, noted Reuters.

This development has prompted the UN nuclear agency to look into the disappearance of the UOC and other pertinent details and called a yellowcake that disappeared and can be used in a nuclear bomb or for a nuclear power plant. A ton would be converted to.6 kilograms (12 pounds) which can become weapons-grade material if technicians get a hold of it, cited SCMP.

A danger that groups capable of harnessing the potential for other than peaceful means is dangerous said the agency. Yellowcake is needed initially to power nuke power reactors or worse a nuclear weapon. A complicated process is used to make mined uranium to make it yellowcake. Enrichment can be done if the material is turned to gas form or uranium hexafluoride.

Read Also: Iran Allows IAEA Limited Access to Nuclear Facilities

IAEA Need To Explain Missing Uranium

The missing nuclear material was mentioned by US media even as the agency responsible for the missing two tons was not given further details. It is speculated though not verified by the agency, that it's the containment in Sabha, Libya, which is situated about 660 kilometers in the southeast sector of the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

This nuclear material was in the countless barrels stockpiled by the deceased Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. He was killed by the NATO invasion of a sovereign state and forcibly taken from power by the US-led military bloc.

The end of the Libyan nuclear program in December 2003 was announced later the western official of the military alliance had free access to the sites. They dismantled all parts needed for the Libyans to make nuclear material graded for arms. In 2009 when the UN nuclear agency took out the last refined uranium in Libya, the yellowcake was kept in the country.

UN states, as of 2013, had 6,400 barrels of stored material present in Sabha. Unstable conditions created by the Libyan invasions and terrorists threaten to keep the yellowcake safe, as claimed.

Russia has said the material should be kept secure at all times. Vitaly Churkin, the former Russian envoy to the UN, said the issue was raised in Security Council consultations asking Libya to be more careful. But the warnings have gone ignored, and the missing material can only be blamed on the UN agency and Libya.

The IAEA's failure to secure the natural uranium at the alleged Libyan site in Sabha has worsened global security.

Related Article: Joe Biden Fails To Resurrect Iran Nuclear Deal

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Saturday urged the media fraternity in the country to remain cautious and desist from giving its space to narratives that threaten the nation's integrity.

Unsubstantiated and illogical opinions, delivered freely from within or abroad, could not destroy the democratic nature of the country, he added.

"I urge the media fraternity to remain cautious and desist from giving its space intentionally or unintentionally to such voices and narratives that have the potential to threaten the integrity of India," he said.

Thakur was speaking while participating as a special guest at the valedictory ceremony of the centenary celebrations of eminent Malayalam daily "Mathrubhumi".

He said there is a proverb that states facts are sacred and opinion is free.

"I want to emphasise here that the democratic nature of our great nation will always remain a fact, no matter how many unsubstantiated and illogical opinions are delivered freely from within or abroad," Thakur said, and called upon organisations like Mathrubhumi to develop an effective mechanism to counter these kinds of fake narratives and anti-India bias.

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Noting that the advent of newer technologies presents a unique opportunity to break barriers, the Minister said, "however there lurks a growing danger of digital colonialism on platforms run by algorithms coded offshore behind the walls of transparency."



"We must remain cautious not to accept anything and everything in the name of innovation and modernity. Foreign publications, companies and organisations with inherent anti-India bias peddling distorted facts must be identified and called out. Here the Indian media which understands the ground reality will have to play a crucial role", Thakur said.

His remarks came against the backdrop of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's statement in London that democracy in the country was under "brutal attack", besides the controversial documentary on Gujarat riots by BBC.

Thakur said these days the word 'democracy' is heard often in public discourse; a noble principle of governance has been reduced to a fashion statement by those who have constantly tried to weaken democracy and its institutions in our country. Violators are now pretending to be victims, he said in an apparent dig the Congress



"We must remember that unlike Western countries, democracy is not an artificial implant on India it is an integral and indestructible part of our civilisational history. The sabhas and samitis that existed in other parts of Bharat Varsha, also existed in what is now known as Kerala. Democracy existed then, it exists now, and it shall exist in the future too".

"But what is amazing is how the 'bhakshak', dressed in white tee-shirt, is trying to project itself as the 'rakshak' of democracy," he said, in an apparent reference to Rahul Gandhi.

Thakur also criticised the Congress for dismissing the Left government of Kerala in 1959.

"Unable to tolerate the fact that the people of Kerala had not voted the ruling party to power, the Government of the time invoked Article 356 of the newly-minted Constitution of India to sack the Left Government. The Congress got away with impunity. It was the first gross misuse of the Constitution", the minister said.

Thakur also alleged that subsequently, the Congress government 'abused' Article 356 to sack 93 State governments, striking blow after severe blow to democracy in India, pulping political diversity and making political differences a punishable offence.

Noting that the print medium, especially the newspapers hold a significant position in upholding the credibility of news, he said from colonial times it enjoyed the power of shaping the public opinion and still does so.

From Kerala to Kashmir, among the many threads that unite the diverse people of this great nation, possibly the strongest is their belief that India is their motherland their karmabhumi and punyabhumi. he said.

"The newspaper (Mathrubhumi) Kesava Menon founded is a tribute to this unshakeable belief. Unfortunately, and I mean it literally, there are some who do not believe so. For them, India is not their motherland. They have a fatherland5 which is a foreign country from where they derive their foreign ideology," he said.

"Then there are those who misquote the Constitution and have no knowledge of the Constituent Assembly debates, to describe our nation as a mere Union of States. This shapes their narrow, spiteful politics, which, in many ways, is alien to the core identity of India", he said.

Referring to the recent incidents of attacks on offices and studios of news organisations, "simply because they do not toe the line" and sacking of journalists "for defying the certain version of news", the minister said such outrageous assaults weaken democracy and its institutions.

He also referred to alleged political attacks on RSS workers in Kerala.

"It is as outrageous and unacceptable,5 the ceaseless attacks on those who hold a different political view and have strong feelings for their Motherland in Kerala. The brutal attempt to silence them has failed. I pay my humble tribute to those men and women who stood up for their Dharma and whose only fault was that they were associated with the RSS. The attacks on them weaken democracy; their courage, forbearance and steadfastness strengthens democracy", Thakur said.

In his speech, Thakur also recalled the contribution of late M P Veerendra Kumar, who oversaw the rapid growth of Mathrubhumi.

The programme, inaugurated by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, was also attended by a host of dignitaries including the state Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan, Law Minister P Rajeeve and Revenue Minister P Rajan.

Mathrubhumi Managing Director M V Shreyamskumar presided over the function.
Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh is on the run from the Punjab Police, who are trying to arrest him, NDTV reported citing sources. At least 78 people have been arrested and some have been detained for questioning, the police said.



Punjab police on Saturday suspended internet services in several parts of the state as Amritpal's associates started circulating frantic videos appealing to supporters to reach Shahkot. Internet will remain snapped till 12 pm tomorrow. Section 144 has been imposed in several cities of Punjab, TV reports say.

ANI tweeted, "All mobile internet services, all SMS services (except banking & mobile recharge) & all dongle services provided on mobile networks, except the voice call, in the territorial jurisdiction of Punjab shall be suspended from 18th March (12:00 hours) to 19th March (12:00 hours) in the interest of public safety: Dept of Home Affairs & Justice, Punjab."



All mobile internet services, all SMS services (except banking & mobile recharge) & all dongle services provided on mobile networks, except the voice call, in the territorial jurisdiction of Punjab shall be suspended from 18th March (12:00 hours) to 19th March (12:00 hours) in https://t.co/NN3LeXoRZt pic.twitter.com/z3vXg4v158  ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2023
Pakistan court cancels arrest warrants for former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan was on Saturday allowed by a local court here to go back without his indictment in a corruption case after he marked his attendance outside the court complex, amidst a stand-off between his supporters and security forces who have tried to arrest him for skipping multiple previous hearings.



Khalistan sympathiser Amritpal Singh arrested after dramatic chase, reports NDTV citing Punjab police. A special team of the state police, comprising personnel from seven districts, had followed the separatist leader's convoy while he was on his way to Jalandhar's Shahkot tehsil. Internet was suspended across the state till 12 pm tomorrow as Amritpal's associates started circulating frantic videos appealing to supporters to reach Shahkot. Anticipating disturbance, a large contingent of police has been deployed outside Amritpal's native village, Jallupur Khaira, in Amritsar district. Sources said police and paramilitary forces have sealed the village.



Pakistan police entered the home of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in Lahore on Saturday while he was on his way to Islamabad for a court hearing in a corruption case, officials from his party said. Bushra Begum, Khan's wife, was at home when police removed the barricades and broke into his house, they said. During the operation, at least 10 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf workers were injured and over 30 arrested, news agency PTI reported. His party shared a video on its official Twitter account that showed Khan's supporters at his home being lathicharged by the policemen.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the closing ceremony of "Vijay Sankalp Yatra" in Davangere city in Karnataka on March 25 and will address a public meeting there.

The BJP on March 1 launched a mega campaign rally in view of the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections. The ruling party kicked off four "Vijay Sankalp" yatras across the southern state.

The four yatras launched from four different areas - Davanagere, Chamarajanagar, Kittur and Kalyan. The rally covered all 224 constituencies of the state.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh are also expected to join the closing ceremony.
Time is running out for laid off H-1B professionals as under the existing laws they need to leave the country within 60 days of losing their employment status, giving sleepless nights to the thousands of Indian tech workers and their family members.

"This has a humanitarian impact on them as their families, including their US-born children are uprooted abruptly, and those who were laid off in the earlier months are now running out of time," the Foundation For India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS), which took up their cases with lawmakers and federal administration said in a statement on Friday.

While the US Citizenship and Immigration Services is considering their request to extend the existing time window to 180 days, the process is likely to take up some time, leaving no other option for these professionals other than to leave the country.

"FIIDS appeals to the USCIS, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to consider a request to expedite the extension of grace period. FIIDS also appeals to the elected officials, tech executives, and community leaders to emphasise the need and urgency to increase the grace period," the foundation said in a media statement.

Since last year, more than 2,50,000 such professionals have been laid off in the United States. This number continues to grow with companies like Meta announcing another set of tens of thousands of layoffs, FIIDS said.

"A large number of these professionals are tax paying H-1B immigrants (estimated 1,00,000), particularly from India, who need to leave the US if they cannot find another employer filing for their H-1B in 60 days," it said.

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Early this week, President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, recommended the federal government to extend the grace period for H1-B workers, who have lost their jobs, from the existing 60 days to 180 days so that the workers have enough opportunities to find a new job or other alternatives.

It is now up to the White House to accept the recommendations. However, it would be too late for the current H-1B visa holders who have lost their jobs since last October.

FIIDS, in its statement, thanked Senate majority leader Senator Chuck Schumer that this issue can be fixed by an administrative process in his discussion with Indian American leaders on a recent call on March 13. It applauded the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) for the discussion and support for this extension in their meeting on March 14.

"We also appealed to the House Subcommittee on Immigration headed by congresswoman Pramila Jayapal to make a similar recommendation to the USCIS," it said.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday asked the youth never to abandon their mother tongue. Addressing the graduating students of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda here at its 71st convocation, he also asked them to study the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.

"I would like to tell all degree-holders that do whatever in your life, but never abandon your mother tongue. Come out of this inferiority complex that (mastering a particular) language will give you acceptance," he said, speaking in Hindi.

"Language is an expression and not a substance. There can be any language for expression. When a person thinks and conducts research and analysis in his mother language, the capacity for the same increases many times. Along with analysis, it increases his capacity for logic and decision- making," he said. One's mother tongue is the best medium for personality development, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said. "The languages of our country have the best grammar, literature, poetry and history, and unless we enrich them, we cannot improve the future of our country," Shah added.

For this reason, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thought of "making mother tongue compulsory in primary education" under the NEP, he said.

He also urged the graduating students to study the NEP, which he said will clear their concepts about the use of education.

The NEP includes "Maharaja Sayajirao's idea of accessible education, Sardar Patel's idea of empowerment, Ambedkar's idea of knowledge, Aurobindo's idea of cultural and nationalistic education and Gandhi's emphasis on mother tongue," Shah said. Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the erstwhile ruler of the Baroda state, tried to establish an exemplary governance system, he said.

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Dr B R Ambedkar framed our Constitution which is "among the best" in the world, Shah said, adding that he could accomplish this because (early in his life) Maharaja Gaekwad had given him a scholarship.

Gaekwad worked to spread education, establish justice, uplift the deprived sections, provide irrigation for farmers and carry out social reforms. He worked to provide compulsory and free education, and laid the foundation for the Faculty of Fine Arts, Shah said.

The NEP has tried to make education "stream-less and classless," he said. "When it becomes so, you can think freely. The aim of education is not to gain a degree, good job, to get comforts in personal life. Its aim can be to become a complete human, and it is possible only when education is streamless and classless, and which is why (PM) Modi-ji has tried to make it so," he said. The NEP was the first education policy in the country that did not face opposition from (the proponents of) any ideology or political party, the Union minister claimed. Earlier in the day, Shah inaugurated a redeveloped lake at Nardipura and laid foundation stones for various developmental projects at Kalol in his Lok Sabha constituency of Gandhinagar. He also chaired a meeting of the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committees (DISHA) in Gandhinagar.
Convicted Oklahoma triple killer accused of taking then eating victim's heart that shocked and got life in jail with no parole. The Chickasha police arrested the suspect Lawrence Paul Anderson, 44, pleading guilty to three counts of murder in the first degree, a single instance of assault and battery with deadly weapon and maiming.

Oklahoma Triple Killer Convicted with No Parole

Anderson admitted to removing the heart of the first kill and cooking it with potatoes which contributed to the sentencing on March 15 last Wednesday, reported Meaww.

The Grady County District Attorney Jason Hicks remarked that the loved one of the victims said that seeking the death penalty in the trial should be dropped after the verdict. He added they don't want to sit in court to hear what was done to the victims, noted The Oklahoman.

On February 9, 2021, the victims were attacked, including the uncle, aunt, and 4-year-old granddaughter. A neighbor got stabbed dead and the heart removed from the body, but a 911 call led to his arrest. Anderson did not deny anything and even told the cops that he took the heart and cooked it with potatoes. His family ate the heart to release demons, as he claimed.

Oklahoma Cannibal Cooks, Eats Victim's Heart

The assault happened about three weeks after a mistake by the prison holding the Oklahoma cannibal released him. The cannibal was jailed for selling cocaine to get 20 years in jail due to a 2017 probation violation concerning a drug rap. He spent about three years before Governor Kevin Stitt cut his time to nine years in prison, cited Yahoo Sports.

Read Also: Russian Rapper's Wife Commits 'Perfect Murder,

Originally Anderson had a 20-year sentence, though he never allowed for a shorter sentence when the prison board did not accept parole for him in a July 2019 meeting, despite the denial in July that was attempted again in 2019 but got approval on June 2020 from the governor. Ignoring the original sentence and other crimes, which lessened to 9 years, will allow 2021 to let him out.

A mistake was made, and the Oklahoma jurors indicated a senior parole board member noticed the error. Jurors stated why it was never corrected time when it was possible. It was one of the parole board members who decided not to draw attention to it.

It cost the lives of three people, Andrea Blankenship, 41, Leon Pye, 67, and Kaeos Yates, 4, in 2021. The Oklahoma cannibal took Blankenship's heart to the house of Leon and Kaeos, his aunt and uncle, where he cooked the organ and served it to them. They had no idea it was a human heart; they just ate it with potatoes added to it.

Anderson was not done with making them eat the heart as a horrendous act. The next act of murder after killing Blankenship is to slay Pye and then slew the granddaughter. His aunt barely survived the slaughter.

District Attorney Jason Hicks stated the evidence gathered with the information of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation that the Oklahoma cannibal got five life sentences, mentions Fox25.

The DA says the Oklahoma triple killer ate a victim's heart and fed to his other victims to ensure life with no parole. The atrocity of his crimes was unpardonably described by the DA, who made sure the Oklahoma cannibal stayed in jail.

Related Article: Son Lies About Parents' Disappearance; Authorities Discover Suspect Hacked the Bodies Apart

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Speaking at the Payment System Operators (PSOs) conference in Kochi, Das said, Since payment system operations are heavily dependent on technology, many new-age tech firms are entering the payments ecosystem. Some of them have come under the regulatory ambit of the Reserve Bank for the first time. At times, some PSOs display unwillingness to comply with regulatory instructions, citing various reasons like "cost of carrying out system-level changes.

New age tech firms who are entering the payments ecosystem and coming under the regulatory ambit for the first time have shown reluctance to comply with regulatory instructions at times, citing various reasons like the cost of carrying out system-level changes, said Shaktikanta Das, Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI).



A payment system operator means a legal entity responsible for operating a payment system. The PSO provides services by operating on certain models. They largely outsource their payment and settlement-related activities to various other entities. For long-term success, the PSOs should specifically focus on ensuring good governance and prudent risk management; maintaining robust IT infrastructure with cyber resilience; and putting in place responsive grievance redress mechanism, Das said. Efforts may also be made for ensuring wider participation in the framework for offline payments. PSOs may also work on the formation of Self-Regulatory Organisations (SROs) for the greater good of all stakeholders, he added.



This has resulted in the Digital Payments Index (DPI), developed by the Reserve Bank to gauge the adoption of digital payments in the country, go up from 100 as the base in March 2018 to 377.46 as of September 2022 in a testimony to the long way the country has travelled, Das said.

Das emphasised that the payments landscape in India has evolved into a state-of-the-art system that is affordable, accessible, convenient, fast, safe and secure. About 1,050 crore retail digital payment transactions worth Rs 51 trillion crore processed in January 2023 stand as testimony to the size and efficiency of Indias digital payments. Further, launched in 2016, Indias flagship payments platform  Unified Payments Interface (UPI)  has revolutionised the payments ecosystem with about 803 crore transactions worth Rs 13 trillion processed in January 2023 alone.

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Movement of people running the operations of PSOs was restricted, and some of them also fell ill. In such a situation, a spurt in digital payments was observed. Suddenly, many more people started transacting digitally. All our payment systems have proved their worth during the pandemic. Among other things, I remember the efforts taken to tag the payment systems and the stakeholders as essential services. This was a single-most defining factor which enabled everyone to carry out various transactions unhindered, he said.

Complimenting the PSOs for the work done during the pandemic, Das said, during the pandemic, the resilience of payment systems was severely tested. But PSOs rose to the occasion and showed remarkable tenacity.
New Delhi, March 18: The Chinese embassy in Islamabad has asked Pakistan to release overdue payments to the tune of $1.5 billion to Chinese Independent Power Plants (IPPs) working under the mega $64 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The embassy also asked the embattled country to loosen forex restrictions which pose a hurdle in coal imports due to which Chinese power plants in Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh are not working optimally.

Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune says that the urgent messages from China were conveyed to Special Assistant to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Syed Tariq Fatemi to the Planning Commission on March 13, 2023. Fatemi's letter to the planning commission said in a meeting with China's Charge d' Affaires, Pang Chunxue, she conveyed her apprehension of major problems in CPEC power projects.

Pang reportedly told Fatemi that overdue payments to the Chinese power companies are close to $1.5 billion, causing concern among Chinese businesses. Pang also said that currency exchange restrictions levied by the State Bank of Pakistan owing to precarious forex reserves too are hindering coal imports, which will eventually impact power production. The two all-weather friends have at least 16 power projects under the CPEC with another five under consideration. Most of the 16 power projects are thermal, while there are a few solar, wind and hydropower plants as well.

Many problems haunting Chinese power plants are due to policy decisions. Several other problems are due to the financial crisis that Pakistan is facing since last year. And other issues exist due to poor administrative coordination between Pakistan and China.

Chinese power plants cannot import coal due to low forex with Pakistani banks. They cannot also purchase coal from the local market as it has to be cheaper than the imported coal. But the power plants cannot compare the prices due to exchange rate fluctuation and rupee devaluation.

Pang told Fatemi that the power plants were running below capacity because of shortage of coal and because of low production, these are being penalised by the Pakistani authorities.

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The worst affected coal-fired power plants are located at Hub in Balochistan, Sahiwal in Punjab and Port Qasim in Karachi.

Separately, the China Power Hub Generation Company (CPHGCL) has urged Pakistan to provide it with increased funds for uninterrupted power supply to the National Grid.

China's plants face severe problems also because of the constantly squabbling Pakistani politicians. A joint committee established by the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to resolve problems faced by Chinese power producers has not met since December last year leading to escalation in

She suggested that their concerns could have been discussed in meetings of a joint committee, a forum specifically established by the prime minister to resolve the issues facing the Chinese IPPs.

However, the committee, which was to meet every two weeks, has not had any meeting since the inaugural huddle in December last year.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

--indianarrative
Credit Suisse Group AG began a make-or-break weekend after some rivals grew cautious in their dealings with the bank as regulators urged it to pursue a deal with Swiss rival UBS AG.

Credit Suisse Chief Financial Officer Dixit Joshi and his teams will hold meetings over the weekend to assess strategic scenarios for the bank, people with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.

The 167-year-old bank is the biggest name ensnared in market turmoil unleashed by the collapse of U.S. lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank over the past week, forcing the Swiss bank to tap $54 billion in central bank funding.

Swiss regulators are encouraging UBS and Credit Suisse to merge but neither bank wanted to do so, one source said. The regulators do not have the power to force the merger, the person said.

The boards of UBS and Credit Suisse were expected to separately meet over the weekend, the Financial Times said,

Credit Suisse shares jumped 9% in after-market trading following the FT report. Credit Suisse and UBS declined to comment.

Also Read UBS in talks to buy embattled Swiss rival Credit Suisse, says report Credit Suisse offers to buy back debt securities worth 3 bn Swiss francs Credit Suisse to pay $234 million to settle French tax fraud case Credit Suisse default swaps 18x UBS Group AG, 9x Deutsche Bank UBS Group, Credit Suisse oppose idea of forced merger, says report Washington turns to Wall Street to help rescue dying First Republic Bank Credit Suisse faces crunch weekend as lifeline offers limited reprieve Was the Fed too late on SVB even though it saw problem after problem? Elizabeth Holmes files fresh plea to put off prison as she appeals Bank turmoil poses a $600 billion question for battered investors

In the latest sign of its mounting troubles, at least four major banks, including Societe Generale SA and Deutsche Bank AG, have put restrictions on their trades involving Credit Suisse or its securities, five people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

"The Swiss central bank stepping in was a necessary step to calm the flames, but it might not be sufficient to restore confidence in Credit Suisse, so there's talk about more measures," said Frederique Carrier, head of investment strategy at RBC Wealth Management.

Efforts to shore up Credit Suisse come as policymakers including the European Central Bank and U.S. President Joe Biden sought to reassure investors and depositors the global banking system is safe. But fears of broader troubles in the sector persist.

Already this week, big U.S. banks provided a $30 billion lifeline for smaller lender First Republic, while U.S. banks altogether sought a record $153 billion in emergency liquidity from the Federal Reserve in recent days.

This reflected "funding and liquidity strains on banks, driven by weakening depositor confidence," said ratings agency Moody's, which this week downgraded its outlook on the U.S. banking system to negative.

In Washington, focus turned to greater oversight to ensure that banks - and their executives - are held accountable.

Biden called on Congress to give regulators greater power over the banking sector, including imposing higher fines, clawing back funds and barring officials from failed banks.

Some Democratic lawmakers asked regulators and the Justice Department to probe the role of Goldman Sachs in SVB's collapse, said the office of Representative Adam Schiff.

Market troubles linger



Banking stocks globally have been battered since Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, raising questions about other weaknesses in the financial system.

U.S. regional bank shares fell sharply on Friday and the S&P Banks index tumbled 4.6%, bringing its decline over the past two weeks to 21.5%, its worst two-week calendar loss since the COVID-19 pandemic shook markets in March 2020.

First Republic Bank ended Friday down 32.8%, bringing its loss over the last 10 sessions to more than 80%. Moody's downgraded the bank's debt rating after the market close.

While support from some of the biggest names in U.S. banking prevented First Republic's collapse this week, investors were startled disclosures on its cash position and how much emergency liquidity it needed.

SVB Financial Group filed for bankruptcy court-supervised reorganisation, days after regulators took over its Silicon Valley Bank unit.

Regulators had asked banks interested in buying SVB and Signature Bank to submit bids by Friday, people familiar with the matter said.

Regulators are considering retaining ownership of securities owned by Signature and SVB to allow smaller banks to participate in auctions for the collapsed lenders, a source familiar with the matter said.


The Theranos Inc. founder on Friday made what will likely be her last appearance before US District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, who presided over her four-month trial in 2021 and sentenced her in November to serve 11 1/4 years of incarceration for deceiving investors in her blood-testing startup. Five weeks before shes due to report to prison, Elizabeth Holmes made her pitch to remain free on bail as she appeals her fraud conviction.



The government holds Holmess passport, she has two young children, her bail is secured by her parents only home, and she continues to work on new inventions, her lawyers argued in a court filing, adding theres nothing criminal or dangerous about ideas or patents. Holmes already has initiated an appeal of last years jury verdict finding her guilty of multiple criminal counts of defrauding investors. That process could take as long as two years.



At Fridays hearing, Davila was most interested in an argument the government raised in January that theres a risk Holmes will try to flee if she remains free in light of what happened a year earlier: a one-way ticket to Mexico was purchased in Holmess name during her trial and before she was convicted. Her lawyers say her appeal raises substantial questions of law or facts. After a complex trial, there are many such issues here, any one of which  if resolved in Ms. Holmes favor  would require a new trial, her lawyers said in the filing.

Also Read Elizabeth Holmes appeals her Theranos fraud conviction, prison term Elizabeth Holmes faces years in prison for her crimes in Theranos collapse Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to 11 years in prison for Theranos Fraud All you need to know about Theranos' former COO Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani Former Theranos exec Ramesh Balwani seeks to avoid lengthy prison sentence Bank turmoil poses a $600 billion question for battered investors UBS in talks to buy embattled Swiss rival Credit Suisse, says report China fines Beijing office of Deloitte $30.8 mn over audit failings China appeals other govts for fair treatment after latest TikTok bans Bank rescues ease crisis fears but investors worry it's not enough



Amy Saharia, a lawyer for Holmes, told the judge that prosecutors knew about the plane ticket and remained silent about it long before they raised any objection. The ticket should be a non-issue, she said, because it was purchased for a wedding she and her partner Billy Evans hoped to attend, Saharia said. They were hoping shed be acquitted, and they could stay and relax, she said. The ticket arguably suggests that the return plans have not yet been made, the judge said.



At the hearing, Assistant US Attorney Kelly Volkar said Holmess conviction changed the calculus. The lengthy sentence Holmes faces along with her approaching prison date is a motivation to flee, legally requiring Holmes to prove shes not a flight risk, Volkar said. She has an uphill battle here, she said. Prosecutors argue Davila already gave Holmes a generous amount of time to report to prison because she became pregnant with her second child between the jurys verdict and her sentencing.
Clashes erupted between security forces and supporters of Imran Khan outside the judicial complex here on Saturday ahead of the ousted premier's



appearance before the court in connection with a corruption case.

Islamabad police chief Akbar Nasir Khan told the media that Khan's supporters resorted to violence, pelted stones at the police and also set on fire a police picket.

"Our force is tackling the situation with patience," he said, adding that Khan was just five minutes away from driving to the court



Khan arrived in Islamabad from Lahore to appear before the court. He is accompanied by his supporters.

At least three vehicles in his convoy also met an accident near Kalar Kahar area on M-2 motorway but no casualties were reported.

Khan, 70, appeared before Lahore High Court on Friday and assured that he was ready to present himself on Saturday before Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zafar Iqbal handling the corruption case against him.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un should be held accountable for North Korea's gross human rights violations as the leader of the country, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations has said after an informal session on the matter in the Security Council.

"Kim Jong-un is the leader of North Korea. So as the leader, the buck stops at the top," Linda Thomas-Greenfield stressed during an exclusive interview with Yonhap News Agency on Friday (local time) at the U.N. headquarters after co-hosting the panel's Arria-formula meeting on the human rights situation in the reclusive nation.

She said that the U.S. was "very pleased" to hear a report from Elizabeth Salmon, the U.N. special rapporteur for North Korea's human rights, on the situation "on the ground."

"We think that there are conditions and reports that she has provided that would justify holding people accountable, and we look forward to working in that direction," the envoy said.

At the meeting, Salmon urged the international community to step up efforts to address the problem through the International Criminal Court (ICC) or other means.

On specific measures to prosecute the human rights violators, Thomas-Greenfield said: "There are tools and mechanisms within the international system for doing that," apparently referring to the ICC.

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 North Korea's Kim calls for key party meeting to review state affairs North Korea to boost nuclear warhead production 'exponentially': Kim Jong 5.0 magnitude earthquake hits New Zealand's Kermadec Islands region US urges Turkey to 'quickly' ratify Sweden's NATO membership after Finland UN 'doing everything possible' for extension of Black Sea grain deal Russia will extend Ukraine grain deal for 60 days not 120, says official WHO rebukes Chinese officials of withholding data on Coronavirus' origin

"I won't preview what might or could be done in terms of the different tools that we have available, but they are available for our use," she added.

The ambassador voiced hope for more proactive discussions on the North Korean human rights issue, especially in the case that South Korea becomes a non-permanent member of the council.

"It is our hope that we will continue to engage actively and proactively on issues related to the DPRK," she said. "But I think the presence of South Korea, should they get a non-elected position, will help us make that case."

DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Asked about Seoul's planned bid for non-permanent membership of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), the ambassador was guarded, only saying that: "If South Korea gets elected, we can expect that the DPRK will be constantly on our agenda."

Scepticism has grown recently about the UNSC's role in checking the North's brinkmanship.

It held 10 rounds of meetings last year for discussions in response to the Kim regime's ballistic missile launches. But it failed to produce a formal document amid opposition from China and Russia, two of the veto power-wielding permanent members of the council.

Earlier this week, the North's foreign ministry slammed the UNSC meeting as a scheme to "bring down" the country's regime and warned that it will take the "toughest counteraction" against the "most vicious hostile plots of the U.S."

--IANS

int/kvd
Recent studies of an ancient Jurassic shark fossil revealds it is highly evolved much like modern cartilage fishes. How cartilaginous fish are more involved in their time show changes in their development.

Ancient Jurassic Shark Differs with Modern Day Fishes

The study authors, including palaeobiologist Patrick L. Jambura form the University of Vienna's Department of Palaeontology, say that cartilage fishes in their time are more evolved than presumed. Proof of this is the recently discovered fossil of a shark-like ray Protospinax annectans that evolved in the later Jurassic period, mentioned in My Science.

Included in this family are sharks, rays, and ratfish called cartilaginous fishes that existed for the last 400 million years. It is an older class of animals that are even older than the dinosaurs. The last five mass extinctions have decimated many species now dead but were outlived by cartilaginous fishes, reported Scitech Daily.

However, the fossils only show the teeth of the Jurassic sharks as the body are cartilage, which dissolves faster.

Discovery of skeletons with impressions of skin and muscles of Late Jurassic vertebrates with cartilage fishes too in the Solnhofen archipelago (Konservat Lagerstatte) located in Bavaria in Germany. The conditions there are good enough to preserve these rare fossils.

Scholars were able to look into the evolution of the extinct Protospinax annectans in relation to sharks or rays. It was added with modern genetic evidence to unravel the clues.

Jambura added the ancient shark had the characteristic of modern sharks and rays even if it was alive millions of years ago. The animal was 1.5 meters long, a dorso-ventrally flattened cartilage fish, with wide pectoral fins and a fin spin on each dorsal fin.

Read also: Researchers Discovered the First Animals To Develop Primitive Skeleton About 540 Million Years Ago

How the Protospinax placed in evolution with preserved remains that were first studied in 1918, cited Science Daily.

Is Protospinax the Missing Link of Sharks, Rays?

The study author added that one question is where the fossil lies exactly that could classify it as the missing link to the modern versions today. In the past 25 years, the argument about the Jurassic shark has not been resolved.

For some, the ancient cartilage fish, despite its similarity to modern versions, is a primitive shark that is the ascendant of rays and sharks. Maybe even the Galeomorphii, which the great white shark is part of which is exciting to prove for scientists.

Something is amiss about determining its place in the evolutionary scale

All the latest fossils that Jambura and company can include to make a family tree from extant sharks and rays with genetic information and fossils like Protospinax annectans adding morphological data too.

What they concluded is not expected from the start of the study shocked them. Protospinax is ab evolved ancient shark even at that time neither a missing link nor ray, even a primitive shark.

He added that it turned everything topsy-turvy because the evolutionary concept as the earliest is the most primitive does not apply here. Though evolution is constant for all even the simplest species. By default, the DNA changes constantly and never stops.

This mechanism assures adaptation continues endlessly. Cartilage fish still exist and some died out in evolution like Protospinax which asks why it died out in the first place about 145 million years ago. But rays still thrive up now which is another question.

An archaic Jurassic shark has a clue about differing notions on it highly evolved changes but they still died out nonetheless.

Related article: Ancient Armored Fish Smaller than Bus Reveals New Study

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Law enforcement officials in New York are making security preparations for the possibility that Donald Trump could be indicted in the coming weeks by a Manhattan grand jury and appear in a courtroom in an investigation examining hush money paid to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president, four law enforcement officials said Friday.

There has been no public announcement of any timeframe for the grand jury's secret work, including any potential vote on whether to indict the ex-president.

The law enforcement officials, who were not authorised to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said authorities are just preparing in case of an indictment. They described the conversations as preliminary and are considering security, planning and the practicalities of a potential court appearance by a former president.

Trump's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, had no comment. Messages were left for prosecutors and court administrators.

The grand jury has been hearing from witnesses including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who says he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to silence them about sexual encounters they said they had with Trump a decade earlier. Trump denies the encounters occurred, says he did nothing wrong and has cast the investigation as a "witch hunt" by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republican's 2024 presidential campaign.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Trump's company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the women's allegations quiet.

Also Read Trump says an indictment would not hamper his third presidential campaign US House committee to release Trump's personal tax returns for 6 yrs Donald Trump seeks $475 million in defamation lawsuit against CNN US House congressional panel to discuss release of Trump's tax returns Writer who accused Trump of rape files upgraded lawsuit in New York ICC issues arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over Ukraine war crimes Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav elected as the third Vice President of Nepal Chinese President Xi to visit Russia from March 20 for talks with Putin Imran Khan ready to talk to anyone for country's sake as PM calls again Taliban's policies on women affecting Afghanistan's relations: Ex-minister

Cohen has said that at Trump's direction, he arranged payments totalling USD 2,80,000 to porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the payouts were to buy their silence about Trump, who was then in the thick of his first presidential campaign.

Cohen and federal prosecutors said the company paid him USD 4,20,000 to reimburse him for the USD 1,30,000 payment to Daniels and to cover bonuses and other supposed expenses. The company classified those payments internally as legal expenses.

Federal prosecutors in 2018 charged Cohen with campaign finance crimes, saying the payments to Daniels and McDougal amounted to impermissible, unrecorded gifts to Trump's election effort.

Cohen pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors never charged Trump with any crime.
The United States, its Western allies and experts shone a spotlight on the dire human rights situation and increasing repression in North Korea at a UN meeting on Friday that China and Russia denounced as a politicised move likely to further escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula.

China blocked the US from broadcasting the informal Security Council meeting globally on the internet, a decision criticised by US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield as an attempt to hide North Korea's atrocities from the world.

Webcasting requires agreement by all 15 council members. But the US envoy said Beijing's effort was in vain because the meeting will be made public, and the US and many others will continue to speak out against Pyongyang's human rights abuses and threats to international peace.

James Turpin, a senior official in the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the ongoing tensions on the Korean peninsula pose a threat to regional and international peace and security, and these tensions cannot be separated from the dire human rights situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, North Korea has been isolated. The United Nations has no international staff in the country and Turpin said this coincides with an increase in the repression of civil and political rights.

He pointed to stronger government measures to prevent people from getting access to information from the outside world, an extreme level of surveillance, people's homes being subjected to random search for material not authorised by the state, and punishments for anyone trying to exercise basic rights including freedom of expression, religion and peaceful assembly.

Also Read US, allies clash with Russia, China over North Korea latest missile tests US vows full military defence of allies against North Korea: Wendy Sherman North Korea's Kim calls for key party meeting to review state affairs US and its allies clash with China, Russia over North Korea missiles Kamala Harris to visit demilitarized zone during her visit to South Korea Former Pak PM Imran leaves for Islamabad for Toshkhana case hearing International Criminal Court justified in issuing warrant for Putin: Biden Violent protests erupt in France over Macron's retirement age push Law officials in New York discuss security in case of Trump indictment ICC issues arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over Ukraine war crimes

Elizabeth Salmon, the UN special investigator on human rights in North Korea, also stressed the interdependence of international peace and security and human rights, saying peace and denuclearisation can't be addressed without considering the current human rights violations.

She told the meeting that the limited information available shows the suffering of the North Korean people has increased and their already limited liberties have declined. Access to food, medicine and health care remains a priority concern, people have frozen to death during the cold spells in January, and some didn't have money to heat their homes while others were forced to live on the streets because they sold their homes as a last resort.

Xing Jisheng, a counsellor at China's UN Mission, criticised the US for discussing human rights in the Security Council whose mandate is ensuring international peace and security, saying it is not constructive in any way.

Instead of easing tension, he said, it may rather intensify the conflict, and therefore it's an irresponsible move.

Using UN WebTV for live broadcast is a waste of UN resources, Xing added, saying if countries are really concerned about the situation on the Korean peninsula and well-being of the people they should work to relaunch dialogue, de-escalate tensions, and support lifting sanctions that affect the livelihood of North Koreans and the country's deteriorating humanitarian situation.

Stepan Kuzmenkov, a senior counsellor at Russia's UN Mission, echoed China's opposition to having the Security Council discuss human rights and said there were no grounds for convening the meeting which has a clear anti-North Korean bent.

He accused the US of using human rights to settle scores with the governments not to their liking and condemned what he called streams of disinformation about North Korea disseminated by the US and its allies on the pretext that they're trying to protect human rights.

What we see is that the United States, South Korea and Japan are engaging in aggressive, militaristic activities, thereby whipping up tensions in northeastern Asia, putting the security of countries in the region at risk, Kuzmenov said.

The Americans are ignoring initiatives which would help ease tensions as well as the substantive and constructive signals (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un is sending, which could bring about possible de-escalation.

America's Thomas-Greenfield countered that the regime's widespread human rights abuses and its threats to our collective security could not be clearer.

North Korea's ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programmes threaten international peace and security and are inextricably linked to the regime's human rights abuses, she said.

In the DPRK, the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction always, always trumps human rights and humanitarian needs of its people, Thomas-Greenfield said.
In other views:

With the US and Swiss governments stepping in to bail out failing banks has the danger of contagion been contained? Recent history of banking crises suggests otherwise. And though the RBIs conservatism may avoid the kind of wipe-out that afflicted Silicon Valley Bank, the risks to the broader economy remain, says. Read it
Amid the controversy over the alleged leak of the allotment of the official residence of former minister Manish Sisodia to Delhi Education minister Atishi, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party on Friday hit out at Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena saying that he has an obsessive publicity disorder and has no work other than to spew malice against the AAP.

"He is insulting the dignity of a constitutional office by leaking news to the media like this. It is ironic that a person, who the whole country saw in a viral clip assaulting a woman activist like a street thug, is leaking privileged information to the media," the AAP said in a statement, launching a scathing attack on the L-G.

The AAP claimed that law and convention mandate that a minister, on resigning from his or her office, is bound to vacate his official residence.

"As far as the order regarding the former Deputy CM's residence is concerned, there is a law which says that a minister, on resigning his or her office, has to vacate his official or government residence within 15 days," the AAP said.

Further, according to the ruling party in the national capital, led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the order to this effect was issued in compliance with the law.

"The Aam Aadmi Party unequivocally reaffirms that not only CM Arvind Kejriwal but the whole country stands behind Manish Sisodia. The whole country is in awe of his work in education, the party said in its statement.

Also Read AAP MLAs Atishi and Saurabh Bhardwaj to be elevated to Delhi cabinet Ministers Saurabh Bhardwaj, Atishi take charge of their respective depts Kejriwal forwards names of Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj to L-G for appointment AAP accuses Guv of interfering in govt; speaker suspends 5 BJP MLAs Manish Sisodia will fully cooperate with CBI in excise policy probe: Atishi Akhilesh slams Centre for misusing central agencies, to meet Mamata today Delhi govt overcoming various hurdles being put in its way: Kejriwal Not working to form next govt but for prosperity of next gen: Punjab CM BJP has made agriculture an unprofitable proposition: SP's Akhilesh Yadav J&K integral part of India: Abdullah demands restoration of statehood

Further, invoking the arrest of Sisodia in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case, which it called "unjustified", the party stated, "The AAP has been running a signature campaign across Delhi and the country and we have seen that everyone feels that Manish Sisodia's arrest is unjustified."

Earlier, on March 9, in a move necessitated by the resignation of arrested ministers Sisodia and Satyendar Jain in the liquor policy and money laundering cases respectively, AAP MLAs Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj were sworn in as ministers in the Delhi cabinet.

Sisodia was arrested by the CBI in the liquor policy case on February 26 and was sent to 14-day judicial custody on March 6.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) later summoned Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao's daughter, K Kavitha, for questioning in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.

Sisodia was arrested in the case related to alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD).

Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court recently sent him to judicial custody till March 20.

Atishi was allotted Education, PWD, Power and Tourism portfolios after being sworn in as a minister while Bharadwaj was entrusted with Health, Water and Industries and Urban Development. They were administered the oath of office by L-G Saxena.
The women's wing of Congress staged a protest on Saturday outside BJP National President JP Nadda' residence over 'derogatory' remarks against Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha.

Several Delhi Pradesh Mahila Congress members including the wing's chief Amrita Dhawan were detained during the protest.

"Smt @AmritaDhawan1 @DelhiPMC president and mahila members detained by @DelhiPolice for staging flash protest outside residence of BJP National President @JPNadda house against derogatory remarks against our leader @RahulGandhi Ji and not allowing him to speak in parliament by muting Mike," Delhi Pradesh Mahila Congress tweeted.

A senior police officer said that around 15 women were detained from Moti Lal Nehru Place. They were later released.

Several Congress leaders on Friday alleged that proceedings in Lok Sabha were "muted" when they raised slogans demanding that Gandhi be allowed to speak.

When Gandhi entered the Lok Sabha, the treasury bench demanded an apology from him for his "democracy under attack" remark in London.

Also Read Rahul responds to wearing T-shirt as Delhi shivers; BJP jibes 'Shehzada' Meghalaya polls: Rahul Gandhi to address his maiden rally in Shillong today Lok Sabha adjourned for the day over Rahul Gandhi's democracy remark LS speaker must take action against Rahul for London remarks: Giriraj Singh SC dismisses plea against Rahul's election from Wayanad in 2019 LS polls Centre stalling Parliament to avoid Adani questions: Chattisgarh CM Bhagel TMC, SP to shun Congress, BJP; talk to other regional parties for 2024 Expel Rahul as MP, suspend him: BJP has 2 options as opposition fights back Cong must smell political coffee after BJP's poll results in NE: Irani Rahul in Parliament, refuses to respond to Nadda's 'anti-national' remark

Gandhi arrived in Parliament House after his return from abroad and smiled when asked if he would apologise for his remarks in London.

During an event in the UK, Gandhi had alleged that the structures of Indian democracy are under attack and there is a "full-scale assault" on the country's institutions.
A unit of state-owned China Cosco Shipping Corp. Ltd. will invest in a 25% stake in a new container terminal in Egypt, as the shipping giant seeks to expand its presence in emerging markets.

Cosco Shipping Ports Ltd. has signed an agreement for the equity investment in Sokhna New Container Terminal, a project at the south entrance of the Suez Canal, the Hong Kong-listed port operator announced on Thursday. The operating period will be 30 years and the total investment around $375 million, it said.
Chinese media states the JF-17 is one of the top choices that could win the Argentina fighter deal over other competitors. This is the conclusion from the Global Times saying the recent meeting with several Argentinian officials to cooperate with national defense buying military hardware from China.

The JF-17 Top Contender for the Argentina Fighter Deal

Sabino Vaca Narvaja, Argentina's Ambassador to China, talked about the possible purchase of the JF-17 Thunder while attending the Chinese Airshow in Zhuhai in 2022, reported The Eurasian Times. He opened that possibility with an official from the China National Aero-Technology International Engineering Corp.

Argentina looking to buy new fighters, has attracted interest in offering defense hardware like India. The HAL Tejas is one of these competing against the Chinese offering.

A visit to Denmark by a top Argentine Air Force mission was done recently to check used F-16 jets, which are F-16 A/B MLU fighters. Brigadier Diego Garcia was responsible for acquiring military hardware that their group would assess.

The Argentinian air force has been looking to update its capabilities for a long time, but finance with a British blockade has made it hard to buy the military equipment.

Recently the Argentine president, Alberto Fernandez postponed the procurement of planes because of more urgent national expenses, noted Yahoo Finance.

JF-17 Thunder Probable Option to Second-Hand Western Fighters

The defeat of Buenos Aires during the Falkland Islands War in 1982 led to the United Kingdom keeping its forces from modernization. One is imposing a ban on any sale of military hardware to Argentinians.

Read Also: India Alleges Pakistan's Jf-17 Are Grounded Due To Flaws

Britain has intentionally prevented the purchase of a new fleet by limiting parts made in the UK.

But the US is talking to the UK to allow the export of Danish F-16s as an option to Argentina. But China is gaining more ground that can break in its Thunder jets which the US does not welcome.

Is the JF-17 Thunder a better option?

Chinese analysts on March 15 informed that the Thunder is an optimum choice for Buenos Aires due to its availability and performance.

Military aviation expert Fu Qianshao explained the Argentinians want a new fleet with pertinent capabilities to match. An old fleet that needs help to maintain is one of the problems. This is due to the UK not allowing anyone to sell to Buenos Aires is aggressively blocked.

These embargoes have kept even the Swedes and Koreans from selling their aircraft. But the Chinese say it refutes what London says about Buenos Aires and supports Argentinian claims.

Qianshao added that the Thunder is easily acquirable for the Argentines with a choice of variants; Blocks 1, 2, and 3 are options for interested buyers.

Block 3 has advanced avionics, flight control systems, and AESA radar, with a combo of missiles for several ranges, which is the most expensive option. Block 1 and 2 are cheaper and with a commendable performance.

Another alternative is the Indian Tejas, China-Pakistan's JF-17, and the US F-16 for Buenos Aires, per Air Force Technology. Take note the F-16 has no AESA radar, but the Thunder has mid-refueling equipment.

Chinese media reports the JF-17 Thunder could end up winning the Argentina Fighter deal that still needs to be done.

Related Article: Pakistan's JF-17 Has One Best Advantage Over Stealth F-35

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
China urged the US to stop "unreasonably suppressing" TikTok on Thursday after the US issued the popular video-sharing app an ultimatum to separate from its Chinese owners or risk a countrywide ban.

It followed the United Kingdom's announcement of a ban on the video app's use on government devices, in line with actions taken by Washington and Brussels.

China Responds to US about TikTok Ultimatum

The United Kingdom joins the United States and the European Union in adopting an increasingly hard stance towards the platform controlled by the Chinese company Bytedance, expressing concerns that Chinese officials may exploit user data.

The White House reportedly informed the app on Wednesday that it will be banned in the United States if it remains controlled by the Chinese internet company.A representative for TikTok said that "calls for a ban or divestment are unwarranted" and that "the best way to resolve concerns about national security is through transparent, US-based safeguarding of US user data and systems."

Beijing also responded to the ultimatum by encouraging Washington to "cease unreasonable repression" of TikTok, as per The Star. The White House hailed the introduction of a measure in the US Senate last week that would empower President Joe Biden to prohibit TikTok due to the threats it presents to sensitive data and national security.

The presentation of the measure and swift support from the White House boosted the political momentum against TikTok, which is also the subject of a second bill in the US House of Representatives. Looking strong on China is one of the few subjects that may get bipartisan support in both the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Joe Biden's party has the majority.

The "instant impact" phone ban in London is the result of a risk assessment of third-party applications with respect to sensitive data conducted by specialists. Hence, only applications on a pre-approved list, which does not contain TikTok, will be accessible on government devices.

Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden said British legislators that the measure was "precautionary" and "proper cyberhygiene."

As a result of the prohibition on Huawei's participation in the rollout of the UK's 5G network and other restrictions on Chinese investment in essential infrastructure and enterprises, this is certain to anger Beijing.

A spokeswoman for TikTok stated that the company was "disappointed" with the decision and that such restrictions were "based on fundamental misunderstandings and broader geopolitics."

TikTok claims to have more than a billion users globally, including more than 100 million in the United States, where it has become a cultural force, particularly among young people. The amount of time users spend on TikTok has overtaken the time spent on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and is closing in on streaming giant Netflix.

Advocates say that a ban would be an assault on free expression and would inhibit the promotion of American culture and values to TikTok users worldwide. In January, US government employees were prohibited from installing TikTok on government-issued smartphones.

This is the most dramatic in a series of recent actions taken by US officials and politicians who have expressed concern that TikTok's US user data may be transferred to the Chinese government. TikTok has almost 100 million US users.

Read Also: First Republic Bank Avoids SVB-Like Collapse with $30 Billion Help

TikTok CEO Set to Testify in US Congress

Per Al Jazeera via MSN, two-thirds of US teens continue to use TikTok, which is still wildly popular. Yet there is growing concern that China may seize control of American user data gathered by the app and use it to propagate pro-Beijing narratives and propaganda.

Next Monday, the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, will testify before the United States Congress. It is unclear if the Chinese government would allow such divestment, and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not react quickly to a request for comment.

In the meanwhile, the National Cyber Security Centre of the United Kingdom is evaluating whether TikTok should be prohibited on government phones, while the United States, Canada, Belgium, and the European Commission have already blocked the app from official devices.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which originally reported on the demand, 60 percent of ByteDance shares are owned by worldwide investors, 20 percent by workers, and 20 percent by the company's founders.

This proposal comes after a dozen senators from both parties proposed a bill last week that would give President Biden the ability to prohibit TikTok nationally. The Restrict Act would permit the US Secretary of Commerce to label corporations with foreign ties as national security threats.

The Senate passed a law prohibiting TikTok on government devices in December 2017. The Trump government threatened to ban TikTok in 2020 if the app was not sold to a US corporation. These efforts were defeated when ByteDance opposed the ban in court. It contended that it would violate the Berman amendments, which permit the free flow of "informational material" from hostile nations.

Related Article: UK Imposes 'Immediate' TikTok Ban From Government Phones

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The office of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed a wide range of political and economic topics during discussions in Moscow.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stated that he would welcome any Russian offers to establish additional military sites and increase personnel numbers in the Middle Eastern nation, implying that Moscow's military presence should become permanent.

When Russia entered Syria's civil war in 2015, four years after the country's demonstrations began, it helped tilt the scales in al-Assad's favor assuring his survival despite Western demands that he be ousted.

Syria, Russia Leaders Meet

Al-Assad, who met with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Wednesday, has backed Moscow's conflict in Ukraine and told Russia's state news agency RIA that Damascus recognizes the territory seized by Moscow in Ukraine. Syria, according to al-Assad, would welcome any Russian plans to establish additional military facilities and increase the number of Russian troops, and these sites would not be transitory.

Also, in an interview with the Russian news agency Sputnik, al-Assad stated that he would not meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan until the end of what he described as Ankara's "illegal occupation" of Syrian territory.

On Thursday, al-Assad said in an interview relayed by Lebanon's pro-Iran Hezbollah's group's al Manar TV station that this is contingent upon Turkey's readiness to withdraw completely from Syrian territory, end its support for terrorism, and restore the situation that existed prior to the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.

Late last year, the defense ministers of the two nations met for the highest-level discussions between the two neighbors, whose governments have been at odds since the start of the Syrian conflict, Al Jazeera reported. On the anniversary of Syria's 12-year uprising-turned-civil war, al-Assad praised Putin for his ongoing support in a conflict that has killed at least 580,000 people and displaced 13 million more.

The two leaders were depicted happy and shaking hands. While Russia has focused the majority of its war efforts on Ukraine, it has maintained a military presence in Syria and maintained jets and personnel at its facilities there. Separate meetings were held in the Kremlin between the Russian and Syrian defense ministers to discuss military cooperation. al-Assad was asked if he would recognize Russia's purportedly new borders.

Per Mirror, al-Assad stated, "Syria's stances are clear and unambiguous, and we have a conviction on this matter, not just because of our alliance with Russia, but also because these regions are historically Russian."

Russia has claimed around one-fifth of Ukraine as its own territory. The takeover of Ukrainian land has been judged unlawful by western powers, and Ukraine has vowed to fight until every last Russian soldier is expelled from Ukraine.

Damascus is a steadfast ally of Russia, which engaged in the Syrian crisis in 2015 by conducting airstrikes in support of the embattled government troops. Damascus regained a significant portion of the land it had lost in the early stages of the conflict with the help of this coalition and Iran.

Read Also: China Accuses US of 'Unreasonably Supressing' TikTok Over Demand

Meeting Comes After Saudi-Iran Reconciliation Negotiated by China

Since it began in 2011 with the ruthless suppression of anti-government protesters, the Syrian civil war has claimed the lives of about 500,000 people and displaced millions more. al-Assad's administration has been politically isolated in the region, but he has received pleas for help from Arab leaders following the February 6 earthquake that killed tens of thousands in Turkey and Syria.

According to experts, he might use this momentum to strengthen regional support.

After the earthquake, Putin promised Turkey and Syria Russian assistance. Syria's civil conflict has strained relations between Damascus and Ankara, which has supported rebel groups hostile to al-Assad for decades.

In December, the defense ministers of Russia, Turkey, and Syria met for the first time since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. In January, al-Assad stated that a Russian-mediated reconciliation with Turkey should strive to terminate Ankara's occupation of Syrian territory.

Their meeting also follows the unexpected revelation on Friday of the reestablishment of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which was negotiated by China. The last time al-Assad visited Moscow was in September 2021, when he also met with Putin, as per NDTV.

Related Article: US Drone, Russian Jet Collide; US, Russia Blame Each Other for Crash

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News at 4Cs

Cape Cod Community College President John Cox Recognized at State House for Work in Suicide Prevention, Wellness

Cape Cod Community College President Dr. John Cox was recognized at the Massachusetts State House last week for his work in leading mental health awareness at the College and his support of suicide prevention efforts. Alongside several other recipients, the award came from the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention (MCSP) at their Leadership in Suicide Prevention ceremony.

With a rise in need for mental health services to support academic success, President Cox has supported a significant growth in services and attention to wellness at the College. Working in support of Dr. Maura Weir, the Colleges Director of Student Wellness, and Christine McCarey, Dean of Enrollment Management and Student Wellness, the College has formed a cross-campus, multidisciplinary team to support students at every step of their academic journey.

I am humbled by this award from the MCSP and thank them for acknowledging the work that so many have contributed to within our College community, said Dr. Cox. Our mission at Cape Cod Community College is to provide pathways to brighter futures through the life changing power of higher education. To do that, we must recognize the needs of our students. They have made it clear that quality wellness services are a necessity for their success. Led by the incomparable Dr. Weir and our Wellness team, we are always working to support that need and will continue to education others on behavioral health and suicide prevention. Im very proud of the work we have accomplished, but we know theres always more to be done.

With a Student Wellness office located on campus that is staffed with licensed mental health professionals, the college became the first Massachusetts community college identified as a JED Campus in 2018. In the past several years 4Cs has trained more than 100 faculty and staff in suicide prevention, bystander training, mental health first aid, crisis intervention, and has launched a campus-wide peer education training program, an Active Minds national chapter, and a Collegiate Recovery Program. This past September, the college hosted the first ever Suicide Prevention Summit in the region and partnered with local coalitions to host events for National Survivors of Suicide Day, Suicide Prevention Day, and World Mental Health Day.

Across the country, colleges and universities are seeing a rise in the need for consistent, professional, and available mental health services for students, said Christine McCarey. We are fortunate to have a team that has worked so passionately to address these needs at 4Cs. It has allowed us to become a leader in Massachusetts in Student Wellness, suicide prevention, resiliency, and crisis intervention.

The Cape Cod Community College Student Wellness Office offers personalized clinical and case support for students, as well as connections to 24/7 support lines through TalkCampus, an international network for peer support that can be accessed via text or phone any time from any device. The College also maintains a Behavioral Intervention Team consisting of mental health professionals, faculty members, emergency personnel, and staff to manage student issues on campus using an evidence-based, solutions-focused approach to case management.
Turkiye's Erdogan says he will support Finland's NATO bid

Xinhua) 13:47, March 18, 2023

ANKARA, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed Friday to ask the parliament to vote on Finland's NATO membership bid, but delayed that of Sweden, saying Finland has taken concrete steps to address Turkiye's security concerns.

"We have observed concrete and sincere steps from Finland in recent times. As a result of Finland's sensitivities towards our legitimate security concerns, we have decided to initiate the approval process" in the parliament, Erdogan said at a press conference with Finland's President Sauli Niinisto in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

With Erdogan's backing, Finland's NATO bid will be forwarded to the Turkish parliament, where the Turkish President's party and ally hold the majority. The parliament will go into recess before mid-April, in the run-up to the country's presidential and parliament elections set for May 14.

The Turkish president said he hoped Finland's NATO bid could be finalized before the elections.

He stressed he believed that NATO will further strengthen and play a crucial role in global security with Finland's admission.

Erdogan meanwhile said Turkiye still expected Sweden to extradite 120 members of what Turkey calls terrorist groups, before his country approaches the Swedish membership bid "positively."

Finnish President Niinisto, for his part, welcomed Turkiye's decision as "a significant move for all the people of Finland," but hinted that Finland would only join the military bloc together with Sweden.

"Because we have joint security interests. We have borders in the Baltic Sea. I hope we will be an alliance with 32 members at the Vilnius Summit," he said, speaking of the planned NATO summit in July.

Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO in May 2022 in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Their accession to NATO needs the approval of all member states of the military alliance. Turkiye and Hungary are the only NATO member states that are holding back their approvals.

Turkiye accused the two Nordic countries of supporting anti-Turkish Kurdish organizations and political dissidents. Turkiye also asked the two countries to extradite suspects affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Gulen Movement.

In June 2022, Turkiye lifted its objections after reaching a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sweden and Finland ahead of the NATO summit in Madrid.

In the MoU, Finland and Sweden pledged to support Turkiye's fight against terrorism, and agreed to address Turkiye's "pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly."

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than three decades.

The Gulen Movement is led by and named after the U.S.-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen who is regarded by his followers as a spiritual leader. The Turkish government accuses the movement of masterminding the failed coup in 2016 that killed at least 250 people.

Lifting defense industry restrictions on Turkiye was another condition of the deal. Sweden and Finland have restricted arms exports to Turkiye after the country started a cross-border operation in northern Syria in 2019. On Sept. 30 last year, Sweden's Inspectorate of Strategic Products, which controls arms exports, said it had authorized military exports to Turkiye.

Several protests in the Swedish capital of Stockholm in January, including a demonstration that a far-right politician burned the Quran, also infuriated Ankara.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
An international group of researchers conducted a new analysis of genetic information that found evidence suggesting that the coronavirus originated from infected animals sold in a Wuhan market in China.

French evolutionary biologist, Florence Debarre, was the one that recently uncovered genetic data coming from the global virology database known as GISAID. It was initially submitted by Chinese researchers who gathered the genetic sequences from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. This has long been criticized as the epicenter of the deadly COVID-19 health crisis.

New Evidence for COVID-19 Origins

Despite the market's name, thousands of mammals were sold while kept inside cramped and unhygienic spaces. The recently analyzed genetic data suggest that raccoon dogs sold at the market could have been carrying and shedding the virus.

The researchers' analysis, which still needs to be conclusive, was led by Kristian Andersen, Edward Holmes, and Michael Worobey. In a statement, Andersen said that in communications with Katherine J. Wu, they were unsure if raccoon dogs were the immediate hosts of the coronavirus that led to an infection of humans, as per The Hill.

However, the lead researcher said that the specific creatures were "high" on his list of potential hosts of the deadly disease, among others. The findings of the analysis, which still need to be published, were presented to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens on Tuesday.

The journal Science also said that the research submitted to GISAID was removed after the original submitters requested for it to be taken down. The new evidence found further fuels the recently spreading lab-leak theory versus natural origins debate.

The former has taken off after the United States Department of Energy concluded that COVID-19 originated from a Chinese research lab. However, there was not enough evidence to conclusively support that particular theory.

Read Also: Minnesota Monitoring 400,000 Gallons of Radioactive Water Leakage

Sudden Disappearance of Data

The evolutionary biologist added that the recently uncovered data points even further to a market origin for the COVID-19 pandemic. If evidence backs up these claims, it would further weaken the stance that the virus originated from a virology lab in Wuhan, according to Science.

Debarre, who is a theoretician who specializes in evolutionary biology and works for the French national research agency, CNRS, was the one that discovered the data. Due to the intense debate surrounding the virus's origins, the discovery and subsequent disappearance of the data will raise questions.

This would be why the Chinese team, which included the former head of the country's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, George Gao, did not immediately make the sequences available to the public.

The new data comes as Congress Republicans are opening investigations into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. Prior studies showed evidence that the virus most likely emerged naturally in the Wuhan market. However, these studies could not accurately point to a specific origin.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that when the global health agency was made aware of the new data, they contacted the Chinese CDC and urged them to share the information with them and the international scientific community for further analysis, said CNN.

Related Article: CDC Reports Rise in Tick-Borne Disease Cases in Northeast

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In early March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting with the officials of National Disaster Management Authority and secretaries from the various government departments, including health and family welfare, agriculture and farmer welfare and earth sciences, to assess the general preparedness of concerned departments for the upcoming summer months in the country.

The clear message from the government to the officials is to track the availability of fodder and the water levels in reservoirs.

Prediction from India Meteorological Department: Onset of Early and Intense Heat Wave

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that this year also the heat wave will last from March to May, the second straight year of heat wave. But this year, the heat wave it seems has started early, with extreme temperature already across central and northern states.

Normal Monsoon and Its Effect on Crops and Water Conservation

Prime Minister Modi was briefed on the possibility of a normal monsoon and its effect on Rabi crops. The meeting discussed disaster measures related to heat, mitigation measures and preparedness of medical infrastructure.

Thus, the meeting was also held to check the level of preparedness of medical professionals, local body authorities and disaster response teams. The meeting took stock of the efforts that are underway with regard to supply of water for irrigation, fodder and drinking water.

Preparedness of Hospital Infrastructure

Further, Prime Minister Modi looked at the preparedness of states and hospital infrastructure with regard to the availability of required supplies and preparedness for emergencies. He also mentioned the need for detailed fire audits of all hospitals.

Heat Wave Impacting the Wheat Production and Farmers

As IMD has predicted that the heat wave will prevail across central and northern states, the region where the wheat production is more in India, it might affect the wheat production and the livelihood of the farmers.

In India, wheat is sown in the months of October-November and is harvested in March, but as the temperature is already soaring because of heat wave, it might impact the crop yield and will put undue pressure on farming community.

Heat Wave Affecting Other Crop Yields

The increase in heat wave is very concerning for states where major yield from agriculture is wheat. Last year, the wheat production in these states dropped significantly, forcing the government to ban the export of wheat, leaving farmers in discomfort.

The increase in temperature is not only an issue with wheat production but also with chickpeas and mustard seeds production. It will also put pressure on generation of electricity, as demand increases during summer season.

Optimization of Storage Facility by Food Corporation of India

Prime Minister Modi has instructed the Food Corporation of India to utilize the storage facility under it to its full potential and ensure no wastage of foodgrains under these extreme weather conditions.

Forecasting Daily Weather Report

The India Meteorological Department is tasked to prepare and publish its daily weather forecasts that is easily understood and circulated to all, forecasting in detail the weather pattern.

Action Plan and Coordination Among Different Departments to Deal with Heat Wave

Prime Minister stressed on preparing separate awareness material for different stakeholders like citizens, medical professionals, municipal and panchayat authorities and firefighters. Instructions were also given for creating multimedia lecture sessions in schools to sensitise children to deal with extreme heat wave.

The Government of India through its various departments and National Disaster Management Authority along with authorities in states are putting in action plan and set of instructions to respond to emergency occurring due to the intense change in climate conditions.
A nod worth Rs. 70,000 crore

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), which is chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, approved a capital purchase totaling more than Rs 70,500 crore under the Buy Indian IDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed, and Made) category.

The Majority

The Indian Navy's portion of the total proposals is more than Rs 56,000 crore, with the majority going towards the purchase of BrahMos missiles, Shakti Electronic Warfare (EW) systems, and Utility Helicopters-Maritime.

The purchase of a BrahMos missile system will undoubtedly improve the Navy's ability to launch strikes and conduct anti-surface warfare operations.

Shakti EW equipment will aid front-line naval ships in thwarting enemy naval activities.

The Navy's operational readiness in search and rescue missions, casualty evacuation, and humanitarian assistance will be improved by the utility helicopters.

India is attempting to develop and produce such engines by approving the Medium Speed Marine Diesel Engine under the Make-I category.

The Indian Coast Guard will purchase Advance Light Helicopters (ALH) MK-III, which will be equipped with a variety of surveillance sensors for improved surveillance capabilities even at night.

What is available to IAF?

The Long Range Stand-Off Weapon (LRSOW) proposed by the Indian Air Force for indigenous designing, development, and integration on SU-30 MKI aircraft was approved.

What will the Army receive?

The Army will get 307 advanced towed artillery gun systems (ATAGS), Dhanush Gun Systems, and K-9 Vajra-T Gun Systems as part of the artillery modernization initiative.

The 155mm/52 calibre ATAGS was created by DRDO in conjunction with Bharat Forge and Tata Advanced Systems, who would be handling production.

The push for AtmaNirbhar

The total amount approved for capital acquisition in 2022-2023 has now surpassed Rs 2.71 lakh crores with Thursday's approvals. The procurement will be made from Indian industries in over 99% of the cases.

'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' will be the driving force behind Indian industry, according to Rajnath, who said that this volume of domestic purchases will do so.

Yet, there are worries among defence professionals who believe that given India's growing border security threats from Pakistan and China, this indigenous push may result in a shortage of a sufficient supply of high-quality defence supplies for the Indian military.
Mumbai has been suffering for years from severe monsoon floods, drinking water depletion, and sea level rise. The latest predictions from the IPCC AR-6 report predicts strong implications of climatic impacts on 22 cities in India, including Mumbai which are susceptible to coastal and flooding hazards due to climate change. There is a serious need for an environmental protection study with specific focus on the coastal resiliency of Mumbai city and suburbs. The BMC sees this need and is working towards making historic data on climate assessment of the city to researchers for further examination of the climate impact. The University of Notre Dame today signed an MoU to receive relevant datasets that will be a useful first step in future studies to help Mumbai create better predictability of the impact on the city from climate hazards.

As the metropolitan area grows, it plays a vital role in the city's future development, its suburbs, and surrounding rural areas. The existing first estimate studies made by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) indicates increased sea levels by 2100 up to 0.58m on the coast of Mumbai. UND intends to collate data for further studies on climate resiliency for the city of Mumbai with specific reference to stormwater drain network and infrastructure development.

On this project, Harshita Narwekar comments, "Global warming has triggered numerous catastrophic natural disasters in recent times, making it critical for us to redirect our attention towards developing innovative solutions," says Harshita Narwekar, thought leader and advocate for climate action. "The rising sea levels in Mumbai are a serious concern, and this project serves as a vital preemptive measure to mitigate its impact. I am deeply appreciative of Dr. Krupali's efforts to uncover the root causes and gaps in our understanding, and believe that this research will provide invaluable insights for tackling the complex challenges posed by climate change."

Harshita Narwekar has been the driving force behind this project and has ensured a swift turnaround and successful execution of the initiative.

"We are ready to harness the technical expertise necessary to create a comprehensive response to climate issues," said Dr. Krupali Krusche, scientist and principal investigator of the initiative and associate professor at the Notre Dame School of Architecture. "With this critical data, and in partnership with Indian research organizations, we can solidify a plan and then execute it," said Dhiraj Mehra, Director for Initiatives at the Mumbai Global Center for Notre Dame International.

A team of global experts are forming a consortium called Development and Advancement of Resilient Cities Alliance (DVARCA) that works on tackling issues related to climate change, with a focus on sea level rise and the heat island effect, using digital planning tools.

The team is interested in deepening the study and impact of climate change by assessing onsite responses to existing yearly recorded site conditions that will create enhanced predictability for cities and large regions affected by climate change. The data about the improved cumulative impact of various natural hazards assists planners and MCGM to formulate future policies with respect to development of the city.

"Ultimately, the goal is to serve the future communities in Mumbai with a plan for them to respond to the worsening climate crisis in a safe and resilient way," Krusche said.

The multidisciplinary team from University of Notre Dame teams includes researchers and practitioners from its School of Architecture, Notre Dame International, College of Engineering, College of Science, ND Energy, and the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society.
Chino, CA (91710)

Today

Mostly cloudy early, then sunshine for the afternoon. High around 70F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low 51F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
Hunter Biden, the embattled son of United States President Joe Biden, filed a countersuit against the computer repair shop owner who turned over his laptop to federal authorities, calling it an invasion of privacy.

The lawsuit also claims that the owner, identified as John Paul Mac Isaac, illicitly distributed Hunter's personal data he acquired from the laptop and accused him of six counts of invasion of privacy.

Hunter Biden's Countersuit

Hunter filed the countersuit against Issac in a Delaware district court on Friday. The computer repair shop owner in 2020 said that a man who he believed to be the son of the president dropped off three laptops at his store in April 2019, of which, only one was salvageable. He said that while repairing the laptop, he uncovered disturbing material.

Because the customer did not return for the laptop within 90 days and the computer repair shop was unable to contact him, Isaac searched the emails by keyword in June or July 2019. He said that the FBI first made a forensic copy of the laptop and then came back several weeks after with a subpoena and confiscated it from him, as per Fox News.

Isaac, when he stopped hearing from the FBI, said that he contacted several members of Congress, who also did not respond to him. At that time, his intermediary made an effort to reach out to Rudy Giuliani's attorney, Robert Costello.

The situation comes as Hunter seemingly confirmed that the laptop belongs to him in a February 2023 letter from his lawyers. On the other hand, Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, wrote letters to the country's Department of Justice and the Delaware attorney general on Feb. 1 that called for investigations into Steve Bannon, Giuliani, and Isaac.

Hunter and his attorneys wrote in the lawsuit that Isaac had no legal right to copy and distribute the private information that he found in the laptop. They are accusing the computer repair shop owner of various charges, including conspiracy to obtain and distribute data.

Read Also: SVB Parent Company Files for Bankruptcy

Invasion of Privacy

The filing, which was 42 pages long, goes into specific detail on the ways that Hunter's personal data became available to the public. Those particular developments went into focus in the last presidential campaign and have been at the center of Republican-led congressional investigations, according to the Washington Post.

The countersuit further emphasized one particular instance in Hunter's life, which involved nude photos, sensitive audio, and a collection of personal texts and emails. The suit is Hunter's and his lawyers' attempt to reframe the controversy, shifting the blame onto a private citizen whose privacy was allegedly invaded instead of Hunter using his father's name to benefit in the political world.

In a Friday court filing, Hunter's lawyers said that Isaac intended and had full knowledge that the people he provided the personal information to would use it against the president and in support of former President Donald Trump.

A lawyer representing Isaac, Ronald Poliquin, did not comment regarding the lawsuit, saying that he and the computer repair shop owner's team were still reviewing the claims and would later respond to them in court, said CNN.

Related Article: Child Tax Credit 2023 Update

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would support Finland's bid to join NATO and will begin ratification immediately following a meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.

Erdogan announced in Ankara on Friday that without his country's approval, Finland would be unable to become a NATO ally due to a requirement of the alliance. Finland's application comes alongside Sweden's; both expressed their intent to join the alliance last May.

Turkey Supports Finland's NATO Bid

The two Nordic countries reversed their longstanding policy of military neutrality following Russia's unprecedented invasion of Ukraine. Following the applications, the Turkish government accused the two nations of being too soft on terrorist groups, but more reservations about Sweden were expressed.

During a news conference, Erdogan said they saw Finland taking authentic and concrete steps to address his country's demands. He was referring to an agreement signed by Helsinki, Stockholm, and Ankara in June, as per Aljazeera.

The Turkish president said they have decided to initiate the ratification process in their parliament for Finland's accession to NATO. Following Erdogan's remarks, Finland's NATO application could now go to the Turkish parliament, where the president's party and its allies currently have majority control.

The ratification process is expected to be conducted before Turkey holds presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14. One reporter, Resul Sardar, said that Erdogan's announcement suggested a sudden shift in NATO's approach to the situation.

He said that the military alliance has insisted that Finland and Sweden must access together. Before Niinisto's arrival on Thursday, he said that Turkish officials requested his presence in Ankara to announce Erdogan's decision on Finland's NATO application.

The Turkish president said he believed the military alliance would become stronger and more secure following Finland's membership. In response, President Niinisto said that hearing such remarks was "very good," according to CNN.

Read Also: China's Accusation of the US Taking Advantage of TikTok

Blocking Sweden's NATO Application

Separately, Hungary's ruling party said they would also support Finland's NATO membership bid. The country's prime minister, Victor Orban, previously accused Finland and Sweden of spreading "outright lies" regarding his country's rule of law record.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg in late February said that despite Turkey's expression of concerns regarding Finland and Sweden, its concerns were mainly over the latter. On the other hand, Niinisto pushed Turkey to reappraise Sweden's bid for NATO membership on Friday.

In a statement, the Finnish president said that his country's NATO membership would not be complete if Sweden were not by its side. However, Erdogan noted that his country's government would not change its stance on Sweden's bid unless "positive steps" were taken to address its concerns.

Turkey's opposition to Sweden's NATO membership centers around claims that the latter is harboring members of militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). This is a claim that Swedish authorities have denied.

The situation comes as, in January, far-right demonstrators burned a copy of the Quran and chanted anti-Muslim slogans in front of Turkey's embassy located in Stockholm, Sweden. In an immediate response, Ankara denounced the horrific act and the events that led to the approval of the demonstration, said CNBC.

Related Article: Russia, Syria Vow Cooperation in Each Other's War

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The Whitfield County Sheriffs Office held the annual Old Timers Qualification Day on Wednesday, March 15. The event was held at the Whitfield County Sheriffs Firearms Training Center.



The Old Timers Qualification Day became a tradition in 2004 after the Federal Law

Enforcement Officers Safety Act (LEOSA) (a.k.a. HR 218) was signed into law. The law allows

qualified active and honorably retired law enforcement officers to carry concealed firearms

nationwide. One condition of the law is the retired officer must qualify with their firearm on the

range.



It is a great reunion to see each other, but we do have to have the mandatory classes if as a

retired officer you want to carry your weapon, said Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood.

They are in the classroom the first part of the day and they have to qualify and meet certain

standards.



With more than 1,000 years of collective experience, over 40 retired law enforcement officers,

from different agencies, gathered together at the range. The retirees represented the Whitfield

County Sheriffs Office, City of Dalton Police Department, Federal Air Marshals, Georgia State

Patrol and more. A retired captain from the Georgia State Patrol was one of the original

retirees to meet qualifications at the Whitfield County range in 2004.



I started coming in 2004 and been here ever since. This is a great program for a retired officer

and we really appreciate Whitfield doing this, said retired Captain Carlton Stallings of GSP.

Mr. Stallings served as captain over the Specialized Collision and Reconstruction Team (SCRT), and

retired after a 34-year career. It [Old Timers] keeps us brushed up on our skills that weve had for so many years, and want to stay fresh. We want to stay current, effective and stay as safe as we can be.



If youre a retired law enforcement officer and would like more information on Old Timers, contact Whitfield County Training Lieutenant Jarrod Hayes at WCSOTraining@WhitfieldCountyGa.com or 706-694-4111.
Since the incumbent mayor has already designated and registered the name of his March 25, 2025 Campaign Treasurers with the Hamilton County Election Commission and his anticipated opponent announced that they were also going to run for the top spot in Gig City after their run-off defeat for City Council person in the 2021 race for District 8, let the War of Words begin!

We have previously quoted from the 1982 campaign writings of former Hamilton County Executive Dalton Roberts (Chattanoogan, January 28, 2023) in Things That Really Matter, The Wit and Philosophy of Dalton Roberts on a similar but unrelated aspect of politics.

In a chapter on the subject political satire he discusses the topic of Wisecracks in the political arena from a historical perspective and maybe an indication of things to come in 2024-2025 in the former Scenic City.

Politicians and public figures of our day are gentle as lambs in the use of satire when compared to our forefathers. It was once the in thing and the public enjoyed it immensely. The more vicious and venomous, the more they loved it.(Before gentle Fox News and CNN news channels).

1.) Thomas B. Macauley, for example, called Samuel Johnson a common butt in the taverns of London. Thomas Carlyle described Percy Shelly as an extremely weak creature; a poor, thin, spasmodic, hectic shrill and pallid being. He called William Hazlitt a mere ulcer; a sore from head to foot; a poor devil; an overgrown pimple. He said Richard Swinburne was sitting in a sewer and adding to it.;

2.) Carlyle dished it out but he also had to take it. Samuel Butler said, It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle marry one another and so make only two people miserable instead of four.;

3.) Even the solemn and righteous Ralph W. Emerson didnt escape the savage wits of the old days. Herman Melville said, If he had lived in those days when the world was made, he might have offered some valuable suggestions.;

4.) H.G Wells could slide one under the ribs. He said George Bernard Shaw was an idiot child screaming in a hospital. Some of our forefathers, like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, have become near-deities if you listen to the history books. In their day, they were just politicians who were abused in the same way that we dish it out today.;

5.) General Charles Lee called Washington that dark, designing, sordid, ambitious, vain, proud, arrogant and vindictive knave. What a way to talk about the Father of Our Country!;

6.) Thomas Paine actually said to Washington, As to you, sir, treacherous in private friendship and a hypocrite in public life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an imposter, whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you had any.;

7.) Alexander Hamilton said, The moral character of Jefferson was repulsive. He made money of his debaucheries. John Quincy Adams agreed and went a step further, calling him a slur upon the moral government of the world. When Jefferson was running for president, an editorial in the New England Courant said, Murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will be openly taught and practiced. (Im telling you, politics is really gentle today!);

8.) Tennessees Andy Jackson said of Henry Clay, He is certainly the basest, meanest scoundrel that ever disgraced the image of God - nothing too mean or low for him to condescend to.;

9.) Lincoln didnt think much of General George McClellans military skills so old George ran against him, saying, The President is nothing more than a baboon. I went to the White House after tea where I found the original gorilla about as intelligent as ever. What a specimen! The respected Harpers Weekly called Lincoln a filthy story-teller, despot, liar, thief, braggart, buffoon, usurper, monster, Ignoramus Abe, Old Scoundrel, perjurer, robber, swindler, tyrant, field butcher, and land-pirate. At the time of Lincolns Gettysburg Address, almost all the reviews were bad. The Chicago Times called it an offensive exhibition of boorish and vulgarity. One of my all-time favorite barbs came from Dorothy Parker. When she heard that Calvin Coolidge was dead, she asked, How can you tell?

10.) When Harold (Secretary of the Interior) Ickes heard that Thomas Dewey was running for president, he sighed, Well, Dewey has thrown his diaper in the ring.;

We can see that politics can be vicious. Whats wrong with adding a little humor to it? Even if it is true that wisecracks can backfire on you, Ill always appreciate those candidates who take the chance. Our political columns will be much less boring if politicians refuse to take this advice Senator Thomas Corwin gave to candidate James Garfield: Never make people laugh. If you would succeed in politics, you must be solemn, solemn as a jackass. All great monuments are built over solemn jackasses.

(The unresolved question in the 2024-2025 elections is whether the hard critical shots toward their opponents will be made directly by the candidates or by an associate or undisclosed supporters?)
What is termed the most extensive planning project in Chattanooga's history is set to cost $1,230,900, counting contingency funds.

The City Council on Tuesday is set to vote on a contract with Planning Next (ACP/Greene + Associations of Columbus, Ohio), for the major project.

A team of planners will prepare new area plans organized into five components:

1 Preparation

2 Public Engagement

3 Research and Analysis

4 Plan Development

5 Document Production

Officials said the effort is one process with six final area plans.

The team is to work collaboratively with Planning Agency staff throughout the process with the RPA providing all available and relevant plans, studies, electronic base maps, and necessary data. The team will gather additional relevant information and data.

There is a 12-month timeline for completing all the area plans.

There will be a project website that will serve as "the heart of the planning process communications."

The team is to conduct up to 26 individual or small group semi-structured interviews with targeted stakeholders.

The team will create "snapshot" reports that include demographic trends, transportation, built environment, natural systems, parks and greenways, economic development opportunities, and housing conditions and anti-displacement.

Scenario planning will include countywide growth projections.

On public engagement, there will be a public kick off by area. There will later be a second round of public input followed by a public open house.

There will also be advisory group meetings and elected official briefings.

Plans include community profile, growth policies, and policies and recommendations.

There will be up to 48 concept renderings and supporting graphics.

Charges are put at:

Preparation and management $99,500

Research and analysis $329,000

Public engagement $169,500

Plan development $388,000

Document production $81,000

Travel $36,000

Production and other expenses $16,000
House protects Tennessee workers right to private votes

House Republicans on Thursday passed legislation ensuring Tennessee workers rights are protected by secret ballot in union-organizing elections. House Bill 1342, sponsored by House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, and State Rep. Kevin Vaughan, R-Collierville, prohibits an employer who accepts economic development incentives from Tennessee from disclosing an employee or subcontractors personal contact information to a labor organization without consent.

Tennesseans voted in 2022 to codify the right-to-work in the state constitution. This measure protects Tennessee workers from being fired for not joining or paying a union. Even with these protections in place, Tennessee workers can still face intimidation when it comes to unionizing. Through a process known as card check, union officials pressure workers privately and publicly until they collect enough signatures directly from the workers until they have enough signatures to begin bargaining collectively.

If we are going to invest in a company, we want to make sure that the workers have rights to free, fair and private elections, said Vaughan. This is a way we can take care of our economic incentives and investments and protect our investments as a state moving forward.

House Bill 1342 ensures taxpayer dollars are not used to support coercive union tactics like card check. The legislation protects workers right to a private ballot in union elections and respects their right to privacy at home when companies take taxpayer-funded economic incentives. The companion bill is currently advancing through the Senate.

Republicans protect foster children from abusive parents

Legislation to help further protect foster children from abusive parents was approved this week by the Tennessee House of Representatives.

House Bill 752 would make it a Class C misdemeanor for the first time a foster parent in a kinship placement allows a child to visit a parent despite a court order prohibiting the contact.



These are adults and they know that they are not supposed to be there, said bill sponsor State Rep. Mary Littleton, R-Dickson. The fine for first-time offenses would be $50. Subsequent violations would result in a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $500 fine.

There are approximately 121 children in Tennessee who are currently in kinship foster care and have a visitation restriction in place against their parents, according to information from the Department of

Childrens Services. The companion version of the bill is advancing through the Senate.

Law aims to minimize trauma for child victims of sexual assault

Both chambers of the General Assembly this week passed legislation that aims to minimize trauma for underage victims of sexual assault during the criminal justice process.

Current state law allows minors who have been sexually assaulted to be interviewed by trained professionals and recorded to for court proceedings. The law only allows these videos to be used in court for minors under the age of 13 and only for sexual offenses.

House Bill 557, sponsored by State Rep. Mary Littleton, R-Dickson, extends the admissibility of forensic interviews in court for all children under 18 years of age, and allows forensic interviews to cover statements on sexual and physical abuse.

The law also adds an additional qualification for forensic interviewers that increases the credibility of forensic interviews and their admissibility in a court of law. The bill will prevent children from being further traumatized by being required to testify in court in front of their abuser. House Bill 557 now heads to the governors desk for his signature.

Committee advances bill to enhance third-grade literacy

Legislation aimed at further improving third-grade literacy in Tennessee advanced out of the House K12 Subcommittee this week.

House Bill 437, as amended, includes several enhancements to bipartisan legislation passed in 2021 to address learning loss related to COVID-19 and provide students with additional academic support

before being promoted to the fourth grade if they are approaching reading on-level.

There has been a lot of discussion about education in Tennessee over the last few years, especially about the reading issues that our children are facing, said bill co-sponsor State Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka. The thing that we have to be very careful of is continuing on this pathway of moving kids forward that arent ready. Were not really doing them a service. Were actually doing them an injustice.

If approved, the bill would expand fourth-grade eligibility by allowing students who score in the approaching category on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program test to still be

promoted to the next grade level if they also scored in the 50th percentile or higher on their most recent benchmark assessment provided by the state and given as a test.

Parents would also be able to receive additional assistance from school administrators when filing a waiver to appeal their childs retention. The legislation also requires a tutor to be assigned for one year to all students in kindergarten through third grade who are retained beginning with the 2023-24 school year.

State Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, who is the primary sponsor of House Bill 437, told members of the committee on Tuesday that Tennessee must also continue to focus on early childhood literacy beginning in pre-kindergarten.



Were not through with this, White said. We are going to keep working, but I think we have addressed some of the major concerns that (exist with the current law). We cant take our foot off the accelerator. We know its difficult but we can get this right and we have a good opportunity to do so.

House Bill 437 is scheduled to be heard in the Education Administration Committee on March 22.

Bills seek to study financial literacy in public schools

Republicans this week advanced two bills dealing with financial education being taught in Tennessee

public schools. House Bill 782, as amended, would allow the Tennessee Financial Literacy Commission to request information regarding the financial literacy education already being provided to public elementary and middle school students in the state.

We all know financial literacy is important to our young people, said bill sponsor State Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis. (This is) mainly just a survey we can take to see exactly where we are. House Bill 782 does not include any requirements for age-appropriate financial literacy concepts to be

taught in public schools. The legislation is scheduled to be voted on by the House chamber on March

23.

Another proposal making its way through House committees would require the commission to study financial education programs in Tennessee as well as survey those programs available in other states. House Bill 644, sponsored by State Rep. Charlie Baum, R-Murfreesboro, would also recognize April as Financial Literacy Month in the state. The bill has been placed on the House consent calendar for March 20.

Do-Not-Text law lets Tennesseans block unwanted messages

The House chamber on Thursday unanimously passed legislation to allow Tennessee consumers to block unwanted text messages. The Senate companion version passed unanimously on March 6. House Bill 805, sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, merges text message solicitations to the states Do Not Call Registry. It extends the same prohibitions, requirements, and penalties that apply to telephone solicitations to unwanted text messages.



The Tennessee Public Utility Commission would continue to oversee the registry, which includes landlines and cell phone numbers of Tennessee telephone subscribers who have elected not to receive solicitations. Businesses may not be included on the list.

I think were all sick of getting unsolicited texts messages from individuals we dont know and I know my constituents are as well, Lamberth told members on the House floor. If you want to be left alone you can be added to this and just be left alone.



House Bill 805 prescribes a maximum penalty of $2,000 for each violation of a text solicitation to a person on the registry.

There are some exemptions to the law which include invitations to be called by the person being called and solicitations on behalf of a not-for-profit organization.

The Tennessee Do-Not-Call law only authorizes the regulation of telemarketing for commercial purposes; political telemarketing is not covered by this law. Because free speech is guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed for the regulation of commercial speech but has provided political speech with much greater protection from government regulation. House Bill 805 now heads to the governors desk for his signature. For information and to be added to the Do-Not-Call Registry, visit here.

House passes zero tolerance for threatening school violence

The Tennessee House of Representatives approved legislation this week to enhance the punishment for students who threaten violence at school.



House Bill 340 expands what constitutes a zero-tolerance offense to include threatening mass violence on school property or at a school-related activity. A violation would result in a student being expelled from school for at least one calendar year. It would be up to the local director of schools or the head of a charter school to determine whether the expelled student must attend an alternative school or virtual classes.

That would be a local control issue for that LEA (local education agency) to determine what is best for that student, said bill sponsor State Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka. (They) right now have the ability to create alternative learning environments.

Other zero-tolerance offenses include bringing a firearm onto school property; committing aggravated assault or assault that results in bodily injury to a school employee; or is in unlawful possession of any drug, including any controlled substance, on school grounds or at a school-sponsored event. The companion version of the bill is still currently advancing through the Senate.



House adopts Copperhead Road as official state song

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives unanimously approved House Bill 1437, by State Rep. Scotty Campbell, R-Mountain City, this week to add Copperhead Road to the list of officially recognized state songs. The song was written and performed by Steve Earle and references Johnson County and Knoxville in the lyrics. House Bill 1437 now heads to the Senate for approval.

Another proposal, House Bill 622 by House Majority Whip Johnny Garrett, R-Goodlettsville, would designate The Tennessee in Me by Debbie Mathis Watts as an official state song. It is expected to heard for consideration in the State Government Committee on March 22.



Other state songs by year of adoption:

My Homeland, Tennessee  Written by Nell Grayson Taylor, music by Roy Lamont Smith. Adopted in 1925.

When Its Iris Time in Tennessee  Written by Willa Waid Newman. Adopted in 1935.

My Tennessee  Written by Frances Hannah Tranum. Adopted in 1955 as the official public school

song.



Tennessee Waltz  Written by Redd Stewart, composed by Pee Wee King. Adopted in 1965.

Rocky Top  By Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. Adopted in 1982.

Tennessee  By Vivian Rorie. Adopted in 1992.

The Pride of Tennessee  By Fred Congdon, Thomas Vaughn and Carol Elliot. Adopted in 1996.

A Tennessee Bicentennial Rap: 1796-1996  By Joan Hill Hanks of Signal Mountain. The General

Assembly adopted the song in 1996 as the Official Bicentennial Rap song though the song is not an

official state song.

Smoky Mountain Rain  Written by Kye Fleming and Dennis Morgan. Adopted in 2010.

Tennessee  Written by John R. Bean of Knoxville. Adopted in 2011.

Amazing Grace  Written by John Newton. Adopted in 2021.

Ill Leave My Heart in Tennessee  Written by Karen Staley. Adopted in 2022.



Briefly

Genetic information and life insurance providers: House Bill 1309, sponsored by State Rep. Sabi Kumar, R-Springfield, would prohibit life insurance providers from canceling coverage for an individual or a family member based solely on their genetic information. Providers would also be prohibited from requesting or requiring a genetic test or other specific DNA information as a precondition of insurability. Access to genetic data could only be provided with an individuals signed, written consent. House Bill 1309 is scheduled to be voted on by the House chamber on March 20.

Surprise Billing Consumer Protection Act: House Bill 1503, sponsored by State Rep. Kevin Vaughan, R-Collierville, aims to protect Tennesseans from being unexpectedly billed for out-of-network health care services that were provided at in-network facilities. As amended, the comprehensive legislation would hold patients harmless in surprise billing situations as well as establish an independent dispute resolution process for insurers and providers. It would also implement greater oversight of network adequacy standards. The Surprise Billing Consumer Protection Act would not apply to TennCare. House Bill 1503 is scheduled to be heard in the Government Operations Committee on March 20.

Aggravated kidnapping, rape sentences: The House chamber this week passed legislation to enhance the punishment for aggravated kidnapping, aggravated rape and rape convictions. House Bill 5, sponsored by State Rep. John Gillespie, R-Memphis, would require the sentences for those crimes be no less than those imposed for a Range II offender. For aggravated kidnapping and aggravated rape, which are both Class A felonies, the punishment would be between 25 and 40 years in prison. For rape, which is a Class B felony, the punishment would be 12 to 20 years in prison. The companion version of the bill is still currently advancing through the Senate.

Tax relief for disabled veterans: House Bill 1361, sponsored by State Rep. Andrew Farmer, R-Sevierville, would increase property tax relief that is available to disabled veterans and their spouses in Tennessee. The legislation would increase the threshold for calculating property tax relief from $175,000 to $210,000 for tax years beginning Jan. 1, 2024. House Bill 1361 is scheduled to be heard in the Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee on March 22.

Supporting state employees with sick children: A bill to increase support for state employees who must care for their sick is expected to be up for consideration in the House chamber on March 23. Under current law, state employees may not utilize sick leave grants from the state sick leave bank for any illness of a family member. House Bill 1151, sponsored by State Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, will allow state employees to utilize the state sick leave bank when caring for a sick child. In order to utilize grants of sick leave from the bank, employees must first take five consecutive days with no pay. The companion version passed unanimously in the Senate.

2023 Tennessee Ag Day on the Hill will be held Wednesday, April 5 at the Beth Harwell Plaza of the

Cordell Hull Building, 425 Rep. John Lewis Way in Nashville.
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Josh Duggars 12.5-year prison sentence extended, placed in solitary confinement

Josh Duggar, a former reality TV star known for his role in the TLC series "19 Kids and Counting," has had his 12.5-year prison sentence extended by nearly two months, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, and is now reportedly placed in solitary confinement.

Duggar, who was convicted in 2021 on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography, was scheduled to be released on Aug. 12, 2032, but online prison records for Duggar now show his release date as Oct. 2, 2032. He has been serving his sentence at the low-security federal prison Federal Correctional Institute Seagoville near Dallas, Texas.

Duggar is in solitary confinement since he was allegedly caught last month with a contraband cellphone, Fox News reported.

Duggar was arrested in April 2021 after being accused of having over 200 images of child porn on his devices of children "ranging from about 18 months of age to 12 years of age."

The images were found in a computer at a car dealership he owned. According to prosecutors, the images were downloaded in 2019, and Duggar had installed a partition on his computer to hide the illicit content from his wife, Anna.

Last May, Duggar was sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison after his request for a retrial or acquittal was denied. The 35-year-old father of seven was also ordered to pay fines of $50,100.

Josh Duggar pled not guilty to the charges, and his defense claimed someone else was responsible for the illegal files on the computer. Investigators found Duggar's claim to be unlikely.

Although he did not comment on the sentencing, lead defense attorney Justin Gelfand stated at the time that Duggar maintained his innocence.

Duggar previously admitted to molesting his sisters when he was younger. His history of abuse resulted in the cancelation of the family's reality show.

In August 2015, Josh Duggar also confessed to cheating on his wife following reports that he had created an account with Ashley Madison, a dating website specializing in extra-marital affairs.

"I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have been unfaithful to my wife," stated Duggar at the time. "I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him."

The Duggar family was featured on "19 Kids and Counting" and "Counting On." The Duggars are an ultra-conservative Christian family that lives in Arkansas.

After serving his sentence, Duggar will be on parole for 20 years and can't have unsupervised contact with minors, including his own children. He will also be required to attend sex offender treatment.
Revival event in Kentucky draws 3,500 people: 'An evident move of the Spirit

A revival event held in Kentucky shortly after the conclusion of the continuous Asbury University worship gathering drew around 3,500 people, with organizers planning to build upon this success.

Pulse, a ministry centered on young adults based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, headed by evangelist Nick Hall, held an event on the last Sunday of February at the Rupp Arena in Lexington.

Approximately 3,500 people attended the gathering, which lasted from 2 p.m. until 11 p.m., according to a Pulse spokesperson who emailed The Christian Post details this week.

"This was a phenomenal event that brought a community together for one afternoon and evening. We were amazed by how the Holy Spirit moved and lives were changed with the hope of the Gospel," explained the spokesperson.

"In several cases, there was an evident move of the Spirit during the preaching, worship, testimonies, and prayer times."

The Lexington event came not long after Pulse had a multi-campus tour, holding events at Texas Tech University, the University of Georgia, North Dakota State University, Iowa State University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan.

The group's next big planned event will be Fill The Stadium (FTS), scheduled for Saturday, April 29, at the Gaylord Memorial Stadium at the University of Oklahoma.

"Revival is spreading, and we want to be part of how God is moving all across the world. As Nick Hall has said, when you see the wind moving, it is critical to throw up sales and follow the Lord's leading," the spokesperson said.

"We hope people experience more of Jesus. We hope they find Him through the Gospel for the first time. We hope they take the revival home with them and it spreads across the world."

Last month, students at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, felt inspired to continue worshipping after their regularly scheduled chapel service had come to an end.

The impromptu worship gathering lasted over two weeks, with tens of thousands of students and others traveling to the campus to experience the revival event.

The Asbury revival movement also spread to other college campuses, both private and public, with students and others holding evening worship services and outreach events.

Earlier this month, students at Regent University of Virginia Beach, Virginia, gathered at the campus during spring break to worship, pray and give testimonies as they were led.

"It feels like the same quality of spiritual renewal I experienced while at Asbury," said Jeff Gossmann, director of Campus Ministries at Regent, in an earlier interview with CP.

"It was clear that God has been drawing Gen Z to Himself. Gen Z has suffered so much loss from the pandemic. This revival is like a coming-of-age party for Gen Z. I believe that, through this revival, Jesus is saying to Gen Z, 'I see you. Welcome to the table.'"
Saddleback Church Pastor Andy Wood defends churchs stance on women pastors

A month after the Southern Baptist Convention cut ties with Saddleback Church for elevating Stacie Wood to the office of teaching pastor, the church's lead pastor, Andy Wood, has defended the church's position on women serving as pastors.

"It is the authoritative word of God that teaches us how to live, and it gives us instruction for our beliefs," Wood says in a video released this week.

He said one of the Bible passages that often comes up in the discussion of women serving as pastors is 1 Timothy 2:12, which reads, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."

Wood said conservative, Bible-believing theologians interpret this passage of Scripture from different angles. Some believe Apostle Paul is saying that only men can teach in the local church.

But Wood argues that is not how Paul led in the local church.

He points to Romans 16, where paul commends Pheobe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. He also praised Greet Priscilla and Aquila, who Paul calls his "co-workers in Christ Jesus" who "risked their lives" and "all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them." Wood also points to Romans 16:7, where Paul praises a woman named Junia, who he says was an apostle and developed faith in Christ before he did.

"Whenever there is a tension, or seemingly two things [in the Bible] that are true, we have to hold them together to gain a deeper understanding and acknowledge ... that our interpretation  although the Bible is authoritative an inerrant  our interpretation is not," Wood said.

"We hold our interpretation through the lens of our humanity and understand that we are humans that are flawed. We are doing our very best to understand the Bible. That is why things like church history play into our perspective. That is why learning from other churches and other teachers is so helpful."

The pastor said it's clear throughout the Bible that God intended to have two genders, assuring that men and women are very different from one another by design. While there is much focus in mainstream culture today on "gender transitions," Wood assured that Saddleback is not "caving to the culture."

"We're trying to get back to God's design. What did God intend when you go to Genesis and you see God making Adam and Eve? What was God's intention?" he asked. "There's a danger in this conversation with what is called a trajectory hermeneutic. A trajectory hermeneutic says, 'Well, Jesus got the ball down the field this far, and now culture's taken things further, and we're trying to catch up to culture. We are not trying to catch up to culture in this conversation."

He said that in the New Testament, there are concepts called "spiritual offices" and "spiritual gifts," adding that there are five spiritual gifts that Paul talks about in Ephesians: prophets, apostles, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. Wood said these gifts are discussed throughout both Jesus and Paul's teachings.

"The question to wrestle through in the New Testament is were there both men and women who had the apostleship gift, the pastoral gift, the evangelist, shepherd, teacher?" he asked. "Undoubtedly, when you study the New Testament, almost every theologian would argue, 'Yes, there are men who are apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers.' The question that is oftentimes in controversy is do women have those spiritual gifts or were they commissioned by God to be functioning in those particular areas of the local church."

"What we would say to that is all throughout the New Testament, both in Paul's teaching and in Jesus' teaching, we see apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers."

"In 1 Corinthians 16-19, we see very clearly that Aquilla and Priscilla were shepherds in a local church and were shepherding people. When it comes to teachers, in Romans 16: 1-2, Paul commends, in particular, a woman by the name of Pheobe as a teacher," he added. "This is important for us to recognize from a descriptive angle that the New Testament shows us women in apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher roles."

"When you think of those five functions, there are also offices in the local church. There are two offices, in particular, that we see in the New Testament. ... [They] include the office of elder and the office of deacon. The question here is, are both men and women supposed to serve in those two offices."

"We can see very clearly there is a description of deaconesses. ... Most theologians would argue there are women who served as deacon. The question is in terms of leadership. Our interpretation of the New Testament is that the role of eldership, according to God's design, is that is a role reserved for men, that men serve in the role of overseer."

He said the way God designed the authority structure of the home and the local church was that men would serve as an elder.

"A man who is an elder can empower women and utilize women to use their spiritual gifts in the local church," Wood said. "We see this from a descriptive angle all throughout the course of the New Testament."

In reconciling Paul's prohibition on women teaching or having authority over men in 1 Timothy 2:12, Wood asks whether the verbs "teach" and "assume authority" are mutually exclusive.

"Paul is using two  verbs to communicate one idea. And as he says it, 'I do not permit a woman' to take, usurp  the word literally means to usurp or seize  authority," Wood says, explaining that Paul didn't "permit a woman to seize authority to teach and seize authority over a man."

It's about the behavior of a woman as she exercises the spiritual gifts, as she exercises her functions in the church, Wood stresses.

"So just like Paul gives order in a home with a husband being the head of a household, he's saying, 'I don't permit a woman to come and seize that role.' And so when a woman teaches in a local church, she's teaching in conjunction with the authority of the Church," Wood said. "She's not trying to overtake that authority. When she uses that spiritual gift, she's using it under the authority of the eldership or the leadership of that local church."

At Saddleback, the pastor shares, "we have a group of elders who are all men."

"We have women who will teach on our stage," he said. "All the men elders in our church are in full buy-in to women teaching and exercising their spiritual gift here at Saddleback."

Last month, the SBC Executive Committee approved a recommendation from the SBC Credentials Committee to label five churches as "not in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention" over decisions to allow women to hold the office of pastor.

Along with Saddleback, other churches that were disfellowshipped include: New Faith Mission Ministry in Griffin, Georgia; St. Timothy's Christian Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland; Calvary Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi; and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

The churches will be able to appeal their expulsion at SBC's Annual Meeting, scheduled to occur in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 13-14.

SBC's Executive Committee Chairman Jared Wellman said in a statement to Baptist Press that the disaffiliations came because of "the churches continuing to have a female functioning in the office of pastor."

"As stated in the Baptist Faith and Message Article VI, the SBC holds to the belief that the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture," stated Wellman. "These churches have been valued, cooperating churches for many years, and this decision was not made lightly. However, we remain committed to upholding the theological convictions of the SBC and maintaining unity among its cooperating churches."

Launched in 1980 by pastor and bestselling author Rick Warren in California, Saddleback had grown to become the second-largest Southern Baptist church in the U.S., planting numerous churches in the U.S. and four campuses overseas. Before Warren retired last year, he hand-picked Andy Wood as the successor. His wife, Stacie, is identified as a teaching pastor at Saddleback.

Saddleback initially garnered controversy in May 2021 when it ordained three women  Liz Puffer, Cynthia Petty and Katie Edwards  to be pastors.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant for arresting Russian President Vladimir Putin for suspected war crimes in Ukraine, a step Moscow has deemed worthless.

The court in The Hague said in a statement on Friday that the arrest warrant was issued due to Putin's alleged involvement in the illegal deportation and transfer of minors from occupied parts of Ukraine to Russia.

Arrest Warrant for Vladimir Putin

The International Criminal Court, which lacks the authority to execute its arrest orders, also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for children's rights in the office of the Russian president, on similar charges.

Russia, which denies committing crimes since invading Ukraine in February of last year, deemed the International Criminal Court's action invalid. After the announcement, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on her Telegram channel, "The judgments of the International Criminal Court are meaningless for our country, even from a legal perspective."

But ICC President Piotr Hofmanski told Al Jazeera that Russia's failure to ratify the Rome Statute was "immaterial." Hofmanski said 43 governments have formally invoked the court's jurisdiction by referring to "the situation in Ukraine" to the court. The warrants were issued one day after an investigation endorsed by the United Nations accused Russia of committing extensive war crimes in Ukraine, including the forcible deportation of minors in regions it controls.

The International Criminal Court has particular definitions for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression. Particularly, targeting civilian populations, violations of the Geneva Conventions, and targeting specific groups of individuals might be considered war crimes by Russia.

Per CNN, anybody suspected of committing a crime under the court's jurisdiction, which includes ICC member states, can be tried. The court tries individuals, not nations, and concentrates on those who bear the most responsibility: government officials and leaders.

While Ukraine is not a court member, it has recognized its jurisdiction in the past. Hence, Putin is subject to indictment by the court for authorizing war crimes in Ukraine.

Nevertheless, the ICC does not conduct trials in absentia, so he would have to be apprehended outside of Russia or turned over by Russia. This is not very certain as long as Putin is in charge. Court actions can be initiated in one of two ways: The UN Security Council or a national government can recommend matters for inquiry. As a permanent United Nations Security Council member, Russia can veto council measures.

Requests from 39 national governments, most European, prompted the present inquiry. If justice travels slowly in general, international justice moves almost imperceptibly. Investigations at the International Criminal Court take many years. A few convictions have ever been obtained.

Read Also: China Accuses US of 'Unreasonably Supressing' TikTok

Russia's Abduction of Ukrainian Children

It is unknown how many young Russian soldiers have been abducted from Ukraine. The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab produced a study last month claiming that at least 6,000 Ukrainian youngsters were taken to Russian "re-education" camps in the previous year.

In a statement released on Friday, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, stated that several of the children had been made available for adoption in Russia and that Putin had signed an order accelerating the granting of Russian citizenship to the children, so making it simpler to adopt them. T

The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, estimated that the number of deported children exceeded 16,000 and stated that the warrants marked "a historic choice that will result in historical accountability. Wayne Jordash, a Kyiv-based international human rights attorney and managing partner of Global Rights Compliance, concurred that Putin and Lvova-arrest Belova's warrants were likely the first of many.

According to The Guardian, the Russian government has openly admitted to bringing Ukrainian children to Russia and placing them in camps or making them available for adoption by Russian families. On February 16, Lvova-Belova went on television and thanked Putin for allowing her to "adopt" a 15-year-old kid from Mariupol, a city in the southeast of Ukraine destroyed and controlled by Russian soldiers.

The arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin was applauded by the EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who called it "the beginning of the accountability process," and by the UK's foreign secretary, James Cleverly, who stated that "those responsible for horrific war crimes in Ukraine must be brought to justice."

The United States responded with more restraint. The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court, and the Pentagon has opposed cooperation with the court out of concern that the court may prosecute American soldiers. Reed Brody, a veteran war crimes prosecutor and author of the book To Capture a Dictator about the pursuit of Chadian leader Hissene Habre, stated that the warrant "makes Putin's world smaller."

Related Article: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syrian Counterpart Bashar al-Assad Back Each Other's Wars

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Over 80% of American Jews say anti-Semitism is on the rise in the US

American Jews say they've seen an increase in anti-Semitism in the past five years, according to a recently released report.

The American Jewish Committee, a global advocacy group that works with civic leaders to counter anti-Semitism and support the state of Israel, released its "State of Antisemitism in America Report 2022" last month.

According to the report, 82% of American Jews agreed that anti-Semitism in the United States has increased in the last five years, with 43% saying it has increased significantly. Another 39% of American Jews said that anti-Semitism had increased somewhat.

Only 2% of Jewish respondents said they believed anti-Semitism had decreased within the last five years, and 16% of participants said they believe it had stayed the same.

Among respondents representing the general public, 47% said they believe anti-Semitism has increased in the last five years, while 15% said it had decreased. Twenty-six percent said it has stayed the same, and 13% said they were unsure.

In response to the report, Scott Phillips, chief executive officer of Passages, a group that educates Christians about Israel and the Jewish faith, called for Christians to strengthen their understanding of anti-Semitism and its history.

We have to educate ourselves on what anti-Semitism is now and what it has been, and really understand the magnitude of the issue, Phillips told The Christian Post.

The Christian leader emphasized that Jesus was Jewish, as were his disciples and many important figures in the Bible, including Abraham. He added that education on biblical topics would help connect Christians to the heart of the modern Jewish people, who are the descendants of the figures Christians follow.

Phillips also believes Christians can help combat anti-Semitism by building relationships based on mutual respect and understanding with the Jewish community.

Obviously, there are going to be things we disagree on theologically, but there are things we do agree on, he said. And there are a lot of shared values that we have with the Jewish community.

Any time you can build a relationship with another human being, you realize that theyre another human being, Phillips continued. And that they have rights and they have real feelings and emotions and understand where theyre coming from, their plight, the history of their people.

Another way Christians can combat anti-Semitism, according to Phillips, is by showing up anytime the Jewish community faces an anti-Semitic attack, demonstrating that they care as people of faith.

The report drew from two surveys that were conducted last year. The first survey assessed a nationally representative sample of 1,507 adults ages 18 and older that follow the Jewish faith or have a Jewish background. The survey was conducted by telephone and online from Sept. 28Nov. 3, 2022, through the SSRS opinion panel and had a margin of error for total respondents of +/-3.4 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.

The second survey collected data from a nationally representative sample of 1,004 U.S. adults ages 18 and older from Oct. 1018, 2022, through the SSRS Opinion panel. The margin of error is +/-3.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Regarding how much of a problem they think anti-Semitism is in the country today, 89% of American Jews said that they see it as a problem, while 11% answered that they dont think its a problem.

Sixty-eight percent of American adults said they think anti-Semitism is a problem in the country today. Another 24% said it wasnt a problem, while 8% answered that they were unsure.

Overall, 26% of American Jews in the survey said they had been the target of an anti-Semitic attack in 2022, consisting of online comments, in-person remarks or physical attacks.

Sixty-nine percent of American Jews also said they were the target of anti-Semitism online or they witnessed it online within the last 12 months. A total of 85% of Jewish Americans ages 18-29 reported that they were the target of anti-Semitism online or they had seen it online at least once within the last 12 months.

Researchers asked American Jews where they encountered anti-Semitism online or saw it happen, and most participants said the incidents took place on Facebook (43%) or Twitter (45%).

Only 28% of American Jews said that they had reported the incidents to the social media platforms where it occurred. Forty-four percent said they did not report anti-Semitism that they experienced online to a social media platform or a Jewish organization.

Among those who did make a report, 39% said that they didnt receive a response from the social media platform where the incident happened. Sixty-one percent shared that, after reporting the anti-Semitic incident, the social media platform either removed the content or sent a personal response.

The second survey found that 82% of American adults had witnessed anti-Semitism online, but 93% of participants did not report the incidents to the police. Ninety-six percent of American adults did not report it to Jewish organizations, 97% said they didnt report it to the social media platform, and 95% said they didnt report the incident to any authority group.

According to an Anti-Defamation League report released in April 2022, violence against Jews had reached an all-time high in the U.S. in 2021. The ADL recorded 2,717 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism in 2021, the highest number on record since the group began tracking anti-Semitic incidents in 1979.
Catholic dioceses ease Lenten abstinence rules to allow for corned beef on St. Patrick's Day

Hoping to enjoy a little corned beef and cabbage this St. Patricks Day, even though its Lenten season? One Texas diocese is urging Catholics to have at it.

Bishop Edward J. Burns of the Diocese of Dallas issued a dispensation from abstinence on March 17 with the purpose of allowing the faithful to enjoy the Irish American tradition of eating corned beef (or ham) and cabbage in good conscience.

During the annual season of Lent, Catholics aged 14 and older are required to abstain from meat on Fridays under the Roman Catholic Churchs Canon Law.

Despite the decree, Burns said those who wish to continue their tradition are not required to utilize the dispensation and may continue the laudable practice of abstinence from meat.

Because the Memorial of St. Patrick is a common celebratory day in the United States and locally, Burns wrote March 3, I hereby decree that on Friday, March 17, 2023, all Catholics of the Diocese of Dallas, no matter where they may be, and all other Catholics actually present in the diocese on that day, are dispensed from the obligation to abstain from meat.

Those who choose to partake, Burns added, are strongly encouraged, though not required, to alternate or substitute another penance in place of abstinence from meat.

A number of other bishops joined Burns in the move, with several of them opting to commute the Lent obligation rather than dispense with it entirely by making it conditional upon performing acts of prayer and charity.

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, said those in his diocese may substitute the normal abstinence with attending Mass, praying the rosary for world peace, or spending half an hour in prayer.

Other bishops, like Bishop Edward C. Malesic of the Diocese of Cleveland, asked those in his diocese to choose another non-Friday day during Lent to either abstain from eating meat, or to make some offering on behalf of the poor, whether by prayer, fasting or almsgiving in order to recognize and honor our Lords mission and passion for the sake of the salvation of souls.

Despite its reputation for drunkenness and debauchery, St. Patricks Day was actually created to honor Patricius, who the Catholic Church calls a Romanized Britain who was enslaved by the Irish for six years in the fifth century.

During his captivity, Patricius was converted and later returned to pre-Christian Britain to evangelize his countrymen.

Known as the Apostle of Ireland, Patricius is said to have laid the groundwork for Christianity to take root among the Irish people.

For Catholics, the practice of abstaining from meat on all Fridays of Lent acts as a reminder that Jesus gave up His body on a Friday. Hence, for many Catholics, abstaining from meat is a way to foster a greater communion with the Lord Jesus.

Another reason why Catholics abstain from eating meat on certain days during Lent is the association of meat with feasts and celebrations. With the view that Lent should be a period of solemn sacrifice, Catholics believe that staying away from meat is one way of not getting into a celebratory mood.
Merrick Garland grilled for 'disparity' between prosecution of pro-life, pro-choice activists

Attorney General Merrick Garland faced criticism for the apparent disparity in treatment between pro-life protesters at abortion clinics and pro-choice activists who have vandalized pregnancy care centers.

Garland testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that was centered on the oversight of the United States Department of Justice and other issues.

During his opening remarks, Garland explained that, since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, the Department has pulled together to protect reproductive freedom under federal law.

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah asked Garland about the treatment of Mark Houck, a pro-life activist who was recently found not guilty of violating federal law related to an encounter with a Planned Parenthood clinic escort in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Lee expressed concern over how Houck was treated, given that the pro-life advocate had his house raided by several armed federal agents shortly after the incident, saying that it doesnt seem justifiable to me to have that overwhelming show of force for conduct like that.

The Republican senator went on to note that from 2022 to early 2023, the DOJ had charged 34 pro-life activists for blocking access to or vandalizing abortion clinics while only two individuals have been charged for vandalizing pro-life churches and pregnancy care centers, despite the largewave of such incidents since last year.

The charges made stemmed from the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a federal measure against damaging or committing violent acts against abortion clinics, abortionists or their patients.

How do you explain this disparity? Lee asked Garland.

The Democrat attorney general responded that the FACE Act applies equally to efforts to damage, blockade clinics, whether they are a pregnancy resource center or they are an abortion center.

You are quite right, there are many more prosecutions with respect to the blocking of the abortion centers, but that is generally because those actions are taken with photography at the time, during the daylight, said Garland. Seeing the person who did it is quite easy.

Those who are attacking the pregnancy resource centers, which is a horrid thing to do, are doing this at night, in the dark.

Garland added that we have put full resources on this and have put out rewards for this, noting that the Justice Department and the FBI have made outreach to Catholic and other organizations to ask for their help in identifying the people who are doing this.

We will prosecute every case against a pregnancy resource center that we can make, he continued. But these people who are doing this are clever and are doing it in secret, and Im convinced that the FBI is trying to find them with urgency.

On the same day as Garlands testimony, the DOJ announced that 32-year-old Jay Smith had pled guilty to violating the FACE Act when he tried to block entry to an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C., in 2020.

Smith was indicted along with nine other individuals: Jonathan Darnel, William Goodman, Herb Geraghty, Lauren Handy, Paulette Harlow, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall and Joan Bell.

Smith pleaded guilty to a charge that he used force and physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, and interfere with a nurse and other employees of the reproductive health clinic because of the services being offered. The charge further alleges that Smiths conduct resulted in bodily injury to the clinic nurse, stated the DOJ.

Last October, a group of Republican members of Congress  Lee among them  sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray claiming that the federal investigative body was wrongfully targeting pro-life Americans.

Overzealous prosecutions under the FACE Act weaponize the power of federal law enforcement against American citizens in what should firmly be state and local matters, read the letter, in part.

Further, these abuses of federal power against pro-life Americans based solely on their beliefs undermine the American peoples trust in the FBI.
How religious freedom is eroding amid Russias invasion of Ukraine

Russia's persecution of religious groups has worsened during the war with Ukraine, according to experts who testified before the United States' top religious freedom advisory commission this week.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom hosted a virtual hearing to analyze Russia's religious freedom violations and recommend policy solutions. The commission is responsible for advising the U.S. Congress and the State Department about religious freedom across the globe.

The panel of experts included the Chief Rabbi and president of the Conference of European Rabbis Pinchas Goldschmidt, the exiled former chief rabbi of Moscow.

Other experts who testified include Dennis Christensen, a Jehovah's Witness and former prisoner of conscience in Russia; Rachel Denber, the deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch; and religious freedom expert Dmytro Vovk.

Goldschmidt, who left Russia in July 2022 after he refused to support the war with Ukraine, believes that Jewish people should leave the country. The invasion began in February 2022, and the former chief rabbi said the Jewish community has faced pressure to support the war. In July, Russia moved to shutter a Russian branch of a Jewish agency that helps Jews immigrate to Israel.

The Jewish leader remarked that the Jewish community in Russia is in "distress," and he fears for the safety of Jews who remain in the country.

Goldschmidt also suggested that the U.S. and other Western countries should do more to support "Russian opposition," including religious leaders on the ground or in exile. He argued that the opposition will "bring change to the country."

During her remarks, Denber stated that the Kremlin's "muzzling of Russian citizens" is the result of a decade of "step-by-step repression." The repression "escalated" with the invasion of Ukraine as the Kremlin works to "eradicate public dissent."

"Efforts to annihilate civil society are related to religious persecution in three main ways," she said. "First, the authorities abuse Russia's extremism and terrorism laws to persecute religious minorities and also to silence secular critics."

"Second, the dismantling of civil society means eradicating autonomous initiatives that have an approach to public affairs that differs from that of the authority or that outright challenge them."

The human rights researcher asserted that the government is "suspicious" of institutions, regardless of whether they're non-governmental organizations or religious, as these are institutions outside of the government's control.

The third way that governmental authorities allow for religious persecution by annihilating civil society is through promoting traditional values as well as demonizing culture and ideas that appear to conflict with these values, Denber said.

"So, if the government can't control a religious community, the impulse is to deem it a threat to Russian traditional values," Denber added.

The Human Rights Watch researcher contends that the Kremlin attempts to "disseminate civil society" by adopting and enforcing "repressive laws." She cited Russia's war censorship laws promulgated by the government during the invasion. The laws prohibit public opposition and independent news reporting about the war.

Another law Denber cited deals with who must register as a foreign agent, a law the country first adopted in 2012. Russia has expanded the definition of a foreign agent under the law to include anyone engaged in civic activism or expressing an opinion about the country's government or officials.

These laws have been used to criminalize critics of the war in Ukraine, Denber noted, pointing to figures such as Illya Yashin. In December 2022, the Moscow Meshchansky District Court sentenced Yashin to 8.5 years in jail for disseminating "knowingly false information."

Yashin had spoken "disparagingly" about Russian authorities in an April 7 YouTube video, in which he also said that the Russian military was killing civilians.

According to Amnesty International, since March 4, 2022, around 132 people have also been indicted for disseminating "knowingly false information."

Denber also stated that authorities have arrested people who have protested the war by holding posters in public or making inscriptions with Bible verses or the sixth commandment, "Thou shall not kill." In addition, Russian clergy members have faced imprisonment or have been fined for expressing opposition to the war.

During a question-and-answer portion, Denber emphasized that "international advocacy" for those persecuted is "crucial." She also called for justice for the war crimes Russia has committed, a position held by Human Rights Watch.

Despite having been imprisoned after a 2017 Russian Supreme Court ruling banned Jehovah's Witnesses in the country, Christensen urged people to continue raising awareness about what's happening in both Russia and Ukraine. However, in his closing remarks, he also urged everyone not to carry hatred of Russian people, calling for people to be judged by their "deeds" instead of their nationality.

Vovk predicted that if President Vladimir Putin succeeds in the war, Russia's political practices will "expand." In terms of policy recommendations, the religious freedom expert called for the U.S. to support religious leaders who speak against the war.

The U.S. State Department identifies Russia as a country of particular concern for engaging in severe religious freedom violations and has imposed economic sanctions as well as export controls and tariffs.
Sadie Robertson, rapper KB talk 'vampire Christianity,' wanting Jesus blood but not follow Him

Christian hip-hop artist Kevin Elijah Burgess, commonly known by his stage name KB, warned against what he described as "vampire Christians" who want Jesus for "His blood" but not for "His life."

The 34-year-old musician and author joined Sadie Robertson Huff of "Duck Dynasty" fame for an interview on her podcast WHOA Thats Good posted online earlier this month.

In the episode, KB warned viewers against only wanting grace and forgiveness through Jesus' blood and sacrifice on the cross and at the same time, refusing to follow Him.

There is a kind of dangerous [belief] that comes out of misappropriating Jesus, taking Christianity and hollowing it out. As Dallas Willard said, Wanting Jesus as simply becoming like vampire Christians that want Jesus for His blood, but they don't want Him for His life, KB said.

That kind of Christianity is dangerous. We want to discern the misrepresentations of Jesus from the true Lord Jesus Christ of the Scripture.

Sometimes Christians only want to think about Jesus forgiveness and grace while avoiding reflection on the disciplined, sinless and blameless life that Jesus lived, he added.

Jesus is a person that steps in. He is a threat to all the things: the injustice, the evil, the wickedness of unforgiveness, the bitterness, our lack of healing. He is a threat to all the things that would threaten us, KB explained. In other words, to say that Jesus is dangerous is to say that He is a force that moves in, changes everything, cannot be bought, cannot be canceled, cannot be deleted. And He is a danger to all the things that would be dangerous to us.

KB said another concern Christians should be careful of is potentially misunderstanding aspects of Jesus full character by mistaking Him for a Jesus who is mainstreamed to fit the present culture.

"Frederick Douglass, one of my American heroes, one of my favorite people in history, gives us this framework of there's always going to be the Christianity of the land, and we are need to reject that and embrace the Christianity of Christ, KB said.

"The Christianity of Christ is an unimaginable good for our souls in our world. But it is often distracted or it is often in competition with the Christianity of the land.

KB encouraged believers to avoid distractions that compete for their attention and embrace a God-centered community of believers.

This world is heavy and God's prescription is that you would surround yourself with people that love Him and love you," he said. "But whatever value and grace that I have and wisdom that I have today, it's been conversations and encouragement and corrections ... and I have to give credit to God's people around me for that result.
3 counter-cultural approaches to pastoring Gen Z

Our hope narratives were written in the 90s. They need to be re-crafted.

For those of us in pastoral ministry, I think we share a collective sense of responsibility to prepare Generation Z for a new world. We dont know everything about how this new world will operate. We just know it will be different and complex. This moment in history is marked by a mixture of cross-current, wild and unpredictable cultural events converging. Like streams into a river.

AI. Crypto. Gender identity. Social upheaval. Political division. Racial tension. Financial stress. I think we get why younger generations dont necessarily wake up each morning with optimism surging through their veins. And yet, history shows us that moments of dynamic human progress and innovation often happen in the midst of chaos and challenge.

This is why the story we tell about hope and resilience needs to look different. We need a new narrative, a new set of markers to help us chart a course for new generations to find faith in challenging times.

We must prepare them not for a world that has come and gone, but for the world they are inheriting.

Ive been around church my entire life. Before I was a senior pastor, I was raised as a pastors kid. In my church upbringing, we were good at talking about favor and goodness and breakthrough, but our culture has a very uncomfortable relationship with the shadows of life.

Heres a narrative that is not working for Gen Z: Put your hope in God and your life will be blessed in a way that looks like a postcard-perfect life, a Hallmark version of life. The script goes something like this  if I could just remove every problem around me, my job, my family, my health, my emotions, then I would be happy.

But then, mud gets thrown on our beautiful postcard life; we dont know what to do with it.

So, how do we pastor and lead Gen Z through uncertainty, anxiety and upheaval?

Consider these three practices:

1. Debunk outcome-based hope

Outcome-based hope is the fantasy of a life without troubles. We need to decouple hope from the outcome. Lets sketch a new and biblical picture of hope  a hope made for moments when circumstances dont improve. A hope so incandescent it can illuminate the darkest nights.

Faith doesnt guarantee the short-term outcome, but it makes space in the narrative of our lives for God to do surprising and wonderful things beyond what we can even understand in the moment.

This new narrative of hope shows up when cancer attacks, divorce divides or the stress of the daily grind feels like too much. Hope lives in trauma, adversity and valleys of discouragement.

Lets teach new generations that it is not about having hope for things. It is about who we have hope in.

2. The link between challenge and growth

How we handle the challenges of life will define us more than anything else. Why? Because pain grows us. Hardship and hope together can do something for us that a problem-free life never could. It is the imperfections of life, not the absence of them, that when harnessed provide the resistance and friction needed to supercharge our growth and propel us forward.

Some of my worst moments were what pushed me toward empathy, kindness, humility and a reliance on the grace of God. Whatever I thought my mistakes would steal from me, they have given me much more in return.

But with hope, our storyline always curves toward a redemptive purpose.

3. Teach them the bicycle

Lets show younger generations that life is more like a bicycle. Think of it this way: Every time you get on a bicycle and ride, both wheels are in motion. The connection is this: instead of there being seasons where there is only good in our lives and other seasons where there is only bad, we tend to have a mixture of both. We travel on both wheels at all times.

Even on the most dramatically good days, we have hardships. And on the worst of days, there is some good. There is the wheel of human experience that involves hurt, pain and hardship. But there is also the divine wheel that involves hope, peace and joy. Any journey involves both wheels constantly in motion.

We need to teach Gen Z not to delay their sense of joy and optimism until the problems in their lives vanish. Stay on the bicycle!

From my 20 years of pastoring, I have discovered something remarkable to help new generations understand the world they are currently in. That is, not only should we have room for hardship  but hope can take our hardest moments and turn them into something that brings about our greatest growth. I define this as a good catastrophe, a concept I address further in my latest book, Good Catastrophe: The Tide Turning Power of Hope, to bring encouragement and hope to the next generation in a new and real way.
Biblical worldview: Political correctness

Our mommas used to tell us that if you dont have anything nice to say, dont say anything at all. These days, as we live through the era of the woke mind virus, that maxim has morphed into something far more sinister.

Now, Big Brother government, corporate H.R. offices and Big Tech tell us that If you dont say exactly what we approve of, you wont be able to say anything at all  because we will cancel you.

While its an older term that has largely fallen out of circulation, theres a name for this linguistic tyranny: Political correctness.

How should Christians think about political correctness? How does a biblical worldview help us understand, interpret and respond to the language games of the left? Thats what I want to address in this article.

First, what is political correctness (PC)? Charlton Heston, back in 1999, remarked that Political correctness is tyranny with manners. Its an effort to police the boundaries of acceptable discourse and speech in our society  but according to rules and principles set by radical secularists and even Marxists.

In Well Versed: Biblical Answers To Todays Tough Questions, pastor James Garlow explains how PC is used to silence and control people  primarily Christians. He writes:

PC-ness is about control. Forcing people to use concocted terms defined by the political Left (progressives) obscures reality and purposefully creates confusion. It also puts people on the defensive by being constantly hyperconcerned about saying the wrong thing and being branded as a horrible, ignorant person. Terminology and perceived or imagined prejudice becomes the issuenot the subject at hand. That effect is intended to disarm any objective dealing with real issues, while making the problem the one who disagrees.

Sound familiar? But where did this come from? This is no conspiracy theory; no, this is the truth  PC is a product of Marxism. Garlow goes on to explain the Marxist roots of modern-day PC like so:

Political correctness has been in the making for about one hundred years thanks to Marxism, socialism, and secularism. In 1919, the Hungarian Marxist theoretician Georg Lukacs asked, Who will save us from Western Civilization? Marxists across Europe responded with a determination to overcome traditional Christian morality that embraced patriotism, religion, and family values. What emerged was an ingenious plan to demonize and eventually deconstruct Western civilization through promotion of anti-moral behaviors and replace it with Marxism.

As the Marxists transformed into cultural Marxists in America after World War II, they set out to destroy all of our traditional, Christian institutions  starting with the family. To do this, they took aim at Christian morals, values, and specifically sexual morality, pushing increasingly perverted and immoral understandings of sex and love and loudly demanding that society accept and tolerate these unbiblical views and expressions.

This demand for tolerance was really a demand for silence  silence from anyone who, according to their religious beliefs, refused to accept and celebrate abortion, homosexuality, promiscuity, etc. The new tolerance was really intolerance.

Garlow explains that the progressive Left would use the new liberating tolerance to advance its own brand of intolerance  If you dont think so, dare to say the wrong thing, and you could have your life destroyed by the PC police, even if what you are saying is demonstrably factual and true.

As the decades have passed, political correctness and tolerance have been wielded as deadly weapons by the left to shut down anyone who disagrees with their radical agenda. If you dare defend traditional marriage, speak out against abortion, refuse to use gender pronouns, or even call a trans woman a man (which that is exactly what a trans woman is), they will attack you, fire you, cancel you, and use whatever means of power they have to force you to recant and repent for transgressing their speech codes.

Thats what political correctness is  a Marxist weapon to coerce Christians into silence and compliance. But what should Christians do about it?

Garlow provides some encouraging words of resolve and courage to help Christians steel their spines in response to these attacks. He writes:

We cant allow ourselves to be intimidated into saying and doing nothing. It would be easy to disengage from our culture and the issues of the day and live a life without controversy. But even that cant happen. Cultural progressives will not be satisfied with silence; they want total and full acceptance from us. In other words, they want a complete and unconditional surrender. That is the nature of spiritual warfare; there is no peaceful coexistence. If we are followers of Christ, we had better prepare ourselves for the battle (Ephesians 6:1019).

Garlow is right in calling Christians to prepare for battle. The fight over political correctness is nothing less than a war for truth. And we dare not  we cannot  surrender the truth. Proverbs 23:23 instructs us to Buy the truth and do not sell it  wisdom, instruction and insight as well.

Because Christians serve the God of truth, we must always speak the truth. Thats why Christians can never consent to use gender pronouns that deny reality and tell a lie about someones biological sex, no matter what the PC police demand from us. Thats why Christians cant call anything marriage unless its between one man and one woman. Thats why we cant ever refer to abortion as a matter of choice  there is only one right choice and thats refusing to murder preborn children.

Ephesians 4:25 also calls Christians to put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor. Sometimes  many times these days  speaking truthfully to our neighbors means calling sin sin, calling evil evil, and refusing to temper or change our speech for the sake of pleasing the culture or trying to preserve a winsome witness.

Thomas Sowell once said,

In this era of political correctness, some people seem unaware that being squeamish about words can mean being blind to realities.

What he means is that how we talk about reality matters  we can either use words to obscure, or to clarify, whats really happening. Politically correct speech almost always obscures real evil and sin in our secularizing culture. Christians, of all people, must be willing to speak the truth instead, no matter who it might offend.

This, of course, does not mean that we intentionally give offense. Not at all. Colossians 4:6 tells us to Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. But we balance that with the clear command from Ephesians 5:11 to Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Christians must ultimately reject political correctness and pursue the truth instead. We aim to please God, not man, with the words that come out of our mouths. Because we know that we answer to God, not the government, Big Tech, or woke H.R. offices. All men do. For in the final judgment, it wont be the PC police who silence anyone, it will be Gods holiness  for every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God (Romans 3:19).

As Garlow puts it, Political correctness is a weapon used to destroy the messenger of righteousness. We simply need Gods boldness and the perseverance to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).

So dont be politically correct  be biblically correct. And trust God with the outcome.

Originally published at the Standing for Freedom Center.
The time is urgent for Bible-believing United Methodists

The decades-long battle for the soul of the United Methodist Church (UMC) is now lost. A liberal faction has secured an increasingly hostile takeover.

Christians outside of the UMC, please share this article with any Bible-believing United Methodist friends, to show the urgency of quick action. Please also learn from our mistakes.

Theologically conservative United Methodists, we have a soon-to-expire, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead our congregations out of a rapidly radicalizing, declining denomination without losing our church buildings, which are technically held in trust for the denomination

Sadly, some denominational officials and even pastors of conservative-leaning congregations suppressed information or actively misled people about the UMCs new leftward shift and our slow-motion schism.

This is no longer the UMC as we have known it. As documented on www.umchoices.org, the UMCs increasing embrace of gay weddings brings with it increasing radicalism on a range of other theological and social issues.

Already, over 2,000 U.S. congregations have left the UMC, with at least as many in the pipeline.

Entire United Methodist regions outside of the U.S. have already begun departing.

Yes, the UMCs official doctrinal and moral standards remain biblical, including forbidding gay weddings. But these on paper standards do not reflect reality.

This has a long history in the UMC and our predecessor denominations. Early on, we relaxed our counter-cultural, socially costly Christian stance against the evils of American slavery. Then we became increasingly lax in doctrinal accountability.

So, for many years, there has been no clear, universally agreed upon core of doctrine to which all United Methodist clergy actually have to affirm. One newly elected bishop, Kennetha Bigham-Tsai, has even declared that in the UMC, it is not important that we agree on who Christ is.

Despite much rhetoric about the UMC supposedly being a big happy family of conflicting theological views, this is unworkable. Indeed, the big tent never really worked well for us. I have yet to meet any loyalist of any of the UMCs unofficial but influential liberal caucus groups who meaningfully views an evangelical Christian like me as a beloved brother in Christ. There is no integrity in the common occurrence of ministers vowing to preach and maintain our biblical doctrines, without meaning it, just to get ordained in the UMC. Meanwhile, for decades, our denomination has often bullied pastors who support our biblical doctrine.

Diane Knippers, the former president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), observed that the LGBTQ controversies of recent decades intensified pre-existing theological conflicts because of how social-justice-prioritizing liberals see this as a justice issue while doctrine-prioritizing conservatives see it as a doctrinal issue.

Provoked by growing numbers of pastors, bishops, and entire regions of the UMC openly defying our longstanding rules against gay weddings and self-avowed practicing homosexual ministers, a special General Conference was held in 2019. But after that conference actually strengthened these rules, liberal leaders furiously declared that they would neither leave the UMC nor respect its standards. Destructive conflict and disobedience spread. Leaders of all stripes admitted that a split was inevitable.

Different negotiations took place between conservative and liberal leaders, including but not limited to the prominent Protocol on Reconciliation and Grace through Separation, to seek some means of amicable separation. In all of these negotiations, 1. liberals would only agree to them inheriting the UMC name and putting the burden of leaving on conservatives, 2. liberals insisted on additional, painful, one-sided concessions, and 3. the effort ultimately fizzled as liberals became greedier to seize more and more for themselves.

Nevertheless, there are several key reasons why now is the time for evangelicals to leave.

1. The impossibility of reform



For years, the UMCs evangelical renewal movement had realistic hope that we could eventually take back our denomination. Now reform has become impossible.

After the 2019 General Conference strengthened our biblical standards on marriage, defiance became even more widespread. Now top UMC leaders include two openly partnered gay activist bishops.

Our official doctrine affirms Jesus Christs full divinity. Yet that has not stopped one of these bishops, Karen Oliveto of Denver, from promoting an essentially Unitarian view, denying the sinlessness of Jesus and bizarrely saying we should not create an idol out of him. Numerous other denominational leaders were complicit in defending this false teaching, including the supposedly centrist Bishop Ken Carter in the previously conservative-leaning Southeast, under whose leadership other United Methodist bishops simply did not follow new rules conservatives recently enacted for holding wayward bishops accountable.

At the 2016 General Conference, conservatives won key victories by repealing the denominations previous endorsement of the Roe v. Wade abortion case, and otherwise shifting the UMC in a more pro-life direction. But when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe, the UMC leadership was remarkably forceful and united in supporting elective abortion and lamenting Roes fall.

Now even hard-won conservative victories make little impact. Recent political shifts from disaffiliations and the new impossibility of electing any theologically conservative U.S. bishop have put even fleeting reforms out of reach.

2. The UMCs new intolerance

UMC leaders scrambling to limit disaffiliations, very vaguely claim that the denomination will still have a place for evangelicals.

But as documented, when push comes to shove, liberal bishops and other leaders of the new United Methodism are increasingly clear and consistent in harsh intolerance, including purging non-liberals from leadership. As one official conference speaker recently declared (beginning at 1:41:34), to loud applause from UMC leaders from across the Midwest, LGBTQ liberation is a justice issue, and It is not possible for the church to not be of one mind on a matter of justice.

Furthermore, the new UMCs leaders have been remarkably consistent in characterizing a congregation refusing to accept a transgendered or non-celibate gay pastor appointed over them as equivalent to the unacceptable sin of racism. So by their own logic, liberals cannot indefinitely tolerate any United Methodist congregation remaining orthodox.

3. The historic opportunity

One truly consequential reform adopted in 2019 was Paragraph 2553, which allows congregations to disaffiliate from the UMC and keep their properties if they meet certain conditions, including paying significant but usually possible exit fees.

For the most part, congregations were previously blocked from leaving by how our denomination has long laid claim to all local-church property.

But Paragraph 2553 expires at the end of 2023. And a congregations disaffiliation must be ratified by a 2023 session of its annual conference (a UMC regional administrative structure), which is usually no later than June, with voting and paperwork due much earlier.

Sadly, some regions have imposed draconian additional burdens on disaffiliating congregations, or set needlessly early deadlines, so that congregations in some places have already missed their chance to use Paragraph 2553.

But elsewhere, the deadline has not yet expired, but will very soon! A few bishops have even extended the deadline by scheduling a special annual conference session in late 2023.

A congregation that has any possibility of disaffiliating now under Paragraph 2553 is unlikely to ever get a better deal.

The best starting point to learn more about the latest options, deadlines, and policies in your area is contacting the Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA) Organizer in your annual conference.

Disaffiliating congregations can remain connected with other orthodox believers emerging from the UMC into the new Global Methodist Church, which is committed to doctrinal integrity, accountable leadership, lower denominational expenses, and giving congregations a greater voice.

John Lomperis is the United Methodist Director at the Institute on Religion and Democracy. He has an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School and is the co-author of Strange Yokefellows: The National Council of Churches and its Growing Non-Church Constituency. Connect with him on Twitter @JohnLomperis.
Why offering petitions to departed saints offends God

If you are someone who regularly offers petitions to departed saints, try to imagine going a whole week only offering petitions to God. And then imagine yourself doing that for an entire month. You would be pleasantly surprised at just how refreshed your soul would be after 30 days of biblical, Christ-centered prayer.

Scripture instructs followers of Christ to offer petitions to the only One in Heaven who is worthy of such requests: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God (Philippians 4:6).

Remembering departed saints with fondness and appreciation is one thing. Offering petitions to departed saints is something else entirely. In fact, offering petitions to departed saints is actually offensive to God.

In a CP op-ed 10 years ago titled, Praying to the Departed Conjures Fallen Angels, I wrote, "Prayers to the departed never reach St. Paul, or St. Augustine, or the mother of our Lord, or the brother of our Lord, or St. Francis of Assisi, or any other saint  If you have offered such petitions, simply talk to the Lord about it and ask Him to close any doors you have opened out of ignorance. And choose to be wise from this day forward by only praying to God, but never again to departed saints.

Why would God be offended when one of his children offers petitions to departed saints? Because it is hugely disrespectful to the Lord to offer petitions to anyone in Heaven other than God himself. The Lord has all power and authority, and God will do whatever he chooses to do in answer to our prayers. The minute we turn to a departed saint to help grant our petition we veer away from biblical prayer. Even if departed saints could hear our requests, it would still be a terrible idea to offer petitions to them. You see, the Lord forbids his children from attempting to communicate with the departed.

In Deuteronomy 18:9-13, the Lord gave his chosen people the following instructions: When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices, the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God.

Consulting departed saints by offering petitions to them is forbidden by the Lord. The Bible lumps consulting the dead in with sorcery, witchcraft, and the like. Such behavior invites the presence of demons. For example, a seance is a meeting where people attempt to make contact with the dead. This forbidden practice is part of the occult.

Likewise, when individuals offer petitions to departed saints, they are dabbling with dark power, even when these petitions are being sincerely offered as part of ones religious tradition.

The Holy Spirit produces peace and joy through Scripture and the Gospel message, whereas demons oppress people who engage in occult practices, or in any other type of sinful behavior for that matter.

For example, Ephesians 4:26-27 states: In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Holding grudges overnight opens a spiritual door through which demons are able to attack the mind and heart of the person who is holding a grudge and is unwilling to forgive someone.

All of us who follow Christ do things at times that are offensive to God. Offering petitions to departed saints is not a bigger sin than holding a grudge. Both behaviors are offensive to God, and both behaviors give the devil and his demons access into your life of Christian discipleship. Sinful practices prevent us from experiencing the fullness of the Holy Spirit until we repent and confess our sins to the Lord and rely upon the blood of Jesus to wash our sins away.

Perhaps you are someone who regularly offers up petitions to the departed. And maybe you do so because you were told that saints in Heaven can hear your petitions and can even help to get your request answered. If that is what you were told, you were misinformed. I encourage you to meditate upon Deuteronomy 18:9-13 as you allow the Lord to break whatever chains you have brought on yourself by that unbiblical and dangerous religious practice.

Praying directly to God is the way to be delivered from the bad habit of offering petitions to departed saints. You dont need that unbiblical practice in your life, and God doesnt want you engaging in it.
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Lance Reddick, who played in notable television programs such as 'The Wire,' 'Fringe,' and 'Bosch,' as well as films such as the 'John Wick' trilogy, which will release 'John Wick: Chapter 4' next week, died of natural causes.

He was discovered dead on Friday morning at his Studio City home in Los Angeles, according to TMZ, which first reported the tragedy.

Lance Reddick Dead at 60

With the March 24 release of 'John Wick: Chapter 4,' Lance Reddick reprises his role as Charon, the concierge at the Continental Hotel in New York City, who has featured in all four installments.

Charon operated with Keanu Reeves' unretired assassin, notably caring for John's new puppy in the second chapter and participating in gunplay in the third film. In addition, Reddick was scheduled to participate in the planned "Ballerina" spinoff starring Ana de Armas.

Lance Reddick was born in Baltimore on June 7, 1962. He is known for portraying stern police officers and other authoritative guys. He got a Bachelor of Music in music composition from the University of Rochester.

According to Variety, he relocated to Boston in the 1980s and graduated from Yale with a Master of Fine Arts in 1994. In 2000, his first significant appearance on television was in Season 4 of the HBO prison drama "Oz."

The actor portrayed Detective Johnny Basil, an undercover investigator who attempts to end the drug trade but quickly becomes an addict and murders corrupt police by shoving him down an elevator shaft. Basil is stabbed to death by Seth Gilliam's character Clayton Hughes after being taken to Oz.

In 2002, HBO cast him as one of the main characters, Baltimore police lieutenant Cedric Daniels, in 'The Wire.' Before that, he had tried out for the parts of Bubbles (which went to Andre Royo) and William 'Bunk' Moreland (Wendell Pierce).

During the show's five-season run, Daniels was in command of the drugs branch and steadily progressed through its ranks, frequently clashing with his superiors. In the series' conclusion, he resigned as commissioner and became a criminal defense attorney.

After 'The Wire' finished in 2008, Reddick joined 'Fringe' later that year as Phillip Broyles, the chief of the Fringe division of Homeland Security. The team examined situations involving pseudoscience, fringe science, and alternate timelines. In 2014, he was cast as another police commander, this time for the 2021-ending Amazon series 'Bosch.'

After receiving two nominations for 'Fringe,' he was nominated for a Saturn Award for his performance as deputy chief Irvin Irving.

Reddick was cast as the Greek deity Zeus in the highly anticipated Disney+ series 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians,' based on the classic young adult novels by Rick Riordan. His other upcoming appearances include the May 19 premiere of Hulu's version of 'White Guys Can't Jump,' Danny DeVito's 'St. Sebastian' on Netflix, Showtime's 'The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial' and the space drama 'Apteros.'

Read Also: Vladimir Putin Arrest Warrant

'John Wick' Star's Final Days Before Death

Per Mirror, Lance Reddick sang "the rhythm continues" on Instagram only days before his death. This week, he was scheduled to attend the premiere of his latest flick John Wick 4. He was cast as Charon in the fourth installment of the series, but elected to remain at home.

Authorities assert he died of natural causes, although no cause of death has been established. He uploaded a video of himself and his dogs to social media four days prior.

In the video, the celebrity was going about his home as his dog growled and howled. When he sang as the beat continued, he smiled and opened his eyes widely. He then took a few photographs of himself with his dogs. The first shows him smiling at the camera while surrounded by his dogs on his sofa.

While one dog appears interested in the photograph, the other three compete for their owner's attention. The second reel depicted two animals licking the star's face while climbing on him. And the third presented a more tranquil image, with one of the animals resting its eyes while cuddling up to him.

Stephanie is Lance's wife, and the couple has two children, Yvonne Nicole, and Christopher Reddick. She has also worked behind the scenes in the film business. First, they met when he was working on a project.

Stephanie has always taken advantage of every opportunity to be at his side, even though their children have never appeared on the red carpet. The couple wed in 2011 - 12 years after their initial meeting. At this time, Lance had a few outstanding parts under his belt and had increased his net worth.

Nonetheless, they chose to have an intimate wedding to enjoy the time of their life. Stephanie and Lance initially met at the Guthrie Theater, where they both worked. Thus, they want to get married where it all began.

Related Article: Robert Blake Cause of Death

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Last week, a US Army soldier at Fort Hood who informed her family she was sexually harassed was discovered dead, sparking fresh outrage for justice on the large military station, which has a history of high sexual assault rates.

Ana Basaldua Ruiz, a soldier from Long Beach, California, has served as a combat engineer with the 1st Cavalry Division for 15 months after joining the Army in 2021. Fort Hood officials reported that she passed away on March 13, but they have not disclosed the cause or method of her passing.

Another Fort Hood Soldier, Who Reported Sexual Assault, Found Dead

Per NY Times, Fort Hood issued a statement on Thursday confirming the Department of the Army Criminal Investigative Division's conclusion that "no foul play is apparent."

Alejandra Ruiz Zarco, the mother of Private Basaldua, said that her daughter told her a few weeks ago that an Army superior was "harassing" her and that she had been the subject of numerous sexual approaches on the base. The last time Ruiz, who resides in Mexico, communicated with her daughter was on March 8.

Ruiz said in Spanish that Private Basaldua told her mother that she was "very sad, that she was going through very difficult things, that things were not as normal as she thought, that she couldn't tell me much, but that there would be a time when we would be together, and she could tell me everything."

Baldo Basaldua, the California-based father of Private Basaldua, said that his daughter had informed him that "her entire existence was bad and that she wanted to die."

League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) officials called for the FBI to investigate Private Basaldua's death at a news conference outside Fort Hood on Friday, stating that it was crucial that investigators from outside the military probe the facts.

During an emotional interview, the parents of Basalduaruiz said that Fort Hood officials informed them that their daughter had committed suicide. The grieving mother claimed that during this discussion, her daughter strongly desired to see and embrace her.

Basalduaruiz, a naturalized US citizen of Mexican descent, entered the Army in 2020, but her military training was delayed a year due to COVID-19. Her father, Baldo Basaldua of California, said she was expected to conclude her contract with the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood in August.

The last time the father communicated with his daughter was last Saturday. She subsequently ceased replying to his texts, and by Monday, his daughter's phone was no longer receiving his messages.

Read Also: 'John Wick' Star Lance Reddick Cause of Death, Revealed

Vanessa Guillen Death

Lucy Del Gaudio, an advocate for women in the military serving as a spokesman for Basalduaruiz's family, told CBS News that the Army has "stonewalled" their queries over the alleged sexual harassment of the young soldier.

Balsaduaruiz's killing occurred less than three years after the murder of 20-year-old soldier Vanessa Guillen, who, like Balsaduaruiz, had reported unwelcome sexual approaches at Fort Hood.

In April 2020, Guillen was killed with a hammer, mutilated, and buried in a shallow grave. In June of that year, her alleged killer, 20-year-old Spc. Aaron Robinson shot himself as police attempted to apprehend him, according to NY Post. The murder of Guillen ignited a social media movement that ultimately resulted in the disciplinary action of 21 officers and non-commissioned officers at the problematic installation.

An independent review panel investigating more than two dozen soldier fatalities at Fort Hood in 2020 alone determined that the military installation's officials were not adequately addressing sexual assault and harassment, drug abuse, and other personnel-related issues.

The examination also revealed that the Army's Criminal Investigation Division - the same organization that said there was no foul play in Balsaduaruiz's death - was underfunded, overworked, and comprised of inexperienced investigators. As a result, calls on social media to close Fort Hood have increased. According to the military post, the Army Criminal Investigation Division and the chain of command investigate Ruiz's death.

Related Article: New York Teen Fatally Shot by Gunman During Broad Daylight

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The CEO of Twitch, Emmett Shear, made the announcement on Thursday that he is resigning from his position as the company's top executive.

Shear offered a lengthy farewell and hinted that he was leaving to spend more time with his family, as per a report by Gizmodo.

Shear Is Ready To Move On To The Next Chapter Of His Life

The live streaming platform Twitch, which has given customers endless steaming hams and a way for video game makers to more easily monetize their work, is undergoing a change.

Shear, the CEO and co-founder of the Amazon-owned business, is leaving after 16 years of building Twitch into what it is now.

Dan Clancy, president of Twitch, who assumed the role of CEO as soon as he announced his resignation, is his successor.

Clancy joined the business in 2019 and served as its "executive vice president of creator and community experience" at first.

Shear mentioned wishing to be able to spend more time with his young son and give him more time and effort in a blog post that was shared on Twitter.

"With the arrival of my son, the time has come for me to focus my energies on building that tiny little startup family, and I'm ready to dedicate my energies there," Shear says.

Despite his resignation, Shear will reportedly continue to serve as an advisor to the business going forward, Polygon writes.

Shear compared the firm to a "family" in his blog post announcing his resignation, where also discussed the platform's history and his personal relationship to it.

The now ex-CEO joined the company before it was known as "Twitch," as he was one of the founding trio of Justin.tv.

Michael Seibel, Kyle Vogt, and Justin Kan established Justin.tv, the predecessor to the Twitch platform, in 2007 together with Shear.

The company launched a project called Twitch.tv in 2011 and made streaming accessible to all users while concentrating on the most popular genre of content-video games.

Twitch Interactive became the official name of the brand in 2014, the same year that Amazon paid $1 billion to buy the platform.

It can be remembered that the COVID-19 pandemic gave the livestreaming site a boost, and Shear claims that it now has more than 8 million streamers a month.

Read More: Twitch Tests New Elevated Chat Feature - But is It for Free?

Shear's Resignation Came At A Precarious Time For Twitch

Twitch implemented caps on the incomes of its top creators in September 2022, which infuriated many platform users and creators.

As a result, the modifications decreased creative profits while increasing Twitch's own, according to Gizmodo.

However, Twitch has come under fire for concerns including the prevalence of gambling on its platform and the unintentional hosting of potential sexual predators.

In early March, Twitch amended its non-consensual exploitative pictures policy in response to a deepfake scandal.

Furthermore, in far less significant news, a streamer at the company-hosted TwitchCon fractured her back after diving into a foam pit.

Given everything that has transpired, it appears that Dan Clancy will have his hands full once he assumes the role of new CEO.

Amid all of the controversy Twitch is facing, Shear insisted that his company will be in good hands regardless of the situation.

Related Article: Twitch, Lenovo Remain Silent on Adriana Chechik's Injuries
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A class-action lawsuit against Amazon was filed on Thursday, alleging that the corporation failed to warn Amazon Go customers that they were being videotaped at the facility in New York City.

An Amazon Go customer filed a class-action complaint against the business, claiming it failed to disclose to customers that they were collecting their biometric data, Gizmodo reports.

The Amazon Go Store Allegedly Failed To Comply With New York City Regulations

The lawsuit claims that Amazon broke the Biometric Identifier Information Law, which was passed in 2021 and mandates that all businesses in New York City show signs warning patrons that their biometrics are being recorded.

It is notable that customers at Amazon Go stores have their palms scanned, and cameras with algorithms running on them can detect the distinct size and shape of a customer's body.

The establishments have violated the city's 2021 Biometric Identifier Information Law, which compels companies to post signs informing customers of biometric surveillance, despite gathering this data, the complaint claimed.

Rodriguez Perez, the plaintiff, asserts in the case that he wrote to Amazon on February 7 to let the firm know that its Amazon Go store at 80 Pine Street lacked a clearly visible sign.

He asserts that by gathering clients' biometric identifying information without putting a sign informing them, the store was breaking the legislation of the city.

According to Perez, the business ignored his letter, and no sign was put up outside the entrance right away, according to the lawsuit.

The city statute is only mentioned in this second federal case, but both planned class actions target Amazon and criticize its palm-print scanning technology.

Additionally, each claim sought at least $500 for each negligent breach of a class member's rights, Bloomberg Law details.

It is also important to note that the city's biometrics ordinance allows for fines of up to $5,000 for willful or negligent violations.

According to the lawsuit, Perez is also asking for a jury trial and is suing Amazon for damages on behalf of himself and other consumers whose rights were allegedly infringed.

Read More: Amazon Urges Employees to Return to The Office Thrice A Week Beginning May

Amazon Denies The Claims of The Lawsuit

The accusations are incorrect, and Amazon disputes them, according to a spokesman who issued a statement through email.

According to the spokesperson, the firm does not utilize facial recognition technology in any of its stores, Gizmodo writes.

The spokesman made it clear that only customers who sign up for Amazon One and decide to identify themselves by placing their hand over the Amazon One device would have their palm-biometric data securely gathered.

In 2019, Amazon inaugurated its collect-and-go store in New York City, which was designed to allow customers to purchase without having to approach a cash register or interact with a cashier.

The business claims it tracks consumers' "virtual carts" to record when they add an item to their cart or remove it from the tab by fusing computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor data.

Consumers can access the store by scanning a QR code on their Amazon app, scanning their associated credit card, or by hovering and scanning their palm over the scanner while logged into their Amazon account.

Related Article: House Judiciary Committee Chair Subpoenas Tech Giant CEOs Over Content Moderation Policies
Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated than ever. With the growing number of security vulnerabilities, companies should know how to prevent, detect, and respond to these threats. Performing a security and risk assessment is necessary. One effective way to reduce the risk of cyber attacks is through penetration testing.

What Is Penetration Testing?

Penetration testing, or ethical hacking, is a form of security assessment used to identify computer, network, or web application vulnerabilities. It is a simulated attack performed to find the weak spots an attacker could exploit. Penetration tests can be used to fine-tune an organization's security processes and controls.

Different Types of Penetration Tests

Best Penetration Testing Services

Here are the top 5 best penetration testing services in 2023.

1 BreachLock

BreachLock is a global penetration testing company that combines the power of expert Certified Hackers and AI-driven automation to deliver the world's leading penetration testing as-a-service (PTaaS) solution. It is a human-led, AI-enabled, continuous pen-testing tool and penetration testing platform offering stronger security and high-yield efficiencies over traditional pen-testing providers. It is the only full-stack penetration testing solution with 100% in-house certified penetration testers. This powerful pen-testing solution helps organizations meet compliance goals and remediate vulnerabilities faster than ever before.

BreachLock has been at the forefront of redefining cyber security resilience and security testing for different organizations and global clients, including enterprises such as Ernst & Young and DocuSign, and government agencies, such as the NHS UK. The company has earned recognition with industry awards and analyst recognition for its innovative and customer-centric approach.

This AI/human hybrid pen testing as a service solution also combines manual penetration testing and automated scanning capability. It can be integrated with DevOps test environments, allowing users to meet development timelines while ensuring security in the SDLC.

With BreachLock, organizations can test their entire attack surface. It offers end-to-end security testing that covers everything in a secure cloud platform. This includes web applications, mobile apps, internal and external networks, APIs, the cloud, etc.

Key Features of BreachLock

Zero false positive guarantee

1-1 expert remediation support

Online and offline penetration testing results

Manual and automated vulnerability discovery methods

Monthly automatic scanning delivered via the BreachLock cloud platform

Automated patch validation, retesting, and continuous automated scans

A full-time team of CREST, OSCP, and OSCE-certified pen testers

PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR-compliant

BreachLock is integrated with DevOps tools like JIRA, Slack, and Trello

Pricing

This simple yet scalable penetration testing solution offers a cost-effective annual subscription for on-demand pen testing anytime. Users can choose between a one-time penetration testing service or a continuous pentesting service.

Discover BreachLock's world-class penetration testing services and security validation solutions. Fill out the form on their website to schedule a demo or request a price quote.

2 Intruder

Intruder is an online penetration testing tool that scans servers, cloud systems, websites, and endpoint devices to find security vulnerabilities. It targets misconfigurations, missing patches, encryption weaknesses, and application bugs such as SQP injection, cross-site scripting, OWASP top 10, and more.

Intruder provides integrations with GitHub, Slack, JIRA, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and more.

Key Features of Intruder

Automatically scans your system for new threats

Get alerts when exposed ports and services change

Get a holistic view of security vulnerabilities

Effortless compliance and reporting

Continuous penetration testing

Pricing

Intruder offers a 14-day free trial. It also provides clients three different pricing plans: Essential plan at $101/month, Pro plan at $163/month, and Custom plan with tailored pricing.

3 Nessus

Nessus is among the best penetration testing tools in the market. It is a cloud penetration testing solution that helps an organization secure its internet-connected attack surfaces.

This vulnerability scanning tool is fully portable and can be deployed on different platforms, including Raspberry Pi. Nessus also provides an intuitive approach to navigation and user experience.

Key Features of Nessus

Lowest false positive rate

Dynamically compiled plugins

Secure cloud infrastructure before deployment

More than 450 pre-built pre-configured templates

Customizable reporting and troubleshooting

Pricing

Nessus offers a 7-day free trial. The company also provides two different pricing options:

Nessus Expert: an ideal choice for consultants, pen testers, developers, and SMBs

Nessus Premium: an excellent option for consultants, pen testers, and security practitioners

4 w3af

w3af is a web application pen-testing solution that helps secure web applications against security vulnerabilities. It has the ability to identify more than 200 vulnerabilities like SQL injection, cross-site scripting, guessable credentials, and PHP misconfigurations. This web application attack and audit framework works by sending especially-crafted HTTP requests to it.

The w3af framework features both a graphical and console user interface that make it easy to use and navigate. With predefined profiles, users can edit the security of their web applications in less than five clicks.

Key Features of w3af

Easy-to-use interface

Fully-written in python

Identified more than 200 web application flaws

Works for Linux, BSD, Mac, and Windows users

5 SQLmap





SQL is another open-source penetration testing tool that automatically detects and exploits SQL injection flaws in database servers. It has features for penetration tester, a powerful detection engine, and a broad range of switches like database fingerprinting.

Key Features of SQLmap

Full support for MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Amazon Redshift, IBM DB2, and other database management systems

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Automatic recognition of password hash formats

Support to search for specific tables across all databases, specific database names, or specific columns across all databases' tables

What Is the Best Penetration Testing Solution?

The more we digitize our business processes, the more we get exposed to security vulnerability. Regular security assessments are necessary to avoid the cost of a successful cyber attack. Penetration testing from BreachLock, for starters, can be an excellent option for discovering security vulnerabilities and providing remediation guidance. It uses a combination of manual, human-led testing, AI, and automation to come up with a revolutionary approach to cybersecurity.

This easy-to-use cloud platform delivers fast and accurate penetration testing services. Launch your pen test within 24 hours and receive evidence-backed results within 7-10 business days. With BreachLock, organizations can mitigate security risks and maximize security outcomes.
It's hard to imagine what it would feel like to wake up in your hospital bed and find out that you no longer have a job to get back to. Apparent;y, some employees at Google are experiencing just that as they are included in the ongoing layoffs that Google is conducting.

Laid Off on Medical Leave

Google in Europe still hasn't stopped with its layoffs since its announcement in January. Over 200 employees who worked in the Zurich and Switzerland company branches were affected. This resulted in the remaining employees reacting negatively toward management.

Some were said to be walking out and expressing their concerns through letters and sent them to the executives. The workers even went as far as offering to have their pay decreased and reduce work hours to prevent more job cuts, as mentioned in Ars Technica.

Employees who tried to reach out to the company had already lost access to the internal system and could only fill out a form on a different portal. Some received a response a week later. They added that the response seemed to be automated and mentions their unemployment.

Most of the employees in Switzerland who decided to walk out in protest were part of Syndicom, an IT workers union. A spokesperson representing the union expressed that they were providing support for those who lost their jobs by joining the walkout.

They also mentioned that they were "bothered" that Google was not transparent with the nature of the layoffs, also that the workers were disappointed with the company laying off employees when they were making billion in profit annually.

Read Also: Elon Musk Continues Twitter Layoffs Despite Saying Cuts Were Final

How It Affected Former Employees

In one case, a woman who had just gotten approval for her maternity leave was laid off the following week. Another one, also on maternity leave, received the bad news just a week before she was due to give birth.

Katie Howells, a Google employee who worked for the company for nine and a half years, said that she was in her hospital bed holding her hours-old newborn when she learned that she was part of the 12,000 who were laid off.

Although the workers affected by the workforce reduction would be given severance packages worth 16 weeks of pay and two more weeks for every year of employment, their access to the company's medical facilities has been cut off immediately after being fired.

Some of the former employees were still allowed to see the doctors working within Google but were advised to start finding replacements. Some of the employees also emphasized that this happened during Women's History Month.

This makes Google appear as though they are not true to what they claim, saying that they are showing its work commitment and participation in Women's History Month through different products and services campaign, as mentioned in CNBC.

Some hope that this was just a mistake, given that Google claims that they formed parental benefits to give new parents time for recovery and to spend with their new babies, which was mentioned by the company's executives.

Related: Workers At Google Japan Have Joined Labor Unions Following Planned Job Cuts
Policeman from Xinjiang tells his feeling to UN Human Rights Council

Xinhua) 15:26, March 18, 2023

GENEVA, March 17 (Xinhua) -- A policeman from China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Friday told the ongoing 52nd session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council how infuriated he feels every time he thinks of the terrorist incidents he once handled.

Waresijiang Maimaiti, who has been working at the Otbeshi Township Police Station in Wushi County of Xinjiang's Aksu Prefecture for 13 years, told the Council that as a policeman, he, while participating in the handling of multiple terrorist incidents a few years back, witnessed the heavy casualties of innocent people and immense property losses these cases inflicted, as well as the tremendous damage to social stability and the enormous suffering upon the members of all ethnic groups.

"These incidents severely violated people's rights to life, subsistence and development. I feel infuriated every time I think of it," he noted.

He said that terrorism is a menace to humanity and terrorists are a common enemy, and Xinjiang's law-based fight against terrorism and related crimes is a just move to ensure the safety of people's lives and property, maintain social stability and protect human rights.

"Targeting no specific ethnicity and free from ethnic discrimination, Xinjiang's deradicalization efforts represent an essential tool to preventing and punishing extremism and countering terrorism," he stressed.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
North Korea launches a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile from the Sunan area in Pyongyang, Marc 16, in this photo carried by its official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) the following day. Yonhap



North Korea claims that about 800,000 of its citizens have volunteered to join or reenlist in the nation's military to fight against the United States, the country's state newspaper reported Saturday.



The Rodong Sinmun stated that about 800,000 students and workers nationwide, on Friday alone, expressed a desire to enlist or reenlist to counter the U.S.



The claim came after North Korea launched a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Thursday, in response to ongoing U.S-South Korea military exercises.



Pyongyang fired the ICBM into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol flew to Tokyo for a summit that discussed ways to counter the nuclear-armed North.



The North's ballistic missiles are banned under United Nations Security Council resolutions and the launch drew condemnation from governments in Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.



South Korean and American forces began 11 days of joint drills, dubbed "Freedom Shield 23," Monday, being held on a scale not seen since 2017 to counter North Korea's growing threats.



The North's leader Kim Jong-un accused the United States and South Korea of increasing tensions with the military exercises. (Reuters)






Malaysia's Minister of International Trade & Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz delivers keynote speech during a seminar on business and investment opportunities in the Southeast Asian country at a hotel in Seoul, March 14. Courtesy of Embassy of Malaysia in Korea





By Kwon Mee-yoo







Malaysia is one of the Southeast Asian countries that turned its gaze toward the East earlier than its neighbors. It has celebrated the 40th anniversary of its Look East Policy (LEP), which aimed to gain knowledge and expertise from East Asian countries including Korea, Japan and China, when everyone else looked to the West.







While the policy's first target was Japan, Malaysia is hopeful that now the LEP can contribute to strengthening ties with Korea amidst global challenges.







Malaysia's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) co-hosted a seminar on business and investment opportunities in Malaysia at a hotel in central Seoul on March 14, attracting hundreds of Korean businesspeople and related officials.







Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz, who led a large delegation from Malaysia with the aim of strengthening existing business ties and forging new partnerships with Korean companies, gave a keynote speech during the seminar.







"MITI is determined to re-position Malaysia as a stable, investor-friendly, ESG-committed and competitive economic force in Southeast Asia," he said, with respect to his top four priorities.







The four priorities are  ensuring trade as a key growth driver; future-proofing industries through digitalization and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) principles; restoring investors' confidence and increasing foreign direct investment (FDI); and ensuring trade agreements to benefit both investors and Malaysians and support micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the supply chain.







Malaysia's Minister of International Trade & Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz, right, shakes hands with Korea's Foreign Minister Park Jin during a reception commemorating the 40th anniversary of Malaysia's Look East Policy in Seoul, March 15. Courtesy of Embassy of Malaysia in Korea





Zafrul noted that Korea is the seventh-largest foreign investor in Malaysia in 2022 thanks to the strategic collaboration through the LEP in the past four decades.







"Embarking on a journey of nation building, the knowledge and technology transfer by Korea through the LEP has resulted in productivity enhancement, further driving industrial development and the nation building of Malaysia," the minister said.







The minister emphasized the importance of diversifying and expanding Malaysia's economic relationship with Korea beyond the traditionally strong sectors.







"While our economic relationship may be heavy in the semiconductor and electronics industry as well as petrochemicals, I am happy to note that this is diversifying and expanding into new and exciting areas of growth," he said.







"As with any relationship, we need to spruce things up once in a while to keep it exciting. A rebalancing of our bilateral trade and investments portfolio every now and again to keep it relevant with the times is indeed something that we ought to pursue strategically."







As the focus in Malaysia is on diversifying and expanding the economy to produce high-value products, the future of economic competitiveness depends on securing and mastering green technology. Malaysia hopes to work with Korea to achieve this goal.







Zafrul said Malaysia's New Investment Policy is favorable for investments from Korea, especially in high-tech, innovation, and skills-intensive industries to integrate with Malaysia's supply chain and create high-income jobs for Malaysians.







"Malaysia has much to offer when it comes to business with a skilled talent pool and strong economic fundamentals that are pro-business, prudent and pragmatic," he said. "Look no further, we in Malaysia welcome you with open arms."







During the seminar, two Korean companies shared their experiences of conducting business with Malaysia. According to CORETech, Malaysia's strategic location in Southeast Asia and the large number of Malaysians who have studied and worked in Korea mean that communication is easy.







Saemi Corp., which has traded with Malaysia, highlighted that Malaysia was the only country that the company did not experience shipping delays of more than two weeks, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. It praised MATRADE for arranging video conferences between importers and exporters.


How bizarre that the keystone of a supposedly conservative budget is a plan to help women abandon their children and go out to work. Anti-family socialists and dogmatic hard-line feminists  often the same people  have long sought to turn women into wage-slaves.

The old Communist East Germany managed to cram 90 per cent of its women into factories and offices in the 1980s, and counted it a great triumph. Some modern feminists admire this to this day.

For them, the only good life is the life of paid work. The only 'working women' are those who work outside the home. The huge, responsible, future-defining task of raising the next generation as good women and men is dismissed as servitude, and farmed out to paid strangers.

Big business has felt the same way, seeing the new untapped female workforce as much preferable to the old male working class, most of which was chucked on the national scrapheap during the Thatcher years, along with the blast furnaces, pithead winding gear, rolling mills and greasy, noisy old-style car production lines where such people used to toil. Yet in those days most families could manage on one wage, whereas now it takes two, plus a lot of tax breaks (and who pays for those in the end?).

So what did we gain? The only form of childcare which the state does not help or subsidise is the sort where a mother brings up her own sons and daughters.

How bizarre that the keystone of a supposedly conservative budget is a plan to help women abandon their children and go out to work

In our new age of service industries, call centres, vast windowless warehouses, and of course the enormous empires of the NHS, care homes and social work, a female workforce suits everyone very well. Except the women. And above all, except their children, who in their hundreds of thousands are denied the presence of a full-time parent.

No doubt superwomen such as Nicola Horlick and Cherie Blair have always longed to sit on boards or be judges, on giant salaries.

Women such as these can afford superb nannies to do the work of a full-time mother. But for most wage-slave women, the work is drudgery and the wages poor, and it takes them away from children.

As American conservative thinker Helen Andrews has said of the post-60s feminist generation: 'Boomers promised that employment was the only way for women to be fulfilled and independent [but] any socialist could have told them that there is no one more dependent than a wage worker The net effect has been to restrict the choices of typical women, taking the choice that was making most of them happy and removing it from the set of options.'

In the new British Democratic Republic, where most of what normal people used to think has now been ruled unacceptable and evil, Ms Andrews can say this (but only just) as she is a woman and lives in the US, where speech is still in many ways more free than it is here.

I, of course, have no opinions on this, being male. Soon, now all the political parties are in agreement, nobody will be able to dissent.

If war is hell, why demand it in Ukraine?

TRENCH WARFARE: All Quiet On The Western Front tries too hard to be clever

Erich Maria Remarque's book on the First World War, All Quiet On The Western Front, was hated by Hitler as nobody who read it could ever again be seduced by the supposed glories of war.

Remarque had been a real fighting soldier so could not be ignored. In fact, the Nazis loathed him so much that, unable to get their hands on him, they murdered his sister instead.

The book is still powerful (I have been rereading it this week). But the new film of it, despite its Oscars, tries too hard to be clever and stylish.

The raw story of a group of friends, deceived by blowhards then exposed to the horrible truth of trench warfare, would have been better.

Those now demanding war without end in Ukraine need to realise what it is they are asking for.

BBC's one-sided stagnation is a disaster

Gary Lineker made his return to Match of the Day on Saturday, a week after the show aired with no presenters following an impartiality row

If there were a Right-wing Gary Lineker, we wouldn't be having all these problems.

Imagine if a figure of similar fame and clout, but in favour of migration controls, could confront Mr Lineker on Twitter or on a public debate programme. Then it wouldn't matter that either of them used their BBC positions to push one side.

But only the BBC could create such a figure. The national broadcaster is the only body which can lift people to such prominence. Mr Lineker's huge Twitter following  which makes his opinions important  is the result of his broadcasting fame.

It is true the BBC occasionally gives modest platforms to a few nominal Tories, or to confused, politically incoherent crowd-pleasers such as Jeremy Clarkson. But the one opinion it veers violently away from is social, moral and political conservatism. Dominated as it is by urban radicals, it simply cannot bear to have such opinions around, nor the people who hold them. This is where BBC impartiality has gone wrong.

For decades now, the BBC has recruited from people who actively like mass immigration because it makes the country more multicultural, and who are embarrassed and baffled by conservative Christianity or by people who believe in the punishment of crime.

How would it now redress this balance? Parliament works, or used to work, because it was balanced between two genuinely opposing parties. Fleet Street was the same, as is our court system. Tough public debate is a good way of getting at the truth.

The BBC's collapse into one-sided stagnation is a national disaster. If it won't reform, close it down and start again. Yes, let's have a national broadcaster, just not this one. When the BBC Charter next comes up, make it plain it will be awarded only to a body ready to allow voices from both sides of our society.

For the past week I have been fending off a Twitter mob raging over my point last week that the Nazis were Left-wing racists. One moron even claimed (thinking that 'Left-wing' means 'good') that I was excusing the Holocaust.

Look, the line between the Nazis and their opponents was not as rigid and uncrossable as the Left like to think. Large numbers of Social Democrats and Communists joined the Nazi Brownshirts after Hitler took power. The German Left-wing historian Konrad Heiden noted it in his 1938 biography of Hitler.

The main entrance to Dachau concentration camp on July 29, 1945, the day prisoners were liberated. The motto on the fence reads 'Arbeit macht frei' - 'Work brings freedom'

The Nazis, with their huge social programmes, tight control over every aspect of society and loathing of Christianity and private life, have lots in common with the programmes of the Left. Stalin and Hitler got on surprisingly well. Left-wingers simply don't believe they and their movement can do or think or say anything bad.

Well, they're wrong. Let's rejoice that the people screaming at me, and demanding I confess my evil deeds, recant or simply shut up, do not (yet) have any political power.
New York is famous for its wild real estate stories, but one city realtor believes he's seen it all - from tiny spaces to sky-high prices and even apartments with no toilet.

Omer Labock, 22, who is originally from Miami but moved to Manhattan to pursue his property dreams, regularly shares videos of his apartment touring exploits to TikTok and Instagram that leave his 100K followers speechless.

He told FEMAIL that he has definitely had his 'fair share of unique apartment experiences' - and revealed the most bizarre units he has seen while working in the Big Apple.

Flushed away! An Upper East Side one-bedroom with no toilet: $2,289

This one bedroom apartment on the Upper East side looked pretty normal to begin with, with a spacious kitchen and average-sized bedroom

While the apartment featured a bathroom complete with a shower and wash basin, there was no toilet

Omer explained: 'I started working in the height of the rental market craze in April 2022 and apartments were already super expensive. I checked my list and saw a decently priced unit for a change, so I decided to go view it.

'The one-bedroom apartment was located in the Upper East Side and rent was about $2,289, when the market average price would have been over $3,000.'

However, after entering the apartment and having a look around, Omer noticed a key element was missing: a toilet.

While the apartment featured a bathroom complete with a shower and wash basin, there was no WC.

The real estate agent said he was 'genuinely so confused' and walked out of the apartment to try and figure out where the toilet was.

It was then he discovered it was located through a door to the right of the apartment, 'which meant four apartments shared the same toilet.'

It was then he discovered it was located through a door to the right of the apartment, 'which meant four apartments shared the same toilet'

Omer uploaded a video to TikTok showing the toilet-less apartment, which left thousands of viewers horrified.

One user quipped: 'How is that even legally considered an apartment?'

Another mused: 'I could live without a lot of things being in the apartment. But not a toilet.'

And a third expressed shock, writing: 'I pay less a month in mortgage for a whole damn house and yard.'

Omer gave a tour of the apartment - which included a fairly small bedroom, an 'absolutely massive' living room, a kitchen and shower room - but revealed that it had been on the market for around 165 days.

At first he said he was surprised by the lack of a taker but, after seeing there was no toilet, he could understand why it was still up for grabs.

Washed up! A bedroom-sized apartment with no toilet OR shower: $2,000

Second up on Omer's wackiest New York apartment list was one he went to view in Greenwich Village

Second up on Omer's wackiest New York apartment list was one he went to view in Greenwich Village.

The property pro says it is the smallest living space he has ever seen and the entire pad was the same size as a 'standard bedroom.'

In the 'micro apartment', Omer discovered that not only was there no toilet, there were no washroom facilities at all - as the bathroom was located off the main hallway and was also shared by four units.

He said that if the rent had been low he could have understood, but it was priced at $1,975 a month and the rate was later raised to $2,000.

In a TikTok tour of the 'micro apartment,' its small size becomes apparent as the width only extends marginally beyond each side of the sash window.

In the 'micro apartment', not only did Omer discover there was no toilet, but there was no bathroom at all

The realtor explained that at least the communal toilet was 'very clean and well maintained'

There is also a small kitchen in the room, decked out with a sink and electric hob.

Next to the entrance, Omer pulls open a wooden door to reveal a small closet.

He says to viewers: 'You might be wondering where the bathroom is for this unit... so unfortunately for the residents of this building you do have to use a shared bathroom.'

As he goes to the hallway, opens a door to show a toilet and explains: 'As you will see right over here - it is very clean and well maintained but it is a shared space as well as the shower.'

Omer's video tour quickly attracted thousands of comments from shocked viewers.

One mockingly said: 'My iPhone has more storage than that.'

And another revealed: 'In Mexico with that money you rent a freaking two story house.'

Something to beam about? An apartment on the market for over 100 days with a very weird pillar: $3,100

On walking into this apartment in New York's Murray Hill neighborhood, Omer explains to viewers that it has been on the market for over 100 days but 'there's an obvious reason why'

On walking into this apartment in New York's Murray Hill neighborhood, Omer explains to viewers that it has been on the market for over 100 days but 'there's a pretty obvious reason why.'

After showcasing the 'nice balcony' and 'decent living space', he proceeds to film the kitchen, 'which is where the reason lies.'

The realtor says while it looks pretty standard to begin with, with ample storage space and updated appliances, in the middle of the cooking area is a 'massive column.'

He continues: 'I don't really understand what it's doing there. I'm sure there's a reason but they basically just built the kitchen around it.'

Due to the positioning of the pillar, Omer demonstrates how some of the cabinet doors do not open all the way.

Omer demonstrates that, due to the positioning of the pillar, some of the cabinet doors don't open all of the way

Despite the inconvenient structural feature, the property expert says as a whole the apartment is 'decent' and it does have 'nice renovations.'

After finishing his tour showing the entrance and the bathroom, he reveals that the rent is $3,100 per month.

Some commenters said the ill-placed pillar was a definite deal-breaker and that the price should be considerably lower.

One user said: '$3,100 a month for a studio apartment where I cant even open my dishwasher or cabinet all the way... bye!'

Meanwhile, another wrote: 'Jeeesus. For context, my apartment in Sweden has two rooms, separate kitchen and bath. I pay $500 a month. Water and heat and Wi-Fi included.'

'As New York as it gets!' A studio with a bed up a ladder: $3,350

Omer says that probably one of the 'most New York apartments' he has seen to date was one he toured in Greenwich Village with a lofted bed

Omer said that one of the 'most New York apartments' he has seen to date was one he toured in Greenwich Village, priced at $3,350 a month.

In a 58-second video showcasing the space, he bets viewers that they've 'never seen an apartment like this before.'

On walking into the unit, he says the space is 'absolutely massive.'

Other perks include lots of storage space and a kitchen with modern appliances, a 'great finish', marble countertops and a double fridge setup.

However, when he gets into the main living area and turns around, the apartment's more unusual feature becomes apparent: a lofted bed.

In a 58-second-long video showcasing the space, he bets viewers that they've ' never seen an apartment like this before'

On walking into the unit, he says the space is 'absolutely massive.' Other perks include lots of storage space and a kitchen with modern appliances

Omer demonstrates how anyone renting this apartment must climb a ladder to get into bed.

As he steps on to the elevated platform, he says: 'Here is where you would place a mattress and this is where you would sleep.

'You could fit up to a queen size mattress on top here.'

He highlights that the main benefit from having the lofted bed - which is 'about eight feet up' - is that it frees up space below.

Some viewers deemed the loft idea 'cool' but others seemed unsure about the concept.

One user commented: 'As a sleepwalker, I am not a fan of this.'

And another mused: 'People will climb that ladder for exactly 365 days before coming to their senses. Then it's back on the market.'
Crime & Punishment, Trauma, Prey, Code Of A Killer  the titles alone are enough to give you the shivers, and Grace star John Simm readily admits his TV career has been a steady stream of gritty and often quite gruesome dramas.

I honestly dont know why but its certainly true, and Grace is no exception, says John, who returns to our screens as Detective Superintendent Roy Grace in a new three-part series of ITVs Brighton-based crime thriller tomorrow night. This is heavy stuff.

Hes not kidding. Based on the hugely successful novels by Peter James, this third series consists of three darkly compelling feature-length episodes again co-starring Richie Campbell as Graces colleague and friend DS Glenn Branson, Craig Parkinson as DS Norman Potting and Laura Elphinstone as DS Bella Moy.

They begin with Dead Like You, in which the rape of a woman in a Brighton hotel bears chilling similarities to attacks carried out a few years earlier, while in the second, Dead Mans Grip, what appears to be a simple road traffic accident leads to torture and murder. In the final case Not Dead Yet, identification of a body discovered at a pig farm proves difficult as the pigs have pretty much eaten the corpse apart from the teeth.

John says, Im not complaining though. Roles like Grace are great to play. The meatiest parts are always the best, even if the content is pretty gruesome and grim.

John Simm as DS Roy Grace, Richie Campbell as DS Branson, Craig Parkinson as DS Norman Potting and Laura Elphinstone as DS Bella Moy in the new series of Grace on ITV

'Plus you tend to have more fun on set because you need a release from the seriousness of the storylines. On Grace there were times when we were laughing so much the director was getting hacked off and we had to pull ourselves together.

Writer Peter James often draws on his own experiences for his peripheral characters, like the creepy cabbie who becomes a suspect in this weeks first episode. He was inspired by various taxi drivers Ive encountered over the years, including one in Manchester I thought was going to murder me and one or two weird ones in New York, reveals Peter.

Its that feeling of helplessness they create when they central lock the doors and make you their prisoner.

There are developments in their private lives for both Grace and Branson over the course of the series too. Branson discovers his wife Ari is cheating on him and moves in with Grace while he tries to come to terms with whats happened.

He and Ari went to see a marriage guidance counsellor to try to get their relationship back on track so the sight of her kissing another man is an absolute bombshell, explains Richie.

Theres also a bombshell for Grace, whose wife Sandy is missing presumed dead and whos preparing to set up home with his new love, pathologist Cleo Morey (Zoe Tapper).

Sandy went missing more than six years ago, and at the end of the last series he was preparing to declare her legally dead, says John. But then there was a possible sighting of her.

The prospect of Sandy coming back into his life leaves Grace in turmoil. Hes in love with Cleo and wants a life with her, and flashbacks in this series reveal that Roy and Sandys marriage wasnt perfect.

Based on the hugely successful novels by Peter James, Grace is the third series of three darkly compelling feature-length episodes. Pictured: Craig Parkinson as DS Norman Potting and Laura Elphinstone as DS Bella Moy

'She found it difficult to deal with his work and to play second fiddle, whereas Cleo is far more understanding.

Johns own private life is much less complicated. Hes been married to actress Kate Magowan since 2004 and the couple have two children, Ryan, 21, and Molly, 16.

Even if the content is gruesome, the meatiest parts are always the best. You tend to have more fun on set

By happy accident the family moved to Brighton from London during the pandemic, so were perfectly placed when it came to filming this most recent series.

It means I dont have to live out of a suitcase, which Ive done a lot in my career, and it also means Im getting to know the places in Sussex where Grace investigates crime, says John.

It also meant he was on hand to watch his beloved Manchester United when they took on Brighton last May. Although lets not talk about that, he winces. United lost 4-0!
A mother who has three children with albinism says she is 'blessed' and bemoans 'rude' comments from the public.

Stacey Chappell, 34, a full-time mother, and her husband Jason, 40, a cleaner, from Hebburn, South Tyneside, did not know anything about albinism prior to their children's diagnoses.

The condition affects the production of melanin, the pigment that colours the skin, hair and eyes, which gives Stacey's children pale skin and visual impairments.

The mother-of-five said she wishes people would stop making 'rude' and 'nasty' comments as she and her husband feel 'so blessed to have them'.

Albinism affects the family's everyday life because the youngsters have to wear factor 50 sun cream every time they go outside, even when it is cloudy.

Stacey Chappell, 34, a full-time mother, and her husband Jason, 40, a cleaner, from Hebburn, South Tyneside, who has three children born with albinism say they are 'blessed' to have kids with the rare condition (L-R Stacey, Jason, Sky, Jay, and Lexi holding Leon-James)

The couple have also installed blackout curtains at home because sunlight can cause severe burns due to the reduced amount of melanin in their skin.

After the birth of their first child Jay, 15, Stacey said she 'blamed herself' for his albinism because 'she made him' and the couple were in and out of hospital 'all the time'.

Stacey suffered with postnatal depression and initially rejected help from others, feeling it was 'her responsibility' to look after him.

However, the couple later made contact with Guide Dogs  the leading UK charity for people with sight loss  and this has been invaluable.

Despite the daily challenges the couple face, they said they feel 'privileged' to have three children with a 'rare' condition and they hope that by talking more openly about albinism, people will think twice before making 'nasty' comments.

Stacey said: 'I feel privileged. I'm so blessed to have them because it's a rare condition. We're actually honoured to have them as our kids; they're so rare.

Stacey said Jay (pictured) also suffers with anxiety and 'lacks confidence' as a result of his albinism, and he has been subjected to hurtful comments by his peers (Jay holding Amelia-Grace)

Stacey shared an adorable snap of Leon-James holding hands with his little sister Amelia-Grace

The condition affects the production of melanin, the pigment that colours the skin, hair and eyes, which gives Stacey's children pale skin and visual impairments (pictured Leon-James, three)

Stacey's daughter Amelia-Grace undergoing light therapy to treat jaundice - related to her albinism

Stacey and Jason Chappell's son, Leon-James with his glasses on as he can only see at six metres

'People will go, ''Look at his hair, look at his eyelashes'' and I'll say, ''Yeah, he's an albino''.

'Then they'll say, ''Why do you feel like you've got to tell people?'', and I'll say, ''Do you know why? Because I'm so privileged; I feel so special having them as my kids''.'

Three of Stacey and Jason's children  Jay, 15, Leon-James, three, and Amelia-Grace, one  were born with albinism and, as a result, all three wear glasses and have visual impairments.

The couple's other two children  Sky, 13, and Lexi, 11  do not have the condition.

Stacey and Jason had not heard of albinism before Jay was diagnosed at three-weeks-old, and they said they were told by doctors that they could not go abroad, they would need to install blackout curtains, and that he needed to wear sun cream any time he went outside.

Stacey said the information given to them at the time was limited, but they 'got on with it', doing everything they could to support Jay  and even today, they are still learning.

'With him being our first child, it was a learning curve, but it was natural,' Stacey said.

Stacey and Jason Chappell's children (left to right) Sky holding Amelia-Grace, Lexi holding Leon-James, and Jay

The Chappell family had a festive day out as they visited santa last year at a Guide Dogs Christmas party (pictured Jay, 15, Sky, 13, and Lexi, 11, Leon-James, three, and Amelia-Grace, one)

The sibling are all very close to each other and Leon-James and his little sister Amelia-Grace have a special bond

'I think it was more challenging when he started going to school  and that's when we started figuring out, "Wow, this is totally different".'

Jay is registered severely sight impaired; he has to use size 36 font and sometimes has trouble walking outside or crossing the road due to his reduced vision.

Stacey said different weather conditions  sun, rain, and snow  can affect Jay's ability to identify buildings, cars and footpaths, and this has led to several accidents.

'As he got older, as he got taller, he was having more and more accidents; he actually walked into buildings,' Stacey said.

'What we can see at 3,000 metres, he can only see at six metres.'

Stacey said Jay also suffers with anxiety and 'lacks confidence' as a result of his albinism, and he has been subjected to hurtful comments by his peers.

Amelia-Grace attends My Time to Play sessions set up by the charity, which help children with sight loss develop a broad range of skills through play

Leon-James is registered visually impaired and Stacey recalled another moment in a supermarket where a shopper made a 'rude', discriminatory remark

'He is too shy, and because he's had such bad things happening to him, he thinks everybody is going to be nasty,' Stacey continued.

'Trying to explain that not everybody is nasty, and people are there to help you, is so hard.'

Leon-James is registered visually impaired and Stacey recalled another moment in a supermarket where a shopper made a 'rude', discriminatory remark.

Stacey said: 'We were actually in Iceland, and he nearly walked into this man, and he nearly walked into this lady.

'He did it twice, so I apologised and said "sorry" and I didn't say anything else, and she went: "No wonder he can't see with those stupid glasses on".'

Stacey pushed a lot of people away at first after Jay was born, and she said she felt guilty and responsible for her children's albinism.

However, when Jay started going to school, the couple began receiving support from the local council's visual impairment team and then Guide Dogs, which has been 'amazing'.

When Jay started going to school, the couple began receiving support from the local council's visual impairment team and then Guide Dogs, which has been 'amazing'

Despite the daily challenges the couple face, they said they feel 'privileged' to have three children with a 'rare' condition and they hope that by talking more openly about albinism

What is albinism? People with albinism often have white or very light blonde hair, although some have brown or ginger hair. The reduced amount of melanin can also cause eye problems because melanin is involved in the development of the retina. The 2 main types of albinism are: Oculocutaneous albinism (OCA)  the most common type, affecting the skin, hair and eyes

Ocular albinism (OA)  a rarer type that mainly affects the eyes Albinism is usually obvious from a baby's appearance when they're born. Source: NHS Advertisement

Stacey and Jason have been supported by Guide Dogs for six years now, describing them as 'like family', and said they have helped to improve the family's confidence.

Habilitation specialists have helped Jay use a cane to navigate independently, read large-print CustomEyes books, and master technology.

They have also helped Leon-James start day nursery and are currently supporting him through his transition to primary school.

Amelia-Grace attends My Time to Play sessions set up by the charity, which help children with sight loss develop a broad range of skills through play.

The sessions also allow Stacey and Jason to connect with other parents of children with visual impairments.

'It's so nice to actually chat to somebody who understands you and your child,' Stacey said.

'Nobody's there to judge you, and sometimes you do feel like you're judged.'

Stacey said it is easy to 'take everything for granted' and she feels many people are 'ignorant' to the challenges families may face, particularly when it comes to health conditions.

However, she hopes that, by speaking out about albinism, people will be more open-minded and want to help, rather than discourage and pass judgment.

'You know that saying  'never ever judge a book by its cover'  and I think just the way people look at other people,' she said.

'If people knew about that condition, even with any kind of visual impairment, or any other condition, then I think this world would be a lot different.'

Guide Dogs has recently launched its We Find the Way advert, which champions the My Life Skills service that Guide Dogs offers.
Advertisement

More than a century ago, scaling Mount Everest was the reserve of a handful brave pioneers who tried and failed to conquer the world's tallest peak.

It was not until 1953 that New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary reached the summit with his sherpa Tenzing Norgay, succeeding where 12 others had failed - one of those was Englishman George Mallory who some suggest reached the peak during his doomed 1924 expedition before falling to his death on the way down.

Mallory's body remains on the mountain to this day along with the frozen remains of some 200 other brave souls who took on the ultimate challenge. It has earned Everest the macabre nickname of the graveyard in the clouds.

Another among the dead is Michael Matthews, the older brother of Made In Chelsea star Spencer Matthews, whose heart-breaking bid to retrieve his sibling's body after his 1999 death has been filmed for a Disney+ documentary.

There 310 known deaths on Mount Everest - and that number is rising every year. The increasing toll is attributed to the growing commercialisation of the once sacred and feared Everest - just 1,383 climbers summited the mountain during the 20th century. More than 10,000 have reached the 29,031 foot peak in the 23 years of this century.

Last year alone there were 11,346 summit ascents made by 6,098 people. And, with its growing popularity, that graveyard on the roof of the world will only grow and grow.

With 310 known deaths on Mount Everest and that number growing every year, it's no wonder the highest point on Earth has also earned the macabre nickname 'the world's largest open air graveyard'. MailOnline looks back on the number of people that have tragically passed away on the mountain, and who they are

Spencer Matthews at Everest Base Camp, May 2022. He said retracing his late brother's steps for a new Disney+ documentary is the 'closest he's felt' to his sibling since his death in 1999

This is the famous last image taken of George Mallory (left) and Sandy Irvine before the pair were to disappear into the mists and never be seen again alive again

With 310 known deaths on Mount Everest and that number growing every year, it's no wonder the highest point on Earth has also earned the macabre nickname 'the world's largest open air graveyard'.

Many of the bodies disappear into the ether - buried in the Himalayan ice or swept off the face of the mountain by ferocious winds.

Reportedly, there are approximately over 200 dead bodies on Mount Everest to this day.

Of the sun-bleached bodies that remain frozen to this day, many climbers and Sherpas lie tucked into crevasses, buried under avalanche snow and exposed for future mountaineers who risk the perilous climb.

Made in Chelsea star Spencer Matthews', 34, brother is among that grim number that is still today rising. The TV star recently made an epic journey to retrace his sibling's steps in a brave bid to recover the body.

Like hundreds before him, and the countless more to follow, Michael Matthews' journey ended in 1999, after he tragically died on the perilous mountain aged 22 in 1999. In the hours immediately after his summit he disappeared during his descent.

The 34-year-old filmed new Disney+ documentary Finding Michael with the help of survivalist Bear Grylls and record-breaking mountaineer Nirmal 'Nims' Purja.

While Michael made history as the youngest ever Brit to reach the summit aged 22, he is said to have got in trouble after beginning to make his way down the south descent through the 'death zone' in 1999.

His body has never been recovered and his family have never been able to fully understand what happened to him.

And perhaps most well-known of all are the remains of Tsewang Paljor - popularly known as Green Boots - a young Indian climber who lost his life in the infamous 1996 blizzard on the mountain.

Rob Hall and Scott Fischer were another two climbers/expedition leaders who both died in blizzard, as the pair near the summit of the mountain. The pair faced the same fateful weekend that Green Boots died on the mountain.

Scott Fischer was also on the mountain in the May of 1996. Like Hall, he died helping others. The father-of-two was a keen mountaineer and dedicated to giving back to the environment on his hikes. He'd led an expedition in 1994 to clean up Everest, successfully removing about 5,000 pounds of trash and 150 oxygen bottles on the way

Hall's body was first found on the mountain 12 days later, and he remains just below the South Summit. His wife said it's 'where he'd like to have stayed' and told others not to risk their lives attempting to retrieve him.

Meanwhile, Scott Fischer was also on the mountain in the May of 1996 as the father-of-two was a keen mountaineer and dedicated to protecting the environment on his hikes. Fischer unnecessarily travelled back down the mountain during his final expedition to help a friend in need, and then exerted more energy than he usually would in rushing back up to rejoin his team at Camp 2.

As a result, he was slower than usual in his final push to summit. He finally arrived at the peak beyond the usual time he'd turn around and, as had become typical for the man fondly referred to as 'Mr Rescue' on the mountain, Fischer volunteered himself to head back down at the back of his pack to ensure everyone's safety.

Potentially suffering from high altitude sickness, Fischer began to struggle. Later that night, he was found still attached to Makalu Gao, leader of a Taiwanese group that had also pushed to summit that same day.

Rescue teams were only able to assist one of the men back down the mountain. Faced with such an awful decision, they rescued Gao. Fischer was unresponsive and the Sherpas determined Gao had a greater chance of survival. His body remains on the mountain to this day.

A Hollywood film was made about the pair in 2015.

The stark number of deaths in 2019 alone

A record number of climbers summit Mount Everest in April and May, which are the peak climbing months.

The number of deaths on Everest has been steadily increasing over the years, with the death toll reaching an all-time high in 2019.

The route up the mountain includes deadly obstacles and moving glaciers (like the Khumbu icefall near to base camp as shown in the map)

In 2019, Ravi Thakar was found dead inside his tent at Everest Camp 4 at 7920m, as reportedly he died in his sleep.

And Seamus "Shay" Lawless, 39 from Ireland, died just hours after reaching the summit. It was his life goal to climb the mountain before he turned 40, but tragically he fell up to 500m during his descent from an altitude of 8300m.

Moments before he plummeted, he sent a final text to his expectant wife from the summit saying he reached it and was coming home.

American climber Donald Cash died near the Hillary Step on Everest also in 2019. Cash, 55, collapsed after after reaching the summit, but his guides performed CPR and revived him. His guides then carried him to the Hillary Step, but a traffic jam on the fixed ropes prevented further descent, and so he died before descending any farther.

That same year, Nihal Ashpak Bagwan attempted his second climb, after being just 400m short on his first in 2017. According to Nepali officials, when descending from Mount Everest on Friday, Bagwan died of exhaustion, dehydration and tiredness after being caught in the jam of climbers.

Austrian climber Ernst Landgraf, 64, died just hours after fulfilling his dream of scaling Everest, according to his obituary and family.

Another climber who died descending from the summit in 2019 was Anjali Kulkarni, 54.

Despite scaling the mountain in 2008, Indian lawyer Kalpana Dash, 52, died above the area known as the Balcony. She complained of breathlessness on the descent.

A second Irish climber died while climbing Mount Everest in little over a week, following Lawless's death. Father-of-two Kevin Hynes became ill as he began his descent and died in his tent.

Renowned national mountain guide Dhruba Bista was part of an expedition run by Himalayan Ski Treks. He was evacuated by helicopter from Camp 3 to the base camp, where sadly he died from altitude sickness.

Robin Haynes Fisher, from Birmingham, died after reaching the summit of the world's highest mountain. But the 44-year-old collapsed and died only 150m down from the peak - just 45 minutes after reaching the top - his expedition company confirmed.

Christopher Kulish, 62, became at least the eleventh death atop Mount Everest during 2019's climbing season. He died during the descent, his family confirmed in a statement. However, the circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear.

The rising number of fatalities on the world's highest peak

Some make their wishes clear: if they die on the mountain, they want to stay on the mountain. For others, grieving families are left trying to raise upwards of 61,000 to bring them home.

In some cases, they fail to ever achieve that.

And among the climbers, six to eight Sherpas are required for recovery missions, and a dead body which would otherwise weigh 80kgs may be up to 150kgs when frozen.

More commonly, bodies in the death zone - above 8,000m (26,247ft) - are pushed off the edge of the ridge, a time honoured mountaineer's death. In the last decade there's been a more concerted effort to remove some of the bodies from the well-trodden path.

One guide said about 10 bodies were visible to anyone completing the final summit push before 2014 from the North East Ridge, but in the years since he'd only counted two or three.

Here, MailOnline looks back on the number of people that have tragically passed away on the mountain since 1920, and who they are.

Mallory's body (pictured right) was found with a rope around its waist and injuries consistent with the possibility that he and Irvine might have fallen while being roped together

1920  1930  11 deaths and among them was British climber George Mallory who died 8 - 9 June 1924, aged 37, on the North Face of the mountain. He fell from 8160m.

When asked why he'd ever want to climb Everest, George Mallory famously said: 'because it's there.'

The sentiment has lived on through countless others in the 98 years since Mallory, then 38, vanished on the mountain alongside his climbing partner Andrew Irvine.

He was among the first mountaineers to develop an obsession with summiting the mountain and is revered in the industry for helping to pioneer the sport. Then, there is the added layer of mystery as to whether he was in fact the first person to reach the top, some 30 years before the official record books.

Mallory's body lay hidden under thick sheets of snow for 75 years until it was eventually discovered in 1999 by the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition.

The haunting image of his sun-bleached torso is very familiar for anyone with even a mild interest in the mountain; arguably the most enduring warning of the risks that lie ahead.

Hannelore Schmatz was the fourth woman to ever summit Mount Everest. She was also the first woman to die there

1930  1940 - 1 death

1940  1950 - 0 deaths

1950  1960 - 1 death

1960  1970 - 6 deaths

1970  1980  28 deaths and among them was Hannelore Schmatz from Germany, who died on 2 October 1979 from exhaustion at 8350m.

Hannelore Schmatz was the fourth woman to ever summit Mount Everest.

She was also the first woman to die there. Pictures of her frozen body serve as perhaps one of the most haunting images of the dangers of the mountain.

Leaning against the backpack used to identify her and propped up on her elbow, Hannelore's frozen body appeared almost in a state of relaxation.

Her eyes were pinned open by the conditions, and, for a long time, her hair moved with the wind.

Norwegian mountaineer and expedition leader Arne Nss, Jr., detailed his encounter with her body in 1985, saying: 'she sits leaning against her pack, as if taking a short break.

'It feels as if she follows me with her eyes as I pass by. Her presence reminds me that we are here on the conditions of the mountain.'

A Sherpa and Nepalese police inspector attempted to recover her body in 1984, but they both fell to their deaths. Eventually, a gust of wind pushed her over the side of the Kangshung Face.

1980  1990  59 deaths

1990  2000  60 deaths and among the 60 dead, was a climber from the Indo-Tibetian Border Police called Tsewang Paljor, who died on 11 May 1996.

Paljor (pictured) perished alongside two other members of his party, Tsewang Smanla and Dorje Morup, in a now infamous May 1996 snow storm. He was just 28

He passed away from exposure/Frostbite at 8550m.

Paljor's body remained on Everest for 18 years, and became somewhat of a macabre marker for mountaineers climbing on the north side.

For many years, he was another nameless, faceless victim of the mountain, famous for the neon green hiking boots he had on at the time of his death.

He perished alongside two other members of his party, Tsewang Smanla and Dorje Morup, in a now infamous May 1996 snow storm which took eight lives. He was just 28.

According to mountaineers who have made it to the summit, up to 80 per cent of people will seek shelter in the very same cave where Green Boots was. He was hard to miss.

Green Boots' cave is at 27,890 feet (8,500m) and is littered with abandoned oxygen bottles.

In 2014, a Chinese expedition were able to move Paljor's body to a less exposed location on the mountain, where he remains, now out of sight.

Michael Matthews disappeared as he made a bid to become the youngest Brit to climb the worlds highest peak in May 1999.

Sadly, he died after falling from 8600m on the 13 May 1999.

He was lost in heavy snow and fierce gales on Mount Everest's infamous Death Zone and became the 162nd person to die on Everest. His body has never been found.

Michael Matthews became the youngest Briton to reach the summit of Everest at the age of 22, but disappeared on the mountain just three hours later

He was an experienced mountain climber who had scaled the Swiss Alps, the Pyrenees and Kilimanjaro before he tackled Everest.

During the climb to the mountain, he led the pack but the team said he struggled near the end and was the last to reach the peak. And on the way down the group were hit by a bad storm an 100mph winds and Michael got separated from the group.

Brit Ginette Harrison died in an avalanche on Mount Dhaulagiri in Nepal on 24 October 1999. While she successfully combined her career in medicine - becoming one of the world's leading female high altitude climbers - she passed away on the mountain aged just 41.

2000  2010  49 deaths and among those dead was English mountaineer David Sharp, 34. In 2006, he climbed into Green Boots' cave for a rest stop but never came back out.

English mountaineer David Sharp, 34, had been attempting a daring summit without a group, Sherpa or radio, after two previous failed attempts to conquer the mountain

He'd been attempting a daring summit without a group, Sherpa or radio, after two previous failed attempts to conquer the mountain.

It is thought 40 climbers saw him in the cave as he froze to death, too far gone to speak or move. Some ignored him, others begged him to keep on moving. One sat with him and prayed. They all knew he wouldn't survive.

Others claimed that in the mist and haze of the mountain, they didn't realise there were two bodies in Green Boots' cave.

Those who do remember Mr Sharp recalled he had icycles frozen to his lashes, huddled with his arms wrapped around his legs and was unresponsive.

His body remains on Everest. He was moved out of sight in 2007 amid outrage over his treatment on the mountain.

2010  2020  89 deaths

2020  2023  9 deaths

In 2021, Abdul Waraich, 41, from Switzerland, collapsed while descending the slopes of the mountain at 8,700m. Mr Waraich, who was on his way down after reaching the summit, and died near the south summit, according to Chhang Dawa Sherpa.

In that same year, Canadian Brent Seal, 37, died after collapsing on his way from camp four to the summit at 7,450 metres. His body was airlifted to Kathmandu.

French national Thomas Georges Arfi, 34, was one of three mountaineers that went missing in an avalanche during an expedition organized by the Federation of Alpine and Mountain Clubs in 2021. Mr Arfi, from Nice, had disappeared on October 26th and local police confirmed around 10 days later that the bodies were discovered 'in about the same area where the search was conducted.'

And in 2022, there were six deaths alone on the mountain.

They included, Antonios Sykaris from Greece, who died of exhaustion at 7400m and Russian Pavel Kostrikin who died from altitude mountain sickness at 6000m.

Narayanan Iyer who passed from altitude mountain sickness at 8200m. His death was the third to be reported on Nepal Himalayas during the current climbing season which started in March that year.

The future of Everest

Melting glaciers on Mount Everest are exposing the bodies of climbers who died while trying to scale the peak.

Many are still buried under the Himalayan ice but mountaineering experts believe global warming is starting to reveal them.

A study in 2015 warned that up to 99 per cent of glaciers in the Everest region could have disappeared by the turn of the 22nd century.

Ang Tshering Sherpa, ex-head of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said 'because of global warming, the ice sheet and glaciers are fast melting and the dead bodies that remained buried all these years are now becoming exposed.

'We have brought down dead bodies of some mountaineers who died in recent years, but the old ones that remained buried are now coming out.'

Removing a dead body can cost up to 61,000 and experts argue some climbers would want to be buried on the mountain if they died there.

There's constantly debates surrounding the ethics of climbing the mountain, from the religious impact for the people of Nepal to the increased commercialisation making it more unsafe and the environmental factors.

Beck Weathers, who survived the 1996 storm which claimed the lives of Mr Taljor, Mr Hall and Mr Fischer, among others, said his view 'changed quite dramatically' after that fateful tragedy.

'If you don't have anyone who cares about you or is dependent on you, if you have no friends or colleagues, and if you're willing to put a single round in the chamber of a revolver and put it in your mouth and pull the trigger, then yeah, it's a pretty good idea to climb Everest,' he said.

But with Nepal relying so heavily on the tourism and climbing industry, it's unlikely any significant changes will be made in the near future. Instead, people who love the mountain are dedicating themselves to make it as safe as possible.
As every business knows, advertising is the key to success - with the marriage of text and images vital to selling a design.

Sometimes though, it's all lost in translation - and carefully-crafted graphic designs, posters and pictures don't quite get the intended message across.

Taken from Bored Panda, these hilarious marketing messages certainly leave a lot to be desired. Indeed, they show how it's actually very easy to plant the wrong idea in people's minds - all you need is a lack of attention to detail or wrong font choice.

From a salon boasting that it 'cuts' girls, men and children, to a glass of orange juice advertising milk, here FEMAIL rounds up some of the most bizarre graphic design fails...

That's not possible! This sign doesn't convey what it intends to

The designers of this soda probably didn't mean to give the impression that it had zero taste but yes, they managed to

This poster is meant to celebrate diversity, inclusion and engagement however it seems to promote something else entirely

Bin this design! This company probably didn't mean to call all of its employees trash, yet it managed to give that impression with this sign

Own goal: It might not be the best advertising in the world to say that you cut girls, men and kids...

Shoppers pointed out that it's probably best not to advertise apples with a Disney character who died from eating a poisoned one

Why this shop decided to welcome people with a cheerful sign on the exit door is an eternal mystery

Viewers of this strange picture decided the reflection was deliberately wrong, just so a story could be told about a character called Leon

Those who saw the advert for this camping mat quickly pointed out that the man in the picture was using it wrong

Even those with limited geographical knowledge should spot the obvious, that Texas does not occupy the whole of North America and Canada isn't an island

Milk is typically white and from a cow but not in this signage

Gyms frequently use motivational soundbites but these ones seem to make no sense at all, especially the one that encourages people to hit themselves
Riding bareback on a horse, skydiving, and flying in a fighter jet are some of the activities Alisi Jack-Kaufusi never thought she'd be able to do.

Six years ago the HR administrator was given the 'soul crushing news' she had stage three ovarian cancer after scans found two tumours the size of grapefruits on each ovary.

Despite the best efforts of doctors, the diagnosis is terminal and physicians can't confirm exactly how much time she has left.

Now Alisi, originally from New Zealand but who lives in Brisbane, has devised a 'timeless list' consisting of everything she wants to do while she can.

Before her diagnosis, Alisi, now 30, experienced bloating in her lower abdomen area, she was tired 'all the time' and her menstrual cycle was 'irregular'.

But she dismissed the symptoms because she assumed she was 'too young for any serious health concerns'.

Six years ago Alisi Jack-Kaufusi was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer (pictured in early 2019 when her hair started to grow back)

Now Alisi, originally from New Zealand but who lives in Brisbane, has devised a 'timeless list' consisting of everything she wants to do while she can

During a visit to see a GP in October 2017, she mentioned she had been experiencing bleeding for about a month and the blood was clotted and dark.

After getting multiple blood tests, MRI and a CT scan, she was booked in for a biopsy after the doctor noticed 'something blocking' her ovaries.

Alisi's world came crashing down in December 2017 after being told she had ovarian cancer at 24, given the average age of women diagnosed with the disease is 64.

'Once I heard ovarian cancer, I looked at mum and froze. It felt like the room went silent and all I could see was the doctor's mouth moving. It was all just a blur. I just remember saying to the doctor: "No, this can't be because I am only 24, you have the wrong person",' Alisi recalled.

'Being told by the medical team that I got this disease 30 years early was hard to process and still is. When you think cancer, you think old.'

By the time she was diagnosed, the cancer had spread outside her ovaries.

'I had to have a full hysterectomy and unfortunately, they were unable to save any eggs. In your 20s, the last thing you think of is having to come terms with not being able to have your own biological children. I felt robbed,' she said.

'It feels like all my wishes and goals squeezed into a smaller time frame. I might not die tomorrow, but I may not live long enough to have long-term plans.'

Alisi has devised a 'timeless list'(pictured) consisting of 72 activities and travel plans - from seeing the Northern Lights to getting her teeth whitened and going on a safari tour in South Africa

So far she's gone skydiving, flown in a fighter jet (pictured) and ridden a horse bareback on the beach

'Riding down the beach on a horse was so therapeutic, and flying in the fighter jet was so thrilling - I felt so free and could forget about everything for half an hour,' she said

Alisi has devised a 'timeless list' of 72 activities and travel plans - from seeing the Northern Lights to getting her teeth whitened and going on a safari tour in South Africa.

'Riding down the beach on a horse was so therapeutic, and flying in the fighter jet was so thrilling - I felt so free and could forget about everything for half an hour,' she said.

Alisi also wants to travel to Tonga to swim with whales, as this is where her family is from, and go bungee jumping in New Zealand.

While she's made a start on the list, she's unsure if she'll have enough time to complete it.

'The one regret I have is not going to the doctor sooner to get my symptoms checked - I put it off for about three months,' she said.

'The doctors were great but I really put off making an appointment. And I had never heard of ovarian cancer before my diagnosis.

'I was so shocked, upset and scared of what the future looked like for me.'

Thankfully she'd had the support of her family throughout the entire ordeal.

What is ovarian cancer and what are the symptoms? Ovarian cancer is a malignant tumour in one or both ovaries. The ovaries are made up of three main kinds of cells  epithelial cells, stromal cells and germ cells. Each of these cells can develop into a different type of tumour. The average age of women when they are diagnosed with ovarian cancer is age 64. It is mainly diagnosed in women over the age of 50; however, there are cases diagnosed in younger women. There are often no obvious signs of ovarian cancer, but symptoms can include: abdominal bloating

difficulty eating or feeling full quickly

frequent or urgent urination

back, abdominal or pelvic pain

constipation or diarrhoea

menstrual irregularities

tiredness/fatigue

indigestion

pain during intercourse

unexplained weight loss or weight gain Pap smears do not detect ovarian cancer and there is no routine test Advertisement

'The one regret I have is not going to the doctor sooner to get my symptoms checked - I put it off for about three months,' she said
Foreign Minister Park Jin, second from right, and Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Cho Tae-yong, right, are seen posing for a photo with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Young Kim (R-C) during their meeting in Washington, Feb. 2, in this photo provided by the Korean foreign ministry. Yonhap



A delegation from the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), is set to visit South Korea early next month, diplomatic sources said Saturday.



During their visit scheduled for April 5 and 6, the nine lawmakers plan to meet with President Yoon Suk Yeol, National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo and Foreign Minister Park Jin to discuss ways to develop the South Korea-U.S. alliance and strengthen its joint response to North Korea's escalating threats, according to the sources.



The visit comes ahead of Yoon's state visit to Washington for talks with U.S. President Joe Biden, slated for later that month.



Seoul is trying to arrange an address by Yoon to a joint session of the U.S. Congress during the trip, marking the 70th anniversary of the military alliance between the two countries.



The bipartisan delegation, including Reps. French Hill (R-AR), Young Kim (R-CA) and Ami Bera (D-CA), is also likely to travel to Taiwan and Japan, amid mounting tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade, Taiwan and other issues, the sources said. (Yonhap)




Their study was based on surveys of 3,500 couples on sex and relationships

Hardcore, violent pornography is thought to have devastated the psyche of young American minds  warping their perception of relationships and sex.

But now experts are warning that even the more ethical 'softcore' variety is damaging, leading to poorer satisfaction with their other half.

Researchers at Brigham Young University quizzed 3,500 people in relationships who were about 38 years old on their porn use and happiness with their partner.

They were asked whether they watched hardcore porn  that included violence or rape  and softcore  including consensual sex.

Even watching soft porn is bad for your relationship, a study has found  in a knock for the habit (stock image)

Regardless of the category, those who watched porn were more likely to say they were not satisfied with their relationships.

The experts called on people to quit watching pornography entirely in order to help them maintain committed relationships.

Dr Brian Willoughby, an associate professor at the university who led the research, said: 'Couples should know that viewing pornography is a risk factor in their relationship.'

He added to Utah-based news site KSL: 'I [had] assumed we were going to find it was maybe the aggressive, nonconsensual pornography that was affecting relationships.

'[But] we found there was no difference. Any pornography use or increase was always linked to less stability and less satisfaction in the relationship  no matter what other things we looked at.'

About one in four Americans  or 82 million people  watch pornography every month, data suggests. Men are four times more likely to view it than women.

Many doctors warn pornography is changing how people view relationships for the worst and may be prompting trouble in the bedroom.

It has been linked to a spike in cases of erectile dysfunction, delayed ejaculation and a lower sexual drive. Some experts warn it also prompts anxiety over appearance.

In the latest study, published in the Journal of Sex Research, scientists looked at couples from across the United States surveyed by pollster Qualtrics.

They were about 38 years old on average and had been in a relationship for nearly nine years.

Fifty-five percent were on their first marriage, 23 percent were cohabiting, 12 percent had remarried, eight percent were dating and two percent were in an open relationship.

Of the couples, 72 percent were heterosexual and 17 percent were homosexual. The rest reported being bisexual.

Participants were quizzed on what type of porn they used, if at all, and how satisfied they were with their relationships.

Pornography use was split into two categories.

Softcore was defined as footage 'of a heterosexual couple having sex which shows the man's penis penetrating the woman', 'two naked women or men manually stimulating each other' or 'a woman or man alone masturbating'.

Hardcore was defined as 'a video of a man forcing a woman to have sex against her will', 'of a man hitting or slapping a woman while having sex' or 'of a woman being ejaculated on by multiple men'.

Results were analyzed adjusting for factors including gender, pornography type and relationship perception.

Overall, the researchers found that people who used pornography were less happy in their relationship.

They also reported lower levels of perceived relationship stability, or how likely the participant thought the relationship would continue.

This held regardless of what type of pornography they watched.

Broken down into groups, men and men who were religious were most likely to say that porn was negatively impacting their relationship.

Dr Willoughby suggested this may be because pornography is more geared towards heterosexual men.

He said: 'The general thought is that so much of mainstream pornography is geared toward heterosexual men  that's kind of the core audience.

'So perhaps they will be more affected by comparing themselves to other men, creating unrealistic expectations for themselves, their body or what they think their partner should be doing.'

For those who were religious, scientists suggested that religion may make them feel more conflicted about viewing sexual acts involving others.

In the study, they suggested that viewing pornography may 'facilitate the acquisition of sexual scripts that may diminish healthy long-term relationship quality'.

They added: 'As much of the content of pornography emphasizes casual sexual encounters and multiple partners, it is possible that regular exposure to these types of sexual messages may alter sexual and relational scripts in ways that weakens stability [in a relationship].'

Scientists also found that pornography use was rarely discussed during couples therapy.

This needed to change, they said, so that couples would be better able to come closer together.

Limitations to the study included that it contained few participants from lower income backgrounds.

It also contained a larger group of lesbian and gay couples than is representative of the general population.

Asked about this group, Dr Willoughby told DailyMail.com: 'We didn't explore how sexual orientation influenced the results so I can't really speak to what the effect might have been.

'[But] generally speaking, those who identify as non-heterosexual report higher pornography use rates than those who identify as heterosexual and that was the case in this dataset.'
Expert said people should be able to self-ID as autistic, just like gender or race

People who believe they are autistic should be able to 'self-identify' as such - in some cases without a doctor's diagnosis, according to a leading expert.

Recent documentaries by autistic BBC wildlife presenter Chris Packham, and openness from high-profile celebrities with autism, like billionaire Elon Musk and TV personality Melanie Sykes, have increased awareness of autism, with many people suspecting they have autistic traits like an intense interest in certain hobbies or repetitive routines.

As of March last year, there were more than 100,000 people with suspected autism waiting for diagnosis, up almost 40 per cent from the previous year, with many people turning to online questionnaires to try and work out themselves if they show signs of autism.

Now a leading expert, Professor Sue Fletcher-Watson, says people should not always have to wait for medical confirmation, but should be able to decide if they have autism themselves.

It is often stated that around one in 100 people in the UK are autistic, but research from the US suggests the rate could be more than twice as high - around one in 44 people.

An expert says people who believe they autism should be able to 'self identify' as such, an expert has said

Speaking after a conference on neurodiversity, called ITAKOM (It Takes All Kinds Of Minds), Professor Fletcher-Watson, from the University of Edinburgh, told the Mail: 'People often self-identify as autistic, just as they self-identify their gender or ethnicity.

'This should be an option for people, as you shouldn't need a doctor to tell you who you are.

'People who just want to know if they are autistic so they can understand their own behaviours better, and make connections with other autistic people, don't necessarily need to jump through all the hoops of getting a diagnosis.

'Our NHS is under enormous pressure right now, so we should ask whether diagnosis is always needed, or whether self-identification could be enough for some people.'

Professor Fletcher-Watson said self-identification with autism may be quicker than getting a diagnosis through doctors, who can sometimes get it wrong anyway, due to outdated and narrow tests for the condition.

Read more: 13 giveaway signs of autism in adults revealed as Christine McGuinness bravely opens up about life as an autistic woman in TV documentary In her book A Beautiful Nightmare, published in 2021, Christine McGuinness revealed she was diagnosed with autism earlier in the year in August. But the 34-year-old isn't the only celebrity who found out about her neurodevelopmental disorder as an adult Advertisement

She said: 'Going to a doctor is normally associated with being ill - understandably that's not the nicest way to embark on life as an autistic person.'

'Neurodivergence', which means having an atypical mind, is a category used principally to describe conditions like autism, ADHD, dyslexia and Tourette's syndrome.

Autism has been identified later in life for television presenter Melanie Sykes and Christine McGuinness, the presenter and former partner of Paddy McGuinness.

Professor Fletcher-Watson said neurodivergent conditions can be missed, and only picked up in later life, because narrow definitions are used.

The expert, who gave a talk on neurodiversity at ITAKOM, in Edinburgh, on March 13, said: 'It can be unhelpful that people with autism in popular culture are stereotyped as being really intelligent or good with computers, with lots of autistic people ending up in Silicon Valley.

'That may mean people who don't feel 'clever', or aren't amazing at maths, don't feel they fit the mould of autism.

'There are also a lot of misconceptions, like that autistic people are not empathetic, when in fact they just show empathy differently.'

On autism sometimes being missed in women, the expert added: 'There are women out there with an intense interest in Harry Styles or high fashion, which are the 'restricted interests' used to help diagnose autism.

'They might be monitoring every tiny detail of these topics they love, but because the topics don't fit the traditional model of autism, it may be missed when it comes to diagnosis.

'Some of these people might benefit from self-identification, but that is not without danger and I don't want to encourage the idea that everyone is a 'bit autistic'.'

Taking a different view, Dr Andrew Stanfield, a psychiatrist and autism expert from the University of Edinburgh, said: 'Self-identification is entirely valid but there is often a need for formal diagnosis as well, as that can help people access support and organisations for autism, as well as being helpful when it comes to things like employment and benefits.

'There is always a risk of self-identification, as someone assuming they are autistic may in fact have a mental health issue which they could have help to deal with if they knew this was the case.

'Self-identification is getting much more common so we need to be aware of this.'

Tim Nicholls, Head of Influencing and Research at the National Autistic Society, said: 'Anyone who starts to think as an adult that they might be autistic will go through a period of identifying with what it means to be autistic.

'When they do, they need support and advice.

'Waits for clinically informed assessments to support an individual's understanding of their own differences and needs are unacceptably long all across the country.

'It's vital that governments tackle this access to make sure anyone who thinks they're autistic gets the support they need to live a fulfilled life on their own terms.'
Current hospital tests - which need a blood sample - can take hours to complete

A high-tech wristband is being developed that can spot a heart attack in minutes, boosting patients' chances of making a good recovery.

The bracelet, called Tropsensor, can detect raised levels of a protein called troponin in sweat on the skin. The test currently used in hospitals, which requires a blood sample, can take hours to confirm a result.

Troponin is released by cardiac muscle cells when they are damaged during a heart attack. It circulates in the bloodstream but can also be picked up in sweat.

When a patient who's had a suspected heart attack turns up at hospital, doctors normally take a blood sample to test for raised levels of the protein. They also carry out an electrocardiogram (ECG)  a measure of the heart's electrical activity  to look for signs of disruption that could indicate an attack.

But the troponin test results can take several hours to come back from the laboratory to confirm the diagnosis. During this time, the heart muscle can become further damaged, increasing the likelihood of long-term heart failure  where the organ is so weakened by the trauma that it's unable to pump blood properly round the body.

A high-tech wristband is being developed that can spot a heart attack in minutes, boosting patients' chances of making a good recovery (stock photo)

Other common triggers of heart failure  which affects about 900,000 people in the UK  include high blood pressure, damaged heart valves and even viral infections such as Covid-19.

In the UK there are an estimated 100,000 hospital admissions each year due to heart attacks  one every five minutes, on average.

In the 1960s, more than seven out of ten were fatal. Now, seven in ten people survive, but experts hope to increase this figure further with more rapid treatment. Approximately 1.4 million Britons are heart-attack survivors.

The scientists behind the Tropsensor bracelet hope it will help slash the time it takes to confirm that someone has had a heart attack to a matter of minutes, meaning doctors could start life-saving treatment much sooner, including giving clot-busting medicines or implanting a stent  to restore blood flow to the heart  before more cardiac muscle cells die off.

The Tropsensor is currently a matchbox-sized prototype, which is attached to the patient with a wristband. The scientists are now working on compressing the technology down into a simple bracelet.

The device works by emitting infrared light on to the surface of the skin. Sensors inside the gadget then measure the rate at which the light is absorbed. If there is no troponin present, most of the light will simply bounce back to the device. If troponin is present, the light gets absorbed by it.

The device can also detect how much light is taken in  the more that is absorbed, the higher the level of the protein.

In a recent trial involving 239 patients in India with suspected heart attacks, doctors looked at whether high troponin skin levels found by the device correlated to those eventually found to have a blocked artery and a diagnosis of a heart attack. The results, which were presented at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting in New Orleans earlier this month, revealed that the Tropsensor device got a correct diagnosis 90 per cent of the time.

Where the device measured abnormal troponin levels, patients were four times more likely to have a blocked artery than those with a negative troponin result.

Researcher Professor Partho Sengupta, a heart specialist at Robert Wood University Hospital in New Brunswick, US, said: 'This is exciting  it increases our capability for early diagnosis of heart attacks.

'There's still a lot of work to be done but this device could shorten the time to treatment  emergency responders could plan a patient's treatment before they even get to hospital.'

In the UK there are an estimated 100,000 hospital admissions each year due to heart attacks  one every five minutes, on average

But Francisco Leyva-Leon, professor of cardiology at Aston University in Birmingham, said he believed that the technology would be best suited to reading patients' troponin levels when they are already in hospital and awaiting diagnosis.

'That would do away with the need for a blood test, which would be fantastic,' he said.

'But this device needs proper validation, and although it looks great there is a long way to go before it can be routinely used.'

Researchers still need to explore how well the device will work with different skin tones and wrist sizes, but the current prototype has been approved for use in trials by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Prof Sengupta added: 'With this level of accuracy, if a patient comes out positive with this device, you're fairly sure they can be fast-tracked for treatment.'
On the hop: Chancellor Jeremy Hunt

Pensions are not rabbits. That may be pretty obvious to you and me. But it's a truth that seemingly evades successive Chancellors of the Exchequer.

Jeremy Hunt was the latest to make this crucial mistake when he delivered his Spring Budget statement last Wednesday.

As always with Budget statements, it was a theatrical affair. The Chancellor did the traditional staged posing with the red box on the morning of his statement, attempted comedy throughout his delivery, and at times his speech was almost drowned out by the raucous cheers and jeers from the benches.

The height of the spectacle  as usual  was when the Chancellor pulled a rabbit out of the hat.

In other words, he made a policy announcement that few saw coming, designed to elicit oohs and aahs from Ministers, the electorate and the media. Chancellors nearly always do this  they can't resist the drama of it.

This time, Hunt's so-called rabbit was a change to pension policy. The Chancellor had been expected to increase the Lifetime Allowance  in other words the amount of money that you can have in a pension without being taxed punitively when you withdraw it.

But he hadn't been expected to scrap the Lifetime Allowance altogether. He also increased the annual allowance by 50 per cent to 60,000 and increased the amount you can pay in once you've started withdrawing money from a pension from 4,000 to 10,000.

Now the problem, as I say, is that pensions are not rabbits.

They are delicate creatures that do not take well to being cavalierly scooped up under the belly and held aloft before an impressed crowd.

If pensions were an animal, I think they would be more like a daddy longlegs. With spindly, delicate legs, they need careful handling and coaxing. They are complicated, nuanced, and fiddly. And they're already pretty wounded from the magic tricks of previous Chancellors. Gordon Brown's meddling with dividends on final salary pensions; George Osborne's pension freedoms.

I'm not saying that pension policy should never be changed. But if you're going to do it, a surprise in a Budget statement is not the way.

There are always unintended consequences to tweaking pensions. If you do it on the hoof, you will only find out what the fallout is later, by which time it's too late. But, if you make changes through a thoughtful consultation, those consequences will come to light before you go ahead and you can decide whether it's still worth it.

For example, when the Lifetime Allowance was cut by former Chancellors in previous Budget statements, they did not foresee that it would lead to senior doctors and consultants retiring early, and hurting the NHS.

Similarly, when previous Chancellors used Budgets to hack away at the amount you can pay into a pension once you have started to make withdrawals, they did not predict that it would stop people who had left the workforce during Covid from returning.

In last week's Budget, the Chancellor also meddled with the 25 per cent lump sum that savers can take from their pension tax free.

From April, you will still be able to withdraw up to 25 per cent tax free once you turn 55, but only up to a maximum of 268,275. He is the first Chancellor to add an upper limit. What will be the impact of this change?

We don't know. That's precisely the point. Once again, a Chancellor has introduced new complexity to pension policy in a Budget and it is only now, after the event, that experts, policy makers and savers can pick through and try to understand what impact it will have.

But if I had to guess, I would say it will have greater ramifications than he realises. Hunt has introduced yet more complexity to the pension system and another allowance that subsequent Chancellors can pick away at when they're feeling a bit skint.

It creates yet another bit of uncertainty that makes it even harder for savers to plan their long-term financial futures.

So here is my plea to future Chancellors. If you need to do theatrics in your Budget statement, pick something straightforward as a prop. But if you're thinking about tweaking the pension system, please  don't do it on the hop.
Whatever regulators and Bank of England officials may say, cash continues to be the oil that helps drive the engine of our challenged economy. Hard cash  five pound notes, 50p coins  not cryptocurrencies.

Although the big banks are not pushing us towards cryptocurrencies, they are eager (some would say over-eager) to change the way we bank. They want more done online or via an app  and less of it through use of a high street branch or ATM. More contactless, less use of hard cash.

This desire to turn us all into digital customers explains why banks are closing branches in droves  737 announced in just over a year, and plenty more to come. It is also why free-to-use ATM numbers are shrinking fast.

Yet demand for access to cash  and cash deposit services  will not go away as quickly as maybe the banks wish. For many small businesses and elderly people, cash remains king.

Key to the future of cash is effective legislation, followed by tough regulation  both of which have long been promised respectively by Government and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Take note: Shoppers will always want to use cash for purchases  even if the banks don't like it

Yet it seems increasingly unlikely that the better safeguarding of access that these two steps should guarantee is going to come in a hurry. We could be well into 2024 before the FCA starts properly tooling itself up to defend our right to cash.

In the meantime, we must cross our fingers and hope that Cash Access UK comes to the rescue. This organisation has been given the onerous task of ensuring continued nationwide access to cash against a backdrop of branch and cash machine closures.

Life isn't easy for Cash Access UK. It is funded by the big banks  parsimony is their watchword  and its work is dictated by strict rules laid down by the banking behemoths.

But, helped by cash machine network Link, this not-for-profit organisation has the right to allocate chunks of its budget to create banking hubs where communities have lost their last bank branch.

These hubs, managed by the Post Office, allow customers of all the major banks and building societies to visit and do their banking  with some able to get help from one of their own bank's staff.

Cash Access UK's record on establishing hubs is patchy, to say the least. Only four  out of 38 promised  are up and running, although two more (Troon, Ayrshire and Acton, West London) should come on stream in the next couple of months.

The slow roll-out is not entirely the organisation's fault. Suitable premises have to be found, leases must be signed, planning permission can take an age (especially in Scotland and Northern Ireland) and refurbishments don't happen overnight. But officials believe once momentum starts, the quicker the roll-outs will become (currently, it is taking at least a year from the time a hub is recommended for it to be operating).

Cash Access UK is also looking at installing temporary hubs in communities that lose their last bank branch before a permanent hub can be opened. This would reduce the time a community is left without a bank other than a local post office.

In time, the organisation hopes to have a network of 200 hubs. Fanciful? Maybe, but it's good that it is thinking big.

I am sure Derek French, who has led the way on campaigning for banking hubs (with a lot of support, I hasten to add, from The Mail on Sunday) would do a victory jig if we got to 200.

Cash Access UK is also looking at ways to make life easier for small businesses who need to bank cash deposits quickly and securely. This week, it will announce the piloting of new-style cash deposit services in 16 communities  including Ilfracombe in North Devon, Shanklin on the Isle of Wight and Holyhead on Anglesey.

Post office-based, these pilots will use greater automation to ensure cash deposits are quickly counted  and include priority counters which small businesses can use to do their banking in privacy.

In time, it is also hoped that the banks  gently egged on by Cash Access UK  will push some of their petty differences to one side and agree to adapting their ATMs so they can receive deposits from all bank customers, not just their own.

An easy thing to do, I am reliably told. But we're not there yet  with the likes of NatWest amenable to such a change and others (namely the one that likes to fill our screens with black horses) not so keen.

A few days ago, I met up with Gareth Oakley, chief executive of Cash Access UK.

Having spent more than 30 years in banking  with a focus on SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises)  he's optimistic that the pilots will encourage small businesses 'to keep on accepting cash from their customers'.

Let's hope he's right and that the pilots encourage the Post Office to make such user-friendly services the norm, not the exception.

Access to cash. An imperative. Today, tomorrow and long into the future.

How a lost 29p cost a staggering 44 interest

Mistake: Peter and Jenny Wall, who normally clears her balance

I bumped into reader Peter Wall eight days ago at the Hawthorns  home of West Bromwich Albion FC.

Over a cup of steaming Bovril, he told me how his better half always pays off her credit card bill every month to avoid interest charges.

But in January, she inadvertently paid 3,032  not 3,032.29 as requested. The result was an interest charge of 44.47.

Although she successfully challenged the charge on the grounds she had made a genuine mistake, the financial moral to this story is simple: if you don't want to pay interest, clear your balance in full.

Happy to help in fight for justice

Sometimes, it's nice to be cheered up by a letter from a reader  especially when you've just had to wade through reams of Budget paperwork. So thank you to John Holden, from Pontypool, for thanking me in helping him get back most of his money from an investment in failed fund group Arch Cru.

Although it's taken a while, John has now recovered most of the 20,000 he invested 12 years ago. 'I am now closing the book on this sorry episode,' he told me last week. 'But I would like to thank you for your tireless, public spirited and highly effective campaign in getting justice for investors like me.'

John, it's my pleasure. Let's hope my campaign to get justice for Woodford Equity Income investors is equally successful. It's no coincidence the fund overseers for Arch Cru and Woodford were Link Group (not connected to Link, the cash machine network operator).

All change at Boots

Of all the loyalty cards lurking in my wallet, the one I like the most is Boots Advantage  four pence worth of points for every 1 spent.

Sad though this may sound, nothing quite excites me more of a lunchtime than to discover that the bath salts I have put in my Boots shopping basket ahead of a long evening soak will cost me nothing more than the accumulated points on my Advantage card.

Money talks: From May every 1 of spending will then only get three pence worth of points

But from May, I am going to have to spend more to collect sufficient points to buy Doctor Teal's Pure Epsom Salt Soaking Solution (incidentally, marvellously infused with the scent of lavender). This is because every 1 of spending will then only get me three pence worth of points.

The only consolation is that points earned before the May deadline maintain their value (quite right too). Also, because of my age, I will still get eight pence worth for every 1 spent on Boots' branded products and 'selected exclusives'.

Doctor Teal's. I ain't for changing.
As its name implies, investment trust Schroder Income Growth is set up to deliver a rising income to shareholders.

It is a job entrusted to Sue Noffke, head of UK equities at asset manager Schroders  and so far she has not let down the trust's investors. The 204 million fund, listed on the UK stock market, has 27 years of annual dividend growth under its belt and Noffke is determined to keep it going.

'Growth in income is what our shareholders want,' she says, 'and it's our responsibility as managers to ensure we deliver it. There will be potholes along the way, but our job is to avoid them and keep our investors sweet.'

Since Noffke took over the trust's helm in March 1995, the biggest pothole she has had to negotiate is the drying up of dividend income in response to the pandemic and lockdowns.

The trust managed to grow its dividends by drawing on income reserves built up over many years  and designed for use in years like 2020 and 2021.

Noffke adds: 'I see the squirrelling away of income into the trust's reserves in good times to pay out when things get tough as akin to mending the roof when the sun is shining.' The trust currently has the equivalent of ten-and-a-half months of income up its sleeve to draw upon if needs must.

Like most income-orientated trusts, the Schroders fund pays income quarterly. The amount it hands out is on the high side  equivalent to 4.5 per cent a year against an average for UK equity income trusts of 3.9 per cent.

Rival trusts that pay a bigger income in yield terms include JP Morgan Claverhouse (5.1 per cent), City of London (5 per cent), and Lowland (5 per cent).

The trust delivers its income from a 43-strong portfolio, full of household names. Banks represent a big holding at 12 per cent, with HSBC and Lloyds among its top ten positions. It also has stakes in NatWest and Standard Chartered.

Other key holdings include insurer Legal & General that earlier this month increased its dividend for 2022 by five per cent  and Whitbread, owner of Premier Inns. It also has a stake in private equity group 3i which is a majority shareholder in fast-growing European non-food discount retailer Action.

Noffke is also a big fan of tenpin bowling operator Hollywood Bowl which she says offers customers a good value experience at a time when households are watching every penny they spend.

The fund manager says the UK economy is in better shape than some commentators think  and that all the gloom and despair triggered by Liz Truss's failed attempt to introduce unfunded tax cuts was wildly overdone. 'When you speak to companies, there's less gloom, less despair,' says Noffke.

The shock to global stock markets caused by the demise of United States-based Silicon Valley Bank has had an adverse impact on the trust's assets. Noffke says: 'I expect markets to remain volatile in the short term but I believe the trust's focused, yet diversified, portfolio of attractively valued and income- producing companies will not be impaired in the longer term.' The overall performance numbers for Schroder Income Growth are robust.

Over the past three and five years, it has outperformed both its peer group average and the FTSE All-Share Index with respective returns of 71 and 32 per cent. But over the last year, its performance has lagged the market.

Total annual charges are reasonable at 1.18 per cent. The fund's stock market identification code is 0791586 and its market ticker is SCF.
The Budget has been branded a 'missed opportunity' to put the stuttering electric vehicle revolution in Britain back on track.

Industry figures and two former transport secretaries spoke out amid mounting fears that the UK will not be ready for the ban of new petrol and diesel cars in 2030.

Problems include a lack of charging points and the often sky-high price of buying and plugging in an electric vehicle (EV).

Driven to distraction: Problems include a lack of charging points and the often sky-high price of buying and plugging in an electric vehicle

And while Chancellor Jeremy Hunt froze fuel duty for the 13th year in a row  saving petrol and diesel drivers around 6billion a year  there were no policies to encourage the switch to greener cars.

Andy Palmer, former chief of car maker Aston Martin, called Hunt's Budget 'counter-intuitive' when it came to electric, especially given plans to outlaw the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in seven years.

'The frozen fuel duty seems like a missed opportunity to incentivise a move towards EVs,' he said.

Adrian Hallmark, chairman and chief executive of Bentley, welcomed tax breaks to boost investment, which were outlined in the Budget, as 'a great first step'. But he said ministers must do more to 'incentivise the transition to green technology'.

'Only then can we be an attractive proposition for car manufacturers looking at where to build the next generation of batteries and much more,' he said.

A string of problems  from a lack of charging points to the collapse of plans to build a 3.8billion car battery gigafactory in Northumberland  have highlighted a lack of progress.

Lord Darling, who was transport secretary under Tony Blair, said the high turnover of transport ministers  five in the past five years  means Britain's electric car revolution is careering off course.

'Frankly, there's been so many transport secretaries that you lose count, which is actually part of the problem with the Department for Transport,' said Darling.

Geoff Hoon, transport secretary under Gordon Brown, called the Budget 'disappointing' especially with its lack of focus on charging points.

Just 8,680 charging devices were installed nationwide in 2022.

And there is a north-south divide with nearly a third in London. Westminster has more than Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham combined.

Hoon said: 'We're moving to a situation where by 2030 there will no longer be any production of petrol and diesel cars  people have got to make that change sooner rather than later. You'd have thought that a tax break or some incentive there would have made eminent sense.'

Quentin Willson, former Top Gear host and now frontman of the FairCharge campaign, accuses the Treasury of 'sabotaging the EV revolution by using archaic laws that it refuses to change'.

He has been pushing for the Government to reduce VAT on public charging (currently at 20 per cent) to be in-line with taxation on domestic use at 5 per cent.

He blasted Mr Hunt's decision to support fossil fuels with the continuation of the 5p duty cut while offered nothing for EVs.

'This could have been a low-cost intervention to help grow EV adoption as well as stimulating capital investment in the UKs public charging infrastructure but, sadly, was brushed aside,' Willson said.

'The difference between charging at home and on the public network is now as much as 50p per kWh  which, across a year, adds up to such a shocking difference in charging costs.'

RAC spokesman, Simon Williams, added: 'The Pavement Tax prevents over a third of all households going electric, simply because they cant charge at home.

'No one should be penalised just because they dont have private parking. And with recent rises in charging costs, its absolutely right that the government should end this unfairness now.'
Bank shares tumbled on both sides of the Atlantic as efforts to shore up the financial system failed to calm investor nerves.

After a brutal week on markets around the world, troubled lenders in the US and Europe were on the slide once again  despite the bailouts of Zurich-based Credit Suisse and San Francisco-based First Republic.

The latest sell-off came just a day after First Republic was handed a 25billion lifeline in a desperate bid to boost confidence.

In the red: Troubled lenders in the US and Europe were on the slide once again

That rescue package itself came just hours after the 45billion bailout of Credit Suisse.

But it did little to calm the markets left reeling by the collapse of three US regional banks in quick succession  Silvergate on March 8, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10 and Signature Bank two days after that.

With investors fearing worse is still to come, First Republic crashed another 32.8 per cent in early trading.

Other regional lenders to feel the heat included Pacific West which fell 7.2 per cent, Western Alliance which lost 15.1 per cent, Zions Bancorporation which dropped 3.9 per cent and Comerica which dipped 5.2 per cent. In Europe, Credit Suisse plunged 10.9 per cent.

The fallout was felt on stock markets around the world with the FTSE 100 giving up early gains to close down 1 per cent, or 74.63 points, to 7335.4.

Neil Wilson, a strategist at Markets.com, warned of 'fear and loathing in banking and markets', adding: 'We are not out of the woods.'

It sets the scene for a rocky weekend for industry chiefs, regulators, central bankers and government ministers and officials before the markets reopen on Monday morning.

The sell-off came despite the fact that, late on Thursday night, a group of the largest banks in America came together to pump 25billion into First Republic.

There are now serious questions over what can be done to stem the crisis engulfing the banking sector as confidence continues to be eroded.

Investors heavily criticised the decision to pump aid into First Republic, saying it was a mistake to expose the country's biggest lenders to such a high risk asset. Bill Ackman, of hedge fund management company Pershing Square, said in a tweet that it had created 'a false sense of confidence' in the lender and spread financial contagion.

'It raises more questions than it answers  it's bad policy,' the investor continued. 'I have said before that hours matter. We have allowed days to go by. Half-measures don't work when there is a crisis of confidence.'

The European Central Bank yesterday called an unscheduled meeting to discuss how to stop contagion and the state of banking in the eurozone.

The Bank of England said it was monitoring the situation and remains 'engaged' with the banks and regulators at all times.

But there was little respite for Credit Suisse as the bank, founded in 1856, was hit with legal action from a group of investors who claim it overstated its prospects before this week's crash.

The Swiss authorities are exploring a possible tie-up with UBS to shore up Credit Suisse  but it is understood that there is push-back on the idea. UBS wants to focus on its own wealth management strategy and is reluctant to take on risks related to Credit Suisse, sources say.

Analysts believe a break-up of Credit Suisse is still the most likely solution.

Last week, Credit Suisse admitted it had 'material weaknesses' in its reporting and controls procedures when it published its delayed 2022 annual report.

Stuart Cole, head macro economist at liquidity provider Equiti Capital, said: 'We're not out of the woods yet by any means.' Craig Erlam, analyst at Oanda, said: 'We need to get through the weekend without more drama.'
A fund manager hoping to ride to the rescue of troubled Home REIT has received the backing of several major investors.

Edinburgh-based RM Funds sent out a proposal dubbed 'Project Casa' in late February to try to convince shareholders that it could take over as investment adviser for the sheltered housing group.

The previous adviser, Alvarium, cut ties with Home REIT as it became embroiled in a series of escalating crises.

Troubled: RM Funds sent out a proposal dubbed 'Project Casa' to try to convince shareholders that it could take over as investment adviser for the sheltered housing group

In a draft proposal to shareholders, seen by the Mail, RM has offered an 'immediate reduction' in advisory fees, while also promising to reinvest a percentage of these into buying shares.

RM said it wants to preserve the company's 'social objectives' of providing accommodation to vulnerable people  the promise made initially by Home REIT's founders Gareth Jones and Jamie Beale, fund managers at Alvarium.

The proposal has been submitted to the landlord's board. The company announced on Wednesday that it was in talks with several investment adviser candidates.

RM's offer has secured the support of over a third of the group's shareholders, including several top investors.

A source close to the matter said if the board did not take up RM's proposal, the risk of a 'fire sale' of Home REIT's portfolio would increase, meaning many vulnerable residents would need to be relocated.

They added that a bid for Home REIT tabled by investment firm Blue Star Capital, whose director Benoit Gotlieb has links to Alvarium, was 'not helpful' as it restricted information at a time when transparency was critical.
Tata Steel could shut down one of its two blast furnaces in Port Talbot unless the Government lays out long-term plans to help the industry by the summer.

The Indian group has told Ministers they need to provide details of support by July in order for it to go ahead with a potential multi-billion investment in green steelmaking facilities at the site in South Wales.

The steelmaker has now said it is 'concerned' about the amount of assistance currently on offer and that the Budget was a missed opportunity for the Government to highlight its commitment to the industry.

Hot spot: Tata Steel has warned it could close a blast furnace in Port Talbot

Officials are locked in talks with Tata Steel and British Steel, which operates the country's only other two blast furnaces, to provide them with 300million each to kickstart investment in green technology.

One of the blast furnaces at Port Talbot is due to wind down in the next two to three years and Tata must decide soon whether to extend its life, shut it down or replace it with a new electric steelmaking facility.

Shutting it down permanently without new technology could lead to the loss of thousands of jobs and deal another hammer blow to the UK's already dwindling industry.

Energy costs have been a major sticking point for industrial groups including the steel industry for years.The Government has committed to cutting costs through a 'supercharger' scheme, but it does not kick in for at least a year.

Defender: Actor Michael Sheen fears for home town

A Tata Steel spokesman told The Mail on Sunday: 'While we recognise a positive direction of travel through some of the energy measures recently announced, we remain concerned that the measures will not be sufficient to allow our industry to progress to green steelmaking at the pace and scale required, The Spring Budget was an opportunity for the Government to further demonstrate its commitment to supporting a decarbonised and competitive UK steel industry.'

Award-winning actor Michael Sheen, who grew up in Port Talbot, told the MoS it was 'unthinkable' that the sector could be put at risk.

'Having grown up in Port Talbot and now returned to live here again, I'm keenly aware of how important the steel industry is, not only to our community but also to our country as a whole,' he said.

A Department for Business and Trade spokesman said it is 'committed to securing a sustainable and competitive future' for UK steel.
Lee Jae-myung, center in the front row, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, and other participants chant slogans during a March 18 rally in Seoul, denouncing President Yoon Suk Yeol's March 16 summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Yonhap



Political strife escalated Saturday over the recent Korea-Japan summit, as the liberal opposition took to the streets blasting President Yoon Suk Yeol for cozying up to Tokyo and looking past historical disputes on the wartime forced labor issue.



Yoon held a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, Thursday, to mend ties strained by historical disputes stemming from Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45.



Earlier this month, South Korea announced a plan to compensate the victims of wartime forced labor through a foundation with donations from domestic companies and not the accused Japanese firms, a move opposed by the victims, opposition parties and activists.



During his trip to Japan, Yoon said Korea has no plans to seek reimbursement from Japan after compensating the victims.



On Saturday, the presidential office hailed the summit as a success, saying it "provided a turning point in improving bilateral relations that had reached their worst point ever."



The first bilateral summit between the two neighbors in 12 years has "expanded the scope of cooperation to economic security, such as stabilizing supply chains, and promoting key cutting-edge technology, while working to restore the existing cooperative channels" with Tokyo, Yoon's office said in a press release.





Wartime sexual slavery, Dokdo not discussed in Yoon-Kishida summit: FM ANALYSIS Too early to hail success of Korea-Japan summit Business leaders from Korea, Japan meet to bolster bilateral ties However, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) harshly criticized Yoon for turning his back on public opinion and "eventually choosing to become a servant of Japan."



"President Yoon went (to Japan) with boxes of gifts and came back not even empty-handed but with a bunch of bills to pay," he said at a rally in Seoul protesting against the recent summit.



About 3,000 people, including members of opposition political parties and progressive civic groups, participated in the demonstration in front of Seoul City Hall.



Lee slammed Yoon's "humiliating attitude" toward Japan and stressed that the victims' right to claim compensation is a basic human right that cannot be infringed upon.



The opposition DPK also denounced Yoon for quoting Okakura Kakuzo, a Japanese scholar also known as Okakura Tenshin who supported Tokyo's colonial rule of Korea, during his speech at Keio University in Tokyo.



During a written press briefing, DPK spokesperson An Ho-young said the scholar had claimed Korea was originally Japanese territory.



"President Yoon's humiliating diplomacy with Japan is now beyond pro-Japanese diplomacy, and we are left with no choice but to call it submissive diplomacy," he said.



The ruling People Power Party (PPP) defended the summit results as having resumed "shuttle diplomacy" and "opening a new era of future-oriented cooperation."



"Korea and Japan have been reborn as partner countries that share universal values and cooperate in security, and an economic and global agenda," PPP spokesperson Jang Dong-hyeok said.



Jang also accused the DPK of spreading fake news about the summit and stirring up anti-Japan sentiment, saying the party is "relying on anti-Japan sentiment for incitement." (Yonhap)




There is little more disconcerting than news of bank runs, government bailouts and plunging bank share prices  all of which we saw last week.

Silicon Valley Bank in the US collapsed and HSBC had to bail out its UK arm. Then troubled banking giant Credit Suisse announced it had secured a 45 billion lifeline from Switzerland's central bank.

But although the headlines may sound as if they have a whiff of the global financial crisis about them, the circumstances are very different.

Banks are in a lot better nick than in 2008. They have to comply with beefed-up Bank of England regulations and they are regularly stress-tested to see how they would manage in a variety of difficult events. Even if something did go wrong, UK savers and investors benefit from a number of protections.

Crisis: The US tech bank Silicon Valley Bank collapsed after businesses withdrew deposits

Bank safety: Your cash savings

In the very unlikely event that your bank, building society or credit union goes bust, you should get your savings back, so long as you meet certain conditions.

Firstly, the provider holding your cash must be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). They should advertise clearly if they do have this coverage. You can also check on the FSCS website.

Secondly, you will only get back savings worth up to 85,000 per bank. If you have a joint account, you're covered up to 170,000.

Laura Suter, head of personal finance at investment platform AJ Bell, says: 'This means that ideally you don't want more than 85,000 with each provider, even if it's spread across different accounts.'

Protection is across all accounts held within the banking group, not per account, so watch out for banks with a number of brand names. For example, First Direct is owned by HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland is another brand under the NatWest bank.

You may get protection of up to 1 million for up to six months if you have a temporarily high balance.

How are investments protected by FSCS

Your investment provider should not go bust. They are very tightly regulated precisely so they don't. Even if it does, your provider should be holding your money safely in a separate client account.

If something does go badly wrong, you should receive FSCS protection worth up to 85,000. Furthermore, if an authorised firm gives you bad advice or is negligent in its management of your investments, you will be covered.

However, you will not be compensated if your investments drop in value as a result of movements in financial markets. That is just part of the risk of investing.

Before investing, check that the firm is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority or the Prudential Regulation Authority. Make sure that it is regulated to do the particular activity that it is offering you, for example giving investment advice.

Some investment types offer no protection. These include cryptocurrencies, mini-bonds and peer-to-peer lending.

What protects your pension

Should your pension provider go bust, the compensation you're entitled to will be determined by the type of pension you have and if it is regulated by the FCA.

Defined contribution pensions: These are pension schemes where both you and your employer pay in a set monthly amount.

Although these schemes are arranged by your employer, your money is held and managed by a separate pension provider. That means that if your employer goes bust, it will not affect your pension holdings. Whether your savings have FSCS protection should the pension provider go bust depends on how your scheme was set up. You can check this with your pension provider.

Self Invested Personal Pensions: In most cases, if your Self Invested Personal Pension (Sipp) provider were to go bust, you would receive up to 85,000 FSCS compensation.

However, some providers structure their Sipps so all of your savings are covered. Ask your provider what protection it offers.

Defined benefit pensions: Also known as final salary, this type of workplace pension offers a guaranteed income in retirement. It is up to your employer to ensure there is enough money available to pay out.

Pension funds are usually ring-fenced from the company balance sheet, so even if your employer gets into financial difficulty your pension should be protected.

If the scheme can't pay, your pension is taken over by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), which is a lifeboat fund set up by the Government.

Becky O'Connor, director of public affairs at pension provider PensionBee, says: 'The PPF will compensate you for 100 per cent of your pension if you've already reached the scheme's retirement age at the time your employer goes bust.

'If you haven't yet reached the scheme's retirement age, you'll only be entitled to 90 per cent compensation, to a set limit.'
A cancer survivor who nearly lost his foot in a brutal e-scooter accident is one of the millions in the UK calling for them to be banned from the streets, MailOnline can reveal.

Two-thirds of Brits want e-scooters banned from public roads, while three-quarters think a driving licence and insurance should be a requirement to use one, a survey by the National Accident Helpline found.

Cancer survivor Luke Barratt, from Barnsley, was in remission for leukaemia when he was struck with life-changing injuries after an e-scooter accident on October 26, 2021.

The 32-year-old's mobility had been limited by his leukaemia but he hoped using an e-scooter would mean he could visit family living nearby.

However, while riding the scooter he misjudged the kerb and was thrown to the floor. His right foot was almost completely torn off from his ankle.

Cancer survivor Luke Barratt, 32, from Barnsley, nearly severed his right foot (pictured) after an e-scooter crash

Mr Barratt (pictured) endured multiple emergency surgeries that lasted for hours as doctors saved his foot

After the crash, Mr Barratt said: 'I tried to get back on it at first, but then I realised my leg was in one place and my foot was in another'

He revealed he remained in pain after the surgery and called for e-scooter to be banned from British roads

He is one of millions in the UK calling for them to be taken off the streets, MailOnline can reveal (File image)

Passersbys rushed to help him and he was brought to Northern General Hospital in Sheffield.

There, he endured multiple emergency surgeries that lasted for hours as doctors saved his foot.

'I wasn't aware exactly how quick it went and what the consequences would be,' Luke told the Barnsley Chronicle.

'I tried to get back on it at first, but then I realised my leg was in one place and my foot was in another.

'I'm still in pain. I wouldn't wish the pain on my worst enemy.'

The number of deaths in e-scooter crashes has tripled in the last year on record and crashes have gone up 38 per cent from 978 to 1,349

The reported number of casualties in collisions involving e-scooters rocketed in the UK in 2021, the last year on record

The most common age of person involved in a collision with an e-scooter, not including the rider, was aged between 50 and 59

The graph shows the number of reported e-scooter user casualties, by age and sex in the UK in 2021. There are more male than female e-scooter user casualties, especially amongst those aged between 10 and 39

Department for Transport data shows the number of casualties involved in e-scooter collisions by time of the day, in 2020 and 2021. The trend is the same for both years, an upward trend starting at 6am and ending at 4pm with a dip at 10am, followed by a downward trend from 4pm to 10pm

He said he would not go on a scooter again and hoped they will be banned, not just restricted.

The number of deaths from e-scooter accidents has tripled in the last year alone.

There were 1,349 crashes involving e-scooters between June 2021 and 2022, compared with 978 crashes the year before, which is an increase of 38 per cent.

Of those, just 346 involved only a single e-scooter and no other vehicles, compared with 200 the year before.

More than 1,000 e-scooter users were injured in the crashes, compared to 811 in the year ending June 2021.

There were 12 deaths in collisions involving e-scooters (11 of whom were e-scooter riders) compared to four in the year ending June 2021.

The government estimated that there were 429 people seriously injured and 996 slightly injured in collisions involving e-scooters, compared to 288 and 741 in the year ending June 2021.

In 2019, Channel 4 and YouTube star Emily Hartridge was killed in what was believed to be Britain's first fatal electric scooter accident.

The 35-year-old was involved in a collision with a lorry while riding an e-scooter near her home in Battersea, south London.

The National Accident Helpline's Jonathan White said: 'E-scooters are an increasingly important part of the UK's transport portfolio.

Channel 4 and YouTube star Emily Hartridge (pictured) was killed in what was believed to be Britain's first fatal electric scooter accident

Ms Hartridge was killed after the e-scooter she was riding was involved in a collision with a HGV in Battersea, south west London at around 8.30am on July 12, 2019. Pictured: The scene of the crash

The crash happened at Queen's Circus roundabout, pictured on the day of the crash, which has been the scene of other fatal incidents involving trucks and vulnerable road users

The 35-year-old was involved in a collision with a lorry while riding an e-scooter near her home in Battersea, south London

'They are a good cheap form of transport which have significant environmental benefits. The reality though, is they can be dangerous.

'Not only does the lack of regulation around private e-scooters cause concern but the silent nature of the vehicles means pedestrians crossing roads, are very vulnerable to accidents.

He said the survey of 2,000 Brits showed licensing and insurance were 'key to restoring confidence'.

Mr White added: 'With growing concern around the safety of e-scooters in the UK, it's vital that people know the law and understand whether they're eligible to make a clam if an accident occurs or is not their fault.

'Education is key and the Department of Transport should make it clear to the public that it is illegal to use a private e-scooter on public roads and in almost all public places in the UK, and that they could incur fines and penalties if caught.

'The Department of Transport should also take action against retailers that fail to properly inform customers of the risks and regulations around the use of private e-scooters.

'They should be prepared to cooperate with police in taking enforcement action against illegal and unsafe use of private e-scooters.'

Currently, the law says e-scooters can only be used on private land, unless they are rented as part of a government-backed trial.

It is illegal to use them on public roads, on pavements, in cycle lanes and in pedestrian-only areas, unless they are used as part of one of those trials.

Those renting a scooter in one of those trials must also hold a valid full or provisional driving licence.
Advertisement

The pictures, and the numbers, say it all.

Shabby tent encampments erected in city parks, along streets and beneath overpasses. Homeless people, many with mental health or drug problems, sprawled across sidewalks or subway seats. Needles and other paraphernalia often nearby.

America's homelessness scourge is huge and shows few signs of getting better.

California is by far the worst hit. It has about a third of all the country's homeless people, and Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, and other Golden State cities have among the largest numbers of unsheltered people in the country.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development says 582,462 people did not have a permanent home on the single night in January last year when researchers carried out their most recent snapshot survey.

Some 60 percent of the destitute were in shelters, crashing with friends or relatives, or had other temporary digs. The rest were 'unsheltered'  sleeping in cars, on the streets or in derelict buildings.

About a third of the entire US homeless population  171,521 people  are in California. That includes more than half of the country's unsheltered homeless population, 115,491 people.

Sights like this, a homeless person's belongings scattered on the street next to a bank in Los Angeles, California, have become a common sight at ATMs across the country

A view of a homeless encampment on a street in West Oakland, California, last month, as local officials made moves to clear out the structures

To capture the scale of the problem, DailyMail.com analyzed the department's data, which were released at the end of last year, to show which US states and cities have the worst homelessness rates.

They show that about a third of the entire US homeless population  171,521 people  are in California. That includes more than half of the country's unsheltered homeless population, 115,491 people.

California also added 9,973 homeless people between 2020 and last year's survey.

The Golden State has the country's highest rate of homelessness, with 44 non-housed people out of every 10,000 residents. It is followed closely by Vermont, Oregon, and Hawaii.

Los Angeles is the state's hotspot, with 65,111 homeless people.

But five other metropolitan hubs  San Jose, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco  also feature in the top 10 of America's worst-hit cities, each with their own roughly 10,000 homeless.

Some 70 percent of Californians say homelessness and the cost of housing are a 'big problem' for the state, according to a survey last month by the Public Policy Institute of California, a think tank.

A similar share of residents say the problem had got worse this past year. Another 60 percent were 'very concerned' that their children would be priced out of buying their own home in the Golden State.

LA Mayor Karen Bass said this week she's set to move some 4,000 people off the streets in her first 100 days, making a small dent in a homeless crisis that billions in spending has failed to quell.

Bass says shes teamed up with government agencies and service providers to cut through the bureaucracy thats eluded progress in the past.

The 'game changer is the coordination across city and county departments,' she said.

Homeless tents are seen along a sidewalk near the City Hall of San Francisco in California

Lux Leigh feeds her cat in front of the RV where she lives along a two block makeshift encampment in Seattle, Washington

Trash and personal belongings strewn across a street beside a shabby homeless encampment in West Oakland, California

Two men share cigarettes and water with a homeless person who struggles to stay cool during the humid Oregon summer

Los Angeles city council member Joe Buscaino has complained that kids in his city have to 'step over needles' and 'human waste' on their way to school due because of those crashing out in residential areas.

'No child in America should be afraid to walk to school, and what we have found in Los Angeles is kids are afraid to walk to school,' the Democrat said in a television interview late last year.

'They tell their parents they have to step over needles, human waste, and deal with individuals unfortunately suffering from psychotic behavior  right next to their playground area.'

In Culver City, California, the homeless crisis has got so bad that officials this month voted to clear out and ban homeless encampment tents, as several of them had spilled across sidewalks in the area.

When that ordinance goes into effect, police can tell homeless residents they can't camp out on the streets if other housing options are available, in a move designed to get people off the streets.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has acknowledged that the state was 'failing to meet the urgency' of the crisis, and last November vowed to reduce homelessness by 2 percent statewide by 2024.

He was set to meet residents this week in Sacramento, which has some 9,278 homeless people.

The crisis is a blight along the West Coast. Oregon has one of the highest homelessness rates in the country and 17,959 people without a permanent place to call home.

Residents of Portland are selling their homes due to the homeless epidemic that is ravaging the city.

Some homeowners say they are 'scared' to leave the house due to untreated mental among the homeless people kipping nearby.

The crisis has revived a debate between liberals and conservatives about how to solve the homelessness problem.

Democrat officials often blame rising rents, greedy landlords and evictions for forcing people onto the street. Their solution is to share the nation's wealth more evenly and build more homes that people can afford.

Culver City officials want to bar tents and other structures in the streets. Pictured: homeless man Roscoe Billy Ray Bradley Jr

Culver City's ordinance, which has no enforcement date, would let homeless people stay on the streets with only sleeping bags and blankets

Tents line the streets as the crisis grows, worsened by a drug crisis that was caused partly by Oregon becoming the first state in the country to decriminalize many hard drugs

Many voters agree. The cost of housing and other necessities are at historic highs.

Meanwhile, the number of evictions, which were barred in many places during the Covid-19 outbreak, have returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to a Princeton University research team called the Eviction Lab.

Lisa McCormick, a New Jersey Democratic politician, this week said the 'obstinate problem' could be solved by reversing free-market economics.

'Home used to be a key part of the America Dream but now it is a nightmare for many of our citizens,' McCormick posted on social media.

'Reverse Reaganomics: because it doesn't work.'

Republicans typically say homelessness is linked to the drugs and mental health issues of the homeless themselves.

Giving away rent-free accommodation won't help people who cannot look after themselves, they say.

California State Senator Scott Wilk, who represents an area to the north of LA, this week said the state needed a new policy.

'$20 billion spent over 5 years. 171,521 people currently experiencing homelessness in the Golden State,' Wilk tweeted

'The status quo has failed.'

Andrea Suarez tries to talk a homeless man, 24, out of injecting methamphetamine in Seattle, Washington

A man brings shoplifted beer to sell at a homeless encampment in Seattle, Washington
An upstate New York man says he is beevicted from his 'luxury' apartment complex after exposing the decrepit state of the building in a viral TikTok video.

The 33-year-old, who goes by Donny Skipper on social media, posted a series of videos showcasing The Lofts at Harmony Mills in Cohoes, New York, just north of Albany, where apartments go for between $1,500 and over $3,000 per month.

In his initial video, Skipper showed a litany of troubling details in the building, including piles of trash in hallways, a smashed front door, elevators that are consistently out of service, and bats infesting the elevators, hallways, and air ducts.

After that first video went viral - racking up nearly two million views - he posted a follow-up explaining his management company notified him they would not be renewing his lease.

Undeterred, he began gathering signatures from similarly dissatisfied tenants to bring a lawsuit against the management company, Lincoln Property.

Skipper, who lives in the apartment with his wife and toddler, told DailyMail.com he was inspired to post the videos after his landlords notified residents they would be raising rents, with one-bedroom apartments increasing from $1,879 to $2,004 per month.

Donny Skipper films a bat he found in his apartment building, The Lofts at Harmony Mills

In the videos, which he began posting in February, Skipper mocked the 'luxury' amenities of his apartment building.

'It's called The Lofts, every place has got a luxurious place called The Lofts,' he said, opening his first video. 'What I love about The Lofts is how the front door sometimes doesn't work when you put your key in it.'

After struggling with the door and finally getting in, he shows the entry-hall floor soaked with water and scattered with caution signs lying on the tiles.

'Sometimes you do get little spillages around, but that's luxurious, it keeps your feet clean. Even the stickiness, it makes sure you don't slip,' he said, before heading to two sets of elevators that are both out of order.

After finding a working elevator somewhere in the building, he finds a live bat hanging upside down in the corner.

'Hey look, I got a bat in the elevator right now,' he says, before cutting to a shot of a bats flying through his hallway. 'I love the bats that live in my luxurious apartment, they're so awesome and they keep things very luxurious.'

In other videos, bats can be heard shrieking inside and flying through the exposed air ducts that run through the apartments.

Skipper concludes the video by showing a notice from management that they are increasing the rent by several hundred dollars per month, which he tosses in the trash.

In a later video - viewed about 2.5 million times - Skipper finds a notice on his door, which he takes to his 'favorite spot' in the building - 'the waterfront view through the windows that I've never seen get cleaned' - to read.

Standing before a filthy window, Skipper explains the building declined to renew his lease 'just because I made some TikToks saying that there's some things that gotta get fixed at this place.'

Donny Skipper shows a bat flying through the a hallway in his apartment building

Piles of trash in Donny Skipper's apartment building. Residents say the trash chute (right) often jams

Donny Skipper shows a door at The Lofts at Harmony Mills that is split down the middle

Skipper said he and his family would be forced to move out come May despite being a reliable tenant in the building for three years.

He told DailyMail.com they'd lived in the apartment for three years and always paid their rent on time, and 'treated the property, staff, and neighbors with respect.'

But about a year ago, Skipper said there was a staff turnover at the building and things began to fall into disrepair.

'Things appeared to fall into a constant state of disrepair and the complex leasing office became a team that would be very dismissive with requests for repairs,' he said.

'In the past year a wide range of maintenance issues have come up - exploding water heaters, boards falling off the ceiling, broken elevators, garages and doors, bats frequenting my HVAC vents and more.

'They always made me feel like I was in the wrong for asking for them to keep things properly maintained,' he added.

'I didnt understand how they could justify raising rent on a unit that has not been updated in 3 years in a complex where advertised amenities are frequently inaccessible or removed entirely.'

According to its website, The Lofts at Harmony Mills offer a bevy of 'luxury' amenities, including a fitness center, and spa, a yoga studio, a 'relaxation room,' dog runs and washing stations, trash removal, and a car detailing station.

In one of his videos, Skipper shows the detailing station - which appears to be little more than a large and locked plastic locker outside the building - and said the pool area was frequently closed due to problems like broken showers.

'You can create your own distinct lifestyle in a breathtaking setting that offers a unique combination of luxury, style and convenience,' its website states. 'Harmony Mills residents are privy to some of the best and hard-to-find amenities in the area.'

Donny Skipper shows off his eviction notice, and the ducts filled with bats that wake him up

Donny Skipper shows off a number of filthy stains found throughout his apartment building

Donny Skipper shows how the heat in his building broke for weeks, and the building's fix (right)

The Lofts at Harmony Mills in Cohoe, New York, just north of Albany. Some residents have complained that the 'luxury' apartment complex is a poorly maintained dump

Skipper also showed DailyMail.com numerous photos of the building's trash chute overflowing with garbage, along with comments from fellow residents complaining that it was a weekly sight.

He also pointed to a picture of packages stacked up in the open, outside a building door, and has posted numerous videos about his own vigilante tactics to catch package thieves who have targeted the building with no resistance from management.

Another message showed a tenant reporting that one of the building's garage doors had been opening and closing on its own volition throughout the night.

Skipper said nobody from his management property has reached out about the lease renewal.

'This corporation is forcing us out of our home. All I did was speak up about unsafe conditions,' he told BuzzFeed.

Neither Lincoln Properties nor The Lofts at Harmony Mills responded to DailyMail.com requests for comment.
Residents are unhappy claiming they are unable to access a nearby beach after an Indigenous community was granted native title rights over the strip of sand.

Access to the Burrum Heads beach on Queensland's Fraser Coast, north of Brisbane, was closed off by the Butchulla people after a native title grant of 100,000ha of land and ocean in 2019.

The native title determination includes a section designated as 'exclusive use', including some coastal foreshore and a car park which separate Burrum Heads residents from the beach.

Branches and mesh now cover the entrance to the car park and thoroughfare to the beach.

The restricted access to the beach comes after reports of a dispute over trespassing during Australia Day celebrations in the area.

A small community in Queensland, Burrow Heads, is in the midst of a dispute between the Indigenous people's and residents after their native title grant cut access to a beach (pictured)

The Butchulla people's connection to the land and sea was recognised after a 2019 special Federal Court determination was handed down.

The determination reserves 17,129 hectares of land in the area to be used exclusively by the Indigenous peoples, while non-exclusive native title rights and interests apply to more than 79,608 hectares of land.

Following the most recent conflict, the area's Federal MP, Keith Pitt, claimed that 'a number of concerned Burrum Heads residents contacted my office about an area of land under native title'.

'It has resulted in restricted access to the beach and older constituents being chased off the beach,' the Nationals MP told Daily Mail Australia.

'I contacted both the local state MP and the Fraser Coast Regional Council about the concerns raised with me and to find out what steps were being taken to address the situation.

'The council advised it is working with the state government to understand how the land can be used and by whom.

'Every Australian is expected to abide by Australian laws and regulations, without exception.'

According to Liberal MP for Hinkley, Keith Pitt, older residents have been 'chased off' the beach (pictured) as disputes have escalated

The Butchulla people were granted around 100,000 hectares of land and sea in 2019, 17,129 hectares of which is exclusive to the Butchulla Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, including part of the foreshore at Burrum Heads

Associate Professor at Griffith Law School, Kate Galloway, told the Courier Mail that while residents may be disappointed, an exclusive rights determination gives native title holders' property rights.

According to Queensland's Resources Department, using the land without permission from the native title holders is not permitted.

A negotiation process would have to be undertaken with the corporation to reach a land use agreement.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to the Butchulla Native Title Aboriginal Corporation for comment.
Bruce Lehrmann has revealed how the judge preceding over his trial for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins left him shocked with a comment about his supposed guilt.

The former Liberal staffer, 27, who has always denied the rape allegations against him, claimed Chief Justice Lucy McCallum told his barrister that if he pleaded guilty, she would take that plea into consideration when sentencing him.

Breaking his silence in his first interview since the rape trial, Mr Lehrmann claimed that the comment showed an 'apprehension of bias' against him.

He also said he was not told about the comments until after the trial, because his barrister Steven Whybrow SC, was trying to 'keep him alive'.

Bruce Lehrmann has claimed the judge preceding over his trial for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins informed his barrister that if he pleaded guilty, she would take that plea into consideration when sentencing him

'I've only found this out a few weeks ago and I was choking back tears,' he told the Australian.

'I took her comments to mean that if I did the 'right thing' by pleading guilty, given Ms Higgins was suffering mental health issues, the judge would do the right thing by me come sentencing.'

He added he was 'quite upset' by the comments but thought that it was an 'incredibly sound' decision not to tell him.

'He has a duty of care and the amount of stress that I've been under, he was trying to keep me alive.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Chief Justice Lucy MacCallum.

Earlier, Mr Lehrmann also told the Federal Court that he lied about legal advice that he was 'up for millions' from a defamation payout in order to placate his girlfriend.

He claimed his girlfriend was 'distraught' after Ms Higgins appeared on the Project and so he put on 'a brave face' to make her feel better.

After his cross-examination, where he revealed he was 'outraged' by the allegations, , court documents were made public showing all the texts he sent and received on the day the news broke

However, this was challenged by lawyers from the media outlets he is suing, who say the text messages proved he was well aware he could sue for defamation at that point.

Lawyers for the Ten Network and News Corp want Mr Lehrmann's lawsuit thrown out because he failed to launch proceedings within the required 12-month time limit.

They claim the texts are evidence in their favour as they contradict his claim he was advised by his lawyers against pursuing defamation proceedings.

It comes as Mr Lehrmann's texts from the night of Ms Higgins allegations were revealed.

He texted a friend asking 'got any gear' and saying 'need bags', court documents have revealed.

The former Liberal party staffer told his friends he wanted to 'get lit' as 'no one had work tomorrow' on the night of February 15, 2021.

That was the same night Ms Higgins appeared on The Project and alleged she had been raped in Parliament House in 2019 by an unnamed man.

Mr Lehrmann is suing Channel 10 and news.com.au for defamation over reports which were published in March, 2021 about the allegations. He claims that the reports led to certain people identifying him as the accused.

He has always denied the allegations.

After his cross-examination on Thursday, where he revealed he was 'outraged' by the allegations, court documents were made public showing all the texts he sent and received on the day the news broke.

A message log shows the staffer spent the evening in his lawyer Warwick Korn's office drinking scotch and watching The Project - which featured an interview with Brittany Higgins.

The former Liberal party staffer told his friends he wanted to 'get lit' as 'no one had work tomorrow' on the night of February 15, 2021. Mock-up of his WhatsApp messages is shown

Mr Lehrmann is suing Channel 10 and news.com.au for defamation over reports which were published in March, 2021 about Ms Higgins (pictured) allegations. He claims that the reports led to certain people identifying him as the accused

He then texted his friend four consecutive texts reading: 'need bags', 'let's get it done' and 'no one has work tomorrow' followed by 'paying' 'let's get lit'.

About 20 minutes later, he texted a work friend saying 'got any gear' but she replied saying she was at home and they needed to 'keep it clean'.

He then texted another friend to say 'Get here, it's good' followed by 'How many bags?'

At the same time, a colleague texted him saying 'tomorrow won't be good' and that he needed to 'rein the s*** in'.

The work friend added: 'Clear your name mate that's all that matters. You only have your name and one name.'

'You need to take this seriously mate. Go home and don't leave your apartment.'

The court documents also reveal messages from early in the day, when Mr Lehrmann discovered the news after a friend texted him with a link to the story asking if he 'knew this chick???'

Mr Lehrmann replied saying that he 'worked with her briefly' and '(she) was at team drinks etc'.

His friend replied saying it was a 'pretty cooked allegation' and asked if he 'knew who the girl was'.

Mr Lehrmann said he didn't have the 'faintest idea'.

'I haven't been approached by anyone' he wrote.

Around half an hour later, another friend texted him asking 'if had any gossip on who the Canberra rape guy is' before adding 'the yarn says 'rising star' so that rules out our mates but who else?'.

He replied he had 'no idea in the slightest' and that he 'hadn't been approached by anyone' before saying that he 'assumed it will fizzle'.

'She [Ms Higgins] is on the Project tonight which isn't exactly prime time stuff,' he texted, before adding 'they wouldn't name would they  pretty slanderous stuff'.

Mr Lehrmann sent a series of messages to his then-girlfriend Greta Sinclair after the allegations against him aired (pictured). He later told the court most of them were 'fabricated' to 'placate' her because she was upset

His friend replied: 'Well it's defamatory'.

The Project or news.com.au article did not name Mr Lehrmann. In his defamation suit, he is claiming their stories included details that 'could identify him' to certain people.

By 3pm, Mr Lehrmann had secured lawyer Warwick Korn and sat down with him in his Sydney office and fumed as Higgins accused him of raping her.

Texts from the next day show him thanking the lawyer for support.

Mr Lehrmann's girlfriend at the time, Greta Sinclair, was distraught over the extraordinary televised accusations.

He placated her by firing off messages suggesting his lawyer had told him that he was a 'pawn' and 'part of a bigger political hatchet job'.

During further cross-examination on Thursday, Mr Lehrmann admitted to Ten's lawyer Matthew Collins KC that Mr Korn never said that.

Mr Lehrmann's girlfriend at the time, Greta Sinclair, was distraught over the extraordinary televised accusations

Brittany Higgins leaves the ACT Magistrates Court with members of her legal team in Canberra on October 14

Text messages emerged where Mr Lehrmann told Ms Sinclair that he was having a 'glass of scotch' in Mr Korn's office while waiting for Lisa Wilkinson's interview with Ms Higgins on the current affairs show.

'If I'm named tonight I'm up for millions in defamation ... (Mr Korn) said I won't see the light of a courtroom,' he reassured her.

Later that evening, at 10.02pm, he sent Ms Sinclair another message that said: '[Mr Korn] keeps taking notes though, very professional'.

While being grilled in court, Mr Lehrmann admitted Mr Korn was not in fact taking notes during their conversation and insisted that he just wanted to make Ms Sinclair feel OK.

'I wanted her to think I had my house was in order.'
The captain of a United Airlines flight due to take off from New York's JFK airport on the morning of 9/11 has said he believes his plane was intended to be a fifth aircraft in the terrorist plot.

Tom Mannello was sitting on the tarmac in the cockpit of United Flight 23 at 9am, waiting to take off, when air traffic control ordered all flights back to their gates.

Mannello later learned box cutters were found on a plane parked at the neighboring gate, and believes a ground crew assisting the terrorists got the wrong plane, thwarting any attempted attack.

'There is a good chance that somebody was plotting to try to use our airplane as a weapon of mass destruction,' he said on TMZ INVESTIGATES: 9/11: THE FIFTH PLANE, which airs on Monday at 9pm ET on Fox.

United 23 did not feature in the official report of the 9/11 Commission, and there were never any confirmed arrests of those on board. U.S. officials have not commented on the years of speculation about the flight being a possible fifth plane planned for attack.

Tom Mannello was the captain on board United Flight 23, which was on the tarmac at JFK awaiting takeoff when the second plane hit the Twin Towers. All planes were then ordered to return to their gates

The World Trade Center towers are seen billowing with smoke on September 11, 2001, after the second plane hit at 9:03am

September 11, 2001, remains the deadliest terrorist attacks in American history, and saw 2,977 people killed in four separate attacks.

The five planes of 9/11? 7:59am: American Airlines Flight 11 takes off from Boston, headed for Los Angeles, with five hijackers onboard. At 8:46am, it crashes into the World Trade Center's North Tower. 8:14am: United Airlines Flight 175 takes off from Boston, also headed for Los Angeles, with five hijackers onboard. At 9:03am, it crashes into the WTC's South Tower. 8:20am: American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Dulles, outside of Washington, DC, headed for Los Angeles, with five hijackers onboard. At 9:37am, it crashes into the Pentagon. 8:42am: United Flight 93 takes off from Newark, New Jersey, after a delay due to routine traffic. It was headed for San Francisco, and has four hijackers onboard. At 10:02am, it plows into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers staged a revolt and brought it down. Its intended target is thought to be the White House or Capitol. 9:00am: United Flight 23 was on the tarmac at JFK, waiting in line to take off to Los Angeles. At 9:08am New York Air Traffic Control announced that there would be no takeoffs from the airport, so Flight 23 returned to the gate. Advertisement

Four planes crashed that morning.

American Airlines Flight 11 took off from Boston bound for LA, and crashes into the World Trade Center's North Tower at 8:46am.

United Airlines Flight 175 also took off from Boston, 15 minutes after the AA flight, heading for LA: it crashed into the WTC's South Tower at 9:03am.

At this point, United 23 was on the tarmac, and told to return to the gate.

At 9:37am, American Airlines Flight 77, which had taken off from Washington DC, crashed into the Pentagon.

And finally, at 10:02am, United Flight 93, which had taken off from Newark bound for San Francisco, was downed in a field in Pennsylvania. Analysts now believe the hijackers were aiming for the White House or Capitol.

Sandy Thorngren, a flight attendant on United 23, told the documentary: 'I definitely think Flight 23 was the fifth plane.'

Thorngren said that, after they returned to the gate, the passengers disembarked and the crew were interviewed by the FBI.

'They wanted to take us to show us a line up of people at the Port Authority,' she said, in a preview clip of the documentary obtained by DailyMail.com.

'They got us all in a van, a windowless van. I felt like we were getting snuck into this van. And driven over to the Port Authority offices where everyone - I mean, gates were locked and guarded with armored military that had machine guns, or whatever rifles they were using.

'We were escorted to this one room with those double windows where you could see in but not out.

'And they asked us if we could identify any of the people that were behind that window.'

The documentary says four passengers traveling in first class were reported as behaving suspiciously, but no one was ever arrested.

Mannello said he later learned that box cutters were found on the plane parked next to his, and he suspects that a hijack team had on-the-ground help - but they got the wrong plane.

'The chief pilot reported to me that they had found two box cutters in the seat pockets in first class in the plane next to it, which had a tail number one digit off,' Mannello told the documentary.

Sandy Thorngren, a flight attendant on the plane, said she was convinced the plane was intended to be hijacked on 9/11

John McCain is seen holding up a copy of the 9/11 Commission Report. The report makes no mention of United 23

'If somebody was on the ground cooperating with them, they just simply made a mistake and put the box cutters on the wrong airplane.

'You have people who clean the airplane, people that load food on the airplane, that have access to the airplane.

'If somebody was in cooperation with the group they could have been put there. It wouldn't be the hardest thing in the world to get on an airplane like that.

'It's the one thing that makes me think that there's a good chance that somebody was plotting to try to use our airplane as a weapon of mass destruction.'

Nineteen hijackers were onboard the four planes, and died in the attacks.

People run away as the North Tower of World Trade Center collapses on 9/11

Smoke billows from the Pentagon after one of the four planes crashed into it on September 11

Firefighters and emergency workers investigate the crash site of United Flight 93 after the jet was hijacked during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and passengers brought it down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania

Within two months of the attacks, law enforcement authorities had detained, at least for questioning, more than 1,200 people.

The Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba was turned into a prison to house those arrested on what became George W. Bush's 'War on Terror': at its peak, the camp held 780 men, but now has only 32.

They include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, whose trial has been scheduled to start for decades.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said he was behind the attacks, and on May 2, 2011, under orders from Barack Obama, a special operations unit raided the Pakistan compound where he was living and killed him.

The attacks led to George W. Bush bombing Afghanistan in October 2001, where the Taliban regime was supportive of al-Qaeda.

The Taliban was toppled in a month, and bin Laden fled.

Bush then sent U.S. troops to Iraq in March 2003, purportedly to destroy Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and end the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein.

There was little if any sign of a connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq, and no WMD were ever found.
Doctors at a private hospital delayed resuscitating a woman having a heart attack for several minutes after confusing her with another patient with the same first name.

The woman in her 50s went into cardiac arrest while staying at the Hollywood Private Hospital in central Perth.

Her CPR was delayed by about four minutes after a staff member mistakenly found she had a 'do-not-resuscitate' (DNR) order on her file.

However, the file actually belonged to a woman in her 80s who was staying at the same facility and shared a similar health file name, The West reports.

Both women had the same first name and first letter of their surnames.

A woman in her 50s who was having a heart attack wasn't resuscitated for four minutes after her file was swapped with a patient of a similar name who had a 'do-not-resuscitate' order

A DNR order instructs health-care providers to not intervene if a patient's heart or breathing stops.

The woman in her 50s spent a fortnight at the hospital recovering from the incident before she was discharged.

A Hollywood Private Hospital spokeswoman said it is 'thoroughly investigating' how the two women's files were swapped.

It is understood a staff member took the wrong paper-based file into the patient's room.

'The hospital understands the patient, who has since been discharged, is recovering well,' the spokeswoman said.

'We will await the outcome of the investigation and implement any recommendations that arise as a result.'

The Hollywood Private Hospital in Perth (above) said it is thoroughly investigating the case of mistaken identity

Australian Medical Association WA branch president Mark Duncan-Smith said the whole case of mistaken identity is 'bizarre' and said routine checks, like looking at the woman's wristband, should have prevented her delayed resuscitation.

'It's a routine medical check. Private or public, they're the same protocols with subtle variations,' he said.

'Every hospital must do analysis of the event and find out the errors or weakness and correct those systems to ensure they never happen again. Has it fallen down at a system level? Or has it fallen down at an Individual level?'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Hollywood Private Hospital for comment.
Welcome to the new reality in the world of banking.

Forget 'too big to fail.'

Events over the last week have revealed a fresh phrase being whispered on Wall Street:

'Too small to fail.'

In the past 48 hours, two banks  Credit Suisse and First Republic - got massive cash infusions to stabilize their foundations, which had begun to shiver and shake after the collapse of two U.S. regional banks, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last Friday and New York's Signature Bank on Sunday.

Credit Suisse, a 167-year-old financial institution, secured a $54 billion dollar loan from the Swiss National Bank (SNB) - Switzerland's version of the Federal Reserve.

Apparently, the SNB thinks Credit Suisse, which ranks among the world's largest wealth managers, is too Swiss to fail, and that its collapse could cause ripples through the entire financial industry.

Concerning, but fair enough. Credit Suisse is an international banking giant. But California-based regional bank First Republic is not.

Just before the close of trade Thursday, the U.S. stock market soared on confirmation of a coalition of 11 American banks - both huge and medium-sized - hurriedly cobbling together $30 billion dollars and injecting it straight into the aortal valve of First Republic.

Forget 'too big to fail.' Events over the last week have revealed a fresh phrase being whispered on Wall Street: 'Too small to fail.'

In the past 48 hours, two banks  Credit Suisse and First Republic - got massive cash infusions to stabilize their foundations, which had begun to shiver and shake after the collapse of two U.S. regional banks, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last Friday and New York's Signature Bank on Sunday.

And if you think $30 billion is a lot, First Republic admitted late Thursday it had already borrowed as much as $109 billion from the Federal Reserve between March 10 and March 15 to stabilize operations.

Like others of its size, the bank was facing a wave of jittery depositors lining up to yank their money out.

Initial panic boiled over when SVB depositors and investors got spooked on news that the bank had sold a bunch of its assets at a massive loss. There was a crisis of confidence, more bank customers fled and SVB was taken over by U.S. regulators. 48 hours later, in a case of guilt by association, Signature bank collapsed.

First Republic would have been the third bank in seven days to implode.

Ok, so what? And perhaps, more importantly, for those of us not privy to the inner workings of the banking industry, why the urgency to stage an unprecedented rescue of it?

Well, a clearer picture of the scale of the stress on the U.S. financial system in the days after SVB's demise is now emerging.

Over the past several days, banks have tapped the Federal Reserve's emergency loan program for a record $153 billion in 90-day loans.

The FED's 'discount window' program lends cash infusions to banks badly in need of short-term liquidity. In a typical week, banks borrow just $4 to $5 billion from this program.

To put this historic money borrowing into context, the previous record for 'discount window' lending was $111 billion during the 2008 Financial Crisis.

Despite this, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified to the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday just hours before the First Republic rescue announcement that the U.S. banking system is 'sound.'

And here's another very fair question: Why would ostensibly healthy U.S. banks, ranging from JP Morgan to Wells Fargo to Citibank, pour $30 billion of their deposits into an embattled bank that has a mere $6.2 billion dollar market capitalization?

Despite this, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified to the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday just hours before the First Republic rescue announcement that the U.S. banking system is 'sound.'

A clearer picture of the scale of the stress on the U.S. financial system in the days after SVB's demise is now emerging.

Why the fear over First Republic?

Well, as we've seen when the herd turns, everything in its way gets stampeded. And even the world's banking giants are now concerned that they're at risk of getting trampled too.

One cannot help but wonder who else is lining up to drink from this fire hose of bailout cash and whether the list might include banks where we have our money.

The Federal Reserve doesn't release the names of banks that borrowed from the discount window. But should they?

Author Liz Claman is the anchor of The Claman Countdown airs every weekday at 3 PM/ET on FOX Business Network.

However well-intentioned, these moves to buttress the system are not guaranteed to save other banks who might find themselves teetering on the edge.

Some argue that announcing to the world who else is suffering a cash crunch might fan the embers and start an even bigger fire. So, for now, we're in the dark, which is an uncomfortable place to be.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures all accounts up to $250,000. But the developments over the last few days have many Americans asking themselves whether their banks might be troubled.

On Friday, shares of Credit Suisse and First Republic were falling again, which can only mean one thing. While the bank may be technically 'stable,' investors are still not sticking around.

The past week has given us reason to worry that recent fissures in the foundation of the banking system may actually be cracks the size of the San Andreas fault.

If that's the case, beware the herd.

Liz Claman is the anchor of The Claman Countdown airs every weekday at 3 PM/ET on FOX Business Network.
An image of a woman floating in reef waters with sea turtles has been quickly deleted by Australia's main tourist body after an online backlash.

It showed the woman in a black swimsuit floating with about 30 protected marine turtles in Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia after it was uploaded last week.

But the stunning photo was deleted from Tourism Australia's social media after it faced backlash from critics saying the 'mating turtles' should be left alone.

The post was taken down five days after it was flooded with 700 comments, Yahoo News Australia said.

Wildlife advocates and photographers called out Tourism Australia for encouraging travellers to approach vulnerable species like sea turtles.

The social media post showed the woman in a black swimsuit posing with about 30 protected marine turtles in Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia and was uploaded by Tourism Australia last week

Wildlife advocates and photographers urged Tourism Australia to not encourage travellers to approach vulnerable species like sea turtles (pictured, a sea turtle at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia)

'Why a government tourism agency would post a photo like this is beyond me,' said one commenter.

'We are trusting the government to protect wildlife and then they post a photo like this.'

But the image inspired others to visit the idyllic place.

'Can we go here together', commented one as they tagged a travel buddy.

The bird's-eye-view image showed the woman lying on her back in shallow crystal blue waters surrounded by turtles near a pristine sandy shoreline.

It was originally taken and posted last November by social media account Frame Chasers.

The photo was taken at the same time as the turtles' mating season.

Tourism Australia's caption said the Frame Chasers were 'lucky enough to witness a turtle party' on a visit to Exmouth.

'These majestic sea creatures can be seen in this part of @westernaustralia year- round, but a visit between November and March will allow you to witness hatching and nesting,' it read.

'We recommend booking a guiding turtle viewing experience.'

But some pointed out the turtles were most likely gathering to mate in the picture and urged against encouraging tourists to get closer to them at that time.

USC marine scientist and PhD candidate Caitlin Smith said there were a range of male and female turtles in the picture which suggested they were breeding.

She said turtles can be very stressed during the season and advised swimmers to not go near turtles while they are mating.

'Sea turtles are susceptible to being disturbed during mating season,' DBCA Marine Program Coordinator, Exmouth, Peter Barnes (pictured) said

While the reptiles did not appear to be distressed in the photo, she was worried the image may lead others to try and get a selfie with the endangered species.

But she praised Tourism Australia for recommending tourists use guided tour options in its post.

The WA Department of Biodiversity and Conservation turtle watcher's code of conduct said there are strict rules that protect turtles while they are mating.

'Sea turtles are susceptible to being disturbed during mating season,' Peter Barnes, DBCA Marine Program Coordinator, Exmouth, said.

'Anyone who encounters this natural phenomenon while in the water, should move away and watch from a practical distance to not disturb the animals.'

He added there are signs at various stops along the Jurabi Coast in the area where the photo was taken.

Wildlife biologist Ellie Sursara (pictured) said disrupting turtle nesting and breeding sites even just for a photo could discourage turtles from mating, laying eggs

Ms Sursara added the photo pushes the boundaries of Western Australia's code of conduct for turtle tourists and Tourism Australia's commitment to responsible travelling (pictured, a turtle at Ningaloo Reef)

Wildlife biologist Ellie Sursara said disrupting turtle nesting and breeding sites even just for a photo could discourage turtles from mating and laying eggs.

The keen photographer said it was important to maintain a safe distance from where wild animals are.

'Knowing the rules is what helps me to engage safely, responsibly, and legally with wildlife,' she said.

She added the photo pushes the boundaries of Western Australia's code of conduct for turtle tourists and Tourism Australia's commitment to responsible travelling.

Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Frame Chasers acted illegally or irresponsibly.

Frame Chasers and Tourism Australia were contacted by Daily Mail Australia for comment.

Turtle watchers' code of conduct in Western Australia There are three important stages in the reproductive process of marine turtles: mating, nesting and hatching. Guided turtle tours are recommended for those who would like to view nesting marine turtles. Keep to the recommended distance advised in the code of conduct. Dogs should be kept away from turtle nesting beaches. Do not touch or disturb resting, sleeping or mating turtles. Making unnecessary contact with turtles is an offence. Litter can harm all marine life, including turtles. Regulations prohibit vessels discharging waste, including litter or sewage, within a marine park. Source: Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions. Advertisement
Police launched an investigation, March 18, after a family of five was found dead in their home in Incheon. Yonhap



Police launched an investigation Saturday after a family of five was found dead in their home in Incheon.



Officers received a call at 10:37 a.m. reporting that people were lying motionless in an apartment in the Michuhol District of the city, 27 kilometers west of Seoul, according to the Michuhol Police Station.



The deceased were identified as the parents and their three young children. They were discovered by a relative who visited their home.



Police suspect the father, who was in his 40s, may have taken his own life after killing his wife and children.



The body of the father was found alone in one room, and the other family members in a different room.



The bodies will be sent to the National Forensic Service for autopsies.



Police said they are investigating the incident based on witness statements and will also look into the father's circumstances, including possible finacial problems. (Yonhap)




Suella Braverman today toured buildings in Rwanda where Channel boat migrants may be held under her controversial deportation scheme.

The Home Secretary arrived in the African country yesterday to double-down on her commitment to the 140m deal, which she claimed would be a 'powerful deterrent' against illegal crossings.

The visit is her first since taking the Cabinet role after her predecessor Priti Patel signed the agreement in April last year and comes after another 209 people made the dangerous journey to the UK yesterday.

On the outskirts of the capital Kigali today, Ms Braverman was given a first-hand look at some of the facilities designed to hold asylum seekers.

However, a number of media outlets, including the Freedom from Torture charity have criticised the publicly-funded visit, labelling it a 'showboat trip' after the Independent said outlets such as the BBC, The Guardian and Daily Mirror were not invited.

Suella Braverman today toured buildings in Rwanda where Channel boat migrants may be held under her controversial deportation scheme

Home Secretary Suella Braverman tours a building site on the outskirts of Kigali during her visit to Rwanda

Home Secretary Suella Braverman tours a building site on the outskirts of Kigali during her visit to Rwanda, to see houses that are being constructed that could eventually house deported migrants from the UK

Ms Braverman was given a first-hand look at where migrants deported from the UK could be held

Doubling down on her commitment to the Rwanda deportation policy, Ms Braverman said: 'The UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership is a ground-breaking approach that will act as a powerful deterrent against dangerous and illegal journeys such as small boat crossings.

'It will also support people to rebuild their lives in a new country, and provide a boost to Rwanda's fast-growing economy through a significant investment in jobs, skills, and opportunities.

'I am visiting Rwanda this weekend to reinforce the Government's commitment to the partnership as part of our plan to stop the boats and discuss plans to operationalise our agreement shortly.'

Ms Braverman also hit back at critics of the deal, saying Rwanda can hold 'many thousands' of migrants  although none have yet been relocated.

She said: 'The suggestion that Rwanda can only take 200 people is a completely false narrative peddled by critics who want to scrap the deal.

'Rwanda has the capacity to resettle many thousands of people, and can quickly stand up accommodation once flights begin.'

During her trip, the Home Secretary is due to meet President Paul Kagame and her counterpart Vincent Biruta to discuss the deal.

'We will discuss all aspects of the partnership, which is not just about deterring illegal and dangerous journeys to the UK, but about ensuring those genuinely in need of protection are supported to build a new life in Rwanda,' Ms Braverman said.

She is also due to speak with those leading on accommodation projects to house migrants as well as speak with refugees who have settled in the country.

Ms Braverman will meet with investment start-up professionals and entrepreneurs, to discuss the range of business and employment opportunities available in Rwanda.

The Home Secretary looks over a balcony during her tour of facilities on the outskirts of Kigali

Home Secretary, Suella Braverman meets graduate builders in Kigali, Rwanda, who will be helping to construct houses that could house deported migrants from the UK

Home Secretary Suella Braverman visits Bwiza Riverside Houses in Kigali, Rwanda

The Home Secretary doubled down on her commitment to the 140m deal, which she claimed would be a 'powerful deterrent' against illegal crossings

The Desir Resort Hotel in Kigali, where it is believed migrants from the UK are expected to be taken when they arrive

Continuing to detail her support for the plan, she said: 'Within three to six months, the Rwandan government will ensure that migrants are housed and integrated into local communities.

'I am looking forward to seeing some of the new, modern housing developments being built in Kigali, which will be used to house some of those resettled in Rwanda.'

The government's plan to forcibly remove migrants to the African nation is currently grounded by the courts  with asylum seekers being told on Tuesday they could appeal against Home Office decisions to relocate them.

A group of individuals from countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria are aiming to overturn rulings made by two High Court judges in December  who dismissed a series of legal bids against the Government's plan.

After details emerged of the Home Secretary's trip to Rwanda, Sonya Sceats, chief executive at Freedom from Torture, described the policy as a 'cash-for-humans' scheme.

She said: 'Braverman is jetting off on a showboat trip to Rwanda the very week that the Court of Appeal has accepted that there are serious questions to be answered over the legality of this Government's cash-for-humans scheme.

'Following the outpouring of support for Gary Lineker and his compassionate stand on behalf of refugees, this Government knows it is on the back foot and is once again ramping up the cruelty to distract from their own failures.

'Rather than pushing through this inhumane and unworkable policy, ministers should focus on establishing safe routes to the UK and tackling the unacceptable backlog of asylum claims, so people fleeing war and persecution can rebuild their lives with dignity.'

No migrants have been relocated to the country so far as the deal, which was signed last April by Ms Braverman's predecessor Priti Patel, remains embroiled in legal battles.

During her visit, the Government reported that 209 people had crossed the Channel in small boats on Friday, after five days of no reported crossings.

On Saturday, one refugee living in Rwanda told reporters he had 'never felt I have been considered as a foreigner', but said he did not see the African nation having the capacity to hold 'many thousands' of migrants.

Fesseha Teame, 48, who has a wife and four children, was speaking after Ms Braverman claimed: 'Rwanda has the capacity to resettle many thousands of people, and can quickly stand up accommodation once flights begin.'

The Home Secretary also said the suggestion that Rwanda could only take 200 people is a 'completely false narrative peddled by critics who want to scrap the deal'.

Ahead of her trip, the Home Secretary said the plan 'will act as a powerful deterrent against dangerous and illegal journeys'.

On Saturday morning, Ms Braverman was given a tour of housing on the Riverside Estate, which could provide long-term homes to migrants after the land was purchased by the Rwandan government.

The properties, with the cheapest costing around 14,000 for any potential buyers, have capacity for off-street parking, gardens and fibre-optic broadband, according to Hassan Hassan, the general manager of the construction firm that built them.

The housing is due to be offered to both Rwandans and asylum seekers, with around 25% of the off-plan structures having already been privately bought.

Looking inside one of the properties, she said: 'These houses are really beautiful, great quality, really welcoming and I really like your interior designer.

'I need some advice for myself,' Ms Braverman added.

Migrants arriving from the UK would be housed in hostels and hotels in the short-term.

During her trip, the Home Secretary is due to meet President Paul Kagame and her counterpart Vincent Biruta to discuss the deal.

She will also meet with investment start-up professionals and entrepreneurs, to discuss the range of business and employment opportunities available in Rwanda.

The Government's plan to forcibly remove migrants to the African nation is currently grounded by the courts - with asylum seekers being told on Tuesday they could appeal against Home Office decisions to relocate them.

A group of individuals from countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria are aiming to overturn rulings made by two High Court judges in December - who dismissed a series of legal bids against the Government's plan.
A convicted murderer is among the four London Bridge attack heroes who will receive the late Queen's final bravery medals.

Steven Gallant and three others, including a man whom wielded a narwhal tusk at the suspect, confronted convicted terrorist Usman Khan as he carried out his attack at a prison education conference at Fishmongers' Hall in November 2019.

Khan, who had two large knives and a fake suicide belt, fatally stabbed Cambridge graduates Jack Merritt, 25, and 23-year-old Saskia Jones. He injured three other people before running on to the bridge.

Mr Gallant, who was convicted of a 2005 murder, will feature on this year's Civilian Gallantry list - the last to be approved by Her Majesty - alongside fellow heroes John Crilly, Darryn Frost and Lukasz Koczocik.

Convicted murderer Steven Gallant (pictured) is among the four London Bridge attack heroes who will receive the late Queen's final bravery medals

Steven Gallant and three others, including a man whom wielded a narwhal tusk at the suspect, confronted terrorist Usman Khan (pictured) as he carried out his November 2019 attack

The terrorist killed graduates Jack Merritt (left) and Saskia Jones (right) at the event in Fishmonger's Hall before running out on to London Bridge

The four men confronted the double-killer with makeshift weapons after he launched his attack on the conference attendees.

Ex-prisoner Mr Crilly hosed Khan with a fire extinguisher and communications manager Mr Frost jabbed at Khan with a narwhal tusk, sending him off balance.

The group's actions forced Khan out of the building. Then Mr Gallant tackled Khan to the ground, where all three restrained him until armed police arrived.

It came after Mr Koczocik used a long ceremonial pike taken from the walls of the Grade II-listed building to disarm Khan - who was eventually shot dead by police.

Mr Gallant, one of two men convicted of killing Barrie Jackson in Hull in 2005, had been allowed out on licence for the first time when the incident occurred.

'Had Gallant not stood his ground, the attacker was likely to have gone up to the main conference room, and could have taken more lives,' the citation for the medals, which was reviewed by The Times, reads.

All four men will each receive the Queen's Gallantry Medal.

All four men will feature on this year's Civilian Gallantry list - the last to be approved by the late Queen Elizabeth II - and receive a Queen's Gallantry Medal (pictured)

Steve Gallant (left) is pictured with Jack Merritt (right), who died in the London Bridge attack, at the end of a Learning Together training course in April 2018

'Had Gallant (pictured) not stood his ground, the attacker was likely to have gone up to the main conference room, and could have taken more lives,' the citation for the medals reads

Prison officer Adam Roberts, who escorted Mr Gallant to the event on day release, also features on the list, having given first aid to Ms Jones after she was stabbed.

Mr Roberts said yesterday: 'I feel sort of mixed, it's very difficult to celebrate when it's for something that had an outcome that was so bad.

'It finished with Saskia literally dying in front of me as we tried to keep her alive, so it's really difficult to celebrate at all when my thoughts are with her.

'It's really important that everybody who contributed is recognised in some way.'

Also, on the 15-person civilian gallantry list is church bell ringer John Rees, 88, who was killed as he attempted to stop a mentally ill woman carrying out a knife attack in a Co-op store on May 5 2020.

He was stabbed and bludgeoned with two wine bottles and a fire extinguisher by schizophrenic Zara Radcliffe during the attack in Pen Y Graig, Rhondda, South Wales.

The narwhal tusk used by Darryn Frost as the group confronted terrorist Usman Khan

Pictured: Khan is confronted by armed police on London Bridge following the attack at Fishmongers' Hall

Lisa Way and Ayette Bounouri, who were in the shop at the time, have also been recognised for their roles in helping to confront Radcliffe.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden said: 'We all hope we'd react with courage in the face of danger. These people have lived through that test, and responded in the most admirable way.

'Their selfless actions have saved lives, and I want to express profound thanks for their willingness to put themselves in danger to protect others.

'They are all extremely worthy winners of the final Civilian Gallantry awards of Her Majesty the late Queen.'
He accused her of causing significant harm to the city, which he loves and where he was born and raised; Kelly described her as a 'pandemic', then he walked out

Kelly who has a history of clashing with Lightfoot condemned her leadership, her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and of crime which has risen considerably

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was berated during a contentious city council meeting with journalist William Kelly telling her to 'get the hell out of my city'

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was berated by local journalist William Kelly during a city council meeting earlier this week and told to 'get the hell out' of the city.

Kelly who has been a longtime vocal critic of the Lightfoot's policies, called out the mayor for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, that led to the closure of the city's schools, churches, and businesses.

Kelly, who runs a TV production and event company lashed out during a section of the meeting during which the public were invited to make comments.

'You shut down our schools, you shut down the churches, you shut down the businesses,' Kelly began.

'You did the one thing that I thought could never happen. As someone who was born and raised on the south side of Chicago, I never thought in my life that I would ever see the city of Chicago brought down so low as you have managed to bring it down.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was berated during a contentious city council meeting with journalist William Kelly telling her to 'get the hell out of my city'

William Kelly who has a history of clashing with Lightfoot condemned her leadership, her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and of crime which has risen considerably

'I hope that, after today's city council meeting, you will pack your suitcase and get the hell out of my city,' Kelly railed.

'Shame on you,' he continued. 'That is a legacy that you are going to have to carry.'

Kelly had a long-standing feud with Lightfoot even suing her last year over her policies.

During his statement, Kelly lambasted the mayor for revoking his press credentials as an act of retribution for his criticism and called her out for trying to silence naysayers.

'I feel like this is more like a victim impact statement than an actual public comment,' he said.

'What you've done to me is nothing compared to what you've done to my city, the city of Chicago, the city that I was born and raised in, the city that I love with all my heart. 'You are a pandemic,' Kelly added.

During the council meeting, pictured above, Kelly accused her of causing significant harm to the city, which he loves and where he was born and raised describing her as a 'pandemic'

Last year, Chicago journalist William Kelly sued Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for violating his First and 14th Amendment rights after he was barred from City Hall press conferences

Lightfoot did not respond to Kelly's remarks, and he walked out of the meeting after calling her a 'pandemic.'

Lightfoot, who was elected in 2019, recently lost her bid for re-election.

Her tenure has been marked by criticism over her handling of crime in the city, which has risen significantly since she took office, with the homicide rate increasing by 40 per cent last year alone.

The city saw 800 murders in 2021, the highest in 25 years.

Lightfoot has also faced controversy over her strained relationship with the press and city unions, with some accusing her of limiting Freedom of Information access to public records.

Despite Lightfoot's claims of racism and gender bias after her re-election loss, critics continue to question her leadership and legacy.

The verbal attack by Kelly underscores the frustration felt by many in the city, who are calling for change and accountability in the top tiers of leadership.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who was notoriously soft on crime scraped just 17 percent of the vote in the race for City Hall, forcing a run off between Paul Vallas, a former schools CEO and Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner on April 4.

Lightfoot, the first black woman and first openly gay person to lead the city, won her first term in 2019 after promising to end decades of corruption and backroom dealing at City Hall.

But opponents blamed Lightfoot for an increase in crime that occurred in cities across the U.S. during the pandemic and criticized her as being a divisive, overly contentious leader.

As crime continued to soar through the last years of her term, Lightfoot was heavily criticized for promoting other matters than public safety, including a citywide karaoke contest and dancing in the street during a festival.

Lightfoot first faced intense backlash after she joined calls from Democratic mayors in 2021 to cut the budget of police departments, a movement that also resulted in officers quitting the force and violent crime to spike.

The embattled mayor then committed to a U-turn, opting instead to 'refund the police' and hire more officers, but the move has done little to curb crime.

According to the Chicago Police Department's latest report, rapes have shot up by 16 percent so far this year compared to the same time in 2022.

Robberies are also up 13 percent, with aggravated battery and burglaries both up 11 percent.

Theft in the windy city is up 31 percent, and vehicle thefts, specifically, have soared up 143 percent.

Homicides and shooting incidents were the only category to see decreases, falling by 18 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

While overall violent crime is up 52 percent from the same time last year, it's up 102 percent when compared to 2021.
A tradie used a digital GPS tracker to hunt down the alleged thief who stole his wallet before confronting him and wrestling him to the ground.

Queenslander Sam Fraser, 33, was hard at work on a construction site on Tuesday when his wallet was stolen.

Shortly after, he started getting notifications from his bank warning him that his card had been used to buy $30 worth of lottery tickets, Nine News reports.

Mr Fraser was then able to use a small GPS device attached to his wallet to track the alleged thief's movements from his phone.

Queensland tradie Sam Fraser used a GPS device in his wallet to hunt down the man who allegedly stole it (pictured, the alleged thief at a newsagent)

CCTV footage taken at a newsagency shows the apparent thief buying lottery tickets before Mr Fraser confronted him.

'I ran over and grabbed him. I ended up bear-hugging him from the back,' Mr Fraser told 9News. 'Then after about 5-10 minutes I got him to sit down on the floor'.

The 33-year-old was able to recover his wallet and later found his Medicare card and licence which were left in a 'disabled bathroom in one of the bins'.

It comes as Queensland continues to struggle with rising youth crime rates.

New data shows children were responsible for about 20 per cent of the state's total charges in December and January, the Brisbane Times reported.

The Palaszczuk government recently passed new laws to criminalise children who breach their bail conditions in an attempt to lower crime rates.

The laws also allow for GPS trackers to be fitted to children as young as 15 and the court to declare youths as serious repeat offenders.
President Joe Biden on Friday pushed back on a Republican report that members of his family received more than $1 million in payments from China, saying it wasn't 'true.'

'That's not true,' Biden said when asked about it as he left the White House to spend the weekend at his home in Wilmington, Del.

He was responding to a report House Republicans released on Thursday that showed the president's Hunter Biden, Beau Biden's widow Hallie and other relatives of the president's family received more than $1 million in 2017 from an associate who had entered into a business deal with a Chinese energy company.

The findings were part of an investigation by the House GOP into Hunter Biden's business dealings and how the presidential son made his money amid allegations he used his father's position for personal profit.

President Joe Biden pushed back on a Republican report that members of his family received more than $1 million in payments from China

The House Oversight Committee, led by Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, has obtained more than a decade of bank records through subpoenas as it investigates the Biden family.

They have zeroed in on Hunter Biden's associate John R. Walker for questioning after poring over years' worth of his bank records and uncovering a $35,000 payment to Hallie Biden, Beau Biden's widow.

The GOP findings stated that Walker received a $3 million wire transfer from Chinese State Energy HK Limited, a firm affiliated with CEFC China Energy, then distributed $1.3 million to accounts associated with Biden family members.

Hunter Biden and Joe's brother Jim were the others to get a cut of the cash.

Comer wrote Walker that the panel 'is investigating President Biden's involvement in his family's business practices' and 'has identified you as a critical witness in this matter and has reviewed evidence showing you received millions of dollars originating from a Chinese energy company and elsewhere.'

The House Oversight Committee has 'invited' Hunter Biden associate John R. Walker to come in for a transcribed interview

The White House hit back after Republicans subpoenaed bank records and released documents purporting to show that Hallie Biden received a cut of $3 million in cash from China. Beau Biden's widow was identified on Thursday as the third member of the first family wrapped up in Rep. James Comer's investigation into allegations they used their names to profit on business deals

The committee 'invites you to participate in a transcribed interview with Committee staff, Comer wrote in language that stopped short of an outright demand but which can be a prelude to a subpoena if a witness declines to comply.

Democrats fumed at Comer's public campaign Thursday, with the White House calling it an 'attack' on the president's daughter-in-law.

A spokesperson for Hunter Biden's legal team blasted the disclosures as old news  and said the funds transferred to Hallie Biden were part of 'sharing expenses.' Hunter has previously acknowledged he was in a relationship with her at the time.

'Here we go again as Rep. Comer takes something old and tries to make it new by wrapping it in a wild and baseless right-wing conspiracy,' said the spokeswoman in a statement provided to DailyMail.com.

'Hunter Biden, a private citizen with every right to pursue his own business endeavors, joined several business partners in seeking a joint venture with a privately-owned, legitimate energy company in China. As part of that joint venture, Hunter received his portion of good faith seed funds which he shared with his uncle, James Biden, and Hallie Biden, with whom he was involved with at the time, and sharing expenses. The accounts so dramatically listed by Rep. Comer belonged to Hunter, his uncle and Hallie - nobody else,' said the spokeswoman.

The White House has previously denied any involvement by President Biden in his family's business practices.

The material released by the panel did not show anything illegal or improper. But the bombshell memo shows Republicans are expanding their investigation into whether the Biden family used their names to cash in on ventures across the globe.

Hallie, who had dinner with Joe in Delaware on Friday, was married to Beau until his cancer death in 2015 and then had a relationship with Hunter from March 2017 until 2019.

The transactions cited by Comer are from 2017, after Beau's death when Hallie Biden and Hunter Biden were romantically involved.

The GOP is also investigating what, if any, services Walker or the family members provided to receive the cash from China.

In the memo DailyMail.com obtained, Comer asked 'why Hallie Bidenpublicly reported to work as a school counselorreceived money from Rob Walker, the account holder who got the initial deposit from the Chinese firm.

And the Republican-run Oversight panel hit back again Friday, posting images of the financial transactions involving Robinson Walker LLC, a company set up by the Hunter Biden associate.

One shows a March 1, 2017 wire to him in the amount of $3 million. A $300,000 wire to Owasco P.C.

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) called it an investigation into 'President Biden's involvement in his family's business practices'

The letter 'invites' Walker to take part in a transcribed interview

Hallie Biden, seen here with Beau Biden, received $35,000 from Biden associate John Robinson Walker, according to Rep. James Comer. Comer, who, as chair of House Oversight, subpoenaed bank information, says Walker's company got $3 million from a Chinese firm in 2017

The Oversight panel tweeted: 'Hunter Biden didn't 'share' funds as his lawyer claims. The wires came directly from Rob Walker's company, Robinson Walker LLC, to various Biden relatives and companies, including Hallie Biden. Here are two wires to James and Hunter Biden's companies.'

A second image showed a $25,000 transfer to Hallie Biden on March 20, 2017.

Oversight also flagged payments to an 'unknown' Biden that the panel said got incremental payments totaling more than $1 million. Comer had also cited this unidentified person after floating a 'third' Biden in Fox News interviews before Hallie Biden was unmasked as the recipient of the $35,000  a much smaller sum than went to others following the initial transfer.

The White House and House Democrats have cast the probe as a cruel investigation and pointed out that the $3 million to Walker has been known previously.

'After a disgusting attack lamenting that the President's deceased son Beau was never prosecuted while he was alive, Congressman Comer has now decided to go after Beau's widow,' White House spokesman Ian Sams told DailyMail.com in a statement this week.

'Instead of bizarrely attacking the President's family, perhaps House Republicans should focus on working with the President to deliver results for American families on important priorities like lowering costs and strengthening health care,' he continued.

Also blasting Comer was Rep Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight panel.

'Chairman Comer's memo proved once again that, after four years of investigations by Senate and House Republicans into Hunter Biden, they have found no connection to the President of the United States or indeed any government official at all,' Raskin said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Oversight Democrats accused Comer of giving the false 'impression' that Hallie Biden was involved in getting money from China by failing to note another transaction, although without providing information on what the payments were for.

'After issuing an overbroad and invasive subpoena for 14 years of financial records, Chairman Comer has issued a memo based on speculation and a handful of cherry picked facts in order to gin up new interest in a previously-reported transaction,' said the Democratic spokesperson.
Two off-duty police officers were stabbed in a violent attack in London's Soho district yesterday morning.

The officers were taken to hospital and are both in stable condition, Scotland Yard has confirmed.

A man was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and Class A drug possession after the violent incident.

Police are still investigating the circumstances around what happened.

Officers were called to Greek Street by the London Ambulance Service at approximately 3.30am yesterday to reports that a man had been stabbed

Officers were called to Greek Street by the London Ambulance Service at approximately 3.30am yesterday to reports that a man had been stabbed.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'Officers attended the scene. A second man was subsequently located - he was also suffering stab injuries.

'Both males were taken to hospital for treatment - the condition of both males is now stable.

'A man has been arrested on suspicion of Section 18 grievous bodily harm GBH and possession of Class A drugs.

'He was taken to a west London police station where he remains.'

Anyone with information that could help the police is asked to call 101 or tweet @MetCC and quote CAD726/17Mar or they can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Yesterday's attack comes after two officers were stabbed last September in a violent attack in the West End.

A male officer was stabbed three times in the neck and once in the chest. A female officer was stabbed in the arm during the incident.

Horrifying footage from the scene shows an officer leaning against the side of a wall as three others attend to him and attempt to bandage his shoulder following the attack.

The officers - both attached to the Met's Central West Command Unit - were carrying out routine duties and attacked while on patrol.
A handful of Australian soldiers have been linked to neo-Nazi groups prompting an urgent investigation by the military.

At least three soldiers are understood to have joined the armed forces after becoming members of a white supremacist group or communicating with them.

One has close links to Operation Werewolf, an alt-right group that promotes Aryan supremacy and teaches its members unarmed combat training and hunting.

A handful of Australian soldiers have been linked to neo-Nazi groups prompting an urgent investigation by the military

Another soldier joined the military after completing a training camp held by a white supremacist group and mingled with at least two members of another chapter.

The soldier had completed an obstacle course for the Antipodean Resistance, a white supremacy group that promotes race wars.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation has launched several investigations into the group since its formation in 2016.

The alt-right organisation uses the slogan, 'We're the Hitlers you've been waiting for'.

The group has been behind several racist campaigns and targeted schools with large ethnic populations, plastering posters saying, 'Keep Australia White'.

Members also spread false propaganda, linking homosexuality to paedophilia in the lead-up to the same sex marriage postal vote in 2017.

The soldier who attended the training camp also socialised with two members of the National Socialist Network, the largest neo-Nazi group in Australia.

The Melbourne-based group has generated a lot of publicity in the past for its alt-right stunts.

Its members did a Nazi salute at Swinburne University in 2020 and crashed Australia Day celebrations to chant 'white power' around the Grampians National Park in 2021.

A police counter-terrorism briefing seen by The Age claimed the group had previously had access to firearms.

The soldier who attended the training camp also socialised with two members of the National Socialist Network, the largest neo-Nazi group in Australia (pictured, NSN members make the Hitler salute at Swinburne University in 2020)

'NSN advocates for its members to spur a "white revolution" to inspire change for the white race, achieved through overthrowing the current social and political order to establish a National Socialist system,' it read.

Revelations of the white supremacist affiliates have raised concerns about gaps in the vetting process in the Australian Army.

An Australian Defence Force spokesman said soldiers with questionable links to groups or inappropriate activities would be investigated.

'Defence is aware of allegations that a small number of Defence personnel have been associated with ideologically motivated extremism,' he said.

'There is no place for unlawful or inappropriate association with groups or organisations that engage in advocacy for extremist ideology, extremist views, or criminal activity within the Australian Defence Force.

'Defence works closely with law enforcement and intelligence agencies to identify and counter threats to Defence and Defence personnel involving ideologically motivated extremism.'
Eurosceptic MPs are poised to reject Rishi Sunak's Brexit deal next week, Tory sources said last night.

The Prime Minister is hoping to avoid a major Tory rebellion on Wednesday when he puts his 'Windsor Framework' deal to a vote.

But a former minister told the Daily Mail that a key report for the powerful Eurosceptic Research Group of Tory MPs (ERG) will conclude the agreement is not good enough.

The group commissioned a 'star chamber' of legal experts to study the deal  which addresses the movement of goods between the UK and Northern Ireland  before passing judgment. The report is expected on Monday.

A source with knowledge of its progress said: 'The star chamber is not going to give the deal the green light. From what I've seen, its findings are going to be pretty bad for the Government.

The Prime Minister is hoping to avoid a major Tory rebellion on Wednesday when he puts his 'Windsor Framework' deal to a vote

The problem is that in the end the deal is not legally binding on the EU. Whatever you think of their concessions, they could withdraw them at any moment.

'The vote is not in danger because Labour will back it, but I think you are going to see quite a few colleagues struggle to vote for it.'

Several senior Eurosceptics have publicly backed the PM's deal, including former Brexit Secretary David Davis, former trade secretary Liam Fox and former ERG chairman Steve Baker.

Boris Johnson warned the deal would act as a 'drag anchor' on the UK's ability to forge its own path after Brexit, adding: 'I'm going to find it very difficult to vote for something like this myself.'

But the former PM will be unable to voice his concerns during next week's debate as it has been timed to coincide with his appearance in front of the controversial Partygate inquiry.

ERG chairman Mark Francois said: 'We are still awaiting the outcome of the star chamber's detailed legal audit of the Windsor Framework.' A No 10 spokesman said: 'We think this is the best deal for the people of Northern Ireland.'
The King has long been admired for his exhaustive work ethic and tireless commitment to his duties.

So much so, that despite his advance in years, he is at his desk before many people are even out of bed.

But Charless early morning phone calls have been disturbed by troops marching noisily to and fro and barking commands outside his office window.

Now the 74-year-old monarch has requested the sentries announce their arrivals and departures more quietly, so he need not compete with their raised voices and stomping steel-capped boots.

Last night, royal sources insisted the Kings suggestion had been relayed gently and politely, not in a fit of pique.

Charless early morning phone calls have been disturbed by troops marching noisily to and fro and barking commands outside his office window

As an email sent within the Armys Household Division confirmed: Dear all, HM [His Majesty] remarked how loud the outgoing sentries were at St Jamess Palace in the morning.

Full marks for vigour and volume, but please could you pass down to those on guard that Clarence House is a residence and so some volume control would be very much appreciated by those inside!

'Please could you pass on to your troops that when posting sentries first thing in the morning at St Jamess Palace they should do so at a slightly lower volume.

The changeovers were taking place around 8am, by which time the King has often started back- to-back telephone and video calls.

A piper plays under his window at 9am every day, a wake-up call tradition that dates back to Queen Victoria.

Last night, Army sources declined to name the regiment of foot guards who offended His Majestys ears.

A recent book on King Charles quoted former employees who claimed he was a demanding boss with a fierce temper, enormous stamina and a ferocious work ethic.

Members of the Household Cavalry pictured riding past newly flowering daffodils in London in February

One former member of the Royal Household said His Majesty was very demanding of himself and expected the same standards from those around him, with phone calls coming at any time.

Courtiers added he could go from zero to 60 in a flash and then back down again.

The Ministry of Defence and Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
Rwanda will be able to take 'thousands' of migrants as soon as removals flights begin, Suella Braverman said last night.

The Home Secretary, who arrives in Kigali today to 'reinforce commitment' to the asylum deal, attacked Labour and other critics who claim the scheme will only be able to take a few hundred Channel migrants.

The Rwandan government will be able to bring large numbers of beds on-stream as soon as removals flights from the UK are cleared for take-off, Mrs Braverman said. She also described Rwanda as 'one of the world's safest countries' ahead of a series of top-level meetings to discuss next stages of the scheme.

She added said: 'The suggestion that Rwanda can only take 200 people is completely false narrative peddled by critics who want to scrap the deal.

'Rwanda has the capacity to accommodate tens of thousands of people, and can quickly stand this up once flights begin.'

Rwanda will be able to take 'thousands' of migrants as soon as removals flights begin, Suella Braverman said last night

Her remarks setting out the scope of the scheme come after a debate in the Commons on Monday, when shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper claimed: 'At most, the Rwandan authorities say that they may take a couple of hundred people.'

During this weekend's trip to the east African nation, Mrs Braverman is due to visit new accommodation sites being built by the Rwandan government to house migrants who will be sent from Britain.

Under the terms of the deal signed last April migrants will be handed a one-way ticket to Rwanda and will claim asylum there rather than in the UK.

The Home Office's inaugural removals flight to Rwanda was halted at the 11th-hour in June by the European Court of Human Rights. The scheme has since been bogged down by legal challenges  but it was declared lawful by High Court judges in December. Appeal hearings are due to take place in the coming weeks.

Earlier this month Prime Minister Rishi Sunak predicted removals flights could begin by the summer, and said he was confident the plan would clear its legal hurdles in the coming months.

During her trip, the Home Secretary is due to meet Rwandan president Paul Kagame, a former military officer who has been in power since 2000.

'We will discuss all aspects of the partnership, which is not just about deterring illegal and dangerous journeys to the UK, but about ensuring those genuinely in need of protection are supported to build a new life in Rwanda,' Mrs Braverman said.

The UK government has asked the European Court of Human Rights to stop using 'deeply flawed' powers which blocked the inaugural flight to Rwanda. If Strasbourg fails to agree, ministers will change UK law so they can ignore the European court's attempts to interfere, the new Illegal Migration Bill sets out.

It came as at least 100 migrants reached the UK by small boat across the Channel yesterday. So far, 3,198 migrants have crossed from northern France since the start of the year.
Foreign Minister Park Jin/ Yonhap



Foreign Minister Park Jin said Saturday issues concerning wartime sexual slavery by Japan and the easternmost Korean islets of Dokdo were not discussed as agenda items during the recent summit between the Korean and Japanese leaders.



"Issues on Dokdo or comfort women have not been discussed as agenda items," the foreign minister said during his appearance on a KBS news program, referring to the summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Thursday.






Two people have escaped serious harm after their truck ploughed into a clifftop home, leaving them hanging over a perilous 10m drop.

Emergency services were called to a home on Weerona Pl in Sydney's Caringbah South about 7.25am on Saturday to find a truck had smashed through the garage of the single-storey home.

A man and a woman were trapped inside the cabin of the truck, which was hanging over the edge of a dangerous cliff.

A truck crashed into a home at Weerona Place in Caringbah in Sydney's south, leaving the cab hanging over a 10m drop. Picture: FRNSW

The pair were freed by Fire and Rescue NSW personnel after approximately 20 terrifying minutes.

They were assessed by NSW Ambulance officers before being taken to Sutherland Hospital as a precaution.

Firefighters stabilised the truck, which has left a trail of destruction in its wake.

Thankfully, police confirmed no one was in the house at the time of the shocking crash.

'Officers from Sutherland Shire Police Area Command have been told the home was vacant while undergoing renovations,' said a NSW Police spokesperson.

The property is understood to have been vacant at the time of the crash. Picture: FRNSW

'A salvage operation is now underway to remove the truck, with significant structural damage sustained to the building.

The home is at the bottom of a hill on Weerona Place in the south Sydney suburb.

Police will continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash and its cause.
Lawyers for Grammy-winning musician Kenny G on Friday filed legal documents demanding that his ex-wife agree to end the $40,000-a-month he has been paying her, with the saxophonist arguing he can no longer afford it.

The 66-year-old musician, born in Seattle as Kenneth Gorelick, was married to Lyndie Benson for 21 years.

The couple divorced in 2013 and he agreed to pay her the hefty monthly fee.

But in September 2021 he filed documents arguing he could no longer keep sending her money, and on Friday, with the case unresolved, his lawyers served Benson's attorneys.

'Kenny, who is now 65 years old, has been paying spousal support to Lyndie for more than 9 years,' the original documents state.

Kenny G is pictured in July 2021 on his bike in his Malibu neighborhood. He is fighting to end spousal support, arguing that he can no longer afford it

The musician and his wife Lyndie Benson are seen at home in June 1992

'Kenny is a Grammy award winning saxophonist with a long successful career and more than 15 albums.

'However, as explained in the accompanying declaration of Kenny, for the last 2-3 years Kenny's touring opportunities, where he earns the most income, have not only declined but his percentage of earnings from the tours have also declined.

'Kenny's income has substantially declined steadily since 2018.'

His legal team - headed by high-profile divorce attorney Laura Wasser - did not specify how much the musician was worth.

At the time of his divorce, he was widely reported to be worth $50 million.

He has paid his ex-wife $3.9 million since 2013, his lawyers noted.

'Lyndie is 57 years old, and, as far as Kenny knows, in good health' his lawyers wrote in their initial complaint.

'Lyndie has refused to become fully self-supporting for almost 10 years.

'Kenny should not have to continue to bear the burden of her refusal to do so.'

Kenny G is seen in July 2021 playing at Charles Krug Winery presented by The Blue Note, in Napa Valley. He claims he no longer tours regularly

Kenny G and Michael Bolton are seen on stage in Chicago in August 1992

The Seattle-born musician cycles near his Malibu home in July 2021

His lawyers note that she has launched a clothing company, Bleusalt, but refused to hand over the financial documentation related to the company.

In May 2022, Forbes interviewed her and described it as a 'thriving fashion label' of 'Malibu-inspired chic essentials'.

She told the magazine: 'I have always been obsessed with beautiful cashmere and head to toe outfits from Loro Piana and Bamford. Luxurious clothing that looked good on the beach for a bonfire and just as good when you were at Nobu for dinner.

'So once I found the fabric and perfected it for Bleusalt, the inspiration was already fully realized in my daily life and aesthetic.'

He is seeking to end the payments entirely, or substantially reduce them.

He is also asking the court to end the requirement that he maintain payments of a life support policy, which was guaranteed under the divorce.

Kenny G is the best-selling instrumental artist ever, and next month is performing in Las Vegas.

With 11 platinum albums and eight others that have reached multi-platinum status, Kenny G is one of the most successful artists, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

He appeared on the soundtrack for The SpongeBob Movie, and has collaborated with Kanye West and Katy Perry.

In 2021, HBO made a documentary of his life and music, Listening to Kenny G.

Kenny G, wife Lyndie Benson and sons Max and Noah

The following year, he appeared in a Super Bowl advert for the beer Busch Light - his second Super Bowl ad, after appearing for Audi in 2011.

In 2022, he told Forbes he didn't mind being mocked for being everywhere.

'If I'm the butt of the joke, if it's funny, I love it,' he says, recalling how Wayne's World film had a dentist swap out Novocaine for his music, how in South Park his music 'makes everyone crap their pants,' or how Saturday Night Live made fun of him for a duet he did with Frank Sinatra.

'It doesn't bother me because it's truly funny.'
The melting of the Arctic ice cap could allow the Chinese navy to confront Nato in the Atlantic within the next two decades, defence chiefs have warned.

Beijings nuclear submarine fleet may routinely be able to exploit the Northwest Passage through the Arctic much sooner if the ice thins, potentially posing a threat to the UKs nuclear deterrent.

The warning comes amid alarm at increasingly close ties between China and Russia.

Yesterday, Beijing revealed that President Xi Jinping will make a rare trip outside China next week to hold a summit in Russia with Vladimir Putin.

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: China is a threat to us and the longer we try to dial that down the more China thinks we are weak and the more emboldened they become.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, meets with representatives of national role models in the field of emergency management and loyal guards in the fire-fighting sector at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing

This warning from the Navy is the latest in a string of warnings that should have set alarm bells ringing and should be leading to much greater investment in defence.

Instead, we have seen a refresh of the Integrated Review that still says we are going to deal with China with robust pragmatism  all because we are terrified of losing out on trade. They are laughing at us.

The sea route through the Arctic is currently navigable only for a handful of weeks a year in summer.

Most submarines can operate under ice for short periods but only the most advanced can travel under the thick layers of the North Pole, which present some of the harshest conditions in the world.

A nuclear-powered Type 094A Jin-class ballistic missile submarine of the Chinese People's Liberation Army

A view of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) guided-missile destroyer Nanning (162) during joint naval military drills between Iran, Russia, and China in the Gulf of Oman

Russian and American submarines routinely operate in the Arctic, and British boats have conducted exercises there.

Western intelligence sources do not believe China has developed the capability to date.

However, Navy chiefs now think a combination of thinning polar ice and advancing Chinese submarine technology could allow Beijing to deploy its huge underwater fleet to the Atlantic within a few years when the conditions are likely to be less challenging.
President Joe Biden has thrown his support behind the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin who he believes has 'committed war crimes.'

'Well, I think it's justified. But the question is - it's not recognized internationally by us either. But I think it makes a very strong point,' Biden told reporters gathered on the south lawn of the White House on Friday. 'He's clearly committed war crimes', he later added.

The ICC earlier on Friday called for Putin's arrest on suspicion of unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of people from Ukraine to Russia since Moscow's invasion began of its neighbor last year. The U.S is not a member of the ICC.

The U.S separately concluded that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine and supports accountability for perpetrators of war crimes, a State Department spokesperson said.

President Joe Biden said he believes the decision by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to charge Putin was 'justified'

The ICC move obligates the court's 123 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory

'There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities (in) Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible must be held accountable,' they added.

'This was a decision the ICC prosecutor reached independently based on the facts before him.'

The ICC move obligates the court's 123 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory.

The ICC also issued a warrant on Friday for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children's rights, on the same charges.

The court's shock notice came hours after other news with the potential to significantly impact Russia's war on Ukraine, including a Moscow visit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping and more fighter jets for Kyiv's forces.

The Chinese leader will be in Russia next week to sign accords ushering in a new era of ties.

The United States has accused China of mulling arms shipments to support Russia's campaign, claims Beijing has strongly denied.

A U.S.-backed report by Yale University researchers last month said Russia has held at least 6,000 Ukrainian children in at least 43 camps and other facilities as part of a 'large-scale systematic network.'

Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for his Delaware home, he said Putin 'clearly committed war crimes'

Residents are seen outside of damaged buildings with a cat as Russia-Ukraine war continues in Mariupol's Russian controlled territory of Ukraine

A Ukrainian police officer takes cover in front of a burning building that was hit in a Russian airstrike in Avdiivka, Ukraine, on Friday

Ukrainian soldiers install an anti-tank missile systems 'Stugna' near Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, of Ukraine on Friday

More than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since the February 24, 2022 invasion, according to Kyiv, with many allegedly placed in institutions and foster homes.

Russia has denied accusations that its forces have committed atrocities during its invasion.

Moscow dismissed the orders as 'void.' The Kremlin said on Friday the ICC arrest warrant against Putin was outrageous, but meaningless with respect to Russia.

'Russia, just like a number of different countries, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and so from a legal point of view, the decisions of this court are void,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev compared the warrants to toilet paper, while foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said they 'have no meaning' for Russia.

War-battered Ukraine welcomed the ICC announcement, with President Volodymyr Zelensky hailing the 'historic decision.'

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said that Putin was now liable for arrest if he set foot in any of the court's more than 120 member states.

He said the arrest warrants were 'based upon forensic evidence, scrutiny and what's been said by those two individuals'.

'The evidence we presented focused on crimes against children. Children are the most vulnerable part of our society,' said Khan.

The ICC said judges found there were 'reasonable grounds' to suspect Putin's criminal responsibility and grant Khan's application for the warrants, which were made back on February 22.

The ICC called for Putin's arrest as the court accused the despot of unlawfully abducting Ukrainian children from their homes and deporting them to Russia to be given to Russian families. Pictured: Ukrainian children onboard a train from Ukraine's Donbas region to Russia on February 22, 2022

President Xi will visit Russia from Monday in an apparent show of support for Russian President Putin amid sharpening east-west tensions over the conflict in Ukraine

The ICC also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova (pictured with Putin in February), Russia's 'Children's Rights Commissioner', on similar allegations

ICC President Piotr Hofmanski said the execution of the warrants 'depends on international cooperation'.

During a meeting with Putin in mid-February, Lvova-Belova said she adopted a 15-year-old child from the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

'Now I know what it means to be a mother of a child from Donbas -- it is a difficult job but we love each other, that is for sure,' she told Putin.

She added that 'we evacuated children's homes into safe areas, arranged rehabilitation and prosthetics for them and provided them with targeted humanitarian assistance.'

The arrest warrant for Putin, a sitting head of state of a UN Security Council member, is an unprecedented step for the ICC.

Set up in 2002, the ICC is a court of last resort for the world's worst crimes, when countries cannot or will not prosecute suspects.

Prosecutor Khan launched an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine just days after Russia's invasion.

Khan recently posted pictures from a visit to Ukraine alongside empty cots in an empty children's care home, and said that investigating alleged child abduction was a 'priority'.

'It's poignant,' he said. 'One sees empty cribs and empty beds juxtaposed with paintings by those children on the walls.'

Zelensky, who met Khan on his visit, welcomed the arrest warrants for his nemesis in Moscow.

'A historic decision from which historic responsibility will begin,' Zelensky said.

Ukraine's Western allies also hailed the move.

US President Joe Biden said the warrant was 'justified,' and 'makes a very strong point,' while noting that the United States is not a member of the ICC.

'There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible must be held accountable,' a State Department spokesperson said. 'The ICC Prosecutor is an independent actor.'

Britain called the decision 'welcome' and the European Union said it was 'just the start.' Human Rights Watch said it was a 'big day for the many victims' of Russian forces.

The ICC's Khan however said there were 'so many examples of people that thought they were beyond the reach of the law'.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said Putin would be liable for arrest if he set foot in any of the court's member states

'Look at (Slobodan) Milosevic or Charles Taylor or (Radovan) Karadzic or (Ratko) Mladic,' he said, referring to a series of war criminals from the former Yugoslavia, and former Liberian president Taylor, who have faced justice.

Russia denies allegations of war crimes by its troops. Experts have said it is unlikely it would ever hand over any suspects.

With fighting still raging in Ukraine, Kyiv welcomed the news Friday that Slovakia will donate 13 MiG-29 warplanes.

Ukraine has long requested fighter jets from Western allies, although it is seeking primarily modern US-made F-16s.
Scotland Yard is deploying undercover officers to catch sex predators at 'toxic' police stations ahead of a report which is expected to condemn the under-fire force.

The drastic measures are being taken to avoid another David Carrick or Wayne Couzens scandal, which both involved predatory firearms officers who remained in post despite multiple complaints.

The force is braced for the most damning report in decades as sources said Baroness Louise Casey's findings, which will be published on Tuesday, will reveal rampant homophobia, sexism and racism.

Sources said its findings will be as damaging as the 1999 Macpherson report, which was commissioned in the wake of Stephen Lawrence's murder and found institutional racism in the force. Baroness Casey is understood to have uncovered failings in every department she examined for the review, which was commissioned after Couzens raped and murdered 33-year-old Sarah Everard in 2021.

It will be published five weeks after Carrick was jailed following a 17-year campaign of rape and sexual assault.

Pictured: David Carrick. The drastic measures are being taken to avoid another David Carrick or Wayne Couzens scandal, which both involved predatory firearms officers who remained in post despite multiple complaints

Senior Met commander James Harman said the new undercover operation might have thwarted the pair, telling the Evening Standard: 'The work of these teams using covert methods has largely been targeted against corruption, connections with criminal gangs and money changing hands.

'They will still do that but we are also keen to target those high-end capabilities against sexual abuse and misconduct.' Following the Carrick scandal, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley announced an urgent review of more than 1,000 officers accused of domestic abuse or sexual offences in the past decade.

Sir Mark admitted that hundreds of officers and staff were unfit to serve but remained in the force, despite 'disgraceful behaviour'.

This week Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been in talks with the Commissioner  who was appointed in September  about the findings of the Casey review.

Baroness Louise Casey's findings will be published on Tuesday, five weeks after Carrick was jailed following a 17-year campaign of rape and sexual assault

The report is expected to have uncovered endemic racism and misogyny as well as examples of victims who faced violence at the hands of police officers and were failed by the force.

However it is understood that even if the report condemns Britain's biggest police force, the Home Office will back Sir Mark's leadership and plans to reform the Met.

Yesterday Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the force has 'clearly got a problem' that needs to be tackled, telling LBC Radio: 'We can't duck it, we can't pretend that this is purely an isolated officer or two. There are clearly practices that have been far too prevalent that we must face head-on.'

The interim Casey review, published in October, found hundreds of Met officers had been getting away with misconduct and crimes including domestic abuse, sexual assault and fraud.

A Home Office spokesman said: 'The Home Secretary has been clear that culture and standards in policing must be raised in order to regain the trust and confidence of the public. We await the publication of Baroness Casey's full report.'

A spokesman for the Casey review said it would not be commenting on the contents of the report ahead of publication. They added: 'We would like to remind everyone that the report was commissioned in the light of the appalling facts relating to the murderer of Sarah Everard. This must be remembered.'
Peiti Patel has called into question the objectivity of MPs who will grill Boris Johnson over Partygate next week  because almost all of them have previously criticised him.

The former home secretary warned of a culture of collusion and claimed the inquiry, branded a witch-hunt by allies of the ex-prime minister, will damage democracy.

Her comments came as a Daily Mail audit found that members of the seven-strong Privileges Committee have between them made more than 20 negative remarks about the former PM, in interviews and online.

Its Labour chairman Harriet Harman has already stated that Mr Johnsons acceptance of a police fine for breaching Covid laws means he admits misleading the Commons  the very issue her inquiry is meant to be considering on the basis of the evidence.

Even Conservatives on the committee, which will finally hold its televised evidence session with Mr Johnson on Wednesday, accused him of mortifying behaviour over Partygate.

The former home secretary warned of a culture of collusion and claimed the inquiry, branded a witch-hunt by allies of the ex-prime minister, will damage democracy

Mr Johnsons long-standing ally Miss Patel said the Partygate inquiry put our democracy in a very, very bad light.

How can a handful of Members of Parliament and committee really be that objective in light of some of the individual comments that have been made?

'I dont want to name people but it is a fact, she told GB News. The lack of transparency, the lack of accountability, I think there is a culture of collusion involved here quite frankly.

The usual chairman of the committee, Labours Chris Bryant, stepped aside from the probe when it was launched last April because he had repeatedly branded Mr Johnson a liar.

Yet his replacement, former New Labour minister Miss Harman, has been equally damning.

On the day Mr Johnson and Rishi Sunak were fined by police for attending a brief birthday party in the Cabinet room, she wrote on Twitter: PM & CX [Chancellor of the Exchequer] complete disregard for rules vital to protect health of others. Unspeakable. Disgraceful.

In a further tweet, she appeared to pre-judge the case she is now in charge of, writing: If PM and CX admit guilt, accepting that police right that they breached regs, then they are also admitting that they misled the House of Commons. Or are they going to challenge?

A Daily Mail audit found that members of the seven-strong Privileges Committee have between them made more than 20 negative remarks about the former PM, in interviews and online

The other Labour MP on the committee, Yvonne Fovargue, wrote online ahead of the 2019 election: Boris Johnson tells disgraceful lies. Here are just ten of them.

The sole SNP member of the committee, Allan Dorans, was once an officer in the Metropolitan Police which fined Mr Johnson.

In a newsletter he wrote that people in his constituency were understandably furious that while they were following the Covid rules and making personal sacrifices, Boris Johnson was breaking them by holding illegal Downing Street parties.

One of the four Tories on the committee, Andy Carter, declared in July when Mr Johnson announced he would step down: I believe this is the right thing to do, and is in the nations best interests.

Alberto Costa, another Conservative on the inquiry, made a series of pointed remarks about Mr Johnsons government when last summers leadership contest began.

The most senior Tory on the committee, Sir Bernard Jenkin, was once reported to have said it would be a disaster if Mr Johnson joined the Leave campaign ahead of the Brexit vote, calling him dishonest.

And the final member of the committee, Sir Charles Walker, declared as long ago as last February that he would applaud if the PM quit.

Commons leader Penny Mordaunt said the committee must be allowed to get on with its work without fear or favour.

A committee spokesman said: The members of the Privileges Committee are Members of Parliament who have been appointed to this role by the House.

'The decision to carry out this inquiry was not taken by the Privileges Committee but by the House of Commons as a whole.
ISIS 'Beatle' El Shafee Elsheikh faces dying alone in America's toughest supermax jail, which has been labelled the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies'.

Elsheikh, 34, was sentenced in August to life in prison, but the Brit, nicknamed Ringo, avoided being sent to ADX Florence in Colorado, claiming he suffered from poor mental health.

After being assessed, he was moved there earlier this month and is now in solitary confinement in a 7ft by 12ft cell, the Mirror reports.

A US prison insider told the publication: 'Elsheikh will rot in the closest thing America has to hell on Earth. He is now exactly where he belongs.'

Elsheikh was one of four terrorists in an IS cell in Iraq and Syria, called the Beatles by their captors due to their British accents.

Captured British Islamic State group fighters El Shafee el-Sheikh (left) and Alexanda Kotey (right) posing for mugshots in an undisclosed location

The United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, also known as the ADX or 'Supermax', in Florence, Colorado

They are Elsheikh, Aine Davis, Alexanda Kotey and Mohammed Emwazi. Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, was killed in a drone strike in Syria in 2015.

US authorities say the group, whose members all grew up in west London, beheaded 27 hostages.

Hostages have also said the group tortured people using waterboarding, electric shocks and mock executions.

Elsheikh was convicted in April 2022 of hostage-taking, conspiracy to murder US citizens and supporting a terrorist organisation.

He was sentenced to eight life sentences, served concurrently, with no option for parole.

Two other Brits, shoe bomber Richard Reid, 49, and Abu Hamza, 64, are also serving life sentences in ADX Florence.

Robert Hood, a former prison warden, once said: 'This place is not designed for humanity.'

Elsheikh, who was born in Sudan and raised in London, was convicted of conspiring to kill four American hostages: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.

All but Mueller were executed in videotaped beheadings that ISIS released online.

Mueller was forced into slavery and raped multiple times by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before she was killed.

Elsheikh, 34, was sentenced in August to life in prison, but the Brit, nicknamed Ringo, avoided being sent to ADX Florence in Colorado, claiming he suffered from poor mental health

Alexanda Amon Kotey, left, and El Shafee Elsheikh were both prosecuted in the US. Kotey pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison

The deaths of Foley, Sotloff and Kassig were confirmed in 2014, while Mueller's death was confirmed in early 2015.

Elsheikh's warped crimes were branded 'brutal' and 'horrific' in August as he was handed his eight life sentences.

Elsheikh was captured alongside Kotey in Syria in 2018 by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces while trying to escape to Turkey.

In 2021, Kotey pleaded guilty to eight counts relating to his involvement.

Kotey was jailed in the US in April 2022 for his part in the killings.

Davis was jailed in Turkey before being deported to the UK in September last year.

Hostages freed by the ISIS Beatles gave vital evidence to identify their captors, police said.

The hostages told British police the men had bragged about being arrested at a London demonstration years earlier.

Officers identified the protest and recovered video footage of Elsheikh and Kotey being arrested.

Analysis of their phones showed the their links to the cell's executioner, Emwazi.

The details were revealed by Scotland Yard ahead of Elsheikh's sentencing in the United States in August last year.

Peter Kassig, 26, in Syria wrote a letter to his father shortly before he was beheaded in a videotaped murder. The letter was read out in court during the trial

James Foley is pictured while covering the civil war in Aleppo, Syria

Left: US freelance journalist Steven Sotloff. Right: Kayla Mueller is shown after speaking to a group in Prescott, Arizona. Both were killed in Syria by ISIS

Elsheikh's sentencing hearing came on the eight-year anniversary of the day that ISIS uploaded a video to YouTube showing the gruesome beheading of Foley.

Raj Parekh, the attorney representing the families, said Elsheikh remained 'defiantly remorseless and unrepentant' during his sentencing.

He said the jihadist had made no effort to meet victims' families.

At sentencing, the court heard statements from some of the victims' loved ones, including those of Foley.

His mother, Diane Foley, said: 'This trial has revealed the horrific human rights crimes you committed while part of Isis. Your hatred overtook your humanity.'

The charges against Elsheikh, whose British citizenship was withdrawn in 2018, carried a potential death sentence, but US prosecutors had agreed not seek his execution in a deal with British officials to carry forward the case.

Elsheikh's trial, and emotional testimony from the families of his victims, gripped observers on both sides of the Atlantic, and his sentencing was greeted with approval by US and UK officials.

El Shafee Elsheikh during his arrest at an EDL counter-protest in central London on September 11, 2011

Elsheikh is pictured in a court room sketch on April 1, 2022. 'The Beatles' - so-called because they had British accents - tortured and executed US and British hostages

'This prosecution unmasked the vicious and sadistic ISIS Beatles,' said First Assistant US Attorney Raj Parekh, noting that Elsheikh and the other Beatles always wore masks when they appeared in front of their hostages.

'This is one of the most significant international terrorism cases ever brought to trial,' said Commander Richard Smith, head of counterterrorism at London's Metropolitan Police Service, in a statement to DailyMail.com.

'These were some of the most barbaric terrorist acts ever seen, carried out with chilling callousness and brutality,' he added.

'I hope that those most affected may take some comfort in knowing that these extremely dangerous men have been brought to justice.'

Smith said: 'This is a time to remember all of the victims  those innocent people who were senselessly killed, and also the surviving hostages who experienced unimaginable horrors at the hands of El Shafee Elsheikh and his co-defendant Alexanda Kotey.

'They have shown remarkable fortitude and bravery in giving their accounts of what happened to investigators, and in court.'

Elsheikh is the most notorious and highest-ranking member of the Islamic State group to ever be convicted in a US Court, prosecutors said.

The life sentence was a foregone conclusion after a jury convicted him of a slew of heinous crimes earlier in 2022.
Coffee giant now has thousands of one-star ratings on review website Trustpilot

Customers, who paid 700 for coffee machines, are seeing three week delays

George Clooney can be seen grappling for the precious last-remaining coffee capsule in Nespresso's latest TV advertisement.

And now it appears similar scenes  albeit minus the Hollywood heart-throb  have been playing out across the country.

Furious caffeine-deprived owners of the 700 Nespresso machines say they have been left with dwindling supplies of pods after online orders failed to arrive.

And the delays of up to three weeks, which the firm blames on 'teething problems' after a shake-up of its UK warehouse operation, have certainly left a rather bitter taste.

The coffee giant has been handed a derisory one-star rating by more than 1,000 people on review website Trustpilot, with angry customer Eleanor Robinson describing it as a 'shambles'.

Furious caffeine-deprived owners of the 700 Nespresso machines say they have been left with dwindling supplies of pods after online orders failed to arrive

George Clooney can be seen grappling for the precious last-remaining coffee capsule in Nespresso's latest TV advertisement

The 43-year-old from Oxted, Surrey, said: 'You don't expect to pay hundreds of pounds for a coffee machine and then spend more money on capsules only for them not to be delivered. They just went AWOL  we've had no communication.'

Another customer wrote: 'Terrible company. Awful attitudes. Late delivery, if at all.'

The brand, which has 33 outlets in the UK, is sold in 84 countries with 14billion capsules consumed each year.

Capsules compatible with Nespresso machines are sold in supermarkets, but the Vertuo and Original pods promoted by Clooney can only be bought online or from Nespresso boutiques.

The firm, which reportedly paid the actor 31million, recently closed branches in Norwich and Oxford. And Nestle, maker of Nespresso pods, has said it would raise prices this year.

A Nespresso spokesman apologised for the delays, adding: 'Nespresso recently moved its UK warehouse and a number of system teething problems have unfortunately impacted delivery timeframes.'
With more than a million job vacancies in this country, its nothing short of a scandal that 7million people of working age are economically inactive  5.9million of them on universal credit.

The total has risen by 300,000 since the pandemic, and while some may be incapable of holding down a job for reasons of poor health, others should surely be able to find employment. With so many technical aids available for home working, is it really possible that 2.5million people classed as long-term sick or disabled are incapable of doing any paid hours at all?

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt certainly thinks not and tells the Mail today of a new carrot-and-stick approach to coax the workless into employment.

Benefit payments for the disabled and long-term sick would be protected if they took on work for a trial period.

Meanwhile, those on universal credit risk losing money if they refuse to accept work or fail to turn up for interviews. Also, if they work less than 18 hours a week (up from 12), they will be obliged to seek more.

With so many technical aids available for home working, is it really possible that 2.5million people classed as long-term sick or disabled are incapable of doing any paid hours at all?

Getting benefit claimants back into the workforce is good for the country and good for those concerned. It saves public money and reduces the pressure to bring in migrants to fill the 1.1million posts which are vacant.

More importantly, work generally makes people healthier, while earning ones own money rather than relying on the state should instil pride and confidence.

This is not the first time ministers have tried to tackle benefit dependency. Sir Iain Duncan Smith had great success during the coalition years in transforming the benefit system to make work pay.

But that resolve has slipped since and inertia has set in. We welcome Mr Hunts campaign and hope it will galvanise the workless into action. Poor productivity has held Britain back for far too long. This initiative can help turn the tide.

Passport to misery

Anyone who has waited three months or more for their passport to be renewed might be forgiven for thinking Passport Office staff were already on strike.

Amazingly, that was the sub-standard service when they were working normally. So Lord knows how long those delays will be now they are planning a five-week walkout.

The decision to punish the long-suffering public with this spiteful action is particularly tin-eared, at a time when almost every other union is seeing sense and calling off their strikes.

Anyone who has waited three months or more for their passport to be renewed might be forgiven for thinking Passport Office staff were already on strike

The Public and Commercial Services union plans to create as much disruption as possible, calling their strike for the peak April period, during which an estimated 250,000 applications come in every week.

The strike will cause widespread stress as people wait anxiously to see whether passports arrive in time for their summer vacation and could well lead to family holidays being ruined altogether. So much for public service.

Emotion trumps logic

Parliament's decision to ban the import of hunting trophies into the UK was sadly a victory for emotion and sentimentality over common sense.

Despite representatives of five African countries saying that regulated hunting of big game was an essential and lucrative part of their conservation strategy, MPs allowed hearts to rule heads.

Like deer in Londons royal parks, animals will need to be culled anyway to preserve the health of the herds and to ensure they dont become too numerous. Only now it will cost money rather than generating it.

Supporters of this Bill are no doubt bristling with pride over their virtuous stand against the odious hobby hunters. But according to local conservationists, they have caused more damage than they know.
Staff who go the extra mile in their jobs are more likely to be exploited by their bosses, a study shows.

Managers take advantage of employees who show the greatest loyalty as they view them as an easy target for extra tasks.

Researchers found such staff are more likely to be asked to stay late, do things that are not in their job description or even take work on holiday with them.

They warn that being too dedicated to the job can backfire on employees and have negative consequences for their career and home life.

Workplace loyalty is traditionally lauded as an admirable quality in most employees.

Researchers found such staff are more likely to be asked to stay late, do things that are not in their job description or even take work on holiday with them

Managers take advantage of employees who show the greatest loyalty, the research found. File image

It means they are more likely to fully commit to their roles and less prone to moving to rival employers.

Most companies rely on staff loyalty to ensure the business runs smoothly and with minimal disruption.

But the latest study, by researchers from Duke University in North Carolina, USA, suggests many bosses abuse staff dedication.

The study, by Duke University in North Carolina, US, presented managers with two employee profiles. One had a reputation for loyalty to their boss, the other was much less likely to be loyal.

They were asked which one they would request to work late for no extra pay or do unpopular tasks with no reward. The results, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, showed bosses were more willing to take advantage of loyal workers than try to get those with less commitment to do the tasks.

The researchers said: 'Managers presume loyal workers are particularly likely to do this extra work as loyalty comes with an expectation of self-sacrifice to the organisation as a whole.

'But it seems unlikely that managers would expect a disloyal worker to show such self-sacrifice.'

Professor Cary Cooper, an expert in organisation psychology and health at Manchester University, said: 'Good people are often dumped on by organisations or individual managers without getting any of the recognition that should come with it  such as more money or a promotion.

'Part of the problem is a lot of managers are technically highly-skilled but have appalling people skills.

'They're the kind that will most likely try and exploit staff loyalty.'
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via a video link from the Kremlin in Moscow, March 17. AFP-Yonhap



The International Criminal Court said Friday it had issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in the abduction of children from Ukraine.



The court said in a statement that Putin "is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."



It also issued a warrant the same day for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Children's Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.



Court President Piotr Hofmanski said in a video statement that while the ICC's judges have issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them. The court has no police force of its own to enforce warrants.






Four academics forced to retire at 68 under a policy designed to promote diversity have won their age discrimination claim against Oxford University.

The Employer Justified Retirement Age policy was found by an employment tribunal to have a discriminatory effect and could not be legally justified.

The senior academics all left the university between 2019 and 2021 because of the policy introduced a decade earlier. Some went on to work elsewhere instead of retiring.

Nicholas Field-Johnson, 71, head of development in continuing education; Bent Flyvbjerg, 70, a professor in the Said Business School; Philip Candelas, 71, the Rouse Ball head of mathematical physics; and Duncan Snidal, 69, a professor in international relations, successfully joined forces to challenge the universitys ageist policy to push them into retirement.

They stand to receive substantial damages. A future hearing will decide on a remedy unless a deal is struck with Oxford.

Pictured (L-R): The Radcliffe Camera, the Codrington library, Hertford College (Old Quadrangle) and All Souls' College, Oxford

A future hearing will decide on a remedy for the academics unless a deal is struck with Oxford

The judgment has not yet been published but was revealed by lawyers representing three of the academics.

Their solicitor Simon Henthorn, a partner at Doyle Clayton, said: In our experience it is difficult for employers to lawfully retire employees.

'This was certainly the case in this matter, and we are delighted that the Employment Tribunal has ruled in the professors favour.

Employers used to be able to force workers to retire at 65 but this default retirement age was scrapped in 2011, allowing most to continue working if they want or need to.

Oxfords policy was also introduced in 2011 and covered staff ranging from the Vice-Chancellor down to senior research staff.

The idea was that it could be justified as the aim was to promote equality and diversity by opening up new jobs to a younger generation likely to be more diverse than the existing workforce.

The university claimed that refreshing the academic and research staff would help it maintain its rich academic environment and foster innovation.

But this latest legal challenge has put the policy - set to increase the retirement age to 69 later this year - in doubt.

By law an employer can ask employees to retire at a certain age there is a legitimate aim behind it.

In this case the tribunal ruled the policy could not be justified in this way.

The tribunal panel said the university had not produced evidence to show the policys success in creating vacancies.

Figures provided indicated nine in ten vacancies for statutory and associate professor roles would have arisen if the EJRA had not existed.

The tribunal concluded the overall contribution of the EJRA to promoting equality and diversity is very limited.

Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews are the only universities to have such age-related retirement rules in place.

An Oxford University spokesman said: The university has been notified of the tribunals ruling. We are currently reviewing the detail and considering our next steps, including the option of appeal.

None of the academics were available for comment.
Yet another distasteful video of a baby being forced to vape has emerged online.

The video was shared to Facebook by Northern Territory media company The Mango Inquirer on Saturday.

It shows a toddler sitting on a woman's lap while another person tries to force a vape into its mouth.

At one point the child tries to turn their head away but is forced back to face the camera and held in place while the other person puts the vape in their mouth.

Seconds later the baby is seen coughing up vapour.

Footage of baby being forced to vape (above) emerged online on Saturday

The footage appears to be a social media 'memory' from December 3, 2022, and was captioned 'this part tho (sic)' with laughing emojis.

Northern Territory Police are aware of the video and urged anyone with information to contact police on 131 444.

It has not been confirmed where it was originally filmed.

Dozens of commenters below the video were horrified to see the young child being exposed to vaping.

'Oh this is just sick. Some people should not have children,' one person wrote.

'Disgusting act. Plain straight out child abuse,' another said.

'Sickening. That poor baby!' a third person wrote.

'What's wrong with people?' another commented.

The new video comes just weeks after two other videos emerged of a child being forced to vape.

Most recently, videos showed an infant girl vaping alongside a woman who is a relative of the child from Ceduna, on South Australia's south-west coast.

Some of the footage is captioned with laughing emojis.

In the first video, the child - who is young enough to still have a dummy - vapes alongside the woman, blowing vapour at the camera.

It comes just weeks after three other videos were shared of young children being forced to vape (pictured, 11-month-old Lebron being given a vape by his mother)

In the second, a hand reaches forward and hands the infant a vape before the little girl casually inhales and exhales.

Before that, mother Annie Donovan, 16, from the NSW mid-north coast, apologised after footage of her forcing her 11-month-old baby, Lebron, to use a vape surfaced online.

Ms Donovan said she didn't know she was being filmed when she put the vape near her son's mouth but insisted she's learnt a 'massive lesson'.

'It was just a silly joke, I put the vape up near him and I never thought he would grab it, I thought he'd push it away,' she told the Daily Telegraph.

'I know I did the wrong thing, but what people are saying to me and writing is full on, I don't deserve that.'
An ISIS-obsessed New York man who threatened to kill cops at a local St. Patrick's Day Parade has been arrested, feds said Friday - as revelers across the country geared up to celebrate the often hectic holiday.

A resident of Yonkers, 32-year-old Ridon Kola was arrested and charged with making interstate threats ahead of the city's St. Patrick's Day parade, slated for Saturday.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, and comes after Kola directly messaged the Yonkers police force's social media accounts to detail his planned attack, the Yonkers Ledger reported.

The threats came over the course of several days, and were compounded by a series of troubling posts on the alleged domestic terrorist's own social media.

One such post, published days after Kola direct messaged the department to say that he would 'crucify' cops tasked with overseeing the procession, included an image of the suspect brandishing an ax, seemingly to make good on his initial threat.

A resident of Yonkers, 32-year-old Ridon Kola was arrested and charged with making interstate threats ahead of Yonkers' St. Patrick's Day parade, slated for Saturday

The ISIS-obsessed New Yorker's arrest came as revelers across the country geared up to celebrate the often hectic holiday, including at the renowned NYC parade a few miles south

Sent to the Yonkers Police Department on March 9, the message saw Kola threateningly insist that the street set to house the event will be a 'horror scene' come Saturday, before signing off with an Arabic phrase that means 'God is great.'

'I will crucify Yonkers cops and their bosses all along McLean ave,' wrote Kola in the correspondence, which was released by the Justice Department shortly after his arrest.

'It will be a horror scene,' the New York man continued, according to federal authorities. 'Allahu Ekberr [sic].'

In another message sent that same day, Kola wrote: 'First people to be crucified will be the Yonkers rats.'

While the message did not mention the parade directly, it did by proxy - with McLean being the street where the city's event is set to be staged.

The planned event is markedly smaller than its famed Manhattan counterpart held a few miles south, which features a procession of roughly 150,000 and is attended by roughly 2million people.

That said, the Yonkers parade is no slouch, and is still expected to welcome roughly 30,000 revelers.

The threats came over the course of several days, and were compounded by a series of troubling posts on the alleged domestic terrorist's own social media

The US Attorney's Office on Friday revealed they had arrested the Yonkers resident, detailing a series of since-deleted posts in which the suspect expressed support for the terror group

In one post cited by the feds, Kola showed support for fellow ISIS fanatic Sayfullo Saipov, 35, who was sentenced to life in prison this week for using a rented UHaul to plow into eight people on a New York City bike path in 2017

Other since nixed posts included Islamic artwork and imagery feds said coincide with those used by jihadist groups to express a desire for an all-Islamic world - one of the main tenets of the terror group

Following Kola's arrest, Yonkers' mayor announced that the event would proceed as planned, with security being a priority.

'The message is clear. It's not funny,' Democrat Mike Spano said of the currently incarcerated suspect's not-so-veiled threats, saying he 'will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.'

'That's what we do,' the mayor said of his community set 16 miles north of Manhattan. 'That's why this guy won't be at the parade. Safe to say. Everyone else who wants to enjoy the parade will be here.'

Hours earlier, the US Attorney's Office revealed they had arrested the Yonkers resident, while also detailing a series of since-deleted posts in which the suspect expressed support for the terror group, as well as a 'war against non-Muslims.'

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and first female New York City Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh were seen attending St. Patrick's Day festivities

Spectators were in good spirits as they cheered during the St. Patrick's Day parade

Thousands flocked to the street to watch St Patrick's Day festivities in New York wearing holiday themed costumes

St. Patrick's Day festivities bring Irish cheer, parades, and parties as party-goers celebrated in the streets

Kathy Hochul (L), the first female Governor of New York State was seen gleaming as she attended the annual St. Patrick's Day parade held in New York

Marchers proudly held American flags as they walked down fifth avenue during the 262nd St. Patrick's Day parade

In one post cited by the feds, Kola showed support for fellow ISIS fanatic Sayfullo Saipov, 35, who was sentenced to life in prison this week for using a rented UHaul to plow into eight people on a New York City bike path in 2017.

'May allah set you free my brother,' Kola wrote in the post, which was penned on March 7, according to a criminal complaint aired by the attorney's office.

The suspected terrorist added: 'The real terrorists and thieves is the American i llum inati [sic]'

Other since nixed posts included Islamic artwork and imagery feds said coincide with those used by jihadist groups to express a desire for an all-Islamic world - one of the main tenets of the Islamic State.

Spring Break party-goers were also seen donning green as they got ready for a night of debauchery

Bikini-clad women and shirtless men stormed the streets and beaches of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as the party continued for spring breakers after a night of debauchery

In Georgia women were seen getting ready to party on St. Patrick's Day

The complaint further revealed that Kola had messaged Yonkers police' social media with threats as early as 2021, with one message, written in Albanian, reading: 'I am going to slaughter you little girls.'

Kopa has since been taken into federal custody, with agents reportedly storming his residence early Friday.

'The message is clear. It's not funny,' Democrat and Mayor of the City of Yonkers, Mike Spano, said

His arrest came as similar processions were staged across the country in cities like the Big Apple and Georgia, with other revelers in cities like Fort Lauderdale taking in the festivities with boozy, beachside parties attended by many.

The annual parade in New York City - which bills itself as the world's largest and oldest - paid homage to Ireland's patron saint and celebrated the deep Irish history interwoven with American culture.

In Washington, DC, Friday night, the White House was illuminated with a festive shade of green to celebrate the holiday.

In Ireland's capital, a sea of green and orange crowds of half a million people took to Dublin's streets to take part in the festive parade while revelers enjoyed pints of Guinness.

Celebrations have since gone without a hitch, though the true extent of the debauchery will likely not be known until the nation wakes up on Saturday.

The White House was illuminated in green in honor of Saint Patrick's day, in Washington, DC

DUBLIN: Revelers dressed up to celebrate St Patrick's Day in front of the famous Temple Bar in Dublin
Gym-goers at a California branch of Planet Fitness helped to tackle a hatchet-wielding attacker who was holding a victim at knife-point.

The incident, which occurred Corona, California, east of Los Angeles earlier this week, saw gym members spring into action as they managed to force the suspect to the floor and pin him down until police arrived on the scene.

One of those who tackled the suspect, John Keene, said he raced into action and acted on instinct, long before police were on site.

'I kind of didn't really hesitate. I didn't have a game plan. The four of us, none of us even talked as we walked over there. We all did the exact same thing. And I felt that Steve, the guy with the hat, was going to go in and do something. So I thought, if he goes, I'm going to go because I didn't want him to get hurt, too. So we didn't really decide to do anything. We just did,' Keene told Fox News.

Keene had been working out on a stair climber machine when he heard screaming and shouting coming from across the gym. It was then he noticed the suspect holding a man at knife-point.

A man weilding a knife and a hatchet, seen in blue, appeared to take a man hostage at a gym

People were working out when screaming and shouting was heard from another area of the gym - it saw people jump off their machines and race over to try help

'At first, I thought it was an argument, so I kind of ignored it and after about a minute, it got louder, so I turned off the machine and got down to walk over there.'

Keene walked over along with three other men, with the intention of trying to help.

'As I was approaching, three other guys came at the same time, and we didn't really have a game plan at all. We just were going to try to help, if we could,' Keene said.

Once the suspect dropped his hood to reveal his face, the victim managed to twist his body and tackled the suspect as gymgoers screamed in the background.

Four other men were able to assist in overpowering the suspect, identified as 30-year-old Ronald Chand from Santa Ana.

Once the suspect dropped his hood to reveal his face, the victim managed to twist his body and tackled the suspect as gymgoers screamed in the background

'We all just bounced on him and disarmed him and held him down for the police. It kinda happened fast,' John Keene explained. 'I wasn't scared at that moment. I felt the adrenaline after but because the victim acted, we didn't have time to decide or think about it.'

'We all just bounced on him and disarmed him and held him down for the police. It kinda happened fast,' Keene explained. 'I wasn't scared at that moment. I felt the adrenaline after but because the victim acted, we didn't have time to decide or think about it. I was involved before I thought about it,' he said.

Chand was seen to be holding a knife and a hatchet but was able to be held down on the floor until police arrived on the scene.

'It seemed like forever for the police to arrive, but it was probably two or three minutes and then a motorcycle cop came in,' Keene said.

'I got him on his back and I held his arm down so Steve could take the knife from him,' Keene told ABC7. 'And then there was hatchet there too and we handed it to somebody else and they took it away from the scene.'

Three men restrained the suspect, who had both a knife and hatchet, until the police arrived

Chand was holding a knife and a hatchet but was able to be held down until police arrived on the scene.

Once emergency services arrived, the victim, later identified as 36-year-old Bollywood actor Aman Dhaliwal, had been stabbed several times and was taken to hospital. Dhaliwal is expected to make a full recovery

Rachel Wolfe was also at the gym at the time of the incident and said she was shocked by what she witnessed.

'I was terrified. I immediately called my husband and said there's a man in here with a hatchet and another guy is bleeding, and he dropped what he was doing and ran down here,' she told Fox 11.

'It was terrifying. I was afraid. I didn't know what was going to happen. It seems like a safe place. You come, you work out, you leave, but it just goes to show you, you're not safe anywhere.'

Officials say the altercation began in the parking lot of the shopping center when the victim encountered the suspect acting erratically, leading the victim to begin recording the suspect.

Ronald Chand, 30, was transported to the Robert Presley Detention Center and charged with Attempted Murder, with bail set at $1,000,000.

The two weapons allegedly used by the suspect are pictured above

The suspect then became agitated, blocked the victim's car with his own car and then stabbed the victim several times before entering the gym.

Upon entering the suspect was could be heard yelling 'Respect us,' and 'give me water!'

One of those who assisted in the restraining said they could smell methamphetamine on the suspect.

'When you pull up into any parking lot, look around to see who is around,' said Keene. 'Always be watching. Be willing to help other people, too.'

Once emergency services arrived, the victim, later identified as 36-year-old Bollywood actor Aman Dhaliwal who had been stabbed several times and was taken to hospital. Dhaliwal is expected to make a full recovery.

Chand was transported to the Robert Presley Detention Center and charged with Attempted Murder, with bail set at $1,000,000.
Protestors have performed the Nazi salute and clashed with transgender rights activists as UK anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen visited Melbourne.

About 30 people from far-right group National Socialist Movement marched along Spring Street near the Victorian Parliament on Saturday afternoon.

Disturbing footage showed masked protestors holding signs calling transgender people offensive names and performing Nazi salutes.

Ms Keen, a self-described transphobe, had turned up to Melbourne after spending the past week visiting Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide on her 'Let Women Speak' tour.

Controversial former Liberal candidate Katherine Deves was among the guest speakers as the protest spiralled into chaos.

Officers arrested at least two people, discharged pepper spray, and dragged away protestors by the arms.

One video showed a transgender rights activist rush onto the steps of Parliament House and snatch the microphone from a guest speaker, interrupting their speech.

Far-right group European Australia Movement founder Thomas Sewell was also spotted among the crowd.

Protestors have clashed during a transgender rights rally in Melbourne on Saturday

Police officers remove a protestor during the transgender rights rally as tensions boiled over in Melbourne

Protestors clashed outside Parliament House in Melbourne as Kellie-Jay Keen made an appearance

Transgender rights supporter holds a placard during the rally staged in Melbourne on Saturday

Police officers were forced to create a line to separate the transgender rights activists from clashing with members of the alt-right group.

In one video the masked men can be seen marching around the street as trans rights activists shout over the wall of officers.

'F*** you, Nazis,' one woman screamed. 'F*** you!'

The pro-trans group held signs that included messages such as 'women aren't defined by their bodies'.

One activist screamed as she was pulled along the ground by her arms by two officers.

Another pair of officers were forced to intervene as an anti-trans activist and protestor fought over an Australian flag.

Spring Street remained blocked to traffic in both directions.

Campaign Against Racism and Fascism posted a callout on Facebook urging activists to turn up and protest the appearance by Ms Keen.

'Let's make it clear that Melbourne is an anti-fascist, anti-sexist and pro-LGBTI town,' the post read.

'The growing confidence of the far-right internationally, and their use of transphobia and sexism to recruit to their ranks and as crucial issues they fight for must be opposed.

'Posie Parker is actively trying to build links between these far-right forces and broader anti-trans activists around the world.

Ms Keen, a self-described transphobe, has been touring around the country visiting Perth, Brisbane and Sydney

A group of protestors hold up an offensive sign as they clashed with trans rights activists on Saturday

Police discharged pepper spray into the crowd as scenes escalated in Melbourne

'This is unacceptable. If we want to counter these politics, and the confidence of the right to build around them, then we need to take to the streets.'

Ms Keen, who also goes by the name Posie Parker, has been touring around the country visiting Perth, Brisbane and Sydney.

She believes it's impossible to change gender and campaigns to exclude trans women from female-only spaces.

She also argues that trans people should be dead named and not have the right to chose their own pronouns.

Ms Keen has sparked backlash during her tour with transgender rights activists turning up in force in Sydney last Saturday.

Chants of 'bigots gone and anti-queer TERFS are not welcome here' were shouted by LGBTQI+ groups while Ms Keen spoke to crowds.

TERF is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist and describes those feminists who reject the claim that transgender women are women.

Ms Keen has come under fierce criticism from many groups in the past, including for allegedly posing with a campaigner who celebrated Winnie Mandela's death and called the anti-apartheid fighter 'a whore' and 'white farmer murdering c***'.

She has also been slammed by a British MP for saying access to abortion and contraceptives need to be rolled back for children and teenagers.

Ms Keen raised eyebrows recently after she criticised British MP Jess Phillips for reading out the name of a teenage trans murder victim Brianna Ghey in the House of Commons during an International Women's Day speech.

She has also spoken alongside a number of figures in far-right groups, including Christopher Barcenas, a member of the Proud Boys, who was deposed by the US government due to his presence at the January 6 Capitol riots.

A protestor attending the transgender rights rally in Melbourne on Saturday

Mounted police join officers standing on foot to create a human wall separating the protestors

Police officers created a human wall to separate the activists as tensions boiled over
A Nebraska school district has agreed to pay $1 million to the family of an eighth grader who died after eating a granola bar given to him by a teacher.

The Papillion La Vista school board will vote on the wrongful death settlement with the parents of Jagger Shaw, 14, at its meeting Monday night.

Few details about what happened last May are included in court documents because the settlement was reached through a probate court process and not a civil lawsuit.

Jagger's parents, Tom and Jill Shaw, declined to comment to the Omaha World-Herald about the settlement, but his father said in a Facebook post that Jagger's teacher at Liberty Middle School offered him a granola bar after he asked to go to the office for a snack.

'I gave him a hug and kiss told him to be good, and have a good day like every time I dropped him off,' he wrote.

Jagger Shaw, 14, suddenly became ill and began to have an allergic reaction after being given a snack by a teacher at Liberty Middle School in Nebraska

Jagger was taken to a local hospital where he later died after suffering an allergic reaction

He wrote how his son had asked to go to the school office to retrieve a snack, but a teacher instead offered him one of her granola bars.

'Jagger took it, and got halfway through eating it, and felt like he was starting to have an allergic reaction and went to the nurse's office,' his father said.

'They gave him Benadryl and waited to see if that was working,' said Shaw.

He wrote that his son tried to throw up the food, but 'came back from the bathroom looking flushed.' At that point, 'the nurse gave him the EpiPen and called an ambulance.'

He did not describe Jagger's allergy in the post nor say if the school was aware of that allergy.

Jagger was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, but the anaphylaxis shock became critical

Jagger's dad, Tom Shaw, is pictured alongside his fiance

Jagger Shaw, left, is seen with his twin brother, Jayce and mother Jill Shaw

Nebraska mother, Jill Shaw, is pictured alongside her son, Jagger, who died from an allergic reaction after consuming a granola bar while at school

Jagger was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, but the anaphylaxis shock became critical.

Shaw's described how his son's heart had to be restarted, and his brain had begun swelling.

He was transferred to Children's Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha where he was placed onto ventilator, only his condition worsened.

Dad, Tom Shaw, posted details surrounding the events that led up to his son's death online

Jagger attended Liberty Middle School in Papillion, Nebraska. The school district's liability insurer will pay the million dollar settlement

Troy Juracek is the Principal of Liberty Middle School

His father wrote how oxygen deprivation and swelling had severely injured his son's brain. Doctors told the family that scans showed Jagger had negligible brain activity and that there was no chance of recovery.

Jagger passed away on May 7, 2022, surrounded by his family. 'I hope he knew somehow that we were with him,' wrote Tom.

The school district's liability insurer will pay the settlement.

'Our thoughts are with the Shaw family. It's such a tragic situation. Our hearts break for them,' said Annette Eyman, a district spokeswoman.

The Shaw family's attorney have not responded to a phone message requesting details of the settlement.
Court documents filed in federal court this week laid bare the firm's lavish spending, with employees reportedly staying for months at suites at the resort

Defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX owes Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville resort an eyewatering $600,000, court papers unveiling the firm's lavish spending have revealed - as well as a $403,765 bill racked up on the delivery app DoorDash.

The sum owed to the oceanside retreat named for Buffett's hit single comes as more than ten times what was previously thought - with the Bahamas hotel claiming it's still owed $599,409 from Sam Bankman-Fried's embattled hedge fund, which filed for bankruptcy last November.

At the time, reports indicated the Nassau resort - set on the opposite side of the isle from FTX's sprawling offices - was seeking $55,319 from the firm's sister exchange Alameda research, which was also owned by the 31-year-old alleged fraudster.

Now, court documents filed in federal court this week show the sum was as a stark underestimation, with employees reportedly staying for weeks - or in some cases months - at posh luxury suites at the plush resort.

In addition to the prolonged stays, the filing alleges that FTX staffers at its US office in Chicago also racked up an astounding $400,000 DoorDash bill in the span of a few months, after its more than 75 employees allowed three meals a day all on the company's dime.

The sum owed to the oceanside retreat named for Buffett's hit single comes as more than ten times what was thought - with the Bahamas hotel claiming it's still owed from $599,409 from the now-defunct hedge fund

In addition to the prolonged stays, the filing alleges that US staffers at Sam Bankman-Fried's firm racked up an astounding $400,000 Doordash bill in the span of a few months before the company declared bankruptcy and its 31-year-old CEO was arrested on fraud charges

Meals paid for by the company reportedly consisted of $56 plates of New York strip steak and lobster, which even if ordered three times in a day, would not exceed a reported $200 daily food credit offered by FTX.

Taking into account the aforementioned employees, the court documents indicate that FTX offered a $15,000 allowance in DoorDash food delivery credits every day, before the firm would ultimately declare bankruptcy.

Several of those nixed staffers revealed to the Financial Times earlier this year that FTX had been giving employees the generous food stipend, which Bankman-Fried at the time insisted would be covered by the company.

Fast-forward a few months later, and that firm no longer exists, and its disgraced founder has traded his posh island digs for his parent's home in the Bay Area, where he remains under house arrest after being released on $250million bond.

Since his release late last year, FTX and Almada's spending has since been met with scrutiny, with federal investigators unmasking some of the over-the-top amenities Bankman-Fried promised to provide before his house of cards ultimately fell.

Those amenities reportedly included free groceries, a complimentary barbershop, and bi-weekly massages at the glitzy, 9,000 square foot American office - which FTX was set to ditch just months it suddenly collapse, in favor for a multimillion-dollar headquarters in a 35-story tower in Miami.

At the time, reports indicated the Nassau resort - set on the opposite side of the isle from FTX's sprawling offices - was seeking $55,319 from the firm's sister exchange Alameda research, which was also owned by the 31-year-old alleged fraudster.

Now, court documents filed in federal court this week show the sum was as a stark underestimation, with employees reportedly staying for weeks - or in some cases months - at posh luxury suites at the plush resort

Wednesday's court filings also unmasked the full financial damage incurred by FTX Bahamas workers at Buffet's five-star retreat - where staffers reportedly stayed 'for months' in about 20 suites at One Particular Harbor, whose pricetags range from $365,000 to more than $6million

The newly released court documents, which were filed in Delaware bankruptcy court, further revealed the enormous DoorDash bill, nearly $50,000 of which has yet to be paid.

The filing, which was obtained and viewed by Insider, showed bills of a combined $403,765 from the food delivery giant garnered by various FTX entities.

The lion's share of the bill was paid was paid off by the entity that controls FTX US - West Realm Shires Services - who offered up $357,526 between May and July 2022.

The documents indicate the food delivery company is still owed $46,239 by FTX investment arm Alameda, though DoorDash has yet to speak on those claims.

In a statement to Insider, DoorDash confirmed FTX US had been a customer of DoorDash's business package, dubbed 'DoorDash for Work, our employee benefit product.'

Wednesday's court filings also unmasked the full financial damage incurred by FTX Bahamas workers at Buffet's five-star retreat - where staffers reportedly stayed 'for weeks or months' in about 20 suites at One Particular Harbor, whose price-tags range from $365,000 to more than $6million.

The newly released court documents, which were filed in Delaware bankruptcy court, further revealed the enormous DoorDash bill, nearly $50,000 of which has yet to be paid

Meals paid for by the company reportedly consisted of $56 plates of New York strip steak and lobster, which even if ordered three times in a day, would not exceed a reported $200 daily food credit offered by FTX

In statements provided to Bloomberg, staffers at Buffet's resort revealed the arrangement, claiming staffers would regularly file into a shuttle bus at the start of the workday to leave Margaritaville, before returning on the bus at the end of the day to their complimentary digs at the other end of the island.

The trip would take roughly 30 minutes, staffers said at the time.

The recent revelations concerning FTX's spending comes as lawyers handling its Chapter 11 case have revealed some of the questionable practices Bankman-Fried had in place when it came to money.

According to court documents, staffers submitted expenses through online chat platforms, which managers would regularly approve with emojis.

One employee told The Financial Times: 'It just kind of went crazy. If Sam said OK, it was good to go. Regardless of the amount.'

Bankman-Fried is currently facing several federal charges related to FTX's collapse as he is accused of looting the platform for personal gain as well as securities fraud

Attorneys also recently revealed that FTX would regularly charter private planes to fly Amazon packages from Miami to staff at its Bahamas headquarters, all because the company would not deliver to the island.

Moreover, it was unveiled that Bankman-Fried and his colleagues also utilized company funds to purchase $300 million in luxury real estate on the island nation, as well as high-end properties in the exclusive Albany community.

Bankman-Fried is currently facing several federal charges related to FTX's collapse as he is accused of looting the platform for personal gain as well as securities fraud.

He has pleaded not guilty and is detained at his parents' house in California until the trial starts in October.
A Washington DC judge overseeing multiple investigations into former U.S. president Donald Trump has stepped down from her role and handed Trump's lawyer's notes over to the Justice Department.

Beryl Howell on Friday concluded her seven-year tenure as chief judge with the potentially significant move handing notes made by Trump's lawyer, Evan Corcoran, to the Department.

The Daily Beast termed the final blow as a 'parting gift' to Jack Smith, the special prosecutor appointed by the Justice Department to investigate both Trump's handling of the Mar-a-Lago classified documents scandal, and his actions on January 6.

One analyst told the outlet that Howell's move could be because she was extremely concerned about the content of Corcoran's notes, or that she worried they would not be handed over if requested.

Beryl Howell on Friday stepped down from her role as chief judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, at the end of her seven-year term. She remains on the bench, but she has now been replaced as chief judge

'She's taken all the legal relief out of their hands,' said David Cross, an experienced federal litigator at the Washington firm Morrison & Foerster who is not involved in the Trump case.

'If she orders them to do it, they can take up an appeal on an emergency basis.

'She may have been concerned from what she read in the documents. She may have not trusted them to comply with an order.'

In a separate ruling, Howell on Friday ordered that Corcoran return to testify again before a grand jury.

He testified in January, but is believed to have used the excuse of client-attorney privilege as a reason for not answering many questions.

Howell on Friday ruled that the government had met the threshold for a special provision of the law known as the crime-fraud exception, which allows prosecutors to lift the shield of attorney-client privilege when they have reason to believe that legal advice or legal services have been used in furthering a crime.

She will remain on the court, but no is no longer chief judge.

That position is being taken up by James Boasberg, who was also appointed by President Barack Obama.

The chief judge has sole discretion over sealed federal grand jury proceedings.

Evan Corcoran, one of Trump's lawyers. Howell on Friday handed Corcoran's notes over to the Justice Department

Jack Smith was in November appointed a special prosecutor by the Justice Department, and tasked with looking into Trump's handling of classified documents and his actions around January 6. He may find Howell's documents extremely useful

James Boasberg is taking over from Howell as chief judge of the DC court

That means Boasberg will immediately take over responsibility for handling certain issues that may arise in the special counsel investigations involving Trump.

Boasberg told NBC News he would not comment on any grand jury proceedings, but instead praised his predecessor.

He said the court was fortunate to have had Howell as its leader 'in this very fraught period.'

He added: 'She's led the court in a terrific way through COVID and dislocations, and she also has maintained a very cohesive court not driven by partisan divides.'
His mount Florescent Star had to be humanely euthanised

A horse has been euthanised after suffering severe injuries in a horror fall at Mooney Valley racecourse.

Florescent Star came down after clipping the heels of the runner in front at Moonee Valley's All-Star Mile meeting in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon.

Shocking footage showed the disturbing moment the five-year-old mare fell head-first into the turf.

Jockey Teo Nugent was attended to by on-course medicos before being taken to hospital.

Nugent was thrown to the ground in front of a wall of horses in the sixth race of the meeting, the listed 1200-metre Abell Stakes.

The 24-year-old was taken by ambulance to the Royal Melbourne Hospital but is conscious and able to move all of his limbs.

Jockey Teo Nugent has been seriously injured and his mount had to be humanely euthanised after a horror fall at Mooney Valley racecourse on Saturday afternoon

The Amy and Ash Yargi-trained galloper was seen pummeling through the inside rail and then laying down on the inner track before a green screen was set up to hide the horrific scene.

Following the passing of their beloved five-year-old mare, Argi Racing took to Twitter to write, 'We are devastated. We love you Flo'.

Florescent Star was travelling strongly up to the final corner when she ran up the backside of the tiring leaders as they turned into the home straight, clipping the heels of In The Boat.

Harry Coffey who was aboard In the Boat said the incident 'looked a bit yuck' and felt fortunate it wasn't him and his mount who fell.

'Thoughts to Teo and obviously the horse's connections that he was on,' Coffey said.

'That looked a bit yuck, and I was following Teo, and it's amazing how racing works; if my filly had have jumped cleaner, which we would have liked to do, we could have been in his spot instead of a pair further back.

'That's the way racing goes, it's all about luck.'

The five-year-old mare had to be been humanely euthanised after suffering significant injuries when she fell head-first into the turf (pictured: Florescent Star after winning the McIntyre Sprint in 2021)

Nugent had to be attended to by on-course medicos at Moonee Valley's All-Star Mile meeting on Saturday afternoon after his horse Florescent Star fell after clipping the heels of the runner in front

The fall comes as just last week jockey Jamie Kah suffered a serious concussion and Craig Williams broke several bones when they both suffered falls in the same race at Flemington.

The week prior Ethan Brown was also hospitalised after his horse fell during the Australian Guineas.

Jockey Jamie Mott previously said while you never think about it during the race, it makes you reflect on the dangers post-race.

'It can happen to anyone. No, it doesn't scare you, but it makes you realise what really can happen [on the track],' Mott told The Age.

'Obviously, we're all really worried. As soon as a fall happens, whoever it is, and it's relieving to find out that they're going to be fine,' Mott said.

'[You] give your support as much as you can  We're all a really good group of jockeys, we do rally behind each other, and definitely, we're there if anyone needs us.'
As St Patrick's Day rolled back around yesterday, beer guzzlers from across the world flocked to get their hands on a pint (or more) of Guinness.

The streets of London were heaving with crowds last night with many revellers cloaked in Irish flags and dressed in green.

Leicester Square was at the centre of festivities as many groups were spotted heading to the famous Irish pub chain Waxy O'Connor's, which is well praised for its live music and six-floor venue in Soho.

The celebrations came as thousands of others from Newcastle to New York went to town for St Patrick's Day.

But we suspect that the boozy revellers may be feeling even more green this morning after their night of Irish fun at the heart of the capital.

LONDON: Dressed in a dazzling green, this girl is out in Leicester Square for St Patrick's Day

LONDON: Crowds dressed in green flocked to the famous Irish pub Waxy O'Connor's last night

LONDON: These girls were snapped at the heart of the capital amidst the Irish celebrations

LONDON: Cloaked in an Irish flag, this girl heads through the streets of Chinatown

LONDON: Just a small walk from its older sibling Waxy O'Connor's, crowds also gather at Waxy's Little Sister near Chinatown

LONDON: The capital's streets were heaving with crowds last night amid celebrations

Leeds and Newcastle are among the other UK cities that were snapped taking part in boozy St Patrick's Day celebrations last night.

Meanwhile, the Prince and Princess of Wales enjoyed sips of 'the black stuff' at the Irish Guards' St Patrick's Day Parade in Aldershot.

Kate attended the event for the first time in her capacity as Colonel of the Irish Guards, following her action-packed day carrying out training drills in snowy conditions with them last week.

The couple marked the event on their Instagram account, writing: 'It is a true honour to be Colonel of the Irish Guards, whose enthusiasm, pride and dedication - plus boundless sense of humour - makes them so unique.

'From outgoing to incoming Colonel, we will continue to support and champion you in all you do.' Festivities also took place across the island of Ireland with massive crowds turning out to mark March 17 in towns and cities.

Many more watched Dublin's 2023 parade, featuring 4,200 performers including marching bands, aerial acrobats and vibrant costumes, live on television.

Parade attendees showed up in leprechaun hats, dyed-green beards and emerald scarves.

The parade was centred around the theme of 'ONE' to 'shine a light on all the goodness that surrounds us' by protecting and embracing global traditions, culture and heritage.

DUBLIN: Revellers dressed up to celebrate St Patrick's Day in front of the famous Temple Bar in Dublin

NEWCASTLE: Revellers pictured out in force this afternoon in Jesmond as the St Patrick's Day celebrations started early

DUBLIN: Revellers pictured attending the parade to celebrate St Patrick's Day

LEEDS: Some had to call it a night after partying hard on St Paddy's Day

ALDERSHOT: The Prince and Princess of Wales each enjoyed a pint of Guinness

NEWCASTLE: Revellers headed out for a night out to celebrate St Paddy's Day

LEEDS: Boozy revellers took to the streets for a St Paddy's Day nightout

LEEDS: Revellers dressed up for the occasion

New York City took part in celebrations too, hosting its annual parade which bills itself as the world's largest and oldest.

The city's famed Fifth Avenue was awash with green, as crowds took park in the traditional event for the first time in two years as a result of the pandemic.

Others were seen bar-crawling in the area, with revellers making the most of the Irish holiday.

DUBLIN: Performers taking part in the annual St Patrick's Day parade

BELFAST: Two revellers in the Northern Irish capital smartly dressed in St Paddy's Day suits

DUBLIN: Giant colourful statues were paraded around the city during the celebration

NEWCASTLE: Revellers pictured wearing green to celebrate the day

DUBLIN: President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins attends the St Patrick's Day Parade

DUBLIN: Taking part in the parade were also floats, pictured here is the Daniel O'Connell monument float

BELFAST: A participant dressed as bagpipes in the today's parade

DUBLIN: Revellers in the city centre at the annual St Patrick's Day parade

NEWCASTLE: Some revellers had too much Guinness on the big day

DUBLIN: A reveller dressed to impress

NEW YORK: A police department Pipe and Drums band marches in the St. Patrick's Day Parade

NEW YORK: An Irish Wolfhound taking pride of place in the city's annual parade

NEW YORK: Children took part in the city's annual parade

NEW YORK: A reveller at the annual St. Patrick's Day parade held along 5th Avenue

FLORIDA: Spring breakers celebrated the day at the beach - with many wearing green swimwear

WASHINGTON DC: The White House's fountain turns green for annual St. Patrick's Day celebrations

NEW YORK: Members of the Hartsdale fire department

NEW YORK: Members of the fire department Pipe and Drums participate in the St. Patrick's Day Parade

NEW YORK: An Irish Wolfhound participates in the St. Patrick's Day parade

GEORGIA, USA: Conor McGregor was spotted in Savannah to celebrate St. Patrick's Day
Finland's President Sauli Niinisto and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attend a press conference after their meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, March 17. EPA-Yonhap



Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that his government would move forward with ratifying Finland's NATO application, paving the way for the country to join the military bloc ahead of Sweden.



The breakthrough came with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto was in Ankara to meet with Erdogan.



Both Finland and Sweden applied to become NATO members 10 months ago in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, abandoning decades of nonalignment.



NATO requires the unanimous approval of its 30 existing members to expand, and Turkey and Hungary are the only countries that have not yet ratified the Nordic nations' bids. The Turkish government accused both Sweden and Finland of being too soft on groups that it deems to be terrorist organizations, but expressed more reservations about Sweden.



"When it comes to fulfilling its pledges in the trilateral memorandum of understanding, we have seen that Finland has taken authentic and concrete steps," Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara following his meeting with Niinisto.



"This sensitivity for our country's security and, based on the progress that has been made in the protocol for Finland's accession to NATO, we have decided to initiate the ratification process in our parliament," the president added.



With Erdogan's agreement, Finland's application can now go to the Turkish parliament, where the president's party and its allies hold a majority. Ratification is expected before Turkey holds its presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 14.



Commenting on Turkey's willingness to consider ratifying Sweden's accession to NATO, Erdogan said it would "depend on the solid steps Sweden will take."



Explaining the difference between the Nordic countries from Ankara's viewpoint, Erdogan claimed that Sweden had "embraced terrorism," and cited demonstrations by supporters of Kurdish militants on the streets of Stockholm. "Such demonstrations do not take place in Finland," he said. "For that reason we had to consider (Finland) separately from Sweden."



Niinisto welcomed Turkey's willingness to move on his country's bid but also expressed solidarity with its neighbor. "I have a feeling that Finnish NATO membership is not complete without Sweden," he said.



Referring to a NATO summit scheduled for July in Lithuania's capital, Niinisto added: "I would like to see in Vilnius that we will meet the alliance of 32 members."



Turkey, Finland and Sweden signed a memorandum of understanding in June of last year to resolve differences over the Nordic states' membership.



The document included clauses addressing Ankara's claims that Stockholm and Helsinki did not take seriously enough its concerns with those it considers terrorists, particularly supporters of Kurdish militants who have waged a 39-year insurgency in Turkey, and people Ankara associates with a 2016 coup attempt.



A series of separate demonstrations in Stockholm, including a protest by an anti-Islam activist who burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy, also angered Turkish officials.



In Stockholm, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said separate ratification of Finland and Sweden's bids by Ankara was "a development that we didn't want but it's something that we're prepared for. We comply and will continue to comply with the memorandum established between our three countries."



Billstrom stressed that "it's about when Sweden becomes a member, not about our security. We are even more secure now than we were before we applied for membership in NATO."



Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and lawmakers have promised to ratify the two country's NATO membership applications. But the country's parliament has repeatedly postponed a ratification vote.



The parliamentary head of Orban's Fidesz party said Friday that a vote on Finnish accession would be held on March 27. Mate Kocsis said in a Facebook post that lawmakers for Fidesz, which holds a two-thirds majority in parliament, would "vote unanimously in favor."



Niinisto arrived in Turkey, Thursday, and toured areas affected by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake last month that killed more than 52,000 people in that country and Syria.





NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attends a news conference during a NATO defense ministers' meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 15. Reuters-Yonhap
Jeremy Clarkson's 'overpriced' Diddly Squat farm shop has angered more locals as they say it has become a hotbed of petrolheads with 'nightmare' traffic now taking over their previously quiet village.

Residents in Chadlington say the 'tourist attraction' is making driving around the village awful, with backlogs of traffic and loud engines now the norm.

Others say that even if they could make it inside without queuing for 'three hours' they still wouldn't, with overpriced goods for sale which is 'mainly merchandise'.

People living in the quiet Oxfordshire village feared speaking out against Jeremy Clarkson after claims of death threats to residents who have.

Mr Clarkson's show on Amazon Prime has been so popular worldwide that residents have had malicious emails, post and messages on social media from people living as far as America warning them not to say anything bad about his farm shop.

But as its popularity continues to soar, the farm's lack of suitable facilities to cater for such an influx of customers was again laid bare

Jeremy Clarkson arriving to the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday

Visitors walk down the road as scores of cars are parked on grass verges near Diddly Squat farm

Speaking today, retired Reggie Leggett, who has lived in Chadlington for 30 years with her two dogs said: 'I've got real shops 50 yards away - why would I ever go to Diddly Squat?

'We've got a fantastic farm shop, a cafe, a pub. Everything we need.

'He is disgraceful. It's not really a farm shop, it's really a tourist attraction. He's mainly selling merchandise.

'Before he opened the shop he used to put potatotes at the end of the road in an honesty box, they were actually lovely.

'But now he's opened the shop the whole thing is a nuisance. The roads around the farm shop are completely destroyed and there's so much traffic here as a result.

'Honestly, I can hear the difference between a Lamborghini and a Ferrari now because I hear so many of the cars.'

Another neighbour, who didn't want to be named after seeing the onslaught of hate against other residents on Facebook, said: 'We don't use the shop simply because I don't want to stand in the queue for three hours. It's a lot of traffic to get in as well and I don't think it's worth it.

'His shop is really controversial around here. However, I would personally rather he was there than sold it off to a developer which builds tonnes of new homes, we're really new to the area though so that could change.

'The thing is Diddly Farm Shop is so controversial because people don't want their pretty village blighted by this but that would be very different if there was parking, and enough of it, so it would be less chaotic here.'

Somebody else, who retired in the quiet village of Chadlington years before Jeremy Clarkson set up camp also didn't want to be named after another resident, who set up a petition to stop him building a restaurant, was subject to a campaign of harassment from Mr Clarkson's fans overseas.

The attack became so personal that they were left 1* Google reviews on their business.

They said: 'We definitely would never, ever shop at Diddly Farm shop over any other shop.

'He's meant to only sell produce from 12 or a 16 mile radius and that's part of the conditions of him building the shop, but he's used a loophole to get around that.

'The honey is also 12.50 for the smallest pot, it's extortionate. That is actually made locally but it's not made for locals.

'The grass verges have been completely destroyed by the cars, and the thing is the car drivers park on either sides of the roads and then families walk down the middle of the road like it's a caravan park or pedestrianised, it's so dangerous.

'Somebody is going to get hurt soon. There needs to be somewhere for them to park but I fear it's not going to be enough spaces for the thousands that show up.'

Visitors to Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat farm chewed up grass verges with their 4x4s on Friday as a row over a new car park intensifies among locals

Jeremy Clarkson outside his Diddly Squat farm shop in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

Scores of vehicles again descended on the popular Oxfordshire site on Friday, with long queues forming outside the Amazon presenter's farm shop

Jeremy Clarkson was seen being filmed by a camera crew on his Diddly Squat farm in Oxfordshire on Thursday. The former Top Gear star is pictured with partner Lisa Hogan

Another resident added: 'Sometimes I have to take a six-mile detour to come home, the other day I had to go back via Dean just to make it past the traffic.

'At 12pm on a Saturday or Sunday you just can't get around here because the roads are blocked by cars and then there's others queuing to find somewhere to park.

'This area wasn't made for a theme park. I would never shop there, even if I didn't have to queue to get in there, there's nothing in there for me and it's too overpriced.'

The row over car parking has intensified in recent months as the shop becomes more and more famous.

But as its popularity continues to soar, the farm's lack of suitable facilities to cater for such an influx of customers was again laid bare.

One local resident who did not want to ne named because of the fear of reprisals, said yesterday: 'It is true the items on sale at Diddly Squat are at a premium price, people are still flocking them.

'The effects of what they are doing when parking on the verges is very disturbing in what was a nice peaceful village before the farm shop.

'They are churning up the verges and everything around the perimeter of the shop is looking a bit of a mess. Mr Clarkson definitely needs to create some place on his land, where shoppers can park up safely.'

It comes as a number of cars were left on boggy mounds on the side of a road outside Diddly Squat which have deteriorated in recent days as more and more people flock to visit.

But Clarkson remains locked in a planning appeal battle with West Oxfordshire District Council, which refused to grant permission for him to extend the shop's car park in May last year.

READ MORE: Jeremy Clarkson films scenes for his Amazon Prime series at the Diddly Squat farm shop amid battle with council to extend car park Advertisement

A two-day Planning Inspectorate meeting was held this week to consider proposals by the 62-year-old former Top Gear presenter to accommodate 70 more vehicles.

The plans are opposed by WODC on the grounds that it would encourage more visitors to Diddly Squat farm - which sits between Chadlington and Chipping Norton - adding to traffic problems.

The council has also said allowing more vehicles would further disturb the tranquility of the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Taking to Twitter, Clarkson said the recent furore 'makes it sound like a civil war is raging', but insisted 'a compromise will be reached'.

It comes after it was revealed teenage workers at Diddly Squat have to wear bodycams to record abuse directed at them from angry locals over the influx of visitors.

Annabel Gray, 32, who works on a catering trailer at Clarkson's farm, said this week that workers as young as 16 on the farm have had to have cameras installed on their uniforms.

She also responded to a complaint made in a meeting by Chadlington resident Hilary Moore who described tourists attracted to the farm as 'motorheads' who drive slowly on surrounding roads to 'show off their cars'.

But Ms Gray said this description was 'unfair', and that she had 'witnessed local people' adding to traffic issues by driving slowly too.

A number of cars were left on boggy mounds on the side of a road outside Diddly Squat which have deteriorated in recent days as more and more people flock to visit

Clarkson remains locked in a planning appeal battle with West Oxfordshire District Council, which refused to grant permission for him to extend the shop's car park in May last year

A two-day Planning Inspectorate meeting was held this week to consider proposals by the 62-year-old former Top Gear presenter to accommodate 70 more vehicles

Ms Gray, who is also a farmer's daughter, said Clarkson's shop provides 'important' education for visitors, some of whom do not realise that 'beef burgers come from a cow'.

Other villagers who support Diddly Squat farm have described it as the 'crown jewel' of sustainable living as they pleaded with their local council to allow the expansion plans.

It comes as camera crews were spotted back in Chipping Norton on Thursday to resume filming of his hit series, Clarkson's Farm.

It also emerged that the broadcaster has invested in a new beer trailer to serve his flagship Hawkstone lager.

Farmhand Kaleb Cooper shared a photo of the new 'mobile bar' on Instagram - with a photo showing a grey trailer with pink paint over the roof.

While it's not clear what permissions Clarkson will need to set up the bar on his land, generally planning permission does not need to be sought for temporary structures that are used for less than 28 days a year.

He already sells alcohol in his shop so may not need an additional alcohol licence.

Clarkson's struggles have prompted some local councillors to call on officials to go easy on the star, with Liam Walker - a Conservative member of Oxfordshire County Council - suggesting he was being treated differently from other developers.

Clarkson holds a newspaper and an umbrella as he arrives at Cheltenham for the Gold Cup

The plans are opposed by WODC on the grounds that it would encourage more visitors to Diddly Squat farm - which sits between Chadlington and Chipping Norton - adding to traffic problems

The council has also said allowing more vehicles would further disturb the tranquility of the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

'Jeremy is Marmite and he knows that,' he told MailOnline.

'Of course the council will say all planning applications are taken at face value but I do wonder if some of my council colleagues came to it with a predetermined view.'

Clarkson is also challenging its decision to shut down his restaurant on the same plot of land because he allegedly opened it without planning permission in July last year.

It comes as a court heard how Clarkson's sidekick, Mr Cooper, was a first responder after a 'selfish and careless bat out of hell driver' ploughed into a Ford Ka outside the TV star's farm.

Mr Cooper was on hand to block off the road to traffic after Lewis Smith, 25, had ignored give way signs at a junction on the A361 near Chadlington and smashed into the oncoming vehicle with his Ford Fiesta in September 2021.

The driver of the KA, a woman in her fifties, along with Smith's passenger, a man in his twenties, sustained serious injuries.

Smith, who, along with his passenger, was not wearing a seatbelt, was jailed for two years yesterday after pleading guilty to two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
A barrister, who previously represented high-profile figures including the Earl of Cardigan, has admitted buying drugs from some of his other clients.

Henry Hendron, 42, was remanded in custody on Friday following an investigation that found messages suggesting he had asked a suspected dealer for drugs.

At the time, Hendron was representing the suspected dealer in a criminal case, and other evidence found he was also buying drugs from another of his clients.

The Metropolitan Police said he was remanded for three counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, and a count of possessing Class A drugs at Woolwich Crown Court.

Detective Inspector Lewis Sanderson said: 'At the time of his arrest Hendron was a serving barrister.

Henry Hendon (pictured), 42, was arrested as an investigation found he was buying drugs

Hendron's career floundered after his 18-year-old boyfriend Miguel Jimenez (pictured right) was found dead at the flat the couple shared in Temple, in the City of London

'The behaviour displayed by Hendron, while acting for the Bar, was unacceptable, unethical and illegal.

'Actions like his can tarnish the reputation of all those involved in the criminal justice system and the whole team were determined to bring him to account.

'As a result of the hard work and thorough investigation, Hendron has been now been made to face the consequences of his actions.'

Hendron, who was called to the Bar in 2006, was known for previously representing a number of other clients including the Earl of Cardigan.

He also previously acted for Tory MP Ms Dorries, who later served as culture secretary, in a civil matter in 2009, according to reports.

But his career floundered after his 18-year-old boyfriend Miguel Jimenez was found dead at the flat the couple shared in Temple, London, after taking a cocktail of so-called chemsex party drugs.

Although emergency services were called, the teenager suffered a lethal overdose of mephedrone, known as 'meow meow', and GBL in January 2015.

During a search police recovered 60 self-seal bags of mephedrone and found Hendron's fingerprints on the jars and envelopes containing the drugs.

Hendron admitted buying 1,000 worth of M-cat or Meow Meow and GBL from award-winning BBC producer Alex Parkin and was sentenced to 140 hours of unpaid work at the Old Bailey in 2016.

Parkin was sentenced to 200 hours.

Hendron has previously acted for Tory MP Ms Dorries, who later served as culture secretary, in a civil matter in 2009, according to reports

Messages from Hendron (pictured) were found on the phone of a suspected drug dealer

Hendron, from Soho, central London, is expected to be sentenced for the latest charges on April 17.

At a previous hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court last year, prosecutor Tom Broomfield said they related to Hendron 'encouraging the supply of Class A, crystal methamphetamine, and Class C, GBL, drugs from a former client of Mr Hendron, who was a practising barrister at the time'.

Police said officers arrested a man in 2021 on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A, B and C drugs.

Officers forensically examined his phone, which contained messages from Hendron asking the suspect - his client - to supply him with drugs.

The investigation later found evidence from 2020, showing Hendron was buying drugs from another one of his clients.

Hendron was suspended by the Bar Standards Board for three years following his 2016 convictions.

He was reprimanded and prohibited from undertaking public access work for two years following a disciplinary hearing in 2021 after holding himself out as a barrister on websites while suspended.
A mother-of-two has been killed in a horror crash while travelling home from a friend's birthday celebration in Adelaide.

Georgina Heath, 51, was travelling in a Hyundai SUV with her partner, 30, and two friends when her car collided with a Mitsubishi sedan being driven by a teenager in the early hours of Saturday morning.

She was declared dead at the scene.

Ms Heath's partner has been taken to Flinders Medical Centre in serious but not life-threatening conditions.

Georgina Heath (pictured) , 51, was travelling in a Hyundai SUV with her partner, 30, and two friends when her car collided with a Mitsubishi sedan being driven by a teenager in the early hours of Saturday morning

The driver, a 35-year-old woman and their friend, 28-year-old woman, were also hospitalised.

The driver of the Mitsubishi, a 17-year-old boy, and his passenger, also a male 17-year-old, sustained serious injuries.

The group had been celebrating a friend's birthday at Mick O'Shea's Irish Pub, with shocked patrons hearing the crash.

South Australian Police are investigating the accident.

The womans death is the 34th life lost on our roads this year as compared to 16 for the same time last year.

South Australia Opposition leader David Spiers has called for a new road safety campaign targeting P-platers after South Australia recorded record deaths.

The driver of the Mitsubishi, a 17-year-old boy, and his passenger, also a male 17-year-old, sustained serious injurie

Speaking to ABC earlier this year Adelaide Mr Spiers explained: 'To lose so many young lives on South Australia's roads so early in the year is truly horrific.'

'Our concern is this is the commencement of a pattern that if we do not cauterise it will continue right throughout 2023.'

Police have also warned against the stark rates of deaths on South Australia roads in 2023.

'This has to stop, and it has to stop now,' Assistant SA Police Commissioner Ian Parrott said at a press conference.

'They are absolutely preventable  there's a senseless loss of life on South Australian roads because these crashes are preventable,' he added.

He added at least five of the deaths were due to 'distraction and fatigue' and that police were investigating whether dangerous driving played a part in four of the crashes.

Cops are also looking into speeding and alcohol as factors in other crashes.
He says he suffers PTSD from more than a decade in a Thai prison

Mizner claims he needs a cell by himself due to mental issues

A child rapist appealing for a private cell has lost his application to keep his case secret.

Former Gold Coast yoga teacher Jason Daron Mizner was sentenced to 19 years in jail in 2018 after he assaulted his partner's two-year-old girl repeatedly over three months, while also assaulting the baby of a second woman in Thailand.

He pleaded guilty to more than 60 child sex offences from the early 2000s, including more than 30 counts of rape and videotaping the assaults.

After being caught in Thailand, he served 11 years of a 35-year sentence before he was deported and arrested by Australian authorities when he returned to Brisbane.

Currently at Wolston Correctional Centre in Queensland, Mizner launched an application to court claiming that he shouldn't have to share a cell because his multiple disabilities meaning that he can't tolerate having a cellmate.

The matter is set to be heard in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal in April but Mizner moved to try to have the hearing closed and the evidence and outcome of the four-day hearing suppressed.

Child rapist Jason Mizner who was sentenced to 19 years in jail in 2018 for raping a two-year-old girl has failed in his bid to keep his application for why he can't have a cellmate secret

In an application to the tribunal, Mizner argued his case should be kept private for the safety of both himself and a fellow prisoner who will give evidence to support his claim.

He also said the media's coverage puts himself and his witness at risk of assault while they remained in prison and that suppressing his application will 'protect' his victims.

In a tribunal judgement published on Friday the tribunal determined that while they accept the claim that a section of the community had 'disdain' for sexual offenders' and that could increase the risk, the court proceedings would still not be closed.

'We simply do not consider we can determine that there is such a level of risk posed by conducting the proceedings, as usual, in open court that makes it necessary to take the exceptional step of closing the court and prohibiting publication of all detail to avoid it,' the tribunal stated.

The tribunal also refuted Mizner's claim that he was looking out for his victim's families by the way of a non-publication order.

The baby rapists prison witness told lawyers he would not supply evidence unless it was under the guise of full anonymity, which the tribunal agreed to.

Mizner previously sought apologies from the prison after they couldn't guarantee him a single cell as he said cellmates turning on the lights or getting up to the toilet at night triggered his PSTD, which stemmed from more than a decade in a Thai prison.

The discrimination case alleges he is impaired because of his mental health illnesses, resulting in him being hypersensitive to sleep disturbances.

Mizner's application to the court claims he shouldn't have to share a cell at Wolston Correctional Centre in Queensland (pictured) due to his multiple disabilities, including PTSD, which means that he can't tolerate having a cellmate

Mizner had previously argued his jail term for relentlessly raping his girlfriend's daughter was 'excessive', despite only receiving 19 years' jail time for the repeated assaults.

The extent of the material tabled in Mizner's sentencing resulted in the judge having to take a break to ensure he received a fair sentence.

During sentencing, Justice Leanne Clare said she had struggled to cope with the disturbing footage of Mizner's offences despite 30 years of experience with extreme child abuse cases.

'I only watched a portion and it has been a battle to get the vision of your offending out of my head,' Judge Clare said.

'I cannot imagine the horror of it for (the girl's) mother.'

The court was told Mizner, who was 31 at the time of the assaults, formed a relationship with the Australian girl's mother, before committing the offences over several months.

The former Gold Coast yoga teacher assaulted his partner's two-year-old girl repeatedly over three months, while also assaulting the baby of a second woman in Thailand who he had befriended

While he was on a holiday in Thailand, the girl's mother found videos he had made and a range of other unrelated child exploitation material.

Mizner stayed in Thailand, where he formed a relationship with a local woman before assaulting her young daughter and being arrested by Thai authorities.

Mizner's sentencing was also delayed when a doctor preparing a psychological report for the court suffered a heart attack.

That report, the defence argued, showed that a motorcycle accident when Mizner was 21 left him with a brain injury, which 'uninhibited' him.

Justice Clare said it also showed he had a 'predilection for babies' and had a medium-to-high chance of re-offending if not incarcerated.

'Even a low risk of re-offending when it comes to raping babies is a substantial risk to deal with. When it's a medium-to-high risk... it's alarming,' she said.

Justice Clare said Mizner showed no remorse for his heinous crimes.
Police have launched an investigation into the deaths but do not believe the incident was criminal in nature

Their mother, Jenny, 37, was performing CPR on the toddlers when authorities arrived

Loreli and Locklyn Callazzo were found unresponsive in the backyard pool of the family's Oklahoma City home

Twin toddler siblings aged just 18 months both drowned in a pool at their family's mansion after their great-grandma with Alzheimer's left a door open.

Locklyn and Loreli Callazzo were found at the bottom of the murky water feature at their parents $565,000 home in Oklahoma City on Thursday.

Their mom Jenny Callazzo, 37, made the horrifying discovery and was seen administering CPR by Oklahoma City firefighters as they arrived on the scene.

Jenny, a stay-at-home mother who runs a bow boutique, lives at the property with her grandmother, six children and husband Sonny, 42, a marketing executive.

A relative of the family claims that Jenny's grandmother, who has Alzheimer's', left the back door open, which allowed the twins to access the pool.

They added: 'Please pray for the twins' siblings and all of our family.'

Jenny Callazzo, 37, found 18-month-old Locklyn and Loreli at the bottom of the murky outdoor water on Thursday at their $565,100 home in Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City firefighters arrived at the property to find that Callazzo had already pulled the tots out of the water and was administering CPR

The toddlers were found in the pool of the Cobblestone neighborhood home at around 10.45am and were confirmed dead at 1pm.

Aerial footage of the home showed a pool filled with dark green water, apparently as the result of thick algae.

Police have launched an investigation into the deaths, but added that it does not appear to be criminal in nature.

Just days before the tragic incident, she posted pictures of the twins outside the property with the caption 'just want to play outside'.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family with expenses following the death of the toddlers and has raised $5,000 of a $7,500 goal so far.

It read: 'These beautiful babies were taken from us too soon. Anything you can give to help with expenses would be greatly appreciated. We appreciate everyone's love and support.'

The Oklahoma City Fire Department said they are unsure exactly how long the toddlers were in the pool.

Neighbors described witnessing a distraught Jenny get into the back of an EMS vehicle as paramedics battled to save the toddlers.

Jenny, a stay-at-home mother who runs a bow boutique, lives at the property with her grandmother, six children and husband Sonny, 42, a marketing executive

Aerial footage of the home showed a pool filled with dark green water, apparently as the result of thick algae

Just days before the tragic incident, she posted pictures of the twins outside the property with the caption 'just want to play outside'

A relative of the family claims that Jenny's grandmother, who has Alzheimer's', left the back door open, which allowed the twins to access the pool

First responders continued CPR on the children as they transported them to Baptist Hospital, but they were pronounced dead on arrival.

Greg Merrell, Battalion Chief OKCFD, said: 'It was a male and female They were siblings.'

Locals also confirmed the family had lived at the property for around a year before the tragic incident.

Neighbor Mike Bernard told News 4: 'It's certainly disturbing. And, you know, my prayers go out to that family because little children are precious.

'They brought out two little children and put them in separate ambulances. And they were doing CPR on both little children.

'I saw the mother who was distraught, who got in an EMS vehicle.'

The Oklahoma City Fire Department said they are unsure exactly how long the toddlers were in the pool

First responders continued CPR on the children as they transported them to Baptist Hospital, but they were pronounced dead once they arrived

Locals confirmed the family had lived at the property for around a year before the tragic incident

A child safety expert told Fox 25 the death of the toddlers was 'heartbreaking' and urged parents to remind themselves of the measures they can take to keep their families safe.

Injury Prevention Coordinator for Trauma at OU Health Laura Gamino said: 'I just want to send the family my sincere condolences.

'From Safe Kids Oklahoma City Metro and Oklahoma Children's Hospital, [we're] very, very sorry to hear this. It's just tragic.

'Anything can happen in an instantChildren are attracted to water and toddlers won't have the skills to be able to help themselves get out of waterDrowning is very sudden, and it's very silent.

'Sometimes people have an idea that a child will have trouble in the water and be screaming, but they can't because their mouth is full of water. So it's very silent, and that's one of the scariest things about it.'

She recommended anyone who owns a pool should install a four-foot-high fence around it with a gate that young children will not be able to open.

A child safety expert told Fox 25 the death of the toddlers was 'heartbreaking' and urged parents to remind themselves of the measure they can take to keep their families safe

A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family with expenses following the death of the toddlers and has raised $5,000 of a $7,500 goal so far
France has banned protests on the Champs-Elysees avenue and opposite the National Assembly in Paris as a third night of demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macon's pension reforms get underway.

The Place de la Concorde public square that sits opposite the parliament building has seen crowds gathered and clashes with the police in recent days.

Demonstrations in Paris on Friday night resulted in 61 arrests and there were 81 arrests on Saturday night.

On the Champs-Elysees avenue, some protesters set off fires earlier in the week after officers charged demonstrators to disperse them.

The growing unrest and strikes have left Macron facing the gravest challenge to his authority since the so-called 'Gilets Jaunes' (Yellow Vests) protests four years ago.

Pedestrians react as they walk past a fire made of household waste containers during a demonstration in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on March 18, 2023

A French police officer in riot gear stands next to a fire during a demonstration in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on March 18, 2023

Demonstrators attend a demonstration in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on March 18, 2023

The police counted 4,000 demonstrators in Paris on Saturday evening, according to BFM TV.

Projectiles were thrown at the security forces who fired tear gas, Le Parisien reported. The newspaper said clashes broke out between the police and protesters in the 13th arrondissement.

It said waste bins were set on fire as a procession passed through southern Paris.

Arrests have been made in the capital this evening, a police source told the publication.

BFM television showed images of demonstrations underway in other cities, such as Compiegne in the north and Marseille in the south.

Photographs have also emerged of waste containers set on fire in the streets of Bordeaux in the south west of France.

It comes as more protests are planned to continue in France over the weekend against the controversial reforms.

Slogans like 'Macron is done' and 'Power to the people' were seen scrawled across Lyon's City Hall early this morning after protesters tried to set it alight yesterday evening.

Police said protesters 'smashed down the door' and went inside to 'vandalise' the town hall.

Police added that 'windows were smashed' and there was an attempt to 'burn the building down'. Police reported 36 arrests over the incident.

Pictured: A trail of destruction is seen on a street in Paris amid the violent protests against Macron's pensions reform bill

French CRS riot police secure the area near garbage cans on fire during a demonstration to protest the use by French government of the article 49.3, a special clause in the French Constitution, to push the pensions reform bill through the National Assembly without a vote by lawmakers, in Paris on March 18, 2023

A French Gendarme kicks a street fire during a demonstration in Paris, on March 18, 2023

A woman dances as police use water cannon during a demonstration at Place d'Italie, in Paris, on March 18, 2023

A protester walks past a fire during demonstrations in Paris, on March 18, 2023

A man walks past a fire made of matresses and waste containers amid a demonstration in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on March 18, 2023

A demonstrator moves a mattress next to burning household waste containers during a demonstration in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on March 18, 2023

Demonstrators walk past a fire made of burning waste containers during a demonstration in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on March 18, 2023

People carry an object next to a fire during clashes at a demonstration to protest the use by French government of the article 49.3, a special clause in the French Constitution, to push the pensions reform bill through the National Assembly without a vote by lawmakers, in Nantes, France, on March 18, 2023

People attend a demonstration to protest the use by French government of the article 49.3, a special clause in the French Constitution, to push the pensions reform bill through the National Assembly without a vote by lawmakers, in Nantes, France, on March 18, 2023

Garbage overflowing in the streets of Paris due to the strike from the garbage collector related to the pension reform by the French government on March 18, 2023

Illustration and view of the garbage overflowing in the streets of Paris due to the strike from the garbage collector related to the pension reform by the French government on March 18, 2023

Police said protesters 'smashed down the door' and went inside to 'vandalise' the town hall

Protesters have ransacked and attempted to set fire to a town hall in Lyon, France, during violent protests against French President Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms

On Friday, fires were lit during a second night of rioting across other major cities and towns, including Paris.

Crowds chanting 'Revolution!' swarmed on to Place de la Concorde - the largest square in the French capital and the focal point of the protest movement.

Groups of people threw bottles and fireworks at the security forces, who responded by firing tear gas to try to clear the square.

Pictures emerged of a crowd huddled around a fire in the square with a cardboard effigy of the French President raised precariously above the flames to chants of 'Macron, Resign!' The cutout was later shown after it had been ignited. A water cannon vehicle was also pictured.

An AFP image showed water being sprayed onto a large wooden cable reel that had been torched in the public square. Construction equipment had been burned there for the second day in a row, according to reports.

Lines of riot police could also be seen blocking the path leading from the Place de la Concorde to the National Assembly, home to the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament.

One protester said: 'The measure is undemocratic but typical of a detested head of state.

'There are all kinds of French citizens here, and we are voicing our opposition to his dictatorship.'

'We will keep coming here every night until Macron backs down,' said the demonstrator.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told radio station RTL on Friday that 310 people were arrested overnight, most of them in Paris, after protests on Thursday.

Rioters clashed with police during demonstrations on Thursday night, with officers deploying a water cannon as thousands gathered at the Place de Concorde.

Police said the ban on crowds at the Place de la Concorde, implemented on Saturday, was 'due to serious risks of disturbances to public order'.

Protesters are expressing anger after Macron bypassed a vote in the National Assembly - France's equivalent of the House of Commons - to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 on Thursday.

A protester holds a cut-out depicting French President Emmanuel Macron near a fire during a demonstration on Place de la Concorde on March 17, 2023

A poster depicting French President Macron burns as protesters set fire to construction equipment at Concorde square on March 17, 2023

Police officers stand guard during a demonstration on Place de la Concorde on March 17, 2023

Water is sprayed at a wooden cable reel drum during a demonstration on Place de la Concorde in Paris on March 17

Protesters set fire to construction equipment at Concorde square as people gather near the National Assembly on March 17, 2023

Protesters gathered at the Place de la Concorde this evening. They were seen huddled around a fire

Earlier on Friday, opposition parties tabled no-confidence votes against President Macron's government.

A centrist bloc hoped for a cross-party motion to bring down the government headed by Elisabeth Borne, Macron's prime minister.

The Government is expected to survive the National Assembly vote, to be held on Sunday or Monday, thanks to support for Macron's Renaissance party from the conservative Republicans, but Macron's authority has been badly damaged.

The no-confidence motion from the so-called Liot group of MPs reads: 'This retirement reform has no social, popular or democratic legitimacy.

'The vote on this motion will allow us to get out on top of a deep political crisis.'

Nupes, the left-wing opposition alliance, said it would vote for the motion, but the right-wing National Rally of Marine Le Pen said it was tabling a separate one.

French commentators have argued that Macron's bypassing of parliament is an act of weakness that reinforces his image as an arrogant ruler.

A riot policeman removes barricades built by protesters during the demonstration against the French Government's pension reform in Paris on March 17, 2023

Riot police intervene with tear gas to protesters during the demonstration against the French Government's pension reform in Paris on March 17, 2023

Riot police arrest a protester during clashes in a demonstration against the French Government's pension reform in Paris, France on March 17, 2023

Riot police drag a protester away during clashes in a demonstration against the French Government's pension reform in Paris, France on March 17, 2023

A protester fires a firework towards French Riot Police amidst clouds of tear gas during clashes at Place de la Concorde as protests continue for a second straight night against the French Government's pension reform on March 17

Gendarmerie members stand guard during a demonstration on Place de la Concorde to protest the use by French government of the article 49.3 on March 17, 2023

Fury has quickly spread across the streets of Paris as angry protesters disrupted traffic and set cars and barricades ablaze following the bill being forced through parliament.

Demonstrators have also disrupted rubbish collection and university campuses as opponents of the change maintain their resolve to get the government to back down.

Several cars were torched in Paris and other French cities during demonstrations involving several thousand people. Trade unions mobilised workers to briefly block a Paris ring road on Friday morning.

The capital's municipal rubbish collectors have kept up a rolling strike, leaving an estimated 10,000 tonnes of trash festering in the streets by Friday.

A union representative on Saturday said that strikers at three incinerators outside Paris would let some garbage trucks through 'to limit the risk of an epidemic'.

Police said trucks from five depots had resumed work.

In the energy sector, the CGT union has said strikers would halt production at two refineries by this weekend or Monday at the latest.

Unions from national train operator SNCF on Friday urged workers to continue another continuous strike that has caused major disruption on the network.

The capital is being shaken by a second night of violent protests as tensions over the pension reforms reach melting point

Demonstrator ran through the tear gas during a protest in Paris on March 17, 2023

Gendarmerie members stand guard during a demonstration on Place de la Concorde to protest the use by French government of the article 49.3, a special clause in the French Constitution, to push the pensions reform bill through the National Assembly without a vote by lawmakers, in Paris on March 17, 2023

CGT unionists march with flares and banners on the ring road in Paris on March 17, 2023

A police water cannon vehicle is stationed alongside police vehicles as people begin to gather for a demonstration on Place de la Concorde in Paris on March 17, 2023

Riot police block the Pont de la Concorde leading from the Place de la Concorde to National Assembly, home to the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament, in Paris on March 17, 2023

Riot police vehicles at the Pont de la Concorde on the evening of March 17, 2023

A pedestrian walks past full waste bins in Paris' 2nd district as rubbish collectors strike against pension reforms, leaving many streets in the capital piled with stinking waste on March 17, 2023

Macron ordered Borne on Thursday to wield a special constitutional power to push the highly unpopular pension bill through without a vote in the National Assembly, France's lower house of parliament.

His calculated risk infuriated opposition lawmakers, many citizens and unions.

The French are deeply attached to keeping the official retirement age at 62, which is among the lowest in European countries.

More than eight out of 10 people are unhappy with the government's decision to skip a vote in parliament, and 65 per cent want strikes and protests to continue, a Toluna Harris Interactive poll for RTL radio showed.

After the demonstrations on Thursday at the Place de la Concorde, small groups moved through nearby streets in the chic Champs-Elysees neighborhood, setting off street fires along the way.

Similar scenes repeated themselves in numerous other cities, from Rennes and Nantes in eastern France to Lyon and the southern port city of Marseille, where shop windows and bank fronts were smashed, local French media reported.

Fury has spread across the streets of Paris as police clash with protesters after a controversial bill to raise the retirement age was forced through parliament without a vote

Fights have broken out between protesters in the capital city

A barricade burns as protesters block the traffic on Paris' peripheral boulevard in the morning hours to distribute flyers against the French government's pension reform

Rubbish has piled up on the street in Paris' 5th district, as rubbish collectors strike against pension reforms, leaving many streets in the capital piled with waste

People wave General Confederation of Labour unions (CGT) flags as they block the traffic on Paris' peripheral boulevard

Firefighters intervene to stop the fire to start in full waste bins as rubbish collectors strike against pension reforms

A cyclist drives past full waste bins in Paris' 2nd district as rubbish collectors strike against pension reforms leaving many streets in the capital piled with stinking waste

The Eiffel Tower is seen while protesters set fire as clashes take place with riot police during a demonstration against French government's plan to raise the legal retirement age

Protesters set fire as clashes take place with riot police during a demonstration against plans to raise the retirement age

The trade unions that had organized strikes and marches against a higher retirement age said more rallies and protest marches would take place in the days ahead.

'This retirement reform is brutal, unjust, unjustified for the world of workers,' they declared.

Macron has made the proposed pension changes the key priority of his second term, arguing that reform is needed to make the French economy more competitive and to keep the pension system from diving into deficit. France, like many richer nations, faces lower birth rates and longer life expectancy.

Macron decided to invoke the special power during a Cabinet meeting a few minutes before a scheduled vote in the National Assembly, where the legislation had no guarantee of securing majority support. The Senate adopted the bill earlier Thursday.

Demonstration in Paris take place at Place de la Concorde, following the use of Article 49.3 to validate the government's pension reform

Protestors chant against the French Government during demonstrations at Place de la Concorde

Clashes take place during a demonstration against French government's plan to raise the legal retirement age in Paris

Protesters participate in a demonstration against French government's plan to raise the legal retirement age

Protesters set fire to items as clashes take place with riot police during a demonstration

Riot police advance as clashes take place during a demonstration in Paris last night

CGT unionists light flares on the ring road as they block the traffic to protest

Opposition lawmakers demanded the government to step down. If the expected no confidence motion passes, which requires approval from more than half of the Assembly, it would be a first since 1962 and would force the government to resign. It would also spell the end Macron's retirement reform plan.

Macron could reappoint Borne if he chooses, and a new Cabinet would be named. If the motion does not succeed, the pension bill would be considered adopted.

Addressing the protests, hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said: 'Something fundamental happened, and that is that, immediately, spontaneous mobilisations took place throughout the country.

'It goes without saying that I encourage them, I think that's where it's happening.'
The UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has paid out more than 15million in employee bonuses just days after it was saved from collapsing by a Bank of England-organised bailout.

Days after the insolvency bailout payouts to staff including its senior executives were signed off by HSBC either this week, according to Sky News.

The bonus pool was described as 'modest' and sources claimed it totalled between 15million and 20million.

Another said the payments were a signal of HSBC's confidence in the talent base and that the buyer was keen to honour previously agreed payments to retain key staff.

HSBC UK spokesperson said: 'We have honoured these previously agreed payments as to retain talent and demonstrate our confidence in SVB UK.'

The UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has paid out more than 15million in employee bonuses just days after they were saved from collapsing

It has not been confirmed how much was awarded to the UK bank's chief executive, Erin Platts who moved to the British arm in 2007

It has not been confirmed how much was awarded to the UK bank's chief executive, Erin Platts or her senior colleagues.

SVB UK is led by Erin Platts, an American who first joined its US parent company in 2004 before moving to Britain in 2007 and taking over as UK and Europe boss in 2019.

SVB UK was brought to the brink of insolvency last weekend by the travails of its American parent company, according to Sky News.

Platts sought to reassure clients earlier in the month, hours before the Bank of England intervened, saying the business was a standalone entity with its own governance and balance sheet.

It is believed that had the bank not been acquired solvently, the bonuses would not have been granted to their members of staff.

HSBC bought the UK arm of SVB, securing the deposits of more than 3,000 customers worth 6.7billion, this month for just 1.

No taxpayer money was involved, and customer deposits have been protected, according to HM Treasury.

The sudden collapse of SVB's US parent sent shockwaves through global markets as it became the largest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis.

Bonuses were also paid to its US staff just hours before the bank collapsed, according to reports last week.

U.S., parent company SVB Financial Group said on Friday it had filed for a court-supervised reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings to seek buyers for its assets, days after former unit Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by U.S. regulators

Founded in 1982, SVB was the biggest bank in Silicon Valley and specialised in lending to start-up tech firms.
An Elizabethan mug used by weights and measures officials to make sure publicans were not ripping off their customers has sold for a staggering 39,000.

In 1601 Queen Elizabeth I ordered bronze measuring mugs to be issued across all the towns in England to enforce fair trade.

Whenever a dispute started between innkeepers and their customers, the Exchequer-standard mugs could be brought out to check the quantity of beer or wine being traded.

The four inch tall and four inch wide mug would have been stored in a secure place by town officials to use when necessary.

It had been expected to sell for 10,000 but actually went for four times that amount.

An Elizabethan mug used by weights and measures officials to make sure publicans were not ripping off their customers has sold for a whopping 39,000

In 1601 Queen Elizabeth I ordered bronze measuring mugs to be issued across all the towns in England to enforce fair trade

Whenever a dispute happened between innkeepers and their customers, the Exchequer-standard mugs could be produced to check the quantity of beer or wine being traded

It had the ER cipher moulded on to the side to reinforce the royal command.

The mug formed part of a collection of pewter owned by the late Tony Chapman who served as president of the Pewter Society between 2010 and 2011.

The pint mug was sold to an American collector by Bishop and Miller Auctioneers in Stowmarket, Suffolk.

Other examples of pint measuring mugs from this period are held in the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Oliver Miller, managing director of the auction house, said: 'It is incredibly rare to have a measuring mug like this in such pristine condition coming onto the market.

Queen Elizabeth I (pictured) was the daughter of Henry VII and Anne Boleyn

The tankard had been expected to sell for 10,000 but actually went for four times that amount

It was sold to an American collector by Bishop and Miller Auctioneers in Stowmarket, Suffolk

'It has an absolutely unbelievable history being commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I as a way to settle commercial disputes.

'You can just picture old town officials going to fetch the official pint measuring mug.

'We had worldwide interest before the sale which made us hopeful but we certainly didn't anticipate it doing this well.

'These official measuring mugs just aren't seen on the market, they have to be handled very carefully.

'We were very pleased with the sale.'
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has backed former president Donald Trump for a 'landslide victory' if he is handcuffed and arrested by the Manhattan DA.

Trump said he will be arrested on Tuesday over claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged affair.

Last week the former president and 2024 hopeful was invited to testify before a Manhattan grand jury, with his long-time fixer and former lawyer Michael Cohen testifying on Monday.

He claimed on his Truth Social account that the Manhattan DA's office will arrest him within days and branded the probe 'corrupt and highly political', calling the alleged hush money payment an 'old and fully debunked fairy-tale.'

Many have been questioning if they will see the 76-year-old former president in handcuffs  with Musk now saying the move could get him re-elected.

Musk said if Trump was seen in handcuffs and arrested it would mean he would be re-elected in a 'landslide victory'

Trump claims that he will be arrested by the Manhattan DA's office - with Musk saying it would mean a 'landslide victory' for the former presidents re-election campaign

Republican Marjorie Taylor Green also commented on the announcement, saying Trump will 'ultimately win even bigger than he is already going to'.

She said Republicans who do not support the former president will be 'exposed' and 'remembered, scorned and punished' by the party.

The Georgia Rep added: 'Biden's DOJ is coordinating with the Democrat Manhattan DA to arrest Donald Trump, the top Republican Presidential candidate for 2024, and charge him with a fake outdated misdemeanor charge.'

Many Republicans believe the rumored indictment is a plot to kill the former president's re-election hopes  but some believe it will help him win despite calls for him to withdraw from the 2024 race if he is indicted.

Earlier this week lawyer Alan Dershowitz said indicting the former president would be 'targeted injustice' by the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.

Writing for New York The Sun, he said: 'After spending months searching the criminal code for a law that Mr. Trump might be accused of violating, Mr. Bragg has apparently landed on a highly questionable campaign contribution provision that has never before been used in a comparable situation.

'All decent people, whether politically opposed to Mr. Trump (as I am) or supportive of his candidacy, should be concerned about this weaponizing of the prosecutor's office for the political purpose of preventing a potential candidate from running for office.

'Today this insidious tactic is being used by a Democratic prosecutor against a Republican candidate. In 2016, efforts were made to use it against the Democratic candidate.

Last week the former president and 2024 hopeful was invited to testify before a Manhattan grand jury, with his long-time fixer and former lawyer Michael Cohen testifying on Monday

Many have been questioning if they will see the 76-year-old former president in handcuffs  with Musk wading into the row by saying he will be re-elected

'No one knows who tomorrow's target will be, since the precedent will 'lie around like a loaded weapon,' to be misused by any ambitious prosecutor in a partisan manner.'

Speaker Kevin McCarthy also blasted the decision by Bragg as 'pursuing political vengeance against Trump'.

He added: 'Im directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions'

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the investigation as a 'witch hunt' and accused Bragg of being in the pocket of President Biden and 'radical Democrats.'

He added: 'President Donald J. Trump is completely innocent, he did nothing wrong, and even the biggest, most Radical Left Democrats are making that clear.'

Another spokesman added: 'There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DA's office, to NBC and other fake news carriers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level.

'President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!'
If Trump's claims about an imminent arrest are true, it would make him the first former president ever to face criminal charges

The New York district attorney still has one more witness to hear, meaning the arrest could happen later than Tuesday

Donald Trump is 'deeply anxious' about the possibility of being arrested and fingerprinted as legal sources claim the New York City district attorney still has one more witness to interview - meaning his arrest could happen later.

The former president claims he will be arrested on Tuesday over claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged affair. If Trump's claims about an imminent arrest are true, it would make him the first former president ever to face criminal charges.

Trump's first legal encounter occurred in the 1970s and he has reportedly been deeply anxious about the prospect of being arrested since, a source told journalists from The New York Times, including Maggie Haberman, who broke several exclusives on Trump during his presidency.

His worries grew after his former Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg was arrested in 2021 and he was widely covered in the media being escorted to court in handcuffs. Seeing his former close confidante in cuffs and flanked by officers shook him to his core and those close to him said he couldn't believe what they were doing to Weisselberg.

However, prosecutors inside DA Alvin Bragg's office told the Times they didn't know why Trump thought his arrest would happen as early as Tuesdays. Insiders said there is still one more witness to testify before a grand jury, which could delay his potential arrest.

Despite potentially facing criminal charges, Trump could still run as president again in 2024. The only qualifications required are a natural-born citizenship, and that a candidate must be over the age of 35. Criminal records do not stop a person from running for the White House.

Donald Trump is 'deeply anxious' about the potentially being arrested and fingerprinted as legal sources claim the New York City district attorney still has one more witness to interview - meaning his arrest could happen later than Tuesday

His former CFO Allen Weisselberg (pictured in a white mask) was arrested in 2021 and he was largely covered in the media being escorted to court in handcuffs, which terrified Trump

A source close to Trump's advisors told the Times their best guess was Tuesday and someone must have relayed that to the Republican before he took to Truth Social to make his claims.

'There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DAs office, to NBC and other fake news carriers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level,' a spokesperson for Trump told DailyMail.com in a statement.

'President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!'

His claims come more than six years after Trump's lawyers paid Daniels a total of $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair, with New York prosecutors considering if he should face charges. Trump denies the affair and knowledge of the payments.

Trump claimed on his Truth Social account that the Manhattan DA's office will arrest him within days and branded the probe 'corrupt and highly political', calling the alleged hush money payment an 'old and fully debunked fairy-tale.'

He wrote on his own social media platform: 'THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!'

His post came hours after it was claimed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was planning on indicting Trump next week.

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, responded to the development on Saturday by stating that if he's charged, Trump would 'be re-elected in a landslide victory' in the 2024 presidential election.

The former president claims he will be arrested on Tuesday over claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged affair. If Trump's claims about an imminent arrest are true, it would make him the first former president ever to face criminal charges

He branded them 'corrupt and highly political', calling the alleged hush money payment an 'old and fully debunked fairy-tale

Last week the former president and 2024 hopeful was invited to testify before a Manhattan grand jury, with his long-time fixer and former lawyer Michael Cohen testifying on Monday.

Cohen served jail time after pleading guilty in two criminal cases, one of which included using campaign finances in relation to Daniels and another woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump.

He said he had been acting at his command and that the payoffs were supposed to keep the affair stories out of public knowledge before the 2016 election. Trump has admitted reimbursing Cohen.

Daniels met with prosecutors on Wednesday to answer further questions in the case and her lawyer, Clark Brewster, said she would also make herself available as a witness in future, if required.

Cohen has also indicated he's given the grand jury damning testimony that implicates Trump. He testified for three hours on Monday.

Prosecutors inside DA Alvin Bragg's office told the Times that they didn't know why Trump thought his arrest would happen as early as Tuesdays. Insiders said there's still one more witness to testify before a grand jury, which could potentially delay his potential arrest

Speaking beforehand, he said: 'This is all about accountability. He needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds.'

Speculation that charges were imminent also increased when Bragg told Trump's team that the former president could testify before the grand jury if he so chose -a notification usually at the end of a process that could mean an indictment is near.

Legal experts have said Trump could face one of two charges over the payments - but also concede that both would be difficult to prove.

He could be charged with falsifying business records if it's alleged Trump knew his retainer agreement with Cohen was a sham to facilitate the payments. That would be a misdemeanor under New York law unless prosecutors prove records were falsified to conceal another crime, which would make it a felony.

That other crime could be that the payments violated state election law because the intention of the alleged pay off was to benefit his campaign.

Trump could face up to four years in prison on those charges.

Trump's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, also said this week that an indictment was 'more probable' because of the recent developments.

'But the one thing I still hold on to is hope that justice will prevail,' he said.

Tacopina also said he hopes Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's office 'won't stoop to the level of Mark Pomerantz, who was out there looking for a crime that fits the person.'

Tacopina referred to a memoir by former Manhattan Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz, who led the office's investigation into Trump for a year beginning in February 2021.

In a letter sent to the New York City's Department of Investigation commissioner last Friday, Trump's attorney accused Bragg and his predecessor, Cyrus Vance, Jr., of conducting a 'politically motivated investigation.'

The prosecutors 'weaponized' their office, Tacopina wrote, 'scouring every aspect of President Trump's personal life and business affairs, going back decades, in the hopes of finding some legal basis  however far-fetched, novel or convoluted  to prosecute him.'

Vance has said 'it is hard to argue the previous investigations were politically motivated.'
Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev and Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), chairman of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, visit the state museum-preserve "Tauric Chersonese" in Sevastopol, Crimea March 18. Reuters-Yonhap





Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday visited Crimea on the ninth anniversary of the peninsula's annexation from Ukraine, Russian state TV reported.







On the surprise visit to the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, Putin visited an arts school accompanied by local governor Mikhail Razvozhayev, according to images broadcast on the channel Rossiya-1.







"Our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin knows how to surprise. In a good way," Razvozhayev said on messaging app Telegram.






The case against Donald Trump over hush payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the build up to the 2016 presidential election is 'flawed', a legal scholar has said.

Jonathan Turley, a criminal defense attorney and Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, said the case by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is unlikely to succeed.

Turley was responding to Trump's claim on Saturday that he'll be arrested on Tuesday next week following a long-running probe by Bragg's office into the $130,000 paid to Daniels.

But Turley also said Trump must 'tap down any inflammatory rhetoric' after the former president issued a call for protests amid the imminent charges. Trump had announced he'd be arrested within days and added 'PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!'

Trump could be charged with falsifying business records in relation to payments to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who served jail time after pleading guilty to using campaign finances in relation to Daniels. The former president could also faces charges linked to violations of election law.

Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley of George Washington University said the charges are expected to be brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg against Donald Trump are 'flawed'

Turley said: 'This is a flawed case if it is based on a state charge effectively prosecuting the federal election violation. That federal case was rejected by the Justice Department. There are also statute of limitation questions that could come into play.

'Bragg may be able to expect highly motivated judges and jurors in New York. However, the novelty and questions in this case would present difficult appellate issues for the prosecution.'

Turley added to DailyMail.com: 'I am not confident that Bragg can bring this case under the statute of limitations.

'However, if he can shoehorn the federal charge into a state case, he still faces considerable challenges for a conviction. This is a notoriously difficult theory to prosecute, though this is the best jury pool that a prosecutor could hope for.'

Legal scholar Jonathan Turley told DailyMail.com the case against Trump would be 'notoriously difficult'

Federal prosecutors reportedly did not consider charging Trump over the payments while he was still in office because of Justice Department guidance that a sitting president can't be indicted.

They did look again at the matter after he left the White House, but opted against seeking an indictment because the issue seemed 'trivial and outdated' following the January 6 riots and scrutiny around Trump's role in stirring up that, a book from CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said.

In an analysis for The Hill, Turley further branded the Stormy Daniels case 'politically popular' but 'legally pathetic'.

He said Bragg had previously expressed 'doubts' about the case and added: 'It is extremely difficult to show that paying money to cover up an embarrassing affair was done for election purposes as opposed to an array of obvious other reasons, from protecting a celebrity's reputation to preserving a marriage.'

Trump's claim on Saturday that he'll be arrested imminently comes more than six years after his lawyers paid Daniels a total of $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair. Trump denies the affair and any wrongdoing.

Trump claimed on his Truth Social account that the Manhattan DA's office will arrest him within days and branded the probe 'corrupt and highly political', calling the alleged hush money payment an 'old and fully debunked fairy-tale.'

He would become the first former president ever to face criminal charges. His post came hours after it was claimed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was planning on indicting Trump next week.

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, responded to the development on Saturday by stating that if he's charged, Trump would 'be re-elected in a landslide victory' in the 2024 presidential election.

Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 by Trump's lawyer to keep quiet about an alleged affair

Donald Trump denies the affair with Stormy Daniels. The former president's lawyer, Michael Cohen, served jail time after he pleaded guilty to using campaign finances in relation to Daniels and another woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump

Last week the former president and 2024 hopeful was invited to testify before a Manhattan grand jury, with his long-time fixer and former lawyer Michael Cohen testifying on Monday.

Cohen served jail time after pleading guilty in two criminal cases, one of which included using campaign finances in relation to Daniels and another woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump.

He said he had been acting at his command and that the payoffs were supposed to keep the affair stories out of public knowledge before the 2016 election. Trump has admitted reimbursing Cohen

Daniels met with prosecutors on Wednesday to answer further questions in the case and her lawyer, Clark Brewster, said she would also make herself available as a witness in future, if required.

Cohen has also indicated he's given the grand jury damning testimony that implicates Trump. He testified for three hours on Monday.

A Trump spokesman said: 'There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DA's office, to NBC and other fake news carriers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level. President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!' - Trump spokesperson.'
He is facing a litany of legal action and various probes which could impact his third presidential campaign

Donald Trump is facing a list of legal woes and has now claimed he will be arrested on Tuesday after his lawyer paid porn star Stormy Daniels hush money to cover up their alleged affair.

It is the latest twist in the saga for Trump, who has also formally announced he will run for president for the third time in 2024.

Since leaving office in January 2021, probes into his family business, his role in the Capitol Riot, and the trove of documents he took from the White House to Mar-a-Lago have piled up.

The former president has claimed the cases are politically-motivated witch hunts to try and take him down  with Republicans suggesting the indictment by the Manhattan DA will only boost his presidential campaign.

However, he is still facing criminal and civil cases with his family business that could create financial obstacles.

It comes more than six years after Trump's lawyers allegedly paid Daniels to keep quiet about the affair, with New York prosecutors considering if he should face charges

In November, the Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said the committee would stop paying his legal fees if he announced a 2024 run.

Here DailyMail.com breaks down the legal issues Trump faces as he prepares to potentially be taken away in handcuffs over the Stormy Daniels allegations.

Expected indictment over Stormy Daniels hush money probe

The probe comes more than six years after Trump's lawyers paid Daniels a total of $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair.

New York prosecutors are considering if he should face charges. Trump denies the affair and knowledge of the payments.

He claimed on his Truth Social account that the Manhattan DA's office will arrest him within days and branded the probe 'corrupt and highly political', calling the alleged hush money payment an 'old and fully debunked fairy-tale.'

The post came hours after it was claimed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was planning on indicting Trump next week.

Last week the former president and 2024 hopeful was invited to testify before a Manhattan grand jury, with his long-time fixer and former lawyer Michael Cohen testifying on Monday.

Trump's lawyer said the former president continues to deny the substance of the allegations of a sexual relationship with Daniels (pictured with Trump), calling the $130,000 a 'nuisance payment' wealthy or famous people sometimes pay to make a distracting situation disappear

Daniels met with prosecutors to answer further questions in the case and tweeted her thanks to her attorney for 'helping me in our continuing fight for truth and justice'

Cohen served jail time after pleading guilty in two criminal cases, one of which included using campaign finances in relation to Daniels and another woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump.

He said he had been acting at his command and that the payoffs were supposed to keep the affair stories out of public knowledge before the 2016 election. Trump has admitted reimbursing Cohen

Daniels met with prosecutors on Wednesday to answer further questions in the case and her lawyer, Clark Brewster, said she would also make herself available as a witness in future, if required.

Cohen has also indicated he's given the grand jury damning testimony that implicates Trump. He testified for three hours on Monday.

Speaking beforehand, he said: 'This is all about accountability. He needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds.'

Speculation that charges were imminent increased when Bragg told Trump's team the former president could testify before the grand jury if he so chose - a notification usually at the end of a process that could mean an indictment is near.

Legal experts have said Trump could face one of two charges over the payments - but also concede that both would be difficult to prove.

Classified documents taken from White House to Mar-a-Lago when Trump left office

The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into Trump for retaining government records after leaving office in January 2021.

The FBI seized 11,000 documents from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in a court-approved August 8 search, including about 100 marked as classified.

Some were designated top secret, the highest level of classified information.

The department began its investigation after the National Archives, the U.S. agency responsible for preserving government records, requested Trump return missing government property and received 15 boxes with classified documents mixed in.

Trump has accused the Justice Department of engaging in a partisan witch hunt and claims the documents he took were part of his personal records and were declassified when he left office.

A so-called special master, Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, is reviewing the seized documents to determine whether any are protected by attorney-client privilege or by executive privilege, a legal doctrine under which a president can keep certain documents or information secret.

The Justice Department is also asking a federal appeals court to end that review and to let them access unclassified materials taken in the search, arguing that both measures are hindering their criminal investigation.

The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into Trump for retaining government records, including some marked as classified, after leaving office in January 2021

New York Attorney General's $250million civil suit over inflated property values

New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a civil lawsuit filed last year that her office uncovered more than 200 examples of misleading asset valuations by Trump and the Trump Organization between 2011 and 2021.

James accused Trump of inflating his net worth by billions of dollars to satisfy loan terms and get better insurance coverage.

Mar-a-Lago was valued as high as $739 million when it should have been closed to $75 million, the 200-page lawsuit against the Trump Organization claims.

James is seeking to permanently bar Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump from running companies in New York state, and to prevent them and his company from buying new properties and taking out new loans in the state for five years.

James is also seeking to have the defendants disgorge around $250 million that she described as obtained through fraud.

After James announced the lawsuit, Trump in a social media post called the action 'Another Witch Hunt.'

A lawyer for Trump called the lawsuit's claims 'meritless.'

James urged a state judge to reject Trumps bid to delay her civil fraud case against him ON Wednesday.

She said that her office had provided Trump and other defendants with an 'enormous quantity' of material, including 1.7 million documents and interview transcripts for 56 witnesses.

She said that negates their plea for an extra six months to gather evidence to defend themselves adequately at trial, now scheduled for October 2, and accused them of being slow to conduct their own witness depositions.

Mar-a-Lago was valued as high as $739 million when it should have been closed to $75 million, the 200-page lawsuit against the Trump Organization claims

New York probe into Trump Organization's 'tax-free perks' to top executives

In December a New York jury found the Trump Organization guilty of all charges in a sweeping, 15-year tax fraud scheme that prosecutors said was orchestrated by top executives at the company.

They were fined the maximum possible penalty - $1.6million - by a New York judge in January, for running the tax fraud scheme.

Two Trump entities, The Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp were convicted of 17 felonies, including tax fraud and falsifying business records.

The Manhattan district attorney's office last year accused the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp. of giving executives tax-free perks such as rent-free apartments, school tuition feeds and leased luxury cars.

Its former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, also named as a defendant in the James lawsuit, has pleaded guilty and testified against the company as part of his agreement with prosecutors.

Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, has also been investigating whether Trump misled lenders and others about asset valuations.

He said that a fine is not enough of a penalty, adding: 'The law should reflect what I think many of us see, particularly those who sat through the trial and saw the 13 year you know.'

Its former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, also named as a defendant in the James lawsuit, has pleaded guilty and testified against the company as part of his agreement with prosecutors

Settlement with protestors who claim Trump security guards assaulted them

In November last year Donald trump settled with a group of protestors who lodged a lawsuit claiming his security guards assaulted them outside Trump Tower in 2015.

The attorneys did not disclose details of the terms of the settlement, which came as the case was in the middle of jury selection.

Protestors demonstrated outside of the building on Fifth Avenue after his comments about Mexican immigrants when he was a candidate for president.

The suit claimed Trump's head of security Keith Schiller punched one of the protesters in the head as he tried to wrest away his 'Make America racist again' sign.

Trump said in a February 2016 affidavit that said he shouldn't have to be deposed because he didn't know anything about the skirmish and hadn't been involved in hiring security.

Lawyers for the protestors claim Trump was responsible for his employees' actions, and the judge ordered him to sit for a deposition, saying his testimony was 'indispensable.'

Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen disputed Trump's contention that he was in the dark about what his security officers were doing in his own videotaped deposition in May.

Cohen testified that he witnessed Trump directing Schiller to 'get rid of' the protesters and that Schiller later returned to Trump's office with a sign he had taken from them, according to court filings show.

The suit claims that Trump's head of security Keith Schiller (pictured) punched one of the protesters in the head as he tried to wrest away his 'Make America racist again' sign

E. Jean Carroll's defamation case over rape allegations from the 1990s

E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine writer, sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after he denied her allegation that he raped her in the 1990s in a New York City department store.

Trump accused her of lying to drum up sales for a book.

Trump appeared for a deposition in the case, according to his and Carroll's lawyers.

In a letter made public on Sept. 20, a lawyer for Carroll said she also plans to sue Trump for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress under a new state law in New York giving adult accusers a one-year window to bring civil claims over alleged civil misconduct regardless of when it occurred.

A lawyer for Trump has argued that he is protected by a federal law that makes government employees immune from defamation claims. Trump was president at the time the lawsuit was filed.

The Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said last month that Trump was a federal employee when he called Carroll a liar, but left open the question of whether he was acting as president when he made the statement to a Washington, D.C., appeals court.

E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine writer, sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after he denied her allegation that he raped her in the 1990s in a New York City department store

January 6 committee's investigation into the Capitol Riot

A House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6, 2021, assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol is investigating whether he broke the law in actions taken to try to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

The rioters sought to block Congress from certifying the election results.

The committee unanimously voted in October to subpoena Trump as part of its probe.

Trump sued the committee on November 11 to challenge the subpoena by questioning the legitimacy of the committee and suggesting he has immunity from testifying about his conduct while he was president.

The committee said Trump had 'failed to comply' with the subpoena for documents and testimony from that day.

'The committee will evaluate next steps in the litigation and regarding the former President's noncompliance,' Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson and GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who serve as chair and vice chair of the committee respectively, said in a statement.

Trump could face a misdemeanor charge if he does not comply. The former president could also challenge it in court, as he has done with other subpoenas, which would likely tie the matter up in litigation until the committee concludes its work.

Committee vice chair Liz Cheney has said the committee could make multiple referrals to the Justice Department seeking criminal charges against Trump, who has accused the panel of conducting a politically motivated sham investigation.

The committee cannot charge Trump with federal crimes. That decision must be made by the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland. The panel is expected to issue a written report on its findings in the coming weeks.

A House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6, 2021, assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol is investigating whether he broke the law in actions taken to try to overturn his 2020 election defeat

Georgia's criminal probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election

A special grand jury was selected in May to consider evidence in a Georgia prosecutor's inquiry into Trump's alleged efforts to influence that state's 2020 election results.

The investigation focuses in part on a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021. Trump asked Raffensperger to 'find' the votes needed to overturn Trump's election loss.

Legal experts said Trump may have violated at least three Georgia criminal election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and intentional interference with performance of election duties.

Trump could argue he was engaging in constitutionally protected free speech.

A California federal judge said in October in a separate lawsuit that Trump had knowingly made false voter fraud claims in a Georgia election lawsuit, according to emails the judge reviewed. It is not immediately clear what ramifications Trump could face from the ruling.
The UK's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has donned Kazakhstan's national dress, fired a bow and arrow and trained in falconry on a visit to the nation during which he signed a mineral trade deal.

The MP for Braintree, Essex, was also photographed being escorted around by two young women dressed in fur during the trip.

He wore a long blue robe which tied at the waist, complete with fur collar and embroidery, and a matching fur hat over his usual suit and tie.

Mr Cleverly was greeted by Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev when he arrived in the country on Saturday.

He is also set to offer UK help to the nation to develop additional export routes that do not pass through Putin's Russia.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly donned a traditional Kazakh robe and hat, both lined with fur

He was pictured holding a large brown falcon on his arm while wearing a falconry glove -although he appeared to be letting his eye off the ball as he looked around

Mr Cleverly poses for a photo holding a Kazakh shield at the BalQaragai National Cultural Recreation Zone, just outside Astana in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is best-known by some in the West as the birthplace of Sasha Baron-Cohen's hapless fictional interviewer Borat, from the movie: Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Mr Cleverly held a falcon as he was given an introduction into Kazakh culture near to the capital Astana on Saturday.

He was taught the art by experts, who brought several of the giant birds to greet him.

Mr Cleverly met a whole menagerie of animals during his trip, in-between meetings with senior government members.

Although he initially appeared to be eyeing up the birds somewhat cautiously, he took one onto a gloved hands and smiled as he posed for pictures.

Handling falcons and other birds of prey is an ancient tradition in Kazakhstan, dating from when they were used for hunting.

He was also pictured with a large dog, who stood leaning up against the Foreign Secretary in greeting.

There were no images showing Mr Cleverly acknowledging the pooch, but with giant falcons around perhaps that was due to his sharp mind keeping tabs on them.

Mr Cleverly took part in a bit of target practice as he fired a bow and arrows alongside other dignitaries just outside the snowy capital.

He appeared deeply focussed as he pulled back the string on the wooden weapon, while still wearing his traditional dress.

It wasn't all birds of prey and weapons training for the Foreign Secretary though. He was also seen posing for pictures with several Kazakh young women, who wore light brown versions of his own outfit.

Meanwhile the falconer wore a more practical, leather-look outfit with cowboy boots and thick, golden embroidery.

Mr Cleverly's deep dive into Kazakh culture came as he took the opportunity on his visit to praise Kazakhstan on its steadfast stance over Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, left, and Kazakhstan's Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko shake hands after a joint news conference following their talks in Astana, Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is best-known by some in the West as the birthplace of Sasha Baron-Cohen's hapless fictional interviewer Borat

Mr Cleverly also fired a bow and arrow during his tour of the country, where he met with other dignitaries

Falconry experts taught Mr Cleverly some of the skills of the art before he took on a bird himself

Cleverly met Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and a number of other senior officials during the trip

He was also seen with a dog, which leant against him for attention as falconers stood and watched

Handling falcons and other birds of prey is an ancient tradition in Kazakhstan, dating from when they were used for hunting

A stern-faced Mr Cleverly greets a horse during his brief visit to the country today

Read more: How CAN Putin be arrested for war crimes? The unlikely circumstances that could see Vladimir held to account for invading Ukraine and abducting children Advertisement

Britain will help Kazakhstan develop export routes bypassing Russia, he confirmed on a visit to the Central Asian nation on Saturday, where he also signed a memorandum on supplies of critical minerals.

Cleverly said London valued the position of Astana - which has traditionally been closely allied with Moscow - on the Ukrainian conflict.

Kazakhstan has refused to support Russia's invasion or recognise its annexation of Ukrainian territories.

'The UK greatly appreciates Kazakhstan's consistent and principled position in supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity and your desire to bring about resolution to the war in line with the UN charter,' he told a briefing.

Cleverly, who met Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and a number of other senior officials, said he discussed the disruptions in Kazakh oil exports - most of which go through Russia - and ways to support the development of alternative routes such as the so-called Middle Corridor.

That route crosses the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, and requires significant investment in order to boost its capacity, although Kazakhstan has already started diverting some crude shipments towards it.

Cleverly and Kazakh diplomats said they have signed a memorandum on critical minerals such as rare earth metals, but provided no details about it.

The landlocked former Soviet nation of 20 million accounts for almost a half of the world's uranium output and has large deposits of rare earth minerals which the West has traditionally sourced from China or Russia.

Kazakhstan, which has the longest land border with Russia of any former Soviet state, called in Russian troops to help put down street demonstrations weeks before Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.

But since the invasion Tokayev has been careful to keep his distance from Moscow and keep relations open with the West.

The discussion over war in Ukraine came a day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin.

The Foreign Secretary pats a dog at the BalQaragai National Cultural Recreation Zone

Another angle of Mr Cleverly firing an arrow during his tour of the country
Vladimir Putin was seen limping as he made a surprise visit to Crimea amid claims he is suffering health problems, a day after war crimes arrest warrant was issued for the Russian leader.

The 70-year-old defied the West and arrived in annexed Crimea today, said Russian media reports.

Footage appeared to show Putin in naval port Sevastopol which has been targeted by repeated Ukrainian strikes in recent months.

His arrival came one day after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on war crimes accusations.

Today marks the ninth anniversary of his illegal annexation of Crimea.

Vladimir Putin was seen limping as he made a surprise visit to Crimea amid claims he is suffering health problems, a day after war crimes arrest warrant was issued for the Russian leader

The 70-year-old defied the West and arrived in annexed Crimea today, said Russian media reports

Footage appeared to show the dictator in naval port Sevastopol which has been targeted by repeated Ukrainian strikes in recent months

Putin was seen with his placeman Mikhail Razvozhayev, governor of occupied Sevastopol, surrounded by six bulky bodyguards evidently wearing bullet proof jackets.

The 70-year-old leader appeared to be in discomfort when he walked in contrast to earlier appearances this week in Moscow and Siberian city Ulan-Ude.

He evidently arrived in the port - HQ of the Russian Black Sea Fleet - in a black Toyota Land Cruiser.

With him too was Orthodox Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov, Putin's personal confessor who has likened the dictator to Tsar Peter the Great

Putin was seen with his placeman Mikhail Razvozhayev, governor of occupied Sevastopol, surrounded by six bulky bodyguards evidently wearing bullet proof jackets

'Our President Vladimir Putin knows how to surprise in a good way,' said the governor.

He had been due to appear on a video conference but made the unexpected appearance in the disputed peninsula, said the governor who is unrecognised by the West.

'Vladimir Vladimirovich came himself, driving.

'Because on such a historic day, the president is always with Sevastopol and Sevastopol residents. Our country has an incredible leader.'

The International Criminal court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over his barbaric invasion of Ukraine

The ICC called for Putin's arrest as the court accused the despot of unlawfully abducting Ukrainian children from their homes and deporting them to Russia to be given to Russian families. Pictured: Ukrainian children onboard a train from Ukraine's Donbas region to Russia on February 22, 2022

A Ukrainian police officer takes cover in front of a burning building that was hit in a Russian airstrike in Avdiivka, Ukraine, on Friday

READ MORE: How CAN Putin be arrested for war crimes? The unlikely circumstances that could see Vladimir held to account for invading Ukraine and abducting children Advertisement

With him too was Orthodox Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov, Putin's personal confessor who has likened the dictator to Tsar Peter the Great.

Putin was seen close to other people in Sevastopol, unlike other appearances - notably on Friday - when he addressed oligarchs and business leaders from a distance.

The trip came amid claims in some quarters that Putin is suffering health problems and uses body doubles - doppelgangers - for some appearances during the war he unleashed one year ago on Ukraine.

Putin was seen visiting the Korsun Children's Centre in Sevastopol.

It is his first visit to the annexed peninsula in three years.

The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin yesterday amid accusations of war crimes during his faltering invasion of Ukraine.

Karim Khan, the ICC's chief prosecutor said hundreds of children have been unlawfully taken from orphanages and children's homes in occupied areas of Ukraine and transported to Russia to be given to new families.

Putin has become only the third serving president to have been issued an ICC arrest warrant, after Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, and the first leader of one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

The ICC's warrant now obligates its 123 member states to arrest the Russian president and transfer him to The Hague for trial should he set foot on their territory.

But the Kremlin today slammed the court's decision as 'outrageous and unacceptable', instead insisting any decisions of the ICC are 'null and void' with respect to Russia as Moscow does not recognise the court's jurisdiction.
Clintons has lost another card store in the next big blow for Britain's struggling high streets - with more branches due to shut in days.

The chain will close its branch in Kirkcaldy shopping centre on April 8, according to Fife Today.

It comes after three stores are set to shut permanently later this month, The Sun revealed.

The store in Whitehaven, Cumbria, will close tomorrow, while Bolton's Market Street shop is also scheduled to close by the end of the month.

The future of the staff who work in the affected stores remains uncertain.

Clintons in Kirkcaldy shopping centre (pictured) is set to close - with more branches due to shut in days as the retailer struggles to stay afloat

The closure of Clintons in Kirkcaldy shopping centre comes as the brand has struggled in recent years, partly because of high business rates as well as a widespread shift to online shopping

MailOnline has contacted Clintons to confirm all closure dates, and whether the retailer plans to shut any more stores in 2023.

Which Clintons stores are closing? 1. Kirkcaldy shopping centre Closing: April 8 2. Whitehaven, Cumbria Closing: March 19 3. Bolton's Market Street Closing: By the end of the month, but date not confirmed Advertisement

Last year, Clintons closed the doors to three of its shops forever.

Its Dorchester branch closed on December 29, and a store in Ayr shut permanently on April 12.

The firm also shut its remaining store in Market Harborough in January 2022.

Founded in 1968, the brand has struggled in recent years, partly because of high business rates as well as a widespread shift to online shopping.

Card Factory is Clintons biggest rival, as well as online businesses Funky Pigeon and Moonpig.

Clintons announced in 2019 that it desperately needed to close 66 of its sites to prevent collapse. It avoided this, however, by entering a 'pre-pack administration' in December 2019, according to The Sun.

Clintons brand and its its shops, staff and website were sold to a new company called Esquire Retail Limited.

However, the move still resulted in hundreds of job losses and store closures.

The retailer had 2,500 staff working across 335 shops at its peak.

But by January 2022, there were only 2,000 employees and 238 shops operating.
Russia's 'children's commissioner' has been accused of forcibly deporting thousands of Ukrainian children across the border.

Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, 38, faces a war crimes arrest warrant after she admitted to adopting a 15-year-old Mariupol boy herself in a TV appearance with Vladimir Putin.

Ms Lvova-Belova claimed to be the 'saviour' of children from Ukraine caught up in Russia's 'special military operation'.

The invasion allegedly conceals a plan to deport Ukrainian children from territories occupied by Russian invading forces.

In the video from last month, Putin was seen approving his children's commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova's personal adoption of a child from Mariupol, a city that has seen some of the most brutal fighting of the war in Ukraine.

Sickening: Children's Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova greet children with teddies

The video may act as proof the Kremlin allegedly wanted to turn Ukrainian children into Russians.

Ms Lvova-Belova told Putin such adoptions were only possible due to him.

Putin asked her: 'Have you adopted a child from Mariupol?'

'I have, thanks to you, Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin],' she said.

'A baby?'

'No, he is 15-years-old. Now I know what it means to be a mother of a Donbas child.'

She said: 'It's complicated, but we love each other very much.'

Putin told her: 'This is the key thing.'

She replied: 'Yes indeed. I believe we'll overcome everything, don't you think?'

He said: 'Of course.'

Ms Lvova-Belova was already the mother and guardian of 22 mostly adopted children, according to Sky News.

She has so far been sanctioned by the US, Europe, the UK, Canada and Australia.

She is also a member of the governing body of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.

Last year more than 22 exhausted-looking boys and girls bearing name tags on their coats, bobble hats on their heads and baffled looks on their faces arrived in Siberia.

They were victims of a horrific human trafficking operation run by the Kremlin, cruelly snatched from the security of their homes in Ukraine and flown thousands of miles to Siberia.

Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, 38, was accused of forcibly deporting thousands of Ukrainian children across the border as she faces a war crimes arrest warrant and admits to personally adopting a Ukranian child

In the significant video Putin is seen approving his children's commissioner 's personal adoption of a 15-year-old child from Mariupol

Maria Lvova-Belova, pictured, greets a child. She is part of the scheme to deport thousands of Ukrainian babies and infants to Russia where they are put in forced adoptions

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova at the Kremlin in March

There, they were being handed over to Russian families like human spoils of war, while being filmed  innocent pawns in Vladimir Putin's propaganda campaign.

She also boasted in the Russian parliament about the success of their campaign.

She told a tale of 30 children taken to Moscow after being 'found in the basements' of Mariupol, a key port ferociously battered by Russian forces before it fell in May.

The children, she said, 'spoke negatively about the president [Putin], said all sorts of nasty things, sang the anthem of Ukraine and shouted ''Glory to Ukraine''.

She added that after they were handed over to families, their 'negativity... turns into love for Russia'.

In a chilling social media post, Lvova-Belova said another 370 teenagers had been taken to Russia for language and history 'rehabilitation' lessons and said 'they say that they are ready to go to the front line'.

Vladimir Putin, 70, appeared to have also admitted for the first time that he personally has young offspring.

He was also accused of the 'war crime of unlawful deportation' by snatching Ukrainian children and forcing them to Russia.

Putin reportedly has two adult daughters with his ex-wife Lyudmila - Dr Maria Vorontsova, 37, a geneticist, a leading researcher at the National Medical Research Centre for Endocrinology of the Ministry of Health of Russia and expert on dwarfism, and Katerina Tikhonova, 36, a high-kicking 'rock'n'roll' dancer-turned-mathematician, director-general of the National Intellectual Development Foundation in Russia.

He also has a 20 year old daughter Luiza Rozova, 20, with longtime lover Svetlana Krivonogikh, 48, who is now a part-owner of a major Russian bank and also a striptease nightclub and is one of Russia's wealthiest women.
Donald Trump's team has slammed the New York attorney looking to prosecute him over hush money paid to Stormy Daniels as a 'George Soros-funded Radical Democrat'.

A spokesman for the former president issued the strongly-worded criticism of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg shortly after Trump claimed he will be arrested on Tuesday.

The spokesman also indicated that Bragg's office hasn't notified Trump or his legal team that the arrest is imminent.

A spokesman for Trump said: 'There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Department and the DA's office, to NBC and other fake news carriers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level.

'President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!'

A spokesman for Trump said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was a 'radical left Democrat' who was funded by George Soros (right)

Bragg received donations from a Political Action Committee that got funding from George Soros

During his campaign for election in 2021, Bragg received support from a political action committee that took money from George Soros.

Color Of Change PAC, the political action committee of the nation's largest online racial justice group, received $1 million from billionaire philanthropist Soros to support Bragg's candidacy.

DailyMail.com revealed in February last year that the donation was later cut in half after an allegation was made against Bragg, which he strongly denied.

Soros donated the money to Color of Change PAC as part of a $40 million drive to back district attorney campaigns across the country, according to a report in January 2023.

Matt Palumbo, author of The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros, said the funding by Soros was incredibly successful at achieving his aims of having left-leaning district attorneys elected.

'He's had more than a 90% success rate in getting a lot of these DAs elected,' he told Fox News in January.

'I hate to use the term brilliance with Soros, but one of the brilliant things he realized is when you want to get policy reform done with law and order and in this case, degrading it, going through a DA is so efficient because you don't have to go through a state legislature, you don't have to go through a mayor.'

Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney, could charge Donald Trump over alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels during the run up to the 2016 presidential election

Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House, has also criticized the investigation.

He said on Saturday: 'Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.

'I'm directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.'

Legal experts have cast doubt on whether the case against Trump would succeed.

Jonathan Turley, a criminal defense attorney and Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, said: 'This is a flawed case if it is based on a state charge effectively prosecuting the federal election violation.

'That federal case was rejected by the Justice Department. There are also statute of limitation questions that could come into play.

'Bragg may be able to expect highly motivated judges and jurors in New York. However, the novelty and questions in this case would present difficult appellate issues for the prosecution.'

But Turley also said Trump must 'tap down any inflammatory rhetoric' after the former president issued a call for protests amid the imminent charges. Trump had announced he'd be arrested within days and added 'PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!'

Trump could be charged with falsifying business records in relation to payments to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who served jail time after pleading guilty to using campaign finances in relation to Daniels. The former president could also faces charges linked to violations of election law.

He'd become the first former president in history to face criminal charges if he is indicted.

Elon Musk, one of the world's richest men, responded to the development on Saturday by stating that if he's charged, Trump would 'be re-elected in a landslide victory' in the 2024 presidential election. And legal experts say Trump could still be elected president even if he's charged or convicted.

Trump claims he will be arrested by the Manhattan DA's office - with Musk saying it would mean a 'landslide victory' for the former presidents re-election campaign

Elon Musk, pictured at the 2022 Met gala, believes criminal charges against Trump will help achieve reelection in the 2024 presidential race

Trump could face up to four years in prison if he's charged.

But experts say the former president could still be reelected if he's charged or even convicted over the issue. Trump has already maintained he 'wouldn't even think about leaving' the race if he's charged.

The U.S. Constitution does not say a candidate cannot run if they have a criminal record. The conditions are simply that a candidate is a natural born citizen who is at least 35 years old and has been resident of the U.S. for 14 years or longer.

Kate Shaw, a legal analyst and professor at Cardozo School of Law, told ABC: 'There's nothing in the Constitution disqualifying individuals convicted of crimes from running for or serving as president.'

Any issues are likely to be practical, rather than legal, Shaw said, such as imprisonment making campaigning 'difficult if not impossible'.
The only rules around who may run for president are that candidates must be natural-born US citizens and over the age of 35

Even if Trump is arrested in connection to the Manhattan probe it will not prevent him for running for president

Donald Trump could become the first US president since Ulysses S Grant to be arrested if Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bagg chooses to indict him on charges relating to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The 45th president announced today that he is expecting to be arrested on Tuesday by New York authorities after his lawyers paid Daniels a total of $130,000 to keep quiet about their alleged affair.

Trump, 76, has been dogged by legal scandals in recent years, but has never been arrested in connection to any criminality.

He would be the first president to be put into handcuffs since Ulysses S. Grant was pulled over for speeding in his horse and buggy.

The 18th president was pulled over by a police officer in 1876, with officer William West telling him: 'Duty is duty sir, and I will have to place you under arrest.'

Trump, 76, has been dogged by legal problems for the past few years, but has never been arrested in connection to any criminality

He would be the first president to be put into handcuffs since Ulysses S. Grant was pulled over for speeding in his horse and buggy

A mother and child were reportedly injured by a joyrider, and police discovered the President was among the reckless riders in the area.

Grant was reportedly a 'notorious speed demon' who had previously been warned about his speed - and claimed that he didn't know he was going too fast.

While his buggy did not have a speedometer, it was the second time he was caught racing around the roads in the capital and ultimately paid a $20 to walk free.

Even if Trump is arrested in connection to the payments, he could still run for president and sit again in the White House.

The only rules restricting who can run for the top job are that they are natural-born citizens of the US and over 35.

President Richard Nixon also came close to being arrested amid the infamous Watergate scandal after he conspired to cover up his administration's involvement in the 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The Supreme Court ruled that the recordings made on a taping system in the Oval office should be given to government investigators, with the House accusing Nixon of obstruction justice, abuse of power and contempt of Congress in 1973.

He refused to be impeached and became the first president to resign from the role in August 1974  leading to nearly 50 people being convicted of various illegal activities in relation to the conspiracy.

The 18th president was pulled over by a police officer in 1876, with officer William West telling him: 'Duty is duty sir, and I will have to place you under arrest'

Trump also became the first president to have their home raided by the FBI, after they swooped on Mar-a-Lago in relation to classified files the former president had stashed at his Florida bolthole

President Richard Nixon also came close to being arrested after he conspired to cover up his administration's involvement in the 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C

Nixon's vice-president, Gerald Ford, pardoned Nixon  citing national unity  meaning that Congress lost its chance to hold him accountable.

However, following the move Congress passed the Presidential Records Act, which mandated how presidents and vice-presidents should manage their records.

It means that the Archivist of the United States assumes ownership of presidential records after one or two terms, and decides if a president is allowed to withhold documents.

Trump also became the first president to have their home raided by the FBI, after they swooped on Mar-a-Lago in relation to classified files the former president had allegedly stashed at his Florida bolthole.

The Archivist has been negotiating the return of the classified documents  with Trump facing the possibility of being disqualified from holding public office if he is found to have 'willfully and unlawfully conceal or remove' those documents.

A spokesman for Trump said he is 'rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system'.

Trump's lawyer said the former president continues to deny the substance of the allegations of a sexual relationship with Daniels (pictured with Trump), calling the $130,000 a 'nuisance payment' that wealthy or famous people sometimes pay to make a distracting situation disappear

Grant's buggy did not have a speedometer, but it was the second time he was caught racing around the roads in the capital and ultimately paid a $20 to walk free

Nixon refused to be impeached and became the first president to resign from the role in August 1974  leading to nearly 50 people being convicted of various illegal activities in relation to the conspiracy

Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House, said: 'Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.

'I'm directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.'

Last week the former president and 2024 hopeful was invited to testify before a Manhattan grand jury, with his long-time fixer and former lawyer Michael Cohen testifying on Monday.

Cohen served jail time after pleading guilty in two criminal cases, one of which included using campaign finances in relation to Daniels and another woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump.

He said he had been acting at his command and that the payoffs were supposed to keep the affair stories out of public knowledge before the 2016 election. Trump has admitted reimbursing Cohen

Daniels met with prosecutors on Wednesday to answer further questions in the case and her lawyer, Clark Brewster, said she would also make herself available as a witness in future, if required.

Cohen has also indicated he's given the grand jury damning testimony that implicates Trump. He testified for three hours on Monday.

Daniels met with prosecutors on Wednesday to answer further questions in the case and tweeted her thanks to her attorney for 'helping me in our continuing fight for truth and justice'
It was the springboard that launched their hugely successful careers, so when they announced last year that Neighbours was to be axed after 37 years, the show's stars loyally flocked back to Ramsay Street for a stellar finale.

But now some are furious after it emerged that the Aussie soap is to be resurrected on streaming giant Amazon.

Hollywood actor Guy Pearce, who returned for the last three episodes before Channel 5 pulled the plug on the show, was first to take a swipe at production chiefs.

The 55-year-old, fondly remembered for his role as brooding heart-throb Mike Young, remarked caustically of the supposed finale: 'It's hard to watch, isn't it?

'Knowing we'll never see another episode ever again? A painful reminder the things we love can be snatched away, never to return.

Hollywood actor Guy Pearce (pictured, right), who returned for the last three episodes before Channel 5 pulled the plug on the show, was first to take a swipe at production chiefs

'Unless Amazon comes in to save the day and makes our finale look like a rather expensive exercise.'

He added: 'I don't want to say waste of time. But still.'

Meanwhile, sources in Melbourne, where Neighbours was filmed, have revealed that Kylie Minogue  whose career took off while she played mechanic Charlene Robinson between 1986 and 1988  also felt that she was 'duped' into going back.

One told The Mail on Sunday: 'Kylie has apparently got a bit of the hump about it all. It's a case of why did she and others make the effort to go back. She and the others were told it was the end.

'She knows what she owes to Neighbours and she would have always done it, but it does all seem a little baffling.'

Ms Minogue, 54, returned for the final episode last July along with Jason Donovan who played her husband Scott.

Another former Ramsay Street actress, Margot Robbie, who is about to star in the film Barbie, made a video for the episode from Los Angeles.

She tried to change her schedule so she could travel to Australia for filming, but when this proved impossible she sent 37 bottles of champagne  one for each year the show was on air.

Meanwhile, sources in Melbourne, where Neighbours was filmed, have revealed that Kylie Minogue (pictured, right)  whose career took off while she played mechanic Charlene Robinson between 1986 and 1988  also felt that she was 'duped' into going back

The source added: 'Imagine if Margot had managed to swing it so she could travel from Hollywood to Melbourne and it came back after all? She would have been fuming.'

Other Neighbours veterans who appeared in last year's finale included Natalie Imbruglia and Holly Valance.

It was announced last year that Neighbours would no longer be filmed after Channel 5 and the production company Fremantle failed to reach a new deal.

However, last month it was confirmed that Amazon Freevee would be bringing the show back.
Stanford leaders later apologized to him, but students have since protested against the apology

Associate Dean Tirien Steinbach asked to speak to students after Duncan requested an administrator and then gave a six-minute prepared speech

Fifth Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, 51, was asked to give a speech at Stanford, but students and the DEI associate dean interrupted his speech

A conservative judge who was heckled at Stanford Law School has claimed student protestors screamed that they hoped his daughters would be raped before the equity dean ambushed him in 'a staged public shaming'.

Fifth Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, 51, who was appointed by Donald Trump, was asked to give a speech at the famous law school last week about the circuit's Court of Appeals by the student chapter of the Federalist Society.

However, when he arrived at the school, he was met by around 100 students yelling obscenities at him, including one protester who told him: 'We hope your daughters get raped.'

The judge also saw signs on campus that read 'you should be ASHAMED', with others claiming he had committed 'crimes against women, gays, blacks and "trans people,"' he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

'Stanford Law Schools website touts its "collegial culture" in which "collaboration and the open exchange of ideas are essential to life and learning,"' he said. 'This didnt seem "collegial."'

Scroll down for video

Fifth Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, 51, who was appointed by Donald Trump, was asked to give a speech at the famous law school last week about the circuit's Court of Appeals by the student chapter of the Federalist Society

He was warned prior to his arrival that there may be protesters and the school had to allow it, but reassured him they were 'on top of it.' If there was any disruption, the school would handle it, he was told, but Duncan said that didn't happen.

Students stormed into the classroom with signs reading 'FED SUCK' and 'Trans Lives Matter' to heckle him about his judicial decision in the case US vs Varner, where a 'federal prisoner serving a term for attempted receipt of child pornography...petitioned our court to order that he be called by feminine pronouns.'

'As my opinion explained, federal courts cant control what pronouns people use. The Stanford protesters saw it differently: My opinion had "denied a transwomans existence."'

Despite the abuse, the Federalist Society president still tried to introduce Duncan so he could give his speech, but the students interrupted 'every third word.'

'"The Federalist Society (You suck!) is pleased to welcome Judge Kyle Duncan (Youre not welcome here, we hate you!). He was appointed by President Trump to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (Embarrassing!)" And so on,' he wrote about the introduction.

He tried to persevere but eventually stopped to asked the students to cut out the insults. But they kept going so eventually he asked for an administrator to step in.

However, when he arrived at the school, he was met by around 100 students screaming obscenities at him, including one protester who told him: 'We hope your daughters get raped'

He eventually asked for an administrator when the heckling wouldn't stop and in stepped the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Tirien Steinbach. She asked to speak before the group, which confused Duncan, who said 'something felt off'

The Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Tirien Steinbach, stepped in but instead of calming the students down, she 'insisted she wanted to talk to all of us,' Duncan said.

'Something felt off,' he wrote. 'Students began screaming, and I reluctantly gave way. Whereupon Ms. Steinbach opened a folio, took out a printed sheaf of papers, and delivered a six-minute speech addressing the question: "Is the juice worth the squeeze?"'

Video footage of the event shows the altercation between the associate dean and the judge.

'Can I say something to him, is that okay?' Steinbach asked the students before turning to Duncan. 'Is that okay?'

Duncan reiterated that they were 'heckling' him and asked for an administrator, which caused to students yell that she was. Steinbach's head can be seen aggressively nodding yes, but the students yelling made it unable to hear what she was telling him.

'I would like to help,' she told Duncan.

'In what way?' he replied. As students screamed that his 'racism was showing' and to 'respect black women,' the judge eventually conceded, saying: 'I guess I have to let her.'

She then took the lectern and said: 'I had to write something down because I'm so uncomfortable up here,' before launching into her six-minute speech.

Steinbach took the lectern and then pulled out a prepared six-minutes speech, where she called his work 'abhorrent.' Stanford leaders would later apologize to Duncan for the students and for Steinbach 'failing' to follow campus policy

In her address, Duncan claimed she called his work 'abhorrent' and said it had 'caused harm' because it 'literally denies the humanity of people.' She also claimed that his presence on campus put her in a tough spot because it was her job to 'create a space of belonging for all people.'

'She assured me I was "absolutely welcome in this space" because "me and many people in this administration do absolutely believe in free speech,"' he claimed she told him.

'I didnt feel welcome - who would?'

After opening the floor back up to him, a student asked the others to tone it down so they could ask questions. Duncan resumed with his prepared material, but students began to 'hurl abuse, including vile sexual innuendo.'

Two US Marshal then escorted Duncan off campus.

Law School Dean, Jenny Martinez, and Stanford President, Marc Tessier-Lavinge, have since 'formally apologized, confirming that protesters and administrators had violated Stanford policy' days later.

'Im grateful and I accepted. The matter hasnt dropped, though,' he wrote.

Duncan claimed the students are still protesting by wearing masks and forming a human corridor, all in protest because Martinez 'apologized to me.'

Students held signs that read 'trans lives matter' (pictured) and 'FED SUCK'

Duncan was slammed in the media for calling the protestors 'appalling idiots' and 'bullies,' but he claims in his op-ed that 'sometimes anger is the proper response to vicious behavior.'

He also slammed the elite law school for failing to teach future lawyers the 'basic concepts of legal discourse: That one must meet reason with reason, not power. That the law protects the speaker from the mob, not the mob from the speaker.'

'Worst of all, Ms. Steinbachs remarks made clear she is proud that Stanford students are being taught this is the way law should be.'

Martinez and Tessier-Lavinge admitted that staff 'should have enforced university policies' and had 'failed' to do so. They said Steinbach 'intervened in inappropriate ways that are not aligned with the universitys commitment to free speech.'

'We are taking steps to ensure that something like this does not happen again. Freedom of speech is a bedrock principle for the law school, the university, and a democratic society, and we can and must do better to ensure that it continues even in polarized times,' the apology letter concluded.
A gay man who lives in Washington State has been branded 'a spoiled brat' after demanding his entire family stop voting Republican and forcing his father to leave the GOP.

Ryan Short, 42, was speaking to his 80-year-old father Richard, a veteran who lives in Dallas, Texas, when he discovered his dad was still a Republican.

'We were just having one of our random catch-ups and he just casually said, 'I'm still Republican,'' Short said, with his dad reaffirming his stance after Ryan pointed out what he sees as the GOP's rhetoric against LGBTQ people.

The next day, Short fired off an email to dozens of family members saying 'you cannot vote for the GOP and continue to have a relationship with me. No exceptions.'

He added: 'The safety and peace of me, my husband, and my community is baseline, non-negotiable, and unrelated to politics. To vote GOP is to divide the family.'

Ryan Short (pictured left), 42, was having a conversation with his 80-year-old father Richard (pictured right), a veteran who lives in Dallas, Texas. When his father said he was a Republican, he asked his entire family to stop voting GOP

He also claimed he was 'inviting no dialogue' and had 'no interest in nuance.'

Short told Insider that at 42, he didn't want to 'waste any more time on things that aren't bringing light to my life.'

'This letter was a boundary, not a persuasion,' he added. 'It was not intended to persuade anyone.'

He tweeted out the email, as well as a negative reaction from a family member, with it gaining over 15,000 likes.

However, many were enraged by his post, with one user commenting 'you're an ungrateful disrespectful brat and I'm sure your parents regret having you after that hateful letter.'

Another called it 'narcissistic and painful to read. I had to write a letter when younger because my family was aggressively trying to 'un-gay' me for several years. Would that our greatest dispute was over politics. Feels a whole generation has no idea what actual discrimination looks like.'

Short, however, has seen positives from posting the letter, noting that young people who are of various identities have been asking if they could use it themselves.

'I was like, 'go for it, man, like open-source that s**t! We're only free if we're all free.''

Short sent the email to dozens of family members saying 'you cannot vote for the GOP and continue to have a relationship with me. No exceptions.'

Short wanted people to know that he has several LGBTQ relatives and even those who aren't are supportive - but thinks their political beliefs let them down.

'We don't have anyone in my family that doesn't like the queer family, or doesn't support issues, it's just one specific action of voting for the people that do.'

Short, whose Twitter account is currently suspended, said he received mostly positive responses and affirmations from family members who agreed to stop voting Republican.

He even eventually got his father on his side, despite an initial reaction he described as given 'quickly, without thinking.'

'Family is family,' Richard Short said. 'Being a hard head, I'm a little bit hard to get through to,' Richard Short said. 'But then I'm one of these people, I'll sit back, reflect and think on what I said, and I'm very quick to apologize.'

He not only agreed not to vote GOP any longer, he resigned from the Collin County Republican club where he was a member.

'I was so worried that I had lost my son.' Richard Short said. 'And luckily, I have a son in Ryan who accepted my sincere, open, and honest apology.'
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has branded the case against Donald Trump over hush money paid to Stormy Daniels an 'outrageous abuse of power' as senior Republicans responded to the former president's claim he'll be arrested within days.

McCarthy labeled Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose team is leading the probe, a 'radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump'. Trump claims he'll be charged on Tuesday and has urged Americans to protest against the decision.

McCarthy said: 'I'm directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.'

Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, also issued a statement that labeled the possibility of charges against Trump as 'disgraceful'.

She said: 'This is unAmerican and the radical left has reached a dangerous new low of third world countries. Knowing they cannot beat President Trump at the ballot box, the radical left will now follow the lead of socialist dictators and reportedly arrest President Trump.'

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, have led GOP anger at the possibility Trump will be charged in the Stormy Daniels case within days

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he's ordered an investigation into whether 'federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy'

Senator Lindsey Graham predicted on Saturday that charges against Trump will only help his presidential campaign.

'The prosecutor in New York has done more to help Donald Trump get elected president than any single person in America,' Graham said at Saturday's Palmetto Family Council Vision '24 presidential forum.

'I don't think that's the right approach,' Graham told DailyMail.com after his appearance in North Charleston. 'I think what he should do is fight this in the court of law. He's going to win. This is an overreach by the Manhattan prosecutor.'

'I think it's going to help him politically,' the South Carolina Republican reiterated.

Trump would become the first former president in history to be charged with a crime if prosecutors take the extraordinary step of indicting him. But some legal experts say the case is unlikely to succeed.

Trump and his supporters have railed against the inquiry and labeled it a political witch hunt designed to prevent his attempt at reelection in 2024.

Mike Pence, who was Trump's Vice President but has been fiercely critical of Trump since he left the White House, said he was 'like many Americans... taken aback' at the news charges will be brought within days.

Pence told SiriusXM's Breitbart News Saturday: 'You have literally a Democratic part that's literally dismantled the criminal justice system in [New York], undercut the NYPD, and this is what the Manhattan DA says is their top priority?

'It reeks of the kind of political prosecution that we endured back in the days of the Russia hoax.'

Mike Pence, who was Vice President in Trump's White House, said the case 'reeks of the kind of political prosecution that we endured back in the days of the Russia hoax'

Senator Lindsey Graham told DailyMail.com that the Daniels case was 'an overreach by the Manhattan prosecutor' and added 'I think it's going to help [Trump] politically'

Rudy Giuliani, the former attorney for New York's Southern District and Trump's former personal lawyer, said: 'Bragg's indictment of President Trump for a created crime is the final straw in Bragg's destruction of the reputation of the foremost DAs' office in the United States.

'Bought and paid for the by thy man who despises American nationalism, George Soros.'

A Trump spokesman said: 'There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DA's office, to NBC and other fake news carriers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level.

'President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!'

Jonathan Turley, a criminal defense attorney and Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, said the case was 'politically popular' but 'legally pathetic'.

Trump could be charged with falsifying business records in relation to payments to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who served jail time after pleading guilty to using campaign finances in relation to Daniels. The former president could also faces charges linked to violations of election law.

Turley told DailyMail.com: 'I am not confident that Bragg can bring this case under the statute of limitations.

'However, if he can shoehorn the federal charge into a state case, he still faces considerable challenges for a conviction. This is a notoriously difficult theory to prosecute, though this is the best jury pool that a prosecutor could hope for.'

Trump, pictured on January 6 shortly before the Capitol riots broke out, has called on his supporters to protest his imminent indictment

Trump's call for demonstrations are similar to his rallying cry for protests against his loss in the 2020 presidential election, which he claims was rigged. Pictured: Riot police push back a crowd of supporters of Trump after they stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021

Federal prosecutors reportedly did not consider charging Trump over the payments while he was still in office because of Justice Department guidance that a sitting president can't be indicted.

They did look again at the matter after he left the White House, but opted against seeking an indictment because the issue seemed 'trivial and outdated' following the January 6 riots and scrutiny around Trump's role in stirring up that, a book from CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said.

Law enforcement officials are beefing up security around New York County's Supreme Court amid the expected announcement of criminal charges.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office will meet today to discuss how to handle the announcement of Trump's indictment and arrest.

Officials are also braced for demonstrations which could turn violent after Trump's provocative call for Americans to 'protest, protest, protest' as he raged online about the legal case.
Sen. Lindsey Graham predicted Saturday that if former President Donald Trump gets indicted next week by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg it will only help the ex-president's 2024 campaign.

'The prosecutor in New York has done more to help Donald Trump get elected president than any single person in America,' Graham said at Saturday's Palmetto Family Council Vision '24 presidential forum.

Earlier Saturday, Trump took to Truth Social and said he expected to be arrested on Tuesday - with the charges related to hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

Trump then called for 'PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!'' echoing calls he made after falsely telling his supporters that the 2020 election was stolen from him, which resulted in the Capitol attack on January 6.

'I don't think that's the right approach,' Graham told DailyMail.com after his appearance in North Charleston. 'I think what he should do is fight this in the court of law. He's going to win. This is an overreach by the Manhattan prosecutor.'

Sen. Lindsey Graham predicted Saturday that if former President Donald Trump gets indicted next week by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg it will only help his presidential campaign

'The prosecutor in New York has done more to help Donald Trump get elected president than any single person in America,' Graham (right) said at Saturday's Palmetto Family Council Vision '24 presidential forum

'I think it's going to help him politically,' the South Carolina Republican reiterated.

When asked if Trump's calls for demonstrations could lead to political violence akin to January 6, Graham brought up the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the death of George Floyd in May 2020.

'People protest after George Floyd, when they think there's a wrong, OK, you know? People take to the streets when they think they've been wronged,' Graham said. 'What I would suggest the president do is focus on his legal situation, fight back in the court of law, and let everybody in America know that they're doing this because they're afraid of him politically.'

While Graham ran against Trump for the GOP nomination in 2016, he was acting as an unofficial surrogate for the ex-president on Saturday at the Palmetto Family Council Vision '24 event.

Graham is one of five Senate Republicans to have already endorsed Trump's 2024 presidential bid.

The forum, held at the Charleston Area Convention Center in North Charleston, attracted presidential hopefuls Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, and several others who are flirting with a bid, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

Organizers said both Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were invited to attend, but skipped.

South Carolina holds the first presidential primary in the south.

Graham was asked about Trump's looming indictment as soon as he got onstage Saturday afternoon and for his views on how the ex-president would react.

'Oh I think he'll be very quiet,' Graham said to laughs.
A suspect has appeared in court after being charged with the death of an eight-year-old boy who died after a crash on a zebra crossing.

Mustafa Mohammed Ahmed, 8, died in the collision on Plumstead Road, in Greenwich, southeast London, on February 19.

It is understood that the young boy was crossing the road with his family to go to the Greenwich Islamic Centre when he was hit.

Nicholas Hopkins, 20, was charged with causing death by dangerous driving before appearing at Bexley Magistrates Court on Thursday, March 16.

Officers were called at 7.30pm on the Sunday to reports of a motorcycle which had collided with three pedestrians on a pedestrian crossing.

The scene of the crash in Greenwich where eight-year-old Mustafa Mohammed Ahmed was killed after being hit by a motorbike

Officers, London Ambulance Service and the Air Ambulance all attended the scene.

Despite the efforts of the emergency services one of the pedestrians, Mustafa sadly died at the scene.

His family have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.

Mustafa's father, Mohammed Mow Ahmed and his older brother Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed, 10, who were crossing the road with him, were taken to hospital suffering serious injuries.

The man in his forties is still in a serious condition in hospital.

While the 10-year has been discharged but continues to receive treatment for his life-changing injuries.

Hopkins was also charged with causing death while driving uninsured and unlicensed, two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, possession of cannabis, racially aggravated public order offence, and failing to provide a sample of blood.

He is next due to appear at the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday, April 12.
As of Saturday morning, former President Donald Trump was exactly where he wanted to be - on the top of websites, plastered across TV screens and trending on Twitter.

He's at his best playing the victim.

After more than a week of leaks from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and other anonymous sources, it appears that New York prosecutors are planning to indict Trump on charges related to his alleged $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump denies having an affair with Daniels, but her story nonetheless made for dramatic gossip fodder during the 2016 presidential campaign and beyond.

In fact, Trump's one-time fixer-turned-favored MSNBC guest Michael Cohen went to prison for financial crimes related to his coordination of the payment. And Daniels' own attorney, the once ever-present media creep Michael Avenatti, went to prison for his own unrelated misdeeds.

As always, Trump, the master of public relations, got ahead of the news to twist it to his benefit.

Ripping the prosecution, he thundered in all caps on Truth Social that the case is, 'BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE.'

And as any good producer would, he teased ahead to the real drama. His potential arrest!

'THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!,' he wrote.

Now it's highly unlikely that the former president will be perp-walked in legs irons in front of the cameras to a Manhattan precinct. Even the far-left progressive D.A. Alvin Bragg isn't that stupid. And he's pretty stupid.

As always, Trump, the master of public relations, got ahead of the news to twist it to his benefit.

And as any good producer would, he teased ahead to the real drama. His potential arrest! 'THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!,' he wrote.

Because guess what? Trump is largely right!

This apparent indictment is a joke. Not only does it face a massive uphill climb to a conviction, but it also undermines the American legal system and will likely help Trump in his campaign to be president.

Now, do not get me wrong, I despise Trump. His divisiveness tears at the social fabric of America and as a supreme narcissist he puts his own interests above those of the nation.

I am also friendly with Ms. Daniels. I interviewed her several years ago on 'The View' and she wrote about the experience in her book.

Daniels said that she had 'crazy respect' for me, because I did not unquestioningly believe her story like the rest of the mainstream media. But I maintained an open mind and today believe that she did have an affair with Trump for which he paid her to keep her mouth shut.

Yet here's the thing  my hatred of Trump does not blind me to the reality that paying hush money is not a crime.

Read the opinions of today's most influential legal commentators and you'll realize that this pending indictment would be a travesty of justice.

George Washington University Law professor and legal scholar Jonathan Turley points out, while the prosecution may be 'politically popular' among Trump's critics, it is 'legally pathetic.'

As Turley explains it, the case faces massive hurdles. First, if prosecutors have any hope of convicting Trump they must prove that his payment to Daniels was a campaign expense, and thus, a campaign finance violation. They must convince a jury that Trump wrote the check to benefit his 2016 political campaign, and not to avoid public humiliation, save his marriage or shield his children from embarrassing revelations about their father.

It's similar to a case that federal prosecutors brought against former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards  and lost.

Second, the Manhattan district attorney likely doesn't even have jurisdiction to bring this case.

As made clear by the Edwards prosecution  campaign finance violations are federal offenses. Bragg's predecessor already rejected bringing this case on those very grounds.

Another legal heavyweight, Alan Dershowitz has also weighed in. He writes, 'After spending months searching the criminal code for a law that Mr. Trump might be accused of violating, Mr. Bragg has apparently landed on a highly questionable campaign contribution provision that has never before been used in a comparable situation.'

But both of these legal scholars have one thing that is in short supply in America in this day and age  integrity.

They know that no matter what one's private feelings are  it is wrong to manipulate the criminal justice system to target one's political opponents.

I am friendly with Ms. Daniels. I interviewed her several years ago on 'The View' and she wrote about the experience in her book.

Now it's highly unlikely that the former president will be perp-walked in legs irons in front of the cameras to a Manhattan precinct. Even the far-left progressive D.A. Alvin Bragg isn't that stupid. And he's pretty stupid.

Guess who else may have inappropriately used campaign funds in the 2016 presidential election  Hillary Clinton. There is no doubt that Clinton's campaign used intermediaries to pay former British spy Christoper Steele to compile the phony, debunked Russia Dossier, which plunged the country into years of unnecessary and divisive confusion. But I don't hear the outcry to prosecute her?

Maybe I would if she ran for president again. Believe me  I don't put it past Republicans either.

It's not difficult to see how a society that spirals into retaliation, selective prosecutions and revenge ends in disaster. For Democrats who claim to be so worried about the future of the democracy, they might want to think twice about corrupting the legal system.

No, this case is not about justice. It is about getting Trump by any means necessary  and it will backfire.

By Saturday afternoon, Trump posted on Truth Social again. Surely, not missing an opportunity to capitalize.

'WE JUST CAN'T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY'RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!'

Trump is responsible for his own words. But why give him this opportunity?

Just as I wrote in the aftermath of the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago last summer, if they don't have the goods on Trump, then his detractors will embolden him, and his supporters will view it as proof of a corrupt, partisan legal system.

Trump's base voters believe  and not without reason  that an entrenched, unaccountable elite in Washington is out to get him. They're justified in this belief, and frankly, I become more sympathetic everyday to that sentiment.

Months after the Mar-a-Lago raid, we still don't know what Trump had that necessitated an unprecedented operation into the home of a former president. However, we do have reason to believe that President Joe Biden (not to mention Vice President Mike Pence) was guilty of similar acts. Biden received a kid-glove treatment, while Trump felt the heavy hand of the FBI.

Now we're supposed to believe that Trump's payoff to Daniels is so profoundly criminal that state prosecutors are justified in inventing a new legal precedent to indict a former president for the first time in history. Don't they realize how ridiculous that sounds?

The left didn't manage to pin him as a Russian plant. They couldn't impeach him, no matter how many times they tried. They failed to prove that he directed an insurrection, though he rightfully wears the dishonor of the January 6th riots around his neck, so it's on to the next attempt.

Trump's one-time fixer-turned-favored MSNBC guest Michael Cohen went to prison for financial crimes related to his coordination of the payment.

The irony of this is that even if Trump is convicted (which I would not put that past NYC's politicalized judges and juries) it won't prevent him from being elected.

Believe it or not  even a convicted felony can become President of the United States.

'Oh, absolutely, I won't even think about leaving,' Trump told reporters at CPAC in early March, when they asked him about a potential indictment.

'Probably, it'll enhance my numbers, but it's a very bad thing for America. It's very bad for the country,' he said.

He's absolutely right. This phony prosecution only fuels distrust in institutions, creates sympathy for Trump and undermines the mainstream media, when they cheer it along.

The only way that America will be done with Trump is by defeating him at the ballot box  again and again and again.

And actually, America is doing pretty well at that. Trump lost in the 2018 midterms, the 2020 election and the 2022 midterms.

If these faithless liberals would just get out the way, we can finish him off in 2024. But they keep throwing him a lifeline. They just can't quit Trump.
Lindsey Graham snapped at an audience member while claiming those who support family values should also back the U.S. sending billions of aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia.

A man in the audience at the Palmetto Family Matters Conservative Forum in Charleston, South Carolina told Senator Graham that he is 'not a real conservative' and accused him of being a 'warmonger' during two separate outbursts.

The combative senator refused to let the attendee at the early presidential forum in his home state overshadow his wide-ranging discussion where he defended supporting Ukraine despite other Republicans calling for the 'blank check' to be rescinded.

'That was one guy,' Graham told DailyMail.com after his remarks, clearly unbothered by the clash.

'I think the guy's a nut,' he added. 'I thought most people agreed with what I said.'

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham told an audience member to 'shut up' after clashing over his unwavering support for Ukraine during a conservative presidential forum in South Carolina on Saturday

Graham was prompted by the MC and moderator at the forum to speak on the hot topic of the GOP's wavering support for sending financial and arms assistance to Ukraine.

'Do you believe in family values? How would you like that to happen to your family?' he added to the crowd of a few hundred gathered in the Charleston Area Convention Center.

'It is!' an audience member yelled toward the stage where Graham was seated.

'Just shut up. Get out of here!' Graham said back, clearly frustrated following a few outbursts from the same individual.

'If you want to speak, go run and get elected. So here's the deal, if Putin ' he continued, before being cut off again.

'You're not a real conservative!' the obstinate audience member shouted.

'I am really conservative. If you believe in family, stand up for families everywhere, right? Don't you think God made us all in his image. If Putin gets away with this, there goes Taiwan.'

'What did Putin get accused of yesterday? The international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for the President of Russia for kidnapping children in Ukraine and sending them to Russia,' the senator said.

Graham said during at the forum on Saturday to a combative attendee: 'Get out of here! If you want to speak, go run and get elected'

Graham said that supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia is 'stand[ing] up for families everywhere'. Pictured: Apartments pictured March 18, 2023 in Donestsk, Ukraine are crumbled to the ground in Russian's year-long invasion of the Eastern European country

Graham is the only non-first term senator who so far has backed former President Donald Trump's third bid for the White House.

He stood beside Trump during his visit to the state's capital city of Columbia earlier this year in his first major public campaign swing through the early primary contest states of New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Trump did not attend the forum on Saturday despite being invited.

When Graham was announced to the stage on Saturday, the attendee who obviously has a bone-to-pick with the senator yelled out: 'You're a warmonger.'

'Warmonger? You're at the wrong meeting,' Graham chuckled, but quickly moved on.

Graham was just the second speaker on Saturday - following remarks from Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana.

Following the senator's remarks were several other discussions and speeches, including from former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is considering a run for the White House.

The event is wrapping with remarks from already-announced presidential candidates Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and Trump-era Ambassador to the United Nations; and biotech multimillionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.

The issue of Ukraine has been front of mind for many Republican politicians, lawmakers and voters after several rank-and-file members of Congress, as well as leaders like Speaker Kevin McCarthy, have said they are tired of writing a 'blank check' to Ukraine following the latest aid package from President Joe Biden.

Ukraine invited Ron DeSantis to visit after the Florida governor, who could join the 2024 race soon, called the war with Russia a 'territorial dispute'  amid growing GOP sentiment that the U.S. should not be sending money and arms to Kyiv

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not announced a 2024 bid but is widely considering a frontrunner already, dismissed the war as a 'territorial dispute' during an interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson last week.

He said that the U.S. should focus-in on domestic issues and stop getting involved with international disputes.

Graham, however, warns that allowing Ukraine to be taken over by Russia would send a sign that the U.S. is weak and threaten the autonomy of other nations  like Taiwan.

He also said that if Trump were still president, Russia would have avoided invading Ukraine.

'I believe if he were president, President Putin wouldn't do this,' he told DailyMail.com after his remarks in South Carolina on Saturday.

'I told the president, I said, listen, it's happened now and you need to be strong and clear that you can't let Putin get away with this because there goes Taiwan,' he continued. 'And the Iranians are knocking on the door and if they ever get close to a nuclear weapon our friends in Israel will [be in danger].'
The bible belonging to the priest who was able to smuggle King Charles II out of England during the Civil War is set to go under the hammer - and is expected to fetch thousands.

Father John Huddleston's bible has an estimated sale price of at least 2,000, having been bought for today's equivalent of just two and a half pence in the 1950s.

The 'very rare' item belonged to Father Huddleston when he arranged for King Charles II to be transported to the safety of France during the English Civil War in 1651.

With the help of the priest and a network of Royalist gentry, the monarch escaped the country, first by attempting to get out via Wales, then onto Bristol disguised as a servant, then to the south coast at Charmouth disguised as an eloping lover.

He finally rode east to Shoreham when he took a coal boat to France.

The 'very rare' item belonged to Father Huddleston when he arranged for King Charles II to be transported to the safety of France during the English Civil War in 1651

The 'very rare' item even features the signature of the priest, further increasing its value at auction

Auctioneer John Crane says it could be 'assumed quite comfortably that this bible was present at the death of King Charles'

When did the English Civil War happen? The English Civil War is a generic term for a series of wars between Royalists and Parliamentarians in England and Wales from 1642 to 1652. In total, there were three conflicts, each with their own issues. The First English Civil War was fought in a bid to correct the balance of power between Parliament and King Charles I. It ended in June 1646 with Royalist defeat and the king in custody. The victory exposed divisions in Parliament over the nature of political settlement. A second war began in 1642, with the aim of asserting Parliament's fight to participate in Government. A stalemate was reached when King Charles I refused to make concessions. The Royalists were defeated in 1648 and King Charles I was executed in January 1649, resulting in the Commonwealth of England. The third battle resulted in King Charles II's crowning as King of Scotland, in return for creating a Presbyterian Church in England and Scotland. The war ended in a Parliamentary victory in 1651. Both Ireland and Scotland were incorporated into the Commonwealth, and Britain became a unitary state, until 1660, when King Charles II returned from exile. Advertisement

Father Huddleston met the monarch at Moseley Hall in Wolverhampton, where the King was staying as a resting place during his escape. While there, the priest tended to his feet, which were bruised and bleeding.

He spent two days hiding at Moseley Hall, before Parliamentary troops arrived. Upon their arrival, Father Huddleston was one of many who hid him in a priest hole, secreted behind the wall of a bedroom.

No longer feeling safe at Moseley Hall, the King moved onto Bentley Hall, near Walsall, where he disguised himself as a servant and successfully made it to Bristol on onwards to France.

He would remain in exile in Europe until 1660, when he returned to Britain.

In return for the English crown, he promised a general pardon for crimes committed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum for all those who recognised King Charles II as the lawful King.

In 1685, Father Huddleston and the King would meet again, when the priest attended the monarch's death bed to convert him to the Catholic faith. He heard his confession before administering his last rites, reconciling him to the Church and absolving him.

Auctioneer John Crane says it could be 'assumed quite comfortably that this bible was present at the death of King Charles.'

And it is made all the more special by the fact is contains the signature of Father Huddleston.

'To buy this item is buying a piece of history,' he said. 'The signature alone is probably worth 600 to 800 but the lift in the value would be the fact that it's his personal bible.

'Most other books you can put a commercial value on, because they've been sold before, but this book is so unique, there's no track record to go on.'

Talking about the importance of the bible, Mr Crane added: 'Its association with King Charles and the friendship between him and Father Huddleston makes it unique.

'If it wasn't for Father Huddleston organising King Charles II's escape, it might have changed the whole course of history.'

Given its historical significance, it is hoped the bible will not be sequestered after purchase

Father John Huddleston's bible has an estimated sale price of at least 2,000, having been bought for today's equivalent of just two and a half pence in the 1950s

Given its historical significance, Mr Crane hopes the bible will not be sequestered after purchase.

'I'm hoping that a public body or museum will buy it so that it can be on view for the general public to enjoy and see,' he said.

'This isn't about money, it's about trying to make sure it goes into safe hands and safe-keeping for the benefit of the general public.'

The bible is part of a timed international auction on thesaleroom.com/catocrane, which will close on March 30.
Police in Brantford, Ontario, have charged her with 32 offenses - including criminal harassment, false pretenses, fraud, sexual assault and indecent acts

Have you worked for Kaitlyn Braun or know someone who does? Contact emma.james@mailonline.com Advertisement

A woman who faked multiple pregnancies has been charged with sexual assault, fraud and criminal harassment in relation to at least six doulas.

Social worker Kaitlyn Braun, 24, repeatedly lied to the birthing partners she hired, claiming she was in labor or carrying a stillborn, it's claimed.

She sought out the doulas - professionals who provide support during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period - and told them she had fallen pregnant after a sexual assault, cops say.

Police in Brantford, Ontario, have charged her with 32 offenses - including criminal harassment, false pretenses, fraud, sexual assault and indecent acts.

It is not clear exactly what the indecent acts or sexual assault charges relate to, but doulas professionally provide intimate physical support, including massages and moving clients into various positions.

Social worker Kaitlyn Braun, 24, would lie to the emotional support birthing partners, claiming she was in labor or carrying a stillborn

Canadian Braun faces ten charges of criminal harassment, 12 charges of false pretenses, four counts of fraud, three counts of sexual assault and three counts of committing an indecent act.

One alleged victim, Amy Perry, says her experience with Braun left her traumatized, after she tried to support the pregnancy faker for eight days.

Perry told CTV News she helped Braun virtually and for free, adding: 'The moans, the sounds she made were really realistic, even through the last stage of labor  through transition  she would even go as far as to vomit, which is the normal thing.

'We really felt that there was an individual who was alone in the world going through something really horrible and we were just willing to put the scope of our practice aside and help her.'

Braun even showed Perry and another doula images of a stillborn baby, telling them nurses at the hospital had taken it for her.

During the ordeal Braun convinced the women she had a bleeding disorder and kept them on the phone while she pretended to go under medical procedures and then said she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Another victim posted her experience on TikTok, claiming Braun was making 'very realistic' noises during her birth.

Shauna Hayes, who also worked pro bono, claims Braun told her she had been sexually assaulted outside of a hospital, so she initially refused to go.

Abigail Dienesch, a fourth victim, said that she was left feeling 'violated' after supporting Braun 24/7 over social media

The doula then drove her to the hospital, where she continued to fake her contractions after several hours.

Braun then claims she had an appointment the next day with a nurse practitioner, before returning to the hospital.

During her appointment, nurses managed to find a heart rate for the baby  it is unclear why - but when they performed an ultrasound they told Braun she was not pregnant.

She then told her doula 'I'm so confused', and declined any psychiatric help from the hospital, despite having scans in Hamilton three weeks earlier which showed she was not pregnant.

Hayes said: 'I just want her to stop, it's not about punishment for me. It's just about protecting other doulas, and to stop them from going through what I went through.'

Another victim, who did not want to be identified, said: 'It's bizarre and very sad for doulas to have to check or second-guess their clients, I want to be able to take people at their word.'

She would seek out the doulas - professionals who provide support during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period - and tell them she had fallen pregnant after a sexual assault or was suffering a stillbirth

Abigail Dienesch, a fourth victim, said she was left feeling 'violated' after supporting Braun 24/7 over social media.

She believes she is Braun's latest victim, and was with her when she received a call from the police about the previous instances.

Dienesch, who was left $800 out of pocket for her services, added: 'I would never guess someone would go to those lengths to fake that.

A fifth woman also came forward and posted her story on social media, saying she was also scammed by Braun.

Police said the alleged frauds took place between June 19, 2022 and February 17, 2023 and involved multiple doulas across Ontario.

The board for the Association of Ontario Doulas released a statement saying they hope Braun is held accountable.

It said: 'As an organization, we recognize the trauma  caused to the victims, our affected members, and the greater community.

'These events have caused immeasurable pain and impacted the functioning of doulas and their businesses, not only in Brantford, but across Ontario and throughout Canada and the U.S.'

Canadian Braun faces 10 charges of criminal harassment, 12 charges of false pretenses, four counts of fraud, three counts of sexual assault and three counts of committing an indecent act

During the ordeal Braun convinced two doulas that she had a bleeding disorder and kept them on the phone while she pretended to go under medical procedures and then said that she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer

Shauna Hayes, who also worked pro bono, claims that Braun told her that she had been sexually assaulted outside of a hospital, so she initially refused to go

A fifth woman also came forward and posted her story on social media, saying she was also scammed by Braun

The association hopes to explore a way to offer counselling and support for those impacted.

Police confirmed they have been speaking to multiple women who were lied to by Braun and are urging others to contact them.

Anyone with information can call Det. Kelsie Annaert on 519-756-7050, ext. 2262 or email kannaert@police.brantford.on.ca with any information.

Information and tips can also be made through Brantford Crime Stoppers at 519-750-8477 or 1-800-222-8477.

Anonymous tips can be submitted through www.crimestoppersbb.com/submit-a-tip
This is the terrifying moment a Los Angeles meteorologist's eyes rolled to the back of her head before she collapsed to the floor on live television.

CBS LA weatherwoman, Alissa Carlson Schwartz, was about to give the city residents her 7am report when the color suddenly drained from her face before she leaned her forearms on the desk while her co-anchors chatted between segments.

She tried to maintain a smile on her face but before she could even start her forecast her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She slowly fell forward onto her arms until her head was inches from the desk. Her legs then gave out and she fell with a jolt to the ground.

Her co-anchors Nichelle Medina to Rachel Kim didn't seem to notice that Schwartz had fainted at first, with Medina directly addressing the former Mrs. California, saying: 'Alissa, this really is the calm before the storm.'

Seconds later, Kim lets out a surprised 'oh' and can be seen squirming in her chair as she tries to see Schwartz across the room.

CBS LA weatherwoman, Alissa Carlson Schwartz, was about to give the city residents her 7am weather report when she suddenly began to look pale and leaned her forearms on the desk while her co-anchors chatted between segments

Before she could even give her report, her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she tried to maintain a smile on her face. She slowly fell forward onto her arms until her head was inches from the desk when her legs gave out. With a jolt, she fell to the ground

Her co-anchors Nichelle Medina to Rachel Kim (left) didn't seem to notice, but seconds later, Kim let's out a surprised 'oh' and can be seen squirming in her chair as she tries to see Schwartz (right) across the room

'You know, we're going to go ahead and go to break, right now,' Medina tells the audience.

'Yeah,' Kim agrees.

The show did not return to a live segment, according to TMZ, rather airing pre-recorded segments.

Schwartz posted an update on her Facebook page around 2.30pm, writing: 'Thanks for all the texts, calls, and well wishes. I am going to be ok!'

It is unclear what caused Schwartz to faint, but a similar incident occurred in 2014 while she was working at a different station. She was filling in for one of her coworkers and suddenly threw up in the middle of the broadcast.

After seeing a doctor, she discovered she had a leaky heart valve. They told her they didn't know when it would wear out. However, after having her daughter, the stem cell from her pregnancy helped repair her heart.

It was not immediately clear if her fainting episode was related to her previous heart issues.

Heart disease is the number one killer in the US and can manifest with a variety of symptoms, including chest pain, stomach pain, sweating, leg and arm pain, and extreme fatigue, among others.

Schwartz posted an update on her Facebook page around 2.30pm, writing: 'Thanks for all the texts, calls, and well wishes. I am going to be ok!'

It is unclear what caused Schwartz (pictured in 2014) to faint, but a similar incident happened in 2014 while she was working at a different station. While she was filling in for one of her coworkers, she threw up in the middle of the broadcast
A man sent bailiffs to Luton Airport to collect money that was owed to him after his family's flights were cancelled at the last minute.

Russell Quirk, a property expert from Brentwood in Essex, revealed how he was forced to buy new flights for the following day after the cancellations.

On top of the money lost on a night in hotel rooms and other expenses, his total 'consequential losses' were 4,500.

After waiting months for Wizz Air to reimburse the money, Mr Quirk went to court and then ended up sending bailiffs.

Wizz Air apologised for the cancellation and paid Mr Quirk his money, saying the airline 'fell short of our own aspirations and our customers' expectations'.

Wizz Air eventually paid Mr Quirk his 4,500 in 'consequential losses'

Passengers board a Wizz Air plane at London Luton Airport (stock photo)

Mr Quirk originally booked the flights from Luton Airport to Faro in January last year for a family holiday with his three daughters and wife in the May half-term.

READ MORE: The worst airlines for summer holiday delays - Wizz Air flights are the most likely to be held up Advertisement

On the morning of their flight he awoke to find a message from Wizz Air saying it was cancelled.

'There was no explanation, no alternative offered and no apology', he told the BBC.

'I had to wake my three daughters and tell them we weren't going on holiday - they were very upset.'

After returning to the UK from his holiday Mr Quirk said he tried to get compensation from Wizz Air but it took nearly two months for the cost of his original flights to be returned along with other legal compensation.

He said Wizz Air repeatedly ignored his claims for the extra 4,500 he had spent as 'consequential losses'.

The budget airline company then 'ignored' the judgement made against them after Mr Quirk took the case to the county court, so bailiffs were then sent in to the Wizz Air desk at Luton Airport.

The airline could either hand over the money or the equivalent cost in goods, for example in the form of chairs, tables or computers. Wizz Air ended up paying Mr Quirk the money.

The property expert said it cost roughly 180 to take his case to court and 60 to send in the bailiffs.

He added: 'Increasingly businesses are thinking they can treat customers like dirt and I'm determined to eradicate that.'

A spokesperson for Wizz Air said due to unprecedented levels of disruption across Europe and the UK in the summer of 2022 'we fell short of our own aspirations'.

They added: 'When things went wrong, we did not react quickly enough to manage the high volume of customer claims that resulted from this disruption.'
Security law ensures stability, security of Hong Kong, youth representative tells UN

Xinhua) 15:33, March 18, 2023

GENEVA, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The implementation of National Security Law ensures the stability and security of Hong Kong, providing fertile ground for economic development, a youth representative from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) told the ongoing 52nd session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council on Friday.

Alex Yeung Ching Loong, also a representative of the United Nations Association of China, said at the session that there are rumors that several foreign companies left Hong Kong because of the law. However, "this is certainly not the case, the fact is, we are still flourishing, and we are still standing as the top five competitive economy in the world."

Hong Kong is a unique and dynamic city with "one country, two systems" framework, and this allows the locals to enjoy a high degree of autonomy, he said, adding that while being part of China, the region also acts as a bridge between the East and the West.

"We can benefit from China's vast market while preserving our own identity, culture and legal system," he noted.

He told the Council that Hong Kong is renowned for its global perspective and vibrant civil society, where young people can pursue their dreams freely.

In the beginning of March, he said, the HKSAR government canceled the face mask mandate, which means that Hong Kong is completely back to normal. "We have confidence that Hong Kong will embrace a long-term and steady development," he said.

"We strongly recommend you to come and see it yourself! We remain committed to collaborating with our global partners, to promoting youth development and creating a better future for all," he added.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
After Trump announced he believed he would be arrested by Alvin Bragg's office on Tuesday, his representative called the district attorney a 'George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor,' but just who is Manhattan's controversial DA?

The Harvard educated lawyer, 49, joined the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in 2021, becoming the first African-American to hold the title.

Setting himself part from his predecessors, he quickly instituted a 'soft on crime' policy that saw New York City become a blood-soaked hellhole.

Transit crimes skyrocketed above 50 percent - including a mass shooting and several shoved onto train tracks - and a bodega clerk was infamously charged with murder after he defended himself from a robber.

Almost immediately, Bragg was met with massive criticism over his lax bail law, which saw many criminals repeatedly go in and out of the system without prosecution, allowing them to continuously terrorize New Yorkers.

The law is imposed by the state, but Bragg initially fought back against attempts to weaken it.

Even Mayor Eric Adams, who promises New Yorkers he would crack down on crime that had risen during the pandemic, criticized him, as well as State Governor Kathy Hochul.

Alvin Bragg, 49, has been massively criticized for his soft on crime policies, which he has since walked back on, which saw career criminals running the streets and New Yorkers afraid of being attacked

Adams later revealed that just 10 criminals were responsible for nearly 500 crimes in the city, laying the blame for the repeated offending at Bragg's door. The announcement came with a rally call to judges and the legislature to do-away with laxed bail reforms that are putting more violent criminals back on the street.

He told of how the 20120 reforms, ushered in under Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, now made it impossible for criminals to be jailed.

At his press conference, Adams, a former cop, fumed: 'You have to work really hard to get to Rikers right now. To get there, you did something that is really bad.'

In addition, Adams and Bragg received criticism after six police officers were shot within the first few weeks in office.

He faced significant backlash after he charged shopkeeper Jose Alba, 61, with murder after he was attacked on July 1 by 35-year-old Austin Simon

Alba defended himself and in the ensuing fight Simon was stabbed to death and the bodega worker was charged

On July 19, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office asked a judge to drop the charges Alba after having faced intense backlash, including criticism from the city's mayor

Many violent crimes, such as robberies and gun possession charges, became less strict, but after a year in office, Bragg was forced to walk back on his soft on crime policy.

Alvin Bragg sent out a February 2022 memo to all his staff making it clear that any crime involving a firearm would be prosecuted as a felony  reversing the stance he took just a month ago.

'Gun possession cases are a key part of our plan for public safety,' Bragg wrote in his memo.

'People walking the streets with guns will be prosecuted and held accountable. The default in gun cases is a felony prosecution,' he added.

The move by Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney, was in direct contradiction to the position he laid out in a memo on his first full day on the job.

Then he said armed robbery charges would be reduced to misdemeanors if the firearm did not 'create a genuine risk of physical harm.'

Bragg has now changed his tune, saying robberies at knifepoint on commercial businesses would also be charged as felonies if there was a real threat.

He even faced criticized from his fellow New York politicians, Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul, who opposed his bail laws that were letting criminals back out. Adams campaigned for a safer New York and cracking down on crime while running for mayor

Crimes have significantly dropped in the city since the start of 2023, with violent crimes currently down 0.2 percent compared to the same time last year. However, for a significant part of 2022, New Yorkers remember when it was up as high as 40 percent and they were begging for officers in subway stations and for bail to be reinstatement

But shoplifting, he said, would be judged on a case-by-case basis 'based on all the aggravating and mitigating circumstances presented.'

He faced significant backlash after he charged shopkeeper Jose Alba, 61, with murder after he was attacked on July 1 by 35-year-old Austin Simon. Alba defended himself and in the ensuing fight Simon was stabbed to death and the bodega worker was charged.

On July 19, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office asked a judge to drop the charges Alba after having faced intense backlash, including criticism from the city's mayor.

Alba, who had faced a second-degree murder charge, was working at the Blue Moon deli on July 1 when he fatally stabbed Simon in the neck and chest.

Surveillance footage clearly showed that Simon had moved behind the counter at the convenience store in Hamilton Heights and pushed the store clerk into a stack of shelves before grabbing him.

It was only then that Alba reached over to a shelf and pulled out a knife to fight back.

During the altercation, Alba was apparently stabbed by Simon's girlfriend, who instigated the argument when her benefits card was declined. The girlfriend was never charged in the incident.

The motion to dismiss stated that prosecutors 'have determined that we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.'

In February 2022, Bragg walked back on his soft on crime policies and reinstated several crimes to be felonies again

The filing said that 'a homicide case against Alba could not be proven at trial beyond a reasonable doubt' and that the case will not be presented to a grand jury.

Alba's attacker had prior convictions.

Crimes have significantly dropped in the city since the start of 2023, with violent crimes currently down 0.2 percent compared to the same time last year.

However, for a significant part of 2022, New Yorkers remember when it was up as high as 40 percent and they were begging for officers in subway stations and for bail to be reinstatement.

Now, his name is back in the mix after Trump declared on Truth Social that Bragg's office was planning on arresting him on Tuesday over claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged affair.

Prosecutors inside DA Alvin Bragg's office told The New York Times they didn't know why Trump thought his arrest would happen as early as Tuesday. Insiders said there is still one more witness to testify before a grand jury, which could delay his potential arrest.

Now, his name is back in the mix after Trump declared on Truth Social that Bragg's office was planning on arresting him on Tuesday over claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged affair

A source close to Trump's advisors told the Times their best guess was Tuesday and someone must have relayed that to the Republican before he took to Truth Social to make his claims.

Others have speculated that Trump may simply be trying to get ahead of the news cycle, and dull the impact of any arrest.

'There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DAs office, to NBC and other fake news carriers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level,' a spokesperson for Trump told DailyMail.com in a statement.

'President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!'

His claims come more than six years after Trump's lawyers paid Daniels a total of $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair, with New York prosecutors considering if he should face charges. Trump denies the affair and knowledge of the payments.
The mother of Claudia Lawrence has begged police to question convicted murderer Christopher Halliwell over the cold case, more than a decade after she disappeared.

Joan Lawrence has urged detectives to question Halliwell amid fears that the case will never be solved on the 14th anniversary of the chef's, then 35, disappearance on Mother's Day in 2009.

Halliwell, now 58, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 after he admitted murdering Becky Godden-Edwards, 20, in 2003, while being questioned about the murder of another young woman, Sian O'Callaghan, 22, in 2011.

But some have always suspected the former taxi driver from Swindon of murdering more women, and in 2019 he was linked with four other unsolved cases.

Ms Lawrence, 79, believes police should be looking closely at Halliwell in her daughter's case.

Joan Lawrence has urged detectives to question Halliwell amid fears that the case will never be solved as the 14th anniversary of her daughter's disappearance approaches

Detectives believe Claudia - who lived in the Heworth area of York - was murdered, although no body has ever been found

She claims more witnesses have come forward about Halliwell's connections to York, where her daughter was last seen, including a construction boss who travelled to the region with a team which included Halliwell.

Detectives believe Claudia - who lived in the Heworth area of York - was murdered, although no body has ever been found. North Yorkshire Police has conducted two investigations and questioned nine people in relation to her disappearance and suspected murder, but no charges have ever been brought.

They believe her personal life is a key aspect of the case and have dismissed any links to Halliwell.

But Ms Lawrence fears they are 'blinkered' and has said there are three witnesses who can link Halliwell to North Yorkshire.

'More and more people keep coming forward,' she told The Mirror. 'This can't just be a coincidence.'

'It just feels like there is something we are all missing. Surely police should be looking at this again?'

Ms Lawrence said she was contacted by a woman who saw a picture of Halliwell in the paper. The witness believes she saw him in a red Rover near the Nestle factory at 5am in March 2009.

According to Ms Lawrence, the witness spoke to the police about it but she felt they 'weren't taking her seriously.'

'The way he looked at her frightened her so much she ran home,' Ms Lawrence said.

'Years later when Halliwell was in the papers after he was in court for murder, she recognised his face and she made contact with me.'

She has also urged police to allow her to see Halliwell's 'treasure trove' of items linked to his crimes, found in a lake in Ramsbury in 2014. It included the boots of one of his victim's, a shotgun, and women's clothing.

She has also begged police to see his drawings of beauty spots, wondering if she might spot something linked to her daughter.

''Please show me Halliwell's treasure trove,' she said. 'I might recognise something of Claudia's that could be vital'.

It comes after Ms Lawrence claimed the BBC has been chasing her missing daughter for her licence fee and has threatened court action.

Halliwell, now 58, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 after he admitted murdering Becky Godden-Edwards, 20, in 2003, while being questioned about the murder of another young woman, Sian O'Callaghan, 22, in 2011

Ms Lawrence's father, Peter (pictured together), died last year without knowing what happened to his daughter

She said the demands have caused 'untold heartache' and has called on police to stop the BBC sending letters to the property.

'Youd think theyd know by now, after all the publicity, wouldnt you,' she said.

'They must have sent two or three letters a year in all the time this has been happening. One was nasty and horrible. It threatened that not paying could affect her credit score.

'Im not someone who has ever had any debts, I pay for things straight away, so it was an awful thing to read. It really must stop.'

The BBC later issued an apology, stating that they would be apologising to Ms Lawrence directly.

A BBC spokesman said: 'We're very sorry for the distress caused to Mrs Lawrence and we will be apologising to her directly.

'We have taken steps to ensure no further letters are sent to the address.'

In a public appeal last year, Joan said she is continuing to try and solve the mystery for herself and is reviewing what happened 'with a fine-toothed comb' for 'simple things that have been missed'.
He was first spotted on

Donald Trump received a standing ovation from Tulsa supporters as he arrived in Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the NCAA Wrestling tournament at the BOK Center

Donald Trump has received a standing ovation from Tulsa supporters as he arrived inside the NCAA Wrestling Championships at BOK Center.

Wrestling fans cheered the ex-president as he pumped a defiant fist into the air in his first outing since announcing he would be arrested Tuesday in connection to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The crowd pleaser walked through swathes of supporters as he took his seat in the arena waving and smiling despite his claims of imminent arrest.

Trump had earlier urged his supporters to 'protest, protest, protest' against the imminent charges with a inflammatory post made to his TruthSocial platform - supporters were seen gathering outside the wrestling arena upon his arrival.

Donald Trump has received a standing ovation from Tulsa supporters as he arrived inside the NCAA Wrestling Championships at BOK Center

Trump held up a defiant fist in the wake of revealing his impending arrest when arriving at the NCAA Wrestling Championships at BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Trump was seen sporting his familiar blue suit and MAGA red tie as he shuffled through a sea of wrestling fans.

Pictures from the arena show a calm and collected former U.S. president despite the firestorm which has erupted since his TruthSocial posts.

Outside the arena, another fight was taking shape, with Trump supporters holding flags with his name emblazoned on them.

Supporters took Trumps call of action and also descended outside Mar-a-Lago resort to show their dedicated support.

Trump first broke cover on Saturday afternoon to board his private jet hours after he declared he'd be arrested on Tuesday over claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged affair.

In exclusive pictures taken by DailyMail.com, Trump was seen getting on his Trump-branded Boeing 757 from Florida to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the NCAA Wrestling tournament at the BOK Center.

The president, who was escorted by a large security detail, has spent this morning railing against prosecutors in New York who are expected to indict him over payments of $130,000 to Daniels, a porn star, during the run up to the 2016 election.

They claim those payments - made by Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen - represent an illegal use of campaign finances.

The former president was wearing a suit and tie and headed aboard a plane to watch a competition of the best college wrestlers in the country.

Trump claimed on his Truth Social account that the Manhattan DA's office will arrest him within days and branded the probe 'corrupt and highly political', calling the alleged hush money payment an 'old and fully debunked fairy-tale.'

The former U.S president made the declaration about his arrest in connection to claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged affair

Former President Donald J. Trump gestures to Vito Arujau, NCAA wrestling champion at the 133 lb class, at the NCAA Wrestling Championships

Oklahoma senator Markwayne Mullin was seen standing on the floor with Trump during the Division I Mens Wrestling Championship

He appeared to be in high spirits donning a MAGA red tie and navy blue suit

Trump greets fans who embraced him with open arms some waving back and cheering as he walked past

Trump appeared stony faced as he walked through the stands but waved and greeted fans as he made his way to his seat

Trump was seen posing in pictures with supporters, seemingly unfazed by his 'imminent arrest'

Trump greeted fans as he arrived before the finals during the NCAA Wrestling Championships

The news of his arrest didn't appear to phase the former U.S. president who was readying himself for the fight

Former President Donald Trump is in attendance at the NCAA Wrestling Championships Finals at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla.



The crowd here is quite receptive to him being here pic.twitter.com/rFbVKo6R5q  Dominic Campbell (@DOMISMONEY) March 18, 2023

He urged his supporters to demonstrate against the criminal case - triggering concern among law enforcement officials that his words could be interpreted as a call to violence.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office will meet today to discuss how to handle the announcement of Trump's indictment and arrest.

Officials are also beefing up security around New York County's Supreme Court in anticipation of protests.

If Trump's claims about an imminent arrest are true, it would make him the first former president ever to face criminal charges. His post came hours after it was claimed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was planning on indicting Trump next week.

Senior Republicans led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy were quick to brand the investigation politically-motivated and legal experts have also questioned whether the case has any merit.

Elon Musk, the world's richest man said if he's charged, Trump would 'be re-elected in a landslide victory' in the 2024 presidential election.

A spokesman for Trump said that he is 'rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system'.

Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House, said: 'Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.

Trump had earlier urged his supporters to 'protest, protest, protest' against the imminent charges with a inflammatory post made to his TruthSocial platform - supporters seen gathering outside the wrestling arena

Supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump gathered outside his Mar-a-Lago resort after he posted a message on his Truth Social account

A pair of supporters were seen flying a Trump flag from a boat reading 'Trust the Plan' outside of Mar-a-Lago estate

A supporter of former President Donald Trump holds a flag reading 'Let's Go Brandon' outside of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate

'I'm directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.'

Last week the former president and 2024 hopeful was invited to testify before a Manhattan grand jury, with his long-time fixer and former lawyer Michael Cohen testifying on Monday.

Cohen served jail time after pleading guilty in two criminal cases, one of which included using campaign finances in relation to Daniels and another woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump.

He said he had been acting at his command and that the payoffs were supposed to keep the affair stories out of public knowledge before the 2016 election. Trump has admitted reimbursing Cohen

Daniels met with prosecutors on Wednesday to answer further questions in the case and her lawyer, Clark Brewster, said she would also make herself available as a witness in future, if required.

Speculation that charges were imminent also increased when Bragg told Trump's team that the former president could testify before the grand jury if he so chose -a notification usually at the end of a process that could mean an indictment is near.

Trump could face one of two charges over the payments - but lawyers have said that both would be difficult to prove.

He could be charged with falsifying business records if it's alleged Trump knew his retainer agreement with Cohen was a sham to facilitate the payments. That would be a misdemeanor under New York law unless prosecutors prove records were falsified to conceal another crime, which would make it a felony.

In exclusive pictures taken by DailyMail.com, Trump was seen getting on his Trump-branded Boeing 757, hours after railing online against New York prosecutors who are expected to charge him soon over hush money paid to Stormy Daniels to keep their alleged affair quiet

The president, who was escorted by a large security detail, was wearing a suit and tie and headed aboard a plane to watch a competition of the best college wrestlers in the country

Trump's private Boeing 757 on the tarmac at an airport in Florida, where the former president has been holed up at his Mar-a-Lago resort

Trump boarded the flight hours after a post, written entirely in capital letters, called on his supporters to protest for him

Trump had a large team of security personnel and bag-carriers with him as he boarded his plane

The president is headed to a tournament of the country's best college wrestlers in Tulsa

That other crime could be that the payments violated state election law because the intention of the alleged pay off was to benefit his campaign.

Trump could face up to four years in prison on those charges.

But experts also say the former president could still be reelected if he's charged or even convicted over the issue. Trump has already maintained he 'wouldn't even think about leaving' the race if he's charged.

The U.S. Constitution does not say a candidate cannot run if they have a criminal record. The conditions are simply that a candidate is a natural born citizen who is at least 35 years old and has been resident of the U.S. for 14 years or longer.

Kate Shaw, a legal analyst and professor at Cardozo School of Law, told ABC: 'There's nothing in the Constitution disqualifying individuals convicted of crimes from running for or serving as president.'

Any issues are likely to be practical, rather than legal, Shaw said, such as imprisonment making campaigning 'difficult if not impossible'.

Trump's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, also said this week that an indictment was 'more probable' because of the recent developments.

'But the one thing I still hold on to is hope that justice will prevail,' he said.

Tacopina also said he hopes Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's office 'won't stoop to the level of Mark Pomerantz, who was out there looking for a crime that fits the person.'

Tacopina referred to a memoir by former Manhattan Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz, who led the office's investigation into Trump for a year beginning in February 2021.

Trump's lawyer said the former president continues to deny the substance of the allegations of a sexual relationship with Daniels (pictured with Trump), calling the $130,000 a 'nuisance payment' that wealthy or famous people sometimes pay to make a distracting situation disappear

Trump branded Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg 'corrupt and highly political', calling the alleged hush money payment an 'old and fully debunked fairy-tale

Elon Musk, pictured at the 2022 Met gala, believes criminal charges against Trump will help achieve reelection in the 2024 presidential race

Trump claims he will be arrested by the Manhattan DA's office - with Musk saying it would mean a 'landslide victory' for the former presidents re-election campaign

Daniels met with prosecutors on Wednesday to answer further questions in the case and tweeted her thanks to her attorney for 'helping me in our continuing fight for truth and justice'

In a letter sent to the New York City's Department of Investigation commissioner last Friday, Trump's attorney accused Bragg and his predecessor, Cyrus Vance, Jr., of conducting a 'politically motivated investigation.'

The prosecutors 'weaponized' their office, Tacopina wrote, 'scouring every aspect of President Trump's personal life and business affairs, going back decades, in the hopes of finding some legal basis  however far-fetched, novel or convoluted  to prosecute him.'

Vance has said 'it is hard to argue the previous investigations were politically motivated'.

A Trump spokesman said: 'There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DA's office, to NBC and other fake news carriers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level.

President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!' - Trump spokesperson.'
Fears continue to grow for a 12-year-old girl, who has now been missing for four days from her home in Ayr, on the southwest coast of Scotland.

Jamie-Lee Harvey was last seen on Tuesday afternoon, boarding a train from the town's station which was heading in the direction of Glasgow.

Police have renewed their appeal for the public's help in tracing the schoolgirl, who they say may have got off the train earlier as she is known to frequent the Irvine, Kilwinning and Saltcoats areas.

Searches are ongoing in Ayrshire and officers in Glasgow and at the British Transport Police have also been informed in case she made her way to the busy city, where she often visits the Union Street area.

She was wearing black clothing including a padded jacket, jumper, leggings and trainers when she was last seen at around 3.30pm on March 14 at Ayr train station.

Police are appealing for the public's help to help trace Jamie-Lee Harvey (pictured), 12, who is currently missing from Ayr, on the southwest coast of Scotland

Jamie-Lee is described as being 5ft tall, of medium build, with long light brown-coloured hair.

Inspector Alex Beagrie of Irvine Police Station said: 'Although Jamie-Lee has been reported missing before, she has never been away for this length of time.

'She is only 12 years of age and she has not been seen since Tuesday.

'We are very concerned. Searches and enquiries are ongoing to trace her as soon as possible to ensure that she is safe and well.'

Police urged anyone who has seen Jamie-Lee since Tuesday morning or with any information regarding her whereabouts to contact them as soon as possible through 101, quoting incident number 2277 of 14 March.
Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley on Saturday doubled down on her push for American presidents and lawmakers to take competency tests if they are older than 75 - even suggesting she'd submit to one.

Haley was one of two GOP presidential candidates to address the Palmetto Family Council's Vision '24 National Conservative Forum in North Charleston Saturday afternoon.

She had announced her presidential run from Charleston in mid-February and proposed 'mandatory mental competency tests' for politicians over the age of 75.

'Joe Biden got upset and said I was being ridiculous when I said that,' Haley commented Saturday. 'I'm not being disrectful when I said that. I don't care if you do mental competency tests for everybody over 50.'

Haley is 51.

Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley on Saturday doubled down on her push for American presidents and lawmakers to take competency tests if they are older than 75 during the Vision '24 National Conservative Forum

At age 76, former President Donald Trump (left) would also have to sit for a competency test, but Haley has only brought up 80-year-old President Joe Biden (right) by name

'But when you're talking about leaders who are deciding on national security, when you're talking about leaders that are deciding our economy and the futures of our children, you need them to be at the top of our game,' she continued.

At age 76, former President Donald Trump would also have to sit for a competency test, but Haley has only brought up 80-year-old President Joe Biden by name.

'You can't tell me Joe Biden was the same he was two years ago, he's not,' she told the crowd.

'Look at everybody else in D.C.,' she said. 'They're all old,' she noted, cuing laughs from the crowd.

Haley, who served as Trump's U.N. ambassador and before that was South Carolina's governor, has centered her campaign on the fact that she'd represent generational change.

'We need a new generation of people,' she argued Saturday.

She'd also be the first female president, if elected.

Haley, however, continues to struggle in the polls, with the current Real Clear Politics polling average having her at 6.3 percent.

Onstage Saturday, Haley had to endure one question that likely would not have been posed to a man.

'You are so nice,' the event's moderator said.

He then asked her how she was so effective.

'When you're born in South Carolina, you learn how to kick with a smile, right?' she answered.
His book 'How To Be An Antiracist' is one of the most banned texts in the US

The author shot to prominence when BLM protests swept the nation

Controversial author Ibram X. Kendi has conceded that efforts from anti-woke conservatives have 'crushed' the momentum he built up during the BLM protests.

Kendi, whose book 'How To Be An Antiracist' became a New York Times bestseller when backlash to the George Floyd murder swept the nation, has condemned his declining relevance three years on.

'The momentum was just crushed by a pretty well-organized force and movement of people who are seeking to conserve racism,' he told CNN.

In the years following his BLM-inspired success, Kendi's work has faced criticism from conservative legislators looking to remove 'Critical Race Theory' from school curriculums and was in the top 50 most banned texts last year.

Ibram X. Kendi, pictured in 2020, is a bestselling author, professor and racial activist

His 2019 book 'How To Be An Antiracist' became a New York Times bestseller when debates over race raged following the murder of George Floyd

Kendi shot to national fame in the wake of the BLM protests in 2020, and he was seen by many as one of the figureheads of the movement.

One of the common themes of his activism is the notion of 'antiracism', a term for actively confronting racism, instead of merely claiming to not be racist.

But he has now slammed how the conversation has somewhat moved on, blaming those he feels have intended to 'change the problem from racism to antiracism.'

'And who've tried to change the problem from police violence to the people speaking out against police violence,' he added.

The 40-year-old lecturer often speaks in his work about doubting his own intellect, an issue he lays at the door of standardized testing in schools.

'I didn't fully overcome those doubts until I started rethinking what it means to be intelligent.

'We have been taught that the more intelligent you are, the better test scores youll get. But the more I understood intelligence, the more I realized that intelligence should be defined as a great capacity to know.'

According to a report by PEN America, Kendi's 2019 book was among the most banned texts in school districts across the nation during the 2021/2022 academic year.

The controversial tome examines different cultural themes through the lens of how to be 'antiracist', including gender, whiteness and class.

Kendi shot to prominence when BLM protests swept the US in 2020. (Pictured) demonstrators chant in front of a burning truck on August 24, 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin

The author has written several books about 'antiracism'. His 2020 children's book 'Antiracist Baby' was set to become a Netflix show, before the streaming service cancelled it in March 2022

Speaking about the text's place amid the 1,648 books that were banned by school districts at the time, Kendi said he wasn't 'surprised' at the move.

'For the better part of American history, books about people of color or racism have largely been challenged or banned.

'Whats happened (lately) is more consistent with American history. But just as we fought those book bans in the past or just as my enslaved ancestors found ways to read abolitionist literature, so too can we fight and still read today.'

Other notable books to be removed from classrooms and libraries in recent years includes LGBT-penguin love story 'And Tango Makes Three' and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye'.

While enjoying his newfound success in 2020, Kendi released a follow up book aimed at educating children, titled 'Antiracist Baby'.

Conceived as an instruction manual for parents to discuss racism with their children, the text proposes nine steps for grappling with the subject and helping kids become 'antiracist'.

The book was set to be brought to life in an animated series in Netflix, before the streaming service pulled the plug last year.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex struck a deal with Buckingham Palace to pay no further rent on Frogmore Cottage after refunding the 2.4 million taxpayers paid for its refurbishment, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

It had been reported that the Sussexes would pay a 'commercial rate' for the five-bedroom mansion on the Windsor estate. But Palace officials last night confirmed that the lump-sum payment wiped out the couple's rental obligations as the increased value of the property following the work was taken as 'rent in lieu'.

It's estimated the property would cost between 150,000 and 230,000 a year to rent, which means that the Sussexes may have saved up to 690,000. They will not renew their lease when it ends later this month.

A Palace spokesperson said: 'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a contribution of 2.4 million to the Sovereign Grant which covered the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage. They have fulfilled their financial obligations in relation to the property.

'In line with usual practice for the Sovereign Grant report, the accounting treatment was scrutinised and signed off by the National Audit Office and the Treasury. As with any such agreement between landlord and tenant, further details regarding the Sussexes' tenancy arrangements would be a private matter.'

It had been reported that the Sussexes would pay a 'commercial rate' for the five-bedroom mansion on the Windsor estate (pictured)

The Sussexes may have saved up to 690,000 by not paying the full rent for Frogmore

The couple are pictured here in the kitchen of Frogmore Cottage

But last night one critic reacted angrily to the emergence of the deal.

Norman Baker, a former Cabinet Minister and Privy Counsellor, said: 'It is outrageous that Harry and Meghan should be able to live in a huge house on these terms while regular people struggle to put food on the table.' He is now demanding to know how many Royal Family properties are rented out below the market rate.

Buckingham Palace announced in November 2019 that the Sussexes would have Frogmore Cottage as their official residence. They moved in the following spring after renovation work transformed it from a series of separate cottages into one large family home.

But when they stepped back from Royal duties to become 'financially independent', Buckingham Palace released a statement saying it was Harry and Meghan's 'wish to repay Sovereign Grant expenditure for the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage, which will remain their UK family home'.

They quit Royal duties officially in March 2020 and a Palace spokesman told the BBC they would continue to pay a 'commercial rate' of rent on the property.

In fact, they paid five months' rent but then gave a 2.4 million lump sum in September to cover the refurbishment costs. Today we can reveal that a deal was agreed in which the payment wiped out any further financial obligations.

It was not a deal which was publicly announced by the Palace. Nor was it easy to see by looking at the official Sovereign Grant reports which outline public spending on the monarchy. Last night Buckingham Palace confirmed that the 2.4 million was split into three headings and recorded across two sets of accounts. In the 2020/21 figures, the lump sum is listed as both 'rental income' and as 'recharges for functions and other income'.

The following year, the third and final part of the lump sum appeared in the accounts as 'deferred income under current liabilities'.

A leading accountant, who asked not to be named, analysed the accounts for The Mail on Sunday.

Meghan is pictured in the Netflix documentary's episode in which the couple moved to Frogmore Cottage before having Archie

Harry and Meghan pictured with baby Archie and his grandmother Doria

He said: 'This is an accountant's way of balancing the books. They will look at this deal and say 'Yes, but there's still value being had from the rental contract'. So there needs to be value seen in the accounts. By allowing the Sussexes to remain in Frogmore Cottage without any additional payments, the Crown gave away value and, as such, should recognise that. They use some of the 2.4 million for that.

'That is why they will have split the payments, to show value coming back into the estate according to the rental agreement that the Sussexes will have signed.'

The Royal Family is funded with public money from the Government known as the Sovereign Grant. The system was set up in April 2012 to replace the old Civil List and requires the Royal Household to publish a full report on its public finances each year. Similar to other Government expenditure, it is subject to scrutiny by the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee.

The Royal Household has said it is 'committed to making Royal finances as transparent as possible'.
Officers could handcuff Donald Trump if they arrest him next week over claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged affair.

Secret Service agents are said to be involved in delicate negotiations with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office over how to handle the unprecedented arrest of a former president.

Sources say Trump - who is protected by law by the Secret Service - will have to be fingerprinted and processed like every other defendant though officials are still deliberating over whether he will be handcuffed.

On Saturday Trump posted a message to social media claiming he would be arrested next Tuesday as part of what he described as a 'corrupt and highly political' probe.

The case centers around $130,000 payments made by Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen to former porn actress Stormy Daniels towards the end of his 2016 campaign.

Former president Donald Trump could be handcuffed if he is arrested next week over claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged affair. They are pictured together in 2006

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's office is in negotiations with the Secret Service over how to handle the unprecedented arrest

The payment was listed as 'legal expenses' which Bragg's office says is a violation of New York law which prohibits falsifying business records. Trump denies the affair and knowledge of the payments.

Sources told Fox News that the Secret Service will 'take the lead' over what they will and will not allow as part of the arrest.

'Some sources familiar with the planning said they will go over security preparations in and around the courthouse in lower Manhattan,' Fox Corp. anchor John Roberts told viewers.

'Secret Service will take the lead in what they will allow or will not allow, the source cautioned, mentioning for instance, that the decision to handcuff the president, the former president, or not, they will set the tone and will escort him into the courtroom.'

Under normal protocol, a defendant would be taken to a New York City courthouse and placed in a processing room.

They would then be briefly put in a jail cell, booked, fingerprinted, photographed for a mugshot and handcuffed.

From there they would be escorted - still handcuffed - into a courtroom in full view of the media.

In exclusive pictures taken by DailyMail.com, Trump was seen getting on his Trump-branded Boeing 757, hours after railing online against New York prosecutors who are expected to charge him soon over hush money paid to Stormy Daniels to keep their alleged affair quiet

Trump had a large team of security personnel and bag-carriers with him as he boarded his plane

Trump boarded the flight hours after a post, written entirely in capital letters, called on his supporters to protest for him

However Trump is in a highly unique position as the former US president meaning he is protected at all times by the Secret Service.

It is not yet clear whether he will be escorted into the courtroom by court security staff or his Secret Service agents.

The revelation comes as Trump broke cover on Saturday afternoon to board his private jet.

Exclusive photos obtained by dailymail.com showed him getting onto his persoal branded Boeing 757 from Florida to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend the NCAA wrestling tournament at the BOK center.

He was wearing a suit and tie and headed aboard a plane to watch a competition of the best college wrestlers in the country.

Trump had earlier urged his supporters to 'protest, protest, protest' against the imminent charges with a inflammatory post made to his TruthSocial platform.

Meanwhile other high-profile figures came out to attack the planned arrest.

Billionaire Elon Musk said of the possible criminal charges: 'If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory.'

Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House, said: 'Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.

This is a huge development. Final preparations being made to arrest Donald Trump next week. Trump will be fingerprinted and processed like every other defendant. The Secret Service will make the decision whether to handcuff the former president or not. (Video: Fox News) pic.twitter.com/u36MW0680U  Mike Sington (@MikeSington) March 17, 2023

The case centers around $130,000 payments made by Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen to former porn actress Stormy Daniels towards the end of his 2016 campaign

'Im directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.'

Earlier today a Trump spokesman said: 'President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!' - Trump spokesperson.'
Former Home Secretary Priti Patel has threatened to sue her successor Suella Braverman in a row over migrant policy.

After being told Ms Braverman's Home Office had put the blame for overcrowding at Manston asylum processing centre in Kent on her, Ms Patel is understood to have phoned Cabinet Secretary Simon Case and said if Ms Braverman did not retract the claim within an hour she would start legal action for defamation.

It is the latest twist in a 'cold war' between the two, with allies of Ms Patel claiming she is being 'scapegoated' for policy failures associated with the small boats crisis.

A source said: 'Priti worked round the clock when she was Home Secretary to tackle this problem and erupted when she was told that her record was being criticised. Simon Case had to calm her down.'

Former Home Secretary Priti Patel has threatened to sue her successor Suella Braverman in a row over migrant policy

Tensions between Suella Braverman (pictured in Rwanda) and Ms Patel came to a head over claims that a failure to book sufficient hotels for migrants led to overcrowding at Manston processing centre

Tensions between Ms Braverman and Ms Patel came to a head over claims that a failure to book sufficient hotels for migrants led to overcrowding at Manston processing centre, with Ms Patel blamed for making the process more bureaucratic than it need be.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick told the Commons he inherited an overflowing Manston after 'insufficient accommodation was procured over a sustained period'.

Ms Patel denies this, insisting she had not made any changes to the hotel booking system.

Rishi Sunak has made ending the tide of people crossing the Channel on small boats and then claiming asylum one of his top five policy priorities. Earlier this month, he introduced new laws which he says will finally put a brake on the 'human rights' farce which allows migrants to resist deportation from the UK.

A clause in the Illegal Migration Bill, introduced to the Commons by Ms Braverman, is intended to circumvent provisions in the European Convention on Human Rights which have allowed murderers, terrorists, paedophiles and hate preachers to dodge deportation.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick told the Commons he inherited an overflowing Manston (pictured) after 'insufficient accommodation was procured over a sustained period'

One of Ms Patel's backbench allies said that her migration reforms when she was at the Home Office had not been implemented 'because certain members of the last Government did not support this work and spent their time derailing it'.

In October, Ms Braverman criticised a deal with India, signed by Ms Patel, to increase the number of illegal migrants and overstayers being returned to the country, saying the agreement 'has not necessarily worked very well'.

A Government source dismissed the idea of Mrs Braverman being sued by one of her predecessors as 'a bit odd'.

But separately, allies of the Home Secretary told the Mail on Sunday that Mrs Braverman had never publicly criticised Ms Patel and would not do so.

They also rejected as 'totally wrong' any suggestion that she had briefed against Ms Patel privately.

Ms Patel declined to comment.
A married Upper West Side financial analyst has been accused of flippantly asking for oral sex during an interview with a nanny for his one-year-old daughter.

The 27-year-old nanny who asked to go by Dawan told the New York Post that her March 8 meeting with Jason Kuperman, 43, at his West 58th Street apartment left her feeling frightened and violated.

Dawan told the outlet that she was alone with the 43-year-old when he took her on a tour of his lavish home - which sold for $297,000 in 2013 - and when they reached the bathroom allegedly made the raunchy request.

She claims that while in there Kuperman showed her a cushion and said it would be good for performing oral sex and allegedly asked: 'Do I like blow job? Have I ever done that or not?'

Married Upper West Side financial analyst, Jason Kuperman, (left) has been accused of flippantly asking for oral sex during an interview with a nanny for his and his wife Sara's (right) one-year-old daughter

The babysitter didn't answer the alleged proposition but was shocked when Kuperman again made the salacious request.

'You don't do the blow job?' she claims he said.

'[He then] asked me 'will I do it or not?' I said 'No, I don't do it.'

A terrified Dawan then began secretly recording the interaction with Kuperman allegedly providing the recording to the New York Post.

On the damning recording its claimed that she demanded to know why he'd asked her such an inappropriate question to which he responded: 'It's like cleaning closet, doing laundry  You don't have to. I was just [asking] a question. You don't have to.'

Dawan is reportedly heard struggling to unlock the apartment door and when she finally escaped is said to have reported the incident to police.

A complaint about a woman being asked for sex during a job interviews at Kuperman's address was confirmed by the NYPD.

In the wake of the violating incident several women who read a warning about Kuperman on Facebook came forward with their own experiences having worked with the 43-year-old.

'I am part of a Brazilian group for babysitting gigs in the city and 3 girls said the same thing. They were scared to say something or go to the police because of immigration status,' one wrote.

In another instance, a woman from Brazil said she'd exchanged messages with Kuperman about a possible job when he told her she was 'too beautiful and wouldn't be able to control himself.'

Kuperman, a member of at least one of the Facebook groups where the allegations were posted, has since deleted his social media accounts.

A 22-year-old Manhattan resident who spoke anonymously to the New York Post said that she'd worked for the family for about a month and was also the subject of lewd suggestive commentary.

She claims that he'd said she was 'too hot to be a nanny.'

'On my last day, the dad grabbed my ass in front of the mom. That was my final straw,' she claimed.

She said she quit the job by text the next day, but Kuperman kept trying to get in touch with her.

'I'm totally happy for you that you found a better job. No hard feelings at all  No need to ghost or block. I'm happy for you. I'd love to stay on good terms,' he allegedly wrote Oct. 7.

Sara Freizer Kuperman has vehemently denied the allegations and said to the outlet: 'All I can say is that none of this is true.'

'These allegations are false. Jason is a loving husband and a fantastic father.'

A 21-year-old from Manhattan, said she exchanged messages with Kuperman about a babysitting job and asked to meet him in a public space for an interview rather than this home, as he'd requested.

'It sounds like you are scared, and immature so let's just forget it,' he is said to have responded, according to a text seen by The New York Post.

The woman claimed: 'I take precautions like this because I'm no match for a grown man once I go behind that closed door.

'I immediately got such a bad feeling and did not go through with the position despite my desperation and rent to pay.'

One nanny, Dawan, told the New York Post that she was alone with the 43-year-old when he took her on a tour of his lavish home - which sold for $297,000 in 2013 - and when they reached the bathroom allegedly made the raunchy request

The Kuperman's have denied their allegations calling them 'completely and categorically false'

Kuperman denied their allegations calling them 'completely and categorically false' to the New York Post.

'Some are from people I never even met. Others are from people who texted me after their interview saying how nice it was to meet and hope to work with me soon,' he said in a statement to the outlet.

'I feel terrible if I unintentionally made anyone feel uncomfortable by a misunderstood comment or bad attempt at humor.

'As a father to a daughter myself I fully support equality and our shared social responsibilities. Although these allegations are untrue, I will take this as an opportunity for reflection on how I can pursue a more active role in working to make our society better for my daughter's future.'
Denmark's first woman prime minister has spoken of her fears over her 23-year-old child's decision to have a double mastectomy after changing gender.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt  the daughter-in-law of former Labour grandees Neil and Glenys Kinnock  said she was concerned that Milo, previously known as Camilla, would no longer be able to breastfeed should children arrive on the scene.

Speaking on a podcast series last month in which Milo discussed his experience of changing gender, Ms Thorning-Schmidt said: 'It's a big operation and the only thing I was challenged by was that you can't breastfeed if you have children.

'It's a cool thing to be able to breastfeed your baby.

'I did that myself with great pleasure and I have been very happy that I could breastfeed both my children. It's a big thing to waive.'

Last year that Milo had undergone breast removal surgery after coming out as 'non-binary'. Pictured: Johanna Kinnock, Milo Kinnock, Helle Thorning Schmidt and Stephen Kinnock

Ms Thorning-Schmidt was so concerned about the issue that she questioned Milo  who refers to himself as 'non-binary transmasculine' and uses male pronouns  to the point where he became 'annoyed'.

'But that's fair  my role in life is to test if Milo was completely sure about his decision,' she added.

However, she clarified that she realised that being non-binary was 'quite a cool place to be' because 'you don't have to pick a side'.

It was revealed in The Mail on Sunday last year that Milo had undergone breast removal surgery after coming out as 'non-binary'  meaning that a person identifies as neither female nor male.

In the three-part podcast series entitled 'Han/Ham/Milo' (He/Him/Milo), which was broadcast in Danish, Milo said that before the mastectomy his Labour MP father Stephen Kinnock travelled to Denmark to be with him.

According to Milo's sister Johanna, their father cooked a 'delicious' curry the evening before the surgery and the family watched a Harry Potter film.

Describing the moment they picked up Milo  who was still 'foggy'  from hospital after being operated on, Ms Thorning-Schmidt said: 'It was quite a special experience and we were relieved it was over. You are always a bit worried when someone is undergoing surgery.'

Milo told in another episode how one of the most 'liberating' experiences since the surgery has been to go swimming without breasts.

In the wake of the surgery last October, Lord Kinnock, 80, told The Mail on Sunday: 'We're a very close family who cherish him and wish him all the best'

'Swimming is probably 70 per cent of the reason why I got this surgery,' he said, adding that he can now take his top off 'without thinking about it and to show the scars'.

'I think the scars are pretty cool,' Milo said. 'My scars have many layers. On one hand, they show the world that I'm trans. I want to show that I'm trans and proud.'

But Milo admitted that even after the mastectomy he was 'still a bit confused': 'There's a feeling of confusion about the body, where it is.'

In the wake of the surgery last October, Lord Kinnock, 80, told The Mail on Sunday: 'We're a very close family who cherish him and wish him all the best.'
MI5 chiefs failed to act on two separate warnings that the Manchester Arena attacker was buying bomb-making ingredients in the months before the outrage.

The Mail on Sunday has learned that the agency received two 'pieces of intelligence' about the purchase of chemicals by Salman Abedi and his associates  but didn't realise the 'significance' of the information.

Sir John Saunders, the chairman of the inquiry, revealed in his final report that a delay in reporting the second piece of intelligence within MI5 and to police resulted in a 'significant missed opportunity to take action that might have prevented the attack'.

But a source who deals with national security issues has told how the two pieces of information related to Abedi, 22, and his associates buying 'pre-cursor chemicals' used to make an explosive substance called triacetone triperoxide (TATP), nicknamed Mother of Satan.

It was this substance that was in the deadly bomb that killed 22 victims  half of whom were children  at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, 2017.

The Mail on Sunday has learned that the agency received two 'pieces of intelligence' about the purchase of chemicals by Salman Abedi (pictured)

It is unclear why the information was badly handled.

Relatives of the victims reacted angrily last night. Andrew Roussos, whose eight-year-old daughter Saffie-Rose, was the youngest victim of the atrocity, said: 'This information is key to understanding the scale of the intelligence failures.'

Mr Roussos and at least 15 other families have previously spoken of their plans to sue MI5 for negligence. The Manchester Arena Inquiry was highly critical of MI5, accusing it of being responsible for an intelligence 'failure' in the run-up to the attack.

It was these damning conclusions that led to Ken McCallum, the Director General of MI5, into issuing a rare public apology to the families of victims. In November 2021, Sir John held closed evidence hearings that could not be reported by the media.

During a ten-day session, Sir John heard evidence from five MI5 officers  including the ones who actually handled and assessed the two pieces of intelligence.

In his report, Sir John said that the Witness J, who was speaking on behalf of the Service, said the two pieces of intelligence were deemed not to relate to terrorism.

But MI5 officers, Witnesses A, B and C, told the inquiry that they considered the second piece of intelligence, when considered alongside the first piece, could be of 'pressing national security concern'.

Yet despite this, the inquiry found that the two pieces of intelligence were not acted on quickly enough or shared with counter-terrorism police. Meanwhile, MI5's own internal report on it was delayed and did not give sufficient context for other officers to understand its full significance.

Andrew Roussos, whose eight-year-old daughter Saffie-Rose (pictured), was the youngest victim of the atrocity, said: 'This information is key to understanding the scale of the intelligence failures'

If MI5 acted on its intelligence, Sir John concluded, then Abedi could have been stopped and searched at Manchester Airport four days before the attack on his return from a trip to Libya.

The inquiry also found that he could have been followed afterwards, which might have led MI5 to a Nissan Micra being used to store the homemade explosives.

Abedi and his younger brother Hashem, 26  now serving life in jail  persuaded two cousins and a friend to buy them sulphuric acid on Amazon.

Hashem Abedi's trial at the Old Bailey heard that he told his two cousins  who were cleared by the police of any wrongdoing  the acid was to top up a car battery. But it was actually one of the ingredients needed for the bomb.

Next followed the purchase of hydrogen peroxide, the main ingredient for TATP, via fake Amazon accounts. MI5 had claimed that the officers analysing the intelligence took it to be 'criminal activity' linked to 'drugs or organised crime'.

Hydrogen peroxide can be used for hydroponics, the process used to grow cannabis plants in water  and Salman and Hashem Abedi had been drug users in the past.

But the chemical was also the main ingredient in the suicide bombs used at the London Transport bombings of July 7, 2005.

Last night, a spokesman for the Home Office, which speaks on behalf of MI5, said: 'The Chair [Sir John] has published his findings, and the Government will not engage in speculation about them.'
Barber shops are one of the fastest growing trades on the high street  but officials fear they are increasingly being used as a front for organised crime.

Security sources have told The Mail on Sunday that gangs are using some businesses to conceal the proceeds of crime, and that many could be a base for human trafficking and slave labour in the same way nail bars and car washes have been used in the past.

The explosion of barber shops in London and other major UK cities has prompted experts to call for an investigation.

Some are being run by Albanian and Kurdish gangs suspected of making money by smuggling tens of thousands of migrants from Calais to Dover on lorries and small boats across the Channel.

Former Metropolitan Police officer Ali Hassan Ali said: 'Right across High Streets we have seen a boom in barbers opening up since the pandemic.

Barber shops are one of the fastest growing trades on the high street  but officials fear they are increasingly being used as a front for organised crime (stock image)

'A lot of these shops have thousands of pounds of equipment but no customers.

'While in some cases the shops will be involved in legitimate business, from my own experience, there is strong reason to believe a large number, particularly those owned by Albanians, Turks and Kurds, have links to organised crime.

'This can be people-smuggling and in some cases drugs.

'We know the people smuggling gangs in Calais have been traditionally operated by Kurds but they are now working with the Albanians.'

He added: 'The sudden increase of barber shops is really concerning because they are playing a part in funding human trafficking and in the misery that causes.' The latest data compiled by the National Hair and Beauty Federation shows that between 2014 and 2019 there was a 64 per cent increase in the number of barber shops in the UK, from 7,958 to 13,046.

At the same time, more upmarket hair salons saw an increase of 21 per cent, from 13,694 in 2014 to 16,559 in 2019.

While the pandemic reduced the number of barber shops and hair salons, they are increasing again to pre-pandemic levels.

Last year, an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) found that Gul Wali Jabarkhel, 33, was using his barbershop in Colindale, north London, as a front for organised crime. The Afghan was trying to recruit lorry drivers to bring migrants from northern France and Belgium into the UK, offering around 2,500 per person smuggled.

While the pandemic reduced the number of barber shops and hair salons, they are increasing again to pre-pandemic levels (stock image)

He was arrested at his barbershop and last April was jailed for ten years. Three other associates received shorter sentences.

The NCA recently warned that the amount of criminal cash leaving the UK has risen 'exponentially' over the past four years, driven by Albanian drug gangs sending money home.

Organised crime syndicates from the Balkan state have almost taken over the UK's cocaine market, while Turkish gangs have traditionally dominated the heroin supply.

Trusted associates will be tasked with shipping back the proceeds of crime with businesses used as a front to 'clean the money'.

If they are stopped, they are able to argue the wealth is from a British-based business, such as car washes, nail bars or barber shops.

Glyn Rankin, who used to work for the Human Trafficking Centre, which became part of the NCA, said: 'It may be that people who are smuggled into the UK could be made to work in these shops until their debt is paid. We should be looking at them like we did at the nail bars and car washes.'

Last night, a spokesman for the NCA said: 'Money laundering is a key factor of serious and organised crime. The NCA and its partners in law enforcement, government and the private sector are committed to disrupting the flow of illicit cash and preventing organised criminals from benefiting from their crimes.'
Efforts to stabilise the global banking system intensified today as crisis-hit Credit Suisse's future hung in the balance.

The Swiss bank, which employs about 5,000 staff in London, is up for sale  with rival Swiss lender UBS looking to bid for all or part of the stricken bank.

US investment giant BlackRock has also reportedly drawn up plans for a takeover.

Experts say any deal would need to be clinched before financial markets open tomorrow to prevent further panic selling.

The fate of the bank matters because it is one of 30 global banks that are deemed to be 'systemically important'  or too big to fail.

Efforts to stabilise the global banking system intensified today as crisis-hit Credit Suisse's future hung in the balance

The only British banks in that league are HSBC, Barclays and Standard Chartered.

More than 400 billion was wiped off the value of global bank shares last week after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the US.

In his Budget last week, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said rules introduced since the 2008 financial crisis meant the UK banking system 'remains safe, sound and well-capitalised'.

He also highlighted last week's sale of Silicon Valley Bank's UK arm to HSBC, which had protected 'customers' deposits at no expense to the taxpayer'.

A potential rescue of Credit Suisse would cap years of turmoil at the 167-year-old bank. It has been dogged by a string of scandals and multi-billion dollar losses.

The bank took an 8 billion hit in 2021 following the collapse of specialist finance firm Greensill Capital.
Sharon Stone has revealed that she lost half her money in the recent banking crisis.

The Basic Instinct star broke down at a glittering Hollywood fundraising gala last week as she urged the audience to donate money to a cancer charity.

She told them: 'I just lost half my money to this banking thing and that doesn't mean that I'm not here.'

It is unclear which bank Ms Stone, 65  who has a reported 50 million fortune  lost her money with, but the gala she attended  a Women's Cancer Fund event  took place last Thursday, just days after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

These were the second and third largest bank failures in US history after the implosion of Washington Mutual Bank during the 2008 financial crisis.

Sharon Stone has revealed that she lost half her money in the recent banking crisis

The US Federal Reserve has stepped in to guarantee all deposits held at the two banks, which makes it is unlikely that Ms Stone, who lives in a 18million Beverly Hills home, will lose any money.

Imploring guests at last week's gala to make donations, she also said: 'I know that thing that you have to get on and figure out how to text the money is difficult.

'I'm a technical idiot, but I can write a f***ing cheque.'

She also opened up about her own health battles including a near-fatal stroke in 2001 and surgery to remove tumours in her breasts in the 1990s.

A spokesman for Ms Stone declined to comment.
Airplane safety is a hotly debated topic but a commercial pilot is out to set the record straight once and for all.

Speaking anonymously to DailyMail.com, the flight expert, who has been piloting for 10 years and currently works for one of the world's biggest carriers, touches on some of the most hotly debated safety subjects.

From the best kind of footwear to wear to which seat is safest, the frequent flyer offers his verdict on a spread of hot topics.

Glide your way down to learn how you can make your next plane journey less hazardous.

Wear shoes you can move quickly in

When picking flight footwear the pilot recommends selecting 'something with the worse case scenario in the back of your mind'

The majority of people will wear shoes that are comfortable but some people might want to dress up a little in heels or smart footwear. However, when picking your flight footwear I would recommend selecting something with the worse case scenario in the back of your mind. You want to be wearing a comfortable shoe you can move quickly in and walk distances in, in the event of an emergency. The floors of planes aren't always the cleanest so covered shoes are always better too.

The brace position could save your life

While there are rumors that the brace position is designed to kill passengers quicker, this is not true. As outlined by the America's Federal Aviation Administration, this position is designed to limit the impact on your body in case of a collision.

Knowing this as motorskill could save your life. It's good to practice it if you can.

Seats towards the back of the plane are the safest

When it comes to the safest spot to sit in the plane, I would opt for a seat in the last two thirds of the aircraft. This is because this area is the strongest part of the aircraft and therefore more likely to survive an impact.

ALWAYS fasten your belt during turbulence

During turbulence you should have your seatbelt fastened. Ideally you will have fastened your seatbelt before it started. I have seen videos of people not wearing securely fastened belts hitting their heads on the roofs of planes. The lights and air conditioning ports can prove very painful! If the turbulence is of the more severe variety, then it's best to tip your hot drinks on the ground and have all your loose items stored in the seat pocket in front. Anything loose can become a missile and cause major injuries.

Seats in the last two thirds of the aircraft are the safest, the pilot reveals

You should just have a glass of water with every alcoholic beverage, the flight pro says

Don't squeeze bags in the bin as they could pop out

Store anything loose inside one bag. If you have duty free items, such as bottles of alcohol, make sure they are placed securely under a bag in the overhead bin. It is surprisingly common for people to break bones from clunky bottles rolling out of lockers. Also, never try squeezing bags in spaces, as they will come flying out if the bin pops open and this sometimes happens on landing.

Have a glass of water with every alcoholic beverage

Due to the increased altitude while flying you have lower oxygen levels in your blood. This means you will find you do find yourself intoxicated much easier. You should just have a glass of water with every alcoholic beverage. Dehydration will also accelerate this process and lack of humidity on the plane causes dehydration.

Be careful of sharp edges in the toilet

Toilet areas on planes are pretty gross, with pee often seen on the floor. They are just really unhygienic places so always operate with caution! Even in mild turbulence it is best to avoiding going to the toilet altogether. The cubicles often have sharp corners, with the countertops and shelves jutting out. If the plane is moving up and down there is nothing to secure yourself and you could get a nasty bump.

The pilot says he has seen videos of people not wearing securely fastened belts hitting their heads on the roofs of planes during turbulence

'Never try squeezing bags in spaces, as they will come flying out if the bin pops open'

Avoid the galley area as much as possible

Another spot on the plane to steer clear of as much as possible is the galley. The cooking area is full of sharp objects, from knifes to bottle openers, and if these are not secured properly they become instant hazards. Boiled water for hot drinks and hot meals present themselves as another risk. In more severe cases of turbulence I have also seen wine bottles smash. It can get pretty messy.

Lightning is generally not an issue

While it might look scary seeing bolts of light flashing through the sky from your plane seat, 99.999999 per cent of the time lightning is a non-issue. The aircraft will simply dissipate the lighting through its skin. It generally only requires a minor inspection on the ground following the event. Recently though, some modern carbon fiber composites used to build aircraft have had major issues with lighting strikes. There have been cases where the lightning has caused the carbon to delaminate.
As Zendaya spends time with her boyfriend Tom Holland's family, MailOnline takes a look at the couples who spawned Hollywood's most famous duo.

He might be one of Hollywood's most famous actors but it appears that Tom's dad was winning awards long before he was.

The Kingston born star, 26, is currently showing his American girlfriend around his home town, with the actress seen enjoying a stroll with his mum and dad.

Tom's dad Dominic has enjoyed a long career in comedy and first began performing stand-up at The Comedy Cafe in London back in 1991.

But it was his BBC Four radio show in 2000, The Small World of Dominic Holland that landed him a Comic Heritage Award.

Loved-up: As Zendaya spends time with her boyfriend Tom Holland's family, MailOnline takes a look at the couple's who spawned Hollywood's most famous duo

Meet the parents: The Kingston born star, 26, is currently showing his American girlfriend around his home town, with the actress seen enjoying a stroll with his mum and dad

The comedic title is a reference to Dominic's height of 5 feet 6 inches, and it seems that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree with Tom himself often mocking his own height of 5 feet 8 inches as Zendya stands a few inches taller.

Dominic has since written a book about being overtaken by his son's success, titled Eclipsed: Turns Out that Spider-Man Does Have A Dad Afterall.

'How does a kid called Tom Holland, who never had a speaking part in a school play find himself playing Marvel's Peter Parker?' The bio quips.

Last year, the comedian revealed how his is on hand to keep his son grounded, he told The Daily Mail's Emily Prescott: 'I reckon 99 per cent of celebrities are completely interchangeable. I remind Tom of that a lot!'

Tom's parents Dominic and photographer Nikki met at the University of Leeds where they both studied, they went on to marry and have four sons Tom, Paddy, 18, and twins Harry and Sam, 24.

Harry has had small cameo's in his brother's films Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home, but unfortunately his scene in the latter was cut.

Speaking about his siblings a gruelling day spent filming the entire sequence upside down, Tom joked about their tiff on set on The Graham Norton Show.

'We cast Harry and he's on set,' Tom said. 'I go up to the stunt coordinator and I'm like, "Please just whatever you do with the stunt, make it so he's upside down."

Famous face: Tom's dad Dominic has enjoyed a long career in comedy and first began performing stand-up at The Comedy Cafe in London in 1991 (Father and son, above, in 2014)

Mother: Tom's parents Dominic and photographer Nikki met at the University of Leeds where they both studied, they went on to marry and have four sons

He joked that 'the icing on the cake' came when he saw the finished film, and Harry's scene was nowhere to be found.

'I don't think he actually knows this ... they've cut the scene,' he said. 'It's not in the film!'

Harry wrote and directed a film, Roses for Lily, in which his twin Sam and younger brother Paddy starred.

Paddy also went on to play the character of a 'Tough Child' in 2018's Holmes & Watson, according to IMBD.

Siblings: Tom's brother Harry had small cameo's in his Spider-Man films, but unfortunately his scene in the most recent movie was cut (His siblings Sam, Harry, Tom, and Paddy L-R)

California born Zendaya come shares a close bond with her mother Claire Stoermer and dad Kazembe Ajamu Coleman, so close in fact that her dad is also her manager.

Former teacher Claire and her husband Kazembe divorced when Zendaya was a child although the star has revealed that her parent's are 'still homies.'

Claire now owns her own jewellery company named, Kizzmet Jewelry, which is often worn by Zendaya herself.

She is the only child of both her parent's but has five older half-siblings, her oldest brother, Julien Coleman, AKA EZ keeps a low profile.

He shares three children with his wife Sonja, their eldest Zink, is actually only one year older than Zendaya and the pair share a close friendship.

Parents: California born Zendaya come shares a close bond with her mother Claire Stoermer and dad Kazembe Ajamu Coleman, so close in fact that her dad is also her manager

Mother: Former teacher Claire and her husband Kazembe divorced when Zendaya was a child although the star has revealed that her parent's are 'still homies'

Zendaya also has another brother Austin, older sister Kaylee, who has two teenage daughters, Imani and Isys, and another sister AnnaBella.

As a mixed-race actress she has made a point of openly discussing her heritage, saying that her position as a light-skinned black woman makes her Hollywoods acceptable version of a black girl.

In an interview with the Daily Mail in December 2021, Zendaya's mum Claire discussed her ancestry and revealed her great-grandfather was a heroic WW1 soldier from Dundee.

Zendaya knows about her Scottish heritage and is proud of it, said her mother Claire Stoermer, speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail by telephone from her home in California.

She hasnt been to Scotland yet, but I know shed love to visit some time.

Brood: She is the only child of both her parent's but has five older half-siblings

Close bond: Julien Coleman, AKA EZ keeps a low profile and shares three children with his wife Sonja, their eldest Zink, is only one year older than Zendaya (Zendaya pictured with Zink)

The actresss maternal great grandfather Douglas Whitelaw was born in 1896. Then, most of the jobs in the city were in jute manufacture  but it was women, rather than men who were employed to keep costs down.

It meant Dundee had very high male unemployment, and many men were, in effect, house husbands  known rather disparagingly as kettle bilers, or kettle boilers.

Its against this backdrop that Zendayas relatives decided to emigrate to Canada, as so many other Scots did at the time  first her great-great grandfather, Harry Tulloch Whitelaw, and then his son, her great-grandfather, Douglas, who made the long and arduous journey by ship, in 1911.

He was about 15 when he left Dundee and went to Canada, arriving first in Halifax, and then taking a train to Vancouver where his father had already set up a business as a certified public accountant, says Claire.

Yet that wasnt the last time Douglas would cross the Atlantic. The family has preserved a photograph of their beloved ancestor, a black and white photograph of Douglas, in a kilt and Glengarry hat as part of his military uniform for the Canadian Highlanders. Douglas, it seems, was a patriotic soldier who volunteered for service in WW1.

Huge family! Zendaya also has another brother Austin, older sister Kaylee, who has two teenage daughters, Imani and Isys, and another sister AnnaBella

Relatives: As a mixed-race actress she has made a point of openly discussing her heritage (Zendaya and her dad pictured)

He fought in the First World War for about a year, adds Claire. He was shot in the shoulder while in the trenches and came home [to Canada] with shrapnel wounds.

There, Douglas went on to marry Thelma Ray Kelly, a Canadian, and their baby girl  Zendayas future maternal grandmother  Daphne Carol, was born in Vancouver. While Douglas and his family settled permanently in Canada, his daughter Daphne  Claires mother  went to the US to study.

She met my father and thats why the family is here, says Claire.

Its this mix  Scottish and German ancestry on her mothers side and African American on her fathers  that have contributed to Zendayas elfin beauty.
Theirs is, as one fan pointed out, the love story we didn't know we needed.

Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan flew back from South Africa this week, as the newly crowned  and most unlikely  winners of Love Island.

Autograph and selfie-hunters (mostly from the TikTok generation) clamoured to meet the glossy young couple with perfect teeth at the airport. Flashbulbs popped.

They tell me that one of their first tasks  before being hurled into a media frenzy of TV appearances and influencer meetings  was to go shopping. Of course it was. Gucci? Prada?

They laugh. 'Matalan!' says Kai. 'And we only went because we'd run out of clean clothes. We have no plans to change.'

Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan flew back from South Africa this week, as the newly crowned  and most unlikely  winners of Love Island

To say that Kai and Sanam, both 24, are not your typical Love Island winners is to put it mildly. They are not even your typical contestants. In this, their first interview, they tell me that they were both shocked even to get selected for the show.

'We are quite boring, really,' says Kai, 'We never got involved in all the stuff you think Love Island people have to do  the rows and the controversy. Because of that, we never expected to win. We were shocked when it seemed people liked us.'

Does the crowning of Kai and Sanam signify a major change in direction for programmes like Love Island or (whisper it) even the death knell for that section of the TV industry?

There is no bling about them at all. Kai worked as a PE and science teacher in a tough comprehensive in Greater Manchester and played semi-professional rugby for Burnage before applying. Sanam was a social worker in Bedford. They have five degrees between them. They are categorically not airheads.

Our conversation is unusual. I have interviewed Love Island stars before, and frankly it can be torturous because they tend to lack life experience and live in a social media bubble.

These two don't. They are in that sweet spot where they have experience of gritty jobs, but did not do them for long enough to become jaded. They seem genuinely to want to change the world (and not in a beauty contestant sort of way).

They also share  even now  a sense of bewilderment at what goes on in shows like Love Island.

'During the final, all these people were coming up to fix our hair or touch up our make-up,' says Kai. 'That's not me! I'm just a little lad from Sale. I was thinking, 'You really don't need to do this, you know'.

We spend much of this interview talking about their jobs and how they have impacted on their lives (short answer: massively).

Kai worked as a PE and science teacher in a tough comprehensive in Greater Manchester and played semi-professional rugby for Burnage before applying. Sanam was a social worker in Bedford

Kai's school had a high percentage of kids from troubled backgrounds, including refugees.

'Even kids with PTSD who had fled war zones,' he says. 'When the war in Ukraine started, we had kids from there. I have been in situations where it's hard to even be sure what age the kids are, because there was no paperwork.'

He buzzes when talking about 'reaching' those kids. 'I went into teaching thinking it was about the subjects, then I realised that where I thought I could make the biggest difference was actually in the extra-curricular stuff.

'Some of my former colleagues have been in touch to say 'well done Kai'. Pupils too  but for them it's still 'Mr Fagan'.'

Sanam's masters was in media perceptions of social workers. 'I was worried about going on Love Island because of that,' she says. 'Would people realise we could be nice?'

Her professional experience involved liaising with children  often troubled ones  after they had been placed for adoption.

'I loved it. To build up that rapport  seeing them go from kids who didn't want to speak to me at all, to have them chatting away  was incredible. To their adoptive parents, too. It was part of my job to support the development of those relationships.'

So why, why, why would they jack in such worthwhile jobs to go on a reality show many feel is vacuous?

'The people I ultimately want to work with  kids  watch it,' says Kai. 'You can have whatever view you like of shows like Love Island, but believe me  and I've seen it in classrooms  the kids watch it, and the people on Love Island are their role models.

'One of the common conversations I'd have with these kids  who are all on TikTok and social media  is about who they are being influenced by.'

Sanam nods. Like Kai, she handed in her notice to go on the show, but only because there was no other option.

'But I am meeting my former manager on Thursday to chat about how I can continue to help them. And this will give me a platform that I just wouldn't have had before.'

'Obviously there are tasks on Love Island... like with the chocolate sauce,' says Kai, referring to the night Sanam licked chocolate sauce off his chest. He looks a little mortified

Hold on, are they saying they believed they could have more influence over the younger generation as reality TV stars than as teachers and social workers? They don't quite go that far  'I believe in the power of education,' says Kai  but the suggestion is there.

Kai asks directly: 'Would you be talking to us if we were a teacher or a social worker?'.

Whatever, Kai hopes their love story will be a force for good. 'A lot of the kids I have taught come from broken homes, and I know it was the same with Sanam. A lot of them will never see a positive relationship. If they can look at us and go 'yeah, it is achievable' then that's a positive thing.'

Drawing on his own role models, Kai adds: 'Marcus [Rashford] has been an inspiration since he burst onto the scene, everything he has done to [alleviate] child poverty through the free school meal schemes is amazing.

'I can see how helpful and impactful his work has been and it is honestly an inspiration to me and everyone else in the country.'

Maybe we have to think again about what 'influencer' actually means, because these two say they are going to use their 50,000 prize money not to buy designer gear but to invest in ventures that help disadvantaged children.

What will happen, though, when they get offers for modelling or to launch fashion labels, or ranges of fake eyelashes (which is de rigueur for Love Island success stories). They don't quite say they will turn this down.

'Obviously, if there is something we would use anyway, or a product we feel positive about, then yes, but we are going to be careful about it. We won't sell out. We won't become what we are not.'

Which brings me to the heart of the matter: can we really believe these two strangers met, dated in front of over three million viewers and genuinely fell in love?

'We are in love,' says Kai. Sanam actually said it first  publicly on the show, but laughs about how she didn't mean to. We had said [to each other] that we were going to keep everything private, but it just slipped out,' she says.

Sanam says she was immediately bowled over by Kai; and vice versa. 'We just had these proper conversations,' says Kai. 'We had similar backgrounds, jobs, values, morals. I just thought she was amazing..'

As is the way of Love Island, before long they were sharing a bed. Which is not remotely normal. They both laugh.

'Yeah, but you do things all the wrong way round on Love Island. We've never even been on a proper date yet, out in the real world, but we have had all this intense pillow talk, because you do.'

People will be sceptical, obviously. The 'kerching' factor is always higher when couples come out of Love Island, because frankly, a happy couple sells. These two do seem genuinely smitten, though.

'And my mum loves him,' says Sanam. 'She'd never said nice things about any of my previous boyfriends. Mind you, I'd never wanted to introduce them to her.'

Are they still, um, sharing a bed? They both look coy but confess that they are. 'When you start off sharing a bed with someone you don't not want to share a bed with them,' says Sanam. Can we talk sex then? They'd rather not. Have we found a Love Island couple who are actually quite private, too?

'Obviously there are tasks on Love Island... like with the chocolate sauce,' says Kai, referring to the night Sanam licked chocolate sauce off his chest. He looks a little mortified.

'But we said quite early on that we wanted to keep that side private, because it is private.'

Are they thinking of marriage? A family? I expect them to tell me to mind my own business but they nod enthusiastically.

'We are both living with our parents and in different parts of the country,' says Sanam, referring to the fact that Kai lives with his mum in Greater Manchester, while she lives with hers in Bedford.

'But we have looked at the map to see where we could live together that is exactly between the two.'

How many children are we talking then? 'I think two,' says Sanam. Kai nods.

Let's watch this space  and it will be interesting to see how Kai and Sanam's victory impacts on the future of Love Island. There were murmurings on social media about how this series was less explosive  and therefore less gripping. Can you be too boring?

Not according to these two. 'I guess people voted for us because we were real,' says Kai. 'We plan to stay that way.'
Groom Dan Hunjas was edited out of boys' night on Married at First Sight after he allegedly had a 'heated row' with Rupert Budgen over the infamous butt dial scandal.

However, Rupert, 27, has denied these claims, but has also admitted that he doesn't remember much from the drunken night.

Speaking to Yahoo Lifestyle, the groom said producers asked him to bring up the butt dial scandal on boys' night with Dan, but they peacefully made amends.

'I just told him the truth and he accepted it, we shook hands and there was definitely no bad blood,' he said.

'I've seen online that we got into a heated argument, but it definitely was not like that at all.'

Groom Dan Hunjas (pictured) was edited out of boys' night on Married At First Sight after he allegedly had a 'heated row' with Rupert Budgen over the infamous butt dial scandal

The groom added that people were accusing him of 'being a dirty dog' for ratting on Dan, but he believes he was in the right and that the groom should've just said sorry for what he said about his wife Sandy.

Two weeks ago on the show, Rupert's wife Evelyn Ellis claimed that he had accidentally rang her while on a night out with the other grooms.

On this call, she said she heard Dan 'talking s**t about his wife Sandy Jawanda, so she told her fellow wife all the details which led to a massive falling out with the couple.

Rupert (pictured) has denied these claims, but has also admitted that he doesn't remember much from the drunken night. He said they didn't have a fight and shook hands and made amends

However, leaked texts obtained by Daily Mail Australia appear to prove that the 'butt dial' storyline was staged, and it's more likely that Rupert simply relayed to his wife the things that Dan said that night about Sandy.

Rupert has now denied that the butt dial never happened, but did admit that he spoke to his wife about some of the things his fellow grooms said about their partners.

'A lot of people are hanging s**t on me for that, but if you're not talking smack with your wife or partner about everything then that must be the most boring relationship ever,' he said.

Evelyn claimed to hear Dan 'talking s**t about his wife Sandy Jawanda (pictured) on the butt dial

Rupert (right) has now denied that the butt dial never happened, but did admit that he spoke to his wife about some of the things his fellow grooms said about their partners

It comes after Daily Mail Australia revealed that producers acted swiftly to remove Dan Hunjas (pictured) from Tuesday night's episode, which saw past grooms and brides return to the show

It comes after Daily Mail Australia revealed that producers acted swiftly to remove Dan from Tuesday night's episode, which saw past grooms and brides return to the show.

According to a network source, Hunjas' scenes were heavily reduced to 'make it look like he wasn't there' in the hopes 'he would be completely forgotten about'.

The spy claimed Dan was a big part of the boys' night and got into a heated scuffle with Rupert over the butt-dial saga, but it was all left on the cutting room floor.
Eva Longoria admitted she was a rather 'tough' mother while also explaining her reasoning to not run for political office during a candid interview on Who's Talking To Chris Wallace?

The Desperate Housewives actress, 48, sat down to answer varying questions asked by the journalist in an episode that aired on Friday on HBO MAX, and will also premiere Sunday, March 19 on CNN.

The star, who recently celebrated her birthday earlier this week on Wednesday, opened up about about entering motherhood later in life. The beauty welcomed her first child, a son named Santiago, now 4, with husband Jose Baston in 2018.

'I was a late mom,' she expressed, adding, 'it changes your life completely.' Eva then revealed that having a child has 'simplified' her life 'because I used to be the center of my universe.'

'And so making all the decisions based on me and my needs, and my wants, was harder than now. He's the center of my universe. And so, it's very easy to say no to a lot more things.'

Opening up: Eva Longoria, 48, admitted she was a rather 'tough' mother while also explaining her reasoning to not run for political office during a candid interview on Who's Talking To Chris Wallace?

Candid: The Desperate Housewives actress sat down to answer varying questions asked by the journalist in an episode that aired on Friday on HBO MAX, and will also premiere Sunday, March 19 on CNN

When describing what kind of the mother she is to her son, the actress stated, 'I'm the discipline. I'm very tough. I'm a disciplinarian. I'm very loving and very supportive.'

'We have structure, bedtimes, bedtime, you know, no candy is no candy. If there's candy, it's one. You know, if he wants to play a game on the iPad, there's a time limit,' and added, 'he picks up his plate from every time he eats, he has to take it to the sink. He prepares his meals with me.'

'He picks up all. He has to do cleanup. We call it cleanup,' and then jokingly expressed, 'He hates it. He has to clean up.'

However, she does, 'it with a very, very big loving hand. But I have a lot of structure. Yeah, I'm a tough mom.'

The topic was soon shifted to politics, with Wallace bringing up how she had taken part in the Democratic Convention for a number of years, including in 2016 and 2020. When asked if she would give any thought into running for political office herself, the actress admitted, 'No, no. And especially in this moment of politics. It's so divisive.'

'And I don't see how there's faith in politicians in this moment. I can see where voter apathy comes in...'

The former soap opera star then expressed that she believed, 'the most powerful part of democracy is the citizen. We have way more power as a citizen than as a politician.'

Chris then 'pushed back' and told Eva that she has the traits of a politician, saying that she was not only 'smart' and 'thoughtful' but also 'reflective' while also representing, 'a particular segment of the of the population.'

Fun times: Eva seen with her son, Santiago, on a trip to Disneyland together in Paris in October 2022

'Very tough': When describing what kind of the mother she is to her son, the actress stated, 'I'm the discipline. I'm very tough. I'm a disciplinarian. I'm very loving and very supportive'

Helping around the house: 'He picks up all. He has to do cleanup. We call it cleanup,' and then jokingly expressed, 'He hates it. He has to clean up,' she explained of her four-year-old son, Santiago, whom she welcomed to the world in 2018

Division: When asked if she would give any thought into running for political office herself, the actress admitted, 'No, no. And especially in this moment of politics. It's so divisive'

'I am an activist and an advocate for many things and many causes but I don't speak for Latinos. And I think that's what politicians get wrong, is they want to speak for people,' Eva responded to Chris.

'And I think that's what politicians get wrong, is they want to speak for people. 'I speak for women, I speak for Latinos.' I don't do any of those things,' the actress further added. 'I encourage the communities to speak up for themselves.'

'And what I try to encourage politicians to do is not knock on our door every four years with a taco truck and try to get our vote. Don't say our vote matters when our lives don't matter. You have to engage in these communities. Every day, not every four years.'

Longoria recently discussed her same opinion about the possibility of running for political office during an interview with CBS Sunday Mornings earlier this month.

When asked if she had a future in politics due to her strong 'platform' and also 'education,' which includes both a Bachelors degree and also a Masters in Chicano Studies, the star explained, 'Here's the thing: The reality is you don't have to be a politician to be political.'

'And I think that's the biggest myth. People go, 'You should run for office so you can make a difference.' I am making a difference.'

In 2014, the beauty co-founded the Latino Victory Project, which is 'dedicated to building political power in the Latino community so that the voices and values of Latinos are reflected at every level of government and in the policies that drive our country forward,' according to the official website.

Along with having involvement to make positive changes, Eva is also known for her performances on the screen, which begun when she starred in popular soap operas, such as General Hospital and Young And The Restless.

Power of the citizens: The former soap opera star then expressed that she believed, 'the most powerful part of democracy is the citizen. We have way more power as a citizen than as a politician'

Own advice: 'And what I try to encourage politicians to do is not knock on our door every four years with a taco truck and try to get our vote...' she explained to Chris Wallace

Same view: Longoria recently discussed her same opinion about the possibility of running for political office during an interview with CBS Sunday Mornings earlier this month

Already 'making a difference': 'And I think that's the biggest myth. People go, 'You should run for office so you can make a difference.' I am making a difference,' she stated during the CBS Sunday Mornings interview earlier this month

She portrayed the character of Isabella Brana in the latter series from 2001 until 2003, and revealed to Wallace that she was working a second job at the time of filming as a headhunter for a temp agency.

'I was so good at it that when I got Young And The Restless it didn't pay enough for me to live off being an actor. So I continued being a headhunter and Young And The Restless.'

She then revealed that she, 'would hide the fact that I was on Young And The Restless to my clients, because they, you know, they didn't want like a dumb actress handling their accounts.'

Later in 2004, she was cast in the hit series, Desperate Housewives, and explained that the recognition she had received from being on the show was both 'surreal and fun.'

The beauty has been preparing for the release of her upcoming project titled, Searching For Mexico, which will premiere on CNN later this month on March 26. The show is based on Stanley Tucci's successful series called, Searching For Italy.

She stated to Wallace that Mexico was more than 'tacos and tequila' and explained, 'every episode, every state, every city, every pueblo we went to was a story that blew me away, blew me away. There wasn't a day I didn't cry about somebody's story.'

Eva recently made an appearance at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, where she discussed her upcoming drama, which she directed, titled Flamin' Hot, which follows the real-life story of Frito Lay janitor, Richard Montanez, who founded Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

The actress and filmmaker stated during her Chris Wallace interview that she wanted to, 'bring this story to the big screen to a wider audience,' and will premiere on Hulu later this year in June 9.
Paris Hilton shared a few throwback images with her 23 million Instagram followers on Friday to promote her new book Paris: The Memoir.

The 42-year-old socialite  who tied the knot with Carter Reum in 2021  posted photos from her childhood up to her wedding to symbolize her evolution and life story that she unveils candidly in her new memoir.

Her newest post on Instagram kicked off with a black and white image of herself in grade school, followed by shots of her over the years, including one in 2004 when she released her first book, Confessions of an Heiress.

It included a photo of herself with her mother  the 63-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kathy Hilton  father Richard Hilton, 67, and her sister Nicky Hilton during her childhood years.

The media personality also shared snaps from filming The Simple Life with her close friend, 41-year-old fellow socialite Nicole Richie.

Getting candid: Paris Hilton, 42, shared throwback photos to promote her new book Paris: The Memoir on Friday. The author included an image of herself from 2004, holding her book Confessions of an Heiress

Old school: One photo appeared to be a school portrait from when she was just a child

Her memoir: The author announced that her memoir is currently available for sale. It was released earlier this week on March 14

The New York native also shared a snap from her lavish wedding in Bel-Air when she danced with Carter at their reception.

She posted a more recent snap of herself spreading awareness on institutional child abuse after she claimed she was abused at a Utah boarding school for troubled teens in the 1990s.

In a lengthy caption, the entrepreneur shared that her memoir will detail some of her most personal and private stories she has never revealed publicly.

'Everyone knows 2000s Paris, from The Simple Life to the clubs in New York.

'My life appeared to be a fairytale, but there is so much more to it that no one knows, not even my closest friends. It was extremely cathartic to finally open up and tell the whole storythe glam, the struggles, and everything in between.

'Get to know the uncut version of me in my book Paris: The Memoir, available NOW. #ThisIsWhoIAm' wrote Paris.

Earlier this week, Paris brought her fashion A game on a promotional tour throughout the big apple, where she was joined by little sister Nicky Hilton, 39, and her husband.

In an interview published on Tuesday, Paris spoke to Rolling Stone's Alex Morris and revealed that more music is on the way with the help of some famous friends.

This will be Hilton's second album after her self-titled debut in 2006, which spawned three singles: Stars Are Blind, Turn It Up, and Nothing in This World.

Family: Paris included a photo of herself with her mother  the 63-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kathy Hilton  her father, Richard Hilton, 67, and sister Nicky Hilton, during her childhood years

Teenage years: The beauty wrote in her caption, 'Everyone knows 2000s Paris, from The Simple Life to the clubs in New York. My life appeared to be a fairytale, but there is so much more to it that no one knows, not even my closest friends'

Wild child: In another shot, Hilton was seen partying in a short pink bustier-style dress

Blast from the past: The media personality also shared snaps from her time spent partying with her close friend - 41-year-old fellow socialite Nicole Richie

Spreading awareness: Hilton also shared a more recent snap of herself spreading awareness on institutional child abuse after she claimed she was abused at a Utah boarding school for troubled teens in the 1990s

Baby love! Paris revealed via Instagram that she had welcomed her first child. She told People that her son was born via surrogate

In January, Paris shocked fans when the reality star revealed that she had become a first-time mother.

Hilton told People that she and her husband had welcomed a son via surrogate.

'It's always been my dream to be a mother and I'm so happy that Carter and I found each other,' she told the publication.

'We are so excited to start our family together and our hearts are exploding with love for our baby boy,' said Paris.
American model Emily Ratajkowski misinterpreted a fan's question during her latest Q&A on Instagram on Friday.

As posted by Celeb Spell Check, who re-shared the awkward mishap, Emily missed a minor detail in one follower's question.

'Why did you decide to become a model?' a fan asked.

However, Emily didn't appear to understand what was asked of her.

American model Emily Ratajkowski has been caught out after she misinterpreted a fan's question during her latest Q&A on Instagram on Friday

'13,' she replied with a throwback photo of herself in a pink top.

It's believed the model thought she was asked: 'When did you decide to become a model?'

Fans quickly picked up on her error, and some even mocked the star's reaction.

'Describe your favourite dish... I like mugs because you can hold then,' one fan wrote, seemingly referencing Demi Lovato's infamous gaffe during a live interview.

Fans quickly picked up on her error, and some even mocked the star's reaction

'Describe your perfect date... April 25,' a second fan cheekily added.

'Why did I also read it as 'when' and didn't get it straight away,' said a third follower.

This comes after Emily stepped out in an elevated casual Friday outfit in New York.

The model, who has been spending time with her parents, flashed a glimpse at her toned tummy in a short black suede jacket and low rise khaki pants as she arrived at Sony studios.

She was there to tape the latest episode of her podcast, The High Low with Em Rata.

Em is one of America's top models who appeared in Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines video clip. She now has her own swimwear line.
Olympian Emily Seabohm has revealed that she kept her engagement to her reality star beau Ryan Gallagher a secret for four months.

The happy couple, who met on The Challenge Australia last August, announced their engagement publicly earlier this month.

However, Emily, 30, has now revealed that her fiance Ryan, 34, actually popped the question in December, just four months after they met.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Emily said they managed to keep their relationship private for a long time and only went public a day before they got engaged on December 5, 2022.

'We just wanted to live in our own little bubble, we just wanted that for us and our families,' she told the publication.

Olympian Emily Seabohm (pictured) has revealed that she kept her engagement to her reality star beau Ryan Gallagher a secret for four months

Ryan, who failed to find love on Married At First Sight in 2018, knew Emily was his future as he got down on one knee following their four month whirlwind romance.

He proposed to her next to a dam on his farm near Goulburn, NSW, with a trilogy diamond ring from Goulburn's Zantis Jewellers.

The Olympic swimmer said she previously hinted that this was her dream location to get engaged.

The happy couple, who met on The Challenge Australia last August, announced their engagement publicly earlier this month

'He told me that he'd asked my dad, so I definitely knew it was coming, on the day, he was really cute and nervous about it, even though I knew it was happening,' she said.

The couple plan on having a 'laid back' wedding in Emily's home state, Queensland, in 2024.

Ryan, whose MAFS relationship with Davina Rankin on season five made headlines after she kissed a fellow co-star, said he instantly knew that Emily was 'the one'.

'When you know you know,' Ryan told Woman's Day while speaking about the proposal.

Emily, 30 has now revealed that her fiance Ryan actually popped the question in December, just four months after they met

Ryan, who failed to find love on Married At First Sight in 2018, but knew Emily was his future as he got down on one knee following their four month whirlwind romance

'I did get nervous though. The box was making a bit of a bulge in my pocket. So either she knew I was proposing or she just though I was happy to see her!'

When the couple met on The Challenge, Emily was already in a relationship.

However, she said there were instant sparks between her and Ryan, so she called it off with her then-boyfriend.

'Obviously it wasn't a nice call to make, but I told him what was going on and that there was something there with Ryan and I didn't see the point in wasting any more time,' she said.

She debuted this mystery man on Instagram in May 2021 following her split from Brisbane radio host David 'Luttsy' Lutteral in early 2021.

Before dating Luttsy, Emily was in a long-term relationship with fellow Olympic swimmer Mitch Larkin.

The high-profile couple dated for nearly three years before their acrimonious split in 2018.

Emily revealed heartbreaking details about their split on an episode of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! during a chat, which ironically was with fellow camper Ryan's TV bride Rankin.

Emily claimed she 'worked out he was cheating' with 'another swimmer', something Mitch has always vehemently denied.

When the couple met on The Challenge, Emily was already in a relationship, so she called it off with her then-boyfriend

Ryan, whose MAFS relationship with Davina Rankin (pictured) on season five made headlines after she kissed a fellow co-star, said he instantly knew that Emily was 'The One'

The pair's two-year romance ended back in 2018 amid unproven allegations Mitch had been unfaithful - something he has always strongly denied.

In 2018, he told The Courier Mail: 'I did not cheat. I absolutely did not cheat. Breaking up with her was one of the hardest things I could do, because I adored her.'

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Emily said that despite her previous high-profile relationships and their fallouts, she feels comfortable to be herself in public with Ryan.

'I think that's one thing that I have probably never had before, where I can have all these versions of myself and the person fully accepts all of that.'
The BBC has injected a strong anti-colonial message into its adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations, it has been revealed.

Written by Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight, the beloved novel has been given a new twist, referencing the evils of Empire which were not present in the original Victorian book.

In one scene, criminal Magwitch, one of the central characters, describes the British Empire as having been 'built on the lies of privileged white men', The Telegraph reports.

Asked by the newspaper about whether he is concerned his version of the beloved tale may upset traditionalists, Knight said: 'It's everyone's right to react in the way they want to react.

'But I would say that the book exists, it is still there. This is not an attempt to say the book is wrong or this is better.'

The new show stars multiple-Oscar-winning British actress Olivia Colman as the terrifying Miss Havisham and Ffion Whitehead as orphan Pip

Written by Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight, the beloved novel has been given a new twist

Knight also reportedly told his cast that the adaptation would aim to remove the stiffness long associated with Victorian Britain.

Still set in the 19th century, the 1861 novel has been adapted into a slightly more modern drama which creators hope will attract new audiences to it.

The show's lead actor, Ffion Whitehead, expressed his hope that the BBC's dramatisation will make the canonical novel 'more accessible for younger people'.

The actor, who is no stranger to period dramas having previously starring in Dunkirk, plays orphan Pip, the novel's protagonist.

He described Empire as 'a horrible thing' in an interview while promoting the show, challenging anyone who disagreed.

'The Empire was a horrible thing which involved a lot of British people going out and enslaving, pillaging and destroying a lot of cultures around the world.

'It was powered by greed. If there's anyone walking around believing that the Empire was a great thing they are kidding themselves.'

The new show stars multiple-Oscar-winning British actress Olivia Colman as the terrifying Miss Havisham.

Still set in the 19th century, the 1861 novel has been adapted into a six-part costume drama which creators hope will attract new audiences to it

Colman and Whitehead star opposite Line Of Duty actress Shalom Brune-Franklin (right), 28, in the role of Estella. The drama will be arriving on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from next Sunday

Whitehead, 25, plays orphan Pip opposite Line Of Duty actress Shalom Brune-Franklin, 28, in the role of his love interest Estella.

They star together alongside Top Boy actor Ashley Thomas, 38, as lawyer Jaggers, and The Split star Rudi Dharmalingam, 41, who plays Jagger's assistant Wemmick.

This Is England's Johnny Harris, 49, portrays escaped convict Magwitch.

Adult Material actress Hayley Squires, 34, plays Pip's sister Sara Gargery as Killing Eve actor Owen McDonnell, 49, takes on the role of her husband Joe Gargery.

The highly-anticipated six-part drama will be arriving on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from next Sunday.
It's set to return to the small screen in the form of a brand new Amazon Freevee reboot later this year.

And while revamped soap Neighbours is just days away from the beginning of filming, the cast have admitted that they still have 'no idea' what they'll be filming - or who with.

Speaking this week, long-standing cast member Alan Fletcher, teased that while they know the first storyline will be 'huge', it's even being kept secret from him and his fellow actors.

'Its a big story and will involve a lot of people but we dont know anything about it,' admitted the star, who plays Karl Kennedy on the show.

While the final episode of the Channel 5 show brought in former stars such as Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue and Margot Robbie - no one has a clue who will be back for the Amazon rebirth either.

In the dark! The Neighbours cast have admitted that they STILL have 'no idea' which iconic characters are set to return to the rebooted Amazon series

Return? While the final episode of the Channel 5 show brought in former stars such as Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan- no one has a clue who will be back for the Amazon rebirth either

Alan is among the confirmed cast members for the show, with Annie Jones and Ryan Moloney also guaranteed to come back, amongst others.

But while talking this week to The Sun, the actors admitted that they aren't too sure what they're coming back to do.

The cast are still eagerly awaiting their first script in anticipation, all having no idea what's in store for their characters.

Annie, who portrays Jane Harris, shared of the storyline: ' Who knows? Maybe Jane will be heartbroken, maybe Im only in the show for a couple of weeks and I go off with Mike. Weve seen a script cover, that is it.'

While Alan ensured that writers have said the comeback will be 'huge', but that it's completely 'under wraps'.

'Its a big story and will involve a lot of people but we dont know anything about it. There will come a day when your inbox goes ping and it will say first script. Everyone will read it and the WhatsApp group will go mad,' he shared.

Adding that it won't be until the cast are in a meeting together that they'll know who is back, Ryan explaiend: 'Were going to have a big Zoom meeting, and in that meeting were going to see peoples faces pop up on the screen, and were going to be like "Oh my god, that person is back." We dont know who theyve got. Nobody knows. Its all very exciting.'

Fans will undoubtably be looking forward to seeing who returns too after the finale welcomed back some old - and now very famous - faces.

Back again: The show was confirmed for an Amazon reboot back in November, but only a handful castmembers were confirmed to return - and they still don't know their storlylines (Alan Fletcher, Stefan Dennis, Jackie Woodburne, Ryan Moloney, April Rose Pengilly)

A-list: Guy Pearce (left) and Margot Robbie (right) were amongt the stars to return to the show for it's 2022 finale - with fans, and cast questioning if it was a one time thing

The soap is known for giving Australian actors a step-up into acting, with a slew of A-list stars owing their beginnings to the soap.

And paying homage to that, stars such as Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Margot Robbie and Guy Pearce all returned in style for the show's Channel 5 finale.

But since it's been renewed, fans will be eager to see whether tight-lipped bosses have managed to secure the big names back for any more cameos.

The original series was cancelled in March 2022 after 37 years, only for its revival to be announced in November.

As the announcement was made, it was also revealed that only four cast-members had been told ahead of the announcement - Alan, Ryan, Stefan Dennis and Jackie Woodburne.

But this week, Annie was confirmed to be reprising her role alongside Tim Kano, Georgie Stone and Rebekah Elmaloglou.

The series will air for free on Amazon Freevee in the UK and US and will include streaming rights to thousands of episodes from previous seasons. The series will stream on Prime Video in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
Pierce Brosnan and his wife of 22-years Keely Shaye Smith appeared smitten as ever on Friday night as they headed out to dinner in London.

The James Bond actor, 69, was snapped arriving to upmarket seafood restaurant Scott's in Mayfair while clutching onto the hand of his journalist partner, 59.

Sporting a charcoal grey blazer while battling the British cold with a matching scarf, the screen star kept his look classic but smart.

While Keely looked radiant as she wrapped up warm in a longline black coat, elevating her height with a pair of closed-toe heeled boots.

But the pair's evening was slightly more eventful than perhaps expected, as protesters arrived to the restaurant during their dinner to stage a sit-in.

Date night! Pierce Brosnan looked smart on Friday as he arrived to London restaurant Scott's hand-in-hand with his glowing wife Keely Shaye Smith for dinner

Spotted before heading into the central hotspot, Keely carried a green scarf while keeping a crossbody bag over her torso.

Her brunette locks were left to fall freely as the beauty flashed a smile to the camera while laughing with her husband.

Supportive Pierce even ensured to reach back for his wife's hand as they lost grip while heading in.

During the dinner, protest group Animal Rebellion entered the restaurant to stage a sit-in as they made a stand against the seafood industry.

The lavish location, known for it's oysters and champagne, quickly turned to chaos as the group began to occupy tables and chairs in the unexpected sit-in.

Prompting security and police to react, individuals were removed out of the premises as some were lifted on their chairs by officials, while others carried by their arms and legs.

Posting about the movement via social media, Animal Rebellion wrote: 'Dine another day. Animal Rebellion occupy Scotts in London whilst Pierce Brosnan enjoys a luxury seafood dining experience.

'The seafood industry is devastating our oceans and climate, as well as directly causing the deaths of billions of animals every year We have the solution - a PLANT BASED FUTURE!'

Sweet: The couple, who have been married for 22 years, appeared smitten as ever for the dinner out

Winter chill: Keeping warm, Keely wrapped up in a longline black coat, elevating her height with a pair of closed-toe heeled boots

Interrupted: But during the dinner, protest group Animal Rebellion entered the restaurant to stage a sit-in as they made a stand against the seafood industry

Pierce could be seen in the group's social media post, where they had filmed the restaurant and it's guests.

Appearing to remain calm and collected, the Irish actor didn't seem to react and could be seen casually glancing over towards the camera while staff chatted to him.

The date night, which collided with the protest, could have been to celebrate the completion of filming for Pierce's latest project The Four Letter Of Love.

He had been shooting his movie, based on the best-selling novel by Niall Williams, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland with the production drawing crowds of locals.

Sharing a snap with Keely, in the filming location, to Instagram this week, the star confirmed: 'And thats a wrap! Mullaghderg Beach along the wild Atlantic way.

'The luck of the Irish was with us as the sun shone upon us during the filming of The Four Letters of Love.'

No drama: Appearing to remain calm and collected, the Irish actor didn't seem to react and could be seen casually glancing over towards the camera while staff chatted to him
Connie Britton opted for stylish comfort in a fuzzy coat as she stepped out for a brief outing in New York City on Friday.

The Friday Night Lights alumna, 56, recently celebrated her appearance on the cover of DuJour Magazine last month in February.

The Golden Globe-nominated actress was seen strolling along a busy sidewalk while sporting a printed T-shirt along with a pair of black pants that contained a tropical pattern of green leaves and birds on the soft material.

She layered the ensemble with a cream-colored, fuzzy jacket that fell down past her knees to offer a bit of warmth during the overcast day.

Keeping it casual: Connie Britton, 56, opted for stylish comfort in a fuzzy coat as she stepped out for a brief outing in New York City on Friday

For a fashionable flare, Connie tucked the hem of her pants in a pair of black and pink leather boots that offered an additional pop of color.

The star slung a dark blue handbag with a brown leather border over the crook of her right arm to hold a few items she needed throughout her outing.

Her long locks were parted in the middle, and effortlessly flowed down past her shoulders in natural, light waves.

Britton opted for simple accessories, such as donning a pair of small, silver-hooped earrings and an assortment of rings on her hand.

She also wore a gold-chained necklace with a circular pendant which was partially concealed by her coat along with pair of stylish glasses to complete her overall look.

The actress has had a busy schedule lately, and she recently starred in the Apple TV+ series Dear Edward, which premiered on the streaming site earlier last month in February.

The show is based on a novel of the same name written by Ann Napolitano, and also features Orange Is The New Black star Taylor Schilling, Audrey Cosa, and Colin O'Brien.

According to the IMDb synopsis, 'A 12-year-old boy becomes the lone survivor of a plane crash,' and, 'As he and others affected by the tragedy try to make sense of what happened, unexpected friendships, romances, and communities are formed.'

Stylish flare: The Golden Globe-nominated actress was seen strolling along a busy sidewalk while sporting a printed T-shirt along with a pair of black pants that contained a tropical pattern of green leaves and birds on the material

Hard-working: The Friday Night Lights alumna recently celebrated her appearance on the cover of DuJour Magazine last month in February

Last month, Connie stopped by The Late Late Show With Stephen Colbert to chat about the project and explained her decision to take on a leading role in the series.

'The show is really about the community that comes together of all the survivors of all the people who died on the plane, and it's really about grief and people dealing with grief, and coming together to support each other.'

The Spin City actress further expressed, 'It's about resilience and finding life after having a terrible tragedy and loss, because grief is a part of life for everybody.'

She later added that the series is 'uplifting and the characters are great. I got to play this really fun character. So I actually think it's going to give people a sense of feeling, 'Oh, I'm not alone in this.' And there is life beyond, and it's the power of the human spirit.'

Connie, who notably starred in the first season of HBO Max's hit show, The White Lotus, recently hinted whether she could have a possible return on the third season.

The Nashville star had portrayed the character of Nicole Massbacher, the CFO of a successful search engine company.

When talking to Deadline last year in July, Britton had informed the outlet that creator Mike White, 'wanted me to be in the second season, and there was an idea that I loved for the character.'

'Our intention is to do it in the third season. A piece of casting didn't work in the second season and we're hoping to that in the third season,' the beauty added.

Themes: The Spin City actress further expressed, 'It's about resilience and finding life after having a terrible tragedy and loss, because grief is a part of life for everybody,' when opening up about latest series, Dear Edward; seen in January in Los Angeles

Staying quiet: On The Late Late Show With Stephen Colbert last month, Connie remained mum on whether she would appear in the third season of The White Lotus

Britton expressed that she would, 'love to see a spinoff on every character in that show.'

When talking to Stephen Colbert last month, the talk show host also asked the actress if the rumors that she would possibly reprise her role in the upcoming third season were true. However, Connie remained mum and didn't reveal details of season three.

The star has also been cast in the upcoming drama Winner, which is based on the real-life whistleblower Reality Winner.

Connie portrays Winner's mother, and other celebrities in the stars of the project include CODA lead Emilia Jones, Kathryn Newton, Danny Ramirez and Zach Galifianakis. A set premiere date has yet to be announced.
Naomi Watts and Jodie Turner-Smith both rocked chic looks to the 2023 Gem Awards in New York City on Friday.

Watts, 54  who recently looked radiant in a white Givenchy gown to the Vanity Fair Oscars bash  donned a sultry black dress that hugged her figure and showed off her sculpted arms.

She wore her trademark blond hair in a bob and sported a dark crimson lip, giving her radiant complexion a pop of dramatic color.

Turner-Smith, 36, turned heads in her gorgeous suit of wavy black and white stripes, accentuating her statuesque frame to perfection.

Jodie's lustrous hair flowed downward in an edgy style as she opted for dark purple lips and a designer black clutch.

Gorgeous: Naomi Watts (left, 54) and Jodie Turner-Smith (right, 36) both rocked chic looks to the 2023 Gem Awards in New York City on Friday. The A-list event honors the major players in fine jewelry

Watts sparkled in jewelry from Anita Ko while Turner-Smith adorned each ear with elaborate diamond creations and flaunted a blinding ruby on her hand.

The GEM Awards is the Oscars of the jewelry industry, and honors designers and executives who have furthered 'the visibility of fine jewelry and watches.'

The A-list soiree was held at Cipriani 42nd Street, bringing out the biggest names in fine jewelry.

Also making a splash at the ceremony was Brad Pitt's girlfriend Ines de Ramon, who put on a busty display in a plunging black dress. The look featured a high slit to showcase her long legs

Turner-Smith is set to star in the upcoming Star Wars series The Acolyte, which is slated for a 2024 release on Disney+.

According to the mysterious show's official premise, The Acolyte takes place 'approximately 100 years before the prequel film Star Wars: Episode I  The Phantom Menace.'

The central story will reportedly revolve around 'a former Padawan [who] reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister they ever anticipated.'

Watts will soon be seen playing one of the mid-century's most glamorous women, as she is taking on the part of fashion icon Babe Paley in the second season of Feud.

Based on Laurence Leamer's best-selling book, Capotes Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era, the second season will follow the famed implosion of New York high society when Truman Capote betrayed the Manhattan elite by including them in his fiction.

Megawatt style: Sparking in Anita Ko jewelry, the King Kong star donned a sultry black dress that hugged her figure and showed off her sculpted arms

Turning heads: Turner-Smith's suit of wavy black and white stripes accentuated her statuesque frame to perfection

Dazzling: The stunning model-actress adorned each ear with elaborate diamond creations and flaunted a blinding ruby on her hand

Elegant: Naomi wore her trademark blond hair in a bob and sported a dark crimson lip, giving her radiant complexion a pop of dramatic color. Jodie's lustrous hair flowed downward in an edgy style as she opted for dark purple lips and a designer black clutch

Having a blast: Naomi grinned ear-to-ear as she posed on the red carpet with Anita Ko and Sunrise Coigney

Stunner: Brad Pitt's girlfriend Ines de Ramon put on a busty display in a plunging black dress. The look featured a high slit to showcase her long legs

The author of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's blew a hole in the upper crust of the rich and powerful when he published an excerpt from his unfinished novel Answered Prayers in 1975.

The mysterious novel proved to be a salacious tell-all blasting a variety of his closest friends, who just so happened to be the chicest women of their day.

Watts will be joined by Chloe Sevigny, who is playing legendary socialite C.Z. Guest, while actresses Diane Lane and Calista Flockhart will also be featured prominently.

SAG Award winner Tom Hollander is playing Truman Capote and reportedly shaved his head in order to better portray the controversial writer.
Alessandra Ambrosio showed off her runway walk as she strolled down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills on Friday.

The 41-year-old supermodel put on a stylish display in a cropped camisole, wide-leg wax trousers and an oversize leather jacket to complete her off-duty look for a day of shopping.

The former Victoria's Secret Angel looked effortlessly chic in a pair of large ombre shades.

Later, the Brazilian bombshell shed her chic outerwear and sunglasses to make a stop at Yves Saint Laurent.

Nearly a week ago, she showed off her toned physique in one of the most risque looks at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday.

Catwalk queen: Alessandra Ambrosio, 41, showed off her runway walk as she strolled down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills on Friday

Off-duty model: The supermodel put on a stylish display in a cropped camisole, wide-leg wax trousers, and an oversize leather jacket to complete her off-duty look for a day of shopping

To accessorize, she cinched in her waist in the oversize pants with a vintage-looking, leather belt.

She carried a pistachio green, flat woven shoulder bag as a clutch purse.

Ambrosio modeled a pair of black, pointed-toe stiletto boots as she strut down the street.

For her daytime outing, the brunette beauty pulled her long hair back into a casual ponytail.

She added a touch of flair with a pair of gold hoop earrings and a single dainty gold chain on her neck.

Ambrosio opted for light makeup to showcase her natural beauty.

She added a swipe of mauve lipstick as well as coral pink blush across her cheeks for an overall rosy, radiant look.

Last Sunday, she sported an eye-catching mesh dress that almost bared it all at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party.

As she mingled with Hollywood's A-listers at the event held at the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills, she rocked a dazzling silver mesh dress with floral embroidered details.

Underneath, she donned only pasties and a chrome thong to hide her modesty.

The catwalk queen has two children  daughter Anja, 14, and son Noah, 10  that she shares with ex-fiance Jamie Mazur.

She was in a onoff relationship with the Re/Done denim co-founder for around 13 years before the pair amicably ended their relationship in 2018.

Sheer delight: Last Sunday, she sported an eye-catching, mesh dress that almost bared it all at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party

Dazzling: As she mingled with Hollywood's A-listers at the event held at Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills, she rocked a dazzling silver mesh dress with floral embroidered details

The former couple were engaged for a decade at the time of their breakup.

Previously, they met at a mutual friend's wedding in Rio de Janeiro and started dating shortly after in 2005.

Since the split, she has been romantically linked to Richard Lee.

Ambrosio and the Wilhelmina model reportedly started dating sometime around December 2020.
American actress Sydney Sweeney has taken a break from her busy film schedule to visit Luna Park this weekend.

The rising star, 25, visited the popular attraction in Sydney on Saturday with her friends and colleagues which included the likes of Glen Powell, Darren Barnet and Hadley Robinson.

She posted a bunch of photos from their escapades across the iconic venue to Instagram on Saturday.

'Fun day at my park with my friends,' she wrote.

Sydney and her group of fans were pictured while they participated in a variety of activities including a rollercoaster ride, and taking in the sights of the city skyline.

American actress Sydney Sweeney took a break from her busy film schedule to visit Luna Park this weekend

She enjoyed spending quality time with her friends away from the film set, as she donned a summer outfit, sunglasses and a hint of jewellery.

Fellow film actress Kate Bosworth gave her seal of approval.

She relived her inner youth after sharing her recommendation of the city.

'Fun day at my park with my friends,' she wrote

The rising star, 25, visited the popular attraction in Sydney on Saturday with her friends and colleagues which included the likes of Glen Powell, Darren Barnet and Hadley Robinson

'Isn't Sydney the best? I lived there for about a year when I was your age  best time of my life. Soak it in, beauty,' said Kate Bosworth.

'Such a fun day,' said American actor Darren Barnet.

Sydney has seen filming in locations across the city, including the inner city suburb of Surry Hills and Double Bay, in the city's east.

Sydney and her group of fans were pictured while they participated in a variety of activities including a rollercoaster ride, and taking in the sights of the city skyline

The yet-to-be-titled romantic comedy is filming around Sydney and is directed by Will Gluck, who helmed romcoms Easy A and Friends With Benefits.

Details on the plot of the R-rated flick are being kept under wraps, but the film will also star Bryan Brown, Michelle Hurd, Hadley Robinson and Darren Barnet.

The project is expected to bring AUD $41 million into the local New South Wales economy, as well as creating over 440 jobs for cast and crew.
le gouvernement a pris la decision de signer un nouvel accord avec celui du Botswana afin detre en conformite avec les recommandations du ECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.



Cabinet has agreed to Mauritius signing a new Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with the Republic of Botswana. The objective of new DTAA would be to replace the existing DTAA between Mauritius and Botswana to comply with the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting recommendations.

The new DTAA would, inter alia:

(i) provide certainty to investors in their dealings with Mauritius or Botswana;

(ii) create a conducive environment for greater cross-border investment flows between the two countries;

(iii) establish a framework for exchange of information between the tax authorities of Mauritius and Botswana with a view to combatting tax evasion and other tax malpractices; and

(iv) provide a mechanism to taxpayers for the resolution of tax disputes.

6.
Nicole Kidman offered up-and-coming Aussie actor Sam Rechner the opportunity of a lifetime by allowing him to walk the Oscars red carpet by her side on Sunday.

As headlines flew wondering who this new mystery man on the Hollywood block was, Channel Nine newsreader Peter Overton stepped in to claim him.

The Sydney-based journalist, 56, who grew up living next door to Kidman, 55, revealed 21-year-old Rechner is his nephew, reported The Sydney Morning Herald.

Annette, who is Overton's sister and mother to Rechner, was best friends with Kidman in Longueville when they all attended Lane Cove Public School together.

'He auditioned for the role online, then he got a call back saying Steven Spielberg would like to audition him over Zoom,' Overton said about Rechner's big break in The Fabelmans.

Nicole Kidman, 55, (pictured centre with her husband Keith Urban) offered up-and-coming Aussie actor Sam Rechner, 21, (right) the opportunity of a lifetime by allowing him to walk the Oscars red carpet by her side on Sunday

He continued: 'He so impressed him that a few minutes later during the same Zoom call, Spielberg came back on the screen and told him he had the part.'

Uncle Overton went on to gush about his nephew saying: 'He is the humblest, most gracious young man you could hope to meet.

'He only really got into acting after an injury and surgery meant his rugby union ambitions were not going to happen.'

As headlines flew wondering who this new mystery man on the Hollywood block was, Channel Nine newsreader Peter Overton, 56, stepped in to claim him

He added: 'I know we are biased, but he really deserves all the success. I just know great things are going to happen for him down the track.'

Proving why she is known as one of Hollywood's kindest stars, Kidman arrived at the Dolby Theatre in LA with Sydney-born Rechner who made his big-screen debut in Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans.

Rechner plays high school bully Logan Hall in the coming-of-age film, which was nominated for Best Picture, but lost to Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The Sydney-based journalist who grew up living next door to Kidman revealed Rechner is his nephew, reported The Sydney Morning Herald

Kidman, whose official plus-one was her country music star husband Keith Urban, held hands with Rechner on the champagne carpet as curious reporters asked them about their unlikely friendship.

'This is Sam, who is the son of my best friend since we were four, and he's in The Fabelmans,' Kidman told Canadian news outlet ETalk.

Speaking to Sunrise reporter Sonia Kruger at the awards, Kidman praised Rechner for earning 'his way onto the Oscars carpet'.

Rechner also joked he was the 'doppelganger' of Kidman's husband Urban, 55, who was also spotted on his wife's arm at the ritzy ceremony.
Australian actor Vince Colosimo could be set to return to court as he continues to contest allegations he was issued 169 traffic fines while disqualified from driving.

The Wog Boy Forever star is accused of racking up a whopping $65,215 in unpaid fines dating back to 2012.

Fines Victoria will next month apply for an enforcement warrant against Colosimo in Melbourne Magistrates Court, The Herald Sun reported on Saturday.

Officers could be granted the power to search for and seize his property or vehicles to sell and settle the outstanding debts, the report adds.

A $60.20 administration fee will also be added to his outstanding fines.

Australian actor Vince Colosimo (pictured) could be set to return to court as he continues to contest allegations he was issued 169 traffic fines while disqualified from driving

In October, Colosimo was forced to make an embarrassing exit from the Melbourne Magistrates' Court, rushing down a laneway in an effort to avoid a media pack.

Colosimo had pleaded guilty to drug and unlicensed driving and failing to give his real name to police.

The ugly 2021 incident during Melbourne's harsh Covid-19 lockdowns saw him convicted and fined again - adding another $2500 to his growing tally of fines.

Film and legal sources close to Colosimo have told Daily Mail Australia the star disputed the number and total dollar values of the fines he allegedly racked up.

'I don't even think it's possible to run up that many fines... it sounds extraordinarily large to have that many fines,' one source said.

Fines Victoria will next month apply for an enforcement warrant against Colosimo in Melbourne Magistrates Court, The Herald Sun reported on Saturday. Officers could be granted the power search for and seize his property or vehicles

Colosimo had been in court over his well-publicised drug-driving charges, which saw him pretend to be his twin brother when pulled over by police.

Word of the unpaid fines appeared to come as a shock to both Colosimo and his lawyer George Vassis, who quickly turned around to address his client seated behind him.

Prosecutor Bianca Moleta told the court Colosimo had lost his licence again twice through demerit points while disqualified for fines incurred and issued to him in recent years while his licence was cancelled.

'Although he wasn't charged, that's a reflection of the Traffic Camera Office not essentially communicating with Victoria Police, but those are recorded on his demerit point history after his licence was cancelled,' she said.

In October, Colosimo was forced to make an embarrassing exit from the Melbourne Magistrates' Court, rushing down a laneway in an effort to avoid a media pack

A source told Daily Mail Australia Colosimo maintained he had not incurred the traffic fines himself because he had loaned his Peugeot to a 'mate'.

Colosimo and his legal team are said to be in the process of working through the fines to ascertain not only how they accumulated, but who might have been behind the wheel and when.

The court heard Colosimo blames his mate for incurring the lion's share of the fines.

It is understood Colosimo further claims most of the notifications for the alleged infringements were sent to old addresses after several home relocations and Covid-19 disruptions at Vicroads.
Brian Cox cut a smart figure as he attended the Series Mania Festival in Lille, Hauts-de-France, with his wife Nicole Ansari-Cox on Friday.

The Scottish actor, 76, looked dapper in a navy and red checkered suit as he arrived on the purple carpet with his wife Nicole, 54, ahead of the opening ceremony.

The Succession star, who plays Logan Roy on the popular show, teamed his suave ensemble with a black and white patterned shirt and a burgundy red tie.

Meanwhile, Nicole looked effortlessly chic as she donned a champagne midi dress for the evening.

The beauty also opted to further elevate her height with a pair of metallic silver high heels.

Event: Brian Cox channelled his inner Logan Roy on Friday as he attended the Series Mania Festival in Lille, Hauts-de-France, with his wife, Nicole Ansari-Cox

She further accessorised the glam ensemble with a floral waist belt and a pair of diamond earrings.

To finish the glamorous look, she styled her brunette locks in loose waves and donned a dewy makeup and bold red lip.

Nicole, who is best known for her work in the German cop series Tatort, took up the opportunity to snap some photos with her husband before the event.

In one snap, the actress was seen making a powerful statement as she posed with her back facing the cameras to show off the words on her pink satin scarf.

Brian, who was by her side at the time, took up the opportunity to hold up one side of the scarf for his wife so that the cameras could get a clear shot.

And the powerful scarf read 'Woman, Life, Freedom' in support of the women of Iran in rebellion.

Emmanuelle Beart, 59, was also spotted posing up a storm at the opening ceremony.

The blonde beauty looked incredibly chic as she donned a bold red tailored suit for the event.

She also opted for teaming the suit ensemble with a smart button-up shirt and further accessorised the look with a layer of gold necklaces and some elegant earrings.

She completed the chic ensemble by styling her hair in a loose blowout and donned a glowy makeup look for the evening.

Also in attendance were Stephane Freiss, 62, and Florence Loiret Caille, 47, and the pair were gleaming as they chatted to one another before the event.

Dapper: The Scottish actor, 76, looked handsomely dapper in a navy and red chequered suit as he arrived on the purple carpet with his wife Nicole, 54, ahead of the opening ceremony

Posing up a storm: The Succession star teamed the dapper suit ensemble with a black and white patterned shirt and a burgundy red tie

Stephane donned a casual ensemble consisting of a smart dark blue shirt, a black blazer, and a pair of light-wash denim jeans for the event.

Meanwhile, Florence opted for a black and white leather ensemble consisting of a black blazer, a plain white shirt, a loosely-fitted tie, and a pair of leather slim-fit trousers.

According to Series Mania, Series Mania Festival is the biggest event dedicated uniquely to television series in Europe.

The festival offers exclusive world premieres of the greatest international series on the big screen.

It also gives its audience eight days of discoveries, parties, and masterclasses with some of the most renowned personalities in the series world.

The festival opening ceremony comes after Brian recently discussed Succession's upcoming fourth and final season.

Chic: Meanwhile, Nicole looked chic on the carpet as she donned a champagne midi dress for the evening ahead

Wow: The actress can also be seen making a powerful statement as she posed with a pink satin scarf that read the words 'Woman, Life, Freedom' in support of the women of Iran in rebellion

Glowing: And to finish the purple carpet look, the beauty styled her brunette locks in loose waves and donned a dewy makeup and bold red lip

The end: The opening ceremony comes after last month Succession series creator Jesse Armstrong announced that the upcoming season of the Emmy-winning HBO drama would be its last

Last month, series creator Jesse Armstrong announced that the upcoming season of the Emmy-winning HBO drama would be its last, and Brian was wholeheartedly on board with Jesse's decision.

During his interview with Variety, Brian appeared to praise Jesse on his decision to end the series by saying: 'He's very disciplined in that way, and also he's very British in that way.'

However, he also channelled his inner Logan Roy during the interview as he appeared to take a dig at his co-star Jeremy Strong, 44.

The Scottish actor said, 'The American inclination is to milk it for all it's worth.'

And he despises another American convention - the method acting his co-star Jeremy, who plays Kendall Roy, is so fiercely committed to.

Despite agreeing that the time to end the series is here, Brian said he would miss it, adding: 'I'll miss the cast. I'll miss the atmosphere, and I'll miss the bonhomie.'

The star also admitted that he would miss playing Logan when asked by the outlet, 'Logan, probably, I'll miss a bit. But upward and onwards.'

Brian also clarified that he would not miss the back-and-forth arguing on Jeremy's method acting technique.

Brian, who loathes the practice, called it out in his 2021 memoir Putting the Rabbit in the Hat, writing that there is 'a certain amount of pain at the root of Jeremy'.

Stunning: Emmanuelle Beart, 59, was also spotted posing up a storm at the opening ceremony and the beauty looked incredibly chic as she donned a bold red tailored suit for the event

Chic: She also opted for teaming the suit ensemble with a smart button-up shirt and further accessorised the look with a layer of gold necklaces and some elegant earrings

Happy: Also in attendance were Stephane Freiss, 62, and Florence Loiret Caille, 47, and the pair were gleaming as they chatted to one another on the carpet ahead of the ceremony

However, he wasn't slamming Jeremy but called him 'a wonderful actor'.

He continued: 'It's really a cultural clash. I don't put up with all that American sh*t. I'm sorry. All that sort of 'I think, therefore I feel.'

'Just do the job. Don't identify,' he said, referring to legendary Method actor Daniel Day Lewis.

HBO has officially confirmed that Succession season four will return on March 26, 2023.

And the upcoming season will consist of 10 episodes, which is one more episode than season three.
Curtis Stone is well known for starring on a number of television programs, flexing his prowess in the kitchen for adoring audiences.

But the 47-year-old says that he prefers not to see himself as a 'celebrity chef' and would rather count himself among the 'real' stars of the kitchen.

He recalled attending the Good Food Show in Birmingham before he became a celebrity and appreciating that he wasn't as well known as his contemporaries.

'I remember walking into the bar towards Marco, Gordon and Gary Rhodes, and a handful of these great chefs who cooked in restaurants,' he told The Herald Sun on Saturday.

'At the other side of the bar there were all these celebrity chefs. I won't name them, but they were the ones you'd seen on TV in the UK,' Curtis continued.

Curtis Stone (pictured) is well known for starring on a number of television programs, flexing his prowess in the kitchen for adoring audiences. But the 47-year-old says that he prefers not to see himself as a 'celebrity chef'

'I remember thinking, "I'm so glad I'm not with them  I'm with the real chefs."'

After his early success as a chef, Curtis went on to appear on a number of television shows, including Cooking With Curtis, MasterChef, Iron Chef and My Kitchen Rules.

The Michelin star winner began his cooking career when he was just 18, at London's famous Savoy Hotel.

He later cooked under Marco Pierre White at the Cafe Royal and Mirabelle, before he became head chef at White's Quo Vadis.

After his early success as a chef, Curtis went on to appear on a number of television shows, including Cooking With Curtis, MasterChef, Iron Chef and My Kitchen Rules

Soon after, Curtis began his career as a television chef with Surfing the Menu in 2003, which he filmed in Australia.

He now lives in Brentwood, Los Angeles with his American actress wife, Lindsay Price, 46.

The Beverly Hills, 90210 star and the chef met each other on a blind date in 2009 after they were set up by a mutual friend.

The rest they say is history, and the pair married in 2013. They later had children Hudson, 11, and Emerson, eight.

Curtis has become a household name in both Australia and the United States, cashing in as a best-selling cookbook author and television personality.
Courteney Cox put on a very stylish display on Friday while leaving dinner at Giorgio Baldi Italian Restaurant in Santa Monica, California.

The Scream star, 58, slipped into an edgy black ensemble as she made her way out of the swanky eatery, flashing a small smile as she did so.

The actress donned an edgy black leather jacket which she wore over a semi-sheer black top accessorized with dainty gold necklaces.

Courteney teamed her jacket and top with black satin trousers and pointed heels, with her essentials in a stylish tan-strapped handbag draped over her shoulder.

The stunner left her raven locks loose for the occasion, while highlighting her features with a radiant make-up palette.

Stunner: Courteney Cox put on a very stylish display on Friday while leaving dinner at Giorgio Baldi Italian Restaurant in Santa Monica, California

Looking good: The Scream star, 58, slipped into an edgy black ensemble as she made her way out of the swanky eatery, flashing a small smile as she did so

It comes after Courteney talked about her long-distance relationship with Snow Patrol musician Johnny McDaid while she appeared on the Drew Barrymore talk show on Tuesday.

The Friends icon - who denied Prince Harry's claims that he took magic mushrooms at her home - got candid alongside her Scream VI co-star Melissa Barrera in the back of an SUV as they drove around the streets of New York.

She told Drew that McDaid flew from London to Hollywood to watch her get her star on the Walk Of Fame.

'Yeah, it was so sweet. He flew over from London; that's where he lives,' she said.

When Drew commented that long distance is too hard for her, Courteney responded, 'As long as you have trust, then I think it doesn't matter where you are. You can be yourself and yet be excited when you see each other.'

Over the course of their romance, Johnny and Courteney were briefly engaged, but they called off the engagement in 2015 only to get back together soon after.

Although they repaired their romantic relationship, they never got engaged again, though Courteney has suggested marriage is not entirely off the table.

Style: The actress donned an edgy black leather jacket which she wore over a semi-sheer black top accessorized with dainty gold necklaces

It's about trust: It comes after Courteney opened up about her long-distance relationship with longtime beau Johnny McDaid while she appeared on the Drew Barrymore talk show Tuesday

Long-time love! Snow Patrol musician McDaid showed his leading lady support as he flew in from London to attend her Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony on February 27

Last January, she talked to People about the prospect of marrying Johnny.

She said: 'I don't know. I'm definitely not opposed to it. I just don't think about it.'

Barrymore also commented about seeing Courteney's daughter Coco hug her mother during the ceremony.

'When I saw Coco hugging you, what was it like to have her there?' she asked.

'It felt so good. Things I do are embarrassing still, but she was proud, and it made me so happy she was willing to take a picture with me and hug me,' said Cox.
Comic Relief viewers joked that Ofcom will have a 'field day' of complaints after BBC breakfast anchor Naga Munchetty swore live on air.

The annual telethon returned to screens on Friday night, and the broadcasters had to read out an array of cheeky jokes from a card.

However, TV presenter Naga, 48, had a bit of a blunder and ended up saying a rather rude word as she told a classic joke.

She said, 'I went to the zoo the other day, there was only one dog in it. It was a Shih Tzu.'

After telling the joke, her co-star Charlie Stayt immediately understood the amusing quip but Naga was left confused.

Oops: BBC Comic Relief viewers took to social media on Friday to joke that Ofcom will have a 'field day' of complaints after BBC breakfast anchor Naga Munchetty swore live on air

She went on to tell Charlie that she didn't get the joke, but, once she finally understood, she laughed and repeated the word 'Shih Tzu'.

Viewers then quickly rushed to comment to share their thoughts on the consequences of the innocent joke.

One viewer commented: 'Oop a kind of swear word before 9pm, Ofcom is gonna have a field day with complaints lmao.'

Another viewer said: 'Naga not getting the shih tzu joke.'

David Tennant, AJ Odudu, Joel Dommett, Zoe Ball and Paddy McGuinness were in attendance hosting the telethon.

During the show, viewers watched some hilarious short comedy sketches of The Traitors, The Apprentice, Eastenders, and more.

Joking around: The annual telethon returned to our screens on Friday evening, and the broadcasters were made to read out cringy jokes from a card

Blunder: However, TV presenter Naga, 48, had a bit of a blunder as she told a classic joke. She said, 'I went to the zoo the other day, there was only one dog in it. It was a Shih Tzu,'

On air: After telling the joke, her co-star Charlie Stayt immediately understood. However, Naga was still figuring it out

A few celebrities, including Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Dornan, and Ed Sheeran also appeared during the telethon.

Naga's classic swear joke live on air comes after BBC Breakfast host Charlie recently cut off Naga and slammed her expertise.

The hosts were caught bickering live on air again as the duo went head to head as they disagreed over how a six-foot-four jockey, Jack Andrews, would compare to his shorter competitors at Cheltenham.

When reading from Jack's testimony, he said: 'He says, 'If you're short, you're sometimes perched on top of the back of the horse, and they can get the better of you,'

'Whereas If you're a big lad, you can manhandle a horse.'

He then told Naga: 'So the much smaller jockey would sit on top of the horse whereas he can wrap his legs further around the horse.'

Naga then glared back at Charlie, confused, before commenting, 'I'm not sure it would be completely comfortable wrapping your legs around the girth of a horse whilst it's galloping at who knows how many miles per hour.'

Consequences coming: She then went on to tell Charlie that she didn't get the joke. However, once she finally understood, she laughed and repeated the word 'Shih Tzu'

She added: 'When you're galloping, you're supposed to be on top of the horse. You can't just sit and bump on the horse.'

And while Naga was speaking, Charlie then cut her off and made a dig at her expertise.

He said: 'I think what I'll do is I'll take the testimony of Jack Andrews, the jockey, over your expertise in the area.'

He added another jibe by saying: 'That's all I'm saying. I think he probably knows what he's talking about.'
In exciting news for Aussie pop music fans, a new version of the beloved girl group Young Divas is in the works fifteen years after the original quartet split.

According to the Adelaide Now, the new incarnation of the Young Divas will be comprised of contestants from the current season of Australian Idol.

The original Young Divas lineup, consisting of old-school Idol alumni Kate DeAraugo, Emily Williams, Paulini Curuenavuli, and Ricki-Lee Coulter, achieved massive success in the mid-2000s with cover versions of camp club classics.

Now, a new generation of performers could be stepping up to the challenge of reviving the Young Divas' legacy.

The group's new lineup will consist of current contestants from Idol, but none have been named yet.

In exciting news for Aussie pop music fans, a new version of the beloved girl group Young Divas is in the works fifteen years after the original quartet split. The original Young Divas (Kate DeAraugo, Ricki-Lee Coulter, Paulini Curuenavuli and Emily Williams) are pictured in 2006

The new incarnation of the Young Divas will be comprised of contestants from the current season of Australian Idol. The new cast are pictured

The Young Divas debuted in 2006 with a cover of Donna Summer's 1989 hit This Time I Know It's for Real.

The dancey remake reached No. 2 on the ARIA charts and went platinum.

Their self-titled debut album was also a massive hit and went double platinum on the charts.

In 2007, Ricki-Lee left the group to focus on her solo career after clashing with the other members.

Member Emily Williams previously admitted it was a 'turbulent time' when Coulter left the group, but that the experience taught her how to 'work closely with other women'.

'Being a part of Young Divas was a hugely important time in my life, personally and also in my career,' Emily told Daily Mail Australia in 2019.

'It taught me how to work closely with other women and it taught me a lot about the industry.'

Noorah H and Amali Dimond from the latest season of Australian Idol are pictured

The Young Divas debuted in 2006 with a cover of Donna Summer's 1989 hit This Time I Know It's for Real, which reached No. 2 on the ARIA singles chart

Emily confirmed rumours of feuding within the group, but said it's to be expected as the women all had 'such large personalities'.

'Was it all roses? No. Yes, there were fights, yes there were tears. But let's be honest, it was never always going to be all smiles with such large personalities.'

Coulter was replaced by Jessica Mauboy, who had just placed as the runner-up to Irish crooner Damien Leith on Australian Idol's fourth season.

The group split for good in 2009 and all the members went in very different directions.

Jessica Mauboy (left) replaced Ricki-Lee Coulter after she left the group in 2007 amid clashes with the other members

Jessica and Ricki-Lee have had incredible solo careers outside of the Young Divas

Member Emily Williams (pictured) previously admitted it was a 'turbulent time' when Coulter left the group, but that the experience taught her how to 'work closely with other women'

Ricki-Lee had a big solo career, landing hits like Can't Touch It before transitioning into radio and television.

Jessica Mauboy is arguably the most successful member of the group, with a string of hit singles and albums in addition to a thriving acting career.

Sadly, Kate DeAraugo went on to battle drug addiction and was arrested in 2017 for possessing ice.

Australian Idol was rebooted this year after fourteen years off the air, with Kyle Sandilands, Amy Shark, Meghan Trainor, and Harry Connick Jr as judges.
Brendan Fevola says his rough and tumble antics off the footy field laid the groundwork for his current success as a radio star.

Describing most media personalities as 'clean skins who have lived a good life', the Fox FM breakfast host and former AFL great calls himself 'a s**t bag' - and says it's something his listeners can relate to.

Brendan, who was sacked by the Brisbane Lions in 2011, made the comments during an interview last month on the Along for the Ride podcast.

'I think the beauty of what I have done in the past has really helped me in radio,' he said.

The hulking former Carlton great has battled alcohol and gambling issues and has frequently made headlines with his outrageous antics.

Brendan Fevola (pictured) says his rough and tumble antics off the footy field laid the groundwork for his current success as a radio star

Brendan says his knockabout image is 'real' and it's something listeners can relate to. Pictured with his Fox FM co-hosts Nick Cody and Fifi Box

Fevola, who played 204 games for the Carlton Blues and Brisbane Lions before exiting first class footy for good thirteen years ago, has a history of addiction.

He infamously sold his Coleman Medal to feed his out-of-control gambling habit.

The loveable star said losing a job and getting kicked out of the AFL and doing 'certain things I shouldnt have done...people can relate to that, they know that I am real.'

The Dancing with the Stars veteran also admitted that he makes the most out of his image as a naughty larrikin and 'idiot'.

But he says, 'all the times I stuffed up or done bad things in my past, geez, it is great for radio,' he said.

The former Carlton great has battled alcohol and gambling issues. Pictured with wife Alex Fevola

Brendan is stepfather to Mia while he and Alex also parent daughters Leni, Lulu, and Tobi (all pictured)

'It makes good topics for phoners and I can relate to so many things.'

A father of four, Brendan co-hosts the Fifi, Fev and Nick breakfast show on Fox FM with Fifi Box and Nick Cody.

Brendan, who is married to Alex Fevola, is stepfather to Mia while he and Alex also parent daughters Leni, Lulu, and Tobi.

The high-profile couple married in 2005, divorced in 2014 and became engaged again in 2016.
Lewis Hamilton showed off his edgy sense of style as he arrived at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Saturday.

The racing driver, 38, sported yet another unique look as he stepped out ahead of the third practice session of the Saudi Arabia Formula One Grand Prix.

He cut a stylish figure in a black jumper cinched at the waist with a belt, which he styled with black cargo trousers.

Lewis completed his ensemble with a pair of chunky black boots and accessorised with a silver bracelet and a flashy gold watch.

He shielded his eyes with a pair of black square sunglasses and wore his brunette locks in braids and sported a well-groomed beard.

Quirky: Lewis Hamilton showed off his edgy sense of style as he arrived at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Saturday

Edgy: The racing driver, 38, sported yet another unique look as he stepped out ahead of the third practice session of the Saudi Arabia Formula One Grand Prix

Lewis, who drives for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, appeared to be in jovial spirits as he grinned and flashed the peace sign.

It comes after Lewis took inspiration from Star Wars legend Obi Wan Kenobi for another F1 fashion parade earlier this month.

The racer modelled a brown ensemble with a pleated sash, resembling the outfit worn by Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan in the Star Wars movie franchise.

He showcased his edgy sense of style in a brown sweater and a coordinating half-skirt, which he layered above tailored trousers.

He completed his look with a pair of mirrored orange-tinted sunglasses and wore his braids in a ponytail.

Lewis previously admitted he'd have to pull out of the F1 Grand Prix of Miami last year if FIA insisted he remove his piercings.

But in a swift U-turn, he agreed to a medical examination at the track and whipped out all but two piercings.

Lewis insisted the studs cannot be removed easily and was granted a two-race exemption to keep them in place while he looks into possible solutions.

According to reports, FIA President Mohammed bin Sulayem is 'fixated' on cracking down on Lewis' flouting of the rules as he continues to wear jewellery to race.

During a press conference ahead of the race last year, Lewis made a statement in three watches, eight rings, four necklaces, one bracelet and two earrings.

When asked what was happening regarding his piercings, he said: 'I really don't know. As I said, I can't remove at least two of them.

'One I can't really explain where it is. But what I can say is it's platinum that I have, so it's not magnetic. It's never been a safety issue in the past.'

Fashionable: He cut a stylish figure in a black jumper cinched at the waist with a belt, which he styled with black cargo trousers

All smiles: Lewis, who drives for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, appeared to be in jovial spirits as he grinned and flashed the peace sign

May the force be with you: It comes after Lewis took inspiration from Star Wars legend Obi Wan Kenobi for another F1 fashion parade earlier this month

Inspiration? The racer modelled a brown ensemble with a pleated sash, resembling the outfit worn by Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan in the Star Wars movie franchise

Adding that there's a possibility he may not race, Lewis said: 'So yeah, if they stop me then so be it. We've got a spare driver. So we're well prepped for the weekend.

'There's lots to do in the city anyway so it will be good either way. I couldn't get any more [jewellery] on today!'

He said that he believes that the initiative is a 'step backwards' for sport and told how he has been wearing jewellery while racing for 16 years.

However, his U-turn agreement to the medical test and two-race exemption to keep them in means he can continue to drive for the time being.
Pregnant Amy Childs has opened up about her late night health scare as she was forced to call medics in the early hours of the morning.

The Only Way Is Essex star, 32, is preparing to welcome twins with her boyfriend Billy Delbosq and is closely approaching her due date.

And on Saturday, she revealed she had a hospital scare earlier in the week and was worried that she was going into early labour.

Writing for OK! Magazine, she explained that she had to call the hospital at 3.30am after suffering from severe stomach cramps.

She said: 'A couple of nights ago, I couldn't sleep at all. I got up around 1am, and my tummy was really cramping.'

Scare: Pregnant Amy Childs has opened up about her late night health scare as she was forced to call medics in the early hours of the morning

Due date: The Towie star, 32, is preparing to welcome twins and is closely approaching her due date and the star admitted she thought she was going into early labour

'I've had it before, it's not like it's my first baby, but I said to Bill that something felt different,' she added.

She said that she called the hospital because she didn't want to travel there in the early hours just to be told it was Braxton-Hicks, which are contractions that happen as the body prepares for labour.

Amy admitted that she didn't have to go into the hospital but would have if the babies weren't moving, saying she was worried the pain was a sign of early labour.

She said: 'When I was getting the twinges, I thought, "Oh my god, are they coming now?".

'I was asking people on Instagram when they went into labour with twins, and a lot of people said around 35/36 weeks, and I'm 35 weeks on Monday.'

The interview comes after Amy revealed to OK! that she was expecting twins with her boyfriend Billy and said it was a shock to both of them.

The reality TV star said she didn't expect to conceive so quickly and discovered she was pregnant just two months after coming off her contraception last year.

The couple then had an even bigger shock in store for them as they found out later that they were expecting twins.

Amy also recently revealed that she and her beau have landed their very own ITVBe show, titled Amy Childs: The Twin Life.

Shocking news: The interview comes after Amy revealed that she was expecting twins with her boyfriend, Billy Delbosq, and said it was a shock to both of them

Amy announced the reality show news via social media, writing to her fans: 'HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT. Right . SO I can't believe I'm writing this but I've only gone and got my very own show on ITVBe, Amy Childs: The Twin Life!

'I'm so excited to bring you on our journey from pregnancy to birth all the ups and downs - absolutely no filter!!! COMING VERY SOON.'

The TOWIE veteran and boyfriend Billy have been an item since October 2021, just two months after the mother-of-two split from her ex-boyfriend Tim following 14 months together.

Amy shares daughter Polly, five, with ex-boyfriend Bradley Wright and is also mum to son Ritchie Jr, two.
LEconomic Development Board va signer trois protocole avec des agences gouvernementales de lAfrique de lOuest et du Sud dans les semaines a venir, ayant obtenu le feu vert le 17 mars 2023.

Cabinet has agreed to the signing of three Memoranda of Understanding between the Economic Development Board and governmental agencies in the western and southern parts of Africa, namely:(i) Le Centre de Promotion des Investissements de la Republique de Cote dIvoire;(ii) Le Ministere de la Promotion de lInvestissement de la Republique Togolaise; and(iii) the Trade & Investment KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

The main objectives of the Memoranda of Understanding are to:

(a) implement a practical framework for cooperation with regard to Trade and Investment opportunities;

(b) design a common strategy to strengthen economic relations;

(c) strengthen institutional relations and capacity building through cooperation; and

(d) ensure a coherent approach to identify areas of comparative advantage, competence to strengthen investment, trade promotion and facilitation.
A heartbroken Eamonn Holmes paid tribute to his beloved mum Josie as he prepared to spend his first Mother's Day without her.

The presenter, 63, took to Instagram on Saturday to share a video of his mother looking thrilled with an interview he did last year where he talked about how much he loved her.

Eamonn lost his mother in November. She was aged 93. Writing about his loss, he said: 'This is my first year without a Mother on Mother's Day.

'But I did an interview last year where I said how much I loved her. How glad I am I did. As you can see she seemed pretty happy. If you still have a Mum.

'Give her a hug from me and don't forget her tomorrow.'

Missing her: A heartbroken Eamonn Holmes paid tribute to his beloved mum Josie as he prepared to spend his first Mother's Day without her

Moving: The emotional presenter, 63, took to Instagram on Saturday to share a video of his mother thrilled with an interview he did last year where he said how much he loved her

Loss: Eamonn lost his mother in November. She was aged 93. He wrote: 'This is my first year without a Mother on Mother's Day'

Eamonn's former ITV colleagues took to the comment section to share their condolences.

Former Loose Women panellist Saira Khan wrote: 'Love her', while Vanessa Feltz typed: 'Sending you so much love. This is my 18th year without my beautiful mother. She was just 57 when she passed away. I miss her every day. Huge hugs my darling friend.'

Alison Hammond added: 'Thinking of you.'

Eamonn was devastated when his mother passed away and was unable to attend her funeral in Ireland due to health reasons.

He previously paid an emotional tribute alongside a photo of them together, taken a few years ago.

He wrote: 'My 4 amazing brothers and I said Goodbye for the last time to our beautiful Mum Josie this afternoon. She's at last reunited with Daddy now. That is our only consolation.

'We loved and will miss her so much. Every time I visited her she came to the door to bless me with Holy Water and Wave goodbye. Now sadly it really is Goodbye Mummy x.'

Eamonn's father Leonard died at the age of 64 following a heart attack whilst driving over 30 years ago.

Thoughtful: Eamonn's former ITV colleagues took to the comment section to share their condolences

Journalist Eamonn previously opened up about his relationship with his mum as he branded her his 'hero'.

The former This Morning presenter told how Josie's mind was still 'sharp as a tack' and praised her for making him 'the man I am'.

He also reflected on his relationship with Josie, lived in his hometown of Belfast, after the Queen's death.

Eamonn said: 'No matter how much you prepare for the death of a parent or how much you think you're prepared it's still comes as a shock.

'I think with the Queen this is how it's hit me and a lot of the nation, we've all known [that she's been unwell] but it's still a shock.'
Jennifer Aniston cut an casual figure in jeans and a gray coat as she stepped out of her Paris hotel on Saturday.

The Friends star, 54,  who recently dazzled at a photocall  kept warm as she wrapped a long, wide, black scarf around her neck as she was accompanied by her entourage.

Jennifer looked glamorous as she shielded her eyes in a pair of round, ombre-tinted tortoiseshell sunglasses.

The LolaVie hair care founder wore her dirty blonde locks loose, letting the lustrous strands fall around her face and over her shoulders.

Aniston carried a large black leather clutch under her arm as well as a big bottle of water.

Stepping out: Jennifer Aniston cut an casual figure in jeans and a gray coat as she stepped out of her Paris hotel on Saturday

Aniston, who hails from Los Angeles, wore a light face of makeup underneath her shades.

She flashed a pristine nude-colored manicure on her short, square-shaped nails and wore a band around her middle finger.

The superstar flashed a smile and gave fans a wave from inside her luxury black car.

The silver screen siren has been overseas promoting her upcoming movie Murder Mystery 2 with costar Adam Sandler.

On Thursday the two attended a photocall where the longtime entertainer dazzled in a clinging gold gown.

And during a prior press appearance the actress made a gaffe as she cursed during a live taping of This Morning.

Speaking about the filming process of the film, which follows the 2019 original, the star described it as being full of 's***s and giggles.'

While hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield rushed to apologize, Jennifer said that her potty mouth could be 'bleeped out' - not realizing the show was live.

Glam girl: Jennifer looked glamorous as she shielded her eyes in a pair of round, ombre-tinted tortoiseshell sunglasses

Hairstyle: The LolaVie hair care founder wore her dirty blonde locks loose, letting the lustrous strands fall around her face and over her shoulders

The bombshell also recently opened up about her healthy lifestyle as she spoke to InStyle about her exercise routine and how she cares for herself if she hasn't slept well.

Her morning and nighttime schedules both include meditation, exercise, and plenty of water, but she takes it easy if she happens to have a poor night of sleep.

'I don't push myself so hard [in a workout] because that will lead to an injury when your body and your brain aren't fully rested,' she explained.

To help others learn about and cope with insomnia, Aniston has teamed with the Seize the Night & Day program, which offers community support and resources for those experiencing sleep trouble.

'All of your body is getting all the work done that it put itself through during the day. You realize a lack of sleep leads to all sorts of health issues,' she told the site.

'It's a deficit you won't ever get back.'

And she added when she was young she could sleep three to five hours a night.

'Boy, did I take it for granted when we were young. When you're younger, you kind of take it for granted.

'You think, "I can survive on three-to-five hours of sleep and I feel great," and then, all of a sudden, it just starts not to feel great and your performance isn't as up to par as it should be.'

Bundled up: The Friends star, 54, kept warm as she wrapped a long, wide, black scarf around her neck as she was accompanied by her entourage

Personable: The superstar flashed a smile and gave fans a wave from inside her luxury black car

Jennifer also talked about two of her celebrity friends to InStyle.

She said her The Morning Show co-star Reese Witherspoon relies on her for wellness tips.

'Reese loves to come to me and say, "What's the latest? What do you got for me?" Usually [I] tell her my new tips and tricks,' she shared.

Jennifer said: 'Guys love a good hair product. My friend Jason Bateman  who has the most hair that any human being could possibly have and he's the envy of all males with maybe three grays  he is obsessed.

'The guys have taken all the samples,' she added.

Looking good: The Los Angeles native was in good spirits as she flashed a pristine nude manicure
Kate Bosworth was seen out for the first time since reportedly finalizing her divorce from Michael Polish, after sparking engagement rumors with Justin Long last week.

As she reportedly prepares to take the next step in her relationship with the He's Just Not That Into You actor, who she began dating in 2021, the Blue Crush star, 40, has finally settled the terms of her and Polish's split.

On her latest sighting in Los Angeles on Friday, she kept her hands buried into the pockets of her fuzzy camel coat on a walk around her neighborhood.

In new court documents, obtained by The Blast, the actress reportedly will not have to pay child support to her ex-husband, who shares his adult daughter, Jasper, with his ex-wife Jo Strettell.

She will 'get to keep all of her intellectual property' and her place in Pasadena while he will maintain his residence in Montana and several motorcycles.

Lots of paperwork: Kate Bosworth was seen out for the first time since reportedly finalizing her divorce from Michael Polish, after sparking engagement rumors with Justin Long last week

In August 2021, she and Polish announced they broke up after a decade together, citing 'irreconcilable differences' as the reason for the split.

While posing for photos on the red carpet at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, Bosworth seemingly wore a massive diamond ring on her left hand.

Following the bash, the Superman Returns actress posted a photo of herself holding up a champagne glass, with her ring on full display, while giving her man a kiss.

The pair first sparked relationship rumours in the spring of 2021, meeting on an unnamed film project in Arkansas and connecting from the very beginning.

Kate was previously married to film director Michael Polish, 52, with whom she tied the knot in 2013.

The pair remained together for nearly a decade before they announced that they had separated last year, leading Kate to file for divorce in July.

Justin's list of Hollywood exes include A-listers Amanda Seyfried and Drew Barrymore, who he gushed to about Kate in an interview in September 2022.

Drew said: 'It's true and I'm so happy that you are in this also amazing relationship. I'm just so happy because you deserve to be happy. I'm so thrilled for you.'

Justin noted: 'She does all those things. And she adores you. She is the most supportive, most wonderful. You would love hanging out with her. We'll all go out together.'

Officially moving on: As she reportedly prepares to take the next step in her relationship with the He's Just Not That Into You actor, who she began dating in 2021, the Blue Crush star, 40, has finally settled the terms of her and Polish's split

Hiding the ring? On her latest sighting in Los Angeles on Friday, she kept her hands buried into the pockets of her fuzzy camel coat on a walk around her neighborhood

In January, Long wrote in a birthday tribute that Bosworth 'best part of' his 'day, every day  even when' they're 'not together.'

Justin went on to describe The Horse Whisperer star as 'the most beautiful human being [he's] ever seen' who 'makes the best cookies.'

The Zack and Miri Make a Porno star rhapsodized: 'She is deeply compassionate and can't hurt anyone, but she can be a rascal. She loves to tease. She has the best softest lips I've ever kissed.'

Other highlights of Justin's post were declaring that Bosworth is 'going to write such a great inspiring book one day' and that she's 'the most fun to do everything with.'

Engaged? Following the Vanity Fair Oscars party on Sunday, the Superman Returns actress posted a photo of herself holding up a champagne glass, with her ring on full display, while giving her man a kiss

After her beau's lengthy post, Kate returned the favor by sharing a sweet post thanking him for his kind words.

Kate wrote: 'You are my love and my light, my peace, and my thrill. Thank you for holding my hand when we sleep.'

'Thank you for tying my shoelaces when you notice they are undone. Thank you for making me laugh so hard I have to leave the room. Thank you for showing me what love is and for making this the best birthday ever.'

Soulmates: In January, Long wrote in a birthday tribute that Bosworth 'best part of' his 'day, every day  even when' they're 'not together'
Helen Mirren is an Oscar winner herself, but admitted she was brought to tears when watching the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday.

In an interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show Friday, the actress, 77, who was there promoting her latest film, Shazam!: Fury of the Gods, said she was in a restaurant when her friend Brendan Fraser, 54, won the Best Actor award for his work in The Whale.

'I cried when Brendan Fraser got the award,' she revealed as she sat primly in a bright yellow frock with long sleeves and an A-line skirt.

She accessorized the look with black belt and a black headband tied around her long blonde hair.

'That's so cool,' commented Kelly, 40, 'he did such an incredible job.'

Emotional moment: Helen Mirren, 77, is an Oscar winner herself, but admitted she was brought to tears when watching the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday. 'I cried when Brendan Fraser got the award,' she revealed on The Kelly Clarkson Show Friday

'I cried when Brendan Fraser got the award,' she revealed as she sat primly in a bright yellow frock with long sleeves and an A-line skirt (her pal pictured last weekend with his trophy)

Brendan and Helen had worked together in the 2008 fantasy film Inkheart.

The film focuses on a teenage girl who discovers her father has an amazing talent to bring characters out of their books.

When a villainous character escapes, she, her father and aunt must work together to keep the bad guy from destroying them all.

'He's such a lovely person,' the Emmy winner said of her former co-star.

'I'm sure you know what a beautiful man he is. He's a magical man, I think.

She continued: 'And he was clearly very, very moved, it was a huge moment for him, so it was the right person for me, the way he responded to it, I just found it very.' moving.

The performer went on to add that she thought his win ;was the highlight' for her 'of the whole show.'

'I love that when you're rooting for someone,' said Kelly, 'because you believe in them, or their project, or whatever it might be, and they win. That's a good feeling for everyone involved.

'It's great,' agreed the Stronger artist.

Magic: Helen told Kelly, 40, she was in a restaurant when she saw Brendan's acceptance speech. 'He's such a lovely person,' the Emmy winner said of her former co-star, 'He's a magical man, I think.' Kelly agreed adding, 'That's so cool, he did such an incredible job'

Shazam!: Helen was on The Kelly Clarkson Show to promote her latest film Shazam! Fury of the Gods, seen here with co-star Lucy Liu

Inkheart: Brendan and Helen had worked together in the 2008 fantasy film Inkheart. Helen starred as the aunt of a teenage girl who discovers her father has an amazing talent to bring characters out of their books

Helen had her own special moment when she returned to London after receiving her Best Actress award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.

'While waiting at baggage claim, someone spotted me and started applauding,' the versatile actress told Variety.

'Word started traveling, and soon the whole baggage hall was applauding.'

Helen just happened to be storing her statue in her carryon bag.

'It was so incredible. Of course, I couldnt resist  I reached into my bag and got my Oscar and held it up. I cried, I have to say; it was so touching and lovely.'

Oscar: Helen won her own Best Actress Oscar award in 2007

The Queen: The versatile actress won the Academy Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen

Special experience: Helen had her own special experience at the airport in London when returning home from her Oscar win. 'While waiting at baggage claim, someone spotted me and started applauding. Word started traveling, and soon the whole baggage hall was applauding'

The BAFTA winner is set for a busy 2023.

She has three films opening this year, including reprising her role as Queenie in the latest chapter of the Fast and Furious franchise, Fast X.

She will also appear in the highly anticipated Barbie, with Margo Robbie and Ryan Gosling, as well as White Bird: A Wonder Story, a period piece about the importance of being kind to others.

Helen has been signed to star as a reclusive author in the crime drama Switzerland, and will be directed by her husband, Taylor Hackford, in Sniff, co-starring Al Pacino, Morgan Freeman and Danny DeVito.
Melanie Lynskey has revealed that her husband made a secret appearance on The Last of Us as a stunt person.

The actress, 45, appeared in a two-episode guest role as Kathleen, the leader of a group of revolutionaries in Kansas City in the series.

Her story ends in a big shootout, as the survivors are attacked by a herd of clickers, the show's name for the terrifying former humans who are now infected by a parasitic fungus, and track their victims through sound.

But as it turns out, Melanie's real-life husband actor Jason was one of those clickers - and she even fired at him during a scene in episode five.

According to the actress it has always been a 'life-long dream' of Jason's to be a stunt performer.

Cameo: Melanie Lynskey has revealed that her husband Jason Ritter made a secret appearance on the Last of Us as a stunt person

Speaking on Jimmy Fallon, she said: 'He was a stunt person. He trained with the stunt people. And he just did all these amazing stunts.

'It's like his lifelong dream he got put in the makeup and he came out of the ground and was falling over. I shot him once!'

Fallon then shared a photo of the pair behind the scenes, with Ritter in full clicker makeup, to which Melanie replied, 'so romantic'.

The married actors have previously worked together when Jason made a guest star appearance in Melanie's Hulu true-crime series Candy, which she starred in with Jessica Biel.

Jason is also set to have a little-known guest role in the upcoming season of Showtime's Yellowjackets, which releases its second season next week (March 24).

It comes after Melanie called out model Adrianne Curry for saying her body type wasn't one of a 'post apocalyptic warlord'.

Adrianne, 40, winner of the first season of America's Next Top Model in 2003, shared an image of Lynskey from a magazine photoshoot, adding, 'her body says life of luxury... not post apocalyptic warlord. Where's Linda Hamilton when you need her?' referring to Hamilton's portrayal of Sarah Connor in The Terminator franchise.

While Adrianne ultimately deleted the tweet, Melanie took to Twitter to defend herself.

'Romantic': Melanie, 45, appeared in a two-episode guest role as the leader of a group of revolutionaries in Kansas City in the series where Joel ( Pedro Pascal ) and Ellie ( Bella Ramsey ) come across this vindictive leader - and even 'shot' her husband

Tense: Her story ends in a big shoot-out, as the survivors are attacked by a herd of clickers the show's name for the terrifying former humans who are now controlled by a parasitic fungus that was mutated by global warming

First, she made it clear to her 167,000 Twitter followers that the photo Adrianne selected was not from The Last of Us, adding she didn't need to be 'muscly' to be an overlord.

'Firstly- this is a photo from my cover shoot for InStyle magazine, not a still from HBO's The Last Of Us,' Lynskey began.

'And I'm playing a person who meticulously planned & executed an overthrow of FEDRA. I am supposed to be SMART, ma'am. I don't need to be muscly. That's what henchmen are for,' she concluded.

While Curry deleted the original tweet, she continued to defend it to many others who called her out.

'She edited out my tweet where I said she had a perfect hour glass frame that I did not associate with warriors. Actors taking character criticism as personal attacks is mind blowing,' Curry said.

Curry responded to another fan adding, 'I'm not allowed to say I didn't find the fictional character believable due to her soft voice, small stature and curvy frame. Fictional. Not real.'

She also said in another tweet, 'Next up, Jason Mamoa will find my criticism of his portrayal of AQUAMAN and will put me in my place with a strongly worded tweet on why he IS the perfect Arthur Curry.'

Action: Melanie's real-life husband actor Jason was one of those clickers - and she even fired at him during a scene in episode five

While Curry continued to defend her since-deleted tweet, Lynskey opened up in several tweets about why she was thrilled to work on The Last Of Us.

'Other than getting to work with creative geniuses who I respect and admire (Neil & Craig) the thing that excited me most about doing#TheLastOfUs is that my casting suggested the possibility of a future in which people start listening to the person with the best ideas,' she began.

'Not the coolest or the toughest person. The organiser. The person who knows where everything is. The person who is doing the planning. The person who can multitask. The one who's decisive,' she added.

'Women, and especially women in leadership positions, are scrutinized incessantly. Her voice is too shrill. Her voice is too quiet. She pays too much attention to how she looks. She doesn't pay enough attention to how she looks. She's too angry. She's not angry enough,' Lynskey continued.

'I was excited at the idea of playing a woman who had, in a desperate and tragic time, jumped into a role she had never planned on having and nobody else had planned on her having, and then she actually got s**t done,' she added.

'I wanted her to look like she should have a notepad on her at all times. I wanted her to be feminine, and soft-voiced, and all the things that we've been told are 'weak'. Because honestly, f**k that,' Lynskey proclaimed.

'I understand that some people are mad that I'm not the typical casting for this role. That's thrilling to me. Other than the moments after action is called, when you feel like you're actually in someone else's body, the most exciting part of my job is subverting expectations,' she added.
Jacqueline Jossa looked incredible as she flaunted her figure in looks from her new occasion wear range in a slew of sizzling snaps shared to her Instagram page.

The actress, 30, slipped into a range of looks as she shared the In The Style collection with her followers ahead of its launch.

For her first look, Jacqueline showed off her incredible curves in a black satin-two piece.

Flashing her midriff, she put on a gorgeous display in the halter neck top teamed with a flowy black skirt.

The star put one arm up on the wall and another on her hip as she posed up a storm in the snaps.

Beauty: Jacqueline Jossa looked incredible as she flaunted her figure in looks from her new occasion wear range in a slew of sizzling snaps shared to her Instagram page

She styled her brunette tresses in loose waves and flaunted a stunning palette of make up.

She added inches to her gorgeous frame with a pair of white strappy heels.

In another snap, Jacqueline put her hands on her hips as she showcased a black crochet playsuit.

Flashing some skin, the gorgeous number hugged her waist and flashed her bra.

The number featured a buttoned up detail running down her chest and a lace detail along the hem.

Channeling summer chic, Jacqueline then carried a cocktail in hand as she posed in a bright pink blazer and matching shorts.

She added a floral print crop top to once again highlight her gorgeous figure.

Keeping in the summer spirit, she then threw on a pink and white floral dress and white lace dress.

Gorgeous: The actress, 30, slipped into a range of looks as she showcased the In The Style collection with her followers ahead of its launch

Turning heads: Channeling summer chic, Jacqueline then carried a cocktail in hand as she posed in a bright pink blazer and matching shorts

For her final look, Jacqueline put on a leggy display in a pink skirt and white vest.

The pink number featured a slit along her leg and ruffled detail around the waist.

Posting the collection on her social media, she wrote: 'All I can say is WOW! This next collection absolutely bangs! Every outfit , every colour, every fabric I think its the best one ever! (ad).

'This @inthestyle collection drops on Monday, its an occasion drop but to be honest the outfits work for holiday, nights out the lot! Im so proud of this one and I think its going to sell out fast so make sure you are ready for Monday 7pm'.

It comes after Jacqueline showed off her incredible figure on Wednesday evening as she posed for a slew of sizzling social media snaps.

The actress put on a busty display in a plunging black swimsuit with a belt that cinched in her waist.

She sported a flawless glam makeup look, which consisted of a bronzed base and a glossy nude lip.

Her brunette locks were styled in loose curls as she showed off her stunning new beachwear.

Alongside the post she penned: 'They say self confidence is the best thing you can wear. But good swimwear always helps.

'I saw the recent @inthestyle campaign of their new swimwear and asked Adam if I could have some so I tried it today for the first time and WOW!!! Its comfortable but synches you in so good! 10/10 from me guys!'

Chic: Keeping in the summer spirit, she then threw on a pink and white floral dress and white lace dress

Gorgeous: The beauty showcased a gorgeous white dress as she posed up a storm for the Instagram snaps

Leggy: For her final look, Jacqueline put on a leggy display in a pink skirt and white vest

Jacqueline and her husband Dan Osborne, who have two children, Mia and Ella, have been putting on a united display after shutting down rumours their marriage is on the rocks.

The couple recently jetted off to the Maldives together, with speculation rife that the holiday was a last-minute attempt to save the relationship.

However, Jacqueline addressed the rumours, stating that the holiday had been planned for several months, with Dan saving up to treat her.

Speaking to the Soap On The Box podcast, she said: 'This is a holiday that my husband has been saving up for, like most people would have to save up for, saving up to treat me on my 30th birthday.

'For over a year saving up to try and take me there.

'Then it gets turned into a make or break. Who has that sort of money to just go, "Right. Babe, we're struggling. I'm going to whisk you off to the Maldives".'

This comes after Dan was arrested at Jacqueline's 30th birthday party in November following an alleged assault, but faces no further action.

The ex Celebrity Big Brother housemate was led away from the Essex mansion he shares with his actress wife in handcuffs at 3am.

An Essex Police spokesperson told MailOnline: 'A 31 year-old man arrested has been told he faces no further action.'

Wow! Jacqueline Jossa off her incredible figure on Wednesday evening as she posed for a slew of sizzling social media snaps

Family: Jacqueline tied the knot with former TOWIE star Dan in 2017 and they also share daughter Ella, seven. Dan also has a son Teddy, nine, who he shares with his ex Megan Tomlin

Jacqueline recently shut down reports that claimed she is set to comeback to EastEnders full time.

Last month, Jac returned to Albert Square to reprise her role as Lauren Branning for the first time since leaving the soap in 2017.

Penning a lengthy message to social media she made it clear that she is 'not coming back to the square full time' as she thanked fans for their support.

She explained: 'Just been inundated with people being lovely, but thinking I'm coming back to EastEnders full time.

'I don't know if something has been taken out of an interview or been completely made up but either way I'm just shutting down any rumours or stories.

'I am not on the way back the the square full time, it's not in talks, I 100 have not confirmed a return.

'That's also not me saying I would never go back, when and if the time is right, I would love to.'
Emily in Paris' Lily Collins looked giddy as she celebrated her 34th birthday overseas with her husband Charlie McDowell in Japan over the weekend.

After recently gushing about her dreams to start a family with the film director, 39, the 34-year-old Golden Globe nominee shared a glimpse of her latest adventure as she explored Moominvalley Park, located in Hanno, north of Tokyo.

'Touched down in Japan, where my birthday came a little early in this time zone! Celebrations have already begun - first stop: Moominvalley Park,' she captioned her slideshow, which showed her in the theme park.

Moominvalley Park is inspired by the magical world of Moominvalley, from one of the most beloved fairy tales for Japanese people.

The To the Bone actress also included a snap of herself holding a cute birthday desert on a red plate with 'Happy Birthday Lily' on it spelled out in chocolate sauce.

Birthday girl! Emily in Paris' Lily Collins looked giddy as she celebrated her 34th birthday overseas with her husband Charlie McDowell in Japan over the weekend

McDowell appeared to be having a blast as well as he posed for a picture in front of a sign for the theme park.

For their excursion, Collins wore a black leather jacket, red reshirt and a white beanie.

Earlier this month, the daughter of Phil Collins 'love to have a family' with her husband, who she wed in Colorado back in 2021.

'So there's the personal, the work, there's the blending of the two It's always a juggle, but I want it to be  I want to be able to do all the things I enjoy. The key thing is finding out what makes sense for us,' she told Harpers Bazaar.

During the interview, she recalled how well they were seperating their relationship from work on the set of 2021 Windfall.

The actress played the wife of a wealthy CEO, with the couple coming to their holiday home to discover a burglar.

Of working alongside Charlie, she says: 'It was quite seamless because Charlie treated all the cast the same way  he's very much an actor's director. There were times I forgot he was my fiance, because we had such a creative rapport.'

Last month, she shared a sweet snap of them on Valentine's Day with the caption: 'I am the luckiest lady to be yours.'

Fun: After recently gushing about her dreams to start a family with the film director, 39, the 34-year-old Golden Globe nominee shared a glimpse of her latest adventure as she explored Moominvalley Park, located in Hanno, north of Tokyo

'Touched down in Japan, where my birthday came a little early in this time zone! Celebrations have already begun - first stop: Moominvalley Park,' she captioned her slideshow, which showed her in the theme park.

Yum: The To the Bone actress also included a snap of herself holding a cute birthday desert on a red plate with 'Happy Birthday Lily' on it spelled out in chocolate sauce

'My handsome, smart, adventurous, and VERY funny Valentine. Theres no one who makes me smile or laugh like you do,' she continued.

'I adore your heart more than words and am the luckiest lady to be yours today and always. I love you my one,' the performer concluded.

Lily and Charlie met while working on the set of his film Gilded Rage in 2019.

The pair made their first public appearance in 2020, and became engaged during a trip to New Mexico that September.

Lily and Charlie tied the knot in an intimate wedding ceremony in Dunton Hot Springs, Colorado, in September 2021.

Travel buddy: McDowell appeared to be having a blast as well as he posed for a picture in front of a sign for the theme park

Before meeting Lily, Charlie had a long-term relationship with actress Rooney Mara and dated both Emilia Clarke and Hilary Duff.

Lily has also had her fair share of headline-grabbing relationships, including a brief fling with her Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile co-star Zac Efron, 32, in 2012.

Lily previously gushed about her partner's support, which includes helping her 'emotionally get through things, like moving to a foreign country for four months.'

'We can kind of conquer anything. We've been through so many changes,' she told E! News.
It's been nearly a week since Will Young and Jessie Wynter left the Love Island villa.

But the couple, who paired up on day seven of the show, looked happier than ever as they stepped out in London on Saturday night.

The Aussie and Brit packed on the PDA as they looked lovingly at each other and posed for pictures outside the steak restaurant, STK.

The TikTok farmer, 23 and the personal trainer, 26 made sure all eyes were on them, with Will donning a brightly coloured, Hawaiian-style shirt, which he paired with black jeans and purple brogues.

Jessie looked sensational in a green satin top, which showed off her washboard abs and ample cleavage.

All smiles: A week after leaving The love Island villa, Will Young, 23, and Jessie Wynter, 26, looked happier than ever as they stepped out in London on Saturday night

Kiss me quick: The Aussie and Brit made sure all eyes were on them as they posed for pictures and locked lips outside steak restaurant STK

She scraped her dark tresses back into a plaited ponytail and opted for a natural makeup palette.

Since their arrival on UK soil, Jessie has already taken a trip to Will's farm and revealed that their first date was in fact a late night shop in the local Tesco.

She told The Mirror: 'We went to Tesco for our first date  we did the big shop, picked up some snacks. Then we went to the village pub for steak and chips and a chicken burger.

'It was so nice to get out of the villa, and since we've left we've been a lot happier. We don't have people interfering in our relationship.'

Meanwhile Will gushed about having found the love of his life on the ITV2 show and how he has big hopes for their future.

He said: 'I wouldn't be with her if I thought she wasn't marriage material. Our plan is to split our time between the UK and Tasmania.'

Will and Jessie missed out on reaching the show's final by one day after failing to secure the public vote after all of the couples were asked to pick which pair they thought was the least compatible.

But that doesn't seem to have deterred any future plans for the pair, with Will being open to travel in order to keep their relationship alive.

Perfect pairing: The TikTok farmer was an original cast member on this year's Winter Love Island whereas Jessie arrived on day seven as a bombshell

Putting in the effort: Despite the long distance, the couple are determined to make this work with Will admitting it would be be unfair for Jessie to move to the UK

Putting in the effort: Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, they told of their keenness to live and work together on Will's Buckinghamshire farm just in time for lambing season

Living the life of luxury: Since landing back in the UK Jessie says the two have been having a great time on the farm, where she met the sheep and even having a first date in Tesco's

After leaving South Africa, the sheep farmer said: 'I think it's very fair to say I would go to Australia.

'A relationship is a two-way thing. It would be unfair for me to rely on Jessie moving here 100%. Australia has always been a place I'd like to go to and travel.'

Yet despite his willingness to fly half way round the world, Will has made sure to show Jessie all the important sights of the UK whilst she's here, including Buckingham Palace and of course, the local Tesco.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, they told of their keenness to live and work together on Will's Buckinghamshire farm just in time for lambing season.

Their decision comes after Will revealed veteran Countryfile host John Craven 'slid into his DMs' to congratulate him for endorsing farming to younger audiences.

Will said: 'Jessie is moving to the farm for the next month or two and she will be doing lambing and all of that, which I'm super, super excited about.

'When she visited for the first time this week, I gave her some wellies and she was getting really stuck in and feeding the animals, it made me fall in love with her even more.'

Will, 23, and Jessie, 26, spent one night apart when they landed on UK soil but the smitten couple, who met eight weeks ago on the dating series, say they found being separated 'horrible.'

Indeed, the frisky pair admit they've barely left the bedroom now the cameras are no longer rolling.

Jessie said: 'It's 100 times better now we're out the villa. It is a million times better, I'll tell you that much.'
Britain's Got Talent has reportedly got into some hot water with an 'inappropriate' prank between auditions - which saw Simon Cowell pretend to be seriously injured.

The talent show is currently filming for its new series and has been welcoming a slew of hopeful acts to the stage to show what they can do.

But one moment during filming is said to have featured judges Bruno Tonioli and Simon, 63, take their own turn as the former appeared the butt of the joke.

The new judge, 67, was given a crossbow to fire at his music mogul boss - but was spooked after Simon pretended to be taken down and hurt by the arrow - which, according to The Sun, caused some offence amongst the live audience.

It wouldn't be the first time the Syco boss has played this trick either, previously carrying out the exact same joke on America's Got Talent.

Divided: Britain's Got Talent has caused controversy with an alleged 'inappropriate' prank which saw Bruno Tonioli 'shoot Simon Cowell with crossbow'

Prank: The new judge, 67, was given a crossbow to fire at his music mogul boss - but was spooked after Simon pretended to be taken down and hurt by the arrow

One TikTok user shared a clip of the moment, where Strictly judge Bruno is said to have been fooled into thinking he shot Simon down dead in front of the live audience - with the prank being dubbed disrespectful by actual victims.

The publication reports that prior to Simon's prank, an act was on stage performing a routine of shooting balloons.

Deciding to have a laugh between acts, Simon and Bruno are then said to have taken to the stage with a crossbow too - with the latter being blindfolded.

He was then allegedly told to fire it, unknowing that the long-standing judge was ready to pretend he had been shot by him by having a rigged crossbow stuck into his chest by crew.

Simon is said to have lay down on the floor playing dead as a paramedic rushed to help him in front of the live audience - leaving Bruno shellshocked.

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Bruno Tonioli, Simon Cowell and Britain's Got Talent for comment.

While all is said to have then been laughed over after Simon admitted he wasn't serious, some fans were less than impressed with the prank choice.

The Sun reports that crossbow attack victim Laura Sugden said: 'I can't believe it's even allowed on the show. It's not regulated, but it's a lethal weapon.

One trick pony: It wouldn't be the first time the Syco boss has played this trick either, previously carrying out the exact same joke on America's Got Talent (pictured on AGT in 2021)

Plan of action: Deciding to have a laugh between acts, Simon and Bruno are then said to have taken to the stage with a crossbow too - with the latter being blindfolded

Medical help: Simon is said to have lay down on the floor playing dead as a paramedic rushed to help him in front of the live audience - leaving Bruno shellshocked

And again: Simon previously carried out the exact same prank on AGT, where he lay on his back and pretended to be unable to move - with a false arrow in his chest (pictured in 2021)

'I've been in a situation where I've lost somebody. For Britain's Got Talent to showcase that as a prank I just find really disrespectful.'

Bruno was assumably an easy target for Simon as the newest judge to join the show this year, replacing David Walliams.

The former Strictly Come Dancing judge reportedly told pals he didn't know right away that the BGT incident was a stunt  and he thought it was 'inappropriate'.

A source close to the star added that he stunt felt wrong in light of the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while working with Alec Baldwin on his film set in October 2021.

However, a BGT source told the publication: 'This is a light-hearted skit in the show between the judges  and not meant to cause any offence at all.'

Simon has actually carried out the exact same prank before on America's Got Talent back in 2021 - instead choosing Sofia Vergara as his victim that time.

With the exact same turn of events happening that time, which was aired on the show, Sofia was left in shock while convinced she had hurt him.

But revealing that he was joking and pulling the arrow from his chest, Simon was in fits of laughter as a relieved Sofia managed to see the funny side too.

Since joining the BGT panel, Bruno has been at the centre of an abundance of feud rumours with his fellow panel - as judge Alesha Dixon has admitted that he is 'absolutely exhausting' to work with.

Speaking on her new fellow judge during an appearance on Capital Breakfast recently, the singer joked that the former Strictly Come Dancing judge 'does not know how to sit still'.

She said: 'Yeah he does not know how to sit still. It's like sitting next to an excitable puppy, I'm not even exaggerating.

'The first day I was like, what is happening here? It's absolutely exhausting.'

The talent judge also joked she could manage a kindergarten 'a lot better than I could manage Bruno'.

While before filming kicked off, Amanda Holden and Alesha reportedly refused to sign contracts for the latest series as they were said to be furious that new judge Bruno had been offered a salary to match their own - an estimated 850,000.

According to The Sun, Amanda and Alesha sent the latest series into chaos with bosses scrambling to secure the TV favourites ahead of filming in London last month.

A source told the publication at the time: 'Amanda has been on BGT for 17 years, while Alesha is going into her eleventh year. They don't think it's fair a newcomer could walk into the show and be handed the same deal as them'.

Worried: That time, Sofia was the victim as she was the one doing the 'shooting' and was relieved to learn that he wasn't injured
Pope Francis held an audience Saturday for refugees brought to Europe through a Christian-led corridor scheme

Pope Francis on Saturday greeted thousands of refugees brought to Europe by Christian charities, recognising their difficult journeys and hailing their desire to "live free from fear and insecurity".

At the Paul VI hall in the Vatican, the 86-year-old pontiff also thanked those who helped the refugees settle into their new lives, saying that "welcome is the first step towards peace".

The audience included many of the 6,000 people who have been helped to Europe through "humanitarian corridors" run by Christian groups since 2016.

The scheme, initiated by the Catholic Sant'Egidio community in Italy and later extended to France and Belgium, involves people from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Libya and Ukraine among others.

"I am happy to meet so many refugees and their families... each of you deserves attention for the hard history that you have lived," Francis told them.

"You have shown a firm will to live free from fear and insecurity."

He paid particular tribute to those who survived grim conditions in detention camps in Libya, the preferred departure point for many of the tens of thousands of people who try to cross the Mediterranean into Europe each year.

- Limited routes -

The humanitarian corridors were set up to provide an alternative to the deadly sea crossing, where more than 26,000 people have lost their lives since 2014, according to the United Nations.

Saturday's event comes just weeks after a migrant boat was shipwrecked off the southern coast of Italy, leaving at least 87 people dead.

Many of the 6,000 people helped to Europe by Christian groups since 2016 gathered in the Vatican Saturday

In a copy of his speech issued by the Vatican, the pope referenced the disaster, saying "everything possible needs to be done to ensure that it will not be repeated".

He delivered to the audience, however, a much shorter version and did not mention the shipwreck.

Many migrants and asylum seekers turn to leaky, overcrowded boats because legal routes to Europe are limited.

The number of asylum claims in Europe in 2022 reached levels last seen during the 2015-2016 refugee crisis, when more than a million came to the continent.

But the issue of who should take responsibility for the arrivals is a cause of major tension between member states.

- 'A dream' -

Under the corridor scheme, the European governments involved agree to issue visas, which the charities then use to bring over the most vulnerable -- whether victims of persecution, families with children, the elderly or infirm.

When the refugees arrive, the charities provide them with housing, language and skills training, and help them apply for asylum.

The first humanitarian corridor opened was through Lebanon, with Italy offering visas to 1,000 Syrians who had fled there.

A Syrian woman named Anna spoke at Saturday's event, describing her family's journey from Aleppo to Lebanon and then Italy.

The scheme "seemed a dream, the possibility of living in peace", she said, before being greeted by the pope.

Francis said the corridors aimed to ensure "life, salvation and then dignity".

About 5,000 of the refugees brought in since 2016 are in Italy, where the Italian Federation of Evangelical Churches and the Waldensian Church are also involved.

Another 600 went to France, according to Sant'Egidio.
The saga of suffering is recorded by the mother Sagarika Chakraborty in her book The Journey of a Mother'. (Photo: Twitter/@iamsrk)

It has been a decade since an Indian couple was shattered by the stance of the Norwegian government and fought a long-drawn battle to regain the custody of their two children.

The saga of suffering is recorded by the mother Sagarika Chakraborty in her book The Journey of a Mother.

Ashima Chibber, the Hyderabad-born director, decides to give it currency with Rani Mukherjee playing the lead and thus, Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway is born.

The film is multi-layered. Written by a woman, telling the story of a woman and told by a woman, you would hope it has the right sensitivity and it would enhance the Rudyard Kipling declaration that "God could not be at all places and thus created mothers".

We have had directors go to Rani Mukherjee when scripts wanted the central character to be a star who could also perform.

Without much ado, Ashima Chibber gets to the story straight away with three officers of the Velfred (the foster home and child care wing of the Norwegian government) literally kidnapping the infant Suchi and later whisking away the kid Subh from school.

The parents  the Chatterjees (Anibran Bhattacharya), eagerly working towards his citizenship card in Norway and his wife (Rani Mukherjee)  are shocked when the regular visitors who had entered the household 10 weeks ago under the guise of doing a home study show up as a team of ill-meaning rescue team that exhibits neither tact nor concern in the entire episode.

One layer of the story deals with cultural differences between the two nations and their respective versions of how homes should be and how children should be reared. Then there is the over-the-top tale of a typical Indian domestic scenario, where the woman is doing the hard work and the man is calling the shots.

Mrs Chatterjee is the typical mother, making a virtue of an untidy home and burning the candle at both ends to look after her children. These two layers converge in conflict. It could have been a good idea to take the conflict to its logical conclusion and reflect on the differences in the approach and even the differing legal systems.

The director is, however, busy adding more layers and thus, gets in the angle of a father, who cares a tad more for his citizenship card than the well-being of his children. She pushes the envelope further with the members of the Chatterjee family adding their bit after being lampooned as gold-diggers who throw caution to the wind.

Too many of the layers show Mrs Chatterjee fighting the many challenges and as time goes by, you realise it is no longer about Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway but it is more appropriately Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway et al.

The challenges that could have been documented as a well-structured clash between different cultures and systems peter into a tragic melodrama. However, the film keeps you engrossed whenever it is dealing with the clash between the hurt mother and the heartless system guided by regulations and completely indifferent to cultural differences.

A further probe and reflection (even refraction) would have made for some wonderful viewing but again, Bollywood is an archive of missed chances and possibilities. So it is this Friday too.

Rani Mukherjees is the only performance worth talking about and her performance is marred by a lack of consistency.

She is often seen shrieking and shouting as if she were doing a Hindi remake of a South Indian melodrama of the early 60s. However, she is full of poise and poignance in many scenes reliving the trauma of the protagonist who is not only fighting a system but also prejudice.

She peaks when pushed and reiterates her quality as an actress. Directors flock to her or Vidya Balan when they have scripts with heavy-duty drama.

It is Rani who tries hard to keep things going here. She tries and there lies the tragedy of Ms Chatterjee Vs Norway.

Interestingly, the Norwegian ambassador has made his view known and has spoken of how his government is genuinely concerned about children and how a happy child is an asset. He has mildly questioned the portrayal and the narrative.

However, we live in times when narratives are accepted only when they are exaggerated and one-sided. I guess the filmmaker was, at best, making use of the shortcomings of the time.
Cover photo of 'The Inheritors' by Nadeem Zaman. (Photo by arrangement)

Nisar Chowdhury visits Bangladesh after almost 30 years  his family had moved to the USA when he was in his early teens. "We led a prosperous life in Dhaka, steeped in privilege. We, along with the country, weathered violent coups, two assassinations of heads of state, and a long military dictatorship, at the end of which my father had had enough. The country hed envisioned after independence had been a heartbreaking let down."

Nisar has memories of Bangladesh of course, but absolutely none of the nostalgia his parents occasionally wallow in, nor any interest in news of relatives left behind  which, he discovers, puts him at a disadvantage later. His father has been slowly selling chunks of his ancestral property, and now wants liquidate all of it. Forbidden to travel after a heart attack, he sends Nisar to do the deed. Not that Nisar objects  he has been contemplating writing a book about the place of his birth.

Once in Dhaka, Nisar gets a warm welcome from his older cousin Disha (hed had a childhood crush on her), loyal family retainers, etc, but his fathers long-time lawyer, Mr Ehsan, seems less enthusiastic about his presence. Then theres his wealthy, generous, and gentle neighbour, Gazi, who bought a bit of the property sold by his father earlier, and now offers to buy all of it.

Nisar wonders why, and wonders some more when he stumbles upon the history between Gazi and his cousin. No one seems to tell the truth in Dhaka, not even his cousin, but gossip rules. As someone warns him, "Theres a lot of talk in this town about what isnt true, but try telling the truth and youre blacklisted."

He spends his days visiting historic spots, writing occasionally, and trying to get in touch with his fathers elusive and decidedly shady lawyer who starts avoiding Nisars calls when he wants to see bank statements. Perhaps the gossip he heard about Mr Ehsan is true, after all? His nights are spent socialising with the rich and powerful  their Dhaka is different, filled with parties, art galleries, book launches, fashion shows, weekends in Thailand, etc.

The more Nisar learns about the people he hangs around with, the more he gets embroiled in their messy relationships, and the more confused he becomes. Nisar himself is an interesting character, with a brief, failed marriage behind him, and a laid-back take on life and relationships. Even so, his cousin never ceases to astonish and unsettle him. Could she possibly have something to do with the fact that Gazi wants to buy his property?

The Inheritors is an absolute joy to read. It packs in so much in a tight frame: The past and the present, difficult relationships, life in Bangladesh, which seems startlingly similar to life in India with its completely different laws for the rich, and where journalists are just "mouthpieces for whoever is in charge," etc. The characters are complex, and the pace is perfect  it never drags, not even for a second.

The Inheritors

By Nadeem Zaman

Hachette India

pp. 247, Rs.450
Fire department DG Y. Nagi Reddy IPS conducted summer preparedness meeting with all DFOs of Telangana state. (Photo: Twitter)

Hyderabad: The city has 774 commercial structures are not fire safety compliant but anyway house 1,923 shops. A multidisciplinary team, comprising officials from police, revenue, State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and GHMC Disaster Response Force (DRF), has identified these vulnerable structures after a pilot survey.

The survey was conducted only on a single stretch across all six zones to identify commercial structures that do not adhere to fire safety norms.

Paradise Hotel and Tristar Hotel in Secunderabad apart from other 15 structures across Hyderabad are notified as high-risk structures as they pose grave threat to residents in the neighbourhood.

The multi-disciplinary team has shortlisted one stretch in each of six zones, including Secunderabad, Khairatabad, Charminar, LB Nagar, Serilingampally and Kukatpally.

Teams have found out that 774 structures (below five floors) with 1,923 shops did not install fire safety equipment, while there were 124 structures that are above five floors. They had identified 17 structures that were potential threats and one of them was Swapnalok complex, which claimed five lives, in the absence of fire safety equipment.

Fire department DG Y. Nagi Reddy, who visited the spot, was briefed by officials about the incident. "On receiving the call, we immediately reached the spot and rescued 12 persons. However, during further search operations, we realized that six persons were still in a room and they were all unconscious. They were shifted to the hospital, where they died," Nagi Reddy said.

Though there was fire safety equipment in place, it was not operational.

"The building set back was good and thus our personnel were able to bring in the vehicle and fight the fire," the DG said.

It can be recalled that the fire department personnel had recently convened a meeting with regard to the importance of abiding by fire safety norms by all establishments. "Our officials had recently inspected the complex and warned them to set up fire systems, but they did not act in time," the DG added.

However, a senior team member, requesting anonymity, told Deccan Chronicle that notices were served to the property owners to install fire safety equipment within 15 days and in the meantime, the accident happened. Once the time given to them expires in the next three days, GHMC will seize the properties as they pose a grave threat.

The official said as per the standard instructions, each shop or establishment should install extinguishers per the ruling-for every 100 square meters six-kg powder fire extinguisher and 4.5 kg Co2 fire extinguisher, oil storages like petrol bunks and oil shops should install two foam fire extinguishers per 100 square meters and each shop or establishment should install two smoke detectors per 100 square meters. He said that authorities will seize properties that violate norms and they will face legal action. He said that a comprehensive survey will be conducted soon to check the fire safety of each structure and shop.
YSRC chief and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy welcomes former TD MLA Pasala Kanaka Sundar Rao into the party on Saturday (Photo by arrangement)

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will release funds for the Jagananna Vidya Deevena scheme by pressing a button at a function near the market yard at Thiruvuru on Sunday. With that one click, he will be transferring Rs 698.68 crore to around 9.86 lakh students towards the October-December 2022 quarter directly into the bank accounts of mothers of students.

Officials said that under the scheme, which is endeavoured to provide higher education to student from poor families, the state government is reimbursing total fee on a quarterly basis to mothers of students pursuing ITI, polytechnic, degree, engineering, medicine and other courses, without any limit on number of eligible children in a family. It also provides for boarding and lodging expenses. As per the break-up, an assistance of Rs 20,000 is extended to students pursuing degree, engineering and medicine Rs 15, 000 for polytechnic students and Rs 10,000 to ITI students in two instalments. The second tranche of Jagananna Vasathi Deevena for this year will be deposited on April 11.

The government has so far paid Rs 13,311 crore towards 'Jagananna Vidya Deevena' and 'Jagananna Vasathi Deevena' schemes, including arrears of Rs 1,778 crore kept pending by the TD government since 2017.

The number of students who passed Intermediate but could not pursue further in 2018-19 was 81,813. However, with the effective implementation of the two schemes, the number has come down to 22,387 in 2022-23. The drop-out percentage in entry to higher education has dropped significantly from 20.37% in 2018-19 to 6.62% in 2022-23 against the national average of 27%.

The Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) for 2018-19 was recorded at 32.4, which increased to 37.2 in 2020-21. The average number of girls enrolling in colleges per 100 boys has increased from 81 in 2018-19 to 94 in 2020-21 (GPI). Campus placements have made a quantum jump from 37,000 in 2018-19 to 85,000 in 2021-22.
BJP activists led by state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar protest at Telangana Martyrs Memorial, Gunpark in Hyderabad demanding an inquiry by sitting judge into TPSC irregularities. (P. Surendra/DC)

HYDERABAD: The leakage of TSPSC question papers for recruitments to various posts is showing every sign of developing into a bitter political battle between the BRS and the extremely vocal BJP which has been searching for issues to beat the ruling party with, in the run-up to the Assembly elections towards the end of this year.

The ferocity of the BJPs attack on the state government and its demand for the sacking of IT minister K.T. Rama Rao, along with a demand for a probe by a judge of the High Court, appears to have pushed the ruling party into a defensive mode with Rama Rao issuing a rebuttal and targeting state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar.

The approach of the BRS leadership appears to hinge on an argument that goes on the lines of your party did too in other states. In support of this strategy, it has been circulating data on the number of times question papers were leaked in BJP-ruled states since 2014.

This is not the first time that the issue of exams and their poor conduct, or handling of the results, have led to a lot of heartburn among people, with Opposition parties latching on to the issue and demanding accountability. Such was the case when intermediate exam results were announced in 2019 and within a week 19 students died by suicide after they were declared failed. Then too, allegations were levelled about a private firm that was given the contract for processing the results and doubts were raised if the firm, alleged to have contacts with those at the highest level in the government, did a proper job.

It can be said with a fair degree of certainty that the state government, despite its claims of deploying technology for conduct of exams, has either not done its homework or has failed in executing its plans in a fail-safe manner. As recently as in last October, when the now cancelled Group I preliminary exam was held, a number of candidates who made it to their centres could not take the test for the simple reason that the biometric attendance systems did not function properly.

The state government had then emerged relatively unscathed, but this time around, the response from the BRS indicates that it realises it is dealing with an extremely emotive issue. After all, one of the biggest promises it had made was providing jobs to the youths as part of its neellu, nidhulu, niyamakalu slogan. The question paper leakage leaves some 50 lakh families in angst, and worry about the future job prospects, coupled with a nagging doubt that will now not go away about the honesty of the recruitment process.

Just for the Group I preliminary exams held last October some 3.8 lakh youth had registered but the fall-out of the question paper leakage has meant that it will be back to the study grind for them as the TSPSC on Friday announced that it was cancelling that particular exam.

Estimates are that the hopes and aspirations of youth from some 50 lakh families rest on the exams held, or are to be held by the TSPSC as part of the BRS governments promise of filling some one lakh odd vacancies in the government. It is this crashing of hope that the BJP is seeking to channelize into support for itself, while the BRS has chosen to attack the attacker saying the latter has no credibility in the first place.
Family members of the diseased who died in fire accident at swapna lok complex at secundrabad mourning after their death of there daughters at gandhi hospital on Friday (Photo: Deepak Deshpande)

HYDERABAD: Heart-wrenching scenes were all over Gandhi hospital mortuary on Friday with family members, relatives, friends and colleagues of the six victims of the Swapnalok fire tragedy wailing inconsolably.

All the six were educated and aged between 22 and 23 years. Lack of jobs in rural areas had pushed them into the scam-accused QNet Vihaan Direct Selling Pvt Ltd, where they paid a deposit to get a job. They were in their office on the fifth floor of the commercial complex when the fire broke out.

" My daughter explained that if we pay this company, they will train her for one month and then we can earn big money each month. We paid around Rs 2 lakh," said her father J. Bandrufrom Sureshnagar in Mahbubabad.

Rajini Gudipaka, an engineer from Warangal, paid Rs 1.6 lakh. "I fell into the trap, listening to their false promises and motivational speakers. They brainwashed us. We wanted to leave but our money was stuck with the company," she said.

The company has a workforce of 300, most of them from lower middle class and rural areas of Khammam, Warangal, Medak, Mahbubabad and Kothagudam. "Lack of employment pushed us to put money with the firm. We were all misled with their sweet talk," said Hari, an engineer.

Maisa Akhila, resident of Khammam, worked with Q-Net for eight months after paying Rs 2 lakh.

"They forced us to build the chain with more members. We are supposed to sell foreign products and we make around Rs 15,000 per month,"Akhila said.

Appikatla Nikhil from Kothagudam said "Once we pay, there is no exit. They force us to promote international products and tough targets are given."

The family members who lost their kin spent the night drenched in rain at the Gandhi Hospital emergency block, waiting for doctors to give them good news, something that never came.

One of the victims, G. Prashanth, had invested with the firm just 20 days back. "He left the house early in the morning. He said he would call if he got late but did not call till 6.30 pm," his father G. Janardhan said.

"One of his friends, Kamlesh Naik, informed me that there was a fire mishap and Prashanth was trapped inside the building. We rushed to the building and were told to go to Gandhi Hospital. The doctors informed us that they were performing CPR but it did not work," said Janardhan, a farmer from Intiken in Mahbubabad district.

Ramarao, who lost his only daughter Triveni, said she called him at 7.20 pm and said that she was trapped inside the building along with several others.

"She was coughing while she was talking. I told her to get out of the office. She said that the fire in the opposite office was massive and there was no other exit. That was the last time that I spoke to my only daughter."

One of the victims, Sravani, had called her elder Bhavani and told her that there was a fire mishap in the building. "Our office is full of smoke, its pitch dark and the power is shut off. Akka please do something and save me," was her emotionally-choked plea," Bhavani said.

"My daughter B. Sravani, had completed her BTech from a college in Kodad recently and was working in QNet. I had given her Rs 1.5 lakh after she said she got a good option to earn money," Narsimha, the victim's father, and mother Padma, said.

While others who were in the complex and had inhaled poisonous gas are undergoing treatment in Yashoda and Apollo hospitals in Secunderabad. They have been identified as M. Ravi, Bharathamma, Jangaiah, M. Raju and Jangaiah. Bharathamma is Jangaiahs wife while Raju and Ravi are their children.

Mahankali police are investigating.
Minister Vidadala Rajini. (Photo: Twitter)

VIJAYAWADA: Turning down sharp criticism of the health department by the Opposition Telugu Desam MLAs, who said there was hardly any patient and drugs at some government hospitals, minister Vidadala Rajini on Friday dared them to visit any hospital and prove this.

The minister was replying during the question hour in the state legislative council and explaining the "revolutionary steps" the present government took to make healthcare facilities accessible to the people across the state.

On the third day of the meet, TD member Chikkala Ramachandra Rao and others alleged that the YSR Congress government failed to clear the Aarogyasri arrears worth several crores and several government hospitals were having no patients and no drugs. Some hospitals are supplying expired drugs, they alleged.

The minister said these were baseless allegations. It was the YSRC government that cleared the Aarogyasri arrears worth Rs 632 crore that had been kept pending by the previous TD government, she said.

She asked the TD members to introspect on what they did in the health sector during their stint.

The minister said the state government was committed to develop all government health facilities on par with corporate hospitals and to match those with the public health standards. "Teaching hospitals are being upgraded as per norms of the National Medical Council. Under the family doctor programme, PHC doctors would visit the YSR health clinics twice every month on rotation basis as per a fixed schedule to provide health care to the people at the village level," she said.

Rajini said the government was according priority for the healthcare sector in an unprecedented manner and set up 10,032 YSR village health clinics, sanctioned 88 new PHCs and 63 co-located PHCs and 301 new UPHCs in addition to the established 259 such.

She said there was zero vacancy position in the health wing as the present government has recruited 48,639 persons to work at various levels from paramedic to specialist doctor. "In addition, we expanded the list of illnesses to be covered under YSR Aarogyasri to 3,255. Under Nadu-Nadu, we are spending Rs 16,852 crore to strengthen and develop health care centres by providing them with several amenities," she said.

The minister said cancer was notified and was being covered under the Aarogyasri scheme to provide treatment to the patients.
TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy addresses a street corner meeting in Armoor, Nizamabad district on Friday night, as part of the Haath se Haath Jodo Yatra. (Photo: By Arrangement)

Armoor: TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy said that the Congress after forming government would set up a corporation for Gulf returnees. It would formulate a Gulf workers welfare policy, in veiw of the large number of youths going to the Gulf nations for livelihood, he said.

Walking in Armoor Assembly constituency on Friday as part of the Haath se Haath Jodo padayatra, Revanth Reddy met people on the way, the family members of Gulf returnees, Dalit organisations and JAC leaders. The TPCC chief said that Gulf workers were cheated by agents and a few of them had landed in jail abroad due to lack of valid visas.

A Congerss government would set up a help desk to extend legal aid to workers from the state who fell victim to agents. It would regulate the licensing of agents to stop youths from getting cheated. Gulf workers would also get insurance.

The BRS government had neglected the welfare of such people and their families, he said and demanded that the government verify the employment opportunities in Gulf countries and provide basic training to the workers. He said the government should create a welfare fund for Gulf returnees. He asked if the government even had any data regarding Gulf workers and returnees.

Earlier, Revanth Reddy visited the Lakkampally special economic zone (SEZ) in Nandipet mandal on Friday. He alleged that Armoor MLA A. Jeevan Reddy was harassing the entrepreneurs there. He said that a fitting lesson should be taught to MP Dharmapuri Arvind for cheating farmers by assuring them of a Turmeric Board and then not delivering.
Addressing a protest meeting against the question paper leaks at the Martyrs Memorial opposite the Legislature, Sanjay stuck to his demand of sacking IT minister K.T. Rama Rao from the Cabinet as the leaks were a result of absence of IT security. (Twitter)

HYDERABAD: BJP state president Bandi Sanjay on Friday reiterated his charge that there was a deep-rooted conspiracy behind the TSPSC question paper leak, and declared that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Raos silence "speaks volumes about the issue."

Addressing a protest meeting against the question paper leaks at the Martyrs Memorial opposite the Legislature, Sanjay stuck to his demand of sacking IT minister K.T. Rama Rao from the Cabinet "as the leaks were a result of absence of IT security."

Sanjay alleged, "it is because of Rama Raos inefficiency as the IT minister that the question papers were leaked. Rama Rao also has a role in the land scams being perpetrated through the Dharani portal."

He said: "The BRS government is playing with the lives of 30 lakh unemployed youth in Telangana and while lakhs of jobless youth and their families are agitated over the question paper leaks. Meanwhile, practically the entire state cabinet was in Delhi trying to protect and save one person who is involved in the Delhi liquor scam."

Sanjay said, "Irregularities and scams have become the hallmark of the BRS government. It failed to keep its promise of providing neellu, nidhulu, niyamakalu."

Sanjay also flayed the setting up of a Special Investigation Team for probing the TSPSC question paper leaks. "The SIT will sit and stand as per KCRs directions. If the Chief Minister is sincere about getting to the bottom of the case, then he must order a probe by a sitting judge," the BJP state president said.

After the protest, Sanjay, accompanied by BJP leaders Etala Rajendar, Boora Narsaiah Goud and G. Premender Reddy, attempted to march to the TSPSC office but the police thwarted the effort and arrested them. The arrests were roundly condemned by many BJP leaders including party general secretary Tarun Chugh and vice-president D.K. Aruna. The police later let off Sanjay and the others.
If the Manhattan district attorney were to indict Trump, the 76-year-old would become the first former president to be charged with a crime. (AP /Carolyn Kaster, File)

New York: Former US President Donald Trump said he expects to be "arrested" on Tuesday over hush money allegedly paid to a porn star before the 2016 election, calling on his supporters to protest.

Citing a "leak" from the Manhattan district attorney's office, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday morning: "Leading Republican candidate & former President of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week. Protest, take our nation back!"

The investigation centers on $130,000 paid weeks before the 2016 polls to stop Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, from going public about an affair she says she had with Trump years earlier.

Prosecutors are weighing whether to charge Trump in the case.

If the Manhattan district attorney were to indict Trump, the 76-year-old would become the first former president to be charged with a crime.

Trump's lawyer told CNBC on Friday evening that his client would surrender to face criminal charges if he was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury.

Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.

In his post, written in capital letters, Trump referred to "illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorneys office."
A multi-store building burns after being attacked by Russian airstrike in Avdiivka, Ukraine, Friday, March 17, 2023. (Photo: AP)

KYIV: Widespread Russian attacks continued in Ukraine following the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's commissioner for children's rights.

Ukraine was attacked by 16 Russian drones on Friday night, the Ukrainian Air Force said in the early hours of Saturday.

Writing on Telegram, the air force command said that 11 out of 16 drones were shot down in the central, western and eastern regions. Among areas targeted were the capital, Kyiv, and the western Lviv province.

The head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko, said Ukrainian air defences shot down all drones heading for the Ukrainian capital, while Lviv regional Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi said on Saturday that three of six drones were shot down, with the other three hitting a district bordering Poland.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the attacks were carried out from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov and Russia's Bryansk province, which borders Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military additionally said in its regular update on Saturday morning that Russian forces over the previous 24 hours launched 34 airstrikes, one missile strike and 57 rounds of anti-aircraft fire.

The Facebook update said that falling debris hit the southern Kherson province, damaging seven houses and a kindergarten.

According to the Ukrainian statement, Russia is continuing to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraine's industrial east, focusing attacks on Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka and Shakhtarsk in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk province. Pavlo Kyrylenko, regional Gov. of the Donetsk province, said one person was killed and three wounded when 11 towns and villages in the province were shelled on Friday.

Further west, Russian rockets hit a residential area overnight Friday in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital of the partially occupied province of the same name.

No casualties were reported, but houses were damaged and a catering establishment destroyed, Anatoliy Kurtev of the Zaporizhzhia City Council said.

The International Criminal Court said on Friday that it has issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine, together with Russia's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.

It is the first time the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow and welcomed by Ukraine as a major breakthrough.

Its practical implications, however, could be limited as the chances of Putin facing trial at the ICC are highly unlikely because Moscow does not recognize the court's jurisdiction or extradite its nationals.

UK military officials said Saturday that Russia is likely to widen conscription. In its latest intelligence update, the U.K. defense ministry said that deputies in the Russian Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, introduced a bill on Monday to change the conscription age for men to 21-30, from the current 18-27.

The ministry said that, at the moment, many men aged 18-21 claim exemption from military service because they are in higher education. The change would mean that they would eventually still have to serve. It said the law will likely be passed and come into force in January 2024.
Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has replaced more than 13,000 parts in its products that were hit by US trade sanctions, the Chinese tech giant's founder said, according to a speech transcript posted on Friday by a Chinese university.

According to the transcript of the February speech posted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Ren Zhengfei said Huawei had over the past three years replaced the 13,000 components with domestic Chinese substitutes and had redesigned 4,000 circuit boards for its products.

He said production of circuit boards had "stabilised."

Also Read: US stops granting export licenses for China's Huawei

The remarks, which Reuters could not independently verify, provided a window into Huawei's efforts to bounce back from US trade restrictions. Since 2019, Huawei, a major supplier of equipment used in 5G telecommunications networks, has been the target of successive rounds of US export controls.

Those controls cut off both Huawei's supply of chips from US companies and its access to US technology tools to design its own chips and have them manufactured by partners. The Biden administration last year also banned the sale of new Huawei equipment in the US.

Ren made the remarks in a talk to Chinese technology experts on February 24, the university said. The university posted the transcript on its website on Friday. A US-based Huawei representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Ren said Huawei invested $23.8 billion in research and development in 2022, and "as our profitability improves, we'll continue to increase R&D spending."

The founder said the company had built its own enterprise resource planning system, called MetaERP. To launch in April, it will help run its core business functions, including finance, supply chain and manufacturing operations.

Ren said Huawei has no plans to launch a rival to the wildly popular large language model AI ChatGPT, but said Microsoft Corp , the backer of the application's developer OpenAI, would not be the only dominant player. He said Huawei is focusing on being the "underlying computing power platform" of AI.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Saturday that her country's first cross-border oil pipeline with India will play a vital role in ensuring fuel security in Bangladesh at a time when the world was facing a serious energy crisis due to the Ukraine war.

Hasina said this while virtually inaugurating with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi the 131.5-km Bangladesh-India Friendship Pipeline on Saturday.

Terming India a "true friend" of Bangladesh, Hasina said she wanted this friendship to remain intact.

The pipeline costing Rs 377 crore is part of energy sector cooperation between the two neighbouring countries through which Bangladesh will import petroleum, especially diesel from India.

When many countries across the world are on the verge of a fuel crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine war at that time this pipeline will play a vital role in ensuring the fuel security of our people, Hasina said.

"The friendship pipeline is a milestone achievement in cooperation for the development between the two friendly countries," she said.

Apart from ensuring fuel security, the pipeline will increase the economic growth, she said.

Hasina said the time and expenditure for importing diesel from India will be reduced significantly by this pipeline.

We have settled all our bilateral problems one by one... We are getting cooperation for our development from India," she was quoted as saying by the state-run United News of Bangladesh.

"We're importing 1160MW of power from India. Some more regional and bilateral initiatives in the power sector are under implementation. Our cooperation to this end will be deep-rooted in the days to come," she added.

We will work jointly in the national and international arena. The historic and geographical bond will further consolidate the relations between Bangladesh and India," she said.

Hasina also invited Indian investors to invest in her country.

Modi also spoke at the event joining from his office.

He said the pipeline will start a new chapter in India-Bangladesh relations.

"The pipeline will aid faster development of Bangladesh and will be an excellent example of increasing connectivity between the two countries," he said.

The pipeline will run from the Siliguri-based marketing terminal of the Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) to the Parbatipur depot of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC).

According to the deal, India will send 200,000 tonnes of oil annually in the first three years, 300,000 tonnes per annum in the next three years, 500,000 tonnes annually in the next four years and 1 million tonnes annually afterwards, bdnews24.com reported.

The pipeline with India will cut the transportation cost of fuel oil for Bangladesh by 50 per cent, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said earlier.
A Sessions court here has ordered framing of charges against Faisal Farooq, the owner of Rajdhani school, and 18 others for their alleged involvement in a case of arson, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.

The court was hearing a case where a riotous mob, on the purported instigation of Farooq, allegedly torched DRP School and adjoining properties near Shiv Vihar Tiraha on February 24, 2020. The 18 accused persons were reportedly part of the riotous mob.

According to the prosecution, the mob was using Rajdhani School as its base for the purpose of throwing petrol bombs and stones at the properties of a particular community and also robbed valuable items from the school.

Also Read | 2020 Delhi riots: Court grants bail to seven murder accused

I find that (all) accused personsare liable to be tried for offences punishable under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code read with sections 147 (rioting ) 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon) 302 (murder) 153A (punishment for promoting enmity between different groups on the ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.), 395 (dacoity)...of the IPC, Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala said in an order passed on Friday.

Charges are to be framed against them also under sections 427 (punishment for committing mischief and thereby causing loss or damage to the amount of Rs fifty or upwards), 435 (Mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage to an amount of 100 rupees or upwards), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc.) and 450 (house-trespass in order to the committing of any offence punishable with imprisonment for life) of the IPC, the judge said.

All accused except for Farooq were also liable to be tried under sections 147, 148,153 A, 395,427, 435, 436, 450, 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC read with sections 120 B, 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 188 ( disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC, the judge added.

Faisal Farooq is also liable to be tried for offence punishable under sections 147, 148, 307, 395, 427, 435, 436, 450 of the IPC read with 120 B of the IPC, and for the offence punishable under sections 153A and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the IPC, the judge said.

ASJ Pramachala also put on trial Mohd. Ansar under the provisions of the Arms Act.

Regarding the identification of the accused persons as members of the riotous mob, the judge said the rule of prudence can be applied only after trial, at the time of assessment of the evidence on the parameters of credibility.

Rejecting the arguments for the discharge of the accused, such as call details record (CDR) locations and the delay in registration of FIR and recording statement of witnesses, the judge said, I have considered all these contentions, but I do not find the discharge of any accused being made out on the basis of these contentions, in view of the evidence of identification of all the accused persons as part of the riotous mob.

ASJ Pramachala said while CDR locations were not the basic premise of the prosecution's case and were used as additional evidence, the absence of the test identification parade (TIP) could not be claimed as a ground for discharge.

The judge also rejected the plea of delay for seeking discharge, saying It is well known that riots had shaken Delhi and so even police agency could have been under tremendous pressure on account of riots and the consequent flow of complaints and by that time already Covid 19 virus had knocked the door of our society and was on continuous rise, leading to nationwide lockdown.

The court said the credibility of any witness can be looked into only after conducting the trial and there was evidence of arson on the day of the alleged incident.

Regarding the alleged conspiracy, the court said, In the present case, the description of evidence shows the deliberation among Farooq and other accused persons, which was subsequently followed by an attack on DRP School and other nearby properties of Hindus.

It said prior to the attack, a large number of people of a particular community had assembled at Farooq's school, which was followed by continuous instances of pelting of stones and petrol at nearby properties and DRP School, and this reflected preparations made on the basis of a meeting of mind among the accused persons to indulge into a particular act as alleged in this case.

Noting the complaint and statements of witnesses, the court said it was beyond doubt that an unlawful assembly was formed with a common object to attack upon the properties belonging to persons from the Hindu community.

Regarding the offence of attempt to murder, the court noted the statement of a witness, according to which the mob was exhorting to kill people of a particular community and that accused Mohd. Ansar fired at him.

It said, The acts of accused Farooq showed that he had a meeting of mind with other members of the mob for facilitating an attack against the properties of Hindus and DRP School. He also made a provocative statement against Hindus, which had the effect of encouraging hatred between the community of Hindus and Muslims.

Dayalpur police station had registered an FIR against Faisal Farooq, Shahrukh Malik, Shahnawaz, Rashid, Mohd. Faisal, Mohd. Sohaib, Shahrukh, Azad, Ashraf Ali, Parvez, Aarif, Sirajuddin, Faizan, Irshad, Anis Qureshi, Mohd. Parvez, Mohd. Illyas, Mohd. Furkan, and Mohd. Ansar.
A major police crackdown is underway in Punjab against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his supporters over charges of spreading communal tension in the state.

As the operation went underway, the Punjab government suspended internet services in the state till Sunday noon to prevent circulation of rumours and possible tension.

Officials privy to the development said that six close supporters of Singh had been detained so far while a manhunt to locate the radical preacher was still on.

They said the preacher had almost been caught but he managed to give a slip to the approaching police team, which intercepted his cavalcade in Mehatpur village in Jalandhar district on Saturday.

Some supporters of 'Waris Punjab De' chief shared some videos on social media claiming that policemen were chasing them. A video also showed Amritpal sitting in a vehicle and one of his aides could be heard saying policemen were after 'Bhai saab' (Amritpal).

The Punjab Police had registered cases against Singh and his supporters earlier last week in Ajnala for alleged hate speech. Singh gained more prominence in February this year when a man complained at Ajnala Police Station alleging he had been kidnapped and beaten by the associates of the radical preacher.

An FIR was registered against Amritpal Singh and six of his associates. Police later arrested one Lovepreet Singh Toofan, a close associate of Amritpal, in the matter.

The arrest of Toofan prompted Amritpal to issue a warning to police to revoke the case against him, and the matter turned ugly when hundreds of his supporters broke through police barricades and stormed the police complex, armed with automatic guns and sharp weapons.

Toofan was released under pressure but only after the police informed the court that they would be investigating the matter further.

During the incident, six policemen including a Superintendent of Police rank officer, had suffered injuries.

As the crackdown continued on Saturday, some videos of radical preachers were circulated on social media, including one shared by a supporter, who claimed policemen were after him.

A heavy deployment of security forces has been made near village Jallupur Khera in Amritsar, the native place of Amritpal.

Meanwhile, Punjab Police asked people to maintain peace and harmony.

"Request all citizens to maintain peace & harmony Punjab Police is working to maintain Law & Order. Request citizens not to panic or spread fake news or hate speech," it said in a tweet.

Earlier this month, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed with him the prevailing law and order situation in the border state.

The Centre had sent about 1,900 personnel of the CRPF and its specialised anti-riot unit RAF for strengthening the security grid.

The Union home ministry last week also ordered the deployment of 18 companies in Punjab for "aid of the state government during law and order duties."

Out of the 18 contingents, eight are drawn from the anti-riot Rapid Action Force (RAF) while the rest are regular ones. The overall strength of these companies is around 19,000 personnel.

Officials said the Union Home Ministry is "closely monitoring" the situation in Punjab in the wake of renewed activities of some Khalistani supporters.

Dubai-returned Amritpal Singh was last year anointed the head of 'Waris Punjab De', which was founded by actor and activist Deep Sidhu who died in a road accident in February last year.

The event was held at Moga's Rode, the native village of slain militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
Fearing defeat, the Congress top brass has asked former chief minister Siddaramaiah to drop his plan to contest from the Kolar assembly segment in the coming Assembly polls and suggested the safe seat Varuna in Mysuru district.

After the Congress Central Election Committee meeting on Friday, Congress top leader Rahul Gandhi held an exclusive meeting with Siddaramaiah wherein he explained to the 75-year leader the party's internal survey report of the Kolar segment and told him to opt for a 'safe' constituency like Varuna.

Rahul had suggested the same earlier in the CEC meeting headed by party president Mallikarjuna Kharge, which Siddaramaiah attended.

According to a Congress internal survey report, if Siddaramaiah contested from Kolar, there is a chance the JD(S) and BJP may have a secret pact to give him a tough fight.

Also read | Karnataka polls: Congress to release first list of candidates on Ugadi, says Siddaramaiah

Since Kolar sitting MLA Srinivas Gowda quit the JD(S) and joined Congress, JD(S) is putting all efforts to defeat Siddaramaiah to take revenge. If the fight became tough and it got undue attention, Siddaramaiah would have to devote more time to Kolar and not get time to campaign for other places, said a senior leader from Congress quoting the survey report.

If he contested from Varuna, his son Yatindra Siddaramaiah, who is also sitting MLA from Congress, could campaign while Siddaramaiah can tour other places, Rahul reportedly suggested.

In 2018, Siddaramaiah fielded his son Yathindra Siddaramaiah from the Varuna constituency and he shifted to Badami. Both won. Siddaramaiah earlier said he would not contest from Badami in the coming polls as it is far away from Bengaluru and has no time to focus on it.

Siddaramaiah, who is a strong contender for the CM post if Congress comes to power, selected Kolar to contest as the segment consists of a sizable number of voters from minorities, backward classes including Kuruba and SC/ST communities. However, sources said that the Congress survey report says that the JD(S) and BJP are trying to woo Vokkaligas and voters from other communities, who are also sizable in number, to defeat the Kuruba leader. Congress said infighting within the Kolar Congress unit may cause problems for Siddaramaiah.

In the CEC meeting, the discussion did not come up about my candidature or Kolar seat. I will abide by the party high command's decision on where to contest. Since there is a time for assembly polls, the party will take its decision soon, Siddaramaiah told reporters.
Altria Group, Inc. is a US-based tobacco company and one of the Big-3 tobacco companies internationally. The company was formerly known as Phillip Morris International but emerged with its new name in 2003. The rebranding was intended to help the company improve its image while it shifted away from the smokeable tobacco segments of the business. It is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500. The company was a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for many years but fell from that position due to declining tobacco sales and the divestiture of businesses.

The company operates through a network of subsidiaries that include Phillip Morris USA. Phillip Morris USA is the core segment of business and includes the Marlboro line of cigarette brands. German immigrant Phillip Morris originally founded Phillip Morris in London in 1822. In 1844 the company began making its first line of machine-rolled cigarettes called English Ovals. The English Ovals remained in production in limited quantities until 2017.

By 1902 the company had moved to New York City, where it was incorporated. Operations continued uninterrupted until 1919, when it changed ownership, and then, in 1929, manufacturing operations were moved to Richmond, Virginia and closer to the tobacco fields.

Philip Morris made headlines again in 1933 when it integrated its manufacturing operations. This was done more than 30 years ahead of federal regulations and a ground-breaking move for the industry and America. After another multi-decade run of uninterrupted operations, the company began a series of acquisitions that included Miller Brewing, Kraft Foods and General Mills. Those acquisitions led to eventual mergers and spin-offs that resulted in SABMiller and Kraft General Mills.

Altria Group operates through a network of subsidiaries manufacturing and selling smokeable, smokeless and oral tobacco products. Subsidiaries include but not are limited to Philip Morris USA, John Middleton Inc. and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company. Brands include Marlboro, Marlboro Lights, Black & Mild, Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Sky and Husky. The company's principal customers are wholesalers and large retailers.

The company maintains a number of strategic partnerships as part of its efforts to shift away from smokeable tobacco. These include a 35% stake in JUUL smokeless tobacco products, a 45% stake in Canadian integrated cannabis company Cronos Group and a near-10% stake in ABInbev. These partnerships are intended to capitalize on smokeless tobacco and the legalization of cannabis at the US federal level.

Altria brought in more than $21 billion in 2021. The company employs more than 6,000 people and has paid more than $6.5 billion in cumulative dividends. The companys operations help support more than 1,200 US farmers and are sold in over 300,000 US retail establishments. Altria continues to be a leader in workforce quality and has received numerous awards, including a spot on the National Business Consortiums Best of the Best List for 2022.
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A senior police officer convicted over a drink-driving incident on Christmas Eve has been dismissed.

Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Superintendent Patricia Foy was fined and handed a driving disqualification when she appeared before a district judge at Lisburn Magistrates Court in January.

Ms Foy, 57, whose address was given as PSNI headquarters, was charged with driving with excess alcohol, failing to stop at a damage-only accident and driving without due care and attention.

The court heard that on December 24, at about 4pm, police were made aware of a damage-only road traffic collision in Lisburn, where a car had collided with a traffic light. Police also received a report about a car colliding with a parked car.

Officers observed the defendant walking from the vehicle to her home address where she failed an alcohol breath test and was arrested.

A lawyer for Ms Foy, who formerly headed the PSNIs Professional Standards Division, said she regretted finding herself before the court and apologised for the incident.

On Friday, the PSNI confirmed the officer had been dismissed from the organisation following a disciplinary process.

A PSNI spokeswoman said: An officer was dismissed on Friday March 10 from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, by the Chief Constable (Simon Byrne), following a criminal conviction.
Liam Neeson has issued a blunt message to Northern Ireland politicians to get back to work.

The Co Antrim-born Hollywood star expressed frustration at the Stormont impasse over post Brexit trading arrangements.

The devolved powersharing institutions are currently in cold storage due to a DUP boycott in protest at economic barriers on trade moving from Great Britain into Northern Ireland.

The EU and UK have recently agreed a fresh deal to address issues with the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol trading arrangements, but the DUP has yet to sign up to the new Windsor Framework agreement and Stormont remains down.

The framework would reduce checks on Northern Ireland destined goods arriving from GB with the creation of a green lane, with products set for onward transit into the Republic of Ireland entering via a red lane.

In an interview on RTEs Late Late Show, New York-based Neeson, 70, was asked whether he keeps up to date with political developments back home.

I try to, he said.

Certainly, with the whole protocol and stuff theres a part of you wants to say come on for Gods sake, we are talking about sausages here and the shit thats going on in the Middle East and Ukraine of course.

But theyre working their way through it and, you know, theres no border and theres going to be a green lane and a red lane.

How many months did that take to think hey, lets think of a green lane and a red lane?

And get back to work for Gods sake. You are drawing a salary. Get back to work, represent the people, all the people.

Neeson currently stars in Marlowe, which will be his 100th film, and tells the story of a brooding, down on his luck detective hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress in Los Angeles.

His role of detective Phillip Marlowe is based on the famous character created by American-British author Raymond Chandler.
A man has threatened to stab a woman after she gave chase following an armed robbery in Belfast.

Police are appealing for information following the incident in the Adelaide Street area of the city in the early hours of Saturday.

A PSNI spokesperson said: At around 3.50am, two women were walking in the area when a man, armed with a knife, approached one of them and grabbed her handbag before making off on foot.

The other woman gave chase, and the suspect eventually stopped and threatened to stab her.

He then made off from the scene.

The handbag was later discovered set alight in the Cromac Street area.

Our officers are appealing for information in relation to a report of an armed robbery in the Adelaide Street area of south Belfast in the early hours of this morning. pic.twitter.com/A7fhrT5ckI  Police South Belfast (@PSNIBelfastS) March 18, 2023

The suspect has been described as being aged in his 20s, of slim build, and approximately 5ft 8in in height.

He was said to have been wearing dark coloured tracksuit bottoms and a dark coloured hoodie.

Inquiries are continuing, and we are appealing to anyone who was in the area at the time, and who may have seen anything, to get in touch.

The number to call is 101, quoting reference number 468 of 18/03/23.
Desiderata: Original Text

This is the original text from the book where Desiderata was first published.

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

by Max Ehrmann 1927



Desiderata Prints and Posters

The original art of these Desiderata prints and posters are in beautiful calligraphy by Sherrie Lovler. Each letter is carefully crafted paying close attention to both the letter form and the space between the letters. Sherrie created the lettering style to be easy-to-read at any size reproduction.

Seeing a need for both feminine and masculine versions, Sherrie designed one with roses and one with a torn paper look with diamonds and a border. The rose version has six choices of flower colors, the diamond one comes in dark blue or green. They are then made into either lithographs or giclee prints, on archival paper with lightfast inks.

The care Sherrie takes in creating the work is matched with the care she takes in matting and framing. All acid-free mats and backing board are used and the frames are solid wood. The matted prints come packaged in a plastic slip. The framed prints are protected with glass and double boxed, ready to give as a gift to make you proud or to hang on your own wall.

Special Features

The original piece is hand lettered calligraphy  not type

Designed by an award-winning artist

Feminine and masculine versions

Matted, framed prints and poster sizes

86 different options of designs, sizes, colors and frames

Museum qualitywill last for generations

Mats are acid-free

Frames are solid wood

Made in California

Personally owned and managed business

Theres a real and caring person on this end

Your satisfaction is our goal

Original text of Desiderata in first published book.

From The Poems of Max Ehrmann edited by Bertha Ehrmann

published by Bruce Humphries, Inc. 1948

Go to top of page.
Local flavor adds spice to tourism

China Daily) 15:42, March 18, 2023

The Dachen Islands have transformed from barren land into a popular, eco-friendly tourist area in Taizhou.[Photo provided by Ran Minlu/For China Daily]

Spring is the best time to visit Jiangnan, the regions around the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, for picturesque views, rich culture, delicious food and warm weather. Among the top venues is Taizhou city in East China's Zhejiang province, an off-the-beaten-path destination that offers an authentic Jiangnan travel experience.

It's about three and two hours by high-speed train, respectively, from Shanghai and Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang.

Taizhou city in East China's Zhejiang province has a lot to offer to visitors who seek outdoor activities and historical sites.[Photo provided by Ran Minlu/For China Daily]

Outdoor enthusiasts can go hiking at the Tiantai Mountain and Shenxianju, which literally means "dwelling for immortals", to enjoy the natural scenery and Buddhism culture.

They can also explore the city's downtown Jiaojiang district for culture, island life and dining experience.

To know about the city's culture and history, the best place to visit is undoubtedly the Taizhou Museum. Its rich collections showcase local fishing tradition, boat manufacturing, intangible cultural heritage and folk customs.

Taizhou city in East China's Zhejiang province has a lot to offer to visitors who seek outdoor activities and historical sites.[Photo provided by Ran Minlu/For China Daily]

In 1906, when French Catholic missionaries came to Haimen (today's Jiaojiang), they taught the local church's nuns and orphans the Western embroidery technique of cutwork and drawnwork. That's how Taizhou embroidery was developed, integrating the essence of the East and the West.

At the Taisilk Embroidery Museum, tourists can see an old embroidery item from the church. Taizhou embroidery experienced its heyday in the 1990s, when local factories made articles of daily use, such as quilt covers and table clothes, as well as clothing, including pajamas, shirts and skirts.

The craft is also used in today's cultural creative products, with exquisite patterns on silk items.

"To better promote Taizhou embroidery in the market, it's essential to develop fashionable products of different varieties, integrating the technique into people's daily lives in a practical way," says Lin Xia, an inheritor of the Zhejiang provincial intangible cultural heritage.

Located downtown, the 1-kilometer-long Jiazhi ancient street is lined up with more than 30 old buildings, such as pawnshops and taverns, which have been repaired to their original state in accordance with strict building standards.

The ancient components were numbered, drawn and dismantled, while three-dimensional architecture models were made at the same time to guide the repair later.

The prosperity of the street dates back to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), as a bustling hub to distribute various goods due to the marine industry.

It's also the place of origin of a tradition around da shu (major heat) of the 24 solar terms of the year, when the local fisherfolk put offering to the divine on a boat, hoping to dispel disease and disaster.

Today, the street is open again to the locals and tourists after renovation, with more businesses to be settled in to boost the city's night economy.

The Taizhou outlet of Dayin Bookmall, a renowned bookstore chain from Shanghai, opened last year on the street in a traditional Chinese-style building with cutting-edge designs.

While the first floor is a commercial bookstore selling books and cultural creative products, the second floor serves as a public library.

Zhongshuge, a chain bookstore startup known for its interior design, has also opened a branch in Jiaojiang district, with inspiration from the city's landmarks, such as the Tiantai Mountain and dotted islands.

With reflections on the floor, the bookshelves arranged in rows are like waterfalls and mountain forests. Bathed in warm sunshine, visitors can spend some time on reading, sipping coffee and joining activities, such as cultural salons and book releases.

The Dachen Islands, which used to be an essential spot along the ancient Maritime Silk Road, have become a Red tourism destination. The eco-friendly islands have made the best use of the rich wind and wave energy to power the whole area.

After the end of War of Liberation (1946-49), defeated Kuomintang troops held onto Dachen. In 1955, Chiang Ching-kuo, the eldest son of Chiang Kai-shek, chief of Kuomintang, came to the islands to lead the troops retreating from the mainland after losing the battle with the People's Liberation Army.

From 1956 to 1960, 467 young volunteers from Zhejiang arrived at Dachen to cultivate barren land and rebuild the islands, and such indomitable spirit is still encouraging the current residents of Taizhou.

Nowadays, tourists can taste the fresh seafood from the East China Sea, go camping, join colorful activities on the islands and spend a night at a peaceful fishing village.

They can enjoy the beauty of the coastline as well as precipitous cliffs and visit historical places, such as ruins of the battlefield and the old residence of Chiang Ching-kuo.

Over the years, the local islanders have also improved their lives greatly due to the developing tourism, engaging in the dining and accommodation sectors.

Guided by the village cadres, many fishermen have changed career to raise fish in captivity, which both increases their income and protects the ecology.

Foodies can also sample the delicious street food in Jiaojiang district.

Ginger soup noodle is popular street food in the city. It's made from dried ginger or fresh ginger juice. The ginger is first boiled with yellow rice wine before drying.

Another popular ginger dish is steamed eggs mixed with ginger juice, yellow rice wine and brown sugar, sprayed with a handful of walnuts. The dessert satisfies your taste buds with a bite of pungent, spicy and sweet flavor.

The district organizes regular culture and music events. At the downtown's square, there are young bands singing on the grass for audience, who can rest in their own camps.

The city has several pianos, donated by kindhearted people, arranged at different public places, and anyone can have a try free of charge. Don't hesitate to show your talent if you happen to see one.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)




So, what the heck is critical race theory and why does it matter that much? What teachers and parents need to know about critical race theory? These and several other questions is what I attempt to answer in this post.



Drawing on my own academic experience as an educator and using a wide variety of research=based sources, I provide you with practical insights about this technical concept and show you how it has deeply shaped American educational policy.







What is critical race theory?





A child raises her hand repeatedly in a fourth- grade class; the teacher either recognizes her or does not. A shopper hands a cashier a five-dollar bill to pay for a small item; the clerk either smiles, makes small talk, and deposits change in the shoppers hand or does not. Let me start with these hypothetical events taken from Richard Delgado's book Critical Race Theory: An Introduction . I want you to take a moment and reflect on each of these scenarios and critically examine your inner thoughts as you go through them:A child raises her hand repeatedly in a fourth- grade class; the teacher either recognizes her or does not. A shopper hands a cashier a five-dollar bill to pay for a small item; the clerk either smiles, makes small talk, and deposits change in the shoppers hand or does not.





A woman goes to a new car lot ready to buy; salespeople stand about talking to each other or all converge trying to help her. A jogger in a park gives a brief acknowledgment to an approaching walker; the walker returns the greeting or walks by silently.



Now, I want you to think about these scenarios from two different perspectives: from the perspective of a white person and the perspective of a person of colour. If you were a white individual (the child, the shopper, jogger) and the responses came from fellow white people, how would you feel? Would race figure in the probable reasons while those people acted the way they did or would you think they were having a bad day.













How about if you were a person of colour at the receiving end of these acts? What is the first thing that comes to your mind when the actors are white? How about if the actors were fellow people of colour?



From my own experience as a person of colour, I can not help but think about race in such situations. And I have yet to find a person of colour in my circle of friends and relatives who does not do the same.





However, as Delgado explains, sometimes these acts can stem from mere rudeness or indifference. In fact, my experience also taught me that most often race does not have anything to do with it. But when it does, these acts are called micro-aggressions.



But what does all of this have to do with critical race theory?



Well, critical race theory is actually the investigation of acts where the dynamics of (mainly) race and power are involved. Racism is not as easy to prove as it might seem. Racist people can blame anything for their acts except racism, because racism carries severe social stigma and sometimes legal repercussions.



Critical race theory seeks to raise awareness of the implication of race in micro and macro aggressions leveled against people from a different race or with a different skin color. While racism is popularly associated with 'whiteism' but this is not always the case. In fact, racism is colourless. Anyone can be a racist as long as they discriminate based on a racial basis.









Definitions of critical race theory



As for professor Matsuda (law professor at the University of Hawaii), critical race theory is "a



Yes, that is too much of academic jargon! In simpler terms, critical theory is an analytic framework that uses the social category of race as a tool to analyse social inequalities. Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, a law professor at the U.C.L.A., is the scholar credited with coining the term critical race theory. She defines it as "a way of seeing, attending to, accounting for, tracing and analyzing the ways that race is produced...the ways that racial inequality is facilitated, and the ways that our history has created these inequalities that now can be almost effortlessly reproduced unless we attend to the existence of these inequalities".As for professor Matsuda (law professor at the University of Hawaii), critical race theory is "a method that takes the lived experience of racism seriously, using history and social reality to explain how racism operates in American law and culture, toward the end of eliminating the harmful effects of racism and bringing about a just and healthy world for all."Yes, that is too much of academic jargon! In simpler terms, critical theory is an analytic framework that uses the social category of race as a tool to analyse social inequalities. There are various analytic frameworks that are being used to investigate inequalities. For instance, feminist theory looks at inequality across gender while Marxist theory analyzes inequality through the category of class.



Critical race theory was first conceived within Critical race theory was first conceived within legal studies and was used mainly to disrupt the normative notion that law is impartial. Critical legal theorists argue that powerful white elites use the law to maintain their privilege.





Leading scholars like Ladson-Billings, Derrick Bell, Kimberle Crenshaw, Richard Delgado, among many, adopted this general critical framework in educational research and instead of social class they used race as their analytical category.





Critical race theory has been widely adopted across the disciplinary spectrum from education to psychology. Critical race scholars seek to deconstruct structural racism and decompose racial hierarchies with the goal of establishing a racially equitable society. For these scholars, racism drive inequalities in all fields and at all levels.





Race Race as an analytic category referring to skin colour was used in scholarly works since at least the 18th century. In fact, the concept of racial groupings was first introduced in Carolus Linnaeu' s Natural History in 1735 ( Delgado ). However, it was not until the emergence of what is known as the critical turn in the social sciences that scholars started taking note of the obnoxious impact of racism on social phenomena.





The racialized aspects of the societal inequities are being exposed and new deconstructive approaches to its study were developed. It is within this context that critical race theory was born. [ Critical discourse analysis is a another analytic framework that strives to deconstruct structural inequities in society].





Critical race theory and critical theory



Critical theorists took it upon themselves to transform society and liberate the individual from the yoke of capitalistic and oppressive regimes and ideologies that, in their eyes, turned the human being into a cog in the machine and cast the entire humanity into a vicious circle of violence and barbarism (Bronner, 2011).



The critical race theory movement is therefore based on theoretical insights from critical theory. This movement encompasses a collection of activists and scholars engaged in studying and transforming the relationship among race, racism, and power.



The movement considers many of the same issues that conventional civil rights and ethnic studies discourses take up but places them in a broader perspective that includes economics, history, setting, group and self- interest, and emotions and the unconscious (Delgado).





Critical race theory is informed by insights from critical theory, among other critical paradigms. Critical theory emerged during the first half of the 20th century and is especially associated with the Frankfurt School whose founding forefathers include Theodor W. Adorno, Erich Fromm, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, Jurgen Habermas, and more (Bronner, 2011).Critical theorists took it upon themselves to transform society and liberate the individual from the yoke of capitalistic and oppressive regimes and ideologies that, in their eyes, turned the human being into a cog in the machine and cast the entire humanity into a vicious circle of violence and barbarism (Bronner, 2011).The critical race theory movement is therefore based on theoretical insights from critical theory. This movement encompasses a collection of activists and scholars engaged in studying and transforming the relationship among race, racism, and power.The movement considers many of the same issues that conventional civil rights and ethnic studies discourses take up but places them in a broader perspective that includes economics, history, setting, group and self- interest, and emotions and the unconscious (Delgado).



Basic principles of critical race theory



1. Race is an analytic category because race, as Ladson-Billing and Tate stated, "continues to be a significant factor in determining inequity in the United States.



2. Race is a social construct and not a biological one. As a social construct, race is not biologically determined. There is no correlation between one's skin colour and their degree of intelligence, ingenuity, economic or social status (as biogenetics tried for centuries to convince us). Race is an abstract conception constructed through an ideological belief in racial hierarchy among people. Race, is therefore, 'a creation of society' and not a biological given.



3. For critical race theorists, racism is not an individual act performed perfunctorily by a bigot towards a person from a racial minority group. It is rather an institutional problem. As Kimberle Williams Crenshaw



4. Rejection of colorblindedness. Racial color blindness promotes the idea that society has moved beyond the concept of race (post-race era) and that "the color of one's skin does not matter in today's society" (



Critical race theorists and sociologists While they might hold different worldviews on race-based issues, critical race theory scholars tend to agree upon a number of tenets which they consider as basic principles underlying the concept of critical race theory. These include:Race is an analytic category because race, as Ladson-Billing and Tate stated, "continues to be a significant factor in determining inequity in the United States.Race is a social construct and not a biological one. As a social construct, race is not biologically determined. There is no correlation between one's skin colour and their degree of intelligence, ingenuity, economic or social status (as biogenetics tried for centuries to convince us). Race is an abstract conception constructed through an ideological belief in racial hierarchy among people. Race, is therefore, 'a creation of society' and not a biological given.For critical race theorists, racism is not an individual act performed perfunctorily by a bigot towards a person from a racial minority group. It is rather an institutional problem. As Kimberle Williams Crenshaw stated , critical race theorists are mainly concerned with systematic and institutionalized racism. So the problem, as Mari Matsuda contended , is not bad people, rather it is "a system that reproduces bad outcomes."Rejection of colorblindedness. Racial color blindness promotes the idea that society has moved beyond the concept of race (post-race era) and that "the color of one's skin does not matter in today's society" ( Neville, et al ).Critical race theorists and sociologists reject the ideology of colorblindedness because it "denies the negative racial experiences of people of color, rejects their heritage, and invalidates their unique perspectives." Given that race topics are not always easy to discuss, the notion of color blindness, as Asare explains, is often used as a way to "disengage from conversations of race and racism entirely."









Critical race and education



Educational critics deconstruct these racist structures within the education system and expose the academic inequities they create. For them, race is an important analytic tool in the analysis of educational inequality.



Critical race theory has been used to examine and address a range of issues related to racism in education. This includes:



1. Racial disparities in student achievement, school discipline, access to higher education and teacher quality.

2. The role of school accountability policies in perpetuating racial inequities.

3. The effects of racially biased testing and assessment.

4. The effects of racial identity development on student learning.

5. How race impacts school climate, culture and curricula.

6. The role of politics in education reform efforts that address racial inequities in schools, and many more.





Critical race scholars in the field of education argue that racism is inherent in the institutional structure of the educational system and functions to maintain and propagate what Ladson-Billings and William Tate called ' school inequity ', a state in which schooling experiences of white students (especially middle class students) are favourable to those of African American and Latino students.Educational critics deconstruct these racist structures within the education system and expose the academic inequities they create. For them, race is an important analytic tool in the analysis of educational inequality.Critical race theory has been used to examine and address a range of issues related to racism in education. This includes:Racial disparities in student achievement, school discipline, access to higher education and teacher quality.The role of school accountability policies in perpetuating racial inequities.The effects of racially biased testing and assessment.The effects of racial identity development on student learning.. How race impacts school climate, culture and curricula.The role of politics in education reform efforts that address racial inequities in schools, and many more. Why critical race theory is important in education? As an analytic framework, critical race theory can help teachers, educators, pedagoges, and parents to identify and understand the ways in which racialized systems of power contribute to educational inequality. Such understanding is key to building more equitable schools that serve all students and that further social justice in education.



Through the use of critical race theory, educational practitioners can begin to identify and address racism within their institutions and work towards a more equitable future. Only by understanding how racial power operates will we be able to make meaningful change in our schools and create more just learning environments for all students.





Is critical race theory taught in schools?
Atul Bhardwaj writes:

Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two arch-rivals of West Asia, have signed a landmark agreement to restore diplomatic ties and reopen embassies after relations were severed in 2016 when Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran following the Saudi beheading of a Shia spiritual leader Nimr al-Nimr. Previously, Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran after the attacks on its embassy in 1988. The relations were restored in 1991 but tensions continued to persist.
The current policy focus on universal health coverage (UHC) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is predicated on successful state engagement with the private sector (McPake and Hanson 2016). Over the past decade, it has received further support from international agencies (UHC2030 2019; Clarke et al 2019) Although contested, the broad rationale for such measures is that they would lead to more efficiency, better services, and more choice for users. In this context, there is a pressing need for a detailed examination of this private sector, its form, and the consequences of its ways of working for the entire healthcare system.

Features of the private healthcare sector in India have been elaborated on in terms of commercialisation,1 the dominance of individual and small providers, and the establishment of corporate hospital chains (Bisht and Virani 2016; Narayana 2003; Nandraj et al 2001; Baru 1998). Since the 1980s, hospitals have been set up as business enterprises, as private and public limited companies. In several southern Indian cities, doctors set up the initial corporate hospitals, with support from businesspeople and non-resident Indians (NRIs).
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegal deportation of children from Ukraine, a move Moscow said was meaningless.
Saturday, March 18, 2023

Press Release: Arlington, VA March 17, 2023

The TreatNOW Coalition, in association with Americas Mighty Warriors, BurnPits360, the HOW Foundation, KOTERRA, 135 Coalition clinics, and the International Hyperbaric Medical Foundation, today announced the release of the revised version of Veteran Eric Koledas Report: The Veteran Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) Epidemic: A U.S. Department of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) Services Review.

The increase in the Worldwide Diabetic Patient population at risk for Lower Limb Amputation (LLA) is growing exponentially. The Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) epidemic increase in US Veteran Diabetes population is due to poor clinical management is substantially greater than the civilian Medicare population resulting in an alarming LLA rate which is largely unnecessary.

The US Veterans Administration continues to mismanage the clinical evaluation and timely care of the estimated 2.2 million diabetic Veteran population at risk for Diabetic Foot Ulcer limb amputation. This failure on the part of the VHA has resulted in substantially higher Lifetime costs, morbidity, mortality and a tragic reduction in Veteran length and quality of life that is well below that of the Medicare civilian population statistical comparators as reflected in this report.

The underlying tragedy is that the VHA is arbitrarily withholding services to conserve contract expenditures when expending six times the cost in treatments, amputations, surgical, and after care cost. HBOT contract services will provide fewer capital expenditures long-term by including existing hospital-based civilian Community Care Providers in the Diabetic Foot Ulcer Veteran population. This will reduce the Veteran morbidity and mortality statistics to realign with the comparable U.S. civilian Medicare population. The VHA delays or refusals to provide HBOT to DFU Veterans for outside treatment referrals is essentially sentencing DFU LLA Veterans to early deaths.

Here are the highlights of the revised Report:

796,340 Veterans have died from Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) and Lower Limb Amputation (LLA) in the past 22-years, more than all the Veterans KIA in all the U.S. Wars (623,982) since the beginning of World War I, approximately 94% were not offered HBOT treatments.

The current VHA DFU Lower Limb Amputations (LLA) Veteran mortality rate is 64-71 percent within 3-years post-LLA surgery.

79.4 percent of VHA Veteran DFU LLAs are diabetic with an average age of 66.2 years, the majority over 65 CMS eligible and HBOT covered indication.

The VHA provides HBOT treatment to approximately 46 Veterans per month versus amputating on average 3,016 lower legs per month, a 66 to 1 ratio.

The industry average is 74 percent heal rate for DFU cases when treated with aggressive Wound Care to coincide with HBOT treatments.

Veterans are NOT being provided the doctrine of Informed Consent on HBOT under the Code of Medical Ethics Opinion 2.1.1 by VA medical staff.

The VA does not operate HBOT chambers in any of the 1,298 VA facilities nationwide. There are 1,156 medically qualified, trained, and certified HBOT treatment facilities in US not including the private clinics treating with HBOT.

On 20-year average 93.7% of the 2.2 million diabetic Veterans do NOT receive HBOT

The 20-year average annual DFU LLAs is 8,624 of which 6,123 die on average post 3-year LLA surgery.

The VHA contracts to less than 32 percent of existing HBOT wound care facilities in the U.S.

An estimated annual $2.7 billion spend for Veteran DFU and Lower Limb Amputation in surgical, hospitalization, aftercare, prosthesis, wheelchair, and disability costs.

All 2021 DFU 9,542 Veterans could have been treated with CMS, FDA, and Tricare approved HBOT for approximately $115 million, 4% of the estimated amputation cost.

HBOT for DFU Veterans has been CMS approved since 2002, Tricare approved since 2008 but on average 94% of diabetic Veterans are NOT provided or informed about HBOT.

Under H.R. 5674, The VA Mission Act of 2018. Title I, Caring for our Veterans, Subtitle A, Chapter 1, Section 101, The Secretary shall not limit the types of hospital care, medical services, or extended cares services covered veterans may receive under this section if it is in the best medical intertester of the veteran to receive such hospital care, medical services, or extend services, as determined by the veteran and the veterans health care provider. The Department does not offer the care or service the veteran requires. Veterans are not being provided the option for HBOT services.

The VA is violating federal law under The VA Mission Act of 2018, The Veteran Access to Care Act of 2014, and the Code of Medical Ethics 2.1.1 by denying routine access to HBOT.

The U.S. Diabetic and Stroke Belts reside entirely within the Humana Military Tricare East geographic region and its cohorts may generate the most Veteran DFUs and Lower Limb Amputations for the entire national Tricare network (Figure 1 and Table 2)

North Carolina is in the middle of both the diabetic and stroke belts and accounts for 8 percent of 2019 CDC-reported diabetic deaths (3,124/38,599) in the diabetic state belt. Approximately 40.7 percent (7,400,081/18,204,166, Table 2 and Appendix 1) of all US Veterans are in this Diabetic Belt and North Carolina accounts for approximately 7.5 percent (83,767/1,115,456) of the total diabetics in the belt (Table 2).

They cant say, No, you dont get the care, and they cant say, Yes, you will get the care, she said. Theyll just say, It is processing. As a result of these delays and denials, DFU Veterans who normally would receive limb-saving treatments are instead having amputations and 70.9 percent are dying within 3 years post-surgery.

###

The TreatNOW Coalitions pro bono Mission is to end service member suicides. Service members suicides have once again increased, continuing a fifteen year trend. Coalition clinics have demonstrated 100% safety and over 90% success in treating over 21,000 service members, Special Operators, first responders, athletes, and citizens with TBI/PTSD/Concussion. Veterans with DFUs are invited to visit the website and register their condition.

The information provided by TreatNOW.org does not constitute a medical recommendation. It is intended for informational purposes only, and no claims, either real or implied, are being made. If you or anyone you know is contemplating suicide, please immediately contact the new ###: 988 or the old Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800-273-8255 (Press 1)
Saturday, March 18, 2023

Geopolitical realists like John Mearsheimer have long contended that the worlds major powers, mainly the U.S., Russia, and China, each have a defined sphere of influence. These proponents of realpolitik maintain that encroachment into one powers domain by another is a recipe for conflict and must be steadfastly avoided. This principle is once again being hotly debated in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Mearsheimer has consistently argued that NATOs eastward expansion towards Russias border, which drew into the alliance countries that were previously in Russias orbit, needlessly provoked Vladimir Putin. According to Mearsheimer, Ukraines attempts to join NATO constituted a last straw for Putin, precipitating Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the current war.

By his argument, Mearsheimer implies that Ukrainians have no agency. He talks about NATOs encouragement of Ukraine to join the alliance, but completely ignores the fact that in reality, a significant majority of Ukrainians have been driving their countrys EU and NATO membership efforts. Those citizens desperately wish to be part of a rules-based system. To Mearsheimer, geography is destiny, and it necessitates Ukraine subordinating its foreign policy interests to those of its powerful neighbor, Russia. This claim warrants serious examination.

I left my native Ghana in the mid-1980s to attend university in the Soviet Union. Just months before my high school graduation, the elected civilian government in Ghana was deposed by Ghanaian military officers. The military junta quickly unleashed a reign of terror. Its armed operatives entered homes and tortured parents in front of their children on the flimsiest of charges, and engaged in a wave of extrajudicial killings. In one case that horrified the nation, three prominent judges, including the most renowned female judge in the country, were assassinated. She was abducted from her home at night in the presence of her husband and children; her charred body was discovered in a nearby forest the next day. The judges were murdered for issuing rulings the junta didnt like. Life in Ghana then was simply hellish.

In furtherance of their efforts to win hearts and minds around the world during the Cold War, the Soviets offered scholarships to young people from the Third World to attend universities in the Soviet Union. I went there on one of those scholarships.

To their credit, the Soviets made no overt efforts to indoctrinate us once we arrived. In classes, some professors would occasionally highlight some of what they perceived to be virtues of communism vis-a-vis capitalism, but there was nothing coercive about them.

From careful observation of Soviet society during my six-year stay there, I developed an important ability to differentiate a countrys people from its leadership. The Soviet Union was once labeled as an evil empire, but there was nothing evil about the thousands of everyday Soviets I met there, be they Ukrainians, Russians, or any other ethnicity. Their humanity and aspirations were no different from those of people Ive met elsewhere in the world.

In the geopolitical contests that Mearsheimer refers to, major powers vie to sell different ideological products. Largely, those competitions occur at the highest levels of government. The simple truth is that Ukraine and the other nations that border Russia dont like what their regional power is selling. They are under no obligation to buy that product, and the realists have no business forcing it upon them.

Apple is the most valuable company in the world, with a market capitalization of nearly $3 trillion, because it makes and sells beautiful, easy-to-use and reliable products that a lot of people around the world like to buy. In the same vein, the best way to win friends in the geopolitical realm is through soft power, not the hard typewith guns blazingthat Putin likes to project.

No hegemon is automatically entitled to any regional territory. A sphere of influence must derive from the values championed by the hegemon. The governance system that Russia promotes happens to be one that vast majorities of citizens in that region, including in Russia, do not want to live under. If Putin wants to be revered as a leader of a major power, he should earn that respect.

Anyone who has lived under a brutal dictatorship, as I did briefly in Ghana, will understand why Ukrainians are yearning for the freedoms that would flow from their countrys membership of the EU or NATO. Western nationals dont have to worry about their drinks being poisoned, as reportedly happened to Alexei Navalny, just because they criticize their leaders. The brutal repression of political opponents by the Kremlin, Russias constant threatening behavior towards smaller neighboring countries, and the extreme levels of corruption the regime in Moscow enables wherever its influence reaches, are primarily why countries like Ukraine want to escape Russias orbit.

Clearly, the Russian elite itself doesnt quite like the system it has created. Its members keep most of their assets abroad and send their children to Western private schools. Why then should that system be imposed on other nations citizens?

NATO eastward expansion is the perennial bogeyman that the realists hide behind in their sympathy for Putins grievances. To a large extent, that is a red herring. If Putin considered NATO encroachment a security threat, what was his fear about the Association Agreement with the EU that Ukraine was close to signing in 2013 before his ally Viktor Yanukovych, the then Ukrainian president, rejected it? Yanukovych himself pointed to pressure from Russia in explaining his refusal to sign the agreement. Among other provisions, the agreement was meant to enhance the trading relationship between Ukraine and the EU, and to ease travel restrictions to continental Europe, something ordinary Ukrainians badly wanted.

The association agreement was an economic arrangement, not military, but Putin was afraid of that one too. He simply doesnt want anything close to a functional, prosperous country anywhere near his borders to give ordinary Russians any ideas. The risk of his citizens finding out that their lives are not as great as theyve been led to believe, is the real threat to his regime.

The meddling in other countries internal affairs by the West that Putin finds so distasteful is something all major powers, including Russia, do. In the West, leaders account for their international actions via their responses to expressed public opinions. They are routinely driven out of office if their answers are deemed unsatisfactory. Such conduits for protest practically dont exist in Russia.

To buttress their arguments, Putin and his sympathetic realists accuse NATO of breaking promises it made in the 1990s that the alliance would not expand towards Russias borders. They conveniently never mention Russias obligations under the Budapest Memorandum. Signed in 1994 by Russia, the U.S., the U.K., Ukraine, and two other post-Soviet nuclear states, the accord led to Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security assurances. Russia took custody of the arsenal and in return promised to respect Ukraines independence and territorial integrity. By annexing Crimea and later invading Ukraine, Russia has clearly violated the terms of the accord. NATO thus isnt the only party that supposedly breaks its promises.

Putin wants a buffer zone between Russia and NATO. No Ukrainians, to my knowledge, have volunteered to be his human shields. Ukrainian lives and interests cannot be bargained away so cavalierly, as the realists are seemingly doing, in search of some elusive inter-hegemonic harmony.
The Montana state Capitol in Helena on Jan. 2, 2023. (Photo by Blair Miller, Daily Montanan)

Great Falls Republican Rep. Steven Galloways bill to cut Montana unemployment eligibility from 28 weeks to 20, which he says will allow business owners to pay their employees more rather than paying into the unemployment insurance trust fund, saw one of the shortest Appropriations hearings of the session Thursday.

No one testified as proponents, opponents, or informational witnesses on the fiscal note for House Bill 652 in a hearing that lasted under two minutes  though the hearing got underway ahead of the committees originally scheduled start time.

The bill passed the committee Friday in a 16-7 party-line vote, with Democrats opposed. Rep. Emma Kerr-Carpenter, D-Billings, said some opponents could not testify at Thursdays hearing because of the frenetic schedule of the committee and said she would vote against the bill over concerns it would be administratively burdensome while not giving as much benefit to the state as Galloway purported.

In Thursdays hearing, Galloway, himself a business owner, pointed to the $7.4 million in the next fiscal year that the fiscal note says will stay with business owners instead of being paid into the states unemployment trust fund  the fund used to pay out unemployment benefits to Montanans.

That money can go into an employers bank and then be able to pay the employees that are showing up for work, he said.

Galloways bill seeks to cut the number of weeks Montanans are eligible for unemployment benefits each year to 20 from 28 starting July 1.

While some proponents of the bill noted during its initial committee hearing Montana currently had the longest eligibility period for people to receive unemployment in the nation, opponents said the proposed change would put it below 40 states  including nearly every Western state  which offer 26 weeks of eligibility. Idaho offers up to 21 weeks of benefits.

The fiscal note from the Governors Office of Budget and Program Planning forecasts the measure would cost the unemployment insurance trust fund between $7.4 million and $8.3 million in each of the next four fiscal years.

It assumes based on prior data that around 4.1% of benefits paid out come from peoples claims beyond 20 weeks.

Montana Department of Labor and Industry data shows the trust fund had around $467.7 million dollars in it as of the end of last June  around $77 million more than the June prior, when federal pandemic benefits were still being paid out.

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte on Thursday touted the states 2.5% January unemployment rate as a success and chalked it in part up to his administrations pro-business, pro-growth, pro-jobs agenda.

HB652 received favorable testimony in the House Business and Labor Committee in late February from pro-business groups as well as Galloway, who said they felt some people were staying on unemployment rather than trying to fill Montanas 40,000 job vacancies. Galloway said the current 28 weeks of benefits penalizes the Montana workforce and employers who need more workers.

To find new work, Montanas workforce shortage can be solved in part by scaling down benefit duration, which incentivizes workers to return to work more quickly, Galloway told the committee.

Montana Department of Labor and Industry Chief of Staff John Elizandro testified that Commissioner of Labor and Industry Laurie Esau and the department believed reducing the number of unemployment benefit weeks offered would incentivize those folks to go back into the workforce and take jobs and keep unemployment taxes lower for employers. He said the department believes the bill is a prudent, responsible measure.

During the bills second reading on the House floor on March 2, Republicans spoke in favor of it, saying if there is an economic downturn, the state can still offer extended benefits beyond 20 weeks, as is noted in the fiscal note. Rep. Jerry Schillinger, R-Circle, argued that some people in specific industries waiting for jobs to open back up could learn how to flip a burger or flag a piece of equipment for a few weeks while theyre waiting.

Opponents in the committee hearing, including union and trade representatives, said they felt moving to 26 weeks would be acceptable to bring Montana in line with most other states and that a better way to address any workforce shortages was to find other incentives, like better child care and family leave options for workers.

Al Ekblad, representing Operating Engineers Local 400, said Montanas current unemployment rate was already below the national average and what is considered a normal level, and that its labor force participation rate of 62% was 10 points above the national average.

When you look at these numbers and you decide that youre going to motivate people to go back into the workforce by cutting a benefit they may or may not use, it seems a little counterproductive to me, he said.

Both in the committee hearing and when the bill was heard on second reading in the House, people who testified and Democratic lawmakers said moving the number of eligible weeks to 20 would have outsized impacts on boom-or-bust economies in rural Montana, where recently several large mills and plants have closed, as well as on people who are using unemployment benefits from their last job to attend longer training programs, like diesel mechanic school, to boost their skills for a new career.

[Unemployment is] not to get into any job; its to give workers the opportunity to find employment that is suitable and ideally commensurate with their former salary, said Amanda Frickle, representing the Montana AFL-CIO, at the committee hearing. Thats how families foreclose on their homes, is when theyre just forced into jobs that dont pay the bills.

During the House floor discussion, Rep. Jennifer Lynch, D-Butte, said she did not understand why Montana needed to cut the benefit weeks if less than 5% of claimants were receiving benefits beyond 20 weeks. A fellow Democrat agreed.

I think the vision we have of a bum sitting on their couch, drinking state-sanctioned beer, is not who we are really dealing with, said Rep. Eric Matthews, D-Bozeman, arguing that he felt most of the people claiming benefits beyond 20 weeks were attending training programs. Were dealing with Montanans that are trying to improve their lives and have a better future.

The measure passed its second House reading in a 67-33 vote. After passing the House Appropriations Committee on Friday, the bill will be scheduled for a third reading in the House before moving over to the Senate should it pass.

The post Bill seeking to cut Montana unemployment eligibility to 20 weeks clears Appropriations Committee appeared first on Daily Montanan.
Cascade County Election poll photographed on June 7, 2022. (Photo by Nicole Girten/Daily Montanan)

Mail-in ballots may be off the table for upcoming local elections in Cascade County as the Elections Office scrambles under new leadership.

In January, the Secretary of States Office approved Cascade Countys mail ballot election plan. However, on March 10, the county elections officer said a poll election would be held instead.

The change caused confusion for several local school districts and the library mill levy slated to be on the ballot, and the path forward still is unclear. The Elections Office said it will be giving a presentation on the plan next week but did not elaborate further.

However, the Secretary of States Office said the deadline for changing election plans already passed, and it has advised Cascade County that it must send absentee ballots.

Friday, Senate Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, said voters need mail ballots.

The clerks got to figure that out, Fitzpatrick said Friday.

Newly elected Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant did not respond to a message left with her office on Thursday. The elections staff member said she would pass the request for an interview to Merchant. Friday, the Daily Montanan followed up, and the staff member said Merchant was not in the office.

The March 10 emails sent by Elections Officer Merchant to districts holding upcoming elections said mail-in ballots would not be administratively feasible, as first reported in The Electric. She said some elections would be conducted as poll elections and others potentially postponed.

Typically, more than 80% of voters in the county mail their ballots in, as reflected in data from elections from 2000 to 2018 from the Secretary of States Office.

Elections impacted include the trustee elections for Great Falls School District and Sun River Valley School District, the Great Falls Public Library mill levy proposal, as well as the Fort Shaw Irrigation District and the West Great Falls Flood District.

If the library levy doesnt pass by July 1, Library Director Susie McIntyre said it would lead to staffing and service shortages, and not being open as many hours could lead to a loss of $30,000 in state funding as well.

One challenge the Cascade County Elections Office raised in saying it couldnt send mail ballots was the closure of a local company that provided mail sorting services.

However, former longtime Elections Officer Rina Moore, who ran as a Democrat and lost to Republican Merchant in November, said in an interview Cascade County was only one of a few counties that used ballot sorting services, and it would have just been a matter of consulting with other counties to see how they handled the process.

Elections run in states that have had hurricanes, said Moore, who held the job for 16 years. You always have those contingency plans in place, and I dont have time is not an option.

Secretary of States Office spokesperson Richie Melby said the office was notified Wednesday of the Cascade County Election Offices change to hold the school elections at the polls instead of by the originally submitted mail ballot plan. Merchants office had been in touch the week prior about the possibility of amending the plan, but the SOS said the deadline had passed.

The Secretary of States Office also provided the Cascade County elections office with a list of additional mailing service vendors that may be able to provide assistance, while reminding the county that absentee voters will require their ballots mailed, Melby wrote on Friday.

The SOS said the office viewed the communication from Cascade County as a withdrawal of the mail-in ballot plan, and that the office only has the power to approve, disapprove or recommend changes to amendments to the plan. The SOS is not involved in school elections, and the office recommended Merchant seek future guidance from the County Attorneys Office.

Merchant, a local businesswoman, won the Clerk and Recorders race in November after a hand recount by less than 40 votes against the veteran Moore. Several sources said Merchant was active in an election integrity group before assuming office.

Merchant did not respond to a message left with her office Thursday, but Devereaux Biddick with the Elections Office said in a brief phone call on Friday there would be a presentation in collaboration with Cascade County Commissioners this upcoming Thursday at 1 p.m. to provide answers on the plan moving forward.

I think youll be surprised, Biddick said.

Merchants office is facing issues that altogether would have been a challenge for anyone.

In emails provided to the Daily Montanan, Merchant cited challenges including the closure of Innovative Postal Services, a local ballot sorting company, staff shortages and the upcoming redistricting process to update the approved district map, slated to take place this summer and impact elections starting in 2024.

Director of Business Services and Operations for Great Falls Public Schools Brian Patrick said in emailed responses to questions that IPS closing was unfortunate, however, the business provided fair warning.

We learned about it in mid-January. As a school district, we have had to make major accommodations to adjust to this closure. We had plenty of notice and made adjustments, he said.

Patrick said he met with Merchant and Great Falls Public Schools Superintendent Tom Moore on March 3 to discuss whether the election was on track. Patrick said he gave Merchant the number of an expert on school elections, but he said the expert never heard from her.

Both Patrick and Sun River Valley School District Business Manager Belinda Klick were told by Merchant in separate emails shared with the Daily Montanan there would be a poll election conducted with no mail-in ballots.

In the email sent to Klick, Merchant cited the IPS closure and the attempt by the office to replace the company that failed.

I have been in touch with the Secretary of States office and according to MCA 13-19-203, it is not economically or administratively feasible to conduct the May 2, 2023 school elections by mail, the email to Klick read.

Klick responded asking for logistical details around the poll election, like who would be staffing it and if the district would be expected to facilitate it.

Its very unlikely we will have a trustee election, Klick said in an email to the Daily Montanan. I have 3 open seats and only 2 people who have filled out the Declaration of Intent and Oath of Candidacy They have until Thursday, March 23 to file their intent.

Library Director McIntyre spoke with and emailed Merchant about the upcoming election in February, and after receiving no response, followed up in March to ask when ballots would be mailed out.

Merchant responded the next day saying she would be unable to mail out ballots for the June election, and the June 6 election date for mail-in ballots would not be feasible for similar reasons.

Merchant suggested putting the proposal on the primary ballot in September instead.

In the meantime, July 1 is approaching, and the library may have to make cuts without the levy.

McIntyre said the library had been in talks with the city and county since August 2022 about the election date, and said shes been in communication with both bodies on what the plan will be moving forward.

On Wednesday, Merchant said in an email to McIntyre that there had been a misunderstanding about her previous email; she said she wasnt refusing to do the library mill election, but proposing a new date due to the issues she had cited.

I think that the Library, the City, the County and the Elections office should work together to overcome any issues that the Elections office faces, McIntyre said in a written response to questions. We are committed to ensuring that the voters of Great Falls are able to exercise their constitutionally protected right to vote.

McIntrye said the library is at crossroads as their current funding model isnt adequate to provide the quality Library services that our community deserves.

Without the passage of the Library Levy to provide additional funding, the Library will be facing reductions in staffing and services starting July 1, 2023 Reduced early literacy and after-school programs for children and parents

No homebound services and programming for people who are disabled and seniors

No computer and technology classes and reduced support for job seekers

No College Readiness Program for teens (literacy programs, test prep, and application assistance)

Reducing its hours to be open only five days a week providing less service to all community members

Failing to meet Montana Public Library Standards disqualifying the Library from receiving State Library Aid of around $30,000

Bookmobile service maintained at only 3 days a week providing inadequate service to daycares, schools and seniors

Failing to adequately address Library safety so that parents, seniors and families feel welcome at the Library Reduced early literacy and after-school programs for children and parentsNo homebound services and programming for people who are disabled and seniorsNo computer and technology classes and reduced support for job seekersNo College Readiness Program for teens (literacy programs, test prep, and application assistance)Reducing its hours to be open only five days a week providing less service to all community membersFailing to meet Montana Public Library Standards disqualifying the Library from receiving State Library Aid of around $30,000Bookmobile service maintained at only 3 days a week providing inadequate service to daycares, schools and seniorsFailing to adequately address Library safety so that parents, seniors and families feel welcome at the Library Source: Great Falls Public Library

In a phone interview, Lynn DeRoche, who started in the Elections Office 16 years ago, said Merchant did not consult her on how to run elections and barely spoke to her at all after Merchant took the job. She said Merchant would greet her in the mornings and then go into her office and close the door.

In February, DeRoche received another job offer and put in notice she would be leaving at the end of the week.

Merchant asked her to help coordinate a timeline for the irrigation and flood district elections, among other tasks. DeRoche said she told Merchant the tasks would be impossible to accomplish in the time she had left. She said Merchant relieved her of her duties and paid her for the remainder of the time she was scheduled.

When it was clear to her that Merchant was going to hire a friend, Biddick, DeRoche said she knew it was time to go.

Im sad about leaving, DeRoche said. I dont know I would go back. I contemplate that  Everything that weve done is all being taken down, and its been two and a half months.

The post Cascade County Elections Office said mail ballots may not be feasible; five elections on horizon appeared first on Daily Montanan.
Nepal has banned solo trekking for foreigners from next month in order to keep trekkers safe in the country

The Himalayan nation of Nepal is home to some of the worlds tallest mountains, including the mighty Mount Everest, the highest mountain above sea level on Earth. This fact has attracted mountain climbers and trekkers from all over the world, eager to conquer the heights. For many, it is a bucket-list experience.

Unfortunately, for many others, it is also a cause of distress since it is easy to lose your way or fall prey to natures vagaries out on the mountains. This is especially true when you are climbing or trekking alone and taking remote routes that no one else knows you are taking. Being lost in the mountains gives rise to the need for costly search and rescue efforts.

The Nepal Tourism Board has now announced that solo or independent trekkers are barred from trekking in the country from April 1, 2023. Under the new development, each trekker must hire a government-licensed guide and obtain a card through an authorised trekking agency to prove that permission has been granted.

The board spokesperson Mani Raj Lamichhane revealed that the decision has been taken for reasons of safety, adding that, every year, there are 40 to 50 cases of trekkers being out of contact, which, in turn, sends out the unfortunate message that Nepal is not a safe destination. This way, trekkers are likely to gain immediate access to a support system, and the challenges of rescue operations in case of any unwarranted situation will be eased. Additionally, this strategy will also create local employment opportunities. Reports reveal that the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal has been asking for a one-trekker one-guide system since 2012.

Solo climbing on Mount Everest was banned five years ago.

Image: Shutterstock

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Binny Choudhary has always had an inclination towards arts and aesthetics but only realised this after completing her BA in Home Science and Arts. Even then, she didnt think of pursuing her passion full-time and only got into the industry by default years later. It was when my husband wanted to build a world-class Indian hospitality brand that I got exposed to this profession, the Managing Director of Noormahal Palace Hotel in Karnal reveals. When he opened our first hotel in 1994, I started working with him from the very first day. What began with supporting my husband in his endeavours soon became a full-time career, and one that I have enjoyed investing my time and talent in.Ever since she started working, Binny has been hands-on with various operations of the group hotels, earlier Jewels Hotel Karnal and now Noormahal Palace Hotel, which was launched in 2010. She learned everything on the job. For me, art is a method of self-expression and creativity, she enthuses. My professional learning has been an upward curve. From being a completely inexperienced person to learning how to build a palatial hotel brick by brick and learning every aspect of running a luxury hotel to graduating to the top of the management of a successful hospitality group, it has been a demanding but satisfying journey.Today, Noormahal Palace Hotel is a sought-after wedding destination and home to more antiques and artworks than many museums. With its success, the family took on a new challenge. We ventured out globally, building and launching our first Indian fine dining restaurant in London  Colonel Saab  just after the pandemic lockdowns were lifted, she shares. My son Roop Partap Choudhary, who meticulously crafted the menu and art-festooned destination as a love letter to the family and India, launched this unique dining concept in the heart of London. Colonel Saab has been named one of the top Indian restaurants, and has won Best Restaurant at the Feed the Lion Awards. Putting together Colonel Saab gave me a wave of new energy and motivation, concludes Binny, who looks forward to more challenges in the future.
Birmingham, Alabama--(Newsfile Corp. - March 17, 2023) - Walker Capital Management LLC announces a strategic partnership with Mandavie Group to provide US$5 billion in equity capital over the next three years in support of the Mandavie Group's long-term objectives. This partnership will also include financial advisory services such as capital management, capital raising services, asset valuation and transfer, and business partnership management.

"We are pleased to partner with Mandavie Group and offer them the financial services they require," said Lawrence Walker, CEO of Walker Capital Management. "Our team of specialists has vast experience in financial funding and capital services, and we specialize in asset monetization. We believe this partnership will be successful and look forward to a long-term working relationship with Mandavie Group."

As part of the partnership, Walker Capital Management will help Mandavie Group raise $2.5 billion capital for the latter's two subsidiaries in Vietnam - HSIMEX VietNam, JSC (a furniture company) and Agromaca Viet Nam, JSC (a major macadamia farm). The investment firm will also commit to helping Mandavie Group raise an additional $5 billion over the next 5 to 7 years to support upcoming Mandavie Group projects worldwide, including Vietnam government projects. The company also holds equity in the two subsidiaries and the parent company, Mandavie Group.

Walker Capital Management is committed to providing equity investment and equity capital services to companies at any market stage. The firm collaborates with companies at every point in their life cycle to offer the capital they need for growth and success. The firm's financial experts are dedicated to bringing success to every project they undertake.

For more information about Walker Capital Management and its services, please visit www.walkercap.net.

Press Contact:

Lawrence Walker

CEO,

providentadvisors@gmail.com

Phone: 205-903-2340

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/158911
Copper is becoming increasingly important in the wake of the boom in electric cars and renewable energies. But production in the mines is lagging behind. We need 20% more copper, analysts say. We take a look at the world's largest copper mines.

Decarbonization: the greatest challenge of the 21st century!

Decarbonization is the greatest challenge of the 21st century. At least, that's how Goldman Sachs analysts describe what is currently happening in many societies. And politicians and futurologists are saying the same thing. In order to achieve the climate targets that have been set, renewable energies are being massively expanded worldwide. Wind and solar are intended to protect the environment and at the same time reduce dependence on other countries such as Russia. In addition, more and more countries are switching to electric cars. In Norway, where more than 80 percent of new registrations in 2022 were already electric, no internal combustion cars will be allowed from 2025. Major economic blocs such as the U.S., Japan, China and the EU have their own timetables, but the same goals.

Follow Investor Magazin on Twitter and Facebook! Copper: Profiteer of the electric car boom!

Copper is one of the metals that is particularly needed in the course of this development. For example, three to four times as much ...

Den vollstandigen Artikel lesen ...
DARTFORD, UK / ACCESSWIRE / March 18, 2023 / The renowned company Chiron Investigations, specialized in cryptocurrency and asset recovery, recently revealed its specialized services to help victims of bitcoin theft recover their lost digital assets. Chiron is known as a quick provider of cryptocurrency recovery services with a high success rate and hundreds of cases accepted, including how to get their stolen crypto back.

Chiron Investigations appreciates the significance of these assets to clients and is devoted to providing competent and efficient recovery services, the IT head from Chiron Investigations said in a recent interview regarding the company's latest development. Chiron Investigations not only helps those impacted by Forex trading crimes but also offers assistance to victims of Forex trading crimes. The company's swift response, coupled with direct case management, ensures that clients receive timely and practical results.

Chiron's goal is to assist its clients in regaining control over their stolen property and bringing the criminals to justice, particularly helping those impacted by crypto trading platform crimes. Additionally, Chiron's bitcoin recovery services are dependable, safe, and very effective, and the company has a worldwide network of investigators available to assist clients wherever they may be. Customers choosing Chiron stand to gain little by trying to recover their lost assets. Among Leading providers of cryptocurrency and asset recovery services, include Chiron Investigations. The team of professional investigators at the organization has a solid track record of accomplishments and a thorough understanding of the crypto recovery procedure.

Chiron Investigations provides assistance to victims on how to recover their stolen cryptocurrency in addition to its professional recovery services. Chiron is dedicated to offering its clients excellent and effective recovery services since it understands how important these assets are to them. Overall, Chiron Investigations' crypto recovery services to help get stolen bitcoin back are revolutionizing the sector by offering the crucial backing and help needed to do so. Visit Chiron Investigations' website at https://www.chiron-investigations.com to learn more about their cryptocurrency recovery services.

About Chiron Investigations:

Chiron Investigations is a leading provider of investigation services that help businesses recover from the effects of online crime. The company offers customized solutions to suit each client's unique needs, including custom analysis of cases, detailed investigations into transactions, closer interaction with stakeholders to assess the methods used by perpetrators, drawing a trail of events to establish root cause analysis, and protection from future occurrences through the deployment of robust security systems. Chiron Investigations' team of experts has years of experience in investigating and preventing online crime and works closely with law enforcement agencies and financial institutions to bring perpetrators to justice.

Media Contact

Contact Person: Julie Spencer

Company Name: Chiron Investigations Crypto Recovery Solutions

Website: https://chiron-investigations.com/

Email: Admin@chiron-investigations.com

City: Dartford

Country: United Kingdom

SOURCE: Chiron

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/744547/Recovering-Stolen-Crypto-Assets-Made-Easier-with-Chiron-Investigations
NEW YORK, March 17, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of PLDT Inc. (NYSE: PHI) between January 1, 2019 and December 19, 2022, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), of the important April 7, 2023 lead plaintiff deadline in the securities class action commenced by the Firm.



SO WHAT: If you purchased PLDT securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the PLDT class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=10686 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than April 7, 2023. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

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, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. 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 firms attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose, among other things, that: (1) there were capital spending budget overruns; (2) defendants failed to address weaknesses that allowed such budget overruns; and (3) as a result, defendants statements about its business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the PLDT class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=10686 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investors ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm or 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.

-------------------------------

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

lrosen@rosenlegal.com

pkim@rosenlegal.com

cases@rosenlegal.com

www.rosenlegal.com
Luton, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, March 18, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Exactitude Consultancy, the market research and consulting wing of Ameliorate Digital Consultancy Private Limited has completed and published the final copy of the detailed research report on the Ready Mix Concrete Market.

The Ready-Mix Concrete Market is projected to grow from USD 725.32 billion in 2021 to USD 1,536.7 billion in 2029 at a CAGR of 8.7% during the 2022-2029 period.

Ready-mix concrete is a type of concrete, which is a mixture of Portland cement, water, sand, and coarse aggregates. It is eco-friendly compared to site mix concrete, as mixing is done in closed chambers. This reduces noise and air pollution. Ready-mix concrete is manufactured in a cement factory or within a batching plant based on specification required. This type of concrete is widely in for construction due its high durability and sustainability as compared to normal concrete.

Get a Sample PDF Brochure@:

https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/3336/ready-mix-concrete-market/#request-a-sample

Recent Developments

In March 2021, HeidelbergCement partnered with leading software investment firm Thoma Bravo and invested in Command Alkon to build the digital ecosystem for the Heavy Building Materials industry.

In March 2021, ACC launched Global green concrete ECOPact in Kolkata

In February 2021, CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V. announced that it is expanding the U.S. operations strengthening the Texas network with the acquisition of a ready-mix business in San Antonio, TX, as part of its growth initiative.

The Asia Pacific area is the worlds largest market for ready-mix concrete.

The availability of cost-competitive workforces and ample raw material advantages are two main factors driving the regions ready-mix concrete market expansion. Furthermore, market expansion is aided by the constantly expanding construction industry, which is accompanied by an increase in the number of production capacity and ready-mix concrete manufacturers. The APAC ready-mix concrete industry would continue to be dominant in the next years. North America is the second largest market and will show significant growth.

Technology and IoT Driving Ready-mix Business Improvements

The concrete industry is undergoing its own technological revolution. To achieve higher-performance concrete, tighter quality controls and the technology required to facilitate such precise QC are becoming more of a necessity for concrete producers to differentiate from competitors. People are talking about things like IoT (Internet of Things), automation, and cloud-connected systems.

Factors Are Expected to Propel the Ready-mix Concrete Market in 2022-2029

High demand for speedy construction activities across infrastructure, industrial, commercial, and residential segments are anticipated to propel the global ready-mix concrete market growth in the evaluation period. Easy pouring methods, as well as reduced cost of sight supervision and labor would also contribute to the market revenue growth in future.

Increased Adoption in Residential Sectors to Propel Market Progress

Ready-mix concrete is used extensively in the creation of residential buildings because of its resistance to harsh environments and ability to reinforce the building's strength. The rising demand for high-quality constructions is expected to propel its demand. The incorporation of concrete improves building strength and reinforces it against damages.

Governmental Initiatives toward the Development of Affordable Housing to be the Key Factor Expected to Assist the Consumption Growth of Ready-Mix Concrete

Increasing private and government investments in the infrastructure sector is expected to create lucrative growth opportunities for key players in the forthcoming years. Preparation of ready-mix concrete and its transportation through transit mixers enable the execution of accurate and precise concrete availability in various construction projects.

Ready Mix Concrete Market Report Scope

Report Attribute Details Market size value in 2021 USD 725.32 billion in 2021 Revenue forecast in 2029 USD 1,536.7 billion in 2029 Growth rate CAGR of 8.7% from 2022 to 2029 Base year for estimation 2021 Historical data 2017 - 2020 Forecast period 2022 - 2029 Quantitative units Volume in kilo tons, revenue in USD million and CAGR from 2022 to 2029 Report coverage Revenue forecast, company ranking, competitive landscape, growth factors, and trends Segments covered Product, application, region Regional scope North America; Europe; China; Asia; Pacific; Central & South America; MEA Country scope U.S.; Canada; Mexico; Germany; U.K.; France; Italy; Poland; Spain; India; Japan; Thailand; Malaysia; Indonesia; Vietnam; Singapore; Philippines; Brazil; Argentina; Saudi Arabia; UAE; Oman Key companies profiled ACC Limited, Barney & Dickenson Inc, CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., CRH, HEIDELBERGCEMENT, Dillon Bros Concrete LLC, LafargeHolcim, LIVINGSTONS CONCRETE SERVICE, INC., Martin Marietta, RISM JOHNSON LIMITED, R. W. Sidley, Inc., U.S. Concrete, Vicat, Vulcan Materials Company, Buzzi Unicem SpA, Sika AG, EUROCEMENT group., Votorantim, Geany Softech Private Limited Key Market Opportunities Growth in the number of mega infrastructural development projects across the globe Key Market Drivers Growth in the construction industry Customization scope The ready-mix concrete market has developed significantly in the recent years. This can be primarily ascribed to the high performance and increasing availability of advanced construction materials globally. Pricing and purchase options The entire organization can use the report. It can be printed and shared. Delivery in PDF and Excel.

Competitive Landscape

Prominent Companies Incorporate Acquisition Strategies to Reinforce their Stance

Prominent companies operating in the ready-mix Concrete market devise acquisition strategies to reinforce their market position. For example, LafargeHolcim completed the acquisition of a leading producer of ready-mix concrete in the U.S. named Metro Mix LLC in August 2020. This strategy may enable the company to strengthen its presence in the country and boost its ready-mix concrete market position. Further the incorporation of research and development may enable manufacturers to tackle shortcomings and boost their product quality. This strategy may enable manufacturers to improve their brand image.

The major players covered in the ready-mix concrete market report are ACC Limited, Barney & Dickenson Inc, CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., CRH, HEIDELBERGCEMENT, Dillon Bros Concrete LLC, LafargeHolcim, LIVINGSTONS CONCRETE SERVICE, INC., Martin Marietta, RISM JOHNSON LIMITED, R. W. Sidley, Inc., U.S. Concrete, Vicat, Vulcan Materials Company, Buzzi Unicem SpA, Sika AG, EUROCEMENT group., Votorantim, Geany Softech Private Limited among other domestic and global players.

Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC:

https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/3336/ready-mix-concrete-market/

Key Market Segments: Ready Mix Concrete Market

Ready Mix Concrete Market by Type, 2022-2029, (USD Million)

Transit Mix Concrete

Central Mix Concrete

Shrink Mix Concrete

Ready Mix Concrete Market by Application, 2022-2029, (USD Million)

Commercial & Infrastructure

Residential

Industrial

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Growth in the construction industry

The development of the construction sector is mostly being driven by the rising urban population in developing nations. Population growth, increased residential construction, and anticipated expenditures in infrastructure and industrial expansion are all factors that will affect the sector's growth in developing nations. For instance, according to UN forecasts for 2029, India's urban population is projected to increase by a startling 165 million people, making Delhi the second-most populous city in the world after Tokyo. Buildings are being built outside of cities as a result of an increasing urban population. Further boosting the construction industry is the rising demand for residential construction.

Restraints

High initial investments required for ready mix concrete plants

The ready-mix concrete plants need a huge initial investment. On the size of the investment, the cost of setting up one RMC plant is between USD 10 Million to USD 30 Million. The substantial variation in cost of land and the accessibility of raw resources are just two of the variables contributing to the large variance. Additionally, the expense is increased by the need for a reliable transit infrastructure from R.M.C. to the site. Because just a limited amount of concrete is needed for modest projects, it is therefore unaffordable, which hinders the ready-mix concrete market's expansion.

Opportunity

Growth in the number of mega infrastructural development projects across the globe

Multi-billion-dollar infrastructure schemes have now become the norm as governments around the world strive to keep pace with growth, raise living standards and enable further economic development. Mass transit is currently receiving significant investment. Several mega-infrastructure projects, including the Sydney Metro in Australia, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Belt and Road Initiative) in China, the Lagos-Kano Railway in Nigeria, the 4G Roads and Highway Program in Colombia, and the California High-Speed Rail in the United States, are among those that are anticipated to advance during the forecast period. The need for ready-mix concrete, a type of concrete that enhances durability and sustainability, is anticipated to increase over the next several years as a result of the billions of dollars invested in these projects.

Have a Look at Research Reports of Chemicals & Materials by Exactitude Consultancy

Concrete Surface Retarders Market

The global Concrete Surface Retarders Market is expected to grow at 5% CAGR from 2022 to 2029. It is expected to reach above USD 76.80 million by 2029 from USD 73.4 million in 2021.

https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/8861/concrete-surface-retarders-market/

Concrete Repair Mortars Market

The global Concrete Repair Mortars Market is expected to grow at 9% CAGR from 2022 to 2029. It is expected to reach above USD 5.18 billion by 2029 from USD 2.38 billion in 2021.

https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/8841/concrete-repair-mortars-market/

3D Concrete Printing Market

The global 3D Concrete Printing Market is projected to reach USD 6503.84 Million by 2029 from USD 730.43 Million in 2021, at a CAGR of 27.5% from 2022 to 2029.

https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/7484/3d-concrete-printing-market/

Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Market

The global Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Market is projected to reach USD 30.84 billion by 2029 from USD 18.10 billion in 2021, at a CAGR of 6.1% from 2022 to 2029.

https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/7441/autoclaved-aerated-concrete-aac-market/

Insulated Concrete Form Market

The global insulated concrete form market is expected to grow at 6.15% CAGR from 2022 to 2029. It is expected to reach above USD 2.15 billion by 2029 from USD 1.28 billion in 2021.

https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/6140/insulated-concrete-form-market/

About Exactitude Consultancy

Exactitude Consultancy is a market research & consulting services firm which helps its client to address their most pressing strategic and business challenges. Our market research helps clients to address critical business challenges and also helps make optimized business decisions with our fact-based research insights, market intelligence, and accurate data.

Contact us

for your special interest research needs at sales@exactitudeconsultancy.com and we will get in touch with you within 24hrs and help you find the market research report you need.

Website: https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/

+91-7507-07-8687
Nigerians elect new state governors today

International News Mar - 18 - 2023 , 07:07

Nigerians return to the polls today, 2023 to elect state governors across the country, with all the 109 seats of the Senate of Nigeria up for grabs.

The election is for 28 of the country's 36 states whose governors are among the most influential politicians in Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy and largest oil producer.

All the 18 political parties have fielded candidates for the 28 governorship/deputy governorship seats in 28 states out of 36 and 993 State Houses of Assembly constituencies in the 36 states.

The first phase of Nigerias 2023 General Elections was held on Saturday, February 25, when President-elect, Bola Tinubu, and federal lawmakers were elected. Next is governorship.

The second phase of the elections which was scheduled for March 11, 2023 was postponed to be held on Saturday, March 18, 2023 and on that day, new governors will be elected for 28 of Nigerias 36 states. New lawmakers will also be elected for the Houses of Assembly in the 36 states.

States not holding elections

Governorship elections are not holding this time in Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun and Ondo, as polls to the offices of governors of these states are held off-cycle and not part of the general election.

The Presidential, some Senate and House elections took place concurrently on February 25, 2023. State assembly elections (36 states) and gubernatorial elections (28 states) will be held on March 18, and gubernatorial elections will be held in Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa states in the fall of 2023.

Nigeria is a federal republic in the sense that there is both a national government and governments of its 36 states and it utilises the form of government in which the people hold power, but elect representatives to exercise and utilise that power with the executive power exercised by the president.

Government structure

The President is the head of state, the head of government, and also the head of a multi-party system and Nigerian politics takes place within a framework of a federal, presidential, representative democratic republic, in which executive power is exercised by the government.

Legislative power is held by the federal government and the two chambers of the legislature: the House of Representatives and the Senate, the legislative branch of Nigeria is responsible for and possesses powers for the formulation and making of laws Together, the two chambers make up the law-making body in Nigeria, called the national assembly, which serves as a check on the executive arm of government, The National Assembly of Nigeria (NASS) is the democratically elected body that represents the interests of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and its people, makes laws for Nigeria and holds the Government of Nigeria to account.

Electoral System

The Senate is composed of 109 members elected to four-year terms by simple majority vote. Each state is divided into three senatorial districts, each electing one senator. One senator is also elected from the Federal Capital Territory.

The House of Representatives is composed of 360 members elected by simple majority vote in single-member constituencies and they serve four-year terms.

During the last election in 2019, the All Progressives Congress (APC) won a majority with 64 seats. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won 44 seats, and the Young Progressives Party (YPP) won a single seat, reducing the number of parties represented in the Senate from 6 to 3. Voter turnout was 35.66 per cent.

Disputed presidential election

Two weeks after a disputed presidential election which saw the former Senator of Lagos, Bola Tinubu of the APC emerge as the President-elect but the main focus of the governorship elections is on the race to lead Lagos, the country's economic heartbeat and wealthiest state and control budgets larger than those of small nations.

The Ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party's Bola Tinubu was declared winner of the presidential election with 39 per cent of the vote. But he lost in his home state of Lagos to opposition candidate Peter Obi of the Labour Party, which is aiming to upset APC again in the state.

Lagos is important for Tinubu because it is where he built his political and financial powerbase, serving two terms as governor until 2007 and playing a key role in picking every successor since. Losing Lagos could erode Tinubu's influence in the state of more than 20 million people.

Race for Lagos state

According to analysts, it is unprecedented that the party of a sitting Nigerian president doesn't control his home state. Tinubu, through the APC and its predecessor parties, has always been in charge of Lagos politics."

Lagos is the commercial hub of Africa's biggest economy, has a flourishing tech sector, generates the most revenue in Nigeria and has the continent's biggest deep seaport. It is also where Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, is building a multi-billion dollar oil refining complex.

Buoyed by Obi's performance in Lagos, the Labour Party's Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, an architect and political activist, will battle it out with APC incumbent Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who has been in the ranks of the Lagos state government for two decades.

Sitting governors

The APC has sitting governors in 21 states, while the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) has 14. The Labour Party is aiming to win its first governorships in this cycle. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be under scrutiny after its handling of the February 25 vote.
It is highly unlikely that much will come of the move - the ICC has no powers to arrest suspects, and can only exercise jurisdiction within its member countries - and Russia is not one of them.

However it could affect the president in other ways, such as being unable to travel internationally.

In a statement, the ICC said it had reasonable grounds to believe Mr Putin committed the criminal acts directly, as well as working with others. It also accused him of failing to use his presidential powers to stop children being deported.

When asked about the ICC's move, US President Joe Biden said "well, I think it's justified". He noted that the US is not signed up to the ICC, "but I think it makes a very strong point". Mr Putin "clearly committed war crimes", he said.

Russia's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, is also wanted by the ICC for the same crimes.

In the past, she has spoken openly of efforts to indoctrinate Ukrainian children taken to Russia.

Last September, Ms Lvova-Belova complained that some children removed from the city of Mariupol "spoke badly about the [Russian President], said awful things and sang the Ukrainian anthem."

She has also claimed to have adopted a 15-year-old boy from Mariupol.

The ICC said it initially considered keeping the arrest warrants a secret, but decided to make them public in the event that it stopped further crimes from being committed.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan told the BBC: "children can't be treated as the spoils of war, they can't be deported".

"This type of crime doesn't need one to be a lawyer, one needs to be human being to know how egregious it is," he said. Follow @Graphicgh

Reactions to the warrants came within minutes of the announcement, with Kremlin officials instantly dismissing them.

Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said any of the court's decisions were "null and void" and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev compared the warrant to toilet paper.

"No need to explain WHERE this paper should be used," he wrote on Twitter, with a toilet paper emoji.

However Russian opposition leaders welcomed the announcement. Ivan Zhdanov, a close ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, tweeted that it was "a symbolic step" but an important one.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was grateful to Mr Khan and the criminal court for their decision to press charges against "state evil".

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said the decision was "historic for Ukraine", while the country's presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, lauded the decision as "only the beginning".

But because Russia is not a signed member of the ICC, there is very little chance that Vladimir Putin or Maria Lvova-Belova will appear in the dock at The Hague.

The ICC relies on the cooperation of governments to arrest people, and Russia is "obviously not going to cooperate in this respect", Jonathan Leader Maynard, a lecturer in international politics at King's College London, told the BBC.

However Mr Khan pointed out that no-one thought Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader who went on trial for war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, would end up in The Hague.

"Those that feel that you can commit a crime in the daytime, and sleep well at night, should perhaps look at history," he said.

Legally, however, this does present Mr Putin with a problem.

While he is the head of a G20 state, and about to shake hands with China's Xi Jinping in an historic meeting, Mr Putin is now also a wanted man, and this will inevitably place restrictions on which countries he can visit.
Can a widow marry her husbands brother?

Mirror Lawyer Life Mar - 18 - 2023 , 09:33

Dear Mirror Lawyer, Can a widow who is not in love with the brother of her late husband be forced to marry him or the customary successor of his deceased husband?

Kuukua, Winneba



Dear Kuukua, Customary law is the ongoing practices of people in a particular community which over time has crystallised into law.

According to the Constitution, such customs which have been acknowledged as lawful practices are part of the laws of Ghana and are applied and given effect to by the courts. One of such customary practices we experience in various communities is death, inheritance and disposal of a deceased persons estate.



Some of these customs have been refined to suit modern societal practices and unified by legislation and now applicable to the entire country irrespective of what views or customary practices were practised in the past by communities.

One legislation which has made inroads into customary practices and unified the law on Intestate succession across the country is the Intestate Succession Act of 1985, PNDC Act 111.

As a general rule, courts have been very reluctant to substitute their opinion for what customs and practices of communities should or should not be observed unless the custom or practice is contrary to a mandatory provision of statute or contrary to natural justice, equity and good conscience. Thus, in the case of Tanor v Akosua Korkor [1974] GLR 451, according to Krobo custom ,a female who reaches the age of puberty must undergo a customary rite called dipo before becoming pregnant.



If she conceived before undergoing this ceremony, she was not only ostracised but was liable to be banished from home and disowned by her parents.



Korkor was banished from Kroboland as a result of this custom and was adopted by a man from Akim Abuakwah. Issues of Korkors inheritance after the death of the man ended up in court and in the course of the case, counsel for Korkor invited the court to condemn the dipo custom of the Krobos as harsh and contrary to good conscience.

The Court of Appeal held that to banish a teenage girl from home and to compel her parents to disown and disinherit her seems out of step with modern notions.



However, whether the custom should be abolished or not, is not a matter for the courts but for the Krobos themselves.

Archer J (as he then was) was faced with the issue of a customary successor marrying the widow of a deceased family member in the case of re Kofi Antubam (Decd.); Quaico v. Fosu [1965] GLR 138. After reviewing the custom and legal text, writers such as Sarbah, Archer J held as follows:

I propose to stress that certain concepts, notions and conditions which prevailed when Sarbah wrote his book no longer prevail.

For instance, the successor has to maintain the children as if they were his born children and also to marry the widows of the deceased. In other words, the successor inherits the children and the widows as if they were inheritable chattels. Today, women have attained a status equal to men with the right to decide for themselves their suitors or consorts in marriage and even to struggle to maintain their infant children during widowhood.

We are in an era of rights, freedom of choice and emancipation of women. The Constitution guarantees rights of all persons to self-determination.

The concept or notion that the successor of a deceased who died intestate has to maintain the children of the deceased as if they were his own children, and also to marry or inherit the widows, as if they were inheritable chattels no longer prevails, if we were to measure such practices against the 1992 Constitution.

However, some communities still hold on to some of these customary practices. Archer J says that if customary law is to retain its place as the greatest adjunct to statutory law and the common law, then it must not remain stagnant while other aspects of the law are in constant motion.

Customary law must progress and develop in accordance with the tempo of social, commercial and industrial progress, and customs which appear to be repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience must be gradually changed by the communities.



We need visionary leaders in the communities to constantly monitor this and recommend appropriate revision to bad customs and practices. Where this fails, the legislature will intervene to correct the practice and impose the changes on the people.
Bushfires destroy crops, reserves in Bono East

Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah & Biiya Mukusah Ali Mar - 18 - 2023 , 06:29

The Bono East Region is one of the hubs of commercial agriculture and agribusiness in the transitional zone of the country.

The region, which has a total land mass of 23,654 square kilometres, with 11 municipal and district administration areas, is one of the biggest food-producing areas of the country.

The newly created region is said to be the fourth biggest region in the country, playing a central role in the socio-economic landscape.

Statistics available from the regional department of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) indicate that in 2020, the region produced 248,375 metric tonnes (MT) of maize, 2,471,206 MT of varieties of yam, 1,956,766 MT of cassava, 14,580 MT of cocoyam and 29,733 MT of plantain.

Others are 18,301 MT of rice, 23,234 MT of groundnut, 3,825 MT of sorghum, 9,899 MT of cowpea, 45,855 MT of tomatoes and 15,135 MT of pepper, among others.

It has about 44,000 hectares of low valley land for paddy rice production and more than 1,250,000 hectares of arable land for the production of grains and tubers.

Nature of soil

The soil in the area is rich in nutrients suitable for the cultivation of several food crops and supports the growing of cash or tree crops such as cashew, mango, cocoa, coconut and oil palm.

The flat nature of the land and the fact that some district lands serve as basins for tributaries of rivers and groundwater in the areas give good prospects for any future construction of irrigation systems to encourage all-year-round farming.

The rich nature of the soil and rain pattern in the area also makes it possible for farmers to farm two times each year with good yields.

Forest reserves

The region has also been blessed with three vast forest reserves, namely the Tiru Shelterbelt Forest Reserve in the Nkoranza South Municipality, Bosomoa Forest Reserve in the Kintampo South District and Buru Forest Reserve in the Kintampo Municipality.

The existence and vast nature of the reserves has helped to increase rainfall for the cultivation of food crops all year-round.

Forest rangers of the Forestry Commission have had difficulty patrolling the vast forest reserves, due to the limited number of staff and inadequate logistics.

Bushfires



Personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service combating one of the recent bushfires in the Bono East Region

Notwithstanding these attributes of the region, one major problem that keeps frustrating farmers and the Forestry Commission in the area is bushfire.

In less than two months within 2023, the region has recorded about 20 bushfires.

Farm produce, forest reserves and forest products, including trees planted under the Green Ghana initiative over the past two years have suffered a lot of degradation as a result of bushfires.

The situation has also been attributed to the activities of farmers, palm wine tappers, hunters and cattle grazing, among other factors.

Each year, several food crops and forest investments are destroyed through bushfires, making the menace a frequent feature each dry season in the region.

In January 2020, four children of a family were burnt to death at Bonche, a farming community near Portor in the Kintampo Municipality in the region.

The deceased were Freda Stephen, seven; Nyanne Nabada, four; Nabada Uwumboryakii, three, and Faith Stephen, nine months.

It happened when the eldest of the siblings, Freda, attempted to set fire to drive away some bees that had invaded their cottage and in the process the fire gutted the structure, burning the children to death.

Fire volunteers



Zakaria Kabore (left), Public Relations Officer of the Atebubu-Amantin Divisional Fire Station, briefing the fire volunteer squad on fire fighting

It is in the light of the above that Tropenbos Ghana, an environmental protection non-governmental organisation, on Thursday, February 23, 2023, inaugurated fire volunteer squads in 10 fire-prone communities in three districts in the region, to help combat forest fires during the current harmattan season.

The volunteers are made up of 150 young people trained to fight fire in order to protect lives, the environment and farm produce against destruction by fire in the transition landscape.

The beneficiary communities are in the Nkoranza South Municipality, Nkoranza North District and Techiman North District.

Fifteen young people from each of the 10 beneficiary communities, namely Asonkwaa, Asueyi, Tanoboase, Atrensu, Bredi-Kontonoso, Nyinase, Dromankuma, Fiema, Bonte and Konkrope were trained in how to combat bushfires to save lives and investments.

The trainees were taken through three-day vigorous firefighting techniques training to aid them face or combat bushfires.

Tropenbos Ghana organised the training which was facilitated by the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and the Forestry Commission, and co-funded by the European Union.

Presentation



Daniel Kofi Abu (right), Project Manager of the Tropenbos Ghana, presenting a spraying machine to one of the volunteers during the inauguration of the squad

Additionally, the organisation presented fire safety equipment to the 150 fire volunteers to enable them to fight fire when the need arises.

They included spraying machines, Wellington boots, machetes, safety wear, reflectors, goggles, gloves and torchlights, among other fighting items.

The aim of the project is to protect the millions of trees planted in the transitional landscape under the Land Scape and Environmental Agility Across the Nation (LEAN) project, which aims at supporting national efforts to conserve biodiversity.

Additionally, the project is aim at protecting agricultural lands and promote sustainable agriculture to ensure food security.

Rapid decline of forest

Speaking during the inauguration of the fire volunteer squads at Nkoranza in the Bono East Region, the Project Manager of Tropenbos Ghana, Daniel Kofi Abu, told the Daily Graphic that the transitional regions of the country over the years had experienced rapid decline of forest reserves and food production.

He attributed the situation to several incidents of bushfires in the area, which he said had negatively affected food production, forest reserves and investments.

Mr Abu said the soil fertility in the area had been lost due to frequent bushfires, explaining that the NGO decided to plant trees to restore the biodiversity and promote sustainable agriculture, since the region was one of the food baskets of the country.

He said the volunteer squads were expected to work closely with the GNFS and community members to protect the trees planted under the EU-sponsored LEAN project.

Mr Abu said the NGO had invested heavily in the transition landscape to transform the area and seen to the inauguration of the Landscape Management Board, planting of fresh trees, restoration of some depleted forest reserves, including planting of trees in individual farms.

He said the organisation selected the 10 communities out of the 30 implementing communities, because of frequent recorded cases of bushfires.

Mr Abu said the organisation and its partners had also started a national dialogue to find lasting solution to activities of herdsmen in forest reserves.

He said the NGO would soon meet traditional rulers, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MDCEs) in the region to brainstorm on ways to address the issue.

For his part, the Nkoranza North District Manager of the Forestry Commission (FC), Kwabena Boahen, cautioned that if measures were not put in place to check wildfires in the area, there would be food insecurity in the country.

He said last year alone the FC lost 500 hectares of forest in the district to bushfires, adding that forest reserves were gradually being lost to bushfires.

Mr Boahen said last year the FC planted about 20 million trees and appealed to the public to plant trees collected from the commission.

Protection of investment

The Nkoranza North District Director of the MoFA, Ahmed Issif, expressed the hope that the inauguration of the fire volunteer squads in the area would help protect the investments of farmers.

He explained that several farmers had invested into food crops and cash crops such as cashew and mango, which needed to be protected.

Mr Issif, therefore, appealed to the beneficiary communities to own the EU-sponsored LEAN project and support the volunteers to combat fires in their communities.

For his part, the Public Relations Officer of the Atebubu-Amantin Divisional Fire Station, Station Officer II Zakaria Kabore, called on the public to support the GNFS to reduce fire incidents.
More youth moving to Europe, America - Census figures suggest

Mary Anane-Amponsah Mar - 18 - 2023 , 07:05

More Ghanaians, especially the youth, are leaving the country to seek greener pastures in Europe and America.

Statistics from the Ghana Statistical Service showed that a total of 293,416 persons were captured as Ghanaian emigrants in the 2021 Population and Housing Census compared to the 2010 data of 250,624.

The report was launched in Accra disclosed.

Figures contained in a thematic report on migration in Accra disclosed that these travelers were dominated by young adults with a median age of 35 years, while there were more emigrants with rural origin of 78.6 per cent among ages of 20-49 than those with urban origin.

The report indicated that 37.6 per cent of the Ghanaian emigrants were in Europe, and 23.6 per cent in Americas, which had remained virtually unchanged since 2010.

A third of the destinations of Ghanaian emigrants were in Africa, mainly in ECOWAS countries, the report added.

Cote d'Ivoire had most of Ghanaian emigrants in West Africa with 7.3 per cent followed by Nigeria with 6.0 per cent.

Non-Ghanaian population

The report, however, pointed out that there had been a decline in the non-Ghanaian population in the country between 2010 and 2021 from 398,585 to 294,341.

It said Nigerians were the majority of the non-Ghanaian population, forming 26.2 per cent of that population, while Togolese were 20.5 per cent, Nigeriens were 16.1 per cent, Burkinabes were 16.0 per cent, Ivorians were 4.3 per cent and Asians comprised 3.8 per cent.

Presenting the report, the lead writer of the report, Prof. John K. Anarfi, said the two main reasons people were leaving the country were to enable them seek employment and education or training, while others were marriage-related and family reunion.

The report said more than half of the emigrant population originated from Greater Accra and Ashanti regions only.

Prof. Anarfi said other studies on migration in the country showed that there had been a stepwise migration pattern whereby people left small settlements and moved on progressively to bigger towns until they ended up in the city.

There is evidence that the country is no more able to create jobs for its young adults, and they are being forced to look elsewhere for livelihood opportunities, he said.

The statistics, Prof. Anarfi noted, explained that the country had failed to take advantage of the demographic dividend that portrayed the country as one with youthful population for which reason some action and policy decisions must be taken to address the issue.

Efforts must, therefore, be intensified, not only to ensure good health and better education for the youth, but also to create viable economic conditions for jobs to thrive in an atmosphere of good governance, he appealed.

Tackle SDGs

The Chief Director of the Ministry of the Interior, Adelaide Anno-Kumi, said the data on migration would aid basic planning to be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The ministry, she said, would engage further with the Statistical Service on the production of analytical reports that would seek to answer policy-relevant research questions on migration.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Chief of Mission in Ghana, Fatou Ndiaye, said the IOM would continue to provide support for capacity of officials for the effective management of migration in Ghana as issues of improving statistics on migration had gained currency in recent times.
Vehicle components manufacturers explore avenues in Ghana

Donald Ato Dapatem Mar - 18 - 2023 , 07:16

A group of 18 vehicle components manufacturers from automotive manufacturing countries are in the country for a-week long exploration of Ghanas automotive eco-system to establish plants in the country.

The group, which is the fifth of its kind to come to Ghana, was brought in by the Volkswagen and are from Germany, Mexico, South Africa and India among others, seeking opportunities to establish plants in Ghana.

The Group Communications Director of Volkswagen, Andile Dlamini, announced this when a delegation from Volkswagen paid a courtesy call on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday.

Led by the Chairperson and Managing Director of Volkswagen Group South Africa, Martina Biene, members of the group were in the country for the launch of the $8 million assembly plant at Tema last Thursday.

With an installed capacity of 5,000 units per annum, the new facility will assemble the T-Cross, Tiguan, Amarok and Virtus models of the VW range of vehicles, creating 80 jobs, including local third-party service suppliers.

By the new facility, the country becomes the fourth assembling location for VW vehicles in sub-Saharan Africa, joining the league of South Africa, which is host to the companys largest assembly plant, with Kenya and Rwanda.

Investors

Dilating on the interest of components manufacturers, Mr Dlamini said the investors had been meeting with assemblers, dealers, government entities and infrastructure managers just to understand what the ecosystem offered.

He added that they were interested in investing in Ghana, adding that we fully support the policy that will be implemented. We believe in Ghana; we believe it as the hub of Africa.

Showcase

For her part, Ms Martina Biene said the opening of the facility last Thursday in Tema was to showcase the next step of their commitment to the journey that started in 2018, noting that the plant also marked the automotive journey in Africa.

Policy

She described the automotive policy in Ghana as probably the most advanced and the most well-thought- through which could also make Ghana, the West African hub of the automotive industry.

She gave an assurance that the company would stay and complete the successful journey with Ghana and make the next brave steps of growing the automotive industry.

President Akufo-Addo said the Automotive Policy was meant to offer clarity to anybody who was interested in any aspect of the industry in Ghana and expressed delight that the policy continued to have an impact.

He indicated that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was a game changer and that was the reason why Ghana ensured that the secretariat was brought to Accra to make the country the commercial hub of Africa.

We want industrialists to take advantage of the AfCFTA and use Ghana as the gateway, he said, and indicated Ghana was interested in integration, where the components would be manufactured in Ghana as well as upgrading the skills of the workforce using the countrys resources.
Constitutional Instrument on voter registration: Leaving some behind?

Dr George Asekere Politics Mar - 18 - 2023 , 07:10

The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has once again decided to add another layer to the robustness of Ghanas electoral system.

This time, the commission intends to get the legal backing, under the proposed Constitutional Instrument (CI) to, among other things, use the Ghana Card as the sole document for all future registration of voters.

The EC holds the view that the National Identification Authority (NIA)-produced Ghana Card has superior features than any other document including the Ghana Passport and the ECs own produced voters identification (ID) card.

In the words of the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, the proposed CI would safeguard the sanctity of the electoral process devoid of foreign interference because one person unqualified on our roll is one too many. The use of the Ghana Card as the sole document for voter registration implies that the guarantor system which hitherto allowed a registered voter to vouch for the citizenship and age of prospective applicants will no longer be used for the registration process in view of its inherent challenges.

Framework

Apart from being covered under the legal framework of our electoral politics, the Ghana Card may be a secure and reliable form of identification which can help to reduce fraudulent activities such as double voting.

As has been the case, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has taken to the defence of the ECs proposed CI while the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has gone full length to oppose it. That ruling parties have sided with the EC while opposition parties have opposed the ECs reforms over the years, speak volumes.

The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and the former Chairman of the EC, Dr Kwadwo Afari Djan, are among those who have kicked against the proposed CI by the EC. The central argument of the opponents has included the possibility of disenfranchising many in view of the practical difficulty in securing the Ghana Card. The question of identity has led to bloody conflicts in Africa, hence anything linked to identity politics must be handled with caution.

Danger

One major danger associated with using only the Ghana Card for voter registration is that it can be used to disenfranchise certain groups of people. For example, if citizens do not have access to financial resources or the correct documents, they may not be able to acquire a Ghana Card, and thus be unable to vote in elections. If one unqualified person on the register is one too many as indicated by the EC chairperson, does the same logic not apply to one qualified person unable to get onto the register due to his/her inability to procure the Ghana Card?

Also, the assertion that the NIA offices are in the districts and regional capitals, hence accessible gives the impression that proponents of the new CI are not in touch with the reality in rural Ghana. Do we genuinely think that some poor and aged people in rural areas will travel several kilometres by walking or using bicycles to the district capitals of Ghana, particularly, when it is the case that they will not get the card the same day, at the expense of their health, money and time?

Additionally, while it is true that many unqualified people can get unto the voter roll through the guarantor system, it is equally true that the Ghana Card may not accurately reflect the true identity of a person, hence there is a risk that ineligible persons could also get onto the voters register via the Ghana Card.

Database

Another challenge of using the Ghana Card as the sole document for voter registration is that it can be costly for the government to produce and distribute cards to all eligible citizens, as well as to maintain an up-to-date database of voters. This is a function of the health of the economy which we cannot guarantee tomorrow. Besides, there is a risk that the biometric data stored on the card could be stolen or misused, which could have serious implications for Ghana's national security and privacy.

Added to the above is a chance that the system could be manipulated by those in power, leading to unfair or unjust outcomes. The consolidation of gains in our elections must not be jeopardised because the consequences may be too costly for us. The kind of politics we practise in Ghana makes it simply too risky to allow the executive arm control over any of the processes of getting people onto the voters register. The NIA is under the control of the executive.

Manipulation

The main danger of leaving voter registration in the hands of the executive arm of government is that it could be prone to abuse and misuse, as it could be done in a way that would benefit certain political parties or individuals. Additionally, there is a risk of manipulation and fraud, as the executive arm of government could unfairly influence the outcomes of elections by deliberately excluding certain groups or individuals from the voting process. Finally, there is also a risk that the process could become corrupt or inefficient, leading to a loss of confidence in the electoral system.

Other documents should be accepted for voter registration in order to ensure that all eligible citizens are given the opportunity to exercise their right to vote. What matters is vigilance.

Additionally, having a variety of documents available allows for greater accuracy in verifying the identity of a person and reduces the risk of fraud and other errors.

The writer is Lecturer at the Department of Political Science,

University of Education, Winneba
The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 election, Peter Obi has distanced himself from any planned nationwide protest by Obidients.

He said: My attention has been drawn to social media postings suggesting that a nation-wide groundswell #ENDINEC, #ENDNigeria Protest is being planned by the Obidients. We are aware that those postings are being orchestrated by the Opposition.

In an official Twitter handle today, March 17, Peter Obi said that he must reclaim his stolen mandate in due process, regardless of the distrust many may have about Nigerian Judiciary.

My position is clear: Without prejudice to constitutional dictates on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, I have publicly stated that in the matter of reclaiming our stolen mandate, we shall do so robustly, via the Courts and Due Process.

Regardless of the misgivings many may have about our Judiciary, we must strive to build strong and resilient institutions, of which the Judiciary is one.

As a firm believer in the separation of powers between the three arms of government, I am conscious that every so often, the Judiciary is called upon to vindicate itself on epochal national public-interest issues. The matter presently before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) is one such litmus test case.

Therefore, we are committed to pursuing Due Process in an unfettered manner. That is our primary and priority option.
Dozens of community members attended the annual Pulan Festival to celebrate the lunar new year and Mes CHamoru on Saturday at Sagan Kotturan CHamoru Cultural Center in Tamuning.

Attendees had the chance to learn how to sling stones and weave coconut leaves.

They supported local vendors who sold hand-carved jewelry, CHamoru language books, clothing, art and food.

I think events like this are great because a lot of people just dont know where or how to do certain things and learn more about our culture. This is an opportunity with the word out that this is CHamoru month for people to take a step back to look at where they are from and appreciate where they come from, said Chyna Ramirez, 27, from Dededo.

She said a highlight was revisiting the museum at the center and seeing a stone-slinging demonstration that explained how the practice was used in ancient times for hunting and battle.

Painter Mark DellIsola held a live demonstration in his studio and introduced visitors to his new works focusing on appreciating the different shades of blue that are seen in the Pacific around Guam and the greater Micronesia region.

He said the work being done by CHamoru artists at the center balances preserving traditional activities with exploring new ways of expressing culture by using traditional images and the environment of Guam.

Having this festival and inviting the public gives everyone joy in being who we are on this island, said DellIsola.

Thomas Torres, a coconut leaf weaving instructor, said his family has been weaving for generations, and joining the Pulan Festival is a tradition they have been participating in since the event started about 10 years ago.

We come out and we share with everybody and anybody who wants to learn a little bit about weaving, and we can teach them how to do smaller items that are easier to do. Its all about sharing our culture, he said.
Rescue crews continued their search Saturday for a spearfisherman who failed to return to a boat after freediving near Orote Point.

The 31-year-old man was with a group off of Blue Hole on Thursday. He was reported missing at 6 p.m. that day, and on Friday, searchers found his speargun.

He was last seen wearing a red wetsuit and red fins, according to a news release from the Coast Guard. Authorities are asking anyone with information to call the Coast Guard at 671-355-4824.

On Saturday, the Guam Fire Department, the Coast Guard Cutter Myrtle Hazard and a U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point MH-65 Dolphin Helicopter were involved in the search.

Based on drift models and the use of self-locating datum marker buoys, our search is expanding offshore, said Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Crose, the search and rescue mission coordinator for the case. Were continuing to coordinate with our partners at the Guam Police Department and Guam Fire Department. We appreciate the support from the U.S. Navys Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Five in the search Friday.

The missing spearfisher was reportedly part of a group of seven aboard a vessel on an excursion to spearfish near Orote Point. Once Coast Guard watchstanders were alerted, they coordinated with Guam Fire Department personnel, and HSC-25 diverted two helicopters from a nearby training mission.

The Myrtle Hazard was diverted from an offshore patrol, and two 29-foot Response Boat-Small crews from Station Apra Harbor joined the search. Navy Security Forces also began looking along the shoreline and Apra Harbor.

A joint incident command post was established on the beach nearby.

The team also issued an urgent marine information broadcast notice to mariners advising anyone in the area to keep a sharp lookout and report any sightings to responders.

The weather forecast calls for east winds of around 20 mph shifting to east-northeast, mostly sunny, with 6-foot waves. Sea conditions may calm Saturday evening and Sunday. A small craft advisory is in effect through 6 p.m.

The MH-65 Dolphin helicopter is a short-range recovery helicopter used to perform search and rescue, law enforcement and homeland security missions.

The aircrew is deployed to Guam from Hawaii for six weeks to assess the feasibility of more frequent operations here, according to the Coast Guard.
By William Schwartz | Published on 2023/03/17

Actor Lee Je-hoon recently made a special appearance at Filmart in Hong Kong, a major film distribution event for the Asian market. Lee Je-hoon was appearing in his capacity as the leading star in "Taxi Driver 2" which is distributed throughout that market by the streaming service Viu. Lee Je-hoon claimed to have a positive impression of Hong Kong, stating that in the event that a "Taxi Driver 3" is approved, he would like to do filming for it in Hong Kong.

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"Taxi Driver 2" has been quite successful on Viu, surging to the number one most popular show on the platform only ten days after its initial release. International press events for South Korean dramas have become common for stars featured on the platform. Viu had similar success with "Reborn Rich" last year, and lead actor Song Joong-ki likewise did a media conference for Viu in Singapore following that success.

Viu offers streaming services in sixteen markets across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The Philippines and Indonesia are probably its two most important markets. "Taxi Driver 2" is currently airing on SBS on local South Korean television. It had ratings of 13% in its most recent episode, the seventh, which aired on March 17th.

Written by William Schwartz

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"Taxi Driver 2" is directed by Jang Young-seok, Lee Dan, written by Oh Sang-ho, and features Lee Je-hoon, Kim Eui-sung, Pyo Ye-jin, Jang Hyuk-jin, Bae Yoo-ram, Shin Jae-ha. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2023/02/17~Now airing, Fri, Sat 22:00 on SBS.
By Panos Kotzathanasis | Published on 2023/03/17

Kim Min-ju-I was born in Busan in 1990. She studied cinema at Chung Ang University and majored in directing at the Korea Academy of Cinematographic Arts. She directed short films and, in 2018, received the prize for best editing at the Mise-en-scene short film festival for Kim Heesun. "A Letter from Kyoto" is her first feature film.

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On the occasion of the movie screening at FICA Vesoul, where it won the Jury Prize, we speak with her about moving from short to feature movies, the characters and the casting, the cinematography, and other topics.

What was the most difficult part going from short to feature films?

Well, first of all the scenario. As the rhythm of the scenario for short films is not the same as for feature films, when I prepared the scenario, it's just like I was doing it for the first time. And second, it's about the production because there are not that many scenes in a short film, like 20 or 30. The shooting period also, it was longer, and of course the budget was about five times more.

And can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind the story, and particularly how you came up with the female characters, the protagonists?

It is a bit of an autobiographical story because my mother was from Japan too. So, the main character, the second daughter, is a little bit like me. I have an older sister but the character in the movie is not really like my real older sister, so there are some aspects which were created. Also, there is no third sister in my family. So she was created as a mix of the first and second daughters.

Since you said that the second sister is much like you, how close exactly?

There is a significant age difference between me and my elder sister, eight years, so in reality I could never have had so much dispute with her, as the character did in the film. But I was always a loser like her. (laughter)

So, if you were to be friends with one of the sisters in the movie right now, who would it be?

The older sister, because the middle sister is sort of brainwashed and she cannot understand her.

Did you shoot in Japan or just Korea?

I couldn't shoot in Japan because of COVID and also there was a problem with the budget. So even the scenes of Japan were shot in Korea. To add realism, though, I used capture video and stock photos. Especially for the train scene.

Can you tell us a bit about the casting, how did that work?

First of all, the main character and her older sister, Han Sunhwa and Han Chae-ah are actually already very well-known in Korea. So it's through the casting director in KAFA, the Korean Academy of Film Arts, that I could realize their casting. For the mother, actually in Korea, there aren't so many actresses at this age who would want to work for a low budget movie. I also wanted to cast an actress who can speak the Busan dialect and who can act well. I knew Cha Mi-kyung who played the mother because I was involved in the production of another movie as a staff member and she was also there. She was the only option for me. As for the younger sister, I had an audition because I wanted someone who can act and who can also dance. There were about 40 candidates for the audition, and I picked her among them.

Does the actor who plays the mother speak Japanese or was this just for that scene?

No, she doesn't speak Japanese. It was just for the scene, she practiced to present the dialect of Kyoto.

Can you tell us a bit about the cinematography, what you wanted to do with the visuals of the film?

I knew the DP, Kim Seon-hyeong from my short films so we understand each other even without words. That is really good for the work. And what was important was presenting the scene of Yeongdo realistically, which was where the story takes place. What I wanted to share with the audience was that the space where the story takes place is Yeongdo. So in the film there are some people who are from Yeongdo, who leave Yeongdo and who come back to Yeongdo. And also those who have always lived in Yeongdo but who want to leave. It's a story about them. What I wanted to show is that Yeongdo is a home. While there are some people who come and go, home is always there so it doesn't change. It is at this place that all the stories take place. That is what I wanted to show.

Tell us a bit about the foreign guy. How did you come up with this idea and how was the casting for him?

The reason I created this foreign character is because there are so many Russian workers in Yeongdo and also I wanted to create a character who helps the first daughter to leave Yeongdo. For the casting there were some problems with visas etc, so I didn't have any options, but to pick from an agency.

Do you have foreign friends in reality, in real life?

A few because her definition of " friend " is narrow.

Can she tell us about her opinion of the Korean movie industry at the moment, particularly for women filmmakers?

Compared to before, there are more female staff and there are more opportunities. But still it's always the men who decide. So we can say there is a ceiling. I am in the middle of independent and mainstream films. So when I observe the independent cinema/film scene, I can see that there are more women who are really good. So much better than men. But it's always the men who have more opportunities. We can observe this sort of change not only in the cinema scene, but also in the literature scene or others in Korea. I think that it's a matter of time so there will be more change in the future. We will break this ceiling.

In the end, are you satisfied with how the movie turned out?

I am satisfied with the production because there were not so many problems and also I was invited by festivals to show the movie. But yesterday, I saw my movie after about 4 months, and I wanted to redo the montage. I would grade the film 6 out of 10.

What are you working on next?

It will be really the opposite of "A Letter from Kyoto", because it'll be the story of women who are bad and crazy. I am now writing the scenario. It'll be the story of a woman in the 70s, during the real estate bubble, who has a real desire for money.

Interview by Panos Kotzathanasis

___________

"A Letter from Kyoto" is directed by Kim Min-ju-I, and features Han Sunhwa, Cha Mi-kyung, Han Chae-ah, Ko Jae-hyun. No release date in Korea yet.
Published on 2023/03/17 | Source

New stills added for the upcoming Korean drama "Duty After School" (2023).

Advertisement

Directed by Seong Yong-il

Written by Yoon Soo-I

Network: TVING

With Shin Hyun-soo, Kim Ki-hae, Lim Se-mi, Ahn Do-kyu, Kim Su-gyeom, Woo Min-kyu,...

10 episodes - Fri

Synopsis

A science fiction thriller that depicts all students across the country fighting against unidentified objects ahead of the CSAT and fighting for extra points.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2023/03/31
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Vermont Public Hearings on Deer and Moose

MONTPELIER, Vt.  The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board will hold public hearings on deer and moose management for 2023 on March 20, 23 and 24.

The hearings will include results of Vermont's 2022 deer seasons and prospects for deer hunting next fall as well as an opportunity for people to provide their observations and opinions about the current status of the deer herd.

The hearings will also include a review of the 2022 moose hunting seasons and an opportunity for the public to provide feedback on the number of moose permits recommended for 2023.

The three in-person hearings will begin at 6:30 p.m. at these locations:

March 20 - Lake Region High School, 317 Lake Region Rd, Orleans, Vt. 05860

March 23 - Woodstock Union High School, 100 Amsden Way, Woodstock, Vt. 05091

March 24 - Manchester Community Library, 138 Cemetery Ave., Manchester Center, Vt. 05255

Pre-recorded videos of the moose and deer presentations that will be given at these meetings will be available by going to the "Public Hearings Schedule" on Vermont Fish and Wildlife's home page. The Fish and Wildlife Department's 2023 Moose Season Recommendation is also available on that page.
State Officials Tour MEMA Logistics and Distribution Warehouse

BOSTON  State officials from the Healey-Driscoll Administration, the Joint Committee on Emergency Preparedness and Management, and members of the Massachusetts National Guard toured the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) warehouse in Franklin to view storage operations and learn about the Agency's logistic capabilities.

During the tour, participants including Representative William J. Driscoll, Jr., Senator Rebecca L. Rausch, and Senator Michael D. Brady, discussed MEMA's disaster logistics program and reflected on the many lessons learned from the global health emergency.

At the beginning of 2020, before the full emergence of COVID-19, MEMA identified and prioritized the need for a statewide logistics program. The pandemic's shortages and supply chain disruptions, especially in personal protective equipment (PPE) and rapid tests, spurred the Agency to meet that objective ahead of schedule and on a much larger scale than anticipated. During the pandemic, MEMA facilitated the distribution of more than 81 million pieces of PPE and more than 12 million rapid COVID-19 test kits from this facility on behalf of several state partners.

To ensure this achievement will be a lasting, permanent enhancement to the Commonwealth's disaster response capabilities, the Administration's Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Budget proposes a $173,000, or 4 percent, increase to MEMA, which provides funding to support warehouse operations, including the lease of the 75,000-square-foot facility.

"MEMA's operations have been critical in providing first responders and essential workers with emergency supplies and services in their time of greatest need," said Governor Maura Healey. "Our Administration's first budget invests in vital emergency management strategies and critical life-saving supplies, reinforcing our commitment to the readiness and resiliency of communities across Massachusetts."

MEMA assumed occupancy of the 75,000-square-foot Franklin space in August 2020. In addition to stockpiling, sorting, and distributing PPE and other equipment across the region, the warehouse provides needed surge capabilities to receive and distribute consumable supplies quickly. All-hazards response equipment is also available, including a field emergency operations center, 250-bed field hospital, human and animal emergency shelter supplies, equipment to support people with disabilities, mobile field tents, sign boards, light towers, portable power and communications equipment, as well as a stockpile of emergency commodities, including meals ready-to-eat (MREs) and sandbags. Investments of federal funds in material handling equipment, shelving, and electronic inventory management software have grown the warehouse into an efficient and effective statewide solution for receiving, storing, and distributing emergency equipment and supplies.

"MEMA's comprehensive logistics program and strategic supply warehouse represents an operational milestone in our tireless efforts to strengthen the Commonwealth's emergency preparedness," said Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy. "The Administration's FY24 Budget supports MEMA's deeply impactful public safety mission and fundamentally invests in the health, safety, and well-being of all who live, work, and raise families in Massachusetts."
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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North Adams Schools Developing Districtwide Literacy Approach

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The school district is working on data-driven literacy efforts to create proficient readers.

"Literacy is critical to the academic achievement of all of our students, and it's a key factor in determining the success of our students," Kimberlee Chappell told the School Committee last week. "That's why literacy and equity are inextricably linked. If you can't read or write then you can't access anything. We live in the age of information, it is required that we have the skills to be able to read and write."

Not being able to read and write can make life much more difficult, she said.

Chappell, the district's literacy and Title 1 grant coordinator, said the schools are using the approach of gathering current data and then collaborating as a team to develop strategies to support students.

The Nation's Report Card, part of the National Assessment of Educational Process, says only 65 percent of fourth-graders are capable of reading at or above a basic level. Massachusetts tracks slightly higher on average but North Adams is at roughly 50 percent.

The schools are working within the Next Generation Science Standards of inquiry, which uses assessments to create evidence-based instruction that is aligned to state standards. The three-tiered design focuses on universal support, targeted support and intensive support.

"Each year we administer universal screeners in fall, winter and then again in spring to help us determine how to develop instruction that we will need," she said. Once we've collected the results ... We collaborate as a team on strategies that can help us maximize student growth.

Teachers and leaders from across the district will be brought together to begin the process of developing a literacy plan that is cohesive throughout the district. Chappell said the school district is partnering on a four-part survey with Hill for Literacy, which provides training, professional development and data implementation.

She said the results of the needs assessment will be shared with the educational team and then with the broader community later this month.

School Committee member Richard Alcombright asked what three things parents can do to support literacy efforts at home. Chappell said it depends on the grade but that the basics are reading to children, teaching them letter names and sounds, and how to put letters together to make words and build on sentences.

And just conversations and narratives, she said, can help in developing vocabulary.

"In the information age, I feel that there may be a lack of that when we're talking about interaction, human interaction," Chappell said. "The best thing you can do is talk about what's going on in your life. If you're boiling a pot of water, talk about putting the noodles in the boiling water and then use the language that goes along with it."

Superintendent Barbara Malkas said the schools are seeing some results from these efforts and noted that North Adams has the highest rate of prekindergarten participation in the county.

"That early childhood experience can be very, very valuable to students," said Malkas. And while some parents may prefer to wait until kindergarten, "there are things that parents can do as well to start to develop those early literacy skills."

"Research shows us is that with the right instruction, 95 percent of students who have reading difficulties will become proficient readers and writers and as public educators it is our moral imperative to make sure that we have that goal," Chappell said.
Are you a space enthusiast who dreams of taking a trip to travel outside Earth? Well, in about seven years from now, you could be able to do that!



Space Tourism By 2030

yourstory

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somnath has said, "Work is in progress around Indias very own space tourism module, which is both safe and reusable." Putting a timeline on the space travel module, the ISRO chairman added that enthusiasts will be able to take a trip to space by 2030. The estimated cost of the trip is slated to be Rs 6 crore.



The per ticket price is likely to be around Rs 6 crore. People who take the trip will also be able to call themselves astronauts, Somnath said.

Senior officials of the ISRO said that work related to the government's space tourism module is gaining momentum'. They added that the tickets will be available at "competitive prices" in the global market.

"The per-ticket price is likely to be around Rs 6 crore. People who take the trip will also be able to call themselves astronauts," Somnath said, as per Hindustan Times.

Senior officials of the ISRO told that work related to the governments space tourism module is gaining momentum'. They added that the tickets will be available at "competitive prices" in the global market.

Also Read: Meet Kam Ghaffarian: A Space Billionaire Who Is Racing To Land On The Moon Before China

Orbital Or Sub-Orbital Space Travel?

NASA

It has not been announced whether the module will include sub-orbital space travel or orbital space travel; however, the Rs 6 crore price tag suggests that the module is likely to feature sub-orbital space travel.

An article on the space exploration news website Space.com reportedly says that the main difference between sub-orbital and orbital space travel is the speed at which a vehicle is travelling. An orbital spacecraft must achieve what is known as orbital velocity, whereas a suborbital rocket flies at a speed below that.

Sub-orbital trips generally involve spending 15 minutes at the edge of space, experiencing a few minutes in a low-gravity environment, before the spaceflight descends back to Earth.

Companies such as Blue Origin have conducted suborbital flights with their reusable New Shepard rocket. Reusable rockets enhance the economic viability of spaceflight, as they are capable of going to space more than once.

Earlier this year, in February, as per a Moneycontrol report, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Atomic Energy, and Space, Jitendra Singh, said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha that ISRO has already started carrying out feasibility studies for Indias sub-orbital space tourism mission.

Through Gaganyaan  Indias maiden human spaceflight programme  Isro is engaged in the development of various technologies, which are essential building blocks for human space missions, Singh said.

ISRO Likely To Partner With Private Firms

isro

Scientists from ISRO told me that ISRO is likely to partner with private firms for the development of the space travel module via the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe).



Commenting on the safety aspect of the space trip, the ISRO chairman said that they are using the Reusable Launch VehicleTechnology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) to gain more knowledge about the safety of the spaceflights.

"Along with the Gaganyaan mission, we are also gaining knowledge from our Reusable Launch VehicleTechnology Demonstrator (RLV-TD). Since we are bringing space experiences to the common people, we have to ensure that these trips are extremely safe and our technologies pass safety clearances," Somnath said.

For more such interesting content and the latest financial news, keep reading Worth. Click here.
Burma Kayah Resistance Commandos Seize Myanmar Junta Border Outpost

The Karenni Commando squad with seized firearms and ammunition after attacking a regime outpost on the Thai border.

The Karenni Army and Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) seized a Myanmar regime outpost near the Than Lwin River on the Thai border on Thursday, according to Karenni Military Information Centre (KMIC).

Commandos ambushed the Light Infantry Battalion 135 border outpost, according to the KMIC.

We raided a border outpost which is important for their food supplies. Three regime soldiers were killed and the rest fled, KMIC said.

After an hourlong battle, anti-regime forces occupied the camp and seized six weapons and ammunition and found three dead soldiers.

Karenni Commandos raided a Light Infantry Battalion 54 border outpost on March 8 and found the bodies of six regime troops.

They have raided at least eight junta outposts since late 2022, according to the KMIC.

Fighting between regime troops and Karenni forces continues in Kayah State as regime reinforcements attack resistance strongholds in Demoso and Shadaw townships and Pekon and Pinlaung townships in neighboring southern Shan State.

Regime troops have attacked civilian targets with shelling and airstrikes.

The KNDF and resistance groups announced that 31 junta soldiers were killed during three clashes in Pekon Township earlier this month. Resistance groups seized six junta soldiers, firearms and ammunition and the bodies of soldiers killed in clashes.
Conflicts In Numbers Myanmar Regime Massacres in Numbers

The recovered bodies of Tar Taing villagers killed by junta troops in Myinmu Township, Sagaing Region.

Myanmars civilian National Unity Government (NUG) claimed on Wednesday that the regime has committed 64 massacres in five states and regions, killing at least 766 people since the 2021 coup.

The NUG listed nine massacres in 2021, 44 in 2022 and 11 this year.

In massacres, regime troops killed 104 people this year, about 20 percent of mass killings in 2022. The number of victims rose to 515 in 2022, an increase of 250 percent from 147 in 2021. Massacres mostly took place in anti-regime strongholds like Sagaing and Magwe regions and Kayah State.

U Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmars UN ambassador, asked the General Assembly on Thursday for international protection for Myanmars civilians against junta atrocities and submitted evidence of mass graves.

He highlighted the killings of 22 civilians, including three monks, by regime troops in Nan Name village in Pinlaung Township, Southern Shan State. U Kyaw Moe referred to the juntas execution of 17 civilians, including three women who were also raped, in Tar Taing village this month.

An estimated 72 percent of the killings were in Sagaing Region, claiming the lives of 478 civilians, according to the NUGs Ministry of Human Rights.

At least 120 Kachin State civilians were killed in 2022, largely in airstrikes. Regime troops massacred 42 people in Magwe Region, 41 in Kayah State and 31 in southern Shan States last year.

In 2022 junta troops carried out massacres in which 42 people died in Magwe Region, 41 in Kayah State and 31 in southern Shan State.

Infographics by Nora / The Irrawaddy

The number of massacres
World Will Russia's Vladimir Putin really ever be arrested?

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 17, 2023. / AFP

THE HAGUEThe International Criminal Court has taken the major step of issuing an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war.

But does this mean the Russian president, accused of the war crime of deporting children, is really ever likely to stand trial in The Hague?

How could it happen?

ICC member states are obliged to carry out the arrest warrants on Putin and Russias presidential commissioner for childrens rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, if they travel to their countries.

Thats right, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan told AFP when asked if Putin would be liable for arrest if he set foot in any of those 123 nations.

But while that could make travel difficult for Putin, the court has no police force of its own to enforce its warrants, and relies entirely on ICC states playing ball.

Countries havent always done so  particularly when it involves a sitting head of state like Putin.

Former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir managed to visit a number of ICC member states including South Africa and Jordan despite being subject to an ICC warrant.

Despite being ousted in 2019, Sudan has yet to hand him over.

Matthew Waxman, a professor at Columbia Law School, said it was a very significant step by the ICC but that the chances are slim that we will ever see Putin arrested.

What are the main hurdles?

First and foremost: Russia, like the United States and China, is not a member of the ICC.

The ICC was able to file charges against Putin because Ukraine has accepted its jurisdiction over the current situation, although Kyiv too is not a member.

But Moscow has dismissed the warrants against Putin out of hand.

Russia does not extradite its citizens in any case.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and so from a legal point of view, the decisions of this court are void.

Russia in fact signed the courts founding Rome Statute but did not ratify it to become a member, and then withdrew its signature on Putins orders in 2016, after the ICC launched a probe into the 2008 war in Georgia.

Putin was unlikely to end up in the dock for war crimes unless there is a regime change in Russia, said Cecily Rose, assistant professor of public international law at Leiden University.

Have top-level suspects faced justice?

Yet history has seen several senior figures who have ended up in the dock on war crimes charges against all odds, said the ICCs Khan.

There are so many examples of people that thought they were beyond the reach of the law they found themselves in courts, he said.

Look at Milosevic or Charles Taylor or Karadzic or Mladic.

The ICC convicted former Liberian warlord-turned-president Taylor in 2012 of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic died in his cell in The Hague in 2006 while on trial for genocide at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was finally captured in 2008 and convicted of genocide by the tribunal, and his military leader Ratko Mladic was arrested in 2011 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Any other options?

The ICC cannot try suspects in absentia but Khan said the court had other pieces of architecture to push cases forward.

He cited a recent case in which he asked judges to hold a hearing to confirm charges against Joseph Kony  the leader of the Lords Resistance Army, who launched a bloody rebellion in Uganda  even though Kony remains at large.

That process may be available for any other case  including the current one involving Putin, added Khan.
Junta Watch Junta Watch: Min Aung Hlaings Statue Cries; Regime Woos Students with Recruitment Propaganda; and More

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing at a ceremony to bless the plinth for the Maravijaya Buddha Statue in Naypyitaw in January 2021.

Ominous sign for regime chief

A giant marble Buddha statue built by junta boss Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw and touted as the worlds tallest sitting Buddha image is crying.

Stripes have appeared below the eyes of the 81-feet (24.69-m)-tall Buddha image known as Maravijaya as if the massive statue had burst into tears. The regime has covered its face with cloth, barred visitors and banned photos of the stained statue.

Its main donor, Min Aung Hlaing, who has spent billions on his vanity projects since the coup even as Myanmar burns, will definitely be worried given his deep-rooted superstition.

Astrologers are saying that this is a bad omen for generals who have made donations to the statue built by their chief. They pointed out that Myanmars first military dictator, Ne Win, was forced to step down before completion of the Maha Wizaya Pagoda he was having built.

Former military dictator Than Shwe, the founder of Naypyitaw, visited the statue some three weeks ago. Access to the site is still restricted to those with ties to generals, and even government employees are not yet allowed to visit. Mass murderer Min Aung Hlaing normally visits the Buddha statue on weekends, according to sources in Naypyitaw.

Desperate military eyes students

Its an open secret that Myanmars military has been struggling to recruit new officers and soldiers since the 2021 coup. But the extent of the recruitment crisis was revealed when the regime distributed propaganda pamphlets to students as they completed their university-entrance exams this week.

In that hope that some teenagers might be deceived, junta personnel handed out pamphlets to students who had just finished taking their matriculation exam in the generals base of Naypyitaw and some other places this week.

It was the first time since the coup that the regime has targeted students with its propaganda. But it came as no surprise given its military is suffering heavy casualties in daily clashes with resistance forces.

Although barely 180,000 students nationwide registered for this years matriculation exam, the most important for university admission, the regime published 200,000 pamphlets of propaganda headed message to distribute.

The number of students applying to the countrys military academies has dropped sharply since the coup and subsequent brutal crackdowns on anti-regime protesters. So, the regime created the pamphlets to woo potential candidates for military training.

In 2020, one year before the coup, a total of 900,000 students sat for the matriculation exam. But that figure plummeted to barely 280,000 in 2022 and just over 180,000 this year amid a widespread boycott of education under military rule.

Juntas massacre lie exposed

Casings from bullets manufactured by the military regime were found at the site of juntas latest massacre, in southern Shan States Pinlaung Township, according to a joint press conference of the parallel National Unity Government, the Karenni State Consultative Council (KSCC) and Pa-O National Federal Council (PNFC).

According to the NUG, regime troops killed 22 civilians including three Buddhist monks and a woman taking shelter at a monastery in a village in Pinlaung. The junta has accused resistance forces of being responsible for the massacre.

The regime is not only using weapons and ammunition purchased from China, India, Russia and Israel, but also producing them from its own ordnance factories to kill revolutionary forces and innocent civilians.

Junta troops have been traveling through Pinlaung to launch an offensive over the border in Kayah State.

Deputy junta chief Soe Win visited Kayah State on Wednesday amid large-scale assaults by regime troops against Karenni resistance forces there. Meeting with local battalions, he called on soldiers to utilize their weapons and ammunition to the full.
Remember those cartoons in which an organ grinder's monkey would hold out a tin cup to solicit coins?

Well, that's not exactly how donations from grant funding work, said Colleen Blank, laughing.

Key Biscayne's Capital Improvements Projects Manager during the past 15 months has played a pivotal role in helping the city land a good portion of the more than $7 million in grants over the past two years.

The latest windfall came this past week when the Village was awarded an $885,000 Resilient Florida Grant through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to specifically target the design completion of system upgrades in the Key Biscayne K-8 stormwater basin, where severe flooding occurs.

"It's definitely been a team effort," said Blank, who also serves as the Village's Grant Manager. "I'm fairly new here, so the support from the team in making sure each application is competitive, and we're getting as much as we can, is important."

Village Manager Steve Williamson has been impressed with her efforts.

"She is doing a great job leading an aggressive effort to capture external funding sources that provide a strong return on investment as we maintain what we have ... and build for a better future."

The $885,000 grant for resiliency has not even been the largest.

Just recently, the Village received notice that a $2.7 million Hazard Mitigation Grant for flood control was on its way. That federal money, originating from Hurricane Irma Federal Disaster Declaration, started with an application from Public Works Director Jake Ozyman at the county level before trickling through the state and FEMA process.

Coins tinkling into the Village's proverbial "tin cup" at a steady pace have not been surprising to Blank.

"We have a very unique situation here on Key Biscayne, and we also have competent and talented people writing these applications. We are making sure we put effort into pursuits that will give us a strong return on investment.

"Really, I think we're all just very grateful."

Key Biscayne residents also should feel that way, in that the grant money "leverages taxpayer money to go further," she said.

"It starts with our people. When residents passed that $100 million resilient (General Obligation) bond, the message is that they want this and what's (available). That's a credit to the community for that big leap."

Blank, a native of Ohio, moved to Florida about 18 months ago from St. Louis with her husband, whose family lives on the island. Her background was city and regional planning, putting her master's degree to good use, but she also has been a zoning administrator and transportation planner and even had roles relating to urban design.

Grant funding for Key Biscayne isn't confined to resiliency efforts. Recently, the Village was awarded about $22,675 for a 50-50 share of a Growing Roots for Environmentally Equitable Neighborhoods matching grant from Miami-Dade County. The Village will be adding about 50 trees along roadways, in the Village Green and at Harbor Park.

"We are always seeking grant opportunities to supplement our taxpayer money to help invest in what's important for our residents," Williamson said. "Goals, like improving resilient infrastructure, reducing traffic and enhancing our parks."

Sometimes funding from other sources doesn't come through, such as when Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed $600,000 that had been earmarked for vehicle, pedestrian, and bicycle enhancements along Crandon Boulevard. That's when the focus turns to grants or other possible sources of revenue.

But resiliency is a very important project in Florida, and Key Biscayne's city leaders and lobbyists have made that abundantly clear to officials at the county level and to those in Tallahassee and Washington, DC.

Before the arrival of Williamson and Blank, Key Biscayne had often hired consultants to try and rein in grant money, "but not as much as we've been pursuing," she said.

"Grant administration and reporting can take a lot of effort ... so we're pursuing an aggressive program that deliberately calculates the return on investment for each grant or other sources of funding, she said.

The key, Blank said, is establishing relationships with all of the sources of grant funding, including non-for-profit foundations; state agencies such as the Florida Department of Transportation or Florida Department of Environmental Protection; local agencies such as Miami-Dade's Transportation Planning Organization; and federal sources, as well.

"It's important we build these relationships," Blank said, "to show how committed we are to set a strong foundation that helps us maintain what we have while building for a future that can be as bright as it can be."

Recent grant awards to Key Biscayne

2023

$885,000 from Resilient Florida for K-8 stormwater design & construction

$330,000 from Resilient Florida to update Village vulnerability assessment

$2,747,269 from Hazard Mitigation Grant Program for immediate flood control

$162,839 from Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to procure generators

$500,000 from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for USACE work plan

$460,000 from Road Impact Fees to improve Crandon Boulevard intersections

$166,679 from Transit Development Grant for additional Freebee vehicles

2022
Today

Sunny. High 92F. SW winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 15 to 25 mph.

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 61F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph.

Tomorrow

Sunny skies with gusty winds developing later in the day. High 87F. W winds at 10 to 15 mph, increasing to 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
We see the huge influx of reconstruction and humanitarian aid brought in from Russia, while all Western organizations seem to have abandoned Donbas.

by Fergie Chambers

It is evening in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, one of NATOs easternmost members. I am waiting at the edge of Izvor Park in the city center to meet with a young friend who has fled Ukraine. In the backdrop of the park is the Palace of the Parliament, the brutalist architectural crown jewel of the Ceausescu era, and the heaviest building on earth.

When my friend Pyotr arrives, we sit for beers and share our recent stories; it is late March 2022, just one month since Russias special military operation in Ukraine began. I have been maneuvering a bureaucratic maze as I try to gain entry into the Russian Federation and the separatist republics of the Donbas; I am awaiting a call back from consulates in Romania and Moldova. Pyotr has just arrived from Kiev by train. A number of his comrades in communist, socialist, and union organizations around Ukraine have been detained.

People from the Donetsk People's Republic, the territory controlled by a pro-Russia separatist government in eastern Ukraine, board a train to Russia after evacuating in the Rostov-on-Don region, near the border with Ukraine, Russia, on Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022. They were fleeing shelling by the Ukrainian Army. [ Photo Credit: AP]

Recently, the Kononovich brothers, notable Ukrainian communists, had been arrested and disappeared (following their imprisonment, they are now under house arrest). Over a few days of conversation, I learn more from Pyotr than I could ever put into writing; he says to me at one point: if there is one thing to understand, it is that sovereignty in Ukraine and Eastern Europe has been stolen by the West not through any military invasion or political party, but through the infiltration of Ukrainian civil society by Western interests, NGOs, and right-wing nationalists. Everyone in Ukraine knows that Washington directs this process, whether they support it or not.

After a week in Bucharest, I head for the consulate in neighboring Moldova, where I have just spent nearly a month reporting on the refugee influx from Ukraine. I have been advised that it is my only option for obtaining a visa to Russia. The divide between pro-Western and pro-Russian civilians is palpable where the Moldovan government is led by Maia Sandu, a graduate of Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School of Government, and former staffer for the World Bank.

Just as in Ukraine, there is a push in Moldova by pro-West factions to limit public use of the Russian language, despite Russian being the native tongue of hundreds of thousands of Moldovans. One man I speak to there, who is the head of a Ukrainian diaspora NGO, and a former candidate for vice mayor of Chisinau, the capital city, happily informs me that Ukrainians are European, while Russians have Mongol blood.

At last, the visa materializes. I leave Moldova and travel to Russia, and then I make my way through Russia to Rostov-on-Don, the last stop on Russian Federation turf before the border with the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples republics (DPR/LPR). There, in the Donbas, a region that became a mining powerhouse in the USSR, war has been raging for eight years. I am questioned for hours at every border crossing, even in Saint Petersburg, because of my U.S. passport and my tattoos (of which I have many). I am never violated or intimidated, just thoroughly questioned and checked. Mostly, it seems to me, the border officials are looking for swastikas, or evidence of Ukrainian nationalist affiliations, the markers of an individual likely to be hostile to Russias advances.

My final crossing into DPR happens in the evening. I emerge from a forest into the capital city of Donetsk. I arrived ready to accept any reality that I witnessed. What I saw was a people who had been through hell, and had adjusted to it, all the while unwavering in their commitment to what they see as a fight for self-determination against the reach of the United States and its vassals, especially NATO.

I see Russian, Soviet, and DPR flags everywhere, along with large signs and billboards: To Victory, We Take Care of Our Own, We are Russia. Victory Day, the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany by Soviet forces on May 9, 1945, perhaps still the most significant day on the Russian calendar, is fast approaching.

I am brought by an official escort to the Central Hotel, about 300 meters from an enormous statue of Lenin that overlooks the main square of Donetsk. There is no active plumbing in the city for about 20-22 hours each day, and no hot water at all; Ukrainian armed forces had blown out the water supply. For the first time in my life, I can hear live artillery going off in relative proximity.

The next morning, I walk to the fancy hotel in town, where journalists congregate to have coffee and use fast Wi-Fi (that hotel has since been leveled by Ukrainian munitions; a friend of mine was injured in the attack). I strike up a conversation with a Moscow-based Canadian journalist, who sees on a Donetsk Telegram feed that the Sokol market in the Kirovsky District of Donetsk has just been hit by shelling and that there are fatalities. We rush to a cab and head there.

When we pull up to the marketplace, smoke is everywhere, and many stalls have been burned to a crisp. Shelling continues nearby, close enough to shake the earth beneath our feet. We are brought to a member of the neighborhood safety commission, Gennady Andreevich, who walks us through the wreckage, down side alleys into the food market. An old womans body is lying on the ground in a pool of blood. She came to buy vegetables, he tells us. There was also a local teacher who came to buy supplies for his mechanics class; his body was not left in recognizable condition. They never target military positions, you know? Always the markets, where the people go to socialize, to work, to get the things they need to live or the residential buildings. See? Over there? That is where our neighborhood office is. They hit that last month. My colleague was killed. He points to a large concrete building.

He is steely, but not without emotion. There is absolutely no military reason to strike places like this, he tells us. They do it to strike fear in our hearts, but it does not work. This is just my first day, and I am already seeing that the things weve been hearing about Donbas are anything but the common NATO refrain of Kremlin fabrications.

The following night, a residential building behind a school is hit, and we discover an elderly couple arranging some of the wreckage at the entrance to their building. The woman, who will only give her first name, Elena, is eager to speak with a Western reporter. She tells us that their block has been hit almost weekly for eight years, as they live on the outskirts, near the front. Most of the younger people have abandoned the area, she says, but she has had to stay to care for her bedridden father. He served as a miner in the Ukrainian army in the USSR. He received many distinguished medals, she tells us. They attack us, simply because we did not want to follow a government that betrayed our heritage. We in the Donbas did not support Euromaidan. We are Ukrainian, but we are Russian. I ask if the Minsk accords, which previously negotiated ceasefires between the separatists and Ukraine, had helped at all. When Minsk was signed, the shelling here on the edge of the city only got worse. We pass through their apartment, where their grandchildren left just that morning. She credits an Eastern Orthodox icon painting of Mary for protecting them.

What would you have to say to anyone reading or watching this in the West? I ask her.

I want to repeat to America and to Europe: You send weapons to Ukraine. Ukraine kills Im not sure who they consider us to be now, but we are Ukrainian. We all have Ukrainian passports. You aggravate and escalate the situation even more. You should sit at the negotiation table, and not try to solve this by sending more arms.

I spend some of April, all of May, and some of June in the Donbas. I tour front-line cities, alone and with military transports; I meet with people everywhere: there is Alexei Aybu in Lugansk, a member of Borotba, (Struggle), a Ukrainian communist party, who fled Odessa after he barely survived the May 2014 Ukrainian nationalist massacre of more than 40 of his comrades in the trade union building. There is Aurora, a Donetsk-based Marxist womens collective comprised of a mix of locals from the Donbas and refugees from western Ukraine, who have especially harsh words for Western socialists who are largely backing their attackers in Kiev.

In Mariupol, we see destruction on an inhuman level. Over and over, the locals there tell us that the Ukrainian Azov battalion, who at the time of my visit are still in the Azovstal bunker, has occupied the city for years with an iron fist; they tell us that when the Russians came nearer, Azov laid waste to the city, not allowing civilians any safe escape corridors, and threatening them with death should they attempt to flee.

Everywhere this narrative is repeated, as is the theme of Kiev as an occupier, and Moscow as the liberator. We see the huge influx of reconstruction and humanitarian aid brought in from Russia, while all Western organizations seem to have abandoned Donbas. I tour the peripheral districts at length; everywhere is another memorial for the dead, a list of names, and stuffed animals to remember the children. It is estimated that between 2014-2022, 15,000 people lost their lives in the Donbas, the vast majority in these extremely poor residential areas, forgotten casualties in a war hidden from the view of the West, who seem to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin awoke one morning in February and decided he wanted some of Ukraine.

On May 9 (the aforementioned Victory Day of the Soviets over Germany in World War II), I join a caravan of reporters (Im the only U.S. journalist in sight) to Mellitopol, a city in the Zaporozhye region, next to Mariupol. Mellitopol had also been occupied by Kiev-friendly forces until February 2022, but the city was abandoned by Ukraine without a fight. We have come to witness the festivities for Victory Day; for seven years of what the locals we spoke with there called occupation by the Kiev regime, any celebrations of the Soviet victory in World War II have been made illegal, so this will be the first one. Most of us assume that given the instability of the political climate, the curfews, and the closeness of the ongoing battles, it will be a fairly subdued affair.

Instead, at least 10,000 people take the streets, in a procession led by a column of Red Army veterans, many of whom fought in the World War II Battle of Stalingrad. The jubilation is contagious; tears stream down the eyes of people of all ages, including both those who lived through World War II, and those who have only lived through this one. It is an experience unlike any other.

A woman sees me capturing footage of the procession, and beckons me over. She says, You tell them over there, we are Russian, and we have always been Russian. We defeated fascism then, and we will do it again.

I asked many people there if they had criticisms of the Russian government, or of Putins decisions. There is one refrain that I heard, over and over, maybe best articulated by Svetlana Valkovich, of the aforementioned Aurora group: Putin, yes, made many mistakes. Most of all, he waited far too long to come to help us here in Donbas. We begged Russia to come for years, but at least they have come now.

Source: Globetrotter

Fergie Chambers is a freelance writer and Marxist organizer. He can be found on Twitter/Instagram at @jccfergie and at combatliberalism.substack.com.
They say every dog has his day, and March 18 is Corn Dog Day! For 24 hours, we celebrate a food made up of the perfect combination of cornbread and ... whatever mystery meats are in a hot dog. You can use this holiday to expand your corn dog palate by trying a cornbrat, which is a bratwurst deep-fried in cornbread and is much more in keeping with our Wisconsin culinary history.

Bagpipes alert!!!!!!!!!! After a three-year hiatus, the Kenosha Area Pipes and Drums Association  a bagpipe band made up of Kenosha-area firefighters, police officers and sheriffs deputies  is back with its 16th annual Kenosha Krawl. The one-day event is March 18, and includes these stops: 11 a.m. at Masons Pub & Eatery, 7000 74th Place; noon at the Starlite Club, 8936 24th Ave.; 1 p.m. at Ruffolos Special Pizza II, 3931 45th St.; 2 p.m. at the Kenosha Yacht Club, 5130 Fourth Ave.; 3 p.m. at the Boathouse Pub & Eatery, 4917 Seventh Ave; 4 p.m. at 58 Below, 504 58th St.; 6 p.m. at Upper East, 622 58th St.; 7 p.m. at Kaisers Pizza & Pub, 510 57th St.; 8 p.m. at Our Kenosha Tap, 3221 60th St.; and ending the night at 9 p.m. with a stop at The Clubhouse Pub and Grille, 2621 30th Ave. The group performs at each locale for about 40 minutes. A portion of the proceeds from Saturdays event will go to the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin Charitable Foundations Summer Camp for Burn Injured Youth. For more information, go to kapda.org.

The Downtown Racine St. Patricks Day Parade starts at noon on March 18 at the corner of State Street and Main Street. The route heads south on Main Street, turning west onto Sixth Street and ending near City Hall. The parade features Irish and Celtic music, troubadours, leprechauns, floats and Irish dancers. For more parade details, go to racinedowntown.com.

The Broadway musical Chicago will be performed at 2 and 7 p.m. today (March 18) at Wilmot High School, 11112 308th Ave. in Wilmot. Tickets are $5 at the door; free for Wilmot High School staff and students.

Hawthorn Hollow Nature Sanctuary, 880 Green Bay Road in Somers, will hold its maple sugarin time adult and family outdoor programs on Saturday, March 18. The programs are at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. The cost is $15 (free for children 3 and younger). To register, go to hawthornhollow.org.
BRISTOL  A ceremony marking the formal opening of a new office in Kenosha County was held Friday by U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wisconsin, at the Kenosha County Center.

The new office is designed to expand Steils in-person services for Wisconsins First District residents. Planners indicated the new location will make getting assistance more convenient and accessible for residents in Kenosha County.

Steil was joined by Kenosha County Executive Samantha Kerkman, and members of the Kenosha County Board of Supervisors at the event Friday morning.

To be able to help you, it is vital to be available and accessible to Wisconsin families, said Steil. Ensuring my office can be easily reached ensures we can help families, veterans, seniors, and workers across the district in a timely manner. Thank you to County Executive Kerkman and the Kenosha County Board for helping bring this service to the people of Kenosha County.

Im pleased that Kenosha County is able to help offer this resource for Congressman Steils constituents in the 1st Congressional District, said Kerkman. The Kenosha County Center is a centralized location that is convenient for many people, east and west of the interstate and in our neighboring counties. This office will help to bring federal government services closer to the people in all of these areas.

The Kenosha County Office space will host office hours at the Kenosha County Center, 19600 75th St., Room 177. Office hours will be every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon, or by appointment.

Staff Steils office will be available to assist individuals and families during these hours each week or any time by appointment.

Individuals experiencing difficulties working with federal agencies, or that would like to share an opinion can set up an appointment by calling one of Steils office locations. Common issues include Social Security payments, IRS issues, veterans benefits, and Medicare questions.

Steil has locations in each county he represents. In addition to the Kenosha County office, he has office locations in Beloit, Janesville, Elkhorn, St. Francis, and Racine.
It was a hot day in Northern California, and my clothes were covered with the red dust of summer. At age 9, I couldnt take a step on our property without grasshoppers launching themselves from the dry wheat grass. Colorful ladybugs were also out in force. I searched everywhere for a container to keep my prized bugs, but my efforts were to no avail. I headed for Mr. Maryfields trailer, which was parked on a hill at the property line we shared. I walked by the trailer. The temptation to peek inside was powerful despite multiple warnings from my dad not to go near it. My head was on a swivel, searching for some kind of bug prison. Trailer in sight, I hesitated. Dont do it, I could hear my dad saying. Its too dangerous. But my desire to find a bug container was strong.

Despite dads warning, I climbed onto the trailers iron tow mount at the front and peered over the sidewall. There it was! A beautiful blue Maxwell House coffee can at the front corner directly below me. But I was a nervous cat and jumped off the trailer not once, but three times getting my courage built up. I looked around like a shoplifter contemplating a candy bar heist.

The trailer was heavy and didnt move an inch as I boarded it for the third time. It had dual wheels and metal bars supporting a wooden enclosure. When I was sure nobody was watching, I bent over the sidewall until my body was upside down.

I sensed my feet were now in the air, and I remember feeling vulnerable. I reached for the can and barely managed to grab it by the lip. My heart pounded but paused momentarily when I felt the trailer beginning to move.

Instant terror came over me, but not for fear of my safety. It was my fathers wrath I feared most. I managed to right myself back onto the tow bar with the prized can in hand. But the trailer was picking up speed, and with my back to the street, I was now along for the ride.

I knew that I had to act to prevent catastrophe. The trailer was gaining speed. A plume of red dust surrounded me, and I couldnt see the driveway below. Thats when I leaped off the front end, landing on my feet while clutching the iron tow bar. I pushed against the tow mount as if my 4th-grader strength would slow its forward motion. It was not to be as the hefty trailer pushed me.

I was surfing backward on the soles of my now-burning high-tops. With my body outstretched and my shoes digging into the driveway, thick dust coated my mouth.

Surely, I was in the middle of a cattle stampede trying to bulldog a giant steer. The trailer drove me halfway down the driveway until my legs collapsed, causing my grip on the tow mount to release. I was sucked under the trailer and then thrown to one side, leaving me with tread marks where the tires had crossed my shins. My father was there and saw the whole incident. He picked me off the ground and hugged me. There would be no retribution, only a celebration of life. The trailer veered and hit a tree at the end of the driveway, effectively avoiding disaster.

Initially, when you first discover your desire for the sciences and medicine, its all-consuming. If you choose a career in medicine, you better be ready. The path to the prize can be trying with many obstacles.

You will have many questions. What is required? How does one with average grades get accepted into medical school? People in your circles will gladly tell you how hard it is and how much of a sacrifice you will have to make.

What about your wife and child? How will you support them and still study? But youre not put off. You like a challenge. You reach for the blue coffee can despite what others are telling you. And thats when something amazing happens. You get an acceptance letter.

Congratulations, you survived the woke admissions process! Your life is now moving in the right direction. But in an instant, you feel the control starting to leave you. Youre now a passenger in said life.

Everything is moving faster as you move through medical school, internship, and residency. Nothing gets easier or slows down. You thought youd have more family time, but time is no longer your own.

Your relationships are challenged, as is your sanity. You feel desperate to be competent. Financial pressures are building. When your first physician job arrives, youre rolling at full speed. The ride gets bumpy as you navigate your first employment contract and learn a new EMR. And dont forget to study your DEI packet because there will be a test. Your employer expects you to see thirty-plus patients, that is if you want loan forgiveness.

Good thing you have malpractice insurance because youre gonna need it. For no fault of your own, a couple of your patients are not happy. But youre still working, for now.

If you choose traditional private practice out of residency, your partners will likely want a piece of you. They want you to make money for them. You better buy-in, they tell you. They will not hesitate to see you in court if you step out of line. Now your career is moving at light speed, kicking up dust from the dirt road youve chosen. At some point, you can no longer hang on or see the path beneath you, so in an act of desperation, you leap off, not knowing where you will end up.

Youre inevitably tossed to the side, bruised and battered. You can now lick your wounds. But dont you worry! Youre still alive, and many people love you. And because youre a good person, a telemedicine job will be there to dust you off and embrace you.

Christopher Nyte is an otolaryngologist.
The Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush Mountain ranges are all located in Pakistan, making it the home to some of the most impressive mountain ranges in the world.

by Muhammad Wasama Khalid

Pakistan is a country that is most well-known for its lively culture and extensive history; yet, the country also has a wide variety of natural beauties that are sometimes disregarded. The impressiveness of Pakistans mountain ranges, the importance of the countrys rivers, the abundance of the countrys animal life, and the possibility of developing ecotourism in these regions.

The natural landscape of Pakistan is very varied, consisting of high-altitude mountains, enormous deserts, lush valleys, and rich river plains. The nation is home to some of the highest peaks in the world, such as K2 and Nanga Parbat, as well as the massive Indus River, which for millennia has been an important factor in the countrys agriculture and economy.

Unnamed range, Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan[Photo Credit: Muhammad Khubaib Sarfraz/ Unsplash]

The Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush Mountain ranges are all located in Pakistan, making it the home to some of the most impressive mountain ranges in the world. Mountaineers and others looking for exciting new experiences from all over the globe go to these mountain ranges because of the high peaks, deep valleys, and glaciers that may be found there. The Karakoram range is home to K2, the second-highest peak in the world. This mountain is famous for the technical challenges it presents as well as the stunning views it offers. The Karakoram Mountain range in Pakistan was breathtaking to see. There was nothing else quite like the towering peaks and expansive glaciers.

In addition to these well-known summits, Pakistan is home to several mountain ranges that are less well-known, such as the Kirthar and Sulaiman ranges. These regions provide one-of-a-kind possibilities for hiking, seeing native species, and discovering local culture.

The rivers that run across Pakistan, such as the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab, have all been significant contributors to the nations history and overall growth. These rivers are an essential resource for agriculture and business since they provide water that may be used for irrigation, transportation, and the generation of hydroelectric power.

White water rafting and fishing are only two of the recreational activities that may be enjoyed on Pakistans rivers. Specifically, those searching for an exciting rafting experience go to the Indus River, which is a popular location for those interested in adventure.

Pakistan is benefiting from the rich economic center platform that the Gwadar coast is giving. The fishing industry in these regions is highly regarded throughout the globe. With efforts by the government to construct infrastructure to showcase the undiscovered parts of Pakistan, the less developed areas are now attracting the attention of the world community. This is a result of the efforts that have been made to expose the uncharted areas of Pakistan.

The natural environment of Pakistan is home to a diverse array of animal life, including a great number of species that are exclusive to the territory of Pakistan. The snow leopard, for instance, is a flagship species that is only found in the high-altitude regions of Pakistan. It is a symbol of the countrys tremendous biodiversity since it can only be found in those areas. Other emblematic animals include the markhor, a kind of wild goat that lives in the highlands of Pakistan, and the Indus River dolphin, a species of freshwater dolphin that is indigenous to the Indus River. Both of these dolphins are unique to the Indus River.

The protection of these one-of-a-kind species and the environments in which they live is dependent on the success of conservation efforts. In an attempt to maintain its natural heritage, Pakistan has created several national parks and protected areas; nevertheless, Pakistan must continue its efforts to guarantee that these regions will be preserved for the benefit of future generations.

The natural beauties of Pakistan have a significant impact on the countrys tourist industry and provide possibilities for cultural discovery, outdoor activities, and animal watching. But, to preserve the natural environment and its inhabitants, tourism must be grown in a way that is both sustainable and responsible.

A lack of infrastructure and accessibility in distant parts of Pakistan, as well as concerns over safety and security, are some of the obstacles to the development of sustainable tourism in Pakistan. Nonetheless, there are already attempts being made to solve these difficulties, and sustainable tourism has the potential to give economic advantages to local people while also protecting the natural legacy of the nation.

Being in the middle of such breathtaking natural beauty brought home to me how vital it is to protect these regions for the sake of future generations. Contributing to conservation efforts is essential to ensure that these areas maintain their pristine state.

The land of Pakistan is home to an abundance of natural beauties that are sure to take your breath away. Pakistan provides tourists with an experience that is one of a kind and one that they will never forget, thanks to the countrys majestic mountains, flowing rivers, and diversified animal population. It is impossible to exaggerate the significance of these natural marvels since they play a vital part in ensuring the sustainability of the nations economy, culture, and environment.

Muhammad Wasama Khalid is a Correspondent and Researcher at Global Affairs. He is pursuing his Bachelors in International Relations at National Defense University (NDU). He has a profound interest in history, politics, current affairs, and international relations. He is an author of Global village space, Global defense insight, Global Affairs, and modern diplomacy. He tweets at @Wasama Khalid and can be reached at Wasamakhalid@gmail.com
Russia is having problems with the test launches of its new RS-29 Sarmat ICBM. The latest test launch in February 2023 failed. The 200-ton missile carries multiple Avangard hypersonic warheads. The 220-ton RS-28 is having similar reliability problems which have delayed efforts to declare the missile operational. Some of the problems are with the firm that manufactures the missiles. There have been accusations of corruption involving theft of money and substandard work. Russia has been having similar problems with aircraft production and military procurement in general.

This failure to procure reliable ICBMs is a major problem for Russia because the strategic missile forces are Russias ultimate defense. If all else fails, Russia can threaten to retaliate with its ICBMs. The problem is that Russia only has fewer than 300 operational ICBMs. About half of these are the RS-24, a relatively small ICBM carrying four warheads each. All Russian ICBMs together carry about 1,200 nuclear warheads. About half as many warheads are carried by SSBNs (nuclear powered ballistic missile subs). These subs have availability problems because they are either too old, or new and still finding and fixing problems. A similar situation exists with the 500 nuclear warheads and cruise missiles used by the long range bombers. Most of these are the fifty Tu-95 propeller driven aircraft. Designed right after World War II, over 500 were built between 1952 and 1993. Fewer than a hundred remain in service, mainly as bombers that normally carry non-nuclear bombs and cruise missiles. Some of these have recently been used against Ukraine.

Since the 1980s, Russia has had problems producing new ICBM, SSBNs and heavy bombers. There have been technical problems with all of these and not enough money to build enough replacements for the older missiles, SSBNs and ICBMs that eventually become inoperable. These problems are one reason why Russia recently withdrew from the START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty). START is actually a series of agreements that began in the 1980s and continued to be revised and renewed after the Soviet Union disbanded. These treaties not only reduce the number of nuclear weapons each treaty member has but also allow everyone to inspect each others systems regularly. Because of the Ukraine War, Russia (Vladimir Putin) believes that wartime secrecy requires that Russia temporarily suspend these inspections, which required suspending its participation in START. While some nuclear systems, like the Tu-95 bomber, are also used for delivering non-nuclear missiles against Ukrainian targets, Russia also does not want the current quality and quality problems with its nuclear weapons to be scrutinized by foreign nuclear powers.

One item to be kept from foreign inspectors is the many problems Russia is having with its new ICBMs. While there have been some successful test launches of the new RS-29 Sarmat ICBM, recent failures made it clear this model was not ready for prime time. Then there are the problems with the other new ICBM. The RS-28 ICBM was supposed to be ready for service, along with its Avangard hypersonic warheads, in 2022. That did not happen. RS-28 missiles were supposed to begin replacing 40 older RS-18 missiles by the end of 2020 but that was delayed as a few more technical problems had to be fixed with the production model. The successful launch from a silo of a production missile allows those already built to begin replacing older ICBMs.

Design errors and quality control problems are an issue with all new Russian weapons, especially aircraft, warships, tanks and ICBMs. All of these weapons entered service in smaller numbers than planned and with some flaws still present. This has become customary with Russian ICBM and SLV (satellite launch vehicle) rockets and the Russians have adapted by making allowances for that as well as work-arounds. An example of this can be seen in the 2020 decision to delay acceptance of the solid-fuel SS-26, which was also supposed to carry the Avangard hypersonic warhead. The solid-fuel RS-26 had run into a lot more problems than the liquid-fuel RS-28. In 2019 Russia announced the suspension of the RS-26, one of the two ICBM projects that were designed to use the Avangard, a revival of a Cold War era hypersonic glide vehicle system. RS-26 was a solid fuel missile based on the Topol M, which was the first successful solid-fuel ICBM missile Russia was able to deploy. It is comparable to the 1960s era U.S. Minuteman. Solid fuel is tricky to manufacture, and after many abortive attempts, the Russians stuck with liquid fuel until the 1980s. They finally perfected their solid fuel technology in the 1980s with the successful test launch of the 45-ton Topol in 1985. The 52-ton Topol-M followed ten years later. Both missiles have a range of 10,500 kilometers.

This is the second time Russia ran into problems adapting the Topol M for other uses. The first effort was to turn Topol M into Bulava, an SLBM (Sea Launched Ballistic Missile) for the new Borei class SSBN ((ballistic missile nuclear subs). The Bulava problems were largely caused by a shortage of competent engineers and manufacturing specialists. Getting Bulava to work took a lot longer and cost a lot more than expected. Sensing the same pattern with the RS-26, Russia suspended work on this until 2027, or whatever future time when the personnel and manufacturing quality control problems can be solved.

The other new missile designed to carry Avangard, the 220-ton RS-28, had fewer problems but was still behind schedule and officially not expected to be ready until 2021. RS-28 was finally declared ready to use in 2022. Previously, because of several successful test launches, Russia declared the Avangard/RS-28 missiles ready for deployment in 2019. That means these missiles are being taken off the production line, equipped with their Avangard third stage and headed for an existing R-36M (SS-18) base at Orenburg (1,500 kilometers southeast of Moscow) where those R-36M silos have been prepared to accept the RS-28 missiles. Satellite photos confirmed that many RS-28s were now in the R-36M silos. Given Russian production and budget problems, only a token number of RS-28s were in those silos by the end of 2019, with the number slowly increasing. The Orenburg ICBM base has been in service since the 1960s and has 62 silos. Since the 1990s most have been taken out of service. Some of those silos were used for launching ICBMs modified to carry commercial satellites. A dozen or more silos are available for the RS-28s and loading a silo with a new missile is a very visible (from the air) and time-consuming process.

RS-28 development began as a replacement for Cold War era ICBMs that are rapidly becoming too old and unreliable to use. By 2016 the RS-28 had also evolved into the primary carrier for the new hypersonic glide vehicle project Russia announced in 2013 but was believed to have suspended because of budget cuts brought on by low oil prices and sanctions. That crisis is still active and made worse by additional sanctions in 2022 because of the Ukraine invasion. The defense budget has undergone cuts for several years in a row. Yet the Avangard project remained quite active and has apparently received budget priority to get it into service as soon as possible.

The RS-28 was originally scheduled for testing before the end of 2016. That did not happen and there followed the usual succession of delays because of technical or manufacturing problems. RS-28 has been in development since 2009 and was originally scheduled to enter service in 2018. Russia has had a growing number of quality control problems throughout the Russian space problem and military tech development in general. The cause was the return of a market economy to Russia in the 1990s. At that point, most of the more talented people in defense industries found better-paying jobs in the commercial sector or overseas. No solution to this has been found, especially not with Russia suffering from an economic recession and pervasive corruption. Despite the fact that the government has devoted a lot more money and management talent (also in short supply) to nukes, ballistic missiles and nuclear subs, the problems and delays persist.

Russia believes the RS-28 is essential for state security because it can carry nine or more independently targeted warheads and will be the most important weapon in its ICBM arsenal. Moreover, the missile RS-28 is replacing (R-36M), is aging to the point where refurbishment is no longer able to keep these decades old missiles operational. The Russians saw this problem coming and in 2003 decided to refurbish its force of 1970s era R-36M (SS-18 or "Satan" in the West) ICBMs so they could remain in service another 10-15 years (2013-18). Both the old (210-ton, 32.2 meter long and 3.05 meters in diameter) R-36 and new (210-ton, 36.3 meter long and 3 meters in diameter) RS-28 are similar in size. The new missile is longer and that will require some adjustments to the existing R-36 silos. Some of that work appears to have already been done.

The R-36M was designed in 1969, first tested in 1972 and entered service in 1975. It's the largest ICBM the Russians ever built, with a liftoff weight of 210 tons and a warhead weighing eight tons. While it's a liquid-fuel rocket, storable liquid fuel is used. This avoids lengthy fueling procedures common with earlier Russian ICBMs. Modifications and upgrades for the missile produced six separate models, the last one entering service in 1990. Russia wanted to refurbish a hundred of the most recently built (in the 1980s, for the most part) R-36Ms. Shortages of cash and resources reduced the number refurbished and as of 2016 only about fifty were operational. By 2018 only about 30 will be usable and by 2020 none were. The RS-28 is very similar to the R-36M, weighing 220 tons and a warhead hauling up to ten tons of smaller warheads (up to 15) or 24 Avangard vehicles.

The secretive Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle project was something that began during the Cold War but never got into service. Suspicions that Russia had changed its mind may have been a side-effect of China revealing in early 2016 that they had perfected the technology for a maneuverable ballistic missile warhead. This came a little after it was revealed that since 2014 China had conducted six tests of a maneuverable gliding warhead for ballistic missiles. Five of the six tests were successful and this hypersonic glide vehicle was officially known as the DF-ZF.

In effect, this Chinese hypersonic glide vehicle is a warhead that can glide rather than simply plunging back to earth, and is purportedly maneuverable enough to hit small moving targets in space or down on the surface. The DF-ZF was initially developed as China sought to perfect a version of the DF-21 ballistic missile that could hit moving warships at sea. DF-21 is a 15 ton, two-stage, solid fuel missile. The DF-21D (the carrier killer version) missile using the DF-ZF warhead is also more difficult for anti-missile missiles to hit. This is what the Russian hypersonic glide vehicle is designed for.

Russia and the United States had developed this technology much earlier but neither has deployed it in the form the Chinese appear to favor. The original work in this area was by the Germans during World War II. The U.S. and Russia both investigated the concept more during the Cold War but never felt it worth building. In the 1990s the United States proposed reviving work on hypersonic glide vehicles for its Prompt Global Strike system. This would put hypersonic glide vehicle warheads, using high-explosive and not nuclear explosives, on ICBMs. This meant a very expensive weapon that could hit a target anywhere on earth in less than an hour of the order being given. In any event, the United States successfully tested its version of the hypersonic glide vehicle in 2011 but with the defense budget shrinking the project was halted. This was encouraged when a 2014 hypersonic glide vehicle test failed. Now, this effort has been revived, sort of.

The United States moved ahead with reviving its Cold War era hypersonic glide vehicle ballistic missile warheads. In late 2017 the U.S. revealed several active research projects like TBG (Tactical Boost Glide) and HAWC (Hypersonic Air-Breathing Weapon) which are similar in size and shape to the cruise missiles carried by bombers, and launched from high altitudes into orbit or remain in the atmosphere, but moving at hyper speeds (over 5,000 kilometers an hour). This is similar to the X-51A Waverider project that was halted in 2013 but not forgotten. The problem with the X-51A was that it could not be made reliable enough. A 2010 flight test had the 8 meter (36 foot) long, cruise missile-like X-51 aircraft boosted to 3,300 kilometers an hour, using a solid fuel rocket, at which point the scramjet engine took over, and successfully operated for over two minutes, achieving speeds of nearly 6,000 kilometers an hour. This was the longest a scramjet had ever operated (the previous best was ten seconds). By 2013 the 4th test got the liquid fuel engine going for five minutes.

What makes scramjets work is the compression of incoming air without the use of a fan system (as in conventional jet engines). But while scramjets have been in development for half a century, the lack of adequate materials (that can handle the high heat and pressure), and adequate design tools, frustrated attempts to build workable and reliable scramjets. Scramjets have few moving parts but must cope with very extreme conditions and the design challenges have proved very frustrating. The recent X-51 tests, like all previous ones, ended with the aircraft crashing. The next step was to get longer hypersonic engine use, de-acceleration, and landing via parachute (and eventually an auxiliary engine.) Going beyond the 2013 test proved too expensive and time consuming to continue when there were cheaper alternatives available and these depended more on getting into orbit and letting gravity provide and maintain the high speed. It was definitely easier to achieve those high speeds with orbital technologies like TBG and HAWC. Or the new Chinese systems like DF-ZF.

Russia stresses the need for Avangard to deal with American missile defense systems. This doesnt make sense to Westerners because the American anti-ICBM systems are limited and meant to deal with small numbers of ICBMs from North Korea or Iran. Russia interprets it differently because Russian leaders since 2010 have blamed their internal problems on the growing threat of NATO. The reality is that the NATO threat is a myth but Russias growing economic problems are not. This is made clear via opinion polls and international economic surveys. Corruption rankings put Russia among the most corrupt nations, and those are the ones that have the worst economic and military performance. The most recent corruption surveys show Russia as more corrupt than China and getting worse. Avangard is an expensive defense against an imaginary threat. Meanwhile growing corruption, Western sanctions and shortage of competent people (who are leaving Russia or avoiding defense industries) make it more and more difficult to complete high-tech weapons projects of any kind.
The East Palestine train derailment site cleanup will likely take about 3 months, EPA administrator says.
Gloria Yoder lives in Flat Rock, Illinois. She likes to cook, bake, garden and being a mom! Readers can send her mail at P.O. Box 157, Middletown, Ohio 45042. For more recipes and information about the Amish lifestyle go to amish365.com.
Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Increasingly windy with snow showers. Temps nearly steady in the mid to upper 30s. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 60%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 31F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Windy with occasional snow showers. High 38F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 33F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph.
Auburn, IN (46706)

Today

Light snow this morning will give way to snow showers this afternoon. High near 40F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 80%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Overcast. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 33F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
For the brand reputation rankings of March 2023, the Korean Business Research Institute has unveiled the K-pop boy groups who joined the list, which covered February 11 to March 11.

The data analyzed are measured from each group's exposure in both online and offline. Along with these rankings, fans' participation is largely considered as a factor for a group's popularity.

It also included how much of these groups are active in social media, communities, and their interaction with fans.

Here are the 10 most popular male groups for March 2023!

1. BTS

BTS dominated the brand reputation ranking list for K-pop male groups, earning their 58th consecutive month. The K-pop sensation earned a total of 5,907,810 for March 2023. Since members are also focusing on their individual activities, it's understandable to see BTS at the top of the rankings.

In their pursuits for March, two of them were quickly recognized, which were J-Hope with his release "on the street," and Jimin who is set to drop his first-ever solo album on March 24. Furthermore, BTS's data also revealed an 80.78 percent score from their positive results spectrum.

2. NCT

NCT followed BTS in the second place, garnering a whopping 3,983,538 brand reputation index for the month of March. It has also earned them a 4.08 percent boost, surpassing their previous February score.

3. SEVENTEEN

SEVENTEEN claimed the third spot with a brand reputation index of 3,699,006, proving their solid fanbase and popularity this March.

4. EXO

With a brand reputation index of 3,223,157, EXO retained the No. 4 spot, derived from a 4.79 percent increase. It also improved their previous February score of 3,075,852.

5. THE BOYZ

THE BOYZ garnered a brand reputation index of 2,995,419, which led to them to climb a drastic increase on the list's fifth place. This index showed a 39.21 percent increase, away from their February index of 2,151,709.

6. TXT

TXT maintained their position in the sixth place, with an index of 2,352,241. With their album "The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION" making headlines with its record-breaking success, it's impossible not to have TXT on March's rankings.

7. SHINee

SHINee gained a brand reputation index of 2,025,862 for March. On February 13, Key released his 4th album repackage "Killer" with its title track of the same name. Meanwhile, Onew dropped the album "Circle" with title track 'O (Circle)." With two of the group's members having issued their own music, their popularity is considered valid for March's rankings.

8. ASTRO

ASTRO earned a brand reputation index of 1,763,812 and claimed the No. 8 spot. Their current March index improved their previous February score, which was 1,629,961.

9. Stray Kids

Stray Kids gathered a total of 1,761,285 brand reputation index for March.

10. BIGBANG

Lastly, legendary group BIGBANG collected a brand reputation index of 1,645,226, completing the list's top 10 for March rankings.

Which of these K-pop male groups are your favorites? Let us know in the comments below!

Read KpopStarz for more K-pop news.

KpopStarz owns this article

Written by Israel Monte
In an online community, the supposed reason BLACKPINK Jennie was replaced by Han So Hee as a Chum Churum model drew attention. In response, BLINKs defended the idol. What happened?

BLACKPINK Jennie Allegedly 'Fired' As Chum Churum Model Due To Sales Decline

In an online community, an alleged statement explaining why Jennie was "fired" as Chum Churum model, a popular soju brand and was eventually replaced by Han So Hee is circulating among netters and K-pop enthusiasts.

According to the post, the main reason was due to "sales decline."

The quoted statement says:

"Chum Churum replaced its model from (BLACKPINK) Jennie to Han So Hee after more than two years. At first (Chum Churum) tried to reform its image by changing its model to Jennie, but the sales trend gradually declined."

It then compared Jennie's performance to the preceding models of the brand such as Lee Hyori and Bae Suzy, who sat in the position of being Chum Churum models for five and four years, respectively, before passing the baton to the BLACKPINK member.

The quoted statement continued:

"It is unusual in that the previous models, Lee Hyori and Suzy, continued to contract in the long term with (Chum Churum)."

As a result, people who read the statement were surprised after knowing that Jennie was replaced due to sales decline when the idol is a member of the biggest girl group in the world, and she's considered an "It Girl" not only in Korea but abroad.

Due to this, some netters then speculated that it was because Jennie doesn't suit to become a soju model, which is one of the most coveted positions among idols and celebrities as this serves as a huge determinant of how popular a star is in Korea.

Malicious commenters then used this statement to talk bad about Jennie, claiming that it's due to her visuals, her controversies and more.

BLINKs Defend BLACKPINK Jennie, Clarifying the Issue

With the intensifying hateful comments towards Jennie, BLINKs decided to step out to explain the situation.

The statement is not from soju brand Chum Churum. It came from article here:



 https://t.co/WBPgfyYujO



It discusses about media opinion on Jennie whos leading the advertising world, but gradually disappearing from commercials and also her undeniable influence. https://t.co/Vylbu9zvM6 pic.twitter.com/8m0dUvpm5B  Sofie (@adoring_sohee) March 17, 2023

First, the fandom clarified that a lot mistook the statement as an official position from Chum Churum, when in fact, it was only written as an opinion of a Korean media outlet called, Salgoonews. Thus, the article doesn't reflect the real reason Jennie was replaced by Han So Hee and if the former was indeed fired or if it was her decision to pass the baton to Han due to her busy schedule.

 230131 LOTTE Chilsung export in the 3rd quarter of 2022 is at 48.5B won, an increase of 14.9% from the same period last year. The company analyzed that this vast improvement is due to actively engaging in overseas marketing with #JENNIE as their model. https://t.co/AhPxxb5n5V pic.twitter.com/mvEsqGFe52    (@NEWSJENNlE) January 31, 2023

Secondly, BLINKs squashed the claims that Chum Churum suffered from a sales decline after Jennie became their model, rather, it was the opposite. Since the star became the brand's model, Chun Churum's parent company Lotte Chilsung was able to enjoy a 14.9% sales increase in 2022, citing Jennie's influence and impact in the overseas market.

Lastly, BLINKs called out the author of the post for causing the misinformation and criticized them for trying to set up the idol. Fans explained that rather than replacing Han So Hee, Jennie moved to Soonhari Soju which is under Chum Churum, focused on a more global-scale market.

For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Eunice Dawson.
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Former President Donald Trump said Saturday he expects to be arrested in connection with the investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney next week and called for protests as a result.
Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, right? With politics being a dirty game, this presumption of innocence, which is one of the most sacred principles of every countrys justice system, is what has protected the political careers of many individuals. Had it not been there, many politicians would not have had a single foot in the offices they hold.

For housekeeping purposes, one might need to mention that the concept of being innocent until proven guilty means that anybody accused of a crime is assumed innocent until the allegations leveled against them are proven. The burden of proof is placed squarely on the accuser to show that the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The country is now in the process of going to one of its most critical national general (parliamentary) elections in a long time. Without a doubt, the terrain will be rough. Using the justice system, some people will be targeted so that they do not contest for political positions.

I still remember an interview I had with Lobamba Lomdzala Member of Parliament (MP) Marwick Khumalo in January 2013, where he revealed that there were moves to have him arrested so that he could not contest the parliamentary elections that were to take place later that year. He narrated how the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) together with the Office of the Auditor General (AG) had been tasked to investigate him and that the whole purpose of this was to stop him from participating in the elections.

Elections come with all its positives and negatives. This is a time for smear campaigns, bad-mouthing and the pull-down syndrome at a scale that has never been seen before and you ask yourself where these have been all along, Khumalo said, while stating that the degree of the smear campaigns differed according to the individuals political standing. Those MPs that are not as well-known feel it at a lower level but some of us feel it at a higher level because we have been around for a long time. We become the target at a national level not just at a lower level. The impact of the smear campaigns differ according to where you are in the political barometer. If you are on top, the impact is that colossal, the influential legislator said.



Five months later, he was indeed arrested. Thats how dirty the politics game is. But Khumalo managed to contest the elections with the charges hanging over his head; to this day, they are still hanging. His case is yet to see the light of day in court. Thats what we are pondering on today. Is it not time that the laws governing the countrys elections are changed? The recent case of Lobamba MP Allen Stewart is what has influenced todays discussion.

Last month, Stewart was sentenced to a custodial three years after being found guilty of attempted murder. Everyone was taken by surprise by this, mostly because the offence was committed in 2010 and Stewart was relatively unknown in the political arena. The issue that needs to be debated here is that when he contested the elections in 2018, his trial had already begun; should he then have had his candidature given the green light?

Elections

According to the Elections Act of 2013, he was eligible to contest. In Section 88(1), this piece of legislation provides that; Where a candidate or a person who intends to be a candidate for an election has been charged with an offence mentioned under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2006, Prevention of Organised Crime Act, Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act and the fourth and fifth schedules of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act No. 67 of 1938, the Court shall ensure that the proceedings of that matter are expedited and dealt with as a matter of urgency. In Stewarts case, there was no expediency as he was sentenced six years after the trial commenced. This needs to be relooked.

In Section 88(2), the law goes on to state that, Where, however, the trial of a person charged in terms of this section is not completed within six months the prosecutor shall submit to the minister a report, signed by the director of public prosecutions DPP and countersigned by the registrar of the High Court, explaining the reason for the delay. In Stewarts case, the trial had not been competed but I doubt 100 per cent that the prosecutor submitted this report to the minster as required. I challenge the DPPs Office to prove me wrong here!

Further, the law, in Section 88(3) states that, Where the trial is still not completed after nine months and a subsequent report by the judge presiding over the case reveals that the delay in finalising the proceedings is attributable to the accused, the accused shall at the end of twelve months if the trial is still not completed, be disqualified from the position in which the accused was elected. Stewarts trial was completed after six years; way above the stipulated nine months. And I doubt that it was him who caused the delay in having the case finalised. If it was him, why didnt the judge file the necessary report and have Stewart disqualified as an MP?

Loopholes

The loopholes in this legislation have disadvantaged the people of Lobamba because they no longer have an MP. Who shoud they blame for electing someone with a pending court case? Themselves; or the EBC? Neither. The crafters of this legislation were well and fair in observing the innocence until proven guilty principle, but is it not time this is further reinforced by ensuring that the enforcers of the law also honour their obligation in as far as our electoral laws are concerned. I wholly support the principle, mind you, because had it not been there, we would have been deprived of the vibrancy and astuteness that the likes of MP Khumalo have brought to the countrys political landscape. Khumalos case was a definite smear campaign, which is why I doubt he will ever be brought to trial.

Most people might recall that MP Khumalos status as a legislator was once challenged by Hosea MP Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza who wanted the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Pholile Shakantu, through the EBC, to disqualify Khumalo under the argument that his stay in office was against the provisions of the laws governing both qualification and disqualification for one to stand for elections. His grounds for seeking the disqualification of Khumalo were based on Sections 96 and 97 of the Constitution which provides the mandatory disqualification to stand for elections of Members of Parliament and disqualification of such. He also cited the said Section 88 of Elections Act. It was Attorney General Sifiso Khumalo who had to remind Mabuza that the matter was still pending in court. He said the chief justice, prosecutor with the help of the DPP should give their reports, which would then grant the minister power to disqualify any MP.

Drafters

He said for that reason, the minister could not disqualify any MP. What MP Mabuza did was well within his rights and should not in any way be seen as attacking a colleague, but as a means to have the drafters of the countrys laws have a rethink on how the legislation could be amended to ensure the maximum protection of both the candidates and the electorates. Otherwise, as things stand, the possibility is high that we might have sitting legislators jailed for matters that pre-date their election, thereby leaving constituencies without representatives or forcing the EBC to hold by-elections, which come at a huge financial cost and are time-consuming.

Presently, the country witnessed the arrest of two MP; Mtfongwaneni MP Roy Farnourakis and Matsanjeni South MP Bomber Mamba. The charges that these two MPs face are of a serious nature and they could result in custodial sentences in the event they are found guilty. But until then, they are eligible to stand for the upcoming elections, as long as the voters are happy with them and feel they deserve another five-year term in Parliament.

Should they be re-elected, they will be looking over their shoulders for five years wishing that their trials do not get underway. That is an uncomfortable position. Hello EBC! Hello AGs Office! Is there anybody home?
New York, March 18: Facebook and Instagram users in the US will soon be able to pay to get a coveted blue check on their account, CNN Business reported. Meta on Friday began testing a paid verification option for US users of the two social networks, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Instagram. The company plans to gradually roll out the paid option to more US users over the next few weeks.

First tested in February in Australia and New Zealand, Meta Verified starts at USD 11.99 a month on the web or USD 14.99 a month on mobile. In addition to verification, the option offers perks such as extra protection from impersonation accounts and direct access to customer support, CNN Business reported.

To avoid fake accounts, customers who want to get the blue badge would need to provide a government ID which matches their profile name and picture. Users must also be above 18 to be eligible for the new service, according to CNN Business. Meta Verified: Mark Zuckerberg Announces Rollout of Twitter-Like Monthly Subscription Plan for Facebook and Instagram Profiles, Check Prices to Get Paid Blue Badge.

"This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services," Zuckerberg wrote in February in an Instagram broadcast channel.

Meta joins other platforms, like Discord, Reddit and YouTube, which have their own subscription-based models. CNN Business said Twitter relaunched its own verification subscription service, Twitter Blue, in December, after an onset of fake "verified" accounts forced it to pull the feature.

Twitter Blue costs USD 11 a month for iOS and Android subscribers, part of owner Elon Musk's attempt to raise its subscriptions business after buying the platform for USD 44 billion. Meta Launches Paid Verification on Instagram and Facebook.

For Meta, the move offers the promise of another revenue stream beyond advertising, at a time when its core ad sales business is under pressure from a number of factors, including privacy changes on Apple and tightening budgets amid recession fears, CNN Business said on Saturday.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
By Payal Mehta

New Delhi [India], March 18 (ANI): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will lead his entire council of ministers on a trip to the national capital on Sunday to visit places of importance made by the Narendra Modi government.

Also Read | Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan Urges Media Organisations to Protect Secularism and Pluralism of India.

On the agenda, on the one-day visit of Assam cabinet is to pay homage to the fallen soldiers at the National War Memorial followed by a visit to the Police War Memorial and finally to the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya.

Along with Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Cabinet, Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria will also be present during these visits.

Also Read | MC Stan Indore Concert: Karni Sena Disrupts Bigg Boss 16 Winner and Rappers Show Over Foul Language.

Senior officials in the administration and the police department of the Assam government will also be part of this delegation that will make these visits.

"Keeping in mind the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his advice that state leaders must visit these places that are extremely significant for the generations to come, this tour has been organised," a senior official of the Assam government told ANI.

Established in 2019, the National War Memorial is a monument, which has been built to honour the soldiers who have made the supreme sacrifice for the country.

Inaugurated in October 2018, the National Police Memorial is a commemoration of the sacrifice of over 34,000 police personnel, who have laid down their lives in the line of duty.

Inaugurated in April last year by PM Modi, the Pradhanamantri Sangrahalaya is a museum dedicated to all Indian Prime Ministers from India's independence onwards. Built at a cost of Rs 271 crores, this museum talks about the contribution of all the 14 Indian Prime Ministers of India in nation-building.

After the day-long visit to the national capital, to understand what these monuments mean for the present generation and for the generations to come where tributes have been given to those who deserve irrespective of their ideology, the Assam said cabinet and the officials will head back to the state where the budget session of the assembly will resume on Monday. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Nagpur, Mar 18 (PTI) The Bharatiya Janta Party and the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will contest all 288 Assembly and 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra in alliance with other NDA constituents, BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said on Saturday.

He said no formal decision had been taken so far on sharing of the seats.

Also Read | MC Stan Indore Concert: Karni Sena Disrupts Bigg Boss 16 Winner and Rappers Show Over Foul Language.

His comments came amid reports that Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena was getting a raw deal regarding the allocation of seats for the upcoming polls.

"The BJP and the Shiv Sena will contest 48 Lok Sabha seats and 288 Vidhan Sabha seats in alliance with other constituents of the NDA," Bawankule said.

Also Read | Saurabh Kirpal As Delhi High Court Judge: Sexual Orientation of Candidate for Judgeship Has Nothing to Do with Ability, Says CJI DY Chandrachud.

The Assembly elections are due in Maharashtra in October 2024.

He said the BJP and the Shiv Sena have started preparations to win 200 seats under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and in coordination between CM Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The Election Commission recently recognised the Shinde-led faction as Shiv Sena and allotted it the party's bow and arrow election symbol.

Queried whether BJP will contest 240 seats and Shiv Sena 48 (of 288), Bawankule said, "There was a meeting related to this and there will be meetings in future".

"A clip was circulated by twisting it. The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance will contest 288 seats and win 200. No (seat-sharing) formula has been decided so far. The Central and state leadership will decide on it," he said in response to reports.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra unit Nationalist Congress Party president Jayant Patil said the 2024 Assembly polls will be all about the BJP versus the Maha Vika Aghadi, and there will be a question mark on the existence of the Shiv Sena led by Shinde.

Talking to reporters in Mumbai, Patil said he feels the BJP will contest all the 288 Assembly seats on its symbol as he expressed confidence that the Shinde group will cease to exist.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], March 18 (ANI): Karnataka Police has lodged Workers of Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers clashed at a ground in Govindrajnagar constituency in Bengaluru on Friday.

The fight broke out after the BJP workers opposed Congress workers erecting the banners and posters of leaders for a Women convention slated to be held on March 19.

Also Read | Jammu and Kashmir Road Accident: Bus Overturns on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway in Pulwama; Four Killed, 28 Injured.

An intial argument soon escalated into a fight with workers from both groups attacking each other with stones and sticks resulting in injuries to many.

The police who arrived at the spot soon took to a lathicharge to bring the mob under control.

Also Read | Delhi: Man Falls From Open Lift of Building in Kamla Market Area, Dies; Case Registered.

The police have registered three FIRs in connection with the incident.

"Both groups pelted stones as well, and our police personnel also got injured. 3 FIRs have been registered in connection with the incident," said Laxman B Nimbargi, DCP.

Further investigation is being done, DCP said.

The Congress party event was scheduled to be held on March 19. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], March 18 (ANI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said that the credit for the development of Lucknow, Mohanlalganj, went solely to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as he was the one who implemented central schemes with sincerity and interest.

"Yogi ji has handled this responsibility with alacrity. You are painted in the colours of Holi and Lucknow is seen painted in the colours of development", Singh remarked during the inauguration/stone laying of 352 development projects worth Rs 1,450 crores.

Also Read | Karnataka Shocker: 36-Year-Old Mentally Ill Woman Sexually Assaulted at Female Ward in Kalaburagi Government Hospital, Police Register Case.

The Defence Minister said: "Today is an important day for UP, as Yogi Adityanath is completing six years as CM today. There was no chief minister in UP for such a long time. Yogiji has broken the record of Sampurnanand ji by becoming the Chief Minister of UP for the longest time."

Rajnath Singh said that law and order is the first condition and oxygen for development and today people not only inside UP but across the country and the world are aware of the improved law and order situation in the state under the leadership of CM Yogi.

Also Read | West Bengal: ISF MLA Nawsad Siddique Attacked at DA Protest Site in Kolkata, One Arrested (Watch Video).

I Saw 'Ab Tak 63' on news portal, won't be surprised if it becomes a century, Rajnath said in a lighter vein.

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said that one day he saw the heading 'Ab Tak 63' on a news portal, which referred to the killing of 63 dreaded criminals in police encounters.

"The way the cleaning is being carried out in UP, I won't be surprised if the number goes to 100 if the culprits do not reform. The work on realising Yogi Adityanath's dream of making UP a one trillion dollar economy is going on fast. Several schemes including roads, sewer plants, service roads etc. are being inaugurated and foundation stones are being laid. This is possible because of the sensitivity of the PM and the understanding of Yogiji", Singh remarked further.

Rajnath Singh said that so far 9 flyovers have been built, three are under construction and 5 new flyovers have been approved. Lucknow City and Charbagh Railway Station have been selected under Amrit Bharat Scheme. It will be developed as a world-class railway station, he informed. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
MBABANE  Gawuzelas son and his co-accused SWALIMO and EFF Swaziland members do not want investigators to switch on the cellphones police took from them during their arrest.

Five cellphones are among 16 items that were detained by the police from Zweli Simelane, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Swaziland member Siphosethu Malinga and Mxolisi Jabulani Simelane, who is a member of the Swaziland Liberation Movement (SWALIMO). The cellphones are a Nokia, black Stk, black Samsung J4 Core, purple/blue Huawei and a black VPhone. The detained items include four SIM cards

Contravening

The trio was arrested on March 9, 2023. They face three counts of allegedly contravening the Suppression of Terrorism Act, 2008, two of robbery and one of contravening the Passport Act of 1971. They appeared at the High Court yesterday for their second remand hearing. They made their first court appearance on Monday at the High Court, which is the court of first instance for terrorism cases.The Crown obtained an order to detain the accused persons items on Monday. The application to detain the items was made in terms of Section 23 (1) of the Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008.

Detention

The section provides for the detention of a person. The accused persons have filed a notice to raise points of law for the court to issue an order discharging the detention order. During the remand hearing, Lucky Howe, who represents Zweli, told Judge Justice Mavuso that their difficulty was that Section 21 provided that the detention should be for a period of 48 hours and an extension should not exceed seven days. Howe, who appears in the matter alongside Human Rights Lawyer Thabiso Mavuso and Professor Dlamini, who appears for Mxolisi and Malinga respectively, said a period of 48 hours lapsed on Thursday. As a result, Howe said the detained cellphones should be released to the accused persons.

Independent

They should return our phones, give them to the court, which will direct on what should happen and find an independent person to keep them, said Howe. Acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Lomvula Hlophe applied that the cellphones be kept wherever they are and not be released to the accused persons. Howe said the cellphones must not be switched on until the matter in which they challenged the order to detain the accused persons items was finalised. Judge Mavuso said it was in the interest of justice that all the parties must be heard. The judge said if there was any filing, it must be such that the court would have a balanced view of what was before it. Judge Mavuso stated that since the accused persons argued that the detention period of 48 hours had lapsed, the court would have to ascertain on the papers to be filed the obtaining situation.

Trust

Howe applied that during the period of filing papers before the matter was heard, may the phones not be switched on. We trust that the DPP will not have an issue with that. Judge Mavuso said he could not respond to that because he was yet to see the full set of papers to be filed. Hlophe told the court that the Crown would file its papers next Wednesday and was not ready to proceed with the matter yesterday. Thabiso said he held a different view regarding the operation of Section 23 of the Act and that he would file his papers on Monday. In the notice to raise points of law, the accused persons submitted that the Crowns application to detain their items in terms of Section 23(1), of the Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2023, was irregular, defective to such an extent that it could not be cured and did not meet the requirements in terms of the mentioned section.

The application is fatality effective in that it does not meet the requirements in terms of Section 23 (2), which is a prerequisite, prior to the application being made by the applicant (Crown).The applicant has not demonstrated and or presented to the court, that he has the written consent of the attorney general, prior to him moving the said application. The said Subsection 23(2), only makes provision for the detention of a person, not items found by a police officer or any items or property belonging to an individual, if it does who may have been the subject of an investigation, reads the accused persons papers.

Defective

They also submitted that the Crowns application was allegedly further defective in that the section of the Act makes provision that such detained person shall only be detained for a period not exceeding 48 hours, in the first instance, and may on application made by a police officer, be extended for a further seven days. The present order, according to the trio, could not be enforced in that it was moved by the Crown more than four days after Malinga and Mxolisi had been detained. The said 1st and 2nd accused (Malinga and Mxolisi) were arrested and detained by police officers on Thursday the 9th day of March 2023, and have been under their custody since then until they were presented to the court, submitted the accused persons. They also informed the court that the application in the notice of motion made no provision, where the said individuals were to be detained, which is a prerequisite in terms of the said section.

Prerequisite

Section 23(5) makes it a further prerequisite that the applicant should state the conditions upon which the person is to be detained, including conditions related to access to medical offices as the case may be. Accused is an amputee and therefore requires medical attention and no such provision has been made by the applicant when it is glaring that the accused person shall require same. Further the said application does not meet the requirements of the section in that the applicant has not placed before the court any evidence confirming that the items belong to the 2nd and 3rd accused (Mxolisi and Zweli) and form part of an investigation and the detention is to prevent interference with an investigation under the Act.



The trio alleged that no facts or allegations, which were contained in the application, connect and or that the said accused persons had in anyway interfered in or disrupted any form of investigation by the police officers in relation to an offence to which they were charged or to be charged with.

When the application was made before the court, they argued that they had already been detained and were represented by their legal representatives in terms of Section 21 of the Constitution.

Application

They said the order, therefore, should not have been granted by the court, in view of the fact that the application had not been served on them as they had not appeared before the court. The trio pointed out that the items sought to be detained were already in police custody and possession. The matter is pending in court.
New Delhi, March 18: A man slashed his throat with a knife and was running in public near Nathu Colony chowk with a knife and a pistol in his hand, informed Delhi police. The person was identified as Krishan Sherwal, who is currently under treatment at a hospital.

"Two PCR calls were received at 6:40 pm and 6:50 pm on March 16 at MS Park police station that a person, Krishan Sherwal, had slashed his throat with a knife and was running in public near Nathu Colony chowk with a knife and a pistol in his hand. He also opened fire," said an officer. A policeman was injured as the officers tried to overpower him. Delhi Shocker: Man Kills Wife and Two Sons Over Alleged 'Financial Woes' in Vipin Garden, Arrested.

Man Seen Roaming With Knife and Pistol Near Nathu Colony Chowk:

#WATCH | Two PCR calls were received at 6:40 pm & 6:50 pm on 16 March at PS MS Park that a person, Krishan Sherwal had slit his throat with a knife & was running in public near Nathu Colony chowk with a knife & a pistol in his and also opened fire: Delhi Police (CCTV visuals) pic.twitter.com/l9FyrlIcHd  ANI (@ANI) March 17, 2023

"At Nathu Colony Chowk, the public and our officers tried to overpower him and in the melee that followed, he injured an officer and snatched his pistol, firing one round. Eventually, however, the police caught him and the pistol was recovered from his possession," the officer said. Delhi: 11-Year-Old Girls Kidnapping and Murder Mystery Solved by Missed Call, Accused Arrested.

A case was registered under sections 307, 394, 397, 186 and 353 of the IPC.

"Krishan Sherwal is currently under treatment at a hospital. A case has been registered under IPC sections 307, 394, 397, 186 and 353 of the IPC and Section 27 of the Arms Act at MS Park police station. Sherwal had separated from his wife and had been in a state of depression," the officer said. Further investigation is underway.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], March 18 (ANI): A massive fire broke out in a plastic godown at Ansari road, Hyderabad, police said on Saturday.

The incident occurred at around 6 a.m. at a plastic waste godown on Ansari road in Kalapathar police station limits, police said.

Also Read | Jammu and Kashmir Road Accident: Bus Overturns on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway in Pulwama; Four Killed, 28 Injured.

Seven fire tenders were rushed to the spot, and almost 90 per cent of the fire is extinguished, the police said.

According to ACP Shaik Jahangir, "The people who collect rags and other plastic waste used to dump it here. The place belongs to Ayub and is run by Hamed."

Also Read | Delhi: Man Falls From Open Lift of Building in Kamla Market Area, Dies; Case Registered.

"One DCM and some plastic wastage were damaged in the fire," they said.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

More details are awaited. (ANI)

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Lucknow, Mar 18 (PTI) A court here on Saturday sentenced former Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu to one-year imprisonment for making defamatory statement against ex-minister Shrikant Sharma.

The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate A K Srivastava also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Lallu and said he would have to spend another 15 days in jail if he fails to deposit the fine.

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In its order, the court refused to release Lallu on probation.

"Since Lallu is ( former) state president of a national party and is in public life and as such it is more expected of him that he must observe patience on his conduct and language in public life. If Lallu is given benefit of probation, it would send wrong message in common public", the court observed.

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Sharma had filed a criminal complaint in the court in 2019 asking the court to summon and punish Lallu as he had made indecent allegation against him in public and it got media coverage.

Lallu was summoned and put on trial. Before filing the case in court, Sharma, a former Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister, had sent legal notice to Lallu seeking an apology but he had not tendered apology.

In his defamatory statement, Lallu had on November 4, 2019 made allegation of scam and foreign visit on Sharma.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Srinagar, Mar 18 (PTI) Democratic Progressive Azad Party Chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday appealed to the Jammu and Kashmir administration to release youths and religious scholars from the Union Territory languishing in jails across the country ahead of the holy month of Ramzan.

Addressing a public meeting in the city's Eidgah area, Azad said, "If the situation has normalised in Kashmir, the youths and these scholars should be released immediately and allowed to live a normal life.

Also Read | MC Stan Indore Concert: Karni Sena Disrupts Bigg Boss 16 Winner and Rappers Show Over Foul Language.

"They deserve a second chance and a normal life like others. I urge the Lt Governor's administration to ensure all are released ahead of the holy month of Ramzan."

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said his politics is based on inclusiveness, development and peace.

Also Read | Saurabh Kirpal As Delhi High Court Judge: Sexual Orientation of Candidate for Judgeship Has Nothing to Do with Ability, Says CJI DY Chandrachud.

Azad said unlike other parties who try to divide people for political gains, he aims to develop Jammu and Kashmir inclusively "where every person -- irrespective of religion, caste and creed -- feels politically and socially empowered".

"I had never thought that after leaving the Congress, the people of Jammu and Kashmir will receive me with this kind of warmth and love," the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) chief said.

Claiming that more and more people are joining his new party, Azad said, "It gives me more responsibilities and challenges to meet the expectations of the people. People feel dejected and disappointed with the present governance system."

Azad added that those politicians who have "no vision resort to communal and divisive politics" but he aims to build a better and progressive Jammu and Kashmir where the future of youths is secure.

If the DPAP is elected to power, Azad said he will bring a revolution of massive development across the Union Territory. Besides, he will continue to fight for the people's rights.

"Be it statehood, land or jobs, I will lead my people from the front to secure their rights," he told the gathering.

Every issue that matters to the common people will concern him, Azad said.

"My people are my priority. I have come back to Jammu and Kashmir only for my people. Otherwise, I had all the opportunities I could ever desire in my life," he added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Gandhinagar (Gujarat)[India], March 18 (ANI): Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that India must not be satisfied by becoming the world's largest milk producer, but must also aim to become the biggest dairy exporter.

Shah also reiterated the central government's commitment to strengthening the cooperative model.

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The Union Minister was speaking at the Indian Dairy Summit, organised on the third and final day of the Indian Dairy Association's (IDA) 49th Dairy Industry Conference in Gandhinagar.

The theme of the conference was "India Dairy to the world: Opportunities & Challenges".

Also Read | New COVID-19 Variant in India: 76 Samples of XBB1.16 Found in Country, Says INSACOG Data.

"Our milk processing capacity is around 126 million litres per day, which is the highest in the world. From 1970 to 2022, India's population has increased fourfold, but milk production has increased by ten times," Shah said.

"We should not be satisfied by being the world's largest milk producer. We must also strive to become the world's biggest dairy exporter. A second White Revolution is needed and we are working in that direction. The Narendra Modi government will not let any opportunity go to waste," the country's first cooperation minister said.

"The Indian dairy sector has grown by 6.6 per cent per year in the past decade. The Central government is setting up 2 lakh dairy cooperatives in villages, and once that happens, the dairy sector's growth will go up to 13.80 per cent. India's share of global milk production will be 33 per cent. Our dairy exports will be at least five times the current level," said Shah.

The union minister noted that dairy is a vocation for the world, but in India, where 9 crore families are directly connected with dairying, it is also a source of livelihood, strengthening the rural economy, addressing nutritional challenges, and women empowerment.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel also addressed the occassion and said, "Small dairy farmers are the real strength of the Indian dairy sector. Gujarat has been a model of overall development and is also a leader in the dairy industry with a 20 per cent share in the country's milk production. Dairy farmers must look for value addition, and focus on the quality of milk and milk products for sustainable growth."

Taking place in Gujarat after 27 years, the 49th Dairy Industry Conference brought together dairy experts and professionals from India and overseas, dairy cooperatives, milk producers, government officials, scientists, policymakers, planners, academicians and other stakeholders.

Prestigious awards including the Dr Kurien Award, IDA Patron Award, and IDA Fellowship Awards, were also conferred on the occasion.

In his welcome address, President of the Indian Dairy Association RS Sodhi said, "The Indian dairy industry has achieved phenomenal growth because of determined efforts to become atma nirbhar in milk, strong supply chain managed by farmers, and investments in infrastructure. We must make efforts to ensure our products are accepted in overseas markets and we are exporting 20 per cent of our production."

"India must take leadership and take its cooperative model to neighbouring countries. We have already started talks with Sri Lanka to help it become self-reliant. We are also talking with Nepal and Kenya to help their dairy farmers by implementing our learnings," Meenesh Shah, Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), said.

In his address, Piercristiano Brazzale, President of the International Dairy Federation, said that global leaders must take note of India's success in the dairy sector and support their dairy farmers with the right policies. He also said that IDF is keen to support the Indian dairy sector meet various challenges.

Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary of the Animal Husbandry and Dairying Department, spoke about the initiatives of the central government to improve the health of livestock and enhance their productivity.

State Cooperation Minister Jagdish Vishwakarma, IDF Director General Caroline Emond, and chairmen of various dairy cooperatives were also present at the Indian Dairy Summit.

Amul Dairy MD Amit Vyas presented the vote of thanks at the Indian Dairy Summit.

The Dairy Industry Conference brought together industry professionals to discuss global dairy trends, farm innovations, sustainability within the sector, climate change, nutrition, and health with the objective of making India a hub of dairy innovations and solutions. The latest technologies in milk production, storage, processing, and packaging solutions were also displayed during the three-day expo. (ANI)

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Gangtok, Mar 18 (PTI) Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang has said that investors have expressed interest to pump in Rs 1,000 crore in various sectors in the Himalayan state.

Also Read | Bhopal Shocker: Man Bludgeons Brother-In-Law to Death in Sleep Over Illicit Affair With Wife; Arrested.

Also Read | Delhi Rains: National Capital Wakes Up to Light Rain, Slight Drop in Temperature (See Pics and Video).

He said the government will immediately start implementing investor-friendly policies.

Tamang, while addressing a press conference on Friday, said the interest shown by the investors during a G20 meeting on March 16 will be fruitful for the state in the long run.

Chief Secretary V B Pathak said representatives of 12 G20 nations had participated in the B20 conference.

"Investors have shown interest to pump in over Rs 1,000 crore in IT & ITeS, infrastructure, renewable energy, microbrewery, skill development, education, agri-processing, organic farming, forest products and hospitality sectors," he said.

Pathak said Costa Rica, which has a 95 per cent dependency on hydropower for its energy needs, wanted to collaborate with Sikkim, which also has a huge hydropower potential.

Norway showed interest in small hydro and tunnelling activities in Sikkim with disaster mitigation efforts, and Sweden wanted to support the education sector of the Himalayan state, he said.

He said neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh have shown keen interest in international air connectivity with Pakyong and Bagdogra.

Agriculture Department Secretary J D Bhutia said that Switzerland has expressed interest in the organic products of Sikkim owing to its huge market potential in Europe and US.

He said testing labs would be set up in the six districts of the state to ensure that the products match the quality standards of these markets.

Sikkim will host the second meeting of the Startup20 Engagement group, newly formed under India's G20 Presidency, on March 18 and 19.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Srinagar, Mar 18 (PTI) An encounter broke out between militants and security forces in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, police said.

A police official said security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the Mitrigam area of Pulwama in south Kashmir after receiving specific inputs about the presence of militants there.

Also Read | The Wire star Lance Reddick passes away.

The search operation turned into an encounter after the militants fired upon the forces, who retaliated, the official said.

The exchange of firing was on, but, so far, there were no reports of any casualty on either side, he said.

Also Read | Croatian author Dubravka Ugresic dies in Amsterdam.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jammu and Kashmir [India], March 18 (ANI): The J&K State Investigation Agency (SIA) is conducting raids in Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Srinagar districts.

Previously, an encounter broke out between terrorists and security forces at the Mitrigam area of Pulwama, informed Jammu & Kashmir Police on Saturday.

Also Read | Delhi: Brazilian National Arrested at IGI Airport for Smuggling Cocaine Tablets Worth Rs 60 Lakh in His Body.

According to officials, Pulwama Police and security forces are on the job.

Taking to Twitter, Kashmir Zone Police said, "#Encounter has started at Mitrigam area of #Pulwama. Police and security forces are on the job. Further details shall follow. @JmuKmrPolice.

Also Read | Gujarat: Photographer Accused of Raping Aspiring Model Granted Bail After He Fails Potency Test Thrice, Medical Reports Reveal There Was Neither Erection, Nor Ejaculation.

"Further details are awaited. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Shivmogga (Karnataka) [India], March 18 (ANI): Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday announced the release of Rs 5 crore for the development of Allamaprabhu's birthplace.

Speaking after unveiling the 51-foot-tall statue of Shivasharane Akkamahadevi at Udutadi, and inaugurating the Yatra place on the lines of Akshara Dham and various development works in Shikaripura Assembly constituency, the CM promised to release the grant of Rs 10 crore for the PG building of the Women's University and development of Shivanapaada.

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Calling Shikaripura a god's land, the CM said a plan is afoot to develop the place with focussed efforts in the fields of agriculture, education, and spirituality, with the objective of making it a model taluk.

"(Former CM BS) Yediyurappa gave us the strength to face challenges and my relationship with him is like that of a father and his son. It is above politics. The former CM has developed this constituency fully," Bommai said, heaping praise on the former CM.

Also Read | Croatian author Dubravka Ugresic dies in Amsterdam.

Bommai said the soil of Shikaripura still bears the footprints of the Sharana Kula, who undertook an expedition of the state from here, taking with him the Sharana culture and preachings. The Anubhava Mantap in Basava Kalyana is the seat of power where people learned about the Kayaka community.

Further lavishing praise on his predecessor, Bommai said, "Yediyurappa always fought against injustice and never dreamt of becoming the CM. He won the love and confidence of the people by serving them continuously. His mantra is self-confidence and strength and he was ready to take the world on. He is currently spreading the message of Akkamahadevi as he travels from Uduthadi up to Sri Shaila Mallkirjuna. Yediyurappa has provided Rs 600 crore for the Basava Kalyana and the next ten generations will remember him. He has carried forward the revolution started by the Shivasharanas way back in 12th-century," he said.

The CM said Yediyurappa has also given Rs 45 crore for Kanakadasa's Kaginele, and Rs 14 crore for the development of Baada including the fort and the palace.

"Yediyurappa fought for 35 years without even being in power. Only two leaders, Ramakrishna Hegde and Yediyurappa, brought mass leadership to Karnataka politics. There is no question of his retirement as the people will not allow them to retire. He has a permanent place in the hearts of people. His services will be available to the State in different forms. The need of the hour is for leaders who contribute to nation-building."

Murugharajendra Swamiji of Anandapura, Yediyurappa, Ministers Govind Karjol, B.A.Basavaraj, MLC Kumar Bangarappa, and MP B.Y.Raghavendra, among others, were present at the event.

Karnataka is scheduled to go to polls later this year. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], March 18 (ANI): The mortal remains of Lieutenant Colonel Vijay Bhanu Reddy were given full military honours at Hyderabad and were moved to his residence at Malkajgiri in Hyderabad on Saturday.

"The wreath was laid on behalf of a grateful nation for the untiring service to the nation by the officer. The mortal remains have been moved to Lt Col VVB Reddy's residence at Malkajgiri, Hyderabad", said the officials.

Also Read | Staff of PS Cyber, South District Arrested a Person Who Used to Cheat on Pretext of   Latest Tweet by ANI.

Brig K Somashankar, Officiating General Officer Commanding, Telangana and Andhra Sub Area and father of Lt Col Vijay Bhanu Reddy, laid the wreath while receiving the mortal remains of the officer, said officials.

Tributes were paid with full military honours at Hyderabad to the mortal remains of Lt Col Reddy, who sacrificed his life in the line of duty on March 16 while on an operational sortie in Arunachal Pradesh.

Also Read | The Wire star Lance Reddick passes away.

According to officials, the Army Aviation Cheetah helicopter flying an operational sortie near Bomdila in Arunachal Pradesh crashed near the Mandala hills area of the state on Thursday.

The aircraft was reported to have lost contact with the Air Traffic Controller at around 9.15 am on Thursday. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Three strategic multi-stakeholder agreements were signed at the 10th edition of the Arab Aviation Summit (AAS), which concluded its three-day session in Ras Al Khaimah on Thursday.

The agreements underscored the summits growing importance as a platform for facilitating public-private cooperation and opening doors for regional and global partnerships, organisers said.

AAS 2023 was held at Al Hamra International Exhibition & Conference Centre in Ras Al Khaimah.

Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) and the FTI Group in Germany signed an agreement paving the way for greater air connectivity between the two destinations.

A state-of-the-art vertiport will be established for the first time in Ras Al Khaimah in an agreement signed between VPorts and Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Airport. VPorts is further securing the future of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) by building and operating the AAM World Integrator World Centre in Dubai in partnership with Electra.aero, Falcon Aviation and SkyDrive.

Held under the theme, Impactful sustainability in modern-day travel and tourism, the three-day summit brought together some of the best minds in aviation who explored the role of sustainable aviation as a catalyst for driving growth and prioritising climate action in the Middle East market, one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world.

With the regional fleet set for a significant expansion over the next decade, experts and thought leaders shared insights on challenges and opportunities and called on greater public-private sector cooperation to transition the sector to a greener future.

Efficiency and practical approach towards sustainability in aviation were a key pillar in all discussions and the inclusion of the entire aviation echo-system in the air and on the ground.

Discussions at the summit also centred on the need for providing quality training as the region experiences a surge in demand for aviation professionals and to ensure that the next generation of aviation workforce is work-ready.

Delivering a keynote address, Sheikha Mozah bint Marwan Al Maktoum, First Lieutenant Pilot at Dubai Police HQ, made an impassioned call for inclusivity in the aviation industry, stating that a shift in the current narrative could be achieved with increased representation that could further empower young females to identify growing opportunities in the sector.

Paying tribute to the women pioneers who shattered glass ceilings in the aviation industry from as early as the 18th century, the Emirati aviator added that her initiative, Shehana - Women in Aviation Association, aims to attract greater female participation in the sector.

Delivering the guest country keynote, Irena Georgieva, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Republic of Bulgaria, reinforced the interdependent nature of aviation and the tourism industry, and stated that working hand in hand is imperative in the pursuit of sustainable development for both the sectors.

Expressing interest in establishing strong ties with countries in the Middle East, she added that the wise and responsible management of the travel and tourism industries would benefit all of humanity.

Participating in a panel discussion, Khaled Al-Eisawi, Area Manager Gulf & Near East, IATA, commended the alignment among stakeholders in the aviation sector in accelerating efforts to meet net zero goals, stating that this shared vision was a commitment to future generations. Significantly boosting production of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) is fundamental to achieving these goals, he said, while calling on governments to introduce policies to incentivise production to ensure that cost-wise, SAF is on par with jet fuels.

Mikail Houari, President, Airbus Africa Middle East, said under the market forecast for the region, 3,000 new aircraft are expected to take to the skies by 2040, of which 40 per cent are to be replacements for existing fleet, underpinning the regions commitment to sustainability as a key pillar to grow the sector.

,

Edward OByrne, Chief Executive Officer at AviLease pointed out that under Saudi Arabias Vision 2030, the company is contributing to the nations rapidly growing aviation ecosystem, and is doing it in responsible way, by investing in and committing to sustainable offerings to support decarbonisation in the aviation industry.

John Kelly, President - Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META), Rolls Royce, said with a growing demand among passengers to fly sustainably, decarbonisation of the skies could be achieved through clean fuels and emerging technologies that could potentially lead to 50 per cent lower emissions.

Hosted in collaboration with Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, AAS 2023 was the world's first aviation and tourism event to calculate carbon emissions. The event was supported by global industry partners such as Airbus, CFM, Collins Aerospace, Turkish Teknik, T3 Aviation Academy, and others.  TradeArabia News Service
Palghar, Mar 18 (PTI) A case of rape has been registered after a 15-year-old girl with intellectual disabilities was found pregnant in Maharashtra's Palghar district, an official said on Saturday.

Also Read | Delhi: Man Falls From Open Lift of Building in Kamla Market Area, Dies; Case Registered.

Citing the complaint by the teenager's mother, an official from Virar police station said the girl had taken cattle out for grazing some months ago when a person raped her.

Also Read | Delhi: Brazilian National Arrested at IGI Airport for Smuggling Cocaine Tablets Worth Rs 60 Lakh in His Body.

But the mother learnt about the sexual assault when the girl was four months pregnant. She then approached the police.

Police have registered a case under Indian Penal Code section 376 (rape) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against an unidentified person, said the official.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Thane, Mar 18 (PTI) A 24-year-old man from Maharashtra's Navi Mumbai who was accused of raping a minor girl has been acquitted by a special court, with the judge calling it a case of consensual relationship.

Also Read | Bhopal Shocker: Man Bludgeons Brother-In-Law to Death in Sleep Over Illicit Affair With Wife; Arrested.

The order by Special Judge (POCSO) VV Virkar was passed on March 15. It was made available on Saturday.

Also Read | Delhi Rains: National Capital Wakes Up to Light Rain, Slight Drop in Temperature (See Pics and Video).

The man was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in 2014 for allegedly eloping with his neighbour to Tuljapur and raping her promising that he would marry her. On a complaint by the girl's mother, police later traced the two.

In her order, the judge said it appears to be a case of consensual relationship which is apparent from the history given by the prosecutrix to the Medical Officer.

Since it was not proved that the girl was not below 18 years of age, abduction charges cannot be pressed against the man, said the court.

When it is consensual relationship, even though it is assumed for a while that the prosecutrix at that time of incident was 17 years plus 6 months, which is an age of understanding and discretion and the prosecutrix being on the verge of attaining majority, the act of sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix cannot be termed as rape, said the court, acquitting the man.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Thane, March 18: A 58-year-old farmer who participated in the long foot march of farmers from Dindori in Maharashtra's Nashik to Mumbai died on Friday night at Shahapur police station in Thane district, informed the All India Kisan Sabha state general secretary Ajit Nawale.

Pundalik Jadhav, a resident of a village near Dindori in Nashik, was taken to a hospital in Shahpur on Friday where he died during treatment. The exact reason for his death is yet to be ascertained. Maharashtra Farmers Protest: Minister Dada Bhuse Says Farmers Reps To Meet CM Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis on March 16.

Nawale held the government responsible for the delay in taking a decision on the demands of the farmers, due to which the farmers are still forced to sit in Shahpur. The farmers demanded compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the kin of the deceased farmer.

In order to draw attention of the government to a 17-point charter demand, thousands of farmers had begun a march from Dindori in Maharashtra's Nashik district on Sunday last and will cover 200 kms to reach Mumbai.

The demands include Minimum Support Price (MSP) for onions, the appropriate price for agricultural produce, electricity bill waiver for farmers, speedy compensation for crop losses due to the unseasonal rains, and forest land rights. On Wednesday, State ministers Dada Bhuse and Atul Save held talks with a delegation of protesting farmers. Kisan Morcha: Uddhav Thackeray Asks Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis To Hold Talks With Protesting Farmers.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Dada Bhuse said, "We discussed 14 issues that they flagged. We accepted their positions and agreed to many of their demands. We held detailed discussions with them. We requested the CPI and the protesting farmers to meet CM and Dy CM at the Mantralaya."

Earlier, on Tuesday, Opposition parties in Maharashtra staged a protest on the stairs of Vidhan Bhawan demanding the resignation of Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Abdul Sattar over his remarks on farmers. Sattar on Sunday sparked controversy with his remark on farmer suicides in the state.

The remarks drew flak from the Opposition, with leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) launching protests and demanding that Sattar step down in the wake of his remark that there was nothing new in farmers ending their lives and such incidents have been taking place for a long time.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Patna, Mar 18 (PTI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday expressed grief over the death of four migrant workers from the state in a road mishap in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Four people hailing from Bihar were killed and 28 injured when their bus overturned in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Saturday, officials said.

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The incident took place on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway in the Barsoo area of the south Kashmir district, they added.

According to a statement from the Chief Minister's office, instructions were issued for payment of Rs two lakh as ex-gratia to the next of the kin of each deceased.

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Besides, the state's Resident Commissioner at New Delhi was directed to get in touch with the administration in Jammu and Kashmir, to make arrangements for bringing the bodies to respective native villages of the deceased and also ensure proper treatment of those, from Bihar, who were injured in the mishap.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], March 18 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Energy minister AK Sharma has reassured that the power supply and its distribution are under control in the state amid reports of power outages and power cuts following protests by some of the State Electricity Department employees.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, the minister,"I want to assure the people of UP that the power supply and its distribution are under control. We are trying to instantly resolve the problem whenever we get to know the problems of power outage in any area".

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A section of the Power Department employees in Uttar Pradesh have stopped work and are on strike over their demands agreed by the government in December last year, which they claimed have not been fulfilled.

Some employees in the Uttar Pradesh power department have been sitting on a strike from March 16.

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Addressing mediapersons here, the Energy minister said that public should support those employees who are standing with the Government in this matter.

"I request the people of the State and representatives of the public to not create any hindrances in duties of those employees who are standing with the Government and want to serve the public while doing their duty. Also, identify and try to stop those employees who are creating problems in power distribution in the state," Sharma said.

The minister also held a meeting with the electricity department officials regarding the ongoing protest.

"Discussed with officials in Shakti Bhavan regarding the power strike. Boosted the enthusiasm of the personnel by going to the control room set up".

He further stated on Twitter that action should be taken against those who are involved in disrupting electricity supply and production.

He tweeted, "Some electrical workers did the misdeed of disrupting the supply/production. And the public service workers got it repaired by staying awake all night. The strictest police-administrative action should be taken against those who trouble people and damage national property." (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], March 18 (ANI): The Resident Welfare Association (RWA) of Signature View Apartments at Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar area in a statement on Saturday complained that the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is still sleeping on the matter of resolution regarding the redevelopment of the apartments.

"Unprecedented callousness on part of the Delhi Development Authority has jeopardised the lives of residents of 336 flats of The Signature View Apartments, located in Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi," RWA members said in a statement.

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"We bring to you the case of DDA residential apartments that were declared 'unsafe' by an investigative report brought out by IIT, Delhi. The flats were declared unsafe because of the poor quality of construction and use of low-grade construction material," they said.

RWA members said, "The residents of these 10-floor high rises are living in a constant shadow of fear ever since the report was made public. The buildings have visible fissures and fractures in the structure and there have been incidents of pieces of concrete falling at places."

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Notably, the LG, in context, directed the DDA to appropriately resettle the residents and start work on rebuilding the flats with immediate effect.

"Sadly, DDA is still sleeping on the matter of resolution for more than 2 months in spite of the direction of LG. Though the authority has initiated an enquiry against the erring officials, it remains just an eyewash because while the residents see no respite from their troubles, the perpetrators would see no punishments as most of them have already retired," residents said.

RWA reminded the case of the Coronation park scam in which LG directed to lodge a CBI FIR and stopped the pension of all officers, but such action is missing in this case. Even DDA has not taken any action against Agency that constructed these poor and inferior Apartments.

"The residents are forced to go looking for alternate abodes, financial burden added to the unbearable mental agony. Most of the flat owners have bought the houses at EMIs and now they will have to pay an EMI and rent. Instead of the apologetic and humane view that would have eased the pain of the residents, the authority chose to enter the mode of the bargain. Facing the flat owners with options that can be termed nothing but hilarious." the statement read further.

It also said, "there are three of these so-called options available; first, DDA is willing to buy back the flats at around 60 per cent of their current market value. Completely ignoring the money spent on renovations and the interest being paid to the bank. DDA was informed of the impracticality of the offer but the response is awaited. The second offer is to exchange the flats with other DDA-made flats lying vacant in far-flung areas like Narela. DDA pointed out the fact that the flats on offer are the ones that DDA has not been able to sell despite many attempts. The authority is only trying to find out an opportunity for itself in the troubles of the residents. The third and the only presentable option is the one originally proposed by the LG that offers rent for appropriate resettlement and immediate reconstruction of the flats."

"Surprisingly, DDA in its proposal to the residents, asks the residents to vacate and hand over the society to the authority so that the flats can be rebuilt at the will of DDA. The residents are shocked at the proposal because the DDA plans to add another 180 flats to the existing number of flats. Moreover, these extra flats built on land already sold by DDA to the residents are to be retained by the authority. Such a move besides being unapologetic and shameless also sends a scary signal to all other house owners of Delhi saying that the DDA can claim once sold land. Precedence once set will make way for countless such moves in a space-scarce city."

Towards the end of the statement, RWA said that the residents of the complex are disappointed that DDA is considering destroying the green belt by removal of a large number of trees and water bodies developed at the complex.

"Equally disappointing is the fact that DDA through an external enquiry conducted by a government agency NCCBM in 2015 knew of the problem of the dangerous status of and poor construction of the complex but it did not act at all, In fact, DDA sold the flats to fresh buyers in subsequent schemes till as late as in 2019. It's a simple breach of Trust by the officers with high dignity and responsibility to provide affordable housing to all. Now we request LG to meet and look into the matter and ensure that the price of corrupt practices of DDA should not be charged from the residents", RWA members complained. (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], March 18 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the success of Indian democracy and its institutions is hurting some people and that is why they are attacking it.

PM Modi's remarks came after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said in London that the country's democracy is "under attack".

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PM Modi, while addressing India Today Conclave 2023 said, "The world is watching how the democratic participation of more and more people is increasing in India. Even in the midst of the pandemic, many elections were held successfully. This is the strength of our institutions."

"Economy is strong today amidst the global crisis. The banking system is strong. This is the strength of our institutions. We have delivered the corona vaccine far and wide. We got more than 220 crore doses. This is the strength of our institutions," he said.

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"I think, this success of India's democracy and its institutions is hurting some people and that is why they are attacking it," he added.

Without naming anyone, he also took a swipe at the people, who are denigrating the country and said that those people have taken the responsibility for applying 'Kala Tika' (black mark) to many auspicious things happening in the country.

"The country is full of confidence, determination and global scholars are also optimistic about India. In the midst of all this, there is talk of disappointment, frustration, of humiliating India, breaking India's morale," he said.

"When something auspicious is happening, there is a tradition to apply 'kaala tika', so when so many auspicious things are happening, some people have taken the responsibility to apply this 'kaala tika'," PM Modi added.

The BJP members are continuously demanding an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remarks in United Kingdom, alleging that he had maligned institutions in the country.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a lecture at Cambridge University in London recently, said, "Everybody knows and it's been in the news a lot that Indian democracy is under pressure and under attack. I am an Opposition leader in India, we are navigating that (Opposition) space." (ANI)

(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], March 18 (ANI): AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) on Saturday filed his nomination for party's General Secretary election on March 26 General Secretary election on March 26.

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader EPS arrived at the party headquarters in Chennai, which was thronged by a massive crowd of party workers.

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On Friday, the party and announced that the polls to elect the General Secretary will be held on March 26.

A release signed by the party's election officers R Vishwanathan and Pollachi Jeyaraman stated, "(The) General Secretary would be elected by primary members of the party and candidates can file their nominations from. The last day for filing nominations is March 19 and scrutiny of nominations will be held on March 20. Candidates can withdraw their nominations till 3 pm on March 21. Election will be held on March 26 and counting of votes will take place on March 27."

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"It is also noted that according to the AIADMK Party bylaw 20(A) section 2 Party General Secretary would be elected by the primary member of the party. And also Interested cadres can get the application from the party headquarters in Royapettah on payment of Rs 25,000," the statement read.

Earlier in March, the Madras High Court refused to pass an interim order on a plea by former chief minister O Panneerselvam's confidante, Manoj Pandian, seeking an interim stay on the resolutions passed at the AIADMK General Council meeting on July 11 last year.

At the meeting, EPS was made the interim general secretary of the party.

Since the death of former chief minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary J Jayalalithaa, the party had a dual leadership, with OPS and EPS leading the AIADMK as coordinator and joint coordinator respectively. However, recently, disputes arose between both leaders, with the EPS group pressing for a single leadership. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chandel (Manipur) [India], March 18 (ANI): Two alleged smugglers were arrested and 6.5 kg contraband items, valued at over Rs 5 crore in the international market, were seized from them from TuinganDung Nala in Chandel district here, police said on Saturday.

According to a police statement, based on specific input, Sajik Tampak Batallion of Assam Rifles launched a search operation in the General area TuinganDung Nala, near Lebonan Village in Chandel district on March 15.

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During the search and frisking operation, two individuals were found in possession of 2.5 kg of heroin and 4 kg of opium, the statement added.The seized contraband items are assessed to be valued at Rs 5,02,80,000 in the international market, police said.

The recovered items along with the smugglers were handed over to Chakpikarong Police Station for further investigation.

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Last month, in a similar incident, the Assam Rifles foiled a smuggling bid and recovered contraband drugs valued at Rs 6 crore during a checking operation along with the arrest of a drug smuggler in Manipur's Chandel district, officials said.

The official said that a mobile vehicle check post was established in the general area of Aisi Village in Mizoram based on credible input.

"During the search and frisking operation by the Sajik Tampak battalion one individual was found with 275 soap cases containing approximately three kilogram of brown sugar," an official familiar with the matter said.

"The seized brown sugar is estimated to be worth Rs 6 crores," the official said.

They said the operation was carried out under the aegis of the HQ Inspector General of Assam Rifles (South). (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], March 18 (ANI): Union Home Minister Amit Shah who is scheduled to attend the 49th dairy industry convention organised by the Indian Dairy Association in Gandhinagar arrived in the city on Saturday.

Shah is on a two-day visit to Gujarat from Saturday and will attend various public events.

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The Home Minister will later attend the meeting of the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) at Circuit House, Gandhinagar.

Shah will later launch a Free food campaign at Civil Hospital in Gandhinagar in the afternoon, and then inaugurate Nardipur pond and lay the foundation stone and e-inaugurate various other development works of Vasan pond and Kalol.

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He will later attend the convocation of Maharaja Sayajirao University in the evening at the Convocation Grounds of MS University in Vadodara.

On Sunday, the Home Minister will lay the foundation stone of Junagadh district bank headquarters and inaugurate APMC Kisan Bhawan in the agriculture camp at APMC Dolatpara in Junagadh.

Shah will later offer prayers at Somnath temple and e-inaugurate various development works with the launch of Somnath Trust's mobile app.

Shah's two-day visit to Gujarat will culminate after he attends Gujarat Central University Convocation Ceremony. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
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New Delhi, March 18: A Delhi district court has granted bail to a woman allegedly involved in the murder of her husband in collusion with her boyfriend.

The woman and her friend namely Arjun Mandal were arrested in the East Patel Nagar area in October 2019 for allegedly killing her husband and portraying his death as an accident.

They killed the man as they thought of him as an "obstacle" in their relationship, as per the case of the prosecution. The body of 42-year-old Dayaram with injuries on his head and other parts was found lying in the shaft of a lift of an under-construction building in central Delhi's East Patel Nagar area on October 17, 2019, the police said. Delhi: Woman Dies, Husband Injured After Being Hit by DTC Bus in Bawana; Driver Absconding.

Advocate Ravi Drall who appeared for Anita argued that the deceased was a habitual drinker and the testimony of witnesses examined by the prosecution do not suggest the alleged role of the accused in the commission of the alleged offence.

Counsel submitted that the star witness namely Hari Ram (son of deceased) has already been examined who during his cross-examination admitted that the accused Anita who is his mother had no role in the murder of his father.

Advocate Ravi Drall further submitted that the FSL result has been filed but no DNA profile has been generated from the exhibits. Counsel further submitted that the applicant/accused has been falsely implicated upon the basis of the CDR of the mobile phone and that of the co-accused but contrary to the allegations the applicant/accused had also made the calls to her other relatives also.

While granting bail Sessions Court noted that the relevant witness qua applicant/accused is stated to prosecution witnessHari Ram, who has stated in his cross-examination that the applicant/accused Anita, who is his mother, had no role in the murder of his father deceased Daya Ram. He also stated that his parents were having a cordial relationship and he had never witnessed any quarrel between his father and mother over accused Arjun Mandal. Gujarat Police Booked Mother and Her Lover in Connection With Son's Murder in Rajkot.

Court further noted that the remaining witnesses for the prosecution have stated that they had come to know about the alleged illicit relation between applicant/accused Anita and co-accused Arjun Mandal and none of the prosecution witnesses has deposed about their personal knowledge regarding the alleged illicit relations.

(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, Mar 18 (PTI) With a whopping 80,000 tax litigation cases pending before Cestat, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra on Saturday said the government will set up a committee to suggest measures to reduce tax litigation and expeditious disposal of backlog.

Speaking at an event to commemorate 40 years of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), Malhotra said bringing clarity in tax laws and rules will help in reducing litigation as pendency of litigation has been a constant challenge before the tribunal.

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"What we will do in the government and we will seek support from CESTAT and CBIC is with us, we will set up a group and see how we can reduce litigation and reduce pendency. Whether it is by simplifying, clarifying law or training (officers), what are the various ways we can reduce fresh litigation and provide for expeditious disposal of pending cases," Malhotra said. He said CESTAT is currently operating with a full bench and the vacancies that were there last year have been all filled up. However, 80,000 cases are still pending before the tribunal and the average pendency is of 4-6 years. "20,000 cases are registered every year. We are disposing of as many but we are not able to clear the backlog," Malhotra said. Speaking at the event, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Chairman Vivek Johri suggested greater interaction between the CESTAT members and CBIC officers to help tax officers learn the often repeated mistakes in the adjudication process. "I just wonder if there is any scope for greater interaction between the members of the bench and the department.

"It could be workshops, roundtables... so that mistakes that occur repeatedly by officers who are implementing the law, particularly in terms of principles, and not necessarily in a particular case ... could be flagged to us and then we could build those into our training system into the discussion we have with our (adjudicating) officers so that disputes come down quite substantially. That would be a useful step to take for the future," Johri said.

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CESTAT hears appeals against orders passed by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise and Service Tax under the Customs Act, 1962, Central Excise Act, 1944 and Finance Act 1994. The Tribunal is also empowered to hear the appeals against orders passed by the Designated Authority in Anti Dumping Duties under the Customs Tariff Act,1975.

The sanctioned strength of the tribunal as on date, apart from the President of the Tribunal, is of 16 judicial and as many technical members.

CESTAT President Justice Dilip Gupta said in 2022 there were only 9 judicial members and 4 technical members with me. "All the vacancies have now been filled up," he said, adding all orders are uploaded on real-time basis on the Cestat website.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Mangaluru, Mar 18 (PTI) A huge rock has been dispatched from Karkala in Udupi district of Karnataka to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh for the construction of the idol of Lord Ram in the proposed Ram Mandir.

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Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal workers performed pooja and sent the stone in a huge truck to Ayodhya, VHP sources said.

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Karnataka Minister for Energy, Kannada and Culture V Sunil Kumar, who represents Karkala in the state legislature, attended the ceremony.

The rock, called Nellikaru stone, has the reputation of having unique properties and have been used in the construction of several famous sculptures that are displayed at prominent places. It was selected by rock experts from a small hill on the banks of the Tungabhadra River.

Sources said stones are being brought from different parts of the country and even from Nepal to make the idol of Lord Ram. One of these stones will be used to sculpt the grand idol of Lord Ram which will be installed at the temple.

The work of sculpting the idol has been entrusted to five artisans in the country.

The idol of Lord Ram Lalla will be installed at its original place in the proposed temple by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the third week of January, 2024, the sources said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Beijing [China], March 18 (ANI): Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Russia next week, making it his first trip to Moscow since the country launched its special military operation in Ukraine, according to the statement released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

"At the invitation of President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation, President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Russia from March 20 to 22," the statement read.

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The visit is being seen as a powerful show of China's support for Russia in Western countries, where leaders have grown increasingly wary of the two nations' deepening partnership as war rages in Europe, according to CNN

Meanwhile, in China, while addressing the presser, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that President Xi's upcoming state visit to Russia will be a trip for friendship. It will further deepen mutual trust and mutual understanding between China and Russia and cement the political foundation and public support for the long-standing friendship between the two peoples, according to the statement released by China's foreign ministry.

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"In recent years, President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin have maintained close exchanges. They have charted the course and provided guidance for the sustained sound and steady growth of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era. The two sides have found a path of major-country relations featuring strategic trust, good neighbourliness and cooperation, setting a new model for international relations," the statement read.

"During his upcoming state visit to Russia, President Xi will have an in-depth exchange of views with President Putin on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues of mutual interest, boost strategic coordination and practical cooperation between the two countries and inject new impetus into the growth of bilateral relations," it added.

President Xi's visit will be a trip for cooperation. It will boost mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation across the board, form greater synergy and deepen cooperation between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union, and help both countries achieve their respective goals of development and rejuvenation, Wenbin said.

Xi's visit will be a trip for peace. On the basis of no alliance, no confrontation and no targeting of any third party, China and Russia will continue to practice true multilateralism, promote greater democracy in international relations, work towards building a multi-polar world, improve global governance and contribute to development and progress in the world, he added.

While responding to a media query over China providing assistance to Russia, the foreign ministry spokesperson said, "I would like to reiterate that China always handles export of military items in a prudent and responsible manner and regulates the export of dual-use articles in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. At the same time, we are consistently opposed to unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction with neither basis in international law nor UN Security Council mandate. China's consistent position and practice stands in sharp contrast with the acts of certain countries that apply double standards on arms sales and keep adding fuel to the fire on the Ukraine crisis", according to the statement. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kathmandu [Nepal], March 18 (ANI): The Embassy of India in Kathmandu on Saturday celebrated the 21st Golden Jubilee Scholarship Day by organizing an event at the Embassy premises.

"The prestigious 21st batch of the Golden Jubilee Scholarship was established in the year 2002 to mark the completion of 50 years of India-Nepal economic cooperation. At the inception of this scheme, 50 Nepali students were awarded the scholarship. In the year 2007, the number of scholarships was increased to 100. Since the year 2012, the number of scholarships has been doubled to 200," the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu stated.

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Under this scholarship scheme, an MBBS/BDS student receives NRs 4000/- per month for five years, a BE student receives NRs 4000/- per month for four years, and a student studying in other undergraduate courses like BA, BEd, BPharmacy, BSc Agriculture, BBA, BBM and BBS receives Nepali rupees 3000/- per month for three years.

"This prestigious scheme has so far benefitted 3000 Nepalis from all 77 districts of Nepal. Around 45 per cent of the Golden Jubilee scholars are girls," the release added.

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The current batch of 200 awardees is from 73 districts of Nepal, with 44 per cent of the scholars being girls. Eight differentially abled students have also been selected this year under the Golden Jubilee Scholarship Scheme.

"India and Nepal are close and friendly neighbours, and have longstanding partnerships in the field of education. The scholarships and capacity building programs form a part of India's effort to support and partner in human resource development of Nepal and for the overall socio-economic benefit of the region," the release further stated.

The event was attended by more than 250 guests, including the awardees of the Golden Jubilee Scholarship of the current as well as previous years. Ambassador of India Naveen Srivastava addressed the gathering.

The Indian Embassy celebrated the 21st Golden Jubilee Scholarship Day with Nepali scholarship recipients from the current and last four years. Senior officials of the Government of Nepal, Vice Chancellors of major universities and principals of eminent schools graced the event.

Pramila Devi Bajracharya, Secretary (Science & Technology), Ministry of Education, Government of Nepal, Prof Dr Dev Raj Adhikari, Chairman, University Grants Commission graced the occasion.

Those present included Prof Dr Nanda Bahadur Singh, Vice Chancellor, of Mid-western University, Prof Dr Shilu Manandhar Bajracharya, Vice Chancellor of Nepal Open University, Prof Dr Tilak Ram Acharya, Vice Chancellor of Lumbini Buddhist University, and Prof Dr Punya Prasad Regmi, Vice Chancellor of Agriculture and Forestry University.

Ambassador Naveen Srivastava congratulated the students and announced a special roll of honour for graduating meritorious Golden Jubilee Scholars from next year.

The Government of India provides a total of about 1600 scholarships in medicine, engineering, dental science, arts, commerce, science, nursing, Ayurveda, dance, theatre, performing arts and many other disciplines both in the undergraduate and graduate streams to study in universities in Nepal and in India.

27, 000 Nepali students have benefitted since 2006 from the scholarships. (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 York, Mar 18 (AP) Law enforcement officials in New York are making security preparations for the possibility that former President Donald Trump could be indicted in the coming weeks and appear in a Manhattan courtroom in an investigation examining hush money paid to women who alleged sexual encounters with him, four law enforcement officials said Friday.

There has been no public announcement of any timeframe for the grand jury's secret work, including any potential vote on whether to indict the ex-president.

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The law enforcement officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said authorities are just preparing in case of an indictment. They described the conversations as preliminary and are considering security, planning and the practicalities of a potential court appearance by a former president.

Trump's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, told The Associated Press that if Trump is indicted, we will follow the normal procedures.

Also Read | Cyclone Freddy Affects 500,000 People, Kills 326 in Malawi, Say UN Humanitarians.

The Manhattan district attorney's office had no comment. A message was left for court administrators.

The grand jury has been hearing from witnesses including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who says he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to silence them about sexual encounters they said they had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump denies the encounters occurred, says he did nothing wrong and has cast the investigation as a witch hunt by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republican's 2024 presidential campaign.

Democrats have investigated and attacked President Trump since before he was elected  and they've failed every time, campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement Thursday about the inquiry.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Trump's company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the women's allegations quiet.

Daniels and at least two former Trump aides  onetime political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokesperson Hope Hicks  are among witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks.

Cohen has said that at Trump's direction, he arranged payments totaling $280,000 to porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the payouts were to buy their silence about Trump, who was then in the thick of his first presidential campaign.

Cohen and federal prosecutors said the company paid him $420,000 to reimburse him for the $130,000 payment to Daniels and to cover bonuses and other supposed expenses. The company classified those payments internally as legal expenses.

The $150,000 payment to McDougal was made by the then-publisher of the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer, which kept her story from coming to light.

Federal prosecutors agreed not to prosecute the Enquirer's corporate parent in exchange for its cooperation in a campaign finance investigation that led to charges against Cohen in 2018. Prosecutors said the payments to Daniels and McDougal amounted to impermissible, unrecorded gifts to Trump's election effort.

Cohen pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors never charged Trump with any crime. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Karachi [Pakistan], March 18 (ANI): A police patrolling party on Friday was attacked by armed men on a motorcycle in Karachi, ARY News reported.

According to the police, unidentified armed men opened fire at a police patrolling party near Musharraf Park in the Pak Colony area of Karachi.

Also Read | YouTube Reinstates Donald Trump's Account After Two Years of Suspension As He Gears Up for US 2024 Presidential Race.

Police said that the police party tried to stop three suspicious men on a motorcycle.

Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Keamari said that the assailants opened fire at the police party instead of stopping the motorcycle.

Also Read | Helicopter Crashes on Street in Brazils Sao Paulo, Four Killed.

The police officials retaliated and arrested an accused in injured condition, whereas, his accomplices managed to flee from the scene, according to ARY News.

Dawn recently reported that a group of people armed with weapons, axes and batons attacked and injured a police team at Supreme Court Housing Society.

A case was registered over the incident at the Shahzad Town police station against 16 people, including three women.

According to the FIR, the group armed with pistols and axes attacked labourers who were constructing the boundary wall of the Supreme Court Society at Tamma. They also brought an excavator and started demolishing the boundary wall with the intention of grabbing the land, it claimed. (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], March 18 (ANI): The Pakistan government on Friday shifted the Toshakhana case hearing venue from the additional sessions court to a comparatively safer Judicial Complex, Pakistan-based Dawn newspaper reported.

This came after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) informed the Islamabad police about its concerns over the security of party chairman Imran Khan.

Also Read | Cyclone Freddy Affects 500,000 People, Kills 326 in Malawi, Say UN Humanitarians.

The Chief Commissioner Office Islamabad issued a notification declaring Court No 1 Judicial Complex at G-11 as the venue for the hearing of the case filed by the district election commissioner against Khan, terming it a "one-time dispensation", according to Dawn.

This came after PTI Senator Shibli Faraz met Inspector General of Police (IGP) Akbar Nasir Khan and made a formal demand to shift the venue due to security concerns.

Also Read | COVID-19 Origin Mystery: Coronavirus May Have Originated From Animals, New Data Points to Raccoon Dogs in Wuhan Market Where First Human Case Was Reported.

Imran Khan in his address on Thursday cited security reasons for not appearing before the court in the past which resulted in the issuance of his arrest warrants.

Khan in his speech referred to a suicide attack on the F-8 courts in 2007, claiming that he had serious threats to his life.

The police have chalked out a security plan under which they have decided to deploy personnel from Counter Terrorism Department, Anti-Riot Unit, Frontier Constabulary and Rangers around the Judicial Complex, according to Dawn.

According to a police officer, over 1,000 personnel had been called to the capital from other districts for security duties.

The roads adjacent to the Judicial Complex will be sealed by placing barbed wires and barricades, the officer said, adding that unauthorised people would not be allowed to enter the venue of the court hearing.

Senator Shibli Faraz, while talking to Dawn said that he had made the demand for the shifting of the venue as the party believed that the F-8 venue could be a "death trap" for Khan.

Besides this, he said the police were also facing a challenge in arranging security at the courts situated at F-8 Markaz.

Khan who will appear in court today for the Toshakhana case, received protective bail in nine cases by the two-member bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) led by Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh.

The protective bail was approved for five cases in Islamabad and three cases in Lahore. Khan secured bail in the cases filed in Lahore till March 27, whereas, the protective bail in five cases in Islamabad was approved till March 24.

Moreover, the court also approved Khan's bail in the Sarwar Road police station case, according to ARY News.

The high court also permitted the police to interrogate Imran Khan. The petition against the police operation was wrapped up by the court after directing the PTI to cooperate with the police in the investigation. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Montreal, Mar 18 (AP) Three people were found stabbed to death Friday inside an apartment in the eastern Canadian city of Montreal, and police have a suspect in custody.

Police found the three bodies with wounds from a sharp object after responding to an emergency call Friday morning, Montreal police Const. Julien Levesque said.

Also Read | ICC Issues Arrest Warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin Says 'Meaningless'.

He said it was too early to release details about the link between the victims and the suspect.

The suspect was arrested outside the apartment building and will be questioned by investigators, police said. Authorities barricaded the street, in a neighbourhood consisting of low-rise apartment buildings.

Also Read | Pakistan Economic Crisis: Cash-strapped Country Struggling to Pay International Airlines.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault and Mayor Valerie Plante offered condolences via social media. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
As Former Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia has resigned from his positions, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is asking his family to vacate the bungalow on Mathura Road, Delhi. Previously, the former Chief Minister of Delhi, Shiela Dixit, used to stay at this bungalow. Media reports confirm that Atishi Marlena will remain the new education minister. The family has been asked to vacate the bungalow by March 21, 2023. Meanwhile, BJP leaders are questioning the intention of the AAP leader, who had said that he would be taking care of Sisodia's family in his absence. He has been in jail since February 26 and will continue till March 20. BJP's Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has shared a funny meme. Manish Sisodias Wife Seema Sisodia Very Ill, Technically in Vegetative State, His Lawyer Tells Court During Bail Hearing.

BJP Takes Dig At Kejriwal For Taking Sisodia's Bungalow

Why Manish Sisodia Being Asked To Vacate His Bungalow

Kejriwal had promise to look after Manish Sisodia and his family. But he was removed as minister almost immediately, while Satyendra Jain was retained as minister for 9 months, when in jail. Now Sisodia has been asked to vacate the bungalow so that it can be allotted to Aatishi. pic.twitter.com/3O7fmUHZw8  Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) March 17, 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.)
A massive fire broke out in a plastic godown at Ansari road, Hyderabad, police said on Saturday. The incident occurred at around 6 a.m. at a plastic waste godown on Ansari road in Kalapathar police station limits, police said. Seven fire tenders were rushed to the spot, and almost 90 per cent of the fire is extinguished. No casualties were reported in the incident. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. More details are awaited. Hyderabad Fire: Major Blaze Erupts at Swapnalok Complex in Secunderabad, Many Feared Trapped (Watch Video).

Hyderabad Fire

#WATCH | Hyderabad: Massive fire broke out at a plastic waste godown at Ansari road in Kalapathar PS limits. The cause of the fire is unknown & under investigation. Around 7 fire tenders reached the spot. Almost 90% of fire is extinguished. No casualties reported: Shaik Jahangir, https://t.co/Sy3UR8MSOlpic.twitter.com/mjSAd1daCs  ANI (@ANI) March 18, 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.)
Photos of the 19 fallen Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighters and Brendan McDonough, the lone survivor, in Prescott, Ariz., in 2013.

Brendan McDonough survived one of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, an inferno near Yarnell, Ariz., that killed 19 of his fellow Granite Mountain Hotshots on June 30, 2013.

For the next year, he went to memorials, gave speeches and raised money for wildland firefighting. But the constant reminders of the fire wore on him. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and had to stop making so many public appearances.

I kept reliving it, kept reliving it, kept reliving it, McDonough said.

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Citing his PTSD, he twice canceled depositions scheduled by the Arizona Division of Forestry, which was investigating the fire and negotiating settlements with the families of the dead. Arizonans were infuriated, then, when it was announced that McDonough would write a book about his life and the ordeal, and advise on a movie, Granite Mountain, which is set to begin filming this summer.

In an interview with The Times, McDonough spoke about the controversy. His responses have been edited for clarity and length.

NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>

How many times did the Division of Forestry ask to depose you, and what happened each time?

The first time they came at me, they just said come on down for lunch and lets talk. I told someone and he said, Hell [expletive] no. Even if you have nothing to hide, theyll twist your words. So he put me in touch with an attorney. The attorney said, Im not free for some time.

The [Arizona Division of Forestry] scheduled the day he said he might be free. So there was no time to prep, and he said no.

The second time, I was talking to my counselor, and I was just getting into some real heavy [stuff], really getting into the nitty-gritty of what makes my stress, my anxiety, my PTSD tick. Shes like, Theres no way youre doing it right now. They can come back to us in six months or a year, if they want to do it then, well do it then.

While this is going on, everyone in the media is saying, Brendan is hiding, hes lying, he wont testify, yada yada yada, hes deceitful. Hes still writing a book, but hes going to write something in the book he doesnt want to testify about.

We set up a third deposition. I wanted to shut these people up. I was ready to testify. The [Arizona Division of Forestry] canceled it the night before, like 8, 9 oclock. More information had come out that showed [the 19 dead firefighters] didnt make the mistakes they were accused of. I think thats why [the Division of Forestry] canceled it.

(State records show that the deposition had been scheduled for late May 2015. The state reached a settlement with the families of the deceased firefighters on June 1, 2015.)

Im not scared of them, I dont fear them. The worst they can do is come to my house and put a bullet in my head.

These are the people who were supposed to take care of us. I dont feel taken care of.

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So why not make a bigger deal about this, hold a news conference or something of that nature? Do you care about what the public thinks outside of the small area where you live?

No, I do care. I want to be mindful of how Im perceived.

Im trying not to go out in the media and say they did this to me and they did that to me. But they tried making it about me when there were 200 other people who should have been looked at, people [at the Division of Forestry] who could have made better choices.

Youre recognized near your home in Prescott, Ariz., and at firefighter memorials. Its a weird kind of celebrity, isnt it?

Ive learned to just talk and listen, listen to peoples grief. Thats what Im famous for. Im not famous for being an Olympic gold medalist, Im not famous for inventing the cure for cancer or anything like that. Im famous for losing my brothers.

Do you find people using the tragedy for their own benefit?

Its one thing to continue to honor men. But theres other people, a very few people, taking advantage of what it is, taking grief and trauma thats not their own. Theyve attached themselves, leeched on to my brothers legacy.

Theyll say, Oh, my car just turned over to 119,000 miles, or Oh, I just saw 19 doves fly by. How the [expletive] can you count 19 doves?

I had a lady, she came to one of my book signings. She was telling me the story of how she got pulled over for speeding. She had a memorial shirt on. She played it off like she didnt use it for her advantage, but she did. She didnt get a ticket. Ive never done that.

Since reliving the tragedy is difficult, how do you balance the outreach youre doing with your own mental health?

[Well-wishers] want to talk. They want to say, Im so sorry for your loss. People dont understand, thats me reliving it. But Im not going to tell them, Dont talk to me.

When I was first in therapy, I didnt know that it was OK to still be alive. But, I have a purpose in life. I cant let those feelings take over.

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Microsoft senior design manager Jared Bridegan was just driving home with his 2-year-old daughter in the back seat when he was brutally gunned down after he got off the car. Florida police have arrested the suspect, his ex-wife's husband.

Jacksonville Beach Police stated that while driving, Bridegan came upon a tire in the middle of the road. He stopped the car while his daughter was still in the backseat to remove the obstruction. However, while he was trying to move it, he was shot by Mario Fernandez-Saldana, who is married to Bridegan's ex.

The victim's daughter was found in the backseat of the car with no physical injuries. Nothing was taken from the vehicle.

Authorities called the attack a "planned and targeted ambush and murder." CNN reported that Fernandez-Saldana could face the death penalty after he was arrested on Thursday and later indicted by a Duval County grand jury for first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony, and child abuse.

The murder happened in February 2022, and prosecutors say that the 34-year-old "was integral to the solicitation, conspiracy, and murder of Bridegan."

Second Suspect Arrested in Attack on Florida Microsoft Manager

Bridegan was spending time with his twin children, who he had with his ex-wife and was supposed to be coming home. He had already dropped the twins off at their mother's house when he came upon a tire purposely placed in the middle of the road. This was when he was "gunned down in cold blood," according to Jacksonville Beach Police Chief Paul Smith.

READ NEXT: Florida Man Flips Off Police While Trying to Get Away Before Getting Run Over by a Truck

WSVN-7 Miami reported that another suspect was arrested prior to this. Henry Tenon, 62, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, second-degree murder with a weapon, accessory after the act of a capital felony, and child abuse.

Tenon has already pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a weapon. He has also agreed to "testify truthfully against any accomplice." This was before Fernandez-Saldana was arrested, per the Florida State Attorney's Office.

Tenon is reportedly a tenant in a home owned by Fernandez-Saldana. Three checks to Tenon from Fernandez-Saldana were found by investigators in October 2022. The two men also had over 60 phone contacts with each other.

Slain Microsoft Manager's Wife Speaks Out After Florida Man's Arrest

Kirsten Bridegan, the wife of the victim, spoke out during a news conference following the arrest of Mario Fernandez Saldana. She is also the mother of the then-20-year-old who was riding in the backseat when her father was brutally murdered, according to ABC News.

"We have great relief knowing that two of the people behind my husband's murder are behind bars and are no longer a threat to our family," said Kirsten Bridegan during the press conference.

She added that she and her family are still angry that "they were walking free while we were grappling with the reality that Jared wouldn't be here for any future memories, vacations or tender moments with our kids."

READ NEXT: Florida Man Arrested After Killing Friend During Fishing Trip

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Arrest made in murder of Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan - FOX 35 Orlando
A dramatic shootout in Mexico City left three police officers and one suspect dead on Friday in what was described as a "dramatic running gun battle." This was a rare example of drug cartel violence in the nation's capital.

According to the Associated Press, seven suspected drug cartel members were arrested following the deadly firefight. They are believed to belong to one of the most violent drug cartels in Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

Cartel-related violence rarely happens in Mexico City, but incidences have been increasing in recent times. In this instance, the suspected CJNG members were hiding in a safe house in a town outside Mexico City but fled to the capital as they were being chased by police.

The Deadly Operation That Led to the Fatal Mexico City Shootout

Police were trying to perform a raid against a suspected kidnap and murder gang hiding in a town outside of Mexico City called San Antonio La Isla. They were looking for suspects in a murder case. When they arrived at the safe house, they found four kidnap victims, and this was when gunfire erupted.

According to ABC News, two of the police officers were killed while they were approaching the house that the alleged cartel members were hiding in. The suspects then fled in a vehicle into Mexico City, with police chasing them. The gunfight continued as the chase was happening, with one police officer being shot and killed.

READ NEXT: Mexico: 9 Dead After Shootout Between Police, Gunmen in Jalisco State

The high-speed chase ended when the getaway vehicle crashed against a lamp post, with some of the suspects being injured. Some tried to escape by foot but were soon arrested and taken into custody by police.

Suspects' Connections to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel

City police chief Omar Garcia Harfuch stated that the suspects, one of whom was a woman, "belong to a group in Jalisco." They were carrying insignias linked to the notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel, also known as the Jalisco Cartel or the "4-letter Cartel." Some high-powered rifles were also found at the crime scene.

Garcia Harfuch, who had long been a target of assassination attempts by these big drug cartels, also revealed that the suspected CJNG members were trying to reach another safe house as they tried to run away from the police who were chasing them.

Back in 2020, the prominent Mexico City official was targeted by an assassination attempt by suspected Jalisco New Generation Cartel members in the notorious group's bid to claim the capital as part of their territory. They failed, but Garcia Hafuch was seriously injured.

While these drug cartels acting out in Mexico City is considered rare, officials in the Mexican capital have long acknowledged their presence in the city. According to WRAL News, it has been theorized that the city's "terrible traffic jams" have prevented cartel gunmen from operating openly in the city as they do elsewhere.

READ NEXT: READ NEXT: 25 Bodies Found in Mexico's Lakeside Tourist Destination

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Narco-Propaganda is Fuelling Mexico's Drug War | The War on Drugs - VICE
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the state's oldest correctional institution, San Quentin State Prison, will be transformed, focusing on rehabilitation.

Newson's office announced Thursday that inmates serving prison sentences would be transferred elsewhere in the state penitentiary system, and almost 100 were already being moved, Fox News reported.

California has 668 prisoners facing death sentences. San Quentin State Prison will reportedly be renamed and called San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, which would provide less-dangerous prisoners with education, training, and rehabilitation.

Newsom said in a statement that California will be taking the next step in its "pursuit of true rehabilitation, justice, and safer communities" through the California Model for safety and justice, which is evidence-backed.

Newsom referred to Norway's approach and model for the justice system as an inspiration to the state's model for rehabilitation.

The California governor is expected to visit San Quentin on Friday, wherein he will share more about the details of the rehabilitation.

READ NEXT: Kristin Smart Murder: Paul Flores, Killer of California College Student, Gets 25 Years to Life

California's San Quentin State Prison Transformation

San Quentin will be made into a center focused on rehabilitation and education to improve public safety and reduce repeat offender rates in the state. It is known to be one of the country's maximum-security prisons.

The plan will have an allotted budget of $20 million and be renamed San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Newsom told reporters in a press conference that they want to be the preeminent restorative justice facility in the world, ABC News Go reported.

The governor will allocate $20 million in his 2023 to 2024 budget proposal, which the state legislature will vote on. Newsom said the goal is to have the rehabilitation plan in place by 2025.

Newsom noted that he acknowledges the difficulty of putting the plan into action, but they are acting with "a sense of urgency and a sense of intentionality."

Other facilities in California's state prison system, as well as in Oregon, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania, adopted the same model that Norway uses for its prison system.

The Anti-Recidivism Coalition, an advocacy group aiming to end mass incarceration, called California's plan a "massive move towards rehabilitation."

Newsom said the plan was also based on other rehabilitation programs in San Quentin known for accredited liberal arts programs.

San Quentin State Prison

Currently, the facility has various inmate programs such as furniture manufacturing, mattress manufacturing, machine shop, plumbing, computer literacy, electronics, and building machine.

It also offers adult basic education, high school diploma, transitions pe-release, literacy program, distance learning for associate, and bachelor degree programs.

The institution is California's oldest and most well-known correctional institution. It was first established as Point San Quentin in July 1852 to address the "rampant lawlessness" in the state during that time.

San Quentin used to house both male and female inmates until 1933, when the women's prison at Tehachapi was constructed.

The San Quentin website noted that the facility provides outpatient and inpatient mental health services for patients with serious mental disorders.

READ MORE: Scott Peterson Case Update: Convicted Murderer Moved Back to State Prison as He Awaits Next Court Hearing

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: California Gov. Gavin Newsom Announces Historic Transformation of San Quentin State Prison - From ABC7 News Bay Area




A leak of 400,000 gallons of radioactive water from Xcel Energy, a nuclear power plant in Monticello, Minnesota, was reported Thursday, and the state's regulators said they are watching the cleanup.

According to Valley News, state officials said the Monticello nuclear-generating plant leaked water in late November that contained radioactive tritium.

However, the spill was only made public on Thursday as state officials said they waited for more information.

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency spokesman Michael Rafferty said: "We knew there was a presence of tritium in one monitoring well. However, Xcel had not yet identified the source of the leak and its location."

Rafferty noted that they are now sharing this information after they got all the information they need, like "where the leak occurred, how much was released into groundwater," and whether contaminated groundwater had moved beyond the original location.

According to Rafferty, the water remains contained on the company's property and poses no immediate public health risk.

Xcel Energy also assured that there is no danger to the public. In a statement, the company said it "took swift action to contain the leak to the plant site, which poses no health and safety risk to the local community or the environment."

The leak was determined to have originated in a pipe connecting two buildings. The company noted that it contacted the state and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) the next day, on November 22.

Since then, it has been extracting water from the ground and storing and treating the contaminated water that contains tritium, which levels are below federal thresholds.

Based on the ongoing monitoring from more than two dozen on-site monitoring wells, Xcel Energy said the leaked water had not been found outside the facility or in any nearby drinking water.

READ NEXT: Unsafe Levels of Uranium Found in U.S. Drinking Water

What Is Tritium?

According to CBS News, tritium is a naturally occurring radioactive hydrogen isotope and a byproduct of nuclear power plants.

The NRC said it generates a mild kind of beta radiation that does not move very far and does not penetrate human skin. A person would only get a little dose if they accidentally drank water from the spill.

The NRC noted that while tritium spills occasionally occur at nuclear power plants, it has repeatedly determined that they have either been contained on the plant property or involved such low offsite levels that they had no adverse effects on public health.

Radioactive Water Leak Incident Already Happened at the Same Minnesota Nuclear Plant

According to NRC, a similar tritium leak already occurred at the Minnesota nuclear plant in 2009.

The commission estimated that at least 40 of the 57 nuclear power reactors in the United States had experienced tritium leakage at some point, KARE 11 reported.

However, the NRC noted that none of these cases released contaminated water into outside groundwater or drinking water.

In a statement released on Friday, Monticello Mayor Lloyd Hilgart said the city discovered the leak's entire nature in late February.

"Though the Xcel plant is within our community, the City of Monticello has no authority to govern the nuclear plant. As we've noted, the federal and state regulating agencies determine the appropriate governmental responses to incidents at the Xcel nuclear plant, including any emergency response, remedial actions, and public or media releases," the mayor noted.

READ MORE: Javier Bardem Dating History

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Xcel Energy Cleaning up Radioactive Leak in Monticello - From WCCO - CBS Minnesota
During the 38th annual ADP Meeting of the Minds conference, ADP, a leading global technology company providing human capital management (HCM) solutions, recognized six companies for their efforts to redefine the workplace experience.

These six leaders, Zions Bancorporation, Environmental Resources Management, Schwan's Company, SMS Holdings, American Woodmark and Dell Technologies, earned acclaim for their initiatives to foster people-centric cultures and unlock innovation.

READ NEXT: ADP National Employment Report: Private Sector Employment Increased by 106,000 Jobs in January; Annual Pay Up 7.3%

The awards are given to a select group of large employers that demonstrate excellence in HCM and lead the way in workplace innovation. Narrowed down to six companies reflecting workplace culture; employee engagement; HCM innovation; agility; global capabilities; and diversity, equity and inclusion, these companies are recognized for their use of HCM technology to deliver strong results and drive positive change.

For the past 38 years, ADP Meeting of the Minds has offered an exchange of inspiration and expertise, providing attendees with educational sessions, networking opportunities, an inside look at the latest ADP HCM technologies, and recognition of best-in-class initiatives.

"Over the past few years, large organizations have faced the challenge of transforming and reinventing themselves to further adapt to an ever-changing business environment," said Kareem Rogers, president of National Account Services at ADP. "This year's honorees have done so in a remarkable way, helping to redefine the dynamics of work and the role people play in a business' success. They've shown how transforming processes and leveraging new technologies can help people unlock their full potential. We're honored to support these leaders in their journeys, as they continue to move boldly ahead."

Agility at Work Award Winner: Zions Bancorporation

This award honors an organization that has demonstrated incredible organizational agility in the changing world of work. One of the largest regional banks in the country, Zions Bancorporation provides a wide range of traditional banking and innovative technology services to individuals, small- to middle-market businesses, nonprofits, corporations, and institutions.

To keep pace with the changing talent landscape, Zions Bancorporation migrated its premise-based HR system to a single, integrated cloud-based system in just six months upon the shutdown of its previous system. Against an incredible time constraint, Zions Bancorporation ensured its 10,000 employees continued to get paid on time while advancing its HCM to better match the dynamic nature of managing employees today.

Zions Bancorporation also has leveraged other ADP solutions, specifically the performance review system, the compensation module, and the self-service portal, to help meet their employees' needs in the moment.

Humanity at Work Award Winner: Environmental Resources Management

This award distinguishes an organization that has developed a workplace environment where diversity, equity, and inclusion are embraced and recognized. A leading consulting company for sustainability and climate change, Environmental Resources Management (ERM) is committed to creating a sustainable future with the world's leading organizations.

With a diverse, global workforce of 7,900 employees, ERM wanted to ensure their workforce really represented the communities in which they live and work. Leveraging compensation information within their ADP HCM system, ERM is able to gather the data needed to identify any pay gaps or gaps in hiring and retention based on individual differences.

Innovation at Work Award Winner: Schwan's Company

This award recognizes an organization that has demonstrated a commitment to driving workplace innovation. A leading provider of pizza, desserts and Asian-style foods, Schwan's Company manufactures high quality food products across the country.

With its goal to be the leading ethnic food provider in the world, Schwan's Company needed to find a way to support its growing global footprint and streamline the employee experience. Schwan's Company worked with ADP to reinvent its HCM system, leveraging ADP's global capabilities to simplify and innovate across all of the core HR processes, specifically recruiting, onboarding, HR, and compensation. In turn, Schwan's Company was able to reduce their applicant time from 15 minutes to five.

It also streamlined their background screening processes and created new Paid Time Off plans. By simplifying their hiring and retention practices as well as the employee experience, Schwan's Company was able to attract great talent and accelerate growth.

People at Work Award Winner: SMS Holdings

This award showcases an organization that encourages their people to thrive in the face of HCM transformation, resulting in improved efficiencies and/or saved resources. SMS Holdings is a family of companies that serve high-traffic public and commercial facilities throughout the U.S. with housekeeping, maintenance, downtown ambassador services, and uniforms, while also operating quick service restaurants in the U.S. and Canada.

To deliver a streamlined and consistent employee experience across their portfolio of companies, SMS Holdings began working with ADP. Leveraging ADP's recruiting management module, SMS Holdings was able to reduce time to hire and optimize efficiency in onboarding, saving over five hours for each employee.

Additionally, the organization is using intelligent self-service capabilities to support the needs of its field employees. By continually listening to the needs of its workforce, SMS Holdings can empower their people using real-time data to make informed decisions that impact both their clients and employees.

Culture at Work: American Woodmark

This award highlights an organization that deploys programs that drive sustained employee engagement through a dynamic, best-in-class workplace culture. One of the top cabinet manufacturers in the U.S., American Woodmark designs and installs cabinetry that reflects the uniqueness of each individual customer.

Employing 10,000 employees across the U.S. and Mexico, with 18 different manufacturing and distribution facilities and eight primary service centers, American Woodmark focuses on creating a unified culture that unlocks the value of its people.

Through its collaboration with ADP, American Woodmark has centralized its employee communications and tools and leveraged its performance management and talent insights capabilities to empower its people to help drive their own career paths.

The company additionally automated its benefits offerings, giving its workforce a more accessible benefits experience. These streamlined offerings have allowed the company's HR teams to spend more time engaging with employees, helping to strengthen its people-first culture.

Global Solutions at Work Award Winner: Dell Technologies

This award features an organization with a global footprint that demonstrates Human Capital Management leadership by leveraging technology and processes around the world. Dell Technologies was founded with a belief and a passion: that everybody should have easy access to the best technology anywhere in the world.

Dell's purpose is to create technologies that drive human progress. In its continued effort to eliminate manual processes for its employees, Dell worked with ADP to automate its Global Payroll processes while enhancing their team members' experience.

With ADP's global payroll capabilities, Dell has been able to provide a consistent user experience for over 100,000 team members across 47 countries.

For more information on ADP Meeting of the Minds, visit here.

READ MORE: ADP Named One of FORTUNE Magazine's 'World's Most Admired Companies' for 16th Straight Year
Islamabad, Mar 18(UNI) Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday morning left Lahore for Islamabad, where he is to appear at a court in relation to the Toshakhana case.

Khan criticised the police operation at his Lahore residence and alleged a conspiracy against him

Meanwhile Punjab police have led an assault on my house in Zaman Park where Bushra Begum is alone, he said in a tweet. Under what law are they doing this? This is part of London Plan where commitments were made to bring absconder Nawaz Sharif to power as quid pro quo for agreeing to one appointment.

As per a report in Dawn Punjab police personnel removed barricades from the entrance of Khans residence and entered the premises. The police were reportedly met with resistance from PTI workers who were camped inside and responded with a baton charge. Some activists were reportedly taken into custody.

UNI RKM
A new fence and warning signs about the danger of deer have gone up on a busy Laois road, but they may not be enough, a local councillor warns.

Cllr PJ Kelly from Ballybrittas has welcomed the new deer fence and warning signs erected by Laois County Council on the R445 road between the Montague and Ballybrittas.

Formerly the Dublin road from Laois, it runs parallel to the M7 motorway.

Cllr Kelly who is also a farmer, warns however that deer may be able to jump over the fence.

"You won't know the effect until next September when rutting season begins and deer move freely again. Deer can scale four or five metres if need be. that's their nature," he said.

He spoke at the March meeting of Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District, where it was reported that the deer warning signs are now in place along the road.

With no natural predator left in Ireland, the growing deer population in Laois was culled this year, with nearly 2,000 of the wild animals shot, as part of a nationwide population cull. Read more above.
A scheme worth 3.1 million for the seed potato and chipping potato sector has been announced.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue announced the opening of the 2023 Scheme of Investment Aid for the Seed Potato and Chipping Potato Sector last week.

In addition to providing support for the seed potato sector, the scheme has been expanded in 2023 to include growers of Irish chipping potatoes.

The 2023 Scheme of Investment Aid for the Seed Potato and Chipping Potato Sector will assist in the development of capacity within the Irish seed and chipping potato sectors and will aid improvements in the production, storage and marketing infrastructure of seed and chipping potatoes by providing grant assistance to producers towards the capital cost of specialized equipment and facilities.

The Scheme which is worth 3.1m in 2023 is funded utilising funding under Irelands allocation from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve Fund (BAR).

Commenting on the opening of the scheme, Minister McConalogue said: I am delighted to announce the opening of this scheme worth 3.1 million. The scheme is in recognition of the challenges faced by the Irish potato sector following the UKs decision to leave the European Union.

The expansion of the scheme to include Irish chipping potato growers will help to secure and futureproof the potato industry and again demonstrates my commitment to the ongoing development of this important industry. This Scheme will enable these specialized growers to develop capacity and ensure a renewed focus on the local supply model.

In relation to seed potatoes, approximately 4,000t of seed potato previously supplied by Great Britain, as of January 1st 2021, can no longer be imported into Ireland. In addition, Ireland imports approximately 64,000 tonnes of potatoes from the UK. Most of these fresh potato imports are used by chip shop owners.

Senator Pippa Hackett, Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity with special responsibility for horticulture, in welcoming the announcement said: The Horticulture sector is a critical component of our Agricultural sector, and I am delighted that this 2023 Scheme of Investment Aid for the Seed Potato and Chipping Potato Sector will facilitate the expansion of the Irish seed and chipping potato sectors. The funding provided by this Scheme will be of great benefit to those growers in the seed and chipping potato sectors and will assist them in developing their capacity ensuring a consistent supply of Irish potatoes and displacements of imports.
A young English tourist who suffered serious head injuries in an unprovoked attack during a weekend visit to Dublin has told a court his life will never the same again.



College student Thomas Oliver (25) spent three weeks in an induced coma at Beaumont Hospital after he was knocked unconscious in a one-punch assault in the city centre on April 17 last (2022).



At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Stefan Bornac (19) to four and a half years in prison, with the final nine months suspended. Bornac had pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm to Mr Oliver and to assault causing harm to James Lightly, a friend of Mr Olivers, on DOlier Street in Dublin 2.



Judge Nolan said Bornac had displayed irrational behaviour and for reasons only known to himself, had launched an unprovoked and unexpected attack, leaving both injured parties with no time to protect themselves or take any evasive action.



Judge Nolan said Bornac had punched Mr Oliver ferociously to the head, adding that although he was certain Bornac did not intend to cause the injuries that he did, when you punch someone as savagely as this man did, theres always that risk. You do not know what is going to happen.



He noted that Mr Oliver spent five and a half weeks in hospital and sustained devastating injuries and that a consultant neurosurgeon said he had been in danger of dying.



The judge set a headline sentence of six and a half to seven years, but reduced this on account of Bornacs young age, his previous good character, lack of any record, work history, guilty plea and cooperation with gardai.



I can come to the conclusion that Bornac is unlikely to offend to any great degree in the future, said Judge Nolan.



Mr Olivers father attended the sentencing on his sons behalf and requested that a victim impact statement prepared by his son be read aloud by prosecuting counsel Joe Mulrean BL.



In his statement Mr Oliver said that he and his family and friends would never be able to reconcile the damage, pain and trauma caused by the actions of Bornac. He said the attack almost cost him his life and that the long-lasting psychological effects are profound.



Mr Oliver said he felt like a shell of a human when he awoke from his induced coma, connected to 15 drip wires and breathing through a respirator, not knowing if he would ever be able to leave the hospital or resume some sort of normal life.



He said his family were told many times that he might not survive the coma, and that if he did, he might have brain damage.



Mr Oliver said the pain is still very raw for his family who had to fly from London not knowing if he would be alive when they got there, and for his friends who held his head in their hands while he lay on the ground convulsing and covered in his own vomit.



The psychological damage will never leave them either, he said, adding that he did not know how long his own post-traumatic stress disorder would last, or if it would last forever.



Mr Oliver expresssed his thanks to the brilliance and kindness of the Irish emergency services, the ICU staff, the neurosurgical teams and the gardai. He said it was sheer luck that he was so quickly attended to by emergency services and that if the attack had happened in London where he lives, he would have been dead.



Mr Oliver has been left with headaches and no sense of smell; his sense of taste was also affected. He lost 50 per cent of his muscle mass and had to relearn how to walk, the court heard.



He also outlined how he missed out on an upcoming promotion at work and now is facing redundancy, and that it cost his family 8,000 to stay in Dublin during his hospitalisation.



Detective Garda Dabhach Dineen said Mr Oliver and Mr Lightly were among a group of seven university friends visiting Dublin for the weekend. The group was walking along Fleet Street in the early hours in high spirits, when there was a slight exchange between Mr Oliver and the occupants of a car stopped at a traffic light.



Bornac, a passenger in the car, got out and walked over to Mr Oliver, punching him with a right-hand swing to the temple with considerable force, the court heard. Bornac then began punching Mr Lightly several times, knocking him to the ground and then kicking him in the head.



Mr Oliver was transferred by ambulance to St James Hospital and intubated, then transferred to Beaumont where he was again intubated.



Gardai examined CCTV and traced the car registration, calling to Bornacs house in Naas a few hours later. When shown the CCT Bornac apologised and was genuinely remorseful and concerned about the injured party.



Michael Bowman SC, defending, said Bornac was aged 19 at the time and has not come to any adverse attention before or since this offence. The court heard Bornac had a difficult childhood and that his father was an alcoholic.



He himself did not usually drink but had consumed two beers on the night in question, the court heard. Mr Bowman said his client was ashamed and could not offer any logical explanation for what he did.

He behaved in a manner that was outrageously out of character, said Mr Bowman. The court heard Bornac worked in a bakery and that his employer was satisfied to keep him in employment despite the impending prosecution.



Bornac had taken out a bank loan of 8,000 and had brought the money to court as a concrete expression of his remorse, the court heard. Letters were presented to court from Bornacs sister and mother who were present in court and from his employer.



Judge Nolan ordered that the money be handed over to Mr Olivers family and told Bornac to be of good behaviour while in custody and for nine months on his release from prison.
Politicians must fulfil the promise of the Good Friday Agreement to deliver reconciliation  not just peace, the Taoiseach has said.

Leo Varadkar spoke about the unfinished legacy of the 1998 accord as he reflected on the upcoming 25th anniversary of the settlement that largely ended the conflict in Northern Ireland.

In the traditional St Patricks Day lunch on Capitol Hill, this year hosted by new Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Irish premier hailed the achievement of the agreement in breaking the 30-year cycle of violence in Northern Ireland.

Now we have to complete that work to fulfil the agreements promise not just of peace but also reconciliation, build a shared island together, he said.

I know the people of Northern Ireland want to see their political assembly and devolved government back up and running, and their politicians working to improve their lives.

So much has been achieved since 1998. Today, new generations of young people are growing up with no memory of the conflict that their parents endured and, as somebody who grew up in the 80s and 90s when political violence was an almost everyday occurrence, that is something to be profoundly grateful for.

Mr Varadkar said an end to the political impasse brought on by disputes over Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol could deliver great economic prosperity for the region.

The Taoiseach highlighted the potential he saw in the new Windsor Framework struck by the EU and UK.

I believe there are now incredible opportunities for economic development in Northern Ireland, especially with the potential of the Windsor Framework recently agreed with the European Commission and the UK Government, he said.

Our task now is to complete that mission to help the people of Northern Ireland to build a more peaceful and more prosperous future together.
The United States has led the free world in opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Leo Varadkar has said.

The Taoiseach thanked the US administration for standing with European governments in the face of Russian aggression.

He told a St Patricks Day lunch on Capitol Hill, hosted by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, that Russia was attempting to deny the people of Ukraine any kind of future through its brutal invasion.

While Ireland is a militarily neutral country, were not politically neutral in the face of violations of international law and human rights, he added.

The past 13 months have united us all who believe in freedom and democracy, and the rule of law and the UN Charter.

We stand with Ukraine because silence means surrender and we will not stay silent when liberty, freedom and fundamental human rights are being attacked.

So, we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. Weve seen so many times in history how the story ends if its not challenged. How appeasement, no matter how well intentioned, ultimately fails.

I have to say I endorse the ongoing co-operation between Europe and the United States to help defend our Ukrainian friends.

In the last century, America led the free world in the fight against fascism and communism and in this century America leads the free world once again and we thank you for that.

Earlier, during their bilateral engagement at the White House, President Joe Biden thanked the Taoiseach for standing together with the US against the Russian invasion.

It means a great deal speaking out against Russias brutal aggression, he said.
The Spirit Mountain area, also known by the Mojave name Avi Kwa Ame, is home to some of the largest and oldest Joshua Trees in the Mojave Desert. President Biden plans next week to designate nearly a half-million acres of the Spirit Mountain area in southern Nevada as a national monument, protecting some of the most biologically diverse and culturally significant lands in the Mojave Desert.
Protesters hold up signs of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with a red X over his face following the deadliest train disaster in the country's history, in Athens, March 16, 2023. STOYAN NENOV / REUTERS

Some 40,000 took to the streets again in Greece on Thursday, March 16, more than two weeks after a train disaster that left 57 dead. Yiorgos Vassalos, a lecturer with Sciences Po Lille university, said the current anger shown by the Greeks was a result of a continued deterioration of public services. He described the country's shift "toward a form of authoritarianism."

How do you explain the continued state of anger among the Greek population?

This train accident, which could have been avoided if safety measures had been taken and if there were more personnel, is the last straw. This is the worst rail disaster the country has ever seen. Everyone in Greece has used this line at some point, as it is one of the only working rail lines in the country. But the anger now goes beyond that. It is the result of frustration with the deterioration of the public sector which began during the economic crisis (2010-2018) and which the conservative government has not fought against.

When did this destruction of public services begin?

As a condition for the "rescue" of Greece from 2010 onwards, the country's creditors (European Union, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund) imposed harsh austerity measures in exchange for loans, including a reduction in the number of civil servants and budget cuts. More than 180,000 public sector jobs were lost, resulting in shortages in essential services such as firefighting, hospitals and schools. The Greek public railway company (OSE) has only about 700 employees, whereas staff representatives and unions say there should be 2,500. During the destructive fires in Mati in 2018 and on the island of Evia in 2021, the lack of equipment and personnel to put out the devastating fires was also obvious.

Under the government led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as the financial stranglehold loosened, nothing was really accomplished to strengthen those suffering public services. The Covid-19 pandemic provided an example of this. During the first wave, Greece was little affected, mainly because of its geographical position. But hospital budgets were not raised and subsequent waves were less well managed. Ultimately, the number of deaths per capita was among the highest in Europe.

Behind the railway accident, there was also the issue of the privatization of certain services requested by the creditors...

TrainOSE, the rail transport company, was included in 2013 in a privatization fund set up during the economic crisis to bail out the country's coffers. The passenger and freight rail company was bought in 2017 by Italy's state-owned Ferrovie dello Stato for the ludicrous price of 40 million. But the administration of the network, which is not profitable, was left to a Greek public company (OSE). This company was left with no real means to maintain and modernize the infrastructure.

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'Moana' in the area controlled by the Cobra battalion in Myanmar on March 12, 2023. Moana is a spotter operating with a sniper within the Cobra battalion. She is training to become a sniper herself. BATAILLON COBRA

She is 20 years old and calls herself Moana, after the Disney heroine. She had just begun her studies as a bookseller in Mandalay, a large city in central Myanmar, when the coup occurred on February 1, 2021. She took part in the protest movement and later joined the armed insurgency in the region of the Karen ethnic rebellion in the east after an uncle of hers was killed during a demonstration. She underwent six months of combat training and became a spotter (i.e., a sniper's partner) in the new armed resistance forces' Cobra battalion.

We met her while she was safely in the rear, on the border not far from Mae Sot, Thailand. But one of her comrades just died in combat, and she is about to return to her observation hole on a vantage position dug on the edge of the zone controlled by the Cobras in Myanmar, a few dozen kilometers from the Thai border. In these foggy March days, a commando of 200 Burmese soldiers threatens to close in on it. "My revenge," as she simply put it.

This is what life on the frontline is like: back-and-forth trips between the fall-back zones on the Thai side, where the illegal Burmese are under constant threat of arrest; and the hills of Karen country, where the seven "brigades" of this ethnic group's rebellion, a mosaic of enclaves spread over an area the size of Belgium, have taken up arms against the Burmese army after several years of ceasefire. They have also welcomed with open arms the streams of rebels, including the Bamar, the main ethnic group of Myanmar (70% of the population), fleeing the coup from different regions of the country.

The Tatmadaw's air attacks

A year and a half after the putsch, everything has changed in the armed insurrection, whose members had never taken up arms against a military junta before. Students and professionals (engineers, doctors, etc.) have flocked to the Karen country, joining the People's Defense Forces (PDF). "We started with 30% weapons for a battalion. It has increased to an average of 60%, and 80% in the case of Cobra," said Thar Nat Shin Naung (nom de guerre), one of the founding members of what was one of the very first battalions whose training in Karen country was funded from December 2021 by the underground opposition movement National Unity Government (NUG). The battalion, which includes between 300 and 500 soldiers, most of them young, distinguished itself by undertaking daring operations to sabotage convoys of the Tatmadaw (Burmese armed forces) and its auxiliaries or to capture military positions.

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Israelis protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to overhaul Israel's judicial system, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, March 18, 2023. TSAFRIR ABAYOV / AP

Israelis gathered in towns and cities nationwide on Saturday for an 11th straight week of protests against the judicial reform plans of the hard-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The protesters fear that the proposed reforms, which are already moving through parliament and would increase the power of politicians over the courts, are a threat to Israeli democracy.

In Tel Aviv's Dizengoff square, thousands of demonstrators waved the blue and white Israeli flag of Israel, as well as the rainbow flag of the LGBTQ community. The demonstrators blocked roads as they set off on a march through the heart of the city.

Israeli media reported demonstrations in more than 100 towns and cities, including Haifa, Jerusalem and Beersheba. Since Netanyahu's government announced the reforms in January, days after taking office, massive demonstrations have regularly taken place across Israel.

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Opponents of the package have accused Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charge she denies, of trying to use the reforms to quash possible judgements against him. The prime minister has rejected the accusation.

Expressing concern over the deepening rift in Israeli society, President Isaac Herzog presented a proposed compromise on Wednesday, but the government immediately rejected it. "Anyone who thinks that a genuine civil war, with human lives, is a line that we could never reach, has no idea what he is talking about," Herzog said.

An aerial view shows people protesting as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nationalist coalition government presses on with its contentious judicial overhaul, in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 18, 2023. OREN ALON / REUTERS

Leaders of opposition parties said in a joint news conference on Thursday they supported Herzog's outline. "The offer is not perfect," said former premier Yair Lapid. "It is not what we wanted, but it is a fair compromise that allows us to live together."

The ruling coalition, which includes ultra-Orthodox Jewish and extreme-right parties, argues the proposed reforms are necessary to correct a power imbalance between elected representatives and Israel's top court.

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Immediately after Herzog's announcement, Netanyahu called it a "unilateral compromise", the "key points" of which "only perpetuate the existing situation and do not bring the required balance between the powers".

The reforms would, among other things, allow lawmakers to scrap supreme court rulings with a simple majority vote. Other proposals would give more weight to the government in the committee that selects judges and would deny the supreme court the right to strike down any amendments to so-called Basic Laws, Israel's quasi-constitution.

Le Monde with AFP
SOS Mediterranee teams rescue 84 from an inflatable boat in international waters off Libya, February 14, 2023. NISSIM GASTELI

The morning light hit the survival blankets in which survivors had wrapped themselves on February 14, making the deck of the Ocean Viking, the humanitarian vessel of the non-governmental organization SOS Mediterranee, sparkle. The radio crackled: "Do we have confirmation of the number of people on board?"

On the other end of the line, in his red uniform, Mattia (who declined to give his last name), a protection officer for the Red Cross, was busy cataloging the people rescued at sea. With the help of his smartphone, he took note of their ages and nationalities and then assigned them a number so they could be counted. "We have 84 people, 8-4 people," he said over the radio. "8-4 people, got it," Anita Zugarramurdi instantly replied from the other side of the ship.

Sitting at her desk, near the chart table and radar, the search and rescue coordinator meticulously wrote down the information while sipping her mate. A few hours earlier, around 4:00 am, she was woken up by the officer on the watch: An alert e-mail sent by Alarm Phone, the emergency telephone line for migrants at sea, had reported a distress case nearby.

After consultations with the captain, the ship diverted its course toward the boat's last known position, in international waters off Libya. Shortly before the first rays of the sun, the crew spotted the dangerously overcrowded dinghy.

Throughout the rescue operation, Zugarramurdi kept the Italian, Maltese and Libyan authorities informed. The survivors were mainly from West Africa. They had young faces, sometimes childlike, 58 of them being unaccompanied minors. Some of them were showing signs of hypothermia and dehydration and were taken care of by the medical team.

21 days of wandering

Once the situation had stabilized, Zugarramurdi asked to be assigned a safe place to land the survivors. "Before, the authorities kept us at sea for several days or weeks until it became unbearable to have several hundred survivors on board," said the Uruguayan sailor.

This procrastination reached a climax in November 2022, when the far-right Italian government of Giorgia Meloni closed its ports to a number of humanitarian ships, including the Ocean Viking.

After 21 days of wandering the Mediterranean Sea  a record, according to those on board  the ship was eventually accommodated "exceptionally" by France in the military port of Toulon, south of France, triggering a diplomatic row between the transalpine neighbors. The others vessels were finally admitted to Catania (Sicily) after a long struggle.

Survivors try to warm up after being rescued by the Ocean Viking off the coast of Libya on February 14, 2023. NISSIM GASTELI

Since then, Rome has reviewed its methods. The assignment of a "safe port" is now more diligent but also more restrictive.

Barely half an hour after sending its request, the Ocean Viking received a reply from the Italian coordination and rescue center. In the living room of the boat, the teams who were not on duty were left guessing.

When Zugarramurdi entered the room, the suspense was at its peak. "Guess where they're sending us this time," Zugarramurdi said wryly. "Genoa?" "Trieste?" "La Spezia?" crew members asked. "It will be Ravenna," the search and rescue coordinator replied.

To reach this commercial port in the Emilia-Romagna region, where it had already docked a month earlier, the Ocean Viking would have to undertake a long journey of more than 1,600 kilometers through the Mediterranean, Ionian and Adriatic seas.

Four days of navigation and as much for the return trip, during which the ship would be away from its routine operating area. The objective is to "decongest the ports of Calabria and Sicily," to which the NGOs were accustomed, said Matteo Piantedosi, the Italian minister of the interior who initiated this new strategy in January.

"The impact for us is of course an increase in costs," Zugarramurdi said. "According to our forecasts, our fuel budget is likely to double this year," said Carla Melki, the deputy director of operations. This represents an additional 1 million.

Multiple rescues precluded

Shortly afterward, the ship was headed for Ravenna. A controversial law decree now requires humanitarian ships to proceed "without delay" to their assigned port. Violators are subject to fines of up to 50,000 and administrative detention of the vessel.

Until then, while waiting for a response from the authorities, the ships generally remained off Libya. If other cases of distress occurred, they would also assist them. These multiple rescues are now made impossible.

For Anita Zugarramurdi, "the objective is clear: To keep the ships as far away as possible from the Mediterranean."

As the ship moved away from the search area, emotion gave way to frustration. The faces of the rescue sailors became tense. "That's it, one rescue and we're packing up," said one of them, as he threw away his wet suit. "Before, we used to do many rescues, sometimes six, seven, eight in a row. We used to do one after the other," said Lucille Guenier, a communications officer on board.

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"The new Italian strategy is the latest attempt by a European government to hinder assistance to people in distress," Zugarramurdi added. "For me, the objective of the new decree is clear: It is to keep the ships of the civilian fleet as far away as possible from the Mediterranean."

Migrants disembark from the Ocean Viking in the port of Ravenna, Italy, on February 18, 2023. NISSIM GASTELI

In January, while en route to La Spezia following a first rescue, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) ship Geo-Barents was informed of two other cases of distress and went to the rescue. It escaped sanctions on that occasion but a month later, when 48 people were disembarked at the port of Ancona, the ship was given 20 days of administrative detention and fined 10,000 for not having transmitted the information contained in a data recorder to the local authorities, as required by the new decree.

The Ocean Viking has not yet had to deal with multiple simultaneous rescues, but Zugarramurdi was adamant: "If any other distress cases arise after a rescue, we will never leave the area. Above any government, there is maritime law."

Nissim Gasteli(special correspondent) Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ankara, March 17, 2023. BURHAN OZBILICI / AP

After months of negotiations, bilateral meetings and conciliations, Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Friday, March 17 that Turkey would begin the ratification procedure for Finland's membership of NATO, saying that the country had taken concrete steps to meet its commitments to Ankara. At a press conference in Ankara beside Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Erdogan added that he will continue discussions with Sweden, the other Nordic NATO candidate country, on issues including terrorism.

"We have decided to start the ratification process in the Turkish parliament for Finland's membership. NATO will be stronger with Finland. We shall continue discussions with Sweden. The progress of Sweden's application depends on what steps it takes," Erdogan said. The Turkish president added that he hopes to complete the approval process for Finland by the Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 14.

Ankara's ratification will remove the main obstacle to Finland's membership in the Atlantic Alliance. Barely an hour after Erdogan's declaration, Hungary announced through Fidesz, Prime Minister Victor Orban's party, that the vote on ratifying Finnish membership would be held in the Hungarian parliament on March 27. There was no word, however, said about Sweden.

Ankara's grievances against Sweden

While Finnish President Sauli Niinisto welcomed Ankara's decision, he also noted that Finland's membership could not be "complete" until Sweden is accepted by both Turkey and Hungary.

At the press conference, President Erdogan reiterated his grievances against Sweden, which "has opened its arms to terrorists". "We gave [Swedish authorities] a list of about 120 terrorists and asked them to extradite them to Turkey. The [Swedish] prime minister is a good man, but he was unwilling and unable to do so. In this context, it is not possible for us to take a positive approach to Sweden."

In Stockholm, it was noted that the trilateral memorandum, signed by Helsinki, Stockholm and Ankara in Madrid in June 2022, which set the conditions for Turkish ratification, does not mention the extradition of specific persons. The Swedish Supreme Court has already rejected several requests from Ankara regarding Turkish journalists who have taken refuge in Sweden, who are accused of terrorism in their country.

Security guarantees

Late on Friday afternoon, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom noted that the Turkish decision "was not what we hoped, but was expected." The goal is still for the country to join the Alliance as soon as possible. "The question is not whether we will join NATO, but when," Billstrom said, insisting that Sweden, which has received security guarantees from France, the United Kingdom and the United States, among others, "is more secure now than before we applied."

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A Polish soldier in front of Leopard 2 tanks, February 13, 2023, in Swietoszow. MICHAL DYJUK / AP

Wars are moments of truth. Russia has revealed itself as not being the great power that many saw it to be. Ukraine has revealed its strength and courage.

But the war is also reshuffling the cards within the European Union (EU). On one hand, the French-German couple has not been able  or has not wanted  to take the lead in the European movement to deliver arms to Kyiv, and has sometimes sent an unclear message, torn between defending Ukraine and extending a hand to Russia. On the other hand, if there is a European driving force in this war, it clearly comes from the East.

Poland is evidently the leading EU country in terms of military support to Ukraine. As for Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, she regularly demonstrates her political leadership, such as when, at the European Council on February 9, she launched the idea of a joint ammunition purchase mechanism  an idea that is now being considered by all the Brussels institutions.

France, however, does not seem to have fully grasped the importance of this new geopolitical reality. Recent bilateral initiatives of the French government still show a preference for dialogue between Western Europeans, whether it be the Barcelona Treaty signed with Spain on January 19, the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty with Germany on January 22, or the Franco-British summit on March 10.

Twenty-year-old pattern

Is French diplomacy one war behind? One may wonder, seeing as the French leaders' prejudices toward Eastern Europe are so strong. In February 2003, President Jacques Chirac said, "They missed a good opportunity to shut up," regarding the support for the invasion of Iraq from Central and Eastern European countries that were then candidates for entry into the EU. In September 2022, President Emmanuel Macron echoed his predecessor in denouncing "war-mongers" who would put Europe at risk by extending the Ukrainian conflict.

Many French people have seemingly not gotten past the pattern of 20 years ago, in which Eastern Europeans are seen as "Atlanticists" or "neo-conservatives," from whom France, the "old country," should keep away from in the name of the defense of an independent Europe working for peace.

Today, it is not the United States but Russia that has invaded a state without legitimate reason, disregarding the United Nations Charter. And Eastern Europeans are no longer following Washington but are playing a leading role in a conflict they saw coming before anyone else.

France, which has always carried its ambition for a strong European defense at arm's length, is therefore at risk of missing out on its historic role. Because today, more than ever, it is unthinkable to develop European defense cooperation projects without closely associating the "eastern flank" countries.

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A vintage Limerick club hits the road again with its annual charity run.

Knockdown Vintage Club will be back with its vintage run, on Sunday, March 26. On the day, registration will commence at noon in The Knockdown Arms, in Dromin, Co Limerick.

This year, the proceeds will go to three very worthy local charities  Abbeyfeale District Search and Rescue, Friends of St Itas Community Hospital, as well as Drumcollogher and District Respite Care Centre.

Speaking of the charities, Carol Noonan from Knockdown Vintage Club, commented: All three charities offer vital services to our community and are well deserving of our support.

She added: These charities have impacted on the lives of many families in our community and further afield, and it is our privilege to assist them in their endeavours.

On the day, light refreshments will be served, and the club will welcome all vintage cars and vehicles. After the run, a raffle will be held with a special draw for all participants, as well as an auction.

In the afternoon, there will be live music from 4 to 6 pm, with Big Maggie and John OSullivan.

This could not have been done without the help of our sponsors, participants, and the general public. Your continued generosity is much appreciated, commented Carol.

According to the club member, since their foundation in 2010, Knockdown Vintage Club has raised in excess of 50,000 for several charities, and has gone from strength to strength.
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MORE THAN a dozen Limerick hospitality awards were presented to establishments dotted around the city, with the annual regional final taking place in Limericks Strand Hotel.

The Munster Regional Final of Irish Restaurant Awards, 2023 was hosted in the Limerick city Strand Hotel on Wednesday, March 8, where 14 Limerick venues were celebrated for their award winning hospitality.

Almost 700 restaurant and hospitality owners and staff throughout Munster competed at the awards ceremony, which will now see the newly crowned Limerick winners compete for All Ireland Titles, coming this May.

Speaking at the Munster Regional Final, President of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, Paul Lenehan, spoke about how he was delighted to be in Limerick and that the hospitality sector is nothing without their dedicated and passionate staff.

He said: Now in their 14th year, the Irish Restaurant Awards returns with a record breaking number of public nominations - over 130,000.

This sheer number of votes highlight the support & appreciation by the general public for our hospitality sector and all who contribute to it. The awards are an opportunity to celebrate the existing, and up and coming talent, in the sector and are a reminder that hospitality is nothing without their dedicated and passionate staff, continued Mr Lenehan.

We are delighted to be here in Limerick for the first of the Regional Events for 2023 and look forward to welcoming all winners in Munster to the All Ireland Awards on 15th May.

Food outlets had a new category this year, Innovator of the Year award, while some other categories included: Local Food Hero, Best Sustainable Practices, Best Newcomer, Pub of the Year, Best Chef, and Best Restaurant.

The Limerick establishments who won on the night are as follows: Pat O'Sullivan of MasterChefs, Fitzgeralds Woodlands Hotel Adare, House Limerick, Hook & Ladder Sarsfield St, Let's Do Coffee Cafe & Bistro, Elaine Murphy of 1826 Adare, Savoy Bar at The Savoy, Melody, Oahu, 101 Limerick, Tuscany Bistro, The Oak Room at Adare Manor, 1826, Collins Bar Dooradoyle, Mike Tweedie of Adare Manor and The East Room Restaurant.
MULTI-MILLION euro plans for a towering apartment complex on the citys northside have been rejected by An Bord Pleanala.

It comes despite the developer reducing the number of homes planned  from 50 to 38  in response to objections, and the national planning authoritys inspector recommending it proceeds.

Clarisford Investments sought planning permission for the new apartments in a multi-storey development at Clonmacken Road, on the site of a former bed-and-breakfast, just yards away from the Jetland Shopping Centre.

Architects behind the project previously said: It will be a high-end contemporary scheme. Some 26 one-bedroom apartments were planned, 20 two-room apartments, and four studio apartments all with their own private balcony.

A gym, and communal areas were also in the blueprint.

But when the project came before council to decide if it can go ahead, some 22 groups and individuals wrote to formally object to the plans.

Among those who made contact with planners were Limerick TD Willie ODea, his Fianna Fail colleague Cathal Crowe  who represents Clare  and a number of local residents groups.

Council decided to reject the build-to-rent housing proposals, stating the building would be unduly obtrusive and out of character with the area, adding it would lead to overdevelopment in the community.

This sparked an appeal to An Bord Pleanala from Clarisford Investments, with a representative of the developer stating that the number of homes planned had been cut from 50 to 42, and once again to 38 in response to the concerns.

Despite an inspectors recommendation to give permission, An Bord Pleanala ruled to the contrary and rejected the complex.
Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) has bagged the order for the design and construction of the world's first Zero Emission Feeder Container Vessels with an option for two more vessels, a BSE filing from the company informed on Friday. The vessel will be powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cells with Green Hydrogen.

M/s. Samskip Group, which is a global logistics solution provider, has placed an order for the construction of Two Zero Emission Feeder Container Vessels, and they also have the option to build two more vessels. The Norwegian Government's green funding program is promoting emission-free transport solutions by implementing innovative and sustainable future technologies, and this ambitious project falls under its purview.

The total project cost for the firm order is approximate Rs. 550 crore and the first vessel is to be delivered in 28 months and the second to be within 34 months.

These ships can carry about 365 nos of 45-feet long high cube containers and are intended to serve the European Market where sustainable transportation solutions are in high demand, the compliance filing at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) added.

The vessels are anticipated to reduce around 25,000 tons of CO2 annually in zero-emission mode. They will also utilize green shore power when docked at the port of call, enabling them to achieve zero-emission operations. The delivery of the vessels is planned to begin in the third quarter of 2025. The vessels will incorporate a hybrid power system comprising Hydrogen Fuel cells, and for extended endurance, they will have a Diesel Generator backup.

The company mentioned that none of the promoter, promoter group, or group companies have any interest in the entity that awarded the order. Further, the said order also does not fall under the purview of related party transactions.

For more than twenty years, CSL has been involved in the global shipbuilding industry, and it has exported top-of-the-line vessels to various nations, including Norway, the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the Middle East.

(With inputs from ANI)
In mid-January, star Chinese investment banker Fan Bao, architect of the deals that created some of Chinas most dominant technology companies, appeared at his banks annual party in Beijing. He brought along his children, who played instruments and performed a rendition of the Coldplay hit Yellow." He exhorted the hundreds of staffers in attendance to Go Forward Boldly."
Largest lender in India, the State Bank of India (SBI) encourages customers to take advantage of tax-saving opportunities by contributing National Pension System (NPS). Founded by the government, NPS is a voluntary retirement savings scheme for investors to help them make a defined contribution towards planned savings thereby securing the future in the form of a pension.

NPS is administered and regulated by PFRDA. NPS is seen as the worlds lowest-cost pension scheme. Subscribers can choose their own investment options and pension fund and see their money grow.

SBI is offering two NPS schemes namely -- Tier 1 which is a pension account and mandatory, and Tier 11 which is an investment account and optional. The minimum contribution for the Tier 1 account is 500 and 1,000 for Tier II.

There is a tax benefit available for the Tier I account, however, there is no such benefit in the Tier II account but it has the facility to allow corpus withdrawal anytime.

All citizens of India including RIs and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) between the age group of 18 to 70 years can open an NPS account.

For Tier I account, in regards to the employee contribution, tax exemption under section 80CCD (1B) of the IT Act is applicable on the contribution up to 50,000. Also, tax deduction under 80CCE for investments (10% of Basic & DA) within an overall limit of Rs. 1.50 lakh is also available, as per SBI's website.

Further, in the case of employer contribution, tax deduction up to 10% of salary (Basic + DA) u/s 80CCD (2) subject to a monetary ceiling of 7.5 lakh (includes PF, Superannuation, etc.) is applicable.

The exit option under the Tier I scheme on attaining the age of 60 years at SBI are:

- Minimum of 40% of the corpus needs to be invested in Annuity Scheme

- 60% of the corpus can be commuted/withdrawn in lump sum/ staggered anytime up to the age of 75 yrs. The amount is tax-free.

- If the total corpus is equal to or less than 5 lakh, then the entire corpus can be withdrawn

Meanwhile, before the age of 60 years but after completion of 5 years, the exit option in Tier I are:

- 20% of the corpus can be withdrawn in a lump sum

- 80% of the corpus will be invested in an Annuity Scheme

- If the total corpus is equal to or less than 2.50 lakh, then the entire corpus can be withdrawn

Also, in Tier I, a partial withdrawal of accumulated pension wealth, not exceeding 25% of the employee contributions is allowed after a lock-in period of 3 years.

Additionally, the Tier 1 scheme allows withdrawal only a maximum of three (3) times during the entire tenure subject to conditions prescribed by the Regulator.
BlackRock is working on a rival bid for Credit Suisse, aiming to upstage a plan for UBS to acquire the struggling bank, the Financial Times cited people with knowledge of the matter on Saturday. A Germany spokesperson of Credit Suisse has declined to comment on the report, the FT report added.

According to sources briefed on the matter, the US investment firm is considering various options and collaborating with other investors. BlackRock has informed Credit Suisse of its intentions, as Credit Suisse engages in advanced negotiations with UBS regarding a possible full or partial merger, the Financial Times report added.

However, there is no certainty that a deal will be reached, and any agreement would face significant regulatory obstacles in both Europe and the US. BlackRock might opt to bid solely for particular parts of the business.

According to an people familiar with the matter, BlackRock has been a significant client of Credit Suisse's investment banking services, specifically its fixed-income trading desk, for an extended period. This person suggested that an agreement, especially for Credit Suisse's US division, would provide a fortuitous opportunity to internalize trading capabilities.

The development comes as the troubled Credit Suisse has two days to reassure before the markets open Monday with the spectre of a new turbulent week in global finance looming.

The Zurich-based lender was holding crisis talks this weekend and urgent meetings with Swiss banking and regulatory authorities.

On Friday, the Financial Times reported that Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, is in talks to buy all or part of Credit Suisse, with the blessing of the Swiss regulatory authorities.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) "wants the lenders to agree on a simple and straightforward solution before markets open on Monday", the source said, while acknowledging there was "no guarantee" of a deal.

When contacted by AFP, both SNB and Credit Suisse declined to comment, while UBS and Swiss financial watchdog FINMA did not respond immediately.

After a turbulent week on the stock market which forced the SNB to step in with a $53.7 billion lifeline, Credit Suisse was worth just over $8.7 billion on Friday evening.

But an acquisition of this size is dauntingly complex.

While the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority and the SNB have said that Credit Suisse "meets the capital and liquidity requirements imposed on systemically important banks", mistrust remains.
In another major shock for India, the Australian authorities and universities have reportedly rejected the application of students from Punjab and Haryana. According to The Australian Today report citing Times Higher Education . some universities and vocational course providers have instructed their agents to stop processing the application form of students form these two northern states.

The report added that Australian officials from the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) had warned international education operators about soaring numbers of low-quality applications".

Earlier in March, Australian PM Anthony Albanese announced that Indian degrees would be recognised in his country.

"If you are an Indian student who is studying or has studied in Australia, your hard-earned degree will be recognised when you return home. Or if you are a member of Australia's very large Indian diaspora -- 500,000 and growing -- you will feel more confident that your Indian qualification will be recognised in Australia," Albanese said during his visit to India this month.

Meanwhile, the Canadian authority has reportedly asked more than 700 Indian students to return to India in fake "admission offer letters" cases.

The issue came to light after the Canadian Border Security Agency (CBSA) stated that admission offer letters from educational institutions provided by the migration agent to these students were found to be fake.

The students went to Canada about three years ago and completed their studies and gained Canadian work experience on a Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP). However, during CBSA's scrutiny, the offer letters of students were found to be forged.

In the latest development on this issue, a Canada-based Friends of Canada & India Foundation has come out in support of these students.

The foundation has written a letter to Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, requesting an immediate stay on the proceedings to deport the students.

We urge you to intervene in this matter and stop the deportation process immediately as this incident demands a broad investigation. The student visas and work permits were granted on the basis of forged documents pertaining to the Canadian institutions, this fact raises serious questions on the efficiency and competence of the Canadian immigration regime. It is understandable that protecting the integrity of the Canadian immigration regime is one of your priorities, but this special case demands a compassionate approach," the letter read.

It added, "The students have invested their lifes earnings in getting higher education in Canada. A number of them come from poor and marginalised families. They have invested their time, money, and youth in Canada. They have done everything to prove themselves as good students and hard workers. The deportation will prove to be catastrophic to these young lives and it will also impact Canadas image as a preferred destination for higher studies globally".
After Norwegian Ambassador to India said the film 'Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway' has factual inaccuracies, Sagarika Chakraborty, the real-life inspiration behind the story has now condemned the envoy's statement.

In a video released on Twitter, Chakraborty said that statement made by Norwegian Ambassador to India Hans Jacob Frydenlund is completely false. She added that Norwegian Government continues to spread lies against her and till today she hasn't received any apologies from them regarding the casework.

They destroyed my life, and my reputation and traumatized my children. They supported my husband when he was cruel to me and they call themselves a 'feminist country," she said in the video.

"Hi. I condemn the false statement by the Norwegian ambassador in the papers today...he spoke about my case without having any decency to ask me. He should take this as an opportunity to sensitise Norwegian caseworkers about cultural prejudice. Even 10 years after I have single-handedly brought up my children so well in full view of the world. When the whole world can see the beautiful bond between my children and me."

She further added, The Norwegian Government continues to spread lies against me. Till today, they have not apologised for the racism of their caseworkers. They destroyed my life, and my reputation and traumatized my children. They supported my husband when he was cruel to me and they call themselves a 'feminist country'."

She also added, "In Oslo and other parts of Norway, and (even) other parts of the world, people are very eager to watch the film and all the tickets are sold out. People coming from Norway and other countries want to meet me. And, last not least, the Indian Government helped me a lot and will continue to support such families in the future. Jai Hind."

Apart from her, the producer of the film Nikhil Advani has also issued a statement on this. He said that they hosted a screening for the Norwegian ambassador to India and post the show's screening, the ambassador 'admonished' two women from his team. In his post, he did not mention the name of the two women, but did mention, two strong women who have chosen to tell this very important story." Advani also attached a picture of the ambassador with his team from the screening.

He said that watched the ambassador admonish two women but kept quiet just like Sagarika as they don't need me to fight for them and "culturally" we do not insult our guests. As far as clarification is concerned."

View Full Image Post shared by Nikhil Advani

In a post, "'Atithi Devo Bhava!' is a cultural mandate in India. Every Indian is taught that by our elders. Last evening we hosted the Norwegian Ambassador and volunteered to show him our film "Mrs Chatteriee vs Norway." Post the screening I sat quietly watching him admonish two strong women who have chosen to tell this very important story. I was quiet because just like Sagarika Chakraborty, they don't need me to fight for them and "culturally" we do not insult our guests. As far as clarification is concerned. Video Attached."

Earlier, Hans Jacob Frydenlund in an op-ed written for the Indian Express said that the movie Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway carries factual inaccuracies and is completely false. He also did not deny that those who went through the experience was traumatic.

View Full Image Hans Jacob Frydenlund during the screening of the film

He called cultural differences as the primary factor of the case as false. He added that contrary to what is shown in the film, Norwegians parents too feed their children with their own hands and read them bedtime stories.

He wrote, The film projects cultural differences as the primary factor in the case, which is completely false. Without going into any details of this particular case, I categorically deny that feeding with hands and sleeping in the same bed would be the reason for placing children in alternative care. Not in this case and not in any case."

The movie brings to light the story of Debika, an immigrant mother that fights against all odds to win back the custody of her children. Sagarika's children were taken under protective care in May 2011 by Barnevarne, the Child Welfare Services in Norway, on the ground of "emotional disconnect" with the parents, and placed them in foster parental care according to a local Norwegian court's directive. She was reunited with her children after a two-year legal battle.

The film is based on Sagarika Chakaraborty's book 'The Journey of a Mother'. Helmed by Ashima Chibber, 'Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway' also stars Neena Gupta, Jim Sarbh and Anirban Bhattacharya among others.
Indian airlines are set to deploy 10% fewer flights this summer, with only two IndiGo and Vistaraslated to mount more flights than last year and four marking a decline.

The summer schedule, which will run from 26 March through 28 October, will see airlines deploy 22,907 flights per week, compared to 25,309 flights in 2022, showed data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

While IndiGo and Vistara will have more flights than last year, Go First, Air India, SpiceJet, and AirAsia India will mark a decline. The 22,907 weekly flight departures will cover 110 airports. Out of these, Jeypore (Odisha), Cooch Behar (West Bengal), Hollongi (Arunachal Pradesh), Jamshedpur (Jharkhand), Pakyong (Sikkim) and Mopa in Goa are the new airports added to the schedule. However, airlines are still to propose flights to Ziro (Arunachal Pradesh) and Hindon (Ghaziabad) airports under the summer schedule.

IndiGo, the largest domestic carrier with about 56% market share, plans 11,465 flight departures per week, up from 11,130 last year, marking a 3% increase. Vistara, which is set to be merged with Air India, will record a nearly 7% rise at 1,856 flights compared to 1,741 last year. Meanwhile, SpiceJet plans to deploy 2,240 flights, a 47% drop from last year. Go First will deploy 40% less flights this year at 1,538 weekly flight departures.

Air India has proposed to operate 2178 flight departures per week, a 11% drop from 2,456 flights last year. AirAsia India, now part of Air India group, will operate 9% less flights at 1,456 weekly flights.

Most airlines are facing issues in capacity expansion due to supply chain constraints while a few are also facing financial stress in expanding their fleet, an industry expert said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the first India-Bangladesh energy pipeline on Saturday via video-conferencing. It has been built at an estimated cost of 377 crore, of which, 285 crore was incurred on laying the portion on the Bangladesh side.

In an official statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the India-Bangladesh friendship pipeline on March 18 at 1700 hours (IST) via video conference."

"This is the first cross-border energy pipeline between India and Bangladesh, built at an estimated cost of INR 377 crore, of which the Bangladesh portion of the pipeline built at a cost of approximately 285 crore, has been borne by the government of India under grant assistance," the statement read.

The pipeline can transport one million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) of high-speed diesel. It will supply high-speed diesel initially to seven districts in northern Bangladesh, as per PTI reports.

According to MEA, the operation of India- Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline will put in place a sustainable, reliable, cost-effective, and environment-friendly mode of transporting HSD from India to Bangladesh and will further enhance cooperation in energy security between the two countries.

India Bangladesh ties

India-Bangladesh ties over the last five decades have made significant achievements in building political capital, boosting the trade and connectivity sector, along with partnerships in key areas like training and capacity building.

The two sides have attained tangible results in several areas including settling land and maritime boundary demarcation, security, connectivity, development cooperation, cultural exchange, power and energy, trade and commerce, blue economy, defence.

Bangladesh is now Indias biggest trade partner in South Asia. Bilateral trade has grown from USD 9 billion to USD 18 billion in the last five years. Bangladesh has become the 4th largest export destination for India with a growth of over 66 per cent from USD 9.69 billion in FY 2020-21 to USD 16.15 billion in FY 2021-22, ANI reported.

Another major factor is the expanding connectivity between the two nations. Indias well-connected rail system was used to supply essential commodities to Bangladesh when trade via the land route was disrupted during Covid.

(With inputs from agencies)
A recently issued arrest warrant appears to have made little difference in Russian President Vladimir Putin's routine or the ongoing war with Ukraine. The embattled politician travelled to Crimea on Saturday Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsulas annexation from the other country. The development came even as Kyiv's western allies hailed the largely symbolic arrest warrant and Moscow insisted that the the court has no meaning" in Russia.

The warrant may however have the unfortunate effect of extending the Ukraine-Russia war. Experts believe that this will further strain diplomatic ties, keeping Putin (and Russia) away from the negotiations table.

The arrest warrant risks obstructing any off-ramp Putin could use to end the warAnything that further isolates his position has a risk - it risks him doubling down and focusing his determination to continue this conflict," military analyst Sean Bell told Sky News.

Also read: ICC issues arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin - What are the charges?

Putin stands accused of war crimes, with the court specifically linking him to the alleged abduction of children from Ukraine during Russia's full-scale invasion of the neighboring country. All 123 member nations are now obligated to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory. But the ICC has no police force of its own and will be wholly reliant on member nations to even begin the trial for Putin.

While Russia continues to defend its 'invasion' of Ukraine, the possibility of criminal charges now loom increasingly closer for Putin. The warrant also serves to send a message to senior Russian officials that they may find themselves vulnerable to prosecution or facing additional travel restrictions in the days to come.
While responding to the questions about the Supreme Court directing the government to set up a panel for the appointment of Election Commissioners, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijuju invoked the constitutional "Lakshman Rekha" which is guiding different institutions. The minister questioned that if judges become part of administrative appointments, who would carry out judicial work?

"The appointment of election commissioners is prescribed in the Constitution. Parliament has to enact a law. Accordingly, an appointment has to be done. I agree that there is no enactment for that in Parliament, there is a vacuum," the minister said at the India Today Conclave.

The law minister cleared that he is not criticizing the judgment of the Supreme Court or talking about the government's response to the decision.

"... But what I am saying is that if the CJI or judges of India sit on every important appointment, who will carry forward the judiciary's work? There are so many administrative matters in the country. So we have to see that judges are primarily there to deliver judicial work. They are there to deliver judicial orders by giving justice to people," he said.

Rijuju said that the judges of the Supreme Court will face criticism if they choose to get involved in administrative work and the principles of natural justice will also be violated if a judge ends up hearing a matter of which he or she was a part.

"Suppose you are the chief justice or a judge. You are part of an administrative process that will come into question. The matter comes to your court. Can you deliver a judgment on a matter you were part of? The principle of justice itself will be compromised. That is why the Lakshman Rekha is very clear in the Constitution," Rijiju said.

The issue is expected to intensify the already strained relationship between the government and the apex court. The tussle which began on the issue of appointments of judges has intensified after the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court which said that the Election Commissioners will be appointed by the President on the advice of a committee comprising the prime minister, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India (CJI).

(With inputs from PTI)
'Waris Punjab De' chief Amritpal Singh is on the run after being chased by the Punjab Police. Officials said that 78 persons associated with the rebel outfit arrested have so far been arrested. Meanwhile, internet services remain have been suspended in Punjab since the police launched a crackdown against radical preacher and his supporters led vehement protests.

The self-styled preacher and was chased down by a heavy police force, with 10 of his close associates also being detained. Supporters of the 29-year-old cult leader took out a protest march in his support on Saturday afternoon.

According to reports, the Waris Punjab De leader had been on his way to Shri Muktsar Sahib. His cavalcade was intercepted by police in Mehatpur village in Jalandhar district on Saturday. Singh had reportedly changed cars at this time in a bid to dodge the police.

Intelligence agencies are keeping a close watch on the tense situation in Punjab. They have reportedly received reports suggesting a connection between Singh and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.

"We are keeping a close watch on the situation unfolding in Punjab. Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and other agencies are on their toes and regularly updating regarding the situation in Punjab," a senior official told news agency ANI.

Officials have launched a massive state-wide cordon and search operation against elements of Waris Punjab De.

78 persons arrested so far, while, several others detained. Several others including Amritpal Singh are on the run and a massive manhunt has been launched to nab them," the Punjab Police confirmed.

While the Punjab Police has requested people to maintain peace and harmon, the state home affairs department called for an internet suspension over the possible incitement of violence.

"Request all citizens to maintain peace & harmony Punjab Police is working to maintain Law and Order. Request citizens not to panic or spread fake news or hate speech," the Punjab Police said in a tweet.

(With inputs from agencies)
Thousands of H-1B workers have been laid off across tech giants including Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon, Twitter in the past couple of months. Many of them are now concerned about their visas as under the existing laws if they fail to find another employer within 60 days, they will have to leave the country.

The Foundation For India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS), which took up their cases with lawmakers and federal administration has said that since last year, more than 2,50,000 such professionals have been laid off in the United States.

The Foundation said that time is running out for laid off employees and and their families. "This has a humanitarian impact on them as their families, including their US-born children are uprooted abruptly, and those who were laid off in the earlier months are now running out of time," FIIDS said as quoted by PTI.

What is H-1B visa?

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. It is the only way for the US employers to hire foreign workers for specialty jobs. Most of the applicants belong to IT, finance, engineering, architecture, etc, field.

Earlier, it was reported that US Citizenship and Immigration Services was considering their request to extend the existing time window to 180 days from the earlier 60 days.

However, FIIDS said that the process is likely to take up some time leaving no other option for the professionals but to leave the country.

In a media statement, the foundation said, FIIDS appeals to the USCIS, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to consider a request to expedite the extension of grace period. FIIDS also appeals to the elected officials, tech executives, and community leaders to emphasise the need and urgency to increase the grace period."

Since last year, more than 2,50,000 such professionals have been laid off in the United States. This number continues to grow with companies like Meta announcing another set of tens of thousands of layoffs, FIIDS said.

"A large number of these professionals are tax paying H-1B immigrants (estimated 1,00,000), particularly from India, who need to leave the US if they cannot find another employer filing for their H-1B in 60 days," it said.

Early this week, Presidents Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, recommended the federal government to extend the grace period for H1-B workers, who have lost their jobs, from the existing 60 days to 180 days so that the workers have enough opportunities to find a new job or other alternatives.

It is now up to the White House to accept the recommendations. However, it would be too late for the current H-1B visa holders who have lost their jobs since last October.

Ajay Jain Bhutoria, member of the Presidents Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, said, The immigration subcommittee recommends the Department of Homeland Security and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to extend the grace period for H-1B workers, who have lost their jobs, from 60 days to 180 days."

Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. He added that this is forcing many H-1B workers to leave the country which could result in a loss of skilled labour for the United States.

Also Read: H-1B visas registrations for 2024 to begin on 1 March. Know details

In his presentation, Bhutoria, strongly advocated for the extension of the grace period, citing the need to support highly skilled tech employees who he said are essential to the economic growth of the United States. Tech companies typically conduct four to five rounds of interviews, which take several weeks before a candidate is offered a job. Even if an H-1B worker is able to find a new job within 60 days, the process of transferring their H-1B status can take take time.

What are the current H-1B visa rules and challenges?

After termination, H-1B workers have a 60-day grace period during which they must either leave the United States, seek a change of immigration status, or have another employer file an H-1B petition on their behalf. If they do not do so within 60 days, they are considered to be in violation of the terms of their non-immigrant visa.

However, if a new employer files a new H-1B petition for the visa holder within 60 days of a previous employer's termination, the change of employer petition will typically be granted even if there was a gap in the employee's H-1B status. The workers encounter many barriers that make it difficult for them to complete all requirements for maintaining their status within the current 60-day grace period. The job market can be challenging, which is especially true for workers in specialised fields, Bhutoria said.

Even if an H-1B worker is able to find a new job within 60 days, the process of transferring their H-1B status can be time-consuming and complex given the significant amount of paperwork.

Additionally, based on delays happening at USCIS, this process can take longer than 60 days to complete. This can result in the loss of skilled labour for the United States as these workers may not be able to return unless they get a new H-1B, which may take years.

FIIDS, in its statement, thanked Senate majority leader Senator Chuck Schumer that this issue can be fixed by an administrative process in his discussion with Indian American leaders on a recent call on March 13. It applauded the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) for the discussion and support for this extension in their meeting on March 14.

"We also appealed to the House Subcommittee on Immigration headed by congresswoman Pramila Jayapal to make a similar recommendation to the USCIS," it said.

Earlier, a survey report titled 2023 Immigration Trends published by Envoy Global had stated that though there is a rise in demand to sponsor foreign talent in the US, however, immigration barriers are leading employers to relocate foreign national employees overseas and outsource jobs.

US immigration barriers commonly cause employers to lose foreign talent. Last year, 82 percent of employers saw a foreign national employee forced to depart the US because they were unable to obtain or extend an employment-based visa. It also stated that 94 percent of companies would hire more foreign nationals if there were fewer immigration barriers in the US.

(With inputs from PTI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar took a dig at senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who recently commented that the minister does not understand" the threat that China poses to India. While speaking at an India Today event, EAM commented when Panda huggers try to be China hawks... it doesn't fly".

Rahul Gandhi, speaking to the Indian Journalists' Association in London, expressed concern about the Indian government's response to China's military aggression on the Line of Actual Control. He criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that nobody has entered Indian territory" and said it was an invitation for China to repeat its aggression. Gandhi added that the government did not understand the actual threat from China, and the prime minister's statement demonstrated his lack of comprehension of the threat. He suggested that India needed to respond militarily to the nature of the threat.

Responding to the criticism, Jaishankar said, I am troubled as a citizen of India when I see somebody drooling over China and being dismissive about India." UK.

Further hitting out at the former Congress president, Jaishankar rubbished Gandhi's allegations of India "being scared of China". "Rahul Gandhi talks admiringly of China and describes the country as 'harmony', he says China is the greatest manufacturer and says 'Make In India' won't work'," the EAM said.

The recent exchange between Gandhi and Jaishankar underscores the importance of a united and coherent response to the challenge posed by China.

The Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China has been the site of frequent clashes and standoffs in recent years, and tensions remain high. India has been working to strengthen its military capabilities in response to the threat from China, but it also needs to find ways to engage with China diplomatically to avoid escalation.
Several IT companies have undertaken mass layoffs and cost-cutting measures fearing an economic downturn. Wipro, a prominent IT company, has now announced that it would lay off at least 120 employees in the United States. Wipro cited a "realignment of business needs" for its decision to layoff 120 employees, according to some media reports.

Wipro has said in a statement that those who have been impacted by the recent round of layoffs include over 100 processing agents. Several team leaders and a team manager, too, have been laid off, according to a report.

The report mentioned: More than 100 of the impacted employees are processing agents. The rest who have been sacked are team leaders and a team manager."

According to Wipro, the event was a "singular occurrence" and that the company remains committed to the Tampa region.

They have also confirmed that there is no impact on the rest of the company's workforce serving clients in the Tampa region, the United States.

"Wipro remains deeply committed to the region. And all other Wipro employees serving clients in the Tampa area remain unaffected," the company was quoted as saying. The layoffs will begin in May, it said.

Recently, Wipro Ltd had asked campus hires if they were willing to join the company with lesser pay, in a move that has sparked uncertainty among the chosen candidates. Indias fourth largest software services company wrote to tech graduates it had hired for the Turbo programme with salary offers of 6.5 lakh per annum that they would instead be placed in the Elite programme, which offers 3.5 lakh.
Former US President Donald Trump is now back on Facebook and YouTube. He has returned to the tech platforms he used to power his political rise until he was cut off following January 6, 2021, attack on Congress by his followers, according to the news agency Reuters.

In a video posted by CNN, the posts on his Facebook page and YouTube channel were titled IM BACK!'. The footage was announcing Trump's election as president in the 2016 race against Hillary Clinton, it then fades to a Trump 2024 screen.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Trump says in the video.

Alphabet Inc's YouTube restored Trump's channel earlier on Friday. Meta Platforms Inc reinstated Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts earlier this year. The platform's new owner Elon Musk reinstated his Twitter account in November, but Trump has yet to post on Twitter.

Trump powered his improbable 2016 presidential campaign through his use of social media. His return gives him access to key vehicles for political fundraising, allowing him to reach a combined 146 million followers across three major tech platforms as he makes another run for the presidency in 2024.

Referring to its move to restore his account, YouTube in a tweet said, We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run-up to an election."

1/ Starting today, the Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content. We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election.  YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) March 17, 2023

In January, Trump's campaign spokesman told Fox News Digital that being back on Facebook "will be an important tool for the 2024 campaign to reach voters."

The former president founded his own social media platform called Truth Social in late 2021, which he relied on to communicate with supporters during his ban from Twitter and Meta.

Why YouTube banned Donald Trump in 2021?

YouTube banned Trump in 2021 for violating its policy against inciting violence after his supporters stormed the US Capitol as Congress was certifying Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election.

Opponents of Trump's return point to his messages on Truth Social, where he has nearly 5 million followers, as evidence that he still poses the same risk that led to his suspensions, Reuters reported.

Trump's return to YouTube and Facebook is happening just as the Manhattan District Attorney's office is considering criminal charges related to hush-money payments made to a porn star during Trump's 2016 campaign, charges that Trump and his allies are arguing without evidence are politically motivated.

Trump also faces a $250 million civil fraud lawsuit brought by New York state, alleging a decade-long scheme to manipulate more than 200 asset valuations and Trump's net worth to win better terms from banks and insurers. Trump has called the suit a witch hunt.

(With Reuters inputs)
Want to travel to Europe but do not have a Schengen visa? The good news is you can still travel to 2 European nations. Albania and Montenegro. All you need is a valid passport, a return ticket, a bank statement etc., and can travel to these countries with an e-visa. Here's all you need to know:

Albania short-stay tourist visa

Albania short-stay tourist visa is a short-term visa in the form of an eVisa. This visa will allow you to travel and stay in Albania for a period of 90 days within a 180-day period from the date of entry into Albania. Also known as visa type c, it can be issued for multiple entries within 180 days. Still, you can not stay more than 90 days in Albania in 180 days.

Montenegro short-stay visa

The Montenegro Short-Stay Visa is issued for single or multiple entries into Montenegro for tourist, business, personal or other purposes. You cannot stay continuously within six (6) months for more than ninety (90) days, starting from the day you entered Montenegro. Short-Stay Visa for multiple entries is valid for up to one (1) year. In exceptional cases, authorities can issue it for you for no longer than five (5) years.

You can also get it as a group. However, that one is valid for thirty (30) days.

Previously, Serbia also allowed Indian tourists to enter the country without a visa. But, as of January 2023, Serbia has withdrawn the existing arrangement.

Countries that offer quickest Schengen visa

However, if you planning to travel a bit more extensively, you would need a Schengen visa. Though the rejection rate is high and the wait is long, you can dodge that too.

Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, and Luxembourg are among the easiest European countries to obtain a Schengen visa. Lithuania has a 98.7% visa approval rate, Estonia has a 98.4% rate, and Finland has a high approval rate as well. Iceland has a quick processing time with a 88% visa approval rate, while Luxembourg has a low Schengen visa rejection rate of 1.3%.

It's important to stay up-to-date on visa policies and any changes that may arise due to COVID-19 or other reasons before applying for a visa.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sanchari Ghosh Sanchari Ghosh is a Deputy Chief Content Producer with LiveMint. She covers news, human interest, epidemiology and personal finance stories Read more from this author
Canadian dream of many Indian students is being shattered as the authority has reportedly asked them to return to India because they were allegedly involved in generating fake admission offer letters to gain entry into Canada for studies.

Karamjeet Kaur, an Indian got admission to a college in Edemton, Canada in 2018, and applied for Permanent Residency after getting a job in 2021. However, the Canadian Border and Services Agency (CBSA) told her that she had entered Canada using a forged admission document, according to a report by The Indian Express.

She is not the only victim of Canada's immigration racket, many Indian students have been affected. Reportedly, more than 700 Indian students have been asked by the Canadian authority to return to India.

Another such student, Inderjeet Singh came to Canada in 2019 based on an admission letter for the Toronto campus of Lambton College, but his agent told him that the college was full for the semester, so he enrolled at Alpha College of Business and Technology in Scarborough, as per cbc.ca reports.

When he applied for PR in 2021, the Canadian authority accused him of using fraudulent admission documents for entry into the country.

The whole matter came into the limelight during a CBSA investigation that began when these students applied for permanent residence after the completion of their studies letters.

Responding to the situation, the affected students are saying that they were unaware that their agents used a false document in their visa application. They are also asking the government why they were granted students visas earlier if their documents were deceptive.

Legally, the CSBA can remove all foreign nationals and permanent residents who are inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), the authority said in a statement.

It further added that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is accountable for the approval of study permit requests.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina will virtually inaugurate the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline today.

This is the first cross border energy pipeline between India and Bangladesh, built at an estimated cost of INR 377 crore, of which the Bangladesh portion of the pipeline built at a cost of approx. INR 285 crore, has been borne by the Government of India under grant assistance," reads a press release by the Ministry of External Affairs.

The Pipeline has a capacity to transport 1 Million Metric Ton Per Annum (MMTPA) of High-Speed Diesel (HSD). It will supply High Speed Diesel initially to seven districts in northern Bangladesh," the same press release says.

Construction on the pipeline began in 2018 with the aid of Indias grant funding. The friendship pipeline runs from Siliguri to Parbatipur.

The operation of India- Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline will put in place a sustainable, reliable, cost-effective and environment friendly mode of transporting HSD from India to Bangladesh and will further enhance cooperation in energy security between the two countries," according to the MEA.

Cooperation between India and Bangladesh in the energy sector also extends to the power sector. In 2010, New Delhi and Dhaka signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the power sector. In 2013, the first cross-border power connection between the two countries was set up.

Bangladesh also designated the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) as a recognised government to government (G2G) exporter of refined products to Bangladesh.

During Sheikh Hasinas September 2022 visit to India, cooperation on energy, and electricity transmission lines, also continued to gather pace.
The XBB 1.16 variant of COVID-19 has been found in 76 samples across several states in India, according to data from the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG). And, noting that the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in India can be attributed to this variant, experts stated that the whole world must be seriously worried.

The variant has been found in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Delhi, Telangana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Odisha. This variant was first detected in January, when two samples tested positive, while in February, 59 samples were found. In March, until now, 15 samples of the XBB 1.16 variant have been found.

Vipin M Vashishtha, former convenor of Indian Academy of Pediatrics and consultant pediatrician at the Mangla Hospital and Research Centre, Bijnor, said XBB 1.16 variant is causing concern among experts because it has managed to spread rapidly despite India's high levels of population immunity.

"All eyes should be on India! If XBB.1.16 aka #Arcturus could succeed to wade through the 'sturdy' population immunity of Indians that successfully resisted the onslaught of variants like BA.2.75, BA.5, BQs, XBB.1.5, then whole world must be seriously worried!!" he tweeted.

All eyes should be on India! If XBB.1.16 aka #Arcturus could succeed to wade through the sturdy population immunity of Indians that successfully resisted the onslaught of variants like BA.2.75, BA.5, BQs, XBB.1.5, then whole world must be seriously worried!! pic.twitter.com/PZYuM7hD7Q  Vipin M. Vashishtha (@vipintukur) March 18, 2023

Though XBB.1.16 is capable of turning off both innate & adaptive responses, I wud be surprised if it cud generate a major surge here. All will depend on how well population immunity would resist this at the backdrops of differentially imprinted immunity & its waning overtime! he also tweeted.

Meanwhile, Dr Randeep Guleria, former AIIMS director and the chairman of the Institute of Internal Medicine, Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, Director-Medical Education at Medanta, and former AIIMS director said that the rise in COVID cases seems to be driven by the XBB 1.16 variant, but most cases are not severe, so there is no need to panic as of now.

He advised that following COVID-appropriate behavior can help to contain the spread of infection.

India's single-day tally of COVID-19 cases crossed 800 after 126 days on Saturday, while the number of active cases climbed to 5,389. The rise in cases in India is a cause for concern, and experts are urging people to continue following COVID-appropriate behavior to prevent the spread of the virus.

(With inputs from agencies)
After days of legal wrangling and extensive battles between his supporters and police, former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan headed to court on Saturday. Taking to social media with a video messages, he asserted that they had made a plan to arrest me. Khan was ousted in a no-confidence motion last year. Since then he has been pressuring the fragile coalition government that succeeded him to hold early elections. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Police raided his house in a plush Lahore neighbourhood after blocking nearby roads and suspending mobile services in the area. Islamabad his also been put on high alert, with some 4,000 security officials - including elite police commandos, anti-terrorism squads and paramilitary rangers - being deployed in the area.

Pakistan court drops arrest warrant against ex-PM Imran Khan "The court has cancelled the arrest warrant after marking Imran Khan's attendance. The hearing has been adjourned till March 30," one of Khan's lawyers told AFP. Share Via

Imran Khan now returning to Lahore Imran Khan has marked his presence in court, as ordered, and is now returning to Lahore," said his aide Fawad Chaudhry. Share Via

Imran Khan to mark attendance from outside court Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was permitted to mark attendance while outside the Islamabad Judicial Complex as the clash between PTI supporters and the police continued. According to a report by Dawn, Additional District and Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal said that the hearing and appearance cannot proceed under the current circumstances. A fresh date would be set for the hearing. All those who have gathered here should disperse after marking attendance. There is no need for shelling or pelting [of stones], the hearing cannot be held today," the judge was quoted as saying. Share Via

AK-47 assault rifles, bullets recovered from Imran Khan's home, say Pakistan Police Police have left former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's Zaman Park residence after allegedly recovering assault rifles and a cache of bullets and detaining over 60 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf workers accused of resorting to violence to hinder the law, Geo News reported. Share Via

Imran Khan waits outside court as PTI supporters clash with Pakistan Police Clashes erupted between security forces and supporters of Imran Khan outside the judicial complex on Saturday. The former PM alleges that he is waiting outside Judicial Complex and not being allowed to enter. Share Via

Media watchdog imposes ban on live coverage of court proceedings Pakistans electronic media watchdog on Saturday banned satellite television channels from broadcasting live coverage of events outside the Islamabad court where former prime minister Imran Khan is set to appear. Share Via

Protesters shelling judicial complex, says Islamabad Police Share Via

What did police find in Imran Khan's home? According to an AP report citing senior police officer Suhail Sukhera, baton-wielding Khan supporters had attempted to resist the officials by throwing stones and petrol bombs. The officers moved on until a man on the roof of Khans residence opened fire. Sukhera said police broke open the main door of Khans residence and found masks, petrol-filled bottles, iron rods and batons used in attacks on police during the week. Sukhera said that inside the sprawling residence, illegal structures were erected to shelter those who have been involved in attacks on police that have injured dozens of officers. Share Via

Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan heads to court, fears arrest "It is now clear that, despite my having gotten bail in all my cases, the (Pakistan Democratic Movement coalition) govt intends to arrest me. Despite knowing their malafide intentions, I am proceeding to Islamabad and the court bec(ause) I believe in rule of law," Khan said on Twitter. It is also obvious now that the entire siege of Lahore was not about ensuring I appear before the court in a case but was intended to take me away to prison so that I am unable to lead our election campaign," he added. Share Via
The International Criminal Court's arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin has no meaning for the country as the nation had withdrawn from the ICC treaty in 2016, a spokeswoman for the ministry of foreign affairs said, according to a report by CNN.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the ministry of foreign affairs, said, "Russia is not an ICC member and bears no obligations under it. Russia does not cooperate with this body, and possible arrest coming from the International Court of Justice will be legally null and void for us."

Former Russian President and deputy chair of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, compared the ICC's arrest warrant for Putin to toilet paper.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. No need to explain WHERE this paper should be used (with the toilet paper emoji)," he tweeted.

Putin faces arrest warrant for Ukraine war crimes

ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes, including abducting children from Ukraine. It accuses Putin of responsibility for the "unlawful deportation" and "unlawful transfer" of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.

The court also issued a warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, a Russian children's rights official, on similar charges. However, enforcement of the warrants depends on international cooperation, as the ICC has no police force of its own.

The possibility of a trial at the ICC is remote as Russia does not recognize the court's jurisdiction and does not extradite its nationals. Although Ukraine is not a member of the ICC, it has granted the court jurisdiction over its territory, and the ICC prosecutor has visited four times since opening an investigation a year ago.

An UN-backed inquiry also cited Russian attacks against civilians in Ukraine, including systematic torture and killing in occupied regions, as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The investigation found that crimes were committed against Ukrainians on Russian territory, including deported Ukrainian children prevented from reuniting with their families.
On the eve of the expiration of a deal enabling Ukraine to export grain, the United Nations humanitarian chief on Friday called its extension crucial to ensuring global food supplies and keeping prices from spiraling as they did after Russias invasion of its smaller neighbor.

Russias U.N. ambassador reiterated that Moscow is ready to extend the deal  but only for 60 days, just half the 120 days in the agreement.

Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzias briefing to the U.N. Security Council, reiterating what a Russian delegation told senior U.N. officials at a meeting in Geneva on Monday, reinforced the Kremlins insistence on reducing the duration of the deal to hold out for changes on how the package is working.

Also Read: Russian defence minister slams US for spying on Moscow after drone crash

The U.N. and Turkey brokered the deal between the warring countries last July that allows Ukraine  one of the worlds key breadbaskets  to ship food and fertilizer from three of its Black Sea ports. A separate memorandum of understanding between the United Nations and Russia is aimed at overcoming obstacles to Moscows shipments of fertilizer to global markets.

The original 120-day agreement was renewed last November and expires Saturday. It would be automatically extended for another 120 days unless one of the parties objects  and Nebenzia said Russia has formally objected.

U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths opened the Security Council meeting saying the Black Sea grain initiative has seen global food prices continue to fall.

Under the initiative, he said, close to 25 million metric tons of foodstuff have been exported since last August, and the U.N. World Food Program has been able to transport more than half a million metric tons of wheat to support humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen. Griffiths also said its vital for the U.N.-Russia memorandum to be fully implemented.

There has been meaningful progress, but impediments remain, notably with regard to payment systems," he said, stressing that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and trade chief Rebeca Grynspan are sparing no effort to facilitate its full implementation."

But Russias Nebenzia said the memorandum is simply not working," and the U.N. has to recognize it has no leverage to exempt Russian agricultural export operations from Western sanctions" and its efforts have not produced results.

He also claimed that the Ukraine grain export deal had been transformed from a humanitarian initiative to help developing countries facing escalating food prices to a commercial operation benefiting the worlds four leading Western agro-business corporations.

As a result, Nebenzia said Russia has officially informed the Turkish and Ukrainian sides through a note that it does not object to extending the Black Sea grain initiative, but just for 60 days, until May 18.

If Brussels, Washington and London are genuinely interested to continue the export of food from Ukraine through the maritime humanitarian corridor, then they have two months to exempt from their sanctions the entire chain of operations which accompany the Russian agricultural sector," the Russian envoy said.

Otherwise, we fail to understand how the package concept of the secretary-general of the United Nations will work through these simple agreements," he said.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield countered that the world knows that Russias food exports are at least as high as their pre-war levels, and when we hear the Russian government say they are being held back from exporting grain, from exporting fertilizer, the numbers show its just not true."

When it comes to sanctions, we have gone to extraordinary lengths to communicate the clear carveouts for food and fertilizer to governments and to the private sector," she said. Simply put, sanctions are not the issue."

Thomas-Greenfield also criticized Russia for delaying shipping from Ukrainian ports, which increases transportation costs.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week, linking him to the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children - at least hundreds - to the other country. While the move is largely symbolic, it is likely to have some repercussions on Moscow and its top leader as the war progresses.

Putin is just the third head of state to be indicted by the ICC while still in power - after Sudan's former president Omar al-Bashir and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

Also read: ICC issues arrest warrant against Putin - Will it affect Ukraine-Russia war?

The ICC - considered a court of last resort - does not try individuals in absentia. As such, Putin would have to either be handed over by Russia (an unlikely prospect considering he leads the country) or arrested outside of the country. It is pertinent to note here that many countries including India and the US are not party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and as such have no obligation to arrest the Russian leader.

The President might face hurdles when it come to travel or furthering diplomatic ties with other nations. Experts also argue that the latest development could also weaken Putin at home.

Russians may come to realize this is another reason Putin can no longer serve their country," New York University law professor Ryan Goodman told CNN.

Also read: ICC issues arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin - What are the charges?

If his predecessors (other leaders similarly accused by the ICC) are any indicator however, the warrant is unlikely to evoke any short term effects. While the charges against Gaddafi were terminated after he was overthrown and killed in 2011, Bashir remained in office for another decade after his 2009 indictment for genocide in Darfur.

The latter also travelled to a slew of Arab and African countries - including ICC members - without facing repercussions. The court had rebuked those countries for declining to detain him or referred them to the UN Security Council for non-compliance.

(With inputs from agencies)
John Woods, a former Chattanoogan who is now the executive director of an investment banking firm in Atlanta, could be the next owner of the Chattanooga Lookouts.
Hamilton County School Board member, Ben Connor, serves as the school board's representative to Tennessee legislature. Connor invited people to ask questions about the education bills in the Tennessee General Assembly.
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.
Who is Shakir Khan? The former Lodi City Councilman has been the focus of controversy since his arrest four weeks ago on voter fraud charges. He agreed to an interview with the News-Sentinel recently to talk about his life, family, and career in politics.
Longford's vibrant business sector was out in force as the Local Enterprise Office held their annual awards to honour some of the county's most outstanding small businesses. A range of the county's businesses were recognised at the Local Enterprise Office last week.



Midland Language Centre took the top prize and will go on to represent Longford at the 23rd National Enterprise Awards which take place in Mansion House in Dublin on June 1.

Six other winners received gongs at the annual get LEO together. Finalists Mark Cadam Ltd and Pallet Solutions Ltd contested the category Midland Language Centre won out in.

Pallet Solutions Ltd, owned and managed by Enda McKeon, employs 16 people in the refurbishment and delivery of pallets to client companies throughout the Midlands.



Mark Cadam Ltd is a family-run business with over 40 years experience in haulage, quarry, plant hire and civil works. The company also operates a very successful animal bedding business which provides high-quality wood shavings bedding to the equine industry.

There were four individual award categories. High end retailer Aines Boutique, a business employing 11 people, was announced as LEAN Champion for its streamline approach to business. Aines Boutique has been serving the greater Midlands for over 25 years.



Spirit Clothing, who employs 18 people, got the nod as Digital Champion. Owned and run by Peter Dolan and Joe Flynn the business employs 18 people and has developed a major presence in the wedding suit hire and purchase market.



Skellys Bar, Restaurant and Guesthouse on Main Street, Ballymahon, won out as Green Champion. Operated by Pat and Patrice Byrne, the venue has an excellent reputation for its old-world charm and friendly atmosphere.

The restaurant arm of the business boasts an extensive menu, with an emphasis on seasonal, locally produced food.



Longford town butcher Louis Herterich, was announced winner of the first Spirit of Longford award. This award acknowledged the vision to turn a derelict site into a multi-use outdoor space known as Pig Market Lane.

Since opening in Summer 2022, Pig Market Lane has become a hub for community events, and enhanced the streetscape of the town, complementing the newly-developed Market Square across the road.



These County Longford Enterprise Awards are all about celebrating the great businesses we have all around our county, Longford County Council Cathaoirleach Cllr Turlough McGovern said, I congratulate all the winners, particularly Midland Language Centre, a great local business with an impressive national and international reach. I wish them every success when they represent County Longford at the national finals in Dublin In June.



Longford County Council Chief Executive Paddy Mahon added, The Council, through the Local Enterprise Office, Longford, proudly supports and celebrates local business.

County Longford is home to many well-known names and growing businesses, and Longford County Council and our Enterprise Office is always working to make County Longford a better place to do business in.



Speaking at the event, Longford County Council Head of Enterprise Michael Nevin spoke of the achievements of the businesses recognised in the award ceremony: These business people create jobs, help communities retain its young people and bring wealth into the local economy and they deserve to be applauded for their efforts.



The Annual Awards is an important event in the annual calendar, recognising the achievements of really progressive and forward thinking entrepreneurs.

The County Longford Enterprise Awards took place as part of Local Enterprise Week. For this week, over 300 events took place across the country, including business training to help entrepreneurs, start-ups and expanding business.



It was organised by Local Enterprise Offices, and supported by Enterprise Ireland, local authorities, including Longford County Council, and the Government of Ireland.
Health & Wellness, Press Releases

By Jacob Alvear Published: March 18 2023

Youth Mental Health and Wellness Summit to Advise Future Policy Recommendations; Coincides with Mental Health Awareness Month in May

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced a statewide series of listening sessions and a spring summit aimed at exploring the issues impacting the mental health of youth throughout New York State. Together, these initiatives will build on the Governor's $1 billion plan to overhaul New York State's mental health continuum of care and provide an opportunity for experts to advise state leaders on future policy recommendations to improve youth wellness.

"As New York State's first female governor and the only mother to hold this office, I'm deeply disturbed by recent reports on instances of teen depression - especially following the isolation and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic," Governor Hochul said. "It's time we put the mental wellbeing of our youth at the forefront and listen what they're going through to gain a deeper understanding of this issue and meaningfully address the problems young New Yorkers face."

Coordinated by the state Office of Mental Health and the Office of Children and Family Services, the listening sessions are expected to be scheduled throughout the state this Spring. Each session will be moderated by representatives from these agencies and will involve a cross section of school-age youth from each host community.

Governor Hochul will also convene a Summit on Youth Mental Health and Wellness in May, coinciding with Mental Health Awareness Month. The summit will bring together youth and parents with a broad array of subject experts from the mental health, education, technology, and law enforcement fields to discuss the challenges and opportunities impacting the well-being of our youth, including the role social media plays in their lives.

The Governor launched these new initiatives by hosting the first listening session with teens at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Teens participating from schools in New York City were asked to discuss how the pandemic impacted their mental health; the evolving role social media has played in their lives; how schools can promote wellness among their students; the types of mental health programs they could envision helping them at school; and the advice they'd give to their peers struggling with mental health issues.

Last month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control issued its Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which found alarming mental health trends among school-aged youth between 2011 and 2021 - especially among teen girls. Nearly a third of teen girls seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021, an increase from 19 percent the prior decade; about three in five felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, which was twice the rate of teen boys and represents a nearly 60 percent increase over the rate recorded in 2011.

The report also found that youth from marginalized populations are more likely to suffer mental health issues: More than half of LGBTQ+ students expressed having poor mental health, with one in five reporting having attempted suicide in the past year. Suicide attempts were also elevated among Black youth when compared to White youth, according to the report.

Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan said, "Governor Hochul's executive budget provides an historic investment into mental healthcare. At the center of this transformation is a commitment to listen to individuals experiencing mental health challenges. Youth mental health has been seriously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and other stressors. I applaud the Governor's commitment to making policy based on what adolescents are saying is important to them. I am thrilled that we will be engaging directly with young people, elevating their voices, and letting them guide us."

Office of Children and Family Services Acting Commissioner Suzanne Miles-Gustave said, "Our young people are the most precious, yet vulnerable, members of our communities. We must do everything we can to protect their health and well-being, and this requires bold action to confront the mental health crisis they are facing. Our youth understand their unique emotional needs better than anyone. This initiative gives us the opportunity to hear directly from them, which is the only way we can develop and deploy the resources they desperately need."

The listening sessions and summit are part of Governor Hochul's broader strategy to tackle the mental health crisis throughout New York State. The FY 2024 Executive Budget includes more than $1 billion to overhaul New York State's continuum of mental health care and halve the unmet mental health needs of youth over the next five years.

Among the investments included to help youth, Governor Hochul's budget provides $30 million to expand mental health services for school-aged children throughout the state, including $20 million for school-based mental health services and $10 million to implement wraparound services training, and $8.3 million for new and existing school based health centers. Additionally, the budget includes $10 million to strengthen suicide prevention programs for high-risk youth.

The budget provides $18 million over two years to reimburse providers for family preventive mental health services for parents and their children; and $24 million over two years to reimburse providers for adverse childhood experience screenings. The Governor's budget also builds on investments in the FY 2023 Enacted Budget, including $12 million allocated for the HealthySteps and home-based crisis intervention programs to promote early childhood development and treatment for children and teens; and $3.1 million to bolster treatment for individuals with eating disorders.

Governor Hochul also proposed a measure that will prohibit insurance companies from denying access to medically necessary, high-need, acute, and crisis mental health services for both adults and children. In addition, the Governor has advanced legislation to close gaps in coverage for behavioral health services to improve the well-being and success of individuals after they leave hospitals or emergency departments.
Suffolk County Police Arrest Three for Selling Vape Products to Minors During Compliance Checks in Third Precinct

Crime

By Jacob Alvear Published: March 18 2023

Three people were arrested for selling vape products to minors.

Suffolk County Police today arrested three people for selling vape products to persons under-21 during compliance checks at businesses in the Third Precinct.

In response to numerous community complaints, Third Precinct Crime Section officers conducted an investigation into the sale of vape products, during which seven businesses were checked for compliance with the law.

During the investigation, three businesses were found to be selling vape products to people under-21 - years of age.

The following people were charged with Unlawfully Dealing with a Child 2nd Degree, a misdemeanor:

 Alfred Payano, 19, of Brentwood, an employee of Cloud 9 Smoke Shoppe III, located 1038 Islip

Ave., Brentwood

 Saeed Hussain, 60, of Central Islip, an employee of Islandwood Cigar & Smoke Shop, located at

474 Main Street, Islip

 Michael Piccinini, 22, of Islip Terrace, an employee of Mr Vape, located at 876-11 Connetquot

Ave., Islip Terrace
Local News, Crime

By Long Island Published: March 18 2023

Police arrested a man for driving while intoxicated after a fatal motor vehicle crash in Huntington

Suffolk County Police today arrested a man for driving while intoxicated after a fatal motor vehicle crash in Huntington early this morning.

Carlos Orellana Mata was driving a Infiniti QX60 eastbound on Route 25, near Verleye Ave., when he drove his vehicle into the rear of a 2019 Volvo tractor trailer traveling eastbound Route 25 at 12:17 a.m.

Orellana Matas passenger, who has not yet been positively identified, was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of tractor trailer, Ibrahima Doukoure, 38, of Newark, New Jersey was not injured.

Orellana Mata, 35, of Bay Shore, was treated and released from Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and Wednesday not separately reported by Alliance News:

-----------

Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd - international oil and gas exploration, production and development company, with production and development operations focused in Converse and Natrona Counties, Wyoming, US - Operating affiliate, COPL America, receives continued support from its senior lender as it restores production levels and makes up oil sales at its Wyoming Assets, following winter closures in January and February 2023. Executes a covenant waiver enabling the measurement date of its February 28 2023 liquidity covenant to be extended to March 22, 2023. The lender granted this waiver in response to the good progress in securing funding with the main bondholder for the July 2022 bonds offering. Says normal operating conditions have been restored at Barron Flats Shannon miscible flood, following recent storms.

-----------

NB Global Monthly Income Fund Ltd - London-based closed-ended investment company - Redeems 43.2 million shares at 81 pence, around 20% of the company's shares. Compulsory redemption was announced on February 27. Payments of redemption monies are expected to be effected by March 27.

Following the redemption, the company has 254.6m shares in issue, of which 76.1 million are held in treasury and are not eligible to vote. Therefore, the total number of voting rights in the company is 178.5 million.

-----------

Literacy Capital PLC - London-based investment trust focused on opportunities to invest for the long-term in growing private UK businesses - Reports sale of portfolio company, Kernel Global, at a 48.9% premium to carrying value. Literacy's interest valued at GBP28.6 million, resulting in a GBP9.4 million uplift to Literacy's net asset value. Receives GBP19 million in cash as part of the transaction, whilst it also retains a residual stake in the business. Proceeds to be used to repay the revolving credit facility and be recycled into new investments. Kernel Global was Literacy's fourth largest investment (7.6% of net asset value). Literacy expects cash proceeds received by the company in 2023 to be substantially higher than in previous years.

-----------

Puma VCT 13 PLC - London based venture capital trust that invests in growing businesses with experienced management teams - Exercises over-allotment facility in relation to subscription offer announced in August 11 following strong demand. Subscription aimed to raise GBP40 million via offer of shares at GBP0.0005 with an over-allotment facility to raise up to a further GBP10 million. As a result the maximum amount the company can raise under the offer is increased to GBP50 million.

-----------

EJF Investments Ltd - Mumbai, India-based closed-ended investment company investing in assets benefiting from regulatory and structural change in the financial services - Confirms it has no underlying exposure to SVB Financial Group or Signature Bank, which have been placed into receivership. Says it has a small underlying exposure to Silvergate Capital Corp. States exposure is equivalent to less than 2.5% of the company's most recently published net asset value. EJF had a NAV of GBP111.8 million as at January 31.

-----------

Celadon Pharmaceuticals PLC - London-based pharmaceutical company focused on the research, cultivation, manufacturing and sale of breakthrough cannabis-based medicines - Reports that its current Home Office licence has been successfully updated to allow the commercial sale of its high 9-tetrahydrocannabinol product, following the company's recent registration as a Good Manufacturing Practices manufacturer by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The Directors believe Celadon has now become one of a limited number of companies globally with the approvals in place to cultivate and manufacture EU-GMP grade high-THC medicinal cannabis and is understood to be the first for high-THC API in the UK since medicinal cannabis was legalised in 2018. Within the UK, patients prescribed medicinal cannabis are reliant on imported product, often facing lengthy delays and high costs, and by becoming a UK-based producer, Celadon is in a prime position to alleviate the issues currently faced by patients.

-----------

Doric Nimrod Air Two Ltd - Guernsey-based investment trust - Receives notification from Emirates that it is exercising the option to enable it to redeliver the Airbus A380-861 aircraft bearing manufacturer's serial number 109 in the minimum condition equivalent to "half-life" together with a cash sum, as opposed to delivery in full-life condition. In the event the aircraft is returned to the lessor, Emirates will pay the sum of USD12.0 million. The lease expiry date for the aircraft, bearing manufacturer's serial number 109 is November 9 2024. Notes that the above does not preclude the company from considering lease extension, sale or re-lease options for the aircraft with Emirates or other counterparties.

-----------

Mode Global Holdings PLC - London-based financial technology company - States further to announcement of January 19 regarding the unsuccessful funding, the group has been winding down the operations of its subsidiaries, Fibermode Ltd, Greyfoxx Ltd and JGOO Ltd. Adds wholly owned subsidiary, Mode Global Ltd will not be able to recover the amounts due from the subsidiaries for the provision of these services. As a result, Mode Global Ltd cannot pay its liabilities as they fall due.

Accordingly, the board appointed Antony Batty of Antony Batty & Company LLP as a nominee of Company Voluntary Arrangement proposals. Meetings of creditors to consider the CVA will be held on April 5. Directors of Mode Global Holdings will continue to look for ways to extract value and seek out options for the future of the group.

-----------

By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Reds announced that catcher Austin Romine has been released from his minor league deal. Romine inked his contract in December, re-signing with Cincinnati after initially being acquired from the Cardinals at last Augusts trade deadline.

The release gives Romine a bit of extra time to try and land a new contract with another team, before another wave of players  Spring Training roster cuts, and the March 25 opt-out deadline for Article XX(b) free agents  hit the market as Opening Day approaches. Romine is one of those Article XX(b) players, and perhaps agreed to the early release since the Reds let him know in advance that he wouldnt be breaking camp.

During a quiet offseason overall for the Reds, the team was relatively busy at the catcher position, signing Curt Casali and Luke Maile to guaranteed big league deals. Cincinnati plans to use both veteran backstops and Tyler Stephenson at catcher, with Stephenson seeing the majority of his time as a first baseman or DH in order to help him stay healthy. Between this trio and Chuckie Robinson (who also has some MLB experience) at Triple-A, there didnt seem to be much room for Romine to make the roster.

A veteran of 11 MLB seasons, Romine has spent much of his career with the Yankees in a backup role, though Romine ended up getting a good chunk of playing time from 2017-19 as a defensive-minded fill-in for Gary Sanchez. Romine hasnt hit much over his 484 games and 1449 career plate appearances, but as an experienced and respected backstop, the 34-year-old will surely get some looks from teams in need of extra catching depth.
Ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas has told Justice Eric Baah, the judge who presided over his case against Assin Central Lawmaker Kennedy Agyapong, that he made a mistake in his judgment for throwing out the case.

Anas said he disagreed with the judge both on law and on the facts of the case.

He accused Justice Baah of delving into the arena of criminal prosecution against him despite the matter being a civil case.

My team and I and the lawyers have carefully studied the judgment delivered by the court and we are unanimous that the judge made an overreach and descended into the arena and made criminal pronouncements about me as If I was standing a criminal trial.

He also justified the MP accusing me of the murder of JB Danquah, murder of 20 Chinese nationals. We are filing an appeal because there was no evidence provided, Anas said in a video recording responding to the judgment.

He added I disagreed with the judges ruling both on law and the facts. when I started this work 21 years ago, I never assumed that it would be an easy road yet it is the evidence in my work and the commitment to truth and justice that has always led and prevailed against all the forces that have worked to pull us down

The Accra High Court on Wednesday, March 15 dismissed the GH25 million defamation suit against Kennedy Ohene Agyapong brought by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.

The judge, Justice Eric Baah, held that Anas Aremeyaw Anas failed to prove that Ken Agyapong defamed him by airing the documentary  Who watches the watchman  but rather, the documentary exposed shady deals that Anas and his associates were involved in.

This was after Anas, in 2018, sued the New Patriotic Party (NPP) lawmaker for allegedly defaming him.

Anas prayed to the court to award GH25 million against Mr Agyapong to compensate him for the defamatory material published against him by the MP.

The court concluded that what Anas is engaged in is not investigative journalism but rather investigative terrorism and that Agyapong was justified to call Anas a blackmailer, corrupt, an extortionist, and evil.

I find the claims by the plaintiff [Anas Aremeyaw Anas) meritless and they are hereby dismissed, Justice Baah ruled.

-3news.com
Member of Parliament for Buem Constituency in the Oti Region, Hon. Kofi Adams, has taken a swipe at the Akufo-AddoBawumia-led administration over its inability to combat the menace of illegal mining, generally known as 'galamsey' and corruption.

According to him, the President has "failed to protect the economy and has also failed to protect the environment. His failure to protect the environment is a clear indication that he cannot protect the economy."

This follows a revelation by the former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng that some top officials in government and at the presidency are engaged in illegal mining.

Let me tell you that I did not take one excavator for anything, they know the truth. Now things are coming up, we know those who are behind it and the party people who are there, people in government including Jubilee House who are doing galamsey and so on, even now, the former Minister under the Akufo-AddoBawumia-led administration in an interview with state broadcaster GBC alleged.

Commenting on the State of the Nation Address by President Akufo-Addo on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday 15th March, Kofi Adam stated, "the government's failure to stem the tide of illegal mining has led to the destruction of the country's forests and water bodies, as well as the loss of millions of Ghana cedis in revenue to the country."

He added, "Statistics from 2017 to 2023, compiled by the Ghana Water Company, have revealed that the country has lost over GH 1.5 billion in revenue due to illegal mining activities. In addition, data from the Forestry Commission of Ghana has revealed that over 2,000 hectares of forest cover have been destroyed due to illegal mining in the same period."

According to him, the President is unable to talk about corruption as "the word [corruption] has gone missing, as far as the President's dictionary is concerned".

In view of this, Hon. Kofi Adams stressed that the government needs to take decisive actions to end the galamsey menace and combat corruption in the country.

He urged the government to strengthen the countrys anti-corruption institutions and ensure that they are adequately resourced and empowered to investigate and prosecute all cases of corruption and galamsey.
A Senior Lecturer at the Marketing Department of the Kumasi Technical University KsTU Dr Collins Kankam Kwarteng has called for the immediate arrest of managers of the Kejetia new market in the Kumasi Metropolis of the Ashanti.

His calls follow the revelation that the fire certificate and insurance on the facility had expired for over a year.

Traders at the Kejetia Market on Wednesday witnessed a devastating fire outbreak destroying some 54 shops and wares worth millions of cedis. It later came out that the insurance policy and fire certificate on the facility were not renewed.

Speaking on OTEC 102.9 FMs morning show Nyansapo, on Friday March 17,2023, hosted by Captain Koda, Dr Kwarteng said it was very surprising to learn the facility was operating with an expired insurance policy.

Was the market fit for purpose after it had its fire certificate and insurance cover expired? What were the board and management doing when the facility was operating without insurance? he quizzed.

Dr Kwarteng has called for the immediate resignation of the management and the board chairman.

GNFS not to be blamed

The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) says it cannot be held responsible for the new Kejetia market fire following failure on the part of managers of the facility to adhere to safety regulations.

According to the GNFS, it directed managers of the market through a letter to renew its fire certificate and as well work on some defects on the facility before they could issue them the certificate.

GNFS explained that the managers failed to rectify some fire safety issues, hence the fire outreak on Wednesday, March 15.

Speaking to newsmen in Kumasi after visiting the scene on Thursday March 16, 2023, the Ashanti Regional Fire Commander, ACFO1 Henry Giwah, explained, so far as Im concerned they dont have a fire certificate, but our men are there making sure that things are working. We identified some lapses, we informed management of the market, they promised to fix it for which reason we have not even renewed their certificate. We were going to make sure those things are rectified first. They promised to fix the defects when we wrote to them, that is where we were and the fire occurred.

He added, they actually applied for renewal, and we told them exactly what we want them to do before we can renew. There are minimum qualifications they needed to meet before it could be granted.

Asked if the GNFS failed managers of the new Kejetia market by ignoring the illegalities, he said, maybe you can also say that, but not that our men have been watching unconcerned. They have been doing what they are supposed to do, they have been recommending every now and then. I had the opportunity of bringing this as far as to the Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC).

Trading activities suspended

Trading activities at the Kumasi Kejetia new market in the Ashanti Region has been suspended.

The Management of Kumasi City Market Limited (KCML) says the Kejetia Market Complex will be shut down on Thursday, March 16, 2023 and opened to the public the next Monday.

The decision follows a recommendation by the Ashanti Regional Minister Hon Simon Osei on the management to close down the facility for further investigations.

Hon Simon Osei Mensah on Thursday visited the fire scene and appealed to the traders to suspend trading activities to allow security agencies to work at the scene.

Hon Simon Osei Mensah maintained that the closure will allow fire officers to check the structural integrity of the facility.
Member of Parliament for Akim Oda, Alexander Akwasi Acquah has said the judgment that was delivered in the case of Anas versus Kennedy Agyapong calls for a look into the Anas Principle.

Although he says that the principle has been helpful in unearthing corrupt practices in some sectors including the judiciary, the judgment has exposed the investigative journalist to severe scrutiny.

Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, March 18, he cautioned against acting in ways that reduce the confidence of the investigative journalist.

Meanwhile, Anas Aremeyaw Anas has told Justice Eric Baah, the judge who presided over his case against Assin Central Lawmaker that he made a mistake in his judgment in throwing out the case.

Anas said he disagreed with the judge both on law and on the facts of the case.

He accused Justice Baah of delving into the arena of criminal prosecution against him despite the matter being a civil case.

My team and I and the lawyers have carefully studied the judgment delivered by the court and we are unanimous that the judge made an overreach and descended into the arena and made criminal pronouncements about me as If I was standing a criminal trial.

He also justified the MP accusing me of the murder of JB Danquah, murder of 20 Chinese nationals. We are filing an appeal because there was no evidence provided, Anas said in a video recording responding to the judgment.

He added I disagreed with the judge's ruling both on law and the facts. when I started this work 21 years ago, I never assumed that it would be an easy road yet it is the evidence in my work and the commitment to truth and justice that has always led and prevailed against all the forces that have worked to pull us down

The Accra High Court on Wednesday, March 15 dismissed the GH25 million defamation suit against Kennedy Ohene Agyapong brought by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.

The judge, Justice Eric Baah, held that Anas Aremeyaw Anas failed to prove that Ken Agyapong defamed him by airing the documentary  Who watches the watchman  but rather, the documentary exposed shady deals that Anas and his associates were involved in.

This was after Anas, in 2018, sued the New Patriotic Party (NPP) lawmaker for allegedly defaming him.

Anas prayed to the court to award GH25 million against Mr Agyapong to compensate him for the defamatory material published against him by the MP.

The court concluded that what Anas is engaged in is not investigative journalism but rather investigative terrorism and that Agyapong was justified to call Anas a blackmailer, corrupt, an extortionist, and evil.

I find the claims by the plaintiff [Anas Aremeyaw Anas) meritless and they are hereby dismissed, Justice Baah ruled.

3news.com
Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament's Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo has said it will be difficult for Ghana to secure any form of debt forgiveness from China due to the current economic and geopolitical position of the Asian giant.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Citi FM on the difficulties facing Ghanas plea to China for softer conditions to repay debts owed to China, Mr. Adongo said the political and economic ideology of China is not in sync with the conditions of the Paris Club which poses a greater risk for any debt relief.

We need our friendly nations and the bilateral countries to come together and form a committee, but it has been difficult to get China to come to the table even though China is our biggest bilateral lender. The complexity of the China situation is that there are some bits of geopolitics involved where China does not see the Paris Club as anything other than a Western influence and would always want to have equal arrangements with individual countries.

Mr. Adongo also stressed that the timing of Ghanas engagement with China is not encouraging as there are other African countries seeking the same help from the Asian powerhouse.

Unfortunately for us, we have arrived in China at a time when other African countries are already queueing to borrow from them and so it will be difficult for Ghana to jump that queue because whatever China agrees with Ghana will have to be fair with the other countries we came to meet. And also, traditionally, China does not believe that a sovereign country can be poor but does believe that a country can be broke like we are broke but have asserts and other means through which they can collect their money and so China is not a believer of forgiving debts.

The Bolgatanga Central lawmaker further bemoaned Ghanas insignificant progress in achieving debt sustainability though the government had decided to conduct its infamous domestic debt exchange programme in hope of reducing the nations debt stock.

citinewsroom
Former President, John Dramani Mahama was in attendance on Friday, March 17, when the funeral of late Black Stars forward Christian Atsu was held in Accra.

The family of Christian Atsu with support from the government of Ghana held a befitting burial ceremony for the former Chelsea player in front of State House before his body was sent to his hometown in Ada and buried.

In a post on Facebook today, John Dramani Mahama prayed for Christian Atsu to rest in peace.

Although he agrees Ghana and the world have lost a very good man, he takes comfort in the fact that God gave Atsu to the world for 31 years.

I paid my last respect to the late Christian Atsu, at a state funeral in Accra on Friday.

We lost a good man, but we give thanks to the almighty God for giving Atsu to us even for the short 31 years of his life, John Dramani Mahama shared on Facebook on Saturday.

The former President added, May his gentle soul rest in peace.

At the funeral, John Dramani Mahama interacted with the several dignitaries that attended including sitting President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is of the view that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was not honest when he visited Parliament early this month to deliver the State of the Nation Address (SONA).

As a result, the NDC has announced that it will hold a True State of the Nation Address on Monday, March 20.

The National Democratic Congress invites the general public to a presentation; The True State of the Nation Address, part of a post on the Facebook page of Sammy Gyamfi said.

In the post by the National Communications Officer of the NDC, it said the True State of the Nation Address will start at 2pm at the UPSA Auditorium.

All guests and the general public are to be seated by 1:30pm.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Wednesday, March 8, visited Parliament to deliver the State of the Nation Address.

Among the key highlights of his address, he rubbished allegations that his government has borrowed recklessly and mismanaged the economy into a ditch.

He gave the assurance that the government is working and will ensure it addresses all the challenges facing the country.
Visiting Niger this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed the Western military partner as a model of democracy in a region battling jihadist insurgencies. He also announced a $150 million humanitarian aid package for the wider Sahel region.

"Niger is a young democracy in a challenging part of the world," Blinken told a news conference in the capital, Niamey, after talks with President Mohamed Bazoum on Thursday.

"But it remains true to the values we share. Niger has been quick to defend the democratic values under threat in neighbouring countries."

Blinken is the highest-ranking US official ever to visit the former French colony, where both France and the United States maintain a military presence.

Blinken said the new humanitarian funding includes food aid and support for migrants who have fled to war-ravaged Libya.

This brings US investment for the Sahel to $233 million for the fiscal year.

Counting on democracy

Niger's Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou told RFI that Blinken's visit is a strong sign of "solidarity and consideration" for his country.

He also emphasised Niger's responsibility in upholding democratic values in a region surrounded by "chaos" amid the surge in regional jihadist activities.

"We need to show that democracy is the only way to defeat terrorism," he said.

Unlike many African diplomats, Massoudou condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, noting Niger's own history as a former colony.

Speaking alongside Blinken, Massoudou said he had no proof of suspected Wagner activities in Burkina Faso, but warned against allowing the Russian paramilitary group to make any inroads.

"Our hope," he said, "is that Burkina Faso does not go down this path, towards an organisation that we consider criminal and mercenary.

"We see that Wagner is only present in failed or failing states," he said.

Niger, one of the world's poorest countries, has seen stability since democracy was restored in 2011 even as military regimes have taken over in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, where Russian presence is increasing.

The US has provided training for Niger's troops over the years, as well as equipment and intelligence, and will continue to increase its support, Massoudou told RFI.

Vocational training for ex-jihadists

He insisted that the United States and France are are not fighting the war against terror on behalf of Niger, but are assisting Niger as allies.

France currently has 1,000 troops stationed in the country.

The United States also operates so-called Air Base 201 in the centre of Niger, which is used to fly drones for attacks and surveillance on jihadists in the Sahel.

As part of his visit, Blinken also met former violent extremists who have been rehabilitated through vocational training backed by $20 million in US funding.

The programme is about "giving them a better choice" and is "from our perspective, very much a model that others can look to", Blinken said afterwards.

Blinken also said that the United States was committed to working with Niger on environmental challenges.

Niger is one of the countries hit hardest by climate change, losing 100,000 hectares of arable land each year to desert, according to the United Nations.

The Biden administration launched its bid for greater engagement in Africa in the face of rising investment by China, and more recently Russia.

African Union talks

Blinken held talks with both Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Getachew Reda, a senior leader of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, on Wednesday.

AU-led negotiations, backed by US diplomats, brought about a November 2022 ceasefire that has largely ended the brutal two-year Tigray war in Ethiopia.

He also held a meeting with the leadership of the African Union on Thursday, part of the Biden administration's effort to show deference to regional leaders and avoid appearing overbearing.

(with AFP)
18.03.2023 LISTEN

What could be better than having a glass of refreshing watermelon juice to keep your body hydrated on a hot summer day? The watermelon contains 92 per cent water. The watermelon is also soaked with healthy vitamins, sweet yet refreshing low-calorie fruit.

In Malaysia, the watermelons are grown mostly in Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang, and Terengganu. The watermelons are typically harvested after 70 days, starting in January to March. The watermelon plantation producers could sometimes earn thousands of ringgit from one harvest!

On the other hand, Watermelon farmers in southern Bangladesh are pleased to be getting bumper yields and prices early this season as their produce can now reach markets all over the country thanks to the improved connectivity provided by Padma Bridge.

For the past three years, farmers in more than 100 char areas of Patuakhali, Bhola and Barishal have been planting watermelon in December rather than January in order to begin harvests by mid-February, when prices are typically higher.

Growers say yields are better this year as the weather remained favourable and even though middlemen eat up most of the profit, they are getting good returns based on higher sales.

This is because it now takes less time for wholesalers to carry watermelon from the region to other parts of the country as the opening of the Padma Bridge facilitated road transport, reducing the fruit's chances of rotting along the way.

Bangladesh's export sector has opened a new door, with the first shipment of watermelon from the country reaching Malaysia for the first time on Friday (March 17).

An air-conditioned container loaded with watermelons from Bangladesh was sent to Malaysia through Chattogram seaport. Sattar International located in Halishahar of Chattogram exported a total of 13,000 kilogram of watermelon in the first shipment.

Abdul Kayum, owner of Sattar International said that there is a huge demand for Bangladeshi watermelon in Malaysia. Taking into account the demand, for the first time the initiative was taken. For the past few days, watermelons were collected from farmers of Shibganj upazila in Bogura and to send those to Malaysia.

We would earn 4,000 USD from the first shipment, he added.

An air-conditioned container loaded with watermelons from Bangladesh is being exported to Malaysia through Chattogram seaport today (Friday).

Sattar International located in Halishahar of Chattogram is exporting a total of 13,320 kilogram watermelon to Malaysia in the first shipment.

Replying to a query, owner of Sattar International Abdul Qaium said We are exporting this watermelons buying from Shibganj of Bogura. Production of watermelons is increasing day to day. If we can catch export market of the off-track product, the country will earn more foreign currency, he said.

According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), watermelon has seen bumper production in recent years. In the fiscal year 2021-22, watermelon was produced 5.50 lakh tons while 3.45 lakh tons in FY 2020-21 and 2.50 lakh tons in FY 2019-20.

According to Export Promotion Bureau, no watermelon was exported till the date. Epidemiologist of Chattogram Seaport Plant Disease Control Center Syed Monirul Haque said this is the first shipment of watermelon exported through this seaport.

According to research institutes, there is $2 billion market for watermelons in the world. Watermelons worth $216 crore were exported in 2021. The volume of export was around 77 lakh tons. Spain and Morocco are the highest exporters while America and Europe are the best export destinations.
After successfully celebrating Ghanaian Arts and Culture worldwide, GhanaFest is happening once again. The event which takes place in Canada-Toronto has carefully selected an ambassador for the 2023 edition to help promote and intensify the Ghanafest agenda in Ghana.

To drive top of mind awareness in Ghana and organize a group of Ghanaians to experience the event in Canada, Ghanafest has announced Ghanaian Talent and Events Manager Oppong De-Graft Amponsah as an Ambassador for the event in Toronto.

Oppong De-Graft Amponsah, a talent manager, has successfully worked with great talents from Ghana, like Bosom PYung, Nana Boro and Kweku Smoke. In the background of Events, Oppong De-Graft Amponsah has organized successful events across Ghana.

De-Graft as the Chief Executive Officer of Legendary Ghana Consult has played a leading role in the organization of international Standard events such as Amapiano festival, Cardi B live in Gh, Evandi Hall week, Kumasi fufu Party, Repu Holic, UABA (Team Logoz) and one of the biggest students Hall weeks, Republic Hall weeks which has hosted Top music acts with over 20,000 students in attendance.

As part of his role as the Ambassador of Ghanafest Canada, Oppong De-Graft Amponsah will:

Represent Ghanafest Canada and serve as an advocate for core principles and goals.

Help develop and build a relationship with Sponsors.

Set clear organizational goals and strategies for the organization.

Ensure effective and efficient Day operations and management.

Identify opportunities for the organization.

Handle Sponsorship and vendor management for the organization.

The ambassador also noted that Ghanaians will be given the chance to serve as volunteers at the event in Canada

As part of the activities of promoting and celebrating Ghana's Art and Culture, this calendar outlines the activities for this year, 2023, GhanaFest in Canada:

17 th March 2023: Official Launch of Ghanafest.

09 th April 2023: Solidarity Concert (CANADA)

1st July 2023: Canada Day all white Party Ghanafest n ED Festival. 06th August 2023: Ghanafest Caribbana Weekend.

GhanaFest expects a grand celebration in Canada with the help of its new Ambassador and to hoist the flag of Ghana in Canada.
After over 42 years when HIV virus was first detected, the fight against AIDS has indeed come a long way. Ending AIDS by 2030 means that every person globally has access to full spectrum of combination prevention options to protect oneself from HIV, all people living with HIV know their status, receive lifesaving antiretroviral therapy, and remain virally suppressed. Science-proven fact that when HIV virus is at undetectable levels then it is untransmittable too, or undetectable equals untransmittable (U Equals U) needs to be a reality in life of every person living with HIV.

Are we at the milestone of blunting of AIDS epidemic?

Globally by end of December 2021, new HIV infections reported every year have reduced by 54% since the peak in 1996. In 2021, 1.5 million people got newly infected with HIV, compared to 3.2 million people in 1996. Compared to 2010, annual new infection rate has declined by 32% since then (in 2010, 2.2 million people got newly infected with HIV). Since 2010, new HIV infections among children have declined by 52%, from 320,000 in 2010 to 160,000 in 2021, said Dr Ishwar Gilada, President of 14th National Conference of AIDS Society of India (ASICON 2023) and Governing Council member, International AIDS Society (IAS).

AIDS-related deaths have also declined by 68% in 2021 compared to the peak in 2004 (and by 52% since 2010). In 2021, around 650,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses worldwide, compared to 2 million people in 2004 and 1.4 million people in 2010.

India too has bent the HIV curve but challenges remain

Annual new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths continue to decline nationally. Between 2010 and 2021, new infections declined by 46% and while AIDS-related mortality declined by 76%, according to the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) of the government of India.

The Blunting of an Epidemic: A courageous war on AIDS book launched

The 14th National Conference of AIDS Society of India (14th ASICON) which is happening in Delhi, India (17-19 March 2023), called upon stronger and effective integrated HIV responses to end AIDS by 2030. ASICON 2023 is being held on the theme of Energize  Empathize  Equalize, in academic partnership with Indias National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP), United Nations joint programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), International AIDS Society (IAS), among others. As 1st ASICON was previously held in 2005, ASICON is being held in national capital Delhi after 18 years.

Dr Anoop Kumar Puri, Deputy Director General of National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), Government of India; Dr David Bridger, Country Director, UNAIDS India; Dr Po-Lin Chan, Head of Communication Diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO) for Southeast Asian region; Dr Ishwar Gilada, President of 14th ASICON and AIDS Society of India (ASI); Dr N Kumarasamy, Secertary General, ASI; Dr Dilip Mathai, President-elect, ASI; Dr Glory Alexander, Vice President, ASI; Dr Ruby Bansal, Organizing Secretary of 14th ASICON; Dr Atul Gogia, Co-Chair of 14th ASICON; were among the key dignitaries who addressed the opening ceremony.

The Blunting of an Epidemic: A courageous war on AIDS book authored by Jayashree Shetty and Gopal Shetty, was released at ASICON 2023 by NACO DDG Dr Puri, UNAIDS India head Dr Bridger, and WHO regional head of infectious diseases Dr Po-Lin Chan. It chronicles 37 years long fierce and tireless journey of Dr Ishwar Gilada who had established Indias first HIV clinic in government-run JJ Hospital Mumbai when first case had got diagnosed in the country.

Dr Gilada said that we need to recognize and address the inequalities which are holding back progress in ending AIDS, and to equalize access to essential full cascade of HIV care services, particularly for key and vulnerable populations. TB, a disease of poverty and inequality, is a leading cause of severe illness and death among people with HIV. TB is preventable and curable and people with HIV who do not receive appropriate prevention and care are at much higher risk of developing and dying from TB. Many of those who die from HIV-related TB are the most vulnerable populations who are not reached by timely health services, including services to address comorbidities such as undernutrition, mental health disorders and substance use disorders.

According to 2022 WHO Global TB Report, over 54000 people living with HIV in India also developed active TB disease in 2021, out of which 11,000 died. No one should die of HIV or TB. More importantly we have the scientifically proven tools and approaches to prevent, and treat and manage TB in people living with HIV, said Dr Gilada.

ASI Lifetime Achievement Awards 2023

Four distinguished HIV medical experts and scientists were conferred the ASI Lifetime Achievement Awards. Dr Prakash Bora, Dr Rajiv Jerajani, Dr Savita Pahwa, and Dr AR Pazare.

Close the gap

Dr Glory Alexander, Vice President of ASI and co-Chair of 14th ASICON, has earlier received the coveted Dr BC Roy Award and heads ASHA Foundation in Bengaluru. She said: Achieving the 95-95-95 targets is crucial to help end the AIDS epidemic. But even after 40 years into the epidemic, more than 20% of people with HIV still do not know their HIV status. We will have to use innovative approaches to close this gap. And one of these approaches is by self-testing for HIV - people who perceive themselves at risk of HIV infection (persons from key populations, men, young people among others) are given the opportunity to self-test for the infection so that they can test in the privacy of their homes. This has received a very big YES from the key populations in the Asia Pacific region. We call upon the government of India to take it up and develop a strategic framework for HIV Self-Test (HIVST) to make self-testing for HIV an integral part of HIV services.

Prevention of mother to child transmission is another important gap. We know that 90% of the children below 15 who are HIV positive got the infection through vertical transmission (from mother to child). If we eliminate this vertical transmission, we will eliminate paediatric HIV in our country. But it is no easy task. Hidden among the 27 million women who get pregnant every year in India, there are about 27500 women who are HIV positive. These women have to be traced, diagnosed and put on treatment to reduce the risk of transmission to the baby born to them to less than 1% from the current 45% said Dr Glory Alexander.

Last mile is not a time for complacency but for stronger action

Since most nations could not meet 2020 AIDS targets, now the eyes are set on 2030 goalpost of 95-95-95 targets (95% of people living with HIV to know their status, 95% of them should be on ART, and 95% of these be virally suppressed). HIV self-test is one of the key cog-in-the-wheel to reaching out to the last mile for first-95 target.

Globally, 15% of all people living with HIV did not knew their HIV status in 2021. Among people who knew their status, 12% were NOT accessing treatment. And among people accessing treatment, 8% were NOT virally suppressed. Likewise, in India, as on March 2022, 23% of people living with HIV DID NOT knew their status, 16% of them were NOT on antiretroviral therapy, and 15% of them DID NOT had viral suppression. These are missed opportunities which we cannot afford if we are to end AIDS, said Dr Ishwar Gilada.

Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant  CNS (Citizen News Service)

(Shobha Shukla and Bobby Ramakant are part of the editorial team at CNS (Citizen News Service). Follow them on Twitter @Shobha1Shukla or @BobbyRamakant)
Jesus Cares International school in the Obuasi Municipality has emerged winners of the 2023 National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) Constitution Quiz Competition in Obuasi.

The Annual competition organized by the Obuasi Municipal office of NCCE was to engage pupils and help them to appreciate the relevance of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

The competition is mainly targeted at the youth to instill in them a sense of civic duty for national growth and development. The competition again promotes active citizenship among students and enable them to participate in sustaining Ghana's democracy.

Jesus Cares International school won with 36 points beating three other schools, Awurade Basa, BONSEC Standard school and New Nsuta school who had 29, 27 and 21 points respectively.

The schools were given constitution game, certificate of participation for both the school and the participants, exercise books, pens and mathematical sets.

Throwing more light on the quiz competition Senior Civic Education officer Jacqueline Mahu said the competition forms part of activities to celebrate 30 years of the works of the NCCE to consolidate the democracy of the country.

She added that the Constitution Quiz has been adopted as a key strategy by the Commission to execute its core mandate, which is to educate Ghanaians on the principles and objectives of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana to engender civic consciousness among citizens.

Madam Mahu lauded the Obuasi Municipal Assembly for sponsoring the quiz competition saying her office will intensify education on the constitution especially in schools to enable the pupils appreciate the tenants of the constitution.

Nana Owusu Akyeaw Brempong, Odikro of Bogobiri who was the chairman of the occasion called for amendments to the 1992 constitution emphasising that it has outlived its importance. He said the constitution must take into consideration current circumstances pertaining in the country.

"We must consider job creation, maximising our natural resource usage, improving agriculture in our new constitution. Again emoluments given to Article 71 office holders must be reviewed".

Nana Owusu Akyeaw Brempong also suggested that there was the need to sensitize school children on how the local government system operates. He said there was a disconnect between the people and the system that has been employed to govern them.

"The onus lies on we the leaders especially traditional leaders to consistently monitor how the local government system works so that we can also educate our followers".

Mrs. Hannah Fosu of the Obuasi Municipal Education Directorate called for more of such quiz competitions to conscientise pupils on the need to acknowledge the importance of the 1992 constitution. He said the Education Directorate will continue to partner the NCCE on such programs.

Sir Julius Ziemah, a social studies teacher and NCCE patron of Jesus Cares Int. School said the school makes conscious efforts to educate their pupils on the principles of the constitution hence their stellar performance on the day.
Nigerians were voting in local elections Saturday, three weeks after the ruling party won a presidential poll that the opposition alleged was marred by fraud.

Africa's most populous nation is electing more than 900 state assembly lawmakers and 28 governors, with a particularly competitive contest in the commercial capital Lagos.

Governors are powerful positions in Nigeria, with some controlling state budgets that are larger than those of several African nations.

Polling units were scheduled to open at 8:30 am (0730 GMT) and close by 2:30 pm (1330 GMT) though delays are frequent and voters in line before closing time should still be able to vote.

After last month's presidential poll, which was largely peaceful but marked by long delays and technical failures, some voters and opposition parties claimed the mishaps allowed for ballot manipulation.

Both the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are contesting the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25 election in a legal battle that could extend over several months.

Africa's most populous nation is electing more than 900 state assembly lawmakers and 28 governors. By PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (AFP)

The electoral commission has rejected claims of rigging but the experience could impact Saturday's vote, which was delayed by a week for technical reasons.

On Lagos's wealthy Ikoyi island, polling units were set up early, giving some residents hope for a hitch-free day.

"We hope this election will be one of the better elections," said Sukiman Abubakar, a 52-year-old estate surveyor.

On the mainland, heavy security was deployed with armoured vehicles seen by an AFP reporter at Iyana-Ipaaja and Abulegba, areas prone to violence.

'Opportunity for change'

Babajide Sanwo Olu, Lagos Governor and Ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, is seeking re-election. By PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (AFP)

At Ijaiye in the Agbado area of Lagos, 46-year-old trader Fausat Balogun was eager to cast a ballot.

"I have been here since 6 am (0500 GMT) to vote for the candidates of my choice. We need fresh blood in Lagos. The old politicians have failed us," he said.

While the megacity of some 20 million people is considered the fiefdom of president-elect Bola Tinubu, outsider Peter Obi of the LP caused a stir on Ferbuary 25 by winning most votes in the state thanks to widespread support from Nigeria's youth.

One of Obi's supporters who showed up to vote on Saturday in the Agidiigbi Ikeja area was Damilola Adisa, a 20-year-old economics student.

While her candidate lost the presidential race, the first-time voter said she sees "this election too as an opportunity for a change."

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of Nigeria's Labour Party (LP) is running for governor in Lagos, a state where president-elect Bola Tinubu holds significant influence.. By Patrick Meinhardt (AFP)

Most states are currently governed either by the APC or the PDP whose leader Atiku Abubakar came in second in the presidential elections.

But whether Obi's growing popularity and the emergence of the LP as a third force in Nigerian politics will translate at the governorship and local assembly levels, especially in Lagos where its former governor Tinubu is influential, remains to be seen.

The Lagos race pits incumbent Babajide Sanwo-Olu (APC) against Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (LP) and Olajide Adediran (PDP).

Other hotly-contested races are expected in southern Rivers and northern Kano, while northeast Adamawa could see the election of Nigeria's first woman governor.

Risk of violence

A decisive factor in Saturday's election will be turnout -- though more than 93 million Nigerians are registered to vote, just over 24 million cast a ballot in February.

The risk of electoral violence and a lack of cash in Nigeria due to a recent currency swap could discourage residents from voting. By KOLA SULAIMON (AFP)

With many people hoping for a new leadership capable of tackling growing insecurity and deepening poverty but disappointed in how last month's election was conducted, some voters could decide to stay at home.

In Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria and second biggest pool of voters after Lagos, some improvements were noted according to residents.

"Voting started at 8:30am... It is quite orderly and the queues are not as long as in the previous election," said Ahmad Awwalu, a 27-year-old motorcycle mechanic before casting his ballot at Hotoro Primary School.

"This is a great improvement compared to the mess we experienced during the presidential election."

Election observers Yiaga Africa also noted "a marked improvement in the management of election logistics" despite some "incidences of voter intimidation and harassment."

In several areas of Kano, thugs showed up at polling units to intimidate voters and in some cases destroyed electoral material, according to local media and election observers.

Vote buying was also reported in at least eight different states, Yiaga Africa said.

Electoral violence and bribes for votes are recurring problems in Nigeria, worsened this year by a lack of cash following a botched currency swap.
The Minority in Parliament says Ghana will not be able to secure the International Monetary Funds (IMF) board approval at the end of March 2023 contrary to claims by the government.

The opposition group explained that the government has not been able to satisfy the financing assurances regarding the bailout which includes the board documents.

The Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, made this known during a debate on the State of the Nation Address on Friday.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo recently expressed optimism that the government is systematically fulfilling the terms of the staff-level agreement reached with the IMF and is confident that it will secure a deal by the end of March.

With the successful process of the domestic debt exchange programme and the support received from other creditors, Mr Akufo-Addo was upbeat that Ghana would clinch the $3 billion bailout from the IMF to improve the country's economic situation.

I am confident with the cooperation we're receiving from members of the Paris Club and the People's Republic of China, which has sent a delegation from China's Exim Bank to Accra over the weekend to meet with officials of the Ministry of Finance, we shall be able to go to the board of the fund to conclude finally the agreement by the end of March, he said.

But the Minority Leader said Ghana is not likely to clinch a deal with the IMF in March and would be lucky to get a deal in April.

Mr Speaker, our President said on authority that Ghana would get an IMF Board approval by the end of this month, I dont know who is briefing our President, but Ghana will not be able to get an IMF Board approval by the end of this month because even the board documents are prepared.

We need to get China to give Ghana financing assurance and that they are ready to take a haircut and China has not agreed.

Citi Newsroom
Vote counting started following local elections in Nigeria on Saturday, three weeks after the ruling party won a presidential poll that the opposition said was marred by fraud.

With President Muhammadu Buhari stepping down in May after two terms, many hoping for change were disappointed in the way elections were conducted last month, a sentiment which could impact the local poll.

Africa's most populous nation is electing more than 900 state assembly lawmakers and 28 governors, with a particularly competitive contest in the commercial capital Lagos.

Election observers Yiaga Africa noted "a marked improvement in the management of election logistics" on Saturday despite some "incidences of voter intimidation and harassment".

Both the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of the opposition are contesting the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25 election in a legal battle that could extend over several months.

They claim that technical mishaps allowed for ballot manipulation, which the electoral commission, INEC, denied.

Africa's most populous nation is electing more than 900 state assembly lawmakers and 28 governors. By PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (AFP)

After a day of relatively peaceful voting in Lagos, many people kept watch as election officials proceeded to count ballots manually before they were to be uploaded online.

"I am pleased with the counting so far. The election has been free and fair. I hope INEC will do what is normal and declare the rightful candidate as the winner," said 25-year-old nurse Bimpe Adepeju.

'Opportunity for change'

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos governor and ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, is seeking re-election. By PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (AFP)

Earlier in the day, heavy security was seen deployed across the city of some 20 million people.

Considered the fiefdom of president-elect Bola Tinubu, outsider Peter Obi of the LP caused a stir last month by winning the most votes in Lagos state thanks to widespread support from Nigeria's youth.

One of Obi's supporters who showed up to vote on Saturday in the Agidiigbi Ikeja area was Damilola Adisa, a 20-year-old economics student.

While her candidate lost the presidential race, the first-time voter said she sees "this election too as an opportunity for a change".

Governors are powerful positions in Nigeria, with some controlling state budgets that are larger than those of several African nations.

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of Nigeria's Labour Party (LP) is running for governor in Lagos, a state where president-elect Bola Tinubu holds significant influence. By Patrick Meinhardt (AFP)

Most states are currently governed either by the APC or the PDP, whose leader Atiku Abubakar came second in the presidential elections.

Whether the growing popularity of Obi, who came third after Abubakar, will translate at the governorship and local assembly levels remains to be seen.

Tinubu is a former governor of Lagos and remains highly influential in the state where his party's candidate Babajide Sanwo-Olu is running for re-election against Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (LP) and Olajide Adediran (PDP).

Other hotly contested races took place on Saturday in southern Rivers and northern Kano, while northeast Adamawa could see the election of Nigeria's first woman governor.

Risk of violence

A decisive factor in these local elections will be turnout -- though more than 93 million Nigerians are registered to vote, just over 24 million cast a ballot in February.

In Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria and second biggest pool of voters after Lagos, many residents said voting had started on time and that electoral staff appeared better prepared than in February.

"This is a great improvement compared to the mess we experienced during the presidential election," said Ahmad Awwalu, a 27-year-old motorcycle mechanic before casting his ballot at Hotoro Primary School.

The risk of electoral violence and a lack of cash in Nigeria due to a recent currency swap could discourage residents from voting. By KOLA SULAIMON (AFP)

However, in several areas of Kano, thugs showed up at polling units to intimidate voters and in some cases destroyed electoral material, according to local media and election observers.

Vote buying was also reported in at least eight different states, Yiaga Africa said.

Electoral violence and bribes for votes are recurring problems in Nigeria, worsened this year by a lack of cash following a botched currency swap.

"When you are offered money you should take it but vote your conscience," Buhari told local media after casting his vote in his hometown of Daura.
A Senior lecturer at the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Ghana (UG), Dr. Gilbert Tietaah is urging media practitioners in Ghana to be wary of sharing mis-disinformation which has the tendency of fomenting unnecessary tension in the country during political seasons.

Mis-disinformation is a combination of two words, misinformation, and disinformation which means information that is false and misleading and may either be intended to harm or not to harm.

Dr. Tietaah added that such an act of sharing false information leads to deception of the public which is likely to affect voting preferences and thereby, impact negatively the country's development.

Speaking to Citi News on the sidelines of a two-day training workshop for journalists on fact-checking and countering mis-disinformation organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Dr. Tietaah emphasized the need for media practitioners to be more scrupulous when spreading information.

Passing on information without the intent or without the knowledge that is wrong calls on us to be more diligent and scrupulous in the information we share. We make mistakes but when we make mistakes, there has to be a writing, a disclosure or correction process, he noted.

The Communication lecturer also stressed that mis-disinformation can be reduced when media practitioners expose themselves to training workshops to renew what they already know.

Meanwhile, a fact-checker and Programmes Officer with the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Krobea Asante urged media practitioners to avoid biases when cross-checking information that affects its outcome.

Sometimes you are likely to analyse information along your personal beliefs or your own beliefs, so you believe in something to the point where information comes to you. But you are biased towards that belief, and you use that belief system to approach an understanding or analysis of certain information when you are trying to fact-check it. Therefore, you may not get the best out of what you want to do, the fact-checker explained.

The training workshop brought together twenty-five (25) journalists drawn from Accra and other regions across the country.

citinewsroom
Bolgatanga Midwifery training college in the Upper East Region is appealing to the government for the recruitment of staff and construction of hostel facilities for academic work in the college.

The college has had to turn down 570 applicants for the 2022/23 academic year due to inadequate accommodation and low staff.

Speaking at the colleges 17th matriculation in Bolgatanga, the Principal of the college, Christiana Amalba, bemoaned the situation and appealed to stakeholders to intervene.

Large numbers of prospective students apply to this college yearly and each time, we are faced with the painful decision of having to turn down many applicants who otherwise are well qualified but due to the challenges of low academic staff and inadequate facilities, most especially accommodation of students.

Out of 792 applicants, only 222 students were admitted to undergo special training in this college.

I want to use this medium to call on the support of all interested parties, investors, local entrepreneurs, alumni and all stakeholders in and outside of the region of the region to help construct hostel facilities to resolve this pressing issue of accommodation of students.

Mrs Amalba further assured the matriculants of her commitment to creating a conducive environment for enhanced academic work.

She admonished the students to invest their energies into their studies and eschew all acts of indiscipline.

She hinted that all matriculants shall sign a bond of good behaviour and abide by the rules and regulations of the college.

For his part, the Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu, reiterated the governments commitment to addressing some challenges facing the college.

He admonished the matriculants to take their studies seriously and refrain from all manner of social vices.

He further cautioned them against the use of mobile phones on social media platforms that could bring the name of the institution into disrepute but rather use the to advance their course of study.
National Youth Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Salam Mustapha has pleaded with the people of the Volta Region not to allow themselves to be used as just voting machines, producing votes for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) only during elections.

In an interview with Volta-based Stone City FM which was also carried by Keta-based Sandcity Radio, the youth leader who is on a National Tour to all the 16 regions of the country stated:

You are not voting machines. It should be a hand go; hand come affair. The Volta Region has been loyal to the NDC since 1992. But what has been the reward for the region for this loyalty? The NPP has brought more development to this region compared to the NDC. We have offered young people hope and will continue to make the development of young people our priority.

Explaining further on the development of the region by NPP government, the Road Master as he is affectionately called said:

We are constructing 8 district hospitals under Agenda 111 in the region which includes Agortime Ziope District, Agortoe in the Anloga District, Ave-Dakpa in the Akatsi North District, Adeheta in the Akatsi South District, Adaklu Waya in the Adaklu District, Kpeve New Town in the South Dayi District, Dzolokputa in the Ho West District and Ve-Golokwati Afadzato in the Afadzato South District. Volta Regional Youth Resource Centre, the asphalting of roads, digitalization, 1D1F, creating job opportunities, and the hosting of the 66th Independence Day in the Volta region among others. Under President Kufuor, we also had the Health Insurance, Free Maternal Care, etc.

He continued further, let us begin to have a conversation as to which of these two political parties has benefited more in terms of votes and which party has contributed more in terms of development. The youth of this region must do an analysis of the two parties and see which is good for the region in terms of development and progress.

On the current state of the economy, he indicated that:

Yes, we, including his excellency the president have all admitted that we are in a crisis largely due to exogenous factors of Covid-19 and the war in Russia and Ukraine. Ghana was the fasters growing economy in the world somewhere in 2019, according to Reuters and Bloomberg. We were ahead of China and the USA. And it is only the NPP that can take us out of our current situation.

Even our management of COVID-19 has been one of the best in the world. Under John Mahama and the NDC, when we were struck with mere cholera, we lost over 213 people in Ghana. If they couldnt manage mere cholera, how could they have managed COVID? Even in our current state, we are still not doing badly, our lights are still on, and we still get fuel at the pump to buy. In the UK, Spain, Italy, and Nigeria, there is a shortage of fuel. There is dumsor there too.

The youth leader further argued that let's not fall for the NDCs propaganda, lies and treachery. They left office with virtually nothing left behind. All our statutory payments, GETFUND, NHIA, Common Fund, Road Fund, etc. were all in arrears. Even in the midst of all these difficulties, we still pay public sector workers monthly without delay, we still meet all our statutory payments obligations, our lights are still on, there is enough fuel at the pump, etc.

We have carried water, and we have carried wine, and we tell which one is heavier. Per the track record, its evident that the NPP has done more for the development and progress of the Volta region than the NDC. It is now time for the good people of the Volta region, especially the youth, to reward the NPP by voting for us in 2024 to break the 8 and do more for the region.

He concluded his interactive interview with an appeal to the region once more the NPP truly deserves a 3rd term based on our track record and performance. We have demonstrated enough commitment to solving the problems of the country more than the NDC. We have superior ideas and policy initiatives than NDC. I am not disappointed that Ghanaians are complaining because of the current economic difficulties. It is because they hold us in high esteem.

The National Youth Organiser has been on a National Tour to touch base with the youth and party's youth organisers and their deputies across the country.

He is also using the opportunity to assess the strength of the party and energize the base of the party. He has been accompanied across the country by his two (2) deputies, Isaac Jay Hyde and Sandra Sarkodee-Addo. As well as the National Youth Wing Administrator, Prince A. A. Sadat.

By Citi Newsroom
Taliban leaders in Afghanistan have taken part in an online course on Indian culture, diplomacy and business suggesting New Delhi is keen to engage with the Islamic militia that seized Kabul in 2021. But Delhi argues the fully online syllabus was free of cost and not exclusively aimed at the Taliban.

The course would provide a deeper grasp of Indian business, environment, culture, history, leadership insights, consumer mindsets and regulatory ecosystem, the India Technical and Economic Cooperation Program (ITEC) said on its website.

India's foreign ministry-backed ITEC hosts such programmes in 161 countries and said the four-day course that began Tuesday was crafted by the elite Indian Institute of Management in the southern city of Kozhikode.

Taliban line up

Kabul selected 18 Afghan diplomats; officials said they were screened from a group of personnel who responded to a recent Taliban circular asking eligible workers to line up for the programme.

ITEC had fixed a quota of 30 participants, including business leaders, executives and entrepreneurs for the crowded sessions.

Indian foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi dismissed speculation that the invitation had gone out only to the Taliban from his government or any of its entities in Delhi.

The programme was open to students "around the world, including in Afghanistan," he said.

Friend or foe?

Bagchi also refuted any shift in Delhi's stand on the Taliban, which last year sparked off worldwide outrage after it banned four Afghan universities from enlisting women students already excluded from secondary school education.

"India has been extending capacity-building assistance to developing countries across the world through the ITEC programme and this includes online courses," Bagchi told a press conference in Delhi.

"These courses are also open to nationals of various countries, including Afghanistan; a number of Afghan nationals, both based in India as well as in Afghanistan, have been participating in these ITEC courses.

Indian media ANI reported that the Indian embassy in Kabul had offered details of the course to the Taliban in an informal message.

The Indian side "does not issue any note verbales [diplomatic note] to any entities that are not recognised by New Delhi, Bagchi said.

Humanitarian aid

India does not recognise the Taliban regime and shut its Kabul embassy in 2021. It reopened the mission with skeletal staff a year later after sending emergency wheat supplies to the food-starved nation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has joined five central Asian countries demanding: Afghanistan should not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing any terrorist acts."

Their UN-endorsed joint statement even called for a "truly inclusive" political structure in Kabul and said it must respect the rights of the Afghan people, including women and minorities.

In February 2022, some 80 Afghan cadets from Indian military schools were allowed to stay on for a year and learn English under the ITEC program rather than returning home to an uncertain future.

Since 2001, India has spent 2.8 billion euros through a number of projects; it also sent considerable aid following last year's earthquake as well as Covid-19 vaccines, to stay ahead of arch-rival Pakistan in Afghanistan.

India is home to more than 15,000 UN-registered Afghan refugees. It unveiled an emergency visa to cope with a swell in new arrivals following the Taliban takeover.

Hundreds more, who are not registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, say they are waiting for the opportunity and means to head to the West.

New Delhi turns a blind eye to their illegal status.
Justice Alexander Graham, a Bolgatanga High Court Judge has allegedly fled the Upper East Region after his residence was allegedly attacked by unknown persons on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.

The Ghana News Agency gathered that some unknown persons pelted stones at his house which prompted the security of the judge to call for reinforcement.

The attackers immediately left the scene after sensing the arrival of the reinforcement team, comprising the Ghana Police Service and the military.

On Thursday, March 16, 2023, the acting Supervising High Court Judge of the region was escorted out of the region to Accra.

The reason for the attack is currently unknown, however, it came a few days after the judge presiding over cases in the High Court Two in Bolgatanga convicted two people for contempt of court.

The two are Naab Nyakora Maantii, the Divisional Chief of Baare and Mr Richard Sunday Yinbil, Secretary of Talensi Traditional Council.

It has been reported that the two led a delegation sent by Tongraan Kugbilsong Nanlebegtang, Paramount Chief of the Talensi Traditional Area to request a private meeting with Justice Graham to discuss cases filed from the Traditional Area and were pending before the court the judge was presiding over.

The Judge stormed out of his chambers where the delegation met him and ordered the security in the courtroom to arrest them and charge them for contempt.

The accused pleaded guilty and were subsequently convicted on their own plea.

The Judge described the action from the Palace as an attempt to influence his decision and entrap him and asked them to sign a bond of good behaviour with the Upper East Regional Police Command for a period of six months following several appeals from lawyers in the court when the Judge initially wanted to jail the two persons.

The court did not sit on Thursday and Friday as a result of the attack on the Judge which left persons who had cases to be heard stranded after waiting for several hours.

Meanwhile, a statement from the Talensi Traditional Council and signed by Naab Tampelsong Kun Gaadzom, Divisional Chief of Tindongo, admitted to sending two of its members to Justice Graham to invite him to the Palace for a meeting but refuted claims of influence and entrapment.

The statement noted that the Judge had on several occasions referred cases to the Talensi Traditional Council for resolution and therefore, the request was for the Judge to help the Traditional Council resolve land litigation issues in the area according to its Customary Land Secretariat.

At a press conference, the National Patriots Against Injustice and Corruption Ghana (NAPAIC-Ghana), described the attack on the Judge as barbaric, uncalled for and shameful and urged the Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah to as matter of urgency, strengthen security to protect Justice Graham, his family and property.

Mr Zumah Tii-roug, Member and Recorder of NAPAIC, who spoke at the press conference, urged the security agencies to conduct a search and investigation to bring perpetrators of the crime to book to serve as deterrent to others.

There are fears in the region that Justice Alexander Graham would be transferred from the region in the wake of the attack, and this would serve as a bad precedent should he be transferred.

This is so because anytime judgment would be given against litigants, they would resort to this kind of attack on the judge in the hope that the judge would be transferred.

GNA
90-year-old tortoise becomes father of three BBC

Loneliness and the Trinity of Creativity: Ada Lovelace, the Poles of the Mind, and the Source of Her Imaginative Powers The Marginalian (Chuck L)

Posed Riddles Drift Magazine (Anthony l)

#COVID-19

Climate/Environment

China?

Indias Impending BrahMos Deal With Indonesia Could Shift ASEANs Military-Strategic Dynamics Andrew Korybko (Micael T)

Pakistan Police Raids Ex-Premier Imran Khans Lahore House: TV Bloomberg

Old Blighty

La belle France

BREAKING: France, electricians and gas workers sing Emmanuel Macron, if you continue, there will be complete darkness at your place! Moments later: The Fort de Bregancon, Emmanuel Macrons official residence, was deprived of electricity by pic.twitter.com/8hvPWCtcyZ https://t.co/ck6mANtcnX  Antonio Sabato Jr (@AntonioSabatoJr) March 16, 2023

New Not-So-Cold War

Syraqistan

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Imperial Collapse Watch

Trump

Trump-commissioned report undercut his claims of dead and double voters Washington Post

Biden

Where the money went: The Bidens and Biden associates that received Chinese cash New York Post (furzy) Per below, you have no expectation of privacy with respect to your garbage and abandoned property. This is just harassment of that poor schlub repair shop owner. However, if someone on the right were alert, theyd fund his defense, because repair shop owner would get to do discovery on Hunter. Hunter Biden just sued the Delaware repair shop where he left his laptop for invasion of privacy and distributing his data. The obvious premise is that the laptop was real and it came from that store  the exact opposite of what all corporate media claimed for the 2020 election: https://t.co/eL92l3QDuN  Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 17, 2023 WHOS YOUR GEORGE BALL? Seymour Hersch

Rural America and suburbs part company politically Asia Times

Mutilating children for profit: California teenager sues doctors over breast-removal surgery at age 13 in Kaiser Permanentes SECOND blockbuster transgender lawsuit Daily Mail

Our No Longer Free Press

The Twitter Files and the new censorship regime Andrew Lowenthal

Residents Right to Be Rude Upheld by Massachusetts Supreme Court New York Times (resilc). So individuals can be impolitic but not anyone with a megaphone.

B-a-a-a-a-d Banks

Wow. Boeing is arguing that it is not liable for victim suffering claims in Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crash because victims died painlessly because the airplane crashed into the ground so fast that their brains didnt have time to process pain signals. https://t.co/5PE7782yvd  Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) March 16, 2023

The Bezzle

Guillotine Watch

Kiss my a$$: Credit Suisse wife Lizzie Asher flashes butt amid $54B bailout Page Six. Resilc: Where is ISIS when you need them to run burn cages?

Class Warfare

WHEN YOURE AN ACTIVIST, YOURE A STUDENT OF OTHER MOVEMENTS THROUGH TIME AND AROUND THE WORLD. JENNY WEBER ON THE ART OF PROTEST Patagpnia (guurst)

Google nixes paying out rest of medical leave for laid-off employees CNBC. Resilc: When does someone gun up?

A perfect storm of food-stamp cuts and low tax refunds is looming  and discount chains like Dollar General and Big Lots could feel the pain Business Insider

How Mental Health Care Is Near-Impossible to Get on Medicaid Intercept

Antidote du jour (Tracie H):

And a bonus. Resilcs sheep herd:

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Yves here. With the 20 year anniversary of sorts of the US invasion of Iraq, many analysts are focusing on why we launched the attack and what did it accomplish. If you were following the conflict closely at the time, it was noteworthy how many times the official justification for why we went in changed.

One part of the discussion that is often missed is that the US had long been gunning for this war. Scott Ritter recounts that as UN weapons inspector, he was sent in, IIRC in 1998, to deliver the demand that the Iraqis submit to an inspection of their Defense Ministry. No sovereign nation would normally submit to that.

But Ritter, who if not liked was nevertheless trusted by the Iraqis, persuaded them that the demand was a trap, that if Iraq refused, the US would depict that as proof they were up to no good and would invade. The Iraqis agreed to let Ritter and his team in. Ritter reports he conducted a bona fide inspection and found nothing. The higher ups were furious. Ritter resigned. Even though at the time Ritter maintained he quit because he and his team did not have the ability to monitor Iraqs weapons programs, and he stated then that Iraq had or could get WMD, by 1999, he had considerably stepped down his claims about what Iraq had and could do. I have not come across any explanation by Ritter of his alarmism right after his resignation versus his reversal shortly thereafter. If readers know of any, please provide links in comments.

This incident later led to a shameful exchange with Joe Biden, then ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If nothing else, it clearly demonstrates that commitment to regime change in Iraq was a two-party affair.

First a summary from The Intercept:

In 1998, U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter resigned in protest and accused the international community of not giving him and his colleagues the support they needed to carry out their job in Iraq, which had agreed in 1991 to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile. He was called to testify before the Senate in September 1998, where Biden, who was then the highest-ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations committee, grilled him. In the course of the questions, Biden made revealing remarks about where he stood on regime change in Iraq. Biden thanked Ritter for forcing senators to come to our milk, by which he meant forcing them to make a decision on what to do about Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his alleged weapons of mass destruction program. Biden told Ritter that no matter how thorough the inspections, the only way to eliminate the threat was to remove Saddam Hussein. The primary policy is to keep sanctions in place to deny Saddam the billions of dollars that would allow him to really crank up his program, which neither you nor I believe hes ever going to abandon as long as hes in place, Biden said, characterizing former President Bill Clintons administrations policy. You and I believe, and many of us believe here, as long as Saddam is at the helm, there is no reasonable prospect you or any other inspector is ever going to be able to guarantee that we have rooted out, root and branch, the entirety of Saddams program relative to weapons of mass destruction. You and I both know, and all of us here really know, and its a thing we have to face, that the only way, the only way were going to get rid of Saddam Hussein is were going to end up having to start it alone  start it alone  and its going to require guys like you in uniform to be back on foot in the desert taking this son of a  taking Saddam down, Biden said. You know it and I know it. Bidens grilling of Ritter is important because it gives context to claims Biden later made: First, that when he voted in favor of the invasion of Iraq as a senator, he did not mean to vote for war, but hoped the resolution would empower inspectors to get back into Iraq and monitor the program. And second, that he never believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction In fact, as Biden had said in 1998, he believed not only that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, but no amount of inspections or diplomacy could guarantee their removal. That, he told Ritter, could only be done by guys like you in uniform to be back on foot in the desert taking this son of a  taking Saddam down.

Astonishingly, or perhaps predictably, Wikipedia covers for Biden, depicting Ritter as the hawk.

Here are key snippets from Bidens remarks:

Now to the main event.

By Paul Rogers, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies in the Department of Peace Studies and International Relations at Bradford University, and an Honorary Fellow at the Joint Service Command and Staff College. He is openDemocracys international security correspondent. He is on Twitter at: @ProfPRogers. Originally published at openDemocracy

Twenty years after the start of the Iraq War, one question remains difficult to answer convincingly. Just why did the United States, under President George W Bush, invade and occupy Iraq? Answers from academics and think tanks range from the need to safeguard oil supplies held by a rogue state that had taken over Kuwait and now controlled a fifth of the worlds oil reserves, through to Iraq supporting terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction.

Such answers may be plausible enough and include a degree of truth, but we still have to ask: why go to war then? It was barely a year since the US and a few partners had terminated the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The US had defeated and dispersed the al-Qaeda movement behind the 9/11 attacks, so if the so-called war on terror was over, why take on Iraq?

The US domestic political context is important here. Democrat president Bill Clinton had served two terms from 1993 to 2001, and over that time a hard-right vision had emerged within the Republican Party.

Those within this prominent faction  known as neoconservatives  were utterly convinced that Clinton had been a disaster. As they saw it, the collapse of the Soviet Union at the start of the 1990s had given the US a God-given opportunity to play a unique and timely leadership role in the development of a global system rooted in neoliberalism, supported by US military power.

The highly influential foreign policy lobby group Project for a New American Century was founded in 1997 from a conviction that the United States should play a near-messianic role, in marked contrast to the weak self-serving Clinton administration. And months after George W Bushs inauguration and shortly before 9/11, leading neoconservative writer Charles Krauthammer claimed the US had the right to pursue unilateral policies in the wider global interest:<

Multipolarity, yes, when there is no alternative. But not when there is. Not when we have the unique imbalance of power that we enjoy today  and that has given the international system a stability and essential tranquillity it had not known for at least a century. The international environment is far more likely to enjoy peace under a single hegemon. Moreover, we are not just any hegemon. We run a uniquely benign imperium. With neoconservative thinking dominating US foreign and security policy eight months into the Bush administration, 9/11 came as an appalling shock  and a threat to the very idea of the New American Century just as it was getting under way. The Afghanistan war followed within weeks. It appeared initially to be a great success from the US perspective, with the Taliban quickly toppled from power, and was followed by Bushs January 2002 State of the Union Address.

This made clear that rescuing the new century went far beyond al-Qaeda and the Taliban to take on Bushs axis of evil  his term for states believed to be supporting terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction. As he put it to Congress, referring to North Korea, Iran and Iraq:

States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.

Pursuit of such states would be intensive. He told graduating students at West Point military academy: the war on terror will not be won on the defensive. We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge. In the world we have entered, the only path to safety is the path of action. And this nation will act.

The pursuit, he added, would be uncompromising: All nations that decide for aggression and terror will pay a price. We will not leave the safety of America and the peace of the planet at the mercy of a few mad terrorists and tyrants. We will lift this dark threat from our country and from the world.

By March 2002 it was clear that Iraq would be the first target. Many countries were becoming concerned about the US taking on this military role, including France and Germany, but some leaders gave their full support, notably prime minister Tony Blair in the UK. In Washington, the question of Why Iraq? was being answered by those involved in planning the war.

At a conference I attended in Washington just after Bushs address to Congress, a member of the Bush transition team explained patiently to European academics what lay ahead. The coming war wasnt really about Iraq, they said, it was about Iran, which had been seen as the main enemy in the region ever since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

The thinking was that Iran, with a much larger population than Iraq and an entrenched anti-American religious leadership, would be much more difficult and costly to defeat. If Iraq was occupied, though, Iran would end up with a pro-US Iraq and allied Arab Gulf states to the west, a pro-Western post-Taliban Afghanistan to the east and the US Navy dominating the Arabian Sea and the Gulf. Iran would have to behave itself.

There was a saying in security circles in Washington that the road to Tehran runs through Baghdad. Get Iraq right and the Iran problem would be sorted, many believed, with US influence across the Middle East and West Asia assured and the New American Century back on track, to the benefit of the world.

The war itself started 20 years ago this week and seemed to go Washingtons way. Troops moved rapidly from Kuwait up the Tigris and Euphrates valleys and arrived in Baghdad in less than a month. The regime collapsed and a US-led and Pentagon-managed Coalition Provisional Authority was installed to run the country along neoliberal free-market lines.

It didnt work out that way. Saddam Husseins feared special forces seemed to have disappeared in defeat, but they had actually gone to ground with weapons intact and quickly helped to drive a bitter urban insurgency which, along with multi-confessional conflict across much of Iraq, drove continuing fighting. This hugely bloody and costly war lasted the rest of Bushs presidency. It was only when Barack Obama came to power in 2008 that the White House could start to talk of Iraq being a bad war. Even so, it lasted until 2011, by which time Obama had withdrawn most US troops.

But that was far from the real end of the war. Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) had survived and by 2012 was regrouping and taking control of territory across northern Iraq and north-west into Syria. By 2014 it was seen as a threat to US and other Western interests and Obama ordered the US into a war fought almost entirely from the air with drones, missiles and strike aircraft. Over 100,000 smart bombs and missiles were used between 2014 and 2018, killing at least 60,000 people, including thousands of civilians, and eventually forcing AQI, now known as ISIS, to give up most of its territory.

The war has been immensely costly, especially for Iraqi civilians, with at least 186,000 killed directly and several times that number seriously injured, many of them maimed for life. Even now, much of Iraq remains violent, with many hundreds of civilians killed each year. ISIS remains active in both Iraq and Syria, but even more significantly, violent paramilitary Islamist groups are active in at least a dozen countries  not just in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Across the Sahel region of Sub-Saharan Africa, from Mauretania through Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, northern Nigeria and Chad, Islamist paramilitaries are active, as they are in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique. Violence regularly spills over into Kenya and Uganda and there is no end in sight.

Twenty years ago, and three weeks into the Iraq War, it all seemed to be going well for the US and its coalition partners. But I wrote an openDemocracy column taking a much more negative view and predicting a long war. Titled A thirty-year war, the article seemed a bit over the top at the time, but we are now two-thirds of the way to that 30 years and there is no end in sight.
(Natural News) New information has come to light proving that members of President Joe Bidens family, including his son Hunter, received millions of dollars from a Chinese company with strong links to the Chinese Communist Party.

This is according to the House Oversight Committee, which revealed that, in 2017, Chinese company State Energy HK Limited sent $3 million in 2017 to a company controlled by Robert Walker, an associate of the Biden family. Walker, in turn, distributed the money to members of Bidens family, including his surviving son, Hunter, his brother, James, his daughter-in-law, Hallie, and one other currently unknown member of the family. (Related: Schweizer: Biden-China ties are like if Reagans, Carters took money from KGB-linked businessmen during Cold War.)

State Energy HK Limited was linked to CEFC China Energy, a bankrupted private Chinese energy and finance company whose former chairman, Ye Jianming, did business directly with Hunter. CEFC was also involved in an abandoned joint venture with the Biden family, in which someone only referred to as the big guy, but is presumed to be then-former Vice President Biden, was to have a 10 percent stake.

It is unclear what services were provided to obtain this exorbitant amount of money, said House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer of Kentucky.

Biden relatives, companies linked to the family received around $1.3 million

During Comers investigation, he released figures from banking records from 2015 to 2017, showing large transfers of money from Walkers account to several accounts of the Biden family. This period covers the last two years of Bidens tenure as vice president and right after he left the administration of former President Barack Obama.

The wire transfers show that State Energy HK Limited wired $3 million to Robison Walker LLC on March 1, 2017. At the time, the account had a balance of $159,000. The very next day, Walker wired nearly $1.1 million to European Energy and Infrastructure Group, an Abu Dhabi-based company. Comer noted that this company is linked to James Gilliar, a business partner of Hunter.

Through four wire transfers, Walker sent money to four companies linked to the Biden family: $500,000 to Owasco PC, $100,000 to First Clearing LLC, $360,000 from JBBSR Inc. and $10,692 to RSTP II LLC.

One other unnamed member of the Biden family received a combined $70,000 from Walker from four wire transfers beginning on March 6 to May 17.

Following the House Oversight Committee hearing, Comer has officially subpoenaed banking records linked to Hunter, James and other members of the Biden family. Committee investigators will review this new information when they receive it to see what information can be gleaned from them.

In a statement following the unveiling of new evidence of the Biden familys suspicious business transactions, Comer said: The Oversight Committee is concerned about the national security implications from President Bidens family receiving millions of dollars from foreign nationals. We will continue to follow the money trail and facts to determine if President Biden is compromised by his familys business schemes and if there is a national security threat.

Learn more about the corruption involving Biden and his family at BidenCrimeFamily.news.

Watch this clip from the Next News Network discussing House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comers incriminating evidence linking Biden to the CCP.

This video is from the News Clips channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Exclusive: Secret China donations to University of Delaware soared after opening of the Biden Institute.

EXCLUSIVE: The Bidens fixed crimes by corrupt actors for a fee  Hunter made $1 million for connecting Chinese actor with US attorney.

REVEALED: China sent Hunter Biden a 3-carat diamond at about the same time Joe Biden was stealing and relocating classified documents (VIDEO).

TREASON? Hunter Biden lived in dads Delaware home where classified docs found while bagging deals with Chinese govt. officials: Report.

Lawyer says Bidens DOJ hiding hundreds of documents revealing payoffs, gifts to Hunter, Jim Biden from China, Russia, Ukraine.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com

USAToday.com

Oversight.House.gov

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) As a crisis of confidence from customers and investors heats up, First Republic bank is getting a lifeline from its rivals.

Some of the biggest banks in the nation have joined forces to help the struggling lender with billions of dollars to boost confidence in the bank and help it meet customer withdrawals.

Some of the big banks that helped put together the lifeline include Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Truist and PNC Financial Services. The lifeline will equal around $30 billion, and the deposits are required to stay at First Republic for a minimum of 120 days.

The banks that are offering the deposits said in a statement: This action by Americas largest banks reflects their confidence in First Republic and in banks of all sizes, and it demonstrates their overall commitment to helping banks serve their customers and communities.

Regional, midsize and small banks are critical to the health and functioning of our financial system, they added.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg praised the banks action, saying in a joint statement that it illustrates the resilience of the nations banking system.

Shares of the San Francisco-based bank were halted multiple times for volatility today. After falling more than 30 percent earlier in the day, shares went up 22 percent by the afternoon.

The problems the bank is facing are part of ongoing worries about the future of the banking system following the collapse of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank in the last few days. Silicon Valley Bank, which was the countrys 16th biggest bank, failed on Friday in the biggest American bank failure since the financial crisis of 2008. Yesterday, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings downgraded their credit rating for First Republic bank in the wake of concerns that depositors may pull their money from the bank.

First Republic has a large share of uninsured deposits

First Republic is one of several regional banks that has a large amount of uninsured deposits; the FDIC only insures deposits up to $250,000. Part of the reason that the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was so monumental was the fact that 94 percent of its deposits were uninsured. Although First Republics percentage of uninsured deposits is not quite as high, it is still a cause for concern at 68 percent.

Worries about a repeat of what happened to Silicon Valley Bank prompted many First Republic customers to pull their money and move it to bigger banks, which meant the bank needed to sell assets or borrow money in order to give customers their cash deposits. This happened despite the lender reassuring customers it had arranged $70 billion in new financing from J.P. Morgan Chase and the Federal Reserve. It also announced it was eligible to receive further funding from the Fed should it experience a sharp demand for withdrawals, in addition to noting that its balance sheet was solid and depositors were safe. However, none of this was enough to calm jittery investors.

Banks normally use part of their customers deposits for providing loans to other customers. However, S&P Global reports that First Republic has an exceptionally high liability-to-deposit ratio of 111 percent. This indicates that the bank has loaned out significantly more money than it holds in deposits from its customers.

First Republic bank generally caters to higher-end clients and businesses, and it offers residential real estate loans and wealth management. At the end of December, it reported assets exceeding more than $212 billion.

Sources for this article include:

Edition.CNN.com

NBCNews.com
(Natural News) A fascinating study has revealed that the cure to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could be something unlikely: metals like copper and gold.

Details of the study were published in the journal Chemical Science.

The study was conducted by scientists in Australia, who found that the spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, stick to elements like gold, copper and silicon.

Once trapped, the findings revealed that coronavirus is electrically detectable and vulnerable to electrical pulses.

Spike proteins, metals and electrical pulses

Spike proteins allow coronaviruses to invade nearby cells and cause infections. But when these proteins touch substances like copper, it causes a reaction that creates a strong chemical bond.

The bond attaches the spike protein to their surfaces, making it very hard to remove.

But scientists found that electric fields can help destroy the spike proteins and eventually kill the virus after it loses its ability to cause infections.

Essam Dief, a study co-author and researcher at Curtin University, explained that the electrical pulses help change the spike proteins structure. At certain intensities, these pulses can also eliminate the protein and deactivate the coronavirus. (Related: Dr. Zelenko shares how the MSM smeared him for revealing the cure to COVID  Brighteon.TV.)

We believe these materials can be used to capture coronaviruses by being used in air filters, as a coating for benches, tables and walls, or in the fabric of wiping cloths and face masks, said Nadim Darwish, a researcher at the School of Molecular and Life Sciences at Curtin University.

Darwish added that by capturing coronaviruses using substances like copper and gold, it would be possible to prevent them from reaching and infecting more people.

The scientists hope that the results of the study could also be used to refine COVID-19 testing.

Darwish proposes creating a solution for a mouth or nose swab and testing it with a tiny electronic device to detect the viral spike protein. He hypothesized that this could help create more sensitive and accurate COVID-19 testing results.

According to Dief, incorporating materials like copper or silicon in air filters can help researchers potentially capture and consequently stop the spread of the virus. Dief added that incorporating electric fields through something like air filters may help deactivate the virus.

How is COVID-19 tested?

Health experts use viral tests to look for a current infection with SARS-CoV-2. These tests require specimens from your nose or mouth.

There are two main types of viral tests: nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) and antigen tests.

NAATs, like PCR-based tests, are often conducted in a laboratory. They are considered the most reliable tests for people with or without symptoms. These tests detect viral genetic material, which may stay in the human body for up to 90 days after you test positive.

Do not use a NAAT if you have tested positive in the last 90 days.

Antigen tests are rapid tests and they produce results within 15 to 30 minutes. However, antigen tests are less reliable than NAATs, especially if you dont have symptoms. Keep in mind that a single, negative antigen test result does not rule out infection.

Self-tests, also called at-home tests, are antigen tests that can be taken anywhere without needing to visit a testing site.

Visit Cures.news to learn more about potential cures for COVID-19.

Watch the video below to know more about hydroxychloroquine, another potential treatment for COVID-19.

This video is from the UNPLUG THE MEDIA channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Researchers hunt for COVID-resistant individuals in hopes of discovering a natural cure.

RIGGED: Twitter censored posts about natural immunity and vaccines after pressure from Pfizer board member.

Bill Gates: Next pandemic likely to be man-made and worse than COVID-19.

Sources include:

StudyFinds.org

Curtin.edu.au

CDC.gov

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The California-based Monster Beverage Corporation (MBC), maker of the eponymous energy drink, released a new beverage featuring demonic symbols on its cans.

According to SGT Report, MBC released last month its new The Beast Unleashed hard seltzer containing six percent alcohol. The product, which had four variants, was sold in 16-ounce (oz) large cans and 12 oz. slim cans. Can designs for all four variants were consistent, however, with only minor changes in the colorway.

Most prominent in the cans design was the eye of the beast, which mirrors the Eye of Horus symbol used by the Illuminati secret society. The middle of the eye contained the Monster logo, which is initially designed to look like the claw marks of an animal  purportedly the monster or beast referenced in the products name.

The Monster logo  is actually three instances of the number 6 in Hebrew, said Geoffrey Grider, editor-in-chief of Now The End Begins. The individual claw marks appear to look similar to the Hebrew letter vav, corresponding to the number six. Thus, the three vav letters arranged to look like an animals claw marks correspond to 666  the number of the beast mentioned in the book of Revelation.

The 666 claw logo is also shown on the lower part of the can, with the word hard and the drinks alcohol content of six percent in between it.

What does that give you? It gives you an alcoholic drink called The Beast Unleashed with 666 on every can three times, with the all-seeing eye in the background watching you while you drink it. (Related: Monster Energy drink delivers cryptic SATANIC messages nobody even noticed for the last decade (op-ed).)

Grider pointed out that the release of Monsters new beverage riddled with satanic symbols didnt even cause a minor stir  because this world is preparing itself to receive [the] antichrist.

The devils nectar: Energy drinks linked to health issues

With a six percent alcohol content, MBCs new The Beast Unleashed hard seltzer definitely falls under the category of the devils nectar. Seltzer Nation pointed out that three of the products flavors will mirror those of the companys flagship energy drink.

Outside of the demonic symbolism adorning its cans, Monster Energy Drink can also be considered the devils nectar because of its excessive sugar and caffeine content that lets drinkers unleash the beast. An October 2016 article by the Australian Rethink Sugary Drink (RSD) initiative expounded on this concern.

Craig Sinclair, the former public health committee chairman of Cancer Council Australia, pointed out that some large energy drinks contain up to 21 teaspoons of sugar and as much caffeine as two and a half shots of espresso  making them a risky drink choice for anyone.

True enough, RSDs analysis of different energy drink brands put Monster among the worst offenders. It found that a 500 milliliter can of Monster contained 160 milligrams of caffeine. Moreover, the same can of Monster contains 57 grams of sugar  equivalent to 14 tablespoons.

The high levels of caffeine and sugar in energy drinks cause energy and blood sugar levels to spike  but after about an hour, the caffeine and sugar in your body start to wear off and youll feel tired and lethargic, Sinclair said.

If consumed regularly, the high sugar content in energy drinks can lead to weight gain and obesity  increasing your risk of heart and kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke and some cancers.

Sinclair pointed out that energy drinks are heavily marketed as the ideal drink of choice for young Australians. He also mentioned that companies behind these energy drinks are adept at targeting advertising  to develop brand images that are extremely enticing to young people.

Head over to Demonic.news for more stories like this.

Watch this viral video of a woman explaining the demonic symbols on the Monster Energy Drink can.

This video is from The Willow channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Energy drinks found to be shockingly toxic to the human heart.

Clay Clark: Luciferians pushing 666 in their quest to enslave humanity  Brighteon.TV.

Top 12 CONVERSIONS the Demon-Democrats in DC want every American to complete.

Moral decline: Satanic symbols now appearing at government buildings all across America.

THE SUMMONING: 72 nations PUBLICLY worship satanic idols in televised luciferian ritual while celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay creepily stalks frightened lambs.

Sources include:

SGTReport.com

SeltzerNation.com

NowTheEndBegins.com

BeginningAndEnd.com

RethinkSugaryDrink.org.au

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The global Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) treatment market is projected to reach $11.42 billion by 2028, growing from $9.01 billion in 2021, according to a market research report by 360 Research Reports and announced in a press release on Monday.

(Article by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org)

Its the latest in a series of reports published over the last 12 months predicting massive growth in the ASD treatment industry over the next several years due to rising global rates of autism and increasing investment in pharmaceutical research and development.

Commenting on the report, James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., told The Defender:

For decades, the increase in autism was denied, and any discussion of the treatment of autism was met with the same derisive forces that would malign and mischaracterize the parents and physicians trying to give these kids a better day.

Lyons-Weiler, author of The Environmental and Genetic Causes of Autism, added:

Now that Pharma has recognized the scale of the clinical population of people on the spectrum and is charting a translational path toward their profits, its finally considered ok to admit the increase and to rush headlong into treatment programs.

I say to the parents of kids with autism, and to adults with autism: Beware Pharma.

Toby Rogers, Ph.D., who has a Master of Public Policy, told The Defender, Everything about that press release is heartbreaking.

Rogers said the press release is about the market for psychopharmaceuticals, including antipsychotics Risperdal and Abilify, to treat autism.

These drugs are incredibly toxic and do not work very well, he said, noting that Johnson & Johnson paid $2.2 billion in civil and criminal fines for improperly marketing Risperdal to treat autism (and other conditions) and then kept right on doing it.

Rogers added:

Johnson & Johnson has also paid billions of dollars in civil suits because Risperdal is linked with gynecomastia  growth of breast tissue in males (the primary target for this drug).

The fact remains that there is no pill to treat autism but the market is massive because families are desperate for help.

Assessments of the current market value and its future projections vary widely in different reports. But all estimates project massive market expansion  between 3.4% and 7.4% compound annual growth rate between now and 2030.

At the low end, Grand View Research reported a market value of about $2 billion in 2021 and projected growth to $3.29 billion by 2030. At the high end, Market Research Future assessed the industry value at $23.7 billion in 2021 and projected growth to $42.3 billion by 2030.

The latest report by 360 Research Reports assesses treatments and drugs used to diagnose and treat ASD, projects future profits by age group, geographic region and other factors and analyzes the top Big Pharma industry players.

According to the report, the top industry players set to profit are Otsuka  which currently controls 6% of the market  followed by AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and Roche.

Growing market for autism treatment drugs  that come with serious side effects

A recent study showed that in the U.S., roughly 1 in 30  3.49%  of children and adolescents ages 3 to 17 were diagnosed with ASD in 2020  a 53% increase since 2017.

The U.S. is currently the largest ASD treatment market. However, reports cite the growing global prevalence of the disease coupled with greater awareness about the condition and treatment options, and increasing investment by key players in R&D initiatives for the launch of effective drugs as key factors expected to drive the ASD therapeutics market.

The biggest market limitation is the lack of approved drugs for treating ASD, according to Grand View Research.

ASD symptoms typically are treated with stimulants, anticonvulsants, tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, and anxiety medications sold through retail pharmacies, which dominated the market, Grand View Research reported.

Approximately 30% to 50% of all patients with ASD were treated with at least one of the above medications, leading to reports concluding that the more people diagnosed with autism, the larger the market for drug sales.

Several behavioral and mental health conditions in children, including autism, are associated with high rates of psychotropic polypharmacy (the simultaneous use of multiple psychotropic drugs.

One systematic review found that up to 87% of children and youth with autism are prescribed two or more medications simultaneously.

Some of the most commonly prescribed drugs for ASD include antipsychotics Abilify and Risperdal for treating irritability in children under 12, but they were also found to cause adverse events including serious weight gain, involuntary muscle spasms, addictive behaviors and heart problems.

A 2016 study found that approximately 1 in 6 children diagnosed with autism were taking antipsychotic medications.

That is concerning and suggests possible over-prescription or overuse, Dr. Matthew Siegel, vice president of Medical Affairs for the Developmental Disorders Service Line of Maine Behavioral Healthcare, told Spectrum News.

Those are our most powerful, potentially most problematic drugs, Siegel said. Should that really be the most common [type of] drug we use?

Most market projections focus on drug development and sales, but other market researchers, Like John LaRosa, writing on the Market Research blog, also points to a Huge Untapped Demand in the $4+ Billion U.S. Autism Treatment Centers Market, which he writes is is truly a growth market/industry.

But Rogers told The Defender the costs of autism extend well beyond the price of medication:

Psychopharmaceuticals are just a small fraction of the societal costs of autism. Other costs include lost wages (for people on the spectrum and caregivers, usually mothers), supportive services, higher medical costs, higher educational costs, and supportive housing.

All comprehensive estimates of the cost of autism in the U.S. show hundreds of billions of dollars a year in current costs rising to a trillion dollars a year in costs sometime within the next decade.

The way forward: Keep toxicants out of kids bodies

As autism rates skyrocketed among U.S. children over the past several decades, along with concern among parents, much research turned to investigate the role of environmental risk factors in compounding underlying diverse genetic factors.

Environmental risk factors include metals like aluminum and mercury in vaccines, glyphosate exposure, use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and infancy, heavy metals in baby food and other organic environmental pollutants.

Studies also link industrial chemicals, such as lead, arsenic, copper, selenium, iron and magnesium, to the disorder.

A number of studies over the last several years identified a link between autism and Tylenol, which also is linked to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other developmental problems.

More than 100 families are suing Tylenol.

Despite growing evidence that environmental factors may play a role in the development of ASD, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research through the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network does not investigate environmental exposures as a potential cause.

Current market projection reports for ASD diagnosis and treatment make no comment on prevention.

Rogers said:

The tragedy in all of this is that we know how to prevent most cases of autism  keep toxicants out of kids bodies. But most politicians and the mainstream media refuse to have that conversation lest it anger the toxic industries (especially Pharma) that run this country and pay for the bulk of advertisements on the TV news.

We absolutely must find a way to keep toxicants out of kids bodies, both through legislation and boycotts of the products that cause harm. Thats the only way forward.

Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org
(Natural News) Ann Vandersteel touched on the results of a poll showing a decline in the number of Americans in favor of President Joe Bidens support toward Ukraine.

During the March 10 episode of her Brighteon.TV program Right Now, she highlighted this poll that was reported by Big League Politics. Citing the Economist, the website said that back in April 2022, 82 percent of Democrats and 67 percent of Republicans believed it was a good idea for Washington to support Kyiv with financial aid.

The recent results of the survey, however, showed a significant drop for both parties. Now, 75 percent of Democrats back the idea while only 39 percent of GOP-leaning respondents are in favor  a 28-point drop for the latter. The Economist described the results as a worrying trend. (Related: No more! European countries call for end to Ukraine funding.)

The fact that Ukraine is still fighting is mostly thanks to America. No other country has provided more help to combat Russias advance. It is responsible for more than half of all recorded military and financial aid, the Economist stated.

It even quoted remarks by President Joe Biden, who promised to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. However, it also pointed out that whether Biden can continue to send so much depends in part on how well such funding is viewed at home.

You may be right, Vandersteel remarked, addressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. You may be caught in your own crossfire of the disinformation campaign that everybodys waging right now. The governments are doing it all over the place to keep the world destabilized. They dont want us to know who the real enemy is.

Russia showcasing the power of its hypersonic missiles

The program host and co-chair of the Zelenko Freedom Foundation also featured the most recent update in the Russia-Ukraine war.

According to defense officials, Russias launched its latest offensive by firing hypersonic missiles as part of a wave of long-range airstrikes that targeted critical Ukrainian infrastructure. It killed at least 11 civilians.

Kyiv said that the Kremlin reportedly launched 81 cruise missiles and Iranian-supplied drones, along with six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles that are capable of eluding Kyivs air defense net. British officials also said in their latest intelligence assessment that Moscow also fired air defense missiles that had been configured to a surface-to-surface mode. (Related: Biden promises to provide Ukraine with advanced air defense systems as Russia threatens more severe attacks.)

Vandersteel said officials are going to be in more of a pickle because theyre running out of ammunition this summer. She also slammed Zelensky for trying to censor the allegations that his men were involved in the Nord Stream pipeline explosion.

At a press conference, he said he believes such reports might be circulated to provoke a slowdown in aid to Ukraine at a press conference, Vandersteel said.

Since Moscow is being denied access to any information regarding the pipeline bombing investigation, it is now working with Germany, Denmark and Sweden to expose this censorship.

Visit WWIII.news for more updates about the ongoing chaos in Ukraine.

Watch the full March 10 episode of Right Now with Ann Vandersteel below. Catch new episodes of the program every weeknight at 8-8:30 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Sending modern tanks to Ukraine could trigger unimaginable escalation, German lawmaker warns.

Ben Armstrong: Biden goading Russia into WWIII by sending tanks, equipment to Ukraine.

Prather Point: Biden is turning Ukraine into an ENDLESS WAR for the benefit of war profiteers  Brighteon.TV.

At most, only 30% of NATO weapons are making it into Ukraine  WATCH the documentary.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

BigLeaguePolitics.com

Economist.com

WashingtonTimes.com
(Natural News) Employees of Silicon Valley Bank were given their annual bonuses on Friday just hours ahead of the seizure of the bank by regulators.

The payments were reportedly bonuses for work conducted last year and were already being processed in the days ahead of the collapse of the bank. In the past, the bank has paid its employee bonuses out on the second Friday of every March, sources claim.

In other words, it may be a coincidence that employees received their bonuses on the same day that the bank fell. The bank, which is based in Santa Clara, California, was in the midst of a bank run that was spurred by panicked investors when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) seized it at around noon on Friday.

The FDIC will act as a receiver, which normally entails liquidating the banks assets to pay its customers back, including creditors and depositors. In a two-minute video released on Friday, the banks then-CEO, Greg Becker, announced to workers that he was no longer making the decisions at the bank.

Although the size of the bonuses is unclear, Glassdoor.com notes that bonuses for employees at the bank range from around $12,000 for associates to $140,000 for those holding managing director roles. The banks employees earned an average of around $250,000 in 2018, making it the highest-paying publicly traded bank that year.

Bonuses for the banks international employees were scheduled for later in the month and have not yet been paid.

The FDIC emailed some of the banks workers on Friday evening to offer them temporary jobs. Employees who agree to stay with the failed bank will be given 1.5 times their usual pay for the next 45 days, while hourly workers will receive double their normal rate.

A FDIC representative told Axios: Without commenting on salaries, its our standard practice to ask retain [sic] bank employees to assist with an orderly transition as part of our resolution process.

The bank, which had more than 8,500 employees as of December and is the 16th largest in the nation, collapsed after a 60 percent drop in shares prompted a run on withdrawals in what is considered one of the worst financial institution failures in the history of the nation. Silicon Valley Bank controlled $209 billion worth of total assets at the end of last year and was considered the bank of choice for several Silicon Valley industries and startups.

Execs sold off stocks in the weeks leading up to the banks collapse

Ex-CEO Greg Becker sold $3.57 million in company stock just two weeks before the bank collapsed in what is being described as a pre-planned automated sell-off. On February 27, he offloaded more than 12,000 shares at an average price of $287.42 each, while CFO Daniel Beck sold 2,000 shares; the price of the stock dropped to just under $30 on Friday.

As an FDIC-insured bank, only $250,000 per account at Silicon Valley Bank is guaranteed. However, the banks latest annual report shows that 96 percent of the $173 billion held there in deposits was uninsured.

The FDIC said that all insured depositors will be given access to their insured deposits, while uninsured depositors will receive an advance dividend within the next week.

In the meantime, the banks new government-appointed CEO, Tim Mayopoulos, has appealed to the banks high-powered startup and venture capital clients to bring their money back to the bank. He also said that he wasnt sure what the banks exact end state would be but listed three possible outcomes: liquidation, sale or recapitalization.

Sources for this article include:

CNBC.com

DailyMail.co.uk

Edition.CNN.com

CNBC.com
(Natural News) Silicon Valley Bet It Could Avoid the Costs of Managing Banking Risk. It Won That Bet.

(Article by John Carney republished from Breitbart.com)

Silicon Valley essentially put the cost of ordinary corporate treasury prudence onto the banking system and got rewarded for it when the government broke its own rules and agreed to back even the largest deposits at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

In a joint statement, the Treasury, Federal Reserve, and the FDIC announced that all deposits at SVB and Signature Bank would be made whole. To accomplish this, the regulators declared that the failure of the banks posed systemic risk and therefore qualified for an exception to the usual limits on deposit insurance.

Does this qualify as a bailout? The official statement was clear in saying that shareholders and certain unsecured debtholders would not be protected and that senior management would be removed. The shareholders are likely to lose all of their investment, and holders of bonds issued by the banks may be zeroed out as well. Its possible they could be in for some recovery if the banks assets prove to be more than enough to pay off depositors, but that is likely a long way off and will certainly involve some losses.

So, this is not quite a 2008-style bailout. In that instance, equity holders were heavily diluted when the government used the TARP funds to buy preferred equity stakes. But they did not see the value of their stock go to zero. They were allowed to participate in the recovery of the companies. Holders of debts issued by the financial institutions were almost universally made whole.

On the other hand, the move definitely bails out depositors who had more than $250,000 at the banks. In the ordinary course, these depositors would have received an emergency dividend payment sometime this week and certificates entitling them to funds from the sales of assets of the bank. If a banks assets can be sold quickly and for a price that exceeds the deposit liabilities, there might not be any impairment beyond a small delay. So far as can be seen from public disclosures, it is likely that Silicon Valley Banks depositors would have eventually been made wholeor nearly so.

Where Are the Buyers for Silicon Valley Bank?

As weve seen, however, the banking authorities have not yet succeeded in finding a buyer for the bank or its assets. The auction held over the weekend apparently failed, although the reasons are not known. Charlie Gasparino of Fox Business Network has raised questions about the quality of SVBs loan book. The Wall Street Journals editorial page said that some regulators were trying to keep the biggest banks from getting even bigger by buying Silicon Valley Bank.

SCOOP: A former SVB exec tells @FoxBusiness that the banks loan book was so risky it shouldnt have been @FDICgov insured; SVBs lending including loans to VC backed cos w low or no profits and credit lines to PE funds more now w @LizClaman  Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) March 13, 2023

Its more than likely that some of our largest banks have looked back at what happened after 2008 and decided it is not worth the risk of buying a large, failed banks assets even at fire sale prices. Jamie Dimon, the chief executive and chairman of JPMorgan Chase, has said he regretted buying Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual in 2008 because the liabilities associated with those two banks were responsible for something like 70 percent of the $19 billion in fines, penalties, and buybacks his bank was forced to make.

We did not anticipate that we would have to pay the penalties we ultimately were required to pay, Jamie Dimon wrote in a 2015 letter to JPMorgan shareholders. He went on to say that he doubts if his board would allow him to make similar acquisitions given that experience.

Transferring Costs of Risk Management from Venture Capitalists to the Banking System

As a result, many of those with officially uninsured deposits at Silicon Valley Bank may have faced significant delays in recovering their funds. The media reported that many Silicon Valley start-ups were scrambling over the weekend to find money to pay their bills. Some companies reportedly had tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in Silicon Valley Bank. BuzzFeed, for example, reportedly had over $50 million. Roku said it had $487 million on deposit at Silicon Valley Bank.

In Rokus case, this amounted to just 26 percent of the companys cash or cash equivalents. So, it had diversified away some of the risk it faced by exposure to Silicon Valley Bank. Others appear to have put all of their cash in one bank, leaving them vulnerable to potentially being unable to make payments to employees and vendors if their deposits were not immediately released. This is an admission of an abdication of basic risk management and an indictment of both the management of these companies and their venture capital investors.

But turned out to be a good wager on the part of Silicon Valley. The venture capital community was able to avoid paying the costs of managing treasury risk by concentrating deposits in a single institution. When the bank went belly up because those same depositors rushed to withdraw their funds en masse last week, the costs were absorbed by the broader banking system.

Read more at: Breitbart.com
(Natural News) Chinese state-sponsored hackers have struck corporations in the United States in a new wave of more sophisticated cyberattacks.

Researchers and analysts from the Mandiant division of Google have discovered that, over the past year, Chinese state-sponsored hackers have been infiltrating systems that usually arent the targets of cyber espionage, presenting a whole new level of ingenuity and sophistication from Chinese state-sponsored cyberattacks. (Related: 2 Hackers charged with illegally accessing federal law enforcement database.)

According to the researchers, instead of infiltrating systems behind strong corporate firewalls, Chinese hackers are targeting devices on the edge of the network, sometimes the firewalls themselves, and targeting software built by other companies that run on computers that dont usually use antivirus or endpoint detection software, which would provide an extra level of security against attempted cyberattacks.

These attacks routinely exploit previously undiscovered flaws in software, according to Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer of Mandiant. These new methods of cyberattacks have become a lot harder for us to investigate, he said.

And it is certainly exponentially harder for victims to discover these intrusions on their own, Carmakal added. Even with our hunting techniques, its hard for them to find it.

Carmakal further noted that the scope of Chinese intrusion into American and Western targets is likely far broader than what Mandial has discovered due to the extreme levels of stealth and sophistication employed by the intrusion attempts.

There is a lot of intrusion activity going undetected, Carmakal warned.

Cyberattacks linked to Chinese state-sponsored hacking group

Mandial has linked the new wave of cyberattacks to a suspected China-nexus hacking group because of the profile of some of its victims, including some who have been hit repeatedly by a high degree of novel tradecraft and sophistication. The resources necessary for these kinds of cyberattacks strongly suggest some kind of state sponsorship.

Furthermore, the Mandial analysts have been able to identify obscure malware codes only known to have been used by threat actors based out of China.

For its part, China routinely denies hacking into businesses or government data portals. The communist nation instead accuses the United States and its allies of sponsoring cyberattacks.

Senior U.S. officials have long viewed the Chinese Communist Party as the nations top cyber espionage threat and have for years been alarmed at the relative success Chinese hacking groups have had in compromising the classified data of military targets and defense contractors, with the goal being the theft of advanced military technology.

Intelligence agencies have come to the same conclusion as Mandial, observing that the tradecraft of suspected Chinese state-sponsored hacking groups has improved drastically in recent years.

In one annual worldwide threat assessment, U.S. officials noted that China probably currently represents the broadest, most active and persistent cyber espionage threat to U.S. government and private sector networks.

Learn more about hacking and cyberattack incidents at CyberWar.news.

Watch this episode of the Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, discusses how to survive a cyberattack designed to take down American society.

This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

US spy chiefs now support ban on China state app TikTok but dont want to reign in Big Tech that spies on Americans.

Techno-authoritarianism is here to stay: China and the Deep State have joined forces.

PARTNERS IN EVIL: Big Pharma partnering with Chinese university linked to cyberattacks, espionage.

Chinese hacking group targets private companies, govt agencies linked to wind farms.

Chinese hackers STEAL intellectual property from more than 30 companies.

Sources include:

WSJ.com

PYMNTS.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) An employee of Stanford University in California was found to have lied about sexual assaults on her, prompting her arrest by law enforcement.

Jennifer Ann Gries, 25, was arrested on March 15 by officers of the Santa Clara Police Department and subsequently charged with felony perjury. The charges stemmed from her fraudulent claims about being raped twice last year while on the Stanford campus.

A statement by the university said Gries was placed on a leave of absence and that the institution will be reviewing her employment. According to Stanfords website, Gries works at the university as a housing service center supervisor.

These false reports are damaging both for true survivors of sexual assault, and for the members of our community who experienced fear and alarm from the reports.

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen blasted the 25-year-olds false reports as a rare and deeply destructive crime. He felt for those falsely accused, those who had to look over their shoulders and the legitimate sexual assault victims who wonder if they will be believed.

Rosens office recounted that Gries first reported a false sexual assault in August 2022. During that time, she told a nurse at Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California that a man grabbed her while she was in a campus parking lot. The perpetrator allegedly dragged Gries to a restroom and sexually assaulted her.

Two months later in October 2022, Gries went to Stanford Hospital to get another rape examination. She told the nurse conducting the exam that she was returning to her office from lunch when a man grabbed her arm. The perpetrator then forced her into a basement storage closet and raped her, according to prosecutors.

In both cases, Gries declined to speak with law enforcement. Her description of the perpetrator in both false cases matched that of her male coworker.

Both of her sexual assault examination kits were analyzed quickly given the extreme public safety risk of a potential sex offender. However, the lab results were not consistent with her story. (Related: Women should ALWAYS be believed? What about these 35 times men were falsely accused of rape?)

Stanford suffers serious repercussions from Gries lies

It was only during a January 2023 interview with an investigator from Rosens office that Gries calumnies were revealed. She admitted to lying about the rapes, arguing that she was upset with the aforementioned colleague. Gries felt like he gave her false intention and turned her friends against her, prosecutors said.

She had earlier filed a sexual harassment complaint in March 2022 against this male colleague with the universitys human resources department. School authorities deemed the allegation unfounded and threw out the complaint. Gries has also apologized in writing to the man she falsely accused of raping her.

Nevertheless, her lies had serious repercussions throughout Stanford. It led to campus police issuing electronic alerts, prompting widespread fear. It also sparked outrage from the student body, which came to a head via a protest in October 2022. Hundreds of Stanford students marched to demand officials do more to protect students.

According to the Stanford Daily, more than 200 students joined the Oct. 14, 2022 protest. Several students held signs reading We deserve to feel safe on campus, and accused the university of being an accomplice to rape.

Sofia Scarlat, co-director of the Associated Students of Stanford Universitys Sexual Violence Prevention Committee, agreed with the sentiment that the school serves as an accomplice to sexual assault.

Stanford would rather protect [its] image [and] the reputation of rapists at the expense of the well-being and survival of victims of sexual assault, she said. We will no longer tolerate an environment where rape is encouraged because of their lack of action.

Find more stories like this at Faked.news.

Watch independent journalist Lauren Southern describe the harms caused by false rape accusations below.

This video is from the Raymond7779 channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Same Rolling Stone magazine that FAKED campus rape story a few years back BUSTED with complete bullsh#t story claiming Oklahoma hospitals are filled with ivermectin-damaged patients.

The Duke Lacrosse witch hunt demonstrates the mass hysteria of lunatic Leftists who refuse to embrace FACTS that contradict their narratives.

Woke student org tells victims of migrant sex offender not to complain, citing racism.

Andrew Tate was FRAMED by manipulative women: heres the proof.

Sources include:

Newser.com 1

Newser.com 2

StanfordDaily.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Legislatures in 23 states and the District of Columbia are currently deliberating bills that would introduce central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) into their jurisdictions.

This is due to the appearance of bills introducing the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). These bills would standardize state laws and regulations for transacting business. Theoretically, the UCC would make it increasingly easier for companies to transact business across state lines as it would make it easier for states to harmonize laws regulating businesses. (Related: Coming economic collapse will be used to close banks and introduce central bank digital currencies.)

The UCC was introduced by a group known as the Uniform Law Commission, a Chicago-based non-profit organization that dedicates itself to drafting laws that, if passed by states, would harmonize regulations across state lines.

Last year, the ULC recommended that states overhaul their UCC supposedly to introduce a new article that will deal with digital assets such as digital currencies.

At face value, the amendments seek to solve the ways digital currencies differ from the traditional U.S. dollar, including governing how digital currencies can be controlled and transferred. But it also makes it harder to complete transactions with digital currencies if these assets come from insecure creditors, making it virtually impossible for any digital asset other than one backed by the Federal Reserve to be used in transactions.

As Attorney Thomas Renz pointed out on an episode of his program, Another Renz Rant, these amendments are really nothing but a pretense for a central bank digital currency.

13 GOP-led states considering introducing CBDCs through UCC

Of the 23 states that have introduced bills that would implement the UCC in their jurisdictions, 13 are led by Republicans, who either have a government trifecta in these states or have solid control over the state legislatures.

The 13 Republican-leaning states in question are Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

Theyre trying to sneak it [UCC] in through these Republican states, noted Renz. Its critical to them that they get Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee  these are deeply red states, where if the people know about this, there is zero chance [of it passing].

What theyre doing is, theyre getting the House leadership or the Senate leadership in any given state and say, Hey, we need to update the UCC. Can you guys sponsor this bill? and some happy Republican says, Sure, Ill sponsor it and they put it up there and they have no idea what it is, said Renz. And it just sails through, because why would you oppose some housekeeping updates that make the UCC more efficient?

Ten other states where Democrats have control over the legislature have introduced legislation to legalize the UCC. They are California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Washington. The District of Columbia is also amending its UCC.

One state in particular, South Dakota, has defeated efforts to amend the UCC. Gov. Kristi Noem recently vetoed the amending of the UCC, rightly claiming that its passage would be a precursor for the federal government to control our currency and thus control people.

Learn more about digital currencies and the coming of CBDCs at CryptoCult.news.

Watch this episode of Another Renz Rant as Attorney Thomas Renz discusses in detail the states attempting to amend their UCCs and thereby pave the way for the coming CBDC.

This video is from the Thomas Renz channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

SkyNet rising: Why CBDCs must be terminated before they go live.

Controlled demolition of global finance system sees failing cryptos, bank runs and soon, the unveiling of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).

HYPOCRISY: Federal Reserve warns banks against using crypto while planning to develop its own digital currency.

CBDC in 2023: Federal Reserve planning to implement FedNow digital currency between May and July of 2023.

Federal Reserve set to introduce privacy-crushing digital currency that can be controlled and programmed by government bureaucrats.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

Investopedia.com

Ca.PracticalLaw.ThomsonReuters.com

MitchellRepublic.com

GlennBeck.com
This week, amid staff unrest and claims of a toxic workplace, the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton received an order to remove endangered sea turtles.

Turtles weighing up to 150 pounds were removed from their tanks at the well-known environmental center and transported to other facilities across Southern Florida as ordered by state wildlife officials.

"Toxic Workplace"

The center, where the release of saved sea turtles had been a well-liked spectacle at the beach, is going through a difficult organizational transition at the time of their departure. On the same day that the program's veterinarian announced his resignation, the city laid off two employees, one of whom has a state license to rehabilitate turtles.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission then informed the nature center that it could no longer provide medical care for injured turtles and ordered that the turtles in the center be relocated.

150 Pounds of Endangered Turtles

Eight green turtles with one loggerhead, including those hurt by boat strikes, fish hooks, and sharks, were transported on Tuesday to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, Zoo Miami, and the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart. Since they had no chance of surviving in the ocean, two of the turtles, Morgan and Cane, had become steadfast residents of the Nature Center, however, as Gumbo Limbo has announced in their website, the resident turtles are on vacation.

The rehabilitation of sea turtles at the nature center has proven to be a very popular program, and the release of newly rehabilitated or healthy turtles is celebrated with cheers from hundreds of beachgoers.

On Wednesday, officials insisted that the turtle rehabilitation would go on even though it would need new personnel and a new state permit.

Whitney Crowder, who stepped down as the program's director on Monday, expressed her shock at the news of the sea turtles' transfer to other facilities this week. However, she said she felt the most sympathy for the permanent turtle residents who had to leave Gumbo Limbo after living there for almost ten years.

Also Read: 25 Juvenile Sea Turtles Named After Beaches, Rehabilitated, Released by National Aquarium in Florida

Transfer from Boca Raton to Florida

The sea turtles were taken out of the water as the city attempted to leave the sea turtle rehabilitation to an affiliated non-profit organization called Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards.

According to the city's spokeswoman, Anne Marie Connolly, the rehabilitation of sea turtles is not typically the domain of local government. She claimed that the resignation of the program's veterinarian and the declaration that the biologist who held the state permit to handle sea turtles didn't want to work for Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards made the turtle eviction necessary.

Crowder, who interacts frequently with the non-profit's staff, wrote to Boca Raton's human resources division, accusing the CEO, John Holloway, of mentally abusive and toxic leadership. She stated in an interview that she also seemed to receive a significant pay cut.

When the center is ready, the sea turtle program will resume, according to Holloway. He claimed that because nonprofit organizations are exempt from the restrictions that city employees are subject to, his members are enthusiastic about the potential that they can bring to rehabilitation programs, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

Meanwhile, according to the City of Boca Raton, a brand new seawater pump project worth $3.2 million will start working at the Nature Center. The rehabilitation efforts will be aided by this project to improve the seawater infrastructure, which will also benefit other aquarium ecosystems.

Related Article: Atlantic Ocean Welcomes Newly Rehabilitated Loggerhead Sea Turtle -Florida
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Intermittent snow showers and windy this morning. Peeks of sunshine later. High around 55F. Winds WNW at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of snow 40%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 32F. NW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph.
The corps first Soldiers to make a Permanent Change of Station to Poznan, Poland, U.S. Army Sgt. Walter Malecki, left, and U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Kyle Stewart, right, pose in front of the Camp Kosciuszko sign. V Corps, which is dual headquartered in Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Poznan, Poland, is fortifying its forward ranks with permanent, one-year, unaccompanied tours to Camp Kosciuszko as part of President Bidens July 2022 announcement of a permanent presence of U.S. troops in Poland. (Spc. Devin Klecan. U.S. Army)
New Army brand redefines 'Be All You Can Be' for a new generation
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

A Bahraini medical team arrived here yesterday to contribute to the treatment of those wounded as a result of the devastating earthquake that hit the country recently.

The move is in line with the directives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to support the brotherly Syrian people in their humanitarian ordeal caused by the earthquake, through the Royal Humanitarian Foundation (RHF), led by His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, HM the Kings Representative for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs and Chairman of the National Committee for Supporting Earthquake Victims in Syria and Turkiye.

On the occasion, RHF Secretary-General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Committee for Supporting Earthquake Victims in Syria and Turkiye, Dr. Mustafa Al-Sayed Al-Ameen, lauded HM the Kings directive to deliver relief aid to those affected by the quake that had struck parts of Syria, praising the support enjoyed by the RHF from the government, led by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and commending HH Shaikh Nassers efforts in leading the RHFs work.

Dr. Al-Sayed asserted that based on the agreement signed with the Syrian Doctors Syndicate, the two sides have coordinated to send a team of Bahraini volunteer doctors and members of the Bahrain Medical Society, led by Dr. Amer Al-Derazi, to contribute to the treatment of those injured due to the earthquake.

Dr. Al-Sayed pointed out that based on the MoU, the Bahraini medical team specialising in treating fractures, injuries and general surgery arrived in Damascus, and then headed to the affected governorate of Aleppo, where it will perform many surgeries for the injured victims of the earthquake.

The Bahraini medical team will also visit a number of hospitals and medical centres in Syria to identify the most important medical needs and work to provide some of the necessary medical supplies that Syria needs at the present time, which will contribute to raising the efficiency of the medical services provided to those affected by the earthquake, through donations from government and private hospitals in Bahrain, he added.

Chairman of the Syrian Doctors Syndicate, Ghassan Fandy, expressed deepest thanks and appreciation to the Kingdoms leadership, government and people for their swift response in delivering treatment and dispatching medical staff, affirming the Syrian peoples pride in the deep-rooted friendly relations between the two countries, and in Bahrains honourable stance during the painful crisis Syrian is going through due to the earthquake.

Dr. Amer Al-Derazi expressed appreciation to the RHF, led by HH Shaikh Nasser, for ensuring easy procedures for dispatching the Bahraini medical team to Syrian.

He said that the medical team will contribute to alleviating the pain of the injured, noting that quake-affected areas will benefit from Bahrains medical expertise in treating patients and identifying the needs of hospitals and health centres.
Kyodo - Apr 07

The Japanese government will formulate guidelines regarding the use of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots in schools possibly by next March, officials said Thursday, as concerns grow over their impact on students' writing and thinking skills.
Yokochi Akira, Japanese deputy de facto ambassador to Taiwan, will leave his post at the end of the month. He got a rousing send-off at the Legislative Yuan on Friday after he gave a speech speaking not Mandarin, but Taiwanese.

Yokochi said he would really like another post in Taiwan in the future, but there were too many other Japanese diplomats lining up for the job. ...continue reading

Japan draws up new measures to stop groping on trains

NHK - Apr 17

The Japanese government has come up with a package of measures aimed at eliminating groping on trains and other public places. The Japanese government has come up with a package of measures aimed at eliminating groping on trains and other public places.

Bodyguards wild act as Japan PM Fumio Kishida bombed on TV

news.com.au - Apr 16

Incredible footage shows the moment a heroic bodyguard reacted with lightning speed and precision to protect Japans Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a smoke bomb attack. Incredible footage shows the moment a heroic bodyguard reacted with lightning speed and precision to protect Japans Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a smoke bomb attack.

Japan army helicopter wreckage found with five bodies

BBC - Apr 16

Divers have recovered the wreckage of a missing military helicopter, along with the bodies of five of the 10 people on board, off the coast of Japan. Divers have recovered the wreckage of a missing military helicopter, along with the bodies of five of the 10 people on board, off the coast of Japan.

Kishida unhurt after explosive device thrown at him in Wakayama

Japan Today - Apr 15

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was unhurt after a man threw a cylindrical object which exploded ahead of a stump speech he was due to make during his visit to western Japan on Saturday, less than a year after a former premier was fatally shot during election campaigning. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was unhurt after a man threw a cylindrical object which exploded ahead of a stump speech he was due to make during his visit to western Japan on Saturday, less than a year after a former premier was fatally shot during election campaigning.

Japan to shorten quarantine for COVID infections to five days

Nikkei - Apr 14

Japan's quarantine period for COVID infections will be shortened to five days from seven, starting May 8, the government said on Friday, as part of a broader shift to a nationwide reopening from the pandemic. Japan's quarantine period for COVID infections will be shortened to five days from seven, starting May 8, the government said on Friday, as part of a broader shift to a nationwide reopening from the pandemic.

Kishida's verbal slip sees Japan target new hay fever countermeasures

Japan Times - Apr 14

Japan has begun ministerial-level meetings on fighting hay fever, though a slip of the tongue by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida may have led to their launch. Japan has begun ministerial-level meetings on fighting hay fever, though a slip of the tongue by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida may have led to their launch.

North Korea missile eludes radar, posing challenge for Japan defense

Nikkei - Apr 14

Japan failed to accurately predict the trajectory of North Korea's most recent ballistic missile test on Thursday morning because it disappeared from radar after launch, as increasingly advanced missiles complicate defense efforts. Japan failed to accurately predict the trajectory of North Korea's most recent ballistic missile test on Thursday morning because it disappeared from radar after launch, as increasingly advanced missiles complicate defense efforts.

North Korean missile prompts brief evacuation order in Japan

Al Jazeera - Apr 13

The Japanese government has reassured citizens on its second largest island, Hokkaido, that a missile from North Korea is no longer likely to land on or around its territory, lifting a previously issued evacuation order. The Japanese government has reassured citizens on its second largest island, Hokkaido, that a missile from North Korea is no longer likely to land on or around its territory, lifting a previously issued evacuation order.

Ruling party scores big wins in local election contests

straitstimes.com - Apr 10

Sapporo is set to resume its bid for the 2030 Winter Olympic Games, while Osaka will stay the course in its pursuit of integrated resorts, after their incumbent leaders handily trounced opponents in local elections across Japan on Sunday. Sapporo is set to resume its bid for the 2030 Winter Olympic Games, while Osaka will stay the course in its pursuit of integrated resorts, after their incumbent leaders handily trounced opponents in local elections across Japan on Sunday.

Voting underway in 1st round of Japan's unified local elections

The Japan News - Apr 09

Voting is underway in the first round of unified local elections across Japan on Sunday, with issues including child-rearing support, the fight against inflation and the revitalization of regional economies hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Voting is underway in the first round of unified local elections across Japan on Sunday, with issues including child-rearing support, the fight against inflation and the revitalization of regional economies hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

How the Japanese Communist Party Survived For 101 Years

Lawarch - Apr 09

A look the history of the Communist Party of Japan over the past 101 years A look the history of the Communist Party of Japan over the past 101 years

Japanese army chopper carrying 10 crew members vanishes from radar near Okinawa

WION - Apr 07

A missing Japanese army helicopter carrying 10 crew members is likely to have crashed into the water off a southern island after debris resembling aircraft pieces were seen in the area, reported Los Angeles Times. A missing Japanese army helicopter carrying 10 crew members is likely to have crashed into the water off a southern island after debris resembling aircraft pieces were seen in the area, reported Los Angeles Times.

Japan to offer military aid to ally nations in historic departure from post-WWII military pacifism

South China Morning Post - Apr 07

Japan has said it will offer friendly foreign nations financial assistance to help them bolster their defences. Japan has said it will offer friendly foreign nations financial assistance to help them bolster their defences.

Tokyo 'coming alive again' as Japan sheds COVID-19 curbs, says governor Koike

CNA - Apr 07

Tokyo is buzzing again, with travellers returning to the Japanese capital as the country seeks to downgrade COVID-19 to the same category as seasonal flu from May, said its governor Yuriko Koike. Tokyo is buzzing again, with travellers returning to the Japanese capital as the country seeks to downgrade COVID-19 to the same category as seasonal flu from May, said its governor Yuriko Koike.

Japan replaces maverick ambassador to Australia

AFR - Apr 05

Japan is replacing its outspoken ambassador to Australia, Shingo Yamagami, with a long-serving diplomat who is the countrys current top diplomat in Turkey. Japan is replacing its outspoken ambassador to Australia, Shingo Yamagami, with a long-serving diplomat who is the countrys current top diplomat in Turkey.




Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state, has alleged that Rotimi Amaechi, former minister of transportation, worked against the presidential bid of Bola Tinubu.

Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won the presidential election held on February 25 and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has issued him a certificate of return.

Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers, is a member of the APC. He contested the partys presidential primary in June 2022 but lost to Tinubu.

The former minister of transportation was not actively involved in the campaign trail of Tinubu despite being a member of the council.

Speaking on Thursday during a broadcast in Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers, Wike said Amaechi and Tonye Cole, APC governorship candidate in the state, actively worked against the election of Tinubu.

Rotimi Amaechi and his protege, Tonye Cole, actively opposed the demand for power shift to the south and worked against their partys presidential candidate in Rivers state, Wike said.

When the president-elect (Tinubu) emerged as the winner, Tonye Cole rushed to congratulate him on his Instagram handle but deleted the post when he was criticised.

The Rivers governor said the G5  a group of five governors in the PDP  has been vindicated for backing a power shift to the south.

For us in the G-5, the presidential election was about fairness, equity, and justice. Our commitment was for a presidential power shift from the north, where it has been for the last eight years, to southern Nigeria, he said.

Thankfully, Nigerians have vindicated our stand, and we appreciate the electoral majority for strengthening the nations unity with their choice.
By Felix Oboagwina

April last year, I wrote an article, titled, Didnt Tinubu Just Goof On MC Oluomo? The piece did a post-mortem on the crisis rocking the Lagos State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW). Long story short, Musiliu Akinsanya, alias MC Oluomo, was issued a query by the unions national leadership, he refused to answer it and he was handed a suspension.

Out of the blue, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu declared NURTW banned. In its place, they created the Lagos Parks and Garages Management Committee and appointed MC Oluomo to head it as Chairman. Those who know, know that Sanwo-Olu merely served as the hand of Esau carrying out the dictates of the godfather puppeteer, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. MC Oluomo is Tinubus strongman.





Lately, MC Oluomos pre-Governorship-Election message to the Igbo stock in Lagos became a social media virus. In it, the Tinubu-assisted tough-guy warns all Iya Chukwudis (all Igbo), Vote APC or stay at home! Simply put, should the South-Easterners fail to support APC, these attack dogs want to scare Igbo with a promise of Rwandan-style point-and-kill. It is a desperate message from a desperado whose desperate paymasters have read the handwriting on the wall from February 25, where they fell from their Olympian heights and lost Lagos to Peter Obis Elu-Pee. However, people like me saw the February 25 fall coming long ago.





In my April 2022 piece, I observed and warned: As the Nigerian proverb says, It is the foolish fly that gets buried with the corpse. Tinubu, in bailing out his embattled unionist godson may have succeeded in damaging his own ambition. Could I have been more right?





Anywhere in Nigeria, where commercial transportation takes place, NURTW full ground berekete. So does its parent body, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). These are nationwide networks. Injury to one of them means injury to all. NURTW and NLC could be making Tinubu pay for robbing them of Lagos.





Apart from the MC Oluomo blunder, several others factors triggered the shock APC and Tinubu received in their traditional hold of Lagos and gave the lead instead to the Labour Partys Peter Obi, on February 25. That February loss made them zero in on Obis Igbo kinsmen in Lagos. They think they have an Igbo problem they could solve through scare tactics. Perish the thought! It has nothing to do with Igbo people.





LAGOS-BORN WANT LAGOS





There is the Omo Eko factor. Aboriginal Lagosians from the Awori stock and the Saro Islanders, descendants of the freed slaves who returned to Lagos and Freetown in the dying days of the slave trade, these too want a shot at the throne too. Rallying around the likes of Chief Olabode George and General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, they have formed Omo Eko Pataki, dedicated to planting a trueborn, full-blooded Lagosian in Eko Roundhouse.





The dream the aboriginal Lagosians and Island Lagosians dream about ruling Lagos should make sense. They point out that unlike the likes of Rauf Aregbesola (Osun State), who, after a spell of meritorious service in Lagos, still headed back home to vie for state governorship positions, indigenous Lagosians have nowhere to go. Only godfather Tinubu knows why he shunned their yearnings since 1999. He paid dearly for it on February 25. It has nothing to do with Igbo people.





THE #EndSARS FACTOR





The 2020 anti-SARS protests against police brutality threw up leaders like Aisha Yesufu at the national level. In Lagos, from its angry embers rose the likes of the comedian Mr. Macaroni, the musician Eedris Abdulkareem and FALZ, the Bahd Guy musician son of quintessential Lagos lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN. The #EndSARS protests eventually became a symbol of youth resistance to constituted authority.





It is an understatement to say that Tinubu and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu soiled their hands in the ugly episode, which started out as a peaceful protest. The Lekki Tollgate has today become a symbol of that epic struggle, Nigerias own version of Chinas Tiananmen Square, a place of sorrows, tears and blood. Lekki Tollgate, a private concern run by LCCI, has its ownership traced to Tinubu. His son Deji owns the advert firm that runs advertisements atop and around the structure. On the D-Day, three things happened at Lekki Tollgate.





 CCTV cameras were removed.





 Lights were switched off.





 A killing squad of soldiers shot into the crowd of hyper-peaceful, flag-waving protestors.





Blood flowed. Corpses of Nigerian youth piled up. The Army whisked away the slain, denying them the decency of a burial. Who sent in the marines? Sanwo-Olu denies but the military insists he did. Those youngsters have been waiting to get their pound of flesh. These 2023 elections provide that chance. They have waited for this moment since October 20, 2020.





Fate only provided Peter Obi as the accidental rallying point. Is it by omission or design that Aisha Yesufu, a veritable symbol of the #EndSARS protests, is highly visible in the Obis LP campaigns?





This is payback time. For that desecration of the flower of their youth at Lekki, Benin, Ogbomosho, young Nigerians want their pound of flesh. And they are determined, mobilised and organised enough to get it. It has nothing to do with the Igbo.





ANTI-MEDIA POSTURING





Apart from TVC and The Nation newspapers that he owns, which media can Tinubu identify as friends and allies today? The likes of Arise TV and AIT have gone overboard to denigrate him, after they wooed him without success. So does AIT. They spend generous airtime to mock and disparage Tinubu and his party. Little wonder. Before and since June 2022 that he won the APC ticket, Tinubu shunned the several debates they organised for presidential contestants. What cockiness! This anti-media posturing, unfortunately encouraged by his publicists, has proved a damager.





Who remembers that pre-February 25 even Sanwo-Olu did not much campaigning in Lagos? Instead of running his own political business, he was minding Tinubus business gallivanting all over Nigeria with his godfather. The electoral results of February has sent the poor guy running from mall to shops to churches to computer villages, doing photo ops like a jack-of-all-trades! It has little to do with the Igbo.





MUSLIM-MUSLIM TICKET





By the way, Sanwo-Olu blames their poor show on his godfathers Muslim-Muslim ticket. And who says that formation would escape unscathed in a multi-religious country? Tinubu performed woefully in the Christian-dominated South-East, South-South, as it did in several Christian featuring states of the North? Ditto Lagos. It has nothing to do with the Igbo.





GODFATHERS LIMITED TENURE





The governorship is a tenured office. You do your maximum term of eight years and quit the scene. Tinubu became Lagos Governor in 1999. He left office in 2007. Thereafter, he has remained the ultimate godfather of Lagos politics. From Babatunde Fashola, to Akinwunmi Ambode, to Babajide Sanwo-Olu, all Lagos governors have come under the control of this ultimate puppeteer. All local government and Legislature operatives are handpicked by him. The question is: Will Tinubus godfather tenure in Lagos last till death do them part? Or will die the natural death of Olusola Saraki in Kwara State, Orji Uzoh Kalu in Abia, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo, Jim Nwobodo in Enugu and James Ibori in Delta, all of whom have had their godfather influence extinguished? The law of diminishing return is a nature thing. It has nothing to do with the Igbo.





THE LOSS OF AFENIFERE





Egbe Afenifere singlehandedly made Tinubu in 1999. His romance with them has long lost its fire forget the other days PR trip to Pa Reuben Fasoranti in Ondo. Today, that foremost Yoruba socio-political group backs Obi 100 percent. Without Afeniferes pillar of support, it cannot be smooth sailing for the former Lagos Governor.





OBI AND THE IBO FACTOR





Yes, Peter Obi is a boy, an Igbo (or Ibo) boy. Therefore, the former Anambra State Governor will naturally command the support of his kith and kin. However, social media buffs have pointed out that if you drop Obi from LP and replace him with any other Igbo politician, like Orji Uzoh Kalu or Rochas Okorocha, they would abandon LP like hot potato. Obidents swing only in one direction, the Peter Obi direction.





Why Obi? Obi packs qualities that those other politicians lack. Like them, he served in public office, but his integrity rings loudly and deafeningly. Here is a man who has refused to allocate to himself post-service pecks and pecuniary, where his mates corner lifelong cars, cash and castles from the state coffers! He exudes capacity, competence and character. Those qualities make sweet music in Nigerians ears.





It has nothing to do with the Igbo people. Obis magic goes beyond Igbo backing. His votes in Lagos came majorly from non-Igbo voters. Go and verify.





Agreed that the garrulousness, bragging and verbosity of a minuscule few of Igbo loudmouths would not help matters, but not all Igbo proclaim Lagos as a NO-MANS-LAND that they want to TAKE OVER. Yoruba indigenes will fight anyone proclaiming that assumption.





However, one thing I know (since serving as Director twice in the Jimi Agbaje governorship campaigns of 2015 and 2019) is that the Tinubu political family dusts up this propaganda-blackmail every election cycle. Fela calls it their regular trademark. This Igbo-want-to-take-over-Lagos is a xenophobic slang they apply during every election. They spread the misinformation that the opposition wants to red-carpet and royalise the Igbo strangers in Lagos. They used it against Jimi Agbaje. They tried it with Jandor. Now they are bringing that piece of trash against Rhodes-Vivour, whose principal happens to be Igbo. They disguise the blackmail as a clarion call for Yoruba unity, irredentism and nationalism. By these satanic verses, they paint Tinubus clique as protectors of Yoruba interest and resisters of Igbo expansionism. Those who know Lagos politics know that the MC Oluomo-Tinubu group are lying. Unfortunately, however, the formula seems to work. Always.





(OBOAGWINA IS AN AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST, AND MAY BE REACHED VIA: foboagwina@gmail.com)
The All Progressives Congress candidate and Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has trounced his closest rivals, Abdulazeez Adediran and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party at Polling Unit 6, Eiyekole, Lagos Island, in the ongoing governorship and State House of Assembly elections.

Sanwo-Olu polled 121 votes while Adediran and Rhodes-Vivour secured only one and two votes respectively.

The Independent National Electoral Commission officials as well as the security agencies arrived as early as 7:30 in the morning and voting started at exactly 9 am.

Addressing journalists shortly after casting his votes, Sanwo-Olu sued for peaceful conduct of the election while expressing satisfaction over the turnout of voters.

He said: We are happy with the turnout of voters in this election. I was told INEC officials came right on time, and voting is on.

I think its time for us to see and understand that this process is not meant to be one of violence. The election that leads to a democratic process is the best form of validating what true democracy is all about.

I want to reiterate that this contest is about peace, progress, and prosperity. Everyone has the right to be able to advocate for everyone to freely express themselves, fairly, and transparently.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has raised an alarm over fake identity cards for security personnel on election duty.

Governorship and state assembly elections will hold on March 18 in 28 states across the country.

While there have been concerns about possible violence, the security agencies have assured of adequate deployment of personnel to polling units.

In a statement on Friday, Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner and chairman, information and voter education committee, said the fake identity cards did not emanate from the commission.

Okoye said that identity cards for security personnel on election duty are issued by security agencies alone, not the INEC.

The attention of the commission has been drawn to an identity card for security personnel bearing the name and logo of the commission with the inscription complete access boldly written in red at the bottom of it, the statement reads.

We wish to state categorically that the identity card did not emanate from the Commission. Identity cards for security personnel on election duty were issued by the security agencies and not the Commission.

Anyone bearing an identity card allegedly issued by the Commission for security personnel can only be on illegal duty. Such a person is liable to arrest and prosecution.

The public is alerted to this diabolical action of some misdirected elements and to report any such persons to the security agencies.




The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has deployed its personnel across the states where governorship and state assembly elections will take place.

The elections are scheduled to hold on Saturday, March 18.

Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesperson, in a statement on Friday, said the deployment was to ensure that the elections were devoid of financial malpractice, especially the inducement of voters.

Uwujaren said the teams, led by senior officers arrived at their assigned locations earlier on Friday.

He said a number of them, on arrival, held consultations with the other security agencies involved in election security and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The team for Ebonyi State arrived in Abakaliki and met with the commissioner of police at the state headquarters, to register their presence, Uwujaren said.

They, thereafter, proceeded to the state INEC headquarters for a brief meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).

Officers of Kaduna zonal command led by ACEII Mustapha Abubakar who are on an election monitoring mission to Niger state also met the commissioner of police, J.A Ogundele, to register their presence in the state.

They also visited the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Niger State, Ahmed Yushau Garki.

Officers of the Abuja zonal command on election monitoring duty in Nasarawa state, led by ACE II Adeniyi Adebayo, also registered their presence at the Nigeria police command Lafia.

The EFCC spokesperson said the brief of the teams was to deter vote trading and other financial malpractice that could compromise the integrity of the elections.

In the statement, Uwujaren said Abdulrasheed Bawa, chairman of EFCC, had, in a message to the teams before the presidential and national assembly elections, charged them to exhibit a high sense of integrity and professionalism in carrying out their duties.

You are out on a national assignment and I expect you to conduct yourselves responsibly in line with our core values of professionalism, integrity, and courage, Bawa had said.

You have a responsibility to ensure that this election is devoid of financial malpractices, especially the inducement of voters.

The attention of the world is focused on Nigeria and we must do what is necessary to ensure that we have credible, free, and fair elections.








Senator Abdullahi Adamu, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), lost his polling unit in the ongoing governorship election.





At Agwan Rrimi Ward, Ec 20 Polling Unit, where he cast his ballot in the governorship election, Governor Abdullahi Sule, seeking reelection, polled 129 votes. At the same time, Davematics Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured 159 votes.

Adamu also lost his polling unit to the opposition party in the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections.




Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ilorin Zonal Command, on Saturday arrested 20 suspected vote buyers in the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections in Kwara State.









Acting Commander, Micheal Nzekwe, disclosed this to newsmen during a parade of the suspects at the commands office in Ilorin.





He said the suspects who were directly involved in the alleged vote buying, were arrested in Ilorin, and outside the state capital.





The arrests, according to him, took place in Omu-Aran, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara, Ilorin South and Ilorin West local government areas of the state.





We were all over the 16 local government areas of the state, we recovered quite a lot of money but we are still investigating as the matter is still fresh, he disclosed.









The anti-graft commander confirmed that a suspected vote buyer was apprehended at a polling unit in Ajikobi Ward of Ilorin West Local Government Area with an unspecified amount of cash.




Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State who is also the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Saturdays election, has taunted his opponents to prepare for loss.





Fintiri told the opposition political parties to be ready to accept defeat at the end of the ongoing governorship and House of Assembly Election.





Speaking shortly after casting his vote at unit 004 in Kirchinga Ward of Madagali Local Government Area, Fintiri who is a major candidate, said he was optimistic that he will win the election.





He expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the election up to the time he voted around noon, urging INEC to ensure that the entire process turns out to be credible.





At the guber election, Fintiri faces a major opponent in the person of Senator Aishatu Ahmed Binani who is contesting in the governorship election as a candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC).





Twelve other candidates were registered for the election but six of them had earlier stepped down for Fintiri while one, the candidate of the Labour Party, Umar Mustapha, stepped down for Binani.




Former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, Director General of the Peoples Democratic Party Governorship Campaign Council, Professor Ali Ahmad and governorship candidates of parties in Saturdays gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections have expressed divergent opinions over the exercise.





It was reported that although the exercise was peaceful, it was however characterised by low voter turn-out in the majority of the voting centres visited.





Speaking with journalists after casting his vote at his Agbaji voting centre in Ilorin on Saturday, Dr Bukola Saraki, hoped that INEC would have learnt from what happened in the last February 25,2023 and the negative impact it had on the countrys image.





He expressed optimism that this time around, once results are concluded, INEC will upload as promised and transmit on their systems.





Acknowledging that the turnout was low, the former Senate President said let us wait and see at the end of the day.





On the issue of the functionality of the technology deployed for the elections, Saraki said he suspected the equipment was intentionally sabotaged in the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.





In his own reaction, the Director General of the PDP governorship campaign council in the state, Professor Ali Ahmad, described the exercise as peaceful, but marred by low turnout of voters due to what happened in the last elections.





Peoples massive turnout in the last elections was apparently different from the declared results because of some factors, so you could expect that people would lose interest and that could be dangerous, he said.





Prof Ali noted that the process has been good.





He said: We have to be on our guard, we knew what happened; voting will be good, compilation will be good, but when it comes to INECs major responsibilities, that is when you begin to hear big, big grammar about guidelines. Despite what the INEC chairman spent in two or three years [and despite] the unprecedented amount budgeted for INEC this year.





He added: INEC has no reason to disappoint Nigerians as they did the last time; but Nigeria is a country without consequences, otherwise, the INEC chairman should have resigned honourably, because his performance fell short of expectations of Nigerians.





Also reacting, the gubernatorial candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem, complained about the mutilation of his partys logo on the ballot paper.





He described the process as good, coupled with the peaceful and orderly conduct of the electorate, and prayed for trustworthy election results devoid of manipulation of any sort.





Hakeem Lawal, the gubernatorial candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in the state, blamed the low turn-out of voters on transportation challenges faced by voters and lack of belief in the electoral process.





He observed that the enforcement of restrictions on vehicular movements by security operatives also indirectly disenfranchised the majority of the voters.





Lawal informed that reports reaching him from the partys House of Assembly candidate in Baruten LGA indicated that some BVAS machines were deactivated in some polling units in the area, hence there was no voting in the units.




Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC for the early commencement of the voting process in the state.





Governor Soludo gave the commendation shortly after voting at Polling Unit 002 Ovuiyi Umueze, Isuofia, Aguata Council Area at 11:30 am





From the information available to me, I have sampled views across the state and it seems to be going on fairly well in terms of deployment of logistics and early commencement of the election.





I think there is a great improvement compared to the previous election in terms of the arrival and deployment of materials. It seems to be going on well, relatively peaceful, Governor Soludo declared





The Governor who expressed optimism that the will of the people will prevail, also said the turnout of voters is low compared to the previous election and encouraged ndi Anambra to step out and exercise their civic obligations by voting





Anyone who is in the queue before 2:00pm, will be allowed to vote and your vote will count. We expect the finishing; collation and announcement of results to end with a flourish, the Governor concluded.




Suspected thugs have burnt down the house of the former President-General of the Urhobo Progress Union, Chief Joe Omene in Mosogar, Ethiope-West Local Government Area of Delta State.





Chief Joe Omene is a supporter of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Delta State.





It was not clear if any member of his family and himself sustained any injuries or if they were killed.





They have relocated to an undisclosed area for safety.
Some political thugs have reportedly hijacked and destroyed voting materials meant for wards 2, 3, 4 and 5 in constituency five of the Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State for the House of Assembly election.





Governor Douye Diri has already strongly condemned the act, according to his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Daniel Alabrah.





The governor urged the Inspector General of Police and Commissioner of Police for Bayelsa State to restore peace in the area.





Meanwhile, accreditation and voting were yet to start at wards polling units 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 in Atissa Constituency, Yenagoa LGA of Bayelsa State as of 9 am.





Our correspondent observed that INEC officials and balloting materials had yet to leave the Atissa RAC as of 8:45 am.





Buses and other vehicles were seen being loaded with voting materials to depart for polling units in the area.
Musiliu Akinsanya, chairman of the Lagos parks and garages, has denied that he issued a threat against voters who would not vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Saturdays elections.

On Thursday, a video appeared on social media in which Akinsanya was heard saying that Igbo people who do not want to vote for the party in the Lagos governorship election should stay at home.

Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, made the comments while addressing his supporters at an event in Lagos.

We have begged them. If they dont want to vote for us, it is not a fight. Tell them, Mama Chukwudi, if you dont want to vote for us, sit down at home. Sit down at home, MC Oluomo spoke in Yoruba in the viral video.

The comment elicited criticism on and off social media as many Nigerians asked security operatives to arrest MC Oluomo.

Speaking in a video on Friday, Akinsanya said his comment that generated controversy is a playful remark with his sister, whose name is Iya Chukwudi, adding that he was not referring to Igbo people residing in Lagos.

The transport union leader said he has always been on the side of peace in his activities.

The meeting I went to yesterday, the person I was referring to is my sister  Iya Chukwudi. I was referring to Iya Chukwudi, saying if you will not vote for APC, please sit down at home, he said.

I saw it on social media that people were saying MC said something. Im always on the side of peace. If you look at Lagos state, there is peace.

Why will I say people should not come out to vote? If people dont come out to vote, how will APC win the election? How will Igbo and Hausa not vote for APC? APC is my party. Count me out of the viral reports. The person I was referring to was at the meeting.

I was only joking. I did not threaten Igbo. Please ask Igbo in Oshodi, they will tell you that I did not threaten any Igbo.

In the video, a woman who identified herself as Iya Chukwudi said she was the one Akinsaya mentioned in the viral video, adding that the APC chieftain is her long-time customer.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.

In a press statement on Friday, the ICC said the warrant became necessary following the applications submitted by the prosecution on February 22, 2023.

The ICC said Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the crimes committed in Ukrainian territory from February 24, 2022.

It said that the Russian presidents failure to exercise control over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts under his authority has made him responsible for these crimes.

The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for childrens rights in the office of the president of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.

Today, 17 March 2023, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court) issued warrants of arrest for two individuals in the context of the situation in Ukraine: Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Ms Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the statement reads.

Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, born on 7 October 1952, President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of the population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute).

The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian-occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, (i) for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others, and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute),

And (ii) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility (article 28(b) of the Rome Statute).

Ms Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, born on 25 October 1984, Commissioner for Childrens Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute).

The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian-occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Ms Lvova-Belova bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute).
At least five suspected political thugs have been arrested with guns in Anambra.

Ikenga Tochukwu, police spokesperson in Anambra, confirmed the development in a terse statement

He said the thugs were arrested on Saturday in Ihiala LGA, and that pump-action guns were recovered from them.

Five armed thugs (have been) arrested in Ihiala Anambra State where four pump actions (were) recovered. Further development shall be communicated, the statement reads.

Briefing journalists on the development, Aderemi Adeoye, commissioner of police in charge of elections in Anambra, said the suspects were brought into the secretariat by a local government official.

The second one is at Iyiala LGA, where a local government official brought in armed thugs to the secretariat. The thugs have been arrested  they are five in number, he said.

The police commissioner said the suspects were arrested, adding that an investigation was ongoing.

Five pump-action guns have been recovered and the thugs have been detained, he said.

We did warn from the outset, that we will not tolerate thuggery and snatching of boxes and we will come hard on anyone who violates the electoral act and guidelines issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of this election, he added.
Ovie Omo-Agege, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Delta state, has expressed optimism about winning the gubernatorial election.

The deputy senate president spoke with journalists on Saturday after casting his vote at Ughelli North LGA of the state.

He said despite the reported attacks by supporters of the opposition in parts of the state, he will win the election.

Omo-Agege also accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of inciting violence and alleged that some mischief was going on in Gbaramatu and Oporoza communities.

PDP entered into this contest with a predetermination to ensure attacks are launched on the polling units across the states most especially here in Delta central to destroy the votes, he said.

Since morning, we have received reports of those attacks in Evwreni, Ugheli South. Weve received the same from Oteri in Ughelli and some mischief was going on in Gbaramatu and Oporoza.

Meanwhile, we have been getting security operatives to respond but it appears that they have been overwhelmed.

We are here trying to protect our votes all around the state. But for them, they dont have votes to protect. Its all about violence.

The lawmaker said the attacks were initiated by the opposition party to provoke the APC supporters.

Coming to the polling unit today, I expect that at the end of the day, I will be declared the winner, he added.

The idea is to provoke them so that they fight and there will be cancellations. Just hang in there. Just come out, cast your vote, ignore all of the provocations.

I have decided to let go and let God. Im convinced I am going to be declared governor of the state.

Omo-Agege, Sheriff Oborevwori of the PDP, and the Labour Partys Ken Pela are among the contenders in the governorship election in the state.
Several petty traders in Nigeria have said that their businesses have started to boom again following the reintroduction of the old naira notes as legal tender.

A tea vendor, Sani Isiaka, said the measure had given him relief from the consistent online banking failures from customers.

Isiaka, who happily brought out some old naira notes which he was paid with, said he is no longer experiencing difficulties with his bakery and suppliers over money.

An okpa seller, Okeke Queen, and her counterpart Okenyike Chinyere commended the policy, but added that they still encounter some challenges with some of their raw materials supplies in the village markets who are not aware of the return of the old naira notes.

A food vendor behind Keke Napep Park, Mrs Debora Olapajo, also expressed joy over the move, saying she had incurred losses from failed transfer transactions from the few customers who patronised her before the reversal of the policy.

A fruit seller, Murtala Abdullahi, said his business has picked up, adding that he no longer encounters challenges from fruit dealers at the Zuba Fruit market compared to weeks back.

It was however, learnt that some commercial transporters still reject the old notes, even though the CBN has said the old notes remain legal tender till December 31.

Speaking to some commercial transporters, they said they could not accept the old notes when the fuel stations are still rejecting them to the reported difficulties they experienced in meeting the CBN condition of portal application for depositing the money.

Mixed feelings have continued to trail the acceptance of old naira notes being reissued to customers by commercial banks in Benue State.

The commercial banks in the state had on Monday started issuing the old N500 and N1000 notes to customers occasioned by the Supreme Courts order that the currency remained legal tender until December 31, this year.

Our source who went around town reports that while some traders and business owners have started accepting the currency, other are yet to comply with the court directive.

Regina Ameh, a bean cake (akara) seller, said she was not collecting the money at first after the pronouncement of the Supreme Court to avoid a repeat of what happened to her when President Muhammadu Buhari in his broadcast in February declined to extend the use of the old naira as legal tender.

Its just today (Friday) that I started accepting the old money because Im now sure that Buhari wont come up with a contrary directive. I suffered to deposit the old notes in the bank in February after the president announced that it was no longer legal tender.

Even my business continued to suffer. Although, the scarcity of naira still continues, however, the situation now is better. I hope it will improve by next week, Ameh said.

Similarly, Mathew Felix, a vulcanizer, expressed mixed feelings over the reintroduction of the old naira notes as legal tender as in his estimation, the notes were still scarce while it had affected cost of commodities in some ways.

Felix said he still maintained the normal charges for services rendered to his customers but same cannot be said for some commodities he usually bought from the market.

He explained, Traders are charging higher when you either pay them through POS or transfer. They will collect as much as between N200 and N500 as extra charges on purchases.

Also, some traders refused to collect the old notes from me while others collected the money, but I have noticed a relief from the cash crunch as patronage has increased unlike before when my customers could hardly pay for services. As for me, I accept the old notes.

Babajide Peter, who was paid N10,000 in old notes of N500 across the counter at a UBA branch in Makurdi, told newsmen that the queue at the bank remains worrisome.

Peter said it was still difficult to get into the banks to make withdrawal even as the long queue to use the ATM seemed an impossible mission.

They are only paying a maximum of N10000 with old notes in the bank. I didnt have any challenge paying a commercial motorcyclist with the currency, though some are still rejecting the money. But there is no cash in other places, he added.

However, petty traders are still lamenting the scarcity of the old notes, with some of them saying it had affected their businesses in no small measure.

Lucy Michael, a garri dealer, said for the past two months, she hasnt been able to restock due to scarcity of both old and new naira notes.

She explained that traders in the rural areas refused electronic payments while insisting on selling their products only on the payment of cash.

I have not been able to raise cash up to at least N200, 000 to buy goods so, I have remained at home doing nothing since then. Now that the old notes have been reintroduced, I still cant cash that amount of money.

More worrisome is the fact that the locals have increased the prices of commodities following the directive for them to accept the old notes. This federal government policy has destroyed my business and caused a lot of hardship for my family, Michael lamented.

In the meantime, the reintroduction of the old naira notes appeared to have caused a hike in prices of commodities instead of reduction, thereby affecting small scale businesses adversely.




Men of the Imo State Police Command have rescued 19 Ad-Hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, who were kidnapped in the State in the early hours of Saturday.





INEC spokesperson in the State, Chinenye Chijioke-Osuji, confirmed the development.





She said they were rescued after a distress call, and information about the incident was disclosed to the security operatives, who swung into action immediately.





The rescued Ad-Hoc staff of the electoral commission were on their way to seven different polling units in Ugbelie ward 06 in Ideato South Local Government Area of the State when they were kidnapped.





She added that some election materials, including BVAS and sensitive materials, were not recovered.
Rotimi Amaechi, former minister of transportation, has alleged intimidation of voters and politicians at the ongoing governorship and house of assembly elections in Rivers state.

Amaechi spoke with journalists after casting his vote in polling unit 14, ward 8, Ubima community, Ikwerre LGA of Rivers.

The former Rivers governor accused Usman Baba, the inspector-general of police (IGP), of refusing to address the arrest and intimidation of members of opposition parties.

Amaechi also expressed concern over low voter turnout in the state, adding that it is a result of voter intimdation.

Look at what is happening in Rivers state  a complete failure of governance. Police are helping PDP arrest APC and SDP members, he said.

Gongs are beating in communities asking people who will not vote for PDP not to come out or they will beat them. Unlike before, thugs are beating people everywhere.

People are being arrested and nobody has spoken. The governor has no right to declare anybody wanted. IGP is doing nothing. Nobody is doing anything. Complete failure.

Now, there is voter apathy. I dont know if it cuts across the country but there is voter apathy in Rivers state. Nobody wants to come out because people are scared.
The Labour Party (LP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have traded words over the attacks on voters in Lagos state.

Attacks were recorded in various parts of the state during the governorship and state house of assembly elections on Saturday.

In a Twitter post, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Lagos, Rodes-Vivour alleged intimation of voters across the state and accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the police of complicity.

From all over Lagos, we are getting distressing reports of voter intimation, voter suppression. The worrying thing about this is that INEC and the police have shown to be complicit in this, he said.

The reason why we are doing this video is because it is important that INEC and the police realise that they are provoking Lagasions right now.

INEC still has hours to do the right thing. With the help of security agencies, the commission will be able to calm down a lot of things. A lot of areas are still under intense attacks by thugs and hooligans of the APC.

I call on INEC, most especially, and the police not to set Lagos on fire. This is a state that houses 22 million people. Having that many people angry because of being disenfranchised is not something Nigeria needs now.

So, I call on INEC REC and everybody involved in this election to make sure they do the right thing and create at least the perception and the actuality of a free and fair election.

A peaceful democratic process has been turned into war by the ruling party because people want to express their choice

The point of governance is to preserve and protect lives, not take them.



Dont despair, we are stronger than them. pic.twitter.com/5ba8yadI6Q  Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (@GRVlagos) March 18, 2023





NigerianEye had earlier reported how the LP governorship candidate lost his polling unit to Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the APC.

Reacting to the development in a statement, Seye Oladejo, spokesperson of the APC in Lagos, described the LP as bad losers.

This scaremongering is typical of bad losers who lack the spirit of sportsmanship. The security agencies should note Mr Rhodes-Vivours threat to set Lagos on fire as his predilection for violence and warmongering is well known to Nigerians, the statement reads.

Should there be any breakdown of law and order in any part of our state, law enforcement agencies should know who to grab  Mr Rhodes-Vivour.

We are compiling reports of how APC supporters were harassed and attacked today. Some of the reports are really scary. Now the LP candidate is playing the victim. This old trick wont work; discerning Lagosians know they are all lies deployed to attract sympathy.

Our party has no need to be violent because we are sure of the glittering credentials of our candidate Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu who will never be associated with violence.

We advise LP and its candidate to embrace peace instead of threatening to bring down the roof on everybody. It wont work.
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Pascals Manale Restaurant is known for its deeply flavored barbecue shrimp, for its stand-up oyster bar and for a style of cooking that embodies the Creole-Italian tradition, with a menu mixing turtle soup and shrimp remoulade with veal piccata and spaghetti and meatballs.

At 110 years old, it's a low-key Uptown landmark and the type of restaurant New Orleans people love, with its long history and the way their own family histories intersect with it through the generations.

Thats true for Dickie Brennan and his sister Lauren Brennan Brower.

Pascals Manale has been a regular stop for the two restaurateurs. It was a favorite for their father, Richard Brennan Sr., one of the co-founders of the modern Commanders Palace, and it was the last restaurant where he dined before his death in 2015. Dickie Brennans own standing order at the restaurant is oysters Bienville, a dish hes even ordered for takeout during a hospital stay nearby.

Pascals Manale is a restaurant the Brennans want to see continue for many years to come. Now, they and business partner Steve Pettus are in charge of making sure it does.

On Friday , their restaurant company Dickie Brennan & Co. closed the deal to buy Pascals Manale from the estate of Ray Brandt, paying $3.85 million for the restaurant.

Its been very close to the family for years, so its more than a business transaction; its more like having your first grandchild, said Dickie Brennan. Were all pinching ourselves; we get the honor of being in the next chapter of this.

Brandt, the auto dealership magnate, had acquired the restaurant in 2019 from the DeFelice family, its fourth-generation owners. Brandt was gravely ill at that time and died just days later.
For years, the shouting contest for would-be Stellas and Stanleys meant the Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival had reached its end. That changed this year, with the homage to A Streetcar Named Desire moved up to March 19 to herald the festivals coming events.

The Tennessee Williams fest hits its stride this week, with the literary festival running March 21-26. Theres a large slate of author panel discussions and interviews, as well as parties, performances, walking tours and more. There also is the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival, an LGTBQ event with overlapping venues that runs in conjunction with Tennessee Williams Fest. Other peripheral events, such as productions of Williams plays by local theater companies, coincide with the festival as well.

The Saints and Sinners fest is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Participating writers include Jewelle Gomez, DeShawn Charles Winslow, Andrew Holleran, Timothy Schaffert, Greg Herren, Leona Beasley, Felice Picano and more. Saints and Sinners events run March 24-26, many of them at the Hotel Monteleone.

Performances of Williams work highlight Pity for the Wild, an opening event at Le Petit Theatre on Wednesday. It includes scenes from Williams Summer and Smoke and The Two-Character Play, and Bryan Batt will perform portions of his autobiographical one-man show, which reflects on the playwrights influence on him, Dear Mr. Williams.

Batt also participates in a Williams tribute reading on Thursday at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. Participants include John Goodman; Louisiana poet laureate Mona Lisa Savoy; David Kaplan, the founder of Provincetowns Tennessee Williams festival; Broadway actress Brenda Currin, who played roles in numerous Williams plays; and more.

A big roster of visiting and local authors share their insights in panels and workshops. Novelist Maurice Carlos Ruffin will talk about writing about New Orleans. Tom Piazza discusses historical fiction. Former Tulane historian Douglas Brinkley discusses his latest book about the rise of environmentalism in the 1960s and 70s. Saloy, Sunni Patterson and Karisma Price read and discuss their poetry. Other participating writers include Nathaniel Rich, Katy Simpson Smith, Richard Campanella, E.M. Tran and more.

New to the festival this year is The Last Bohemia Fringe Festival, a slate of fringe-style alternative theater pieces running at the AllWays Lounge & Theatre on March 23-25. Vinsantos DeFonte presents his solo queer cabaret show Nightingale, about a struggling artist with big aspirations. San Francisco-based artist Monique Jenkinson presents Notes on Faux, reflecting on her drag performance persona Fauxnique. Performance artist Jovelyn Richards explores intimacy in the show It Was Never Just Sex. Lefty Lucy leads a vaudeville-inspired show, Bananas Burlesque (Or, Are Straight People Okay?).

There are full productions of two of Williams most popular plays that close their runs on the festival weekend. Le Petit Theatre is presenting Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans is presenting The Night of the Iguana at Loyola University of New Orleans Lower Depths Theater.

The literary festival also has seminars on pitching book ideas, getting published, screenwriting and podcasting. Themed walking tours explore Tennessee Williams time and inspiration in the city, Storyville and Black Storyville, and LGTBQ history.

The New Orleans Jazz Museum hosts musical performances with a blues bent. Little Freddie King performs on Tuesday. On Friday, Marc Stone and Bruce Sunpie Barnes perform and discuss the blues, and Chris Thomas King discusses his research for the book The Blues: The Authentic Narrative of My Music and Culture. The Drummer and Smoke series presents music at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe.

The literary festival now closes with a celebration of new voices, and established authors offer their best advice. The Sunday afternoon event at the Monteleone also features a staged reading of the festivals one-act play contest.

For more information about Tennessee Williams Fest, visit tennesseewilliams.net. For information about Saints and Sinners, go to sasfest.org.
A Patterson man was arrested in St. Mary Parish this week on accusations that he cut the tails of live nutria and released the injured animals back into the wild.

State wildlife agents were alerted to a video on social media in which Harris DeHart, 45, uses a hook to catch a nutria and then severs the still-living rodents tail, according to the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Agents said they found multiple other videos of DeHart cutting tails off other nutria and teaching a juvenile how to do the same while keeping the animals alive. He was arrested on Tuesday.

Nutria are an invasive species blamed for widespread marsh damage on Louisianas coast. The state offers a $6 bounty for nutria tails, but the animals must be shot before their tails are taken. Gaffing nutria, as DeHart is alleged to have done, is not allowed, nor is the use of spears, pitchforks, bows and arrows, and similar weapons.

Its unclear why DeHart was cutting but not killing the nutria.

DeHart was booked into the St. Mary Parish Jail on charges of aggravated animal cruelty, illegal hunting and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. He was also fined $50 after agents noticed in his social media posts that he had failed to furnish a juvenile with a personal flotation device while on his boat.

Agents seized seized DeHart's Nutria Control Program permit and his cell phone.

The penalties for cruelty to animals include a $5,000 to $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in jail. Contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile carries a fine of up $1,000 and six months in jail. The illegal hunting charge could add another $950 fine and 120 days in jail.
Ron Faucheux: How far will Americans go to help Ukraine?
A free road construction class in Gary will train people for jobs in construction.

The construction industry needs to fill thousands of open jobs as orange traffic cone season nears. Road construction jobs pay an average of $24.90 per hour after six months and typically include benefits like health care and vacation.

A BY Roads class training people for the industry kicks off on March 27 at WorkOne at 504 Broadway in Gary. The classes, which are open to anyone at least 18 years of age, will take place from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The Indiana Department of Transportation and Indiana Construction Roundtable Foundation partnered to offer the hands-on training.

Our goal is to train skilled workers and laborers so they can immediately start working, said Chris Price, president of the ICRF. This is a win for the students who want good-paying full-time jobs; a win for the construction companies who want trained, reliable workers; and a win for Indiana, which will continue to grow and thrive economically.

Students can earn NCCER Core and OSHA-10 industry certification and certificates for Skid Steer operation and ATSSA Flagger. Students learn about highway construction safety, hand tools, power tools, skid steer operation, construction math and communications.

The idea is to get them job site-ready.

INDOT is excited to partner with ICRF on the BY Roads training initiative. This opportunity complements INDOTs mission of providing safe and innovative transportation infrastructure, and will allow its participants to obtain skills in the heavy highway industry to make them more attractive candidates for construction jobs, said INDOT Commissioner Mike Smith.

The course ends with a job fair in which companies will be hiring.

For more information or to register, visit indianaconstructionfoundation.com.
Gary police weigh monthly progress since chief's appointment Interim Chief Jerry Williams addresses a news conference Friday at the Gary Police Department.

GARY  A new series of updates to the operations of the Gary Police Department and introduction of a homicide task force run by the Lake County prosecutors office will allow for safer, more efficient public safety practices in Northwest Indiana, public safety and city officials announced Friday.

Under the guidance of Maj. Chief Jerry Williams, a state police veteran who was appointed interim chief in January, the department continues to review its standard operating procedures, focus on developing technology and increase efforts to solve violent crimes.

While some of these items do not have a concrete timeline, he said, the department, administration and county are working to bring about a level of public safety we all deserve.

Williams was joined at a news conference by Mayor Jerome Prince, U.S. Attorney Clifford Johnson, Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter, Indiana State Police Superintendent Douglas Carter and numerous members of the police department and prosecutors office.

Williams said the department is focusing on designing a website that is more user-friendly, has created an online application process for potential officers, and is working on a plan to increase officer recruitment and retention. Gary  one of many Region departments facing a lack of staffing  has 152 officers, slightly under what it is budgeted for.

We believe this is going to be a force multiplier to help us get additional applications in and credible candidates throughout this process, Williams said.

Williams said there will be a mapping component of the website so residents can see where crimes are happening and report incidents anonymously, plus see real-time responses.

Aspects of that website that allow the community to stay engaged and be transparent with the community as it pertains to them, he said.

Gary police will also be implementing body cameras within the next month, Williams said. More information will be available soon, but all officers should be outfitted within the next 30 days.

In June 2020, Prince created a Police Reform Commission in response to the national outcry after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. The reform commission recommended body cameras, Tasers and policy shifts during a December 2021 meeting.

In addition to recruitment and technological updates, patrol capacity has increased by 50% a shift, Williams said, a direct response to community requests. Additionally, police are replacing uniforms for all officers and discussing facility upgrades with state and local authorities.

Williams was assigned to work with the Gary police in April as part of a partnership with Indiana State Police. The partnership was initially meant to last 90 to 120 days but is approaching one year. Under the plan, Williams will fill in as chief until July and select someone from the department to take his spot.

Carter announced the creation of the Lake County Prosecutors Homicide Task Force, a team of nine investigators from Gary police, Indiana State Police and Indiana Excise Police who will focus on solving homicides. The goal, he said, is to build a solid relationship between police and prosecutors so evidence can be developed properly and cases can be prosecuted thoroughly.

Gary police weigh monthly progress since chief's appointment Lake County Prosecutor Bernard makes an impassioned plea to parents at a news conference Friday at the Gary Police Department.

Having municipal and state detectives co-located in the homicide task force allows for continuity of investigations and collaboration for the betterment of Lake County, Carter said.

Supervising Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Timothy Brown will continue working with detectives to file charges in homicides, Carter said, and offer guidance if additional evidence is necessary to further an investigation. Brown can also sign off on search warrants, arrest warrants, detention orders and more, expediting the investigative process.

Brown has served as supervisor of the Homicide and Drug Division at the prosecutors office for eight months. Supervising Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Veronica Gonzalez will assist Gary police with report-writing, compiling evidence, filing cases and prepping to testify at a trial.

We have to be part of the solution, we have to get involved, Carter said. And we have the resources to do it.

Gary reported 63 homicides in 2022, compared with 48 in 2021. Lt. Dawn Westerfield said there have been 12 homicides in Gary so far this year.

The prosecutors office task force takes over the duties once done by the Lake County Metro Homicide Unit, which was disbanded in December because of staffing issues at the Lake County Sheriffs Department. Gary police and the Sheriffs Department created the unit in 2015 to help curb violent crime in the city.

While the team will focus on investigating homicides in Gary, other municipalities may request assistance of the task force if they desire. Carter said his office is reaching out to departments across the county and hopes the investigative team can proliferate.

Carter also announced the creation of a High Tech Crime Unit, tasked with processing evidence from cameras, laptops, cellphones and other electronic devices. Headed by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Edgar Rodriguez, the unit hopes to reduce the time it takes to analyze and collect digital evidence.
HAMMOND  Two Lake County residents face prison over charges they broke the law when they shopped illicitly in the Regions gun market.

Davonn Long, 25, of Gary and Kylee Saylors, 24, of Hammond appeared this week in U.S. District Court to plead guilty to outmaneuvering laws designed to keep guns out of criminal hands.

Long and Saylors were targeted in separate and unrelated federal investigations, but their crimes resemble mirror images of each other.

Both admitted this week they lied on federal applications  ATF 4473 forms  while on gun buying sprees.

Those forms require applicants to state their true name, address and date of birth, and to swear under oath they are purchasing guns only for themselves and no one else.

Long and Saylors both admitted this week they immediately handed over the weapons they purchased to other, unidentified, people.

Authorities call their crime "straw buying." Straw buyers typically acquire guns for criminals who are either disqualified under federal law from buying guns themselves or dont want the guns traced back to them.

Lying on the form 4473 is a felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment.

The U.S. Attorneys office prosecutes hundreds of cases annually where weapons are illegally purchased or found in the possession of a convicted felon.

Gun violence has long been a danger in Northwest Indiana and neighboring Chicago.

Both Saylors and Long pleaded guilty this week to lying on federal paperwork while purchasing Glock semi-automatic pistols on separate dates at a store in Calumet Township.

A federal grand jury indicted Saylors last September on multiple counts of making false statements to buy guns.

The grand jury claimed Saylors made gun purchases on 11 different dates between July 2020 and February 2021 at three Lake County stores.

The government alleges Saylors not only lied about her true address, but also stated falsely she was purchasing the guns for herself only.

Saylors was facing the prospect a jury trial scheduled to begin March 27 as well as a potential sentence of five years in prison if she were to be found guilty.

Saylors gave up her right to make the government prove the case against her and pleaded guilty to one of the charges against her in return for the U.S. Attorney recommending she receive a more lenient sentence and dismissing 21 other firearm violations now pending against her.

A grand jury indicted Long last July, alleging he made gun purchases on 10 dates between October 2019 and May 2020 and lied on ATF applications each time.

Long was scheduled to stand trial Monday and was in jeopardy of a five-year prison term if found guilty by a jury.

He signed a plea agreement giving up his constitutional right to a trial and pleading guilty to a single firearms violation in return for the U.S. Attorney dismissing 19 other counts and recommending he receive leniency.

Long appeared Thursday before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge John E. Martin to change his plea from not guilty to guilty less than a week before his trial was to begin.

If the court accepts their guilty pleas and the terms of their plea agreements, they will be sentenced later this year.
MERRILLVILLE  Responding to a report of a shooting, Merrillville police spent much of Thursday morning in a standoff that resulted in a suspect eventually surrendering.

Officers were called out around 3:30 a.m. to the 600 block of East 78th Lane and arrived to find the suspect possibly barricaded inside a nearby residence.

The officers secured the area and sought backup from the Merrillville Tactical Apprehension Squad, the department reported.

MTAS units worked throughout the morning to deescalate the situation, police said. MTAS units were able to negotiate a peaceful surrender of all occupants of the residence.

The suspect was taken into custody and then to Lake County Jail, police said. Charges are pending.

This is an isolated incident and there is no threat to the public, the department said.

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact the departments detective bureau at investigations@merrillville.in.gov.
If I look at other food writers and cooks, I am definitely not the only one with a complex attitude toward cabbage. There arent many who would pour their hearts out in an unmitigated love serenade to the forebear of all brassicas. The only one I can think of is Nora Ephron, with her piece The Lost Strudel  admittedly less of a love song and more of an elegy.

Ephrons strudel, a savory version stuffed with cabbage, was made in a Hungarian bakery on Third Avenue in Manhattan called Mrs. Herbsts. It had a buttery, flaky, crispy crust, with a moist filling of sauteed cabbage thats simultaneously sweet, savory and completely unexpected, like all good things.

Alas, Mrs. Herbsts shut its doors around 1982, and Ephron, despite her best efforts, couldnt find an alternative or recreate the original. As she writes: And so, at first, you hope. And then, you hope against hope. And then finally, you lose hope. And there you have it: the three stages of grief when it comes to lost food.

Another author who seems to conflate humans and cabbages is the English food writer Jane Grigson. As a vegetable, she writes, it has original sin, and needs improvement. It can smell foul in the pot, linger through the house with pertinacity, and ruin a meal with its wet flab. Cabbage also has a nasty history of being good for you.

So there you have it, all of cabbages shortcomings, laid out on a platter, no words minced.

Yet Grigson also begins to hint at solutions and mitigating circumstances. No. 1 is the type of cabbage used. She mentions John Evelyn, a 17th-century English writer and horticulturist who wrote about savoy cabbage, a relatively new variety at the time that was not so rank, but agreeable to most Palates. If I were a savoy cabbage, I wouldnt welcome that compliment.
At home in Seattle, I started off working with a 2018 recipe, loosely inspired by Vito & Nicks, and published by my old colleague Bryan Roof, in Cooks Country. His recipe starts with flour, sugar, salt, yeast, water and oil combined in a food processor, which works well for two-pizza batches  any bigger and I use a stand mixer or knead by hand instead. Its then rested for a couple hours; rolled out with a rolling pin (professional thin-crust pizzerias use industrial sheeters); topped with a sauce, shredded cheese and sausage; and then baked in a 500-degree oven on a pizza stone for 10 to 14 minutes. It was a great starting point, especially considering that his recipe can be made in a single afternoon.

My friend Dave Lichterman, a Chicago native who operates two pizzerias in Seattle, began work on his own recipe to serve at his Windy City Pie. In one of the many tasting sessions at his restaurant, he turned me on to how dry thin-crust dough can be. Mr. Roofs recipe calls for around 56 percent hydration  that is, for every 100 grams of flour in a batch of dough, youd add 56 grams of water. This is already on the low end for pizza dough: Neapolitan-style doughs typically hover just north or south of 60 percent hydration. But Mr. Lichterman was making his dough even dryer, around 50 percent hydration, with the addition of 10 percent to 15 percent oil.

This made a huge difference in the texture of my crust, which, up until then, had been coming out crisp but a little too flexible and tough. This had to do with the way that water and oil interact with protein in flour. When water is kneaded with flour, proteins in the flour unravel and untangle, forming a chewy network of gluten. In general, a wetter dough will form more gluten and result in a stretchier, chewier crumb, the kind youd find in the inside of a sourdough boule. Fat, on the other hand, coats flour proteins and prevents them from entangling, resulting in dough thats more tender, like a soft brioche bun. Less water and more oil led to a lighter, crisper crust.
The World Health Organization rebuked Chinese officials on Friday for withholding research that may link Covids origin to wild animals, asking why the data had not been made available three years ago and why it is now missing.



Before the Chinese data disappeared, an international team of virus experts downloaded and began analyzing the research, which appeared online in January. They say it supports the idea that the pandemic could have begun when illegally traded raccoon dogs infected humans at a Wuhan seafood market.

But the gene sequences were removed from a scientific database once the experts offered to collaborate on the analysis with their Chinese counterparts.

These data could have  and should have  been shared three years ago, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.s director general, said. The missing evidence now needs to be shared with the international community immediately, he said.

According to the experts who are reviewing it, the research offers evidence that raccoon dogs, fox-like animals known to spread coronaviruses, had left behind DNA in the same place in the Wuhan market that genetic signatures of the new coronavirus also were discovered.
That means that more than 1,000 Los Angeles Unified schools may have to close from Tuesday through Thursday, according to the district superintendent, Alberto Carvalho.

S.E.I.U. Local 99, the union that represents the employees who are planning to strike, is seeking a 30 percent raise and other increases in compensation. Its members know a strike will be a sacrifice, but the school district has pushed workers to take this action, Max Arias, the executive director of Local 99, said in a statement.

The district is offering a 5 percent wage increase for the current school year and another 5 percent raise for the next, as well as one-time bonuses and additional raises for certain positions, officials said this week.

Carvalho called that a historic offer, and said that the district was working to reach a deal with union officials that would avert a strike. But in a sign that the walkout was becoming more likely, he urged parents to begin making arrangements with their employers and child care providers to prepare for schools to be closed. The contract dispute comes at a time when schoolchildren are only beginning to recover from educational setbacks they suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic.

I want to personally apologize to our families and our students, Carvalho wrote on Twitter this week. You deserve better. Know that we are doing everything possible to avoid a strike.
A previously enacted abortion ban in the state has so far been blocked by the courts after providers and others filed suit claiming that the law violated the Wyoming state Constitutions guarantee of freedom in health care decisions. The newly enacted abortion ban is an attempt to circumvent that constitutional provision by declaring that abortion is not health care.

The decision by a Texas judge to invalidate the F.D.A.s approval of mifepristone, a common abortion pill, has set off a new clash between supporters and opponents of abortion access in the United States. Under Review: After After an appeals court order let stand some aspects of the Texas decision and the Justice Department filed an emergency request to preserve the F.D.A.s approval of mifepristone, the Supreme Court is poised to consider whether medication abortion can be curtailed in states where abortion is legal.

Temporary Status Quo: Justice Samuel Alito Justice Samuel Alito issued a temporary stay ensuring that mifepristone would remain widely available while the Supreme Court decides whether to grant a formal stay.

A Little-Known Drug: Abortion pills have dominated headlines, but, until recently, relatively few Americans were familiar with mifepristone and the concept of medication abortions, Abortion pills have dominated headlines, but, until recently, relatively few Americans were familiar with mifepristone and the concept of medication abortions, polls show

Stockpiling Pills: The Texas ruling could affect availability even where abortion is legal, and states led by Democrats The Texas ruling could affect availability even where abortion is legal, and states led by Democrats have been scrambling to adjust to a possible future without mifepristone.

Wyomings abortion pill law would take effect on July 1 and would make it illegal to prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion. Doctors or anyone else found guilty of violating this law would be charged with a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in prison and a $9,000 fine. The law explicitly says that pregnant patients will be exempt from charges and penalties.

Wyoming has only one clinic that has been providing abortions, Womens Health & Family Care Clinic in Jackson, which provides only medication abortion, not the surgical procedure.

The impact of that legislation not only infringes on our constitutional rights, it actually causes harm, said Dr. Giovannina Anthony, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the clinic. Criminalizing evidence-based medicine is really what this boils down to, and that, in the end, honestly, will lead to maternal deaths and horrible outcomes for both mothers and babies.

Dr. Anthony is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Wyomings previously enacted abortion ban, which is pending review in the states court system. On Friday, the same plaintiffs filed a request for a temporary restraining order to block the new broader abortion ban, since that ban would otherwise take effect right away. A hearing on that request is scheduled for Wednesday, and Dr. Anthony said she and the other plaintiffs will also be filing a court challenge to the medication abortion ban.
Lacey, for her part, wasnt concerned about using the names of real artists or writers. I wanted to give a sense of a world in which all the same things happen, but out of order, she wrote in an email. A writer named Elvia Wilk or Rachel Aviv is born decades earlier and maybe thats the same person as the Wilk and Aviv we have now, or maybe it isnt. There is a lot of randomness and irreverence in these choices, too. Theres no hidden agenda or code.

These questions mirror C.M.s central challenge: how to arrive at a sound understanding of an individual who created and cast off identities, using her own fictions as a shield. If there was an abiding theme across Xs work and life, it was the attempt to subvert a fixed self, choosing to cycle through artistic personas and abjure her personal history. (For starters, it wasnt until X died that C.M. discovered her wifes actual birthplace.)

Little seems off-limits, artistically, to X  she published cult novels under pseudonyms, staged performance art with Kathy Acker, earned a MoMA retrospective before she turned 50. With X, I was just greedy, Lacey said. I wanted her to be able to do everything because the more shes done, the more there is to write about, the more there is for C.M. to find.

In the process of putting together the novel, Lacey, like C.M., went looking for X. One of her pandemic activities was sifting through boxes of photographs from vintage shops and yard sales, allowing her to encounter snapshots of real individuals stripped of context or biography or history. Every so often, shed discover one and think, Oh, theres X. Those found photographs are scattered throughout the book, used to bolster the record of Xs life.

Laceys earlier fiction  she is the author of four previous books  has tended to focus on fugitives and interlopers. Her 2014 debut novel, Nobody Is Ever Missing, followed a young woman who leaves her marriage and heads to New Zealand in an effort to divorce my own history.
Frozen organic strawberries sold at Costco, Aldi, Trader Joes and other retailers have been recalled after the products were linked to five cases of hepatitis A in Washington State, the Food and Drug Administration said.

The administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with state and local agencies, are investigating the cases, which included two people who were hospitalized.

Consumers, restaurants and retailers should not sell, serve or eat recalled frozen strawberries, the F.D.A. said in a statement. These recalled products should be returned or thrown away.

Investigators found that five people who became ill and provided information about what they ate all reported having consumed the strawberries, the F.D.A. said.
A young mother of one, with another on the way, she had spent much of the lockdown days of the pandemic reading up on climate change. A series of devastating floods in 2018 that wrecked the tomato patch at the farm she runs with her husband also awakened her to the dangers of a warming planet. I realized I needed to change the way I farmed, for the sake of my kids, she said.

But in mountainous Minoh, temperatures can dip to below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, or about minus 7 Celsius, levels at which strawberry plants would normally go dormant. So she delved into agricultural studies to try to find another way to ship her strawberries out during the lucrative winter months, while not using fossil fuel heating.

She read that strawberries sense temperatures via a part of the plant known as the crown, or the short thickened stem at the plants base. If she could use groundwater, which generally stays at a constant temperature, to protect the crown from freezing temperatures, she wouldnt have to rely on industrial heating, she surmised.

Ms. Yoshimura fitted her strawberry beds with a simple irrigation system. For extra insulation at night, she covered her strawberries with plastic.

She stresses that her cultivation methods are a work in progress. But after her berries survived a cold snap in December, she took her industrial heater, which had remained on standby at one corner of her greenhouse, and sold it.

Now, shes working to gain local recognition for her unheated strawberries. It would be nice, she said, if we could just make strawberries when its natural to.
If you need proof that climate change has altered the wildlife of the city, look no further than the black vultures soaring above Midtown Manhattan. These hulking, baldheaded scavengers have a wingspan that measures nearly five feet and have traditionally inhabited South America, Central America and the southern United States.

But the black vulture seems to be here for the foreseeable future, along with 20 or 30 species that have recently expanded their ranges into New York City. As weather patterns have warped, and habitats have shrunk and food supplies diminished, the migratory patterns of birds have also changed.

It would have been unheard-of, said Andrew Farnsworth, a researcher at Cornell Universitys Lab of Ornithology, to spot a black vulture in Manhattan 30 or 40 years ago. Now, more than 300 sightings have been recorded in the city since March 2022, according to the Cornell-managed citizen-science project eBird. Black vultures are moving north because of milder temperatures and the ability to scavenge in suburbs near the city, Dr. Farnsworth said. He estimated that as many as 30 new species have joined the more than 200 bird species that regularly spend time in the metro area.

Some birds have been harmed by all of the changes; others seem to be adapting. But in a delicately formed ecosystem, the presence of a new species or the disappearance of one can have cascading impacts across the whole habitat.
To the Editor:

Re My Liberal University Is Pushing Freethinkers to the Right, by Adam S. Hoffman (Opinion guest essay, March 3):

Mr. Hoffmans essay painting Princeton University as a haven for censorious radicals hellbent on ostracizing peers with opposing viewpoints is a narrative as tired as it is inaccurate.

The true story just isnt as grabby: that Princeton boasts prominent conservative student organizations and institutions, an administration that regularly venerates freedom of speech, and a student body where the vast majority are simply normal college kids rather than totalitarian ideologues.

Political tolerance isnt perfect at Princeton, or anywhere else, and identifying specific problems and solutions is important, but this sort of victimization narrative adds nothing substantive to that discourse.

If conservatives want someone to blame for the radicalization of the American right, they should look closer to home for a scapegoat.
NEW DELHI  All over the Indian capital these days loom posters of Narendra Modi, presenting him as the great modernizing prime minister pulling India forward. But those posters also hint at the opposite: an emerging personality cult and an authoritarian streak that is dragging India backward.

In immediate political terms, the personality cult perhaps succeeds. With approval ratings at home of about 78 percent, Modi is far and away the most popular major leader in the world today, according to Morning Consult.

With the opposition in disarray, Modi is expected to win a third term as prime minister in next years elections.

While Modi polls extremely well, many worldly Indians are aghast that he has made India less secular and tolerant, creating what some argue is a Jim Crow Hindu nationalism that marginalizes religious minorities, particularly Muslims. And its not just marginalization: Muslims are periodically accused of slaughtering cows, which are sacred to Hindus, and lynched. In a typical case this month, a mob in Bihar state accused a Muslim of carrying beef and beat him to death.
Theres growing momentum in Congress to ban TikTok, the social media app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, for reasons of national security. Last week, the White House expressed support for a bipartisan bill in the Senate that would give President Biden the power to ban the app, and the White House is also reportedly pressing ByteDance to sell the company.

The security concern is not that well be corrupted by goofy videos but rather that the Chinese government could use the TikTok apps installed on millions of American phones as a form of spyware  collecting sensitive data and personal information, including where we go and what we do. (On Friday, The Times reported that the Justice Department is investigating the surveillance of Americans by ByteDance.)

Congress is focused on TikTok for an obvious reason: Its wildly popular and everyones heard of it. Banning it or forcing it to be sold off wouldnt be a bad idea; the app does present serious privacy and security threats. But focusing just on TikTok would be a showy, inadequate response that would do far too little to protect Americans from the broad range of data security risks that China poses. Instead, Congress should pass a law to comprehensively protect American data and security.

TikTok accounts for just a small part of the Chinese technological surveillance threat, much of which is hiding in plain sight. China can (and probably does) buy data from the many commercial companies that effectively spy on Americans through our phones; an entire industry of little-known data brokers like Kochava and Acxiom legally collects and sells information in just this way. Moreover, despite bans on some Chinese security equipment and routers, Americans still rely on Chinese software in a wide range of tools and devices, such as the software for Chinese-made cranes in shipping ports and countless small drones Americans have bought for personal and commercial use. The Chinese government has also repeatedly hacked its way into the servers of American companies and the U.S. government. And then there are the surveillance balloons.
Fiddler touches honestly on the customs of the Jewish community in Russia, Howard Taubman wrote in The Times, and lays bare in quick, moving strokes the sorrow of a people subject to sudden tempests of vandalism and, in the end, to eviction and exile. But the play did so in the style and exuberance of musical theater, bringing us a book of songs that quickly became staples of the American canon.

It was not even 20 years after the Holocaust, and, though it is set in 1905 amid the pogroms of czarist Russia, the play had an unmistakable subtext of the Jewish apocalypse that would come three decades later. The Russian constable, after all, is only following orders to set off a pogrom, and later drive the Jews from the town. But the plays Roman Vishniac-style misty-eyed view of a lost world is somewhat sanitized. We witness antisemitic violence, but they all get to leave. No one is murdered or raped.

This was a retelling of Jewish fear and struggle and tradition and triumph that American audiences could grasp.

When Fiddler opened, it was a really big deal for Jewish Americans to go to a Broadway theater and see people lighting Shabbos candles onstage or having a wedding under a huppah  and it wasnt a joke, Alisa Solomon, the author of Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof, told me. Before Fiddler, she said, Eastern European and Ashkenaz representation onstage was limited to 1950s-era borscht-belt reviews. It was the first big work of popular culture that represented the old country with a kind of affection and warm regard, she added.

And yet it may also have been the ultimate act of assimilation. Ruth Wisse, a Harvard professor emerita who created an eight-part series of online classes about Tevye, pointed out that one of the biggest differences between the Tevye of Sholom Aleichems short stories and that of the more American tellings hangs on the characters response to the daughter Chava, who is cast out of the family for marrying a gentile. In the film, she returns to say goodbye as the family flees, and Chavas husband chides Tevye on his crime of silence against his child  hinting at a moral equivalence between those driving out the Jews and Tevye himself. Tevye softens slightly, offering a parting blessing. Sholom Aleichem, Dr. Wisse said, would never have countenanced intermarriage, or such a comparison.
Im not a detail-oriented person. My clothes are usually rumpled; when I write, I rarely dot every i or cross each t (either literally or metaphorically). But when I am officiating at a funeral, I meticulously study each letter of the name of the person who died  especially when Im leading a memorial service for a transgender or nonbinary person. Our names are so often disrespected in life, let alone death.

Im transgender and nonbinary, and as a rabbi Ive offered bereavement spiritual care for the past 17 years. In recent years, Ive accompanied mourners through the losses of many more very young trans people than in the past. Each of those funerals was heartbreaking, but taken together, they were terrifying. And I know there will be a lot more deaths like these, unless something changes.

Over the past few years there have been countless stories in the news of trans and nonbinary young peoples deaths by suicide. In San Diego, a 14-year-old, Kyler Prescott, died after being repeatedly misgendered by hospital staff members in the psychiatric unit that was supposed to be helping him. Leelah Alcorn, a 16-year-old transgender girl from Ohio, was rejected by her parents after coming out. In her online suicide note she wrote, The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people arent treated the way I was.

More than half of young people in the United States who are transgender and nonbinary seriously considered suicide in the past year, according to a survey conducted by the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for L.G.B.T.Q. youth. This figure is staggering, but the Trevor Projects data also points to what can help. The same 2022 survey found that trans and nonbinary youth who report having their pronouns respected by all or most of the people in their life attempted suicide at half the rate of those who didnt. And a 2019 Trevor Project survey found that transgender and nonbinary young people who live with even one accepting adult were 40 percent less likely to report a suicide attempt in the previous year.
Winter wrote that while potentially one in seven women suffers from perinatal and postpartum mood and anxiety disorders (or P.M.A.D.s, a category that includes postpartum psychosis), these disorders neurochemical byways are not well mapped.

Dr. Veerle Bergink, the director of the Womens Mental Health Program at Mount Sinai, told Winter this about postpartum psychosis:

There is no money for it, not for research, not for treatment. There are no guidelines. This is one of the most severe conditions in psychiatry, one that has huge impacts on the mother and potentially on the child, and theres nothing.

This shouldnt surprise and anger me as much as it does, because I already knew that diseases that tend to afflict women dont receive as much funding as diseases that tend to afflict men. According to a 2021 paper published in The Journal of Womens Health:

In nearly three-quarters of the cases where a disease afflicts primarily one gender, the funding pattern favors males, in that either the disease affects more women and is underfunded (with respect to burden), or the disease affects more men and is overfunded. Moreover, the disparity between actual funding and that which is commensurate with burden is nearly twice as large for diseases that favor males versus those that favor females.

I emailed Maya Dusenbery, the author of the 2018 book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed and Sick, to get her take on why womens reproductive health  which includes hyperemesis and postpartum psychosis  is in particular so poorly studied.

Dusenbery said that there are knowledge gaps across areas of womens health because were still playing catch-up in understanding that womens experiences can sometimes differ from mens when it comes to the risk factors and presentation of the same disease or the effectiveness and side effects of the same treatment, and that some of the knowledge gap can be traced to the tendency to psychologize womens illness. In attributing womens unexplained symptoms to hysteria, medicine didnt have much motivation to study their biological underpinnings.

When it comes to womens reproductive health, she said, theres been a more complicated dynamic because theres been a history of looking at womens biological functioning as sort of inherently pathological. Menstruation, childbirth and menopause were seen as a kind of permanent sickness or weakness, which (conveniently, for some) prevented women from fully participating in public life. But theres also been a history of psychologizing womens unexplained symptoms, Dusenbery said, meaning women have also been told that their painful cramps or extreme morning sickness were just signs of mental illness.

During her second pregnancy, Fejzo was so sick that she couldnt swallow a teaspoon of water, lost 15 pounds and ultimately miscarried. Her doctor, Callahan wrote, told Fejzo that women make themselves sick during pregnancy to gain the sympathy of their husbands, and later, that her illness was a ploy for attention from her parents, who were helping with her medical care.
Its one of the great injustices of this era that countries contributing negligible amounts to global carbon emissions are now feeling the most harrowing impacts of climate change. Pakistan, which makes up less than 1 percent of the worlds carbon footprint, had a third of its territory under water in last years floods. Parts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia are experiencing the worst drought in 70 years of record-keeping, threatening millions with famine, even though the entire continent of Africa contributes less than 4 percent of global carbon emissions. Small island developing countries such as Papua New Guinea account for less than 1 percent of global carbon emissions, yet they stand to lose the most when sea levels rise.

The World Bank and the donor countries that control it can do more to step up and tackle this generational challenge. To make the World Bank and other multilateral lending institutions fit for purpose in the 21st century, leaders need to figure out how to raise and leverage the massive amounts of capital that are going to be necessary in the coming years to help countries adapt to and mitigate a changing climate.

For years, climate financing took a back seat to the banks twin goals of reducing extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. Today, it is integral to achieving those goals. Helping the poorest of the poor will increasingly mean ensuring access to drought-resistant seeds and access to water as lakes dry up. In middle-income countries, promoting shared prosperity will increasingly mean expanding access to reliable, affordable clean energy. The World Bank has played an active role in making progress in those areas. It has begun to help countries incorporate climate change into their overall economic development plans and should continue this necessary work.

Climate-related funding has already grown in importance at the bank; in fact, some of the poorest countries are already worried that it will cut into funding for basics like education and health care. Thats why additional funding is needed to assure them that taking global action on climate wont come at the expense of their development. About 36 percent of the money the World Bank lent last year was classified as climate related, although questions have been raised about how classifications are made. That comes to nearly $32 billion  a big jump from previous years, but still far short of what is needed.
ORANGE, Va.  Jeannette Walls could have had a life of leisure after the big success of her 2005 memoir, The Glass Castle, but she has too much energy for that. She walks fast and talks fast. Her laugh can be as loud as a gunshot.

She worked as a journalist in New York for nearly three decades and gave it up only when her book had spent months on best-seller lists. But even after more than 15 years in rural Virginia as a novelist who can send drafts to her editor more or less on her own schedule, she still seems like a reporter on deadline.

On a chilly gray afternoon at the end of February, she was behind the wheel of an all-terrain vehicle, driving down a rough path on the 320-acre property she owns with her husband, the nonfiction author John Taylor. She said she was going to show me the prize chestnut trees in the woods and the place where her parents were buried. Up ahead, Mr. Taylor was piloting a smaller and zippier ATV. The engines rumbled as the two vehicles rolled past the pond.

I hope this doesnt gross you out, Ms. Walls said, but the stew well have tonight is venison. Its from the property. The deer. The truth is, living in the country, I mean, I love animals, but you come to understand  there are just too many deer here, and they needed to be harvested. Our next door neighbor is the deputy sheriff, and he loves to hunt, so we let him hunt on our property. And he gives us the venison.
WHY WERE HERE

Were exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. Residents in eastern Oregon say they are tired of being ruled by more liberal parts of the state.

Mike Baker and

March 18, 2023

COVE, Ore.  Corey Cook still holds a fondness for her days living in Portland, where the downtown pubs and riverfront cherry blossoms made her proud to call the Rose City home during her 20s.

But as she started growing wary of the metro areas congestion and liberal politics, she moved to the suburbs, then the exurbs, before heading east, eventually escaping Portlands sphere of influence on the other side of the Cascade Mountains in 2017. But even here, where she now runs a Christian camp amid the foothill pines overlooking the Grande Ronde Valley, she cannot help but notice how the values of western Oregon are held over the eastern part of the state by way of laws making guns less accessible and abortions more accessible.
WASHINGTON  Anyone wondering how a Democratic president and the newly installed Republican speaker of the House would work together got their first real preview this month, when President Biden released a budget that Republicans vowed to torpedo and Speaker Kevin McCarthy signed his first bill  one the president has promised to veto.

In a pair of dueling events, Mr. McCarthy accused Mr. Biden of being woke with his promise to veto a bipartisan effort to prevent retirement fund managers from assessing a companys cultural values before investing. From Philadelphia, Mr. Biden called on Mr. McCarthy to unveil a G.O.P. budget plan: Lay it down, Mr. Biden said.

Mr. McCarthy responded by calling the presidents proposal completely unserious.

With that, the collision course between the two men, whose relationship over the next few months will among be the most important in Washington, appears to be set.

Mr. Biden, who spent 36 years in the Senate, has rosily called legislative politics the art of the possible. But with Mr. McCarthy publicly refusing to raise the nations borrowing cap without serious spending cuts and Mr. Biden refusing to negotiate on the debt ceiling at all, a feverish messaging battle has replaced functional legislating, for now, as the United States runs the risk of defaulting on its debt.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa  What is the weight of history?

For Stephanie Wright, its as slight as the thinnest of books, a 259-page volume that has upended her life for months and set her on an unusual and determined quest for recognition. She appealed to the Justice Department and some of the highest-ranking officials and judges in the federal court system in the Midwest.

None of it had anything to do with what was in the book. Its what was left out that bothered her  her name.

Ms. Wright was a federal prosecutor in Iowa who made history in her own way. She was an assistant United States attorney in the Northern District of Iowa, the first African American prosecutor in the office. For 24 years, from 1994 until she retired in 2018, she was the only Black prosecutor in the federal district, which spans the largely rural northern half of the state.

Last year, flipping through a new book  The History of the District Court in the Northern District of Iowa (1882-2020)  Ms. Wright turned to Appendix A. It included a list of 88 assistant U.S. attorneys who had worked in the prosecutors office over more than a century. To her shock and dismay, her name was missing.
All four of them confirmed in recent days that Mr. Barnes shared the story with them years ago. As far as I know, Ben never has lied to me, Tom Johnson said, a sentiment the others echoed. Mr. Brands included three paragraphs about Mr. Barness recollections in a 2015 biography of Mr. Reagan, but the account generated little public notice at the time.

Records at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum confirm part of Mr. Barness story. An itinerary found this past week in Mr. Connallys files indicated that he did, in fact, leave Houston on July 18, 1980, for a trip that would take him to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel before returning to Houston on Aug. 11. Mr. Barnes was listed as accompanying him.

Brief news accounts at the time reported on some of Mr. Connallys stops with scant detail, describing the trip as strictly private. An intriguing note in Mr. Connallys file confirms Mr. Barness memory that there was contact with the Reagan camp early in the trip. Under the heading Governor Reagan, a note from an assistant reported to Mr. Connally on July 21: Nancy Reagan called  they are at Ranch he wants to talk to you about being in on strategy meetings. There was no record of his response.

Mr. Barnes recalled joining Mr. Connally in early September to sit down with Mr. Casey to report on their trip during a three-hour meeting in the American Airlines lounge at what was then called the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport. An entry in Mr. Connallys calendar found this past week showed that he traveled to Dallas on Sept. 10. A search of Mr. Caseys archives at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University turned up no documents indicating whether he was in Dallas then or not.

Mr. Barnes said he was certain the point of Mr. Connallys trip was to get a message to the Iranians to hold the hostages until after the election. Ill go to my grave believing that it was the purpose of the trip, he said. It wasnt freelancing because Casey was so interested in hearing as soon as we got back to the United States. Mr. Casey, he added, wanted to know whether they were going to hold the hostages.
With a Manhattan grand jury indictment likely but its timing unclear, Donald J. Trump sought to rally supporters to his side, declaring that he would be arrested on Tuesday and calling for protests.

Mr. Trump made the declaration on his site, Truth Social, at 7:26 a.m. on Saturday in a post that ended with, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!

Two hours later, a spokesman issued a statement saying that Mr. Trump had not written his post with direct knowledge of the timing of any arrest, adding, President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system.

But Mr. Trumps social media post had immediate impact: Within hours, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, one of the most powerful people in federal government and who partly owes his position to Mr. Trump, posted on Twitter that he was calling for investigations into whether federal funds were being used for politically motivated prosecutions, a thinly veiled threat to Manhattans district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg.
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan appeared at court on corruption charges on Saturday in Islamabad, the capital, in the latest turn of a standoff between his supporters and the authorities that had led to chaotic scenes of tear gas and clashing security lines outside his home earlier in the week.

That showdown continued on Saturday morning, as Mr. Khan arrived at the court surrounded by throngs of his supporters, who clashed with the police outside the judicial complex. The court allowed Mr. Khan, who claimed he could not enter the judicial building because of the chaos outside, to register his appearance from inside his vehicle.

Mr. Khan, who was removed from office in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April, is facing dozens of court cases on charges that include terrorism and corruption. Several arrest warrants have been issued against him after he repeatedly refused to appear in court in Islamabad. The court hearing he attempted to join on Saturday involved accusations of illegally profiting from accepting state gifts, and of concealing his assets.

The clashes this week, as the police tried to arrest Mr. Khan at his Lahore residence, were the latest show of political brinkmanship to play out on the streets in Pakistan, as clouds of tear gas mixed with angry crowds of Mr. Khans supporters that have camped out outside his home and effectively taken on the role of his personal body guards.
OTTAWA  The leaked intelligence reports have set off a political firestorm. They describe plans by the government of China and its diplomats in Canada to ensure that Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Liberal Party took power in the last two elections, raising troubling questions about the integrity of Canadas democracy.

But as two prominent Canadian news organizations have published a series of leaks over the past month, Mr. Trudeau has refused calls to launch a public inquiry into the matter, angering political opponents and leading to accusations that he is covering up foreign attempts to undermine his countrys elections.

The news reports do not present any evidence that the Chinese carried out any of their plans for meddling or changing election outcomes. And an independent review released this month as part of Canadas routine monitoring of election interference upheld the integrity of the 2019 and 2021 votes.

Even so, the leaks pose a risk for Mr. Trudeau of appearing weak in the face of potential Chinese aggression and indecisive as a leader acting to preserve election integrity. His political opponents have accused him of being disloyal to Canada.
PARIS  We have a president who makes use of a permanent coup detat. That was the verdict of Olivier Faure, the leader of the French Socialist Party, after President Emmanuel Macron rammed through a bill raising the retirement age in France to 64 from 62 without a full parliamentary vote this past week.

In fact, Mr. Macrons use of the nuclear option, as the France 24 TV network described it, was entirely legal under the French Constitution, crafted in 1958 for Charles de Gaulle and reflecting the generals strong view that power should be centered in the presidents office, not among feuding lawmakers.

But legality is one thing and legitimacy another. Mr. Macron may see his decision as necessary to cement his legacy as the leader who left France prepared to face the rest of the 21st century. But to many French people it looked like presidential diktat, a blot on his reputation and a blow to French democracy.

Parliament has responded with two motions of no confidence in Mr. Macrons government. They are unlikely to be upheld when the lawmakers vote on them next week because of political divisions in the opposition, but are the expression of a deep anger.
KYIV, Ukraine  Russias abduction and deportation of Ukraines children since its invasion of the country was so well-documented and terrifying that when Russian forces prepared to withdraw from the southern city of Kherson last fall, doctors at a hospital there hurriedly hid babies and falsified their records.

When Russian soldiers arrived, the staff at Kherson Regional Hospital said the infants were too critically ill to move, Olha Pilyarska, the head of its neonatal anesthesiology department, recalled in an interview on Saturday.

They put lung ventilation devices near all the children, she said.

The efforts saved 14 babies from being swept up in a campaign that has systematically transferred thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia to be resettled in foster families and put on track to become Russian citizens. When the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Friday over the forcible deportation of children, it was a powerful recognition of actions that have not only been carried out in full public view, but continue today.
President Vladimir V. Putin made a surprise visit to occupied Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of Russias illegal annexation of the peninsula, state media reported on Saturday, a defiant gesture just one day after an international court issued a warrant for his arrest.

Mr. Putin had been scheduled to participate in ceremonies in Crimea via video link, but instead he traveled to the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, local officials said. State media broadcast images of Mr. Putin, dressed in a cardigan, visiting a childrens art school and speaking with Mikhail Razvozhaev, the governor of Sevastopol.

On such a historic day, the president is always with Sevastopol and the people of Sevastopol, Mr. Razvozhaev wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Our country has an incredible leader.

The visit signaled the Kremlins determination to continue with business as usual, less than 24 hours after the International Criminal Court accused Mr. Putin of war crimes and issued a warrant for his arrest. The court said that he bore criminal responsibility for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children, thousands of whom have been sent to Russia since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago. Russian officials dismissed the courts announcement as meaningless and vowed not to cooperate.
The explosions on the first night, lighting up the sky as they burned through buildings below, were only the earliest blasts of the yearslong war to come.

For the thousands of days and nights that followed, eruptions across Iraq came from warplanes and cannons, grenade launchers and mines, machine guns, pistols and handmade bombs. What had started with the United States aerial assault and invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, became an occupation, a war against an insurgency, and then a sectarian civil war.

Militias fought one another, divided by lines of ethnicity and faith, and fought American forces in turn, long after Mr. Husseins capture and the United States gave up its fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction.
Its not that theres some still-missing puzzle piece or state secret. Quite the opposite: As time has passed, journalistic investigations and insider testimonies have explored nearly every facet of the invasion.

Rather, the challenge is determining which motives, stated or unstated, most mattered. What strategic, ideological or even bureaucratic interests brought the wars architects together? And did the march to war  or was it a drift?  begin with Sept. 11 or, as some historians now argue, several years earlier?

The world may never get a definitive answer. The causes of World War I remain debated over a century later, as do those of the American interventions in Vietnam and Korea.

This speaks to an uncomfortable truth: History-changing decisions are often made through processes and rationales so convoluted that even the people involved might not know exactly how they happened. Hundreds of thousands might die, an entire country plunged into violence, without anyone able to quite say why.

Still, the last 20 years have brought us closer to, if not a simple answer, then a set of overlapping theories. And that inquiry has often taken place with an eye on the future as much as the past.
For the first time, the U.S. government will require utilities to remove from drinking water two toxic forever chemicals, part of a class of chemicals known as PFAS. About how many Americans are estimated to be exposed to PFAS through tap water?
Chinese state media outlet Peoples Daily recently unveiled the newest member of its news anchor team, Ren Xiaorong, a virtual, AI-powered anchor that can allegedly provide 24/7 news coverage.

In a video published last Sunday by Peoples Daily, a virtual young woman called Ren Xiaorong introduced herself to the world as an AI-driven chatbot that has learned the skills of thousands of news anchors and that can constantly evolve based on viewers feedback. Beautiful and smartly dressed, Ren certainly looked like an agreeable news anchor, and if not for the synthesized, out-of-synch dubbing, you could hardly tell she wasnt a real person. Using an app, anyone can ask the news anchor questions on a variety of topics, including education, epidemic prevention, housing, employment, environmental protection, and many others, but she can currently only deliver generic answers in line with the rhetoric favored by the Chinese Communist party.

Hello, my name is Ren Xiaorong. I am an AI digital anchor who has just joined Peoples Daily, Ren said during her first-ever online address. Thousands of news anchors have imparted their professional skills to me. For 365 days, 24 hours, I will be reporting news for the whole year, round the clock, without rest.

Whether at news sites or back in the studio, you will always see me. Every conversation, every feedback you provide, will only make me smarter, the virtual news anchor added.

While certainly impressive at first sight, Ren Xiaorong is currently nowhere near as advanced as Open AIs ChatGPT chatbot, for example. Human users interaction with the virtual news anchor is limited to choosing the topic they want to learn about, to which Ren will always pump out generic answers. Not quite the cutting-edge technology they are making it out to be.

Ren Xiaorong isnt the first AI-powered virtual news anchor created in China. Back in 2019, Xinhua unveiled its first virtual anchor in 2018, followed by a female version a year later, but while everyone expected them to quickly evolve and replace human anchors, that has yet to happen. South Koreas own AI-powered anchor didnt seem to fair much better either



Ive never really understood this, is there a shortage of broadcasting talent, or are AI anchors better at it? one Weibo user commented. Why would you use a robot to broadcast the news? Are you spending so much money on an AI presenter just to show technological progress?
90-year-old Jim Arrington got into bodybuilding when he was 13 years old, and he has been keeping at it ever since. At 90 years old, he holds the Guinness World Record for oldest active male bodybuilder.

Jim Arrington discovered bodybuilding when he was 13. He walked into a drug store and saw these big, bulky guys on the cover of a muscle magazine. He immediately ordered a copy of a 25-cent book by George Jowett, a Canadian strongman, and started doing the exercises detailed in it using his fathers three-pound steel balls. They certainly werent the most useful bodybuilding tools, but they helped him put on more than 10 pounds of muscle in a few months, so he kept going. He has been going at it ever since, and even though his body is much more fragile now, at age 90, he has no plans of ever stopping weight training.

Photo: Guinness Records

At my age, your bodys a lot more fragile, Arrington told Mens Health last year. You have to be more careful when youre training, and you cant abuse it  your tendons have a tendency to want to detach. In the past five years, my left bicep broke loose, and I had a little bit of a tear in my right bicep, too. So you cant do things you used to be able to do. Its really disheartening, but its important to keep soldiering away.

When he started bodybuilding, Arrington dreamed of becoming Mr. America one day, but as he grew older he realized that he didnt have the genetics for it. He has small bones ligaments and muscles, but he never let that discourage him. He kept training, even in his later years, when many other bodybuilders gave up on their passion because their bodies couldnt keep up. In 2018, at age 85, he was awarded the title of oldest active male bodybuilder by Guinness Records, and he has held it ever since.

Unless someone else older than me comes along, Im sweeping the competition, Arrington told People Magazine. I have small bones and I would never be able to put on the size to become Mr. America, so I guess my strategy was to outlive and outweigh everybody by waiting until everybody grew up or died!

Arrington, who lives in Venice, California, and trains at the Mecca of Bodybuilding, Golds Gym, continues to compete in over-80s competitions, but he has been trying to convince organizers to create an over-90s category. He continues to train, although not as often or with as much weight as he did in his glory days.



I usually exercise two to three times a week for about an hour, and its a full-body workout, but its not a whole lot of weight, Jim said.
A MAN described in court as a car enthusiast was fined 1,000 and banned from the road for two years for driving without insurance.

Deividas Rimeikis (23), Chancery Park Avenue, Tullamore was summonsed by Garda Pat McGee for using a vehicle with no insurance at Tulla and Crumlin, Kinnitty, on November 14, 2021.

The court heard there were policies in place in relation to a number of vehicles and temporary cover had also been issued but the core issue was the ownership of the car which Mr Rimeikis was using on the date he was stopped by Garda McGee.

John O'Dwyer, BL, for the defendant, told Tullamore District Court the accused was a car enthusiast who believed he was covered to drive the vehicle.

Judge Andrew Cody ruled that Mr Rimeikis did own the car he was driving when stopped by Garda McGee but he was not insured to drive it.

A Lithuanian man who had lived in Ireland for most of his life and had been working since he was 17, Mr Rimeikis had a previous conviction for careless driving dating from 2019 and was fined and disqualified from driving.

Imposing the fine and two-year driving ban, Judge Rimeikis also fixed recognisances for an appeal.
Amritpal Singh Sandhu is a radical Indian Khalistan separatist, a self-styled Sikh preacher, and leader of the organisation Waris Punjab De from Punjab, India. After living in Dubai for a decade, he returned to Punjab in September 2022 to take charge of the organisation following the death of its previous leader Deep Sidhu. He campaigned for six months, encouraging youth to stay off drugs, asking them to take up a pure form of Sikhism, and advocating the need for Khalistan. He also raised a private militia called Anandpur Khalsa Fauj from among his followers, who carried firearms and wore bullet-proof vests. Following a crackdown by the police in March 2023, he is currently a wanted fugitive in India. He is accused of maintaining close contacts with the Inter-Services Intelligence and attempting to raise a militia including suicide bombers.
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Japan and Germany pledged closer defense ties and cooperation on diversifying supply chains, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during his visit to Tokyo.
Eurasia Review 31 Mar 2023

Some Europeans, Americans, and Canadians do not want to accept the fact that Armenia is second only to Belarus in being a Russian..
An arrest warrant has been issued for Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes following a "dramatic move" by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
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Chaotic scenes in Paris on Thursday, where thousands mobilized for the 12th nationwide day of strikes and protests against the..
Supporters of the former prime minister of Pakistan have repeatedly clashed this week with the security forces, keeping the country on edge. Show you can fight, he told supporters.
An arrest warrant issued against Russian President Vladimir Putin is the International Criminal Court's (ICC) "first shot" in what could be a substantial indictment against him, Ukraine's leading lawyer has said.
The former British prime minister rejected comparisons between Russia's war in Ukraine and the US-led invasion of Iraq. He also chimed in over Brexit and the UK Conservative government's current woes.
The formal state visit is a sign of the deepening US-India relationship as the administration advances policies and initiatives for a free and open Indo-Pacific to counter what it sees as a growing threat posed by China. The White House aims for the state dinner to take place in June but the timing could slip, the people familiar said.
Rumble 28 Mar 2023

Leib recently appeared on CBN News to discuss the recent China brokered peace deal between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the..
US President Joe Biden has said he "very strongly supports" the Windsor Framework post-Brexit deal as he hosted the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar at the White House.
The 78 year old was meant to play a show in Australia but it was cancelled just six hours before it was due to start.
North Korea claims that about 800,000 of its citizens volunteered to join or reenlist in the nation's military to fight against the United States, North Korea's state newspaper reported on Saturday. About 800,000 students and workers, on Friday alone, across the country expressed a desire to



#northkorea #rodongsinmun #north #ussouthkorea #korean #tokyo #seoul #southkorean #freedomshield23
Rumble 18 Mar 2023

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will appear in court on Saturday (March 18) as police were entering his home and after he..
Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to the Black Sea peninsula to mark the ninth anniversary of its annexation from Ukraine. Russia's move in 2014 was denounced as illegal by most of the world.
On March 10, a special announcement aimed at easing the hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iran came from both sides.



China was the mediator of the talks held in Beijing. After four days of talks, two regional rivals in the Middle East, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have agreed to restore diplomatic ties.



This significant...
Brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, the deal allows Ukraine to ship food and fertilizer through a humanitarian corridor from Black Sea ports. The duration of the extension remained uncertain.
China has been stepping up efforts to bring Ukraine and Russia closer to negotiating a peace deal after Beijing published a 12-point plan to end the conflict. US-NATO have rejected Beijings proposal.



However, there are high expectations from China's Xi Jinping state visit to Russia from March 20 to 22 -- but will these...
euronews (in English) 07 Apr 2023

The Black Sea deal with Russia allowed Ukraine to export more of its grain in the past year. Australia and the EU produced more..
Airlines and airports opposed measures to combat global warming caused by jet vapour trails that evidence suggests account for more than half of the aviation industrys climate impact, new documents reveal. The industry argued in government submissions that the science was not robust enough to



#nonco #piersforster #leedsuniversity #milanklower #wizzair #sustainableaviation #noncoimpacts #heathrow #atmosfair #boeing
Mid-Day 19 Mar 2023

World No. 1 mens tennis player Novak Djokovic has been denied entry to the United States over his vaccination status and he will..
Upworthy 17 Mar 2023

Lawyers for Prince Harry asked a judge Friday to rule that a tabloid newspaper libeled the British royal with an article about his..
Rumble 18 Mar 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Crimea on Saturday (March 18) on an unannounced visit to mark the ninth anniversary of..
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan Minister of Planning in the government of national unity, Mohamed al-Zaidani, Friday discussed with a high-level delegation from the World Bank (WB) several issues, including the water and sanitation sector, an official source said here Saturday
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The European Union (EU) has reaffirmed its support for proposals of the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative to facilitate the political process leading to elections in Libya, saying the UN Security Council consensus on Libya is an "excellent step" forward
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Two police officers were wounded in an attack on the Dioba checkpoint in the Kati district, near Bamako, by unidentified armed individuals at around 3am on Friday, the Malian press agency reported, citing several local sources
Photo: (Photo : Getty Images/Mark Makela)

Florida just became the eighth state to restrict gender-affirming care to minors, and parents of transgender youths are planning to challenge the Board of Medicine's decision in court.

Florida joins seven others in America in prohibiting gender transition-related medical care for minors, a rule enacted by the state's Board of Medicine Thursday.

Effective yesterday, minors are barred from starting puberty blockers or hormone therapy, according to the ruling, "Standards of Practice for the Treatment of Gender Dysphoria in Minors."

However, minors who have been on these gender-affirming care before the new rule took effect can continue with the treatments. Yet, the law emphasized that it restricts ALL minors from receiving these medical care and operations.

"This board is not against research; it is not against care for transgender children. What the board has sought to do is to protect our children from therapies that have been shown to create irreversible harm," pediatric anesthesiologist and Board of Medicine member Dr. Hector Vila expressed.

Every parent's worst nightmare

Further, Vila emphasized that the board has done their homework regarding the serious and sensitive topic. They have "reviewed hundreds of studies," talked to experts and doctors, and listened to testimonies from both sides of the issue. They have concluded that the "overwhelming data" does not agree and support the utilization of puberty blockers and hormone therapy, he declared in response to critics claiming that there were members of the board who expressed insufficiency of research to justify the potential side effects of these gender-affirming treatments.

Parents of transgender youth, however, are not amenable.

A group of parents, represented by four national advocacy groups - Southern Legal Counsel, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Human Rights Campaign, are ready to challenge the new rule in court, NBC News reported.

One of the plaintiffs, who was named Jane Doe in a news release, expressed that she fears for her 11-year-old trans daughter's physical and mental health when she is denied the treatment that she needs when she reaches puberty. The mother continued that the new rule could "completely disrupt her life."

Another plaintiff is a Florida woman who joins the suit to fight for her and her 14-year-old son's rights. She stressed that the rule takes away from parents the right to ensure that their kids receive "appropriate, evidence-based medical care."

She shared that her son has high hopes of having testosterone in the future and seeing himself "in his own body," but that has been robbed away from him by the state's "discriminatory rule." She further stated that this is "every parents' worst nightmare."

Read More: Fascist Bill Allows Court to Take Away Transgender Kids From Their Parents; Puts Florida Republicans Under Fire

Supporters argue that kids may regret the treatments later

The Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine, who will be enacting the same rule coming this March 28, did not respond to the request for comment about the plan for a lawsuit.

Under the new rule, healthcare practitioners violating the ruling can be reported to the government and face minor consequences such as fines or suspensions to major ones like revocation of their professional licenses.

Other states having the same rule against gender-affirming treatments are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Mississippi, according to ABC News.

The supporters' argument for the new rule comes from the potential regret that transitioning minors will experience later in their lives.

Jim Lopresti, the founder of SunServe, a mental health service agency that treats LGBTQ youths, emphasized that for two decades of working with trans youth, there is only one person who went through regret as an adult. The reason behind the regret was that the adult was not given sufficient support throughout the treatment.

Related article: Finland Pediatric Expert Calls out American Doctors for Using Fear of Kid's Suicide to Convince Parents of Gender-Affirming Treatments
Photo: (Photo : MOISES AVILA /Getty Images)

California lawmakers are ensuring that their in-state doctors are protected for providing access to abortion for their patients.

California State Senator Nancy Skinner, a Democrat from Berkeley, introduced a new bill in the state Legislature to protect doctors who mail abortion pills to people in other states from prosecution.

The proposed bill aims to prevent California from extraditing doctors facing charges in another state for providing abortion medication and would also shield doctors from having to pay fines.

Additionally, the bill would allow California doctors to sue anyone who tries to stop them from providing abortions.

New California bill shields doctors and healthcare practitioners

The Associated Press reported that Skinner emphasized that the bill is aimed at ensuring California residents traveling in other states or living there temporarily, like college students, have access to medication that is legal in their home state.

However, the bill would also apply to California doctors treating patients who live in other states.

The proposed California bill not only protects doctors who provide abortion pills but also shields doctors who mail contraceptives and transgender-related medications.

Skinner's bill is part of a growing trend among states, as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, and Vermont have proposed or passed similar laws.

The Connecticut law, for instance, blocks criminal summonses from other states related to reproductive healthcare services that are legal in Connecticut and blocks extradition unless the person fled from a state requesting them.

The bill declares that it is the public policy of California that doctors should not be charged for providing abortion medication, and it goes beyond abortion pills to protect healthcare practitioners who provide related services.

This proposed legislation protects healthcare practitioners from being penalized by other states for providing reproductive health services, including contraception, transgender-related medications, and abortion.

By shielding these medical practitioners from criminal charges and extradition, the bill allows them to continue providing necessary health care to patients, regardless of their geographic location.

Read Also: Minneapolis Bus Driver Goes Above, Beyond To Help Lost 9-Year-old Boy During Snowstorm

Calls for major retailers to sell abortion pills

California's move to protect doctors who provide abortion pills comes on the heels of Senate Democrats' call for four major retailers, Walmart, Kroger, Costco, and Albertsons, to make the prescription abortion pill mifepristone available at their pharmacies.

CNBC reported that the senators sent letters to the CEOs of these companies, urging them to become certified with the Food and Drug Administration to provide the medication.

In January, the FDA lifted a restriction that required mifepristone to be dispensed in person at a medical facility.

The senators expressed their disappointment that these major retailers had yet to publicly declare whether they would sell mifepristone. They asked them to respond by March 21 with their plans to provide the medication.

This call to action by Senate Democrats and the proposed California bill demonstrates a growing effort to expand access to reproductive healthcare services, including abortion, contraception, and transgender-related medications.

While some states have attempted to block the distribution of abortion pills, California is leading the charge in protecting healthcare practitioners who provide these services. Major retailers are being called upon to provide greater access to medication like mifepristone.

With the introduction of this proposed bill, California is taking an important step towards ensuring that reproductive healthcare services are accessible to all patients, regardless of their geographic location.

As per the ACLU, pregnant individuals still have a constitutional right to decide whether to have an abortion or not. Both the U.S. and California Constitutions protect this right.

The state of California only prohibits abortions after the point of viability, which is when a doctor determines, based on a reasonable medical judgment, that the fetus could potentially survive outside the uterus without exceptional medical assistance.

Related Article: Overcoming Postpartum OCD: One Mom's Journey to Diagnosis, Treatment
Over a decade ago, Fidelity Bank set out on a journey to make banking accessible to all Ghanaians. One of the main pillars of this agenda was an endeavour that would enable anyone to carry out basic banking transactions beyond the usual banking hall. Through Agency networks, Ghanaians could access banking services at community pharmacies, supermarkets, mobile money vendors or newspaper stands.



It was not just the beginning of an ambitious undertaking, it would prove to be a pivotal step that would bring banking to the doorsteps of the unbanked and underbanked. At a time when players in the industry didnt consider inclusive banking an urgent strategic priority, Fidelity Banks audacious enterprise underscored the Banks commitment to champion financial inclusion within the local banking industry.



For a country where approximately 50% of the adult population is outside the formal banking sector (Afrobarometer Financial Inclusion Survey, 2019), it is not surprising that financial inclusion remains at the heart of Fidelity Banks vision. Indeed, Fidelity Bank, the largest privately-owned Ghanaian Bank has played a large part in advancing financial inclusion nationwide and across economic sectors by overcoming two of the greatest barriers to financial inclusion: physical access and mindset change.



Adopting an insight-led approach



Prior to 2013, Fidelity Bank had identified major barriers to financial inclusion in Ghana and adopted an intentional approach to finding solutions. The Bank commissioned a fact-finding team which proceeded into selected rural and urban communities to glean insights from inhabitants. For instance: Why do some Ghanaians trust the Susu collector more than they do the banks? Why is someone more likely to pay through their mobile wallet rather than using other banking products? The responses to these questions served as a basis for the eventual design of the Banks Agency Banking model.



The Inception  Creating a dedicated department to drive the financial inclusion agenda



Fidelitys winning approach was two-fold.



The first stage was the creation of an Inclusive Banking department, the first of its kind in the Ghanaian banking industry, mandated to develop specialized products and services tailor-made to suit the unique needs of the target population. This was a bold stratagem which sought to bring aboard those who were either skeptical of the banking system or simply used to functioning outside of the banking system.



The inception of the Inclusive Banking Department enabled the bank to develop products such as the flagship Smart Account which proved to be a major addition to the Banks product portfolio. The Smart Account is a minimum-effort "Know Your Customer" (KYC) requirement account that could be opened within five minutes. In rolling out this unique product, Fidelity became the first Bank officially licensed by the Bank of Ghana to offer KYC-lite accounts. Recently, the Smart Account has been further simplified to make it even more convenient with the inclusion of a revolutionary USSD feature that facilitates self-onboarding and enables customers to carry out banking transactions from the comfort of any basic feature phone. In addition, the Bank has also partnered with Mobile Network Operators as well as FinTechs to roll-out other specialized products and services for the target audience. Among these is the Yello Save account, a service borne out of a partnership with MTN which allows customers to make regular savings directly from their MoMo accounts. These inclusive innovations have already attracted a customer-base of over a million customers, most of whom were hitherto unbanked.



Stage 2  Rolling out the Agency Banking Model



The second stage was the introduction of the Agency Banking model which proved to be a major game-changer for the Banks financial inclusion agenda.



Fidelity Bank became the first financial institution licensed by the Bank of Ghana to undertake the Agency Banking model in Ghana back in 2013. During the initial three-month pilot in 2013, 130,000 accounts were opened with about 100 Fidelity Bank agents. Since then, the potential has proven to be limitless, and the agency banking model continues to grow exponentially, with over 5,000 agents dotted around the country today. In 2022 alone, Fidelitys Agency Banking service facilitated over 1.7 million transactions which is equivalent to 25% of all transactions across Fidelitys Branch network over the period.



At the institutional level, the project has been mainstreamed within the bank, enabling all the banks clients to access banking services through agency banking. As a consequence, Fidelity Bank Agents are earning increased income through their agency banking activities. The Agents association and business relationship with Fidelity Bank has also propelled these Agents to be financially independent and by extension, created employment for other Ghanaians down the value chain.



Amplifying the Agenda  The strategic partnership with Ghana Post



In 2019, having established Agency Banking as a linchpin in the bid to drive inclusivity within the Banking space, Fidelity Bank forged a strategic partnership with Ghana Post. Being one of the most widely networked companies countrywide, with a rich history of connecting Ghanaians across the country, Ghana Post provided the leverage for Fidelity to further scale up its widespread reach, especially within the regions.



The liaison immediately bore fruits in the form 35 Fidelity-Ghana Post agencies situated within Ghana posts offices, which are strategically placed and easily accessible in major communities across the country.



The objective at the inception of these specialized Agent Points was to facilitate easy and efficient transactions. Accordingly, the architecture of the Agent points, the training of its agents and the services on offer reflected same. This proved to be a highly successful endeavour as Fidelitys Ghana Post Agent points continue to record significant footfall and enormous patronage. Indeed, a sizeable percentage of agency transactions within the period under review have been recorded at these specialized agencies.



The enhanced Ghana Post Agency Plus Offering



Guided by customer insight and a mutual commitment towards continuous improvement, Fidelity Bank and Ghana Post have recently launched an upgraded version of their Ghana Post outlets, aptly named Ghana Post Agency Plus points. These revamped outlets provide an augmented agency banking experience with several incremental enhancements over the existing agency model.



For starters, while the initial partnership offering, designed the Agent points to be mainly transactional with a focus on quick and efficient transactions, the current Agent Plus outlets place an emphasis on the holistic customer experience. Therefore, in addition to speed and efficiency, the design of the revamped Agent Plus spaces are hinged on giving customers a seamless, comfortable and enjoyable experience similar to what one would experience at a standard Fidelity Bank Branch.



Additionally, the new Agent Plus points also proffer an expanded scope of services to enable customers to carry out even more of their critical banking services from the comfort of their community Post Office. Whereas, the initial agencies offered a total of 12 banking services, customers will be able to undertake 13 additional services at the Agent Plus points bringing the total haul of services on offer to 25.



The additional services available at the Agent Plus outlets include cashing cheque deposits, requesting for prepaid and debit card issuance as well as PIN re-issuance, processing of loans, signing up for personal investment packages among others.







19 Agent Plus Points and counting



Currently, 19 Agent Plus outlets are live, with many others expected to be progressively onboarded at Post Office locations throughout Ghana. Presently, Agent Plus points at Agogo, Tepa and Offinso in the Ashanti region; Kenyasi and Wenchi in the Bono and Ahafo regions; Agona Swedru, Dunkwa and Winneba in the Central region, Enyinasi, Asankragwa and Sefwi Bekwai in the Western North region, Asamankese, Mpraeso, Begoro and Kibi in the Eastern Region; Kajebi in the Oti region; Aflao and Kpando in the Volta region; as well as Cantonments and Accra New Town in the Greater Accra region are active and available to customers and the general public.



Steering massive financial inclusion through Agency Banking



Ten years after its inception, Fidelity Banks Agency Banking model has proven to be the much-needed game-changer in the quest to absorb more eligible Ghanaians into the formal banking sector. Continuous enhancements such as the recently launched Agent Plus points indicate that Fidelity remains focused on raising the bar in the inclusive banking space through relevant digital innovation and optimized customer experience. A financially inclusive nation is a thriving nation, thus Fidelity Banks efforts to combine the formal and informal sectors of the economy and transform the face of banking in communities across Ghana is worthy of applause and emulation.



The Bank continues to serve as a beacon of hope for Ghanaians and an exemplar of Ghanaian excellence. From its humble beginnings as a popular discount house, the Bank evolved into a fully-fledged Bank in 2006 and has since grown meteorically in just 16years to become Ghanas largest privately-owned Bank. It remains one of the countrys most highly capitalized, financially robust and well-resourced Banks, continually ranking among the top 5 on all critical industry benchmarks. Fidelity also continues to set the pace as an innovation leader in the Banking and Finance sector, with market-leading digital services such as the globally acclaimed Fidelity Mobile App, its 24/7 WhatsApp Banking assistant code-named Kukua, and Fidelitys online banking service which facilitates remote account opening.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Government will not do anything contrary to its promise not to tamper with the pension funds of workers, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has assured.



According to him, the pension funds were safe to a greater extent and there has not been any policy against the early decision.



Workers should have that faith, government would not renegade on the pledge it made with workers, and they must be rest assured, the Minister assured.



The Minister gave the assurance in response to questions as to whether the pension funds were safe, at a media briefing after a working visit to the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) on Wednesday in Accra.



The visit sought to enable Mr Awuah acquaint himself with activities at the head office of the authority and challenges, towards charting a new way forward



Mr Awuah was on January 30 this year given additional responsibility by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to handle pensions, pursuant to Section 2011 of the National Pensions Act, Act 766.



He said government together with organised labour in earlier engagements concluded that the Domestic Debut Exchange Programme (DDEP) was actually taking place and the pension funds were not included.



Workers already have that confidence that the pension funds are untouchable so government would not go against its word, the matter is already settled no fears should be entertained, Mr Awuah said.



The minister said he had met with management in terms of a new strategic direction, and would meet with the board, over the Pension Act that has been implemented for 13 years.



Mr Awuah said we have seen some shortfalls in the implementation of the Act, so the management have made some proposals to address those challenges.



The minister urged workers to constantly check their pension contributions and not wait till a few days to pension, explaining that was the only way they could detect whether their employers were regularly paying their contributions. Some workers dont even know their status or who is managing their Tier 2, or whether or not their employers are effecting the right deductions and unfortunately what happens is that people will only be conscious of their pensions when getting closer to their retirement, he noted.



Mr Awuah said it was the duty of every worker to have a fair understanding of pensions from the first day they were engaged and also make pension issues part of daily engagements in conversations.



The Deputy Chief Executive of the NPRA, David Tetteh-Amey Abbey, commended government for appointing a minister who is very passionate about pensions, saying personally, Ive been on sensitisation trips with him and Im not surprised at the zeal with which he speaks about pensions.



Mr Abbey said the time has come for workers to support the minister to ensure that workers gained confidence in their retirement income.

Source: Ghanaiantimes.com.gh









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Luc Bertrand, of Maple Group Acquisition Corp., gestures during a luncheon speech at the CAPP Investment Symposium in Calgary, Alta., Wednesday, June 15, 2011. TMX Group Ltd. says Luc Bertrand will be the new chair of the company's board starting May 2. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
B.C. Premier David Eby speaks during a news conference in Vancouver, B.C., Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. Eby says he's "very troubled" by reports about Chinese interference in Vancouver's municipal elections last year and he's asked Canada's intelligence agency for a briefing. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
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The Secret Service will take the lead after an indictment is delivered to Trump and they will decide if he will be handcuffed.

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We are learning that the Manhattan DA office has asked for a meeting with law enforcement ahead of a potential Trump indictment. The meeting is to discuss logistics for some time next week which would mean they are anticipating an indictment next week pic.twitter.com/IkbM46Naoe  Acyn (@Acyn) March 17, 2023

Fox News reported, The same sources familiar with the planning said they will go over security precautions in and around the courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Secret Service will take the lead in what they will allow and will not allow. The source cautioned mentioning for instance the decision to handcuff the former president or not. They will set the tone and escort him into the courtroom. There will be coordination between all of us the source said, but we will defer to the Secret Service.

For those of you who have always wanted to see Donald Trump led away in handcuffs, your dream may come true next week.

It is unlikely that Trump will be handcuffed. The Secret Service taking the lead makes sense because the Secret Service is in charge of protecting current and former presidents.

The images of Trump in cuffs would be politically devastating, and being that he is a 76-year-old man who is will not be charged with a violent crime, it is probably not going to happen.

However, once Trump is indicted in Manhattan, the floodgates could open for other indictments against the failed former president, his business, and his family.
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Trumps own election fraud report debunked his Big Lie, and now the DOJ can use it as evidence against him.

The Washington Post reported:

The Project 2020 report conducted by the Berkeley Research Group has now been obtained by prosecutors investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. A copy was reviewed by The Washington Post, and it shows that Trumps own campaign paid more than $600,000 for research that undercut many of his most explosive claims. The research was never made public.

The Justice Department has sought and obtained multiple reports, emails and interviews from witnesses that show campaign officials analyzing, and often discrediting, claims that Trump was making publicly, according to several people involved in the investigation, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal details. The Berkeley report was provided to the Justice Department earlier this month, one of the people said, after some people involved in its crafting received a subpoena.

The report is significant because it demonstrates that Donald Trump knew that there was no election fraud. Yet, he continued to raise money off of false election fraud claims. Those Big Lies were an act of fraud.

Jack Smith is also investigating where Trump spent the donations, and if the money was sent to real vendors or if the failed former president pocketed the cash.

If Trump raised money based on lies and then pocketed that money, he committed a crime. The Trump campaign spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a report that contradicted his lies, and that same report could get Donald Trump indicted.
Aiken County Sheriff's Office deputies arrested a North Augusta man Thursday in connection with a March 9 shooting.

Deputies charged Stephon Xzavier Dunbar, 22, of North Augusta, with attempted murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Attempted murder is a felony carrying a penalty of up to 30 years in prison. Possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime is also a felony carrying an additional five years in prison.

Deputy K. Burkett said in a report Dunbar and a female arrived at a residence near the intersection of Liberty Hill Road and Vidot Court where the female attempted to fight another person. Burkett said during the altercation the female used pepper spray and Dunbar fired several shots with a handgun. He added officers located a person with a gunshot wound in the knee and the person was transported by Aiken County EMS to an area hospital.

Deputies also arrested Dunbar on charges of malicious injuries to animals, persons or property with damage of less than $2,000 for an incident that occurred May 20, 2022 and trespassing charges for an incident that occurred April 24, 2021.

Malicious injuries to animals, persons or property with damage of less than $2,000 is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in prison and a fine of up to $1,000.

Deputy L. Hammonds Jr. said Dunbar threw a brick through the back window of a vehicle owned by the female he arrived at the North Augusta residence with.

Trespassing is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in prison and a fine of up to $200.

Deputy G. Campos reported Dunbar arrived at the residence of a female's residence and fired several shots with a 9 millimeter pistol.

Aiken County Magistrate Patrick Sullivan set Dunbar's bond at $60,000 cash on the attempted murder charge, $5,000 on the possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, $2,125 on the malicious injury charge and $465 on the trespassing charge.

Dunbar was released from the Aiken County detention center Friday.
Life is good for Anne Campbell, who celebrated her 85th birthday last October and unlike some people, isnt reluctant to disclose her age.

Im in a great place of being thoroughly content, she said during an interview last month in her tastefully decorated home, which has some whimsical touches, including a statue of a butler holding a silver tray and bride-and-groom pigs.

An Aiken resident for more than 30 years, Campbell doesnt spend a lot of time dwelling in the past even though it was glamorous and exhilarating.

She was married for 59 years to the debonair Cot Campbell, who was inducted into thoroughbred racings Hall of Fame only months before his death in 2018.

As the president of Dogwood Stable, Cot was a pioneer in the development of racing partnerships, and the groups put together by him campaigned many talented horses.

They included 2013 Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice, 1990 Preakness Stakes winner Summer Squall and one of Summer Squalls daughters, Storm Song, who received an Eclipse Award as the champion filly of 1996 after her triumph in the Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Another Dogwood horse, Inlander, won an Eclipse Award as 1987s champion steeplechaser.

Together, the Campbells traveled the world, visiting places such as Dubai and Tokyo while enjoying the comforts of luxury hotels.

Everywhere we went, we went first class, Anne Campbell said.

But she wasnt jut along for the thrilling ride.

It was her responsibility to entertain Dogwoods clients, making sure they enjoyed the racing experience whether their horses won or lost while her husband took care of stable business and talked to trainers and jockeys.

Campbells sunny demeanor and patience, along with her ability to carry on interesting conversations during lunches and dinners, helped close deals and gain investors.

I was absolutely an equal partner with Cot in making it work, said Campbell of her role in Dogwood Stables success. I really liked people, and I was very aware that a lot of our clients came into racing knowing nothing. They felt self-conscious and intimidated, and I was able to put them at ease.

When not involved in Dogwood activities, Campbell devoted a lot of her time to charitable causes.

My parents were both extremely involved people in the community, and they cared about the little guy, said Campbell, who was born and raised in LaGrange, Georgia. When I was around 13 years old, my mother used to take me to the jail with her to read the Bible to prisoners.

She also took on families that needed help that she came across and sponsored them, Campbell continued. They would come to our house to have lunch or spend the afternoon. And we were always the ones that kept the missionaries that came for revivals.

Campbell introduced Saratoga WarHorses program for military veterans with emotional wounds to Aiken.

She also teamed up with a close friend, Bill Reynolds, to conduct the successful Horseplay and Buckaroo Ball fundraisers.

Those and her other efforts benefited many organizations, among them the New York Race Track Chaplaincy and the United Way of Aiken County.

And Campbell was celebrated on numerous occasions for her contributions.

For example, in 2016, the Saratoga WarHorse Foundation honored her during its Blue Spangled Evening in Saratoga Springs New York.

Then, in 2017, the Womens Leadership Council, now known as Women United, honored Campbell as their Woman of the Year.

She also was a recipient of an Aiken Award from the City of Aiken in 2019.

Last year, Aiken Senior Life Services named its new headquarters, which is on East Pine Long Road, the Anne and Cot Campbell Center.

For the most part, however, since the death her husband, Anne Campbell has been keeping a lower profile.

It was such a shift from living the high life and going everywhere to just being a person, but it really wasnt too much of a challenge for me, she said. I think the key was that the whole time I was married to Cot, I had my own persona and my own interests that were different from his. He appreciated all those things about me and liked the fact that I was independent, so I had a head start there. I knew my life was going to be so different, but the memories were so great.

Campbell travels less, but hasnt lost her desire for adventure.

During a trip to Africa, she visited gorillas in the wild in Rwanda

Cot had never cared much about going there, but I cared passionately about going, Campbell said. It was so exciting.

She also has been to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.

That is my favorite place on earth, said Campbell of city. It was dynamite.

In August, shell be heading to Portugal for a 13-day cruise from Lisbon to Barcelona, Spain.

I want to stay connected to things that have purpose and energy and excitement, Campbell said. I dont want to bore people. I dont want to get old and start talking about my ailments all the time. I dont want to retire from life because Im 85. I want to have fun. I want to be fun.

For 35 years Campbell taught a Bible study class for women, but said she gave that up recently because everything has its season, and I didnt have anything else to say.

Even so, Campbell still is enthusiastic about sharing her faith with others.

I am crazy about Jesus, she said. I want to know everything I can about him, and of course, I want to be like him. Hes my hero. I find that Gods presence fills a big gap in my life.

Campbell visits The Place at Shadow Oaks, an assisted living community, once a month to talk to residents with dementia about the Bible.

Its really simple stuff, said Campbell, who is a member of Aikens First Baptist Church. I give them an inspirational message about how much Jesus loves them, and I tell them that no matter how bad things look or how hard things are, Jesus is always there.

Campbell also is a member of the United Way of Aiken Countys board of directors.

In connection with the United Way, I get to go once a month to Millbrook Elementary School and read to the kindergartners, Campbell said.

Because she is concerned about Aikens future, Campbell got involved in the movement to stop Project Pascalis, which achieved its goal.

I had a pretty major role in getting petitions signed and I went to (Aiken) City Council meetings, Campbell said. I wrote a letter to the editor (that appeared in the Aiken Standard).

To relax, Campbell plays bridge, Shanghai rummy and mahjong, and shes talented enough as a pianist to tackle Dave Brubecks arrangements of songs when she feels the need for a challenge.

In addition, staying in touch with her family is a priority for Campbell. She has two daughters, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Two more great-grandchildren are due this spring, one in April and the other in May.

I love, love, love, love my home, and I never want to leave it (for an extended period), Campbell said. Im really happy in my house. I feel like Im in my little nest. I also think Aiken is the best place in the world for me. I want to live here the rest of my life.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie scored the best second weekend ever for an animated movie in North American theaters with $87 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. Mario faced little major competition this weekend even with a slew of new national releases including The Popes Exorcist, which opened in second place; Renfield, which debuted in fourth; Mafia Mamma and the animated Suzume. A24 also debuted Beau is Afraid, starring Joaquin Phoenix, in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles where it made $320,396 over the weekend before it expands nationwide on Friday. Read moreMario tops charts again; Beau is Afraid wins in limited
More development is scheduled for the area near the Sage Mill Industrial Park in Graniteville based on the discussion about two pieces of property during the Aiken County Planning Commissions meeting March 16.

JCA Sage Mill LLC is seeking to change the zoning for the land from Rural Development and Limited Development to Industrial Development.

After hearing from Stewart Mills, who said he was the manager of JCA Sage Mill, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend to County Council that the property be rezoned.

JCA Sage Mill and Cal 47th East Sites LLC purchased the two parcels, which are on Old Vaucluse Road, last September, according to Aiken County land records.

The companies acquired the 243.40-acre tract from Wyatt Realty Investment Opportunity Fund Ltd. for $8,106,000.

They bought the 24.39-acre parcel for $600,000 from Sage Mill LLC.

The surrounding zoning is industrial. We are an industrial developer  so our intent is develop this, Mills said. At this time, we want to get the property shovel ready. We have started some timber removal so we can have the property leveled out.

Mills also told the Planning Commission that we dont have a user (for the land) at this time.

JCA Sage Mill LLC was incorporated in Delaware last August. The registered agent is CT Corporation System of Columbia.

JCA Sage Mill has a Lombard, Illinois, address.

Our company, we are called an LLC, but we have several LLCs, he told the Planning Commission. We own 8 million square feet of industrial (space) from Florida to Louisiana to Milwaukee to Ohio.

Other action taken by the Planning Commission on March 16 included the unanimous approval of a preliminary plat extension for Section 3 of the Highland Hills subdivision in the Bettis Academy Road area of Graniteville.

There will be 213 lots on just under 77 acres.

The applicant was Highland Hills LLC.

The engineer for the project is HB Engineering.

The County Planning Commission met at the Aiken County Government Center in Aiken.

Seven members of the panel were present.

Chairman Liz Stewart didnt vote during the proceedings because she wasnt needed to break a tie.
The Moncks Corner Market Pavilion was alive with local produce, plants, handcrafted goods, handmade products, a petting zoo, and crowds of people, as the town kicked off its highly anticipated Farmers Market on Thursday, April 6. Read moreCalling all shoppers: Moncks Corner kicks off Annual Farmers Market
A Charleston real estate investor and land developer is looking ahead to the next commercial venture in Cane Bay Plantation.

Buck Investments, led by Eddie Buck, recently paid $13 million for nearly 45 acres on the northwest corner of the future Fair Winds Boulevard intersection at U.S. Highway 176.

The seller was an affiliate of Charleston-based Gramling Brothers Real Estate & Development, which is developing the 6,500-acre Cane Bay project.

Buck's company also is developing the nearby commercial land on both sides of North Creek Drive at nearby Nexton.

"We expect to see buildout there over the next four years, and development moving north of that for the next phase," he said, referring to the existing tract in Nexton and the newly acquired tract in Cane Bay. "That's certainly a growing area of the tri-county region."

Buck also paid $2 million for 2.47 acres on the northwest corner of the intersection of Nexton Parkway Extension and Highway 176. He plans to build a Blue Water convenience store and gas station by the end of 2023.

Cane Bay had about 7,000 homes on the ground at the end of 2022, according to spokeswoman Kelly Gramling. The tract has been approved for more than 15,000 units.

Nexton recently announced 2,500 home sales at the 10-year mark. It's expected to have 7,500 residential units at full buildout.

Law and office

A regional law firm is now firmly footed in a new multistory office building on the Charleston peninsula.

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP recently moved into the sixth floor of the 12-story Morrison Yard complex on Morrison Drive near the base of the Ravenel Bridge.

Representatives of the Charlotte-based firm said the 12,000-square-foot space allowed it to align with new trends in the legal industry and position the practice for future growth.

Parker Poe partner Robert Jordan called the move a "long-term investment in the Charleston community" after serving the Lowcountry for more than 20 years.

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The new office has an open design with views of the Ravenel Bridge and Charleston Harbor, flexible work and communal spaces and more meeting rooms. It also features video-conferencing.

The practice previously was located in Bank of America Place at 200 Meeting St. in downtown Charleston.

The firm has more than 275 lawyers in eight offices in the Carolinas, Georgia and Washington, D.C.

Expanding

A commercial builder with offices in Charleston and Charlotte is expanding south. Frampton Construction Co. said it's adding an office in Tampa, citing growth in demand in the Sunshine State. The company currently has construction projects in Ocala, Lutz and Lakeland, Fla.

Island homes

New model homes are now available in a Johns Island development.

PulteGroup has opened two one- and two-story single-family dwellings that would-be buyers can check out in Grace Landing at 1610 Main Road.

The models showcase two of the five floorplans. A total of 76 homes are planned, with prices beginning at $455,990.

Planned community amenities include a pool, pavilion, playground, firepit and picnic area. Pulte expects to complete them later this year.

About half of the 50-acre site will be set aside as green space.

Grace Landing is Pulte's third development on Johns Island. The others are Oakfield and Sea Island Preserve.
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5,000-acre Nexton marks 10th anniversary with milestone in residential sales

A developing Berkeley County community that could one day have as many residents as Hanahan, Clemson or West Columbia recently reached a milestone on its 10th anniversary.

The 5,000-acre Nexton development between Interstate 26 and U.S. Highway 176 northwest of Summerville has sold its 2,500th home. At full buildout over the next decade, the community is expected to have 7,500 residential units with a population approaching 20,000.

Nexton includes four residential neighborhoods, including Del Webb for the 55-plus set. It also features commercial nodes with several restaurants, hotels and office ventures near U.S. Highway 17A and I-26 and another commercial development on the northern end of Nexton Parkway, across from the developing Cane Bay Plantation community.

Two new grocery stores are on the way on Nexton Parkway near Brighton Park Boulevard. They include Harris Teeter and Publix.

The community, about 25 miles west of Charleston, puts its current population at about 8,000, including several residents in apartment developments.

While this home sale milestone speaks to the success of Nexton, it also illustrates the increasing popularity of our region as a whole, said Brent Gibadlo, senior vice president of development for Brookfield Properties at Nexton.

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A Charleston developer recently bought a 45-acre parcel in Cane Bay for a future commercial development. The property is located on U.S. Highway 176 at the future intersection of Fair Winds Boulevard, about a mile or so past Cane Bay Boulevard.

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+2 Summerville apartments fetch $78M; commercial development set for Goose Creek A recently built multifamily development in Nexton is now under new ownership while a new business venture that involves a store relocation and a possible restaurant/brewery combination is in the works for the Charleston-area suburb of Goose Creek.

By the numbers

1: Number of stores a downtown Charleston merchant will have after it closes a shop on King Street.

1,650: Square footage of a recently shuttered King Street shop where a King Street bar and restaurant plans to expand.

12,000: Square footage of new two-story restaurant and bar coming to East Bay Street in Charleston.

This week in real estate

Aiming to grow: The town of Ravenel is looking to expand for the fourth time in two years with the proposed annexation of another parcel for new homes.

Apartment moratorium: Mount Pleasant extends its ban on new multifamily communities for one year.

Suite deals: The Jasper mixed-use apartment building now offers 24 commercial units for a variety of professional services.

Charleston-area home sales declined to the lowest level since 2018 for the month of February, marking the 18th consecutive month of lower home sales after the runaway pace during the pandemic.

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Craving more? Check out all of the Post and Courier's newsletters here.
If anyone can shape the history of our country through sheaths of paper and a few curiosities, it might be the Charleston Library Society.

The organization has been safeguarding and sharing that story for a very long time, 275 years to be precise. Since its founding in 1748 it has been at the core of the intellectual development of the Lowcountry.

As the oldest cultural organization in the South and the second oldest continuous circulating library in the country, its documents and collections can construct the architecture of this country, from its founding ideals to its defining challenges.

On the occasion of such a milestone anniversary, the organization reasoned that its also a choice time to have some Charleston folks around for a little tea and history.

From March 2731, Charleston Library Society will do so with Open House Week celebration of its anniversary. On Monday through Friday of that week, each day from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., visitors are welcome to stop by in the Main Reading Room of its building on 164 King St.

It will be come one, come all, said Laura Mina, head librarian of the Charleston Library Society.

For the open house, the library plans to enlist trained docents to guide guests through a newly created exhibit of key documents and other artifacts, serve refreshments to those who visit and present a free discussion.

To create the exhibit, Deborah Fenn, curator/historian of Charleston Library Society, has been diving deep into the librarys vast archives for illuminating centuries-old original documents, from those related to its founding to others that detail how its books found safe haven when war raged on the peninsula.

Fenn is particularly excited to share more of those early documents with the public. The timeline launches in 1748 with the establishment of what was then called The Charles Town Library by 19 young intellectuals who came on board as its original members.

Some items have been culled from the Charleston Museum, which has its origins in the Library Society. In 1773, the library announced in The South Carolina Gazette that it had established a Natural History Committee and had fitted up a Museum for the reception and preservation of specimens, a foundational gift that in 1907 evolved to become the Charleston Museum.

Mina has been working with Jennifer McCormick, chief of collection at Charleston Museum, to select some of those treasures for the exhibition. Among them is the an accession book dating to 1798 that lists approximately 75 objects. The exhibition will also include some of those objects, such as tusk bracelets from a wild boar and silk lotus slippers from China.

They all come together to show the trajectory of a society that has managed to abide despite a catastrophic fire and challenging times of the manmade variety, too. Today, the organization buzzes with cultural events, new members, special collections and bookbinding departments and research services.

In addition to the exhibit, the program will host a free discussion by historian George McDaniel. Lushington: Lost and Found sheds light on Colonel Richard Lushington, the King Street denizen whose command during the Revolutionary War included heroic efforts at the victorious 1779 Battle of Port Royal Sound. It will take place at 10 a.m. on March 19.

For more information on Charleston Library Society, visit charlestonlibrarysociety.org.
Mary Smith balanced a halved pistachio cake doughnut on top of a chocolate with sprinkles at Glazed Gourmet Doughnuts on March 15.

After scrambling to find the password to the King Street shops Instagram account, she was preparing to make Glazeds first post in over two weeks, letting followers know online ordering was once again open.

It was just 10:22 a.m., but Smith had already been at Glazed for nine hours making peach cobbler, maple bacon and strawberry French toast stuffed doughnuts. She was sifting through unread emails and trying to figure out how to order boxes, all while mourning the loss of her daughter and best friend, Allison Smith, who died in a car accident on March 2. She was 34.

Mary Smith was by her daughter's side for all of life's big moments. And she's still at the doughnut shop where Allison Smith brought immense joy to Charleston residents and tourists alike, as difficult as it might be for her to walk through the doors.

Allison Smiths genuine care for others made people want to support her. She was thoughtful, clever, creative and kind, her family said. A person with a lot of love to give and life to live.

Smith opened Glazed on Oct. 12, 2011, and it quickly became a fixture on Upper King Street. Doughnut flavors like sweet corn blueberry and the Purple Goat  a berry- and goat cheese-filled doughnut topped with a lavender and rosemary glaze  drew lines that stretched down the sidewalk. National news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe, along with celebrity chef Rachel Ray, came next.

None of that mattered to Smith. Above all else, she adored the family and friends who were involved in her wild and wacky dreams. For all its success, Glazed might have been the craziest.

Mere months before opening, Smith tested out her very first doughnut in a portable fryer their dad would use to cook fish.

It was not very good. It was a peanut glaze and then just this little thin smear of jelly in the middle, her brother Matthew Smith said. She decided to open the doughnut shop before she was an expert in making doughnuts.

That didnt matter to the Smiths and Allisons husband, Mark Remi, who was thrust into the small business shortly after first meeting Smith at Home Team BBQ on Sullivans Island.

The small business had its early struggles, Remi recalled, but Smith always believed Glazed would thrive  and it did, thanks to the attention to detail and spontaneity she brought to all aspects of her life.

Passion for food

Though Mary Smith has spent her fair share of time in the Glazed kitchen, she doesnt take responsibility for her daughters love of food and cooking. Allison Smith learned some tactics from her grandmother and others by experimenting on her own, sometimes at the expense of her mothers organized kitchen.

One fall at their home in Ravenel, where Allison grew up, Mary purchased squash, pumpkins and other items to decorate the dining room table. After finishing a gorgeous tablescape and running another errand, Mary returned home to the sweet smell of simmering vegetable soup.

Allison had been bored and decided to turn the decorations into dinner, she told her mother when she came home. That stubborn independence helped her early on in her life.

She would be angry that I was even bringing this up, Mary Smith started, discussing her daughters three year battle with leukemia from age 7 to 10.

Allison Smith wasnt traumatized or scared to discuss the disease that kept her at the Medical University of South Carolina for an entire year, her mother said. Rather, she moved on from those difficult years and didn't feel the need to look back. Smith didnt even tell her oncology pharmacist friend Anastasia Graham about her leukemia for a few years following their meeting at an Orangetheory fitness studio.

This omission doesnt mean Smith was afraid to get close to those in her orbit. In fact, she encouraged them to be a part of her many ventures and activities. Depending on the day, that could mean babysitting six rescued opossums or assisting in a 2 a.m. morning bake at Glazed.

Smith focused on art in high school, but she was always passionate about cooking and obsessed with sweets, leading her to the Culinary Institute of Charleston. She graduated in 2008 and went on to work at local establishments like Six Tables, Anson, Cupcake and the Tattooed Moose; she even traveled to cook at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

This work in some ways prepared Smith to open her own business, but those first few years of operating Glazed were all hands on deck. Mary helped Allison in the kitchen, while Remi folded boxes and dealt with finances. Matthew, a brewer at Westbrook Brewing Co., was also in and out of the shop from inception.

She accepted help when in need, but Allison Smith was the engine driving all things Glazed. In tune with the latest trends, her desserts stayed just as relevant as they were delicious.

Smith was constantly inspired by the people, animals and food she encountered. A dusty box of first place ribbons, pulled out for the first time for her funeral, are evidence of her and her beloved Weimaraner Jeb's skill in dog agility. Smith was so passionate about her role as opossum ambassador for Keeper of the Wild that the furry animals had their own room in Smith and Remis home.

Now that shes gone  were finding out everything that she was responsible for and everything that she did, Mary Smith said.

For Remi, this desire to care for small animals in need did not require any further explanation.

The couple met the old-fashioned way, in person, and started dating shortly thereafter. (If you see Remi, ask him to tell you the full story.) They shared a love of food and travel, and trips to India and the opening of Glazed preceded their marriage.

A software engineer by trade, Remi supported all of Smiths many endeavors, from the AirBnb they owned to Sambar Indian Kitchen, the food stall they opened in the Workshop food hall.

The idea came organically. While tasting Sambars namesake lentil stew during a trip to India, Smith turned to Remi and said, I like that name. I want to open a sambar, like an Indian restaurant.

After spending time in the kitchen with her mother-in-law, Annette Remi, Smith did just that, splitting time between Glazed and Sambar for nine months.

She loved South Indian food because she knew it was different than the restaurants that shes had here, Remi said. My mom loved it because she was cooking with her daughter-in-law.

Sambar wasnt Smiths only food side gig. Teaming up with Graham, she launched Knockout Cookies, serving big, stuffed, very indulgent cookies, Smith said at the time. Remi and Graham fondly recalled Knockout Cookie nights with Smith and Grahams husband Hunter, when they would bake, work out and then bake some more.

Naturally, the business took off faster than anyone expected.

New beginning

A few years before starting three separate food businesses, just running one became too much for Smith and Remi to handle. Smith was burnt out, and they decided to move on and sell their stake in Glazed to Nir Arbiv and his brother-in-law Leo Dobkin.

Israeli immigrants who became fans of Glazed over the years, Arbiv and Dobkin bought in for the thriving business. They stayed because of Allison Smith.

During a short-lived ownership transition, Arbiv remembers how the group started to gel, and he began to truly appreciate Smiths work as a form of art.

Arbiv and Dobkin knew Glazed could not continue to operate in the same way without its dedicated owner. They convinced Smith and Remi to buy back in and rejoin the shop just two weeks after the sale was first finalized.

Smiths business decisions always took a backseat to serving the highest quality doughnuts she could. When Glazed opened at night for a period of time, she would insist on two daily bakes, one in the wee hours of the morning and another later that afternoon, Arbiv recalled.

Doughnuts would be given to nearby fire stations at the end of service because she would never serve one that wasnt made that day, even though her closest friends say they are delicious days later.

Graham, her friend and partner in Knockout Cookies, still has some stashed in her freezer.

She was always happy, Graham said. She made everything enjoyable, even when it wasnt.

Smith did so much for Glazed that its taken an entire cohort of her family and friends to keep it running since it reopened March 10. As they mourn her loss, they wonder in the back of their minds if Glazed can and should move forward without Allison.

All in

Mary Smith has been in awe of the support her family has received from Charlestons food and beverage industry. Lewis Barbecue fed the family in the days after Allisons death, and Edmunds Oast offered to host them for a full meal last week. Just the other day, Callies Hot Little Biscuit owner Carrie Morey stopped by with a box full of biscuits and a handwritten note.

Mary Smith is leading the baking efforts with two assistants, while Matthew Smiths girlfriend Kate Powell posts on social media. Meanwhile, Matthew, Arbiv and Remi are still trying to figure out how Allison pulled it all together for so many years.

Glazed might stay open for five more years or five more days, the family said. They have other more pressing matters on their mind, like a bill being drafted by a friend of the family, which they hope will lead to new traffic light cameras and higher fines for running a red light. The driver who collided with Smiths silver Acura was reportedly traveling 95 mph and failed to stop at a red light.

More than thoughts of anger, they miss their daughter, wife, sister and friend. They also feel thankful for the wonderful group of people Smith brought together, including Remis family in India and Arbivs in Israel.

Mary Smith is devastated by the loss of her daughter, but shes also proud  of the person she became and the way in which she chose to live her life.

When describing his wife, Remi said it best. No matter what she did, Allison Smith was all in.
Claudia Wall, 55, cared for her mother for years until she died with Alzheimer's disease in June 2020. Six months later, Wall herself would be diagnosed with an early onset of the disease.

But her willingness to help test one potential drug to combat Alzheimer's could keep her from accessing the newest one.

Claudia, who lives in Hilton Head Island with her husband, Doug, is among a growing number of Americans diagnosed with Alzheimer's and related dementia in the U.S. and in South Carolina. The estimated number of those 65 and older with the disease is 6.7 million in 2023, or 200,000 more than in 2022, an increase of 3 percent, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

The numbers of those diagnosed in the Palmetto State are expected to grow from 95,000 in 2020 to 120,000 in 2025, an increase of 26.3 percent.

At least some of those patients got good news March 13 when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it will provide coverage for the newest Alzheimer's drug, called lecanemab or Leqembi. That would impact an estimated 180,000 veterans in its system with Alzheimer's, including hundreds using the Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System in Charleston, which includes Myrtle Beach, or the VA in Columbia, which includes Greenville.

Each day matters to someone living with early stage Alzheimers when it comes to slowing the progression of this disease, and for our nations veterans living with Alzheimers, today is a good day, said Joanne Pike, president and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association.

About 2,000 patients with the disease each day go from early-stage status to a later stage where they are no longer eligible to receive the drug, the association estimates.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is not convinced about the drug. That agency, whose decisions often influence private health insurers on coverage, said it will not cover Leqembi, which received fast-track approval from the Food and Drug Administration in early January. The companies behind the drug have also applied for full approval.

The drug is a monoclonal antibody, which targets the amyloid beta protein thought to cause damage in the brain that contributes to memory loss. In clinical trials, including one conducted in Charleston, the drug slowed memory decline in early Alzheimer's patients by 27 percent.

CMS, however, lumps it in with another monoclonal antibody drug, Aduhelm, which received fast-track approval in June 2021 despite results that were more questionable, and CMS is refusing to cover both.

With the VA's approval, "We are hopeful that CMS will follow suit," said Beth Sulkowski, vice president of communications for the Alzheimer's Association South Carolina Chapter.

That may not help Claudia. Even before her mother, Carol Childs, died at age 86, Doug had concerns. Claudia, then 53, was forgetting things, and would ask him the same questions three times in 45 minutes, he said. Working as a nurse, her supervisor also pulled her aside to express concerns. By that December, the diagnosis was official.

The couple wanted to do what they could to help and Claudia joined the clinical trial for Aduhelm. But after seven doses, an MRI revealed swelling in her brain and she was forced to stop taking the drug.

While she was on it, "I didn't really notice any change that I could feel," Claudia said.

But she also didn't get worse and the drug may have been "helping press pause" on her decline, Doug said.

But now it could be working against her. One neurologist told them, "If you took Aduhelm, you cannot take Leqembi," Doug said. The couple has reached out directly to the companies but so far without results.

The couple moved from Illinois to Hilton Head about 16 months ago, a place they had owned a condo for years, and the familiarity is helpful, Doug said.

"She still knows her way around the island, knows the stores she likes," he said.

Claudia said she finds the island "restorative" and the environment more inviting.

"Sunshine and being outside are probably the best thing for me," she said.

She makes a 5-mile run three times a week that takes her along the beach and is in good health, Doug said.

Most of the time, "I feel very normal," Claudia said. But sometimes, she gets stuck on a word or a phrase she is trying to say.

"It's like there is no word," Claudia said. "It drops away. That part is frustrating."

It is also frustrating she can't get a drug the couple believes could help slow her decline, Doug said.

"If we could press pause and have Claudia be where she's at for the next 30 years, I'd take that in a heartbeat," he said.
Briggs Gwozdo of Summerville is one of only 18 players in his age group nationwide to be selected for the US Club Soccer's 2023 id2 National Selection team. Read moreSummerville youth selected for international tour
WALTERBORO  When Creighton Waters asked Alex Murdaugh whether the defendant considered himself a family annihilator, the prosecutor said he'd hoped it would provoke a reaction.

It was a different way of asking Murdaugh the ultimate question: Did the once-respected Hampton trial attorney brutally gun down his wife and youngest son?

A family annihilator, or a perpetrator of familicide, is someone who kills their intimate partner and at least one child.

It's a buzzword for armchair detectives and criminologists alike, and it describes a subtype of family murder that's a rare occurrence but garners significant attention when it happens.

Experts say a better understanding of the commonalities and psychological underpinnings of these cases could help explain the inexplicable, identify risk factors and maybe even prevent them.

Through six grueling weeks of a highly publicized murder trial, Waters and his team sought to paint Murdaugh as a man who ultimately crumbled under the weight of compounding pressures.

They argued a raging opioid addiction, a pending civil lawsuit, mounting debt and looming criminal charges from years of theft all threatened to strip away what the 54-year-old held most dear: the Murdaugh family's powerful legacy.

The June 2021 double-murder of Maggie, 52, and 22-year-old Paul constitutes familicide, the killing of multiple family members, experts agree.

A jury on March 2 found Murdaugh guilty of carrying out those crimes. But neatly tucking the case into a specific type of familicide, and casting the defendant as a family annihilator, proves more difficult.

Family annihilators

Between 2000 and 2009, the U.S. saw about 23 cases of familicide per year, according to a study published in the Journal of Family Violence.

The vast majority were carried out by wealthy, middle-aged White men who suffered some type of mental illness. They often didn't have criminal records, though financial difficulties and relationship problems were prevalent.

Firearms were the most commonly used weapon, reflecting a broader trend among homicides in the U.S. In more than half the cases, the killer ultimately committed suicide.

Experts have identified several profiles of the family annihilator, as well as various motives.

They can generally be broken down into two categories. Hostile annihilators commit murder by proxy, killing their family members out of anger and revenge often directed at the intimate partner. A history of domestic violence is more likely in these cases.

Pseudo-altruistic annihilators, on the other hand, aim to "protect" their family from a fate the killer deems worse than death. Experts agreed the Murdaugh case is more closely aligned with this type, though suicide is almost always the final act. (Prosecutors presented no evidence Murdaugh attempted to take his own life after shooting Maggie and Paul, though he confessed to unsuccessfully plotting his own death a few months later to collect on insurance money for his remaining son.)

Both types of perpetrators can be characterized by a need of staying in control when the family unit is threatened by outside forces, such as relationship or financial problems, researchers found.

And in almost every case, experts argue, the familicide is premeditated by a man whose identity is intrinsic to his masculinity and being the sole provider for his family members.

The "perfect family" image becomes an extension of the killer, and impending failure causes him to act in total desperation: If there is no family, there can be no failure, said Curtis Holland, a sociologist and professor at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury.

Many high-profile familicide cases reflect these ideas. Steven Sueppel, a former bank vice president and well-liked member of a prominent Iowa City family, killed his wife and four children in March 2008 before taking his own life, according to the Chicago Tribune.

A federal grand jury had indicted him the previous month on charges he embezzled nearly $560,000 from his employer over a seven-year period. Sueppel initially told FBI investigators he'd taken the money to fund a cocaine habit, but later admitted to making up this story, a CBS News report states.

Authorities believe the stolen cash instead went to maintaining his family's comfortable, though not extravagant, lifestyle.

Later that same year, British millionaire Christopher Foster fatally shot his wife and daughter at their Maesbrook, England, estate. He also killed the family's pet horses and dogs before lighting their home on fire and committing suicide.

Foster's friends described the family as ordinary and loving. But his death revealed a man who'd recently lost his company and was bankrupt, some 4 million in debt.

Not a perfect fit

Both Holland and forensic psychologist Marieke Liem agree the Murdaugh double-murder case doesn't perfectly fit with others that are pseudo-altruistically motivated.

The perpetrator's children are often young, given they rely more on their parents, said Liem, who's also a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands. The mean age of child victims was between 7 and 12 years, one study found. At 22, Paul was much older.

The fact Murdaugh's other son, Buster, wasn't victimized is "exceptional," Liem said. The lack of a suicide attempt is another anomaly, the experts said.

A pseudo-altruistic annihilator kills as a sort of suicide by proxy. Because they often view their family members as an extension of themselves, they believe if they die, there is no life left for the family, Liem said.

The similarities, however, are striking. Murdaugh, a well-off and respected trial attorney, had no criminal record at the time of the slayings. A slew of his friends and family members repeatedly testified Murdaugh had wonderful, loving relationships with his wife and two sons.

The close-knit unit seemed to enjoy each others' company. They'd recently celebrated Murdaugh's birthday at their Edisto Beach house; father and son rode around the family's sprawling hunting property mere hours before the slayings.

But it's a mistake to think about these cases as "out of the blue" occurrences, carried out by people who are mentally resilient and in a good place, Liem said.

Their decision to kill is often made well before the actual event, based on a long-term accumulation of stressors, she explained. Once the perpetrator has made up their mind, they begin to believe death is the only solution. It's just a matter of executing.

Mounting pressure

Murdaugh was in deep financial trouble and faced a loss of status. He likely saw himself as the protagonist of his family unit, responsible for their well-being.

Waters worked to draw out these themes when Murdaugh took the stand Feb. 23 and 24 in his own defense. Murdaugh agreed with the prosecutor that he was the primary breadwinner for his immediate family.

"I was the source of income for Maggie, Buster and Paul," he testified.

And Murdaugh agreed he was having "financial issues" in June 2021 like he'd had "many times in the past," ultimately admitting to a broad range of alleged theft totaling some $8.7 million over a 10-year period. A Palmetto State Bank official also testified Murdaugh had about $3.5 million worth of outstanding loans at the time of the killings.

Murdaugh said he'd spent much of his fortune on an addiction to prescription painkillers that spanned two decades. Prosecutors accused Murdaugh of using the stolen money in part to finance his extravagant lifestyle.

The Murdaughs at one point owned three homes, a collection of sea islands along South Carolina's coast, late-model cars and an extensive gun collection.

Marian Proctor, Maggie's older sister and closest friend, testified Feb. 14 Maggie never believed money to be an issue for the family. The Murdaughs lived a "comfortable life," but it wasn't lavish, she said.

Prosecutors say their life of luxury and privilege was threatened in the wake of a 2019 boat crash. Paul was charged with drunkenly driving the family's boat when it crashed into a Beaufort County bridge piling, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach and injuring several other passengers.

Beach's family soon filed a wrongful death lawsuit, naming Murdaugh and his oldest son among the defendants. The crash was a "devastating blow" to Maggie and her family, Proctor said. (Paul had reportedly used Buster's ID to buy alcohol that night before the crash).

Mark Tinsley, an attorney representing the Beaches, testified he was seeking a hefty payout from the Murdaughs, whom he perceived as wealthy.

Paul, described throughout the trial as a "sweet" person who was misrepresented in the media, faced a maximum of 55 years in state prison if convicted on each of the three counts he was charged with.

Murdaugh must have realized all of this  the addiction, thefts, debt and boat crash  endangered the family name, prosecutors argued.

His great-grandfather, grandfather and father had reigned over the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office for nearly a century, serving consecutive terms as the chief prosecutor of five rural Lowcountry counties.

The disgraced trial attorney acknowledged much of the region had viewed his family as "prominent."

"I think my family was very well thought of, I think my family was respected," Murdaugh testified Feb. 23. "I think my family helped a lot of people."

And when faced with this legacy's undoing, Murdaugh chose violence, Waters suggested.

"Shame for you is an extraordinary provocation to you, isn't it, Mr. Murdaugh," the prosecutor asked.

Murdaugh agreed he doesn't "like to be shamed," but it's not his "biggest concern."

'Common sense'

The stressors converging on Murdaugh the day he killed his wife and son were "unique and extreme," given the "supreme importance" of status and his family's legacy, Waters told The Post and Courier.

But there are "common-sense themes" within the case that Waters wanted to identify for jurors to help explain possible reasons Murdaugh might've committed such heinous crimes, he explained.

"We all deal with pressures in our lives," Waters said.

Shame, for instance, can cause someone to lash out: "That's obviously something that many people can understand. They don't react the way Alex Murdaugh did, but they understand that," he said.

Waters said his team identified these "common-sense factors"  many of which seem to reflect those of family annihilators  as they formed a better understanding of Murdaugh while preparing for trial.

It's common for prosecutors to speak with criminologists, psychologists and other experts in the field to identify what's worthy of exploring in a cross-examination or closing argument, he said.

Waters emphasized it's not his job to diagnose Murdaugh with any type of psychological condition. Prosecutors generally aren't allowed in a case like Murdaugh's to call a psychologist to the stand to opine about a condition the defendant may or may not have, especially if they haven't personally treated them.

And at the end of the day, it's all speculation. No one will ever know what was going through Murdaugh's mind the very moment he decided to kill his wife and son, unless he decides to speak, Waters said.

But Murdaugh's response to the prosecutor's ultimate question  whether he is a family annihilator  did elicit a specific reaction.

Murdaugh paused for a moment, his brow furrowing: "A family annihilator? You mean like, did I shoot my wife and my son?"

"Yes," Waters replied.

"No. I would never hurt Maggie Murdaugh. I would never hurt Paul Murdaugh," the defendant said, ire coating his words. "Under any circumstances."

Waters reflected on the exchange weeks later, evoking a popular Bible verse: "The eyes are the window to the soul."

Murdaugh's pair of green irises briefly flicked to the jury box before landing back on the prosecutor, staring him down.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental-health crisis, call the 24/7 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 to speak with a trained listener.
Weve known for years that state government cant hire enough teachers, police officers, prison officials and social workers because of a combination of lousy working conditions and pay that isnt high enough to be competitive.

But it was still a bit surprising to hear the Houses new budget chairman spelling out the problem  and expanding it way beyond those flashpoint positions  when he briefed his colleagues on next years state budget proposal, which would give all state employees a raise and dramatically increases salaries for police, corrections officers, nurses and mental health professionals.

Every agency head has basically come and said we cant hire the professionals we need or the workers we need to do the jobs yall told us to do: We cant pay enough; people dont want to come work for the state; the private sector is so much further ahead in terms of compensation that folks would rather go to Georgia or North Carolina or in the private sector than work for South Carolina, Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister told House members earlier this month.

And the message, he said, isnt coming only from state employees: We have heard that from our constituents, who say service is terrible. We cant get a sewer permit. We cant get a drivers license without waiting four hours. We cant get LLR to give us a renewal of a license. And you hear about DHEC having just a backlog of pending permits that people have asked for that they cant get in a timely fashion.

Of course, this explanation of the problems that occur when lawmakers dont spend enough money to compete for talent came just minutes after Mr. Bannister bragged about how the Legislature has been spending our money instead.

Over the past 30 years in South Carolina," he said, "weve passed over $50 billion in tax cuts. This year alone, the amount of already-annualized tax cuts will jump another $96 million to pay for the phase-in of an income tax reduction in a state that hasnt had high income taxes in decades.

Also this year, thanks to last year's decision to compound our rainy day funds, Were putting 38% of our one-time dollars into reserves.

The Eckstrom problem

And then theres that 64% raise from January that well likely have to keep paying to the comptroller general who cant count straight, since the state constitution prohibits zeroing out a constitutional officers salary like the House voted Monday to do.

Still, its refreshing to see legislative leaders talking openly about the problems we face when they dont spend enough money to do the job theyve promised to do. Im an eternal optimist, so I hope that perhaps some of that change of tone can be attributed to what Statehouse insiders are starting to point to as a potentially transformative effect the Houses so-called Freedom Caucus seems to be having: causing the rest of the Republicans to coalesce in opposition to its extremism and maybe even question whether theyve allowed themselves to be pushed too far toward populist irresponsibility.

Back during the big recession, when the Legislature was making mindless across-the-board budget cuts rather than figuring out what was most important for our state to do, funding that sufficiently and eliminating whatever was left over, I warned that we risked squandering money by giving some agencies and programs just enough to keep their doors open but not enough to do the job.

Which brings us to whats been going on across the hall.

And, spoiler alert: Its not that kind of nonsense.

One of the first things Sen. Larry Grooms wanted to know after Richard Eckstroms nonchalant mention back in February of a $3.5 billion restatement of our states cash and investment assets was why the comptroller general wasnt asking for additional staff to straighten out the mess that had caused the inflated figure.

Mr. Eckstroms assurance that the problem had been fixed didnt satisfy the Berkeley County Republican, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that vets budget requests from constitutional officers. Youve never asked for more staff, he continued; youve actually cut your staff while the overstatements were compounding. From 86 employees in 1998 to 26 this year, according to the report the subcommittee released on Tuesday calling for Mr. Eckstrom to be removed from office and his duties doled out to other agencies.

Doing less with less

A lot of the shrinkage was the result of a transfer  IT staff migrated to the Department of Administration  but Mr. Eckstrom has touted it as a reduction. And thats one of the things thats been irritating Mr. Grooms the most since he learned that Mr. Eckstrom had taken our state on a decade-long journey into fantasy financial reporting.

You see, a key part of Mr. Eckstroms schtick has been how he doesnt waste taxpayers money. Usually left unsaid but always implied: unlike all those other state officials.

To be clear, not wasting taxpayers money is a good thing. As long as you arent being penny wise and pound foolish.

The state's internal and external auditors testified that with a larger staff, Mr. Eckstrom most likely would have identified the problem long before it ballooned to $4 billion. But in response to auditors' repeated warnings that he lacked the internal controls to avoid errors like the one he produced, "instead of beefing up his controls, other staff were still let go and not replaced," Sen. Grooms told the Senate Tuesday.

"Every year on his webpage he likes to speak about how much money hes been able to save the taxpayers, and how hes able to do more with less," the senator said. "I submit that he does less with less."

Whats notable isnt that Mr. Eckstroms practice of slashing his staff so he could brag about saving money apparently caught up to him. It's that fiscal conservatives are making such a big deal about it.

Now if we can just get the fiscal conservatives across the hall to recognize the linkage between our inability to attract the professionals we need to deliver public services and all those tax cuts they keep passing.
The S.C. Houses near-unanimous vote to slash Comptroller General Richard Eckstroms salary to $1 might not hold up in court, but it sent an important political message that representatives recognize the gravity of Mr. Eckstroms $3.5 billion overstatement of our states assets.

The report released Wednesday by a Senate subcommittee provided the essential political and legal basis for the concerns  and for taking a series of steps to remove Mr. Eckstrom from office, distribute his duties to other state officials and eliminate this elected position.

As Mr. Eckstrom told senators time and time again, no money is missing, and it seems likely that South Carolinas credit rating wont be damaged by our chief accountants decade-in-the-making accounting error.

It would have been a pardonable sin for Mr. Eckstrom to overlook the initial computer mapping error that caused money the Legislature appropriated to colleges and universities to be double counted year after year.

What was not acceptable was to let what he once referred to as our long standing riddle remain unsolved year after year without notifying anyone outside of his office. Over the past decade, he performed the equivalent of signing a loan application every year that included what he knew to be an overstatement of his assets.

What was not acceptable was failing for a decade to correct what the states internal auditor identified as weaknesses in internal controls in his office that could result in massive errors. Instead, he refused to seek help to address those weaknesses while simultaneously reducing his own staff so he could brag about what a good steward he was of taxpayer money.

What was not acceptable was keeping the secret for months after he identified the precise problem and apparently corrected it.

What was not acceptable was failing  until senators got wind of a deeper problem and asked him directly  to volunteer that the college overstatement error was actually $4 billion, and that he also had undercounted money at the Transportation Department by $500 million, so the combined errors netted out to $3.5 billion.

What is most unacceptable is that he still has failed to recognize  or at least acknowledge  that he had an obligation to inform the Legislature and the states other financial officials about the growing problem at least months and we believe years before he did.

This might not constitute the serious misconduct for which state officials can be impeached, but it certainly amounts to the willful neglect of duty, or other reasonable cause for which the Legislature can order the governor to remove a state official from office.

We are baffled by Gov. Henry McMasters opposition to removing Mr. Eckstrom and hope he simply hasnt been paying close enough attention. We urge lawmakers to acquaint themselves with the facts  which are neatly laid out in the heavily footnoted Senate report. We also urge lawmakers to reject this idea that if an elected official is able to conceal his failures from the voters through two and possibly three elections, the taxpayers should be stuck with that person for the remainder of his term.

If Mr. Eckstrom does not voluntarily resign before lawmakers get started  and they should get started soon  they should remove him. Set aside everything else: Mr. Eckstroms refusal to tell others about the problem clearly constitutes a willful neglect of duty, and his failure to recognize that demonstrates that he cannot be trusted to do his job correctly.

But simply replacing him with someone lawmakers deem competent and trustworthy is not enough. Although Mr. Eckstroms personal blend of arrogance and penchant for blaming others for his mistakes compounded the error, the problem goes deeper than the current officeholder. The problem is having an elected comptroller general  a chief accountant who can be replaced only by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

Its not clear to us that we need a comptroller general, but we certainly dont need an elected comptroller; the Legislature should ask voters in the 2024 election to strip the position from the state constitution. And between now and then, they should follow the advice of the Senate subcommittee and dole out the comptrollers duties to other state agencies, where well be able to hire competent officials who can be fired if they can't do the job.
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
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The Nigerian Communication Commission, (NCC) on Thursday announced plans to introduce measures to curb data depletion for telecom consumers.

The NCC disclosed this during the 91st edition of the telecom consumer parliament (TCP) tagged Data depletion: discussion on the various perspectives, held at the NCCs Communications & Digital Economy Complex, Abuja.

Speaking at the event, the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NCC, Umar Danbatta, said the issue of data depletion has become one of the most prevalent complaints received from telecom consumers in the wake of their recent migration to 4G/LTE technology.

Data Depletion occurs when a subscriber exhausts his or her data bundle before the expiration date or when more data volume is utilised for accessing an online content.

Mr Danbatta, represented by Muhammed Babajika, the director of licensing and authorisation at the NCC, said consumers have been experiencing depletion of their data either as a result of data usage or consumption, and are constantly informing the commission of their experience through various complaints channels.

He explained that the COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst for the global explosion of new technologies which opened up an array of services, dynamic business models and new opportunities and markets globally.

The Nigerian telecom industry was not left out, going by the documented upsurge in the use of computers, smartphones, smart watches, and other technology-dependent devices which have given consumers access to multi-functional comfort and utility.

Technology has eased interaction for a majority of the populace using social and instant messaging applications. No doubt, the underlying technology for these services is the internet, which drives connectivity.

It is within the context of the subscription and usage of the internet that consumers are experiencing what they refer to as abnormal depletion of their data, which gives rise to the reason we are here today, he said.

He added that Mobile Network Operators all over the world have had to face challenges occasioned by emerging technologies.

This deliberation could therefore not have come at a more auspicious time, as Nigeria moves with the rest of the world towards 5G technology following the issuance of 3.5GHz spectrum licenses to MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, MAFAB Communications Limited and Airtel Networks Limited, he said.

5G Technology

He noted that while 4G offers better download speeds, higher bandwidth and voice quality than 3G technology, 5G technology provides the additional benefits of ultra-high speed data, low latency and higher bandwidth over 4G technology.

It is therefore important that we completely appreciate and understand the issues surrounding data depletion, its usage and consumption in the era of 4G technology before we fully commence 5G usage.

READ ALSO: NCC launches consumer assistance desk at Abuja airport

The interests of the telecom consumer is of paramount importance to us and as the telecom regulator, we have the responsibility of ensuring that the consumers voice is heard, and that the relevant authorities address their complaints, he added.

He explained that it is against this backdrop that the commission invited the key industry players today to dialogue to understand the various perspectives to this prevalent issue, identify the possible causes, and brainstorm on the way forward.

As much as the Commission has an obligation to the telecom consumer, it also has an obligation to the Industry a symbiotic relationship in which one party cannot survive without the other.

The consumers are the basis for the operators business if their interests are ignored, the operators investments would collapse, and there would be no industry for the commission to regulate.

It is thus expedient that we utilize opportunities presented by the commissions high-level outreach events such as this parliament to genuinely exchange ideas on how to reduce the challenges militating against effective service provision to the barest minimum, he said.

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The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chairman House Committee on Constitution Review, Idris Wase (APC, Plateau), said President Muhammadu Buhari has signed 16 constitution alteration bills into law.

Mr Wase, in a statement on Friday, commended the president for giving assent to the bills, which according to him will devolve more power to states.

The bill on financial independence of State Houses of Assembly and State Judiciary is one of the bills signed by the president.

Other bills signed by the president are on the removal of the railway, prison and electricity from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported that the National Assembly in January transmitted 35 constitution amendment bills to the president for assent.

The 35 bills have been considered by 27 State Houses of Assembly (SHA) and approved by at least 24 state assemblies as required by Section 9 of the Constitution.

The state assemblies, however, failed to vote on the two bills that seek financial and legislative autonomy for local governments.

Mr Wase said four of the bills will help to address the call for true fiscal federalism.

Essentially four of the bills deal with devolution of powers/promoting true Federalism. And also strengthening of State Houses of Assembly and Judiciary.

The deputy speaker also congratulated members of the 9th National Assembly for working tirelessly to ensure the passage of these legacy legislations.

Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Babajide Omoworare, in a statement on Friday also confirmed the signing of the bills.

He said Mr Buhari also assented three other bills; The Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology Act, The Nigerian Institute of International Relations Act, and The Federal Medical Centres (Amendment) Acts.

Full list of 16 Constitution alteration bills Mr Buhari assented to.

1. Fifth Alteration (No.1), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to change the names of Afikpo North and Afikpo South Local Government Areas; and for related matters.

2. Fifth Alteration (No.2), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to change the name of Kunchi Local Government Area; and for related matters.

3. Fifth Alteration (No.3), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to change the names of Egbado North and Egbado South Local Government Areas; and for related matters.

4. Fifth Alteration (No.4), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to correct the name of Atigbo Local Government Area; and for related matters.

5. Fifth Alteration (No.5), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to correct the name of Obia/Akpor Local Government Area; and for related matters.

6. Fifth Alteration (No.6), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to provide for the financial independence of State Houses of Assembly and State Judiciary; and for related matters.

7. Fifth Alteration (No.8), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to regulate the first session and inauguration of members-elect of the National and State Houses of Assembly; and for related matters.

8. Fifth Alteration (No.9), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to delete the reference to the provisions of the Criminal Code, Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Act, Criminal Procedure Code or Evidence Act; and for related matters.

ALSO READ: Senate transmits 35 Constitution amendment bills to Buhari for assent

9. Fifth Alteration (No.10), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to exclude the period of intervening events in the computation of time for determining pre-election petitions, election petitions and appeals; and for related matters.

10. Fifth Alteration (No.12), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to provide for the post-call qualification of the Secretary of the National Judicial Council; and for related matters.

11. Fifth Alteration (No.15), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to delete the item prisons in the Exclusive Legislative List and redesignate it as Correctional Services in the Concurrent Legislative List; and for related matters.

12. Fifth Alteration (No.16), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to move the item railways from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List; and for related matters.

13. Fifth Alteration (No.17), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to allow States to generate, transmit and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid; and for related matters.

14. In Fifth Alteration (No.23), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to require the President and Governors to submit the names of persons nominated as Ministers or Commissioners within sixty days of taking the oath of office for confirmation by the Senate or State House of Assembly; and for related matters.

15. In Fifth Alteration (No.32), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to correct the error in the definition of the boundary of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja; and for related matters.

16. In Fifth Alteration (No.34), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to require the Government to direct its policy towards ensuring the right to food and food security in Nigeria; and for related matters.

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An election observer, Caleb Ijeoma who was duly accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has recounted his ordeal in the hands of an officer of the Nigerian Army on Saturday.

Mr Caleb who is one of the numerous observers working with the Centre for Journalism and Development (CJID) said he was stopped on his way to Ijebu North Local Government by a soldier who was simply identified as Olukoya. O

A Soldier at Ibadan road restricted my bike man and me from moving. They stopped us, collected the bike key and told us we cant move even after identifying myself.

For more than 30 minutes we were there, we couldnt head to Ijebu North where I was going he recounted.

Mr Caleb who was later released and allowed to go on with his lawful duties said he was unhappy to have been inhibited by the soldier who was very hostile to him and his rider despite a different disposition by other soldiers at the same duty post..

I didnt know why he just chose to waste our time but I am happy I am now at Ijebu North to continue my duties Mr Caleb later told PREMIUM TIMES on the phone.

Oyo State is one of the states where there have been pockets of violence in the build-up to Saturdays governorship and State House of Assembly elections.

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The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, alleged that the ongoing governorship and House of Assembly election has been characterised by violence and rigging in Kano State.

He accused the All Progressive Congress (APC) of perpetrating the violence and rigging.

Mr Kankwanso told ICIR in Kano that the NNPP was winning the ongoing election but the APC was trying to rig it.

Mr Kwankwasos comment came after the sorting and counting of the ballots commenced in various polling units in the state.

According to him, reports reaching him indicated that the APC had been using all manner of strategies to rig the election.

From the report we are getting from our people, we are currently leading but the opposition is trying to be funny.

They are using all manner of things to buy votes, from N5000 to wrappers and so on, the ICIR quoted Mr Kwankwaso saying.

Mr Kwankwaso described the 2023 general elections as the worst in recent years and advised politicians to stop promoting electoral violence.

The former governor had endorsed the candidate of the NNPP, Abba Kabir, for the election.

READ ALSO:Police arrest NNPP chieftain seen with a firearm at Kwankwasos rally

He said he was confident about his partys chances of winning the governorship election in the state.

The spokesperson for the APC governorship campaign council, Muhammad Garba, did not respond to phone calls for his comments on the allegation against his party on Saturday.

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Nigerians are returning to the polls today to choose governors across 28 states and members of the state legislative assemblies across the federation. The subnational elections are taking place three weeks after the presidential and National Assembly elections, which resulted in the APC winning the presidency and majority seats in the bicameral federal legislature.

While the opposition LP, which has been energised by the Obidient Movement, will be looking at consolidating its gains from the last federal elections, the PDP is battling to reclaim its traditional base in Southern Nigeria from LP and snatch seats from the APC in Northern Nigeria to stand a chance of survival as a major party.

In the South-east, governorship elections are being held in only Abia, Ebonyi, and Enugu states today, while Anambra and Imo have off-cycle elections later. The region was a traditional PDP base. But the sweeping influence of Peter Obi and his Obidient Movement appears to have taken the shine off PDP in the region. The near-total votes received by the LP in the presidential election in the region might, though, be a result of the so-called Obi Tsunami. As Mr Obi is no longer on the ballot, PDP would hope voters return to favour them today.

However, LP would need to sweep the polls in the region to strengthen its structure as Nigerias next big opposition or a formidable ruling party in case it is able to upturn Bola Tinubu of APCs presidential victory through the judiciary.

In Abia State, LP has a fairly strong candidate, Alex Otti, contesting against Okey Ahiwe of PDP, who only joined the race in February following the passing of Uche Ikonne. Mr Ahiwe was a Chief of Staff to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, who lost his senatorial bid to the LP and is scarcely able to showcase achievements needed to persuade the voting population to vote for the PDP. Expectations are not high that the APC and APGA take a win in Abia.

However, in Enugu, APGAs Frank Nweke Jr has enjoyed a strong following including interests from the Obidient Movement. Mr Nweke was an Obasanjo-era information minister and is largely thought to be a clear-headed and forward-looking decent politician. He may spring a surprise if LP voters do not go en bloc behind their own candidate Chijioke Edeoga. Ruling PDPs Peter Mbah is also a strong contender but APCs Uchenna Nnaji does not appear to be a match for any of the other top contenders.

In Ebonyi, if APC will retain the governorship seat, it must be a function of Governor Dave Umahis strength, which rests on his modest performance. He won his senatorial bid despite the Obi Tsunami which swept through the region.

South-south is another region which had traditionally supported the PDP until the last presidential election when the party only struggled to win two  Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom  of the six states. However, LP would struggle to reenact the 25 March performance in the region. In Rivers and Delta, particularly, a tough battle is expected for the soul of these oil-abundant states between APC, PDP, and LP. In Cross River, it is either PDP reclaims what it lost when Governor Ben Ayade defected to APC or LP takes the state. APC scarcely stands a chance after its leader Mr Ayade lost his senatorial bid.

Lagos State has been the most interesting scene. PDPs Olajide Jandor Adediran, who was riding high early in the campaign has now been displaced by LPs Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, GRV, to stand as APCs Governor Babajide Sanwoolus main challenger. LP defeated APC in the last presidential election in what was the biggest upset of that race.

The contest in Nigerias commercial capital has been largely reduced to an ethnic debate, relegating ideas to the background. GRV enjoys the strong backing of the Igbo residents, who had previously backed PDP, while APC appeals largely to the Yoruba population to help it retain the control of a rich state its leader and president-elect Mr Tinubu has controlled since 1999. The risk of violence is high in the election.

Elsewhere in the South-west, PDPs Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State is facing a front of politicians, including his former allies working for APCs Teslim Folarin. He is able to pay workers regularly, a departure from the days of salary debts under the previous APC administration of late Abiola Ajimobi, thus endearing himself to civil servants. Mr Makinde is believed to be popular among the masses of the state, although his failure to support the PDP presidential candidate meant his party lost woefully not only in the presidential election but also in national assembly elections in the state. His reelection bid is, however, helped by the presence of Accords Adebayo Adelabu in the race. Mr Adelabu is believed to have caused a split in the APC. Although Mr Makinde faces accusations of contract irregularities and his loyalist Mukaila Auxiliary Lamidi has reignited a reign of public transporters violence, while local government administration has been enfeebled, Mr Folarins campaign failed to capitalise on these flaws to turn the people against the governor. Yet it is a close contest and Mr Makinde would thank his luck to survive the opposition battle which also now includes old horse Rashidi Ladoja, a former governor.

In Ogun, too, an array of politicians including former Governor Ibikunle Amosun are opposed to Governor Dapo Abioduns reelection bid. It is a battle between Mr Abiodun of APC and PDPs Ladi Adebutu.

In the North, except in Kano State, where Rabiu Kwankwasos NNPP is a favourite judging from the partys performance in the last federal elections, it is between PDP and APC across the states. In the central states of Nasarawa and Plateau, LP won in the presidential election but it is uncertain whether the partys governorship campaigns in the states are able to inspire public support as did Mr Obi. In Kaduna, where LP had nearly 300 thousand votes largely from the Christian-dominated Southern Kaduna, the party is expected to have a fine run again today but it remains to be seen if that would be enough to win.

In Kebbi State, PDP looks good to win the state again as it did in the federal elections when even APCs Governor Atiku Bagudu lost his senatorial bid. In Zamfara, it seems an easy call for Governor Bello Muhammed of APC after his party was able to bring together its leading figures, including ex-Governor Abdulaziz Yari and a former senator, Kabiru Marafa. In other places across the North-west, namely Sokoto, Jigawa and Katsina, a close contest is expected between APC and PDP.

In the North-east, PDP is expected to retain Taraba and Adamawa, the home state of party leader and presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar. Borno and Yobe are expected to be retained by APC for the dearth of quality opposition and judging from their traditional voting patterns. In Gombe, PDP won in the presidential election but it is uncertain if that was not because of regional solidarity with Mr Abubakar. In Bauchi, PDPs Governor Bala Mohammed is battling cracks in his own party, yielding a big advantage to APCs Sadique Abubakar.

The outcomes of the governorship elections across the states will determine the landscape of Nigerian party politics in the years ahead.

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Two suspected bandits have been killed by members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) in Katsina State after they snatched election materials Saturday afternoon.

The suspected bandits invaded Tsabawa community in Batsari Local Government Area of Katsina around 12:15 p.m. and started shooting.

A member of the Civilian JTF, a combination of hunters and vigilante members in Batsari, who asked not to be named, told PREMIUM TIMES over the phone that they also arrested one of the suspects.

He said they were on patrol duty on the Batsari-Katsina Road when a resident of Tsabawa called their office in Batsari to alert them of the development.

We entered Karare village when we received a call that bandits had snatched ballot papers in Tsabawa. We followed the route they followed because we know the road too. They were three all with AK-47 rifles. When we spotted them, we started shooting at them. One of them jumped from the motorcycle and started running but we arrested him, he said.

The source said two of the terrorists died on the spot from the gunshots.

We handed over the election materials to the electoral officers in Batsari and some of our men were sent to Tsabawa to complement conventional security officials there, he added.

The police spokesperson in the state, Gambo Isa, confirmed the development but said he was not the right person to comment because the activities of the Civilian JTF are being coordinated by the State Security Service (SSS).

Yes, weve heard of the attack and knew about the development too, but I think you should contact the DSS (SSS) for official comment because the operations of the Civilian JTF are not under us, Mr Isa, a police superintendent, said.

The SSS does not have an official spokesperson in the state.

The spokesperson for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state, Garba Aliyu, did not respond to an SMS sent to him while his line was unreachable.

Batsari is one of the areas battling insecurity in the state.

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Unity Bank has announced that the chairman of its board of directors, Aminu Babangida, will be retiring from the organisation with effect from 18 March.

Oluwafunsho Obasanjo, a non-executive director at the lender, will also exit by way of retirement on the same date, according to a statement issued by the bank on Friday.

The two board members departure follows the expiration of their tenure as directors on the board of the bank and in compliance with the prescribed tenure for non-executive directors under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Code of Corporate Governance for Banks, the document added.

Meanwhile, the lender has appointed Hafiz Mohammed Bashir, a former chairman of the banks Board Finance & General Purpose Committee, as its acting chairman.

He joined Unity Banks board in November 2017 and was previously a member of Board Credit Committee, Board Governance & Nominations Committee and Board Risk Management & Audit Committee.

Mr Bashir has profound experience in the public and private sectors, and holds a postgraduate diploma from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi as well as a Masters of Business Administration degree from the Business School of Netherlands.

The bank has also announced the appointment of Iyabo Obasanjo, a daughter of Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, as a non-executive director.

An associate professor, Africana Studies programme at College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA, Ms Obasanjo was previously Ogun States commissioner for health and the senator representing Ogun Central Senatorial District from June 2007 to June 2011.

She is a graduate of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ibadan and holds a Masters in Preventive Veterinary Medicine as well as a PhD Epidemiology, Minor: Immunology from Cornell University, Itacha, New York, USA.

Unity Bank disclosed in the same statement the appointment of Halima Babangida as a non-executive director of the bank.

Ms Babangida is a graduate of Business Management at the AGSB University, Switzerland and Business Administration from Montruex School of Business, Switzerland.

She has cognate experience in stevedoring, logistics, farming/food chain industry and in the real estate and property management businesses, the statement said.

Obasanjo, Babangidas Interest

Mr Obasanjo and ex-military President Ibrahim Babangida, who have both ruled Nigeria at different periods in the past, have interests in the lender.

In October 2017, a former Chairman, Board of Directors of the bank, Thomas Etuh, explained the role played by both men as major co-shareholders of the bank.

In a post-retirement interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, Mr Etuh said the successes recorded by the bank at the time did not come without the contributions of both men.

He said: Obasanjo and Babangida came up with that name `Unity after the merger of some Southern and Northern banks.

The merger means a lot for Nigerias unity. So, having nine banks from different entities, it behoves on the board to also merge the different banks culture into one; and that, we did to make it a national bank.

You can see that the bank has flourished in various products which have brought it to stability, and I wont say it was achieved singlehandedly; it was a collective effort of the board and management.

The merged banks include Bank of the North, Tropical Commercial Bank, Intercity Bank, African Merchant Bank, First Interstate Bank, New Nigerian Bank and Societe General Bank.

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There has been low turnout of voters in various parts of Enugu State, Nigerias South-east, in the ongoing Governorship and House of assembly elections.

Although election officials and materials arrived early, PREMIUM TIMES observed that turn out of voters was poor in many polling units visited.

At polling units (PUs): 005 to 007, Government Technical college Ward, in Enugu North Council Area, for instance, only a few voters were waiting to cast their votes at of 8:33 a.m.

At PUS 009 to 0011, Obeagu Village, Awkunannaw, Enugu South Council Area, only about 10 voters were seen being accredited by INEC officials at about 9:22 a.m.

The situation was not different at PU: 030 and 029, Agbani Ward, Nkanu West Local Government Area.

An INEC official told this newspaper, at about 10:a.m., that only about three persons had voted at the polling units.

During the last election, there was crowd of people here queuing up to cast their votes, but today, people are coming out in small numbers, a resident, simply identified as Emeka told PREMIUM TIMES.

They may still come out before the end of the election, he added.

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Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party for Lagos State, has alleged that Saturdays governorship poll in the state has been marred by voters intimidation.

Mr Rhodes-Vivour, who cast his vote around 9:46 a.m. in his polling unit, Oshifila Igbira, Anifowoshe, Ikeja LGA, arrived in the unit in the company of his wife and some security officials.

He said there were cases of voter intimidation and harassment in areas like Ojo and Oshodi/Isolo.

Since morning, weve been getting widespread reports on voters suppression, voters intimidation in places like Kosofe. At VGC, INEC officials are refusing to go into estates. They are telling estate people to come to the express road which is not a legal position for a polling unit to be, he told journalists.

We have similar situations all over in Ikate, several places, Ojo, Computer Village I am hearing as well. We are dealing with it in our situation room, he added.

Mr Rhodes-Rhodes-Vivour said he is not placing his confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission but rather in Lagos residents.

He said he heard reports that the Biometric Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machine for Osborne 2 estate in the state was preloaded with votes.

As of the time of this report, PREMIUM TIMES could not establish any of the allegations made by the candidate.

We must all stand up to this. Its no longer acceptable. We are doing everything we can to ensure we come out victorious, Mr Rhodes-Vivour said.

The Labour Party in Lagos seeks to unseat the governing APC in the state. Governorship elections are being held in Lagos and 27 other states on

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Electoral materials arrived early in polling units in some parts of Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State for governorship and House Assembly elections.

Solomon Daudo, Polling Officer said that electoral materials arrived at Unit 18 one of the Polling units in Ward 4 Urban, Primary School Atai Ndon at 7:20 a.m. on Saturday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Wards 4 Urban comprises five units which are units 3, 4, 17, 18 and 19.

Mr Daudo said that everything was in place, as they were waiting for INEC authorisation to commence the election.

Dorathy Imoh, the polling officer said that electoral materials arrived at polling units at 7:30 a.m.

She said also that the security officers and party agents of different political parties were all on the ground.

Joseph Ekaette, Senior Polling Officer, (SPO) said electoral materials arrived at Registration Area Technical Support (RATECH) centre in Ikot Ibiok last night and were distributed the materials before 7:30 a.m.

NAN reports that voting later commenced by 8:30 a.m.

NAN

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The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has appealed to security agencies monitoring the election to relax the security barricade across Benin City, to allow voters to move to their polling units to exercise their franchise, bemoaning the low turnout of voters.

Mr Obaseki made the appeal after casting his vote at about 10:17 a.m. at Emokpae Model Primary School, Unit 19, Ward 4 in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State.

The governor who cast his after his wife Betsy Obaseki, who voted at about 10:14 a.m., described the turnout as the worst in the centre.

He noted that INEC moved some voters to polling units far away from their houses, which discouraged many from voting.

This is the worst voter turnout l have seen or experienced in this centre. The extreme security measures taken should be relaxed. As you can see, there is a total lockdown of the city, preventing people from exercising their civic responsibility.

It is important we have security during the election but it should not be overwhelming. The overwhelming presence of security men across the city is scary. Most people might want to stay away from their polling units.

He added: People whose polling units have been moved cant walk to their new polling units. People would need to drive to where they vote but with the kind of barricade that has been put across the city, they will not be able to reach their polling units.

I am appealing to the security agencies that while still maintaining tight security, they should grant waivers when people have proof that they are going to vote. The people should be allowed to vote to enable more people come out. The total security lockdown in the city is preventing people from voting.

I am encouraging Edo citizens to come out and vote as there is adequate security.

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The governorship and state house of assembly elections witnessed low voter turnout in many areas within Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

In some areas, accreditation and voting commenced late as a result of the late arrival of officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Despite the late arrival of electoral materials, many of the polling units had concluded voting as of the time of this report. The ad-hoc staff were seen at different polling units sitting and discussing among themselves because voters refused to turn up.

Other areas where accreditation and voting commenced early were scanty as only a few people were seen in the polling units.

Some of the areas PREMIUM TIMES visited were Iwo road, Arisekola, Apete, Bodija, Beere, Eleta, Ile-Tuntun, Academy, Gate, Mokola, Ojo, and the University of Ibadan.

In the past few days, a series of violence occurred within the state following disagreements between members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Three days ago, three persons were reportedly killed when some political thugs invaded a meeting of the APC at Ile-Tuntun, in Ibadan South East Local Government Area of the state.

A candidate of the APC for the state assembly election in constituency 2, Wariths Alawuje, said he was at the meeting but narrowly escaped being hit.

On Thursday, gunmen also attacked the family house of Teslim Folarin, the governorship candidate of APC in the state.

The gunmen attacked the governorship candidates ancestral home at Ojagbo, in Ibadan South-east around 8 p.m.

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The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Adamu, has decried the low turnout of voters for the governorship and House of Assembly elections.

He gave the assessment in an interview with journalists shortly after voting at 12: 32 p.m., at the Government Reserved Area Polling Unit 010, Agwan Rimi ward in Keffi, Nasarawa State on Saturday.

The APC National Chairman said though he had not gone around, he was dismayed by the low turnout of voters at the polling unit, likewise with news about turnout in some other polling units in the area.

He expressed the hope that before the process was over, more voters would have come out to exercise their franchise by voting candidates of their choices.

I just got in here and I do not know how the attendance was before now. But it would appear many of the electorate in this particular polling unit did not come out.

I expected the turnout to be more than this but it is not over until it is over.

I have not gone round yet and it is just about past midday. I do hope that the turnout will be more encouraging in this particular polling unit and other places where turnout has been low, he said.

Mr Adamu then assured that his party, APC, would emerge victorious in the governorship election in the state with the partys candidate, Governor Abdullahi reelected.

By the grace of God, I will say that we will win the governorship election, he added.

Mr Adamu also described the electoral process as very peaceful and orderly and commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

(NAN)

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Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun and former Governor Ibikunle Amosun have described the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections in Ogun State as peaceful and pleasant.

However, former President Olusegun Obasanjo did not turn up to vote at his Ward 11, Unit 22 of Ilusomi Compound, Sokori in Abeokuta North Local Government Area of the state.

Mr Osinbajo made his observation after voting at Ward I, Unit 14 at the Egunrege Polling Centre in Ikenne Local Government area of the state.

The vice-president told journalists that he was able to cast his votes without any problem.

I have come here to vote and observe that the exercise has been peaceful and pleasant.

My own polling booth here is excellent and I think everything is peaceful and the whole process has been conducted very well and I just hope and pray that this is how it is being carried out across the nation.

It has been a very pleasant experience that I was able to cast my vote and also so many people have been able to cast their votes, Osinbajo said.

NAN reports that Mr Osinbajo and his wife, Dolapo, arrived at the polling centre at 10.31 a.m. and voted at 10.38 a.m.

Mr Abiodun, in his reactions after casting his vote at Ward 5, Unit 11, Ita-Osanyin area of Ikenne Local Government area, said everything was going on relatively well thus far.

I want to thank INEC for this improvement in the process, though this election was postponed by a week.

I want to commend the commission for being able to resolve the issues of litigation and the reconfiguration of the BVAS.

It is my hope that the situation here at my polling unit is what is obtainable everywhere else.

Until we get field reports, I can not really comment on what is happening across the state. I hope everything will go peacefully, he said.

Also, Mr Amosun, who voted at Ward 6 Unit 8, Ita Gbangba area in Abeokuta South Local Government area, also commended INEC for improved process.

I think it is slightly better and more organised compared to the presidential elections.

When I came during the presidential polls, the atmosphere was not this conducive because of agitations from voters over non-functional BVAS.

I had to find a way to make it conducive. But now, the BVAS is working, the last time I came, I had to wait for about two hours, he said.

Meanwhile, former President Mr Obasanjo, was noticeably absent at his Ward 11, Unit 22 of Ilusomi Compound, Sokori area of Abeokuta North Local Government, where he usually votes.

When contacted, his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, said he travelled out of the country 10 days before the election.

Mr Akinyemi, in a phone interview with NAN, said Mr Obasanjo was on an international assignment but was billed to return on Friday.

He said: Chief Obasanjo has travelled outside the country on international assignment, 10 days ago, to India, U.S and UK.

He was supposed to return back to the country yesterday, March 17, but he could not make it.

(NAN)

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Some unidentified thugs on Saturday in Lagos chased voters away from polling units, as they attempted to steal ballot boxes.

A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent, who was at Ward F3 Polling Unit 13, Ago Palace Way, Lagos, witnessed the thugs suddenly start chasing voters away with the aim of snatching ballot boxes.

The people ran for safety as the thugs continued to throw chairs and sprayed some chemicals at them.

NAN reports that the incident was ongoing when police officers swung into action and arrested one of the thugs while the others fled.

Voting, however, resumed as normalcy was restored by the police officers.

(NAN)

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The Special Adviser to the Ogun State governor on Public Communications, Remmy Hazzan, alleged on Saturday that the voter register used for the conduct of the 2023 general elections was full of dead persons names.

Mr Hassan, who is also a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in the state, said this shortly after casting his vote at polling unit six, ward 14, in Omu area of Odogbolu Local Government, Ogun State.

He said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was building on the 1999 register, stressing that the commission should reprocess the entire voter registers and remove the names of dead people.

He further claimed that the refusal of the electoral body to remove names of dead people from the registers largely contributed to the reported voter apathy in many areas.

In this election and in this particular unit, we have the highest number of turnouts, but if you check in relation to the voter register, you will see that there is voter apathy because some people on the list are dead.

My father is in that register and he died about eight years ago. He hasnt been removed from the register. So, INEC should have a working plan on how to get notified when voters have become deceased so that they can take them off effectively.

I will advocate that at the earliest convenient time, INEC should reprocess the entire voter registration.

I have always had a problem with our voter register as a nation because it has been a build-up since the 1999 register. In that register, you have many dead people who were yet to be taken off the register.

Building on that register using it as a measure for voter turnout, I am not comfortable with that.

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The Chief Observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM), Barry Andrews, says the groups mission in Nigeria is to strengthen democracy.

Mr Andrews said this on Saturday during the governorship and State House of Assembly Elections in Nasarawa State.

Our overall mission here is to try to strengthen democracy in Nigeria and to be a valuable partner for those who are dedicated to that idea.

We have been deployed here since early January and we will continue our deployment here until April.

Then we will produce a final report within three months after the end of the elections and that will contain all our conclusions and recommendations.

So we will assess the elections based on criteria that are internationally acceptable and that are based on Nigerias commitment within its own legislation and also International conventions.

Generally, the criteria we tested against are inclusivity, can everybody come and cast their ballots; on transparency, is how the votes are gathered, collected, and tabulated.

On credibility, which is the overall process that takes in the entire media landscape, the judicial landscape, the legislative landscape, and that is why we deploy for such a long period of time, Mr Andrews said.

According to him, his team deployed more than 60 people and it is important that both International and domestic monitors move around the polling units.

He said this would encourage the methodology that was supposed to be followed and has the effect of reducing attempts at fraud and increasing the transparency of the overall process.

So we are part of a very big exercise that has value. So what I have seen in the very small couple of polling units is that the polling units opened on time and that is great, that the technology has been working and it has been peaceful.

But I must really emphasise that it would be impossible to draw any conclusions of any value from those small samples of four polling units that we have visited.

Though I think there is a low turnout in the governorship compared to the presidential, they are simply my own personal observations.

We are working very hard over the next 48 hours to write a preliminary statement. I hope you wont be disappointed, it will be honest and it will be robust.

I think it is important to emphasise that we do it in the spirit of constructive partnership with the authorities here in Nigeria and on behalf of the people of Nigeria, most especially, Mr Andrews said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) also spoke to a domestic observer, Emmanuel Emeka, an official of the Foundation for Sustainable Development and Inclusive Growth, who said the election was peaceful.

He congratulated INEC personnel for commencing the process on time but observed also that voter apathy was witnessed in all the polling units they monitored.

(NAN)

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The International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos, is highly disturbed by the reported incidents of attacks on journalists and other media professionals covering todays (Saturdays) governorship and House of Assembly elections in some parts of the country including Lagos, Ogun and Rivers states.

IPCs JOURNALISTS -ELECTION-DAY-SAFETY-ALERT-DESK has confirmed that AIT Reporters and cameramen including Henrietta Oke, Amarachi Amushie and Nkiru Nwokedi were molested and prevented from covering the elections at some polling units in Eti-Osa, Ifako-Ijaiye and Amuwo Odofin local government areas by political thugs and hoodlums.

Journalist Nwokedi temporarily lost her phone before it was recovered with the help of Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) men while Journalist Amushie was rough handled, her camera damaged and the cameraman beaten in the presence of a political chieftain.

The Alert Desk also established that Arise TV News crew comprising Reporter Oba Adeoye, cameraman Opeyemi Adenihun and driver Yusuf Hassan was attacked while covering voting in the Elegushi area of Lagos.

The cameraman, Opeyemi Adenihun, suffered facial injuries while drones and equipment were seized according to the news medium.

In Ogun State, News Agency of Nigerias reporter, Adejoke Adeleye, was among journalists molested in Itori Odo Area of Abeokuta South Local government where they faced mob attack by political thugs who equally reportedly assaulted INEC officials with axes and allegedly destroyed ballot boxes.

The details also include the denial of access to journalists who tried to capture voting in the polling unit of the PDP Governorship candidate in Rivers State by some overzealous police officers.

The policemen refused passage despite the proof of identity provided by the journalists the report from Rivers stated

IPC strongly condemns these unacceptable attacks which constitute both the violation of the fundamental rights of the affected journalists and media workers and a major assault on press freedom.

READ ALSO: Thugs attack journalist covering election in Kano

Following the attacks on journalists during the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25, we had called on the Police, the Political Parties and all concerned to take measures to protect them today. It is therefore worrisome that such attacks have been repeated, the Press Freedom and Safety Alert Desk Officer of IPC, Melody Lawal said in a statement.

Mrs Lawal charged the security agencies to thoroughly investigate the various attacks and ensure that the perpetrators face the consequences of their illegal actions.

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Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) accredited election observer, Alamin Umar, was detained by the police in Borno State on Saturday

Mr Umar, who is one of the observers working with the Centre for Journalism and Development (CJID), said he was arrested by a police officer attached to Kekeno(005) under Kukawa in Kukawa local government.

At about 11 a.m., I was suspected to be a fraud and arrested by the police officer attached to Kekeno(005) under Kukawa of Kukawa local government.

I was taken to the DPO for questioning. Due to a lack of network, I could not reach the organization to prove my identity. My phone, ID card and phone were seized as the police officers tagged me a criminal, Mr Umar said in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES.

He said after almost two hours and a series of questioning, the electoral officer of Kukawa scanned my tag and sent it via WhatsApp to the INEC HQ in Maiduguri for verification.

Thankfully, after some minutes, the HQ confirmed my identity and I was freed. It was almost 1 p.m. I left the Kukawa polling centre to Monguno Local Government polling centre 2 to observe the situation there as well. There, too, I was detained by the military for trying to talk to voters coming from the centre after casting their votes. I was freed and made to delete some of the pictures I took after proving my identity, he added.

Borno is one of the 28 states where governorship elections are being held today.

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An alleged pact between Godswill Akpabio and the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in Akwa Ibom State is likely to affect the performance of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Saturdays governorship election in the state, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

Some of the APC members and supporters in the state appear to be confused over the APCs participation in the poll, despite its candidate saying categorically that he is in the race.

Understanding between APC, YPP?

Mr Akpabio of the APC won the just concluded senatorial election in Akwa Ibom North-West District partly because of the political support he got from the YPP governorship candidate in the state, Bassey Albert, who reportedly directed his partys candidate in the district to step down for Mr Akpabio and that the YPP structure in the district should support the former minister of Niger Delta Affairs.

The Chairperson of the YPP Governorship Campaign Council in Akwa Ibom, Emem Akpabio, who is a relative of the senator-elect, had relocated to Mr Akpabios Essien Udim Local Government Areas days before the polls to coordinate the ground strategies for the former ministers victory.

The understanding between the parties, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, was that the former minister would afterwards direct the APC members and supporters in his district and across the state to support the YPP candidate, Mr Albert, during the governorship election.

PREMIUM TIMES is not aware if Mr Akpabio has publicly endorsed Mr Alberts candidacy.

The senator-elect, however, had not been seen campaigning publicly for the APC governorship candidate, Akanimo Udofia, since he won the 25 February election, a situation that has contributed to the speculation that Mr Udofia may not have his backing.

Mr Akpabio is not known to have issued any statement canvassing support for Mr Udofia.

Apparently, to douse the confusion and tension within the ranks of the APC members and supporters in Akwa Ibom hours before the election, Mr Udofia visited Mr Akpabio on Thursday in his country home in Essien Udim Local Government Area, where the senator-elect reportedly lifted the candidates hand to signify an endorsement.

Mr Akpabio was said to have asked the party members and supporters present in his house to support Mr Udofia to win the election.

Before the National Assembly election, Mr Udofia frequently joined Mr Akpabios campaign train in Akwa Ibom North-West District to solicit support for the former minister.

Dirty fight

A newspaper in Akwa Ibom, The Ink, reported on Thursday that the APC governorship candidate, Mr Udofia has stood down his ambition after Mr Akpabios intervention.

The paper said Mr Udofia is now eyeing a ministerial appointment in the soon-to-be inaugurated Bola Tinubu-led administration.

Sources within the APC mentioned to our reporter that Chief Godswill Akpabio also has a hand in the decision of Udofia playing down on his guber bid, the paper reported.

The Akan Udofia campaign has dismissed the newspaper publication as a cheap fabrication.

For the avoidance of doubts, Obong Akanimo Udofia will contest this Saturdays gubernatorial elections on the platform of the APC, the campaign spokesperson, Imo Akpan, said in a statement on Thursday.

Another newspaper in the state, The Informer, in the latest edition has as its banner headline, Akan Udofia surrenders to Oba (Oba is the nickname for the YPP governorship candidate, Mr Albert).

But some persons believed to be sympathetic to Mr Udofias aspiration cloned the paper and reversed the headline to read, Bassey Albert surrenders to Akan Udofia.

Over 140,000 people were talking about The Informer newspaper on Facebook as of 10:41 p.m. on Friday, according to the data from the social media site.

Between Friday night and Saturday morning, hours before the election, many of the Facebook posts and comments, most of them divisive and dirty, left people with the impression that the battle for the control of the Akwa Ibom Government House had been reduced to a fight between two former friends  Udofia and Albert.

While Mr Udofias supporters pushed the argument that Mr Alberts conviction for fraud makes him a high risk in Akwa Ibom power politics, Mr Alberts supporters alleged that the APC candidate has scandalous financial records as a private entrepreneur, besides not being rooted in the state politics.

Credence to speculation

What has also added credence to the speculation of a pact between Messrs Akpabio and Albert is the relentless attack on the APC candidate, Mr Udofia, by a man named Zion Umoh, who claimed to be Mr Akpabios director of special duties.

Mr Umoh commands some influence on Facebook, especially among the section of Akwa Ibom youths who are eager to see the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dislodged from power in the oil-rich state.

YPP stood by APC in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District, APC will stand by YPP in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Umoh said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

Mr Umoh reiterated the same claim on a Facebook live video.

In Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District, the APC went on a ward tour. The YPP abandoned their own senatorial candidate, Emmanuel Ekon, and accompanied the APC in the ward tour. I am talking about the YPP stakeholders, they mounted the podium and declared total support for Godswill Akpabio in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District.

They stood with us and we gave them that promise that we are going to stand with them for the governorship, Mr Umoh said in the live video.

Akan Udofia has never supported the opposition party in Akwa Ibom State and has no clue on how to play the opposition politics in Akwa Ibom State and we the people must align with the reality to chat a new course with YPP before we lose another eight years, he said in another Facebook post.

Akpabio campaign organisation had not issued a disclaimer on Mr Umoh or condemned his utterances against the APC governorship candidate.

Attacks on Umana, Ekere

Mr Umoh, besides his attack on Mr Udofia, has also been relentless in his attack against two APC chieftains in Akwa Ibom  the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Umana and former managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Nsima Ekere, accusing them, without evidence, of not supporting the APC governorship candidate.

His frequent remarks against Messrs Umana and Ekere, believed by many on social media, have created and spread a false impression that the duo are loyal to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and not the APC, and had further weakened the fractious APC in the state and damaged the APC governorship candidates image, having been portrayed as one who is unacceptable by key figures in his party.

Meanwhile, Mr Ekere chaired the central planning committee for Mr Tinubus presidential rally in Akwa Ibom, while Mr Umana funded it, including the APC presidential campaign in the state.

Mr Umana, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, had also provided financial support for the APC candidates for the House of Assembly elections across the state.

The minister, in a response to the attacks, said earlier this month that his loyalty to the APC was not in doubt as the national leadership of the party has acknowledged his commitment and contributions to the party.

Mr Umana said the APC governorship candidate in the state, Mr Udofia, knows the level of my support for him and the party, and has equally appreciated my contributions.

The former NDDC managing director, Mr Ekere, had not spoken on the issue.

Udofia campaign reacts

Akpabio is a senator-elect of the APC. Hes a frontline aspirant for the Senate Presidency position in Nigeria and cannot be seen or said to be looking for somebody to endorse outside of his party. I can tell you categorically that is false, a spokesperson for the Akan Udofia campaign, Imo Akpan, told PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr Akpan said the senator-elect, Mr Akpabio, was in Abuja to receive his certificate of return and also consult with the president-elect when PREMIUM TIMES asked him why the former minister did not campaign publicly for the APC governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom.

I think everybody is entitled to say whatever they want to say, he said of Mr Umohs attacks on Mr Udofia.

Jackson Udom, a spokesperson to Mr Akpabio, did not respond to calls and a text message seeking comment from him for this report.

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A total of 109 election-related deaths have been recorded across Nigeria in the build-up to the 2023 general election, a pro-democracy think-thank, CDD, said Friday.

The organisation said its tracker recorded the deaths between 1 January and 10 March.

Osun, Imo and Ebonyi have also seen a number of incidents in the past three months that could disrupt state house of assembly polls taking place in the state. In total, 109 deaths linked to political violence have been recorded from the start of the year to 10 March 2023 according to the tracker, it said in a statement by its director, Idayat Hassan.

The CDD also urged the electoral commission to learn from its experiences in the recent presidential election as it conducts Saturdays governorship election across Nigeria.

Read the full statement below.

As voters head to the polls to elect governors in 28 states and State House of Assembly members in 36 states, pro-democracy think tank, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to learn key lessons learnt from its conduct of the presidential poll of February 25 to improve the conduct of the state elections.

The Chair of the CDD Election Analysis Centre (EAC), Professor Adele Jinadu and CDD Director, Idayat Hassan gave the charge at a briefing during the opening of the EAC in Abuja today. They stated that given that the polls have been delayed a week, to give INEC time to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices, the Commission now has sufficient time conduct better elections, which will be devoid of the earlier noticed flaws.

CDD expressed hope that the extra time INEC has had will translate into improved opening of polling units across the country, with those polling units fully equipped with the necessary voting materials to avoid scenarios observed in the presidential polls where voting continued well beyond the scheduled closing time. They stressed that the functionality of the BVAS machines and improved use of the INEC results viewing platform (IReV) will also be critical for the credibility of the polls.

Improved functionality will contribute to greater election results transparency, but this can still be undermined by compromised INEC officials and ad-hoc staff. The suspension of the RECs for Abia and Sokoto states for endangering the electoral process is welcome but points to the prevailing challenge that INEC officials and ad-hoc staff can be subject to the whims and caprices of state governments in ways that negatively impact voter confidence and the elections credibility.

To ensure the breaches, which occurred during the presidential polls do not happen again, CDD also tasked INEC to reprimand and suspend those found to be colluding with political actors in their state, and support polling unit cancellations in such instances.

We encourage all ad-hoc INEC staff to abide by the Commissions code of conduct when carrying out their duties on election day and when announcing results. The prompt submission of polling unit results to IReV is critical and will support an improved perception of INECs performance. We also urge the Commission to be both proactive and responsive in its communication with voters. CDD urged INEC to avoid elongated periods of silence as this provides fuel for misinformation and disinformation to flourish.

While noting that there will be new governors in 17 states, regardless of the outcome of the polls due to term-limited incumbents who are ineligible to stand, the think-tank however stressed that such keen contests are likely to be sites for election-violence. The group listed ways violence could manifest to include voter intimidation, ballot box snatching and the destruction of election materials.

It said: states that will hold gubernatorial polls with the most incidents of political violence since 1 January 2023 according to the Nigeria Election Violence Tracker are Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Delta and Anambra  with Kano the state with the most recorded deaths as a consequence at 20.

Osun, Imo and Ebonyi have also seen a number of incidents in the past three months that could disrupt state house of assembly polls taking place in the state. In total, 109 deaths linked to political violence have been recorded from the start of the year to 10 March 2023 according to the tracker.

Based on its mapping, CDD predicted that violence linked to the states elections could worsen due to the activities of armed groups quasi-security outfits. Groups such as Yan Sakai, the Civilian Joint Task Force, Neighbourhood Watch, Amotekun and Ebubeagu have been, and can be, armed and deployed by state governors and their allies to perpetrate electoral violence or suppress voter turnout, particular in areas of strong opposition support. Apart from these outfits, CDD noted the presence of the more conventional political thugs, paid to disrupt polls or intimidate political opponents, as a threat to these elections.

The insecurity they create itself portends dangers for the ability to conduct credible elections, increases the likelihood of inconclusive results and, ultimately, the need for supplementary elections. Bauchi, Kano, Rivers, and Sokoto all faced this scenario in 2019, with a high risk of repeat in 2023.

READ ALSO: CDD identifies six factors that may shape Saturdays governorship polls

On the outcome of the elections, CDD observed that most political parties and online commentaries have erroneously projected similar results to the presidential results of 25 February in the distribution of governorship seats. It said: But these projections fail to adequately consider the senate and house of representatives results, which did not always go along the same line as the presidential outcome. Given the split voting, which characterised the presidential election, the experts stressed the need for political actors to ensure they do not depend on outsized expectations with respect to the outcomes.

The group alluded to the results from the recent presidential elections, which have also thrown up what it described as new but important dynamics of split voting: After the 25 February elections, eleven states elected a majority of their national assembly delegations from an opposite party to the candidate they voted for president. Nine of those eleven states will be electing governors tomorrow and nuanced analysis will provide better understanding of how the results might go.

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President Muhammadu Buhari has cast his final vote in a general election while holding the post of Nigerian president.

Mr Buhari voted in his Daura country home in Katsina on Saturday.

Katsina is one of the 28 states where governorship elections are being held Saturday. State legislative elections are also being held in all of Nigerias 36 states.

Mr Buhari arrived at PU 003 Kofar Baru, Babban Tone quarters of Sarkin Yara A ward in Daura at about 09:51 a.m.

After casting his ballot, Mr Buhari said he was sure that his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), would win in the state.

He said he has fulfilled the promises he made to Nigerians especially in ensuring credible elections.

He said he expected Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, to win the presidential election because of the former Lagos governors experience.

READ ALSO:

I didnt expect anything less (APC winning the presidential election). We told Nigerians that. And in the party elections (primary), someone (Bola Tinubu) emerged who has the experience. A two-term governor, a former senator; so, there is nothing anyone could say.

In this administration, we mean what we say, we say what we mean. We told Nigerians were going to work for them, we are going to maintain trust. Well not allow anybody knowingly to steal their resources. We promised to make sure we do our best and I believe weve done that, Mr Buhari said.

Mr Tinubu defeated 17 other candidates in the 25 February presidential election. However, the runner-up and the second runner-up, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, are challenging the result of the election in court.

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Enough is Enough (EiE) in collaboration with The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), Dataphyte, CCHub and BudgIT has launched its citizens IReV portal, www.ootcresults.com.

The portal will display crowd-sourced form EC8A from citizens and accredited observers to compare with results uploaded on the Independent National Electoral Commissions (INEC)s IReV portal.

The portal is a data-driven citizen-led intervention to get citizens engaged in ensuring transparency of the votes cast. You can do four things on the portal:

1) Upload your signed Polling Unit Results Sheet

2) Compare to an uploaded IReV Result Sheet

3) Flag Discrepancies

4) Document happenings at your Polling Unit  no voting, violence etc.

Recall that in the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections, the transmission of the results to the IReV portal proved to be INECs biggest challenge. It failed and led to the discontent of a huge cross-section of Nigerians with the electoral process, especially when evidence showed that the manual collation process allowed for the manipulation of results since the IReV polling unit results were unavailable.

Tobi Oluwatola, the Executive Director of CJID, believes that this tool will help build trust in the electoral process. He said on February 25, citizens were deprived of the agency of monitoring their vote from polling unit to data collation because a critical element of accountability, the IREV failed. www.ootcresults.com gives them another option to upload their polling unit-level results in real time and compare them with INECs uploads to the IREV. We, in civil society, hope this modest intervention helps restore credibility to the electoral process.

It is hoped that this collaborative tool will re-ignite peoples will to get involved in the process. Yemi Ademolekun, Executive Director of EiE Nigeria, said Citizens have shown that they are invested in these 2023 elections and we hope they do the work to ensure their votes count!

Our objective for ootcresults.com is that it actually becomes the citizens portal, where we can collaboratively fulfil our watchdog function, said Joshua Olufemi, founder of Dataphyte. The simple technology, it is hoped, will ensure that public complaints are recorded and compiled for use in any future interventions.

Nigerian citizens are therefore implored to go out and vote and take pictures of their Polling Units EC8A form and upload them to www.ootcresults.com

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Election materials and electoral officers arrived early in polling units in Port Harcourt, Rivers capital, for the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections.

In Woji Ward 6 Units 2, 3, and 4 (Estate Junction) Obio/Akpor, INEC officials were seen pasting voters lists and educating a few voters present on the guidelines of the election as early as 8 a.m.

The situation was the same in Unit 27 (Circular Road), 29 (Alcon Gate) and 51, YKC Roundabout.

Oueeneth Tawosa, the Presiding Officer, Ward 9, Unit 39 Rumeme 7A, Obio/Akpo said that she and her colleagues were set, waiting for the voters to arrive.

In Ward 12, St Andrews Primary School, Port Harcourt City, the Presiding Officer, Segun Solomon said the officials were ready and expecting the voters to arrive.

The Presiding Officer in Ward 9, Unit 2 Obio/Akpo, Martins Konju, said voting commenced at 8.30 a.m. while voters were also seen casting their votes in Unit 3 of the same ward.

NAN reports that the atmosphere was generally peaceful while there was an increased presence of policemen in the polling station.

Many patrol vehicles were on the streets with roadblocks at major junctions in the city.

However, unlike the Presidential and National Assembly polls when the electorate arrived at polling stations as early as 7 a.m. not many voters have turned out at the time of this report.

NAN

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The police in Anambra State, south-east Nigeria, said they have arrested five armed thugs in Ihiala, a community in Ihiala Local Government Area of the state.

The Commissioner of Police in charge of election in the state, Aderemi Adeoye, disclosed this while speaking with reporters in the state.

A video clip of the police commissioner making the disclosure was forwarded to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday.

A police spokesperson also confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that the arrest was made on Saturday.

READ ALSO:

Mr Adeoye said members of a vigilante group from the community brought the thugs to the headquarters of the police in the state.

The thugs have been arrested, he said.

Five pump action guns have been recovered (from them), Mr Adeoye added.

The police commissioner said the police had warned earlier that they would not tolerate thuggery and snatching of ballots box as well as violation of INEC election guidelines during the exercise.

So, these ones we have arrested have violated the INEC guidelines, the police commissioner said of the thugs.

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Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has said he is ready to accept the outcome of the Governorship and State Assembly election in the state.

Mr Mohammed stated this in an interview with journalists shortly after casting his vote at Bakin Dutse Polling Unit 008 in Duguri village of Alkaleri Local Government Area of the state.

According to him, I hope the higher the turnout the more they vote for me but I wouldnt say, because I cannot predict.

However, Im happy that everything appears to be very peaceful. People are looking so joyous and excited.

I feel that this is the kind of situation we need all over the country. People exercising their franchise without any hindrance, acrimony or conflict.

We are very grateful to God and we are ready to really accept the outcome.

We will continue to do anything as a state to make sure that the election is peaceful and the outcome by the grace of God is acceptable.

Mr Mohammed, who expressed satisfaction with the seamless operation of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the unit, commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the orderly conduct of the election.

INEC has done very well, as far as Im concerned. Whether it is manual or electronic, you can see that the process is very peaceful and orderly.

As soon as we came, the BVAS worked and they didnt even have to snap me as I just used my fingers and my picture showed and then it ticked. It took not more 10 minutes for me to vote. INEC has done very well, Mohammed said.

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Political thugs disrupted the electoral process in Ward 13, Polling Unit 22, Itori Odo, Abeokuta South Local Government Area of Ogun State during Saturdays governorship and House Assembly elections.

At about 12:58 p.m., a party agent said to be that of the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenged a journalist for taking pictures at the unit without taking permission from him.

One of them said they had instructions not to allow anybody to take pictures or record videos at the unit.

All efforts to convince the agent to allow pictures to be taken fell on deaf ears.

Attempts to also pacify both angry agents and voters who were already raging at the APC agent were also fruitless.

The tense situation degenerated into a fight after a party member, identified as Taiwo and said to be an APC member, attacked the agent of the Action Democratic Congress (ADC).

Mr Taiwo poured a dry gin on the face of the ADC agent, as others emerged from different corners with axes.

An officer of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), who attempted to rescue the two ballot boxes, was overpowered by the thugs who snatched the boxes and destroyed them immediately.

The attack threw the polling unit into chaos as the warring parties exchanged blows.

INEC officials and materials were attacked as voters ran for their lives.

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The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Teslim Folarin, has accused rival political parties in the state of electoral fraud.

Mr Folarin said some members of the other political parties are distributing N5,000 vouchers and food items to persuade electorates.

They are distributing N5000 vouchers and food items. We urge the ICPC, DSS, EFCC and other security agencies to arrest the situation, he said.

He urged the electorate in the state not to sell their votes , saying, it is a four-year journey, dont sell your conscience to people who do not care about you.

The governorship candidate said this shortly after casting his vote at Polling Unit 002, Ward 005, Idi-Ose, in Ona Ara Local Government Area of the state.

He lamented low turnout of the electorate in the state, urging them to come out to vote and not to be afraid.

Mr Folarin expressed satisfaction in the conduct of the election and security engagement in the state.

He, however, expressed assurance that he will be victorious in the election.

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Yiaga Africa, a pro-democracy and development organisation, said it has recorded and confirmed 15 cases of vote buying and bribery across eight states in the ongoing governorship elections.

In a Saturday press conference held at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, Ezenwa Nwagwu, a member of Yiagas election analysis committee, told journalists that the think-tank deployed hundreds of observers across states.

Mr Ezenwa said voters were wooed and ridiculously patronised to sell their votes by politicians and party agents.

In Sarkin Mudu Polling Unit (016), Giade Local Government Area of Bauchi, the People Democratic Party (PDP) agents were sighted by Yiaga observers bribing accredited voters with a thousand naira, a wrapper and a pack of spaghetti each, he said.

The voters hand over their ballot papers to party agents in exchange for the bribe, the press statement read in parts. A similar report was received from PU 006 Rangan Ward, Warji LGAof Bauchi on the distribution of wrappers, two thousand naira and a pack of spaghetti to voters.

The statement added that agents working for the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the PDP respectively were observed sharing food, cash and alcoholic drinks with some voters in Apir market square 1, Makurdi, Benue state.

In PU O6 Ward 05 Isoko North, Delta State, INEC officials for the polling unit received cash gift from the APC party agent present, the statement read further. Interference by Security Agents: A report alleging the abduction of NNPP party stakeholders by DSS operatives has been received from Bichi LGA, Kano state, where DSS operatives are reported to be arresting party agents and key stakeholders of the NNPP.

Yiaga said it also noted several cases of infractions and non-compliance with the 2022 Electoral Act, voter intimidation and attacks and identity and ethnic division across states where elections are being held.

Governorship elections were held in 28 states while state legislative elections were held in all of Nigerias 36 states.

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Late commencement of accreditation and voting characterised the governorship and state legislative elections in many states across Nigeria, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) said in its mid-day report.

From the data gathered across 18 states at the time of analysis, CJID observed that elections started late in most states, that is, after 10:00 a.m. as against the 8.30 a.m. opening time, the organisation said.

From the data received, only 20 per cent of the polling units observed started election processes before 8:30 a.m

Governorship elections are being held in 28 states across Nigeria while state legislative elections are being held in all 36 states.

Read the full CJID report below.

GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS  MIDDAY REPORT

The 2023 Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly elections kicked off on Saturday, March 18, 2023.

The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) deployed 56 observers across 31 states as early as 7 a.m. to observe election day activities. The observers are sending real-time field reports and will remain at their stations until the close of polls and the announcement of results.

CJID is keen on keeping citizens updated on the Independent National Electoral Commissions (INEC) preparedness for the elections, voting patterns across the country, and election-related incidents as they unfold.

Here are some observations from the field as of 12:00 p.m..:

POLL OPENING TIMES AND LOGISTICS

From the data gathered across 18 states at the time of analysis, CJID observed that elections started late in most states, that is, after 10:00 a.m. as against the 8.30 a.m. opening time. From the data received, only 20 per cent of the polling units observed started election processes before 8:30 a.m.; about 59 per cent started between 8:31 am to 9:59 a.m. and about 20 per cent started after 10:00 a.m. The earliest time recorded for accreditation was 8:22 a.m., and the latest time recorded was 11:24 a.m. The average opening poll time at 12 p.m. was 9:24 a.m.

About eight per cent of the observed polling units (PUs) recorded delayed deployment of election materials. CJID observers reported that voting had not commenced in PU 05 Marina/Cowbell University of Calabar South LGA in Cross River State as of 11:20 a.m. as a result of the delayed deployment of materials and the late arrival of officials.

Based on the data gathered from field observation, 21 per cent of observed polling units reported poor accessibility of polling units and provision of assistive voting devices for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in some polling units in Kwara, Niger, Osun, and Ogun States.

BVAS MALFUNCTIONING

The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines malfunctioned in some polling units in five states. The states are Bauchi, Borno, Plateau, Akwa Ibom and Imo.

Some of the BVAS malfunctions were thumbprint and camera failures. This was observed particularly in Masau LGAs Gundari Ward PU 27, MMC LGAs Shuwari North and Lamisula wards PU 63 and 30 respectively.

In Imos Okigwe LGA in Urban 2 ward PU Urban secondary school, issues with the BVAS were reported and alleged to have been caused by the poor network in the area.

PRESS ATTACK

CJIDs Press Attack Tracker (PAT), which monitors attacks on media actors and safety issues encountered by observers, recorded the denial of access to media coverage at PU 048 Ijaiye Lagos State by INEC staff. At the polling unit in Ijaiye, Ojokoro, INEC officials restricted journalists from recording the electoral process. It was confirmed that Independent Newspaper and Africa Independent Television (AIT) journalists were prevented from taking photos and recording videos.

In Abeokuta, Ogun State, political thugs disrupted the electoral process in Ward 13 Polling Unit 22 of Itori Ado. According to reports, trouble began when a party agent challenged a journalist for snapping photos. It quickly escalated when journalists and some INEC officials were attacked by political thugs and took to their heels for safety.

Also, in Sokoto State, Abiodun Jamiu, a CJID election observer, was physically attacked by locals while covering the voting process at Polling Unit 11, Garba- Garba in Sokoto State.

INFORMATION DISORDER

As experienced during the presidential election, several false claims have been shared mostly on social media platforms. Although elections are being held in 28 states, most claims fact-checked so far originated from Lagos State. Claims about voter suppression, violence, false withdrawal and fake endorsement of candidates have been circulated. It is worth noting that most claims of voter suppression and violence are from Lagos where electorates allege supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are intimidating and consequently disenfranchising voters.

OVERVIEW OF TYPES OF INCIDENCES

So far, there have been about 70 incidents reported, with most of them coming from Ogun State. The most common incident type is vote buying, with 19 reported. In a polling unit in Osogbo LGA, Ward 09, Osun State, a party agent was spotted inducing voters to vote for his party. He spoke to some of them on the phone and wrote down the names of people who voted for his party.

A case of access denial to polling units was reported at Ibadan North LGA, Bodija Secretariat Area, Oyo.

RECOMMENDATION

CJID stands in solidarity with all actors, voters, and observers and calls on INEC and security officials to pay attention to the issues raised in this statement, and ensure a peaceful conduct for the rest of the elections

We wish everyone a peaceful and fruitful election day.

Signed:

Mboho Eno

Accountability Director of Programmes

Akintunde Babatunde

Deputy Director

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A policeman and a minor were shot during Saturdays House of Assembly elections in Idanre, Ondo State.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the police officer was drafted to one of the polling units in the town.

Fortunately, no death has been recorded in the shootout.

A witness confirmed that some hoodlums had stormed the polling unit but were repelled by some police officers.

In the heat of exchange of fire, one police officer was shot and a small girl was also caught in the crossfire, the source said.

The officer, whose identity is yet to be ascertained, and the minor were immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where he is currently being treated.

The police spokesperson, Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya, confirmed the development, saying a suspect has been arrested.

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A journalist, Ashiru Umar, of Premier Radio, has been attacked by some unidentified armed thugs while covering Saturdays governorship and House of Assembly elections in Gwale Local Government Area of Kano.

Mr Umar told reporters that he was attacked and beaten by the thugs in Galadanci Ward in Gidan Galadima polling unit after interviewing a relative of a victim beaten by the armed thugs in the area.

He said the thugs that attacked him accused him of spying for their political opponents from the area and taking a video of them.

The Charanchi area is a volatile political environment where the states chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Abbas, and the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Abba Kabir, are influential.

It happened after we interviewed a relative of a person who was attacked in the area by the thugs.

I went farther into the scene to confirm the name of the attacked victim. While filing my report, I heard someone saying that he was taking video of us which alerted other gang members.

They checked my phone but they could not find any of the videos, but they started beating me. I ran for safety, they chased me and caught me after I fell down. They continued beating me, but I was lucky to escape to a neighboring house where I was kept safe.

Someone later brought my damaged phone to the house, and later on, we managed to leave the area.

Unfortunately, all this happened while the security agents were watching,Mr Umar lamented.

The police spokesperson in Kano, Abdullahi Kiyawa, did not respond to phone calls for his comment on the incident.

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Alleged vote-buyers on Saturday attacked officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) during the governorship and House of Assembly elections in Kaduna State.

The EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said in a statement that the commissions operatives came under attack at School Road, Unguwan Rimi area of Kaduna as they attempted to arrest a suspected vote buyer.

The operatives deployed to the polling unit following an intelligence report in an amateur video where a vote-buyer, Kabiru Musa, allegedly induced eligible voters by using his phone to transfer money into their accounts as they cast their votes.

According to the statement, EFCC operatives who mobilised to the scene to arrest Mr Musa were injured.

Narrating the incident, the anti-corruption agency said immediately operatives accosted Mr Musa, he became unruly and screamed to attract the attention of his syndicate members, who descended on the operatives, using all manner of weapons that left some of them (operatives) injured.

It took great restraints for the operatives to ignore the unprovoked attack but insisted on arresting the suspect.

As the team drove away with the suspect, their vehicle was pelted with stones and other dangerous objects that damaged the windshield and three operatives suffered varying degrees of injuries in the process.

The injured operatives are currently receiving medical attention at the Medical Centre of the Kaduna Zonal Command, while the suspect is in custody, pending conclusion of the investigation.

It will be recalled that EFCC teams were similarly attacked during the presidential and national assembly elections, leaving some of its vehicles badly damaged.

The statement quoted EFCC chairperson, Abdulrasheed Bawa, as commending the operatives for exercising great restraint under extreme provocation.

READ ALSO:EFCC arrests alleged serial Canadian visa scammer

He however appealed to the public to desist from attacking officers of the Commission as such action would no longer be tolerated, Mr Bawa added.

The anti-graft agency deployed operatives to different parts of the country to combat vote trading during the general elections.

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Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has won the governorship election in his polling unit in Ibadan, the capital of the state.

Mr Makinde, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, voted at Polling Unit 11, Ward 1, Abayomi, Iwo-Road in Ibadan North East Local Government Area of the state.

He scored 174 votes to defeat his closest rival, Teslim Folarin of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who polled 28 votes.

At the governors polling unit, the candidate of the Accord Party scored five votes, while the Labour Party scored three votes.

READ ALSO: Oyo SDP governorship candidate steps down for Makinde

Four votes were voided.

For the House of Assembly election, the PDP candidate scored 160 votes, APC scored 30, Accord Party had 9 votes and the LP candidate polled five votes.

Nine votes were voided.

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The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) says scores of suspected political thugs were arrested in the Nsukka axis of Enugu State, south-east Nigeria during Saturdays elections.

The NSCDC spokesperson in the state, Danny Iwuchukwu, disclosed this while speaking with reporters in Enugu on Saturday.

Mr Iwuchukwu, a chief superintendent of the NSCDC, said the suspected thugs have been handed over to the Nigeria police in the Nsukka axis.

The NSCDC spokesperson said the arrest was made early Saturday morning before the commencement of the governorship and House of Assembly elections. This, he said, followed an intelligent tip-off that the suspects were at an unnamed hotel in the area.

He, however, did not provide details about the exact number of the arrested thugs.

Sources told PREMIUM TIMES that the thugs, said to be over 100 in number, were arrested by the security officers providing security in the area during the elections.

Some AK-47 rifles, hand axes, clubs and machetes were among the items recovered from the thugs, according to the NSCDC.

It is not clear, for now, which political party the thugs were working for.

Meanwhile, elections have been going on peacefully across the state with results coming in from different polling units.

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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Lagos State, Olajide Jandor Adediran, has won his polling unit in the Ojo Local Government Area.

There was low voter turnout in Saturdays election in Lagos and many other states across Nigeria.

Jandor voted at Osolu Secondary School, Irewe 1 in Ojo, his hometown on Saturday.

He polled 87 votes at the polling unit to defeat Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the APC and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP).

Mr Sanwo-Olu polled 66 votes out of the 157 total valid votes cast at the unit.

LP, ZLP, NRM and ADP had one vote each.

There are 557 registered voters at the polling unit.

Lagos is one of the 28 states where governorship elections are being held in Nigeria.

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No fewer than 65 persons were arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on Saturday 18 March 2023 across the 28 states where governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections were conducted, for alleged voter inducement.

Twenty of the suspects were arrested by operatives from the Ilorin Zonal Command while 13 suspects were nabbed by operatives on election monitoring duty at the Kaduna Zonal Command. The teams monitoring the polls in the Port Harcourt Zone arrested a total of 12 people for various offences bordering on inducing voters with money to vote their preferred candidates, while the Uyo Zonal Command made 4 arrests in Calabar. The remaining suspects were arrested in Gombe, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger states.

Those arrested in Kaduna consist of 10 males and 3 females. They were apprehended by operatives working on intelligence or chanced upon them during the monitoring exercise. A suspect allegedly involved in vote buying was nabbed at School Road, Unguwan Rimi Kaduna. The suspect who initially resisted arrest, is however in custody, pending the conclusion of the investigation.

Also in Kaduna, the Team led by ACE II Esmond Garba arrested one Buhari Muhammed in PU 002 Dogara Yaro Dagari area. He was arrested with Voter Coupons, which he confessed would be used to trace and pay those who voted for his party.

Furthermore, the team monitoring the voting exercise around LEA Kabala Doki, Kaduna led by CSE Wakilu Omokide also arrested two individuals suspected of vote buying. Upon their arrest, a total sum of N67, 500, a list containing names of voters with their PVC numbers and their bank account details amongst others, were recovered from them.

Investigation so far revealed that the major modus operandi of the suspects is to give cash, transfer money, coupons and send recharge cards to eligible voters in order to induce them to vote for their candidates. A search of their persons and phones revealed that most of them had transferred money into the accounts of some voters on the lists recovered from them.

Some of the items recovered from the suspects include, voters cards, monies, list containing names and account details of voters. Others are recharge cards.

Officers of the Kaduna Command also arrested two persons in Niger State for alleged vote buying.The first suspect, one Umar.B. Ibrahim was arrested at Peter Sarki Road polling unit based on an intelligence. Upon searching his vehicle, an INEC ID tag (domestic election observer) bearing his name and photograph and also a letter of appointment from BOS ( Bago Support Organisation) as Director Liaison, were uncovered. On further enquiry, he disclosed that a certain Mr. Usman Mohammed, who belongs to his political party gave him the INEC ID tag .

The second suspect, Isa Salihu Bababida, was arrested at Unguwar Nassarawa with several lists of names, account numbers and BVN.

In Port Harcourt, the election monitoring teams arrested 10 suspects in Port Harcourt alleged to be involved in voter inducement at Moscow Road, Elekahia, Township, Mile 2, Ward 2 polling Unit 2 and 30, Ogbum, Phalga, Port Harcourt. The suspects were arrested with A4 papers that had names, telephone and account numbers of persons suspected to be voters. Also two youths who were alleged to be involved in voter inducement were arrested at Ward 2 Polling Unit 2 and 30, Ogbum, PHALGA, Port Harcourt City.

The four persons arrested at different locations in Calabar by the team from Uyo Zonal Command, led by CE Binta A. Rano, are currently volunteering their statements at the Criminal Investigation Department, Cross River State Police Command.

the team arrested one Esther Asuquo Edem, the Woman Leader of one of the political parties for Ward 11, Calabar South, Cross River State and two others, Edet Okon Etim and Asanwana Peter Eyo, for alleged vote buying in Calabar.

The Woman Leader, who had a list of suspected voters, their account numbers and Thousands of Naira in cash was apprehended inside an uncompleted building, beside her Ward in Calabar South, while Etim and Eyo were arrested at Ward 12, Unit 11, at Kings Memorial School by Inyang Street, Abasi Obori, Calabar South.

The duo of Etim and Eyo had with them their own lists and money they allegedly used in buying vote

The 20 suspects arrested by the Ilorin Zonal Command are Adekunle Ademola, Wasiu Raimi, Laaro Rasheed, Alagbe Taiwo, Boniface Victory, Kayode Toba, Adeoye Adetunji, Lawal Favour, Abidoye Victoria Moradeyo, Magaji Iliasu, Abdulkadir Abdulmumini and Musa Lateef Olasunkanmi.

Others are Marudeen Sadiq, Abogunrin Jimoh Oluwasesan, Funmilayo Lawal, Olawuyi Bolarin, Garuba Ismail, Abiola Abogunrin, Amidu Tiamiyu and Usman Abdulazeez.

They suspects, who were arrested at different polling units across the State, were caught with incriminating items including cash of various sums, notebook containing list of voters names, POS machine, mobile phones and voter cards, among others.

Upon interrogation, some of the suspects identified themselves as party agents while some admitted distributing money to induce voters.

In Gombe, the Gombe Zonal Command led by ACE Faruk M. Dogondaji, made 10 arrests for alleged voter inducement, and recovered , 43 pieces of wrappers and N 1, 923,900 cash.

Investigations are still ongoing to determine the culpability of each suspect.

Wilson Uwujaren

Head, Media & Publicity

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano State has accused the main opposition New Nigerian People Party (NNPP) of stirring violence in the state by sharing fake election results.

The ruling party said the NNPP was sharing fake election results to cover their defeat in Saturdays governorship and House of Assembly elections. Counting of ballots is still underway in many polling units in the state.

Muhammad Garba, the spokesperson for the APC governorship campaign council in Kano State, urged residents to disregard the alleged fake election results being shared by the NNPP.

Mr Garba, in a statement, said the NNPP after sensing defeat, said the election might have been rigged.

APC urged the public to disregard any unauthenticated election results shared by the NNPP.

With the result of Saturdays governorship and House of Assembly elections showing the All Progressives Congress (APC) in early lead in Kano, the party has called on its members, supporters and the public to be wary of unauthenticated election results been circulated by the opposition New Nigeria Peoples Party with a view to inciting violence.

The NNPP, apparently sensing defeat, shared the fake results to deceive the unsuspecting public that the election might have been rigged.

We called the people in the state to await the outcome of the election from official channels and not allow themselves to be used to cause trouble, the APC campaign council spokesperson said.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the presidential candidate of the NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwanso, accused the APC of trying to rig the ongoing governorship election in the state.

From the report we are getting from our people, we are currently leading but the opposition is trying to be funny.

They are using all manner of things to buy votes, from N5,000 to wrappers and so on, Mr Kwankwaso said.

But the spokesperson for the NNPP governorship campaign council in Kano State, Sanusi Bature, denied APCs allegation of spreading fake election results on Saturday.

He said the results being shared by his party were as posted on the official website of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

INEC is uploading official results from polling units on its online dashboard, IReV, and can be accessed by any interested party.

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Angry voters in Enugu, Saturday, besieged officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to stop officials from leaving the area until the results from their polling unit were completely uploaded on IReV.portal.

The incident occurred at about 4: 12 p.m. at Ugbo Okonkwo Square 1 Polling Unit, New Haven Ward, Enugu North Local Government Area of the state during the governorship and House of Assembly elections.

How it began

The presiding officer at the polling unit, after counting and announcing the results, said she would not be able to upload them to the IReV portal because she did not have the correct password for the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVS) machine.

But enraged voters vowed they would not allow them to repeat the 25 February incident of failing to upload the results to the portal before departing the polling unit.

This is the kind of evil you people did last time that you want to repeat. You people must be care, an angry voter was heard yelling at the officials, who were seen struggling to operate the BVAS.

Another voter, Okon Effiong, told PREMIUM TIMES that all the voters were angry because they suspected that the results could be changed if they were not uploaded at the polling unit.

What we are hearing is that they (INEC officials) cannot find the password to upload (the results). Now, we have told them, if you know you cant upload, dont even come. We dont want that exercise, he said.

The reason is simple. The bourgeoisies cannot continue to use it (BVAS) to shortchange the people. They have done it before. We will not take it for the second time. You cannot continue to take the people for granted. So, if they dont upload (the results), they are not leaving this place. Thats what we are saying, Mr Effiong stated.

However, the presiding officer would later phone an unknown person- believed to be an INEC official- who gave her the correct password, before she successfully uploaded the results to the commissions IREV.

During the presidential and National Assembly elections on 25 February, the BVAS failed in many polling units across Nigeria, with some election officials saying they had no password for their BVAS machines. This resulted in their failure to upload the results from polling units in line with the INEC guidelines for the elections.

The results

PREMIUM TIMES observed that the Labour Party candidates won in all the results from the Ugbo Okonkwo Square 1 Polling Unit.

In the results obtained by this newspaper, the LP governorship candidate in the state polled 91 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, who came second with 61. The LP candidates for Enugu East District and House of Assembly elections also won in the polling unit.

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The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Teslim Folarin, has lost his polling unit to Governor Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Mr Folarin had been the major rival of the incumbent governor, Mr Makinde, since the beginning of the electioneering.

The APC governorship candidate voted at polling unit 002, Ward 5, Idi Ose in Ona Ara Local Government Area of the state.

He polled 89 votes behind governor Makinde, who scored the total votes of 196 at the polling unit.

PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported that Mr Makinde won the polling unit of Adebayo Adelabu, the governorship candidate of Accord Party in the state.

The incumbent governor won in the polling unit at Polling Unit 11, Ward 1, Abayomi , Iwo-Road in Ibadan North East Local Government Area of the state.

Mr Makinde also won at the polling unit of former governor Rasheed Ladoja who is speculated to be working against the second term ambition of Mr Makinde.

Mr Ladoja voted at polling unit 13, Ward 10, Ondo State, Bodija in Ibadan North Local Government Area of the state.

At Mr Ladojas polling unit, Mr Makinde polled 98 votes to defeat Mr Folarin who scored 35 votes.

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Black people, like any other races, must work hard and compete with others to succeed. We cannot afford to rely on the world to offer us what is not available. We must take responsibility for our own situations and work to improve them. Feeling like a victim will only hold us back. We must take ownership of our own lives and strive to overcome the obstacles in our way.

The American civil rights icon and champion of social justice, the late Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. once gave an eloquent speech and spelt how the moral arc of the universe tends to bend towards justice. Well, while I am reluctant to disagree with such a legendary figure and public intellectual, I remain unconvinced that such is the case. It appears to me that our world is built on injustice and is a place where only the strongest and fittest could survive.

Of course, a semblance of justice may happen every now and then, no doubt, but the default setting favours injustice. The big and powerful nations of the world, with their strong armies, will always lord it over the smaller and less powerful ones. They often use every instrument of coercion and sometimes openly declare war when they fail to have their way.

Occasionally, justice gets served and those who commit egregious acts are punished but a universal system of justice, which Reverend King alluded to in his speech, simply does not exist anywhere. For whereas war criminals in Africa like Charles Taylor of Liberia or Theoneste Bagosora, the Rwandan military officer chiefly responsible for the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, were made to face justice at the Hague, what happened to those responsible for invading a sovereign nation under a false pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction? The moral act, in this case, was bent in the direction that the powers that be wanted it to go. Selective justice is, by its very nature, grave injustice.

How about economic justice? One would argue that the arch of the universe, in this case, bends towards exploitation. When Christopher Columbus arrived on the island of San Salvador, what is now known as Bahamas, on 12 October 1492, during the age of exploration, he met a welcoming Taino people of the Carribeans, who saw the white man as some kind of deity. But Columbus later turned around and took some of those indigenous people prisoners and insisted that they guide him to the source of their gold. By the time the team of European explorers were done, the Tainos were virtually exterminated. Many were captured in slavery, some were killed, while the rest died from the disease introduced by the colonialists. Where is the justice?

All African countries, with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia, were once colonised by Western powers. The great wealth of Europe and America was not built with loans from Bretton Wood institutions, but from resources extracted from the former colonies and the forced labour of Africans taken away from their homeland. After gaining independence, these same Western governments recommended that African nations, which they impoverished, obtain loans from the World Bank and other Western-controlled institutions, while imposing impossible terms and conditions on them. Where is the justice in that?

Injustice is condemnable and tells on the ugly part of humanity. Besides the fact that there is a perpetual fight in this world for food and other resources, humans by nature are often driven by a desire for power and competitive advantage. This desire has been the root cause of many of the injustices that have been perpetuated throughout history.

Long after Haitians threw off their shackles, having seriously beaten up Napoleons forces and won their independence two centuries earlier, France came back with warships and an unheard-of demand: that Haitians pay about $20 billion in todays dollars to their former slave masters, or face war again. War-wary, Haiti reluctantly agreed. Today, Haiti, the second-oldest republic in the Americas, after the United States, is also the poorest and most unstable country in the Western Hemisphere. Where is the justice in that?

When President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti raised the issue of France paying reparations for this grave injustice, all hell was let loose. Long story made short, the United States and France conspired to force Aristide out of power and installed their stooge. Where is the justice?

Martin Luther was also known to have mounted a serious campaign in favour of America paying reparations for over 400 years of the exploitation of blacks as slaves. He later got a letter from the American secret service urging him to commit suicide. Today, he is celebrated as a folk hero and even has a memorial to his name in Washington DC, but where is the justice for those he fought and died for?

From the exploitation of indigenous people by Christopher Columbus, to the colonisation of African countries and the enslavement of African people, to the demand for reparations from Haiti, to the persecution of Martin Luther, it is evident that justice is often absent in our world. There is nothing, however, to prove that those who are being exploited will not be the one exploiting others if the situations were to be reversed. In Africa, human beings were captured during war and peace and forced to work as slaves in other lands, even before the coming of the white man. Just as whites segregated blacks during slavery, caste systems have existed in some parts of Africa for centuries, where some are treated as less human than the other, even when all belong to the same race. Where is the justice?

Injustice is condemnable and tells on the ugly part of humanity. Besides the fact that there is a perpetual fight in this world for food and other resources, humans by nature are often driven by a desire for power and competitive advantage. This desire has been the root cause of many of the injustices that have been perpetuated throughout history.

By building economic value and sharing our values with others, we can position ourselves for success and challenge the hegemony of those who seek to oppress us. We must take responsibility for our own situations, economic or otherwise. By doing so, we will be in a position to challenge the status quo and create a better world for ourselves and our future generations.

Whites are not going to open the doors to their wealth for black people to access, only for blacks to come back and challenge their world dominance, just like the Chinese and Indians are currently doing. That would be something close to economic suicide. It doesnt matter that we blacks devote another century to railing against the system and banging our heads against the wall, regardless of how entitled we feel based on centuries of exploitation of our forebears. Nobody said such is fair but the world does not care about fairness, despite all pretensions to the contrary. That is just the stark reality. All the sympathy you can get is the occasional virtue signaling.

Since black people are always getting the short end of the stick, it is important to realise that the world cannot offer us what is not available. Like every other race, the white, Chinese and Indians, we have to fight hard and compete with others to land a good spot on the table. We have to build values and share with others. I am not just talking about political values this time, though important. I mean that blacks in Africa, America and everywhere on the surface of this earth have to focus on building economic value. When you occupy the bottom of the value chain, the arch of injustice will seek you out to embrace. You have no choice.

Nothing holds someone back more than feeling like a victim. That is because a victim is not responsible for his situation and thus takes no blame. Everything is always someone elses fault. Blaming the blackmans woes on others rather than ourselves is like wondering why your business competitors are stealing your customers. Isnt that what they are supposed to do? Do we think that Amazon should apologise to the brick and mortar big box retailers, many of whose business model it destroyed and grew to become the worlds number one online marketplace? Shouldnt its goal be to position in such a way that no company would ever be powerful enough to threaten its hegemony, while others fight to be in a position to challenge that?

Black people, like any other races, must work hard and compete with others to succeed. We cannot afford to rely on the world to offer us what is not available. We must take responsibility for our own situations and work to improve them. Feeling like a victim will only hold us back. We must take ownership of our own lives and strive to overcome the obstacles in our way.

By building economic value and sharing our values with others, we can position ourselves for success and challenge the hegemony of those who seek to oppress us. We must take responsibility for our own situations, economic or otherwise. By doing so, we will be in a position to challenge the status quo and create a better world for ourselves and our future generations.

Osmund Agbo, a public affairs analyst, is the coordinator of African Center for Transparency and Convener of Save Nigeria Project. Email: Eagleosmund@yahoo.com

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Contrary to the innuendos and aspersions being cast on the election by organisations such as Financial Times, Economist, New York Times, among others, we make bold to say that the 2023 presidential election is the most credible, most free and most fair national election in Nigeria since 1999.

In weeks and months leading to the 25 February presidential and National Assembly elections, there were a rash of pre-election analysis, news reports, special features and even opinion polls from a number of partisan local pollsters and international media that gave victory to the candidate of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi. Some of the polls were conducted online. Some polls had small samples that were not sufficiently representative of Nigerias diverse voting population and did not represent the realities of Nigerias political environment and factors that influence electoral behaviour.

But there were some other polls that correctly predicted the outcome, that our candidate was headed for victory. Our internal polls also gave us some measure of confidence. With 21 states under our partys control, we did not expect a complete change of electoral behaviour, like in the US, where no one expects a blue state to suddenly turn red 100%.

With the eventual outcome of the election at variance with some of the Labour Party sponsored pre-election predictions, many international media organisations who took premature positions on the basis of these flawed polls, found themselves blind-spotted, leading to some of the skewed reports about the election.

We object to the mischaracterisation of the presidential election by a section of the international media.

Contrary to the innuendos and aspersions being cast on the election by organisations such as Financial Times, Economist, New York Times, among others, we make bold to say that the 2023 presidential election is the most credible, most free and most fair national election in Nigeria since 1999.

The elections into the Senate and House of Representatives were held the same day with the presidential election. They produced an outcome that showed our party winning majority seats in both chambers. None of the presidential candidates assailed the integrity of these other elections.

Similarly, the presidential election produced the expected outcome.

Anyone who is honest enough and understands the political landscape of Nigeria and the forces at play in electing a president in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria will know that only Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and APC could have won the election.

It must be stressed that only the APC went into the 2023 election intact. Peoples Democratic Party went into the election fragmented into three parts. Five of its governors under the G5 group worked against their partys presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku. The Labour Party candidate, who was Atikus running mate in 2019, abandoned the party. In the North, Rabiu Kwankwaso, also a member of the PDP, went solo in the NNPP.

These divisions within the main opposition played out in our favour. It was a repeat of 2015, when some PDP states supported the new coalition of parties called APC and gave President Buhari a resounding victory.

The presidential candidate of PDP, at his post-election press conference, admitted that the Labour Party swept away his partys votes from its traditional strongholds in the South-East and South-South. He is yet to admit the impact of the rebellion of the G5 governors and Kwankwaso in the large voting state of Kano.

For emphasis, it must be stated that no political party or candidate can win a presidential election in Nigeria without strong support from four of the six geopolitical zones in the country. Only the candidate of APC had such support, as shown in the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Mr Obi could not have been elected president by winning in South-South and South-East and the Bible-belt states of Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Taraba and Nasarawa. He needed the core Northern votes from the North-East and North-West. He needed the South-West. Winning Lagos narrowly was not enough to make Mr Obi a president.

These are political realities that have been ignored in post-election reportage by a number of international media.

We consider it unfair and quite uncharitable to describe the last election as fraudulent, manipulated or flawed. All the noise over results not being uploaded on the INEC server was misplaced. The election in Nigeria is done at about 176,000 polling units. There results are announced, signed by party agents and sent to collation centres at ward, council and state levels. Results are tallied at state level and announced. All parties after the state results are announced, already have an idea, whether they won or lost. The collation in Abuja is a mere ceremony to sum up all the results from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. It was in realisation of this that in 2015, President Jonathan did not wait for the Abuja collation before conceding defeat to President Buhari.

To further support our view on the credibility of the entire electoral process, we recommend three reference materials that can further enrich better understanding of how the election panned out. Number one reference material is a well-articulated Editorial commentary by Premium Times on the just concluded presidential election. Premium Times is an independent and well respected newspaper in Nigeria.

The second material is the well-informed analysis on the electoral outcome by Professor Ebenezer Obadare, a Fellow of Council of Foreign Relations in Washington DC. Professor Obadares article was quite illuminating. The third reference material is an opinion piece published in ThisDay newspaper by Mr Mahmud Jega, a respected Nigerian syndicated columnist and also an adviser to the president-elect. His article provided a clear and dispassionate review of the election and why APC/Asiwaju Tinubu prevailed against other contenders.

Gentlemen of the press, we called this parley, primarily, to appeal for a shift and a change of mindset in the way the international media report issues in Nigeria and Africa generally.

You are the ones on ground here, you understand the political environment and the nuances better than your bosses in Paris, London, Johannesburg, New-York, Beijing, Istanbul and Tehran. You are in a much vantage position to educate your bosses on how to exercise better editorial judgement on matters relating to Nigeria.

Our country is the biggest black nation on earth, with a population that is estimated to be over 200 million. Though it is the biggest economy in Africa, it is a poor country with institutions of state that are still growing.

We seek the cooperation of the global media to project our country as the new frontier of economic growth, best destination for foreign investments because of our large market and guaranteed profitability for investors. As a country, we dont need news reports that stoke political tensions and exacerbate crises that can set off unrest and instability.

We are very mindful of the sophistry of the opposition elements and the Labour Party candidate going on TV and radio stations to cite reports from Bloomberg, Financial Times, Economist, Washington Post, etc. as clear evidence of electoral fraud in Nigeria, as if these reports are the gospel truth, as if those reports were not products of a tunnel vision.

As we move through this transition period to inauguration on 29 May, through the next four years when our party will remain in the saddle of leadership, we want to appeal to you to make your reports more balanced, accurate and factual and also remove the tendency for negative slants in news reporting and analysis.

Dele Alake is special adviser to President-Elect Bola Tinubu.

This is the text of an address at the interactive session with representatives of international media organisations covering Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday, 16 March.

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There is a high-security presence in the Gombe metropolis as voters trek to polling units, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

A NAN correspondent who monitored the exercise at Nassarawo, Yelenguruza, Union Bank Road, Madaki, Sabon Layi, Herwagana and Kumbya-Kumbya areas of Gombe, reported a large turnout of people ready to cast their votes

Troops of the Nigerian military and other security agents had mounted roadblocks to enforce compliance with restrictions of vehicular movement in the Gombe metropolis.

Also, unarmed policemen were observed escorting corps members, ad hoc staff and election materials to various polling units as early as 6.55 am.

Voters have been out as early as 6:40 am in polling units in Yelenguruza, Madaki, Nassarawo and Herwagana.

Some of the voters who spoke to NAN at Yelenguruza said they had to walk to their polling units since there was a restriction on vehicular movement.

Uche Moses, a voter, said he was going to exercise his civic right, having lived in Gombe State for 30 years, it will be unfair not to partake in the electoral process.

Mr Moses said he had to walk about two kilometres to his polling unit in the State Low-cost area of the metropolis.

When I showed them my voter card, they just allowed me to pass; for now the situation is good and I pray it is maintained so we can cast our votes and go back home peacefully.

At Herwagana, Ibrahim Abubakar said the tight security situation encouraged him to come out early and he hoped to cast his vote early and return home.

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Election officials arrived early for the Gubernatorial and State Assembly Election in Kebbi, as voters turned out massively for the exercise.

Accreditations and voting commenced simultaneously at polling units visited by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Birnin Kebbi.

Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) arrived at most polling stations before 8:30 a.m. with the necessary voting materials, with large numbers of voters in the various polling units.

The Presiding Officer at Garkar Magatakarda Polling Unit, Tudun-Wada Ward in Birnin Kebbi, Malam Ibrahim Usman, said they received the election materials early and were at their station by 8 am.

We have massive turnout and as you can see more people are trooping in to cast their votes, Usman said.

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He said there had not been any hitch with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the voters were behaving well.

At Marafa Ward 004, Baiti Liman Poling Unit in Birnin Kebbi, where INEC officials arrived at about 7:30 a.m., accreditation and voting commenced as early as 8 a.m.

Also, accreditation and voting commenced at about 8:15 a.m. at Mai-Alelu Polling Unit in Nasarawa Ward 2, where the governor of the state, Atiku Bagudu is expected to cast his vote.

We started as early as 8:a.m., we are doing accreditation and voting at the same time.

We are hoping to see more voters; even though they are many, especially the women, we hope to see more coming to vote, the INEC official, Malam Masud Aminu, said.

Some voters in Dangaladima 003, Dangaladima Ward and Shehu Zalaka 004, Gorabu and Zoramawa wards expressed pleasure over the early commencement of the election.

At Nasarawa Polling Unit 002 in Nagari College Ward, Birnin Kebbi, election officials commenced accreditation at about 8:30 a.m. amidst an impressive turnout of voters.

NAN

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Low voter turnout was recorded at several polling units in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor, Rivers, on Saturdays Governorship and State Assembly elections.

In Rumuomasi Ward 4 Polling Units 10 and 11 (Shell Junction), elections commenced at 8:30 a.m. but few voters came to cast their votes at 11:06 a.m.

Polling Units 49, 51 and 54 (Rumuobiakani Town Hall) and units 14, 15, 16 and 17 (Woji Ward 6) also experienced a similar situation as voters came out in trickles to vote.

However, the election was peaceful and orderly, with police personnel stationed at each polling station.

In Unit 45 Ward 4 (Oginigba), the Presiding Officer, Confidence Okafor, said that only one person had voted in the unit as of 10:30 a.m.

The Presiding Officer of Unit 37 Ward 8 (Aba Road), Henry Orji, said voting commenced in the unit by 8:30 a.m. but only a few persons had voted.

Some of the voters, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), attributed the apathy to doubts over the transparent conduct of the election.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agent in Unit 51 (Rumuobiakani), Michael Ogonda, partly blamed the low turnout on the late arrival of officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (NEC) officials and materials during the Feb. 25 elections.

In the last elections, INEC officials arrived around 12 noon and in some units, started the accreditation and voting around 2 p.m.

So, people may start coming out in the afternoon based on their experience in the Presidential and National Assembly polls, he said.

Another agent, Stanley Woko of the Accord party, attributed the low turnout to concerns over the safety of voters and the peaceful conduct of the polls in the state.

NAN

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An election observer, Caleb Ijeoma, who was duly accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was detained by an officer of the Nigerian Army on Saturday.

Mr Ijeoma, who is one of the numerous observers working with the Centre for Journalism and Development (CJID), said he was stopped on his way to Ijebu North Local Government Area by a soldier who was simply identified as Olukoya. O

A soldier at Ibadan road restricted my bike man and me from moving. They stopped us, collected the bike key and told us we cant move even after identifying myself.

For more than 30 minutes we were there, we couldnt head to Ijebu North where I was going, he recounted.

Mr Caleb, who was later released and allowed to go on with his lawful duties, said he was unhappy to have been inhibited by the soldier who was very hostile to him and his rider despite a different disposition by other soldiers at the same duty post.

I didnt know why he just chose to waste our time but I am happy I am now at Ijebu North to continue my duties, Mr Caleb later told PREMIUM TIMES on the phone.

Ogun State is one of the states where there have been pockets of violence in the build-up to Saturdays governorship and State House of Assembly elections.

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? Gobierno traslada cerca de 30 toneladas de ayuda humanitaria para damnificados por lluvias en #Ancash.



?? Premier Alberto Otarola inspecciono zonas afectadas y recibio un informe de la situacion en que se encuentra esta region. https://t.co/TZVcoLi9fU
RADNOR, Pa., March 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP (www.ktmc.com) informs investors that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey against Credit Suisse Group AG ("Credit Suisse") (NYSE: CS). The action charges Credit Suisse with violations of the federal securities laws, including omissions and fraudulent misrepresentations relating to the company's business, operations, and prospects. As a result of Credit Suisse's materially misleading statements and omissions to the public, Credit Suisse's investors have suffered significant losses.

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR CREDIT SUISSE LOSSES. YOU CAN ALSO CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK OR COPY AND PASTE IN YOUR BROWSER: https://www.ktmc.com/new-cases/credit-suisse-group-ag?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=cs&mktm=r

CANNOT VIEW THIS VIDEO? PLEASE CLICK HERE

LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE: MAY 8, 2023

CLASS PERIOD: MARCH 10, 2022 THROUGH MARCH 15, 2023

CONTACT AN ATTORNEY TO DISCUSS YOUR RIGHTS:

Jonathan Naji, Esq. at (484) 270-1453 or via email at [email protected]

Kessler Topaz is one of the world's foremost advocates in protecting the public against corporate fraud and other wrongdoing. Our securities fraud litigators are regularly recognized as leaders in the field individually and our firm is both feared and respected among the defense bar and the insurance bar. We are proud to have recovered billions of dollars for our clients and the classes of shareholders we represent.

CREDIT SUISSE'S ALLEGED MISCONDUCT

On March 10, 2022, Credit Suisse filed with the SEC its 2021 annual report on a Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2021. The 2021 annual report failed to identify any material weaknesses with Credit Suisse's internal controls.

On December 1, 2022, Credit Suisse's Chairman, Axel P. Lehmann ("Lehmann") stated in an interview with Financial Times that customer outflows had not only "completely flattened out," but had, in fact, "partially reversed." The following day, in an interview with Bloomberg Television, Lehmann reiterated his previous statements, reassuring investors that as of November 11, 2022, customer outflows had "basically stopped." Following Lehmann's statements, Credit Suisse's American Depository Share ("ADS") price rose $0.29 per ADS, or 9.36%, to close at $3.38 per ADS on December 2, 2022.

Then on February 9, 2023, Credit Suisse issued a press release announcing its 2022 financial results. The press release revealed that, contrary to Lehmann's prior statements, large customer outflows had continued through year-end 2022. Specifically, the press release reported customer outflows of 110.5 billion Swiss francs in the final three months of 2022, a figure which far exceeded market expectations. Following this news, Credit Suisse's ADS price fell $0.56 per ADS, or 15.64%, to close at $3.02 per ADS on February 9, 2023.

On February 21, 2023, Reuters reported that the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority was reviewing Lehmann's previous comments regarding customer outflows. Following this news, Credit Suisse's ADS price fell another $0.10 per ADS, or 3.31%, to close at $2.92 per ADS on February 21, 2023.

Then on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, Credit Suisse issued its annual 2022 report and revealed that it had identified "certain material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting" for the years 2021 and 2022. Additionally, on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, the chairman of Credit Suisse's largest shareholder, Saudi National Bank, which holds 9.88% of Credit Suisse, announced that it won't provide further financial support to Credit Suisse and that it would not buy more shares on regulatory grounds.

Following this news, the price of Credit Suisse ADSs fell 13.94% to close at $2.16 per ADS on March 15, 2023.

WHAT CAN I DO?

Credit Suisse investors may, no later than May 8, 2023, move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff for the class, through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP encourages Credit Suisse investors who have suffered significant losses to contact the firm directly to acquire more information. The class action complaint against Credit Suisse, captioned Patrick Calhoun v. Credit Suisse Group AG, et al and docketed under 23-cv-01297, is filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey before the Honorable Karen McGlashan Williams.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE CASE

WHO CAN BE A LEAD PLAINTIFF?

A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff is usually the investor or small group of investors who have the largest financial interest and who are also adequate and typical of the proposed class of investors. The lead plaintiff selects counsel to represent the lead plaintiff and the class and these attorneys, if approved by the court, are lead or class counsel. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff.

ABOUT KESSLER TOPAZ MELTZER & CHECK, LLP

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country and around the world. The firm has developed a global reputation for excellence and has recovered billions of dollars for victims of fraud and other corporate misconduct. All of our work is driven by a common goal: to protect investors, consumers, employees and others from fraud, abuse, misconduct and negligence by businesses and fiduciaries. The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visit www.ktmc.com.

CONTACT:

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP

Jonathan Naji, Esq.

280 King of Prussia Road

Radnor, PA 19087

(484) 270-1453

[email protected]

SOURCE Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP
We are coming together to celebrate Nowruz, the 3,000-year-old Iranian New Year tradition for people of all faiths," said Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada. "Part of the Iranian New Year legacy is that we give gifts to others, particularly people in need."

Masada, who is an American Iranian, will be celebrating the Persian New Year in Washington, D.C. on Monday, as one of the dignitaries invited to the White House by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and President Joe Biden for a special Nowruz observation. "I'm so honored to be invited," Masada said, noting that America has by far the largest concentration of Iranians of any country outside of Iran.

"In the spirit of American Iranians and the legacy of Nowruz, all the proceeds from Monday night's show and livestreaming will go directly to the Midnight Mission to fund their work helping homeless people rebuild their hope and their lives, which the Mission has been doing for more than a century. We've put together a hilarious show with comedians that will spark laughter and help raise funds for the Midnight Mission, which has helped homeless people rebuild their hope and their lives for more than a century," Masada said.

Laugh Factory has for more than four decades supported many worthy charitable organizations, and has received many honors for community service, including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the ACLU Freedom of Speech Award, the NAACP Award for Philanthropy, several Presidential Awards, the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services humanitarian award and many other honors. In 2022, Masada received the Los Angeles Press Club's Bill Rosendahl Award for Public Service for his humanitarian efforts, such as creating the highly successful Comedy Camp. For four decades, Comedy Camp has helped underserved children (such as Tiffany Haddish) learn to build their self-confidence through comedy.

The Laugh Factory  8001 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90046  www.laughfactory.com

Contact: Greg Waskul at (818) 926-0079 or [email protected]

SOURCE Laugh Factory
NEW YORK, March 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The pencil sharpeners market size is estimated to grow by USD 227.73 million from 2021 to 2026. However, the growth momentum will decelerate at a CAGR of 5.7% according to Technavio. The growth of the market is driven by factors such as the growth of the global education sector, product innovation by vendors, and growing demand for sustainable consumer stationery products. The number of recognized educational institutions and student enrollments in academic institutions has increased in the last few years. Governments in countries such as India, China, and the US are investing in infrastructural development in the education sector to increase the number of educational institutions. The steady rise in the number of educational institutions has increased the demand for stationery products, such as pencil sharpeners. All these factors are driving the growth of the global pencil sharpeners market. To understand more about the pencil sharpeners market, request a sample report

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Pencil Sharpeners Market

Pencil Sharpeners Market Insights -

Vendors : 15+, including ACCO Brands Corp., Acme United Corp., Baumgartens, Deli Group Co. Ltd, Evergreen Art Supply, Faber-Castell Aktiengesellschaft, FACTIS S.A., Fun Express LLC, Hindustan Pencils Pvt. Ltd., Maped, Newell Brands Inc., Officemate LLC, SDI Group, Shanghai M and G Stationery Inc., STAEDTLER Mars GmbH and Co. KG, Stanley Black and Decker Inc., among others

: 15+, including ACCO Brands Corp., Acme United Corp., Baumgartens, Deli Group Co. Ltd, Evergreen Art Supply, Faber-Castell Aktiengesellschaft, FACTIS S.A., Fun Express LLC, Hindustan Pencils Pvt. Ltd., Maped, Newell Brands Inc., Officemate LLC, SDI Group, Shanghai M and G Stationery Inc., STAEDTLER Mars GmbH and Co. KG, and Decker Inc., among others Coverage: Parent market analysis; key drivers, major trends, and challenges; customer and vendor landscape; vendor product insights and recent developments; key vendors; and market positioning of vendors

Parent market analysis; key drivers, major trends, and challenges; customer and vendor landscape; vendor product insights and recent developments; key vendors; and market positioning of vendors Segments: Product (Manual sharpeners, Electric sharpeners, Battery sharpeners, and Others) and Geography ( North America , Europe , APAC, South America , and Middle East and Africa )

Pencil Sharpeners Market - Major Challenges

Increasing use of laptops in educational institutions

Emergence of virtual education

Advancements in product offerings

The increasing access to wireless technologies and the convenience offered by mobile devices has increased the use of laptops in the educational sector. The use of laptops has increased the convenience of taking notes, collaborating with other students, and organizing assignments and assessments. Many schools are investing in virtual technologies to allow students to learn at their convenience. This has further increased the adoption of laptops among students, which has reduced the demand for stationery products, such as pencil sharpeners.

Drivers, trends, and challenges have an impact on market dynamics, which can impact businesses. Find more insights in a sample report!

Pencil Sharpeners Market - Regional Analysis

The report analyzes the growth of the market across regions, including North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa. North America will account for 31% of the market growth during the forecast period. The number of schools and student enrollments has increased significantly over recent years in the region. In addition, the region has a highly organized retail channel for stationery supplies. The growing demand for stationery products in the US and Canada has encouraged many vendors to focus on establishing a strong offline and online presence. All these factors are fostering the growth of the pencil sharpeners market in North America.

Global Pencil Sharpeners Market - Vendor Insights

The global pencil sharpeners market is fragmented with the presence of several vendors. Vendors compete on factors such as brand, price, innovation, and quality. They are investing significantly in building the infrastructure suitable for manufacturing pencil sharpeners and emphasizing on brand building and brand equity to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The report analyzes the market's competitive landscape and offers information on several market vendors, including 

ACCO Brands Corp. - The company offers pencil sharpeners under its Swingline brand.

- The company offers pencil sharpeners under its Swingline brand. Baumgartens - The company offers pencil sharpeners such as single-hole pencil sharpeners and two holes metal pencil sharpeners.

- The company offers pencil sharpeners such as single-hole pencil sharpeners and two holes metal pencil sharpeners. Deli Group Co. Ltd - The company offers pencil sharpeners such as Deli E0524 and Deli E0525.

- The company offers pencil sharpeners such as Deli E0524 and Deli E0525. Faber-Castell Aktiengesellschaft - The company offers pencil sharpeners such as Castell 9000 and Grip 2001.

The pencil sharpeners market report provides critical information and factual data, with a qualitative and quantitative study of the market based on market drivers and limitations as well as future prospects.

Why Buy?

Add credibility to strategy

Analyze competitor's offerings

Get a holistic view of the market

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What are the key data covered in this pencil sharpeners market report?

CAGR of the market during the forecast period

Detailed information about factors that will drive the growth of the pencil sharpeners market between 2022 and 2026

Precise estimation of the size of the pencil sharpeners market and its contribution to the parent market

Accurate predictions about upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

Growth of the pencil sharpeners market across North America , Europe , APAC, South America , and Middle East and Africa

, , APAC, , and and A thorough analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information about vendors

Comprehensive analysis of factors that will challenge the growth of pencil sharpeners market vendors

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The writing instruments market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.4% between 2022 and 2027, and size of the market is forecast to increase by USD 9,424.32 million . The market is segmented by application (students, working professionals, and institutions), distribution channel (offline and online), and geography (APAC, Europe , North America , South America , and Middle East and Africa ).

is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.4% between 2022 and 2027, and size of the market is forecast to increase by . The market is segmented by application (students, working professionals, and institutions), distribution channel (offline and online), and geography (APAC, , , , and and ). The school stationery supplies market size is expected to increase by USD 10.8 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 2.11%. The market is segmented by product (paper products, computer and daily use, and writing instruments) and geography (APAC, Europe , North America , South America , and MEA).

Pencil Sharpeners Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Decelerate at a CAGR of 5.7% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 227.73 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 6.39 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution North America at 31% Key countries US, China, Japan, UK, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading Vendors, Market Positioning of Vendors, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks Key companies profiled ACCO Brands Corp., Acme United Corp., Baumgartens, Deli Group Co. Ltd, Evergreen Art Supply, Faber-Castell Aktiengesellschaft, FACTIS S.A., Fun Express LLC, Hindustan Pencils Pvt. Ltd., Maped, Newell Brands Inc., Officemate LLC, SDI Group, Shanghai M and G Stationery Inc., STAEDTLER Mars GmbH and Co. KG, and Stanley Black and Decker Inc. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, market growth inducers and obstacles, fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, and market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Browse through Technavio's Consumer Discretionary Market Reports

Table of contents:

1 Executive Summary

1.1 Market overview

Exhibit 01: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Overview



Exhibit 02: Executive Summary  Data Table on Market Overview



Exhibit 03: Executive Summary  Chart on Global Market Characteristics



Exhibit 04: Executive Summary  Chart on Market by Geography



Exhibit 05: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Product



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 07: Executive Summary  Data Table on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 08: Executive Summary  Chart on Vendor Market Positioning

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 09: Parent market



Exhibit 10: Market Characteristics

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 11: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 12: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2021

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026

Exhibit 13: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

4 Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 18: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026

4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 19: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 20: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 21: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 22: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.7 Market condition

Exhibit 23: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026

5 Market Segmentation by Product

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 24: Chart on Product - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 25: Data Table on Product - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Product

Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Product



Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Product

5.3 Manual sharpeners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 28: Chart on Manual sharpeners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Manual sharpeners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 30: Chart on Manual sharpeners - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Manual sharpeners - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Electric sharpeners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 32: Chart on Electric sharpeners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Electric sharpeners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 34: Chart on Electric sharpeners - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Electric sharpeners - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Battery sharpeners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 36: Chart on Battery sharpeners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Battery sharpeners - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 38: Chart on Battery sharpeners - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Battery sharpeners - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.6 Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 40: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 42: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.7 Market opportunity by Product

Exhibit 44: Market opportunity by Product ($ million)

6 Customer Landscape

6.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 45: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

7 Geographic Landscape

7.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 46: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)

7.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 48: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 49: Data Table on Geographic comparison

7.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 50: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 51: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 52: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 53: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 55: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 56: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 57: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.5 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 58: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 59: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 60: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 61: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 63: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 64: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 65: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 67: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 68: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 69: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.8 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 70: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 71: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 72: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 73: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.9 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 75: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 76: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 77: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.10 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 78: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 79: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 80: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 81: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.11 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 82: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 83: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 84: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 85: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.12 Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 86: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 87: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 88: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 89: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 90: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.2 Market challenges

8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 91: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026

8.4 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

9.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 92: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

9.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 93: Overview on factors of disruption

9.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 94: Impact of key risks on business

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 95: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 96: Matrix on vendor position and classification

10.3 ACCO Brands Corp.

Exhibit 97: ACCO Brands Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 98: ACCO Brands Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 99: ACCO Brands Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 100: ACCO Brands Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 101: ACCO Brands Corp. - Segment focus

10.4 Baumgartens

Exhibit 102: Baumgartens - Overview



Exhibit 103: Baumgartens - Product / Service



Exhibit 104: Baumgartens - Key offerings

10.5 Deli Group Co. Ltd

Exhibit 105: Deli Group Co. Ltd - Overview



Exhibit 106: Deli Group Co. Ltd - Product / Service



Exhibit 107: Deli Group Co. Ltd - Key offerings

10.6 Faber-Castell Aktiengesellschaft

Exhibit 108: Faber-Castell Aktiengesellschaft - Overview



Exhibit 109: Faber-Castell Aktiengesellschaft - Product / Service



Exhibit 110: Faber-Castell Aktiengesellschaft - Key offerings

10.7 Fun Express LLC

Exhibit 111: Fun Express LLC - Overview



Exhibit 112: Fun Express LLC - Product / Service



Exhibit 113: Fun Express LLC - Key offerings

10.8 Hindustan Pencils Pvt. Ltd.

Exhibit 114: Hindustan Pencils Pvt. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 115: Hindustan Pencils Pvt. Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 116: Hindustan Pencils Pvt. Ltd. - Key offerings

10.9 Newell Brands Inc.

Exhibit 117: Newell Brands Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 118: Newell Brands Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 119: Newell Brands Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 120: Newell Brands Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 121: Newell Brands Inc. - Segment focus

10.10 Officemate LLC

Exhibit 122: Officemate LLC - Overview



Exhibit 123: Officemate LLC - Product / Service



Exhibit 124: Officemate LLC - Key offerings

10.11 STAEDTLER Mars GmbH and Co. KG

Exhibit 125: STAEDTLER Mars GmbH and Co. KG - Overview



Exhibit 126: STAEDTLER Mars GmbH and Co. KG - Product / Service



Exhibit 127: STAEDTLER Mars GmbH and Co. KG - Key offerings

10.12 Stanley Black and Decker Inc.

and Decker Inc. Exhibit 128: Stanley Black and Decker Inc. - Overview

and Decker Inc. - Overview

Exhibit 129: Stanley Black and Decker Inc. - Business segments

and Decker Inc. - Business segments

Exhibit 130: Stanley Black and Decker Inc. - Key news

and Decker Inc. - Key news

Exhibit 131: Stanley Black and Decker Inc. - Key offerings

and Decker Inc. - Key offerings

Exhibit 132: Stanley Black and Decker Inc. - Segment focus

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 133: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 134: Exclusions checklist

11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 135: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 136: Research methodology



Exhibit 137: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 138: Information sources

11.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 139: List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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SOURCE Technavio
NEW YORK, March 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, continues to investigate potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) resulting from allegations that Charles River may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.

SO WHAT: If you purchased Charles River 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=12403 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 February 22, 2023, Charles River disclosed that it had received a grand jury subpoena for documents relating to a joint United States Department of Justice ("DOJ") and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ("USFWS") investigation into the illegal importation of nonhuman primates from Cambodia for research purposes, which has already led to criminal indictments of two Cambodian officials, as well as a Cambodian non-human primate supplier. The Company stated it would voluntarily suspend shipments of primates from Cambodia, which could impact the Company's ability to source non-human primates for research purposes. In addition, it warned that the investigation could harm its business.

On this news, Charles Rivers' stock price fell as much as 15% during intraday trading on February 22, 2023, harming investors.

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.

Contact Information:

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The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

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New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

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www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
NEW YORK, March 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of securities of Dutch Bros, Inc. (NYSE: BROS) between March 1, 2022 and May 11, 2022, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important May 1, 2023 lead plaintiff deadline.

SO WHAT: If you purchased Dutch Bros securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Dutch Bros class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=12586 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than May 1, 2023. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

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 handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. 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.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made materially false and/or misleading statements, and failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (1) the Company was experiencing increased costs and expenses, including on dairy; (2) as a result, the Company was experiencing increased margin pressure and decreased profitability in the first quarter of 2022; and (3) as a result of the foregoing, defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the Dutch Bros class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=12586 mailto:or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

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SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. The Foreign Ministry of Armenia responded to the statements made by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev on March 18.

ARMENPRESS reports, the statement of the MFA Armenia reads as follows,

There will be no peace treaty - this is a quote from the speech of the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on March 18, 2023.

Aliyev made this statement in the Talish village of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was depopulated as a result of the 44-day war.

In Talish, as well as in other regions depopulated as a result of the 44-day war, Azerbaijan is openly implementing resettlement programs in an attempt to eliminate the Armenian trace from the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh that have passed under its control. At the beginning of the 90s, Shahumyan region, Getashen sub-region, and other settlements with a large Armenian population also suffered a similar fate.

The above-mentioned actions of Azerbaijan are in direct contradiction to point 7 of the trilateral declaration of November 9, 2020, according to which internally displaced persons and refugees return to the Nagorno-Karabakh territory and adjacent regions under the supervision of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

With the policy of illegal resettlement and the practice of terrorizing the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, official Baku is doing everything to make the fulfillment of the above-mentioned provision of the trilateral declaration impossible.

Azerbaijan is doing everything to make peace in the region impossible. The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan adopted statements on October 6, 2022 in Prague and on October 31 in Sochi, according to which Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty based on the UN Charter and the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, and the delimitation process between the two countries should take place exclusively on this basis. Despite this, on March 18, the president of Azerbaijan again announced that the border delimitation should take place under the conditions set by Azerbaijan and has been continuously talking about some kind of historical maps for a long time.

Azerbaijan not only keeps under occupation the sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia illegally seized on May 12 and November 17, 2021, and September 2022, but also introduced the so-called "Western Azerbaijan" discourse and declares practically the entire territory of the Republic of Armenia an Azerbaijani territory.

This is an open expression of aspirations towards practically the entire sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. Azerbaijan also threatens Armenia if the latter does not submit to these aspirations.

Azerbaijan continues the gross violations of the trilateral and quadrilateral declarations adopted in various formats, and in practice there is not a single provision of these declarations that Azerbaijan has not violated, starting with the illegal closure of the Lachin Corridor, and continuing to keep Armenian prisoners, hostages, and other detained persons in illegal detention until today, and ending with obstructing the opening of regional communications with groundless corridor talk.

Moreover, the president of Azerbaijan has violated the commitment he made on February 18, 2023, which is about discussing the issue of the rights and guarantees with the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Just a few weeks after that announcement, Azerbaijan announced that it is planning to discuss the issue of "integration of the Armenians of Karabakh", while the statements made in Talish, the illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the terrorist attack on March 5 prove that Azerbaijan intends to resolve the issue of the assimilation of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh at minimum, and Armenia's alarms about official Baku's preparations to subject the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians to genocide should not be ignored by the international community.

In the discourse of the latest period, Azerbaijan found a new accusation against the Republic of Armenia, accusing it of being mono-ethnic and trying to create the impression that, unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan is a multi-ethnic country. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, 4 national minorities have a mandate in the highest legislative power of the country, while there is nothing like that in Azerbaijan, which considers itself multinational.

The assessment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia is unequivocal. With its aggressive rhetoric and actions, Azerbaijan sees preparations to subject the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to genocide and launch a renewed aggression against Armenia.

In the existing situation, it is necessary to launch the international mechanisms for the prevention of genocides, send an international fact-finding mission to the Lachin Corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as to directly condemn Azerbaijan's aggressive actions and policies. At the same time, the Republic of Armenia expresses its commitment to the peace agenda on the basis of the trilateral statements of November 9, 2020, January 11, 2021, October 31, 2022 and the quadrilateral statement of October 6, 2022".
New Delhi, March 17 : The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Punjab and Haryana High Court order, which directed registration of an FIR and setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) of Punjab Police to probe into the alleged abduction of a dentist by Chandigarh police to stop him from appearing in a court.

Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj submitted before a bench of Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli, how could the high court, while hearing an anticipatory bail application, order an FIR against police officials. He also noted that the high court also ordered for a probe by a SIT of Punjab Police, which is totally without any jurisdiction.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing Mohit Dhawan, argued that this is one of the worst cases of police excesses he has seen. The high court had passed the order on Dhawan's plea.

Bhushan said his client, a Chandigarh-based dentist, had filed a suit for recovering some dues owed to him by a woman from Nairobi for her treatment and as a result, he was implicated in a series of complaints about improper treatment. Bhushan contended that the high court order shows the police filed contradictory affidavits.

The bench sought a response from Dhawan and added that the case needs to be considered at length, while staying the high court order. It also directed Chandigarh police to preserve the records, including CCTV footage, and call details, pertaining to the case. The top court has scheduled the matter for further hearing after five weeks.

During the hearing, Bhushan submitted that three separate complaints were filed against his client and in two of them, he managed to get anticipatory bail but in the third, he was asked to be present before a magistrate. However, on the day of the hearing, a team of Chandigarh crime branch police "abducted" Dhawan, while another team marked their appearance in court, said Bhushan.

Earlier this week, the apex court had agreed to take up the plea of Chandigarh police. According to the Chandigarh administration, a Nairobi national accused Dhawan of cheating her when she came to India during 2017-18 to get dental implants from his clinic.

When Dhawan went to mark his presence before a magistrate's court, the Chandigarh police team allegedly abducted him. However, the police have claimed that he was arrested in connection with another case.

Earlier this month, the high court asked the Punjab DGP to constitute the SIT within a week to probe the matter.
London, March 17 : An British Indian woman, who made more than 500,000 pounds by claiming refunds on items she shoplifted on an "industrial scale", has been convicted of multiple counts of fraud.

Narinder Kaur, 53, from Cleverton in Wiltshire, was convicted of all 26 counts on an indictment which included fraud, possessing and transferring criminal property, and perverting the course of justice, Sky News reported.

Between July 2015 and February 2019, Narinder Kaur, also known as Nina Tiara, travelled all over the UK, defrauding various retailers more than a thousand times, targeting multiple branches of chains, including Boots, Monsoon, House of Fraser and Homesense.

The police found 1,50,000 pounds and many stolen goods from her house after searches.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Narinder Kaur had "very many" bank and credit card accounts and made shoplifting her full-time career.

"Close examination of her accounts confirmed the pattern of purchases and refunds and that the same process seen on the CCTV was being repeated on hundreds of occasions," the CPS was quoted as saying in Sky News.

During the trial, prosecutor Gareth Weetman described her as "an intelligent but highly dishonest and manipulative individual" who had deceived shops, banks, solicitors, and even the courts.

The CPS, along with the police, used financial data, retail records, witness evidence and CCTV which proved Narinder Kaur's pattern of offending.

She was arrested in Swindon while attempting to get a refund, which led to the discovery of 49 shopping bags filled with goods.

Narinder Kaur, whose trial at Gloucester Crown Court lasted four months, will be sentenced at a later date.
Kolkata, March 17 : A major part of the proceeds of the multi-crore scam in recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in different state-run schools in West Bengal was invested in Tollywood film industry, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court here on Friday.

ED Counsel Phiroze Edulji told the court that that amounts as high as Rs 6.50 crore were transferred to a number of Tollywood actors and actresses from two bank accounts held by expelled and arrested youth Trinamool Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh over a period of time.

One such Tollywood actor, Bonny Sengupta aka Anupiryo Sengupta had admitted accepting Rs 40 lakh from Ghosh for purchasing a vehicle and on late Thursday evening, he had already returned that amount to ED.

However, no other actor or actress who has received money from Ghosh has come up with submission on this count. Sources said that the central agency sleuths will summon them for questioning in the coming days.

ED counsel said that despite repeatedly asking for the source of such huge funds, Ghosh had not come forward with any definite answer on this count.

Even the judge of the special court was heard telling the counsel of Ghosh that his client should divulge the sources of unaccounted money in his bank account. "If one earns Rs 5 crore from illegal means and then pays tax on Rs 2 crore, the entire money does not become legal," the judge observed.

Meanwhile, the ED has already freezed 10 bank accounts of Ghosh and 15 bank accounts of another expelled and arrested youth Trinamool leader Santanu Bandopadhyay, from where transactions of several crores of rupees were detected by ED sleuths.

After hearing arguments from both ends, the special court ultimately extended the judicial custody of Ghosh till March 30.

--IANS src/vd

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New Delhi, March 17 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday said that they have filed two charge sheets against a total of 68 Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders, cadres and members in two separate cases in Kochi (Kerala) and Chennai (Tamil Nadu).

The NIA filed the first charge sheet against the PFI members in Jaipur on March 13 and the second in Hyderabad on March 16.

The charge sheets filed on Friday in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the two states where PFI is the most active, relate to separate criminal conspiracies hatched by the PFI to create a wedge between people of different communities through radicalisation of impressionable Muslim youth, providing them with training in handling of weapons, and raising funds for carrying out acts of terror and violence with the ultimate objective of establishing an Islamic Rule in India by 2047.

An official said that Kerala PFI case was registered in September 2022 by the NIA to probe the criminal conspiracy hatched by the PFI and its leaders and cadres to create a wedge and between people of different communities through radicalisation of impressionable Muslim youth, training them in handling of weapons and raising funds for carrying out acts of terror and violence with the ultimate objective of establishing an Islamic Rule in India by 2047.

In addition to the above mentioned criminal conspiracy, the NIA, in its Kerala charge sheet, also included the connected case of the brutal killing of a Palakkad resident, Sreenivasan, who was hacked to death by armed PFI cadres.

The NIA investigations had shown some of the accused in the PFI criminal conspiracy case (September 2022) to have been involved in the Sreenivasan killing too.

The accused in the two charge sheets filed on Friday were charged under various sections of IPC, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Arms Act.

In the Kerala case, registered in September 2022, the charge sheet has been filed in the Special Court in Ernakulam, against the PFI as well as an organisation and its 58 leaders.

The NIA had arrested 16 of the accused after taking over the case in 2022, while the others were arrested earlier by Kerala Police.

The Kerala charge sheet has been filed after searches were conducted by the NIA at more than 100 locations across the state. The NIA also attached 17 properties as they were identified as 'proceeds of terrorism' and frozen 18 bank accounts of the accused during the course of its investigations.

Investigations in the case had revealed that the accused had been conspiring to drive a wedge between different communities and groups living in India, spread the concept of violent extremism and Jihad in India with the objective of dismembering the country and taking it over by establishing Islamic Rule in India by 2047. To achieve these objectives, PFI had established various wings and units, such as 'Reporters Wing', 'Physical and Arms Training Wing' and 'Service Teams'.

The NIA investigations also revealed that PFI was using its various campuses, facilities and infrastructure to impart arms training to selected cadres in the guise of Physical Education, Yoga Training etc. They also established a 'Reporters Wing' and 'Service Teams or Hit Teams' to eliminate their 'targets'. Whenever required, PFI pressed into service its loyal and highly trained cadres of their 'Service Teams', as 'executioners' of the orders pronounced by their parallel courts, called 'Dar-ul-Qaza'.

In a separate case registered and investigated by NIA Branch Office in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, NIA also filed a charge sheet against 10 accused. This case was also registered in September, 2022 to probe the criminal conspiracy, hatched by the PFI and its leaders to divide people based on religious affiliations through radicalisation and weapons-training of impressionable Muslim youth to launch an armed struggle against the Government of India with the objective of establishing Islamic Rule in India by 2047.

The charge sheet, filed before the NIA Special Court Chennai in the Tamil Nadu case, named 10 accused, including Khalid Mohammed, the State Vice President of PFI.

This case was also registered in September 2022, when nine of the accused were arrested by the NIA.

The NIA investigations in the case had shown that the accused had conducted radicalisation programmes to motivate, instigate and recruit gullible Muslim youths, who were then provided weapons training in training camps. PFI cadres used to carry out instructions of PFI office-bearers and leaders to conduct recce and attack adversaries and commit unlawful and violent activities.
Hyderabad, March 17 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J.P. Nadda and other central leaders on Friday congratulated the party's Telangana leadership over the victory of BJP-backed candidate in the Legislative Council election.

Shah termed the victory of A.V.N. Reddy from Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad teachers' constituency as historic.

He congratulated Reddy, BJP state president Bandi Sanjay and the entire state unit of the party.

"This victory shows that Telangana people are fed up with corruption and want a pro-poor, transparent govt under PM Modi's leadership," tweeted Shah.

Responding to the tweet, Sanjay said that the collective movement of people belonging to various sections against the corrupt government of the KCR family is reaching its peak under the leadership of the BJP.

He claimed that the election result is proof that the entire people of Telangana are waiting for a double-engine government.

He exuded confidence that with the same spirit, the party will achieve final victory with the help and guidance of the Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Nadda also took to Twitter to congratulate Reddy, Bandi Sanjay and the party's state unit for 'historic victory'. The BJP president wrote that the people have discarded the BRS once more and have embraced the BJP's vision under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

BJP national general secretary B. L. Santosh also congratulated AVN Reddy for "well deserved win".

"It's another mandate against anti anti-poor, anti development, corrupt, dynast BRS party and their arrogant leadership," he said.

Sanjay in his reply to the tweet stated that this election proved strong anti-incumbency against the dictatorial BRS, especially among employees and the 'educated.' Another central leader of BJP and incharge for Telangana, Tarun Chug also described the victory of the BJP candidate from the Mahbubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad teachers' constituency of the Telangana Legislative Council as historic. He congratulated all Telangana BJP workers along with A.V.N .Reddy and Bandi Sanjay.

Reddy had contested as the candidate of the BJP affiliated teachers' union.

He was declared elected Friday after 21 rounds of counting, defeating his nearest rival G. Chennakesava Reddy of PRTU.

After the victory, Reddy went to the BJP office and called on Bandi Sanjay, who congratulated him.

Meanwhile, the BRS ridiculed Sanjay for taking credit of the win just for extension of his term. BRS leader Krishank Manne clarified that BJP did not contest the election. He said the BJP neither fielded any candidate nor supported anyone.
New Delhi, March 17 : The Supreme Court on Friday declined to stay an anti-conversion law passed by Himachal Pradesh and also extended the time to three weeks for the states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, among others, to file their response in connection with a batch of petitions challenging the validity of anti- conversion laws passed by various state governments.

Senior advocate C.U. Singh, representing a petitioner, submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud that Himachal Pradesh has re-enacted the same provision that was earlier struck down by the Himachal Pradesh High Court and sought stay on the law. The bench said that it is a matter of merit and "we can't just stay a statute like that".

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted that the court had last time directed the state governments to file a reply, but none of them so far filed their response in the matter.

Singh contended that Rajasthan has filed a reply and pointed out there are nine separate petitions in the matter. The bench said each state can file one common response for other petitions and extended the time for filing counter affidavits by three weeks.

During the hearing, Singh cited processions being taken in Maharashtra against love jihad etc to pressurise the people. Mehta submitted that this is not correct.

After hearing submissions, the bench allowed the petitioners to file a rejoinder two weeks after.

At the end of the hearing, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing a petitioner, submitted before the bench that there are questions of law involved in the matter and also asked the court to look into the case of a missionary hospital, which has been "rendered useless due to charges to unlawful conversion".

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, along with others have challenged validity of laws passed by Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and others to check religious conversions specially for marriage.
New Delhi, March 17 : RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday batted for communal harmony, saying that India would deliver to the world the message that "there is one God but different paths to attain Him".

He further underlined the Vedas' acknowledgement of various paths undertaken by people to realise spiritual truth and asserted that the world needs this understanding at this time of conflicts.

In his remarks after releasing the Hindi and Urdu translations of "Samveda" here, he said: "One should not fight over different means and this is the message which is relevant for all and is something that India has to offer to others." Bhagwat quoted various parables from to ancient sacred texts to stress that the same truth can be perceived differently by different people.

Citing a story, he said various persons can approach the top of a mountain using different paths. While they may believe that others have taken the wrong way, the one on the top can see that everybody is climbing towards the same goal, he said.

The Urdu translation of the third of the Vedas has been done by film writer and director Iqbal Durrani, who has been associated with various big budget Hindi movies.
New Delhi, March 18 : He says playing the drums requires all four limbs to work together in synchronicity, creating a unique voice that is specific to the individual. That when one is on the drums, it is all about surrendering control and becoming a physical vehicle for the instrument to play through the person.

Adding that one develops a relationship with the drums, and "if you have a good enough connection, they will treat you well, but if not, they may not talk to you", Ranit Barot, one of India's best-known percussionists says, "When every day I look at my drums before playing them, it encourages me to play more. You believe that each drum has a unique sonic marker that you absorb into your brain, and that you spend your whole life chasing the sound you hear in your mind, which is why you keep playing.

"Overall, it seems like I have a deep respect and reverence for the drums and the art of drumming. Playing the drums is not just about technique, but also about developing a relationship and connection with the instrument. I did not necessarily find the drums, but rather they found me." Festival Curator of the one-day 'Mahindra Percussion Festival' held in Bangalore on March 18, Barot, who guitar legend John McLaughlin calls as "one of the leading edges in drumming", feels it (the festival) has the potential to showcase the diverse range of drumming and musicianship in India and beyond, including folk, tribal, and contemporary styles. "By highlighting these traditions, the festival can shed a spotlight on indigenous cultures from Latin America and even Native American Indian cultures." Talking about bringing together Western and Indian sensibilities to his work, he opines that as a musician one may feel they compete with each other at times. However, ultimately, these cultural differences become superficial, and the music transcends all of them.

Stressing that after reaching a point where all the cultural differences disappear, one is in a place that has no nationality, no color, and no face, he says, "It is a place where everyone is resonating at the same frequency, and it's just bouncing ideas off to each other. It's amazing how music can bring people from different parts of the world together, regardless of their background or culture. It's a tool that helps us transcend our human limitations and connect with each other on a deeper level. So, in the end, music trumps all music, and it's something that we can all enjoy and appreciate regardless of our differences." Optimistic about the contemporary independent music scene in the country, the musician who has worked extensively in the film industry believes it to the music industry what independent films are to the movie industry. "OTT platforms are getting a lot of good content, just as indie musicians are talking about real-life stories that resonate with audiences, particularly younger listeners.

There are many indie artists out there, and I've seen my daughter perform in front of crowds of 8,000 to 12,000 people, which is a testament to the growing attraction of original music that's not driven by glamor or flash. I've been playing drums for over 45 years, but I know that it's not just me that's drawing such big crowds." Also, a film score music composer and a longtime associate of A.R. Rahman, the musician, who is legendary dancer Sitara Devi's son asserts he never felt any pressure from her to pursue a career in music, in fact, she wanted him to become a doctor. "My mother's attitude, desire, and relentless nature to be the best influenced me the most. Her name didn't get me the job; it was my merit that got me where I am today. I attribute my success and my hard work to my mother's influence." Working with John McLaughlin was a life-changing experience for Barot as it refined him as a musician and gave him immense confidence. Adding that it taught him how to approach the drum set in ensemble playing and how to write for Indian musicians, he says, "Indian music is ragga-driven, and when you combine it with the Western harmony, it takes a lot of knowledge to make the two worlds meet seamlessly. John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension gave me the best education I could get in this regard. Gary Husband and Etienne Mbappe, the other two members of the band, also informed me equally about all aspects of being in a rhythm section and soloing." "It was a complete experience that taught me how to be complete without having to play too much or have any excess baggage. Everything I am today would not have happened if I had not been part of that band," he concludes.

(Sukant Deepak can be reached at sukant.d@ians.in)
New Delhi, March 18 : A Brazilian national was arrested by the Customs officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) for allegedly attempting to smuggle cocaine tablets worth Rs 60,16,000 by hiding it in his body, officials said on Saturday.

A senior Customs official said that the accused was held on the basis of specific information.

"The Brazil national departed from Sao Paulo Airport (Brazil) for Dubai and finally arrived at the IGI Airport, New Delhi on March 11 from Dubai.

He was diverted at green channel by the Customs officials for the X-ray of his baggage. On his medical examination, certain material was found to be secreted inside his body," the official said.

The official said that medical procedure yielded recovery of a total of 85 oval shaped capsules containing a total of 752 grams of white powdery substance, suspected to be narcotics. When this material was subjected to diagnostic test, prima facie it appeared to contain commercial quantities of cocaine.

"In view of the above, it was clear that the accused had violated provisions of section 8 of the NDPS Act, and had committed an offence punishable under Section 21, Section 23 and Section 29 of NDPS Act 1985. Accordingly, he was placed under arrest under section 43(b) of NDPS Act, on March 14," the official said.

The official said that white powdery substance suspected to be cocaine was seized along with concealing material under section 43(a) of NDPS Act.

Further investigation in the matter is on.
Does the country have to compensate for a case against those socially weak? Sexual favors and harassment by the high class society, weak females of the society send them a warning. So-yeon is a college student who sues the government for not being able to protect the socially weak from sexual fa

Does the country have to compensate for a case against those socially weak? Sexual favors and harassment by the high class society, weak females of the society send them a warning. So-yeon is a college student who sues the government for not being able to protect the socially weak from sexual favors. She goes on national television to talk about this case. Hae-yeong is a broadc...
US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he considers the decision of the pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague to issue a warrant for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin justified. But the United States does not recognize the decision of this court, he added. Biden was talking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before flying to Delaware. His words are quoted by the White House press corps, Tass informs.

March 18, 2023, 10:13 Biden calls ICC warrant against Putin justified

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 18 , ARTSAKHPRESS: When asked about the ICC's decision on Putin, Biden said, "Well, I think it's justified. But the question is, it's not recognized internationally by us, either. But I think it makes a very strong point."

When asked to comment on the coming meeting in Moscow between Russian leader and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week Biden said: "Well, we'll see when that meeting takes place."
Washington, March 18 : A delegation from the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Chairman Michael McCaul, is set to visit South Korea early next month, diplomatic sources said Saturday.

During their visit scheduled for April 5-6, the nine lawmakers plan to meet with President Yoon Suk Yeol, National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo and Foreign Minister Park Jin to discuss ways to develop the South Korea - US alliance and strengthen the joint response to North Korea's escalating threats, according to the sources.

The visit comes ahead of Yoon's state visit to Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden, slated for later that month, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The Seoul government is trying to arrange Yoon's address to a joint session of the US Congress during the trip, marking the 70th anniversary of the military alliance between the two countries.

The bipartisan delegation, including Reps. French Hill, Young Kim and Ami Bera, is also likely to travel to Taiwan and Japan, amid mounting tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade, Taiwan and other issues, the sources said.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency in New York on March 17, 2023.(Yonhap/IANS) Image Source: IANS News

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield talks with a Yonhap News Agency reporter in New York on March 17, 2023.(Yonhap/IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New York, March 18 : North Korean leader Kim Jong-un should be held accountable for North Korea's gross human rights violations as the leader of the country, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations has said after an informal session on the matter in the Security Council.

"Kim Jong-un is the leader of North Korea. So as the leader, the buck stops at the top," Linda Thomas-Greenfield stressed during an exclusive interview with Yonhap News Agency on Friday (local time) at the U.N. headquarters after co-hosting the panel's Arria-formula meeting on the human rights situation in the reclusive nation.

She said that the U.S. was "very pleased" to hear a report from Elizabeth Salmon, the U.N. special rapporteur for North Korea's human rights, on the situation "on the ground." "We think that there are conditions and reports that she has provided that would justify holding people accountable, and we look forward to working in that direction," the envoy said.

At the meeting, Salmon urged the international community to step up efforts to address the problem through the International Criminal Court (ICC) or other means.

On specific measures to prosecute the human rights violators, Thomas-Greenfield said: "There are tools and mechanisms within the international system for doing that," apparently referring to the ICC.

"I won't preview what might or could be done in terms of the different tools that we have available, but they are available for our use," she added.

The ambassador voiced hope for more proactive discussions on the North Korean human rights issue, especially in the case that South Korea becomes a non-permanent member of the council.

"It is our hope that we will continue to engage actively and proactively on issues related to the DPRK," she said. "But I think the presence of South Korea, should they get a non-elected position, will help us make that case." DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Asked about Seoul's planned bid for non-permanent membership of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), the ambassador was guarded, only saying that: "If South Korea gets elected, we can expect that the DPRK will be constantly on our agenda." Scepticism has grown recently about the UNSC's role in checking the North's brinkmanship.

It held 10 rounds of meetings last year for discussions in response to the Kim regime's ballistic missile launches. But it failed to produce a formal document amid opposition from China and Russia, two of the veto power-wielding permanent members of the council.

Earlier this week, the North's foreign ministry slammed the UNSC meeting as a scheme to "bring down" the country's regime and warned that it will take the "toughest counteraction" against the "most vicious hostile plots of the U.S."
San Francisco, March 18 : Google-owned YouTube has reinstated the account of former US President Donald Trump that was banned after the January 2021 Capitol Hill Riot.

The move comes as the former president gears up for his 2024 presidential run.

"The Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content. We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election," YouTube said in a tweet.

Image Source: IANS News

"This channel will continue to be subject to our policies, just like any other channel on YouTube," the company added.

The reinstated Trump account has 2.64 million subscribers and over four thousand videos.

In 2020, Trump's US presidential campaign spent more than $10 million on digital ads on YouTube.

2/ This channel will continue to be subject to our policies, just like any other channel on YouTube.  YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) March 17, 2023

In November last year, Elon Musk reinstated Trump's Twitter account but he is yet to use it.

Trump now uses Truth Social, his own social media app.

-- Syndicated from IANS
Indian Wells : , March 18 (IANS) Reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina advanced to her first WTA 1000 final after ending No.1 Iga Swiatek's title defense at the Indian Wells Masters, here.

The World No.10 notched her second win over Swiatek this season, winning 6-2, 6-2 in Friday night's semifinals.

Having defeated Swiatek in the fourth round of the Australian Open in January, Rybakina is now the second woman ever to defeat a reigning World No.1 at the Australian Open and Indian Wells in the same year after Lindsay Davenport in 2000. She is also the first player to win multiple matches over a reigning No.1 since 2019.

"With Iga, she's tough, really tough opponent, but when I play this good and everything goes in -- because today some moments I played, I would say, on my highest level -- these are moments where you can feel, okay, I can beat anyone if I always play like this, " Rybakina said.

"But it's the goal, you never feel amazing and perfect every match. I think today was just really good for me," she added.

Rybakina will face World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka for the title on Sunday in a rematch of the electric Australian Open final in January. There, Sabalenka edged Rybakina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to win her first major title. Sabalenka leads the head-to-head 4-0 but all their matches have gone the full three sets.

Serving at 61% first serves in, Rybakina won 82% of her first serve points (28/34) and was a perfect 5 for 5 on break points. She struck 18 winners to just 12 unforced errors while holding Swiatek to just 9 winners and 17 unforced errors.

After the match, Swiatek revealed she had been managing a rib issue during the tournament. She will remain in California to get additional tests. For now, she is still planning to play the Miami Open, which begins on Tuesday.

"Honestly, I haven't played with a lot of injuries. It's a new situation for me, for sure. Last time I played with an injury, like the only tournament I can remember is like Roland Garros 2019. So I was pretty young," Swiatek said.

"Now it's a totally different level. So I feel like going on that matches you have to be 100% fit," she added.
Mumbai, March 18 : In an unexpected move, the Maharashtra government has dropped All India Kisan Sabha General Secretary Dr. Ajit Nawale from a committee constituted to oversee the implementation of the farmers' demands, officials said here on Saturday.

Soon after the government accepted many of the demands of the peasants -- currently on halt in Vasind, Thane en route their 'long march' -- a panel was formed for the purpose of implementing the same.

From the AIKS side, the names forwarded were AIKS President Dr. Ashok Dhavale, Dr. Nawale, CPI(M) MLA Vinod Nikole and ex-legislator Jiva Pandu Gavit.

The shocking discovery was made when the farmers' leaders went to check the minutes of the meeting with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and others on Friday.

The AIKS leaders even asked the secretaries why Dr. Nawale's name was missing from the panel, but did not get any clear reply.

The AIKS leaders have pointed fingers at Fadnavis, claiming he is opposed to Dr. Nawale's inclusion in the panel owing to the latter's aggressive stance.

"This is not the first time, even after the previous agitation, Fadnavis had attempted to divide the farmers and then excluded me from the delegation meetings with the government. This is conveying a wrong impression to the farmers," Dr. Nawale said.

However, Dr Nawale said that this time there are two powerful leaders -- Gavit and CPI(M) MLA Vinod Nikole who are capable of taking on the government and ensuring that the farmers are not let down Party leaders claim that Fadnavis -- then the CM -- was reportedly irked after Dr. Nawale deftly resisted efforts to drive a wedge among the farmers after their strike in June 2017.

Meanwhile, the farmers' leaders have said that the state government's orders on the implementation part have been received and a decision whether to continue or end the 'long march' will be taken later in the day.
New Delhi, March 18 : Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have signed New Zealand's Michael Bracewell as a replacement for England batter Will Jacks for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.

Jacks was signed by RCB for INR 3.2 crore at the player auction but he sustained a muscle injury while fielding in England's second ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur. After scans and consultation with a specialist, he was forced to pull out of the IPL.

His replacement, Bracewell, has played 16 T20Is, scored 113 runs and picked up 21 wickets for New Zealand.

The 32-year old Bracewell, who has never previously played in the IPL, will join RCB at his base price of INR 1 Crore.

Royal Challengers play their first game of the IPL 2023 against Mumbai Indians on April 2. It will be their first fixture at their home ground, Bangalore's M Chinnaswamy Stadium, since May 2019.

Latest updates on IPL 2023
San Francisco, March 18 : IT major Wipro has laid off at least 120 employees in the state of Florida, the US, due to a "realignment of business needs".

The company detailed the layoffs in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice filed with the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, reports Channel Futures.

The job cuts by Wipro are at only one location in Tampa.

"More than 100 of the impacted employees are processing agents. The rest are team leaders and a team manager," the report mentioned.

In a statement, Wipro said this is an isolated incident.

"Wipro remains deeply committed to the region. And all other Wipro employees serving clients in the Tampa area remain unaffected," the company told the publication.

The layoffs, which are permanent, will start in May, according to the report.

The Indian IT major announced the opening of its Americas headquarters in East Brunswick, New Jersey, earlier this month.

Wipro has about 20,500 employees located across the United States, Canada and LATAM (Mexico and Brazil).

In India, Wipro in January laid off more than 400 fresher employees for poor performance in internal assessment tests.

At a time when the job market is hit by rising layoffs, Wipro has also written to fresh recruits who have been offered Rs 6.5 lakh per annum, asking if they would be able to work for Rs 3.5 lakh per annum.
Mumbai, March 18 : A day after his purported statements on seat sharing ignited a row, the state Bharatiya Janata Party President Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Saturday clarified that along with its ruling ally, Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the target would be to bag at least 200 seats out of 288 in the next Assembly elections.

The statement came after Bawankule's remarks -- that the BJP would contest 240 seats and give the remaining 48 seats to Shiv Sena, with no mention of the independents -- ignited a row with the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi attacking him.

Even ruling partner Shiv Sena legislator Sanjay Shirsat indirectly slammed Bawankule's utterances saying he must have said it in 'over excitement' and pointedly asked: "Are we stupid to contest only 48 seats?" Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said that Bawankule's statement is part of a design to finish off all smaller parties and even the Shinde Shiv Sena will not be spared.

State Congress President Nana Patole said "what is in (Bawankule's) tummy was on his tongue" and now Shinde will have to watch out.

Going a step further, Nationalist Congress Party state President Jayant Patil said this is an indicator that 'Shinde group' will be wiped out by the BJP.

"The BJP will insist that the Shinde Shiv Sena should contest the next elections on its (Lotus) symbol... That will be the beginning of the end of Shinde Sena," Patil warned darkly.

Bachu Kadu, the leader of the 10-strong independent legislators supporting the Shinde regime, said that "we are only offering support to the government".

"We are only supporting the Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis from outside, and are not part of their alliance. When we join their alliance, then the issue of seat-sharing will crop up and we will see," Kadu declared.

Rattled by the unexpected fallout, Bawankule Saturday hurriedly contended that his statement was 'selectively shown and misinterpreted' to convey a wrong impression.

"There has been no discussion on any seat-sharing formula with the Shiv Sena so far... But we shall target to win over 200 seats in the elections," Bawankule claimed.

Incidentally, on Thursday, the MVA had also faced a similar fracas over an alleged seat-sharing formula for the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies -- 21 for Sena (UBT), 19 for NCP and eight for the Congress -- but all parties had dismissed the figures circulating in the electronic media as 'fake'.
Hyderabad, March 18 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday took custody of four accused currently lodged in a jail here in the Popular Front of India (PFI) case.

The NIA officials took custody of Zahid, Samiuddin, Maaz Hussain and Kaleem from Chanchalguda Central Prison.

The accused were taken to the NIA office at Madhapur for questioning in the case registered against them along with others last year.

More than 20 PFI members were arrested from various parts of Telangana last year on allegations of radicalizing Muslim youth and imparting them training.

A charge sheet against 11 of the accused was filed in December last year. The NIA filed a supplementary charge sheet against five accused on March 16.

The five PFI members have been charged with provoking and radicalising impressionable Muslim youths, recruiting them and imparting weapons training in specifically organised training camps.

The agency invoked criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against Shaik Raheem, Shaik Vahaid Ali, Jafrulla Khan Pathan, Shaik Riyaz Ahmed and Abdul Waris.

It was in August last year that the NIA had taken over from the Telangana Police investigation into the case of alleged criminal conspiracy hatched by the PFI leaders and cadre to recruit and radicalise youth and organise training camps to put them through arms training for carrying acts of terror and violence.

The PFI and its many affiliates were declared an 'unlawful association' by the Union Home Ministry in September 2022 after its involvement in violent activities came to light during investigations carried out by various state police and national agencies.
Patna, March 18 : After facing heat from the Bihar Police, infamous YouTuber Manish Kashyap, who is accused of spreading rumours about attacks on Bihar migrant labourers in Tamil Nadu, surrendered before the Bettiah police on Saturday.

The police, in its official statement confirmed that Kashyap went to Jagdishpur police station in Bettiah district and surrendered.

"Due to joint action of West Champaran district police and Economic Offence Unit (EOU), Manish Kashyap surrendered in Jagdishpur police station," said Upendra Nath Verma, Superintendent of Police (SP) of West Champaran district.

Following his surrender, the enforcement agencies have stopped the property attachment process of Kashyap's house located in the Majholia locality of Bettiah city.

Manish Kashyap along with three others was booked under the charge of making a fabricated video where migrant labourers from Bihar were purportedly seen getting thrashed by local Tamilians. The videos that were uploaded by him and three other accused on social media turned out to be fake. Subsequently, Bihar Police's EOU, which is the investigating agency in this case, registered two FIRs against them.

Following the FIR, Kashyap went absconding and was said to be moving in Delhi and Noida. During this period, he gave interviews to various media organisations as well. He had also challenged Bihar deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

Bihar Police on the other hand, went for the legal process and obtained the warrant from the respective court for the property attachment of Kashyap's house. The Bettiah police initiated the property attachment process and removed doors, windows, rooftop, walls and other valuables in the last two days.

Due to this, Kashyap came under pressure and surrendered in the police station.

So far, the Bihar Police have arrested three offenders -- Rakesh Ranjan Kumar, Manish Kashyap and Aman Kumar, and the fourth one, Youraj Singh is on the run.
The ethnographic song and dance ensemble "Tnjre" has resumed its activites in Stepanakert.

March 18, 2023, 13:46 Ethnographic dance training courses resumed in Stepanakert

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 18 , ARTSAKHPRESS: Mariam Andreasyan, the choreographer of the "Tnjre" ensemble informed "Artsakhpress": "Tnjre" started its activities in 2013, when Sargis Parsamyan from the "Karin" ethnographic ensemble came to Artsakh to teach dances and publicize them.

"One of the group's achievements was the participation in the annual Armenian national-traditional song-dance festival "Gutan 2019".

During the post-war period, "Tnjre" stopped its activities for some time. Now we have started again," the choreographer presented.

Over the years we have also faced some problems, especially in terms of including boys in ethnographic dances.

After the war, the problem was solved. The group has resumed its activities.

Anyone can become a member of the ensemble, and the courses are free.






New Delhi, March 18: The Chinese embassy in Islamabad has asked Pakistan to release overdue payments to the tune of $1.5 billion to Chinese Independent Power Plants (IPPs) working under the mega $64 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The embassy also asked the embattled country to loosen forex restrictions which pose a hurdle in coal imports due to which Chinese power plants in Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh are not working optimally.

Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune says that the urgent messages from China were conveyed to Special Assistant to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Syed Tariq Fatemi to the Planning Commission on March 13, 2023. Fatemi's letter to the planning commission said in a meeting with China's Charge d' Affaires, Pang Chunxue, she conveyed her apprehension of major problems in CPEC power projects.

Pang reportedly told Fatemi that overdue payments to the Chinese power companies are close to $1.5 billion, causing concern among Chinese businesses. Pang also said that currency exchange restrictions levied by the State Bank of Pakistan owing to precarious forex reserves too are hindering coal imports, which will eventually impact power production. The two all-weather friends have at least 16 power projects under the CPEC with another five under consideration. Most of the 16 power projects are thermal, while there are a few solar, wind and hydropower plants as well.

Many problems haunting Chinese power plants are due to policy decisions. Several other problems are due to the financial crisis that Pakistan is facing since last year. And other issues exist due to poor administrative coordination between Pakistan and China.

Chinese power plants cannot import coal due to low forex with Pakistani banks. They cannot also purchase coal from the local market as it has to be cheaper than the imported coal. But the power plants cannot compare the prices due to exchange rate fluctuation and rupee devaluation.

Pang told Fatemi that the power plants were running below capacity because of shortage of coal and because of low production, these are being penalised by the Pakistani authorities.

The worst affected coal-fired power plants are located at Hub in Balochistan, Sahiwal in Punjab and Port Qasim in Karachi.

Separately, the China Power Hub Generation Company (CPHGCL) has urged Pakistan to provide it with increased funds for uninterrupted power supply to the National Grid.

China's plants face severe problems also because of the constantly squabbling Pakistani politicians. A joint committee established by the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to resolve problems faced by Chinese power producers has not met since December last year leading to escalation in She suggested that their concerns could have been discussed in meetings of a joint committee, a forum specifically established by the prime minister to resolve the issues facing the Chinese IPPs.

However, the committee, which was to meet every two weeks, has not had any meeting since the inaugural huddle in December last year.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Kanyakumari: President Droupadi Murmu pays floral tribute to Swami Vivekananda at vivekananda rock memorial in KanyaKumari, on Saturday, March 18, 2023.(Photo:IANS/Twitter) Image Source: IANS News

Chennai, March 18 : President Droupadi Murmu, who is on a six-day visit to Kerala, Lakshadweep and Tamil Nadu, on Saturday reached Kanyakumari.

Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi, Minister Mano Thangaraj, district collector Sridhar and other officials welcomed her at the airport.

The President was accorded a warm welcome at the Vivekananda rock memorial where she will spend time at the meditation hall. She will also pay a visit to the iconic Tiruvallur statute and return to Thiruvananthapuram in a chopper.

Heavy security is in place in Kanyakumari and traffic is diverted in many places of the district near the beach road.
Lahore, March 18 : Hours after PTI Chairman Imran Khan made his way to attend the Toshakhana case hearing in Islamabad on Saturday, Punjab Police finally made their way into his Zaman Park residence and arrested more than 20 party workers, media reported.

The police and PTI supporters recently fought pitched battles outside the former Prime Minister's home in Lahore, wounding several on both sides when the former tried to arrest Khan.

However, a police operation was launched at Imran Khan's residence this morning to clear the area of camps established by the party, Geo News reported.

"Section 144 is imposed, you are kindly advised to disperse," police said in an announcement before barging into Imran Khan's residence.

Television footage showed police entering the house after bulldozing the main gate and taking a number of PTI workers into their custody, Geo News reported.

The law enforcers also claimed that in retaliation to their operation, they faced straight firing and petrol bombs from inside Imran Khan's residence.

A heavy contingent of the police was deployed in the area after an agreement was reached between the administration and the PTI on Friday regarding the search in Zaman Park.

An anti-terror court granted permission to conduct the search inside Imran Khan's residence.

During the search operation, the police recovered material used to produce Molotov cocktails, Geo News reported.

Condemning the police action, PTI chief Imran Khan said the police have led an assault on my house in Zaman Park where Bushra Begum is alone.

"Under what law are they doing this?" he asked.

Khan insisted this was part of the "London Plan" where commitments were made to bring absconder Nawaz Sharif to power as quid pro quo for agreeing to one appointment, Geo News reported.
Kolkata, March 18 : A minister of West Bengal cabinet on Saturday cried foul over the recent termination of service of his younger brother as a non-teaching staff in the Group-C category with a state-run school following an order of the Calcutta High Court.

The list of names of 842 Group C Staff that was published by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) last week had the name of Khokan Mahata (Roll number: 46081616066084) posted at Baita Sri Gopal High School in Jhargram, West Midnapore district, who happens to be the younger brother of West Bengal minister of state micro, small and medium enterprises, Srikanta Mahata.

Following the investigation by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), it was revealed that as per the optical mark recognition (OMT) sheet Khokan Mahata scored "12" in the written examination, which was later increased to "55" in the WBSSC's website and on that ground his service was terminated.

On Saturday, Srikanta Mahata challenged the very score of "12" as recorded in the OMR sheet.

"It is impossible that my brother will score so low. Let the hard copy of this answer be tallied again. I am sure that he has become a victim of error by WBSSC. He had been working with the school for the last five years. The commission showed him as qualified then following which he appeared for the interview and computer test. Now WBSSC is showing him as disqualified after five years. This is double talk," the minister said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.

He also alleged that several innocent youths were victimised because of the error on WBSSC's part. "We will approach the court in the matter," he added.
New Delhi, March 18 : The 38th meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) held on Saturday discussed the preparedness for any earthquake in the city and the ongoing H3N2 Flu situation.

The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Lt. Governor V.K. Saxena.

Vice Chairman of DDMA, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Revenue Minister Kailash Gehlot apart from the Chief Secretary, Special Commissioner (Police), Divisional Commissioner, Secretary (Health), VC, DDA, Commissioner MCD and top representatives of Army, NDMA, NIDM, National Institute of Seismology and all District Magistrates were present in the meeting.

Held in the wake of the disastrous earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the meeting took stock of the preparedness and deliberated upon charting and augmenting the way forward, in case of an earthquake in the city which fell in the 'High Damage Risk Zone IV' on the seismic map of India. The prevalent situation of H3N2 Flu, H1N1 Flu and Covid-19 were also discussed in the meeting.

Stressing that disasters did not give prior information before manifesting themselves, the Lt. Governor emphasised upon the need to be completely prepared to face eventuality, even if it entailed erring on the side of caution. Recounting his experience of the Gujarat earthquake that had caused widespread destruction, Saxena said that Delhi needed to be fully prepared to handle any disaster and preparations to this effect should be put in place from today (Saturday) itself.

The Lt. Governor asked for retrofitting of all schools, hospitals, police stations, other critical government offices and vulnerable buildings especially in the 'Special Area' and old Delhi localities, according to the Earthquake Resilient Building Code. He also asked to identify open spaces across the Capital for rescue operations in the event of an earthquake and also the hospital at the level of every District and Sub Division for emergency response.

Saxena said that works should be started on the same in a time-bound manner.

The Chief Minister stressed upon the need to compile and tabulate all reports of different committees constituted from time to time with regards to mitigation of disasters and thereafter effects and also underlined the need to make government offices like the Delhi Secretariat and Police Headquarters, earthquake-resistant through retrofitting.

Kejriwal underlined that once all reports were collated and compiled along with the actions taken on them so far, the future course of action may be decided.

It was agreed that the Divisional Commissioner, who is also the Nodal Officer and Convenor of DDMA, will undertake this exercise and put it up for consideration and further directions of the DDMA in its next meeting.
New Delhi, March 18 : The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Kochi Municipal Corporation to pay an environmental compensation of Rs 100 crore for the damage to the environment because of its failure to handle solid waste.

The bench comprising Chairperson Justice A.K. Goel, judicial member Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member was hearing a matter in which it had initiated suo-motu (on its own) proceedings on the basis of a media report on an environmental emergency caused due to a fire at a dump site in Kochi.

"Proceedings have been initiated in this matter suo-motu in the light of captioned media report of serious environmental emergency caused due to fire at waste dump site in Kochi as a result of utter failure of the state authorities in performing their inalienable basic duties of providing pollution free environment," the bench said.

"According to media report, Kochi city was chocked on account of fire at waste dump site on March 2, 2023 which led to crisis situation. Warning was issued to the residents to stay indoors and asking the hospitals to prepare emergency admission of patients with respiratory distress to deal with severe air pollution and its worrying public health fallout," the bench said.

"We are conscious that identical issue is being dealt with the Kerala High Court but we make it clear that this order is without prejudice to and subject to the said proceedings. We are also informed that identical issue is pending before South Zone bench of the Tribunal. South Zone Bench may accordingly, take into account this order before proceeding further in any pending matter," the order read.

The bench stated that the green tribunal found failure of the authorities in the Kerala in following solid waste management rules with regard to the site in question which had potential for damage to the public health and for such continued failure.

"The Tribunal levied compensation on polluter pays principle but the authorities neither complied with the norms as is acknowledged even now nor paid the compensation," the bench noted.

Kerala and its authorities have been utter failure and have rampantly violated the statutory solid waste management rules and orders of Supreme Court.

The bench further noted that the state and its authorities have also violated Tribunal orders.

"No accountability for such serious failure has been fixed and no senior person has been held accountable so far. Except for giving future plans, no fixing of accountability is proposed even now which is matter of regret. No prosecution has been launched against the guilty for criminal offences under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and also under relevant provisions of IPC," the bench said.

"Such attitude of State authorities is threat to rule of law. We hope the situation is remedied at the higher level in the State such as the DGP and the Chief Secretary to uphold the Constitution and the mandate of environmental law," it said.

"We award environment compensation under section 15 of the NGT Act against Kochi Municipal Corporation of Rs. 100 crores which may be deposited with the Chief Secretary, Kerala within one month for necessary remediation measures, including dealing with the public health issues of the victims," the bench said, citing neglect of its duties by the corporation.

"Apart from above, we direct the Chief Secretary, Kerala to fix accountability of concerned officers for such gross failures and initiate action under criminal law as well as by way of departmental proceedings, following due process and place the same in public domain within two months," the NGT bench directed.
Seoul, March 18 : Police launched an investigation on Saturday after five of a family was found dead inside their home in Incheon, South Korea.

Police received a call at 10:37 a.m. reporting that people were lying motionless in an apartment in the Michuhol Ward of the city, 27 kilometers west of Seoul, according to the Michuhol Police Station.

The deceased were identified as the parents and their three young children. They were discovered by a relative who visited their home.

Police suspect the father, who was in his 40s, may have taken his own life after killing his wife and children.

The body of the father was found alone in one room, and the other family members in a different room.

The bodies will be sent to the National Forensic Service for autopsies.

Police said they are investigating the incident based on witness statements and will also look into the father's circumstances, including possible debt problems.
Mumbai, March 18 : Veteran actress Zeenat Aman has shared a throwback picture from 1977 saying it is to inspire "evening plans" for Saturday.

Taking to Instagram, Zeenat shared a monochrome picture dressed in a neck plunging sequined dress. In the picture, she can be seen combing her hair.

She shared the picture with the caption: "Some Saturday glam to inspire your evening plans! I've seen this image of myself floating around on the Internet, and thought it would be good to add some context to it.

"The year was 1977, and the cast and crew of Krishna Shah's Shalimar had gathered at the Turf Club in Mumbai for the film's 'mahurat'. It was a packed, high-profile event and everyone was dressed to the nines.

"My glorious silver gown was created by renowned costume designer Mani Rabadi based on a design of my own making. Its plunging neckline and sleek silhouette certainly turned some heads. In fact, Mani literally sewed me into the gown to give it that exquisite fit." Zeenat added: "We had several international actors in attendance that day, including Gina Lollobrigida. She later backed out of the production, amongst swirling rumours that we had locked horns. British actor Rex Harrison wasn't at the event, but he was in the film. One day on set, he told me - 'A beautiful girl like you should get married immediately'. I had a good laugh over that. And for the record, I think that's a terrible reason to get married.

"Shalimar didn't quite dazzle the audience, but it was a thrilling adventure all the same. We shot the film in both English and Hindi, shooting each scene twice over." On the work front, Zeenat Aman is making her OTT debut soon with the web series 'Showstopper'.
Hyderabad, March 18 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday demanded resignation of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for the leakage of question paper of an examination conducted by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC).

A delegation of the party leaders met Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and requested her to intervene in the matter to save the future of lakhs of candidates.

The delegation led by former minister Eatala Rajender complained to the Governor that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government's negligence resulted in the paper leak.

The delegation included BJP national Vice President D.K. Aruna, B. Narsaiah Goud, M. Shashidhar Reddy and other leaders.

They expressed doubts on CCTVs not functioning in the TSPSC office and demanded that TSPSC Chairman and members should resign, failing which the government should dismiss them.

The BJP leaders demanded that the government order a probe by a sitting judge into the leak of question papers.

After meeting the governor, Rajender told reporters that the Chief Minister should resign owning moral responsibility for the question paper leak. He alleged that the Chief Minister is interested only in politics and has no concern for the lives of unemployed youth. "This government is insensitive to the problems of youth," he said.

The BJP leader demanded that the TSPSC immediately re-conduct the four exams and pay Rs 1 lakh each to the candidates to enable them to enable them prepare again for the exams.

Meanwhile, state BJP President Bandi Sanjay alleged that the question paper leak has destroyed the future of 30 lakh unemployed. He wondered why the government was reluctant to order a probe by a sitting judge.

The TSPSC had conducted the examination on March 5 for 833 vacancies of Assistant Engineer, Municipal Assistant Engineer, Technical Officer, and Junior Technical Officer in various engineering departments. A total of 55,000 candidates had written the exam.

However, the Commission suspected leakage of the question paper and lodged a complaint with the police.

On March 13, police arrested nine people including two employees of the TSPSC.

Following the arrest of the accused the Commission cancelled the exam and also postponed other exams scheduled to be held later this month.

Amid doubts that the accused may have leaked question papers of some other exams, the Commission on Friday decided to cancel three other exams including Group I Prelims.

Nearly 2.86 lakh aspirants of Group I posts had appeared in Group-I exam conducted on October 16, 2022.
Chennai, March 18 : Tamil Nadu Rural Development Minister and senior DMK leader, I. Periyaswamy has got relief from a court in a case related to the alleged illegal allotment of Housing Board plots under the Mogappair Eri scheme.

The Additional Special court for trial cases against MPs/ MLAs of Tamil Nadu acquitted Periyaswamy from the case booked against him. He was accused of allotting a high-income group plot to Ganeshan, the Personal Security Officer of then Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, an official said on Saturday.

It was alleged that Periyaswamy misused his powers and issued a high-income plot under the government's discretionary quota.

When the AIADMK -- which had assumed office in 2012 after the DMK government lost in the elections, a case was registered by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) against I. Periyaswamy and Ganeshan.

The Madras High Court had in 2022 refused to discharge the then minister and the PSO of the then Chief Minister.

I. Periyaswamy then approached the Additional Special Court for trial cases against MPs/MLAs to discharge him from the case.

The lawyers of the minister told the special court that the plot was allocated to the former PSO as per the norms, adding Periyaswamy did not have any role to play in it.

The counsels also argued that the property was sold at market price only and the Tamil Nadu Housing Board did not incur any loss in the sale.

Counsels -- Ragunathan and Saravanan, who appeared for I. Periyaswamy, pointed out that "it (the matter) was a pure political vendetta by the previous regime of AIADMK".

After hearing the arguments, Justice G. Jayalal of the Additional Special Court for Trial cases against MPs and MLAs eventually discharged I. Periyaswamy from the case.
Thiruvananthapuram, March 18 : Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal on Saturday said that the Centre has given the nod to the state to go forward to provide financial assistance of Rs 10 crores to disaster-hit Turkey.

He said the clearance came from the office of the Ministry of External Affairs after the state approached it on the issue.

Balagopal had earmarked a sum of Rs 10 crore in his budget for the 2023-24 fiscal which was presented in the Kerala Assembly last month.

He pointed out that Kerala fondly remembers the huge support the state received from every corner of the world when it was stuck with disasters recently.
Kolar : , March 18 (IANS) In a tragic incident, a couple from Andhra Pradesh died while returning home after sending off their daughter to Egypt, in the wee hours on Saturday in Kolar district of Karnataka.

The deceased have been identified as Shafi Ulla (50) and Shama (50), residents of Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh. The incident took place near Lakshmipura crossing near Srinivasapura in Kolar district.

According to police, driver Shafi lost control over the vehicle which swerved off the road on Bengaluru-Madanapalle National Highway. The vehicle fell into a big pit and hit a boulder.

Though airbags had opened, but due to the force they suffered serious injuries in the head and succumbed. As the vehicle fell deep into the gorge, no one noticed it and the incident came to light in the morning.

The couple is survived by three daughters. Two are married and the third daughter Sheefa works in Egypt. She had come to native place on holiday and the couple had gone to see her off to the Bengaluru airport.
Bhubaneswar, March 18 : Alleging 'Officer Raj' is going on in Odisha, opposition BJP and Congress members created a ruckus in the Assembly on Saturday due to which the House witnessed several adjournments throughout the day.

The Opposition members started raising slogans against the government for not taking any action against Koida BDO over his unruly behaviour with an MLA, soon after the House assembled.

CPI-M legislator Laxman Munda raised the issue during Question Hour and rushed to the Well of the House. The BJP and Congress MLAs supported him, and the Assembly could not function.

"Even as the Speaker has ordered an inquiry into the allegation, the BDO is going about saying he has strong connections," said the CPI-M leader. He requested the Speaker to transfer the BDO within 24 hours.

The Speaker had to adjourn the House till 11.30 a.m. amid pandemonium by the Opposition.

When the House reassembled again for Zero Hour, Congress Legislature Party leader Narasingha Mishra said Minister Rita Sahu had met the Chief Secretary to hand over a cheque as a contribution to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund (CMRF), which is against the democratic spirit.

"Ministers are part of the government. But in this government, there is no respect for the ministers. Will the officials go to the government or the government will go to the officials?" he questioned.

Alleging Odisha is being run by bureaucrats, the Congress leader said: "Democracy is being disrespected in broad daylight." Mishra demanded Sahu's apology in the House and wanted the Chief Secretary to express regret in the matter.

Reacting immediately, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Niranjan Pujari defended the ministers by saying that it was a one-off case. He dared the Opposition to show proof on other ministers.

Pujari also said that the Opposition's allegations were aimed at trimming the powers of the ministers.

Following the face-off between Opposition and treasury bench members, the Speaker adjourned the House for 15 minutes.

Later, when the House reassembled, BJP legislators created ruckus while showing a picture of Pujari standing with folded hands in front of a private secretary to the CM.

The Chief Minister was also seen seated in a chair in the picture.

Both the opposition BJP and Congress MLAs again created a noisy scene in the House forcing the Speaker B.K. Arukha to adjourn the proceedings till 4 pm.

The Minister could have handed over the cheque to the CM or she would have invited the Chief Secretary to his chamber for the same, Leader of Opposition Jayanarayan Mishra told reporters outside the House.

Though the transport minister was asked to make a statement in the House over the recent 'drivers' strike', the chief secretary held a meeting with the drivers in the absence of the transport minister, secretary and the commissioner.

Later, Pujari said that he was wishing the Chief Minister with folded hands and not to the private secretary who was standing behind the CM.

When the House met at the post-lunch session at 4 p.m., the Opposition continued their protest demanding transfer of the Koida BDO.

Unable to run the House, the Speaker called an all-party meeting, adjourning the proceedings for 15 minutes.

Later, on the instruction of the Speaker, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister made a statement in the House saying the government took the matter seriously and was examining for taking immediate action. After this statement of the Minister, normalcy returned to the Assembly.
Kolkata, March 18 : Naushad Siddique, the lone All India Secular Front member in the West Bengal Assembly, was on Saturday assaulted while on the dais at the protest venue of the joint forum of state government employees staging a relay fast and a sit-in demonstration to demand pending dearness allowance dues.

Siddique had been on the dais to express solidarity with the agitating employees. As he was addressing the protesters, a stranger wearing a black trouser, a camouflage-pattern shirt and cap and carrying a helmet, suddenly came up to him.

"What have you done for the sake of the minority community?" the stranger asked Siddique after stopping him from speaking. In response, the MLA said he does not intend to do anything only and specifically for the minority. "I want to work for all - majority or minority," he said.

At this, the stranger immediately lost his cool and immediately pushed the legislator heavily. However, those present at the dais immediately intervened and did not give him any chance to assault Siddique further.

Some of the agitators present on the dais in fury tried to attack the stranger, but were stopped by Siddique. "Leave him. This is nothing but a drama and an attempt to malign your movement," Siddique was heard saying.

The assailant was handed over to the police but his identity remains unknown so far.

Just before the attack on him, Siddique said that the state government's excuse of lack of funds for not paying the dearness allowance arrears was baseless. "But lots of money is spent by the government behind fairs and festivals. The state government should stop such wasteful expenditure and pay the legitimate dues of the state government," he said.

Siddique later told newspersons that the stranger was a plant by some vested interests to create confusion at the agitation venue. "But those who are present here are all educated people and hence, the stranger was handed over to police. I hope the police should now probe honestly to track the masterminds behind this incident... the police are supposed to protect this agitation dais as per court order," he said.
Islamabad, March 18 : As PTI chairman Imran Khan and his motorcade on Saturday reached outside the Islamabad Judicial Complex where he was to be indicted in the Toshakhana case, the police alleged that party workers began pelting stones at them, the media reported.

A large number of party workers, who were accompanying the former prime minister, were attempting to escort him to court premises but due to security arrangements, they were not allowed to do so, Dawn reported.

The PTI leader is scheduled to appear before the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zafar Iqbal to attend proceedings on a complaint filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for allegedly concealing details of gifts in his assets declarations.

Imran, who left his Lahore home a little after 8 a.m. and had warned in a video message that he was expecting an attempt to arrest him, had yet to reach the court, though the Islamabad Police tweeted that Imran's convoy was right in front of the Judicial Complex.

"Political workers are requested to clear the way so that Imran Khan can reach the court," the police said on Twitter, Dawn reported.

It also claimed that political activists had "started pelting stones at the police" and "shelling" was also being carried out by them. A police picket was also allegedly set on fire, Dawn reported.

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has restricted live coverage of events outside the Islamabad Judicial Complex, where Imran Khan will be arriving for a court hearing.

According to a statement, Pemra referred to the clashes between PTI workers and law enforcement personnel outside Khan's Zaman Park residence, saying it had "observed with concern" that satellite TV channels were "showing live footages (sic) / images of a violent mob, attacks on police and law enforcing agencies".

The ban comes after pitched battles between PTI supporters and law enforcement personnel spanning two days as the latter tried to execute a court-ordered arrest warrant, Dawn reported.

It said the footage or images were seen on TV "without any editorial oversight during the recent standoff between political party workers and law enforcement agencies in Lahore wherein, the violent mob used petrol bombs, injuring armless policemen and blazing police vehicles".

It added that the live telecast of such footage on different satellite TV channels "created chaos and panic" among viewers and the police.

"Such activism by mob not only jeopardises law and order situation but also makes public properties and lives vulnerable," it cautioned, Dawn reported.
Hyderabad, March 18 : The Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) exam paper leak on Saturday took custody of nine accused for further questioning.

A day after a city court sent the accused to police custody for six days, the SIT officials took them into their custody from Chanchalguda Central Jail.

The accused were brought to government-run Koti Hospital for medical examination and later, two key accused were taken to the TSPSC office for scene reconstruction.

The SIT officials were questioning the accused further to extract more details about the question paper leak.

The focus is on P. Praveen Kumar and A. Rajasekhara Reddy, two employees of the TSPSC. Both were suspended by the Commission after their arrest on March 13.

They had allegedly stolen question papers from a computer in the confidential section of the TSPSC and sold the same to some aspirants for Rs 10 lakh. Those arrested included a police constable who had referred some aspirants to the accused.

The paper leak came to light when TSPSC officials suspected theft of data from the computer and lodged a complaint with the police.

The TSPSC had conducted the examination on March 5 for 833 vacancies of Assistant Engineer, Municipal Assistant Engineer, Technical Officer, and Junior Technical Officer in various engineering departments. A total of 55,000 candidates had written the exam.

On March 13, police arrested nine people, including two employees of the TSPSC.

Following the arrest of the accused, the Commission cancelled the exam and also postponed other exams scheduled to be held later this month.

Amid doubts that the accused may have leaked question papers of some other exams, the Commission on Friday decided to cancel three more exams including Group I Prelims.

Nearly 2.86 lakh aspirants of Group I posts had appeared in Group-I exam conducted on October 16, 2022.

Questioning of accused by SIT assumed significance in view of the allegations that accused Rajasekhara Reddy, a network expert and a contract employee of TSPSC, is active worker of the BJP.

Leaders of ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) suspect that there is a conspiracy behind the paper leak to defame the government and create turmoil among unemployed youth appearing for various exams conducted by TSPSC to fill vacancies in government departments.

State minister K.T. Rama Rao has requested the Director General of Police to investigate the conspiracy angle.
New Delhi, March 18 : The Saket Court has directed Delhi Police to lodge an FIR against the real-estate major Supertech while hearing a complaint of a man whose possession of the flat at the company's project 'The Romano' in Noida sector-118 was due in 2017 which has not been allotted till date.

Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Dahiya directed the police to file a status report about the progress of the investigation on March 21.

According to the complaint submitted in the court through lawyer Rudra Vikram Singh, the complainant booked an apartment in a project of the Supertech on October 13, 2015, wherein he paid Rs 8,95,541 at the time of booking.

It was further alleged that on the inducement of the representatives and Directors of the Supertech, he took a loan from IHFL for funding the project on the assurance that they would pay an interest on the loan amount till the actual possession was given.

The complaint also alleged that the possession of the flat was due in 2017 however, till date neither any flat has been allotted nor the interest is being paid by the alleged company as assured by them at the time of signing of financing agreement.

The complainant's lawyer Singh has argued that the flat was booked on the assumption that the alleged company was having a sanctioned building plan, however, lately it has come to the notice of the victim that certain material facts were concealed as the RERA registration for the project is in the name of some other company.

"Moreover, despite making whole payment in 2015 no work had been started till 2016 and no communication was ever received from their side. Even the interest to the finance company is being paid by the complainant himself," the court noted.

The court said that the perusal of the case file shows that time and again ATRs were filed by the enquiry officer stating that the reply to the notice is not being given by the director of the alleged company.

"Moreover, when in the final ATR, reply was filed, the alleged company has taken the plea that the construction work could not commence due to CIRP proceedings initiated against the company by NCLT, however, the said order was passed in 2021 but the alleged company was supposed to hand over the possession way back in 2017 and the reason for delay seems to be unsatisfactory," the court said.

"Perusal of the case records and averments made by the complainant prima facie shows the commission of a cognizable offence which needs investigation by the police. It should be noted that the accused persons are in a position of influence and seem to have cheated an innocent buyer who may have invested all of his savings and earnings in the said property," the court noted.

The court further stated that the identity of the accused persons are known to the complainant, however, he does not have means to gather or collect evidences against them to prove his claim.

"Aid of the state machinery is very much required at this stage for proper investigation. Therefore the Station House Officer (SHO) of Kalkaji police station is directed to register FIR for commission of offences under the relevant sections and investigate the matter as per law," the court directed.
Mumbai, March 18 : South Indian superstar Rajinikanth called on the Thackeray family at their 'Matoshri' home here on Saturday afternoon, in what was described as a "courtesy call".

Rajinikanth, in a simple shirt and jeans, was accorded a warm welcome by Shiv Sena-UBT President and ex-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, his wife Rashmi and their sons Aditya and Tejas.

Later, Aditya - an ex-Minister - tweeted a picture of the family greeting the legendary actor, draping a shawl around his shoulder and offering a large bouquet of flowers against a backdrop of a portrait of the late Balasaheb Thackeray.

"An absolute delight to have Shri Rajinikanthji at Matoshri once again," said Aditya, as the star came to their home after 13 years.

A party office-bearer said that Rajinikanth's visit was purely a "courtesy call", and there was no political angle to it as the Tamil actor was a strong follower of the late Balasaheb Thackeray.

Around 13 years ago in October 2010, Rajinikanth had come here to meet Balasaheb Thackeray, they had hugged each other, Rajinikanth had sought his blessings, and the two had developed a great personal rapport.
Islamabad, March 18 : Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zafar Iqbal on Saturday permitted PTI Chairman Imran Khan to go back after marking his attendance outside the Islamabad Judicial Complex where the PTI chief is set to be indicted in the Toshakhana case, media reported.

"The situation as it is, the hearing and appearance cannot proceed that is why all those who have gathered here should disperse after marking attendance. There is no need for shelling or pelting, the hearing cannot be held today," the judge said, Dawn reported.

He added that once the PTI chief's signatures were received then it could be later discussed at what date to hold Imran's appearance again.

People inside the courtroom were facing difficulties due to the effects of the teargas and the windows were pelted by stones as well, Dawn reported.

As Imran and his motorcade earlier reached outside the Islamabad Judicial Complex, he alleged that he was not being allowed to enter the court's premises.

In an audio message released to the media, Imran said: "I am waiting outside the (judicial complex's) door for 15 minutes and am fully trying to enter but they've done teargas (shelling) and erected checkpoints and it seems they don't want that I reach here." Despite that, he reiterated that he was outside the complex and was attempting to enter it.

A large number of party workers, who were accompanying the former Prime Minister, are attempting to escort him onto court premises, but due to security arrangements, they were not being allowed to, Dawn reported.

As PTI Chairman Imran Khan and his motorcade reached outside the Islamabad Judicial Complex on Saturday, where he was to be indicted in the Toshakhana case, the capital police alleged that party workers began to pelt stones at them, Dawn reported.

The PTI leader is scheduled to appear before the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zafar Iqbal to attend proceedings on a complaint filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for allegedly concealing details of gifts in his assets declarations, Dawn reported.

Imran, who left his Lahore home a little after 8 a.m. and had warned in a video message that he was expecting an attempt to arrest him, had yet to reach the court, though the Islamabad Police tweeted that Imran's convoy was right in front of the Judicial Complex.

"Political workers are requested to clear the way so that Imran Khan can reach the court," the police said on Twitter, Dawn reported.

It also claimed that political activists had "started pelting stones at the police" and 'shelling" was also being carried out by them. A police picket was also allegedly set on fire, Dawn reported.
New Delhi, March 18 : Chinese scientists are hopeful that the Zhurong Mars rover, switched to dormant mode due to severe weather conditions on Mars, may operate again, the media reported.

The Zhurong rover is part of the Tianwen-1 mission which touched down in southern Utopia Planitia on Mars in May 2021.

According to the China National Space Administration, the rover went into silent mode while waiting out a dust storm on the surface of the planet in May last year.

During the winter season, Zurong faces temperatures dropping below minus 20 degree Celsius during the daytime, while the night goes below minus 100 degree Celsius.

The dusty weather and the extremely low ambient temperature in winter also leads to reduction in the power generation capacity of the solar wing.

The rover was expected to wake up in December when weather conditions improve as Mars' northern hemisphere enters springtime.

But images taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed the "rover has remained stationary between September 8, 2022 and February 7, 2023 ", Vice.com reported.

Based on the orbital images, "It's covered by the sand and the dust, so it definitely hurts its ability to transform sunlight to electricity," Yi Xu, Associate Professor at the Space Science Institute at Macau University of Science and Technology, was quoted as saying.

To adapt to the notorious dust storms on Mars, Zhurong's solar panels have been designed like butterfly wings so dust could be blown away. It's also equipped with a mechanism allowing it to flip its panels to remove accumulated debris, but this requires the rover to be on.

In January, the South China Morning Post reported that Chinese scientists were still waiting for a signal from Zhurong and that sandstorms had hampered the rover's ability to generate power with its solar panels.

Zhurong can automatically resume operation when its energy level hits over 140 watts and the temperature of its components, such as its battery, rises above minus 59 degree Fahrenheit.

"We have to wait because now it's spring and later, that'd be the summer season on Mars. Then it should receive more sunlight and the temperature also increases," Yi said.

"When the battery is fully charged, then the rover or the instrument may operate again.

Meanwhile, Beijing and authorities have remained silent on the status of the rover, even as it celebrated its Mars mission Tianwen-1's second anniversary in orbit last month.
AUBURN  A Cayuga County jury began, but has not yet completed, deliberations in the week-long attempted murder trial of a man accused of trying to kill a sheriff's deputy.

The jury will resume deliberations Monday in the trial of Luke Gaffney, 42, of Aurelius, who is facing charges of second-degree attempted murder and aggravated assault upon a police officer, both class B felonies. He is accused of attempting to use a knife to kill Cayuga County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Adam Bacon, who was a deputy at the time of the incident in Aurelius on Oct. 23, 2020.

Following the final defense witness' testimony and closing arguments and instructions from Judge Daniel Doyle, jurors began deliberating around 2:30 p.m. Friday. The jury twice asked to hear the elements of the criminal charges read back to them, but by around 5:30 p.m., Doyle dismissed them for the weekend with instructions to return Monday morning. He also told them not to discuss the case with anyone and to avoid all media coverage of the trial.

Michael Kasmarek, Gaffney's primary defense attorney, kicked off closing arguments Friday afternoon. He told the jury it was important to consider Gaffney's intent when he stabbed Bacon outside Gaffney's house that day.

Authorities previously said Bacon, another sheriff's office deputy and a New York State Police trooper came to Gaffney's house at the direction of Cayuga County Court Judge Thomas Leone to seize firearms belonging to Gaffney, who had been charged in an unrelated domestic incident that week. The officers found Gaffney at the property and informed him of the letter, but the sheriff's office said Gaffney did not comply, a brief confrontation ensued, Gaffney stabbed Bacon and then he went inside his home. Gaffney initially refused to leave his home but later surrendered without incident following several hours of crisis negotiation. Bacon was transported to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse for treatment of his injuries.

Kasmarek contended Friday that Gaffney had no intention of killing or seriously injuring Bacon during the incident, adding that the defense was not trying to argue that Bacon, who testified Wednesday, is a bad person.

"He seems like a very nice man and a good cop," Kasmarek said. "But on Oct. 23, 2020, he made a mistake."

The defense has argued throughout the week that the paperwork from Leone that Bacon came to give to Gaffney was not a search or arrest warrant, so it did not allow the officers to come into Gaffney's home. Gaffney had previously been told by a lower court judge that he would be able to turn in his guns to a licensed person legally allowed to handle firearms by Monday, Oct. 26, 2020.

Kasmarek's closing argument also emphasized the importance of a video clip from Gaffney's security camera in which a voice identified to be Bacon's could be hearing "If he leaves, I'm going in" before Gaffney came to the door to talk to the officers. Kasmarek argued that statement displayed that Bacon was intending to go into the defendant's home to seize the weapons no matter what. Bacon and the officers at the confrontation, all who testified this week, said Leone's letter stated that Gaffney's guns needed to be seized.

At one point in his closing summation, Kasmarek argued that the prosecution had falsely painted Gaffney as sounding agitated while speaking with the officers prior to the stabbing. Kasmarek said he felt Gaffney did not sound agitated in the video and that he "stood firm" with the officers.

"I don't hear agitation, I hear a man who knows his rights," Kasmarek said.

Noting that Gaffney stabbed Bacon after Bacon grabbed Gaffney when he was trying to go back inside his home, Kasmarek argued that Gaffney did not try to serious physically injure Bacon but just wanted to "get (Bacon) off of him."

The prosecution has contended that Bacon was acting within his duties as an officer to try to seize Gaffney's weapons as a part of a court order. Bacon previously testified that after telling Gaffney the officers had been sent by the judge to seize his guns immediately, Gaffney had said, "You're going to have to kill me" and told them to leave his property. Noting that statement and the fact that Gaffney had weapons in his home, Bacon said he felt he could not let Gaffney go back into the residence, saying he was concerned for the safety of everyone involved at the time.

Kasmarek's closing argument also pointed to testimony from a forensic pathologist retained by the defense who took the stand earlier Friday. After looking at Bacon's medical records, pictures of the injuries and more, the pathologist said he felt, based on the information he had and his medical knowledge and experience, that none of the wounds on Bacon's leg hit blood vessels or caused significant risk of death, protracted impairment of health or other issues. He also said he felt that one wound close to Bacon's femoral artery, which could cause a person to bleed to death if punctured, was not deep enough to reach that artery.

Cayuga County District Attorney Brittany Grome Antonacci said in her closing statement that evidence showed Gaffney stabbed Bacon three times, and she argued there was no evidence to support the defense's prior arguments that Gaffney's actions were justified.

She said Bacon had been following standard procedure and noted that when Gaffney testified Thursday, he admitted he did not read the letter from Leone on the day of the incident. Grome Antonacci said Gaffney did not "take two seconds out of his day" to read paperwork despite saying his rights were violated.

"You don't get to go around stabbing people and say your rights are being violated," she said.

Grome Antonacci argued that the officers were calm when speaking with Gaffney and the defendant had been agitated, mentioning that all three of the officers there had testified that Gaffney told them, "You're going to have kill me." She also brought up previous testimony from Dr. Amie Lucia, the trauma surgeon who treated Gaffney, as she had said injuries like those Bacon received could cause some people pain and disability, especially in physically-demanding lifestyles like that of a police officer. Grome Antonacci also said it had been previously been noted in the trial that Bacon had suffered sensory nerve damage and mentioned that one of the wounds was close to Bacon's femoral artery, which she argued showed intent to kill. As a Marine, Gaffney would have been trained to try to stab that artery when in close combat with a person wearing body armor.

The district attorney also contended that the quick nature in the confrontation did not make Gaffney's actions any less intentional, and noted that other law enforcement members who testified said Gaffney had demands during his standoff with police, including receiving a pardon from then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"His actions after the fact are extremely telling of what his intent was when stabbing Deputy Bacon," Grome Antonacci said.

Later that adding that "you don't have the right to stab an officer because you don't agree with them," Grome Antonacci argued that Gaffney's interpretation of the law did not matter and that "ignorance of the law is not a defense."

The sheriff's office previously said officers arrived to take Gaffney's firearms due to a court order connected to his arrest earlier that week in which he was charged with third-degree assault, criminal obstruction of breathing and fourth-degree criminal mischief for an incident involving a person in a relationship with Gaffneys ex-girlfriend. That case against Gaffney was resolved in fall 2021 through an adjournment in contemplation of a dismissal that included a protection order for the victim.

Gaffney has been free on bail on the charges related to the stabbing incident since September 2021.
Chennai, March 18 : The incident of human excreta in a drinking water tank supplying a Dalit colony in Tamil Nadu's Pudukottai district in December 2022 had hit headlines, and local police began a probe, which was handed over to the CB-CID after complaints of tardy action. Residents are now demanding a CBI prove over state police's failure to make a breakthrough.

Talking to IANS, local resident Jagannathan said: "The CB-CID has been conducting investigation and interrogating and questioning many people. We have a feeling that the case is not moving on the right track and some of our Dalit brethren have been questioned by the police repeatedly and we feel that the case is recoiling against us." Meanwhile, P. Thirumugam of Pudukottai moved a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court pleading for a CBI inquiry into the case.

The court on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu government to provide an action-taken report on the PIL filed by Thirumugam.

A division bench of Justices R. Subramanian and L. Victoria Gouri directed the Additional Advocate General to provide a report on the actions taken by the government in this matter and will hear the matter further on March 30.

The court asking for an action taken report from the state government is considered a major victory for those who have been requesting for a CBI inquiry into the case.

Thirumugam, while talking to media persons, said: "There are more than 100 Dalit families in Vengaivayal and the overhead water tank has a capacity of 10,000 litres. The presence of human feces in the water tank is an insult to the Dalit people of the area who have been subjected as second-class citizens in the area by the upper caste people including not allowing entry to the local Ayyanar temple." He said that the CB-CID has been investigating the case for the past two months and as per Rule 7 of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules 1995, the investigation should have been completed within 30 days and the officer would have given a report.

This has not been followed and a request has been made to transfer the case to the CBI. The Dalit parties of the area including the VCK and the Ambedkar movement have also been demanding a CBI inquiry into the matter.
New Delhi, March 18 : Delhi's Patiala House court on Saturday extended, till March 31, judicial custody of alleged conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar in connection with a money laundering case of Rs 200 crore.

Judge Shailender Malik also refused to hear a plea by Chandrasekhar seeking transfer of the case to another judge as the conman accused him of being biased.

The court stated that the accused does not have the right to comment on the presiding officer, while expressing displeasure on the petition.

Anant Malik, the lawyer representing Chandrasekhar, said that a handwritten application was filed before the Principal District and Session Judge from jail seeking transfer of the case to another court alleging bias.

"Chandrasekhar had also written an intimation regarding the same to the court of Shailender Malik. The same was just an intimation regarding filing of the transfer application and no relief was being prayed for before the court.

"The court, however, proceeded to make observations that the said intimation was not required and the reliefs can be prayed for before the Principal District and Session Judge in the transfer application which is pending adjudication," said the lawyer.

The date in transfer petition is awaited from Principal District and Sessions Court.
Hyderabad, March 18 : Telangana BJP President Bandi Sanjay on Saturday appeared before State Women's Commission in response to the notice issued for his derogatory comments against BRS leader K. Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Taking serious note of the comments, the Commission questioned Sanjay for about two-and-a-half hours. The panel pulled him up and warned him against making such comments in future.

The Commission members reportedly showed Bandi Sanjay videos of his objectionable remarks made against women on various occasions and posed him several questions.

Sanjay, who is also a Member of Parliament, clarified that he did not make any derogatory comments against Kavitha.

It was immediately not clear if the Commission would summon the BJP leader again.

After appearing before the Commission, he told reporters that the remarks he made were a common phrase used in Telangana.

Earlier, there was some tension outside the office of women's commission as BRS workers staged a protest demanding action against Sanjay.

Women leaders and workers of BJP had also gathered there to defend their state president.

Sanjay had made the remark while targeting Kavitha over the Delhi liquor policy case in which she was recently questioned by the Enforcement Directorate.

The BJP leader's office defended the statement calling it a common phrase used in Telugu which translated to if someone commits a crime, would you appreciate or punish.

The Commission had summoned Sanjay to appear before it on March 15 but he wrote to the panel on Tuesday that since the Budget Session of the Parliament was in progress and his presence is must, he could not appear on March 15. He requested for permission to appear on March 18.

The Commission on Wednesday responded positively to his request.

The women's panel had taken suo moto note of the derogatory comment made by Sanjay against Kavitha, who is also a member of Telangana Legislative Council.

The ruling party has taken serious note of Sanjay's remark and staged protests at various places in the state demanding his apology. BRS leaders also lodged police complaints against Sanjay.
Srinagar, March 18 : Known as the angler's paradise, Kashmir is famous the world over for its glistening mountain streams those are home to the trout fish.

Other fish species living in lakes, rivers and streams of the Valley are the various species of local fish including Schizothorax plagiostmus, Schizothorax labitus, Schizothorax curvifrons (Sattar), Schizothorax niger (Algaad), Schizothorax planifrons (Chush), Schizothorax longipinnis (Dap Gaad), Triplophysa marmorata, Crossocheilus diplocheilus, Schistura punjabensis, Bangana diplostoma, Glyptothorax kashmirensis, Glyptosterun reticulum, Triplophysa kashmirensis and Botia birdi (Ram gurun).

Later introductions into Valley's lakes and rivers are the common carp, grass carp, etc.

Interestingly, trout fish was introduced in Kashmir by the British to address nostalgia of its officers posted in the Himalayan state.

The first batch of 10,000 trout ova came to Kashmir in 1899 from UK due to the courtesy of the Duke of Bedford.

Rainbow and brown trout were introduced by a Britisher, Frank K. Mitchell during Dogra Maharaja Pratap Singh's reign in 1900.

In 1908, a trout hatchery was built at Achabal in Anantnag district from where eyed-ova of Brown trout were sent to all over Kashmir.

Shah Malik, who is into wildlife research, said: "To survive, trout needs temperatures between 0 to 20 degree Celsius. It cannot flourish in standing water and must have access to perennially flowing waters.

"It also migrates annually to the upper reaches to breed. In the wild, brown trout can be found in Lidder River, Brengi River and streams such as Madhumati and Ferozepur, among others in the Valley." Brown trout attracts anglers, particularly foreigners, to J&K's high altitude lakes and numerous snow-fed freshwater streams, making it an important part of the tourism industry.

Due to separatist violence in Kashmir, fish species especially trout suffered maximum damage at the hands of the poachers who used all means including nets, bleaching powder and other agents to catch fish.

Thanks to the improving law and order situation, officials of the local fisheries department are ensuring that reserved trout beats are fully protected.

In many cases, poachers have been booked and produced in courts of law.

As the environment inside other various water bodies and reserved fishing beats improves, the numbers of wild trout in mountain streams of the Valley is again increasing.

Fishing in reserved fish beats is allowed through permits given by the local fisheries department and no angler can catch more than six fish during a day's angling inside the reserved fish beats.

Trout rearing units/hatcheries have been established in private sector by individual farmers in almost all the districts of the union territory. The local fisheries department undertakes broodstock management to achieve better fertilisation during spawning.

Due to the large production in private and government run trout hatcheries, Anantnag was declared as the trout district of the Valley in 2018.

Government run Kokernag fish farm in Anantnag district is Asia's largest trout fish farm.

Angling season starts in Kashmir in the month of April and ends in September. Although the number of anglers steadily dropped during the peak years of militancy, these numbers have started picking up now.

Trout fish farming is a Rs 100 crore industry and has been regularly growing with more and more farmers taking to fish breeding in the Valley.

One of the best trout angling beats is Brengi Nallah in Anantnag district.

Lidder stream in Anantnag and the Sindh stream in Ganderbal districts are known for the wild trout species living in these streams.

Gurez, Kishenganga, Madhumati and a few other streams also contain trout fish.

These streams have been declared as protected streams and angling is regulated and allowed only through special permits issued by the fisheries department.

The mountain stream passing through the Dachigam national park in Srinagar is the first stream where trout ova were released after importing these from UK.

Mountain lakes like Gangabal, Gadsar, Vishansar, Krishansar and Tarsar lake are also home to trout fish in Kashmir.

Angling by the day, dinner beside the bonfire in the evening and a night under the starlit sky is an experience, the tourists and professional anglers would hardly miss as Kashmir returns on the world tourist map with a bang.
Kolkata, March 18 : The fish farmers of East Kolkata Wetlands are fast losing out on their farm water. Once a major breeding spot of rui, katla, pona, telapiya, tyangra, parshe, bhetki, chitol and galda chingri, the wetlands (macher bheris in Bengali) are drying up mainly due to the diversion of wastewater from Kolkata city into river Vidyadhari.

Developed and perfected by humans over the last century, the wetlands serve as the natural sewage treatment unit of the city of Kolkata, while also promoting fisheries and vegetable cultivation. The Bantala Canal area on its eastern side receives most of the sewage from the metropolis.

"When the sewage accumulates at a height of 9 feet, the wetlands that house 200 fish farms receive water for pisciculture. For the fish ponds to benefit, this water level should be maintained at all times of the year," explains Bantala resident Sudhir Sardar, 60.

If the sewage level is above 9 feet at Bantala station, the water flows to the farms. Conversely, if it falls to 8 feet or below, the water will not reach the wetlands. The entry of sewage into fish ponds is of great significance as the organic matter in the wastewater aids in the growth of plankton that the fish population feeds upon. The biological process also treats the sewage, thereby addressing the issue of water pollution.

"There were 270 fish farms in the area (approximately two katthas for one bheri), covering about 300 bighas of land and water," says Niranjan Mondal, 45, whose family has been into pisciculture in Bantala for over five generations.

By 2002, it had come down to 208 and the latest estimate pegs the number at 200, according to Ashok Sardar Bantala resident and the secretary of Laban Hrad Matsya Chashi Kalyan Samiti.

He said if the decline of fisheries continues, it will affect the livelihood of four lakh people who are directly and indirectly involved in fishing. Today there are seven registered cooperative societies and 30 more unregistered societies that simultaneously function in the area.

Fish from the wetland area caters to the needs of Kolkata in addition to several other districts of West Bengal, with fish also being supplied to Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and some other states, he said.

Already many fishermen who had to give up their farms are now working as wage day labourers at various places in the city, he says. "Some are working as construction workers, others as porters in wholesale vegetable markets while some have migrated to other states like Uttar Pradesh or Maharashtra in search of better job opportunities." Unwelcome diversion

Spread over an area of 12,000 hectares, some portions of the wetlands come under the jurisdiction of ward 36 of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, while some are panchayat areas. Several underground canals bring sewage to the wetlands, with the municipal authorities and irrigation department controlling the flow of water from the Bantala pumping station.

The problem began when the authorities began to redirect water into the Vidyadhari. An engineer from the New Town Kolkata Development Authority, said on the condition of anonymity: "Kolkata's sewage is so toxic that it will destroy the good bacteria in the wetlands. Things do not work the way they did a decade ago. The Pollution Control Board has directed us not to let out untreated water.

"The sewage from Salt Lake, Rajarhat and New Town surrounding the wetlands flows into three new treatment plants built in New Town. Once treated, the water is let out into Bagjola Canal, which flows into the Vidyadhari." Meanwhile, the sewage treatment plant at Bantala catering to East Kolkata Wetlands is in a state of disrepair for a decade now. The redirecting of water into Vidhyadhari even during monsoons not only increases the risk of a breach downstream but also flooding in Kolkata city.

Foul play alleged Environmentalist Sourav Chakraborti is sure that the local goons working closely with the ruling Trinamool Congress, realtors and the police have formed a nexus. "They are trapping poor farmers by cutting off the water supply, thus forcing them to sell off fish farms to realtors. Old-timers say the real estate syndicate dates back to the 1990s." Putting the blame on both the CPI-M and Trinamool Congress governments for the poor state of the water body, Chakraborti says no political leader wants to acknowledge that the wetlands purify sewage. "They just want to encroach upon the entire area because they need money to fund elections." Undoubtedly, the biggest gainers from dry wetlands are real estate dealers. As water runs out, more and more fish farmers are forced to sell their lowlands to real estate promoters for constructing multi-storied buildings.

"These poor people do not understand the significance of wetlands. So, when the realtors offered them jobs and a sum of Rs 6 lakh, they sold off their farms. However, the twist in the tale is that they have not received the money promised, even five years after the land deal," adds Niranjan.

One such farmer, Dinabanhu Bera tells 101Reporters that he is yet to get the entire amount originally agreed upon. "Whenever I approach the realtor with this demand, I am given Rs 10,000 and told to get back later. To date, not even half of the promised amount has been paid." Alleging that local politicians, police and promoter syndicates are involved in the scam, Bera says the duped farmers approached the local police several times, but nothing happened.

"They (realtors) have now built boundary walls on our farmlands and do not let us inside," he laments.

Javed Khan, a realtor, told 101Reporters that he bought a couple of fish farms because the area dried up.

"The fishermen needed money and I got the land in exchange. What is wrong with that? However, if you ask me why the fish farms dried up and where the water went, I will not be able to answer. The state government should reply," he clarifies his position.

Amaresh Mondal, the head of Bamanghata panchayat in North 24 Parganas, says: "I am aware that fish farms are drying up and people are selling them to realtors. However, I do not know whether they received the full amount. They were advised against land sale, but they did not listen to us then. We hope to find a solution to this issue soon by holding talks with the state government." In 2020, local NGO Laban Hrad Matsyachashi Kalyan Samiti filed a public interest litigation in the Calcutta High Court on the issues faced by fish farmers.

Last December, the court ordered demolition of buildings constructed in the area. However, police or municipal authorities are yet to act.

"An atmosphere of fear makes many stay silent. Even if they suffer, they refrain from talking about it. I can name three fishermen -- Rabi Ghosh, Tapan Pandit and Roga Jasmin -- who have been untraceable ever since they approached the police. That is why we moved the court on their behalf," says Ashok Sardar.

Refusing to comment on the issue, Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation Chairman Sabyasachi Dutta says: "Mayor Krishna Chakraborty will talk about this." However, Chakraborty toes the same line. "I have no knowledge about this. I will not say anything." (Showli Chakraborty is a West bengal-based journalist and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters)
Lahore, March 18 : Police on Saturday allegedly recovered assault rifles and ammunition from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan's Zaman Park mansion in a search operation, while detaining over 60 party cohorts accused of resorting to hostilities to obstruct the law, media reports said.

Pakistan Punjab's Inspector General of Police Usman Anwar, in a press conference, said police had finished the search and cleanup operation in Zaman Park and took into custody AK-47 assault rifles and a large number of bullets from Imran Khan's mansion in Lahore's posh neighbourhood, Geo News reported.

Moreover, glass bottles, suspected to be used in making Molotov cocktails, and hundreds of marbles for being shot at police with slingshots were also collected.

Later, Anwar said five more Kalashnikovs were also found on Khan's property. To a question, the IG said the legal status of the guns - whether they were licensed or not - was being evaluated, Geo News reported.

He said before the operation, the roads around the park were blocked with shipping containers, "which now have been cleared".

"The police broke the main gate with an excavator and entered Imran Khan's house," the police official said, adding that a curtain had been placed on the broken gate, Geo News reported.

The police and PTI supporters recently fought pitched battles outside the former Prime Minister's home in Lahore, wounding several on both sides when the former tried to arrest Khan.

Hours after Khan hit the road to attend the Toshakhana case hearing in the capital on Saturday, Punjab Police barged into his residence.

The police operation was launched this morning to clear the area of 'security camps' established by the party.

Television footage showed police entering the Khan's eight kanal house after using an excavator to bring down the main iron gate of the house. A number of PTI workers were also taken into custody.
Mumbai, March 18 : 'Bigg Boss 16' winner and rapper MC Stan's performance in Indore was stopped amid protests over his songs by the members of a political group.

The incident took place on Friday night at Indore.

The performance was a part of the rapper's MC Stan Basti Ka Hasti India tour, where he will be performing across 10 cities, including Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru.

A video is doing the rounds on social media, where some men with orange scarves over their neck took to the stage and said they will not let the rapper pollute the minds of listeners with his songs 'filled with abuse'. Slogans of 'Jai Shree Ram' could be heard in the background.

They even asked about the hotel, the rapper was staying in and told the concert-goers to come to the hotel if they wanted to see the rapper getting beaten with shoes and also said they would break the set up.

According to media reports, Stan's next performance will be in Nagpur on Saturday. Some reports suggested cancellation of his show in Nagpur following the incident in Indore.

After Nagpur, Stan will be performing in Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, and Delhi.

Latest updates on Bigg Boss Season 16
New Delhi, March 18 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Saturday jointly inaugurated the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFP) in a virtual mode.

The foundation stone for the construction of this pipeline was laid by both Prime Ministers in September 2018. Numaligarh Refinery Ltd has been supplying petroleum products to Bangladesh since 2015 and this is the second cross-border energy pipeline between India and its eastern neighbour, an official statement said.

Cooperation in the power and energy sector has become one of the hallmarks of India-Bangladesh relations. The IBFP is the first cross border energy pipeline between India and Bangladesh with a capacity to transport 1 million metric ton per annum (MMTPA) of High-Speed Diesel (HSD) to Bangladesh. Enhanced connectivity with Bangladesh will further strengthen people to people linkages between two sides.

Bangladesh is India's top-most development partner and its largest trade partner in the region. The operationalisation of the Friendship Pipeline will enhance ongoing energy cooperation between the two countries and will further growth in Bangladesh, particularly in the agriculture sector.

PM Modi thanked PM Hasina for her constant guidance on the project and expressed his wish to continue working with her for the benefit of the people of the two countries.
Blantyre : , March 18 (IANS) More bodies have been recovered in Malawi hit by cyclone Freddy, raising the death toll to at least 438, the country's Department of Disaster Management Affairs has said.

The cumulative number of injured people has reached 918, with another 282 reported missing, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday quoting Charles Kalemba, commissioner of Department of Disaster Management Affairs.

Around 3,45,183 people (or 79,602 households) have been displaced and 505 camps have been set up to accommodate them.

The commissioner said his department, humanitarian partners and councils "continue to facilitate the provision of relief assistance to affected and displaced households, with search and rescue operations led by the Malawi Defence Force, the Malawi Police Service, the Department of Marine, the Malawi Red Cross Society and communities underway".

He added that the Malawi Police Service has deployed sniffer dogs for search and rescue, and recovered nine bodies in the town of Chilobwe.

Foreign missions, governments, local and international organisations, companies and individuals of goodwill are rendering support to Malawi, after Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera declared a state of disaster earlier in the week, the commissioner said.
Kolkata, March 18 : Naushad Siddique, the lone All India Secular Front member in the West Bengal Assembly, was on Saturday assaulted on the dais at the protest venue of the joint forum of state government employees staging a relay fast and a sit-in demonstration to demand pending dearness allowance dues.

Siddique had been on the dais to express solidarity with the agitating employees. As he was addressing the protesters, a man wearing a black trouser, a camouflage-pattern shirt and cap and carrying a helmet, suddenly came up to him.

"What have you done for the sake of the minority community?" he asked Siddique after stopping him from speaking. In response, the MLA said he does not intend to do anything only and specifically for the minority. "I want to work for all - majority or minority," he said.

At this, the stranger immediately lost his cool and immediately pushed the legislator heavily. However, those present at the dais immediately intervened and did not give him any chance to assault Siddique further.

Some of the agitators present on the dais in fury tried to attack the stranger, but were stopped by Siddique. "Leave him. This is nothing but a drama and an attempt to malign your movement," Siddique was heard saying.

The assailant was handed over to the police and late in the evening, identified as Abdul Salam akas Tota, an elected Trinamool Congress gram panchayat member of Bankra-II village in adjoining Howrah district.

He is known to be a close confidant of district Trinamool leader and former minister Rajib Banerjee.

However, the local Trinamool leadership distanced itself from him. Sheikh Meher Ali, the deputy chief of Bankra-II panchayat, said that although Salam continues to be a member of the panchayat, he has no connection with the ruling party any more.

"There are many cases pending against him. So, the party maintains a distance from him," Ali said.

Just before the attack on him, Siddique said that the state government's excuse of lack of funds for not paying the dearness allowance arrears was baseless. "But lots of money is spent by the government behind fairs and festivals. The state government should stop such wasteful expenditure and pay the legitimate dues of the state government," he said.

Siddique later told newspersons that the stranger was a plant by some vested interests to create confusion at the agitation venue. "But those who are present here are all educated people and hence, the stranger was handed over to police. I hope the police should now probe honestly to track the masterminds behind this incident... the police are supposed to protect this agitation dais as per court order," he said.
A social entrepreneur and activist who formerly attended Wells College will be speaking at the institution's upcoming 2023 commencement.

Nicola Nikki A. Williams, a social entrepreneur, activist, community organizer and more who graduated from the Aurora-based private institution in 1985, will be serving as the keynote speaker for Wells' 155th commencement ceremony, a news release from the college said.

Williams, a Jamaican immigrant who grew up in Brooklyn, moved to Cambridge, Mass., a day after graduating from Wells. She is founder of and serves as president of The Williams Agency, a marketing and business strategy firm "that works with social and environmental causes, small businesses, and the arts," the college said. The entity also plans regional events and partners with nonprofits such as Sustainable Food and Culture, Inc. and the Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts.

In addition to being acknowledged as a Local Food Hero by the city of Cambridge, Williams was received different awards for her efforts in sustainability, culture and sustainable food. Her recent accolades include being recognized as Sustainable Business Networks Sustainable Business Leader of the Year in the Community category. In addition to currently being on the Wells College Board of Trustees, she is on the board of Harvard Square Neighborhood Association and Cambridge Carnival International and is a corporator of Cambridge Savings Bank.

Wells College's commencement is slated for 10 a.m., Saturday, May 20, in the circle in front of Macmillan Hall at the college campus.
Chandigarh, March 18 : Suspense continued over the arrest of radical Sikh preacher and Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh in Punjab on Saturday after his dramatic escape from a high-speed chase by the state police, officials said.

However, seven people accompanying him and carrying ammunition were arrested but Amritpal Singh, the chief of 'Waris Punjab De', managed to escape by changing his vehicle that was chased by the police to another one.

Meanwhile, the number of arrested people owing allegiance to Amritpal Singh rose to 78.

Some police officials told IANS that he has been zeroed in Sarih village in Nakodar tehsil in Jalandhar district where he was convinced to surrender.

A house-to-house search operation in villages in Nakodar is on, said a senior official. Even the central paramilitary forces have been involved in the search operation.

Meanwhile, internet services across the state were suspended as a precautionary step.

Supporters of Amritpal Singh have been sharing videos of police vehicles chasing Singh's cavalcade in Moga district.

Anticipating disturbance of peace, a large contingent of the paramilitary force was deployed outside his native village, Jallupur Khaira, in Amritsar district.

A special team of the police, comprising personnel from seven districts, had followed the separatist leader's convoy while he was on his way to Jalandhar's Shahkot tehsil. They had closed on his vehicles two to three times but Amritpal Singh managed to escape.

Section 144 has been imposed in many districts of the state. The police have also increased security in the state. In addition, all vehicles are being checked at the Punjab-Haryana border.

Thirty-year-old Amritpal Singh, a pro-Khalistan fiery propagator and self-styled preacher, has been running 'separatist' propaganda through speeches. Three cases, including two of delivering hate speeches, have been pending against him.

On the radar of Central investigating agencies, he has drawn comparisons to Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale owing to his similar looks and donning a navy blue turban, a white chola, and a sword-sized kirpan.

On February 23, an armed mob led by Amritpal Singh clashed with police and laid siege to a police station near Amritsar, demanding the release of one of their colleagues who had been taken into custody in an alleged kidnapping case.

Six policemen were injured in the bloody clash.

Police officials had later clarified that they were unable to control the crowd as they were carrying a physical copy of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, also called Bir in Punjabi, as a shield.

As the Internet was suspended on Saturday, Punjab Police urged people to maintain peace and harmony and not to spread panic, fake news or hate speech.

"Punjab Police is working to maintain law and order," the Punjab Police tweeted. "All mobile internet services, all SMS services (except banking & mobile recharge) & all dongle services provided on mobile networks, except voice call, in the territorial jurisdiction of Punjab shall be suspended from 18th March (12:00 hours) to 19th March (12:00 hours) in the interest of public safety".

Reacting to Amritpal's purported arrest, Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu said the man who "used to talk about taking up arms for Khalistan is today running away fearing the police".

"Does a Sikh ever run away? He would have faced the police if he had courage. He is running around in the streets like a jackal. I used to say earlier, too, that he has come to get our children killed. He is a man of (intelligence) agencies," he said.
Hyderabad, March 18 : L Colonel V.V. Bhanu Reddy, who was killed in an army helicopter crash in Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday, was cremated with full military honours in Telangana's Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district on Saturday.

The cremation took place at his native village Bommalaramaram.

Earlier, the mortal remains of Lt Col Reddy were kept at his residence in Malkajgiri, Hyderabad to pay respects. Army chief, General Manoj Pande laid a wreath and paid homage along with his wife Archana Pande, and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved family at his residence in the morning.

Southern Army Commander Lt Gen AK Singh also paid floral tributes to the braveheart.

The mortal remains of Lt Col Reddy arrived Friday night at Air Force Station Begumpet from Arunachal Pradesh by a service aircraft where rich tributes were paid by the Station Commander, Brigadier K Somashankar along with officers of military and civil administration.

Lt Col Reddy and Major Jagannath of Army Aviation lost their lives in the line of duty on March 16 in an Army chopper crash in Arunachal Pradesh during an operational sortie.

--IANS ms/vd

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Patna, March 18 : A day after the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar allowed Muslim employees to leave early during the month of Ramzan, BJP's state unit president Sanjay Jaiswal on Saturday said "the Bihar government is working on the agenda of the banned organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) to make India a Muslim country till 2047".

The General Administration Department of the Bihar government on Friday granted permission to Muslim employees to come one hour before the scheduled office hours and leave one hour early during the month of Ramzan.

On this, Jaiswal said: "Ram Navami is coming up and we have demanded leave for Hindu employees as well." "The Bihar government is running on the agenda of PFI. It has been working on the policy of minority appeasement," he said.

Criticising Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the BJP leader said "he is functioning according to the wishes of RJD".

"This is the reason why the Bihar government is running on the policy of Muslim appeasement. The 'Paltimar' (U-turn) records of Nitish Kumar are very impressive. He continues to execute his 'Paltimar' programme in Bihar for which he deserves a Nobel Prize," Jaiswal said.

Reacting to the Bihar BJP chief's remarks, JD-U national president Lalan Singh said: "Nitish Kumar has been running the government in Bihar for 17 years... social and communal harmony is well maintained here. He makes decisions according to people's needs and convenience. The BJP is trying to disturb communal and religious harmony."
Amaravati, March 18 : In a big jolt to Andhra Pradesh's ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) won all three Legislative Council seats from graduates' constituencies which went to polls on March 13.

The main opposition party received a big boost with victories in north Andhra, east Rayalaseema, and west Rayalaseema graduates' constituencies.

In a neck and neck contest, the TDP bagged West Rayalaseema (Kadapa-Anantapur-Kurnool districts), which is considered a stronghold of the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP. TDP candidate Bhumireddy Ramagopal Reddy defeated his nearest rival V. Ravindra Reddy of YSRCP by 7,543 second preference votes.

No candidate secured a majority in first preference votes but in the elimination round, there was a close contest between the TDP and the YSRCP. The opposition party candidate surged ahead in the elimination round to win the seat.

Returning officer S. Nagalakshmi announced that TDP's Ramgopal Reddy polled 1,09,781 votes while YSRCP's Ravindra Reddy secured 1,02,238 votes.

Counting of votes which began at 8 a.m. on Thursday was completed around 8 p.m. on Saturday.

Alleging that there were irregularities in counting of votes, the YSRCP candidate and other leaders demanded re-counting. The returning officer told them to give in writing if they have any objection.

Earlier, the TDP won North Andhra and East Rayalaseema seats. TDP candidate Vepada Chiranjeevi Rao won North Andhra (Srikakulam-Vizianagaram-Visakhapatnam) seat by a margin of 34,836 votes over the YSRCP candidate.

TDP's Kancharla Srikanth Chowdhary was elected from East Rayalaseema (Prakasam-Nellore-Chittoor) with a margin of 34,110 votes over the YSRCP candidate.

The defeat in all three graduates' constituencies is being seen as a major setback for the ruling party as they were spread in 108 of the total 175 Assembly segments.

This was also the first big defeat for the YSRCP, which had swept all the elections since 2019.

In the MLC polls, the YSRCP won both teachers' constituencies (East Rayalaseema and West Rayalaseema) and four local body segments.

Meanwhile, TDP President and former Chief Minister T. Chandrababu Naidu described the victory of his party in three graduates' constituencies a public victory. "A sign of change. The way to good. Auspicious for the state," Naidu tweeted.

"Congratulations to the three candidates who won the MLC elections. Thanks to the people who won. Salute to the activists and leaders who stood against YCP irregularities in the elections," added Naidu withA hashtag ByeByeJaganIn2024.
Chandigarh, March 18 : Punjab Police on Saturday launched a massive state-wide search operation against Sikh radical Amritpal Singh, head of 'Waris Punjab De'.

A total of 78 persons have been arrested so far, while, several others have been detained.

Several, including Amritpal Singh, are on the run and a massive manhunt has been launched to nab them, the police said in a statement on Twitter.

"During the state-wide operation, nine weapons, including one .315 bore rifle, seven rifles of 12 bore, one revolver and 373 live cartridges of different caliber have been recovered so far.

"'Waris Punjab De' elements are involved in four criminal cases relating to spreading disharmony among classes, attempt to murder, attack on police persons and creating obstructions in the lawful discharge of duties of public servants. FIR stands registered for the attack on Ajnala Police Station," it added.
Lagos, March 18 : The police in Nigeria have rescued 17 officials of the country's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who were kidnapped by gunmen in the southern state of Imo, an official said on Saturday.

INEC spokesperson in Imo, Chinenye Chijioke-Osuji, confirmed the development to reporters, saying they were rescued after a distress call, and information about the incident was disclosed to the security operatives, who swung into action immediately in the early hours of Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The INEC officials were on their way to seven different polling units in the state where they were kidnapped.

The INEC is the electoral body that oversees elections in Nigeria.
New Delhi, March 18 : A Parliamentary panel has recommended analysing the feasibility of variable speed limits on national highways in the country, an official said.

While recommending this, the Standing Committee on Transport referred to the observation of the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) that variable speed limits reduce up to 34 per cent of crashes on freeways.

"The Committee notes the observation of the FHWA that variable speed limits reduce up to 34 per cent of crashes on freeways. The Committee recommends that the Ministry/NHAI may analyse the feasibility of variable speed limits on NHs in India on a pilot basis since speed limits should also factor in constantly varying factors such as traffic congestion and visibility," said the Demand for Grants (2023-24) report of Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways.

The Committee noted that overspeeding accounts for a large number of deaths in road accidents.

The Committee recommended that the Ministry may look into the size and specifications of speed limit signages.

"It is sometimes seen that the speed limit signs are easy to miss, or are partially covered by foliage and hoardings. It should be ensured that drivers do not have to actively look for speed limit signs in order to keep a track of the permitted speed limit. The Ministry may analyse the possible benefits of overhead signages for speed limits since this would offer better visibility to NH users in all lanes," said the report.

The Committee also recommended that the Ministry may also target a quantifiable amount of reduction of road accident deaths in the ongoing decade.

"The ministry may come up with a detailed year-by-year plan with measurable targets and ensure that the plan is scrupulously implemented. The ministry may request the state government departments concerned to coordinate and assist in the matter to reduce road accident deaths on all roads in the country. The state governments may be requested to identify and rectify black spots on roads other than national highways," added the report.
New Delhi, March 19 : Customs officials at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) here have arrested two persons and seized gold worth over Rs 1 crore.

"On the basis of spot profiling, the officers of Airport Customs, IGI Airport, Terminal-3, booked a case of smuggling of gold against two Indian National Passengers. The detailed examination of the baggage and personal search of the accused resulted in the recovery of 2076.38 gram gold worth Rs 1,01,59,934," an official said.

The official further said that the recovered gold has been seized under section 110 of customs act and the accused have been placed under arrest in terms of section 104 of the Customs Act.

Both the passengers were produced before a Delhi court which remanded them to fourteen days judicial custody after the customs officials told the court that the accused were not required for further investigation.
New Delhi, March 19 : Tata Consumer Products Limited launched a range of teas celebrating the unique flavours inspired by the streets of India, Tata Tea Premium - Street Chais of India. The range includes four iconic variants inspired by the signature flavours from the streets of India - Kolkata Street Chai, Mumbai Cutting Chai, Purani Dilli ki Mithai Chai, and Hyderabadi Irani Chai.

The launch event held at Sultanpur Metro station, saw Puneet Das, President - Packaged Beverages (India and South Asia), Tata Consumer Products, unveiled the new tea range. The launch event was a unique experience, with the Delhi metro being wrapped in the brand's Delhi pack, celebrating the Delhi Street Chai and iconic Delhi monuments. To take forward this approach, the voice that represents street, Rapper RCR Rapstar performed a specially composed rap song that captured the colourful spirit of Delhi's street chai culture, while traveling from Sultanpur to Lok Kalyan Marg metro station. As one of the most successful operating metros in India, the Delhi metro serves as an element of pride for Delhi-ites and truly reflects the action and emotion of the city.

Tata Tea Premium is known for its 'hyperlocal' approach to creating distinct blends, and Tata Tea Premium Street Chais of India collection evokes pride and nostalgia but also brings alive the hustle and bustle of the city streets with its iconic street chais. The brand wants to offer this experience to its consumers by bringing the flavours inspired by four different regions of India to their homes.

Present at the launch, Puneet Das, President - Packaged Beverages (India and South Asia), Tata Consumer Products said, "Tata Tea Premium Street Chais of India is a unique range of tea that aims to capture the authentic taste of street chai found across India. Each iconic city's chai variant is designed to evoke pride and regional connection, and what better way to showcase the vibrancy of Delhi than by associating with the city's lifeline - the Delhi Metro. The Purani Dilli ki Mithai Chai variant is a celebration of the bustling food and chai culture of Delhi, and is an ode to signature desserts Delhites love. Its packaging highlights the city's iconic monuments, instilling a sense of pride. RCR Rapstar has collaborated with us to create a rap that specifically captures the essence of Purani Dilli, bringing the streets of Delhi to life. Our aim with Tata Tea Premium Street Chais of India is to offer you a flavourful experience that takes you on a journey through the streets of Delhi/India with each sip." Puneet Das, President - Packaged Beverages (India and South Asia), Tata Consumer Products while speaking with IANSlife

There are a lot of new entrants in the tea segment, what you believe is actually driving this sudden emergence of so many participants in the category?

Puneet : I think a lot of start-ups probably are playing more to the direct to consumer channel. I think a lot of start-ups are coming in also because today if you have to reach consumers directly, online is a possibility and hence people are getting into it, but I think when we look at leading players and the scale that's where you know you really need to rely on distribution strength and bandwidth, and that's where brand like TATA Tea succeeds because we have the distribution muscle and band equity to reach out to more households Tea brands are now focusing on brews aimed with special health benefits, can we expect TATA Tea premium to explore this segment?

Puneet : Innovation is our pillar, and is based on premium-isation, convenience, health and wellness, before this launch we had actually done 2-3 launches along the health pillar, so we launched Gold care which is basically made out of natural ingredients and herbs, we have premium Tata Tea Teaveda which has goodness of ingredients. So, we have been focusing on health and wellness as a pillar, but with this launch we focus on authentic street flavours of chai.

What's your vision for the brand this year, what are the expectations you have anticipated? Puneet : I think brand vision is we want to become the preferred tea in every household and one of the leading players, if you are leading player, still it's a very fragmented market and many players operate in many different regions and our plan is to enter into more and more households. That's why while we continue to grow our system core business, I guess it's bringing in the excitement in the tea category and launch of street styles of India to give consumers one more reason to try our brand..

Also there are many influencers, celebrities and brand collaboration which become the new marketing mantra, replacing typical brand endorsements, what's your take on it? Puneet : I think to have right person to associated with your brand is the right thing, earlier this used to happen with well known celebrities but today people are connected with influencers which is the slight change in the dynamic. This is the right thing as that's what digital outreach allows you to have and reach out to people who are like minded and share similar interests, tabbed by the influencers.

It depends on your brand strategy if it is to speak certain users and you can always tap into influencers who can connect you with the people, and which is more cost effective strategy, and I think trend will remain. Even in the case of when people used to celebrity endorsement it's what role the celebrity added to your brand and the question is what you are expecting out of it. For example, we did a Lohri campaign which was done in the markets of North and Punjab with Shehnaaz Gill who is a influencer-cum-celeb to create folk songs which are called and it worked very well for us because she is identified with the market. So for this launch we collaborated with a Rapstar RCR because he represents the streets of India in that sense. So, it's really about looking for who the right person is because is adds value to a brand strategy .

Also observing from the 2 years of pandemic, traditional blues like Kaddha or modern variants like turmeric latte have become daily essentials, do you believe TATA Tea premium needs to focus on such products to follow this lifestyle change ? Puneet : I would correct this as people have not adopted this, people are talking about it, people might have picked it up once or twice, but people are not having this on regular basis. But what pandemic has allowed and done is that it has made people aware about health and wellness, its at the top of their minds and a priority, they are seeking experiences from their food and beverages. So will keep monitoring this trend and when we feel this needs to be addressed in the market, we will launch relevant offerings.

Tea is the very important daily ritual in every Indian household, what makes the TATA Tea the preferred choice? Puneet : I think one of our biggest strength and the DNA of a successful brand is that we are very closely monitoring the regional preferences of tea. So, while tea may look like a brown liquid with milk and sugar, we know different preferences in different regions prefer their tea in different ways. So, TATA Tea has understood these preferences with different prices and I think that's the strength; we have been very true to it and with the Street Chais of India launch is a step further in this direction.

The classic green colour and the packaging rightly brings out the premium-ness of the brand and highlights the story behind each variant. The four packs have unique packaging, representing the pride of each city and its various iconic elements. The Delhi pack showcases the pride of Delhi - The Red Fort. Tata Tea Premium Street Chais of India is a collection that appreciates and celebrates the very local street flavours of India. All variants of Tata Tea Premium Street Chais of India are 250 g, priced at MRP Rs. 145/- (Incl. of all taxes) and available on Ecommerce and Grocery outlets near you.

(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)
New Delhi, March 19 : One of the largest groups of millennials and Gen Zers are found in India, where they make up a sizable portion of the labour force. Due to the demographic change, new workplace dynamics and difficulties have emerged that call for creative solutions. Multigenerational mentoring is one of these options, which pairs up younger employees with more seasoned ones from various age groups to exchange knowledge and skills.

Multigenerational mentoring has many advantages. One benefit is that it aids in bridging the generational divide in the workforce, which frequently results in misconceptions and disputes. Additionally, it aids in the transfer of institutional knowledge from more seasoned workers to less seasoned ones, making sure that crucial abilities and knowledge are not lost as elder workers retire or transition to other positions.

But perhaps most significantly, multigenerational mentoring can support the formation of an organizational culture that values ongoing learning and growth. Employees must be able to quickly adjust to new technologies, business procedures, and market trends in a world that is changing rapidly. Organisations can establish a learning environment that promotes innovation, collaboration, and development by pairing younger employees with more seasoned mentors.

Data from a study carried out by Deloitte India corroborates the notion that intergenerational mentoring is essential to the success of both employees and organizations. According to the survey, nearly 80 per cent of millennials and Gen Zers prefer to learn from more seasoned workers, and more than 70 per cent think that mentorship is crucial to their professional growth.

Mentorship has been linked to better job satisfaction, higher salaries, and quicker professional advancement, according to a different LinkedIn study. The research found that employees who have mentors have a 130 per cent higher chance of getting promoted than those who don't.

Nevertheless, despite these advantages, multi-generational mentorship programs have been sluggish to catch on in India. Others might be unsure of how to successfully pair mentors and mentees from different generations. Some may be reluctant to devote the time and resources necessary to implement such programs. However, the advantages of cross-generational mentoring are obvious, and businesses that reject it run the risk of sliding behind their rivals. Organizations can develop a culture of continuous learning and development that is advantageous to both individual employees and the organization as a whole by investing in mentorship programs that match younger and older employees.

In conclusion, the success of a company and its employees in India depends on multigenerational mentoring. Organizations can remain ahead of the curve in a world that is changing quickly by fostering a culture of continuous learning and development. This also helps to build a more sociable and effective workforce.

(Anand Dewan, Group CEO, BYLD Group) (IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)
WASHINGTON  Besieged Republican Rep. George Santos arrives on the House floor most days to deliver short speeches  celebrating women-owned small businesses, a special high school in his district or raising concern about various countries in crises.

At other times he can be seen dashing through the halls of the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers do, from one meeting to the next. He once passed out doughnuts to the press corps staking out his office.

Far from being chastened by the widespread criticism, mockery and rejection that Santos has received after having admitted to fabricating many aspects of his life story, the newly elected congressman is breezily carrying on in Congress. He is refusing calls for his resignation all while rewriting the narrative in real time.

For Santos, it's an unusual up-is-down approach that would have been almost unthinkable in an earlier generation but one that signals the new norms taking hold amid the deepening of a post-truth era in Congress.

"I was elected by the people to come here to represent them, and I do that every day," Santos told The Associated Press in a brief interview off the House floor.

"It's a hard job. If I said it was easy, I'd be lying to you  and I don't think that's what we want, right?"

Pressed about the idea of a post-truth era, Santos said, "I think truth still matters very much."

Perhaps not since Donald Trump launched his presidency with exaggerated claims of the crowd size at his inauguration has an elected official arrived in Washington and sought so brazenly and defiantly to convince the public of reality different than the one before their very eyes.

Santos is coming of political age at a time of an unmooring in civic life, when a duly-sworn member of the U.S. Congress can persevere, business as usual, despite having admittedly lied to voters about his resume, experience and personal life as he ran for elected office.

While Santos faces a crush of investigations  by the House Ethics Committee and a county prosecutor in New York  as well as questions from earlier charges in Brazil, where he lived for a time, he appears unmoved by the challenges.

Just a few days ago, Santos filed paperwork to potentially seek reelection.

"It used to be that when a politician lied, and they got caught, they were ashamed  or there was some sort of accountability," said Lee McIntyre, the author of "Post-Truth" and a research fellow at Boston University.

"What I see in the post-truth era is not just that people are lying or lying more, it's that they're lying with a political purpose," he said. "The really scary part is getting away with it."

At stake is not just "truthiness," as comedian Stephen Colbert once called falsehoods in public life, but broader questions over the expectation of truth-telling from political leadership.

Santos has admitted he had portrayed himself as someone he was not  not a college graduate, not a Wall Street whiz, not from a Jewish family of Holocaust survivors, not the son who lost his mother in the 9/11 World Trade Center attack.

In the time since, more questions have flowed, including about the origins of a $700,000 loan he made to his campaign for Congress and his own reported wealth.

Fellow Republican Rep. Anthony D'Esposito of New York, a freshman who won election last fall from the neighboring Long Island district, said: "I don't think it's the state of politics. I think it's state of an individual  and the state that he's in is one of delusion."

D'Esposito has introduced a pair of bills that would prevent elected officials from profiting off wrongdoing and said he is working with others to ensure Santos is not "the face of our party. We've made it very clear. He's not our brand. He's not part of us."

While Santos did remove himself from his committee assignments while the investigations are underway, he has withstood the pressure from Republicans to resign and from Democrats to be expelled from office.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who won a slim Republican majority with just a few seats to spare, has said the voters elected Santos and "he has a right to serve." If wrongdoing is found, Santos could be removed from office, he said.

"He should have resigned a long time ago," said Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the Democratic president of the freshman class who sponsored the resolution to expel Santos.

"This is not just Democrats saying this and his Republican colleagues in New York," Garcia said in an interview. "Nobody wants him in D.C."

But Santos appears emboldened as his profile has risen, even being parodied on "Saturday Night Live." He has introduced his own bills in Congress  including one to require cognitive tests for presidents  and is trying to move on.

"I've owned up to it, and I came clean on it," he said referring to the public apologies he made in December.

When President Joe Biden arrived to deliver the State of the Union address last month, Santos infuriated colleagues by situating himself on the center aisle  the place to see and be seen greeting the high-profile guests. He was scolded by fellow Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, who said it was improper for Santos to be "parading in front of the president" and others.

"Senator Romney just echoed something I heard my entire life, right, coming from a minority group, coming from a poor family: Go to the back room and shut up. Nobody cares to hear about you," Santos recalled. "Well, I'm not going to do that."

Santos often turns the tables, engaging in the whataboutism that has become commonplace in modern politics  the verbal somersault of equating one's actions with those of others, even when they are not quite comparable situations.

"You know," Santos said, "have you ever not told a lie? Think hard."

It's what McIntyre calls a classic "disinformation tactic" designed not to bring clarity but confusion, and avoid accountability.

Asked if he was here to stay, Santos said, "I'm here to do the job I was elected to do for the next two years."

But will he run for reelection? "Maybe."
New Delhi, March 19 : To commemorate the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between India and Sri Lanka, the National Gallery of Modern Art, the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, the High Commission of Sri Lanka, New Delhi with the Geoffrey Bawa Trust Colombo, presents Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There.

This gathering honors the cultural exchange program and is the first major exhibition which draws from the archives to look at the Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa's practice.

The show examines the various ways in which images were used in Bawa's work by examining relationships between concepts, drawings, buildings, and locations. There will be more than 120 papers from the Bawa archives on display, including a section on unfinished projects and Bawa's personal travel photos.

Although Bawa's work has been exhibited at multiple venues in Sri Lanka, The United Kingdom, North America, Australia, India, Brazil, Singapore, and Germany, this is the first exhibition to focus on the archive, and the first retrospective exhibition of his work to be shown internationally since 2004.

For the India-edition of Geoffrey Bawa: It Is Essential to be There, the Initiating partner Kohler India, Airline Partner/National Carrier of Sri Lanka, SriLankan Airlines, and Logistics Partner, CF Global, provided the Geoffrey Bawa Trust with generous funding assistance.

Dates: 18th March - 8th May, 2023 Venue: National Gallery of Modern Art Jaipur House, India Gate, New Delhi 110003, India

Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. - 6.30 p.m. Closed on Monday.

(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)
The showcase includes new China-made silicone tubing enabling local material supply and meeting growing local demand.

DuPont (NYSE: DD) today starts its two-day exhibition at the 2023 EBC Biopharma Conference (booth: D017), introducing a series of high-quality products for value chain users in the biopharmaceutical industry. The showcase includes new China-made silicone tubing enabling local material supply and meeting growing local demand. DuPont Healthcare also announces the new Chinese brand name for Liveo Healthcare Solutions at the exhibition for the first time.

At the EBC exhibition, DuPont Liveo Healthcare is showcasing several product lines for biopharmaceutical processing solutions at the booth, including:



Liveo Pharma Silicone Tubing Tubing of different duro hardness, peristaltic pump tubing, and braided reinforced tubing

Liveo Pharma TPE Tubing

Liveo Pharma Silicone Tubing and Overmolded Assemblies

One of the featured products, Liveo Pharma-50 (AP) Pharma Silicone Tubing, is produced in China, in a production environment that meets ISO Class 7 clean room standards. Liveo Pharma-50 (AP) tubing consists of high-purity, biomedical grade, platinum-catalyzed silicone designed for ultra-pure fluid transfer applications for upstream and downstream processing of pharma and biopharma drug products. As tubing represents one of the largest surface areas in direct contact with drug substances during the drug manufacturing process, Pharma-50 (AP) tubing needs to meet strict regulatory and quality requirements.

In August 2022, DuPont announced that it was increasing production capabilities for its Liveo Pharma Silicone Tubing by adding manufacturing capacity in eastern China. The manufacturing expansion aims to meet demand for high-quality, high-performance biopharmaceutical tubing in Greater China. After several months of production, the supply of Liveo tubing is ramping up to help meet the needs of customers with the same quality and shorter lead times than imported products. The supply of tubing materials in various diameters is strengthening DuPont Healthcare's goal of becoming a trusted material supplier in the local market.

With the solid supply of localized materials, DuPont Healthcare is officially announcing the new Chinese brand name for Liveo -  at the EBC Conference. Zhang Xin, Asia Pacific Commercial Leader for Healthcare and MOLYKOTE Specialty Lubricants, DuPont Electronics & Industrial, said: " demonstrates the commitment of Liveo Healthcare to using material technology to bring customers products of high purity and high quality. Our products help protect the health of patients and healthcare providers worldwide, and the high-performance materials help create safer healthcare environments enabling smarter healthcare and positive patient outcomes."

Inspired by the terms live and to be alive, Liveo reflects our drive to create innovative next-generation solutions that can help patients live life to the fullest. The Chinese brand name is consistent with the brands mission and vision. The creation of the Chinese brand is to enable Liveo Healthcare Solutions to better serve local customers, patients, and healthcare providers in the future and deliver the power behind the brand to create a better quality of life for everyone.

About DuPont Liveo Healthcare Solutions

DuPont Liveo is a globally recognized leader in technology for a broad range of innovations in medical devices, biopharmaceutical processing and pharmaceutical solutions. DuPont high-performance materials help create safer healthcare environments and protect the health of patients and healthcare providers worldwide. We help enable smarter healthcare and positive patient outcomes. More information can be found at liveo.dupont.com and at liveo.dupont.cn.

About DuPont Electronics & Industrial

DuPont Electronics & Industrial is a global supplier of new technologies and performance materials serving the semiconductor, circuit board, display, digital and flexographic printing, healthcare, aerospace, industrial, and transportation industries. From advanced technology centers worldwide, teams of talented research scientists and application experts work closely with customers, providing solutions, products and technical service to enable next-generation technologies.

About DuPont

DuPont (NYSE: DD) is a global innovation leader with technology-based materials and solutions that help transform industries and everyday life. Our employees apply diverse science and expertise to help customers advance their best ideas and deliver essential innovations in key markets including electronics, transportation, construction, water, healthcare and worker safety. More information about the company, its businesses and solutions can be found at http://www.dupont.com. Investors can access information included on the Investor Relations section of the website at investors.dupont.com.

# # #

DuPont, the DuPont Oval Logo, and all trademarks and service marks denoted with , SM or  are owned by affiliates of DuPont de Nemours, Inc. unless otherwise noted.

03/18/23
If you're thinking of opening a coffee shop in Delaware or any other state, call 1-888-800-9224 to reach our startup team. Were excited to share information and resources to help entrepreneurs like you." - Greg Ubert, Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea

Want to learn how to open a coffee shop in Delaware? Get tips on starting a profitable business in The First State from coffee shop startup experts at Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea.

Through its 7 Steps to Success coffee shop startup program, Roast magazines 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year has taught over 300 entrepreneurs in 30 states how to open their own independent coffee shops.

Now, the companys 7 Steps coffee shop startup consulting team has added to its series of state-level coffee shop startup guides with, How to Start a Coffee Shop in Delaware.

Delaware is a terrific place to start a coffee shop! said Crimson Cup Founder and President Greg Ubert.

In fact, Delaware ranks 23rd among the states in the number of coffee shops per capita, with fewer than one coffee shop for every 5,862 residents. That leaves a lot of Delawareans without a local coffee shop, especially in the smaller cities and towns.

The program is based on Uberts book, Seven Steps to Success: A Common-sense Guide to Succeed in Specialty Coffee, which he wrote to help coffee shop owners develop profitable businesses by mastering all aspects of successful coffee shop operations.

We help entrepreneurs with little or no coffee experience become owners of thriving coffee shops serving their local communities, he said.

From choosing a terrific location and writing a strong coffee shop business plan to buying and laying out equipment, hiring and training staff and more, our team is here to guide you.

To hear about the book in Uberts own words, download a free recorded introduction on Soundcloud.

Besides the Delaware guide, Crimson Cup recently published guides on How to Start a Coffee Shop in Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, Delaware, Illinois, Tennessee, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Virginia, Missouri, Wisconsin, Connecticut, New Jersey, Iowa, Alabama, Maine, Arkansas, Vermont, Rhode Island, Utah, Colorado, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Wyoming, South Dakota, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Pennsylvania.

The roaster will continue to post a state-level guide each week until all 50 states are covered.

Although the fundamentals of coffee shop operation remain the same from state to state, the economic opportunities, business formation and licensing requirements vary widely, Ubert said. Were excited to share information and resources to help entrepreneurs expedite their startup journey.

He invited anyone who is thinking of opening a coffee shop in any state to call Crimson Cup for guidance.

If you run into any roadblocks or just want to discuss your vision with a coffee expert, you can reach our startup team by calling 1-888-800-9224.

About Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea

Founded in 1991, Crimson Cup is at the forefront of the coffee industry. 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.
25 lots, 50 plate messages that are uniquely interconnected. Every person is unique in their own way, and this Opposites Attract Auction offers Texans a fun way to celebrate that uniqueness between one another

For the first time ever, My Plates, the official specialty license plate vendor in Texas, is auctioning two unique plate messages per lot across 25 total lots. 25 lots x 2 plate messages equal 50 one-of-a-kind plates to be auctioned.

Each lot offers two plate messages that are uniquely interconnected in some way, shape, or form. This connection can be in the form of opposites, like BLACK & WHITE, NEW & OLD, 1-YIN & 1-YANG, or a complimentary message like 1-SUN-1 & 1-MOON-1 or 1-ADAM-1 & 1-EVE-1. My Plates is calling this their Opposites Attract Auction.

Every person is unique in their own way, and this Opposites Attract Auction offers Texans a fun way to celebrate that uniqueness between one another, said CEO/President of My Plates, Steve Farrar.

Auction Details:



Dates: March 15, 12:01 am until April 19, 2023, 8:00 pm.

Online auction accessed via http://www.myplates.com/auction.

All bidders must be registered to place a bid.

People interested in the auction can visit http://www.myplates.com/auction for more information, to register, and to view the complete list of plate messages available.

Winners get to place the plate message on any of the 100+ eligible My Plates Select designs.

My Plates Opposites Attract Auction List 2023

Lot # Message 1 & 2

1. 1-ADAM-1 & 1-EVE-1

2. 1-SUN-1 & 1-MOON-1

3. 1-UP-1 & 1-DOWN-1

4. 1-EAST-1 & 1-WEST-1

5. BLACK & WHITE

6. 1-YIN & 1-YANG

7. 1-LEFT-1 & 1RIGHT1

8. 1-RICH-1 & 1-POOR-1

9. 1-WIN-1 & 1-LOSE-1

10. 1-NORTH & 1-SOUTH

11. HE@HER & SHE@HIM (@ = love heart symbol)

12. 1LOST1 & 1FOUND1

13. 1DAY1 & 1NIGHT1

14. APPLE-1 & 1-ORANGE

15. NEW & OLD

16. BEAUTY-1 & BEAST-1

17. 1SUGAR1 & 1SPICE1

18. BACK & FRONT

19. 1-CAT-1 & 1-DOG-1

20. BATMAAN & 1-JOKER

21. 1-KING-1 & 1QUEEN1

22. IPHONE & ANDROID

23. 4-WORK & 1-PLAY

24. SPEND & SAVE

25. 1-SLEEP & 1-WAKE

Interested bidders can register to bid online via http://www.myplates.com/auction. The auction closes 8.00pm CST, April 19, 2023.
After initially saying he wouldnt appeal, NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin changed course and announced he would appeal NASCARs penalty for making intentional contact with Ross Chastain.

Hamlin posted his announcement on Twitter, saying, After much consideration Ive decided that I will appeal the decision by NASCAR to penalize me. What happened on Sunday was common hard racing that happens each and every weekend. There was also no manipulation of the race nor actions detrimental to the sport.

After much consideration Ive decided that I will appeal the decision by NASCAR to penalize me.

What happened on Sunday was common hard racing that happens each and every weekend. There was also no manipulation of the race nor actions detrimental to the sport.  Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) March 17, 2023

On Monday, one day after Sundays race, Hamlin revealed on his Actions Detrimental podcast that he intentionally got into Chastain in Phoenix. After the race, the two came to a truce.

On Wednesday, NASCAR announced Hamlin was penalized 25 driver points and $50,000. NASCAR SVP of Competition Elton Sawyer said on SiriusXM that Hamlins comments led to the suspension and if he hadnt said anything, NASCAR would have deemed the move as a racing incident.

Hamlin feels like he has a point, and he very well might. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the incident, and a NASCAR executive even said that they originally saw it as a racing incident. So just like NASCAR using Hamlins words against him, Hamlin might be able to use Sawyers words against NASCAR.

That being said, I would be genuinely surprised if Hamlin wins his appeal. Appeals in general are rarely overturned in NASCAR. A $50,000 fine and 25 points isnt egregious, and NASCAR has penalized others for intentional contact due to admitting that. Stranger things have happened, but this might not go Hamlins way.

Either way, itll make for a great episode of Actions Detrimental this upcoming Monday.

[Denny Hamlin]
Single-subject cookbooks reflect their times, says Lisa Dyer, associate publisher at Welbeck Publishing Group. In the 1990s, she recalls, books touted of-the-moment appliances and equipment such as microwaves and juicers; slim, gift-y titles about a single ingredient, like the avocado, followed. Forthcoming books, Dyer says, speak to a market hungry for both simplicity and variety: Even if I have one thing, the thinking goes, I can build a meal around it.

Refined tastes

In Ramen, a June release from Welbeck imprint OH! Life, that one thing is the familiar Japanese noodle soup, rendered by London restaurateur Makiko Sano in 80 recipes that emphasize ease and affordability. Ramen is ubiquitous, popular, and endlessly customizable, Dyer says, explaining that Sano draws from her Japanese childhood and her Korean culinary education in foundational recipes for dashis and tares, and in dishes that incorporate fresh sea vegetables. The book also includes TikTok-inspired takes on instant ramen, Dyer adds. We want readers to have fun, and eat ramen all the time: for breakfast or instead of grandmas chicken soup when youre sick.

Anna Hezel, senior editor at Epicurious, emphasizes the versatility of canned seafood in Tin to Table (Chronicle, Apr.). Im part of the CannedSardines subreddit, she says. Its tens of thousands of people who eat tinned fish and leave funny, nice little reviews about how they ate them and what they paired them with.

Packaged seafood, Hezel notes in the books introduction, has made its way into hundreds of dishes and cuisines around the world. She stresses its utility in the opening chapters: tinned mussels may be enjoyed straight out of the can; canned octopus is just as delicious as its fresh counterpart and far more affordable, too. Theres plenty of inspiration to be found here, according to PWs review, in snacks (Vermouth Hour Potato Chips with Mussels, Olives & Piparras), mains (Rice Cooker Sardine Rice with Grated Ginger, Sweet Corn & Green Onions), and more. Eunjo Park, a 2020 Food & Wine best new chef, contributed a recipe for tuna kimbap. The cheapest canned tuna mixed with gochujang for a spicy, fermented, sweet flavor, Hezel says. Its insanely good. You wont believe that youre eating a $2 can of tuna.

The Arepa (Ryland Peters & Small, June) focuses on what Baltimore restaurateur Irena Stein sees as an ambassador of Venezuelan cuisine. Millions of people have left Venezuela for political and economic reasons, she says, and went everywhere in the world. Wherever they went, they brought arepas. I want to honor this wonderful, important aspect of our gastronomy, which started before colonial times and has stayed in everybodys household every single day.

Steins favorite recipes are for cheese arepa, which every child takes to school, and pabellon arepa, which she calls Venezuelas national dish. Theyre important in our culture, and theyre damn delicious. She sees the books Asian-, Mediterranean- and Middle Easterninspired variations as a celebration of the Venezuelan diaspora. Every Latin country has its pockets of bread, she says. And every flavor of every culture fits in it so well.

Total immersion

Baking cookbooks, a category unto themselves, are ripe for the single-subject treatment.

When Brown Butter Blondie blogger Heather Mubarak noticed that her sandwich cookieswhoopie pies, macarons, copycat Oreoswere popular on her social media channels, she knew shed hit upon a book idea. In her debut, Stuffed (Chronicle, Apr.), she shares 65 recipes for stuffed cookies, including ones she says are a little less typical, such as carrot cake cookies with brown butter cream cheese frosting and rosemary pine nut sables with whipped goat cheese. The books final chapter has recipes for 30 fillings, among them eggnog buttercream, Meyer lemon curd, and slow-churn ice cream. I want readers to mix and match, she says. Because really, no two cookie cravings are the same.

Erica Council, the chef-owner of Atlantas Bomb Biscuits, speaks to the African American heritage of her signature quick bread in Still We Rise (Clarkson Potter, Aug.). I grew up in this industry and I saw nothing but African American men and women baking, she says. Everything that elevated my own baking style came from them.

Council is the granddaughter of soul food chef Mildred Mama Dip Council, who cooked and baked to support the civil rights movement, and many of the books recipes are rooted in family histories. For example, her roasted peach biscuit is an homage to her great-aunts shortcake biscuit-type concoction, which she cut in wedges, like a cake, she says. Theyre not the prettiest, but they remind me of what she made.

Council hopes her single-subject book will lead readers to cookbooks that shaped African American culinary history, like those by Norma Jean and Carole Darden, Cleora Butler, and Freda DeKnight. And all these extraordinary African American men and women who were fermenting potatoes to make biscuits in 1939, she says. I want people to know their names.

Whats the big idea?

Narrowing the focus to a single ingredient can inspire introspection and exploration, says Artisan publisher Lia Ronnen. A pair of her spring titles highlight ingredients that foodies obsess over, she says. People who are really interested in food love going narrow and deep. They have definite opinions about tomatoes and oysters.

In The Joy of Oysters (May), Wine Enthusiast food editor Nils Bernstein shares tips for buying, storing, and shucking oysters, and, Ronnen says, debunks the notion that oysters should only be eaten during certain months. Recipes include Korean oyster fritters (gul jeon), oyster fricassee, and oyster shooters. In Simply Tomato, James Beard Awardwinning food writer Martha Holmberg stresses using the right tomato for the right preparationa beefsteak to roast with fish, cherry tomatoes for a saladand embraces the convenience of canned varieties. People like to become instant experts; thats part of the intention of these books, Ronnen says.

Rhubarb (TouchWood, May) by chef and photographer Sren Staun Petersen speaks to the same sort of readership, and elevates the spring ingredient beyond pies and crisps. Petersens 35 recipes include savory preparations, such as pizza bianca, and sweets, such as rhubarb banana bread, as well as compotes, chutneys, and drinks. In Yogurt & Whey (Norton, out now), Homa Dashtaki, founder of artisanal yogurt brand White Moustache, highlights whey, a by-product of traditional yogurt-making practices. She employs whey as the star in labneh and kashak, and in a supporting role in ghormeh sabzi, lemon meringue pie, and pineapple martinis. PWs starred review called Dashtakis debut an edifying and delicious exploration of Zoroastrian cuisine.

Michigan chef Abra Berenss previous books addressed vegetables (Ruffage) and beans and grains (Grist); her next outing, Pulp (Chronicle, Apr.), which incorporates fruit at every meal, will have home chefs heading to the farmers market or produce aisle with renewed confidence, according to PWs review. Chapters are divided by fruit (drupelet berries, pears, plums) and further by technique (raw, poached, stewed). Her one-pan Sunday roast uses baked apples; she tops coconut tapioca pudding with roasted mulberries and lime.

Similar to Berens, Mark Kurlansky has written several well-regarded single-subject books, including Cod, Salt, and Milk!. With the forthcoming The Core of an Onion (Bloomsbury, July), he peels back the alliums layers through science, art, mythology, and 100 historical recipes. Onions are both commonplace and unusual: theyre the only vegetable with a built-in defense mechanism to attack mammals who try to eat them, he says. Theyre also ubiquitous around the world, but because of their strangeness, theyve taken on all kinds of meanings in different cultures and are used in a lot of ways. He packs the book with historical context, including the whole story of how sweet onions ended up in Texas. The British didnt want to waste their land growing onions, so they grew them in Bermuda. Then the U.S. used tariffs to destroy Bermuda onions and grew them in Texas instead.

Kurlansky, like other authors and editors interviewed for this piece, uses his narrow lens as a window onto a larger vista: Youre learning a lot about the world when you look at these seemingly small things.

Pooja Makhijani is a writer and editor in New Jersey.

Read more from our Cooking Book feature:

Who Are You Feeding?: PW Talks with Natasha Pickowicz

In More Than Cake (Artisan, Apr.), the James Beard Awardwinning pastry chef showcases her distinctive aesthetic and her commitment to social justice.

Have Your Kayak and Eat Well Too: New Cookbooks

Great meals in the great outdoors? No problem, say these cookbooks.

Setting the (cui)Scene: New Cookbooks

Media tie-in cookbooks invite fans to experience old favorites in a new way.

Open Kitchen: New Cookbooks

PW spoke with the authors of two spring titles that combat ableism in the kitchen.
Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom

Nina Varela (Little, Brown, out now)

Editor Alexandra Hightower: In middle grade, its crucial that stories dont talk down to kids, but instead speak directly to them and meet them where they are. Nailing this voice means more than aging the character between 8-12, its about seeing the world through a tweens eyes, capturing the enthusiasm, the angst, the anxieties, and the hope that they feel when moving through life. For example, in Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom, author Nina Varela leans into a first-person perspective that includes just the right edge of self-deprecation. This vulnerability welcomed me into the messiest parts of Junipers heart, and this closeness and authenticity allows readers to really feel the way Juniper grows into herself by the end.

Varela: Juniper Harvey is inspired by the story of Pygmalion the Sculptor, first recorded in Ovids Metamorphosesa chronicling and reworking of existing myths and legends that had long been floating in the Greco-Roman cultural soup. Princess Galateas culture is based on the Classical period of Ancient Greece and informed by the Greek pantheon, but her gods have different names, different histories. I approached it research-first, rereading a lot of classical textsand researching lesbians and lesbian expression in antiquity, starting with Sappho and going from there. Greek mythological retellings are hardly underrepresented in Western literatureIm not breaking new ground, structuring my pantheon off the Theogony. Mostly I took the story of Pygmalion the woman-hating sculptorthe artist whose beloved creation came to lifeand made it about young queers. I think this is at least slightly in the spirit of Ovid, obsessed as he was with metamorphosisand the transformation of traditional narratives to suit his preferences.

I had so much fun with the magic. From one draft to the next I pulled fewer and fewer punches, just going all-outyes Galateas island floats in the sky, yes there are fanged flying sheep and toady swamp creatures and lesbian gods. I just wanted it to feel so big and wild. I also wanted to play with the portal fantasy genres emphasis on placeof course Galateas world feels magical, but I wanted Junipers world (small-town Florida) to feel magical too. I didnt want our world to be the boring gray-wash one. The existence of Actual Magic isnt what makes a place magicalits how much attention you pay to the wondrous workings of it, how much youre willing to notice. If you decide its beautiful then it is. I wanted to make Junipers home beautiful.

I hope this book feels like an escape. Especially for queer readers. Again, its set in Floridathe state that in March 2022 passed the so-called Dont Say Gay law prohibiting public school teachers from instructing on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. Florida lawmakers are currently trying to expand those restrictions through eighth grade. In the U.S., more than 300 new anti-LGBT bills were introduced in 2022 alone. Were in the midst of a full-blown moral panic about transness, especially the existence of trans kidsvirulent, horrific, increasingly violent transphobia is coming from all sides. Conservatives are calling for eradication of trans people. Liberals are hemming and hawing, too cowardly as always to condemn even the most blatant calls for genocide. It is reprehensible beyond words. Queer kids deserve so much better. I want joy and safety, comfort and acceptance, for them, as much as they can get; as much as I can give.

I hope this book feels like an escape. Especially for queer readers, I want joy and safety, comfort and acceptance for them, as much as they can get, as much as I can give.
ABC/JC Olivera

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/17/2023



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[Bachelor Spoilers Warning: This report contains spoilers that will spoil the rest of Zach's season for you, including who Zach ended up with and picked as his winner.]

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Zach's season was filmed last fall

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Zach's season has been billed as "a bit of a throwback" and "a beautiful story"

Zach "cries a lot" during and it's "the most emotional show"

Zach's Final 2 bachelorettes are Gabi Elnicki and Kaity Biggar

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Zach got engaged to Kaity at his final Rose Ceremony

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

Bachelor spoilers have spoiled what's going to happen on the rest of Zach Shallcross ' season from hometown dates through Zach's Final Rose Ceremony -- including who received roses after hometowns, Zach's Final 2 bachelorettes, whom Zach picked and ended up with as his winner, and whether Zach is still engaged.'s 27th just featured Zach eliminating Charity Lawson after hometown dates.And host Jesse Palmer teased during The Women Tell All special that a crazy episode is on its way -- an episode Zach also dubbed "overwhelming" and nerve-wracking to have to watch back."What transpires during overnights is so shocking, so explosive, and so emotional that it will have all of America talking... It is crazier and more emotional than you can even imagine," Jesse warned the studio audience and home viewers at The Women Tell All taping.During a preview of 's upcoming March 20 episode, Zach apparently finds himself in a very sticky situation with his Final 3 bachelorettes: Ariel Frenkel , a 28-year-old marketing executive from New York City, NY; Gabi Elnicki , a 25-year-old account executive from Pittsford, VT; and Kaity Biggar , a 27-year-old ER nurse from Austin, TX.Zach reveals he's "in love," and Kaity says, "I have never felt this way in my entire life."Zach apparently tells Gabi that he's "falling in love" with her, and Ariel expresses her love to Zach."How do I make a decision when my heart is being pulled in separate directions? Real feelings are at stake and everything can change in a day -- in a night," Zach notes.Zach then tells Jesse his decision of "no sex" in the Fantasy Suites "of any kind."But Zach faces temptation. Ariel calls him "delicious," and Kaity gushes, "It feels so right with him."Zach then confirms, "Something really special happened," before telling Jesse that he let himself and the women down by "saying one thing and doing another."Gabi cries, "It's not fair. Why am I putting myself through this pain?"Zach insists there's no regret about "the beautiful moment" on his part but it feels "robbed" from him.Kaity then complains she's "not happy" and just wants to go home."Coming into this, I wanted to do the right thing. I went with my head and not my heart, and that was the worst thing I could've done. I've caused pain and I've made mistakes, but true love is worth fighting for," Zach concludes.spoilers reveal Zach's upcoming Rose Ceremony decisions and eliminations leading up to his winner, as recently reported by Reality Steve spoiler blogger Steve Carbone.So what happens on the rest of Zach's season? Which bachelorette wins Zach's heart and does star get engaged? Keep reading for all the spoilers that are currently out there!Zach's season began filming in late September 2022 at the famous Bachelor mansion in California.Zach and some of his lucky bachelorettes then visited the United Kingdom, Estonia and Hungry while star continued to narrow his pool of bachelorettes down to the Final 4 women he would visit for hometown dates.season followed the show's usual production schedule and finished filming in late November with Zach's Final Rose Ceremony, but premiered three weeks later than the "first Monday of January" premiere date that historically begins airing on ABC.Jesse Palmer told E! News in November that Zach's season "is a bit of a throwback.""This season is a lot more about the romance and the love, and maybe a little bit less about the drama," explained Jesse, who starred on Season 5 of back in 2004.Jesse also said on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast in early January that Zach "really shines" throughout his season."I really think he comes through," Jesse teased. "He has a beautiful story, and I'm really excited for people to see it.""This is easily the most emotional show that I've hosted in the franchise to date," Jesse told E! News in November.Jesse also told Us Weekly that bachelorettes were "really into Zach."Jesse shared late last year, "Zach's so emotionally mature and he's a guy that's not afraid to wear his emotion on his sleeve. He's very, very intentional. This is easily the most emotional show that I've hosted in the franchise."Jesse said Zach's season is "emotionally charged" because the bachelorettes really want to end up with Zach."It's a [totally] different vibe than I've [ever] had hosting any of the other shows," the host noted.After completing his round of hometown dates, Zach enjoyed his overnight Fantasy Suite dates in Krabi, Thailand.It's unclear whether Zach went into a Fantasy Suite with all three of Ariel Frenkel Gabriella "Gabi" Elnicki , and Kaitlyn "Kaity" Biggar But based on the show's recent previews, Zach had sex with at least one of them without despite his prior pledge that he would not have sex with any of them -- causing lots of drama!In Carbone's new February 6 blog posting, he revealed that Ariel was eliminated at the Rose Ceremony following Zach's Fantasy Suite dates.Zach's Final 2 bachelorettes were therefore Kaity and Gabi.Jesse Palmer told Us Weekly in November that he was "10,000 percent" certain Zach will have a happy ending and that he couldn't wait for people to see the Bachelor's journey.And Zach has repeatedly revealed in media interviews that he found love on the show and is "very happy" in life right now.Zach also told Variety that "a lot happens" on his "emotional roller-coaster" of a season -- but it's all a "beautiful part of how everything works out."According to Carbone's February 6 blog, Zach dumped Gabriella "Gabi" Elnicki in second place and chose Kaitlyn "Kaity" Biggar as his winner!And not only that, but Zach proposed marriage to Kaity and the pair got engaged!Although it's been reported on social media that Gabi was the bachelorette who won Zach's heart, Carbone said he trusts his sources."I'll bet on myself... I don't reveal my sources or how I get any info. But with another spoiler out there for 2 months that's opposite of mine, now we can officially say one of us is dead wrong. Gonna make for a great finale night I tell ya," Carbone wrote.Carbone apparently received "some info this past weekend" about Zach's winner that he felt comfortable running with.Zach recently told Deadline that he "wouldn't trade" his experience on the show for anything, even though he had to endure some "ups and downs" to get to the finish line.On February 28, Carbone reported the Instagram account @bachelorsherlock -- which is private -- posted a photo of Zach and Kaity Biggar at the Final Rose Ceremony.Carbone claimed the photo showed Zach and Kaity together "clearly" after he picked her as his winner."So that pic posted by @bachelorsherlock just made doubters not have to wait until March 27th to believe my spoiler," Carbone wrote on March 1."This should be all the evidence they need. Don't know how they got the pic, nor does it matter. It's clear as day who Zach is with."Interested in more news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
Arizona Helping Hands is in the process of expanding its services across the state, and as part of that effort, it is setting up ways to bring its Basic Needs Program to Flagstaff to better support foster families throughout northern Arizona.

Foster families and community partners -- such as case workers and local organizations -- statewide can currently use Helping Hands services, but because the organization is based in Phoenix, the trip is often several hours long.

We have stories of case specialists, tribal workers who have driven three hours one way down to our warehouse to get needed items, said Matt Lipan, community engagement director. We were like, 'No, theres got to be a better way.' ... We want to do more, we want to do better.

Helping Hands is planning to create hubs across the state to increase that access in locations such as Flagstaff, Tucson and Yuma. It is starting in northern Arizona -- which Lipan estimated currently has 1,100 kids in foster care across Coconino, Mohave, Apache and Navajo counties.

The organization is in the process of finding an office space in Flagstaff as well as adding at least one mobile unit to help reach more remote locations.

The hope is to have these ready by fall, Lipan said.

The Basic Needs Program provides kids in foster care (aged 21 and younger) with items such as mattresses, cribs, car seats, hygiene kits, clothing and toys. The idea is to provide families with essentials they might not have had time to pack on entering the foster care system, especially a place to sleep and other necessities.

The organization served 2,789 children in 2022, according to its website, distributing 1,365 beds through the Basic Needs Program.

Lipan has plans to bring other Helping Hands services north. Its Birthday Dreams Program, for example, which creates birthday bags with new gifts specifically designed for each kid.

Lipan said his hope once the Flagstaff location is established is for Helping Hands to become top of mind for the foster community here in the north, so that we become a go-to for them, a resource that if theres a need they have identified or theyre experiencing that we will be one of the first contacts they think of.

He added: "I want to have our resources available. Its probably too lofty to say in every community, but thats really my goal -- that we have a presence here in the north and that the foster community really feels like they have access to the things we provide and feel truly supported by us.

Helping Hands services are available to anyone in Arizonas foster community, including both foster and kinship families.

The most common needs families have, Lipan said, are clothing (especially for boys 18 months and older) and shoes, diapers and wipes and all sorts of hygiene products. The organization only accepts donations of new items.

Thats a part of our mission, is that we want to provide the newest and best for the kiddos that we serve, he said.

More information, including ways to access services or volunteer, can be found at azhelpinghands.org.
Actor Lance Reddick, known for his roles in John Wick and The Wire, died suddenly Friday in his Los Angeles home at age 60 -- just a week before Chapter 4 of the Wick franchise is released.

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Two weeks earlier, Reddick attended a press junket in Los Angeles to promote the movie, at which he thanked the franchise for helping him cross over from television to film.

"For me, particularly in terms of film, John Wick changed everything," Reddick told UPI. "I had done films before, but I had primarily a television career. So it's really a line of demarcation for me."

Reddick was in all four John Wick films, beginning with the 2014 original, as Charon, the concierge of the Continental hotel. The Continental is home to assassins, who are forbidden to work on Continental premises.

That year also began Reddick's run on Bosch. Before that, he was a regular cast member on Fringe and The Wire.

Reddick was born in Baltimore, where The Wire took place. He probably was best known for his role as Baltimore police Lt. Cedric Daniels in the HBO drama, which ran from 2002 to 2008.

Recently, he starred in Netflix's Resident Evil series, and he had been a guest on many shows since the 1990s. Reddick's voiceover work included podcasts, animated series and video games.

Before John Wick, Reddick appeared in films including The Guest, White House Down, Jonah Hex and Don't Say a Word. While returning for John Wick sequels, Reddick also landed roles in films Angel Has Fallen, Godzilla vs. Kong, Sylvie's Love and One Night in Miami.

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John Wick: Chapter 4 begins with The Continental in crisis. Reddick said Charon supports Continental manager Winston ( Ian McShane ), even when Winston stands in conflict with their bosses in the High Table of Assassins.

"He might question him but at the end of the day, he has complete faith in him," Reddick said.

Reddick's publicist, Mia Hansen, confirmed his death, apparently due to natural causes. He is survived by his wife, Stephanie Reddick, and children Yvonne Nicole and Christopher.

Donations in his memory can be made to momcares.org., which serves mothers whose children have required neonatal intensive care in Baltimore.
Logen Saxon / Instagram

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/17/2023



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

alum Erik Lake has announced he's engaged again and will soon be a married man once more.Erik's new fiancee Logen Saxon posted a slideshow of photos March 16 on Instagram of her time with Erik in Paris."Went to Paris for croissants, came back with carats," the blonde travel nurse captioned her post, which showed off her big diamond engagement ring.In the pictures, Erik and Logen were posing at a coffee shop and in the streets of Paris wearing dressy black attire with the Eiffel Tower in the background."I love you!" Erik commented. "I'm glad you loved the ring and I'm honored to call you mine. That's a trip we will never forget."Last weekend, Erik also uploaded a video on Instagram titled, "How I asked my girlfriend to marry me -- in Paris," and he set the sweet montage of the couple's romantic Paris moments to "Dandelions" by Ruth B.Erik wrote, "When you know you just know. I've known for a long time and was waiting for the perfect time to give her the ring she deserves after having it for almost 3 months in my possession. It was tough not to do it sooner though haha!"Before the alum proposed marriage, he and Logen ate at a "wonderful restaurant near the Eiffel Tower" called Les Ombres."I told her I wanted to do some night photos together near a famous bridge called Pont Alexandre III so that I had a reason to have a camera on us to capture the moment," Erik continued in his caption."I gave her a note to read and said that it was directions on how to see different monuments from where we were standing. But in reality, it was just a personal message to her which ended by telling her to turn around!"Erik then got down on one knee and presented his girlfriend with an engagement ring."The next day I arranged a local photographer to take some professional engagement photos so that we would always have that remember our time in Paris," Erik shared.Erik's posting appears to be a reference to the engagement photo shoot pictures Logen posted on March 16, however according to Logen's posting those photos were taken by a Lake family member who lives in Atlanta."I can't wait I spend the rest of our lives together! I love you more than any words I could ever write down!" Erik ended his post.Logen replied to Erik's post, "The timing and proposal couldn't have been more perfect Love. You're the most thoughtful person I've ever met. Thank you for always making me feel so special and loved. You're everything I've ever prayed for and so much more. I love you too. Always."Around the same time Erik posted his engagement announcement, Logen posted a video on Instagram showing more photos from the couple's engagement photo shoot. Logen also posted a montage of photos of her left hand, one of which showed an engagement ring on her left ring finger."I've always been a Lake girl, it's about time I made it my last name," she wrote.Erik commented, "I'm honored that you would take my name. You're definitely a Lake girl forever. I love you!!"Erik married Virginia Coombs on 's twelfth season and the pair also starred on Season 3 of : Couples Cam, but they separated in April 2021 and filed for divorce in Georgia in June 2021.Erik, who was also previously married before he appeared on , went Instagram official with Logen and gushed about being in love in late October 2022."It's a crazy thing when you stop trying so hard to find your person and just let things play out the way they are supposed to," Erik shared at the time of Logen."The past is the past and I can't sit here and regret every little thing that happened before because all of it led me right where I'm supposed to be now. I'm the happiest I've ever been."And Logen also posted a heartfelt message of her own on Instagram when officially revealing her new relationship."I knew I was in big trouble the day I caught a glimpse of those big green eyes and that irresistible smile of yours. What I didn't realize was, I'd be meeting the man of my dreams that day," Logen gushed to her followers.She added, "You've brought so much joy and light into my life since we met... For the first time in my life, I genuinely feel safe. Now I understand what people mean when they say, 'When you know, you know.' I know you're my person. I know I'm the luckiest girl in the world."Prior to going Instagram official with Erik, Logen hinted she was in a relationship with him by writing on August 17, 2022 she had met "a hot, single pilot."Logen also captioned a video on August 12, "When you show your friend a pic of the guy you're talking to, but she says she calls dibs if we don't work out."Back in July 2021, Erik and Virginia had led fans to believe they may possibly reconcile and get back together despite their divorce filing one month earlier, but that clearly hasn't happened.Given news of Erik and Virginia's divorce first broke in June 2021, a contract with Lifetime would explain why Virginia and Erik had waited another month to publicly confirm their split "This entire process has been difficult as is without the constant chatter of public opinion. Contrary to popular belief, we've been together and trying to make our marriage work since Decision Day," the pair told E! News in a statement at the time."While we have decided to get a divorce, we aren't closing the doors on a possible future together. We love each other and will continue to navigate our new reality post show."Virginia also lashed out at fans on Instagram at the time saying she and Erik would "never fake" their relationship for a reality show and social media had been very "toxic" to their marriage.That summer, Erik and Virginia's co-star Chris Williams alleged on his Instagram Stories that Virginia, who had a reputation for being a party girl and drinking often during her MAFS season, was a bad influence on her then-husband because Erik had received a DUI and completed a court-mandated rehab for 45 days.Chris also alleged Virginia had traveled to Mexico while Erik was in rehab and attempted to have a threesome with her MAFS co-star Haley Harris ' brother and his spouse.Although the couple's divorce documents state Virginia and Erik had separated on April 29, 2021, Virginia denied breakup speculation in May 2021, telling a fan in the comments section of one of her Instagram photos, "I am not single!"The photo showed Virginia debuting a new black hair color, and Erik fed into the couple's alleged narrative by writing on the post, "Beautiful as always... I have a thing for dark haired women," along with a fire emoji.Speculation Virginia and Erik had broken up at the time swirled because Virginia was accused of flirting with another guy at a bar and partying with girlfriends in Atlanta without her wedding ring."Either she is no longer with Erik, or she's cheating," an alleged witness at the bar wrote on Reddit at the time."She was ALL over a guy at The Ivy in Buckhead Atlanta last night. And the way he was holding her while dancing, and while at the bar... they certainly were not 'just friends.'"But Virginia insisted on Instagram Stories in May 2021 that her wedding ring "never comes off" and photos had captured her right hand -- not her left, which features her wedding ring.Erik and Virginia got married in August 2020, and on 's Season 12 Decision-Day episode that aired in May 2021 on Lifetime, Erik got down on one knee and presented Virginia with a silicone wedding band when asking if she'd stay married to him.Virginia chose to remain Erik's wife because she gushed about how she was in love with him and viewed him to be a sensitive, passionate and protective man with a pure heart.Virginia and Erik, however, had major differences, from their cultural and political beliefs to their timeline for having a child.Erik also wasn't exactly thrilled with Virginia's close relationship with her guy friends."He's sometimes too grown up," Virginia told the cameras on Decision Day. "Erik always thinks he knows best... I'd be lying if I said that I'm confident in where me and Erik are. I am a little scared about the next step in our relationship."And Erik hoped to become the No. 1 person and top priority in Virginia's life. Erik anticipated only time would break down Virginia's walls.During the reunion special, Erik and Virginia revealed that Virginia had moved into Erik's apartment with her pets and was liking it just fine.The couple insisted their relationship was doing well even though they had normal marital problems and arguments.On the early June 2021 premiere episode of Couples Cam's third season, Virginia and Erik were shown traveling to Pennsylvania for a visit with Virginia's mother and sister six months into their marriage.Virginia said she and Erik had grown closer together from the "scrutiny" and "heat" they were receiving online.Virginia said the mean comments about her appearance and acne online were the hardest to deal with but she and Erik continued to reassure and protect one another.Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group or click here to view our newspage!And click here for more updates on former cast members and info on where they are now!
Porterville, CA (93257)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. High 73F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 44F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
Closing the Atlanta Medical Center left behind a community of 200,000 uninsured individuals living in Fulton and DeKalb counties alone. If healthcare is supposed to serve and improve the wellbeing of people, regardless of severity or class, why would Wellstar Health System, who ran the Atlanta Medical Center, pull out of a community so heavily dependent on its services?
The Church of the Epiphany Mar 18  423 N. Beaver St., Flagstaff. 5:30 p.m.- March 19, 10:30 a.m., Services are held 5:30 pm on Saturdays; 8:00 am and 10:30 am on Sundays. This weeks officiant is Reverend Lynn Perkins. (928) 779-2911; epiphanyaz.org.

LIVING CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCH Mar 19  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 Fourth Sunday in Lent! Baptism is sometimes called enlightenment. The gospel for this Sunday is the story of the man born blind healed by Christ. I was blind, now I see, declares the man. In baptism God opens our eyes to see the truth of who we are: Gods beloved children. As David was anointed king of Israel, in baptism God anoints our head with oil, and calls us to bear witness to the light of Christ in our daily lives. https://go.evvnt.com/1614797-0.

BEACON UU SUNDAY SERVICE: Climbing the Decision Tree Mar 19  Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 510 N. Leroux St., Flagstaff. (928) 779-4492. 10-11 a.m., ALL ARE WELCOME! You BELONG at Beacon. Spiritually open and intentionally inclusive since 1958. With significant decisions in Beacons near future, well explore the multi-layered process of how we make decisions. Is there a benchmark anymore for good judgement, and if so, what does that mean? Well explore a well-respected model called the Decision Tree, and edge out onto some of the branches of that tree that impact decision-making ethics, morality, practicality, self-discipline, and the so-called paradox of choice. Rev. Robin Landerman Zucker, preaching with Worship Associate Nancy Paxton. Music from Austin Shaw and Andrez Alcazar. Social Justice Witness from Frank Moraga of Coconino Children and Youth. https://go.evvnt.com/1612354-0.

PEACE LUTHERAN CHURCH Mar 19  3410 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/1610765-0.

Unity of Flagstaff Spiritual Center Mar 19  Unity of Flagstaff Spiritual Center, 1800 S. Milton Road, Flagstaff. 10:30-11:30 a.m., In this world it is easy to forget that we are Fully Human AND Fully Divine! Perhaps in being present to both we can parlay the strength of the two to truly become Full of ITFull of our Integrated Transformation. And perhaps this is where we find FULL-fillment? Could it be that by recognizing and embracing our full humanness, the way is opened for the Divine to express in this human world? Let's look at this on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. with Rev Penni and special musical guest Max Selby. ACIM gathering at noon. Lunch provided! Unity of Flagstaff 1800 S. Milton. Join us for in-person celebration, or LIVESTREAM YouTube.unityofflagstaff.org Also: Tues 10 a.m. Chair and Floor Yoga. Bring a mat for floor yoga. Wed 3 p.m. Integrated Movement (tai chi plus) See www.unityoflagstaff.org for more events. Unity of FlagstaffFind YOUR Expression!. https://go.evvnt.com/1620239-0.

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.

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.
Admiral John C. Aquilino (left), commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, speaks at an International Institute for Strategic Studies event in Singapore, March 16, 2023.

The United States relations with Pacific island countries are back on track after officials got a wake-up call from Chinas inroads with the Solomon Islands, U.S. Indo-Pacific commander Adm. John Aquilino told an event in Singapore.

Chinas ties with small island nations in the Pacific have burgeoned over several decades as it seeks to isolate Taiwan diplomatically and establish its own institutions and diplomatic groupings to rival a post-World War II international order dominated by the West. Last year, Beijing forged a security pact with the Solomon Islands, alarming the United States and its allies.

Weve recently seen in the form of the Solomon Islands some actions by the PRC [Peoples Republic of China] to potentially grab a foothold. I think it woke a number of us up, to ensure we spend more time, engage with, provide assistance and support to Pacific islands, Aquilino said Thursday after a speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Were back on track, I would say, and we continue to engage in ways that are meaningful and helpful for those nations, he said in a report by BenarNews, an affiliate for Radio Free Asia.

In his prepared remarks, the regional military chief denied that the United States was trying to contain China and he characterized relations between the two countries as robust competition. The United States and its allies want to ensure that the peaceful rules-based international order endures, Aquilino said.

Earlier this week, the leaders of the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom announced a deal for Canberra to buy nuclear-powered attack submarines from the U.S. from early next decade and to later build its own nuclear subs using British and American technology.

The AUKUS security pact, first announced in September 2021, is widely understood to be aimed at deterring China from upending the military balance in East Asia and the Pacific. The Asian superpower has doubled its annual military spending over the past decade, though it still spends far less on its arsenal and armed forces than the United States.

Aquilino said Australia and New Zealand were central to recent efforts to improve U.S. relations with Pacific island countries.

Theyve certainly have taken an increased leadership role. We coordinate our support, Aquilino said.

American involvement in the Pacific diminished after the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, with a reduction in embassies and U.S. development assistance through its Peace Corps agency.

Leaders of Pacific island nations say their top concern is the climate, and they dont want to be forced to take sides in the Chinese-American rivalry or for their region to become increasingly militarized.

In the Solomon Islands, it remains unclear if the United States can mend ties with the government of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. He has embraced Chinese assistance for his country, which struggles with a lack of roads and basic healthcare.

The Solomon Islands switched its diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 2019.

After a three-decade absence, the United States last month upgraded the status of its consular services agency in the Solomon Islands to an embassy. It does not have a resident ambassador and is working on establishing a more substantial diplomatic presence.

Pro-U.S. politician Daniel Suidani, an outspoken critic of the Solomon Islands closer ties with China, was ousted as premier of Malaita, the Solomon Islands most populous province, in early February.

China, meanwhile, is bankrolling the 2023 Pacific Games, to be held in the Solomons capital Honiara in November, and also is building a new major hospital for the country.

BenarNews is an online news outlet affiliated with Radio Free Asia.
U.S. President Joe Biden has said the International Criminal Court (ICC) decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes is "justified."

"He's clearly committed war crimes," Biden told reporters on March 17, referring to Putin.

His comments in Washington came after the ICC said it had issued a warrant against Putin, accusing the Russian leader of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. The move by the ICC was hailed by Kyiv and rejected by Moscow.

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.

The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, a Russian children's rights official who allegedly directs the removal of Ukrainian children to Russia.

The two are suspected of "having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others" the ICC said in a statement, adding that Putin had failed "to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility."

The immediate impact of the ICC action is unclear. Moscow does not recognize the court and does not extradite its nationals. However, Putin may be more cautious about traveling to a nation bound to arrest him.

While Washington does not recognize the court either, Biden said it "makes a very strong point" to call out Putin's actions in ordering the invasion.

Earlier, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ICC's decision was the start of "holding Russia accountable for its crimes and atrocities in Ukraine."

"This is an important decision of international justice and for the people of Ukraine," he said.

ICC President Piotr Hofmanski said in a video statement that while the ICCs judges have issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them. The 123-member ICC doesn't have a police force of its own to carry out arrests.

WATCH: A family from Mariupol spoke to RFE/RL about their experiences of going through a Russian filtration camp and then being taken to Moscow.

With the warrant, Putin becomes the third serving head of state to be targeted in an arrest warrant from the ICC, the world's permanent war crimes tribunal, along with Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and Libya's Muammar Qaddafi.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia found the questions raised by the ICC "outrageous and unacceptable" and noted that Russia, like many other countries, does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.

"Accordingly, any decisions of this kind are null and void for the Russian Federation from the point of view of law," Peskov said.

Peskov refused to comment when asked if Putin would avoid making trips to countries where he could be arrested on the ICC's warrant.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine is a member of the ICC. Kyiv has, however, granted the Hague-based court jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed on its territory since Moscow launched its invasion last year. The United States and China also are not members of the ICC.

Lvova-Belova reacted sarcastically to the ICC announcement. It is great that the international community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country, that we do not leave them in war zones, that we take them out, we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people, she said.

The U.S. Treasury outlined her role when adding her to its sanctions lists on September 15, 2022.

"Lvova-Belova's efforts specifically include the forced adoption of Ukrainian children into Russian families, the so-called 'patriotic education' of Ukrainian children, legislative changes to expedite the provision of Russian Federation citizenship to Ukrainian children, and the deliberate removal of Ukrainian children by Russia's forces," it said at the time.

WATCH: On March 17, the president of the ICC announced that The Hague-based court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of responsibility for war crimes allegedly committed during Russias ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament's human rights commissioner, has said that based on data from the country's National Information Bureau, 16,226 children have been deported. Ukraine has managed to bring back 308 children.

Human Rights Watch, which has documented the transfers of Ukrainian civilians and called them "a serious violation of the laws of war that constitute war crimes and potential crimes against humanity," said the warrant against Putin is the "first step to end the impunity that has emboldened perpetrators in Russia's war against Ukraine for far too long."

In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called it a "historic decision from which historic responsibility will begin."

The deportation of Ukrainian children "means the illegal transfer of thousands of our children to the territory of a terrorist state," Zelenskiy said, adding that this could not have taken place without an order from Putin.

"Separating children from their families, depriving them of any opportunity to contact their relatives, hiding children in the territory of Russia, scattering them in remote regions -- all this is an obvious state policy of Russia, state decisions, and state evil, which begins precisely with the first official of this state," Zelenskiy said in his nightly address to the nation.

In a post on Twitter, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the "wheels of justice are turning," and added that "international criminals will be held accountable for stealing children and other international crimes."

Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Serhiy Kyslytsya recalled that on the night of Russia's invasion, "I said at the Security Council meeting that there is no purgatory for war criminals, they go straight to hell. Today, I would like to say that those of them who will remain alive after the military defeat of Russia will have to make a stop in The Hague on their way to hell."

With reporting by Reuters and AP
Journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dual national and one of the Kremlin's most vocal critics, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by a Moscow court for treason and other offenses, sparking an international outcry and calls for his immediate release.

The Moscow City Court, overflowing with reporters, diplomats, and supporters, handed down its verdict in the trial on April 17, just over a year after Kara-Murza, who twice nearly died after what he says were deliberate poisoning attacks, was arrested on the charge of spreading false information about Russia's armed forces. He denies the charges.

After his sentence was pronounced, Kara-Murza, who reporters said sat almost motionless inside a glass cage in the courtroom while listening to the judge, proclaimed that "Russia will be free," an opposition slogan.

"A quarter of a century is an 'A+' for your courage, consistency and honesty in your years-long work," his wife, Yevgenia, wrote on Twitter after the sentence was announced.

Russian news agencies quoted Maria Eismont, part of his defense team, as saying they would immediately appeal the judgement because of various legal violations.

The British government immediately condemned the verdict and sentence, one of the harshest penalties to date against a Russian who has spoken out against the Kremlin's war against Ukraine, saying the case against the 41-year-old father of three was "politically motivated."

It added in a statement that the Russian ambassador to the United Kingdom had been summoned and that British officials "will make clear that the U.K. considers Mr. Kara-Murzas conviction to be contrary to Russias international obligations on human rights, including the right to a fair trial."

"Vladimir Kara-Murza bravely denounced Russias invasion of Ukraine for what it was  a blatant violation of international law and the UN Charter," the statement said. "Russias lack of commitment to protecting fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression, is alarming."

UN rights chief Volker Turk called on Russia to release Kara-Murza.

"Kara-Murza was tried on charges that appear related to the legitimate exercise of his right to freedom of opinion.... No one should be deprived of their liberty for exercising their human rights, and I call on the Russian authorities to release him without delay," Turk said in a statement.

The European Union also condemned Russia's sentencing of Kara-Murza.

"Today's outrageously harsh court decision clearly demonstrates yet again the political misuse of the judiciary in order to pressure activists, human rights defenders, and any voices opposing Russia's illegitimate war of aggression against Ukraine," EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the case when asked by reporters in Moscow.

In August, Russian authorities added the charge of involvement in an "undesirable" foreign organization, and in October they added the treason charge for his public criticism of the Russian authorities in the international arena.

"The court sentenced Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison, not a year less than the prosecutor asked for. The numbers don't really matter anymore, all these sentences read 'until Putin dies,'" said Kira Yarmysh, the spokeswoman for Aleksei Navalny, another Kremlin critic who has been handed a lengthy prison sentence for what most analysts say are trumped-up charges in retaliation for opposing President Vladimir Putin and his policies.

The trial was delayed last month after his lawyer told the court his client's health had "significantly deteriorated." A certificate from the medical unit of Kara-Murza's detention facility stated he was being treated for polyneuropathy, which he says is a result of the poisonings.

In his final statement to court on April 10, Kara-Murza, who Amnesty International has designated a "prisoner of conscience," said the level of opaqueness about the charges against him surpassed the trials of Soviet dissidents in the 1960s and '70s, and the language used against him was reminiscent of the 1930s, when Soviet citizens were arrested on fabricated charges and put on show trials.

Kara-Murza, a long-standing proponent of democratic values and a vocal opponent of the current Russian government, said he was jailed for his political views, "for speaking out against the war in Ukraine, for many years of struggle against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's dictatorship."

"Not only do I not repent of any of this, I am proud of it," he said, adding that he looks forward to a day "when those who kindled and unleashed this war, and not those who tried to stop it, are recognized as criminals."

Russia adopted a law criminalizing spreading "false information" about its military shortly after it sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

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.

Kara-Murza is the latest in a string of opposition activists, reporters, and others who have been arrested and prosecuted under the legislation amid a growing Kremlin crackdown on civil society.

According to the human rights group OVD-Info, almost 20,000 Russians have been detained for anti-war protests since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Several hundred people have had criminal cases opened against them for opposing the war in Ukraine, with some facing sentences of up to 15 years for offenses as slight as posting anti-war messages on social media. OVD-Info said in the next week alone, 53 "political criminal cases"are scheduled for the coming week.

"The criminalization of criticism of government actions is a manifestation of fear, not strength," U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy said on the steps of the court building. "Vladimir Kara-Murza and countless Russians believe and hope for a future in which fundamental freedoms are respected in Russia. And we share these hopes.

"Thirty years ago, Russia fought for the creation of democracy. Now this struggle has taken a sad turn," the Canadian ambassador to Russia, Alison Leclaire, said after the court session.

Kara-Murza was a key advocate for the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which sets out sanctions for human rights violators in Russia. He has also called for sanctions to be imposed on culpable Russian officials.

On March 3, the United States designated six people, including three judges, for sanctions due to their role in Kara-Murza's detention.

The judge who chaired the trial and who read the ruling on April 17, Sergei Podoprigorov, was one of the first sanctioned by the United States under the Magnitsky Act 10 years ago. The British government also has already sanctioned him for "previous involvement in human rights violations."

He was also the judge who approved the pretrial detention of the law's namesake, Sergei Magnitsky, a whistle-blowing Russian tax lawyer who died in a Moscow jail in November 2009, just seven days before the expiration of the one-year term during which he could be legally held without trial.

Magnitsky, who accused Russian law enforcement and tax officials of a massive tax fraud scheme, was tried posthumously and convicted on tax evasion charges.

The British government also has already sanctioned him for "previous involvement in human rights violations."

The late U.S. Senator John McCain was a proponent of Kara-Murza's efforts, and he served as a pallbearer at McCain's funeral in 2018.
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.
KYIV -- They share a common enemy in Russian President Vladimir Putin, who unleashed an invasion that has killed tens of thousands of people in Ukraine and is jailing opponents, curtailing freedoms, and crushing dissent at home.

But more than a year after Moscows large-scale offensive began, massively escalating a war that broke out almost a decade ago in the Donbas, many Ukrainians are distrustful and dismissive of the Russian opposition -- and particularly of Putin's most prominent foe, Aleksei Navalny.

Nothing illustrates this more starkly than the outrage caused by the Oscar that a documentary -- eponymously titled Navalny -- tracking the now-imprisoned politician and anti-corruption campaigner as he recovered from a near-fatal August 2020 nerve-agent poisoning he blames on Putin won at the Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood on March 12.

For many in the United States and the West, this year's award for Best Documentary Feature Film was precisely a rebuke of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. During his acceptance speech, the documentary's Canadian-born director, Daniel Roher, said Navalny is being punished "for what he callsVladimir Putins unjust war of aggression in Ukraine."

But to numerous Ukrainians -- from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's top adviser to journalists, activists, and people on social media and on the street -- Hollywood's lauding of the Navalny film was at best ignorant and naive and at worst a whitewash, disrespectful and detrimental to their struggle against Russia's armed campaign to subjugate their nation.

There were several factors fueling this animus over the award, some of them stemming from wariness of the Russian opposition more broadly and some linked closely to the controversial figure of Navalny, who has come under scrutiny around the world for past statements seen as racist and xenophobic and in Ukraine in particular for his remarks about Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia occupied and seized in 2014.

Among some Ukrainians, comments Navalny has made in the past have led to suspicion that he is cut from the same cloth as Putin, who has suggested Ukraine is not a real nation and can only exist as part of a Moscow-dominated "Russian world."



The Smell Of Russian Propaganda

"Navalny is a sandwich packed in a lunchbox and carried around the world as evidence that there is still an opposition in Russia," Andriy Sadoviy, the outspoken mayor of the western city of Lviv, wrote on Twitter the day after the Academy Awards ceremony. The Oscar statuette, he suggested, now "reeks of Russian propaganda."

Sadoviy was referring to comments Navalny made in a radio interview in 2014, when he said that Moscow had seized Crimea through "egregious violations of all international regulations" but predicted the peninsula would long remain a de facto part of Russia and would not be returned to Ukraine "in the foreseeable future."

He sarcastically asked the interviewer if Crimea was a "a salami sandwich to be handed back and forth."

Since then, his supporters point out, Navalny has changed his public stance on Crimea and called on Moscow to respect the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine. Last month, he issued a 15-point statement condemning the "unjust war of aggression" that he said Putin "unleashed...under ridiculous pretexts," and called on Russia to "stop the aggression, end the war, and withdraw all of its troops from Ukraine."

Many Ukrainians remain unconvinced, though, and point to his participation in ultra-nationalist marches in Russia in the 2000s and his support for Russia's 2008 aggression against Georgia, for which he has since apologized. He has not apologized for past statements that critics say were racist and that have contributed to suspicions in Ukraine and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union that he is a Russian chauvinist whose policies on the region, if he ever came to power, would differ little from Putin's.



"Navalny earned his Oscar because he played a Russian opposition figure perfectly," Ukrainian stand-up comedian Anton Tymoshenko joked recently, in a succinct expression of the widespread conviction the Kremlin and its opponents are two sides of the same coin.

For some, this impression has been deepened by signs of links between the opposition and tycoons who are widely seen as part of Putin's system even if they have not vocally supported the Kremlin or the invasion of Ukraine.

Case in point: The scandal that erupted this month after Leonid Volkov, a top associate of Navalny, suspended his political and public activities after he first denied signing a letter arguing for lifting European Union sanctions on some London-based Russian tycoons, only to later admit that he had. In Ukraine, these developments have added to questions about the Russian opposition's allegiances.

Even before the large-scale invasion last year, there was widespread doubt in Ukraine about Russia's potential to change its attitudes toward other ex-Soviet republics regardless of who is in power in the Kremlin. The "postimperial trauma affects all our feelings about Russians and Russian politicians," Taras Berezovets, a Ukrainian political analyst who is now a military officer, told RFE/RL early in 2021.

Not Just Putin's War

The Oscar for the Navalny documentary also rankled Ukrainians who charge that many in the West seek to pin all the blame for Russia's aggression on Putin himself, when they see responsibility as spreading far beyond the president.

Myroslava Barchuk, an acclaimed Ukrainian journalist and vice president of PEN Ukraine, said on her blog the award decision proves that "for the multinational global film industry, this is Putin's war, not Russia's war" -- an approach that effectively absolves most Russians of responsibility and guilt.

"There are some 'other' (real, individual) Russians who are simply victims. They should not only not be canceled, but rewarded and honored, even despite the uncomfortable stories of 'Crimean sandwiches,'" she wrote.

This sense of misplacement of emphasis was further exacerbated by the fact that the Navalny film prevailed in a category that also included A House Made Of Splinters, a highly acclaimed documentary co-produced by Denmark, Ukraine, Sweden, and Finland telling the story of children from an orphanage in Lysychansk, in eastern Ukraine, whose families were torn apart or degraded because of war in the Donbas that erupted in 2014.

The assistant director and line producer of A House Made Of Splinters, Azad Safarov, did not hide his disappointment after the Oscars ceremony, and said the film about the Donbas should have won.

"Butwe got proof once again that Russian propaganda works very well and knows how to promote pseudo-heroes where there are no heroes," he said.

Similar sentiments became apparent in the way images of Navalny's wife, daughter, and son celebrating in Los Angeles, juxtaposed with images of the brutal reality of everyday life in wartime Ukraine, flooded social media.

Outside Politics?

With the war's outcome uncertain more than a year after the large-scale invasion, maintaining the support of the United States and the West is a major priority for Ukraine, and the award for the Navalny film was not the only aspect of this year's Oscars that raised hackles in Kyiv.

For the second time, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reportedly rejected a request from Zelenskiy to speak during the ceremony. Ukrainian officials panned that decision.

WATCH: The director of the documentary about jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny reveals how he shot his Oscar-winning film.

"If Oscar is outside of politics, how should we understand the documentary manifesto Navalny, where internal Russian politics is overflowing?" presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak asked. "If Oscar is out of the context of the war in Ukraine and the mass genocide of Ukrainians, why do you constantly talk about humanism and justice?"

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the German magazine Bild that giving the Best International Feature Film award to the anti-war movie All Quiet On The Western Front, and at the same time not letting a president "who is leading the country fighting the biggest war in Europe since World War II" speak at the ceremony was "ridiculous" and "hypocritical."

Meanwhile, Oleksandr Rodnyanskiy, a Ukrainian film producer and a member of the academy, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that outrage on the part of Ukrainians is largely the result of a misunderstanding.

Rodnyanskiy said that in the 95 years of the existence of the Oscars ceremony, "not a single politician who was not linked with the movie that won an Oscar or was at least nominated" has given a speech, and that the academy "did not want to create a precedent."

For most academy members, the vote for the Navalny film reflected condemnation of the "repressions by the totalitarian regime inside [Russia] and of [its] war crimes in Ukraine," he said, adding: "Hollywood is one of the biggest promoters of the idea of supporting Ukraine."
A 1920s building that once housed a Safeway supermarket has been transformed into The Mill coffee shop.

After several delays, the shop at 31st and Leavenworth streets opened at noon Thursday to enthusiastic crowds. Owners Dan and Tamara Sloan said they had hoped to be up and running in December, but supply issues for an extensive remodel set them back.

The Sloans own four other locations of The Mill, all in Lincoln. Omahans have been looking forward to getting their own version of the shop since it was announced last year.

It was worth the wait. The Sloans basically gutted the inside of the structure, which also had been a paint store, to create a warm and cozy atmosphere in 4,500 square feet. They did all their own design work.

We didnt even know these skylights were here, Tamara said, referring to the finished product.

The couple had been searching for an Omaha site for some time when they happened upon the building.

We decided to come look at (it), and as we pulled up St. Marys (Avenue) I said, I love it, and he said, Oh, no, Tamara said.

Dan, however, was on board. He loves the neighborhood, which has been undergoing something of a renaissance with the relocated Legends Comics, a new high-end beauty salon, new and remodeled apartments and homes and, a block or so away, The Bubbly Tart bakery.

Its walkable, theres good visibility. It checked all the boxes, he said.

They created space for 136 seats inside, with another 60 outside. The high ceilings have wood beams, and both the coffee bar and a full cocktail bar are made of richly colored wood. White pillars separate the two areas. Extensive bookshelves filled with scores of reading material take up a whole wall.

In addition to coffee, they also sell T-shirts, drink accessories such as cups and French press pots and other related items.

They serve the usual lattes and cappuccinos, plus hot chocolate. Tamara also made sure there was a large tea selection.

I dont drink coffee, she said.

The bar focuses on classic cocktails. Alcoholic drinks make up more than 80% of their business in Lincoln, they said.

They sell pastries made in-house at their kitchen in Lincoln and baked in Omaha. They also recently became certified as Nebraskas only organic coffee roaster and have introduced a new line of brews.

The Omaha location has the small chains first drive-thru, which hadnt yet opened on Thursday because the inside was still filled with plumbing supplies. They said it would launch on Friday and would be open from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The shop will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. The shops website is millcoffee.com.

The Sloans have been in the coffee business since opening their first Mill location in 1975 in a bike shop on 13th Street in Lincoln. They moved to the Haymarket in 1988 before it was redeveloped, opened a shop on Prescott Avenue in College View in 2000 and opened two shops in 2017, one at the University of Nebraska Innovation Campus and one in the Telegraph District.

From coffee to cola: The most popular nonalcoholic beverages in the US ranked Ranking the most popular nonalcoholic beverages #7. Diet beverages #6. Milk #5. Fruit beverages #4. Tea #3. Sweetened beverages #2. Coffee #1. Water
KYIV -- Ukrainians have reacted with a mix of support and skepticism to news that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued warrants for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a Russian children's rights official for their roles in alleged war crimes relating to the illegal transfers and deportations of children from occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia.

Anton Buryak, a 21-year-old construction worker from Novomykhaylivka, an occupied town in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, told RFE/RL that he supports this decision "because Putin's war crimes did take place."

"I personally know of cases of children being forcibly taken to Russia from the occupied territories," he said on March 18.

The permanent war crimes tribunal's move, announced on March 17, accuses Putin on three charges of "individual criminal responsibility" for the alleged war crimes carried out on Ukrainian territory occupied Russia from "at least" February 2022.

The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for children's rights in Putin's presidential office, on two similar charges relating to the same time period.

WATCH: Sixteen Ukrainian children taken by Russia have been reunited with their families in Kyiv. The return operation was organized by the charity foundation Save Ukraine.

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children," the ICC said in announcing the arrest warrants.

Buryak and other Ukrainians who spoke to RFE/RL in Kyiv expressed doubts about the decision's reach, however, considering the ICC has no jurisdiction over Russia and the fact that Moscow does not recognize the international court.

"Will Putin and Lvova-Belova face justice? I don't know," said Buryak, who left his hometown two months after Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"America does not recognize this court anyway," he said. "This war is terrible, and I don't know how it will end. If it was so easy, Putin would be already in jail. His soldiers, those murderers from Bucha and elsewhere, should be in jail, too."

The 123-member ICC is not part of the United Nations and does not have its own police force, making it dependent on the court's member states to carry out the warrants it issues.

Neither Russia, the United States, China, nor Ukraine is a member of the ICC, although Kyiv granted the court jurisdiction to prosecute war crimes on Ukrainian territory following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russia was a signatory to the 1998 Rome Statute that led to the formation of the ICC in 2002, but it never ratified the statute. In 2016, two years after Russia's first invasion of Ukrainian territory that resulted in the illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, Putin signed a decree precluding Russia from joining the ICC.

The United States became a signatory to the Rome Statute in 2000 but withdrew its signature two years later.

Roma, a 35-year-old sales manager who spoke to RFE/RL on condition that his last name not be used, expressed skepticism about the ICC's ability to carry out its arrest order.

"Russia, China, and the United States do not recognize the legitimacy of the ICC, so I don't think it will matter," Roma said. "I think it is just an informational campaign. It won't have any practical consequences."

The arrest warrants nevertheless came a surprise to many Ukrainians, including 31-year-old health-care analyst Nazar Beley.

"I am completely for it. I don't know if or when the arrest will happen, but it is a just decision," Beley told RFE/RL in Kyiv. "I didn't think it would happen, because Putin is a head of state, and such cases are rare."

Putin is now only the third person to be the subject of an ICC arrest warrant while serving as head of state, joining Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and Libya's Muammar Qaddafi.

Beley underscored the significance of the arrest warrants, however.

"This decision shows what the world -- 120 countries or so -- thinks about this bastard," he said. "To do what Russia does in Ukraine in the 21st century is an aberration. They took away children forcefully. Kids are an unprotected category, and we need to fight for their rights."

Kyiv has repeatedly made claims that Russia has forcibly deported or transferred Ukrainian children from Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces.

Ukraine's Prosecutor-General's Office has recorded the forced deportations of more than 16,000 Ukrainian children from areas of the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Kherson while under Russian occupation. At least 308 Ukrainian children have reportedly been allowed to return to Ukraine.

Amnesty International has documented cases of the forced transfer or deportation of Ukrainian civilians, including children, from areas occupied by Russian forces to other occupied Ukrainian territories or to Russia itself. The international rights watchdog has said the transfers and deportations amount to "war crimes and likely crimes against humanity."

Amnesty International also said Russia has simplified the process for Ukrainian children to obtain Russian citizenship once in Russia by alleging the children were "either orphans or without parental care."

"This was meant to facilitate the adoption of these children by Russian families, in violation of international law," Amnesty International said in a November report.

Tetyana Klushnichenko, a 63-year-old pensioner, told RFE/RL that the ICC's steps to arrest Putin and Lvova-Belova still fall short.

"This is not enough, because what Putin is doing is beyond human description. Why is he torturing our young nation? Why are they stealing our children?" Klushnichenko said. "Don't they have their own orphans to take care of?"

Klushnichenko expressed hope that the ICC's action would send a signal to the rest of the world, which she accused of remaining silent when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014 and backed separatist forces fighting against Kyiv in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

"I hope this decision will make people understand that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine," she said. "I believe those responsible will face justice. In any case, it is good that the world is not silent and indifferent like in 2014."

Written by RFE/RL correspondent Michael Scollon based on reporting from Kyiv by Ukraine-based journalist Aleksander Palikot and contributions from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
In 1865, the 11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry rode out with Lt. Caspar Collins to greet wagons with Army supplies coming in from forts farther west. In a confrontation that would be eventually be known as the Battle of Platte Bridge, they get ambushed, and two arrows pierce a man from the Kansas cavalry, Cpl. Grimm. He lives. Collins does not.

Grimm's arrows, pulled out of him, go back to Kansas and get passed down through his family as a sort of souvenir. Eventually, they end up at the Kansas State Historical Society.

Until now.

They're back at Fort Caspar until February of next year as part of the museum's "Soldiers of the Republic" exhibit.

"The fort was later named Fort Caspar, after Caspar Collins, which is where the city of Casper got its name, so we actually have this pretty rare opportunity to display some pieces that are directly related to how Casper got its name, which is unique," Johanna Wickman, a local historian and vice president of the Fort Caspar Museum Association, said.

In addition to the arrows, the museum also has original guidons (a type of flag), a canteen, major bars from Preston Plumb -- a member of the Union Army during the Civil War who eventually served as a U.S. senator and was at Platte Bridge Station before the battle -- and photos of the men from the Kansas cavalry, among other things.

Wickman and Michelle Bahe, curator of collections at Fort Caspar, along with a few others, went to Kansas to pick up the items in November, which are on loan from private collectors and museums. It was a 14-hour drive. They rented a van for the occasion.

Now, the walls where the exhibit will be held -- just around the corner from the entrance to the exhibition rooms -- are painted a sunny yellow. There are several glass cases with blue velvet inside, but open spots around the room, too. Bahe still has to measure all the display cases and ensure the entire collection will fit.

There is also, of course, the consideration of how to best tell the story.

" ... In this exhibit that I dont believe weve ever done before here at the museum, is weve picked  I believe its 22  members of the 11th Kansas, and we have their photographs and little short biographies of them. And those are going to be interspersed in the exhibit," Wickman said. "So instead of just being, The men of the 11th Kansas did this, The men of the 11th Kansas did that, we have names for them.

"These were people, you know? Everyone talks about Sgt. Amos Custard, who was killed at the Battle of Red Buttes, but most people dont realize that he was already a widower when he was in the Army. So when he died, that orphaned his two children. Theres stories like that, that have not really been on exhibit before."

On a rectangular velvet bed are a guidon, a water canteen and the two arrows pulled from Grimm. One of them is missing the arrowhead. But for being hundreds of years old, and having been passed down through family and eventually donated to a museum, the arrows are in spectacular shape. You can even see where the fletching, or the feathers, was on one of them.

" ... Its sort of exciting for us because these items havent been here since the summer of 1865. And weve gotten an opportunity to partner with other museums and private collectors to bring them back to Casper for people to see," said Rick Young, museum manager.

The exhibit will open on March 22. There will also be a book signing for Wickman's book about Preston Plumb, "The Forgotten Senator," on March 25.

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An upcoming Great Falls school board election, for which more than 30,000 voters are registered, has been thrown into doubt after the county elections office told school officials it would not be economically or administratively feasible to go ahead as planned.

In an interview Friday, Brian Patrick said the Cascade County Clerk and Recorder notified him by email a week earlier that because of the closure of a local mail services provider, the mail-ballot election would need to be switched to an in-person election. He said it's unclear whether that will be possible. Patrick is the director of business operations for Great Falls Public Schools.

"Since our circumstances have changed drastically in the last month, at this time is is not possible to hold a mail election," County Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant wrote in the March 10 email.

The issues at the countys election office were first reported this week by The Electric. The local online news outlet has also reported that plans for levy elections for the Great Falls Public Library and another small school district are likewise up in the air.

Merchant's email stated that her office would instead hold a poll election for Great Falls Public Schools, although its unclear whether they can legally do so after agreeing last year to an all-mail ballot election.

Its also unclear how even a poll election would be handled for voters on the absentee list, which Patrick said accounts for about 87% of all registered voters in the district. The costs for conducting a school election in-person are much higher than the costs of holding them by mail-in ballots, Patrick added. That includes the cost of paid election staff and judges, along with the logistics that come with multiple polling locations.

(The year) 2007 is the last time we did a poll election, Patrick said. We had over 38 polling places. Thats a lot of election judges.

Merchant's office said she was not available to provide comment Friday but election analyst Devereaux Biddick said election officials would address questions during a meeting with county commissioners next week. Biddick, who was appointed by Merchant earlier this year, said the elections office previously reached out to several different postal services, but at this point the timeline is gone for mail-in.

She also said the elections office will be able to issue absentee ballots but declined to elaborate and referred additional questions to Merchant.

Were working with the commissioners, were working with everybody, Biddick said.

Phone calls to each of the Cascade County commissioners were not returned Friday.

In the email to the school district, Merchant cited a section of Montana law that lets county election officials determine if a mail election "is the most economically and administratively feasible way of conducting the election in question."

In a response to emailed questions, Secretary of State spokesman Richie Melby said Friday that Merchant first reached out to the state office on Wednesday.

"The Secretary of State's Office responded that the county elections office appears to be withdrawing its previously approved mail ballot plan submission rather than amending the information set forth in the previously submitted mail ballot plan," Melby wrote. "Pursuant to statute, the Secretary of State Office's role is limited to 'approve, disapprove, or recommend changes to the (mail ballot) plan or amendments.'"

Melby wrote that school elections fall outside the Secretary of State's purview, but said that the office had provided Merchant with a list of other mail service vendors that may be able to provide assistance.

Patrick said he requested more information about the possibility of an in-person election from the clerk this week, but has received no response.

"My latest correspondence with her is 'Please, send me your plans,'" Patrick said. "I haven't heard anything from her."

The school board has three trustee positions open in the upcoming election. The district had also planned to ask voters to approve a levy, but the board is considering pushing that request off to a later date. Patrick said that decision will be made during the board's next meeting.

"Part of the reason is, if the election is considered to be invalid, we don't want to spend a lot of time next year on whether or not we get our money, and whether or not the levy was a valid levy," Patrick said. He added that the district has also found additional sources of funding to provide some financial cushion.

Merchant took office earlier this year, after the Republican edged out long-time Clerk and Recorder Rina Moore, a Democrat. Merchants razor-thin margin of victory, 0.1%, was confirmed by a subsequent recount. Moore had held the office for 16 years, despite Cascade County trending increasingly Republican in recent elections.

Cascade County has just over 47,000 registered voters, according to the Secretary of State's website, ranking No. 6 in the state.

The closure of Innovative Postal Services in Great Falls was first announced in mid-January, Patrick told the Montana State News Bureau. A former elections official with the Cascade County Clerk and Recorders office, Lynn Deroche, also said that was when election officials were first made aware of the upcoming problem.

Deroche started working in the elections office shortly before Moore first took office, and resigned in February after what she said was a difficult work environment created by Merchant. She suggested that theres still time to print ballots and find a mail services vendor in another county to handle that part of the process, but that the window to do so is quickly closing.

I would believe youre going to have some really big consequences with not holding an election, Deroche said. I believe youre looking at lawsuits, honestly. Ive never seen that happen as long as Ive been here, in the last 16 years.
Three years ago, a Bozeman-based engineering firm sent four nearly identical letters to the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation sketching out loose plans for a 41-lot subdivision proposed for a rural, predominantly agricultural landscape along the eastern shore of Canyon Ferry.

The four letters, all sent on the same day, correspond with the four phases of a subdivision proposed by one of Montanas most politically well-connected families and largest landowners, the Galts. As explained in the letters, the 435-acre Horse Creek Hills subdivision would use exempt wells  so-named because theyre exempt from DNRC permits designed to ensure new wells wont adversely impact other water users  to supply water to the projects 39 homes and two businesses.

The attached layout currently shows four projects, however this letter is only addressing the water usage for project #1 of the 4 total projects, the first of the four letters reads. Each proposed project/phase will not utilize more than 10-acre feet of water  per the current DNRC [exempt-well] standards.

That letter, and the three that followed, closed with a request that the DNRC provide concurrence that Horse Creek Hills water plan is in agreement with the DNRC standards for this region.

A week later, a DNRC employee in Helena replied that the project, as described, did indeed fit the current rules and laws pertaining to the filing of an exempt water right.

DNRC issued that preliminary green light largely because Horse Creek Hills is a phased development. Had it been proposed as a single residential project, it probably would have been limited to just one exempt well  not enough water to serve 39 homes and two businesses. The initial all clear in hand, the developer, 71 Ranch, proceeded with the Horse Creek Hills subdivision application.

In the three years since that correspondence, the subdivision has garnered intense pushback, largely due to concerns that it will deplete and degrade the rivers, streams and groundwater of the Upper Missouri basin. Opponents of the proposal say it could threaten agricultural operations, dewater a tributary of the Missouri that serves as rainbow trout spawning ground, and add further nutrient pollution to Canyon Ferry, which already suffers from toxic algal blooms.

But the application advanced. After bouncing back and forth between the Broadwater County Planning Board, the Broadwater County Commission and the DNRC, the preliminary plat application for Horse Creek Hills was approved by the county commission last July.

In August, environmental nonprofit Upper Missouri Waterkeeper and five adjacent and nearby landowners sued the DNRC and Broadwater County Commission over that decision, arguing that despite an unprecedented volume of opposition, county and state regulators have failed to adequately examine the subdivisions impacts to water supply, water quality, wildlife and public health and safety.

Welcome to the messy, contentious and uncertain world of exempt wells, a tool developers are using with increasing frequency to secure water in basins where all available surface water rights are already spoken for.

Broadly speaking, developers like the loophole, senior water rights holders disdain it, and regulators approach it with trepidation given conflicting interpretations of how it comports with the 50-year-old Montana Water Use Act, which grants water supply seniority to those with the oldest water rights.

Upper Missouri Waterkeeper Executive Director Guy Alsentzer described the exempt-well trend as a race to the bottom that will hamper not only water quantity, but also water quality.

The cost is going to be shouldered by our rivers, our streams, and by those who already depend on that flow and availability of water, he said.

Exempt wells are also the source of one of the biggest water fights before state lawmakers, who are walking a perilous regulatory tightrope. Legislators are making a concerted effort to increase housing supply in one of the nations fastest-growing states by reforming and streamlining permitting processes without running afoul of a constitutional directive to guard against unreasonable depletion and degradation of natural resources or by inspiring a knock-down, drag-out fight with agricultural producers.

So far, if a heated hearing on House Bill 642 seeking to change exempt-well permitting is any indication, that tightrope act doesnt appear to be going well. About 40 people lined up before the House Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 22 to offer testimony on HB 642, which is sponsored by Casey Knudsen, a Republican rancher and real estate agent from Malta.

Knudsens bill would do away with references to combined appropriation, which puts limits on the loophole to protect existing water rights holders. It also grants larger groundwater allowances for subdivisions that are larger than 20 acres and requires meters to be installed on some wells or developed springs to help DNRC track water withdrawals.

One of HB 642s proponents is Joceylyn Galt Cahill, who appeared to reference the Horse Creek Hills subdivision when she urged committee members to pass HB 642 to clarify law and stop unnecessary lawsuits. (Montana Free Press reached out to 71 Ranch owner Errol Galt and the engineering firm and lawyers working on the Horse Creek Hills development for comment; none responded.)

Other proponents, including representatives of the Montana Realtors Association and the Montana Water Well Drillers Association, said HB 642 would alleviate the states housing crunch and allow lawmakers, rather than judges, to steer the discussion.

Cory Shaw with the Montana Building Industry Association argued that research has shown that domestic well use is indeed de minimis  negligible  in comparison to the agriculture industrys water consumption and the loss of water through evaporation.

We feel that were spending a lot of time over a de minimis use of water, and wed like to see this process cleaned up and streamlined so we can get houses on the ground and people in homes affordably, Shaw said.

Opponents, including agricultural producers, environmental groups and at least two municipalities, countered that SB 642 will grossly expand the current exemption and allow developers and many existing exempt-well owners to steal water from senior water rights holders, who will have little or no recourse if irrigation ditches, domestic wells, municipal water supplies or aquatic ecosystems dry up.

This is the most anti-ag, anti-private property rights, anti-prior appropriation doctrine bill Ive seen in more than 30 years working on a policy, rancher and property rights attorney Hertha Lund told the committee. This bill is a step toward following in Californias footsteps, which means that money and development trump all else.

Travis Stuber, a seed potato-grower who farms with water rights secured by his wifes great grandfather, said he worries that his son will be unable to run the family farm in Gallatin County if those water rights are threatened.

This bill is a giant loophole that erodes my sons future and our farms future, Stuber said. I ask that you vote no on this bill.

Andrew Gorder, a former Montana Water Court water master and current legal director of environmental nonprofit Clark Fork Coalition, told the committee that the bill is so riddled with flaws its hard to know where to start.

In a follow-up conversation with MTFP, Gorder said hes not alone in his struggle to understand how HB 642 would be applied. He said hes discussed the bill with other experienced water law attorneys and couldnt reach a consensus on exactly how it would work in practice. But there was consensus, Gorder said, that its not good.

The way I see it, this is both allowing for additional appropriations of groundwater for existing subdivisions and incentivizing further sprawl into rural, agricultural lands, open spaces, he said. I think its pretty apparent that this bill is being driven by the development industry.

HB 642 has a retroactive element that would entitle those who have drilled wells in the last decade to more water, so in addition to revamping its existing well process, DNRC could be tasked with revisiting about 28,000 exempt-well certificates the department has processed since 2014.

In his closing remarks, Knudsen addressed some of those issues, saying its time to end the never-ending cycle of litigation and interpretation.

Its time to stop pushing this off for another two years, which is what weve been doing for a decade, he said. Its time we come together to work toward a solution instead of poking holes in every solution thats actually brought.

That argument appeared to resonate with Republican members of the House Natural Resources Committee. On Feb. 24, all of the committees GOPs, save for Rep. Kenneth Walsh, R-Twin Bridges, voted to approve an amendment that effectively gives House lawmakers another month to debate the measure before running up against a transmittal deadline by adding a fiscal element, a $150 filing fee to accompany exempt-well notices of completion. (The current exempt well filing fee is $125.)

Since that vote, no additional committee action has been taken on HB 642, which has more than 60 GOP co-sponsors, and there are no additional amendments available for review. The current transmittal deadline for bills with a fiscal element is April 3.

As for the Horse Creek Hills subdivision, Alsentzer, with Upper Missouri Waterkeeper, said the preliminary plat approval has remained in force while the lawsuit proceeds.
Leroy Brenteson was driving a tractor across his fields in eastern Montana nearly 30 years ago when suddenly the ground gave out beneath him.

There aint much to tell. I was driving across the fields, and I fell in, Brenteson said.

Brenteson, 83, lives on property that his family has owned for generations. He is one of two remaining residents in the former town of Coalridge, so named for a vein of coal that settlers began mining in the early 1900s. He knew there was a mine under his property because he had worked in that very mine for 15 years as part of his familys business, Acme Coal Mining. He just didnt expect to fall into it.

I didnt drive into a hole; it was under-mined, Brenteson said.

In the years after the incident, Brenteson has worked with Montanas Department of Environmental Quality Abandoned Mine Lands program to fill in holes across his property, remnants from a previous era.

Since it began in the early 1980s, the Abandoned Mine Lands program has closed more than 1,600 hazardous mine openings around the state. But with almost 7,000 abandoned mines in Montana, demand for the programs services isnt likely to abate soon. Following a funding reauthorization stemming from the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act of 2021, the program has secured funds for the next 15 years of work. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality manages the AML program, which seeks to protect public health, safety and property from the adverse effects of mining.

The $2.8 million that AML receives each year from the federal government comes primarily from a fee on coal mining. As such, the focus of the program is on closing abandoned coal mines, but AML works with mineral and metal mines, as well.

The type and concentration of abandoned mines varies across the state. The town of Coalridge is located in Sheridan County, which, according to the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geologys abandoned and inactive mines database, has an estimated 40 abandoned mines. Most are coal or gravel mines. Just to the south, Roosevelt County has 101 abandoned mines.

These are little old farmers back in the homesteader days that got a little hole in the hill and took out  its usually poor-quality  coal to heat their houses or their barns, longtime eastern Montana resident Connie Iversen said.

Iversen and her husband, Dick, own and operate a cattle ranch along the Missouri River that sits on the border of Roosevelt and Richland counties, about 24 miles west of the North Dakota border. The Iversens werent aware there were old mines on their property until two of them caught fire.

In 2017, a prairie fire ignited by an spark from a neighbors metal cutter burned roughly 8,000 acres across the Iversens land and neighboring properties. It wasnt until a windy fall day two years later that the Iversens noticed smoke and realized two abandoned coal mines were burning on their property.

You could stand on [the ground] and feel the heat 20 feet away, Dick Iversen said.

Their first call was to the local fire department. As one of the firefighters was walking along the fire and trying to extinguish it, he fell up to his waist into a burning coal seam. Dick Iverson said other firefighters were able to pull him out, but the firefighters legs were badly burned and required hospital treatment.

The Iversens next call was to the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, which directed them to the AML program and Scott Graham, one of just two field employees working in the program.

Graham uses software like Google Earth to identify possible abandoned mines before heading out to the site. Occasionally, he will get a call from landowners like the Iversens who are having trouble with a particular mine.

In the case of abandoned coal mines, Graham said once a coal seam catches fire it essentially burns until the coal runs out. Graham visited the Iversens property in June 2020 to survey the extent of the undermined area and determine if it was eligible for AML funding. Graham then hired a contractor to facilitate the rehabilitation of the coal mine, which he estimates dates back to the early 1900s.

The burning coal seam was dug up in three places. In each area, workers mixed the burning coal with soil and water to quench the fire before putting the material back in the ground. Then they graded the surface to match the natural contours of the land and seeded the ground with native grasses.

Such work can be costly, but Graham said the agency is good at leveraging funds and working with other groups like the DNRC to help communities and property owners not only reclaim sites but make them beneficial.

We show up with a wheelbarrow full of money, Graham said.

Qualifying for AML funding was crucial for the Iversens. The cost of excavating and extinguishing the fires without county and state assistance would have been significant.

You cant afford not to because it could burn the whole countryside down in the middle of the night, Connie Iversen said.

Despite the fires on the Iversen property, which werent extinguished until the spring of 2022 due to the dangers of digging them up during an ongoing drought, Connie Iversen said theyre not too concerned about discovering another mine on their land.

Worried? No, not really, she said. I wouldnt be surprised if we had another one, but its not something that keeps us awake at night.
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Cost of living pressures are hitting volunteer organisations as low unemployment rates leave charity programs, op shops and community groups with fewer available helpers.

Volunteering advocates say unpaid work should be valued like traditional measures of economic prosperity, with new data showing billions of dollars of value is generated through unpaid work in Australia each year, largely from women.

North Narrabeen SLSC Club patrol captain Adrian Hill with volunteers Jason Perry (front left) Jacque Grimes, Jacinta Perry and John Beaumont hit the water. Credit: Nikki Short

At North Narrabeen Surf Life Saving Club on Sydneys northern beaches, patrol captain Adrian Hill said his team of volunteers had dropped by about 40 people, from 180 the previous summer.

There have been changes in peoples lifestyle; not everyone has weekends off, he said.
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 Weve curated a selection of key stories as part of the NSW election. See all 50 stories . Daniel Mookhey accepts that his colleagues description of him as frugal is pretty accurate. The 40-year-old former union lawyer, who is working to become the next treasurer of NSW, openly admits he packs his own lunch before heading to Macquarie Street each day. Mookhey cooks north Indian cuisine at home, he also smokes meat in a Japanese-style smoker to relax, and points out his DIY lunches arent just cost-effective, but a healthier way of eating too. Scanning the NSW oppositions infrastructure commitments, its easy to draw parallels between Mookheys frugality and Labors spending constraint as the party attempts to win government for the first time in more than a decade on March 25. Shadow treasurer Daniel Mookhey at his home in Enmore. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer While both Labor and the Coalition have committed to spending hundreds of millions of dollars on toll subsidies, energy rebates and other cost of living measures in this election campaign, a stark difference between the two sides emerges in their plans for Sydneys roads and railways over the next decade. Premier Dominic Perrottet has promised to build bigger dams, four new multi-billion dollar metro lines and to bore a tunnel through the Blue Mountains. Meanwhile, Mookheys drawn a line in the sand on borrowing, and says a Labor government will not stray past the $187 billion gross debt figure NSW is predicted to reach by 2026. Fewer metro railways will be built, the Blue Mountains tunnel scrapped.

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If you wish to use government to make change, then you have an obligation to make sure every dollar youre spending is getting value for money, he says. He believes voters were right to throw Labor out of office in the landslide 2011 election, and the only way the party can win back trust is to present a transparent and achievable vision for the state, rather than joining the Coalition in a fast-paced spendathon. Mookhey and Minns are instead championing more investment in schools, local roads and healthcare. Daniel Mookhey, second from right, arrives at a caucus meeting in June 2021. Credit:Louise Kennerley Its not flashy, but those are the key services that he says helped him, the son of north Indian migrants, gain an education in Merrylands in Sydneys west, attend university and ultimately put him within reach of the NSW treasurers office. I managed to get through some tough circumstances in my childhood because we had excellent public schools, he says. We as a state make our money from selling the intelligence of our people to the world, and declining education standards today [are] a recipe for economic decline tomorrow. Mookhey describes his upbringing in Sydneys west as a happy one, despite losing his father to a heart attack at just five years old, leaving his mother to raise three children with the help of the local community.

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A Labor win next weekend would thrust him into the most senior Australian political position held by someone of Indian origin, he points out. Compared with his opponent, Treasurer Matt Kean, whose reputation as a firebrand for moderate Liberal politics surrounding climate and energy extends beyond NSWs borders, Mookhey is relatively unknown. Despite the low profile, the former Transport Workers Union lawyer is credited within Labor circles for uncovering and prosecuting some of the biggest scandals to rock the Coalition in this term of government. Daniel Mookhey in May 2015, when he became the first MP to be sworn into an Australian parliament on the Hindu religious text Bhagavad Gita. Credit:Peter Rae Having helped blow open the woeful standards of the state insurer icare, he also unravelled the governments complex Transport Asset Holding Entity, which he describes as a multibillion-dollar accounting trick to inflate the NSW budget. No one knew what they were until he grabbed them and forensically pulled them apart, a Labor colleague said of the icare and TAHE scandals. Mookhey then led the charge on the Barilaro trade saga as a key committee member during the inquiry into the former deputy premiers brief appointment to a New York trade role.

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While Labor colleagues describe him as hard-working, others point out he struggles to communicate with some MPs and staff. Hes in a hurry. I dont think pacifying the backbench is his biggest focus; hes trying to take down the government, not keep his colleagues onside, one said. John Barilaro (right) giving evidence during the inquiry and Labors Daniel Mookhey (centre). Credit:Kate Geraghty Mookhey is aware he doesnt cut the traditional figure for a man on Macquarie Street. Even before Minns controversial Labor booze ban, he wasnt found drinking with colleagues on sitting nights, choosing instead to work from his office. I do notice that Im often in rooms with people where its not typical to see someone like me, and thats a good thing, he says of his Indian heritage. I dont make it the centre of my political identity, but I do think that our democracy is stronger if it looks like the people we represent. While most MPs and staffers glide around parliament in iterations of the same navy suit, Mookhey will often be found treading the halls in a hoodie and jeans before changing into business attire that could best be described as a cacophony of colours and patterns. Daniel Mookhey (left) and Greens MP David Shoebridge read an upper house committee report into icare. Credit:Kate Geraghty

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He also has nine pairs of colourful glasses, which have interchangeable parts, to complete the look. Asked to describe Mookheys fashion sense, one colleague said loud and proud, another said distinctive before acknowledging ridiculous might be a better word. Mookhey doesnt agree. I reject all allegations altogether, he says with a smile. Loading People dont understand the distinction between fashion and style: fashion is about conformity, and style is about individuality. Stylish or not, Mookhey says hes received strong feedback from camera operators that the combination of colourful stripes, dots, and other patterns can flare on television. Colleagues have also passed on some free fashion advice to the alternative treasurer. Its who I am, but I dont want people to think like Im this crazy guy. I guess as you get more senior, I have toned things down, he says.

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North Sydney mayor Zoe Baker has vowed to stop a property developer bulldozing Federation-era homes in Cremorne, amid a fierce battle over whether the properties are worth protecting.

North Sydney Council has fought to protect century-old houses on Holt Avenue in Cremorne after two property developers submitted plans to knock down the homes for apartment complexes.

An artists impression of proposed residential apartments in Cremorne, which require the demolition of century-old homes. Credit: MMK Developments

While the council and local residents want the homes protected from demolition, the developers claim the properties have no heritage value and accuse the council of wasting ratepayers time and money.

Two of the homes were bulldozed last year and the councils attempt to heritage list other properties were rejected by the Independent Planning Commission earlier this month.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland recently sentenced a young man to 30 years in prison for sex crimes perpetrated in part through the use of social media.

A week earlier hed sentenced a North Dakota woman to 30 years for producing and disseminating child pornography. Her co-defendant  the man for whom she produced the images  got 45.

The judge who has sentenced some 7,000 people in 20-plus years on the bench said he finds child pornography and sex crime cases among the most troubling.

Its the worst that society has to offer, he said.

Hovland said the crimes have a lifelong impact on victims, leaving them with the inability to trust people anymore.

The cases also impact the judges, investigators, prosecutors and others in the justice system who have to deal with them, battle-by-battle in a war that Hovland said is a nightmare thats never going to end.

Mounting cybertips

Investigation of child porn often starts with cybertips  information from internet providers to law enforcement. Each image in a grouping or cache of porn carries a sort of electronic fingerprint, according to North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley. Information from that image can help law enforcement find the owner of the IP address.

Its a constant, Wrigley said. It would startle people to know how many thousands of tips are generated each day. And Im sorry to point out that includes right here in North Dakota.

In 2016, 166 cybertips were forwarded to North Dakota investigators. That number rose to 245 in 2017 and to 609 in 2018 before dropping to 379 in 2019. It jumped to 585 in 2020, then to 726 in 2021. The state got 1,072 cypbertips in 2022.

Youre dealing with a dramatic upswing, Wrigley said.

Information about suspected crimes can be more direct, too. The case of the North Dakota woman Hovland sentenced started with a tip from her then-husband, who found the images on her phone. He reported it to local authorities.

Perpetrators and victims

The majority of the child pornography defendants Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Delorme has prosecuted are white males.

There, the commonality stops, he said  they can be 18 or 70, from any social class, undereducated or with professional degrees all the way to brain surgeons.

It doesnt appear the producers of child porn make much money from it. Its big, but not necessarily big business. Many who create videos and images share them on an in-kind basis through the internet. Its unclear how much money changes hands.

Investigators, prosecutors and ultimately judges see the impact to victims, their families, and the families of perpetrators  who Hovland said are most often clueless as to what has gone on. The impact worsens if the crimes progress: from viewing pornography to luring victims through promises of a real relationship or threats of blackmail, then to meetings that lead to coercion and sex crimes.

More internet service providers are reporting incidents, and more people, especially young people, have cellphones. Its becoming more common for a minor to talk to people online and negotiate a price for a photo of himself or herself.

Theyre almost exploiting themselves, said Steve Harstad, chief North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent. Once you hit send, that image is gone. Theres no coming back from that one.

Single purpose

Investigators on child pornography cases have a single purpose, according to Harstad: to put perpetrators away before they harm anyone else, and for as long as possible.

Thats absolutely what drives us, he said.

A big unknown is how many viewers of child porn will commit acts of sexual violence. Some studies show nearly 80% of people charged in child pornography cases later admit to hands-on acts. Delorme recently handled the prosecution of a man who shared explicit images of his grandchildren and made the children available to sexual predators.

Figuring out if a person who views child porn will go on to commit physical sex crimes is the million dollar question, Hovland said. And its what makes federal child porn cases the most controversial criminal offense in sentencing issues, without question, the judge said.

Nobody really knows exactly who were dealing with, Hovland said. Thats why theyre troubling on so many levels.

Law officers who get a tip from an internet service provider need search warrants to find out where the images originated. An initial warrant might turn up multiple images, emails and user names, which require more search warrants. One tip can lead to hundreds of possible suspects.

Investigations can come to a close quickly, sometimes in a day or two, under certain circumstances. Authorities might see communications between two 14-year-olds, for example, and intervene without arresting anyone.

We still want to respond, educate the parents, Harstad said.

Wrigley as he ran for attorney general pledged to push for harsher sentences and mandatory minimum sentences in such cases. Hes also looking to add forensic scientists to BCI staff.

Desensitizing

Investigators learn to desensitize themselves to the run-of-the-mill child porn, Harstad said. But there always seems to be something new being made, things he described as horrific. BCI agents at times see sex acts being forced on children age 3 and younger.

If you ever get to the point where that doesnt shock you, itll be time to move on, Harstad said.

The bureau puts effort into finding and retaining investigators. Most would rather investigate a murder, he said, but they understand the damage done by child sex criminals. The bureau adjusts time off, after big cases moves investigators away from child porn for a time, and makes a number of support options available.

Delorme as Project Safe Childhood coordinator for the district works with a number of agencies to identify and prosecute child porno cases. When he took the position with the U.S. Attorneys Office he knew he would have to see images to understand whats out there. He, like Hovland, doesnt think the public understands the far-reaching effects of the crimes.

Theres a perception that child pornography is made up of images of teens. Most of the cases Delorme sees involve offenders making or viewing images of victims as young as infants. After taking the job he quickly formed a work pattern to minimize his exposure to the images. But the forensic investigators have to look, Delorme said.

A case can involve enough images to fill the equivalent of several computer hard drives.

It would be great if there was a magic button that would flush the internet of everything, Delorme said.

BCI is shorthanded. The bureau and other agencies are working against a vast network thats secretive and cheap to operate.

You can be in a ramshackle tent and planet Earth is your market, Wrigley said.

More troubling for Hovland is the availability of graphic images and lack of treatment for offenders. Social media has opened the door for every predator and deviant pedophile to gain access to often naive victims, the judge said.

Offenders can get rehabilitative assistance in prison, Hovland said. About a dozen federal prisons offer Sex Offender Management Programs established by the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 2004. The programs themselves are excellent, the judge said, but most are voluntary.

At a SOMP facility, sex offenders are housed together and therefore are more likely to volunteer. There are some programs at other facilities too, but inmates housed with the general population arent raising their hands to volunteer out of fear, the judge said.

(Inmates) have their own sense of justice within the Bureau of Prisons environment, Hovland said.
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 Inspections for rentals in Sydneys inner and eastern suburbs are attracting more than double the prospective tenants than last year, as thousands of the citys renters continue their search for a place to call home. Domain data shows the number of rental check-ins  people who gave their personal details to an agent to enter a property, a common practice at inspections  per listing in the citys eastern suburbs was up 145 per cent in February compared to the same month the previous year. Every Saturday, thousands of renters line up at open houses across Sydney. There was a 106 per cent increase in people inspecting properties in central Sydney and the inner south, with queues of up to 50 people now commonplace in suburbs such as Chippendale, and Zetland, where two-bedroom apartments listed on Domain for inspection on Saturday had an average asking rent of above $1050. Loading Sydney-wide, there was a 20 per cent increase in registrations to inspect properties over the 12-month period. The city has seen an 84 per cent increase in people inspecting rental properties since March 2021. Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said the data showcased the competitive conditions renters were continuing to face after the traditional changeover period of December and January.

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Sydney is a landlords market, she said, stressing the situation had not been created overnight, with a lack of rental supply, affordability problems with purchasing property, a decline in household size as well as the return of international arrivals, who typically rent, all playing a role. A Reserve Bank of Australia report released last week found that advertised rents increased by more than 10 per cent in Sydney over the past five years, to the end of 2022. Over two weekends this month, The Sun-Herald spoke with renters lined up to inspect houses and apartments across the citys inner suburbs. Facing approaching eviction dates, rent hikes, and the pressure to make a higher offer, many had inspected dozens of properties but still had not found a place. These are some of their stories. Matthew and Jasmine Drummond, inspecting at Bondi Beach Matthew and Jasmine Drummond have been queueing at inspections at Bondi Beach. Credit:Flavio Brancaleone Its Matthew and Jasmine Drummonds first time in the rental market in 20 years and the competition is a shock.

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Its quite daunting, Matthew says. We had a great place, and it was easy not to move. The pair spent the past two decades renting an apartment in Bondi. They know their neighbours, love the community, and have invested a significant amount of their own money in maintaining and repairing the property. But during a maintenance inspection, a contractor found severe electrical and plumbing issues. The pair were served with a termination notice and told to start looking for a new rental. Theyre not having much luck. As they join the queue of 10 outside a two-bedroom apartment renting in North Bondi, the real estate agent arrives to let them know the inspection has been cancelled. Everything costs a lot more money now, Matthew says. Tee Longksao, inspecting at Chippendale In the apartments surrounding Chippendales Central Park Mall, conveniently located near both the UTS and the University of Sydney, as well as Central train station, queues of international students shuffle between inspections of apartments costing upward of $500 a room.

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Tee Longksao But Tee Longksao, 33, is not a student. She is here trying to find a place for her cousins family to live when they move from Thailand in a few weeks. They cant really stay with her  shes in shared accommodation  and the search is becoming pretty hopeless. Loading The last two weeks, I have been inspecting units in similar addresses, and there were often 50 people, she says. They dont have the supply for people who are coming in from overseas. Weve had to increase the budget because otherwise you wont be able to get any unit. Days later, the two-bedroom unit was leased for $1300 per week. When it was last leased, in August, it went for $1000 per week. Riley Finnerty and Bryan Nguyen, inspecting at Enmore

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Like many house hunters, it was an increase in their weekly rent which saw Riley Finnerty and Bryan Nguyen give notice to leave the apartment they have leased for one year. Frustratingly, the couple may have given up a comparably good deal. Riley Finnerty and Bryan Nguyen. They were increasing our rent by a small margin, but I recently found our place advertised on Domain and it was more than $300 in addition to what they were going to get us to pay on a fortnightly basis Nguyen says. Thats for a one-bedroom apartment. The couple is moving into a sharehouse with two friends to help keep costs down. They have been looking for a place for two weekends, inspecting about 10 places. We got the place we are currently in on our third or fourth inspection, says Finnerty. Joshua and Sharon Marlow, inspecting at Zetland

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Bus services across Sydney have been plagued with delays and cancellations, leading to long queues of frustrated commuters after a shortage of drivers led to cuts to services.

The eastern suburbs, inner west and north shore are the hardest hit by the driver shortage. One in 10 B-Line buses to the northern beaches have also been cancelled during the morning peak in the past six months.

A reduction in bus services triggered by a shortage of drivers has caused disruption to commuters across Sydney. Credit: Louise Kennerley

Lane Cove Council has established a reporting system for late and cancelled buses after complaints from teachers and parents about children being late for school.

The driver shortages prompted the NSW government to make temporary service changes in January by cutting bus services across Sydney.
Warnings for a number of bushfires burning across the state have been downgraded after a cool change swept across Victoria and temperatures plummeted more than 10 degrees in half an hour.

On Saturday, the state faced the most dangerous fire conditions since the Black Summer fires, as temperatures soared and Victoria was battered by strong winds.

However, on Sunday morning, the threat of fires along the Surf Coast and in Victorias alpine region had been reduced to advice level, with residents being urged to stay informed. About 500 firefighters were deployed to nine fires on Saturday.

Country Fire Authority chief fire officer Jason Heffernan told ABC radio on Sunday morning that numerous fires had started in Victoria on Saturday. A number in the Mallee area had started as a result of campfires, while others were sparked by power lines.
Darebin Mayor Julie Williams family connection to Preston Market runs deep, which helps explain her passion for wanting to keep the beloved shopping hub exactly as it is.

It is the heartbeat of our vibrant community, she said. [My mother] would be devastated if there was a 5 per cent change to the Preston Market ... shed be turning in her grave because she knows how important it is  not only for her family, but for my family.

Darebin Mayor Julie Williams at the Preston Market on Saturday. Credit: Scott McNaughton

The mayor said her mother, Pauline Williams, arrived from Malta in the 1950s with little English, and later found Preston Market to be an inclusive community hub in the culturally and linguistically diverse north of Melbourne.

But the 50-year-old market has been at the centre of a long redevelopment struggle between developers proposing modernisation and 2200 apartments on well-connected land and a resident push to leave the site untouched.
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 Behind a nondescript door on the ground floor of the Royal Melbourne Hospital is a small warren of offices belonging to the bed management team. The manager of access and patient flow, Sam Strapps, is sitting in front of two computer screens. One shows the demand for admissions and one breaks down the potential discharges for each ward that day. Theres often a big mismatch there, Strapps says. General medicine staff do the morning rounds at Royal Melbourne Hospital. Credit:Penny Stephens On this particular morning, a Wednesday in March, they are in the red zone, which means the mismatch is significant. The hospital has yet to reach its likely afternoon peak of demand, but there are already 41 patients in the emergency department needing admission. Thats effectively the entire emergency department, Strapps explains. At 6.30am, a team of bed managers takes over from an after-hours manager to help get these patients moving. But Strapps says the goalposts are always shifting.

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Perhaps five stroke patients arrive all at once, but there are just three stroke beds. There could be more than 100 potential discharges pencilled in at the start of the day, but that drops to 60 to 70 once ward rounds are completed and doctors find patients are sicker than expected. That means our original plan might not be the best fit. So we need to put all the pieces back together, but in a different way, Strapps says. We might just say alright, is there anything we can do to expedite the discharges? Are they awaiting a scan? Can I call radiology to say we prioritise this, to get the patient out? No matter how dire things look in the morning, Strapps says they always find a way to balance the ledger. On the red days there are regular video meetings with senior staff to talk through how they can improve the patient blockages. But the red days also seem to be on the rise, and staff from across the public hospital, which celebrated its 175th birthday this week, report they are seeing patients who are sicker and staying longer. The Age interviewed workers from the Parkville facility this month to talk about daily life in a major Melbourne hospital, in the midst of a long-awaited lull in COVID-19 cases. 8am: General medicine wards

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About 20 doctors gather in a conference room. X-Rays, blood results and other patient details are displayed on a big screen, as the night shift staff present the details of notable cases. The first major business of the day is to talk through any dramas from overnight; any deaths, intensive care transfers, code blues or Medical Emergency Team (MET) calls. The Royal Melbourne Hospital usually averages about 10 to 20 MET calls a day, made when a patients vital signs deteriorate worryingly. A classic [case] would be a person who has had surgery and then they develop pneumonia or an infection and their blood pressure drops, says Associate Professor Doug Johnson, the hospitals head of general medicine. Johnson says code blues  the highest-level medical emergencies  are now reasonably rare because the hospital has lowered the threshold for MET calls, meaning they are seeing people before they become so sick. The handover meeting finishes at about 8.30am. The teams from the five general medicine units break off and start their morning rounds, which can continue into the early afternoon. The sickest patients are seen first. They may spend up to an hour with someone who has just been admitted whose cause of illness isnt clear. Associate Professor Doug Johnson, the head of general medicine, speaks to patient Nicholas Leray-Meyer during ward rounds. Credit:Penny Stephens This area of the hospital is responsible for the largest number of beds. The typical patient is an older person with multiple things wrong with them: diabetes; lung problems; heart failure. It also takes people who have both mental and physical illnesses, including those who have overdosed on drugs, or adults with severe eating disorders.

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It may not always sound glamorous, but this section of the hospital is the part often reimagined in US television dramas, where young doctors unravel medical mysteries just in time. Indeed, the general wards at the Royal Melbourne Hospital are the training ground for 130 junior physicians, and its the place where patients with mystery illnesses come to be diagnosed. Johnson says there are usually about two or three diagnostic dilemmas within each of the units. Perhaps it is someone with prolonged fever or a patient who is wasting away. Solving these cases, he says, is a rewarding and fabulous part of what we do. Before the pandemic, demand on the general medicine wards would usually ease over summer, to around 80 to 100 patients, and then rise over winter, to about 120 to 130 admissions. But in the last 12 to 18 months there has been no dip, and admissions are now hovering at around 120 to 140. Part of that increase in demand has come from COVID patients, but not all of it. Lots of people have theories, but certainly the population is getting older, the population has more comorbidities, says Johnson. And because people had fewer opportunities to see their general practitioner or specialists during the pandemic, Johnson said people are now presenting with more advanced illness. Midday: Central equipment library Behind a locked grey door, accessible only by swipe card, is a cavernous room. Empty hospital beds are stored in rows and a collection of intravenous drips stand together against one wall. A technician beavers away, making simple repairs and ordering spare parts.

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The central equipment library service has been operating at the Royal Melbourne Hospital for about a year. Before that, some wards of the hospital were constantly running out of particular types of equipment, such as bariatric beds for larger patients and infusion pumps that deliver medication and nutrients into the body. Infusion pumps are attached to patients in the emergency department, and they travel through the hospital with them. What we used to see is that emergency would be forever short of pumps, but we would see them stored in other places  And because you could never find infusion pumps, people didnt want to share them either, says Dr Rebecca Bailey, the manager of clinical engineering. But now weve got this central equipment library, theres just this really great trust that youre always going to have enough. Rebecca Bailey, the manager of clinical engineering, with some of her team in the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Credit:Penny Stephens The clinical engineering team at the hospital has about 20 staff. Most of the work they do is invisible to patients, but it is vital to keep the hospital functioning. They make sure the medical devices are maintained and manage the buying of new ones within a limited budget. During the pandemic they began preparing for the worst, auditing the older equipment ready to be thrown out, to see if it could be used a little longer, in the event the hospital and the state was hit by a huge wave of COVID patients. Many of these contingencies were never used, as Australia largely suppressed the virus before vaccines arrived.

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The most shocking of the hundreds of WhatsApp messages sent and received by British Health Minister Matt Hancock during the COVID-19 pandemic was one in which he asked the special adviser from the Department of Health, When do we deploy the new variant? The purpose was to frighten the pants off everyone with the new strain. It shows a government that went from following the fear in the population to deliberately using fear to justify its pandemic measures.

A man is arrested in Melbourne during a 2021 anti-lockdown protest. Credit: Getty Images

In Australia, a freedom of information request has revealed that the Victorian government spent heavily on polling to understand what a frightened population wanted, in order to give it to them good and hard. Meanwhile, the federal government fired off randomly, using the pandemic to allow people to access their super, with not-so-super results, it now turns out. And then provided massive stimulus anyway, which were now paying for in inflation.

As the anniversary of the first Australian COVID-19 lockdown comes around, Facebook serves up memories. But most of us would prefer to forget. The television experts have been dispatched back into their ivory towers, events are back to capacity, and even the last of the performative parliamentary maskers is getting patchy about her out-of-hours usage. The pandemic is in the past; cost-of-living issues are now.

But the scandalous insights into the way the pandemic was managed by those whom we allow to lead us are a reminder of why it is important to hold a proper pandemic review. Simply, because it turns out they were following our lead, so we better get straight on what we want to happen next time.
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 Mick Cross is a seafarer and a unionist to his bootstraps. Theres a book of sea shanties on his desk, a ship in a bottle in his cabinet and a Eureka flag on his wall. The only subject he addresses with as much enthusiasm as the sea is his home town of Port Kembla, once a wild west steel and port town  15 years ago, the only place you could get an espresso coffee was at the brothel  which has become, in the words of a local patissier, the Newtown of the Illawarra. Cross, a local Maritime Union of Australia official, sees a bright future for Port Kembla, in which traditional steel and stevedore jobs co-exist with new, climate friendly ones on floating wind farms. He and his south coast comrades, steeped in the regions history of proud anti-military activism, are adamant that theres no place for nuclear submarines. We will do whatever we physically can to stop it, he says. [Its] absolutely feeding the war machine. Maritine Union of Australia official Mick Cross in his Port Kembla office, beneath the Eureka flag. Credit:Brook Mitchell Florist Renay Brownlow, an enthusiastic Labor supporter whose father worked in the local copper smelter until the day it closed, disagrees. She, too, has heard Port Kembla is the place most likely to house Australias multi-billion dollar submarines when theyre built, and thinks its exactly what the town needs. The port is no longer the thriving metropolis it used to be, she says, and the subs base would bring jobs. She knows her views will upset people. Im waiting for the hate mail. The schism within Labor over the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal is writ large in Port Kembla. Australia will spend $10 billion on a new, east coast base to house the subs and while Brisbane and Newcastle are also shortlisted, the heavily unionised Illawarra town is the favourite. Its waters become deep quickly, while those around Brisbane are shallow and, some maritime experts say, have too many jellyfish. It is close to expertise  the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor is nearby, as is a university  and has a population big enough to supply the necessary workers. Port of Newcastles chances are hamstrung by its part-Chinese ownership. Port Kembla has been shipping coal since the late 1800s, and a steel town for a century. Those industries provide fewer jobs these days, but remain the big employers. The main road, where the sex shops and brothels have been replaced by boutiques, art shops and a vinyl record store, leads to a valley consumed by a smoking, sprawling steel works, and to a port clogged with cranes, conveyer belts and silos. The residents have put up with a lot over the past 100 years, says Arthur Rorris, the head of the South Coast Labour Council. Every carcinogen known to man. And now were being asked to put a nuclear target on our backs as well? The Port Kembla Steelworks from Wollongong Beach. Credit:Brook Mitchell

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The town wants to diversify. Residents debated the viability of a Disneyland-style theme park. There was discussion, quickly abandoned, about a cruise terminal. Most recently, a report on tourism options suggested a $350 million eco resort with a man-made wave pool for surfing competitions. The council has funded an art hub on the main road, encouraging the boho vibe  enhanced by city folk moving south during COVID  that prompted patisserie owner Wayne Henderson to compare the mix of creativity and grittiness to Sydneys inner west. But the most viable option  enthusiastically supported by local unions and the Labour Council  has involved renewable energy projects, including offshore wind farms and a hydrogen hub backed by mining billionaire Andrew Twiggy Forrest. Robert Menzies in Wollongong in 1939 as police called on communist union leaders to help him through a crowd of hostile workers. Credit:Norman Brown Workers have always had a strong voice in Port Kembla. Treasurer  later prime minister  Robert Menzies earned his nickname, Pig Iron Bob, after dock hands refused to load pig iron onto a ship bound for Japan because it would be used for weapons. During the Cold War, workers proclaimed it to be the first nuclear-free port in the world. The council also declared the region a nuclear-free zone in 1980, and has reiterated its stance since. Locals fears were not just theoretical; nearby Jervis Bay still features concrete footings from a nuclear reactor that was begun, but abandoned, in the late 1960s. While there has been no official announcement about the site of the submarine base, opponents  including the towns chamber of commerce, the Greens, and the local Labor branch, which has passed a resolution opposing it  have begun mobilising. They say it would end plans for wind farms and a hydrogen hub, as theres not enough room for everything to coexist, especially as the port becomes the overflow facility for Port Botany. And theyre worried a military base would make Port Kembla a target. Weve been working on this [renewable energy plan] for a decade, says Rorris. Why would we compromise that and turn our port into a nuclear parking lot? Thats our port. Thats our jobs. Arthur Rorris from the South Coast Labor Council warns a naval base will make Port Kembla a parking lot for nuclear submarines. Credit:Brook Mitchell Ports NSW is nervous, too; any defence proposal should not adversely impact commercial port operations or constrain port growth, it said in a statement. But Wollongong Universitys Dean of Research, Paul Di Pietro, believes Port Kembla can fit everything. I dont think its an either or, I think it can all be accommodated, he says.

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Concern about attracting unwanted attention from hostile foreign forces is already whipping through the town. This week, retirees worried about it as they sprawled under umbrellas at the beach, as did workers sharing a drink after knock-off at the pub. It was a hot topic at a jewellery-making session at the art hub. Having a nuclear submarine base here makes us a target, said one woman, who wanted to be known only as Beth, as she threaded her beads. Wollongong Mayor Gordon Bradbery  an independent  says its too late to worry about becoming a target. Youve got steelworks and a port  its already a strategic target, he says. ANSTO [Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation] already brings nuclear materials through the city. He argues the project would bring jobs, and better infrastructure. As 1990s Labor prime minister Paul Keating blasts the present one, Anthony Albanese, over the decision, and the party splinters into those who are for and against the national deal - the local state and federal MPs  all Labor  find themselves between a rock and a hard place. None is willing to take a position yet, especially in the absence of any official decisions. Well analyse the facts, consult with the community, weigh up the options and make an announcement at the appropriate time, says MP Alison Byrnes. That doesnt surprise Cross. I want every one of [the local] councillors to go on the record, he says, and say what their position is. It wont happen. Port Kembla florist Renay Brownlow supports a naval base, saying it will bring jobs. Credit:Brook Mitchell At her shop on the high street, Brownlow  who is far from alone in her support for a naval base  worries that misinformation will fuel the opposition. Were very focused on the word nuclear, she says, but were not really educated in what that means. For Port Kembla, it will mean hosting submarines that feature small a nuclear reactor that releases heat, then uses seawater to create high-pressured steam to power the propeller. The radioactive material does not need to be removed until the vessel is decommissioned, and is well shielded from the crew. Edward Obbard, the head of nuclear engineering at the University of NSW, says the submarines are built to withstand military attacks, while seawater provides a constant cooling system (its overheating that causes nuclear meltdowns). You have to put it in perspective against things we do in daily life, like drive cars and drink beer and smoke cigarettes  its much safer than that, he says. The Port Kembla steelworks, seen from the top of the towns high street. Credit:Brook Mitchell

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No one knows how many jobs a base might bring. Regional Development Australia Illawarra estimates it would bring 7000, and attract more trades and professionals. Cross argues there wont be as many jobs as the renewable energy projects could create. Obbard says the workforce would be significant. [A submarine is] a huge, integrated engineering system, like a space shuttle, only it lives in water, he says. Some workers would look after radiation safety. Some would be devoted to emergency response. Some would work on the equipment and buildings, which would need more intensive maintenance as they must be earthquake-proofed to a much higher standard than civilian versions. There will be specialised scientists, but most workers would be engineers and tradespeople who would be trained in nuclear safely. Then theres the security, which would involve an exclusion zone  another thing worrying locals, who dont want to lose access to the water. You have to have a secure perimeter because of the amount of enriched uranium, Obbard says. Youd need guards, guys with guns. You think theyre protecting you, but theyre protecting the equipment. Its also the boats and the platform itself; its the crown jewel of defence technology, you wont be able to get anywhere near the submarines, and probably not see them until theyre sailing out in the bay. On the popular, sheltered beach, retirees such as Alex Szakacs are debating whether a submarine base would make Port Kembla a target. Credit:Brook Mitchell Loading Community opposition may not matter, especially for a project deemed to be of long-term national security. The Commonwealth has the power to compulsorily acquire land. Even if it didnt, Bluescope Steel is selling 200 hectares of unused industrial property. But as townsfolk wait for clarity, the anxiety is building. Everything is so secret, but it doesnt have to be, says former independent senator Rex Patrick, who has worked as a submariner. The government should have already engaged the community on this. Few communities rival Port Kemblas ability, honed over decades, to organise a resistance movement. Brisbane might have jellyfish, but Illawarra has the likes of Cross and Rorris. If they want to turn our harbour into a nuclear parking lot, we will fight them tooth and nail, says Rorris. They will have to fight Port Kembla before they even get to China.
Australias foreign service has begun searching for a new ambassador to Ukraine, but it remains unclear whether the successful applicant will be able to take up the position in the war-torn country.

The decision to begin advertising internally for a new head of mission means that Australias current ambassador to Ukraine, Bruce Edwards, is unlikely to ever return to the post in Kyiv.

Australias embassy was co-located with Canadas in Kyiv before the Russian invasion, but Australian ambassador Bruce Edwards has been based in Poland since February 2022. Credit: Bloomberg/DFAT

The Australian mission has been based in neighbouring Poland since last February. Edwards has returned to Ukraine just once since the invasion when he escorted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese into the capital last July alongside a heavy security presence.

More than 12 months after the invasion, at least 67 of the 81 diplomatic missions that left the Ukrainian capital have now reopened including the embassies of the United States, Britain and Canada.
Commodore Scott: Firstly, our submarines have always operated at extended ranges from Australia, in strategically significant waters. So, there is no change there. And there are a couple of reasons why were working with the US and the Brits on this. They are strategic allies for us and they have similar national values. And they have the capabilities that we need. So theres probably a pretty unique situation here, where we can combine not only the political intent, but also the industrial capability of three nations to really strengthen the undersea capabilities of all of us. Loading Fitz: But $368 billion! Were you shocked by that price tag? Commodore Scott: I expected something of that order. Were not buying a couple of new station wagons. We are taking Australia from a position where it is not a nuclear-power-capable nation to a position where it is a nuclear-power-capable nation. And the avenue for that vehicle, yes, is our submarine capability. It is a massive leap. Fitz: And yet, former diplomat David Livingstone wrote in the Herald this week that by the time our subs are ready to go theyll already be obsolete, that Unmanned Underwater Vehicles will take over, and other very sophisticated weaponry will be able to blow crewed subs of the water.

Commodore Scott: When I joined submarines 35 years ago, Peter, I was told that the oceans were going to become transparent and so submarines would be obsolete. The fundamental fact is that remaining undetected beneath the surface of the ocean continues to be far easier than remaining undetected on the surface of the ocean or above it. So yes, all of those areas are being advanced. Absolutely. China is working very hard on technologies like that. And I expect they will be deploying them into, you know, the South East Asian region. So, is it becoming harder? Yes. Does that mean that the relative value of the capabilities is diminished? I dont think so. Not relative to anything else that you can do in the oceans. Loading Fitz: But if, Commodore, were now pressing the button on $368 billion worth of expenditure on crewed submarines, including some being ready in 2042, surely, prima facie, thats a bit odd when, as you acknowledge, un-crewed submarines are coming down the line fairly fast? Commodore Scott: It would be about the effective combined use of those capabilities. So, I know from being out at sea and deployed on operations, that being on location, to see and hear and understand whats happening around you has its own tremendous inherent value that you cannot replace with uncrewed craft. Fitz: Meanwhile, Paul Keating has basically said this is the worst decision since forever, that it is a disgrace and that the Albanese government should get nicked. He is a former prime minister who always had a great strategic vision for Australia in Asia, and for Australia being independent. What do you make of his criticism?

Commodore Scott: I disagree. I think it gives us the capability that we need for the defence of the nation into the future. I think the pathway that has been described of how were going to get there is clear. I think its achievable. And I think that the acquisition of a nuclear submarine capability for the Australian Navy matches our strategic demand. Fitz: In your new book, Running Deep: An Australian Submarine Life, you write about how excited you were to first hear that the Morrison government had torn up the agreement with the French, and were joining the US and the UK in a new alliance to acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines through an enhanced trilateral security partnership, named AUKUS... Fitz: Well, weve now had two governments whove taken that view, because the Morrison government first led us down this path, and that has been followed by the Albanese government. Just how dangerous are the waters that Australia is sailing in, to have two successive governments take such radical action? Commodore Scott: Well, over the last 20 years the navies of India, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, Korea and, importantly, China, have all modernised and expanded their submarine fleets, and that is all since we stopped building Collins Class subs. So, every major regional Navy in the Indo-Pacific has modernised or expanded their submarine fleet in the last 20 years, while we have not. If theres an undersea arms race in the Indo-Pacific, we are not leading it. And moving in this direction on the nuclear-powered submarines is what will bring us back on to something like a level pegging with some of those navies. Loading

Fitz: But what of regional danger? You will note that the Herald this week has run a series which has attracted a lot of comments, saying that war with China is possible within three years. What do you make of that? Commodore Scott: I think its probably a fair and reasonable assessment. As to where nuclear submarines come in, I do not pretend to know where the threats to our national security might come from in the next 10 or 20 or 30 years. But I do believe that a nation equipped with a nuclear-powered submarine capability in that time, will be better placed to face whatever threats do come down the line. So in the next five years, it might be China and Taiwan. Maybe well get involved, maybe we wont. But five years after that, what will the threat to our national security be? Where will it come from? I dont know. But I do see investment in this capability as a sage investment in our future national security and, therefore, prosperity. Fitz: Let me give you a burst of what the satirist Mark Humphries put on ABC 7.30 on Thursday evening, pretending to be a Navy Commodore like you: One thing you can be sure of, when Australia says were going to build some submarines, we mean it ... except for the 12 submarines we proposed building in the 2009 Defence White Paper ... and the Japanese submarines we planned to buy back in 2014 ... and the French submarines we agreed to buy back in 2016. We are basically Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride if all the grooms were submarine contracts ... but this time we definitely mean it. Harsh but fair? Commodore Scott: Thats a really good question. The political rhetoric over the last 20 years on submarines has run pretty bloody hollow because theres been no shortage of announcements and decisions, but they havent been followed by a single [extra] submarine for the Navy. Follow-through on this decision is absolutely critical. But as a decision on its own, and you know, particularly as a trilateral decision, its got a lot of strength and a lot of weight. It says: We value our sovereignty, we value our independence, and this is how much were willing to invest to make sure that we can protect it. Personally and professionally, that absence of action on all those decisions has just ground me down over the last 20 years. But whats different now is the strategic environment. I think Australians can see not only the opportunities that China provides, but also the threat that it might pose. Fitz: In sum?

Commodore Scott: Every time a submarine goes to sea, it causes a shift in the calculus of regional political and military leaders. Nuclear subs have the stealth, range, endurance and the potency to operate as a deterrent or as an exceedingly capable, offensive platform. And they can shape the geostrategic environment of our region. Fitz: But Commodore, did I mention? $368 billion?! Jesus wept! Commodore Scott: Yep, its a lot of money. Fitz: But in your view, worth it? Commodore Scott: Every cent!

Quote of the week If anyone in this theatre commits an act of violence at any point during the show, you will be awarded the Oscar for Best Actor and permitted to give a 19-minute long speech ... If anything unpredictable or violent happens during this ceremony, just do what you did last year: nothing.  Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel in his opening monologue, referencing Will Smith slapping last years host, Chris Rock. Joke of the week A poodle and a collie are walking together when the poodle suddenly unloads on his friend. My life is a mess, he says. My owner is mean, my girlfriend ran away with a Schnauzer, and Im as jittery as a cat. Why dont you go see a psychiatrist? suggests the collie.
The cost of living crisis is driving rising levels of reported distress in NSW, as the nations peak suicide prevention group says an increase in deaths among middle-aged men should be a wake-up call for the next parliament.

Suicide Prevention Australia is calling for NSW to follow South Australias lead and implement dedicated suicide prevention legislation, which would require lawmakers to consider the mental health impacts of housing and welfare policies.

New data from Suicide Prevention Australias community tracker, a quarterly survey of the wellbeing of 1000 adults, found 77 per cent of respondents in NSW reported elevated levels of distress in February 2023 compared to the same time last year, an 8 percentage point increase from the November survey.

Cost of living and personal debt remained the No.1 issue driving elevated distress in the state (reported by 47 per cent of those surveyed, up 6 percentage points since November).
Two bills before the Legislature to ban or restrict books in an effort to protect children go too far. In fact, libraries already have policies in place for handling complaints.

Both House Bill 1205 and Senate Bill 2360 provide general definitions of whats offensive that could be interpreted differently by members of the public. Some would be more easily offended than others.

House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, R-Dickinson, sponsors House Bill 1205. It defines explicit sexual material as any material which, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest of minors; is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community in North Dakota as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors; and taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.

Senate Bill 2360 is sponsored by Sen. Keith Boehm, R-Mandan. It would criminalize with a misdemeanor charge the willful display of explicit sexual material at news stands or any other business establishment frequented by minors, or where minors are or may be invited as a part of the general public.

Boehm has offered an amendment to add public library or public school library to his definition.

Supporters of the bills say they are intended to protect children. The Tribune editorial board certainly favors the protection of minors. However, these bills are targeting a problem that doesnt exist.

Libraries in the state have policies for patrons to challenge books they find offensive. The Tribune emailed 27 public libraries in the state about any challenges in the last five years. Eighteen libraries responded with 14 reporting no challenges involving obscenity.

The Bismarck, Fargo, Minot and Valley City libraries reported a combined nine challenges to materials considered obscene. Hearings have been offered on books and in some cases the books have been relocated.

Boehm discounted the survey results, saying it just shows people havent found the books yet. That would go against the argument of the supporters of the bills that libraries are promoting the books through displays.

To argue that libraries have become places where children are targeted and groomed is insulting to librarians. Libraries are quiet places which offer specific programs for children of different ages. They arent grooming them, they are teaching them the joy of reading. The Tribune doesnt believe predators are lurking amid library book shelves.

The ultimate responsibility for what children read falls to parents. They get to decide whats appropriate and parents will differ on what they think is appropriate for their children. Some children are more mature than others. Many books intended for youth come with age appropriate recommendations.

Under Lefors bill, libraries would have to submit a compliance report on their policies to legislators. Thats a very big brother requirement. Republicans complain about woke policies, but the effort to ban books seems woke.

What will the Legislature want to ban next session  movies, TV programs? Once you let the censor loose its difficult to control.

Books can be banned or relocated at libraries, but how do you stop minors from going online? In todays society there are many ways to access material.

The Tribune believes there are sound policies in place so books of concern can be discussed and relocated. We dont see librarians as a threat to children, but as mentors helping children enjoy reading whether fiction or nonfiction.

These bills arent necessary and would have a chilling impact on society. They should be rejected.
How generous of our dedicated and loving father premier to deliver hope to our children through his future fund (Think of your kids, vote Liberal: premier to appeal to parents, March 12). The initial payment of $400 would accumulate with future taxpayer contributions matched to parental deposits into the fund. No problem for those on the kind of salaries that the premier and his wife earn, perhaps. But what about those who daily make decisions about whether they can feed their children or pay the rent; those who cannot find the cost of school uniforms, books or excursions; those families who are locked out of home ownership because homes became investment properties? The premiers future fund for children sounds like a child of the superannuation scheme  aka the tax avoidance scheme for the wealthy which will ensure the gap between the haves and have nots widens even further. Wendy Michaels, Northbridge

The premise that we want our children to have better opportunities than we did as espoused by our premier is a double-edged sword. How to do it without coddling the little ones and ensuring they dont become entitled and out of touch with reality, an arguably common scenario today. Some of us of course grew up with poor opportunities, but is this just a common generational aspiration or are we trying too hard and missing the point? Maybe we should stop worrying so much about our kids and release them from our expectations. Judy Finch, Taree

Once again a scheme that will advantage those who can already afford to make such payments. Those battling to put food on the table and pay rent have no spare money. Another example of middle-class welfare while we ignore the pleas of the unemployed and single-parent families for real assistance. Why do we judge some people as less deserving than others? Whatever happened to the land of the fair go? Jan Kent, Farmborough Heights

Untapped resources

Jacqueline Maley is not alone in being shocked that theres been no increase in Australian womens full-time workforce participation rate over the last decades (PMs proud of single mum. Will he put his money where his mouth is?, March 12). Its even more shocking if we consider what that means: given that the overall participation rate of women has doubled in 60 years, it means the whole of that increase consists of women working part-time. I suggest Maleys catalogue of womens precarious work situations applies not only to all part-time but also to some full-time jobs. Maybe the opportunity for women to participate has increased over time, with the availability of more part-time options, but the risk factors and barriers when women do participate have also increased - and thats shocking too. Workforce surveys invariably identify a significant proportion of under-employed women who need or want more work. Those same surveys often focus on the need for increased migration to plug workforce gaps. Its time the government encouraged the labour market to recognise and make better use of the untapped resources already available. Jenifer Nicholls, Armadale, (Vic)
A Victorian villa with ocean views in Clovelly sold for $3.63 million on Saturday, to a local man who almost missed the auction.

The upgrader, who mixed up the time of the auction by half an hour, turned up to 16 Seaview Street in the last minutes of the bidding and made a single offer right before the hammer fell.

He was one of 10 registered bidders on the freestanding three-bedroom house, which was built in the 1890s and was on the market for the first time in more than 60 years.

It was one of 655 homes scheduled to go under the hammer in Sydney on Saturday. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 73.2 per cent from 429 reported results, while 77 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.
Sydney house hunters pay a premium to purchase close to the city centre, but there are pockets where buyers can get better bang for their buck, even by moving just one suburb over.

Homebuyers looking to maximise their budget, while remaining relatively close to the CBD, could turn to often overlooked suburbs like Canterbury, Arncliffe and East Ryde, which have the lowest house prices per square metre within 10 kilometres of the city centre.

Homes in Canterbury, 9.9 kilometres south-west of the CBD as the crow flies, offer the best value for money within that radius, trading for a median price of $3,199 per square metre last year, and offering a median block size of 453 square metres.

Next was Arncliffe, where house hunters paid a median of $3,635 per square metre, then East Ryde ($3,645) and Middle Cove ($3,656), where homes are more expensive but sit on larger blocks.
That team has not yet released a paper outlining the findings. But the researchers delivered an analysis of the material to a WHO advisory group studying COVIDs origins this week in a meeting that also included a presentation by Chinese researchers regarding the same data. Loading The analysis seemed to clash with earlier contentions by Chinese scientists that samples taken in the market that were positive for the coronavirus had been ferried in by sick people alone, said Sarah Cobey, an epidemiologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago who was not involved in recent research. Its just very unlikely to be seeing this much animal DNA, especially raccoon dog DNA, mixed in with viral samples, if its simply mostly human contamination, Cobey said. Questions remain about how the samples were collected, what precisely they contained and why the evidence had disappeared. In light of the ambiguities, many scientists reacted cautiously, saying that it was difficult to assess the research without seeing a complete report.

The idea that a lab accident could have accidentally set off the pandemic has become the focus of renewed interest in recent weeks, thanks in part to a fresh intelligence assessment from the Department of Energy and hearings held by the new Republican House leadership. But a number of virus experts not involved with the latest analysis said that what was known about the swabs gathered in the market buttressed the case that animals sold there had sparked the pandemic. A convoy of vehicles carrying the World Health Organisation team enters the interior of the Huanan Seafood Market in January 2021. Credit: AP Its exactly what youd expect if the virus was emerging from an intermediate or multiple intermediate hosts in the market, Cobey said. I think ecologically, this is close to a closed case. Cobey was one of 18 scientists who signed an influential letter in the journal Science in May 2021 urging serious consideration of a scenario in which the virus could have spilled out of a laboratory in Wuhan.

On Friday, she said lab leaks continued to pose enormous risks and that more oversight of research into dangerous pathogens was needed. But Cobey added that an accumulation of evidence  relating to the clustering of human cases around the Wuhan market, the genetic diversity of viruses there and now the raccoon dog data  strengthened the case for a market origin. Loading The new genetic data does not appear to prove that a raccoon dog was infected with the coronavirus. Even if it had been, the possibility would remain that another animal could have passed that virus to people, or even that someone infected with the virus could have transmitted it to a raccoon dog. Some scientists stressed those points Friday, saying that the new genetic data did not appreciably shift the discussion about the pandemics origins. We know its a promiscuous virus that infects a bunch of species, said David Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, who also signed the May 2021 letter in Science.

Chinese scientists had released a study in February 2022 looking at the market samples. Some scientists speculated that the Chinese researchers might have posted the data in January because they were required to make them available as part of a review of their study by a scientific journal. The Chinese study had suggested that samples that were positive for the virus had come from infected people, rather than from animals sold in the market. That fit with a narrative long promulgated by Chinese officials: that the virus sprang not only from outside the market but from outside the country altogether. Raccoon dogs are related to foxes and are known to be able to transmit the coronavirus. Credit: iStock But the Chinese report had left clues that viral material at the market had been jumbled together with genetic material from animals. And scientists said the new analysis by the international team illustrated an even stronger link with animals. Scientifically, it doesnt prove that raccoon dogs were the source, but it sure smells like infected raccoon dogs were at the market, said Jeremy Kamil, a virologist at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Centre Shreveport.

He added: It raises more questions about what the Chinese government really knows. Scientists cautioned that it was not clear that the genetic material from the virus and from raccoon dogs had been deposited at the same time. Depending on the stability of genetic material from the virus and the animals, said Michael Imperiale, a virologist at the University of Michigan, they could have been deposited there at potentially widely different times. Still, Dr Arturo Casadevall, an immunologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who co-authored a recent study with Imperiale examining the origin of the coronavirus, said that linking animal and viral material nevertheless added to the evidence of a natural spillover event. I would say it strengthens the zoonotic idea, he said, that is, the idea that it came from an animal at the market.

In the absence of the actual animal that first spread the virus to people, Casadevall said, assessing the origins of an outbreak would always involve weighing probabilities. In this case, animals sold at the market were removed before researchers began taking samples in early 2020, making it impossible to find a culprit. Tim Stearns, dean of graduate and postgraduate studies at the Rockefeller University in New York, said the latest finding was an interesting piece of the puzzle, although he said it was not in itself definitive and highlights the need for a more thorough investigation. For all the missing elements, some scientists said the new findings highlighted just how much information scientists had managed to assemble about the beginnings of the pandemic, including home addresses for early patients and sequence data from the market. Theodora Hatziioannou, a virologist at the Rockefeller University, said it was critical that the raw data be released. But, she said, I think the evidence is overwhelming at the moment toward a market origin. And the latest data, she said, makes it even more unlikely that this started somewhere else.
For centuries, the sandstone walls of the Punch Bowl Inn greeted passersby on a quiet English country road. Tour guides in Hurst Green pointed out the pub to village visitors: Legend had it that a notorious robber operated out of the pub in the 18th century before he was caught and executed. His ghost still haunts the place, theyd say.

The pubs story ended, seemingly, in June 2021 when residents learned that the Punch Bowl Inn had been demolished. Outrage followed. The pub was a listed building, a designation in the United Kingdom that protects structures of historical significance.

The site of the Punch Bowl Inn in 2009 Credit: Google Maps

The Ribble Valley borough council, which oversees Hurst Green, took legal action against the pubs owner, Andrew Donelan, whose company demolished the building. In early March, authorities rejected an appeal from Donelans company and ordered them to rebuild the Punch Bowl Inn within 12 months - using the very stones from the pubs rubble.

The order is pretty unique, Tom Pridmore, Ribble Valleys tourism officer, said in an interview with The Washington Post. If you could see the pile of rubble, by golly, what a job thats going to be.
PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- The Police Department of Sint Maarten (KPSM) announces the following temporary road closures in connection with the Causeway Jump Up that is scheduled for Saturday evening, March 18.



Part of the Welfare Road starting from the entrance to Billy Folly Road to the Simpson Bay Bridge, and from the bridge  Airport Road heading in the direction and up to the Simpson Bay Causeway round-a-bout, will be closed to all vehicular traffic from 7:30 pm until the Jump Up passes. Once the Jump Up passes, the road will be reopened.



All vehicular traffic coming from the Airport, and Maho will have to use the Causeway Bridge to go to Cole Bay, French side and other destinations during this period.



The Causeway Bridge will be closed to all vehicular traffic from 8:00pm until the Jump Up clears the bridge heading into Cole Bay.



At 8:30pm the Causeway Bridge Round-a-bout in Cole Bay will be closed to all vehicular traffic coming from the French side and Cole Bay. The Union Road and all alleyways will be temporarily closed until the Jump Up passes.



All roads will be re-opened once the Jump Up passes.



KPSM is seeking the cooperation of all road users during the temporary road closures.



A large number of Police will be assisting with the safe passage of the Jump Up and to ensure public safety along the route.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The very first jump-up for the 2023 carnival period will be taking place this evening, March 18, 2023, with the causeway Jump-up

Under the given permit, the jump-up will commence at approximately 8:00 p.m. and should end at 1:00 a.m. in the early morning

This event will commence in the vicinity of the Parking-lot in Simpson bay proceeding towards The Cause Way bridge, Union road, and welfare road back to Simpson bay.

Those participating in this and other carnival events should be mindful that the Carnival period is a celebration for the community of St. Maarten, therefore police of St. Maarten request cooperation from all to make these events as trouble-free as possible.

For visitors and individuals residing in the vicinity of Simpson bay and Cole-bay, please note that certain roads will be closed off for the duration of the parade and alternative traffic should be used.

Law enforcement officers are involved to ensure general safety throughout Carnival, not to hamper the Carnival festivities.

KPSM Press Release.
Robert Munro, 37, of Merritt, British Columbia, injured his back at work while moving furniture. He filed a claim with the Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia (WorkSafeBC) and began physiotherapy. When reviewing his official government though, Munro noticed that he was described as a "redneck hick to death" and "uneducated massive redneck pussy" who was "playing the system." If he were in the United States, those diagnoses would certainly not be covered by any health plan. From CBC:

"The [physiotherapist] was really nice right up front," Munro told Daybreak Kamloops guest host Doug Herbert. Munro reported it to his WorkSafe case manager. A complaint was then filed with the Interior Health Authority. Interior Health has confirmed Munro's complaint and said it is currently under investigation.

Reminds me of this:
MCCALL AND THE TEAM CHASE AFTER AN OPERATIVE WHO KILLS ALL BUT ONE OF THE EMPLOYEES AT A MARINE BIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP, ON THE EQUALIZER, SUNDAY, MARCH 26Donal Logue Guest Stars as Colton FiskPatriot Game  After an operative kills all but one of the employees at a marine biology research group, McCall and the team join forces with Colton Fisk when they discover a connection between the murders and a secret CIA program he was involved in, on the CBS Original series THE EQUALIZER, Sunday, March 26 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+*. Donal Logue guest stars as Colton Fisk.WRITTEN BY: Joseph C. Wilson & Rob HanningDIRECTED BY: Geoff Shotz
Florida textbook publisher Studies Weekly removed mention that Rosa Parks was Black from the lesson about the woman who helped ignite the Civil Rights Movement in the US by refusing to give up her seat to a white man. The company is attempting to get their materials approved by the Department of Education in a state where the governor, Ron Desantis, "signed legislation last year that prohibits instruction that could make students feel responsibility, guilt or anguish for what other members of their race did in the past," according to The Hill. The original version of the elementary school lesson stated: "The law said African Americans had to give up their seats on the bus if a white person wanted to sit down."

Then it was changed to "She was told to move to a different seat because of the color of her skin." And most recently: "She was told to move to a different seat."

Studies Weekly also edited a lesson on segregation laws. From The Hill:
If you think the national image of St. Louis is bad now, just wait. Missouris unelected attorney general, who is white, is trying to throw out the citys twice-elected circuit attorney, who is Black. Were going to be made to look like Selma in the 1950s. Missouri will be the new Alabama.

We know better, right? Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardners tenure has been a disaster. The criminal justice system is broken. The city has dozens of murder cases pending. Crimes that dont rise to that level get tossed on the circular file. The chief trial assistant has recently announced his resignation.

Do you think the national media will pick up on those nuances? If so, think again. Theyll send correspondents to Jefferson City, and theyll find legislators who will say we want to be Alabama in the 1950s. Its a goal.

Goodbye, new businesses.

To ensure that the effort to remove her receives national attention, Gardner has hired Ronald Sullivan, Harvey Weinsteins former lawyer. Sullivan is the attorney Gardner once hired to prosecute former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens. It seemed a strange hire at the time because she had a staff of prosecutors on hand. We will never know if Sullivan would have had more luck prosecuting Greitens than he did defending Weinstein because the Greitens case got sidetracked before trial when the investigator Gardner hired got charged with perjury. That hire had seemed odd, too, because Gardner had a staff of investigators on hand.

At any rate, we are headed toward a trainwreck.

There is a way out.

Let me tell you about a beer I had with Eric Schmitt shortly before the pandemic shut everything down. Schmitt had contacted me with some exciting news. He was going to start a cold case unit in the attorney generals office. To handle old murder cases from across the state, he was bringing in a couple of seasoned prosecutors  Tom Dittmeier and Dean Hoag.

Old cases, old prosecutors. It was music to an old reporters ears. But COVID put the brakes on everything, and then Roy Blunt retired and Schmitt ran for Senate.

During that same conversation, Schmitt had suggested a special unit in the AGs office to handle homicides in the city. That wouldnt work, I said. The city has an elected prosecutor. State intervention would disenfranchise city residents.

I still believe that. But what if it werent state intervention? What if the city itself declared an emergency and established a temporary office to assist the circuit attorney? The office would handle serious cases. Mostly homicides.

It would be a two-year fix. Just long enough to get things back on track.

Race is a big part of Gardners argument. Shes the first Black prosecutor. She points that out repeatedly. Wed court disaster taking some of her power away and giving it to a white person.

Fortunately, there are many well-qualified Black candidates. I might go with a judge. We would ask the judge to take a two-year leave to run the new office. Circuit Court Judge Paula Bryant would be good. She started as a prosecutor. Or we could ask U.S. District Court Judge Henry Autrey to be in charge. I remember going into his chambers long ago to talk about a case and he was eating yogurt and smoking a cigarette. An ideal judge, I thought. He sees both sides of an issue. He used to be a prosecutor, too.

Or we might seek a younger person. Reggie Harris of Bryan Cave or Gabriel Gore of Dowd Bennett would be great choices. In fact, they were the two names most frequently mentioned back when people thought President Joe Biden might actually appoint a U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.

At any rate, there is no shortage of candidates to run the new office.

We need to get on this quickly. Motions are already being filed in the states effort to remove Gardner.

If I were the mayor, Id put Mike Wolff, former Missouri Supreme Court judge and former dean of St. Louis University Law School, in charge of setting this up. He could ask the U.S. attorney to lend the office a few prosecutors. He could make the same request of the attorney general. (Lets see if Andrew Bailey really wants to help or if hes just looking for headlines.) Wolff could ask local law firms for lawyers. All the big firms have former prosecutors on staff. So do most of the smaller firms that specialize in criminal defense. The private firms would continue paying the salaries of the lawyers they lend to the program.

Its asking a lot of the lawyers to put their careers on hold for two years, but hey, people used to get drafted into the Army and run the risk of getting killed.

This is an emergency, Wolff could explain. If were going to fix a broken criminal justice system, we need the help of the legal community. Meanwhile, former prosecutors might want to enlist.

The business community will need to help, too. The mayor could call Jason Hall, head of Greater St. Louis Inc. We need downtown office space suitable for a small law firm, shed say. Maybe 40 lawyers and support staff. We want the space donated. If we dont fix the criminal justice system, the space wont be worth anything, anyway. In addition to space, were going to need IT help. Bookkeeping, too. And a couple of spokespeople.

Hall and the business community have been outspoken about problems with the criminal justice system. Time to do something.

Winston Churchill didnt rent boats to get the army off of the beaches of Dunkirk. We have to look at this with the same sense of urgency. We must do something, and we must do it quickly.

Of course, everything wont be donated. Some small law firms may not be able to subsidize their employees who take leave to work in this new venture. And investigators, of course. Presumably, well be hiring retired cops. Theyll have to be paid.

Happily, the city is flush at the moment and a two-year commitment to repair the criminal justice system is a good investment. Nobody thinks our New Normal is working.

While the new auxiliary office will be autonomous, it should work with the circuit attorneys office. For instance, inexperienced prosecutors at the circuit attorneys office could assist and second-chair the more experienced prosecutors in the auxiliary office. That way, when the emergency situation abates and the auxiliary office shuts down, the circuit attorneys staff will be more prepared to handle things.

Hopefully, the citys leaders  business and political  will be able to convince the citizenry that competency is required in the criminal justice system. In the end, the only people who can save St. Louis are St. Louisans.

But that comes later. Right now, were at the Last Chance Cafe. We can dare to do something and be an example to the country  were not alone in this red, blue, black, white mess  or we can drift along and see what happens. That sound you hear is a waterfall.
IRONTON, Mo.  Deputies began emptying the Iron County Jail of its 19 inmates before lunch Friday.

The countys sheriff and two of his deputies had just been arrested. That left the jail short-staffed  and the countys part-time coroner in charge.

So there on Friday afternoon next to the town square stood Coroner Tim Harbison in a crisp white business shirt. He had stepped away from his job as a regional bank manager to take over the Sheriffs Office.

Its temporary, Harbison told a reporter. Its a small town. The key is service to the community.

Iron County is southwest of Farmington, in Missouris lead belt. It is home to Taum Sauk Mountain State Park, parts of the Mark Twain National Forest, and nearly 10,000 residents.

And on Thursday, Iron County Sheriff Jeff Burkett, halfway through his first four-year term, was charged in neighboring Washington County with several crimes, including criminal street gang activity. Prosecutors allege that Burkett and two of his deputies used their law enforcement powers to try to help a fourth man, Donald Rickie Gaston, as he attempted to take his daughter from her mother last month.

The sheriff is charged with, among other crimes, falsely reporting to 911 dispatchers that the childs mother had kidnapped the girl and that she was in danger. The sheriff and his two deputies also are accused of using pings from the mothers cellphone to try to track her whereabouts.

One of the charges filed against the sheriff is that he, the two deputies and Gaston were part of a criminal street gang, because they were organized to commit the crimes.

Gabe Crocker, Burketts attorney, said the small-town politicians in Iron County were hellbent on taking the sheriff down. These charges are 100% politically motivated, Crocker said. Its simply another chapter in the long-term effort to remove the outsider sheriff.

Harbison, a civilian, was thrown into the job in the Sheriffs Office without notice; state law dictates that the county coroner step in when the sheriff is incapacitated. He said he thinks it will be largely administrative. His other jobs in town are as banker and funeral home director.

But the trouble has left Iron County with three deputies for 550 square miles. A few Missouri Highway Patrol troopers were helping patrol on Friday. Transferring the inmates to Potosi, 30 miles away in Washington County, is designed to help relieve some of the strain on the office.

Taking care of a jail is one of the biggest headaches of a sheriffs department, Washington County Sheriff Zach Jacobsen said. This will give them a chance to breathe.

The charge of being part of a criminal street gang activity is a rarity, he added. Ive been in this business 20 years and Ive never heard of it, he said.

Sheriff Burkett battled back

The Missouri State Highway Patrol arrested all four men on Thursday. The patrols Division of Drug and Crime Control conducted the investigation. The men charged are:

 The sheriff, Burkett, 46, who lives in Des Arc, Missouri, in Iron County. Among the four felony and four misdemeanor charges, the patrol said his crimes included obtaining criminal history record information under false pretense and making a false report.

 Iron County Deputy Matthew Cozad, 39, who lives in Bixby, Missouri, in Iron County. Prosecutors allege that Cozad asked dispatchers to check for other vehicles the woman had registered in her name, and asked that area law enforcement agencies detain her if they stopped her for any reason.

 Iron County Deputy Major Chase Bresnahan, 31, who lives in Centerville, Missouri, in Reynolds County. Part of what prosecutors accused him of doing is contacting a wireless phone company to get information on the womans phone location.

 Donald Rickie Gaston, 62, who lives in Caledonia, Missouri, in Washington County. The patrol said Gastons crimes included second-degree stalking and attempted parental kidnapping.

Burkett earned a salary of $63,000 as sheriff, according to January county commission minutes. Before he was sheriff, Burkett worked as a deputy.

Gaston was not in law enforcement but is known around town as a big property owner. Gaston and Burkett were friends.

Charging documents allege the case began on Feb. 8 when Gaston and the mother of his child got into a quarrel.

A 4-minute audio recording from the 911 dispatch center and a cellphone video picked up details of the quarrel between Gaston and the woman. They were fighting over a $50 bottle of liquor, police said, and Gaston was agitated and cursing. A female voice is heard on the recording, yelling, Touch her again and I swear to god Ill call the ... cops. The video ends with Gaston saying that someone punched him in the face.

Two days later, on Feb. 10, Burkett called 911 dispatch and asked for a cellphone ping, saying he was trying to check the well being of someone, documents say. He said the woman had fled the county with a child and a court order said the father should have been notified. While on the phone with dispatch, Burkett said he was Gaston, charges say.

Later, Cozad asked dispatchers to put a stop and hold on the woman.

After 11 p.m. that night, a Jefferson County police sergeant told dispatchers he found the woman and her child and they were fine. When Burkett heard that the Jefferson County officer didnt arrest the woman, Burkett replied by saying, Well theyre gonna have another issue because Gaston is on his way there.

Burketts mugshot Thursday, taken at the Washington County jail in Potosi, shows him with an oxygen line leading to his nose and wrapped behind his ears.

Jeffs had some hard times with COVID, said Iron Countys presiding commissioner, Jim Scaggs. Hes lucky to be alive.

Last year, the sheriff was hospitalized for nearly four months, part of that time spent on a ventilator because of COVID, the Sheriffs Office said. While he was sick, the county filed suit to remove him from office, but the case was dropped.

Sheriff Burkett battled back, the Iron County Sheriffs Department said on Facebook, and the frivolous coup attempt failed ... It is no secret that Sheriff Burkett is an outsider to many of the current elected officials.

Removing inmates from cells

Last week, a few days after patrol investigators interviewed Burkett, he checked himself into the hospital. The Iron County Sheriffs Department told people on Facebook that Burkett was hospitalized March 10 for complications from COVID-19.

Sheriff Burkett is awake and alert, however, his symptoms are quite severe, the post said.

Later that day, the office updated its message to say that Burkett was heading home for rest.

Word of Burketts arrest spread quickly Thursday at the biannual Missouri Sheriffs Association conference in Osage Beach.

The fact that we arrested one of our own sent shockwaves through the conference, Jacobsen, the Washington County sheriff, said from the conference. We have over 100 sheriffs here.

Back at the sheriffs office, jail supervisor Beth Ethridge bristled as the inmates were removed from their cells. She said the county doesnt think its safe to keep the inmates there without enough deputies to guard them.

Ethridge was working at a gas station when the sheriff recruited her last November to work as a jailer. Her 22-year-old daughter, Macie Yount, was in home healthcare when Burkett convinced her to work for him as his assistant.

This is bogus, Yount said of the charges against him. They want to see him as the bad guy. The charges, they think hes Mafia and hes definitely not.

Ethridge scoffed at the charge of criminal street gang activity.

We have three streets, Ethridge joked.

Scaggs, the presiding commissioner, said he was surprised when Burkett was snared in the criminal case. And even though Burketts attorney said the commission was trying to drive the sheriff out, Scaggs said its not true.

I feel sorry for those people, I really do, despite what the attorney has said, you know? Scaggs said. Everybody should know I dont have the power.

As he sat in the refurbished 1860 courthouse Friday, proud of the woodwork and artwork, Scaggs said Iron County is a tight-knit community and sometimes draws media attention for the wrong reasons.

Normally its floods and tornadoes, he said.

This, Scaggs said of the sheriffs crisis, is not who we are.

Burkett was being held Friday on $500,000 cash bail at the Jefferson County Jail. Gaston and the two deputies are each held in lieu of $400,000 cash bail.
Theres an ominous-sounding phrase thats been in the news lately: actual malice. No, its not the working title of Donald Trumps latest autobiography, but good guess.

Actual malice is what public figures have to prove to win defamation suits against news organizations. Its a higher standard than for private citizens, who only have to prove a news report was false, defamatory and negligent. But public figures  politicians, celebrities, some businesspeople  must additionally show that the news organization either knew the report was false or demonstrated reckless disregard as to whether it was true. Thats the actual-malice standard.

Some argue its an impossible standard for plaintiffs to meet. And yes, think about how unlikely it is  how truly shameless and, well, malicious a news organization would have to be  for there to be hard, cold evidence that it was airing something it knew was false.

How could you prove that? Youd practically have to find, oh, I dunno, internal written messages between top people at the news organization saying, essentially, We know this damaging story were airing is a bunch of insane hooey, but lets keep airing it anyway, because it will make us money. What serious news organization would do that?

None would. But Fox News did, according to recent evidence in the pending $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network. Foxs willingness to prioritize profits over facts is now a matter of record  as is its contempt for its own viewers.

The only question is whether even this can pierce the conservative echo chamber that has long encased that viewership.

Blink if you can hear us, Fox viewers.

If youre not familiar with the details of the massive defamation suit (and if Fox is the only place you get your news, you probably arent), lets fill you in.

The plaintiff, a company called Dominion Voting Systems, makes voting machines and software. After then-President Trump lost reelection, his false claims of vote fraud included the demented allegation that Dominion voting machines were used to flip votes from him to Joe Biden, throwing the election.

It shouldnt even have to be said  but we can never be too clear on this point  that Trump just pulled his whole election-fraud narrative out of thin air. The lies were so brazen that some of the Trump lawyers who spun them in court now face lawsuits and potential disbarment.

Those lawyers include Sidney Powell, whose special brand of crazy was so glaring that even Trump and his circle eventually banished her. And yet Fox News gave her air time, again and again, to spin lies that included claiming Dominion had ties to deceased Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. Seriously.

Only now is the world learning that even as Fox was airing this insanity, some level of sanity still existed behind the scenes. Internal emails and text messages recently unearthed by Dominion as part of its lawsuit show that Fox hosts, reporters and top executives knew  knew  that the garbage they were letting Powell, fellow Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others disperse from their platform was, well, garbage. But they didnt correct the record because they feared it would cost them their conservative core viewership.

That it would cost them money, in other words.

Rudy is acting like an insane person, Fox host Sean Hannity texted days after the 2020 election, referring to Giuliani  who was nonetheless invited back on Hannitys show days later to drop some more insanity.

Please get her fired, Fox host Tucker Carlson said on a text chain with Hannity, referring to a Fox reporter whod tweeted a fact-check of Trumps phony allegations against Dominion. It needs to stop immediately, like tonight, Carlson warned of such fact-checking. Its measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.

Another Fox reporter who fact-checked Giuliani was reprimanded for it, according to discovery documents, and was told she needed to do a better job of  respecting our audience.

By lying to them, apparently.

Theres more  Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch on Giulianis allegations: Really crazy stuff. Host Laura Ingraham on Powell: A complete nut. A Fox executive critiquing host Lou Dobbs multiple shows airing the Dominion conspiracy theory: Crazy Town. But you get the idea.

Fox has long since stopped airing conspiracy theories about Dominion. Staring at a potential 10-figure legal judgment will do that.

But the network remains busy with other important malice, er, coverage. Like recasting the Jan. 6 insurrection as a peaceful tourism outing by airing selectively edited video. And straining to convince viewers that the recent failures of two major banks were caused by woke bank policies rather than the loosening of banking regulations under the Trump administration.

Now that Foxs institutional mendacity has been confirmed in the networks own words, its viewers would be wise to treat this and everything else Fox says in the way that Murdoch, in another internal text, suggested treating the Trumpian vote-fraud claims his network promoted: with a large grain of salt.

Kevin McDermott is a Post-Dispatch columnist and Editorial Board member. On Twitter: @kevinmcdermott. Email: kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com
Wagner should own her role in bank deregulation

I was mildly surprised when I got an emailed news release from U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, recently. The email was trying to reassure me that my bank account was safe. This was right after the feds took over two large banks that failed, including Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest bank in America. I wonder what role Wagner might have played in that failure.

Then I watched the news last week. There was a lot of head-scratching as pundits traced the origins of these failures. Didnt we learn our lesson after the 2008 banking collapse? Wasnt the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 supposed to mandate banks undergo stress tests to see if they had the resources to withstand a run by depositors? (Editorial: The ghosts of 2007. Why learn from history when repeating it is so much fun? March 15.)

And then the news reports traced the recent bank failures to a law passed in 2018 that weakened Dodd-Frank and allowed the big banks to skip the stress test. And who was standing behind Donald Trump at the signing ceremony? None other than our own Ann Wagner.

Was that email news release really a bit of buyers remorse? If that was a good idea in 2018, please own it in 2023.

Thomas Kibby  Kirkwood

Labeling kids as transgender doesnt help them

Regarding the letter to the editor Transgender issues should be decided by parents (March 13): I am heartsick when I hear of loving parents, who have only their childs well-being at heart, who feel the need to categorize their own child as transgender and allow the child to undergo drastic medical treatments at ages below the standard age of legal consent.

Determining the gender of children based on their interests and proclivities that are designated as male or female is, in my opinion, sexist. Children of either gender will gravitate toward many interests and should be allowed to grow and explore without feeling they must conform to predetermined choices based on their gender. This questioning of their own inborn tendencies is what ultimately results in the anxiety, fear, depression, uncertainty, and  daily trauma the letter writer described.

Truly loving parents will indeed advocate for their children by allowing them to confidently be who they are without labeling and then influencing them to make a crippling choice they are not of an age to understand. I feel this is misguided child abuse, just the opposite of what these parents intend for their children.

Rise Schnurman  St. Louis County

Open student enrollment would mean school bidding wars

Regarding Missouri educators vow to fight as open enrollment plan gains steam (March 12): This proposal would allow students to transfer to districts where they dont live starting in 2024. I wonder how this would impact building neighborhood relationships while attending multiple school districts. This is a time when police are emphasizing building communities to reduce crime.

Then theres the financial impact. There is presently a teacher shortage. Does this mean trying to hire new teachers or overloading some classrooms? How would additional transportation of students be funded with students being transported to so many different schools? Presently, it is paid by the struggling district. Will that continue?

The premise of the proposal is to encourage the struggling districts to improve, but no suggestions were made on how to accomplish that. It also proposes that students with individualized education plans could be refused if there is no appropriate services offered.

Proponents note that charter schools already market themselves. This seems to me what the proponents want education to become  a bidding war. How absurd to think education should be just about who can create the best ad campaign. I wonder who would wind up paying for the marketing and where that money comes from. The last thing anyone should want is for it to be taken from the educational funds for students. This isnt a well-thought-out plan.

Janet Hochstein  Creve Coeur

Recognizing the seeds of abuse is everyones job

Lynn Schmidts column Dragged kicking and screaming into the culture wars (March 14), decrying the Bystander Training she had to undergo in pursuit of an academic degree, exposes what I think is her need for growth in interpersonal relations and social responsibility.

Am I my brothers keeper? The answer is a resounding yes, in my opinion. Interpersonal relationships are the building blocks of our society. Preventing the horrible experience of date rape or cyber-bullying could save a victim and, perhaps, make the perpetrators think better of their behavior. Its a matter of having the courage to speak up before the situation devolves into something physical, of perceiving the beginning of abuse, and of embracing an exercise that prompts thought about how to react. This is not a woke experience but a lesson in human relations.

Which leads to consideration of Schmidts comment that she just wants to pay her tuition, study and graduate. Graduate-level education should do more than qualify the student for a position; it should develop a sense of place in society and responsibility to make it better. Discussing how one would react in these situations is not a forced answer imposed on the students, it is an opportunity for the students to know themselves better.

Gerard Nester  Southampton

Read letters online at STLToday.com
Not content with being a child hunger denier, Minnesota State Sen. Steve Drazkowski (R) wants children in his state to be as ignorant of history as he is by preventing them from being taught about genocide against Native Americans in the state.

His attempt at rewriting history involves blocking SF 2442, a bill that aims to teach middle and high school students about the Holocaust and genocides. Drazkowski doesn't let his self-processed ignorance get in the way of spouting ahistorical "both-sides" nonsense about white settlers dying in genocidal slaughters perpetrated by Native Americans.

"You know  and I grew up in Wisconsin, so I'm not a historian of Minnesota," he said on the senate floor, "but I do understand that the genocides between the white people and the Indians going back included, kind of several genocides each way."

Perhaps Drazkowski should take a cue from his own words and leave history lessons to history teachers.

Steve Drazkowski on genocide curriculum in Minnesota schools: "I'm not a historian of Minnesota, but I do understand that the genocides between the white people and the Indians going back included several genocides each way." #mnleg pic.twitter.com/X0PG3WWJ13  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 17, 2023

Thumbnail image: photo.ua/shutterstock.com
I Illinois' move to require mandatory paid leave for any reason for most employees in the state isn't the radical-left policy that some in the business community are decrying. Requiring five days a year of paid leave for everyone is far less generous than most companies already provide to their higher-paid professionals. And it could smooth out the rougher edges of life for the lowest-paid service workers, who often cannot afford to miss a single day's pay even for a sick child or a broken-down car or a family emergency.

Still, the unusual Illinois law should raise some concerns even among those who agree with the motives behind it. In some ways, this will become a test of whether unintended consequences of such a top-down approach will outweigh the gains for workers. Will businesses be more apt to farm out work to private contractors rather than keep hourly wage employees who they'll have to pay for time away? Will still more businesses leave Illinois, creating a net loss for workers? Other states looking for ways to help low-wage workers should keep a close eye on how this unfolds.

While more than a dozen states now mandate paid medical leave, Illinois next year will become just the third (after Maine and Nevada) to mandate paid leave for employees for any reason. And the Illinois version is more far-reaching than in the other two states, applying to all sizes of companies. Employees will be able to start >accruing paid leave after working for an employer for at least 90 days, earning one paid hour off per 40 hours of work. The benefit tops out at 40 hours off (one work week) per year.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker strained to present the new law as business-friendly, suggesting that "businesses want their workers to  be able to deal with their stresses, emergencies at home, so they can be better and more productive at work." In a perfect world, that would be true  but if it were, the job market itself would already be providing this kind of flexibility to workers at all levels, without requiring a government mandate.

Unfortunately, that's not something the market currently does for lower-paying jobs. Nor does federal law require a single paid day off for anyone, for any reason  a quirk of America's work-obsessed culture that surely looks draconian to workers in Britain, France, Germany and other advanced countries who get a month or more off per year by national mandate.

Of course, the pandemic has largely changed Americans' relationship to their jobs, prompting many to focus more on life outside the workplace and directly contributing to the worker shortage still in play. Employers of all sizes may eventually find that paid leave, mandated or not, has to be the new normal to get and keep workers. Until then, Illinois' experiment bears watching.
Welcome back to Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Were currently working on the next set of episodes that will look at the 1990 death of 20-year-old Susan Nesersmith in Wildwood, New Jersey.

Until then, please go back and listen to past seasons if you have not already.

Lee Enterprises produces other podcasts such as The Ethical Life, a program that focuses on the intersection of ethics and modern life. The show is hosted by Scott Rada, Lee Enterprises social media manager, and Richard Kyte, director of the Ethics Institute at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

A recent episode of The Ethical Life is of particular interest to listeners of Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles as it looks at the appeal of true-crime programs.

True crime is one Hollywoods most successful genres. Recently, Netflix aired a 10-part series about Jeffery Dahmer, the Milwaukee serial killer, and it was a huge hit. But the sister of one of Dahmers victims said its sad that the producers are making money off of the tragic events that happened more than three decades ago.

Richard Kyte and Scott Rada discuss why true crime is so popular and why such disturbing stories have a strong appeal.

A link to the episode What is so appealing about true-crime shows? is available here.

Listen now and subscribe to The Ethical Life: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS Feed | Omny StudioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Author Dr. Erik Bean shares insights on opportunities in education for talent development

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies announces the release of a whitepaper by Erik Bean, Ed.D., associate research chair with the Center for Leadership Studies and Organizational Research (CLSOR) exploring how the wide variety of learning experiences can contribute to employee skills development and acquisition even outside of traditional degree seeking pathways, titled Reskilling or upskilling? What employers need to know about empowering long-term employee potentials.

When an organization experiences a gap by age or one due to the never-ending digitalization of our world, think upskill or reskill and invest in employees not only for their sake, but a win/win for the sake of your customers, products, and services, Bean states. Each employee can ultimately benefit from the infusion of learning that makes curiosity front and center and fuels stimulating and new ways to grow with purpose and conviction.

Bean holds a doctorate in education from the University of Phoenix, with research interests in bias, cultural competence, immediacy, leadership, and mental health. He is the section editor of Leadership Perspectives in The Journal of Leadership Studies, a publication by Wiley that is sponsored by the University of Phoenix.

The Michigan Chapter Leader of Media Literacy Now, Bean is the author of several educational books such as Social Media Writing Lesson Plans, Using Microsoft Word AutoCorrect for Rigorous Grading, WordPress for Student Writing Projects, and his most recent effort, Bias Is All Around You: A Handbook for Inspecting Social Media & News Stories, a recipient of the 2022 Gold Medal in American Writing Awards.

The full whitepaper is available as a direct link here.

Bean has been employed with University of Phoenix for over 24 years.

About the College of Doctoral Studies

University of Phoenixs College of Doctoral Studies focuses on todays challenging business and organizational needs, from addressing critical social issues to developing solutions to accelerate community building and industry growth. The Colleges research program puts students in the center of an effective ecosystem of experts, resources and tools to help prepare them to be a leader in their organization, industry and community. Through this program, students and researchers work with organizations to conduct research that can be applied in the workplace in real time.

About University of Phoenix

University of Phoenix is continually innovating to help working adults enhance their careers in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant courses, interactive learning, and Career Services for Life help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives. For more information, visit phoenix.edu.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230318005001/en/

Sharla Hooper

University of Phoenix

[email protected]

Source: University of Phoenix
ProMediaAuthority, a digital marketing and brand consulting agency, has announced a white-label omnichannel content marketing service aimed at public relations (PR) companies and professionals.

San Diego, California--(Newsfile Corp. - March 18, 2023) - ProMediaAuthority has launched a content marketing service with omnichannel capabilities designed to augment the content offerings of PR agencies and individual practitioners. This offering was designed to be a white-label service that agencies can rebrand and offer to their existing clients.

More information can be found at https://promediaauthority.com/public-relations

ProMediaAuthority Launches Automated Content Creation Service For PR Companies



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8814/158806_a5ece810e47edb5d_001full.jpg

According to the company, this proprietary service delivers exposure and online visibility across numerous high-authority websites, offering a type of coverage that has traditionally been the preserve of major brands and Fortune 500 companies.

"We provide online exposure and authority for you, which builds trust and respect for your name and brand," the company explained on its website. "This gives the business the kind of attention that attracts new customers, keeps current customers engaged, and increases the integrity and trust factor of the company."

ProMediaAuthority said its approach involves taking advantage of search engines' preference for "new and engaging content". It added that apart from receiving more mileage because of adhering to search engine best practices, the type of content it produces builds more trust and improves customer engagement.

The company also acts as a full-service agency, offering research, content creation, optimization, and other creative services, eliminating the need for additional spending on third party creatives.

"Other public relations services charge extra to write the content, do keyword research, or search engine enhancement of the content," the company explained. "These additional services are included in our prices."

Because the service has omnichannel capabilities, the type of content created is not limited to articles. Content such as podcast audio, slide show presentations, and informative videos are also crafted alongside blogs and infographics.

ProMediaAuthority further explained that an omnichannel approach enables businesses to engage a broader audience, adding that its service allows one to place content on platforms with a massive user base, such as YouTube and Apple Podcasts. Websites with domain authority scores exceeding 90 are also reached by the company's automated system.

Interested parties can find more information on the company's publicity and omnichannel services at https://promediaauthority.com/public-relations.

Contact Info:

Name: Denker Sage

Email: [email protected]

Organization: ProMediaAuthority

Address: 4275 Executive Square Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92037, United States

Website: https://ProMediaAuthority.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/158806
Patients treated with investigational bimekizumab, an IL-17A and IL-17F inhibitor, achieved statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements over placebo in signs and symptoms of hidradenitis suppurativa at week 16, as measured by HiSCR50

Bimekizumab demonstrated deep levels of clinical response over placebo at week 16, as measured by HiSCR75, a key secondary endpoint

Patients treated with bimekizumab experienced improved health-related quality of life over placebo at week 16, a key secondary endpoint

Clinical responses were maintained with continuous bimekizumab treatment  over 75 percent of patients achieved HiSCR50, and over 55 percent achieved HiSCR75, at week 48

BRUSSELS and ATLANTA, March 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- UCB, a global biopharmaceutical company, today announced detailed positive results from two Phase 3 studies (BE HEARD I and BE HEARD II) evaluating the efficacy and safety of bimekizumab in the treatment of adults with moderate to severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS).1 Data from the two studies showed that bimekizumab achieved statistically significant and consistent clinically meaningful improvements over placebo in the signs and symptoms of HS at week 16, which were maintained to week 48.1, Clinical responses with bimekizumab were observed from the first dose with some patients achieving HiSCR50 at week four.1 These new data were presented today at a late-breaking platform presentation at the 2023 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting in New Orleans, March 17-22.

"Hidradenitis suppurativa is a chronic, debilitating inflammatory skin disease for which only one approved treatment is available today," said Lead Investigator, Alexa B. Kimball, MD, MPH, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Professor of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Boston. "Treating moderate to severe cases with bimekizumab has shown promising results in Phase 3 patient trials, with sustained improvement after one year."

In the U.S., the efficacy and safety of bimekizumab have not been established for any indication, and it is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The two studies (n=505 in BE HEARD I; n=509 in BE HEARD II) evaluated two dose regimens of bimekizumab (320 mg every two weeks [Q2W] and 320 mg every four weeks

[Q4W]) versus placebo over the 16-week initial and the 32-week maintenance treatment periods.1 Data presented at AAD 2023 show that:

A significantly higher proportion of patients treated with bimekizumab (Q2W) achieved HiSCR50, the primary endpoint, at week 16 vs. placebo in BE HEARD I and BE HEARD II (47.8 percent vs. 28.7 percent [p=0.006] and 52.0 percent vs. 32.2 percent [p=0.003], respectively).1

A greater proportion of patients treated with bimekizumab (Q4W) achieved HiSCR50 at week 16 than placebo in BE HEARD I and BE HEARD II, with statistical significance achieved in BE HEARD II (45.3 percent vs. 28.7 percent [p=0.030] and 53.8 percent vs. 32.2 percent [p=0.004], respectively).1

Patients treated with bimekizumab achieved deep levels of clinical response with a greater proportion achieving HiSCR75, a key secondary endpoint, at week 16 than placebo, with statistical significance in BE HEARD II with both dose regimens and for Q2W in BE HEARD I.1

Patients treated with bimekizumab experienced improved health-related quality of life (change from baseline in the dermatology life quality index) compared with placebo at week 16 (BE HEARD I and BE HEARD II, Q2W and Q4W).1

Clinical responses (HiSCR50 and HiSCR75) were maintained with continuous bimekizumab treatment  over 75 percent of patients achieved HiSCR50, and over 55 percent achieved HiSCR75 at week 48 (observed case analysis; BE HEARD I and BE HEARD II, Q2W and Q4W).1

"Today, at the largest dermatology meeting of the year, we unveiled 48-week data from our Phase 3 bimekizumab program in hidradenitis suppurativa. Results from the Phase 3 program highlight the meaningful clinical outcomes achieved by targeting IL-17F in addition to IL-17A," said Emmanuel Caeymaex, Executive Vice President, Immunology Solutions and Head of U.S., UCB. "We are now focused on the next steps with global regulatory filings for bimekizumab in hidradenitis suppurativa planned for later this year."

The safety profile of bimekizumab across BE HEARD I and BE HEARD II was consistent with previous studies with no new safety signals observed.1 The most common (frequency of >5 percent) treatment emergent adverse events on bimekizumab over 16 weeks were hidradenitis (7.2 percent in BE HEARD I and 8.8 percent in BE HEARD II), oral candidiasis (4.4 percent in BE HEARD I and 6.7 percent in BE HEARD II), headache (7.0 percent in BE

HEARD I and 5.8 in BE HEARD II), and diarrhea (7.0 percent in BE HEARD I and 5.3 percent in BE HEARD II).1

UCB expects to submit global regulatory applications for bimekizumab in moderate to severe HS starting in Q3 2023.

Notes to editors: Observed case analysis.

About BE HEARD I and BE HEARD II

BE HEARD I is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group, multicenter, Phase 3 study designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of bimekizumab in adults with moderate to severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). BE HEARD I enrolled 505 participants with a diagnosis of moderate to severe HS. 1

BE HEARD II is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group, multicenter, Phase 3 study designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of bimekizumab in adults with moderate to severe HS. BE HEARD II enrolled 509 participants with a diagnosis of moderate to severe HS.1

BE HEARD I and II comprised double-blind 16-week initial and 32-week maintenance treatment periods. Participants with moderate to severe HS were randomized 2:2:2:1 to (initial/maintenance) bimekizumab 320mg every 2 weeks (Q2W)/Q2W, bimekizumab Q2W/Q4W, bimekizumab Q4W/Q4W, placebo/bimekizumab Q2W. Until week 16, bimekizumab Q2W/Q2W and bimekizumab Q2W/Q4W were combined to bimekizumab Q2W.1

The primary endpoint in both studies was HiSCR50 at week 16.1 A key secondary endpoint was HiSCR75 at week 16.1 HiSCR50 and HiSCR75 are defined as at least either a 50 or 75 percent reduction from baseline in the total abscess and inflammatory nodule count, with no increase from baseline in abscess or draining tunnel count.2,3

For additional details on the studies, visit BE HEARD I and BE HEARD II on clinicaltrials.gov.2,3

About Hidradenitis Suppurativa

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, recurring, painful, and debilitating inflammatory skin disease.4,5 The main symptoms are nodules, abscesses, and pus-discharging fistulas (channels leading out of the skin) which typically occur in the armpits, groin, and buttocks.4,5 People with HS experience flare-ups of the disease as well as severe pain, which can have a major impact on quality of life.4,5

HS develops in early adulthood and affects approximately one percent of the population in most studied countries.4,5 Approximately one third of people with HS have a family history of HS, and lifestyle factors such as smoking and obesity can also play a crucial role in the clinical course of HS.6

The symptoms of pain, discharge, and scarring are not only a physical burden. People with HS also experience stigma: worrying about or directly experiencing negative attitudes and reactions from society in response to their symptoms.7 These feelings can lead to embarrassment, social isolation, low self-esteem, and sexual life impairment, and impact all areas of life, including interpersonal relationships, education, and work. 4,6

About bimekizumab

Bimekizumab is a humanized monoclonal IgG1 antibody that is designed to selectively inhibit both interleukin 17A (IL-17A) and interleukin 17F (IL-17F), two key cytokines driving inflammatory processes.8 In August 2021, bimekizumab was first approved in the European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA) and in Great Britain for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults who are candidates for systemic therapy.9,10 The label information may differ in other countries where approved. Please check local prescribing information. In the U.S., the efficacy and safety of bimekizumab have not been established for any indication, and it is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

For further information, contact UCB:

Investor RelationsAntje WitteT +32.2.559.94.14Email [email protected]

U.S. Communications, ImmunologyNicole HergaT +1.773.960.5349Email [email protected]

About UCB

UCB, Brussels, Belgium (www.ucb.com), is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system. With approximately 8,600 people in approximately 40 countries, the company generated revenue of 5.5 billion in 2022. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Follow us on Twitter: @UCBUSA.

Forward looking statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements including, without limitation, statements containing the words "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "plans", "seeks", "estimates", "may", "will", "continue" and similar expressions. These forward- looking statements are based on current plans, estimates and beliefs of management. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including estimates of revenues, operating margins, capital expenditures, cash, other financial information, expected legal, arbitration, political, regulatory or clinical results or practices and other such estimates and results. By their nature, such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions which might cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of UCB, or industry results, to differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Important factors that could result in such differences include: the global spread and impact of COVID-19, changes in general economic, business and competitive conditions, the inability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals or to obtain them on acceptable terms or within expected timing, costs associated with research and development, changes in the prospects for products in the pipeline or under development by UCB, effects of future judicial decisions or governmental investigations, safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, product liability claims, challenges to patent protection for products or product candidates, competition from other products including biosimilars, changes in laws or regulations, exchange rate fluctuations, changes or uncertainties in tax laws or the administration of such laws, and hiring and retention of its employees. There is no guarantee that new product candidates will be discovered or identified in the pipeline, will progress to product approval or that new indications for existing products will be developed and approved. Movement from concept to commercial product is uncertain; preclinical results do not guarantee safety and efficacy of product candidates in humans. So far, the complexity of the human body cannot be reproduced in computer models, cell culture systems or animal models. The length of the timing to complete clinical trials and to get regulatory approval for product marketing has varied in the past and UCB expects similar unpredictability going forward. Products or potential products, which are the subject of partnerships, joint ventures or licensing collaborations may be subject to differences disputes between the partners or may prove to be not as safe, effective or commercially successful as UCB may have believed at the start of such partnership. UCB's efforts to acquire other products or companies and to integrate the operations of such acquired companies may not be as successful as UCB may have believed at the moment of acquisition. Also, UCB or others could discover safety, side effects or manufacturing problems with its products and/or devices after they are marketed. The discovery of significant problems with a product similar to one of UCB's products that implicate an entire class of products may have a material adverse effect on sales of the entire class of affected products. Moreover, sales may be impacted by international and domestic trends toward managed care and health care cost containment, including pricing pressure, political and public scrutiny, customer and prescriber patterns or practices, and the reimbursement policies imposed by third-party payers as well as legislation affecting biopharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement activities and outcomes. Finally, a breakdown, cyberattack or information security breach could compromise the confidentiality, integrity and availability of UCB's data and systems.

Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on any of such forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the investigational or approved products described in this press release will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labelling in any market, or at any particular time, nor can there be any guarantee that such products will be or will continue to be commercially successful in the future.

UCB is providing this information, including forward-looking statements, only as of the date of this press release and it does not reflect any potential impact from the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, unless indicated otherwise. UCB is following the worldwide developments diligently to assess the financial significance of this pandemic to UCB. UCB expressly disclaims any duty to update any information contained in this press release, either to confirm the actual results or to report or reflect any change in its forward-looking statements with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, unless such statement is required pursuant to applicable laws and regulations.

Additionally, information contained in this document shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation or sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicit ation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

References

Kimball AB, Zouboulis CC, Sayed C, et al. Bimekizumab in patients with moderate-to-severe hidradenitis suppurativa: 48-week efficacy and safety from BE HEARD I & II, two phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled, multicenter studies. Late- Breaking Platform Presentation at the 2023 American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting. ClinicalTrials.gov. A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Bimekizumab in Study Participants With Moderate to Severe Hidradenitis Suppurativa (BE HEARD I). Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT042424461. Last accessed: March 2023 ClinicalTrials.gov. A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Bimekizumab in Study Participants With Moderate to Severe Hidradenitis Suppurativa (BE HEARD II). Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04242498 Last accessed: March 2023 Jemec GBE. Clinical practice. Hidradenitis suppurativa. N Engl J Med. 2012;366(2):158-164. Sabat R, Jemec GBE, Matusiak L, et al. Hidradenitis suppurativa. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2020;6:18. Kokolakis G, Wolk K, Schneider-Burrus S, et al. Delayed Diagnosis of Hidradenitis Suppurativa and Its Effect on Patients and Healthcare System. Dermatology. 2020;236:421430. Koumaki D, Ourania E, Bozi E, et al. Perspectives On Perceived Stigma And Self-Stigma In Patients With Hidradenitis Suppurativa. Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol. 2019;12:785790. Glatt S, Helmer E, Haier B, et al. First-in-human randomized study of bimekizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody and selective dual inhibitor of IL-17A and IL-17F, in mild psoriasis. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2017;83(5):991-1001. BIMZELX (bimekizumab) EU Summary of Product Characteristics, December 2022. Available at: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/bimzelx-epar-product-information_en.pdf. Last Accessed: March 2023. BIMZELX (bimekizumab) GB Summary of Product Characteristics. Available at https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/12834/smpc#gref. Last accessed: March 2023.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bimekizumab-phase-3-data-in-hidradenitis-suppurativa-show-clinically-meaningful-deep-and-maintained-response-over-48-weeks-301775572.html

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(Tribune News Service)  The Coast Guard Cutter Kimball recently returned to its home port in Honolulu following a 42-day, 10, 000-nautical-mile Western Pacific patrol that took it all the way to the port city of Kagoshima, Japan.

The Kimball, assigned to the Oahu-headquartered Coast Guard District 14, worked with service members from the Japanese coast guards 10th District to plan and conduct combined operations and search-and-rescue exercises. The Kimballs crew also met with senior Japanese coast guard leadership and hosted Japanese coast guard service members, U.S. Consulate Fukuoka staff, community leaders and local media aboard the cutter during the port visit.

The deployment, which ended March 10, was in support of Operation Sapphire, a joint agreement between the U.S. and Japanese coast guard signed in May to expand cooperation, according to a news release.

Amid simmering tensions with China and increased concern about maritime crime such as illegal fishingwhich the U.S. Coast Guard now considers a greater security issue than high-seas piracythe service has sought to boost cooperation with countries across the region.

This week the coast guards of Japan and China have traded accusations of illegal incursions into a series of islands between Okinawa and Taiwan that both claim as their own. Japan calls the islands Senkaku ; China calls them Diaoyu.

Commissioned in 2019, the Kimball is the Coast Guards seventh Legend-class national security cutter and one of two home-ported in Honolulu. At 418 feet long and 54 feet wide, the cutters are among the Coast Guards largest and newest vessels, with a range of roughly 12, 000 nautical miles. According to the news release, the Coast Guard presented the Kimballs engineering department with an award for its contributions to the services naval engineering program during the patrol.

I am extremely proud of our crews accomplishments,  said the Kimballs commanding officer, Capt. Tom DArcy. Kimball continues to remain on the front lines of the Coast Guards strategic plan. Our engagements in Japan strengthened our existing relationships with international partners who uphold good maritime governance. Kimballs patrol re-affirmed the U.S. Coast Guards commitment to facilitating a free and open Indo-Pacific.

The Coast Guard has become more important to Americas Pacific strategy in recent years. Along the way to Japan, the Kimball also delivered an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point to Santa Rita, Guam, to bolster its air coverage in the region.

U.S. Coast Guard personnel in Santa Rita are responsible not just for operations around Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, but also answer requests for assistance from the island nations of Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. The three countries all have treaties with the U.S. called the Compacts of Free Association, which give the U.S. military access to their waters and airspace in return for development aid, visa-free travel to the U.S. and other benefits.

Palau, in particular, has aggressively battled illegal fishing in its waters. Many Pacific island nations lack navies or coast guards of their own to defend their waters from illegal fishing operations and other potential threats. Leaders from both Palau and the FSM have signed agreements for new U.S. bases in their countries and have discussed stationing U.S. Coast Guard assets in their islands to bolster their own small maritime police forces.

But its not just fish that has regional leaders concerned. Palauan authorities in 2022 called on U.S. Coast Guard to help track a Chinese research vessel that had entered its waters unannounced. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules based out of Barbers Point flew out to Palau and made radio contact with the vessels crew members, who told the Americans they were waiting out a storm. Before coming to Palau, the ship had been spotted moving through the maritime territories of India, Malaysia and the Philippines.

This month FSM President David Panuelo accused China of political warfare  in a letter dated March 9 to other national leaders, alleging that Chinese officials have sought to gain influence across the Pacific islands through bribes, threats and espionage. He wrote that Chinese survey vessels had been operating inside the FSMs ocean territory to map potential resources and submarine travel paths under the guise of research.

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(Tribune News Service)  Two Yorba Linda fallen heroes have not been forgotten in the 13 years since their death serving in Afghanistan, and they will continue to be remembered together after Fridays dedication of the Cottle Centanni Post Office Building.

The Yorba Linda branch on Eureka Avenue has been renamed in honor of U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Major Robert J. Cottle and Lance Cpl. Rick J. Centanni, who were killed in March 2010 when their armored vehicle ran over a roadside bomb.

Their death hit the Yorba Linda community as well as local law enforcement hard. At 19, Centanni was a recent graduate of Esperanza High, and his father was serving with the Santa Ana Police Department while Cottle, 45, was a high-ranking SWAT officer for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Coming back to Yorba Linda just warms my heart so much, said Sarah Leas, Centannis mother, remembering 13 years ago next week when the family drove through town in the funeral caravan and looked at every person lining the streets. The love we saw.

And thats all we as a family of a lost hero can ask for, dont forget our loved ones, said Leas, who now lives in Arizona. Dont forget the rest of the loved ones and our heroes that weve lost.

Centanni had intended to follow in his fathers law enforcement footsteps, and several officers attended Fridays ceremony, along with members of the LAPD. Leas told them, I can tell you that more than half of these people that are here, that Rick looked up to every one of them to be the man that he was going to be.

He was surrounded by that strength, that honor, that integrity, she said.

It grows from all of us, she said, Its up to us as parents to instill that in these young men and women so that they can grow into the heroes that we need.

She also thanked the volunteers who had put so many hundreds of hours into the Centanni-Cottle Memorial 5K that was held for many years after the mens deaths, though canceled recently by the coronavirus pandemic.

Rep. Young Kim led the effort in Congress to get the post office renamed, pointing out during Fridays ceremony that it took the support of the states entire delegation to pass. President Joe Biden also had to sign off. Kim also introduced the bill that dedicated a Placentia post office earlier in the week to U.S. Army Pfc. Jang Ho Kim, who died nearly 17 years ago in Iraq.

I am really proud to continue to represent the city of Yorba Linda, she said, adding that the community has recognized and honored so many heroes in the community, local heroes. And you do this every year, every chance that we have an opportunity to honor them.

Speaking to the mens families, Kim said, Your family members and your loved ones gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we in America can live in freedom. As family members, you went through the difficult times and also gave the tremendous sacrifice.

America faces a lot of challenges. But despite those challenges, we know and we agree, she said, that the United States remains the beacon of hope, the beacon of freedom, the beacon of democracy.

Staff Writer Hanna Kang contributed to this report.

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(Tribune News Service)  A 49-year-old tow truck driver was just months away from getting married when he was killed in a crash in Georgia.

The tow truck driver was assisting a crash along Interstate 85 in Coweta County around 7 a.m. on March 15, the Coweta County Sheriffs Office said in a release. News reports have identified the driver as Toby Bowden, 49.

While Bowden was helping the first crash, another crash happened, which killed Bowden, the release said. A patrol deputy standing next to Bowden had non-life-threatening injuries.

The driver in the second crash was going too fast as he passed by, swerved to the right and lost control of his vehicle, the Newnan Times-Herald reported.

The driver, identified as 31-year-old Christopher Thornton of Franklin, was arrested at the scene for a previous warrant and faces charges of first-degree vehicular homicide, move-over law violation, reckless driving, driving under the influence, failure to maintain lane and too fast for conditions, the Times-Herald reported.

Bowden, a Marine veteran, was engaged to be married, his friends and family shared on Facebook. Bowdens sister said on Facebook that the tow truck driver and his fiance were literally sending out wedding invitations for the fall at the time he was killed.

I was just told that we have lost yet another one of my Marine Corps brothers, Herb VanderLinden said on Facebook. Toby Bowden rest in peace brother and your family will be in our prayers.

Rest in peace my life long dearest friend, Bowdens friend Chris McWhorter wrote on Facebook. Some things I just cant understand...I will always hear your laugh and hold our memories to heart.

Members from the trucking and law enforcement community spoke out, too, urging other drivers to slow down when they see work on the sides of highways and never to drive under the influence.

Weve actually had operators quit because their family were worried about them having to work on the side of the road, as so many people are getting killed, Executive Vice President of the Towing and Recovery Association of Georgia Angela Roper told FOX5. It hits us all very hard in this industry because we face it so much.

Bowden, who was also a father, was the first recorded tow truck driver to be killed while working in Coweta County, 11 Alive reported.

My heart was brokenIve known Toby probably 20 years, weve worked together, we see each other out and about at breakfast whatever immediately you start thinking Im never going to see him again, Southside Wrecker owner Jeff Poqutte told 11 Alive. Hes been a part of this community for a very long time.

The crashes occurred just south of Newnan, which is 40 miles southwest of Atlanta.

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A couple of senior citizens who have been living in the same San Francisco apartment for almost 40 years discovered that their landlord had been ripping them off. After achieving a negotiated settlement with the landlord, the couple quickly found the landlord retaliating. This is unconscionable evil.

Rent control laws exist to protect people from exactly this type of situation, while California's notorious 1985 "Ellis Act" was presented as a way to let landlords take housing out of the rent-controlled market, it is far too frequently utilized as a tool to terrorize tenants. I think there are tenant rights lawyers who specialize by neighborhood in San Francisco, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles.
Seoul, South Korea, November 1959: Col. Hyun Sook Kim, director of the Korean armys Womens Army Corps, helps Lt. Col. Anne E. Sweeney, the deputy director of the Womens Army Corps, dress into a hanbok. Kim gifted the traditional Korean dress to Sweeney at the end of the latters tour of Japanese and Korean WAC installations.

During the tour, Sweeney said women were making inroads on mens jobs in the Army. We are planning, she said, to experiment with women in electronics maintenance and to move them into new fields as soon as we can. Noting that there already was a woman operations officer at one missile site who is qualified to instruct both male and female personnel on rocketry, Sweeney said, It could very definitely be that women could join men in some of the technical jobs in mixed missile units. They could do the work.

Kim founded the ROK WACs in July 1950, patterning them after their American counterparts. But unlike their American cousins, the ROK WACs fought on the front lines, pressed into service as snipers and guerilla fighters. Kim saw frontline duty during the Korean War as well along the Busan perimeter and was awarded for fighting the North Korean communists.

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STOCKHOLM  Sweden will continue efforts to persuade Turkey to lift its block on the entry of the largest Nordic country into defense alliance NATO after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the door to Finland's accession.

Erdogan's decision on Friday to instruct the parliament to ratify the Finnish application dashed the Nordic countries' hopes of a parallel entry process. Hungary's announcement that it also plans to treat the bids separately cast further doubt on the timeline for Sweden's entry.

Speaking to reporters in Stockholm, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said his government has done its part on fulfilling an agreement with Turkey the two Nordic countries signed in June last year, adding that it will continue to honor the deal.

"Sweden has done what it promised to do when signing the trilateral memorandum," Billstrom said. "We have no intent to do neither more nor less than what we have pledged to do."

The June agreement, which paved the way for Sweden and Finland's invitation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, included pledges from the Nordic countries to avoid arms embargoes on Turkey and do more to combat terrorism. However, relations between Ankara and Stockholm soured since then, with Turkey accusing Sweden of not doing enough to crack down on groups that it labels as terrorist.

Talks came to a standstill earlier this year after an effigy of Erdogan was hoisted upside down from a lamppost in Stockholm, and a Danish Swedish far-right activist burned a Koran outside of the Turkish embassy.

While Sweden has since moved toward introducing a tighter anti-terror legislation  after preparing it for years  and prevented at least two occasions of attempted Koran burnings, Erdogan continued to link Sweden's ratification to "concrete steps taken" by the country.

At a press conference in Ankara earlier Friday, the Turkish president also repeated his demand for Sweden to extradite people that Turkey calls terrorists.

"Sweden has opened its arms to terrorists," Erdogan said. "We have given them a list of approximately 120 terrorists and we asked them to send them to Turkiye."

Sweden's Supreme Court, which makes decisions on extradition requests, has rejected several appeals from Turkey on various grounds, including risk of persecution.

In December, the court blocked the extradition of Bulent Kenes, a former editor-in-chief of the oppositional Today's Zaman newspaper, which Turkey claims was tied to the Gulenist movement, believed to have orchestrated a 2016 coup attempt. Still, Sweden has at least on one occasion extradited a person wanted by Turkey.

Billstrom said Turkey can expect that decisions on extradition requests "can be either positive or negative, given that Sweden has an independent judiciary that deals with these issues without any involvement from the government."

Disappointing news

Being withheld entry after casting aside 200 years of policy to remain outside of military alliances is disappointing to Sweden, even as Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson had sought to prepare his country to the eventuality.

"Not gaining ratification at the same time as Finland is not good for Sweden," Magdalena Andersson, head of the opposition Social Democrats and prime minister at the time of the NATO application, told reporters. "It's also not good for NATO, both because it's harmful to NATO's open-door policy, but also because it makes it more difficult for NATO to defend Finland."

Finland's President Sauli Niinisto pledged to continue work to help Sweden's accession, telling reporters on Friday that "Finland's NATO membership is not complete without Sweden."

Speaking in an interview on YLE TV1 on Saturday, Niinisto said his country's interests require Sweden's NATO membership, adding that it would boost Finnish security.

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DENVER (Tribune News Service)  Native American leaders convened in Denver on Friday for a ceremony aimed at moving forward the renaming of Mount Evans, an effort that stalled after one tribe's last-minute objection delayed a federal vote on the change to Mount Blue Sky.

Tribal leaders said they seek a respectful resolution of differences as many still support the switch  which will strip the 14,271-foot peak of a name tied to the Sand Creek Massacre  in spite of the objection by Montana-based leaders of the Northern Cheyenne.

But assigning the words "Blue Sky" to Mount Evans would be "sacrilegious," Northern Cheyenne tribal administrator William Walksalong told The Denver Post. That's because a Northern Cheyenne ceremony uses the "blue sky" words and concept, and transferring these to serve as the name of a mountain would betray secrets, he said.

"It would be an abuse of the ceremony," Walksalong said. "We don't want to send elements of our ceremony out to the public."

Instead, Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho leaders advocate renaming the peak  visible throughout metro Denver  Mount Cheyenne-Arapaho.

After a two-year brainstorming run by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Mount Blue Sky emerged as the favored alternative to Mount Evans, which commemorates the state's territorial Gov. John Evans.

The Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board in December unanimously recommended this switch. The other proposed new names board members considered were: Mount Soule, Mount Rosalie, Mount Cheyenne-Arapaho, Mount Evans (after Anne Evans, that governor's daughter) and Mount Sisty.

Nobody's disputing that the name should be changed as soon as possible, due to Gov. Evans' role in genocidal killing at the Sand Creek Massacre on the plains of southeastern Colorado. The massacre in 1864, led by U.S. Army Cavalry Col. John Chivington, left 230 dead and decimated the Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, and Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes.

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper both backed Mount Blue Sky.

On Feb. 28, Gov. Jared Polis sent a letter to the federal government's U.S. Board on Geographic Names urging support for Mount Blue Sky, calling the massacre "the deadliest day in Colorado history" and saying that "without question" Gov. Evans "didn't just engage in warfare against Native Americans but facilitated the senseless slaughter of non-combatants including large numbers of women, children and the elderly."

Evans did this, Polis wrote, through proclamations aimed at eliminating Native Americans from eastern Colorado "and actions further empowering Colonel John Chivington."

Polis in 2021 rescinded Evans' proclamations. In his letter, he assured federal board members tasked with reviewing such name changes that Colorado's renaming process included "a broad diversity of stakeholders, Tribal consultation, local government buy-in and leadership, and significant public input, including feedback from living descendants of then-Territorial Governor John Evans."

Northern Cheyenne leaders intervened earlier in February, sending a letter to federal officials that conveyed their concerns. Walksalong subsequently requested an official government-to-government consultation  leading to the delay of a scheduled March 9 vote.

"The Board on Geographic Names has put the vote on hold to honor the Tribal Consultation process," U.S. Geological Survey spokeswoman Rachel Pawlitz confirmed Friday morning.

In Denver at the History Colorado museum, tribal leaders gathered for a ceremony including prayers, in addition to a discussion of how to proceed with renaming Mount Evans. History Colorado recently featured an exhibit on the Sand Creek Massacre. Friday's gathering coincided with a visit by 100 Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribe elders to traditional homelands and the Denver March Powwow.

"All tribal nations have had over a year and a half to provide input, so this last-minute request is surprising," Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Gov. Reggie Wassana said in a statement ahead of the ceremony, supporting the Mount Blue Sky proposal.

"All parties have agreed upon the vision unilaterally, and now we await approval from the Board of Geographic Names," Wassana said. "We hope the name change happens soon for our Cheyenne and Arapaho people to heal, regardless of who received credit for changing the name."

Participants at the ceremony included members of the Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho and Ute Mountain Ute tribes.

Colorado officials said they are waiting for federal officials to make a final decision.

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MINNEAPOLIS (Tribune News Service)  A broken pipe at Xcel Energy's Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant leaked about 400,000 gallons of water containing radioactive tritium, and the utility is working to clean up the contaminated plume, state regulators said Thursday.

Both Xcel and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said there was no risk to drinking water from the spill, which was traced to a pipe connecting two buildings across just a half-inch space. The spill was first reported to state and federal regulators on Nov. 22, 2022. The source was found Dec. 19 and patched soon after, according to the MPCA.

Xcel and the state are actively managing the site to make sure an underground plume of tritium doesn't begin to drift beyond the property, including to the nearby Mississippi River, said Kirk Koudelka, an assistant commissioner at MPCA. Water is being pumped out of wells on site both to remove the contamination and control its underground flow. Xcel is paying for sampling, pumping and temporary treatment, Koudelka said.

"Our goal is to remove the source, the contamination that is down there as much as possible," he said.

Once the leak was discovered, Xcel began diverting the water to an in-plant water treatment system  a step that is continuing.

"We were able to contain it so that no more water was leaking," said Christopher Clark, Xcel's president for Minnesota. Clark estimated the remediation work would take about one year; the company does not yet have a cost estimate.

Koudelka said the MPCA was announcing the leak almost three months after it was patched because "we have now sufficient information to be able to share it out to a wider group."

A high level of tritium in groundwater was reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission when first discovered, which published the "nonemergency" report in its public list of nuclear events the next day. The listing said the source of the tritium was being investigated.

Tritium is a mildly radioactive form of hydrogen that occurs occasionally in nature but more commonly from human activities such as nuclear power generation, according to the NRC's website. Tritium is at times intentionally released from power plants under NRC rules.

Like regular hydrogen, the odorless, colorless gas can react with oxygen to create water, known as tritiated water. It is used in some scientific work, including as a tracer in biochemical research, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has a limit for the amount of tritium that can be present in drinking water  20,000 picocuries per liter  to protect people from radiation.

"We are well above the 20,000 picocuries per liter EPA standard," Clark said. In water directly below the plant, the picocurie-per-liter count was in the millions.

However, those high levels are quickly reduced as tritium dilutes in groundwater. "This does not present a public health or drinking water issue," Clark said. The company is monitoring the plume in two dozen wells.

Tritiated water can't harm someone just by proximity, said Daniel Huff, assistant commissioner for health protection at the Minnesota Department of Health. The only way a person could be exposed to radiation is by drinking or breathing it, he said.

People are regularly exposed to small amounts radiation from medical procedures and even activities such as sunbathing or flying on a plane, Huff said. But the health effects are cumulative, making it important to limit contact when possible.

"The public's exposure from a nuclear power plant should be zero," Huff said.

In a statement, the city of Monticello indicated that its drinking water was not affected and that the leak happened outside the area where it draws groundwater for municipal wells.

Xcel said it would examine the pipe that caused the leak to understand how it failed.

Tritium levels from the Monticello leak are well below safety thresholds set by the NRC, and the plant is not breaking regulations, said Viktoria Mitlyng, an NRC spokeswoman. Tritium leaks, she added, "are not uncommon for nuclear plants."

Leaks are an issue for aging plants because tritium so easily mixes into water, said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. So, anywhere water might escape from a nuclear plant, tritium could, too, he said.

There have been unintended tritium releases at several power plants over the years.

Xcel monitored groundwater near the Monticello plant for tritium long before the recent spill, and in 2009, it found tritium levels at 21,300 picocuries per liter in a newly dug well at Monticello, according to a report from MPR.

The company typically samples water from 18 wells, ranging from every month to every year, according to a January Xcel filing with the NRC. One well at Monticello has had elevated tritium levels since 2009.

There already was a more diluted plume of tritium before the spill, Xcel said in the NRC filing. "The plume appears to be stagnant under the turbine building." The tritium "migrated" through the turbine building's concrete floor, the filing said.

Despite that seepage, the highest level of tritium that Xcel has found since 2016 was less than half the federal drinking water limit, the filing said.

In 2012, Xcel released 27 gallons of tritium-tainted water from its Prairie Island nuclear plant near Red Wing after a condenser system leak. That leak reportedly contained 15,000 picocuries per liter of tritium.

In 2019, Xcel announced plans to extend the Monticello plant's life span for at least ten years beyond 2030, when its current NRC license expires. Two months ago, the company filed a formal application with the NRC to extend Monticello's licenses for another 20 years.

The tritium leak "does have some implication for their license renewal," Lyman said. Managing an aging facility is "clearly one of the key issues."

The Monticello plant opened in 1971, though Xcel has spent tens of millions of dollars keeping the plant up to date over the years.

The company says that extending the lives of both Monticello and Prairie Island by 20 years is critical to meeting a new state law mandating fully carbon-free electricity by 2040. Federal licenses for Prairie Island's two reactors expire in 2033 and 2034.

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(Tribune News Service)  Kate Middleton, the new Colonel of the Irish Guards, was full of celebratory joy while attending her first St. Patrick's Day parade in the role on Friday.

The Princess of Wales was joined by her husband, Prince William, for the annual celebration of the Irish Guards in the southwest village of Aldershot, England  40 miles outside London.

Shades of green were the fashion theme for the 41-year-old mother of three, adorned in a sharp-shouldered teal Catherine Walker & Co coat dress accessorized with a matching fascinator, pumps and emerald earrings with a shamrock-shaped brooch.

"Believed to have been designed by Cartier, the piece is made from 18-carat yellow gold and features a tiny, single emerald at the center of the textured leaves," jewelry expert Maxwell Stone of Steven Stone revealed to Vanity Fair. "Previously worn by the Queen Mother and Princess Anne, Kate has worn the brooch on several visits to Northern Ireland, as well as to St. Patrick's Day celebrations."

"I really couldn't be prouder to stand in front of you here today," the princess said in her remarks. "It really is a true honor to be your Colonel. I am here to listen to you, to support you, and to champion you in all you do  this is a responsibility I do not take lightly."

"I look forward to spending more time with you and your families, seeing your commitment to duty and service in all you do," she added. "Before I close, however, I want to thank Colonel William. He has always talked about his fierce pride for this Regiment. I know he will continue to support us all in the work we do."

Prince William, who until recently held the role of honorary Colonel of the regiment before King Charles III appointed his wife, told those in attendance that he was both "extremely happy" to be there for the celebration and sad that his time in the position has come to an end. He now holds the position as the Colonel of the Welsh Guards to go with his Prince of Wales title.

"It has been one of the great honors of my life to hold that title; I'm proud of everything it stands for  just as I'm immensely proud of every single one of you," he said.

The future king of Britain, who wore a fresh clover arrangement pinned to his military cap, referred to his wife as "Colonel Catherine '' during the event.

The beloved royal couple drank pints of Guinness stout on their visit to Mons Barracks during their visit to Aldershot.

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WESTMINSTER, Md. (Tribune News Service)  Westminster veteran Anthony Morrissette several months ago found himself carless, unemployed, and on the brink of homelessness.

Morrissette, 40, was quickly able to find a job with help from the Carroll County Veterans Independence Project, but a job is no good without reliable transportation. Morrissette said the CCVIP went above and beyond with long-term support to help him in ways that no other organization could.

The veteran was all smiles last week when he received a car donated by Kim Heard at LaScuola Motorworks Auto Repair.

Im a person that has always worked, Morrissette said. Im not really big on asking anybody for anything. Ive always been independent and if I dont have it then I have to figure it out. Before having this car, I was at the point where I was at the end, I didnt know what to do, I had no idea what was gonna happen. I was frustrated. I did not see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Morrissette remembered his 10-year-old son telling him to take care of himself and knew he had to do something. He said his son, who lives in Virginia, has been the inspiration he needed to keep going.

Morrissette worked hard to start his own business as a handyman after eight years of service in the Marine Corps, ending in 2011. Unfortunately, Morrissette said post-pandemic work was hard to come by and the veteran realized he needed a reliable source of income to sustain himself.

I needed to figure out how to be independent, Morrissette said. Theres a thing where you cant take care of anybody else until you can take care of yourself, and I wasnt able to take care of myself mentally or physically.

There is an unfortunate stigma against reaching out for help, CCVIP Executive Director Jason Sidock said, but CCVIP veteran advocate Nicole Shifflett of Hampstead was able to help Morrissette through every step of his new beginning after he walked through their doors last winter.

CCVIP launched in 2021. Sidock, of Union Mills, who is an Army veteran, said the organization is unique to Carroll as it provides long-term case management and follows a mantra of never saying no to a veteran in need, no matter the need. CCVIP is supported by the Kahlert Foundation and numerous smaller donors.

I want to create an environment where veterans feel comfortable asking for help, Shifflett said, and then also showing them that the hope does come through.

Morrissette said the help he received from CCVIP was different from that from other organizations because he always felt Shifflett treated him as a human in need of help rather than a box to be checked off. Shifflett helped the veteran with the job application process, and Morrissette was soon employed as a maintenance technician for Fifth Management, providing services for Taneytown Village and Thurmont Village apartments.

However, Morrissettes new job seemed threatened because his old car was unusable.

I lost all hope, Morrisette said. I had no idea what was gonna happen. I was facing homelessness, I didnt how know I was going to pay rent, how I was gonna get around.

The veterans boss graciously offered to drive him to and from work, 45 minutes each way, but Morrissette said it was not a long-term solution.

Unfortunately, finding help can be a hardship in and of itself. CCVIP partners with other local organizations to unlock available resources for veterans in need, but many services are restricted by income level.

This problem required some creative problem-solving. Shifflett said she happened to be talking about her job to Kim Heard of Westminster, the mother of one of Shiffletts friends, when Heard realized she could help Morrissette.

Im guilty, like everyone else, of saying something needs to be done and then not doing anything, Heard said.

Heard realized that the 2004 Cadillac CTS sitting in her driveway unused would be an easy thing to give to someone who has already given the country so much. That car was originally driven by Heards late father, who served in the Coast Guard, and she said he would love the idea of donating it to support a fellow veteran.

We focus on too many other things that arent, in my opinion, as important as those who stood up for our country and continue to stand for country, Heard said.

In another stroke of good luck, Shiffletts fiance happened to be a mechanic at LaScuola Motorworks, and was able to convince owner John LaScuola to donate the parts and labor to make the car ready for Morrissette.

Repairs were relatively extensive, including tires, belts, suspension parts and more  the donation of parts and labor totaled around $3,000. LaScuola, of Westminster, said handing the car off to Morrissette was surprisingly emotional and it felt good to help someone in need.

Having a local business means more than just making money, in my opinion, LaScuola said. The community is the one who allows us to even be there in the first place, so any way that I can try and give back makes the most sense  I try and institute that even in smaller ways in my business. Its part of our business philosophy that our main goal is not really to make money, our main goal is to serve the community, and I personally believe that if we do that money will follow.

The tire donation was particularly gracious because LaScuola does not stock tires, Sidock said. The repairs were performed at LaScuolas newer Eldersburg location. The business opened in Randallstown in 1989.

Veterans of Foreign Wars District 7 Cmdr. Aaron Doc Dockery donated Morrissettes first tank of gas and CCVIP provided funding for Morrissette to get his tags.

Sidock said Morrissette smiled like a kid in a candy shop when he received the tags and realized he was getting the help he needed.

Anything that you can do for either a veteran or anybody in general  any small acts of kindness make huge ripples and really change somebodys day and life, Shifflett said.

Anyone in need of help from the Carroll County Veterans for Independence Project can call 667-314-3700, email info@carrollcountyvip.org, or reach out to Shifflett directly at nshifflett@carrollcountyvip.org. Anyone interested in making a donation to support the project can also email info@carrollcountyvip.org.

Sidock said veterans face unique challenges reacclimating to civilian life and any donation helps.

This allows me to try to get back on my feet, Morrissette said, move into a new place, continue with a good job, have benefits, save up a little bit of money and eventually help somebody else out.

(c)2023 the Carroll County Times (Westminster, Md.)

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(Tribune News Service)  An Anaheim man who killed his girlfriend in 2017 and unsuccessfully tried to persuade a police officer to shoot him was convicted this week of voluntary manslaughter after jurors rejected a murder charge.

Frank Moseley, a 34-year-old Iraq War veteran, admitted to stabbing Janessa Smith, 25, to death with a chefs knife in the living room of an Anaheim apartment after, he said, she told him she was having an affair and may have been pregnant by the other man.

Moseley, who was 27 at the time of the killing, said he lost it after hearing about the affair and saw red before picking up the knife and stabbing Smith more than a dozen times. Moseley admitted to setting small fires in the apartment to kill himself through smoke inhalation, but later told investigators that he changed his mind after hearing the cries of the couples toddler.

With the young child in tow, Moseley began driving toward the Anaheim Police Department. On the way he spotted an officer in a patrol car. Moseley crossed over the median, cut the patrol car off and jumped from his vehicle while holding his child.

Video from the officers body-worn camera footage shows Moseley saying, Please shoot me! over and over while the toddler crouched at his feet.

Im not going to shoot you, the officer responded. Im not going to shoot you in front of your kid.

Handcuffed, Moseley sobbed and screamed.

I cant believe what I just did! he said. I lost it, I couldnt keep control.

He provided officers with the address of the Anaheim apartment.

An autopsy showed no signs that Smith was pregnant, prosecutors said. The two had broken up months earlier, reconciled, and then agreed to marry but Smith was having second thoughts, they said.

Rather than first-degree murder  which requires premeditation  the defense argued for manslaughter, saying the slaying occurred in the heat of passion.

Moseleys attorney, David Hammond, told Orange County Superior Court jurors that Moseley suffered from PTSD, from a traumatic childhood and a tour in Iraq where Moseley, a Navy medic, was attached to a Marine unit that went on 250-plus patrols.

Doctors with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the defense attorney said, determined that Moseley suffered from combat-related dreams and daily panic attacks triggered by stress. At the time of the killing, he was going to nursing school.

Moseley is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on May 12.

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A man is in jail after posting a nasty message to 4chan suggesting someone kill a Florida sheriff. Richard Golden, 38, was arrested at his mother's house Thursday. Upon answering the door, she shouted "they're here" into his lair.

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood took a public stand against Nazism last week, earning a torrent of hate from right-wing keyboard warriors.

Golden was charged with a felony count of writing a threat to kill, according to Fox 35 News.

According to the investigation, the threat was posted in a 4chan chat on Feb. 22. Users had been discussing Chitwood's response in the community and one user, later identified as Golden, suggested someone, "Just shoot Chitwood in the head and he stops being a problem. They have to find a new guy to be the problem." "But shooting Chitwood in the head solves an immediate problem permanently. Just shoot Chitwood in the head and murder him," the post continued.

A funny line from Chitwood, publicizing the arrest:

"What a shame. A 4chan troll has to come out of his room."

At Dexterto, Michael Guilliam writes that Golden in fact wrote "Just shoot Chitwood in the head and murder him. In Minecraft," implying that it was a joke (see the "In Minecraft" entry on Know Your Meme). But their own linked source, the Fox News item, doesn't include any mention of that. Screengrabs (and a few went around) are easily faked.

One site that archives 4chan threads, though, includes the line:

It's a transparent fig leaf, an example of extremists exploiting what Jean Paul Sartre once described as the Nazis' self-awarded "right to play" in encouraging violence. But it may also show that this was not a true threat, just a manchild posing online for other edgelords. Compare the traditional legal distinction between the ride and the rap.

The implication is that the Sheriff and mainstream media quoted the posting in full but for the last two words. It might not make a difference legally, and it is of course dumb as dirt, but a decision to remove it from the quotes would be interesting all the same.
It is understood convicted drug dealer Irwin (41) spent a number of months outside the jurisdiction after the incident but he presented himself for questioning on his return

Drug dealer Patrick Irwin was arrested over the alleged attack last month and released without charge. Photo: James Connolly

Gangster Patrick Irwin has been arrested by gardai investigating a brutal assault on a now deceased barrister whose Porsche car was also stolen in the incident.

Former garda Alan Toals body was discovered in his home in November where he had been living in fear after allegedly being attacked by Irwin in Tullamore, Co Offaly last August.

Foul play was quickly ruled out in the death of Mr Toal who lived near Arklow, Co Wicklow.

It is understood convicted drug dealer Irwin (41) spent a number of months outside the jurisdiction after the incident but he presented himself for questioning on his return and arrived at Tullamore garda station in Co Offaly on February 22.

He was detained there and questioned about the alleged assault on Mr Toal before being released without charge. A file will now be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

There may be difficulties in this case as the alleged injured party is now deceased, a source said.

It is understood Irwin has been based in his native Sligo since returning to the country, where it is feared he may try to reassert control over the drug-trafficking scene in the west of Ireland.

These concerns have been strengthened by the fact that one of his main rivals in the organised drugs trade in the west is currently locked up and facing the prospect of a lengthy jail term.

Last week, Barry Young (37) with an address of Geldof Drive, Cranmore, Co Sligo, pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court to directing a criminal organisation.

Young who is currently in custody in Portlaoise Prison, appeared before the three-judge, non-jury court last Friday where he replied guilty when the charge was put to him by the registrar.

With Young locked up and other members of his gang under severe pressure at the moment from gardai, there may be every likelihood Irwin and his crew see an opportunity. Theres a lot of money to be made, a source said.

Mr Toals car has not been recovered by gardai, but some sources have said it is suspected to be somewhere in Northern Ireland.

Irwins gang was the focus of a major operation by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) in July last year in which one of Irwins key associates was raided in an operation in which drugs, cars and 24,000 cash were seized.

In 2012, CAB seized Irwins home in Dromahair, Co Leitrim. It was estimated by CAB to have cost 400,000 when built.

Irwin who had links to slain gang boss Eamon The Don Dunne and other dangerous Dublin-based gangsters was released from jail in August, 2018, after serving a consecutive 10-year jail sentence for drug dealing and savagely assaulting a garda.

His alleged victim, Mr Toal (60) had previously represented Irwin but the two men later had a dispute  understood to be about financial matters.

In an interview with the Irish Independent a fortnight after he was allegedly assaulted by Irwin, Mr Toal said his assailant threatened to kill him and burn down his home if he made a complaint to gardai.

Mr Toal said despite the alleged threat, he had no hesitation in making a statement to gardai which he said was eight pages long.

He said that if such behaviour was tolerated it would erode the entire fabric of the criminal justice system.

Mr Toal did not name Irwin, but gardai are investigating claims the criminal headbutted and punched him in the restaurant of the Bridge House Hotel in Tullamore, Co Offaly, on August 18 before fleeing in the barristers Porsche Panamera.

Mr Toal had a consultation with clients at the hotel on the morning of August 18 and afterwards went to the premises restaurant, at which point it is alleged he was attacked.

I was viciously confronted and assaulted by a notorious criminal alleging that I had been avoiding him over the past several years, among other matters, none of which were true, rather delusional, he said in a statement to the Irish Independent.

I sat, stared and smiled at this person as he assaulted me and assured me he would kill me and burn my house down if I made a complaint of his behaviour to the gardai. These were not vacuous threats.

Mr Toal said that after his assailant left, he found his car, which had his wig, gown and briefcase in the boot, had been stolen.
Emma McCrory, who was in her 40s, was fatally injured after a blaze broke out in her house on Howth Road, Clontarf, shortly after 8.45 pm on December 15.

A MAN has been remanded in custody after gardai charged him with the murder of a mother-of-two who died in a house fire in north Dublin three months ago.

Emma McCrory, who was in her 40s, was fatally injured after a blaze broke out in her house on Howth Road, Clontarf, shortly after 8.45 pm on December 15.

Emergency services rushed to the house.

However, Ms McCrory, a stylist and fashion wholesale manager, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Read more Man due in court in connection with fatal house fire in Dublin last year

Her body was taken to the mortuary in Whitehall, north Dublin, for a post-mortem, and her funeral took place a week later.

On Friday, George Turner, 53, of Fairview Avenue, Fairview, Dublin, was arrested following an investigation by the detective unit at Clontarf Garda station. He was charged with the murder of Ms McCrory at her home on December 15, contrary to common law.

He was then held pending his appearance before Judge Gerard Jones at Dublin District Court on Saturday.

Dressed in a blue hooded top, jeans and brown shoes, he sat silently at the side of the courtroom during the brief hearing.

Detective Garda Cliff Singleton told Judge Jones the accused was arrested at 6.34 pm at Clontarf station on Friday and charged just over an hour later. In reply to the charge after caution, he had no reply, Detective Garda Singleton said.

He applied for a remand in custody. The District Court cannot hear bail a application in a murder case which requires a High Court ruling.

Obviously, given the nature of the charge an application could not be made in this jurisdiction, said defence solicitor Tony Collier.

He said his client had a history of mental health difficulties, and asked the court to recommend that Mr Turner receive a psychiatric assessment in custody.

Judge Jones remanded him in custody to appear via video-link at Cloverhill District Court on Friday.

He asked if the accused qualified for legal aid, and the solicitor submitted that Mr Turner was a suitable candidate.

It was granted after the judge noted there was no Garda objection. He also directed that Mr Turner get appropriate medical attention and supervision while on remand in prison.

The Director of Public Prosecutions must prepare a book of evidence before the District Court can make a return for trial order.
The suspect is expected to appear before a sitting of Dublin District Court this morning

A man (50s) is due in court later today in connection with a house fire where in woman lost her life.

The suspect was arrested by Gardai at Clontarf on Wednesday is expected to appear before a sitting of Dublin District Court this morning

The womans remains were discovered after emergency services were called to the scene of a house fire on Howth Road, Clontarf on 15 December 2022.

Gardai and firefighters rushed to the scene after the alarm was raised, shortly after 8.45pm, but couldn't save the woman.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The womans body was taken to the mortuary in Whitehall, north Dublin, where a post-mortem was carried out.

In a statement following the fire, a garda spokesman said: Gardai were alerted by local Fire Services following reports of a house fire on Howth Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3, shortly after 8.45pm, on Thursday.

The occupant of the house, a woman in her 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her body has been removed to the Mortuary in Whitehall, Dublin where a post-mortem will take place at a later date.
It has been a long haul for nursing home residents and their families over the last three years of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced them to navigate visitation guidelines that slowly shifted along with fluctuating case counts.

Now, the New York State Health Department has issued new guidance to reflect where things stand at this stage of the pandemic.

In guidance issued to nursing home operators and local health departments on Friday, the Health Department said nursing homes are no longer required to verify that visitors have a negative Covid-19 test before entry or conduct active Covid-19 screening. That means New York is aligning its nursing home screening and visitor testing guidelines with the federal standards issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"Enabling families to visit their loved ones safely remains a priority for the Department of Health," Acting State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a statement. "Our new guidance aligns with CMS guidance and recommends that facilities use passive screening, which includes providing visitor and staff education on Covid-19 signs and symptoms, and post instructional signage throughout the facility."

The Health Department also recommends that facilities continue other practices, such as the use of a face covering or mask, having specified entries, exits and routes to designated areas as well as encouraging hand hygiene. At their discretion, nursing homes also may choose to continue visitor testing or active screening, the latter referring to requiring a visitor to complete a symptom-screening questionnaire, do an in-person interview and/or have their temperature taken.

Further, the Health Department encourages facilities in counties with high levels of community transmission to offer testing to visitors.

Based on current weekly metrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers Erie County to have a medium Covid-19 community level, which recommends wearing a high-quality mask or respiratory in indoor public places if you're someone at high risk of getting very sick from the virus.

In the eight counties of Western New York, five of them  Erie, Niagara, Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties  are at the medium level, while Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties are in the low Covid-19 community level, CDC data show.

Facilities that decide to continue visitor testing can continue requesting testing kits in the monthly Health Electronic Response Data System (HERDS) survey, the state said. The kits will then be distributed from the state stockpile while supplies last.

"Improving the quality of life for aging New Yorkers includes making sure they have visits from family and friends," said Adam Herbst, the Health Department's deputy commissioner for aging and long-term care. "For those who call these facilities home, this new guidance supports our effort to make visitation more accommodating, while keeping residents and staff safe."
A man used a bale of cardboard boxes to try to start a fire inside a phone shop after staff put him out of the store, it is alleged.

Roman Mandache (58) came into the shop with the boxes in one hand and a cigarette lighter in the other and unsuccessfully tried to set them alight, a court was told.

The case against him was adjourned at Dublin District Court for the accused to decide how he intends to plead.

Mr Mandache, with an address at a Dublin city centre hostel, is charged with attempting to cause criminal damage.

He is also charged with a related count of using threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour with intent to cause a breach of the peace.

A garda sergeant said the Director of Public Prosecutions consented to the case being dealt with at district court level, subject to the issue of jurisdiction being considered. Judge Bryan Smyth asked for a summary of the proposed evidence. The sergeant said the incident was alleged to have happened at the Three Store on Henry Street on December 8 last year.

Gardai responded to a panic alarm that was activated at the store and when they went to the scene, staff told them the accused had been removed from the shop.

Minutes later, it was alleged, he returned with a bale of cardboard boxes in one hand and a cigarette lighter in the other.

It was alleged he pointed the lighter at the boxes and attempted to set fire to them but did not succeed and was removed from the store.

Judge Smyth accepted jurisdiction to deal with the case in the district court.

Mr Mandache was in custody when he appeared in court and gardai had no objection to bail, subject to conditions.

Defence solicitor Stephen OMahony applied for bail.

The judge set bail in Mr Mandaches own bond with no cash lodgment required. Under conditions, he is to stay away from the shop in question and have no contact with staff, directly or indirectly including by electronic means.

He is to remain sober in public, be of good behaviour and commit no offences. The accused must also sign on three times a week at Bridewell garda station.

The judge granted free legal aid following an application by Mr OMahony, who said his client was on social welfare and living in hostel accommodation. The accused was remanded on bail to appear in court again later this month.
Gardai claimed the car slowed down but was still in motion when a male was ejected from the moving vehicle

A MOTHER and her teenage son have been accused of pretending to be a taxi service before robbing a man who was ejected from their car while it was still in motion on a Dublin 4 road.

Maria Muntean, 34, and Damit Rostas, 18, who have an address at Virginia Hall, Belgard Square, Tallaght, Dublin, were arrested in Ballsbridge just before 4 am on Friday and charged with robbery of the man of his iPhone and Revolut bank card.

They faced objections to bail due to the seriousness of the alleged offence when they appeared before Judge Gerard Jones at Dublin District Court on Saturday.

Garda Gillian Duffy told Judge Jones that she and a colleague were on mobile patrol when they observed a 08-reg car driving along Serpentine Avenue, Dublin 4.

She alleged it slowed down but was still in motion when a male was ejected from the moving vehicle onto the middle of the road.

The court heard he was allegedly thrown from the back seat.

The garda activated her patrol vehicles lights, but the car failed to pull over; she overtook it and got to stop by manoeuvring in front.

It was alleged that the mother of seven Maria Muntean was the driver, that Damit Rostas, her son, was in the back seat, and that he had allegedly pushed the injured party from the moving car.

After gardai arrested the mother and son, they were taken to Irishtown station, where they searched Damit and allegedly found the stolen property in his underpants.

Garda Duffy said Mr Rostas had approached the intoxicated complainant on Kildare Street, where he had fallen asleep against a statue.

It was the prosecution case that Mr Rostas aroused him and told him he was operating a taxi service.

However, the court heard that neither he nor his mother holds a Small Public Service Vehicle licence.

The court heard that gardai had obtained high-quality CCTV footage from Government buildings.

The contested bail hearing was told that the man got in the back seat, and the car drove toward Dublin 4.

It was alleged he requested that they stop but was told no and we are a taxi; we will get you home safe.

However, when the car reached Serpentine Avenue, he was spotted falling out but got up and looked very stunned.

Cross-examined by defence solicitor Sandra Frayne, she agreed that man was intoxicated, but he sobered up fairly rapidly.

She said CCTV footage showed him walking steadily when he was brought to the car. He had drink taken. I wouldnt say he was obliterated, the garda said, later adding that he was of a very clear mind when she dealt with him.

However, she agreed that the video footage had yet to be proved in court. Father of one, Damit Rostas, did not comment when interviewed.

The solicitor said her clients denied the charges and would obey bail conditions. She submitted that the height of the prosecution case was the evidence of an intoxicated person, but the garda disagreed.

Pleading for bail, the solicitor said that unemployed Mr Rostas had a young child and lived with his partner. Ms Muntean was born in Romania but has been in Ireland for 25 years and lived at the same address as her co-defendant son, which was disputed by the garda.

Maria Muntean. Photo: Irishphotodesk

Ms Frayne said Ms Muntean had been affected by the housing crisis, and her family could not secure stable accommodation.

The solicitor said she also had to care for a sick family member.

Judge Jones said they had the presumption of innocence in the case, which he regarded as serious.

He refused to grant bail to the 18-year-old and remanded him in custody but released Ms Muntean on a 100 bond with a 1,000 independent surety.

They were supported in court by close family members.

She must obey a 10 pm  6 am curfew, notify gardai of any address change, not apply for travel documents and remain out of the Dublin 1, Dublin 2 and Dublin 4 parts of the city.

They will appear again next week.

The judge has deferred the ruling on a legal aid application.
Jos Krul (32) left the man with bruising to the face and a torn jacket in the assault on a Dublin street.

A taxi passenger punched the driver in the face after he was asked to get out in a dispute over a cigarette.

Jos Krul (32) left the man with bruising to the face and a torn jacket in the assault on a Dublin street.

The case was adjourned at Dublin District Court for victim impact evidence and compensation to be offered.

Krul, with an address in the Netherlands, is charged with assault causing harm to the driver at Malahide Road, Donnycarney, last December 29.

A garda told Judge Bryan Smyth the DPP was consenting to the case being dealt with at district court level subject to the issue of jurisdiction being considered.

Outlining the prosecutions case, the garda said the taxi driver picked up the accused as a fare on the citys quays after midnight.

Krul started rolling a cigarette on the seat and the alleged victim asked him not to do so.

He then said he would not drive the accused any further and stopped the cab.

The driver opened the door and requested the accused to get out and Krul pulled his jacket and punched him three times in the face, causing him to fall to the ground. The garda said the accused fled the scene but was identified.

The court heard the taxi driver sustained bruising to his face and his jacket was torn in the assault.

The judge accepted jurisdiction and the accused entered a guilty plea.

The case was adjourned to a date next month for the victim to be asked if he wished to make an impact statement.
Stone (65) had been running Ashton Dog Pound in Dublin since 1996

David Stone, the pound owner, with an address at Hazelbrook, Loughlinstown, Ratoath, Co. Meath   Paddy Cummins - IrishPhotodesk.

Dog pound owner David Stone retained a 272,000 contract with Dublin City Council up until 2022  four years after a Revenue audit found he had under-declared his income.

Stone  who was fined 30,000 in recent weeks for allowing a euthanasia drug to be kept unlawfully at Ashton Dog Pound  made a settlement of in excess of 83,000 with Revenue in 2018.

Records show that the settlement entered into by Stone included unpaid taxes of 58,290, interest of 8,118 and a further 17,487 in penalties.

Stone (65) had been running Ashton Dog Pound in Dublin since 1996 and had contracts with local councils including Dublin City, Fingal, South Dublin and Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Councils.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard last week that gardai were contacted by a dog warden over the weekend of July 24th, 2020, to alert them to the fact that two dogs, a Bichon Frise and an Akita, had been administered the euthanasia drug Pentobarbital, and the dogs had not been visited by a vet.

The dog warden was concerned for the animals as they were in a bad state.

Gardai called to the pound and Stone was there when they arrived.

By that point, one of the dogs had died and the second dog was very unwell.

The gardai took this animal to the UCD veterinary clinic, where it was put down in a more humane way, the court heard.

Garda McQuillan said that on arrival at the pound, gardai found the drug in a unlocked tin box. She said there was a full bottle of the drug and a small amount in a second bottle, totalling over 350ml.

The garda said 5ml of the drug was enough to kill a dog and if a small amount of the drug came into contact with human skin it could have fatal consequences.

Various statements were taken from staff at the pound, who outlined that the drugs were kept in an unlocked box at the receptionist desk.

The drugs were commonly administered orally to animals by putting it in their food.

Other statements suggested that it was the practice that the drug be placed in the animals food to sedate it before the vet would visit and properly administer the drug intravenously to put the dog down.

Garda McQuillan told the court the drug was a veterinary-only prescription drug that must be administered intravenously by a vet.

She said the contracts Stone had entered into with the various county councils to provide the service included the provision of animals being put down, but it specifically stated that the drug must be administered correctly by a registered veterinary practitioner.

Stone, of Hazelbrook, Loughlinstown, Ratoath, Co Meath, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to using a premises for supply of an animal remedy contrary to various European regulations, possession of an animal remedy designated veterinary practitioner only, and causing or permitting the administration of an animal remedy contrary to the same regulations, on July 24th, 2020.

Ashton dog pound

Garda McQuillan said Stone had been contracted by Dublin City Council, and the contract was worth 277,000.

This contract ended in March last year and although he went for re-tender, this was not successful.

Mr Carroll told the court the maximum penalty for the offence was a three-year prison term and 500,000 fine.

Judge Nolan said a very lethal substance had been held where it should not have been and it was being administered by untrained staff when it should have been administered by a vet.

It can be very dangerous to humans as well as animals  even a small amount can cause serious damage, Judge Nolan said.

He said Stone had been paid substantially to care for these animals and he had breached this contract.

He said he believed a custodial sentence was not warranted, considering his previous good work record, lack of previous convictions and co-operation with the Garda investigation.

Judge Nolan said it was a serious matter to have this substance on the premises without the necessary controls before he fined Stone 30,000.
CCTV footage shows terrifying moment shop assistant was pepper-sprayed

This is the moment a masked thief, posing as a shopper in Dublin city centre, showered staff with pepper spray before fleeing with a 1,350 phone.

The CCTV footage was provided to the Irish Independentas business people in the north inner city report that robbery and theft are on the rise.

People trading in the area are hoping that the new garda station on OConnell Street will help tackle the crime and anti-social behaviour that is rife.

Labour councillor Joe Costello told the Irish Independentthat a lot of the anti-social behaviour in the area is linked to drug use.

He said: Women are intimidated in the north city. Theres a lot of people hanging out around the street, especially at night. Drugs are part of it, assaults, abusive activity, intimidation. Theres poverty underneath everything.

Im not happy with the situation on Talbot Street, because that street was one of the busiest and most productive retail streets in Dubin, after Henry Street and OConnell Street. Theres a lot of gangs. We need more guards patrolling.

The incident captured on CCTV occurred at an internet cafe on Parnell Street last November, when a man wearing a surgical facemask entered the business and approached staff.

Moment man pepper sprays employee before stealing a 1,350 phone in Dublin

His face was almost completely concealed, as he posed as a shopper, asking detailed questions on which mobile phone he should buy.

Which one is bigger in size? the thief asked, as one of two shop assistants explained the design and cost of the phones.

The thief then asked, What do you recommend? as he moved closer to the till.

One staff member responded: I recommend iPhone. iPhone is much better.

The robber then moved closer to a glass shelf, pointing at phones for sale. As he did this, he momentarily distracted the shop workers.

He grabbed pepper spray from his pocket and doused the workers with the spray, grabbing a pink phone box on the till. This box, the shop owner said, contained a 1,350 phone.

One of the workers chased after the thief but he escaped on foot.

Shop owner Adeel Ali said his shop has been targeted by thieves twice in a matter of months. This happened in November in the morning. The guy ran away with a 1,350 mobile, he said.

People are tired of calling the gardai. Nothing happens, no one gets arrested, its a waste of time. He sprayed pepper spray at the staff.

The shop has been robbed two times now, once in November and at the end of December.

In December, two guys came into the shop. They were wearing masks, too. They were also acting like they were ordering something and ran away with a phone worth around 600.

In the November incident, it was terrifying when the man sprayed in the workers faces. They didnt know what was going on, one of the staff tried to chase him. They have been afraid since.

If we try to stop antisocial behaviour outside the shop and its a child, they threaten to sue you. They say their parents will sue you. There are not enough gardai.

The people who stole from us are around 18 to 21 years old. We want to see much more gardai patrolling the north city. We need guards patrolling every few hours. People under 18 are standing outside and theyre very rough, its intimidating.

Mr Ali is hopeful the opening of the station will now effect change and make the north city streets more secure.

A garda spokesperson said: Gardai are investigating a robbery incident that occurred on the November 26, 2022 at 11.11am at a retail premises. A phone was stolen.

Meanwhile, business peoples hopes are pinned on the new OConnell Street garda station and that the facility will restore a once-vibrant area for families, shoppers and tourists.

The station was opened last week with aspirations for dedicated security for the north inner city.

However, Fine Gael TD for Wexford, Paul Kehoe, admitted at the time, he still didnt feel fully safe on OConnell Street.

Though Mr Kehoe added that he would feel a little bit safer, as a result of the new garda station, the facilitys presence alone didnt seem to completely quell his concern.

Last week, Mr Kehoe told Drivetimeon RTE Radio 1 he hadnt felt safe walking down OConnell Street for some time. There are just some people who do not want help in any way and they just continuously carry out this thuggery on OConnell Street, he stated on air.

The upward trend of criminal activity in and around Dublin north citys shopping and tourism area, has recently reached intolerable levels, business owners also believe.

Many told the Irish Independentthey not only feared for themselves, but for their staff and their property.

And Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures from 2022 up to the end of September reflect this concern.

During this period, there was a 15pc increase in attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassment and related crimes in the Dublin Metropolitan Region recorded, compared to the same period in 2021.

There was a 38pc hike in theft and related offences, within the same period, according to the data, under reservation.

One store owner just off OConnell Street, who did not want to be named, said hed recently been assaulted and robbed by two men when he locked up for the evening. He felt if more garda resources had been available at that time, those attackers might have been deterred.

There were two fellas and they came up behind me and knocked me down on the ground, the shop manager said. One of them was punching me so hard, so many times in my eye, I was afraid I was going to lose my sight. I believe theyd been watching me and lay in wait.

They robbed my wallet and ran off. They were never caught.

The man said he hoped the new garda station would improve matters. Businessman Noel Tynan said: Enough is enough, referring to antisocial behaviour in the north city.

We need more gardai patrolling. People are afraid to go down OConnell Street. Ive had three of our staff mugged on OConnell Street.

In one recent incident, a male worker was asked for a cigarette and then hit on the side of the head and knocked down, Mr Tynan said.

Another male employee was approached by two men, who tried to rob his watch.

Staff also find themselves trying to protect people on the street, Mr Tynan said.

People are randomly being attacked, its going on wholesale. Guys on electric bikes are driving down OConnell Street at full whack. Gangs of men are walking down the streets. Theyre all basically saying, We own the streets.

Some shop owners said theyd felt powerless as shoplifters repeatedly stole from them. They stopped confronting thieves, fearing assault allegations and even litigation. One shop owner said hed been partially blinded by a shoplifter. Ever since, hes warned his staff not to challenge thieves.

It comes as the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) is to stage another day of action after participating in a protest march against ongoing roster issues earlier this week.

Antoinette Cunningham, general secretary of the AGSI, said anecdotally the association had heard that an unprecedented number of gardai had resigned last year due to stress, pressure, overly bureaucratic systems, over-regulation, assaults on gardai and more attractive private sector opportunities.

Ms Cunningham added: The AGSI have previously called for a separate garda pay and pensions remuneration body to be established and we now reiterate a call for that to be done.

She again called for the introduction of body cameras for gardai after a rise in assaults on officers.

Meanwhile, some city self-defence classes have had a 20pc increase in membership.

Patrick Cumiskey, from Krav Maga Ireland, said: Its definitely more intimidating for women at the moment. People say to us they dont feel safe coming home from work, when its dark.

Self-defence instructor Maria Poole added: Something could happen anywhere. Its about knowing what to do if it does.

A Department of Justice spokesperson said its determined to tackle criminal and anti-social behaviour and is very conscious of the impact it can have on the quality of life for local communities, including in Dublin city centre.

A garda spokesperson said the new OConnell Street station would enhance visibility and improve citizen safety.
Ridon Kola (32) is accused of threatening to turn the parade into a horror scene.

An ISIS supporter has been arrested for threatening to kill police officers and mayor at a local St Patricks Day parade just outside New York City.

Ridon Kola (32) is accused of threatening to crucify police officers and the mayor at the parade in Yonkers, according to prosecutors.

The charge, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, came after Kola directly messaged the Yonkers police force's social media accounts to detail his planned attack.

It is claimed Kola wrote: I will crucify Yonkers cops and their bosses all along McLean ave. It will be a horror scene.

He also vowed to turn the street where the parade was due to occur into a horror scene before ending the message with the Arabic phrase that means 'God is great.'

I will crucify Yonkers cops and their bosses all along McLean ave,

It will be a horror scene, Allahu Ekberr [sic].

In another message sent that same day, Kola wrote: 'First people to be crucified will be the Yonkers rats.

Kola had previously posted in support of jihad and a war against non-Muslims, the FBI claim.

He also voiced support for ISIS fighters.

On March 12 he posted to his social media page a photograph of himself holding an axe, with a statement in Albanian saying, "Come on Judas I'm waiting for you."

The Yonkers parade is due to take place today and is still expected to welcome roughly 30,000 Paddys Day revellers.

In a statement, the US Attorneys Office said Kola lives in the area of the route and has previously threatened officers..

They claim in December 2021, Kola threatened to kill the Yonkers mayor and city police officers in a series of posts on social media.

On Nov 18, 2021 he allegedly posted a message in Albanian to the Yonkers police social media page that translated as, "I am going to slaughter you little girls."

Police supposedly interviewed Kola. He told investigators the threats were not serious.

Commissioner Christopher Sapienza hailed the bust, especially with the holiday coming.

Thankfully, due to the outstanding collaborative efforts of the FBIs New York Joint Terrorism Task Force and our Yonkers Police Intelligence Division, our City will enjoy a safe Saint Patricks Day parade tomorrow free from intimidation by bad actors, he said in a statement.
Michael Moogan spent eight years on the run before finally being caught in Dubai.

A Premier League" drugs baron who became one of the UK's most wanted men has been jailed for his role in an international drug trafficking plot.

The National Crime Agency said Michael Moogan was on the run for eight years before being extradited.

Moogan (37), from Liverpool, fled from the UK in October 2013 after cops raided a Dutch cafe used for meetings by drug traffickers.

He then spent eight years on the run and became one of the country's most wanted men before finally being caught in Dubai.

After being extradited to the UK, the agency said Moogan told an arresting officer he would be no trouble as he was "tired now".

"Get me up to Manny and get me in Cat A," he said.

"I'm done now."

This week, he admitted conspiring to import Class A drugs and was given 12 years in prison at Manchester Crown Court.

Addressing Moogan, Judge Paul Lawton told said: "You have chosen to enter the world of crime at Premier League level.

"You knew you were flooding the UK with cocaine, and in doing so enabling other organised crime groups to ply their trade, with all its inherent violence and associated criminality.

The NCA claimed Moogan was linked to a cafe in Rotterdam, which acted as a hub for Moogan's conspiracy to bring hundreds of kilos of cocaine into the UK every month.

Dutch police bugged the premises, which was not open to the public and had an intercom to allow entry, and took secret video footage of those leaving and entering.

It said Moogan and his associates were involved in plans to import drugs from Latin America to Europe.

Moogan would pay up to 500,000 at a time to South American suppliers, who would ship the Class A drug to Belgium.

Surveillance footage of Michael Moogan in Rotterdam

Moogan told contacts he brought cocaine into the UK in meat from Argentina and evidence showed he also bribed port officials.

He also used road networks across Europe to move cocaine to the UK.

Moogan was in hiding until April 2021 when he was arrested by Dubai Police and had been using numerous false identities to avoid capture.

He was found to have a German passport, driver's licence and citizen card in the name of Michael Dier.

Speaking after sentencing, senior investigating officer Ben Rutter said Moogan "did everything he could to avoid this day, but justice has finally caught up with him".

"He was a major figure in international drug dealing [and] his consignments... undoubtedly brought misery and real harm to the UK," he said.
25 years? It seems like yesterday, said the President, unfortunately reminding us that hes prone to senior moments

Joe Biden doesnt really need to visit Ireland. Hes already met most of us in the last few days during the annual sucking up to the Yanks pilgrimage

In the most low-key of invitations, Rishi Sunak was only in America to chat about nuclear submarines when Joe (inset) took him up on a half-hearted you must pop by.

And Joes not just doing a hen night in Temple Bar. Hes hoping to do the full Northern Ireland experience to coincide with the 25th anniversary celebrations for the Good Friday Agreement.

25 years? It seems like yesterday, said the President, unfortunately reminding us that hes prone to senior moments like quoting Seamus Heaneys famous there was an old man from Bellaghy

But hes hugely proud of his roots, declaring previously that I may be Irish but Im not stupid. Its always good to insult your thick Paddy hosts before settling into the spare room.

That sound of quiet rage is Taoiseach Leo Varadkar fuming he was nowhere to be seen for this moment of international statesmanship.

He had to make do with an off-colour joke and immediate apology about Bill Clintons hands-on approach with young interns, a masterclass in blowing your big moment, which was just what Bill said to the interns.

Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy (not that kind of republican) kept the Paddwhackery going with a true Irishman never passes up a good fight. Do they think The Banshees of Inisherin is a documentary?

It could have caused outrage until Chief Constable Simon Byrne, who was also inexplicably in the US, said extra officers would have to be drafted in for Joes visit in case things kick off.

He wasnt here for the G8 summit a decade ago when so many extra police were brought in it would have been cheaper to give us all our own bespoke cop.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar presents US President Joe Biden with a bowl of Shamrock (Niall Carson/PA)   Niall Carson

Meanwhile it was business as usual across the pond as Friends of Sinn Fein took out a series of ads in US newspapers calling for a border poll, in a country where most people couldnt find Ireland on a map of Ireland.

And Jeffrey Donaldson insisted he wasnt under pressure in Washington to accept the Windsor Framework. Well it might make Northern Ireland the centre of trading excellence and massively boost the economy and our standard of living but where do we put our flag?

Then he trooped off to celebrate St Paddys Day. If he appeared at a St Patricks parade here, wed faint, but across the Atlantic hes just another good ole Irish boy.
Police are appealing for information following the incident in the Adelaide Street area of the city in the early hours of Saturday.

A man has threatened to stab a woman after she gave chase following an armed robbery in Belfast.

Police are appealing for information following the incident in the Adelaide Street area of the city in the early hours of Saturday.

A PSNI spokesperson said: At around 3.50am, two women were walking in the area when a man, armed with a knife, approached one of them and grabbed her handbag before making off on foot.

The other woman gave chase, and the suspect eventually stopped and threatened to stab her.

He then made off from the scene.

The handbag was later discovered set alight in the Cromac Street area.

The suspect has been described as being aged in his 20s, of slim build, and approximately 5ft 8in in height.

He was said to have been wearing dark coloured tracksuit bottoms and a dark coloured hoodie.

Inquiries are continuing, and we are appealing to anyone who was in the area at the time, and who may have seen anything, to get in touch.

The number to call is 101, quoting reference number 468 of 18/03/23.
Of course, the hardest thing about going to jail will be missing my daughter but she will grow up knowing her mammy fought for justice for all who are oppressed.

Animal rights activists Tuesday Gotti Single mother-of-one Tuesday Gotti wearing a hoodie reading the words of Martin Luther King: 'One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws' during a protest at a pig farm

Animal rights activists which includes Tuesday Gotti(on left) pictured at a chicken farm raid. Gotti and her colleagues marched on a chicken farm to highlight the condition in which the chicken are kept.

Tuesday Gotti appeared at Craigavon court this morning(Thursday) fully expecting to go to Jail. Animal rights activist Gotti 35, a single mother of one was facing charges of trespass after a she and a number of colleagues raided a chicken farm and stayed there for 13 hours.

Tuesday Gotti appeared at Craigavon court this morning(Thursday) fully expecting to go to Jail. Animal rights activist Gotti 35, a single mother of one was facing charges of trespass after a she and a number of colleagues raided a chicken farm and stayed there for 13 hours.

Hardcore animal rights activist Tuesday Goti avoided jail yet again last week despite being caught trespassing on yet another chicken farm!

And we can reveal, despite being caught red-handed by cops inside the farm, the remorseless campaigner actually broke back into the farm three nights later to film more of the farms animals.

She told the Sunday World she fully expects a knock on the door when they read this story as she is admitting going back to the farm on eight separate occasions to film the dairy herd  and she says the farmer hasnt a clue she did it!

The 36-year-old, who once stole a few chickens from another farm and kept them in her bedroom, arrived at Craigavon Courthouse on Thursday fully expecting to go to jail as she refused to plead guilty to trespassing at Gartross Poutry Farm in July 2021.

This was despite her filming herself and other activists at the farm and posting the videos and images on social media  including images of the PSNI who turned up to arrest them.

Animal rights activist Tuesday Goti speaking outside court

I was told if I didnt plead guilty, Id be going to jail this time for sure, Tuesday told the Sunday World after leaving court last Thursday.

I won't accept guilt because moral compassion is not a crime and I believe one day it wont be.

They told me even if I didnt plead guilty to this one they were still offering me a caution so I took it because I expect the cops are going to be back at my door soon when the farmer finds out I went back and trespassed illegally on his dairy farm across the road!

In fact we went back eight times and filmed the herd to build up a proper picture of what its like for the animals.

Im planning to release the video footage at the Irish Vegan Festival in April.

Tuesday was one of seven animal activists who received a formal police caution over the illegal protest at the farm.

The seven had been charged with aggravated trespass intending to disrupt at Gartross Poultry Farm, Steps Road, Donaghcloney on 2 July 2021 and the particulars of the offence outlined that the defendants trespassed on land in the open air, and in relation to a lawful activity involving chickens you did something which was intended by you to have the effect of disrupting that activity.

The seven are: Tuesday Sophie Goti (36), from Wesley Street in Lisburn; Naomi Finally (28), from Ballymena; Lesley Ann Armstrong (39), from Annagh Meadows in Portadown; Danny Donaldson (31) from Seagrove Parade in Belfast; Tiffany Donaldson (32), also Seagrove Parade; Bethany Lloyd (25), from Moneybrooke Road in Shropshire; Fiona Walsh (43), from Barleyfields in L/Derry.

Images posted on Tuesdays social media platforms after the protest showed her sitting on her knees as police officers arrest her and the others while she posted an explanation of why she had entered the farm.

4

Animal rights activists which includes Tuesday Gotti(on left) pictured at a chicken farm raid. Gotti and her colleagues marched on a chicken farm to highlight the condition in which the chicken are kept.

This is the second time that Goti and Finlay have faced criminal charges together while Goti admitted to the Sunday World she had been arrested on five farms in total.

And she says shes fully prepared to got to prison to highlight her cause  even though shed desperately miss her two-year-old daughter ARA who was named to signify Animal Rights Activist.

Of course, the hardest thing about going to jail will be missing my daughter but she will grow up knowing her mammy fought for justice for all who are oppressed and that we can never let tyranny win over victims.

Ill be heartbroken for my little baby but I have to stand by my convictions and show her what is right, create a better world for her.

Speaking after escaping with her caution Tuesday told us: Gartross Farm are renowned for their use of birds and cows for profit. In my opinion their farming practices are abhorrent but not much more so than any animal agricultural facility which profits from the enslavement of non-human victims.

We occupied this farm for no particular reason for every farm is the same. Every farm uses and abuses the most sentient and innocent of beings.

This just happened to be one on our list of exposes to work through. And we are working through them, including exposing the violation of the female reproductive system of 'dairy cows' carried out by farmers.

Animal rights activists Tuesday Gotti Single mother-of-one Tuesday Gotti wearing a hoodie reading the words of Martin Luther King: 'One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws' during a protest at a pig farm

This action was professionally and compassionately carried out over 13 hours by our team of 15 activists.

Our aim was simply to bring awareness to what actually goes on as opposed to what agriculture and the government portray.

We had a transporter, vet and sanctuary on standby. This was a very well organised protest.

No one was harmed by us. We have a moral obligation to disobey unjust laws, to protect the most vulnerable of our society.

In 2021 Goti was handed a four-month prison sentence suspended for three years after she burgled a different chicken farm and took some of the birds home.

On 13 July 2021, just 11 days after these fresh charges, a farmer in Kells contacted police having been made aware of a video circulating on social media which showed a female entering an outbuilding and lifting three chickens.

Police viewed the footage and identified a vehicle, a grey Mercedes, linked to it, said a prosecuting lawyer, explaining that while the car was registered to Finlay, it had been Goti who had entered the hen house.

When cops arrived at Gotis house, they found the chickens alive and well in her bedroom but despite the find she refused to answer police questions during interviews but later pleaded guilty to burglary.
Antwan Barlow calls Buffalo's Martin Luther King Jr. neighborhood home, so perhaps it's no surprise that, like the neighborhood's namesake, he wants to be an agent for change.

Barlow sees Buffalo's newest charter school, BRICK Buffalo Academy, as the best hope.

"A school is like our anchor, it's what we start with," Barlow said in January. "We want to make an impact in the community, but you have to surround that school with a plethora of services to really make that impact."

But his plan to bring a new charter school to students in kindergarten and first grade is running headlong into a deepening divide in Buffalo, New York and across the nation between public school districts and charters over funding and philosophy, a chasm that grew wider last month when Gov. Kathy Hochul threw her support behind efforts to allow dozens of new charters in New York City.

"We have reached a tipping point  we are almost at 28% of school-aged kids that are enrolled in charter schools," Buffalo Schools Superintendent Tonja M. Williams said in a February meeting with the Buffalo Common Council's education committee. "We believe in school choice, but there are some things that have to happen, and ... it's not just in Buffalo, but also in other large district areas."

Buffalo Public Schools filed a legal petition in February that argues the new charter should never have been approved. Its target is the State University of New York Charter Schools Institute and SUNY's board of trustees, which approved BRICK Buffalo Academy. The district also  for the second time  requested a moratorium on new charters in the area while demanding transparency and accountability in discipline, as well as in funding and enrollment, for existing charter schools. According to Buffalo Schools' budget projections for next year, the district expects to spend a total of $166.3 million on charter schools, an $11.6 million increase over this year, money that otherwise would be spent on public schools.

Against this backdrop came last month's announced closing of Buffalo Collegiate Charter School for children in grades four through eight, after the SUNY Charter Schools Institute said the school had failed to meet several goals outlined in its mission.

Andy Pallotta, the president of New York State United Teachers, leads the union's campaign against charter expansion. He notes that a major point of frustration is financial: Buffalo, like other large urban districts in the state, is responsible for allocating state money to fund the tuition of charter school students. In Buffalo, many charter schools also rely on Buffalo Schools' transportation, which is funded almost entirely by the state.

The district should be on more solid financial footing this year, thanks to Hochul's proposal to fully fund the main operating pot of money, known as foundation aid, for the first time in its 17-year history. Each district would receive at least a 3% increase in its foundation aid.

But Pallotta said Buffalo will not see the full impact of that, because of charter schools.

"The main problem with this is that we get what we need from the state, they finally come through with foundation aid, and it just goes out the back door," he said.

BRICK's plan for Buffalo

Barlow, BRICK Education Network's regional executive director and a Hutchinson Central Technical High School graduate, hopes to lead BRICK Buffalo Academy's effort to transform the fifth-poorest ZIP code in Buffalo through a holistic approach to education. Following the BRICK philosophy that led to rapid growth at a school in New Jersey, Barlow will emphasize two generations of supports  for Buffalo's students and parents  that extend beyond the classroom.

Barlow said the history of segregation in the predominantly Black community, as well as existing barriers facing Black and Brown children BRICK Buffalo Academy intends to serve, both argue for a different approach to education. And he said he believes this school will be part of the answer.

"Starting up a school anywhere is a tough battle," he said. "You have to get a board that's really invested, you have to get the right experience, right people that know the steps."

Barlow said he has spent the last 14 years in education locally, including a stint with D'Youville University's Upward Bound program that prepares high school students for college. Jeremy Esposito, the superintendent of BRICK Buffalo Academy who will oversee the principal, teachers and curriculum, worked previously as a chief academic officer in a network of charters in St. Louis, Mo.

Yolanda Wood, board chair for BRICK Buffalo Academy, works in Niagara University's Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She held a similar role previously at D'Youville, where she met Barlow.

Both Barlow and Wood said they are motivated by BRICK's formula, including a culturally responsive curriculum, progressive disciplinary practices and an "ecosystem of services," in Barlow's words. Wood explained that access to affordable housing, health services, adult education, workforce development and early childhood opportunities could make a difference for families.

"It's not just about the numbers, it's trust," added Wood about attracting parents of prospective students. "We're here to do what we can, and we're here to support you, too."

BRICK Buffalo Academy's contract stipulates an enrollment of 162 students in its first year and growth to 486 students in kindergarten through fifth grade by year five. The financial impact in the charter shows Buffalo Public Schools would pay $3 million in funds in the first year and a total of about $7 million over five years. BRICK Buffalo is finalizing a long-term lease on 30 Rich St., a former school building on the King Urban Life Center campus.

"We hope to be a partner in every sense of the word," said Claire White, vice chair on King Urban Life Center's board of directors. White pointed to the community center's existing partnerships with Catholic Charities and nearby Buffalo Museum of Science, as well as after-school programs and the Say Yes summer camp it already hosts.

Behind Buffalo Schools' petition

BRICK Education Network, the New Jersey-based charter management organization, held public hearings in 2021 and 2022 with Buffalo Schools officials to explain its plan for BRICK Buffalo Academy and answer questions. In 2021, BRICK withdrew its charter application, which originally included east and west campuses in Buffalo, when SUNY Charter Schools Institute suggested more work be done.

BRICK resubmitted its proposal to SUNY a year later with plans for one school.

But BRICK's hearing in September in front of the Buffalo School Board did not convince any of the nine board members that it was prepared to proceed. The School Board sent a letter, like it did the year prior, to SUNY's Board of Trustees to explain why it unanimously believed BRICK Education Network was "wholly unqualified and unprepared to open the elementary school it proposes." It recommended the proposal be rejected.

SUNY Charter Schools Institute, aware of the district's stance, recommended BRICK Buffalo Academy's proposal to SUNY's board of trustees on Oct. 6, citing the BRICK network's "strong track record of growth" in its Achieve Community Charter School in Newark, N.J.

After SUNY's board approved the charter, the Buffalo School Board passed a resolution in December to pursue legal action against SUNY for authorizing BRICK. Essentially, Buffalo Schools believes that authorizing charter schools should be done solely by the State Education Department's Board of Regents, which focuses on prekindergarten through 12th grade, and not by SUNY, which typically handles higher-ed affairs.

The district also says BRICK lacks an understanding of the neighborhood's needs, effective plans for special education and English Language Learner students, and how it would offer anything different from what existing Buffalo schools offer.

Larry Scott, the at-large Buffalo School Board member who co-sponsored with Sharon Belton-Cottman the resolution against SUNY, questioned whether a school modeled after Achieve, which enrolled English Language Learners for the first time last year, could properly implement a culturally responsive curriculum in Buffalo, one of the most linguistically diverse cities in the state.

He noted that a BRICK applicant "suggested that services for" English Language Learners "and students with disabilities be merged."

"That was a last straw for me on the lack of understanding of the obligations to educate and service students with disabilities and English Language Learners," Scott said last week.

Scott said he is concerned about a recent trend among Buffalo's charter schools, which Buffalo Public Schools accepts 600 to 800 charter school transfers during each school year, disrupting classrooms and resulting in difficult midyear transitions for hundreds of students.

Charter schools' lack of financial transparency is another worry for Scott. He pointed to BRICK Buffalo Academy's projected budget, in which about $2.4 million over its five-year charter would go toward a "management company fee."

BRICK's leaders note their charter was approved by SUNY, and they have moved on to finalizing building plans and recruiting teachers and prospective students.

Barlow said he's open to collaborating with Buffalo Schools and that they're "trying to work through any hard spots," emphasizing a shared partner in Say Yes. Even aside from Buffalo Schools' objections, Barlow acknowledged the challenges ahead in a community that has seen more than its share.

"There was a lot of pressure on the East Side of Buffalo from the very beginning," Barlow said. "But a lot of diamonds have been made as far as the people who are here. I want to be part of showing the world that too, that we can foster change."
In a furious all-caps post on his Truth Social page, the former president railed against a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorneys office

Donald Trump has claimed that he will be arrested on Tuesday and called for protests to take our nation back.

In a furious all-caps post on his Truth Social page, the former president railed against a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorneys office which is likely to bring charges against Mr Trump over a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK! Mr Trump posted on Truth Social.

The twice-impeached former presidents claim that he will be taken into police custody early next week comes less than a day after reports that law enforcement authorities in New York have been quietly preparing for the possibility that Mr Trump will stoke civil unrest if he is subject to any form of legal accountability whatsoever.

The ex-presidents call for protest to take our nation back on the day he says hell be arrested are a clear echo to his call for supporters to descend on Washington DC in the run-up to the final certification of his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

At the time, Mr Trump had called for a wild protest on January 6 2021, the day Congress was set to carry out that certification in a joint session presided over by then-vice president Mike Pence.

After the then-president delivered an incendiary speech near the White House in which he called on his supporters to fight like hell, a riotous mob led by violent extremists began assaulting police officers and stormed the Capitol in hopes of stopping the certification of his 2020 election defeat.

The Manhattan District Attorneys office has not yet indicated that Mr Trump has actually been charged in the hush-money case  or any other matter. But the New York-based investigation is just one of several potential areas of criminal jeopardy for the ex-president.

Mr Trump also faces the possibility of charges from prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, and from two separate federal investigations now led by a Department of Justice special counsel, Jack Smith.
Coromandel businesses say they're doing 50-90 percent less business than they were last year due to the fragility of road access to the region.

State Highway 25A between Kopu and Hikuai is closed indefinitely and with limited alternative access to the peninsula businesses fear visitors won't come for the upcoming Easter holidays.

Some residents are even leaving the Coromandel altogether to move closer to hospitals and other essential services.

Cathedral Cove Water Taxi operator Hayden Smith Photo: RNZ/Matthew Theunissen.

After huge slips crashed onto the popular walking track and parts of the beach, business ground to a standstill for Cathedral Cove Water Taxi operator Hayden Smith.

To try to keep the business afloat, he started offering trips to the cove from Hahei Beach so tourists could at least see the famous hole in the rock from the boat.

"We've had a little bit of a break in the weather which has been nice, but it's safe to say we've been kind of 80-plus percent down - maybe 90 per cent down - on last year. And last year was a shocker as well," he says.

Businesses had been counting on this summer to help them recover from Covid, he says.

"We were just so optimistic about the summer and, yeah, here we are. It's not been the redemption we were chasing. And quite frankly, it sucks."

Jessy James at his Whiti farm. Photo: RNZ/Matthew Theunissen.

Further north, the Eden-like Whiti Farm Park is having a really hard time due to the lack of tourists passing through.

Owner Jessy James says Aucklanders who usually holiday in the Coromandel didn't seem keen on the long windy coastal route along SH25 while the other roads were down.

"[In] January we were 50 per cent down - that's a huge month for us - and then last month we were three quarters down on last year too, so that's a big chunk. And we've still got the animals to feed every day, whether people come or not."

And the future's not looking great.

"It's pretty grim really because they're saying it could be another year before that road opens. And if it is another year it's going to really, really hurt," James says.

"There's a lot of businesses in Whitianga already closing down because it's too hard. [Summer] is the period to get us through the cold, long winter, which we've just lost. "

It's not only tourism businesses affected.

Donna Diedericks and her husband run the Pauanui Service Centre where people come to get warrants of fitness and car repairs.

"Our biggest challenge is absolutely our supplies. We get bookings on a daily basis so on a daily basis I'm placing orders for parts," she says.

"Usually we would see a courier every single day. Sometimes it's now just once a week and that's causing a massive bottleneck with jobs."

Diedericks says she'd even had a handful of regular customers come in to say good-bye because they were leaving the Coromandel for good.

"They've been with us from the beginning and they have decided to permanently relocate.

"Some of them are permanent [residents] - there was a lady I spoke to today who's been here 20 years and they're moving. There's those that have decided to be closer to medical facilities and make sure they have access to hospitals."

Pauanui Ratepayers and Residents Association administrator Anna van Limpt sent out a survey to members on Saturday asking them to outline how they've been impacted by the weather events and road closures.

In just a few days she'd received over 500 responses, many of them absolutely heart breaking.

Anna van Limpt from the Pauanui Ratepayers and Residents Association. Photo: RNZ/Matthew Theunissen

"People are really afraid they can't get to hospital if they need to. Kids have been taken out of school because the commute to school is so long, sometimes three, four hours a day, so they spend more time on the school bus than they do in school itself.

"Businesses are suffering really bad, especially after the long weekends that were rained off. We were so hoping for some visitors us to come over."

Van Limpt felt people were afraid of visiting the Coromandel at the moment.

"People are even more scared to get stuck here ... what if you get stuck and you can't get out?"

Back on Smith's water taxi, a handful of German and French tourists were enthusiastically taking selfies in front of the picturesque and deserted Cathedral Cove.

Honeymooning tourists Armelle and Clement Labouche say they had a great time in the Coromandel. Photo: RNZ/Matthew Theunissen.

They says they were having a fantastic time in the Coromandel, despite all the challenges the peninsula was facing.

A couple on their honeymoon says the detours added just one hour to their journey, but they did not regret making the decision to stick with their plan to visit the Coromandel.

- Matthew Theunissen/RNZ.
While some Kawerau residents are hunkering down and keeping themselves safe as the swarm of earthquakes continues to roll through, others are leaving 'K-Town' for the remainder of the weekend.

"It's due to the ongoing earthquakes. I'm just finding I'm on high alert," says one resident and SunLive reader who is leaving Kawerau early Saturday afternoon to stay with family overnight in Tauranga.

"We didn't get much sleep last night, and we want to be somewhere we can sleep tonight."

Kawerau resident Jessica Gray, her husband, their two young children and their two dogs took shelter under a table, following the recommended 'Drop, Cover, Hold'.

"It's still shaking," says Jessica to SunLive at 2.15pm. The family have taken books and drinks with them under the table.

Jessica published a video to her Facebook page, and glass paintings and other items can be heard crashing around them as another earthquake strikes.

"The earth has been shaking for hours," says Jessica. "And it's progressively getting worser and quicker.

"We're not quite sure if there's another big one coming but we're all under the table."

"So we're fine," says one of her children on the Facebook video.

"It's been doing this for hours and it's progressively getting stronger and stronger. If long and strong get gone," says Jessica.

She starts to sing to the children, with one interrupting her to say they'll need to get video games to play under the table. While this conversation happens, two more quakes shake around them, with the dogs panting each time.

The children resort to playing 'rock, paper, scissors' with their own variations such as 'rock, paper, scissors, TNT',

Other Kawerau residents have expressed concern through Facebook posts about Putauaki, which rises above the Kawerau landscape, and is about three kilometres east of the town.

Some are wondering if there is a landslide imminent due to what they believe appears to be a long line or crack appearing on the side of the mountain facing Kawerau.

"Dunno about you fullas but Id get outta Kawerau today until Ruaumoko settles down," says Te Ringahuia Hata to their Facebook page.

Putauaki, previously known as Mount Edgecumbe, is a dacite volcanic cone and is the easternmost vent of the Okataina volcanic centre, within the Taupo Volcanic Zone.

SunLive has asked GNS Science for more information about Putauaki and will update this once that becomes available.

Road slips near Kawerau.

There are multiple slips on State Highway 34 between Kawerau and Rotoma

There are multiple slips on SH34 and through the Rotoma Gorge. Photo: Supplied.

Due to the multiple slips, Stop/Go traffic management and speed restrictions will be in place along the highway from Kawerau to the intersection with SH30, says a Waka Kotahi NZTA spokesperson.

Take extra care and expect delays.

More shaking around New Zealand

Geonet says there's shaking up and down the country today, with a shallow M4.7 earthquake recorded this afternoon in Canterbury.

"It was felt throughout the city, Port Hills and further inland, and we have received over 6300 felt reports," says a Geonet spokesperson.

"Aotearoa is reminding us today of the natural forces we live with, and while it can feel unsettling, its a good reminder to think about your preparedness plan - check out getready.govt.nz. And remember, Drop, Cover and Hold is the right action to take in an earthquake."

Are you safe? Have you prepared a basic emergency kit?

Earthquake real-time reports https://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake

Road slips / closures / reports https://www.nzta.govt.nz/
The University at Buffalo has been navigating controversy surrounding Michael Knowles visit to campus last week, and rightly so. Free speech has been at the center of discourse, but that is not what this moment requires.

Viewpoints: Fostering free speech is part of a university's mission Free speech should not be controversial. No one should think they have the dictatorial power, alone or in a mob, to violate someone elses free speech rights.

Days before visiting Buffalo, Knowles said on a national platform that, For the good of society  transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely  the whole preposterous ideology, at every level. The presence of a pundit who suggested such hateful and destructive ideas sent shockwaves through the UB and Buffalo community. In the days leading up to the event, campus offices received hundreds of visits, calls and messages of outrage and concern. Queer, trans and gender-nonconforming people and allies raised real questions about safety. After all, Buffalo is tragically familiar with acts of violence inspired by hate speech.

Our community responded. We organized. UBs LGBTQ Faculty and Staff Association wrote in an open message, Simply put, Knowles eliminationist rhetoric is disturbing and the reckless implication of eradication is dangerous. The comments incite distress and directly conflict with our institutional mission, vision and aspirations. The call for removing transgenderism from public life is a dog whistle for harm and must be denounced. Academic deans of different schools within the university echoed similar statements. Teachers organized a petition to cancel the event. Community groups rallied and those who showed up, including students, noticeably outnumbered attendees.

Of course, a free exchange of thoughts and ideas is the backbone of higher education. It is how all of us, especially in a collegial community, learn and grow in our beliefs and values. But a dissertation around UBs responsibility to uphold the First Amendment doesnt help those who are directly impacted by hate speech. Constitutionality can be debated in the courts and the academy. It is UBs institutional pursuit of a university-wide culture of equity and inclusion and commitment to enriching regional cultural vitality currently being challenged in the arena.

Transgender people are integral members of society and have a lived experience that is not always easy. Social systems that are gender-constructed dominate daily life for everyone, but can burden those who identify outside of the gender binary. Gender-affirming health care can be costly or unavailable. Trans people experience depression and thoughts of suicide more than cisgender peers. Suicide rates for trans youth living or studying in a non-supportive home or school are dangerously high. Disturbingly, transgender people, especially trans people of color, experience violence in alarming and sad ways. And, as evidenced by Knowles disgusting comments, transgender people are targeted politically today with rhetoric and legislation that challenges their rights to exist as equal citizens.

These harsh realities were at the forefront of students, faculty, staff, alumni and engaged the hearts and minds of Western New Yorkers who expected more from the University at Buffalo. Reasonable doubt pervaded campus because when one loud voice espoused ideology that so glaringly conflicted with our values, it was hard to hear anything else. As a result, UBs relationship with the LGBTQ+ community was fractured.

So what to do?

Institutions of higher education are ever-evolving as far as delivering curriculum and services to students. At UB, we strive to provide transformative and innovative education through competitive programs, state-of-the-art facilities and career-oriented opportunities. The opportunity for UB today is to elevate support and care services for marginalized student populations, LGBTQ+ students in particular, to be commensurate with the universitys premiere academic programs. In 2020, a task force of faculty, staff and students delivered a report to the Office of Inclusive Excellence that recommended the creation of a LGBTQ+ resource center with, at minimum, one full-time employee.

Such a model exists on many similar campuses, including UBs flagship peer, Stony Brook University. Offerings within such a center could range from facilitating the integration of trans and gender-diverse people into curriculum, assisting with identity-based data requests like name change, developing essential training for faculty and staff, providing space to build community on campus and within Buffalo, and institutionalizing a commitment between LGBTQ+ students, employees and the university.

Action, not a lesson. Thats what our queer community members, feeling frustration and loss, need. Upholding free speech includes taking responsibility for the platform. UB can start to heal when the universitys commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion is anchored with investment in LGBTQ+ people.

Ben Fabian is the president of UBs LGBTQ Faculty and Staff Association.
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Some of the best television shows are about whip-smart operators and the political nuances of their professional worlds. So why then is it so challenging to make a satisfying series about academia? Its not only difficult to think of a television show that has succeeded in lifting the veil of a university, its tough to think of shows that have even tried. The most recent swipe at it was Netflixs The Chair, a thin but charming dramedy starring Sandra Oh that ended after a single season. Even as college campuses remain a go-to battleground for American culture wars, the inner lives of the professors caught in the crossfire are usually reserved for novels.

The latest such attempt to animate the tenured life is AMCs Lucky Hank, which is built from just such a novel. Its an adaptation of Straight Man, the Richard Russo novel that preceded his Pulitzer Prize-winning Empire Falls. Much of Russos work borrowed elements from his real-life origins as an English professor-turned-novelist, which explains why Lucky Hank so accurately captures professorial ennui. But it might capture ennui a little too well, resulting in a show that seems to amble in no particular direction with little indication of when it might hit a stride.

More from Variety

Bob Odenkirk stars as William Henry Devereaux Jr.  no wonder he goes by Hank  who chairs the English department at Railton College, a small and nondescript liberal arts institution in middle Pennsylvania. The length of Hanks tenure can be measured by the depth of his cynicism, which peaks early in the pilot when his gadfly writing student Bartow (Jackson Kelly) suggests his experimental prose has gone over Hanks head. Who is Hank to judge the writing of others, Bartow asks, when his only successful novel came out ages ago, and is barely in print? Hank, feeling his Howard Beale fantasy, launches into an anti-Railton rant, calling the school mediocritys capital to audible gasps from his students.

Story continues

That moment of acidic candor is what passes for an inciting incident in Lucky Hank, which initially has all the forward momentum of an undeclared freshman. The backlash to Hanks diatribe is immediate, forcing Railtons non-confrontational Dean Rose (Oscar Nunez) to play the reluctant peacemaker. Hank retreats into his misanthropy, which comes as no surprise to his happy-go-lucky wife Lily (Mireille Enos), whos grown accustomed to his pouty energy. Meanwhile, Hanks adult daughter Julie (Olivia Scott Welch) is too focused on her own crises  which require financial assistance from Hank  to notice her father is even pricklier than usual.

The pilot, adapted by Paul Lieberstein and Aaron Zelman, comes across as a character study, with Hank struggling to find a broader purpose and meaning to his life of tweed jackets and syllabi. When the action pivots to the machinations of the professors under Hank, the pilot loses its head of steam. But between Lieberstein and Zelmans snappy script and Odenkirks lived-in performance, the pilot is an entertaining enough opening chapter even as the genre and themes remain opaque.

But theres a deliberate shift in the second episode (only two were provided to critics) that upends the formula established in the pilot. Rather than being bit players in Hanks midlife crisis, the ensemble comes to the fore. Hanks mediocrity tirade predictably roils the English department, and the professors are fed up with his antics, particularly Gracie (a well-cast Suzanne Cryer), who vows to squeeze Hank out of his position. The shows ensemble is absolutely stacked, featuring the likes of Cedric Yarbrough and Diedrich Bader as Hanks politely peeved coworkers. And once the office politics get heated, Lucky Hank becomes less of a character study and more like an office comedy.

That blend of hangout comedy and workplace sitcom is an excellent fit for Lieberstein and Zelman, who worked on The Office and Silicon Valley, respectively. Office comedies at their best have a ferocious mean streak, with just the occasional hint of sweetness, and Lucky Hank captures that balance from the outset. The characters fundamentally consider themselves smarter than everyone else, so the cutting insults feel natural to the environment.

Its hard to give a full-throated endorsement to a show like Lucky Hank after seeing only two episodes, as its clearly designed for delayed gratification rather than cheap thrills. Its laid-back vibe may be off-putting to anyone expecting a show as propulsive and plot-forward as Better Call Saul. But Hank is the type of lovable curmudgeon that some viewers relate to so deeply that his mere involvement can create genuine stakes. Those who dont connect with Hanks cynical worldview or enjoy his milieu are probably better off dropping this class.

Lucky Hank premieres on AMC and AMC+ on March 19.

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Click here to read the full article.
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ABHI_1512 BHPian



Join Date: Feb 2020 Location: Calcutta Posts: 799 Thanked: 9,233 Times

re: Calcutta to Corbett - In search of a Tiger



The breakfast spread at the hotel was delectable as ever. The Chef turned out to be from Bengal and came down personally to talk to us when he got to know that we were from Calcutta and that whether everything was in order or we needed anything. It was kind of him to check on us amidst so many guests.















Our route for the day was through Sandila, Hardoi, Bareily bypass, Rampur and lastly Ramnagar. We left the hotel at 9 in the morning but the after effects of the preparation rallies had started to show on the roads. It didn't help that there was a fair going on beside the Imambara and it was adding to the congestion. We took a small photo break near the giant Rumi Darwaza. It was an opportunity not be missed by any means since we were anyways passing beside it. The blue barricaded sheets in front of the Darwaza killed the royal looks but I suppose some renovation or restoration work is underway.













Some pictures after, we were finally on the outskirts of the city of Lucknow and were passing through another landmark of Indian History- Kakori. Goosebump moment just by remembering the history of the place and its significance during the Indian Freedom Struggle and no, it's not about the Kakori Kebabs !!















The national highway (NH30) is being widened and it was kind of sad to find so many full grown trees being cut and felled for the project. We surely can and should find a way out to develop the road network without felling full grown trees indiscriminately. Meanwhile, apart from the felling of trees, one beautiful thing was passing through the sea of yellow mustard fields. It was a sight to behold and finally we bit the bullet and stopped beside the road to have some pictures clicked.







Such was the frenzy of clicking pictures, we almost forgot that we haven't yet reached Hardoi even and it was already past noon.







Gathered up some steam and we reached Hardoi at around 2 in the afternoon. Decided to have the lunch in Hardoi itself and not stop elsewhere in order to reach Ramnagar by the evening. My better half quickly did a search on Google and found that a branch of Moti Mahal Delux is there in Hardoi. The name doesn't need any introduction and we were soon inside the restaurant after taking a small detour. The food was great and the Butter Chicken was one of the better tasting ones in a long long time. The dessert was equally good too. Second day into the tour and I was wondering that it was turning out to be a food trip and not a trip for the jungle !!



















Lunch over, it was the time to show little urgency as we were already late in the afternoon. By the time we started from Hardoi, it was already 3.30 and we had still around 300 kms to cover through. Good thing was, road surface improved much and soon we were passing Shahjahanpur and Bareilly bypass helped as well. By the time we reached Rampur, it was already around 7 in the evening.















Skirting around Rampur town and we were around one hour from reaching Ramnagar. But soon we were stuck in a weird traffic jam. Scores of sugarcane carrying tractors were lined up near the sugar factories and since the road was narrow, traffic got held up for a while. The hotel guys were also calling up and it was around 8.30 that we finally reached our hotel Tiger Camp in Ramnagar.







The check-in was smooth and the staff were courteous. They instantly told us that the bonfire is going on along with live music and the buffet dinner will be on till 10.30. Now, who doesn't like good music and some warmth from the firewood in the cold?? A wonderful guy named Danish was performing and he had the guests grooving alright.







The property was huge and our cottages were nice. Just dumped our luggage's and joined the fun near the dining area. This being a sunday, the property was full and people from the NCR made up the most.







As from what I gathered, it was only a 250 kms drive from New Delhi or probably even less. Some nice songs after, took the dinner which was an elaborate menu. The first night at Corbett had us all excited for the things to come in the next day and it was with this anticipation that we slept. Next day morning got us all excited. Our primary motive to visit the Corbett was going to be fulfilled and we were to embark on an eight hour drive to Ramnagar. The original plan was to visit The Residency as well but then the plan got shelved due to the ongoing preparations for the Republic Day parade which was passing through right outside the hotel and was slowly crippling the traffic outside despite being a Sunday. It occurred to me that going ahead with the plan to visit The Residency can get us stuck in the notorious Lucknow traffic. So, the plan got shelved and we decided to get out of the city as soon as possible.The breakfast spread at the hotel was delectable as ever. The Chef turned out to be from Bengal and came down personally to talk to us when he got to know that we were from Calcutta and that whether everything was in order or we needed anything. It was kind of him to check on us amidst so many guests.Our route for the day was through Sandila, Hardoi, Bareily bypass, Rampur and lastly Ramnagar. We left the hotel at 9 in the morning but the after effects of the preparation rallies had started to show on the roads. It didn't help that there was a fair going on beside the Imambara and it was adding to the congestion. We took a small photo break near the giant Rumi Darwaza. It was an opportunity not be missed by any means since we were anyways passing beside it. The blue barricaded sheets in front of the Darwaza killed the royal looks but I suppose some renovation or restoration work is underway.Some pictures after, we were finally on the outskirts of the city of Lucknow and were passing through another landmark of Indian History- Kakori. Goosebump moment just by remembering the history of the place and its significance during the Indian Freedom Struggle and no, it's not about the Kakori Kebabs !!The national highway (NH30) is being widened and it was kind of sad to find so many full grown trees being cut and felled for the project. We surely can and should find a way out to develop the road network without felling full grown trees indiscriminately. Meanwhile, apart from the felling of trees, one beautiful thing was passing through the sea of yellow mustard fields. It was a sight to behold and finally we bit the bullet and stopped beside the road to have some pictures clicked.Such was the frenzy of clicking pictures, we almost forgot that we haven't yet reached Hardoi even and it was already past noon.Gathered up some steam and we reached Hardoi at around 2 in the afternoon. Decided to have the lunch in Hardoi itself and not stop elsewhere in order to reach Ramnagar by the evening. My better half quickly did a search on Google and found that a branch of Moti Mahal Delux is there in Hardoi. The name doesn't need any introduction and we were soon inside the restaurant after taking a small detour. The food was great and the Butter Chicken was one of the better tasting ones in a long long time. The dessert was equally good too. Second day into the tour and I was wondering that it was turning out to be a food trip and not a trip for the jungle !!Lunch over, it was the time to show little urgency as we were already late in the afternoon. By the time we started from Hardoi, it was already 3.30 and we had still around 300 kms to cover through. Good thing was, road surface improved much and soon we were passing Shahjahanpur and Bareilly bypass helped as well. By the time we reached Rampur, it was already around 7 in the evening.Skirting around Rampur town and we were around one hour from reaching Ramnagar. But soon we were stuck in a weird traffic jam. Scores of sugarcane carrying tractors were lined up near the sugar factories and since the road was narrow, traffic got held up for a while. The hotel guys were also calling up and it was around 8.30 that we finally reached our hotel Tiger Camp in Ramnagar.The check-in was smooth and the staff were courteous. They instantly told us that the bonfire is going on along with live music and the buffet dinner will be on till 10.30. Now, who doesn't like good music and some warmth from the firewood in the cold?? A wonderful guy named Danish was performing and he had the guests grooving alright.The property was huge and our cottages were nice. Just dumped our luggage's and joined the fun near the dining area. This being a sunday, the property was full and people from the NCR made up the most.As from what I gathered, it was only a 250 kms drive from New Delhi or probably even less. Some nice songs after, took the dinner which was an elaborate menu. The first night at Corbett had us all excited for the things to come in the next day and it was with this anticipation that we slept. Last edited by ABHI_1512 : 17th March 2023 at 09:33 .
Garbage is set on fire by protesters after a demonstration near Concorde square, in Paris last night (Lewis Joly / AP)

Thousands of people have been protesting in Paris this week, resulting in riot police using water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowds on Thursday (March 16).

Workers have been striking to protest French President Emmanuel Macrons decision to raise the pension age, with more than 70 per cent of the public against the move, according to polls.

Sanitation workers have extended their strike, with thousands of tonnes of rubbish piling up in the streets of Paris.

Opponents of the pension reforms have called Macrons decision a complete failure of government.

Riot police clash with protesters in Paris amid anger at Macron forcing through unpopular pension reforms

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AP)

(AP)

(AP)

(AP)

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AP)

(AP)

(AP)

Why are French people protesting?

People in France are protesting President Macrons use of an emergency presidential decree to push through a rise in the pension age from 62 to 64.

Mr Macron is forcing through a rise in the retirement age without a parliamentary vote.

The Senate passed the legislation on Thursday morning, and it was due to go to a National Assembly vote in the afternoon.

Instead, Mr Macron used an emergency presidential decree to allow the legislation without a vote.

Lutilisation du 49.3 pour la 11e fois et sur un texte aussi fondamental et massivement rejete par les Francais, trahit la fuite en avant dun executif qui nentend plus et necoute plus le peuple. La censure doit etre la reponse a cette democratie empechee.  Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) March 16, 2023

The prime minister of France, Elisabeth Borne, announced the move in parliament, saying: We cannot take a gamble on the future of our pensions system.

Marine Le Pen, the National Rally MP who came second to Mr Macron in the past two presidential elections, said: This is a complete failure of government.

She called for a no-confidence vote in the Macron administration and said it was a failure of democracy.

Story continues

Who is striking in France?

Refuse collectors have extended their strike, which has been ongoing for nine days, for another five days. More than 7,000 tonnes of rubbish is piling up on the streets of Paris as a result.

Under Macrons proposal to raise the general retirement age from 62 to 64, refuse collectors would have their retirement age increased from 57 to 59.

Earlier this month, travel to and from France was disrupted due to a general strike in protest of the pension reforms. Train and metro services were cancelled, and people travelling to France by train, ferry, or plane were warned of travel delays.

More strikes and protests are expected following Macrons actions on Thursday. As of 9am on Friday, the Paris ring road had been shut down, along with the port of Calais and numerous oil refineries.
TechSpot is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust

Forward-looking: This week, the founder of the world's leading chip manufacturer commented on geopolitical factors driving changes in the semiconductor industry. While he voiced support for recent US sanctions on Chinese chip imports, his comments mostly framed issues based on whether they benefitted TSMC.

At the CommonWealth Semiconductor Forum, TSMC founder Morris Chang joined a discussion about segmentation and specialization in the chip industry this week. He supports recent US sanctions in China but expressed doubts about the country's efforts to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

Chang estimates chip manufacturing in mainland China is about five or six years behind Taiwan and applauds the American sanctions because they will keep it that way. The sanctions, enacted over the last year, are designed to restrict China's development of supercomputers and other hardware for military purposes.

Last year, the US imposed import restrictions on various Chinese companies and other entities with links to the country's military. The goal is to limit Chinese logic chips to the 14-nanometer node, DRAM to 18nm, and 3D NAND flash to 128 layers. The most recent Chinese companies sanctioned from dealing directly with US sellers are Loongson and Inspur. The Netherlands also recently agreed to curb its vital lithography equipment exports to China.

The sanctions so far have caused China's chip imports in the first two months of 2023 to fall by 27 percent - more than in all of 2022. Meanwhile, Taiwan's exports rose by 18 percent in 2022.

Furthermore, the Chips Act, which the US signed into law last year, is supposed to facilitate the establishment of semiconductor fabs in the US to reduce the country's dependence on foreign computer hardware. However, Chang doubts the move's benefits and the speed at which its desired effects may occur.

Chip Wars author Chris Miller spoke with the 91-year-old founder and observed that the semiconductor industry is diversifying between more countries to reduce interdependence. He thinks the process will be slow, which Chang attributes to certain deep-rooted qualities in a handful of nations.

Chang believes countries like Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan are ahead in manufacturing because of those countries' work cultures. Conversely, he admits that the US has great designers (possibly referring to those at Apple) due to their proximity to the market's needs.

Additionally, Chang warns that the segmentation could increase costs and slow down overall chip development. The TSMC founder credits plummeting semiconductor costs over the last several decades with their ubiquity today, highlighting how US production costs could double prices compared to Taiwan. Chang also dislikes how Taiwan is being left out of "Friendshoring," a practice whereby countries orient their supply chains alongside political and economic allies.
Browsing on which next electric vehicle to buy needs many things to consider, and one of them is its pricing and reliability, and this is where Volkswagen's latest ID.2all comes into the picture, a highly-regarded one in the market. The best budget electric car is hard to come by now, and previously, this is what Tesla markets for its famed Model Y.

However, other electric vehicles do not break the bank but still deliver the ample need for a clean energy car that would take a person from point A to B.

Volkswagen ID.2all vs. Tesla Model Y: Best Budget EVs

(Photo : Volkswagen Newsroom)

To start things off, Volkswagen's ID.2all is still a concept car, so do not expect to see it in the market immediately, as it is still in development for its actual release. However, it already made waves in the EV market as it is one of the most affordable cars in the clean energy industry, but offers better space, range, and features on it.

Volkswagen only unveiled the concept car yesterday, and the company said that its production version would arrive in 2026, which is still more than two years in the making.

The best thing about this is that it promises to sell for only 25,000 Euros, equivalent to only $26,600. It is only half the price of a standard Tesla Model Y, but there are plans from Musk's company to bring another budget EV, with VW going ahead and revealing theirs.

Read Also: Upgraded Volkswagen ID.3 to Arrive; New All-Electric VW's Launch Date, Features, and More

Volkswagen did well with ID.2all's Latest Release

The ID.2all will jumpstart VW's plans to develop affordable vehicles and more releases in the future, and according to The Verge, there will be a more affordable ID.1 euro model that is in the sub-20,000 Euro price point.

(Photo : Volkswagen Newsroom)

VW's ID.2all claims that it will bring 450 km (280 miles) of range on a full charge, with a fast charging feature which the company predicts, with 10 to 80 percent in under 20 minutes.

This is also a front-wheel drive with a single motor, featuring a hatch body.

Volkswagen's Electric Vehicles

The famous German car manufacturer, Volkswagen, is best known for being among the earliest to adopt clean energy for their vehicles, joining the likes of Ford, GM, and the clean energy exclusive, Tesla. VW's main lineup centers on the ID releases from the company, under the "NEO" program, their current-gen EVs.

There are claims that Volkswagen's next car program would be under the "Trinity," which is reminiscent of the characters of the Wachowski's hit cult movie in the early 2000s, "The Matrix."

The early IDs, ID.3 and ID.4, both feature clean energy features and the ID.3 was meant as its entry-level variant for its transition to electric. It also held a close price to Tesla's Model Y, the American company's budget EV.

In recent times, Tesla shot up the Model Y's prices to as much as $53,000 for its entry-level, and there were price hikes in the past which led to people losing interest in the company's offers. This latest Volkswagen ID.2all presents an entry-level EV that is almost less than half of what Tesla has to offer, promising the best there is in its price range.

Related Article: Volkswagen Reveals Pricing for ID.2all EV, Costing Less Than $26,000

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Researchers in Japan have uncovered key information about a protein that plays a crucial role in the process of sperm production, which could unlock doors for male contraception.



Scientists from Osaka University have identified the role of a protein called testis-specific serine kinase substrate (TSKS) in the process of spermiation, or the release of mature sperm cells.

Molecular Mechanisms of Sperm Cells

It is common knowledge that sperm cells need to travel through the female reproductive tract to reach the egg for fertilization to occur.

But to make this possible, scientists note that sperm cells have a streamlined structure that can only be established by eliminating sperm cytoplasm.

Although this process has been seen before, its underlying molecular mechanisms are still poorly understood. This is what motivated the Osaka University research team to investigate a mouse model that targets TSKS, which is located in membrane-less structures called nuage.

They developed a mouse model in which the TSKS gene was altered through the use of genome editing techniques. They determined that male sterility was caused by the sperm cells of the mice with defective TSKS failing to acquire a streamlined form.

Read Also: Vortex Fluidic Device Can Manipulate Milk Protein; AlphaFold AI Can Predict Protein Structures

Findings of the Team

The sperm cells from TSKS knockout mice were examined by the researchers, who discovered that these cells were unable to create two particular types of nuage known as reticulated body (RB) and chromatid body remnant (CR).

The sperm cells were also unable to adequately remove their cytoplasm without this nuage.

"Our results showed that generation of RB and CR nuage is dependent on TSKS," co-lead author Soojin Park said in a press release statement.

"TSKS is required for sperm to eliminate cytoplasm and adapt a streamlined, tadpole shape. This applies to humans as well, as TSKS is also present in human sperm cells."

The identification of TSKS's function in the development of streamlined sperm cells gives more details about one mechanism underlying male infertility. The results of this study could ultimately lead to the creation of male contraceptives and diagnostic tests, according to the team.

According to co-lead author Keisuke Shimada, the study's findings mark a significant advancement in our knowledge of the molecular processes underpinning sperm formation.

The study offers fresh research directions and makes a significant addition to the field of reproductive biology.

The team hopes that further studies will build on these findings to provide more insights into the role of TSKS in sperm production, potentially leading to new treatments for male infertility.

The findings of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

Related Article: 3-D Protein Model Shows Why Cats and Cattles Are More Likely Infected with COVID-19 Than Chickens and Pigs!

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As Google announced it was cutting 12,000 jobs, almost 1,400 employees signed a petition at Alphabet calling the company for better treatment of workers during the layoff process. The petition was addressed to the CEO and contained several employee demands.

(Photo : TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)

Google staff stage a walkout at the company's UK headquarters in London on November 1, 2018 as part of a global campaign over the US tech giant's handling of sexual harassment.

Signing Petition

Employees at Alphabet's Google demanded Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai better treatment during the layoff process. Based on a report from Gizmodo, this comes after the company announced the workforce reduction, affecting 12,000 employees.

The letter indicates, "Nowhere have workers' voices adequately been considered, and we know that as workers we are stronger together than alone. Our company has long touted its commitment to doing right by its users and workers, and these commitments will show Alphabet adhering to the final line of its Code of Conduct: Don't Be Evil."

Employees requested the company to freeze new hires during the layoff process and prioritize the hiring process of laid-off employees. Google must also protect workers from countries experiencing humanitarian issues like Ukraine and Russia, not fire people on scheduled leaves, and prevent discrimination.

The petition letter was organized by a group of employees supported by several unions, including the Alphabet Workers Union, United Tech and Allied Workers, and UNI Global. After the job cuts were announced, employees started to discuss the petition through a Discord channel.

According to some of the employees who signed the petition, they are most concerned that the consultation processes have become a box-ticking exercise, which is mandatory as it is required by law in some countries. Despite this, the feedback from staff to management has yet to be considered.

The petition is planned to circulate for a few more days before the workers and labor groups present a physical copy to be directly sent to CEO Pichai at the company's headquarters in California.

Also Read: Apple, Microsoft, Other Tech Employees Ask Why Work-From-Office is Needed; Google Still Bringing Back Staff

Cutting 12,000 Jobs

Last January, Bloomberg reported that Google announced it would cut about 6% of its workforce as several investors pressured the company to reduce spending after splurging during the pandemic. This has affected more than 12,000 workers in the country since the start of the year.

Pichai stated via an internal email to the staff that the company hired several employees in a different economic reality than the one they are experiencing today. He also said that he took full responsibility for this.

Some workers lost their jobs immediately, but the process has been much slower for some countries with stronger labor protections, which are common mostly in Europe. Reuters reported that hundreds of employees walked out last Wednesday in the Zurich office in Switzerland after announcing that 200 employees were laid off.

Related Article: Google to Grant Workers With $1600 Cash Bonus But Won't Adjust Their Pay to Match Inflation

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Microsoft was spotted to be planning on releasing a new feature on its Edge browser that would help all cryptocurrency investors and owners to have instant access to a wallet for all their needs. This came from a leak that claimed that this is under the beta testing phase of the company, which may or may not release to the public soon.

This new cryptocurrency wallet on the Microsoft Edge browser would be a built-in feature on the platform and would provide instant access should it release for all.

Microsoft Edge Leak: Cryptocurrency Wallet Spotted

(Photo : Twitter via @thebookisclosed)

According to a prominent leaker known as "@thebookisclosed" via Twitter, there is an upcoming feature on the Microsoft Edge browser that will deliver cryptocurrency wallet access to the public right on the web browser. This new leak points to an experience where it would be built-in on the platform and not as an extension that people need to add from a specific crypto wallet company.

It can hold different types of cryptocurrencies present in the world alongside different tabs like "Explore" to read top news in the crypto industry and "Assets," which will allow users to take a look at their holdings.

The Edge's crypto wallet is non-custodial, a.k.a. self-custodial, which gives a user the only one with access to it, including recovery codes. Losing this means users may no longer access it as Microsoft would not allow its recovery process, says Ars Technica.

The leaker is known for unraveling Microsoft builds and features hidden in the system, centering on Windows 11 and other features available in previous versions of the computer operating system.

Read Also: Microsoft Edge Offers Free Integrated VPN: Available for All Browser Traffic

Newest in the gauntlet of questionable upcoming Microsoft Edge features, a crypto wallet 

Not really sure how to feel about this kind of thing being baked into the default browser, what are your thoughts?

More screenshots of the UI in the next tweet  pic.twitter.com/GAUPiZGLIY  Albacore (@thebookisclosed) March 17, 2023

Edge's Crypto Wallet is Under Beta Testing

The new crypto wallet feature on Edge is under a beta testing experience for the user under its program, particularly for those with crypto holdings available. It allows them to explore more of the built-in features of the browser that would allow them to access their cryptocurrencies easily for their monitoring, spending, and other needs.

Microsoft's Chromium Browser

One of the top-rated web browsers in the world now is Microsoft Edge, and it is because of its notable performance and speed in the many processes of connecting to the internet. Another reason for its massive significance now is the top-rated security on the browser, which keeps the web connection experience safe and secure for its users.

Since it is a Chromium-based browser, its performance, architecture, and security greatly improved from its previous versions, which made it one of the best platforms in the present. One iconic feature available on Microsoft Edge is that it allows users to open as many as 100 tabs in one session without lagging or taking up a significant memory process via the 'Sleeping Tabs' feature.

Its switch to Chromium took the world by storm as it is one of the most highly regarded browsers at present, rivaling that of Google's Chromium, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari. Its advanced features are stacking up and coming to the public at different times, with the recent leak signifying that the company is testing features to bring a native-running crypto wallet for Microsoft Edge.

Related Article: Microsoft Edge Browser Gets New VSR Feature: Video Super Resolution

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The ongoing FTX hearing for its Chapter 11 Bankruptcy case recently found that the companies under Sam Bankman-Fried, including the non-existent crypto exchange platform, spent as much as $400,000 for DoorDash deliveries. This extravagant spending was revealed to be made in under several months only, despite the struggles of the company to keep it afloat.

Alameda Research's excessive spending was among the recent court orders that required the company to detail its spending habits and make it known on record, revealing all of its allocations before it shut down.

FTX, Alameda Research Spent $400,000 on DoorDash Deliveries

(Photo : Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

FTX recently made its spending habits known to the public following a court order, where it detailed its debtors in a press release, revealing many unknown facts in this case for all to discover. Other court documents which detailed their case show a whopping significant spending of $400,000 for its DoorDash deliveries in only under several months.

Reports assumed that this food was intended for the consumption of its employees, and according to Gizmodo, the West Realm Shire Services, Inc., the operating entity of FTX, made this specific payment in over two months (Docket 1010, Delaware County Court).

It is also a known fact now, as per its court documents (Docket 1001), that FTX still has unpaid debt to DoorDash for as much as $25,347.95.

Read Also: FTX Creditors List Revealed: Airbnb, Netflix, and MORE-Did it Really Reach 1 Million?

Sam Bankman-Fried's Excessive Spending as its CEO

This is still ongoing from FTX, as Sam Bankman-Fried's excessive spending as its CEO also saw a claim from The Margaritaville Beach Resort in Nassau, Bahamas. The resort has filed a claim alongside this, saying that the hedge fund company owes them $599,409.72 (Docket 1022).

The recent unsealing of records from its list of creditors only shows the lavish lifestyle of the company, particularly with its executives who spent a lot, going overboard in its spending.

FTX's Bankruptcy Case and Controversy

Towards the end of 2022, one of the world's top crypto exchange platforms, FTX, filed for bankruptcy, and this took the world by storm as it showed no signs of a collapse in its operations. This time was also when Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down as the CEO of the company and left it to a successor who stepped in when the company was burning down.

There were initial reports regarding the actions of its co-founder and former CEO about transferring digital assets to the Bahamas after the company's downfall, with FTX claiming this in public.

Since then, regulators and Justice officials have made a case to catch Bankman-Fried, who was extradited from his home in the Bahamas and brought to the country to face the legal charges, which he claimed "not guilty" for fraud.

FTX's Creditors List was made public before, and it included DoorDash receiving hundreds of dollars from the company, availing of its services to provide food deliveries to them.

It was only until recent times that it was revealed how much Alameda Research and FTX spent for its creditors and more, allocating this massive amount of money despite the company struggling to push through with its operations.

Related Article: FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Can Only Use Flip Phone with no Internet After Insider Trading Allegations

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Donald Trump is back on his social media as he posted to Facebook and YouTube on Friday with a caption, "I'M BACK!". His return on both social media platforms comes more than two years after being banned over the US Capitol insurrection.

(Photo : CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)

This illustration photo show the Facebook page of former President Donald Trump on a smartphone screen in Los Angeles, March 17, 2023.

Coming Back to Facebook and YouTube

As YouTube and Facebook reinstate his account, former United States President Donald Trump returns to both platforms with a video stating, "I'm back!'. Reuters reported that the posted content shows a video from CNN announcing his election as President in 2016, ending with a Trump 2024 on the screen.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business," he stated on the video. Trump's return will allow him to access several key vehicles for political fundraising and reach a combined 146 million followers across the three major tech platforms as he runs again for the presidency in 2024.

Alphabet's YouTube reinstated his channel earlier on Friday, while Meta restored his Facebook and Instagram accounts earlier this year. Chief Tweet Elon Musk also reinstated his Twitter account last year after a poll, but Trump has yet to post on the platform.

As per YouTube's decision to restore his account, the company stated, "We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run-up to an election."

Meanwhile, Meta Vice President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg stated, "If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded." His campaign spokesman believes that being back on Facebook will be an important channel for his 2024 campaign to reach voters.

Also Read: Meta: Ex-President Donald Trump's Facebook, Instagram Accounts Now Reinstated-No Posts Yet

South China Morning Post reported that advocacy groups like Media Matters for America strongly opposed Trump's return to social media as these companies exploit the social networking reach of the Big Tech giants.

Advocacy group Accountable Tech's Executive Director Nicole Gill stated that Trump's online behavior became worse and more dangerous over the years. She stated, "YouTube put profits and politics over the safety of their users, the integrity of their platform, and the wellbeing of our democracy."

Banning the Former President

The 45th President of the United States heavily used social media platforms during his successful bid for the White House in 2016 and his four-year stay in office.

But all of this miserably collapsed when a mob of his supporters sought to halt the certification of his defeat to President Joe Biden in the United States Presidential election in 2020. His supporters rioted in the US Capitol in Washington, and Trump was sanctioned for posting content on several platforms that incited violence.

In response to this, Trump started his own platform called Truth Social, where he garnered 5 million followers. NPR reported that this is where he continuously claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him as he presented several conspiracy theories.

Related Article: Donald Trump's Facebook Return: Banning Him Again Would Be Complicated and Here's The Reason

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Numerous countries already banned TikTok on their government devices as they fear the app can leak sensitive information.

(Photo : Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

In this photo illustration, the social media application logo, TikTok is displayed on the screen of an iPhone on an American flag background on August 3, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia.

For the past years, TikTok has been criticized because of the security risks it poses. One of the major concerns of government officials is ByteDance's alleged ties with the Chinese government.

Recently, the U.S. government even urged ByteDance to sell its social media platform or risk a nationwide ban.

As of writing, TikTok is still owned by ByteDance; and many countries decided to ban the app on gov. devices to avoid risking their data.

5 Countries Where TikTok is Banned on Government Devices

Business Insider provided the countries where TikTok is banned on government devices. One of these is the United States.

(Photo : Photo by JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)

This photograph taken with a fish-eye lens in Paris on March 1, 2023 shows the social media application logo TikTok. - The European Parliament has told staff on March 1, 2023 to purge TikTok from devices used for work because of data protection concerns, after similar moves by the EU's main governing bodies last week.

Also Read: New Zealand Joins TikTok Ban-wagon on Government Devices Due to Security Concerns

Recently, the U.S. Congress received Biden Admin-supported bills that would allow Joe Biden to impose a wide ban on apps, such as TikTok.

Aside from the United States, here are other top five countries that are partially or completely banning TikTok.

The United Kingdom (Imposed a government device ban against TikTok)

India (Imposed a ban on Chinese-owned apps, such as TikTok, since January 2021)

Canada (Imposed a government device ban against TikTok)

Australia (Some individual government agencies banned TikTok from being installed on officials' gadgets)

Taiwan (The Taiwanese government introduced a TikTok ban on government devices and proposes wider restrictions against the social media app)

Why TikTok is the Only One Heavily Criticized

TikTok is not the only social media platform accused of collecting user data without consent. Facebook, Twitter, and other online websites are also believed to conduct data harvesting practices.

However, AP News reported that TikTok is heavily criticized because of its linkage to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Many privacy advocates warned that ByteDance could share TikTok's user data, such as biometric identifiers, location, and browsing history, with China's authoritarian government.

Other stories we recently wrote about TikTok:

The new TikTok STEM feed feature is expected to arrive in the United States as part of ByteDance's efforts to lessen fears of misleading content.

A new study revealed that TikTok's Mpox videos are inaccurate.

For more news updates about TikTok and other social media apps, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: China Calls for Countries Like US to Treat TikTok Fairly Following Bans

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The Biden administration has increased its pressure on TikTok due to national security concerns arising from its connections to China. Recently, the Justice Department and the FBI have also been investigating TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, according to Forbes.

Alleged Breach of User Privacy

According to The New York Times, the Justice Department's Criminal Division's Fraud Section is coordinating with the FBI and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to investigate the alleged breach of user privacy.



ByteDance found that some employees accessed data on American journalists' TikTok accounts in order to determine who was leaking information to reporters. The employees involved were fired after the incident, two of whom worked for the company's operations in China.



The information was released a week before the CEO of TikTok was scheduled to testify before Congress.

The administration has threatened to ban the app in the US if TikTok's Chinese owners do not sell the company.



However, TikTok has rejected the White House's proposal for divestiture, claiming that doing so will not resolve the issues raised by the government.



TikTok has made its own proposal in place of a divestment, which the business believes is more logical. But convincing the US government that a Chinese company doing business should be allowed to self-regulate might have some difficulties.



TikTok has started a $1.5 billion program called "Project Texas," which promises to keep US user data domestically and subject the company to an auditing procedure carried out by American tech giant Oracle, in response to worries about the app's ties with China.

Read Also: TikTok Ban: US Schools Act to Ban TikTok From Campus Devices Amidst Data Privacy Concerns

US Mistrust

The US mistrust surrounding TikTok is not new. Since 2020, the company has been embroiled in a political conflict with the US government. The Trump administration attempted to ban the app on the grounds that it posed a national security threat.

The move was met with opposition, and TikTok was able to secure a deal with Oracle and Walmart, which would allow the companies to control a stake in the app. The Biden administration has since resumed the investigation into the app's security, indicating that the controversy surrounding the app is far from over.

China has also recently called for other governments to treat its companies such as TikTok fairly following the moves of the US, Britain, and New Zealand in restricting the use of TikTok on government devices.

In response to the bans, Wang Wenbin, a representative for the foreign ministry, asked concerned nations to accept "objective facts" and support the principles of a "non-discriminatory environment" for all companies.

Related Article: US House of Representatives Bans TikTok on Official Government Devices, Following State Governments' Move

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A new study has discovered two previously unknown genes that are linked to schizophrenia, as well as a third gene that carries risk for both schizophrenia and autism, as per a press release.

The study was led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and was conducted across diverse populations.

Schizophrenia Risk in Diverse Populations

Schizophrenia is one of the most severe mental illnesses, affecting 1 in every 100 people, and can drastically alter the way people think, feel, and behave.

The research is groundbreaking as it is the first of its kind to examine schizophrenia risk in diverse populations, particularly those of African ancestry.

The scientists identified the SRRM2 and AKAP11 genes, which pose a risk for schizophrenia, by comparing the gene sequences of individuals with schizophrenia to those without the disease.

The meta-analysis included data from existing studies with a total of 35,828 cases and 107,877 controls.

The researchers found that rare damaging variants in genes that have been evolutionarily constrained, such as those identified in this study, pose similar magnitudes of schizophrenia risk across different populations.

Previously established genetic factors in predominantly white individuals have now been extended to non-whites for schizophrenia.

The study also identified a shared risk for schizophrenia and autism linked to the PCLO gene, which was previously implicated in schizophrenia.

Dr. Charney, a co-senior corresponding author of the study, suggests that this finding raises questions about how we perceive brain diseases in general.

He states, "It's been known that there are genetic components shared among illnesses. The idea of the same gene having different manifestations is very interesting to us, as it could be useful when it comes to treating people in the clinic."

The researchers warn that not all patients have rare damaging variants in the identified schizophrenia genes, and the disease is multifactorial with no single cause.

Read Also: Researchers Looking to Use Facebook and Other Soc Meds Data to Identify People With Mental Illness

Clinical Implications

The team is planning to examine the clinical implications of these genes and how they may be associated with specific schizophrenia symptoms or behaviors. They will also work to identify drugs that target the genes identified in the study.

The late Pamela Sklar, MD, Ph.D., a psychiatrist, geneticist, and neuroscientist, conceptualized the study design to select genes and investigate them in a large number of cases and controls.

Laura M. Huckins, Ph.D., a co-senior corresponding author of the study, was grateful to the global collaborators who helped them achieve their shared goal of improving patients' lives. She stated, "our ultimate shared goal in the field is to improve patients' lives, and we are grateful to our collaborators who partnered with us on this effort."

This new study builds upon previous research that identified ten risk genes for schizophrenia. However, the earlier research was conducted solely on individuals of white European ancestry, unlike the current study which includes individuals from different ancestral backgrounds.

The study was published in Nature.

Related Article: IBM Will Work With NIH For A New Project That'll Use AI to Identify People At Risk of Developing Schizophrenia

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OTTAWA  Gov. Gen. Mary Simon is using her role to help build ties between Indigenous people across the globe  an effort experts say is leveraging a colonial institution to advance reconciliation abroad and bolster centuries of collaboration.

"I've had some very interesting dialogue," Simon said in an interview last month after a trip to Finland.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent the Governor General to Helsinki in February to mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and Finland, and to show solidarity as the country seeks closer military ties with other western countries following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Simon, who is Inuk, also used the trip to bring along Indigenous leaders and foster ties with the Sami, who are the Indigenous people of northern Europe.

"As an Indigenous Governor General, I was able to connect well with the Indigenous representatives in Finland, with Sami people," she said.

"We discussed with them about how we could further facilitate exchanges between Indigenous communities in Canada and the Sami people."

Simon said that Finnish people are "more at the beginning stages of their Truth and Reconciliation Commission work," but added they are finding ways to involve young people that could serve as a model for other Indigenous groups.

Simon said she's similarly touched base on such issues with the governors general of Australia and New Zealand.

"These are countries that are also very involved and engaged in trying to come to terms with the past, and to talk about how this renewed relationship can work in their own country," she said.

Experts say the viceregal can help guide Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada on collaborating across borders.

"She's in a really unique position to help Canadian institutions understand how to evolve to better serve Indigenous Peoples," said Max FineDay, the head of the consulting firm Warshield, which advises Indigenous leadership on international partnerships.

Story continues

FineDay, who is Cree and splits his time between Ottawa and Sweetgrass First Nation in northwestern Saskatchewan, said this can build on centuries of exchanges.

"We traded with each other and built our own economies pre-colonization; we made treaties with other Indigenous groups," he said.

"This is a natural evolution in what Indigenous diplomacy has looked like now, on a bit more of a broader scale."

He suggested that Simon could use the colonial institution of Rideau Hall as a tool that helps communities upend the harm imposed by colonialism.

Already, communities within Canada share notes on revitalizing languages or finding a balance between development resources and environmental protection, he said.

But FineDay said nations within Canada could also share their experience and learn from communities in other countries about topics such as reasserting autonomy over child welfare or running health-care systems that are culturally informed.

"The Governor General also has a unique and important opportunity for Indigenous people to see how other nations are innovating solutions around combating colonialism," he said.

"The Governor General can point and say, 'This is innovation. This is an extraordinary model. These are outcomes that we hope to see in our country.' (She can) shine a light on opportunities where our politicians, our civil servants, maybe even our Indigenous leadership haven't seen or haven't thought to look."

FineDay noted that Indigenous people see their primary treaty relationship as being with the Crown instead of with elected politicians, putting Simon in a unique position as an Indigenous representative of the King.

"There is no sort of road map for Her Excellency," he said. "With that comes a lot of opportunity."

Nathan Tidridge, an author who is the longtime vice-president of the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada, said Indigenous Peoples have done their own diplomacy for centuries.

For example, a delegation led by four Haudenosaunee chiefs arrived in London in 1710 to negotiate directly with Queen Anne about military defence, as part of a 1669 treaty. First Nations met with British officials frequently until the years leading up to Confederation, Tidridge said.

"There is this long-standing tradition that is both very historic but also modern, that Mary Simon is part of," he said.

"Very few Canadians really understand it. I didn't, until I started looking at it myself in greater depth."

Canadian provinces have had at least five lieutenant-governors who were First Nations or Metis, before Simon became the first Indigenous Governor General in 2021.

Tidridge says the jobs are markedly different. The provincial representatives are selected by the prime minister and able to advance policies without bearing the federal responsibility for relations with Indigenous Peoples.

The first representative with Indigenous roots, Alberta's former Lt.-Gov. Ralph Steinhauer, was Cree. Tidridge noted that Steinhauer spoke out against a bill that sought to limit Indigenous land claims to create oilsands projects, and even pondered withholding Royal Assent on that legislation before relenting in 1977.

"They can push a little bit further, whereas the Governor General must follow the advice of the prime minister," Tidridge argued, saying Simon's job amounts more to "soft power."

FineDay and Tidridge both contend that New Zealand is further ahead than Canada in its de-colonizing process. Its governor general is Maori and there is greater Indigenous representation in the top echelons of power and in how institutions are organized.

Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy, released last year, calls for greater economic partnerships between Indigenous communities in Canada and those in Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan.

Tidridge also said he's keenly watching for what roles Indigenous Peoples will take in next month's coronation ceremony in London. He said he believes King Charles has signalled an openness to incorporating Indigenous Peoples and using his role to reverse the harms of colonization.

"The Crown as an institution is more than a millennium old, and it doesn't survive this long without adapting and changing to meet the needs of the society that it exists in."

That could mean giving Indigenous people a platform and shining a light on historical events, Tidridge suggested.

"There is a need for safer spaces for conversation. People are so scared right now to have these really critical conversations that we need to have, about a variety of things around un-colonizing, around the Canadian state," he said.

"A tremendous power that the Governor General, and the lieutenant-governors and the King have, is they can convene these spaces."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2023.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
SpaceX's Starlink satellites are allegedly used for illegal mining activities in the Amazon forest.

(Photo : Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket sits on launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center as it is prepared for tomorrow's lift-off on February 5, 2018 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket, which is the most powerful rocket in the world, is scheduled to make its maiden flight between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. tomorrow.

This detail was shared by Brazilian authorities after they discovered some Starlink terminals at illegal mining sites in Yanomami land.

If the allegations are true, SpaceX will have some problems with the Brazilian government since the country is highly against illegal mining and other similar activities that can affect nature.

Starlink Satellites Allegedly Used for Illegal Mining

According to Business Insider's latest report, Brazil's authorities seized seven Starlink internet units in Yanomami land, the largest Indigenous region in the country.

(Photo : Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP) (Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP via Getty Images)

Aerial view of an illegal gold mine in Sao Felix do Xingu, Para state, Brazil, on September 21, 2021. - Illegal mining never went away in Brazil, but now it is surging again in the mineral-rich Amazon, fueled by poverty, greed, impunity and record gold prices.

Also Read: Amazon Reveals Three Terminals to Receive Kuiper's Satellite Internet, But When Is It Coming?

Hugo Loss, Brazil's environment agency operators coordinator, said that the Starlink technology can be used to improve illegal mining activities.

"You can manage hundreds of mining sites without ever setting foot in one," he added.

AP News reported that illegal miners in Brazil relied on stationary antennae. However, they are not reliable because they can't be easily moved from one place to another.

Another problem with stationary antennae is their slow internet connection. But, Brazilian officials said that the Starlink internet terminals can solve these problems, allowing illegal miners to conduct their harmful practices.

How Illegal Miners Use Starlink Terminals

Illegal miners who have the Starlink terminals allegedly use them to anticipate law enforcement raids, plan logistics, as well as conduct payments.

Because of this, Brazilian officials said that their mission to expel illegal miners from the Yanomami island is now more complicated to conduct.

As of press time, SpaceX hasn't commented regarding the allegations against Starlink.

The independent space agency needs to decide sooner since Brazil's environment agency is now considering blocking Starlink's signal in illegal mining areas.

If you want to see more details about the alleged Starlink aid in illegal mining, you can click here.

In other news, SpaceX banned Ukraine from using its Starlink technology to fly armed drones. We also reported that a new mobile connectivity service is being tested by SpaceX's Starlink and T-Mobile.

For more news updates about Starlink and other satellite internet services, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Starlink Announces Global Roaming Features for Travelling Users, Bring Satellite Internet Anywhere

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The Apple Watch is much more than a mere fad. Perhaps one day, the lifesaving health and safety measures it has will really be put to use, just like what happened to Ken Counihan.

Counihan claims a potentially deadly disease was detected last autumn, as featured in 9to5Mac. He kept tabs on his respiration rate and blood oxygen levels thanks to his Apple Watch.

Symptoms Before Diagnosis

News5 in Cleveland, Ohio, reported that Counihan is an Apple Watch devotee who uses the gadget for a variety of purposes, including monitoring his activity levels and rest. But, in October 2022, he realized his breathing was abnormal.

Counihan uses his Apple Watch to monitor his sleep. The Health app can access his respiration rate data and may thus detect any patterns or fluctuations. The Health app's "Health Trends" section may alert you if a predetermined measure undergoes a change.

Counihan opted for outpatient treatment instead, where he had an X-ray and was prescribed medication for bronchitis before being sent home.

"I got an alert back in October that my breathing was elevated ... [It] basically said I went from 14 to 17 or 18. My wife had me make a phone call to my son and he suggested I go to the outpatient care, get it looked at, which is what I did. And they just did an X-ray. And they gave me some meds for bronchitis at the time," Counihan said.

Later that day, Counihan's Apple Watch notified him that his blood oxygen level was dropping. He eventually agreed to go to the hospital emergency department after being urged to do so by his family.

See Also: Study Says Apple Watch Can Predict Pain for People With Sickle Cell Disease

Clinical Assessment

After comparing his Apple Watch data with other vitals taken at the emergency room, physicians decided to do a CT scan. The underlying reason for Counihan's complaints was found with the help of this CT scan.

He said that the CT scan was repeated, and it was discovered that he had blood clots in both lungs.

Reports indicate that Counihan was diagnosed with a blood clot and is now "feeling much better" after being given blood thinners. Apparently, doctors warned him that he may not have woken up the following morning if he had not gone to the ER.

A Life-Saver Indeed

"I've got friends that have gone out and bought an Apple Watch as a result. I just had dinner with a friend the other night ... and he's looking to get an Apple Watch now as well. It saved my life. It's amazing," Counihan stated.

Cleveland Clinic emergency room physician Dr. Lucy Franjic agrees with Counihan that the Apple Watch is a life-saver.

"We do have patients that come in and they do notice these trends of 'my heart rate's higher than usual' or 'it's showing me that... I'm having an abnormal rhythm.' And so having those pieces of information can kind of just help the physician to try and diagnose what the underlying issue is and to help prevent any life-threatening emergencies from occurring."

See Also: Moving Menstrual Health Forward with iPhone and Apple Watch

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Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), who is currently facing legal proceedings related to the downfall of FTX, is working with his lawyer, Christian Everdell, to come up with a revised bail package to present to Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York.

The move comes in response to Kaplan's dissatisfaction with SBF's use of encrypted messaging apps and virtual private network (VPN) services while out on bail, reported first by Coin Telegraph and Bloomberg.

Close to a Resolution

SBF had avoided possible jail time with a $250 million bail bond, but he used Signal, an end-to-end encrypted messaging service, to contact former colleagues from FTX and Alameda Research while on bond.



In response, Kaplan prohibited SBF from using such apps and warned that he would revoke his bail privileges if he did not comply.



In a letter to the judge on March 18, Everdell said that SBF and federal prosecutors are "working diligently to agree on a set of specific bail conditions that will address the concerns expressed by the government and the court."



Everdell also mentioned that they are "close to a resolution and anticipate being able to present the court with a proposed order outlining these conditions by next week," according to Bloomberg's report.



SBF maintains his innocence in the allegations related to the misappropriation of FTX users' funds, but if he is found guilty under the eight counts against him, he could face up to 115 years in jail.

Read Also: FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Can Only Use Flip Phone with no Internet After Insider Trading Allegations

$40,000 for DoorDash Deliveries

The restructuring of FTX has revealed that Bankman-Fried and other top executives at Alameda Research received $3.2 billion in payments and loans from FTX-linked entities.



During the ongoing FTX hearing for its Chapter 11 Bankruptcy case, it was revealed that the companies under Sam Bankman-Fried spent as much as $400,000 for DoorDash deliveries in just a few months. This lavish spending was disclosed in court documents, despite the company's struggles to stay afloat.

Court rulings scrutinizing Alameda Research's excessive expenditure required the business to reveal its spending patterns and allocations before its closure.



In response to a court order, FTX recently revealed the names of its debtors in a news statement, including previously hidden details about the case. The documents also showed that the business spent a lot of money on DoorDash deliveries in a short period.



One of the major cryptocurrency exchange platforms in the world, FTX, declared bankruptcy last year, sending shockwaves through the sector.



Bankman-Fried resigned as the CEO, leaving the company in the hands of a successor who took over during a tumultuous time.



FTX publicly denied initial reports that Bankman-Fried moved digital assets to the Bahamas after the company's demise. Since then, Bankman-Fried, who was extradited from the Bahamas to face fraud accusations, which he denies, has been the target of regulators and law officials.

Related Article: CryptoWatch: CES 2023's Cryptocurrency Climate Actions, Square Enix's Blockchain Investment, and SBF Pleading Not Guilty

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
ByteDance might consider selling TikTok after the Biden Administration warned it, saying the app could face a nationwide ban.

(Photo : Photo by GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

The headquarters of ByteDance, the parent company of video sharing app TikTok, is seen in Beijing on September 16, 2020. - Silicon Valley tech giant Oracle is "very close" to sealing a deal to become the US partner to Chinese-owned video app TikTok to avert a ban in the United States, President Donald Trump said on September 15.

Recently, a TikTok spokesperson claimed that the U.S. government demanded ByteDance sell TikTok. If the company doesn't comply, then the social media app will be banned in the United States.

However, the Biden Admin didn't provide a specific deadline for its demand, as reported by NPR.

If the U.S. government is really serious with its plan, then ByteDance really needs to sell TikTok. But, will other companies purchase the popular video platform?

What If ByteDance Sells TikTok?

According to Business Insider's latest report, potential buyers of TikTok are not that many. Tech experts said that the list of companies that could buy the social media platform is small.

(Photo : Photo Illustration by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

In this photo illustration, the download page for the TikTok app is displayed on an Apple iPhone on August 7, 2020 in Washington, DC. On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bans any transactions between the parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, and U.S. citizens due to national security reasons.

Also Read: New Zealand Joins TikTok Ban-wagon on Government Devices Due to Security Concerns

Among these are Microsoft and Oracle. Other potential buyers were not named as of writing.

Aside from individual buyers, tech enthusiasts also believe that TikTok could be purchased by a private-equity firm or a consortium of firms.

Some analysts predicted that once TikTok is purchased, it could be kept as a standalone company, which will be taken public via an initial public offering.

However, purchasing TikTok is a complicated acquisition. This is because TikTok's U.S. assets are expensive; ranging between $40 billion to $100 billion.

Other Outcomes Aside from Selling

Various tech experts believe that selling TikTok is not the only option for ByteDance to avoid the possible nationwide ban by the U.S. government.

Another solution would be a spin-off of TikTok's U.S. business into its own entity, which could be powered by private-equity firms.

Patrick Moorhead, Moor Insights and Strategy's CEO, said a private-equity deal where multiple companies will buy TikTok is among the right things to do.

"I think this gets sold to a holding company and likely private equity and this company goes out and does an IPO," he added.

Other stories we recently wrote about TikTok:

The U.S. Justice Department decided to conduct a TikTok probe over a journalist spying case. We also reported that China wants the U.S. and other countries to treat TikTok fairly.

For more news updates about TikTok and other popular online apps, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: TikTok Overtakes Facebook as Canada's Least Trusted App | Top Reasons Why Its Trust Levels Decline

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A team of researchers at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, together with national and international colleagues, has conducted a new study on the oxygen loss in coral reefs worldwide under ocean warming.

This research presents an unprecedented investigation of hypoxia or low oxygen levels at 32 various sites and reveals that hypoxia is widespread on several reefs.

Although the overall reduction of oxygen content in the world's oceans and coastal waters, also known as ocean deoxygenation, has been well-documented, hypoxia on coral reefs has not been thoroughly explored yet.

Threat to Marine Ecosystems

According to the study, oxygen loss in the ocean is expected to pose a threat to marine ecosystems on a global scale.

However, there is still a need for further research to gain a better understanding of the biological impacts that tropical corals and coral reefs will face.

"This study is unique because our lab worked with several collaborators to compile this global oxygen dataset especially focused on coral reefs-no one has really done that on a global scale before with this number of datasets," marine scientist Ariel Pezner said in a press release statement.

"We were surprised to find that a lot of coral reefs are already experiencing what we would define as hypoxia today under current conditions."

The authors of the study utilized four different climate change scenarios to demonstrate how ocean warming and deoxygenation could considerably increase the duration, intensity, and severity of hypoxia on coral reefs by the year 2100.



To explore oxygen variability and hypoxia exposure, Pezner and colleagues used autonomous sensor data to study 32 diverse reef sites in waters off Japan, Hawaii, Panama, Palmyra, Taiwan, and other locations.

Read Also: Marine Biologists Report Growing Coral Nursery Amidst Road to Reef Restoration

SeapHOx Sensors

Data was collected every 30 minutes using SeapHOx sensors, instruments that were developed by the lab of Scripps Oceanography researcher Todd Martz, among other autonomous sensors.



These were deployed in different coral reef habitats to measure temperature, salinity, pH, and oxygen levels.

The SCOOBY lab and partners collected the majority of the data to characterize seawater chemistry and reef metabolism in different coral reef environments.



International partners were instrumental in facilitating research logistics and access to many study sites, while several contributors shared data from their own studies.



The researchers discovered that over 84 percent of the reefs in the study experienced "weak to moderate" hypoxia, while 13 percent experienced "severe" hypoxia at some point during the data collection period, using four different hypoxia thresholds: weak (5 mg/L), mild (4 mg/L), moderate (3 mg/L), and severe hypoxia (2 mg/L).

The team estimated that by 2100, the total number of hypoxic observations on these reefs would increase under all warming scenarios, ranging from a 13 to 42 percent increase under one scenario to a 97 to 287 percent increase under a more extreme scenario relative to current conditions.

The researchers emphasized the need for continued and additional oxygen measurements on coral reefs to establish baseline conditions, track potential hypoxic events, and better predict future impacts on reef ecology, health, and function.

The findings were published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Related Article: Researchers are 3D-Printing Concrete 'Innoreefs' to Help Save Natural Coral Reefs

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Qualcomm could beat Apple in the ongoing EV race in the automotive market.

(Photo : Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

Kenichiro Yoshida (L), Chairman, President and CEO, Sony Group Corporation and Cristiano Amon (R), CEO of Qualcomm, speak during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 4, 2023.

There's no denying that the chipset developer is already ahead of the iPhone maker when it comes to EVs. Recently, Qualcomm introduced various products that can be integrated into EVs.These include the Snapdragon Digital Chassis and Snapdragon Ride Flex SoC.

Meanwhile, Apple's rumored EV, which is allegedly under Project Titan, still remains a mystery.

Qualcomm Could Beat Apple in EV Race

According to The Wired's latest report, Qualcomm is already teaming up with other car companies. These include Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, Cadillac, Stellantis, and Sony Honda Mobility.

(Photo : Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf speaks during a press event at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center for the 2014 International CES on January 6, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs from January 7-10 and is expected to feature 3,200 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to about 150,000 attendees.

Also Read: Volkswagen ID.2all vs. Tesla Model Y: Is the VW EV the Best in the Budget Category?

Team-ups in the EV industry are no longer new since companies need to help each other in order for them to keep up with the growing electric car market.

On the other hand, Apple hasn't confirmed any major partnerships with other automakers or companies in the EV industry.

This one simple thing is what could allow Qualcomm to beat Apple in the ongoing EV race. If the iPhone maker still wants to enter the EV market, then it would definitely have a hard time doing it alone.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon Digital Chassis

Via its official website, Qualcomm explained that the new Snapdragon Digital Chassis; is a new system that can be used for driver assistance, interfaces, telematics, and autonomous driving.

"The Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions integrate technologies from a diverse ecosystem of companies," said Qualcomm.

The chipmaker added that the new Snapdragon Digital Chassis can allow automakers to deliver more immersive and personalized consumer experience that cna continually be refreshed via the cloud.

If you want to learn more about Qualcomm's Snapdragon Digital Chassis, you can click this link. You can also click here to see the details of the Snapdragon Ride Flex.

In other news, Foxconn's EV batteries are expected to be developed and manufactured in Wisconsin and Ohio. Meanwhile, the new Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta v11 was recently teased by Elon Musk.

For more news updates about Qualcomm and other tech companies entering the EV market, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Experts Doubt Tesla's Mystery Magnet-Can Elon Really Create a Next-Gen Drive Unit?

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The 2024 United States Presidential Elections looms on the horizon and tech CEO Elon Musk believes that the the former president Donald Trump has a high chance of winning a landslide victory if he is indicted by Manhanttan prosecutors.

"If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory," the billionaire Chief Twit said on Saturday, March 18.

Elon Musk Predicts

The richest person in the world wrote the tweet in reaction to a Fox News report that described how Trump might be "cuffed," "fingerprinted and processed," and "escorted into the courtroom."

Trump also claimed on his Truth Social platform that "ILLEGAL LEAKS" from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office imply that he might be arrested on Tuesday.

The Secret Service and law enforcement were talking about "security planning" and "logistics" for how an arrest may go down, according to the New York Post.

Elon Musk has unbanned hundreds of accounts since seizing control of Twitter, including the former president's account.



Donald Trump posted on Facebook and YouTube on Friday with the phrase "I'M BACK!" indicating that he has returned to social media after being blocked for the US Capitol uprising for more than two years.



As he bids for the presidency again in 2024, Trump's comeback will give him access to several crucial venues for political funding and give him access to 146 million followers across the three big tech platforms.



On Friday, Alphabet's YouTube restored his channel, and earlier this year, Meta restored his Facebook and Instagram accounts.



Trump is yet to post anything on Twitter, although Chief Tweet Elon Musk restored his account after a poll in late 2022.



"We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run-up to an election," YouTube said in a statement following the restoration of Trump's account.

Read Also: Elon Musk Reacts to a Post by Donald Trump-Bad Blood After Previously Supporting its Twitter Return?

Opposed by Advocacy Groups

However, Trump's return to social media was severely opposed by advocacy groups such as Media Matters for America claiming that these businesses abuse the social networking power of the Big Tech firms.



Nicole Gill, the executive director of the advocacy group Responsible Tech, claimed that Trump's online conduct has gotten worse and more harmful over time.



She said, "YouTube put profits and politics over the safety of their users, the integrity of their platform, and the wellbeing of our democracy."



In the 2020 US presidential election, a mob of his supporters attempted to prevent the certification of President Joseph Biden's victory. As a result, Trump was banned on several platforms for supposedly inciting violence online.



Hence, Trump launched his own platform Truth Social which attracted 5 million followers over time.

Related Article: Elon Musk Denies Report That His Decision to Purchase Twitter Has Anything To Do With Donald Trump

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Khmer ancient statues are on display at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 17, 2023. Cambodia on Friday celebrated the return of hundreds of looted Khmer antiquities and ancient jewels to the Southeast Asian nation from abroad. (Photo by Ly Lay/Xinhua)

PHNOM PENH, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Friday celebrated the return of hundreds of looted Khmer antiquities and ancient jewels to the Southeast Asian nation from abroad.

Speaking at the event held at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said the returned artifacts were stolen from various temples and illegally exported to other countries during the 1970s when the country suffered a civil war.

"I'd like to appeal to museums, institutions and antique collectors who have possessed Khmer antiquities to return those ancient objects to Cambodia voluntarily," Hun Sen said. "Your return of Khmer antiquities to Cambodia, the rightful owner, will be highly appreciated, and it also contributes to promoting the culture of a nation."

Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeurng Sackona said recently, 77 pieces of looted Khmer ancient jewelry, handed over by the family of the late antique collector Douglas Latchford, had been returned to Cambodia from Britain.

In addition, many important Khmer cultural treasures in the possession of museums and private collectors had been returned to Cambodia from the United States and Britain, she said.

"Amongst the returned Khmer cultural treasures, there are some important Hindu and Buddhist statues, as well as ancient jewelries from the pre-Angkor and Angkor periods," Sackona said.

According to her, the returned large stone statues included some from Koh Ker, an ancient capital which had been the target of large-scale theft for many years during Cambodia's civil war. 

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen worships a Khmer ancient statue at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 17, 2023. Cambodia on Friday celebrated the return of hundreds of looted Khmer antiquities and ancient jewels to the Southeast Asian nation from abroad. (Photo by Ly Lay/Xinhua)

Khmer ancient jewels are on display at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 17, 2023. Cambodia on Friday celebrated the return of hundreds of looted Khmer antiquities and ancient jewels to the Southeast Asian nation from abroad. (Photo by Ly Lay/Xinhua)
TORONTO  Ontario is set to double the number of economic immigrants it welcomes to the province under an agreement with the federal government to boost the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program.

The federal and provincial immigration ministers are announcing today that the province will have more than 18,000 spots under the program in 2025.

Ontario Labour and Immigration Minister Monte McNaughton called for the doubling in 2021 when the province was allowed to bring in 9,000 people under that program.

The new agreement will see Ontario go from 9,750 immigrants under the program in 2022 to welcoming 16,500 in 2023, more than 17,000 in 2024, and more than 18,000 in 2025.

The Ford government says people brought in through last year's allocation included 3,900 skilled trades workers, 2,200 software and IT workers, 1,000 truck drivers and more than 100 nurses and personal support workers.

McNaughton says the number of health-care workers in particular will change drastically.

"It's no secret that we're faced with historic labour shortages," he said in an interview.

"I'm going to prioritize, going forward, health-care workers and skilled trades workers as the two groups that we're really going to work to recruit to Ontario to fill labour shortages."

McNaughton said Ontario has already put measures in place to prepare for a hoped influx under this program, including removing Canadian work experience requirements, giving newcomers more access to training programs and working to approve applications on average within 90 days.

"It's about ensuring that we have all hands on deck to fill labour shortages, set people up for success and grow our economy."

Federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said this year's annual immigration levels plan was the "most ambitious" in Canada's history.

"The need to attract talent that will both meet the demands of the labour market in the short term and attract the talent to position Canada for success in the long term was a top priority," he said in a statement.

Story continues

"This increase will help ensure Ontario's growth in key sectors like home building and health care, while also distributing the benefits of immigration to every region of the country."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2023.

The Canadian Press
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The old grey matter is receding. Im just not as competent at learning as I used to be (Rory Lewis)

Behind some bins  big wheelie ones down an alley on Dublins Northside  a man and a woman, both oldish, are coupling frantically. Their al fresco pleasure is interrupted when they are spotted by the mans daughter, whos just come out of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

Its not what it looks like, Shiv, explains her flustered father, as he makes himself decent while the woman, short and of Asian heritage, with cropped silver hair, yanks up her tights.

It looks like an old Irish man f***in a woman behind some bins, she says.

This delicious scene is from The Dry, a daffy eight-part tragicomedy previously on Britbox, now coming to ITVX. The old man is played, with all his baffled hangdog charm, by Ciaran Hinds, who is 70. The woman behind the bins with him  and heres the complicated surprise  is played by none other than Hindss French-Vietnamese wife, Helene Patarot.

Youd guess such roles would have been offered to them both together, but no. I was already working on it in Dublin, says Hinds, and then Helene phoned and said, Somebodys just got in touch with me about something. It might be what youre doing but I dont know. Its to play a character called Mina. I said, Hold on a second. I know what that is now. Nobodys mentioned it to me!

Thus a couple who have been together since 1987 found themselves in the weird position of working with an intimacy coordinator. I dont know whether it made her job easier or worse, frankly, says Hinds. We were thinking We know what to do, and Helene is so much fun and just gets it, she could hardly do the scene for laughing anyway. Whether that was me attempting to be intimate in public, certainly we had to pull her together during the cavorting.

Its only the second time that the husband and wife have worked together. The first was when they met as members of a multinational cast for Peter Brooks nine-hour production of The Mahabharata, premiered in French in 1985 and then performed in English two years later. What would the great eminence have made of their most recent antics? Hed have said, Couldnt you have managed that a little more subtly? Peter was a very witty man.

Story continues

In The Dry (Element Pictures/Screen Ireland/ITV)

In The Dry, Hinds plays Tom Sheridan, a big old bear of a man whose long marriage has been slowly corroded by time and disappointment  and, specifically, by the death of a son. Hence the affair. The three remaining children all have their anxieties, none more than Shiv (Roisin Gallagher), a failed painter and an alcoholic, who returns from London for her grandmothers funeral determined to dry out. Her commitment to honesty ricochets outwards, not least on her father as he philanders with his acupuncturist.

Youre my dad, she tells him. Youre supposed to be my rock.

Im a human being! he says. Ive had a hard time too. It just makes things more bearable, thats all.

For Gods sake, says Shiv. Shes not the Dalai Lama.

Nancy Harriss script is as ribald as it is wise, but what finally lured Hinds was the knowledge that Paddy Breathnach was to direct. His CV covers the boardwalk from I Went Down (1997), a roustabout caper about Dublin lowlifes by Conor McPherson, to the grim social realism of Rosie (2018), written by Roddy Doyle. The Dry falls somewhere in between, especially that scene by the bins.

I didnt believe in it at first, says Hinds. Younger people, fit and randy, OK. But people of a certain age, they would get a room. I thought Paddy would get a handle on the tone of it. Nancy Harris is addressing a lot of issues. Addiction, and grief, and abandonment, and all that. But meanwhile, the mess we are as human beings makes a lot of it quite dry, funny, odd, quirky. Its double-jointed.

I was rather put off by the amount of sexuality that was going on in [Game of Thrones] because it was taking away from the actual political storytelling

You could say the same of Hinds. With those breeze-block cheekbones, an aura of heft, and eyes that can turn reptilian, he has always had it in him to play the conscienceless bruiser. His most recent turns in TV drama are as a corrupt head of MI6 in the Netflix thriller Treason, and a dastardly hotelier in the BBCs revisionist western The English. When our Zoom call freezes a couple of times  These intimate questions arent going down very well with the gods, Hinds suggests  theres a chance to study those charismatic features at leisure.

Yet theres always been a wry softness that comes through, above all when he works in his own accent. The main flavour that comes out in conversation with him is just right for The Dry, as it was for his portrayal of the grandfather in Kenneth Branaghs Belfast  the Oscar nomination for which gave him a ringside seat at last years Smith-Rock bout: To me it was just like, Ach, lads, come on, no need for that.

In recent years, opportunities to work in Ireland have bloomed. Obviously, there was Game of Thrones, which Hinds was in two minds about joining to play the King Beyond the Wall Mance Rayder from the third season to the fifth. I was rather put off by the amount of sexuality that was going on in it, because it was taking away from the actual political storytelling, he says. But thats business, I guess, from their perspective.

Does he have a theory about the growth of the Irish industry, reflected in so many nominations at this years Academy Awards? Its about support over a period of time. The back-up wasnt there in the 1980s, Ireland was still very poor, but since the late Nineties something started happening, and bit by bit they started getting organised. Then a generation of younger artists realised they want to offer something back to the culture they come from.

As Mance Rayder in Game of Thrones (HBO)

That includes Hinds. He left Belfast in the early 1970s, encouraged by one of his professors at Queens University  where he was supposed to be studying for a degree in law  to follow his gift and get some drama training. At the time, fetching up at Rada felt like a huge leap. We didnt know the way the world worked. We saw it a bit through black-and-white television. To get on a plane, to leave a small place, was kind of enormous. You look at it now and you think, dont be ridiculous. When Branagh sent him the script of Belfast, I knew within 10 pages there was something that went deep into my Northern Irish psyche, that I understood the people he was writing about.

What does he make of the current mental health of Northern Ireland, as the UK and the EU strive for mutual accommodation after Brexit? Without pausing he berates a party there that is so stranded in medieval times and we cant move forward  its such a negative, pointless view of how we should progress. I dont know what the way out is. I know that certainly it can be resolved. But not if people are held to ransom. Hes presumably referring to the DUP? I may or may not be! he chuckles. And what of the other side? The New IRA is suspected of the attempted murder of DCI John Caldwell in Omagh in February. That other extreme is abhorrent, and pointless, and savage. Theres nothing political about that. Its just another act of barbarism, basically, and doesnt serve our next generation.

He goes back to visit family, and London is where he works in theatre  though hes not sure when hell do it next. The old grey matter is receding, he says. Im just not as competent at learning as I used to be. But home is Paris. Their home, very close to a place called Pere Lachaise, he explains, which is a cemetery where I often go and commune with Oscar Wilde, who is buried there. You can only assume that having done his share of big Hollywood films (Munich, Road to Perdition), Hinds has endured enough showbiz interviews to feel impelled to map out these details.

Commuting for work, he reckons, helps to explain the durability of his relationship (he and Patarot actually married only five years ago). Weve always behaved like travelling people. Weve had this constant of turnover, and movement, and meeting, and nobody saying you cant. So we operate it that way.

Hinds with wife Helene Patarot at the 2022 Oscars (Getty)

Much to Hindss surprise, their only child, Aoife, born in 1991, has followed them into the trade. It was a well-kept secret from me; perhaps not from her mother. She went to LSE, and she dabbled, but she never really expressed a desire. She went travelling, and came back saying she wanted to be an actor. I was like, Whoa, youre a bit late. But youre never too late. For her biggest role, as Connells college girlfriend in Normal People, she and Paul Mescal worked with the very same intimacy coordinator who went on to perform the role for her parents. Hinds went so far as to consult her about what to expect, which isnt the sort of thing most fathers and daughters talk about.

I was asking her because it seems to me strange. I didnt come from that generation. Anything we had to create together, in scenes of a sexual nature, we just talked about it. Its about how we tell the story together, so I didnt understand why intimacy coordinators were suddenly everywhere. As actors, you let your own spirits inform what youre doing. Aoife said, No, it was fantastic because your own emotional context was put on hold, and it became not quite balletic, but not your libido.

Shes not, he insists, any sort of nepo baby. Ive never once behaved in a nepotistic way, he says. Its not in me. Hence his surprise that his wife was in The Dry. The same happened with Aoife when she was cast as his daughter in a film, as yet unreleased, called Cottontail. Its a very sweet story about a Japanese man coming to scatter the ashes of his wife in the Lake District, and he gets lost and comes across this Irish-Vietnamese-French father-daughter. If wed acted the way we normally do, they wouldnt have believed it. You have to get rid of who you are and then be something else.

Hinds has now spent half a century being something else. Have the results of his decision to get on a plane all those years ago exceeded his expectations? Im by nature a day-to-day person, he says. I do feel very blessed, way beyond what I imagined. But then I dont know what I imagined at the time.

The Dry is on ITVX now
Pakistani Muslims buy dates for iftar, the meal to break their fast, on the first day of Ramadan, in Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2018. During Ramadan, the holiest month in Islamic calendar, Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from dawn to dusk.
Nutrias are an invasive species in South Louisiana, and now theyve invaded the national press. In the past few days, stories about Neuty, Louisianas most beloved swamp rat, appeared in The Washington Post, on National Public Radio, and, via The Associated Press, to U.S. NEWS and World Report, the ABC News website, and in newspapers as far away as The Great Falls Tribune in Montana and Hartford Courant in Connecticut.
A Cornell woman was charged Wednesday with arson for lighting her bedding on fire in a Lake Hallie group home.

Darcy L. Johnson, 52, was charged in Chippewa County Court with arson of property other than a building and attempted arson of a building. Damages were estimated at $1,950.

According to the criminal complaint, Lake Hallie police and Chippewa Fire District firefighters were called to New Hope Group Home on March 8 after its smoke detectors were activated.

A staff member told authorities that Johnson, a resident of the group home, had lit her bed on fire. Group home staff were able to extinguish the fire.

Johnson admitted in an interview with police that she used a cigarette lighter to start the fire intentionally and that she had made no effort to extinguish it. The criminal complaint states that when (the officer) commented on Johnson trying to burn her bedroom with herself inside, she requested an attorney and the right to remain silent.

Prior to police arriving, Johnson also told a staff worker there that she wanted to slit (the workers) throat, with a butcher knife or a pair of scissors.

Johnson was previously charged with causing a minor to view or listen to sexual activity in 2007, according to court records. Johsnon was ordered to a mental commitment as a result of that case.

Johsnon is being held at the Chippewa County Jail on a $10,000 cash bond after a March 9 hearing. She is scheduled to return to court at 1:30 p.m. April 11.

If Johnson is released, she is forbidden from having any contact with the victim or the group home.
Farrah Agustin-Bunch, a doctor turned naturopath and social media influencer. Credit: @drfarrahmd/Instagram It is alleged she then recommended the woman blend a fresh potato with a clear liquid product, fashion it into a patch and place the patch on lumps in her breast and armpit. The patient later died, according to Smiths defence, lodged with the Supreme Court. Court documents allege the patients death certificate named the cause as secondary malignant neoplasm of the large colon and rectum, among other contributing factors including breast malignancy. The GP also alleges Agustin-Bunch humiliated him at work by organising somebody to come to his clinic and serve him the court papers in front of patients, in an exchange that was filmed and uploaded to social media.

The UK-born doctor also claims Agustin-Bunch hired a private investigator who took photographs of his partner outside their home. In another document submitted to the court, Smith claims an ovarian cancer patient followed Agustin-Bunchs medical advice and used her natural remedies, such as vitamin C and cabbage, to treat her pain while refusing chemotherapy. When the woman told Agustin-Bunch she was feeling pressure to have chemotherapy, documents submitted to the court detail that the naturopath allegedly told her: Dont believe them. They told that to one of my patients, but she is still alive after three years. Documents submitted to the court said the woman, who lived in Dubai, later died. In documents lodged with the Supreme Court, Agustin-Bunch  who described herself on Instagram as a specialist in natural therapies for cancer, diabetes and other illnesses with over 150,000 patients treated  disputes she made wild and outlandish therapeutic product claims.

Agustin-Bunch, who is represented by Australian law firm Armstrong Legal, has lodged 90 defamatory claims from 10 videos uploaded by Smith. She alleges her reputation is tarnished, the implications on her family severe, and she has suffered loss and damages. Her lawyer, Joseph Palamara, said in a statement his client denies Smiths allegations, describing many of them as distorted, exaggerated and taken out of context. The lawyer said Smiths videos created an internet pile-on in which thousands of people uploaded vile and hateful comments about Agustin-Bunch on websites, and these included that she is a murderer, an evil whore, serial killer and a witch. Dr Smiths social media publications constitute a very personal and relentless online attack against Dr Agustin-Bunch, Palamara said. He has essentially alleged, among other serious matters, that Dr Agustin-Bunch is a psychopath and a sociopath. The pair have never met. Smith said it all began in 2020, when he started posting videos online providing general health tips aimed at people in the Philippines, as a way to practise the language of his Filipina partner.

He soon realised there was widespread and unregulated medical misinformation advertising natural therapies as cures to serious diseases in the South-East Asian country. Loading Smith then began making videos debunking what he saw as bogus cures. I never set out to defame anyone, I was just trying to do a good deed, he said. He came across Agustin-Bunchs natural medicine clinic that treated cancer patients, which has since been shut down. Shes committing obvious health fraud and quackery. It is outrageous. People write to her with their questions like, whats the treatment for stage 4 cancer? Shell just respond with her products, like Pixie Dust, or tell them to use vitamin C and garlic.

In a series of videos, Smith took aim at Philippines-born Agustin-Bunch and her online products, which included magnesium branded as Pixie Dust, which she suggested could be used to help treat diabetes, hypertension, gastritis and cancer, along with Boston C, a scientific blend of herbs and extracts that she recommends as a natural treatment for serious illnesses. Australias strict defamation laws have led to it being labelled the defamation capital of the world  something that has weighed heavily on Smiths mind. Despite having medico-legal insurance, Smith has funded his entire defence privately as his indemnity insurer is unable to cover him for a defamation lawsuit. Fundraising campaigns have started in Australia and the Philippines to try to help him pay mounting legal costs. But the doctor refused to back down and said he hoped the case would shed light on medical misinformation spreading in the Philippines, where he claims families have been destroyed by Agustin-Bunchs alleged misconduct.
A slow rollout of fast charging stations could hold Victorians back from shifting to electric vehicles, with some early adopters finding infrastructure has not kept pace with the growing fleet of battery-powered cars.

Electric vehicles sales doubled in Australia last year to represent almost 4 per cent of all new cars, according to the Electric Vehicle Council, but the nation still lags markets like Germany (18 per cent of new cars) and the UK (17 per cent).

Mark Balkin has found the DC Fast Charging network patchy and unreliable. Credit: Scott McNaughton

As the number of EVs on the road grows, so too does demand for public DC fast chargers which allow drivers to quickly fill up their batteries on the road and for apartment dwellers who cannot plug in at home.

Queues up to 90 minutes backed up at some charging sites around the country over the summer holidays, as many motorists embarked on battery power road trips for the first time.
Artist Mig Dann was 81 when she was awarded a PhD from the School of Art at RMIT University.

Dann, who worked for David Bowie in Paris and New York in the 1970s, had been making sculptures for decades, but had never been to art school or thought of herself as an artist.

I was about 70 when my stepsons girlfriend said to me one day, Why dont you go to art school? Then you wont have to work in your backyard. I kind of pooh-poohed it. I guess secretly I was excited by the idea, but I didnt really let myself think that it was a possibility because I thought, you know, Im old. Although I wasnt as old as I am now.

Mig Dann became a Doctor of Philosophy when she was 81. Credit: Scott McNaughton

Dann is one of 20 women born before 1947 profiled in Time of Our Lives, a book that celebrates the late-life achievements of women and challenges the stereotype that older people are a burden on the community.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has offered enthusiastic bipartisan support on submarines, and the budget cuts that will be necessary to fund them  future budget cuts which should be a cause of some dread, but thats a subject for another day.

Such ardent togetherness, such a shared sense of mission, is so rare in our politics, and its a shame Dutton cant muster it when it comes to Liberal support for the Voice. But it was the most enthusiastic he had been in a while  talking about the submarines. A former defence minister and home affairs minister, Dutton was in his comfort zone. Military hardware, he could do.

A broader church? The Liberal Party is attempting to appeal to women, but Opposition Leader Peter Dutton cant leave it to his deputy, Sussan Ley. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Another day, and apropos a different war, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley was back where the votes are, for the Liberal Party  talking about women. In the context of the so-called superannuation wars, Ley gave a speech in late February to a Liberal business breakfast in Perth, where she talked up the Coalitions expansion of the superannuation early withdrawal policy it took to the 2022 election. She said early super withdrawals could be used to benefit a cohort of older women impoverished by divorce and family violence.

Lets look, for example, at a 58-year-old woman who has been the victim of domestic violence, who has sacrificed her career to build her family, who knows she is facing significant upheaval when she leaves a violent husband, Ley said. Imagine how many women would be economically empowered, how many would be able to secure their financial independence for life, if we took an expanded version of the last elections Super Home Buyer Scheme to the next election.
Australian military planners have been increasingly concerned about the increase of grey-zone warfare: acts including trade embargoes that fall somewhere between what is traditionally viewed as war and peace. Loading A shipping blockade could cut off almost all of Australias trade, while the destruction of underwater cables would block it from sending or receiving financial transactions. A lot of damage can be done to Australia without anyone ever having to set foot upon our shore, Marles says. So our national security lies much further from Australia. He warns that it would be difficult to patrol all of Australias vast coastline in a conflict and says that is not the reason why Australia is buying nuclear submarines.

The way you need to think about what submarines do is really less about patrolling that massive coastline, which you would need a lot of submarines to do, Marles says. Its about the question mark that you place in an adversarys mind. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles operates the periscope of submarine USS Asheville at HMAS Stirling in Western Australia. Credit: Did I have anxiety? Sure: How the AUKUS agreement was put together Two days after the May 21 election last year, Marles had a message for the nations military chiefs. In a meeting at Defences headquarters in Canberra, the incoming defence minister and deputy prime minister made it known that the timeframe for building nuclear submarines under the AUKUS agreement didnt make sense.

It was a point that the former Morrison government was loath to accept after announcing the pact with Britain and the US in September 2021, but one Marles saw as integral to turning the idea of nuclear submarines into a reality. The nation was facing a serious capability gap, whereby the current fleet of conventionally powered submarines would begin going out service in the late 2030s before the AUKUS submarines were due in the 2040s. The glaring capability gap was already on the minds of Defence officials negotiating the agreement, but Marles says it was important for him to raise it with them directly. Once we were elected, literally the first thing I was saying in the conversations I had with Defence was how do we bring this forward, Marles says. How do we deal with the capability gap? That is the central question which we really need to have answered as part of the optimal pathway that we end up delivering.

That question was answered on Tuesday, when it was announced that Australia would buy between three and five Virginia-class nuclear submarines from the US from the start of the next decade. At the same time, Australia will build a new class of boat in tandem with Britain  the AUKUS-class  which will be delivered from the early 2040s. But the decision announced last week was never a certainty. After the Albanese government came to power last May, it became clear that their predecessors were leaning towards buying Virginia-class boats off the production line in the US, before building the same class of boat in Adelaide. This came with three sets of problems. The first was that Americas shipbuilding was already at capacity. The second was that the US planned to stop building Virginias from the early 2040s  the very moment they would begin rolling off the Australian production line.

The third was that this would create a loser, Britain, who would get nothing out of the deal. To overcome these three obstacles, two things needed to happen. Firstly, the US needed to be prepared to sell Australia some of its existing boats that had already been in service in return for Australia investing the bulk of $3 billion to increase its shipbuilding capacity. Secondly, Britain needed to agree to move on from its Astute class submarine, and operate a joint platform with Australia. Marles admits there were times early on when it felt like there was no answer to the question of the capability gap.

Did I have anxiety? Sure, he says. This was far from certain that it would be able to be delivered. Marles says the two necessary developments  the US agreeing to sell Virginias and Britain agreeing to operate a shared platform  started to become possible in the second half of last year. Defence Minister Richard Marles says the AUKUS agreement was never a certainty. Credit: Rhett Wyman I think people understand that we do live in pretty challenging times. Richard Marles There are conversations I can remember where it really felt like there was an answer out there that would actually meet our needs, he says.

But it wasnt like weve all agreed to do x. It was that maybe we could walk down this path and you think: Well that is a path that make a lot of sense. He says the work of his counterparts, military chiefs, the foreign ministers, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his counterparts, were all integral to the deal coming together. Marles says Australia never wanted to operate an orphan  that is, we wanted to operate a class of submarine with one of the other countries so that you have all the benefits of being able to share both the industrial and the operational risks associated with something of this size. We needed to be building something that others were building and thats just not where the Virignias were going to be at, he says. So all of that needed to be worked through. But equally when you see the logic of that, its why it was so important that where we got to with Britain was a place where we were building a common platform and that took a huge step that were grateful for.

Marles says he has repeatedly acknowledged that AUKUS began under the former government and the fact that it is bipartisan really matters. But he also says there has been a lost decade in which Australia cancelled agreements with Japan and France which presented a a whole lot of challenges for the country now in terms of dealing with questions such as the capability gap. But it does matter that AUKUS remains a bipartisan effort and I believe that it is. The future beyond 10 years Ever since the 2020 Defence Strategic Update warned Australia no longer has 10 years warning time of a conventional conflict, military experts have questioned why Australia is getting its new fleet of submarines after that period.

Marles says Australia faces an enduring critical period, and I definitely think the landscape that we are in right now is very complex. It is the most complex set of strategic circumstances that weve faced, he says. The future beyond the next 10 years, I think, is going to be challenging as well and we need to be providing for that future. And thats what this decision is doing. Marles says he believes Australians understand that they are living in challenging times, despite the interventions of Labor luminary Paul Keating who last week downplayed the threats posed by a rising China. Loading Keating last week said the Albanese government had signed up to the worst deal in all history, saying Marles was well-intentioned but completely captured by the idea of America.
Thirty-five-degree temperatures did not deter the two men vying to be NSW premier from appearances in key western Sydney seats on Saturday, as early voting for next weekends election opened across the state.

But, on Sydneys northern beaches, relations between the campaigns of the teal candidate for Pittwater, Jacqui Scruby, and Liberal Rory Amon have become frosty as the Scruby camp filed a formal complaint about Liberal-branded signs discouraging voters from preferencing on their ballots.

Teal independent Jacqui Scruby has filed a formal complaint about NSW Liberal signs in the Pittwater electorate.

Climate 200-backed candidates have been concerned about the impact optional preferential voting may have on their chances this Saturday. In a federal election, voters must number every box.

The complaint seen by The Sun-Herald alleged the black and white colours and font used on the signs, which were displayed at local polling booths, was clearly intended to look like an official announcement and not party campaign material.
The Liberal Party will try to hold on to Aston, the once-safe Liberal seat vacated by Alan Tudge, as Labor pushes for an upset victory. The Age will publish updates from reporters in the field covering issues affecting voters in the lead-up to the poll on Saturday, April 1.

Mary Doyle was just 25 when she discovered a lump in her right breast.

It felt like a little wooden bead under the skin, Labors candidate for the Aston federal byelection told The Age. I didnt panic, but I thought it was odd and I should get it sorted.

Labors Aston candidate Mary Doyle campaigning in Boronia ahead of next months byelection. Credit: Simon Schluter

It was 1995 and, after a tough upbringing, Doyles life was starting to fall into place. Back in Australia, after her first overseas trip, she had recently become engaged to the love of her life and had just released a CD with her band.

Within weeks, her life imploded when a biopsy and scans confirmed she had cancer. She still remembers the look on the nurses face just before she was diagnosed.
Its also likely that the full extent of war crimes committed by both Ukraine and Russia wont be credibly investigated and possibly prosecuted until after the war finally ends. It surprises me that arrest warrants would be issued for the abduction of Ukrainian children. In order to successfully prosecute this crime, investigators will need to show that not only did the alleged abductors take the children against their will, but that they also did not intend to return the children to their legal guardians. This can be more challenging to prove than other kinds of war crimes. Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to ever be arrested by his own nations police force. Credit: AP To put these upcoming indictments into perspective, it is also useful to remember that the International Criminal Court, an independent tribunal based in The Hague often known as the ICC, tends to focus on high-level cases that go after political leaders and is not tasked to provide answers to families of all victims. Proving war crimes

War crimes, under international law, happen when civilians, prisoners of war, hospitals or schools  essentially anyone and anything that isnt involved in military activities  are targeted during a conflict. The Ukrainian government and Donetsk Peoples Republic, a Ukrainian breakaway region occupied by Russians, have prosecuted and convicted both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers for war crimes since February 2022. Ukraine has so far convicted 25 Russian soldiers of war crimes in Ukraine. These prosecutions raise questions about how evidence is collected and handled to support these cases  and about credibility. Ukraine has a history of government corruption, and Donetsk is both not recognised internationally and is backed by Russia, which has a judicial system known to tolerate torture.

I investigate cases in which law enforcement, military and police are alleged to have committed crimes against civilians without accountability. In many cases, these alleged crimes happen during a civil war, like the Guatemalan civil war in the late 1970s and early 1980s, or the Rwandan conflict and genocide in the mid-1990s. This means that I often work with international organisations like the United Nations to travel to these places and document physical evidence of war crimes  take photographs, take notes, do measurements and draw sketches to illustrate a potential crime scene. The idea is that any other experts can pick up this evidence and reach their own conclusions about what happened there. Crime scene investigators like me generally do not determine whether a war crime was committed. That is a decision reserved for the prosecutor or a judge who is given the evidence. Beyond political interests Considering that this war is fought between Ukrainians and Russians  but involves other countries like the United States  any independent effort to investigate war crimes will raise questions of credibility.

In this context, one has to consider if an independent investigation and prosecution are even possible. The ICC is perhaps the best candidate, even though it is far from immune to political pressure, particularly from powerful countries. Loading The ICC has a specific mandate to go after people allegedly responsible for the gravest crimes of concern to the international community. This includes genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The forced transfer and deportation of a group of people is a war crime. But the ICC isnt tasked with investigating the fate of victims on all sides of the war. This will take a separate effort, decades of work and cost a large amount of money, requiring the support of rich countries. Since its inception in 2002, the ICC has indicted more than 40 people, all from Africa, and convicted 10 of them. While 123 countries are party to the ICC, meaning they have signed on to support its work, neither Russia nor Ukraine has ratified the treaty that allows the ICC to investigate crimes on their territories or by their forces.

Russias foreign ministry responded to the March 17 announcement by the ICC by saying that the arrest warrant does not have meaning for Russia, since it is not a party to the ICC. The US also never ratified the ICCs founding treaty, with the justification that it would not accept prosecution of US soldiers by a foreign court. Ukraine, though, has given the ICC narrow jurisdiction to investigate crimes there since 2014. In some cases, the ICC has not been able to successfully prosecute people even when it issues indictments. The court in 2009 and 2010, for example, issued indictments against Omar al-Bashir, former head of state in Sudan, for his role in carrying out genocide, and directing war crimes in Darfur. Yet, even though al-Bashir travelled internationally, no authority in any country he visited ever arrested him, despite the ICCs arrest warrant. Proving abductions took place

Russian forces have moved at least 6000 Ukrainian children to camps and facilities across Russia for forced adoptions and military training, according to a March 2023 report by the Conflict Observatory, a program supported by the US State Department. Showing sufficient evidence that Russia forcibly abducted the children and did not intend to return them to their legal guardians would likely involve the childrens family members giving witness statements. That is unless the ICCs prosecutor has obtained Russian military documents or communications that clearly indicate that these are involuntary abductions. Contrast this with trying to prosecute Russian military commanders and leaders for conducting multiple bombings of nonmilitary sites in Ukraine, such as hospitals or schools. It would be relatively simple to provide evidence that the attacks on these places constituted war crimes, as long as there is no evidence that these sites lost their protected status under international law, such as evidence that a bombed hospital or school had been used for military purposes. The victims War crimes involving massive numbers of casualties leave behind a multitude of surviving family members, all of whom have the right to know the fate of their loved ones.
OMAHA  Youve may have seen Jun Kanekos sculptures at the Joslyn Art Museum, the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium and the Buffett Cancer Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

This weekend, you can see one of them in a whole new environment, with a purpose beyond sheer beauty.

Composer and percussionist Andy Akiho will be playing one of Jun Kanekos ceramic pieces as a musical instrument in the world premiere of a symphonic work he wrote to honor the Omaha-based artist, whose work is also seen around Lincoln.

The Omaha Symphony commissioned the piece after Kaneko received the 2021 Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award from the International Sculpture Center in Hamilton, New Jersey.

When we heard he was getting this, we wanted to honor him and highlight him as a wonderful contributor to the culture of Omaha, said Ankush Kumar Bahl, the symphonys music director.

Akiho, known internationally himself as a Grammy Award-nominated composer, spent months in Omaha getting to know Kaneko, his wife, Ree, and his body of work, including the different mediums he employs.

While Akiho was here, he attended symphony concerts and learned about the orchestra, enjoyed the restaurant scene and the Old Market, and, as a jogger, ran hundreds of miles around Omaha, Bahl said.

In the process, Akiho and the Kanekos became very close.

The connection they have now is very special, Bahl said, like a familial relationship.

The result of all that time together is Sculptures, Akihos nine-movement, world-premiere piece that will be the finale of Omaha Symphony concerts on Friday and Saturday nights.

The performance will include Akiho playing a Kaneko sculpture live as well as on videos that will be shown as the orchestra and smaller ensembles play his composition.

Bahl said the piece is modern, rhythmic and tuneful. Akiho gets in grooves and you can start humming along, Bahl said, adding that the grooves are layered on top of each other.

It has breadth, with moments of epic proportion and expansive orchestration to moments with less instrumentation, and it effectively captures the essence of Kanekos art, which is immense, amazing and impressive as well as stunning in its smaller details, Bahl said.

To further honor Kaneko, the symphony will perform excerpts from The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven and Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, three operas for which the artist designed entire productions. Elements from each of those operas  set pieces, etc.  will be on display.

We had costumes shipped in from the East Coast and West Coast to demonstrate what Jun worked so hard to produce, Bahl said. Theyre all three-hour operas, so a lot goes into the design. Some of these he worked on for 10 years.

On Saturday night, an after-party will follow the concert. Both will take place at the Holland Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas St., and the concerts start at 7:30 each night. Akiho and two members of his contemporary rock band will entertain at the post-performance party, which requires an extra ticket but has food and an open bar. Tickets and more information are available at omahasymphony.org.

Bahl is excited about the entire weekend. The concert, he said, is something really special that will put a spotlight on the city.

This is the most exciting thing happening in classical music this week, in all the classical world, he said. And its something that can only happen in Omaha, so we are really proud to present it.

Close The blue head, untitled, by artist Jun Kaneko was installed this spring in the Sheldon Museum of Art's Sculpture Garden. Artwork by artist Jun Kaneko at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (Courtesy photo) J. Robert Duncan was named the 116th King of Ak-Sar-Ben on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. Duncan's outfit was designed by artist Jun Kaneko. This untitled ceramic art piece is near the Rose Garden located in the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, several sculptures featured by Jun Kaneko entitled Outside Kaneko. These heads, dangos, triangular dangos and slabs can be found throughout the gardens. (BRYNN ANDERSON / Lincoln Journal Star) Untitled (head) by artist Jun Kaneko faces south toward the Lied Center for Performing Arts in the Sheldon Memorial Sculpture Garden on June 5, 2013. Jun Kaneko's art is featured on new Union Bank & Trust debit cards. Jun Kaneko's art is featured on new Union Bank & Trust debit cards. Jun Kaneko's art is featured on new Union Bank & Trust debit cards. Artwork by artist Jun Kaneko at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (Courtesy photo) Artwork by artist Jun Kaneko at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (Courtesy photo) Ascent, the multicolored sculpture in Tower Square designed by artist Jun Kaneko, stands at 13th and P streets. Tower Square at 13th and P streets includes the multicolored sculpture, Ascent, and other features designed by artist Jun Kaneko. Jun Kaneko's work on display Click through images of other work created by Jun Kaneko. The blue head, untitled, by artist Jun Kaneko was installed this spring in the Sheldon Museum of Art's Sculpture Garden. Artwork by artist Jun Kaneko at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (Courtesy photo) J. Robert Duncan was named the 116th King of Ak-Sar-Ben on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. Duncan's outfit was designed by artist Jun Kaneko. This untitled ceramic art piece is near the Rose Garden located in the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, several sculptures featured by Jun Kaneko entitled Outside Kaneko. These heads, dangos, triangular dangos and slabs can be found throughout the gardens. (BRYNN ANDERSON / Lincoln Journal Star) Untitled (head) by artist Jun Kaneko faces south toward the Lied Center for Performing Arts in the Sheldon Memorial Sculpture Garden on June 5, 2013. Jun Kaneko's art is featured on new Union Bank & Trust debit cards. Jun Kaneko's art is featured on new Union Bank & Trust debit cards. Jun Kaneko's art is featured on new Union Bank & Trust debit cards. Artwork by artist Jun Kaneko at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (Courtesy photo) Artwork by artist Jun Kaneko at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (Courtesy photo) Ascent, the multicolored sculpture in Tower Square designed by artist Jun Kaneko, stands at 13th and P streets. Tower Square at 13th and P streets includes the multicolored sculpture, Ascent, and other features designed by artist Jun Kaneko.
Batavia, NY (14020)

Today

Mostly cloudy this morning with showers developing this afternoon. High 53F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Rain showers early changing to snow showers overnight. Low around 35F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precip 50%.
" " JavaScript is a computer programming language. Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

JavaScript is what is called a Client-side Scripting Language. That means that it is a computer programming language that runs inside an Internet browser (a browser is also known as a Web client because it connects to a Web server to download pages).

The way JavaScript works is interesting. Inside a normal Web page you place some JavaScript code (See How Web Pages Work for details on Web pages). When the browser loads the page, the browser has a built-in interpreter that reads the JavaScript code it finds in the page and runs it.

Advertisement

Web page designers use JavaScript in many different ways. One of the most common is to do field validation in a form. Many Web sites gather information from users in online forms, and JavaScript can help validate entries. For example, the programmer might validate that a person's age entered into a form falls between 1 and 120.

Another way that web page designers use JavaScript is to create calculators. Here are several examples:

To give you an example of an extremely simple JavaScript calculator, the HTML below shows you how to create a Fahrenheit to Celsius converter using JavaScript:

<html> <head> <script language="JavaScript"> <!-- hide this script from old browsers function temp(form) { var f = parseFloat(form.DegF.value, 10); var c = 0; c = (f - 32.0) * 5.0 / 9.0; form.DegC.value = c; } // done hiding from old browsers --> </script> </head> <body> <FORM> <h2>Fahrenheit to Celsius Converter</h2> Enter a temperature in degrees F: <INPUT NAME="DegF" VALUE="0" MAXLENGTH="15" SIZE=15> <p> Click this button to calculate the temperature in degrees C: <INPUT NAME="calc" VALUE="Calculate" TYPE=BUTTON onClick=temp(this.form)> <p> Temperature in degrees C is: <INPUT NAME="DegC" READONLY SIZE=15> </FORM> </body> </html>

If you have read How Web Pages Work and How CGI Scripts Work, then a good portion of this HTML will be familiar. This is the basic structure of any web page:

<html> <head> </head> <body> </body> </html>

There is one piece of JavaScript code in the header that is the function to calculate the conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius:

<head> <script> <!-- hide this script from old browsers function temp(form) { var f = parseFloat(form.DegF.value, 10); var c = 0; c = (f - 32.0) * 5.0 / 9.0; form.DegC.value = c; } <!-- done hiding from old browsers --> </script> </head>

The function is called temp. It contains JavaScript code to calculate a Celsius temperature.

In the body of the page there is a typical form:

<FORM> <h2>Fahrenheit to Celsius Converter</h2> Enter a temperature in degrees F: <INPUT NAME="DegF" VALUE="0" MAXLENGTH="15" SIZE=15> <p> Click this button to calculate the temperature in degrees C: <INPUT NAME="calc" VALUE="Calculate" TYPE=BUTTON onClick=temp(this.form)> <p> Temperature in degrees C is: <INPUT NAME="DegC" READONLY SIZE=15> </FORM>

This line is key:

<INPUT NAME="calc" VALUE="Calculate" TYPE=BUTTON onClick=temp(this.form)>

This is a normal button control. When the user clicks it, it calls the function in the head of the page because of the onClick notation.

As programming languages go, JavaScript is average difficulty. It is not especially hard to learn how to use it if you already understand programming, but if you are new to programming it is certainly not an easy language to start with. What you can do, however, is modify this sample code and expand it to create other calculators.

For more information, see:
2 More GOP States Exit National Voter Verification Coalition

Former Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R) works with others to move ballots from the 2020 general election during an audit at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Ariz., on May 1, 2021. (Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images)

Ohio and Iowa became the latest GOP-led states to indicate theyre withdrawing from the national voter verification coalition over concerns about its impartiality.

Frank LaRose, Ohios secretary of state rumored to be mulling a run for the U.S. Senate in 2024, announced the decision in a letter (pdf) to the director of the coalition, called the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC).

I cannot justify the use of Ohios tax dollars for an organization that seems intent on rejecting meaningful accountability, publicly maligning my motives, and waging a relentless campaign of misinformation about this effort, LaRose wrote.

LaRoses letter came soon after member states that are part of the coalition held a meeting on Friday and a proposal to reform some of the coalitions bylaws failed.

ERIC has chosen repeatedly to ignore demands to embrace reforms that would bolster confidence in its performance, encourage growth in its membership, and ensure not only its present stability but also its durability, LaRose wrote.

He argued that the coalition has transformed from a previously bipartisan organization to one that appears to favor only the interests of one political party.

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose speaks at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 6, 2022. (Julie Carr Smyth/AP Photo)

Following Fridays meeting, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate was cited by Politico as saying that the departure of several states from the coalition undermines its ability to serve as an effective tool for Iowa.

My office will be recommending resigning our membership from ERIC, Pate said, per Politico.

A request for comment sent to ERIC outside of normal working hours was not immediately returned.

More Details

ERIC was set up to let elections officials from different states cross-check data when seeking to confirm their voter rolls. It lets states know when voters move or die so that voter rolls can be kept up to date.

It also generates data on people who may be eligible to register to vote but have not, while requiring states to contact such would-be voters.

But the coalition has been under fire from Republicans in several states in the wake of 2021 allegations by Gateway Pundit that the coalition was a left-wing voter registration drive disguised as voter roll clean-up.

During Fridays meeting and vote, two initiatives failed. One of thempreviously proposed by LaRosewould have allowed member states to decide what to do with data produced by ERIC. The other would have tied the requirement to contact eligible unregistered voters to a report that helps states identify double voting.

Iowa and Ohio are the sixth and seventh GOP-led states to opt out of ERIC, with media speculation that others might soon join. Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, and West Virginia have all dropped out of the coalition.

Former President Donald Trump has been critical of the consortium.

Trump Weighs In

Following the recent decision of Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia to withdraw, Trump encouraged more Republican-led states to take similar action.

All Republican Governors should immediately pull out of ERIC, the terrible Voter Registration System that pumps the rolls for Democrats and does nothing to clean them up. It is a fools game for Republicans, Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia were among ERIC members that proposed changes in how the states would work together in the consortium, including eliminating a requirement for member states to notify and encourage eligible unregistered voters to register.

ERIC executive director Shane Hamlin in a March 2 open letter, citing recent misinformation spreading about ERIC, iterated the network is a bipartisan nonprofit, is financed by member states, is not connected to any states voting system, and follows standard safety protocols.

We analyze voter registration and motor vehicle department data, provided by our members through secure channels, along with official federal death data and change of address data, in order to provide our members with various reports, he wrote.

They use these reports to update their voter rolls, remove ineligible voters, investigate potential illegal voting, or provide voter registration information to individuals who may be eligible to vote.

John Haughey contributed to this report.
3 Police Dead in Mexico City Shootout With Cartel Gunmen

MEXICO CITYThree police officers and one suspect were killed and seven suspected drug cartel members were arrested Friday following a dramatic running gun battle on the eastern edge of Mexico City.

It was a glimpse into drug cartel violence that the nations capital rarely sees, but which has become frequent in northern and western parts of the country.

Police said two officers were killed in a town just east of the capital early Friday when they approached a house where a kidnap and murder gang were believed to be hiding, according to police in the State of Mexico, which borders the capital. They said the suspects also were being sought for murders.

Four kidnap victims were found in the house before the gunfire erupted. The initial gunfight occurred near the town of San Antonio La Isla, about 35 miles (50 kilometers) east of the capital.

The suspects then fled in a vehicle into Mexico City, and continued shooting at pursuing officers, killing one capital police officer. The suspects then crashed their car against a lamp post. Some were injured in the crash, and some fled on foot but were taken into custody.

Those arrested included one woman. Weapons found at the crime scene included a number of high-powered rifles.

City police chief Omar Garcia Harfuch said the suspects apparently worked for the hyper-violent Jalisco cartel. They say they belong to a group in Jalisco, Garcia Harfuch said. They were carrying insignias linked to the Jalisco cartel.

He said the suspects were trying to reach a safehouse the gang apparently operated in Mexico City.

Mexico City officials have long acknowledged that the countrys major drug cartels have some presence in the capital. But they have claimed the sheer size of the Mexico City police forcesome 90,000 officers by some countsand terrible traffic jams have prevented cartel gunmen from operating openly in the city as they do elsewhere.

Garcia Harfuch was himself targeted by the Jalisco cartel in a 2020 attack on a street in Mexico City.

In the 2020 attack, some two dozen gunmen ambushed Garcia Harfuchs armored vehicle before dawn on one of the capitals main boulevards. The brazen attack left him with three bullet wounds and his two bodyguards and a bystander dead.

Prominent Mexican journalist Ciro Gomez Leyva escaped shaken but unharmed from an attack last December, when two gunmen on a motorcycle tried to kill him in a late-night attack on a Mexico City street. He was saved because his SUV had bullet-proofing.

In raids and searches that led to the detentions of 11 suspects, police found a cap with the letters CJNG, the initials of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Abandoned Dog Outside San Diego Animal Center Meets Tragic End

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif.A dog abandoned outside the Helen Woodward Animal Center on March 13 night was found critically injured in the middle of the street by good Samaritans only hours later, with the dog dying of its injuries, it was revealed March 17.

On Tuesday, the Woodward Center offered a $5,000 reward to anyone who could identify a person who abandoned a dog outside the facilitys closed Companion Animal Hospital.

Security footage showed a man parking his car in the shopping plaza adjacent to the center and leading the dog down a path toward the center only to abandon it.

In that time, the individual seems to wait to make sure that all employee vehicles have left the property and that no one will catch him abandoning the precious dog, who trustingly follows the man as he beckons the canine through the parking lot, a statement from the center reads.

After the initial story broke, a woman on the Nextdoor app described seeing the dog in the middle of the street across from the center at 9:30 p.m. on Monday evening. According to her recollection, four cars stopped to help the dog who was bleeding from the mouth and head and looked to have been attacked by coyotes or struck by a car. The dog collapsed in the street and was taken to a local emergency clinic, where it was dead upon arrival.

Ashley Levyone of the individuals who stopped to help the dogspoke to the Woodward Center.

I will never forget that dog for the rest of my life, she said. The look in his eyes will stay with me. You can tell it was an old dog and had been somebodys pet.

Ive been crying for days, Levy said. The only thing that comforts me is that so many people stopped to help. After seeing the heartlessness of the individual on the security camera, its good to know that there is still kindness in the world.

The Helen Woodward Animal Center on Friday reiterated that the $5,000 reward for information regarding the person who abandoned the animal is still active.

This poor dog had the most terrible end to its life, said Monica Petruzzelli, Woodward Center public relations manager. You can tell this dog trusted the man who left it.

It comes to him as he calls and then looks so confused when he leaves, she said. You can tell the dog doesnt know why its been left and then to have such traumatic final moments is just heartbreaking. Why this person would leave the dog uncrated and exposed to the traffic, the cold, and the wildlife in the area is beyond all of us. Were truly devastated.

The dog was wearing a harness but is left unleashed and uncrated with only a bed and a few toys, it can then be seen in the Woodward Centers video wandering the property until it disappears.

It is illegal in San Diego for any individual to abandon an animal. In part, the law states, No person shall abandon any domestic animal without care on any public or private property. Any person who violates any provision of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Center leadership reminded the public that an animal is a lifetime responsibility, and there are options available at animal rescues for those experiencing hardship or even those who must relinquish a pet.

The community is asked to contact the Woodward Centers adoption department with tips at 858-756-4117, ext. 1, visit their website, or stop by at 6461 El Apajo Road in Rancho Santa Fe.
'I love being their mom!'

College sweethearts Tomas and Kirstin Czernek, who live in central Florida, began thinking about starting a family through adoption after 10 years of marriage.

Originally from the Czech Republic, Tomas, 34, owns a financial brokerage, while Kirstin, 36, from New Jersey, is a social media content creator. After both moved to Florida for school, they met in freshman year and soon their friendship blossomed into love.

Just a few months on, they were engaged and a year later, in 2009, they went into junior year married. After a long adoption journey and a biological birth, they are now proud parents to Mia, 7, Kai, 5, and Aria, 3. And the Czerneks could not be happier for their precious and happy family.

Kirstin with her husband, Tomas. (Courtesy of Kirstin Czernek)

Adopting Siblings

The couple were always passionate about adoption, even talking about it when they were dating, but it wasnt the easiest or most straightforward path.

We had always planned to have a couple of biological children first and then potentially adopt after, Kirstin told The Epoch Times. But the more we prayed about it, the more we felt like starting our family through adoption would be amazing.

Tomas had done an internship at a local foster center and was well aware of the need for safe, secure homes. So he and his wife planned to adopt from foster care and underwent adoption classes in preparation. They were open to a sibling group when they also got a call about Mia; they had willingly accepted Mia on the condition that they would also adopt the baby her biological mom was carrying.

We prayed about it and felt peace about moving forward, Kirstin said.

Mia with her brother, Kai. (Courtesy of Kirstin Czernek)

Meeting Mia for the first time was the most beautiful moment, Kirstin said. I walked in and saw a tiny girl with giant brown eyes and instantly fell in love. She was shy and so sweet. She attached pretty quickly to me and really trusted me. It was truly one of the best days of my life.

Mere weeks later, Thomas and Kirstin got a call to say that Mias baby brother had been born earlyand their family was almost complete.

Mias adoption was finalized right after she turned two, in a day filled with love, closest friends, and family, as the judge declared the Czerneks her forever family. Baby Kais adoption was finalized when he was nine months old on another highly emotional day.

Adoption days are so complex, Kirstin said, because they are filled with so much joy and hope but also loss and devastation and we work hard to acknowledge both. We celebrate each of their adoption days each year, and its very special to all of us.

Baby Mia, aged two, on her adoption day. (Courtesy of Kirstin Czernek)

Kai, nine months old, on his adoption day. (Courtesy of Kirstin Czernek)

Welcoming a Baby With Down Syndrome

Life as a mother to two children under the age of two was a whirlwind, but Kirstin relished all of it. When Kai was almost a year old, Tomas brought up the idea of another baby. While not completely sure, Kirstin was open to trying and discovered she was pregnant with her baby daughter Aria within a month. Learning of the babys diagnosis took Kirstin a little while to process.

I grieved the child I thought I was going to have, while I prepared my heart for this new one, she said.

Immersing herself in learning as much about Down syndrome as she could, Kirstin says that the more she learned, the more excited she felt to meet the new arrival. Tomas was amazing with her diagnosis right away, she said. He told me he read that families with a child with Down syndrome are happier and that truly was his outlook the whole timeturns out he was so right!

An ultrasound image of baby Aria in the womb. (Courtesy of Kirstin Czernek)

The moment Kirstin held Aria for the first time after giving birth, the mother looked into her babys almond-shaped beautiful eyes and knew she was always meant to be her child.

It was the most amazing feeling in the world, she said. I instantly fell in love and have only continued to fall more and more in love as time goes by. It truly is an indescribable love. There is magic in a Down syndrome diagnosis and every parent of a child with Down syndrome knows exactly what I am talking about. It is a special type of love you receive from them.

Kirstin with baby Aria. (Courtesy of Kirstin Czernek)

Tomas with Aria. (Courtesy of Kirstin Czernek)

Before the young family could really start to settle into normal life, though, there were several months of hospital visits to go through. Although she was born strong and healthy, Aria had been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect when Kirstin was pregnant.

At four months, the baby suffered active heart failure but, due to her heart overworking, didnt yet weigh enough to undergo open-heart surgery. Months of constant care and extra precautions followed, until at eight months old, Aria could be treated with the vital procedure to patch the holes in her heart.

Since then, she has been thriving! her mom said. She is doing so great now and we are so grateful for her health; its honestly the greatest blessing.

Baby Aria was born with Down syndrome. (Courtesy of Kirstin Czernek)

I Love Being Their Mom

Very close in ageeach roughly 18 months apartthe three Czernek children are inseparable.

Mia, who Kirstin describes as very competitive, very empathetic, with a heart of gold is the nurturing and protective big sister. Kai, their little engineer, is a gentle brother who is always willing to play with his sisters. And Aria, Kirstin says, really looks up to Mia and Kai and thinks they are just the most amazing kids in the world.

Its clear that Kirstin and Tomas dote on their kids and find great fun and laughter in their role as parents. They have not only overcome but embraced the challenges and the lessons that come with it.

Life can be overwhelming at times, especially trying to make sure I am meeting everyones needs the way they need it constantly, but its every bit worth it! says Kirstin, who also now knows how capable and amazing individuals with Down syndrome are.

Truly, the sky is the limit. Aria has taught me so much in her three little years of life, I will never be the same. My eyes have been opened to the beauty in loving people who are different from me.

Its so much fun. I love being their mom!

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/newsletter
Aussie Home and Business Buyers Should Be Advised of Climate Risk, Report States

A pub is inundated by water during flooding in the suburb of Maribyrnong in Melbourne, Australia, on Oct. 14, 2022. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

Australians seeking to buy a home or business should be given information about the climate risks relating to their new property.

Thats one of the ideas in a landmark 1000-page Productivity Commission report, which has given federal, state and local governments food for thought on policy changes to improve the economy.

The commission said Australia would have to prepare for some degree of further global warming on top of the 1.1 degrees Celcius average temperature rise since the industrial revolution, regardless of the speed of global emissions abatement.

This would increase the severity and frequency of bush and forest fires and raise the risk of flooding in some regions.

The report said the compulsory disclosure of climate risks may be warranted in some cases.

The pre-sale disclosure of the climate-related exposures of individual residential and commercial properties is a clear candidate, the report said.

Mandatory disclosure of the climate-related risks facing a propertysuch as the likelihood of coastal inundation, riverine flooding, subsidence, destructive winds, bushfire and other natural disasterswould help potential buyers of a property make more informed decisions.

It noted some owners might not voluntarily release such information due to the risk of subsequent reductions in the values of particularly climate-exposed properties.

Compulsory disclosure could also limit the degree to which government is called upon to become an insurer of last resort for particularly exposed properties, first by making these exposures clear to potential buyers, and second by helping private insurance companies to more accurately price climate risk.

A study published in 2022 by Climate Valuation found there were at least 17 Australian suburbs where more than half of its properties would be uninsurable by 2030.

The commission report said increasingly detailed climate risk projections were making it easier to help insurers price climate risks.

It recommended the government scrap subsidised insurance schemes.

Such schemes risk encouraging people to move into harms way and increase overall adaptation costs, it said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government would work its way through the 71 recommendations in the report, which as well as climate covered the areas of workforce change, digital technology, education and transport.

While we wont be taking up every idea  we are progressing, in some form, more than two-thirds of the 29 reform directives outlined in the report, Chalmers said.

Chalmers will discuss the report with state and territory treasurers in June 2023.
BC Premier Very Troubled by Alleged Chinese Interference in Vancouver Election, Requests CSIS Briefing

British Columbia Premier David Eby has asked for a briefing from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), saying he is very troubled by reports of Beijings alleged interference in Vancouvers 2022 municipal election.

Eby said on March 17 that Canadians deserve a thorough and independent investigation into the claims made in a Globe and Mail article that cited a secret CSIS report showing how Chinas then-consul-general, Tong Xiaoling, orchestrated some in the local Chinese community to help elect a mayor and a city councillor favoured by the Chinese Communist Party.

Eby said he is not in a position to comment on the credibility of the Globe article and the cited CSIS report. He noted that he has asked for a full briefing by CSIS but has not received it yet.

The Globe article said the CSIS document, dated Jan. 10, 2022, didnt give names of either the mayoral or the councillor candidate. The article generated criticism from Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, whose triumph over incumbent Mayor Kennedy Stewart by over 36,000 votes in the 2022 municipal race was mentioned.

Sim, Vancouvers first mayor of Chinese descent, said his ethnicity is a factor behind the allegations, which he described as a bunch of insinuations at a March 16 press conference. The Epoch Times reached out to Sim for comment but didnt hear back by publication time.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also came to Sims defence when asked about the report on Chinese interference in the Vancouver election.

I think we have to be very, very careful when little bits and pieces of uncorroborated, unverified information get put out and people instantly react with perspectives and reactions that can undermine the ability of the duly elected mayor of Vancouver to do his job, and undermine people in Vancouvers faith in the integrity of their elections, of their processes, and of the person who is serving them at the highest level, he said at a press conference on March 17.

Fighting Foreign Interference

Eby said the federal government holds most of the tools to fight foreign interference, but that he needs to know if theres any way that B.C. could close the gaps.

He said that, for example, Elections BC had already brought forward recommendations to combat misinformation.

Were always looking for ways to make sure our elections are free and fair, Eby said at a press conference in Prince Rupert.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said that a series of recent media reports based on leaked CSIS documents indicates that Canadas intelligence community has lost trust in the Liberal governments ability to handle foreign interference

Theres an open revolt against the prime minister, Poilievre said at a press conference on March 17. I think our intelligence community is very worried about what the prime minister is covering up and keeping secret. Hes putting his own partisan interest ahead of our national interest.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Biden Agrees With Putin Arrest Warrant but Admits Its Mostly Symbolic

U.S. President Joe Biden (L) meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Villa la Grange in Geneva on June 16, 2021. (Getty Images)

President Joe Biden said on March 17 that he thinks its justified that the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes, but he admitted that the move is mostly symbolic because neither Russia nor the United States recognizes the courts jurisdiction.

I think its justified, Biden told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. Its not recognized internationally [nor] by us.  But I think it makes a very strong point.

Biden later told reporters that he believes Putin had clearly committed war crimes.

ICC President Piotr Hofmanski said in a video statement on March 17 that an arrest warrant had been issued for Putin for the alleged war crimes of deportation of children from Ukrainian occupied territories into the Russian Federation.

International law bars occupying powers from transferring civilians from occupied areas to other territories.

Hofmanski said the warrant would remain under seal to protect the identities of the allegedly abducted children.

Nevertheless, the judges of the chamber dealing with this case decided to make the existence of the warrants public in the interest of justice and to prevent the commission of future crimes, he said.

The ICCs announcement was met with criticism by the Kremlin and enthusiastic praise by Ukrainian leaders.

Wheels of Justice are turning, Ukraines foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, wrote on Twitter. International criminals will be held accountable for stealing children and other international crimes.

Null and Void

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists in Moscow on March 17 that Russia doesnt recognize the ICCs jurisdiction and considers the warrant meaningless.

We consider the very formulation of the issue outrageous and unacceptable. Russia, as well as several other states, [does] not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and, accordingly, any decisions of this kind are null and void for Russia in terms of law, Peskov said.

Peskov declined to comment on whether the arrest warrant would affect Putins international travel.

In a similar vein, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that the ICCs decisions have no legal power in Russia and so the warrant is meaningless.

The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it, Zakharova said.

Who would have thought 15 years ago that in the West taking care of children, saving them, and helping them would become a criminal offence?

Besides seeking Putins arrest, the ICC also announced on March 17 that it had issued an arrest warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Childrens Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.

The ICC stated that both Putin and Lvova-Belova are allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory since Feb. 24, 2022, the date of Russias invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation.

Lvova-Belova was cited by Russias RIA Novosti news agency as saying that the removal of children from the war zone is a humanitarian act and the arrest warrant is something very strange.

Its great that the international community has appreciated this work to help the children of our country: that we dont leave them in war zones, that we take them out, that we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people, she said.

All this is very strange. It seems to me that this is clear confirmation that when you have no other way to intimidate a country, you come up with something absolutely fantastic  Like little children, when they can do nothing else, they just show their fist from somewhere far away.

Enforcement?

While the ICCs judges have issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them because the ICC has no police force of its own.

The execution depends on international cooperation, Hofmanski said.

Although its unclear which countries might lend a hand to take Putin into custody, Russia has made clear it has no intention of cooperating and sees the move as a provocation.

Yankees, hands off Putin! Vyacheslav Volodin, Russias Parliament speaker and close Putin ally, wrote on Telegram, calling the move evidence of Western hysteria.

We regard any attacks on the President of the Russian Federation as aggression against our country.

The war in Ukraine has displaced millions, with about 2.6 million Ukrainian refugees recorded in various European countries and about 2.9 million in Russia, according to the latest data from the United Nations.
California Republicans Build Support for Legislation to Address Fentanyl, Border Crises

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy blamed the Biden administrations border policies for the alarming rise in deaths from fentanyl overdoses in the United States at the recent California Republican Party (CAGOP) convention.

I want you to think for one moment what this fentanyl is doing, because it is killing Americans, he told Republicans gathered in Sacramento for the annual CAGOP convention.

Accidental drug overdose from synthetic opioids is now the leading cause of death for people aged 18 to 45, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fentanyl, a deadly opioid coming from China across the southern border into the United States, is known to make up the vast majority of these overdoses.

More than 71,000 people overdosed from synthetic opioids in 2021, according to the agency.

Thats equivalent to an airliner crashing every single day in this countrybut if an airline crashed two days in a row, we would all stand up and say enough of this, McCarthy said to hundreds of party members attending a March 11 luncheon in Sacramento at the weekend-long convention.

Costa Mesa police confiscate three large bags of fentanylcontaining smaller distributable bagsin Costa Mesa, Calif., on Jan. 24, 2023. (Courtesy of the Costa Mesa Police Department)

Fentanyl is killing young military-age Americans in the prime years of their lives and careers, and its weakening the nation, McCarthy said.

I want you to think of your own life between the ages of 18 and 45, he told the crowd of more than 500 people.

Nearly 108,000 people in the United States died from all types of drug overdoses in 2021, an increase of about 15 percent from 2020, according to the CDC.

McCarthy said he recently visited the U.S.Mexico border in Arizona.

In Tucson, every single person that comes across that border first pays the Sinaloa Cartel. How do I know that? Because nobody comes across that border without wearing a camouflaged outfit, he said. I also saw a video of one person trying to come across without paying the Sinaloa Cartel. You know what happened? They were caught, not by the border agents but by the cartel.

When you dont have operational control of your own border, you dont have a nation. My promise to you: We will get control back of our border.

McCarthy said fentanyl is one of the most deadly drugs to ever reach Americas streets.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy speaks in Sacramento, Calif., on March 11, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Later that day at the CAGOP convention, Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) said his district in San Bernardino County has seen a 600 percent increase in fentanyl deaths in the past 18 months. Like McCarthy, he blamed the rising number of fatal overdoses on the current administrations disastrous border policies.

Ive been in elected office 18 years now. I had my worst day in elected office last fall, when I had to leave work to console a constituent who had lost both her sons in the same day to the same overdose, he said. And as a father of two sons myself, I cant imagine what that felt like. So it really brought home to me that this is not a problem thats occurring in other places. This is a problem thats occurring right now in our communities.

Olbernolte is co-sponsoring a legislative bill called the Halt All Illegal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, or HR 171, which passed the health subcommittee earlier this month. The bill would change federal law to make fentanyl a Schedule I narcotic and give our law enforcement agencies more tools to deal with this epidemic, he said.

My county sheriff says that the vast majority of fentanyl seized is seized as it comes across the southern border into our community, so we absolutely need to fix the crisis at our southern border, he said.

Over the past year and a half, Obernolte said he has visited the border south of San Diego and McAllen, Texas, the most heavily illegal crossed section of the U.SMexican border, and talked to Customs and Border Patrol agents and immigrants.

Nobody wins in this situation weve got now, he said. And unfortunately, the Biden administration is continuing these disastrous policies knowing the damage its causing, so have to return to the proven border control policies that we know worked.

U.S Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol Station Indio in Indio, Calif., on Oct. 18, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Obernolte called for the return of the Remain in Mexico policy enacted under the Trump administration, saying its a totally fair policy that says if you want to apply for asylum here, you have to remain in Mexico while your application is processed.

He also called for the end of catch-and-release policies on illegal immigration, which he said are enabling the fentanyl crisis to continue.

Although fentanyl deaths have risen steeply in places such as San Franciscos Tenderloin district in recent years, new street drugs such as xylazine, known as tranqan animal tranquilizer often mixed with fentanylare surfacing in the bodies of overdose victims in the city.

Trace amounts of tranq were found in four out of 145 people who died of an overdose that were tested between Dec. 1, 2022, and Jan. 15. All four of the cases also involved fentanyl, according to the public health departments alert released on Feb. 16.

San Francisco County Supervisor Shamann Walton, a progressive Democrat, told San Franciscans in late February that the United States shouldnt deport illegal immigrant drug dealers for selling fentanyl, even though the deadly synthetic opioid was largely responsible for nearly 2,000 drug overdose deaths in the city since 2020.

Theres been a drug issue in this country for a very long time. But theres no way were going to stand by and allow people to say that one race or immigrants are responsible for these fentanyl deaths, Walton said at a rally on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Feb. 28.

Illegal immigrants, many from Honduras, are said by locals to control the illegal fentanyl trade in the Tenderloin.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent stands in Hawthorne, Calif., on March 1, 2020. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Walton defended the citys sanctuary policies that prohibit city authorities from assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in response to a proposal by Supervisor Matt Dorsey to add fentanyl crimes to a list of violent crimes the city uses for cooperating with ICE. Dorseys proposal aligns with a recent push for a crackdown on fentanyl dealers initiated by San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.

You cannot violate sanctuary policy for any reason. It goes against the morals of our fabric here in San Francisco, and it also allows people who dont share our values to persecute people that need us the most, Walton said at the rally. People are going crazy over fentanyl because were starting to see more white people die from this drug. Where the hell were these people when my mothers and my grandmothers were on crack?

The Texas Senate passed a bill that would allow state prosecutors to charge fentanyl distributors to be charged with murder.

Texas Senate Bill 645, introduced by state Sen. Joan Huffman, a Republican, would reclassify drug overdoses as poisonings.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott touted the bill on social media on March 15.

Here we go! he wrote on Twitter. You kill Texans with fentanyl. You get charged with murder.
California School District Emails Reveal Students Were Secretly Gender Transitioned

A parental rights group in Orange County, California, claims that 23 studentseight of them elementary school agebegan social gender transitioning at a local school district without informed parental consent from January 2020 to October 2022.

The group, California Alliance for Education, obtained hundreds of pages of emails and documents from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, which oversees pre-K through grade 12 schools for Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

A parental rights advocate involved with the alliance who goes by the pseudonym Kim Davis for fear of retaliation told The Epoch Times that in all 23 cases, parents were either not informed about the initiation of their childs gender support plan, known as a GSP, or were told and didnt consent.

All of these gender support plans were offered to students without any knowledge of the parents. The student is then asked if they want their parents included in the meeting, or to know about it. So, its the students decision, Davis said. Its possible some of the parents of the 23 children may have been informed later, but the emails show the process of social transition was initiated without their involvement.

NewportMesa Unified School District in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Sept. 21, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Social transitioning means changing a students name, pronouns, and their email address to reflect their new non-binary or transgender identity.

The emails, obtained by The Epoch Times, reveal the following incidents:

 The district created plans to place mental health counselors in elementary schools to initiate GSPs with students without parental consent, and an elementary school principal and a director of student services discussed adding these counselors to assist with GSPs. In the email, the principal instructs a counselor to build connection with an elementary student and ask about preferred pronouns without first obtaining parental consent.

 A local LGBT activist pushed for the social transition of an elementary student against a parents wishes.

 Elementary school students were socially transitioned without parental consent. In one case, a mom didnt want her child to transition, and the school moved forward with the social transition of the child anyway.

 A district student services director celebrated more than 500 mental health check-ins by counselors underway at district elementary schools.

 The district made room assignments for sleepover camps, such as sixth grade Science Camp, based on gender identity instead of biological sex.

 A high school students parents didnt attend a gender support meeting because the student didnt want the parents to know.

The public records also show that an activity called Gender and Sexuality Galaxies (pdf) produced by the progressive organization Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights was sent to district counselors and psychologists, and one of the middle school mental health providers has pushed back against the teaching materials.

The colorful diagrams, which show 10 gender identities and 12 sexual orientation choices, with infinite possibilities of gender expression, were distributed to the counselors and psychologists on Trans Visibility Day on March 31, 2021, Davis said.

The document tells instructors to ask students to imagine themselves as existing within the Gender Galaxy and the Sexuality Galaxy and imagine themselves as a space traveler as they write or draw their own story of planetary and space exploration.

A transgender childrens book in Irvine, Calif., on Aug. 30, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

School District Policies

Annette Franco, a public relations officer for the school district, said in an email to The Epoch Times that the district wasnt aware of the 23 cases documented by California Alliance for Education.

The district, she said, is required by antidiscrimination and privacy laws, including Assembly Bill (AB) 1266, to maintain confidentiality regarding students gender support plans and preferred pronouns unless the students give staff permission to inform their parents or guardians.

We have an obligation as public school employees to put our personal beliefs aside and abide by all applicable laws that govern public school districts, Franco said.

She cited district policy, which requires notification of parents and students annually about the possibility of transgender students participating in sex-segregated school programs and activities with students of the opposite gender.

The notice shall inform students and parents/guardians that the district will not typically notify them of individual instances of transgender students participating in a program or activity, the policy states.

The California Department of Education has provided guidance to teachers and counselors advising them to not inform parents or guardians when a student asks for a social transition unless the student wants to tell them.

But Davis contends that these mandates arent the law.

AB 1266, a 2014 law known as the School Success and Opportunity Act, states that students must be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, and use facilities consistent with their gender identity without regard to their biological sex.

Thats all the law says. It says nothing about socially transitioning kids without parental consent, she said. So, its not the law. The California Department of Education guidelines appear likely to be unlawful in that respect.

Davis cited provisions under the California Education codes and the Protection of Pupils Rights Amendment Act, a federal law that states that parents have a right to know and direct the upbringing of their children.

The guidelines suggest that unless a student wants to tell his or her parents, teachers must call a student by the childs preferred pronouns at school but use the students natural or birth pronouns when they communicate with the childs parents or face reprimand and possible criminal charges for harassment.

In a parent-teacher conference, for example, teachers are expected to refer to transgender students by their birth names, deceiving parents about childrens social transitions in the classroom, Davis said.

Some teachers and administrative staff fear being fired for violating state mandates, because they are presented in a way that creates a fear of legal recourse if a teacher informs parents without the childs consent or fails to use the students preferred pronouns, for example, Davis said.

My heart absolutely breaks for all the amazing teachers who are put in such uncomfortable situations with these guidelines, she said. When you really break it down, what these guidelines are instructing teachers to do is lie to the parents. The deception to parents is such a huge issue, and it puts these teachers in such a moral conundrum.

In this file photo, a sign is seen near Sonora Elementary School, in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Dec. 1, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Mental Health Check-Ins

Davis said mental health check-ins on students are another violation of parental rights.

The district has just spent an enormous amount of resources on this army of mental health counselors who are coming into the classrooms and initiating check-ins with students all without parental consent, she said.

Parents arent aware of what the counselors are speaking to their children about, but these counselors are the ones initiating the GSPs, Davis said.

This is actually pulling kids out of class to check in with them about their mental health, and so there is no survey that parents can opt out of, there is no transparency over when and how these check-ins are occurring, she said. Its alarming.

Haley Jenkins, a parent who pulled her children out of school in the district, told The Epoch Times parents have heard about GSPs and the gender and sexualities charts but felt the district wasnt being transparent about the issues, so they filed a public records act request.

Weve been hearing rumors from different teachers and students that social transitioning was taking place at the district, Jenkins said. As a parent, I believe all parents or guardians deserve to know when they send their child to school that theyre going to come back home as the same child. And that is not the case.

Jenkins said the emails exchanged between school staff are really concerning.

Theres a lot of parents that dont even know what a gender support plan is or how that works, she said. Basically, your rights as a parent are taken away.  Every parent deserves to know if something serious like that is happening at school.

Many parents dont know, for example, that when they send their children to an elementary school overnight science camp, students of the opposite sex could be rooming and showering together, she said.

As a parent, you deserve to know what is happening  and if your child is not safe, she said. I dont know that I feel comfortable sending my child to school when theres a child of the opposite sex in the same locker room as them or same bathroom as them.

The emails reveal that there is some pushback from teachers over the policies, but the mental health counselors are affirming new gender identities of students without telling parents.

Theyre keeping a secret from you, and theyre working with the child instead of working with you to help the child, she said. Parents are in charge of their children, full stopnot the school, not the child. The parents are in charge.

Jenkins pointed out that Newport Harbor High School has links on its website to resources for lawyers, doctors, and surgeons who are actively pushing gender-affirming care.

Until a few months ago, the high school had links to a meet-and-greet event with the surgeons at the University of CaliforniaIrvine, and places to get chest binders, which, she said, are known to cause physical damage to children.

Its just really scary, she said.

Parental Rights Legislation

Meanwhile, Republicans have recently introduced state and federal legislation to defund states that allow the secret transitioning of minors at schools.

On March 15, U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) introduced HR 1585, a House of Representatives bill that would block funds for states that allow such transitioning. The bill would require states under Title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to implement a policy prohibiting the controversial practice.

Two days earlier, California assemblymen Bill Essayli (R-Riverside) and James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) introduced parental rights legislation, Assembly Bill 1314, that would require teachers, counselors, and other school staff to notify parents in writing within three days if they find a student is identifying as a gender other than what is stated on their birth certificate.

The proposed legislation would mean an end to the current controversial policy in California of letting children decide whether to keep their gender transitions secret from their parents.
China expert and journalist Natalie Winters, co-host of War Room, joins us to discuss Chinas influence in the United States. She says more people are coming to see the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) malign use of the pandemic and TikTok for what it actually is.

Author Trevor Loudon joins us to discuss the CCPs efforts to peddle influence in countries around the world. He warns that the CCP is already influencing members of Congress in the U.S. Capitol.
Iron County Sheriff Jeffery L. Burkett, 46, along with Sheriff's Deputy Matthew A. Cozad, 39, Chase R. Bresnahan, 31, and Donald R. Gaston, 62, were reportedly taken into custody Thursday afternoon on multiple felony charges.

Iron County Sheriff Burkett has been charged with eight counts, including participating knowingly in criminal street gang activities, first-degree attempted kidnapping, first-degree stalking, second-degree stalking, obtaining criminal history record info under false pretense, misusing 911, making a false report, and conspiracy to commit a class a/b/c felony or unclassified felony exceeding 10 years.

Iron County Deputy Major Bresnahan is charged with seven counts, including participating knowingly in criminal street gang activities, first-degree stalking, second-degree stalking, obtaining criminal history record info under false pretense, misusing 911, and two counts of conspiracy to commit a class a/b/c felony or unclassified felony exceeding 10 years.

Iron County Deputy Cozad faces six counts, including participating knowingly in criminal street gang activities, first-degree stalking, second-degree stalking, misusing 911, and two counts of conspiracy to commit a class a/b/c felony or unclassified felony exceeding 10 years.

Gaston has been charged with six counts, including participating knowingly in criminal street gang activities, attempted parental kidnapping, first-degree stalking, second-degree stalking, obtaining criminal history record info under false pretense, misusing 911, making a false report, and conspiracy to commit a class a/b/c felony or unclassified felony exceeding 10 years.

According to probable cause statements filed in the cases, on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at about 6:22 p.m., Washington County 911 received a report of a disturbance happening between Donald Ricky "Rick" Gaston and a woman. The location reportedly provided was an address on Highway 21 in Caledonia, inside Iron County.

Washington County 911 has an operating agreement with Iron County to handle 911 calls, as well as law enforcement dispatching and M.U.L.E.S. inquiries, according to the report.

The report states 911 dispatchers documented in the call log Rick Gaston was physically aggressive; however, emergency medical services were not requested. Audio recordings from Washington County 911 reportedly confirmed Iron County Deputy Bresnahan and two other deputies arrived at the residence at 6:40 p.m.

Investigators allegedly obtained a video recording that was captured from a cell device on the evening of the reported argument between Gaston and the woman; however, the camera lens was positioned where the screen was lying against an object. The report states the video portion could not be seen, but the audio captured the argument.

The report notes the recording was about four minutes long. Near the end of the video, investigators said it is apparent that Gaston and the woman are verbally arguing about a bottle of liquor that costs $50. Gaston allegedly became agitated and could reportedly be heard yelling loudly, calling the woman a "f------ psycho," and repeatedly saying, "what the f--- is wrong with you." Gaston then allegedly yelled, "get the f--- out of my (inaudible)." The woman could reportedly be heard saying, "get out of my face."

The report states the sound of a metal object hitting something could be heard on the recording, and the woman said again, "get out of my face." Gaston reportedly yelled, "touch me again." Police say a juvenile female voice is heard saying, "touch her again, and I swear to God I'll call the f------ cops." Gaston allegedly said, "she just punched me in the face," as the video ends abruptly.

Once Gaston and the woman were separated by law enforcement, the woman reportedly left the house with her two minor children. The woman and her children stayed at a different residence that evening.

At about 7:17 p.m., the report states the deputies contacted the dispatch center by radio and said, "the parties have been separated." All officers were reportedly cleared from the call and immediately signed off duty for the evening. No injuries to anyone were reported to 911 dispatch that evening, per the report.

The next day, on Feb. 9, the report states the woman contacted Iron County Sheriff's deputies to accompany her back to the home to retrieve personal items. When they arrived, Gaston allegedly stood outside the residence and refused to allow anyone to enter the house. Sometime after the woman left the address, the report states she traveled to a relative's home in Jefferson County with her children to seek safe refuge from Gaston.

On Friday, Feb. 10, the report states Iron County Deputy Bresnahan submitted a warrant application to the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney. The warrant application reportedly requested felony charges of first-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. The report indicates that the prosecuting attorney denied the issuance of any criminal charges related to the case.

Later that day, at 6:28 p.m., the report states Iron County Sheriff Burkett called Washington County 911 dispatch and requested a cell phone "ping," which is used to identify the location of cell devices. Burkett allegedly said the purpose of the ping was for a "check-the-well-being," a type of police response in which officers check in on someone to ensure they are safe. Burkett reportedly also said the mother (the woman with whom Gaston had been arguing) had fled the county with a child and referenced a court order that allegedly stated the child's father should have been notified.

The report states Burkett went on to say the child might be injured and the woman was possibly intoxicated. The sheriff then reportedly provided the woman's cell number while on the phone with the 911 center and allegedly indicated he was with Gaston. Minutes later, Washington County 911 contacted the cell phone service provider and requested the ping based on information reportedly provided by Burkett. The report notes that "exigent phone pings" require certification to the cell service provider of "immediate danger of death or injury to a person."

At 6:44 p.m., the report states the 911 center provided Burkett with the first location ping of the woman's phone, which indicated a location near Leadington, in St. Francois County. A second ping location was reportedly given to Burkett a short time later, showing the woman was in Iron County. Two additional pings were received and relayed by phone to the sheriff, both of which reportedly showed the phone location to be in the Iron County area. After a fifth ping location was received, the 911 operator reportedly mentioned that the woman was possibly headed back to her home. Burkett then allegedly stated, "I hope like hell she is, because when I catch her, she's gonna sit in my jail."

At 8:19 p.m., the report states the 911 dispatcher made phone contact with Burkett, indicating the phone pings were showing a direction of travel on Route M toward Highway 21, which is in Washington County. The report alleges Burkett suspected the woman was traveling to a relative's home in Washington County. The sheriff reportedly told the dispatcher to tell Washington County deputies to stop at the address's entrance and not enter the property.

The report indicates Burkett said, "Mr. Gaston is going to come up there and try to get his daughter." The dispatcher reportedly responded, "you want them to go there but don't." Burkett allegedly said, "yeah, just park at the entrance; don't go onto the property." The report states the dispatcher, with hesitation, replied, "okay." Burkett reportedly said, "that's at Mr. Gaston's request."

The report notes that the dispatcher asked what the address was, and Burkett could be heard asking someone the address, and a male voice responded, "I have no idea." The dispatcher reportedly asked Burkett if he still wanted the woman detained, and he allegedly said, "yeah, once Mr. Gaston has his little girl, then we'll detain her."

The male voice in the background could also reportedly be heard saying the same thing as if the unidentified male was telling Burkett what to say, according to the report.

The report states the 911 dispatcher then contacted a Washington County deputy by phone and said, "these people are driving me absolutely nuts Iron County is out with the dad of the girl that is with the mom. He said he's going to get up there and get the little girl before you go on the property, and then you can arrest her." The deputy reportedly responded by saying, "I wonder why he doesn't want us on his property?" The dispatcher replied, "That's what I was wondering." The deputy reportedly said, "huh, this is getting real fishy."

At 9:22 p.m., Gaston allegedly called the 911 dispatch center. The report states he told the dispatcher he was trying to reach Burkett and said, "he and I are working together tonight." Previous reports indicate Gaston is not a law enforcement officer.

Gaston allegedly told the dispatcher that he wanted Burkett to call him. The dispatcher asked Gaston if he had any further information. Gaston reportedly stated that the ping was close to a lake and felt like the woman could be traveling to his ex-wife's house in a St. Francois County lake development community.

At 9:25 p.m., the report states Iron County Deputy Cozad contacted Washington County 911 to enter a "stop-and-hold" on the woman and her vehicle. The stop-and-hold was reportedly entered into the Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System (M.U.L.E.S.).

About ten minutes later, the report states the 911 dispatcher spoke with a Washington County deputy by phone who relayed information that the woman was likely traveling to Jefferson County because she had a relative that was connected to a law enforcement officer there. The deputy also reportedly said that since the last ping was in Jefferson County, they were clear from assisting Iron County.

At 9:51 p.m., the report states the 911 dispatcher contacted Burkett by phone and said the most recent phone ping was located near a Jefferson County road. The dispatcher reportedly said she looked up directions to the Jefferson County officer's home and believed the phone ping was at his address.

The 911 dispatch center contacted the Jefferson County dispatch center minutes later, relaying details about the incident and that the woman's phone was pinging on the Jefferson County road. The Jefferson County dispatcher reportedly inquired if a warrant for charges had been entered for the woman, to which the Washington County dispatcher replied that they were informed a warrant application was submitted to the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, but charges had not been issued.

At 10:22 p.m., the Washington County 911 dispatch center called Burkett and gave him the information provided by Jefferson County dispatch. Burkett allegedly said, "Mr. Gaston is on his way up there. He is in De Soto now; just turned onto H Highway." He then reportedly asked for confirmation about the directions to the Jefferson County law enforcement officer's home, where they believed the woman might have been going. The report states the dispatcher confirmed that was the location of the ping and then gave Burkett the address.

During an interview with Gaston, the report notes that investigators learned the phone ping location was provided to Gaston by Burkett.

At 11:01 p.m., the report states a Jefferson County law enforcement officer contacted Washington County 911 following his contact with the woman and her children. The officer reported doing a "check-the-well-being" as requested by Iron County, saying he found no visible injuries and said the children were fine.

The report states 911 dispatch relayed the information from the Jefferson County officer to Burkett. The dispatcher reportedly told the sheriff that Jefferson County authorities did not take the woman into custody, and Burkett allegedly stated, "okay, that's fine Well, they're gonna have another issue because Gaston is on his way there."

Just after midnight on Feb. 11, the Jefferson County officer called 911 dispatch and stated the Iron County sheriff had not contacted him; however, he said Gaston had called him on his personal cell phone. The officer inquired who had provided Gaston with his number. The dispatcher reportedly said it was Burkett who gave out the number because they had not.

The report notes that on Saturday, Feb. 18, at 2:52 a.m., Iron County Deputy Bresnahan called Washington County 911 dispatch requesting a phone ping for the endangerment of a child.

Bresnahan allegedly stated the ping was related to the case involving the woman they had been looking for and provided a cell number. The 911 dispatch center reportedly called Bresnahan back and rejected the ping request because it was not an active investigation.

The report states Bresnahan contacted the cell service provider and initiated an exigent ping for the woman's phone. The service provider reportedly accepted the information and sent an email confirmation of the ping to Bresnahan's cell phone. The emails were later verified following a digital analysis of the device, according to police.

Burkett, Gaston, Bresnahan, and Cozad were booked at the Washington County Jail on Thursday. Burkett's bond was set at $500,000 cash-only. Cozad, Bresnahan, and Gaston are in custody, each with a $400,000 cash-only bond set in their cases.

Burkett's attorney, Gabe Crocker, with the Crocker Law Firm in Clayton, provided comment on the charges against his client following Thursday's arrests.

"This is a classic example of small-town politics gone awry," said Crocker. "My client and I look very forward to exposing the darker side of this story - then, and only then, should one form their opinion. There is much more to this story."
CCP-Backed Newspaper in US Exploits Legal Loophole to Continue Anti-America Campaign

News Analysis

In 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) demanded that the Chinese-language Sing Tao News Corp. register as a foreign agent. But the efforts from the U.S. government have done little to stop the media group from pushing the Chinese regimes propaganda efforts in the United States.

Sing Tao Daily is the oldest and second-largest Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong. Chinese real estate tycoon Guo Yingcheng currently owns Sing Tao News Corporation.

The DOJs decision to list Sing Taos U.S. edition an agent of foreign influence was based on the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a law that was enacted about 85 years ago in 1938.

Sing Tao did comply with FARA following the DOJs demand to register as a foreign agent. However, it is allowed to continue operating in the United States and has kept its anti-U.S. disinformation campaign from U.S. soil.

Sing Taos Anti-American Disinformation

Liang Jianfeng, director and editor-in-chief of Sing Taos operations in U.S. western states, has a program that airs on local radio stations or YouTube once or twice a week. The name of the program is Editor-in-Chief Times. The program is presented in Mandarin or Cantonese, and a male or female host usually interviews Liang on his opinions. The length of the programs varies and often lasts from 40 to 70 minutes.

Liangs opinions and comments are well-known by Chinese Americans in many U.S. cities and towns.

On Feb. 4, a Chinese balloon was shot down in U.S. sovereign airspace. The high-altitude object was identified by both U.S. and Canadian militaries as a spy balloon, while the Chinese regime maintained it was a civilian meteorological airship.

Liang made a program on Feb. 8 titled, The Shot Down Balloon and Undecided Direction of U.S.-China Relation. During the program, Liang first tried to make his audience believe the any conclusions reached about the balloons uses could only be opinion, not fact, and that it would never be possible to draw conclusions about the balloons actual purpose.

Then, he stated that as China has far less influence on public opinion than does the United States, once major U.S. media define the object as a spy balloon, it will be considered a spy balloon.

Liang also said that the U.S. government decided to shoot down the balloon because U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wanted to cancel his visit to Beijing. Liang stated that Beijing had not announced Blinkens visit to China, and that Blinken was not even welcome. He said Blinken changed his mind at the last minute and tried to use the balloon incident as an excuse to avoid embarrassment.

Liang also asserted that China doesnt need to collect intelligence from the United States to prepare for a war against America. He said that if China wants to attack the United States, it would be a nuclear war, and for a nuclear war, China already knows all the locations of the larger U.S. cities.

On Feb. 22, Liang made a program titled Will Chinas [Peace] Plan Solve the Ukraine-Russia Problem? Liang stated in the program that the United States has been the promoter of the Ukraine war.

On March 1, Liang made a program named What is the Plan to Destroy Taiwan? In the program, he said that the U.S. Defense Department had taken over Taiwans Defense Department and that U.S. government policy had caused tensions between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to escalate. He warned Taiwans government that the U.S. government was setting the island on a course for destruction just for its own interests.

Liang asserted in the March 1 program: the United States has kept irritating China on issues related to Taiwan because the United States wants to see China attack Taiwan.

Liang made a program on March 2 named, The United States Tries to Wear Down Asia. Liang gave 40-minutes of analysis leading to the conclusion that the United States is worried that a peaceful and stable development of Asian countries would make the United States lose its superpower status in Asia. The U.S. government, therefore, made up that theres a threat from China, then used it as an excuse to prepare for a war against China. He said the U.S. war plan was to make Taiwan a stockpile of explosives, let the destruction of Taiwan slow down Chinas invasion, and use Japan and South Korea as pawns in a war against China.

On March 9, in Liangs program, Preparing for War or Avoiding War: How China Makes Choices, he asserted that China doesnt wants a war; its the United States that does. He said China has been exporting its successful economic model, while the United States spouts political ideology. He concluded that the United States needed a war to solve its financial problems. He said that since the beginning of U.S. history, the United States has always used wars to solve its problems.

Through his media work at Sing Tao, Liang has become an influential figure among Chinese Americans. In October 2018, Liang was recognized as an Outstanding Chinese American during the annual Oversea Chinese Festival in San Francisco.

Liangs award was presented to him by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, an organization with a long history in San Francisco since the 1850s.

FARA Not Enough to Counter CCPs Influence in US Media: Think Tank

Over the years, the U.S. government has grown concerned about the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) propaganda on American soil. It has taken cautious steps to counter the disinformation from pro-CCP Chinese media.

During the Trump administration, Chinas state-owned media were required to register as foreign agents, including Xinhua News, People Daily, CGTN (China Global Television Network), and China Daily. The Biden administration took steps in 2021 to have Sing Tao register as a foreign agent.

Unlike those state-owned Chinese media, Sing Tao is privately owned.

The Sing Tao News Corporation began with Sing Tao Daily, a Hong Kong newspaper established in 1938. The newspaper was sold to a wealthy pro-Beijing Hong Kong businessman, He Zhuguo, in 2001. He was a member of Chinas national Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from 1998 to 2008, and then became a CPPCC Standing Committee member from 2008 to 2018.

CPPCC is an advisory group that provides consultation to the CCP and is considered a major arm of the CCPs United Front program. Directed by the CCPs United Front Work Department (UFWD), the United Front program is the CCPs primary medium for building domestic and international alliances with all pro-CCP individuals and groups. United front means a united front line against the CCPs enemies.

The UFWD is one of the CCPs three central departments. The other two are the Organization Department and the Propaganda Department. According to a Jamestown Foundation report, the annual budget of the UFWD is larger than the budget of Chinas Foreign Ministry.

After He Zhuguo purchased Sing Tao in 2001, the CCP gained control of the paper. Sing Taos switch to a pro-CCP view was widely noticed.

In May 2020, just one month before the Hong Kong legislature passed the infamous Hong Kong national security law, He Zhuguo published a full-page personal statement supporting the security law in Sing Tao Daily. In his statement, He called the 2019 Hong Kong pro-democracy movement a riot, said the movement was supported by Taiwans religious groups, and claimed that foreigners were leading the riot.

Critics called the security law the end of Hong Kong, meaning the premature end of One China with two political systems. The law allows the Chinese regime a legal framework to step in and deal with what Beijing sees as severe challenges to its authority.

According to a November 2018 essay published by Stanfords Hoover Institution, In May 2001, the year [He Zhuguo] purchased Sing Tao, the owner established a joint venture with the Xinhua News Agency to create an information-service company known as Xinhua Online.

Xinhua is the CCPs largest official mouthpiece, playing a role similar to Russias TASS.

He Zhuguo later sold Sing Tao to Guo Yingcheng, another wealthy businessman with close ties to the CCP. According to an article published by Radio Free Asia in 2021, the CCP gained more control of Sing Tao after the ownership change.

The Hoover report also provided a long list of either Chinese state-owned or privately owned pro-CCP media that have actively promoted CCP agendas in the United States, including Phoenix Satellite TV group, Qiao Bao newspaper, Sky Link TV, and others.

Liangs program at Sing Tao aligns with the Chinese regimes grab the right to speak campaign. The Hoover report provided a comprehensive description of this campaign:

The Chinese governments campaign to grab the right to speak from Western media outlets and independent Chinese voices, which it accuses of distorting news about China and sullying Chinas image, has come with a rapid expansion of Chinas English-language media operations, a concerted campaign to control overseas Chinese-language media, and ongoing efforts to block attempts by Western media to contend inside China. Xinhua News Agency journalist Xiong Min summed up the motivation for Chinas new campaign in 2010. The right to speak in the world is not distributed equally, she wrote. Eighty percent of the information is monopolized by Western media. It was time, she said, to end that monopoly by means of what China has called the Grand External Propaganda Campaign.

The Stanford Hoover Institution acknowledged that there are enormous challenges to counter the Chinese regimes English- and Chinese-language media in a free society.

The think tank suggested in the report that the United States should go beyond FARA, which was enacted in 1938, to restrict media influence in the United States by CCP, and that the State Department should restrict visas and access for Chinese journalists.
ChatGPT Inspires Tradition-Oriented Matchmaking Service

Keeper aims at 'fixing the birthrates' with help of AI

A shopper looks over Valentine's Day cards at a Chicago area store on Feb. 13, 2021. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)

ChatGPT-3s debut in late 2022 shook up techand online dating was no exception.

Within weeks, Tinder users were reportedly penning bios with the AI tools chatbot interface.

And Mashable reported in February that OkCupid has used ChatGPT to generate questions for its users.

Some have voiced skepticism about the prospects of AI-enabled romance.

Psychologist Andrew G. Thomas found that ChatGPT overstated the similarities between men and women when it comes to what they value in a partner.

And an editor reported in Business Insider that her ChatGPT-authored responses on Hinge landed with a dull thud: No one wrote back.

ChatGPT-4 Another Catalyst

The March 14 release of ChatGPT-4 sparked renewed interest in the platform. CNN, the BBC, and other news outlets released stories on the launch.

Thats very different from the situation last year when early excitement over ChatGPT-3 in Silicon Valley was not initially matched by coverage in the legacy media.

Shortly before The Epoch Times first article on ChatGPT-3 was published on Dec. 5, 2022, a search for ChatGPT on The New York Times website did not yield any results.

According to OpenAI, the latest version of ChatGPT significantly outperforms its predecessor in terms of reasoning and accuracy. It is also, in their words, safer.

GPT-4 is 82 [percent] less likely to respond to requests for disallowed content and 40 [percent] more likely to produce factual responses than GPT-3.5 on our internal evaluations, OpenAIs webpage on ChatGPT-4 states. It further claims the platform produces safer and more useful responses.

AI safety has become embroiled in controversy, partly because of concerns about bias in GPT.

In a Twitter post from early December 2022, just after ChatGPT-3 was released, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen asserted that AI safety is equivalent to AI censorship.

Theyre the same thing, he wrote.

I am begging you to read the literature, responded Miles Brundage, the head of policy research at OpenAI.

As with the launch and gradual reaction to ChatGPT-3, the rollout of ChatGPT-4 marked a promotional opportunity for those in online dating.

In a March 14 Twitter post, Jake Kozloski, CEO and co-founder of the dating app Keeper Dating, showed how his company is working to automate matchmaking with the new tool.

Jake Kozloski, CEO and co-founder of the online matchmaking service Keeper. (Courtesy of Jake Kozloski.)

In an accompanying video, the AI system assessed the compatibility of a fictional man and woman. It analyzed information about both of them that the user provided.

GPT-4 compared their preferences, teasing out similarities that suggested the two could be compatible.

Yet, it also identified gaps in the data it needed to judge the prospective partnership. It requested additional information, so as to evaluate the match more comprehensively.

In a March 17 interview with The Epoch Times, Kozloski explained that Keeper had already implemented GPT-3 before GPT-4 made its appearance.

GPT-4, he said, is more capable for our use case.

Turn to Tradition As Fertility Craters

Keepers embrace of cutting-edge technology to build serious, long-term romantic partnerships is in keeping with a seemingly paradoxical vision: Its at once future-oriented and moored to some of the oldest traditions in human connection.

Kozloski co-founded Keeper with pseudonymous Internet reactionary Indian Bronson, whose Twitter bio states that hes fixing the birthrates at Keeper.

Kozloski elaborated on that goal in Keepers master plan:

Were in a fertility crisis fueled by a marriage crisis that jeopardizes the future of humanity itself. Our mission is to address this crisis head-on by reversing the decades-long trend against marriage and family-formation.

Collapsing birth rates in the United States have drawn the attention of SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

We just need to celebrate having kids, Musk wrote on Twitter in response to a graph showing a collapse in U.S. fertility since the early 1970s.

Births have also cratered in Europe, Northeast Asia, and much of the rest of the world.

To move forward, Keeper looks backward to the kind of supervised matchmaking once common in the West and still prevalent in India, Africa, and other traditional societies.

Kozloski didnt come to his tradition-oriented perspective from a conservative background.

I grew up with divorced parents in Brooklyn. Most of my upbringing was very progressive in terms of values, so I wasnt exactly indoctrinated into this way of thinking (if anything, the opposite), he said.

He and his girlfriend are in a stable, monogamous relationshipthe unquestioned norm for past generations, but less and less so for Millennials and Gen Z.

I do believe it is the ideal outcome. I recognize that it doesnt work for everyone, but I think it does for the vast majority of people far more than [those] who are actively in one, he said.

The home page for the OpenAI ChatGPT app is displayed on a laptop screen in London on Feb. 3, 2023. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Aspires to Scale Through AI

Like any matchmaking aunt from the old country, Keeper is picky. It only matches users with partners who meet every single one of their criteria.

Theres no limit to the number of criteria people can listbut obviously the more they provide, the harder it is to match them, Kozloski said.

Keeper has made 40 matches so far; thats 80 people total, if youre doing the math at home. Ten percent of those matches led to long-term relationships.

According to Kozloski, interest is much broader.

Our signups are in the low thousands, he said.

Yet, while users have the option not to pay until they wed a match by Keeper, those who sign up must also be prepared to pay thousands of dollars.

We are a white glove service today, he said.

Kozloski hopes GPT can help drive down the cost of matchmaking, allowing them to expand their customer base and offer lower prices.

Future Automation

Kozloski hopes his matchmaking can be fully automated as GPT continues to improve.

Today, we have matchmakers working with the [algorithm and] AI, he said.

In AI jargon, they want to get that human out of the loop.

Keeper aims to create the first algorithm that makes genuinely good matches, rather than the inexact pairings on offer from existing services.

Kozloski thinks the first company to manage that feat would be to online romance what Google is to search.

We plan on that being us, he said.

If Keeper pulls it off, they may have ChatGPT to thank.
Chinese Regime Will Face Retribution for COVID-19 Origins, Trump Declares

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the New Hampshire Republican State Committee's Annual Meeting in Salem, N.H., on Jan. 28, 2023. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump has called for retribution against the Chinese regime now that the world is finally admitting the truth that the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.

In a new campaign video shared on Truth Social, Trump declared that it is time to hold China accountable for the global pandemic that led to millions of deaths and economic destruction.

Trumps comments came after the U.S. Department of Energy recently concluded that the Wuhan lab leak theory is the most probable explanation for the viruss origin. He also pointed out that he had been correct about the lab leak theory three years ago.

Three years ago, I declared that the China virus almost certainly came from the Wuhan lab. Now, the world is finally admitting the truth, and theyre saying I was right, Trump said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus a global pandemic three years ago, and questions still linger over the viruss origins as China has yet to share relevant data with independent investigators.

Millions of people all over the planet have died from the China virus, Trump said.

According to Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic and the coverup of its origins represent one of the greatest scandals in the history of the world. He argued that China and corrupt forces that facilitated a colossal suppression of facts must be held accountable for the damage they have inflicted upon the world.

We have to do something about it, Trump said in the video, declaring that the Chinese regime would face some form of retribution.

China cannot pay for the damage theyve caused, he added. Its more than $50 trillion, and they dont have anything near close to that. But something has to be done, and it will be done.

The very first COVID-19 infections were recorded in late 2019 in Wuhan. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) initially denied human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 until January 2020, claiming the virus was transmitted at a wet market in Wuhan despite a lack of supporting evidence. The Chinese regime has also obstructed a WHO-led investigation into the viruss origins.

Declassify Origins Information

Bipartisan legislation to declassify intelligence information related to the potential connection between COVID-19 and the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China has gained support in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

Companion bills passed unanimously in early March. President Joe Bidens decision to sign or veto the bill remains uncertain.

During a House Rules Committee hearing on March 7, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) spoke to the difficulties posed by the Chinese regime in determining the origins of the pandemic. At every juncture, the  [CCP] has obfuscated and obstructed legitimate inquiries, a deeply irresponsible approach to global public health, he said.

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) expressed his frustration at the lack of certainty regarding the viruss origins and called on Congress to act and force the administration to declassify relevant intelligence.

Its been three years since COVID-19 upended our lives and were still asking basic questions about the origins of this virus. Thats unacceptable, Gallagher said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a recent television interview that COVID-19 most likely originated in a China-based laboratory, and suggested a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.

Wray noted that the bureaus investigation is still classified and that he cant share many details. He also said the CCP hasnt been cooperative with U.S. efforts.

I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, Wray said. The work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners are doing. And thats unfortunate for everybody.

Recently released emails from the House Oversight Committee (pdf) reveal that Dr. Anthony Fauci directed a group of scientists to write a paper to disprove the theory that COVID-19 leaked from a lab, which he later used to support his claim that the virus had a natural origin, without disclosing his involvement in commissioning the paper.

On March 11, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it remains a moral imperative to find the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Citizenship Oath at the Click of a Mouse Is Designed to Be a Temporary Fix: Minister

Conservative MP Tom Kmiec rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Mar. 10, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

The moment Suzanne Bitye was handed her citizenship certificate Friday, she pulled it toward her heart and held it there for a moment with a broad smile on her face.

The ceremony in which Bitye pledged her allegiance to Canada was held in a windowless room in the bowels of a government building in Ottawa, with grey walls and a grey carpet.

But there were plenty of bright spots. The small paper flags. The red and white formal clothes of 96 people from 20 countries who stood shoulder to shoulder to sing the national anthem as Canadians for the first time. The smiles.

Afterward, Bitye, who is from Cameroon, said she wouldnt trade the experience of taking her oath in person.

But the federal government is seeking feedback on a plan that would let people opt out of the formal ceremony, and instead have them take the Oath of Citizenship online with the click of a mouse.

The immigration minister anticipates the one-click option would only be in effect as long as the government is swamped with backlogged citizenship applications. But the Conservative partys immigration critic worries it would cheapen an otherwise special moment for newcomers.

Citizenship by click is not citizenship, said Calgary MP Tom Kmiec.

Theyre really cheapening citizenship purely for political motivation, to reduce their backlogs.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser first floated the idea in January 2022 as a way to speed up processing times. At the time, he said it would see someone self-administer a digital oath by signed attestation, and celebrate their citizenship at a later date.

Yet the proposal published in the Canada Gazette late last month would instead allow someone to skip the ceremony entirely.

Fraser did not specify why the proposal had changed, nor who came up with it. But he said COVID-19 created a backlog that even virtual ceremonies cant quickly clear.

For those people who choose to do an online self-attestation, they will still have an opportunity to participate in an IRCC-organized citizenship ceremony shortly after they complete their citizenship, Fraser said on Friday, in his first public comments about the proposed regulatory change.

New Canadians at the ceremony in Ottawa Friday said that swearing their oath alongside peers from all over the world was an important milestone.

Joseph Ngoie, from Congo, said after taking his oath that he thinks the ceremony is very important to complete, rather than just to go online and to click.

He said he could feel the love and excitement in the voice of the officiant, Citizenship Judge Rania Sfeir, as she declared him and 95 others to be Canadians.

Fraser rejected claims that the moment would be cheapened if people skip the ceremony. He said the online process could help people who are facing the potential expiry of their permanent residency status because there arent enough ceremony spaces available.

This is purely to protect against negative consequences for people whove done everything thats been asked of them, Fraser said at a press conference at Humber College in Etobicoke, Ont.

We anticipate it will only be in effect until such time as we restore processing times for citizenship grant applications and we get through the very specific challenges related to COVID-19.

Kmiec said the ceremonies are a big deal for people like him who were not born Canadian. Kmiec, who immigrated from Poland, still recalls taking his oath in 1989, and said the tradition shouldnt be diminished as a way to deal with an administrative backlog.

These are very low-cost events; these are mostly retired civil servants, serving judges and ex-judges who do the actual ceremony, he said.

The way theyve done this tells me that theyre embarrassed by it, because Id be embarrassed by it too.

Kmiec argued the backlog stems from Liberal incompetence in administering programs, rather than the pandemic. He is also critical of a lag after newcomers take the oath, at which point they relinquish their permanent-residence card and await their citizenship certificate in the mail, which can be used to apply for a passport.

There are some process changes they could do to actually make peoples lives easier, he said.

In any case, Canadas former director-general of citizenship and multiculturalism, Andrew Griffith, said the department should have issued a press release about the proposed change instead of trying to slip it by.

Griffith retired after a career with the Immigration Department and Canadas foreign service, and said the phrasing in the regulatory proposal and the lack of public-opinion research suggests its aimed at reducing costs rather than making things more convenient for applicants.

Its driven by the desire to reduce, if not eliminate, ceremonies, virtual or physical. And its pretty explicit, he said.

One gets the impression as a former bureaucrat that maybe the officials who had to draft the stuff werent really that keen.

Griffith noted that the 1946 Citizenship Act explicitly called for ceremonies that instil the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship, as Canada carved out an identity separate from Britain following the Second World War.

Its really an abuse of the process, because it goes against the grain of what the Citizenship Act was designed to do, he argued. It really goes against one of the fundamental objectives of citizenship.

The comment period on the proposed change closes on March 27.

If approved, the changes to the citizenship regulations would come into effect at early as June, at a cost of about $5 million.
COVID-19 Patient With Lungs Destroyed by Ventilator Is Set to Be Taken Off Life-Saving Machines, His Wife Says

Mark Boudreaux wrote "I want to live" on March 17, just days before he is scheduled to be taken off a life-saving machine (SOURCE: Judy Boudreaux)

The hospital accused of destroying the lungs of a COVID-19 patient by leaving him on a ventilator for more than a year, now wants to remove the very life-saving machines that the man is dependent upon to live, according to his wife.

Judy Boudreaux says Bethesda North Hospital first told her on March 15 that they were going to remove her husband, Mark Boudreauxthe Hall of Fame designer of some of the most iconic Star Wars toysfrom the mechanical ventilator he relies on to breathe because has a living will that says its his dying wish not have his life artificially prolonged.

They ambushed me at the hospital at a care conference meeting, Judy Boudreaux told The Epoch Times.

They had a lawyer from Risk Management, a pastor, and others there. I felt blindsided.

She doesnt agree with the decision, pointing out the many times that her husband, who has lost his ability to speak, has written I want to live on a pad of paper.

Mark Boudreauxs living will directive is based on his being in an incurable and irreversible condition, Judy Boudreaux, who has power of attorney, points out.

Her husbands deteriorated lungs could be replaced with a transplant of healthy lungs, should a transplant center agree to accept him as a candidate for the surgery. While bedridden and unable to sit up or speak, the 68-year-old is conscious and coherent and has been able to write I want to live on a pad of paper and show it to doctors.

On the morning of March 16, the hospital reversed its decision and Judy sighed a sigh of relief.

That relief, however, was short lived.

The following dayon March 17doctors at the hospital informed Boudreaux that they had decided to remove her husband from the dialysis machine on which he relies to keep his kidneys functioning.

Mark Boudreaux suffered kidney damage as a result of being on the ventilator, and from being sedentary and on a feeding tube for a prolonged term, medical records provided to The Epoch Times show.

The hospital has told the Boudreauxes that Mark will be removed from dialysis on March 21.

It will effectively kill him, she said.

Neither the Cincinnati hospital nor its parent company, TriHealth, responded to requests for comment by The Epoch Times, which did an in-depth story about the case in a March 8 article. As reported, Boudreaux has been on a ventilator since Feb. 5, 2022, when he was diagnosed with COVID-19.

Mark Boudreaux in healthier times. (Supplied)

As chronicled in the story, Boudreaux was a lead designer for some of the most celebrated toys in the world, including every iteration of the Star Wars Millennium Falcon toys.

Boudreaux, who was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame after a 43-year career as a toy designer, also created toys for Marvel and Strawberry Shortcake. He also helped design sets for blockbuster movies such as Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters, and Batman.

Despite his place in one of Americas most epic tales of heroism, Boudreaux hasnt been able to find a real-life hero to help save him. So far, no transplant facility has been willing to accept him as a patient.

Dr. Charles Thurston, who has treated COVID-19 patients worldwide, has reviewed Boudreauxs entire medical record since he was put on the ventilator.

Thurston calls it the ultimate Catch-22.

The same medical establishment that landed Mark in his situation, is now sticking to protocols that wont help bail him out, he said.

According to national standards, in order to qualify for a lung transplant, a patient must be able to walk for a distance of 100 to 450 feet, or what is commonly referred to as the six-minute walk.

Boudreaux has barely had any physical therapy since his hospitalization, according to his wife and Thurston, and isnt able to walk at all.

Judy Boudreaux said she has reached out to several state lawmakers, who havent returned her calls.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) didnt respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment regarding Boudreauxs plight.

Judy Boudreaux is now scrambling for an attorney to seek an emergency injunction to halt her husbands removal from the machines.

This is very sad news, she saids about the hospitals decision, but I am still trying my hardest to save him.
Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake Shakes Ecuador; at Least 14 Deaths Reported

A police officer looks up next to a car crushed by debris after an earthquake shook Cuenca, Ecuador, on March 18, 2023. (Xavier Caivinagua/AP Photo)

QUITO, EcuadorAt least 14 people were killed in an earthquake that shook a coastal region of Ecuador and northern Peru on March 18, causing structural damage to multiple homes, schools, and medical centers.

The quake, which according to the U.S. Geological Survey was centered near the city of Balao in the province of Guayas, had a magnitude of 6.8 and struck at a depth of 66.4 km (41.3 miles).

The earthquake didnt appear likely to generate a tsunami, authorities said.

We remain in the territory verifying the damage caused by the earthquake this morning. I want to confirm that I am with you and express my solidarity and commitment to the victims, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso wrote on Twitter.

The presidencys communication agency said the quake killed 14 people and injured more than 380, largely in the El Oro province.

The agency said that at least 44 homes were destroyed and 90 more were damaged. About 50 educational buildings and more than 30 health centers were also affected, while multiple roadways were blocked by landslides caused by the earthquake. The Santa Rosa airport suffered minor damage but remained in operation.

Ecuadors Secretariat of Risk Management stated earlier that one death in Azuay Province occurred when a wall collapsed onto a vehicle. In other provinces, structural damage included a collapsed wharf and a fallen wall in a supermarket.

State-run oil company Petroecuador evacuated and suspended activities in multiple facilities out of precaution but hadnt reported damage, the agency said.

We all ran out into the streets.  We were very scared, Ernesto Alvarado, a resident of Isla Puna, near the epicenter, told Reuters. He also said that some homes had collapsed.

The initial quake was followed by two weaker aftershocks in the following hour, according to the Geophysics Institute of Ecuador.

Peruvian authorities said the quake was felt in the countrys northern region, but there were no immediate reports of harm to people or structures.

By Alexandra Valencia
Elon Musk Warns Trump Indictment Will Backfire, Predicts Landslide Reelection

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Saturday predicted that former President Donald Trump will be reelected in a landslide victory if he is to be indicted next week by the Manhattan District Attorneys Office.

Musks comment was in response to a Fox News segment that detailed how the Manhattan DAs office reportedly requested a meeting with law enforcement officials to discuss security preparations and whether to handcuff and fingerprint the former president when escorting him into the courtroom.

If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory, the owner of Twitter and the worlds richest man wrote in the comment section of the post.

If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2023

In a statement on Saturday, Trump indicated that the Manhattan DAs office will arrest him on Tuesday of next week, calling on his supporters to protest and take our nation back.

The Manhattan DAs office is investigating Trump over his companys classification of a $130,000 reimbursement to his former personal attorney Michael Cohen over a payment allegedly made to adult actress Stormy Daniels.

The former president has repeatedly condemned the probe as a partisan witch hunt, and in Saturdays statement on Truth Social, Trump doubled down on his rhetoric.

Trump branded the probe corrupt & highly political, insisting that no crime has been proven and that the possible indictment in the case would be based on an old & fully debunked (by numerous other prosecutors!) fairy tale.

Attempts to reach out for comment on the impending indictment were unsuccessful as the Manhattan DAs office was not immediately available outside of normal working hours.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a staunch ally of Trump, shared Musks sentiment in a lengthy statement on Saturday, saying the former president will ultimately win even bigger than he is already going to win if hes indicted by Manhattans DA office.

If the Manhattan DA indicts President Trump, he will ultimately win even bigger than he is already going to win. And those Republicans that stand by and cheer for his persecution or do nothing to stop it will be exposed to the people and will be remembered, scorned, and https://t.co/cryRR02xat  Marjorie Taylor Greene  (@mtgreenee) March 18, 2023

President Trump did nothing wrong and has always fought for the American people, and we all know it, which is why we love him, Greene wrote. And any Republican who thinks the Democrats will stop this madness once Trump is out of the way is fooling themselves.

Weaponized Government and Political Persecution are new chapters in their playbook and they will use those methods against anyone who stands in their way, she added. And we are absolutely fed up with the two-tiered justice system or rather INJUSTICE system in America.

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who has been notorious among Republicans for his vote to impeach Trump, fired back on Greenes statement.

You break the law, you go to jail. Whomp whomp marj, Kinzinger said on Twitter.

A Sham That Will Backfire

Trumps possible indictment stems from the alleged misclassifying of a $130,000 hush payment made to Daniels not to disclose an affair between the two, which Trump has denied. A grand jury was empaneled in the case and expectations have been building for an indictment.

A criminal charge against Trump would be the first-ever indictment of a former president and would add to the legal challenges faced by Trump as he seeks the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election.

Although a number of Republicans have indicated that they believe the indictment is a plot to stop Trumps 2024 reelection hopes, a spokesperson for the former president said he believes it will only strengthen his chances, branding the probe as a sham.

Steven Cheung, like Musk and Greene, believes a Trump indictment would backfire. The spokesman told Fox News in a statement on Friday that Trump is completely innocent and that the probe is a politically motivated attack to hamstring his run for reelection in 2024.

Democrats are at it again, pushing the Nuclear Button and attacking a President because of a disgraced extortionist, Cheung said. This is happening because President Trump is leading in the polls by a large margin against both Democrats and Republicans, and theres never been anything so blatant in American political history.

Everyone knows its a sham, Cheung continued. Americans will not tolerate Radical Left Democrats turning our justice system into an injustice system to influence a presidential election, which is all they want to do. Our Country is not going to let this happen. This will backfire massively for the Democrat Party, and end in disgrace for our Nation.

An indictment would involve setting a date and time for Trump to surrender, with the former president then delivered by his Secret Service detail to the Manhattan DAs office for fingerprinting and mugshots. Following arrest processing in cases where a defendant is allowed to surrender, normal procedures suggest Trump would face an arraignment before a judge and then probably be released on his own recognizance.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Ex-Theranos Exec Finds Way to Delay Start of Prison Sentence

Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, the former lover and business partner of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, arrives at federal court in San Jose, Calif., on Dec. 7, 2022. (Jeff Chiu/AP Photo)

Former Theranos executive Ramesh Sunny Balwani found an escape hatch Thursday from the scheduled start of his nearly 13-year prison sentence for a blood-testing hoax he engineered with his former boss and lover, Elizabeth Holmes.

Just hours before Balwani was supposed to surrender to authorities, his lawyer filed documents notifying U.S. District Judge Edward Davila that he wouldnt be doing so.

The notice cited a last-minute appeal of a recent Davila ruling rejecting Balwanis request to remain free while trying to overturn his conviction on 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy. The Wednesday appeal of Davilas March 9 ruling triggered an automatic stay of his prison reporting date, which had been set for 2 p.m. PT Thursday.

Thats because Balwani, 57, has been free on bail since a jury convicted him last July, triggering a clause that allows him to remain free on bail until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals weighs in on Davilas ruling issued last week, according to the notice filed by Balwanis attorney, Jeffrey Coopersmith.

Its unclear how long it will be before the appeals court deals with the ruling.

If and when he is sent to prison, Balawani will service his time in a facility near a Southern California harbor, according to other documents filed Wednesday by Coopersmith. That destination represents a shift from the Atlanta prison that Balwani had been initially assigned by authorities.

The change means Balwani will be staying in the Terminal Island prison located in San Pedro, California, located about 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The prison has incarcerated several other prominent figures, including gangster Al Capone in the 1930s, apocalyptic cult leader Charles Manson for an auto theft in the 1950s and LSD evangelist Timothy Leary in the 1970s.

In a filing last week, Coopersmith had asked Davila for additional time to appeal the Bureau of Prisons decision to send him to that Atlanta prison that has been dogged by allegations of widespread misconduct and other abuses. Davila had recommended Balwani be sent to a Lompoc prison in Santa Barbara County located about 250 miles from the San Jose courtroom where his trial took place.
FBI Offering $20,000 Reward to Find American Woman Believed Kidnapped in Mexico

Maria del Carmen Lopez, a U.S. citizen, who was kidnapped from her residence in Pueblo Nuevo, Colima, Mexico, on Feb. 9, 2023. (Image Courtesy of Federal Bureau of Investigation)

The FBI is offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to the location of an American woman who they believe was kidnapped in Mexico.

The FBIs Los Angeles Field Office said they believe 63-year-old Maria del Carmen Lopez was kidnapped from her residence in Pueblo Nuevo, Colima, Mexico, on February 9, 2023.

The FBI described Lopez as a Hispanic female with blonde hair and brown eyes, standing 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighing approximately 160 pounds when she was last seen. She is also distinguished by her permanent eyeliner.

Those with information about Lopezs whereabouts can contact their local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.

FBI poster made for a case involving U.S. citizen Maria del Carmen Lopez who was kidnapped from her residence in Pueblo Nuevo, Colima, Mexico, on Feb. 9, 2023. (Federal Bureau of Investigation/Los Angeles Field Office)

CBS Los Angeles reported Lopez is a mother of seven children, several of whom live in the southern California area. Her family said she makes regular trips to visit.

According to Lopezs children, one of their cousins saw a group of as many as five people at her home around the time of her disappearance.

There was a car that drove into the property. There was an exchange of words, they did hear her say she would not get into the car, Lopezs daughter Zonia relayed to CBS Los Angeles. Two individuals picked her up and another one came out of the van. They had their heads covered and they covered her mouth and thats when they took her.

Lopezs family doesnt believe she has connections to any gang or criminal activity and that her apparent kidnapping was a crime of opportunity.

There was never any sort of threats, there was never any enemies, anything that would indicate that she was in any kind of trouble, Zonia told CBS Los Angeles.

Colima is a small Mexican state located situated along the countrys central Pacific Coast. Zonia said her mothers home was located in a remote area.

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said the FBI is working with law enforcement authorities in Mexico to investigate Lopezs disappearance.

NTD News reached out to the FBIs Los Angeles Field Office for more information regarding Lopezs case, but they did not respond before this article was published.

Mexico Travel Warnings

The U.S. State Department provides a state-by-state travel advisory for Mexico. The advisory breaks the various Mexican states into categories from the least-severe Level 1 guidance to exercise normal precautions to the most-severe Level 4 Do Not Travel guidance. As of October 5, 2022, Campeche and Yucatan were the only Mexican states listed in the Level 1 advisory category, while the remaining 30 Mexican states were listed in higher precautionary categories, mostly with warnings related to crime and kidnappings.

A member of the Mexican security forces stands next to a white minivan with North Carolina plates and several bullet holes, at the crime scene where gunmen kidnapped four U.S. citizens who crossed into Mexico from Texas, on March 3, 2023. (AP Photo)

Colima is one of six Mexican states under a Level 4 Do Not Travel advisory, with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City citing concerns about high crime and kidnapping rates.

Most homicides [in Colima] are targeted assassinations against members of criminal organizations, the advisory states.  Shooting incidents between criminal groups have injured or killed bystanders. U.S. citizens and [lawful permanent residents] have been victims of kidnapping.

Four Americans were kidnapped earlier this month after crossing into the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas, another state under a Level 4 Do Not Travel advisory.

Two of the Americansidentified as Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brownwere killed. The other two Americans were recovered alive, though one was injured. Mexican authorities have five suspects in custody following the Tamaulipas kidnapping incident and the Scorpions faction of the Gulf cartel has reportedly apologized for the kidnapping and killings.

A pair of sisters from Penitas, Texas  Maritza Trinidad Perez Rios and Marina Perez Rios  and their friend Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz have been missing since they crossed the border into Mexico last month. Mexican authorities are currently investigating their disappearance.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

From NTD News.
FBI Raids Home of Ex-Maryland Governors Former Top Aide After No Show for Trial

Roy McGrath, chief executive officer of the Maryland Environmental Service, speaks during a news conference at the State House in Annapolis, Md., on April 15, 2020. A federal judge has issued an arrest warrant for McGrath, the one-time aide to former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, after McGrath failed to appear in court as his trial on federal fraud charges was set to begin. (Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Sun via AP)

The FBI raided the home of Roy McGrath, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogans former chief of staff after he failed to appear in Baltimore to stand trial on federal corruption charges.

The raid on McGraths home in Naples, Florida, was conducted on Wednesday morning. McGrath was found not to be there, but his wife was present as agents conducted the search, his attorney, Joseph Murtha, told the Associated Press.

Murtha said he was surprised that his client didnt show up at the trial on Monday.

I havent a clue. I didnt see this coming, Murtha told the Washington Times. Murtha said that he had a substantively productive conversation about the trial with his client late Sunday.

McGrath was supposed to board a plane in Florida later that night.

Murtha added that he was unable to reach his client via cellphone or email. This behavior is so out of the ordinary for him. Obviously, his personal safety is a concern, the attorney stated.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued an arrest warrant for McGrath after he failed to show up on Monday. The judge canceled the scheduled jury selection, and the prospected jurors were dismissed.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Marshals Service launched an interstate manhunt for McGrath, who received an eight-count federal indictment in 2021. A wanted poster was released as well.

Roy McGrath, the former top aide to an ex-Maryland governor, is seen in this U.S. Marshals Service wanted poster released on March 14, 2023, after McGrath failed to appear in court where he is charged with wire fraud and falsification. (U.S. Marshals Service/Handout via Reuters)

Federal and State prosecutors have accused McGrath of personally enriching himself by taking advantage of his positions of trust as the executive director of Maryland Environmental Service. The state-owned company provides environmental services, including water and wastewater management, to government entities and private partners.

Faces Fraud, Embezzlement Charges

Prosecutors accuse McGrath of falsifying time sheets to claim he was at work while on two vacations in 2019. He allegedly used state funds for personal expenses and now faces fraud and embezzlement charges connected to roughly $170,000 in expenses.

In June 2020, McGrath left his position as executive director of Maryland Environmental Service to become Hogans chief of staff, upon which he then tricked the environmental agencys board into approving a $233,648 severance paymenta years worth of salaryby falsifying a document to make it seem that the governor had already approved the payment, according to a grand jury indictment.

McGrath was 11 weeks on the job as Hogans chief of staff when the news of his unusual severance payment became public. He resigned from Hogans administration in August 2020.

Following his arrest, McGrath was released on bond. He was required to turn in his passport as a condition of release, according to his attorney.

McGrath later moved to Naples, Florida.

McGrath has pleaded not guilty. The most serious charge that he faces carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

From NTD News.
Tim Womble and his staff have watched his customers children grow up. He visited with a family whos been eating at his restaurant weekly. When they started going to Marios Italia in The Factory in Farmington, their son was only 3 years old. Hes now 13.

Weve watched families grow and weve met so many people, he said. Its been incredible.

He opened the doors to his downtown Farmington restaurant in 2014, and closed them nearly 10 years later.

After months of uncertainty, Owner Tim Womble closed the doors of Marios Italia, Feb. 26 was the last day. It was difficult when he and the staff thanked their final customers.

In fact, making the decision to close the restaurant has been one of the hardest decisions to make.

The decision was extremely hard, but when you dont have enough money coming in, the decision becomes easy, he said. You dont want to do it, but you have to do it.

Womble said area residents need to remember their mom-and-pops businesses.

They need to frequent them more often, he said, because thats the reason were no longer in business.

A customer who purchased food on the last day told Womble how much they enjoyed Marios food. When they attempted to pick up the food, they went to the former location of the restaurant. But Marios Italia moved a year and nine months ago.

With the closing of Marios Italia, Womble simply wants residents to realize how important it is for them to frequently support small locally owned businesses. He said franchises do what a mom-and-pop does in one day to what a mom-and-pop does in a week.

We cant negotiate low prices like they can, he said. If you walk into Farmington and you take every mom-and-pop store out of downtown, what would you have left? It would devastate every town by taking these businesses out.

Womble said, Its the small business people who are the majority but in the minority working twice as hard to maintain their business, pay payroll so those employees have jobs, and so much more.

Owners Brian and Joan Hurst opened 12 West in Farmington in September 2004. (They also own The Old No. 102 Tap House in Farmington.)

The Hursts have always found it important to support the community, their customers and a city that has gone above and beyond to help our downtown area thrive.

As small business owners, Joan said costs are currently their top concern.

Everything from covering taxes and payroll to utilities and rent can overwhelm a small business budget, she said.

But the owners feel small businesses are able to adapt faster to local demands than franchises.

If customers are asking for something different, a small business can change course quickly while franchises are subject to agreements and rules made by a corporation that isnt local, she explained.

She said its important to support locally owned businesses more so than classifying them as small or large.

If a business is locally owned, then those owners are putting money spent at their business back into the local economy, she said. Local business owners are also the ones who support local causes and fundraisers.

Donna Hayes and Allyson Willette opened Ally Sue Boutique in Farmington in March 2018. They said supporting small businesses is crucial to the success of the town.

We take pride in being located in Farmington and love to see the town thrive and be successful, and that comes from the community supporting the local businesses, they said. As they say, when you buy from a small business, someone does a little happy dance! We are always so grateful for everyone who shops with us!

The owners said they believe all small business owners agree about certain things.

Any time there is economic trouble, you worry, they said. A lot of the small businesses that sell extras are the first people cut out of their budget when money gets tight, whether that is clothing or jewelry like us, or ice cream and extra treats for their kids. You will always have a bit of worry in the back of your mind as a business owner, but you have to have faith that your community believes in their town and the success of their town enough to continue to support you.

As local business owners, Hayes and Willette get to know their customers on a personal level and often become friends with them.

We love getting to be a part of our customers lives and enjoy being here to serve them, they said.

They added that supporting a business does not always have to mean spending money, but instead can be done in ways such as engaging with the businesss social media posts and leaving positive reviews.

Tim and Michele King opened Columbia Street Mercantile in downtown Farmington in April 2022.

The couple said they buy as much as possible locally and regionally to support the community and local and regional economies.

As a locally owned business, the Kings are able to select toys and candy that arent driven by what the corporate office has to say.

We can curate our selection to our customers wants and needs, said Tim. The same is for when we make our ice cream. Its made fresh daily, so if the customer wants something a little unusual, we can do it.

He added, Shopping on the internet can be rewarding, but its not the same as shopping in your hometown or home community like here in the Leadbelt. We are lucky to have wonderfully curated shops throughout the Parkland, like Columbia Street Mercantile.

Walk into our businesses and the customer is greeted with a friendly smile and thanked for their experience, he said. You dont get that when shopping online.

He added that some people feel online pricing is more competitive than purchasing items locally.

Our prices are the same or lower than Amazon and big-box retailers, he said. We make sure everything we sell is exactly that.

Another local business is Ophelia Farmington. Owner Patrice Parson opened her downtown boutique in June 2013.

She said small businesses continue to be the bread and butter of the economy.

By making a commitment to shop local or support small businesses, you cycle money back into your community, she said. The tax revenue made through sales taxes from local businesses support the local government, which is then used to reinvest in the community.

Parson said local businesses benefit from a strong community, therefore we as owners tend to be more engaged members of our community.

She has seen sales suffer because of consumers increased costs in things like fuel and food.

Our sales definitely suffer and our cost of goods increase as well, making it that much more difficult to keep our prices competitive with the big-box stores, she said.

Parson uses technology to offer personal touches for her customers shopping experiences.

She recently read an article which stated how small businesses continue to strive for the American dream.

I as a small business owner not only believe in this dream but have actively pursued it, said Parson. By supporting small businesses and shopping small, youre supporting real, genuine people who have put their passion ahead of convenience and wholeheartedly believe in the business they are running.

She concluded, Now, more than ever, its time to encourage strangers and friends alike to think about shopping small, supporting local businesses and ultimately funding a better tomorrow.
Former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin appears via Zoom from a federal prison in Tucson, Ariz., on March 17, 2023. (Minnesota Judicial Branch via AP)

MINNEAPOLISThe former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the 2020 killing of George Floyd pleaded guilty Friday to two tax evasion counts, admitting that he didnt file Minnesota income taxes for two years due to financial concerns.

Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty specifically to two counts of aiding and abetting, failing to file tax returns to the state of Minnesota for the 2016 and 2017 tax years.

Chauvin appeared in a Minnesota court via Zoom from a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona, where he is serving his sentences on a state murder conviction for killing Floyd and on a federal count of violating Floyds civil rights.

He stood in a room and paced around before Fridays hearing began. When Washington County Judge Sheridan Hawley asked why he didnt file his Minnesota tax returns, he told the judge: The true reason is some financial concerns at the time.

He also said: I had to find significant funds from family to pay a previous years return and, frankly, Ive been playing catch up ever since.

He was sentenced to 13 months in prison on the tax charges, but he has already been incarcerated for longer than that and was given credit for time served.

Shortly after Floyds killing, Chauvin and his then-wife were charged with multiple counts for allegedly underreporting their income to the state of Minnesota and failing to file Minnesota tax returns. The complaints alleged that from 2014 to 2019, the Chauvins underreported their joint income by $464,433.

With unpaid taxes, interest and fees, the Chauvins, who have since divorced, owe $37,868 to the state, according to court documents.

The tax investigation began in June 2020, after the Minnesota Department of Revenue received information about suspicious filings by Derek Chauvin. The agency started an internal cursory review and then opened a formal investigation.

The probe ultimately found the Chauvins did not file state tax returns for 2016, 2017, or 2018, and did not report all of their income for 2014 and 2015. When tax returns for 2016 through 2019 were filed in June 2020, the Chauvins did not report all of their income in those years either, the complaints said.

The complaints said Chauvin was required to pay taxes on income from off-duty security work he did at several jobs between 2014 and 2020. Investigators believe that at one job he earned about $95,920 over those six years that was not reported.

His ex-wife, Kellie May Chauvin, pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to two counts of aiding and abetting their failure to file tax returns for 2016 and 2017. Her plea agreement called for three years of probation and restitution with no more than 45 days of community service. The other charges were dropped. Hawley said she will be sentenced May 12.

Kellie Chauvin filed for divorce shortly after Floyds death, and a judge approved the divorce last February under terms that were kept sealed. The judge rejected an initial proposed settlement that would have given Kellie Chauvin most of their property and money, which had fueled speculation that the Chauvins were trying to shield their assets.

Documents in the tax case said the couple owned a second home in Florida, and alleged they also failed to pay proper sales tax on a $100,000 BMW purchased in Minnesota in 2018.

Chauvin was convicted of state murder and manslaughter charges in 2021 and is serving 22.5 years in that case. He also pleaded guilty to a federal charge of violating Floyds civil rights and was sentenced to 21 years. He is serving the sentences concurrently.

Three other officers were convicted of federal charges of violating Floyds rights. Two of them have also been convicted of a state count of aiding and abetting manslaughter, while the third is waiting for a judge to decide his fate on the state charges.
German Minister to Make Official Visit to Taiwan in Decades-Long First

German Science and Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger addresses the media during a press conference in Berlin on Jan. 14, 2022. (Michael Sohn/AP Photo, pool)

Germany will send its federal minister to visit Taiwan next week for talks on research cooperation, an official said on Friday, marking the first high-level visit by a German minister to Taiwan in over two decades.

Education and Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger will meet with Taiwanese officials during her two-day trip to Taiwan to discuss expanding cooperation in chip research, green hydrogen, and batteries, a ministry spokesperson said.

Government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit clarified that the ministers visit to Taiwan is not related to the self-ruled islands sovereignty and Germany maintains its stance on the One China policy.

We are also in regular and close contact with China and the Chinese leadership, he told reporters. The visit that the minister for education and research is making to Taiwan now doesnt call into question our stance in any way.

It remains unclear whether Stark-Watzinger will meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen during her visit next week.

The upcoming visit by Stark-Watzinger will be the first by a German official of that rank to visit Taiwan since 1997 when then-economy minister Guenter Rexrodt made a visit to the self-governing island.

TSMCs Global Expansion Plans

Her visit comes as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the worlds largest contract chipmaker, said on Jan. 12 that it was considering opening its first plant in Europe and a second one in Japan.

In Europe, were engaging with customers and partners to evaluate the possibility of building a specialty fab, focusing on automotive-specific technologies, based on the demand from customers and level of government support, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei said.

TSMC was said to be in advanced talks with suppliers last year about establishing a plant in Dresden, Germany, which will focus on manufacturing 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer chip technologies.

Previous German Delegation Visit

On Jan. 9, Germany sent a delegation led by the national defense committee chairman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann to Taiwan, where they met with Tsai and defense officials to discuss the stability across Taiwan Strait.

Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wen (R) greets Johannes Vogel, a member of Germanys parliament, at the presidential office in Taipei on Jan. 10, 2023. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

A day before their arrival, the Chinese military staged combat drills involving 57 aircraft and four naval vessels around the island.

Taiwan scrambled aircraft, naval vessels, and land-based missile systems after detecting 28 Chinese warplanes entering its air defense identification zone.

Beijing said the goal of the combat drills was to counter provocative actions by Taiwan and external forces.

Taiwan rejected Beijings claims and said it was the irrational provocation of the Peoples Liberation Army that had severely destabilized regional security.

We seek neither escalation nor conflict, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said in a statement. [Taiwans] armed forces constantly monitor our surrounding area and respond to activities accordingly.

Taiwan has been a self-governing democracy since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949, but the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) views Taiwan as its own territory. It regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be united with mainland China by any means necessary.

Last year, the Chinese military staged large-scale military drills around Taiwan in retaliation for then-U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosis visit to the island.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and ex-Danish Prime Minister, earlier said that European and NATO powers were too naive prior to Russias invasion of Ukraine and are risking repeating the same mistakes with China.

He believes that CCP leader Xi Jinping will watch closely the war in Ukraine before deciding on any attack on Taiwan.

The world hasnt so far paid sufficient attention to the tensions in the Taiwan Strait, he said.

We should realize that the conflict between China and Taiwan has, and will have, global repercussions. So we have a global interest in preventing those tensions from escalating into an armed conflict, Rasmussen added.

Bryan Jung and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
In this series, we evaluate some of the lesser-known yet common adverse events that are appearing in the research literature as well as in doctors clinics and, more importantly, how to deal with them and reduce the risks.

New Hampshire state Rep. Mike Belcher, a Republican, has been suffering from ocular migraines for almost two years.

He took his first Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA immunization in April 2021, and things havent been the same since.

About 12 hours after the shot, Belcher recalled developing symptoms of severe flu. Neurological symptoms manifested in a matter of days.

One unusual symptom stood out: His vision became strange. He started to notice that the red and green color balance in his eyes would shift, and dark spots would appear in his field of vision.

Belcher would soon be tormented with painful headaches preceded by a blinding light that would cause searing pain at the back of his eyes.

He also experienced more serious symptoms, including impaired balance (he was unable to walk in a straight line) and memory problems.

After being transferred from specialist to specialist, Belcher was finally hospitalized in May 2021.

I was hospitalized for maybe four days, and I was discharged with the diagnosis of protracted ocular migraines with some other names stacked on, Belcher told The Epoch Times. I had never had a migraine before, and at that point, I had a migraine for [about] 20-something days straight.

Undated photo of Michael Belcher. (Courtesy of Michael Belcher)

Reports of Unusual Visual and Neurological Symptoms in the Vaccinated

Alabama-based neurologist and neuroradiologist Dr. Diane Counce told The Epoch Times that since the vaccine rollouts, she has also seen many patients who, after vaccination, would develop migraines or experience a worsening or increased frequency of symptoms. These migraines would often manifest with temporary blindness.

Counces clinic has treated roughly 300 long-haul and post-vaccine patients, and she has noticed that her long-COVID patients tend to have symptom presentations that are more understood, more textbook presentation, while the patients who developed symptoms after vaccination may develop more severe and unexplainable symptoms.

A rather puzzling symptom she saw in her vaccinated patients was vision fluctuation, which would be accompanied by other neurological problems. The patients visual acuity would decline, but the decline would fluctuate from day to day, with no obvious physical abnormality observed in the eye.

The constant changes in symptom severity make it hard for patients to change their eyeglass prescription, because theyll be different the next day, Counce said.

Ophthalmologist Dr. Lynnell Lowry from Alamo Eye Institute in Texas has also observed a rise in unusual eye problems.

She told The Epoch Times about a patient who, for several weeks, had her field of vision interrupted by snow-like disturbances, but Lowry couldnt find anything remarkable upon examination.

Most of Lowrys vaccinated patients seemed to have developed vision problems related to a shingles flare-up or thyroid-related deficiencies.

She has also seen an increase in rarer ocular problems. She would typically see central serous retinopathies about once every five years but has seen three cases in vaccinated people in 2022. She normally sees about one case of cranial nerve palsies every two years but has seen three cases in vaccinated people in 2022.

Eye Complications Recorded in Database and Literature

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), about 70 percent of eye pain, blurry vision, and visual impairment reports were filed for COVID-19 vaccines, as well as more than 50 percent of all eye swelling reports.

While VAERS cant determine whether an adverse event was caused by a vaccination, patterns in reporting may suggest a need for further evaluation to assess potential safety concerns.

The UK, which rolled out vaccines at about the same time as the United States, reported more than 9,000 cases of neurological symptoms, including muscle spasms, myalgia, paresthesia, headaches, and dizziness, to its VAERS database by late April 2021.

A New Zealand study that tracked about 3,000 vaccinated patients who developed uveitis before the vaccine rollouts found that patients had an increased risk of uveitis flare-ups after vaccination.

The baseline rate of uveitis flare was 12.3 per thousand patient months. This number increased to 20.7 after the first dose, 15 after the second dose, 12.8 after the third dose, and 23.9 after the fourth dose.

In November 2022, the American Academy of Ophthalmology posted a review of ocular manifestations post-vaccine that were reported in the literature. Eye complications fell into four broad categories:

Ocular inflammatory diseases occur when tissues in the eye become red, swollen, and pained. Post-vaccination inflammation has been documented in the conjunctiva, the outermost layer of the eye, and the sclera, the white layer covering the eye, as well as inflammation in the inner layers including the episclera and uvea.

occur when tissues in the eye become red, swollen, and pained. Post-vaccination inflammation has been documented in the conjunctiva, the outermost layer of the eye, and the sclera, the white layer covering the eye, as well as inflammation in the inner layers including the episclera and uvea. Optic neuropathies occur when the optic nerves that transfer visual information from the eye to the brain become damaged. This may occur when blood clots stop or limit blood flow to the nerves and also when the body starts attacking its own optic nerves, which may lead to flickering lights in the eyes, vision loss, and pain.

occur when the optic nerves that transfer visual information from the eye to the brain become damaged. This may occur when blood clots stop or limit blood flow to the nerves and also when the body starts attacking its own optic nerves, which may lead to flickering lights in the eyes, vision loss, and pain. Anterior segment conditions are related to eye complications in the front part of the eye such as the cornea, irises, and lens, as well as the muscles that control these areas. Since the vaccines rolled out, there have been several reports of keratitis, which is inflammation in the cornea. Reports of corneal transplant rejections have also been documented, although reporting rates arent higher than rates of other vaccines. Eye infections from shingles have also been reported and may occur with or without rashes.

are related to eye complications in the front part of the eye such as the cornea, irises, and lens, as well as the muscles that control these areas. Since the vaccines rolled out, there have been several reports of keratitis, which is inflammation in the cornea. Reports of corneal transplant rejections have also been documented, although reporting rates arent higher than rates of other vaccines. Eye infections from shingles have also been reported and may occur with or without rashes. Retinal conditions include tearing and detachment of the retina. Since the retina is responsible for detecting light and color, its damage can lead to impairment and loss of vision.

Mark from California suddenly started to see floaters in cobweb-like formations in his left eye within the first two weeks after receiving his first Pfizer vaccine dose. This came after suffering from chest pain within hours of vaccination.

A referral to an eye specialist showed that his retina was bleeding. The gel in his left eye, which gives eyes their spherical shape, was pulling on the retina, causing the tissue to bleed. If the gel tears or causes the retina to detach, it may lead to permanent vision loss.

More Evidence Needed to Prove Causality

Since COVID-19, doctors have become more cautious when discussing vaccine adverse events.

Mark said his ophthalmologist told him that the spike protein produced by his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine may have aggregated in his eye, leading to inflammation and damage, but other eye specialists have told him the opposite.

Mark had laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) to correct his vision more than 20 years ago, so other ophthalmologists told him that he was at risk of retinal detachment to begin with, although studies have generally reported retinal detachment within the first few years after a LASIK surgery.

While ophthalmologists are now becoming more aware of vaccine adverse events, some argue that the current evidence that supports ocular complications from the vaccine isnt strong enough.

Since ocular complications after vaccinations tend to be quite rare to begin with, some experts think its unknown whether reported cases of suspected ocular problems after vaccinations are side effects or only a matter of coincidence.

Ophthalmologist Dr. Abdelrahman Elhusseiny, who has co-authored several studies documenting ocular adverse events after COVID-19 vaccinations, said although the literature on this topic has increased since 2021, he has seen very few cases of possible vaccine adverse events in his clinic.

He also said many of his vaccinated patients who then developed ocular problems had underlying health problems, such as autoimmune disease, diabetes, or high blood pressure, which would already put them at risk of ocular symptoms and may increase the risk of vaccine adverse events.

While extensive literature has shown that the COVID-19 vaccines can cause myocarditis, pericarditis, and thrombocytopenia, links between COVID-19 vaccines and ocular adverse events have been quite weak.

There is evidence, but the evidence is not as strong as with other conditions such as, say, cardiovascular issues. This is mainly due to [the] small number of events and lack of well-controlled studies specifically on ocular adverse events, ophthalmic epidemiologist and professor Mahyar Etminan from the University of British Columbia told The Epoch Times over email.

The most compelling evidence so far is from a Japanese epidemiology study that compared vaccinated people to unvaccinated people. After comparing about 80,000 double-dosed individuals against the same number of unvaccinated people, the authors found that risks of ocular complications increased after the second dose. However, analyzing the same sample using a different technique resulted in an insignificant link between vaccination and ocular symptoms.

There are also several case studies reporting possible links, although this type of study is less convincing as evidence to prove causality.

Nevertheless, Etminan believed that its possible to investigate the possible link between ocular complications and vaccinations, noting that the study should be well-designed with a large sample size.

Since these vaccines are under the microscope, we have to be careful not to link everything and the kitchen sink associated with these drugs. This data should only come from well-designed studies, he said.

Ophthalmologists Now Discussing Vaccine Risks With Patients

To err on the side of caution, some ophthalmologists are now actively bringing up possible risks of the vaccines to their patients.

Lowry said that now she considers a persons vaccine status and evaluates its potential temporal association with the symptoms of which her patients complain.

Elhusseiny similarly said he lets his patients know about the risks of vaccinating so they can make their own decisions.

One of Elhusseinys patients lost his spouse to COVID-19 and continued getting vaccinated without further adverse reactions, while another patient had a relative who experienced a vaccine-adverse event, and therefore, decided to stop getting vaccinated.

Lowry highlighted the importance of physicians bringing up vaccine risks with their patients.

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, she noticed that while some patients suspect that the vaccines may have been involved in some of their symptoms, they seem afraid to mention it voluntarily.

Theres a huge stigma, Lowry said. Patients who got vaccinated and had adverse events are almost afraid to blame it on the vaccine.

Especially since most people now have experienced both vaccination and infection, theres an added level of complexity for doctors to come to a diagnosis, with Lowry comparing doctors now to detectives.

Unresolved but Improving

When looking to the horizon, the bright light triggers a pulsating effect on his eyes, Belcher said.

The vision kind of fades in and out just a little bit, he said. Thats a constant feature.

Belcher said many of the doctors he saw during and leading up to his hospitalization were quite certain that the vaccine was a contributor to his condition.

Thankfully for Belcher, most of his neurological symptoms are now under control.

Although his ocular migraines need daily medication to prevent breakthrough cases, in recent weeks, hes seeing a decrease in frequency.

Belcher hopes that future examinations will inform him of the pathological reasons behind his ocular symptoms.

Next: I cant be stuck with this forever. Im gonna lose my mind, Mary thought, distressed. Despite her thoughts, the dull ringing in her ears persisted like an alarm clock that couldnt be silenced, mowing down her concentration.

Previously: On March 10, the Japanese government reported its first death deemed to be directly caused by the COVID-19 vaccine. Since the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, 102 deaths have been officially documented by major countries, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
New research is discovering a complex and intimate connection between our state of mind and the functioning of the immune system.

Yet-to-be-published research recently summarized in the journal Nature unearthed a fascinating connection between the brain and recovery from heart attacks in mice.

Examining scarring on the hearts of the rodents, researchers at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa discovered a significant difference in the level of damage between one group of mice that had received stimulation of a brain area involved in positive emotion and motivation, and the control group that received no stimulation.

The control group showed significant evidence of damage to heart cells under the microscope while the brain-stimulated mice had a far less detectable injury.

In the beginning, we were sure that it was too good to be true, Hedva Haykin, a doctoral student conducting the research, told Nature. It was only after repeating the experiment several times, Haykin said, that she was able to accept the effect she was seeing as real.

A Deeper Understanding

Haykins work is part of a growing boom in medical research exploring the connection between the brain and the immune system. Scientists are discovering multiple lines of communication between the nervous and immune systems and different parts of the brain communicating different instructions to our bodys defensive systems.

This field has really exploded over the last several years, Filip Swirski, director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Mount Sinai in New York, told The Epoch Times.

Swirski pointed out that the immune system and the nervous system are arguably the only two systems of the body that we know have the capacity to learn.

The immune system can, for example, acquire memory of previous infection, Swirski said, which allows it to rapidly respond to new infections.

Swirski and other researchers published findings in Nature in May 2022 that explored how distinct regions of the brain shape immune response on a granular levelwith different cells of the immune system being directed by different regions of the brain.

While circuits in the motor cortex of the brain rapidly mobilize leukocytes (a type of white blood cell) to the site of an acute infection or injury, another part of the brain, the hypothalamus, essentially down-regulates immune response by returning leukocytes to the bone marrow where theyre produced and, apparently, housed for future deployment.

One of the things we are seeing is that the brain can modulate, or calibrate, the immune system, Swirski said.

We are now recognizing that the brain has this very close conversation with the immune system.

Swirskis research, he said, mapped some of the brains remarkable ability to control the distribution of all the main immune cells in the body. Small clusters of neurons in specific regions of the brain, responding to stress, can dictate where the immune cells will appear in the body.

He said this granular level control isnt something were aware of in our daily lives.

It doesnt enter our consciousness. If you experience a stressful or traumatic event in your life, you have a felt physical response to thatbut you arent aware that your brain is telling your body where to send the immune cells in response to that event.

Swirski explained that while the immune systems response to acute illness or injury is necessarily intense and rapid, too much of that kind of response can lead to the exhaustion of the immune system itself.

This is why his teams research showed that when specific regions in the brain redistributed immune cells throughout the body in response to stress, the body was less prepared to fight off acute infections, like COVID-19. On the other hand, acute stress protected against the acquisition of autoimmunity. While this doesnt mean that stress is good for you as a therapeutic against autoimmune disease, it does highlight the remarkable control the brain has over the immune system.

The Delicate Balance Within the Immune System

The immune system exhibits something called anticipatory inflammationfor example, the body responds to a viral infection by having certain immune cells congregate in the lymph nodes and show that virus to T cells and B cells that then generate immune response to that virus that is more immediately available to be mobilized should the infection return, Swirski said.

In a follow-up email, Swirski said that anticipatory inflammation is the idea that the immune cells anticipate an infection or injury by relocating to organs that are in potential danger. Its a handy term to describe how the immune system is strategizing against a possible assault.

But theres a danger in this anticipation on the part of the immune system as well; this anticipation can set the threshold for auto-immune reaction higher.

When we exposed animals to a model of multiple sclerosis [an auto-immune disease], and then stressed those animals, we found fewer B cells and T cells in the lymph nodes, and thus a less severe manifestation of disease, Swirski said. But when we exposed animals to a viral infection and then stressed them we also found fewer B and T cells, which, in this case, led to a worsened outcome because the immune system was less efficient at clearing the virus. The same phenomenon (redistribution of immune cells in the body) led to a different outcome depending on context. This kind of duality often exists in the immune system.

This balance also applies to the immune system in relation to the external environment. The immune system is always distinguishing between self and not-self in the body, Swirski said. There is this idea that if the immune system is not adequately engaged with the environment, it may start to make mistakes and act against antigens that are not inherently harmful.

A certain amount of stress may actually be good for the immune system. It keeps the immune system busy and may help to develop resilience in the system.

The immune system operates optimally somewhere between engagement and exhaustion, he said.

An under-engaged immune system may become susceptible to attacking the body itself (conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, MS, allergies, and, to a certain extent, asthma are examples). Conversely, an overtaxed immune system simply becomes exhausted and suffers a catastrophic failure.

Swirski gave an example of what happens with sepsisa serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection.

Sepsis is an overwhelming immune response to overwhelming infection. The problem with sepsis is not only the cytokine storm we heard so much about with severe COVID (in ER, we can often mitigate the effects of this process) but the fact that following the cytokine storm, the immune systems can shut offand then nothing can be fought.

In fact, doctors and scientists noted relatively early in the pandemic that individuals who were hospitalized with COVID had an immune system that responded in a markedly different way to the virus than others who had milder cases. Researchers at the University of CaliforniaSan Francisco, noted this phenomenon in the universitys periodical.

Early in the pandemic, doctors noticed that compared to forms of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by other respiratory infections such as flu, some features of COVID ARDS were atypical. Patients werent only slower to develop ARDS but also slower to recover, in some cases spending weeks on a ventilator. Often, their immune systems continued a ruinous battle against their own bodiesravaging their lungs and choking them of oxygeneven after SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, had cleared their systems.

It was very strange, University of CaliforniaSan Franciscos Dr. Carolyn Calfee, a critical care physician and one of the worlds leading experts on ARDS, told UCSF magazine. I thought, What kind of ARDS does this? This is not normal.

In searching for answers, Calfee and other researchers are finding that COVID-19 unhinges the immune system in ways no one expected, going so far as to turn the body against itself. Some people who get especially bad or unusual symptoms, for instance, harbor rogue antibodiessimilar to those seen in autoimmune diseasesthat disrupt the bodys normal immune response and can attack the bodys own tissues. These discoveries could explain how the virus causes such extensive outcomes; they could also help predict who, if infected, will develop severe symptoms. This may also help identify effective treatments. Potentially, these discoveries could also change scientists fundamental understanding of human immunity and how it can malfunction.

The Hygiene Hypothesis

Another fascinating example of the interplay between immunity and the environment as a means of calibrating optimal stress for the immune system is something called the hygiene hypothesis.

The immune system must engage with the world and relies on that engagement, Swirski said.

The hygiene hypothesis suggests that the reason were seeing the rise of allergies and asthma in children is that more contemporary lifestyles have eliminated many of the childhood diseases and pathogen threats humans have always faced. As a result, the immune system doesnt get properly trained.

Its like having an army stuck in a base that never learns what an enemy combatant looks like. After a while, different platoons can start to look like potential threats. In the body, the result is that the immune system can exhibit a breakdown of tolerance to the body and recognize something that isnt a pathogen as a pathogen.

In such a case, according to Swirski, the immune system has learned, but in the wrong way.

When asked if this were a case of the immune system having too little to do and getting itself into trouble, Swirski said, Metaphorically, you could put it that way.

Possible Applications for Future Treatments

The body and the brain talk to each other, Swirski said. Research is now starting to look at how regions of the brain talk to the immune system and how they may serve as a kind of rheostat, regulating the immune systems actions so, ideally, it neither overheats nor underperforms.

Researchers are also discovering that mental health has cellular and molecular dimensions. This is an important insight that changes how we look at ailments such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

When you examine the history of PTSD, how it was approached in the culture, ideas have changed. It was once thought that someone suffering from it (say a shell-shocked war veteran) was just weak: This is just in your headget yourself together. But now we are understanding there are real physiological consequences to the stressors that lead to these conditions, Swirski said.

That shift in understanding has come about as a result of research capable of measuring how the body responds at microscopic levels of cells and molecules.

Now we have tools that we didnt have before that allow us to test some of these hypotheses. PTSD has manifestations in the brainrewiring of the brain architecture, changes in the immune systemin the inflammatory set-point. When you can measure these differences and see statistical differences, you can then start to envision more effective medical interventions while relieving patients of the stigma of blame that previously had been attached.

Swirski concluded that as we begin to map the biomarkers that communicate between the brain and the immune system, we enhance our ability to design more effective interventions for these conditions.

He cites the example of transcranial magnetic stimulation, a noninvasive procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to improve symptoms of depression.

With therapies like this, we may be able to precisely target neural clusters to reprogram or stimulate neurons to do the things we want them to do; change mood, even alter the reward system in the brain so that its easier to engage in healthy habits, like getting a good nights sleep, eating better, and exercising.

Swirski also said that such research can help us better understand how behavioral choices such as meditation or cultivating gratitude or selflessness can have a measurable and significant impact on our brain and body chemistry and thus also reveal the scientific basis for the anecdotal efficacy of these interventions.
Its estimated that about 20 percent of adults worldwide suffer from some sort of pain disorder. Many patients are unable to recover after repeatedly seeking medical treatment, and sometimes the cause of the pain cant be fully diagnosed.

Dr. Tse See-li, a Hong Kong-registered traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner, said that long-term pain is mostly caused by blood stasis, and the use of Chinese herbal medicine that promotes blood circulation and removes blood stasis can resolve the pain once and for all. He also recommends one Chinese herbal tea which can help improve the bodys microcirculation and remove blood stasis.

Blood stasis is a common concept in TCM. TCM believes that physiological activities of the human body not only rely on blood circulation to supply nutrients, but also depend on the energy inside the bodythe movement of qi.

Tse points out that qi (energy) stays in the blood, and the movement of blood is driven by qi. Only with qi can the blood be pushed to the capillaries and flow around the whole body. If the body doesnt have enough qi, the microcirculation will become poor and blood stasis will easily occur.

He likened the movement of qi and blood to the water flow in a river. Sandbars are formed at the turns when the speed of the water slows down and the sediment gradually settles. When qi and blood circulation are blocked, pain will also occur, which is described as pain if there is no flow in TCM theory.

Modern-day research also links chronic pain with cardiovascular problems. A study based on Taiwans National Health Insurance Research Database found that people with chronic pain have a significantly higher risk of developing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases than others. After adjusting for the effects of diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, the risk of stroke and other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in patients with chronic pain is still 30 percent higher.

Old Wounds Bring New Pain

The cause of blood stasis is not only caused by ones specific constitution, but also by external or internal injury. An injury causes blood to leave a vessel, forming localized bruising. If the blood stasis cannot be absorbed by the body, it will also affect the microcirculation of nearby tissues, and the blood stasis thus formed could enlarge with time, which in turn affects the tissue function of the body.

Tse once treated a patient with complaints of chest pain. He had difficulty breathing, and the pain was so stressful that he couldnt sleep at night. He tried painkillers and acupuncture but to no avail. He also tried stacking a hot pack stuffed with herbal medicine on the visibly affected area and found many bruises floating to the skin surface. Tse found it very strange and asked him if his chest had ever been injured.

The patient recalled that he once fell on his backnine years ago. At the time of the injury, the pain was relieved by massage with Diedajiu (Chinese medicinal liniment), and since then, he had forgotten about it. Tse speculated that when he fell, he injured his thoracic spine area, resulting in minor blood stasis, but as the tissues near the blood stasis couldnt be nourished by fresh blood, it in turn affected other body functions over time.

TCM believes that if blood stasis does not go away, new blood will not be produced. Because of the accumulation of blood stasis, fresh blood cannot reach that area, and the stasis will spread further and further, Tse said.

Tses treatment is to use Chinese herbal medicine to make a medicinal bag, boil it with wine, and then place the bag on the affected area. Under the action of temperature and medicinal power, the blood stasis will be loosened and becomes easier for the body to absorb. The whole process takes about half an hour to an hour. For bruises from fresh injuries, it can be recovered after two or three treatments, while for the old and more stubborn ones, it takes five to 10 treatments for a full recovery.

Tse See-li treating his patient for blood stasis by stacking a hot herbal medicinal pack on the painful area, in this still taken from the video series A Hundred Diseases and a Hundred Medicines. (Screenshot via YouTube/GreenEastern)

Joint Pain From Bruising

Modern-day scientific research has also found that many Chinese herbal medicines can improve pain. A meta-analysis study found that patients with knee arthritis can improve their pain by soaking the affected area in a Chinese herbal solution, with an effective rate 20 percent higher than conventional treatment.

Tse has been using this stasis-removal therapy to treat many patients with long-term joint pain. He said that he once came across a patient who had sought medical treatment everywhere and had been seeing many Chinese and Western doctors both locally and abroad, yet his joint pain just became more and more serious, and he was unable to work in the end.

Some doctors advised him to have an artificial joint replacement, while others suggested he be referred to a neurologist. The patient finally found Tse, and after five treatments of blood stasis removal, the patient was able to return to his work.

Why didnt other doctors see the problem of bruising? Tse explained that a bruise the size of a grain of rice is already big enough to cause pain if it slips inside a joint. However, Western medicine mainly uses X-rays to diagnose syndromes, which can only see the bones and often miss the minute blood stasis. Because of that, its often misdiagnosed as joint aging or bone spurs being the main culprit.

Cold Drinks Can Induce Blood Stasis

Apart from blood stasis caused by bruises from injury, Tse pointed out that theres another kind of injury called an internal injury, which may be caused by food or medicine.

He believes that one of the reasons why modern-day people are more prone to pain is that they often take cold drinks, which can easily affect blood circulation and make pain symptoms appear at a younger age. In particular, women drinking too many cold beverages are prone to dysmenorrhea, and even uterine fibroids, leading to infertility.

Tse also pointed out that when people get older, the flow and circulation of qi and blood slow down, making it easier to form blood stasis. Therefore, in addition to keeping up with workouts to promote blood circulation, one can also take Chinese herbal tea to help regulate the body.

Chinese Herbal Tea to Promote Blood Circulation, Remove Blood Stasis

Ingredients: astragalus 75 grams (2.7 ounces), angelica 7.5 grams (0.27 ounce), red peony root 7.5 grams (0.27 ounce), Chuanxiong rhizome 3.75 grams (0.13 ounce), peach kernel 3.75 grams (0.13 ounce), safflower 3.75 grams (0.13 ounce).

Preparation: Wash all the above and boil in 1 to 2 liters (2 to 4 pints) of water for half an hour. It can be taken in portions throughout the day.

Note: Women shouldnt take it during pregnancy and menstruation. People with yin deficiency and internal heat constitution should take it in moderation.

Astragalus can invigorate qi, strengthen heart contraction, reduce thrombus formation, promote bone marrow hematopoiesis, and regulate blood sugar. (Shutterstock)

According to Tse, this prescription is based on the Buyang Huanwu (Yang-supplementary & Five-returning) Decoction by Wang Qingren, an eminent TCM practitioner in the Qing Dynasty, and adjusted to the appropriate amount for daily health care purposes. He often drinks it himself.

Buyang Huanwu Decoction is a commonly used formula in the treatment of stroke in TCM, and its efficacy has been confirmed by several studies. Apart from treating ischemic stroke, it is also beneficial for other vascular diseases, such as diabetic nephropathy and angina pectoris.

Tse pointed out that this prescription uses a large amount of astragalus, focusing on nourishing qi and blood, combined with other medicinal materials that can promote blood circulation, it has the effect of dispelling blood stasis.

Astragalus nourishes qi, can strengthen heart contraction, reduces thrombus formation, promotes bone marrow hematopoiesis, and regulates blood sugar.

Angelica invigorates qi, activates blood, moistens the intestines, and relaxes the bowels.

Paeoniae Rubra has an inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation and thrombus formation, can increase coronary artery flow, and expand the pulmonary blood vessels.

Chuanxiong rhizome can strengthen the heart and can treat angina pectoris. For example, it can treat dementia in the elderly when combined with ginseng.

Peach kernel promotes blood circulation and removes blood stasis, moistens the intestines, and relieves constipation. Safflower can enhance capillary microcirculation.

However, it should be noted that Chinese medicine classifies peoples constitutions into different types. With such a difference in constitutions, the corresponding medicinal materials needed are also different. Tse advised that if you are a person who often feels dry and hot in cold weather, you belong to the yin deficiency and internal heat group. In that case, you should not take too much of this tea.

*Some herbs mentioned in this article may be unfamiliar, but they are generally available in Asian supermarkets.

Note: Because different people have different body constitutions, it is recommended to consult your doctor or TCM experts.
James OKeefe: Its Time to Decentralize Journalism

In the wake of his public split from Project Veritas, investigative reporter James OKeefe has launched a new venture that aims to put the power of the media in the hands of everyday people.

The goal, he said, is to decentralize journalism.

What if there was a way to empower and mobilize journalists, citizen journalists, and decentralize journalismyou know, in the same way that Uber did for the taxi? OKeefe asked The Epoch Times Senior Editor Jan Jekielek, host of American Thought Leaders, in a March 16 interview.

What if there was a way to do that for thousands and thousands of people? he wondered. You might say, Well, thats impossible, thats too difficult. Well, thats the mission that Im embarking upon. And I think that I have the ability to do that.

OKeefe launched his new media company, OKeefe Media Group, on March 15, roughly three weeks after he was ousted from his position as board chairman and CEO at Project Veritasthe undercover journalism organization he founded in 2010amid an investigation of his spending habits.

When youre really good at something, theyre going to try to tear you down, OKeefe said on Thursday. Envy, resentment, ego, power, control, what have you. And I experienced that. But I dont think its a bad thing.

Ultimately, I think its a blessing because it taught me a lot and we got to  build something on a grander scale. It sort of liberated me to achieve the mission that Ive always wanted to achieve, which is to decentralize and to build a vast army of citizen exposures.

The Pfizer Expose

OKeefe explained that the idea for his new venture stemmed from his last major story with Project Veritasan expose in which a Pfizer executive was recorded stating that the drugmaker was exploring ways of mutating SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

OKeefe revealed that Debbie Bernal, one of the two whistleblowers Project Veritas worked with on that story, was initially afraid to reveal her identity because she doesnt want to end up in a body bag.

However, after witnessing what happened between OKeefe and his former organization, Bernal decided to break her silence by joining him onstage at CPAC in Washington.

Since then, the journalist has made it his mission to find other concerned citizens like Bernal and empower them to record and report the truth.

Its one of the only hopes left in our society, he added.

Building an Army

Under normal circumstances, building a thousands-strong army is no easy feat. Throw in the fact that the soldiers mustat least for nowbe unpaid, and one might expect the wells of recruitment to run dry.

But such has not been the case for OKeefe.

On the contrary, the journalist noted that his new company had already garnered the interest of an inbox full of would-be journalistsas well as a few thousand paid subscribersjust in the 24 hours since its launch.

Most people are willing to do this for free, he contended. In fact, the people that are working with me for the last two weeks have worked for free. And some of us have maxed out our credit cards in order for us to get the company up and running, which we have.

Essentially, OKeefes plan is to equip citizen journalists with cameras so that they can record the corruption in their communities themselves. Those citizen journalists will be supported by an in-house team of elite journalists who will curate the content to ensure it is factually accurate and free of bias.

You have to make sure that its done the right wayyoure not crossing any lines, youre not filming people in their bedrooms. We dont want that, he noted. So yeah, I think theres going to be some obstacles and theres going to be some hurdles, but none I dont think we can overcome.

And while he acknowledged that, at some point, the journalists would probably be paid, he cautioned, You have to be careful there because when the incentive is to get paid, that can bastardize journalism.

A Pernicious Influence

OKeefe held that moneyfrom advertising, in particularhas had a pernicious influence on the independence of investigative journalists.

I think a journalist ought to give you the factsand you give the facts without fear or without favor, he noted. So, if on my YouTube videos, at the very end, it says, This was brought to you by Pfizer,  obviously, youre going to go, OK, thats probably influencing his ability to be honest.

Contending that commercialism will ultimately corrupt the essence of the craft of truth-seeking, OKeefe stressed that those who report the news must instead be driven by a sense of justice.

And while he added that he felt he had recently seen the impacts of allowing the wrong motivations to guide ones reporting, the journalist said he preferred to focus on the positiveslike the fact that thousands of others motivated by a desire for truth had chosen to join him on his new path to finding it.

Theres so many of themthats really what Ive learned. So, lets harness that. And lets equip them and decentralize journalism.
Japans Indo-Pacific Strategy in Focus on Kishidas Upcoming Visit to India

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (C) prepares to leave Haneda airport in Tokyo on Jan. 8, 2023. (Kota Endo/Kyodo News via AP)

Japans prime minister will visit India next week with a focus on promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific amid concerns over Beijings military assertiveness in the region, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

The ministry stated that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will embark on his two-day visit to India on March 19 and meet with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, to discuss bolstering the JapanIndia strategic partnership.

Details about the leaders meeting are scarce, but its anticipated that Kishida will unveil a new strategy for a free and open Indo-Pacific during his trip and seek Indias support in implementing this strategy.

Indias Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the government is looking forward to having a rich discussion with Kishida. He referred to Japan as a vital partner of India, ANI News reported.

Japan is our very important partner. We have annual summits with them and this is part of that. They are also partners in plurilateral and multilateral constructs, so we look forward to a rich discussion, he told reporters on March 16.

Bagchi refused to provide any specifics about the leaders upcoming meeting.

We look forward to taking forward those discussions, but what will be the talking points, what will be the outcomes, let the leaders talk about it. I think its pretty far too soon to judge that, he said.

India and Japan have been adding more depth to their relations, especially in defense and strategic affairs, as both nations face threats from a dominant China.

Kishidas decision to announce his new strategy during the annual summit between the two countries underlines the importance Japan places on India as a key player in the Indo-Pacific region.

Japans National Security Strategy

Kishidas plan is in line with Japans National Security Strategy (PDF) released in December 2022, which states that Japan will promote joint development of defense equipment and training with like-minded countries and others in the Indo-Pacific region.

Japan will strive to make the vision of a [Free and Open Indo-Pacific] more universal around the world, create rules to expand the free and fair economic zone, improve connectivity, empower governance of countries and international organizations, and expand efforts to ensure maritime security, it reads.

While utilizing frameworks such as the JapanU.S.ROK [Republi of Korea], and JapanU.S.Australia, Japan will enhance security cooperation with Australia, India, ROK, European countries, ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nation] countries, Canada, NATO, EU, and others.

(LR) Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pose for photos at the entrance hall of the Prime Ministers Office of Japan in Tokyo on May 24, 2022. (Zhang Xiaoyu/Reuters)

Japan and India are also part of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or the Quad, which is an informal strategic grouping composed of the United States, Australia, India, and Japan.

Beijing Threat

Members of the Quad have increased defense cooperation because of growing concerns over the Chinese Communist Partys (CCPs) military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region, with Japan describing the CCP as its greatest threat to national security.

Japan is concerned about its own vulnerability as the CCP expands its military presence near Taiwan and the East China Sea, where the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands are located. The regime in Beijing hasnt ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control.

Relations between India and the CCP have also been strained because of border disputes. On Dec. 9, 2022, Indian and Chinese troops clashed along the disputed Himalayan border, which resulted in minor injuries on both sides.

Earlier this year, India and Japan held their first-ever joint air combat drill to deepen defense cooperation, which featured multi-domain air combat missions and expertise exchanges on various operational aspects.

Japan deployed four F-2 and four F-15 fighters to participate in the Veer Guardian 2023 joint drill, while India sent four Su-30 MKI fighters, two C-17 transport aircraft, and one IL-78 refueling tanker.

Alexander Zhang, Venus Upadhayaya, and Reuters contributed to this report.
Jurassic Park Star Sam Neill Reveals Diagnosis for Ferocious Type of Blood Cancer

Sam Neill attends the Photo Call for Ovation at 2019 Winter TCA at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena in Pasadena, Calif., on Feb. 8, 2019. (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)

Sam Neill, likely best known for playing paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielbergs original Jurassic Park franchise films, has recently revealed that hes receiving treatment for stage-three blood cancer.

The 75-year-old actor told the BBC this week that he was diagnosed with a ferocious type of aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma about 12 months ago, explaining that his initial thoughts were, Im crook, Im dying.

Neill first noticed that he was experiencing swollen glands during a publicity tour for Jurassic World: Dominion in March last year.

In an interview published in the Guardian on March 17, Neill said that the first rounds of chemotherapy treatment failed, but hes now cancer-free after switching to a relatively new anti-cancer drug that he will have to take on a monthly basis for the rest of his life.

Im not off the hook as such, but theres no cancer in my body, Neill told the publication.

Non-Hodgkins lymphoma is an aggressive form of cancer that develops in the lymphatic system. It can potentially return, even after it has been eliminated, but Neills anti-cancer drug will decrease the chances of this happening.

What Am I Going to Do?

Unable to work, the Northern Ireland-born actor, who currently lives in New Zealand, said that he began writing a memoir as a distraction and to give me a reason to get through the day.

I found myself with nothing to do, Neill said. Im used to working. I love working. I love going to work. I love being with people every day and enjoying human company and friendship and all these things. And suddenly I was deprived of that. And I thought, what am I going to do?

I never had any intention to write a book, he added. But as I went on and kept writing, I realized it was actually sort of giving me a reason to live and I would go to bed thinking, Ill write about that tomorrow  that will entertain me. And so it was a lifesaver really, because I couldnt have gone through that with nothing to do, you know.

Neills book, Did I Ever Tell You This?, is set for release on March 21. In the book, the actor discusses his blood cancer diagnosis, decades-long big-screen career, and experience growing up in Ireland and New Zealand.

I was very nervous, obviously as a first-time author. Anyway, I think its fun. We sub-titled it Movies, Life, Love, and Other Catastrophes, Neil wrote in the caption of a video he posted on Instagram on March 18. So it gives you an idea of all the crazy things that have happened to me.

Actor Sam Neill attends the premiere of the Universal Pictures film Jurassic Park III at Universal Studios in Burbank, Calif., on July 16, 2001. (Vince Bucci/Getty Images)

Neill assured fans in the social media post that hes alive and well after reports of his cancer diagnosis started to appear all over the news, noting [Ive] been in remission for eight months, which feels really good.

Hi, Im Sam Neill! Actor of sorts, vintner, and an author as it happens, Neill wrote in the post.

Im alive and kicking and Im going to work. Im very happy to be going back to work. We start filming in seven days time. Im doing a thing called Apples Never Fall with Annette Bening, and a really wonderful cast. So here I am, and I just wish the headline wasnt that thing so much, he added, referring to his diagnosis appearing in headlines.

Neill started his acting career in the 1970s and has been considered one of the most versatile actors of his generation. He recently returned to the science fiction action film series to perform in Jurassic World: Dominion, where he appeared alongside his former Jurassic Park co-stars, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern.

From NTD News
Man Accused in $83.6 Million Fraudulent COVID-19 Testing Scheme Out on Bond

A man federal prosecutors allege is responsible for an $83.6 million fraudulent COVID-19 testing scheme is out on bond after putting up the deed to his 5,600-square-foot suburban Chicago home.

Prosecutors dont just want the home, which is worth at least $865,000. They are seeking $83,578,387.89.

Prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of five luxury cars and several bank accounts. The vehicles include a 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLB 250, a 2021 Land Rover Range Rover HSE, a 2021 Lamborghini Urus, a 2021 Bentley, and a 2022 Tesla X. They further want a bank account with about $6.8 million, $810,000 in an E*Trade account, $500,000 in a Fidelity Investments account, and $245,814 in a Coinbase account, according to court records.

Zishan Alvi, 44, of Inverness, said Wednesday he plans to fight the charges against him.

We just got to fight this and prove my innocence, Alvi said. The truth always comes out.

He declined to comment on specifics and referred additional questions to his attorney, Murdoch Walker. Walker did not respond to an email or return a voicemail seeking comment.

Prosecutors allege Alvi co-owned and operated a Chicago laboratory, LabElite, that claimed to offer COVID-19 testing. The lab sought reimbursement for tests that were never performed, were performed improperly, or were already paid for by the client. Alvi faces ten counts of wire fraud and one count of theft of government funds.

The lab also offered a service where people and companies could pay a fee to receive COVID-19 PCR test results in an expedited fashion. The lab enrolled the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration Uninsured Program in December 2020. The program was designed to cover COVID-19 testing costs for people without health insurance coverage, according to an indictment filed by prosecutors.

Prosecutors said the lab submitted fraudulent claims and delivered inaccurate and unreliable test results to the public. The claims sought reimbursement for tests that prosecutors say Alvi knew had not performed or were unreliable and in some cases had already been paid for by the person.

Prosecutors said Alvi provided negative test results to be released to people who had provided a specimen for testing, but the test had not been performed. They further allege that Alvi directed lab employees to falsely indicate in lab records that COVID-19 tests had been performed for these people, when Alvi knew that the test specimens had been discarded at his direction and had not been tested. To conceal the fact that tests were not performed, the lab did not release positive COVID-19 results on specimens where tests were eventually performed, because a purported negative result had already been released, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

The lab collected more than $83.6 million from the HRSA Uninsured Program as payment for COVID-19 tests purportedly performed by the lab.

The charges in this case allege that the defendant disregarded public health concerns in favor of personal financial gain, Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual said in a statement. Doing so by compromising taxpayer-funded programs intended to fight the spread of coronavirus was particularly reprehensible.

Each count of wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison, and the count of theft of government funds is punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison.

Alvi put up the deed to his Inverness home as part of an agreement to be released before trial, according to court records.

By Brett Rowland
Millions of Dead Fish Found Floating in Australian River

Fish deaths in the lower Darling-Baaka attributed to low oxygen levels

In this image from video, dead fish float on the surface of the lower Darling-Baaka River near the New South Wales state far west town of Menindee, Australia, on March 18, 2023. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation via AP)

Millions of dead fish have been found floating in an Australian river in New South Wales (NSW), with environmental officials attributing the deaths to depleted oxygen levels in the river following recent floods and hot weather.

The deaths occurred in the lower Darling-Baaka River near the town of Menindee on March 17, the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) said in a statement on Facebook. The DPI stated that millions of fish were affected, predominantly bony herring and smaller numbers of other large-bodied species such as Murray cod, golden and silver perch, and carp.

This event is ongoing as a heatwave across western NSW continues to put further stress on a system that has experienced extreme conditions from wide-scale flooding, the department stated.

The DPI stated that the fish deaths were caused by hypoxia, or low oxygen levels in the water, which is believed to have occurred after flood waters receded.

Significant volumes of fish, including Carp and Bony Herring, nutrients and organic matter from the floodplain are being concentrated back into the river channel, it stated.

The current hot weather in the region is also exacerbating hypoxia, as warmer water holds less oxygen than cold water, and fish have higher oxygen needs at warmer temperatures.

A supplied image obtained on March 17, 2023, of thousands of dead fish that have washed up in a river in outback New South Wales, Australia, on March 16, 2023. (AAP Image/Supplied by Geoffrey Looney)

Unfathomable

Graeme McCrabb, a resident who spoke to The Guardian, described the magnitude of the fish deaths as unfathomable.

The decomposing dead fish could render the water unusable for residents, he said.

The river is just white. Im looking at probably a kilometer [a half mile] or a kilometer-and-a-half [almost a mile] of fish, and theyre all dead, he told the media outlet.

Footage posted to Twitter by SBS shows a boat navigating through the mass of fish blanketing the entire surface of the river.

The incident follows fish deaths in the same area in 2018 and 2019, when up to a million fish died from poor water flow, poor water quality, and sudden temperature changes.

Joy Becker, an associate professor at the University of Sydney, said an investigation into the cause of mass fish deaths should be conducted as such events could occur when the quality of the environment cannot sustain fish life.

It is important to remember that fish kill events impact not only the large-body fish like the Murray cod and bony bream but also the small-body fish like the gudgeons that are essential to maintaining a healthy aquatic ecosystem, Becker said.

Police said on Monday that contractors are being hired to remove millions of rotting fish, but keeping the towns water supply pure was the main priority. Dates for the work havent been set.

Im certainly not making promises that all the millions of fish will be removed by contractors because that is really a logistical nightmare, Police Assistant Commissioner Brett Greentree said.

I understand and acknowledge the smell and sights on the rivernobody wants to see that.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Newly elected, re-elected, appointed, and current members serving on the St. Francois County Extension Council were recognized during the organizations 2023 Annual Meeting and Banquet held earlier this month at Long Memorial Hall in Farmington.

Approximately 40 people attended the meeting/banquet that began with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, introductions, and invocation, followed by dinner. Emceeing the event were District 1 Chairman Jim Howard and Kendra Graham, field specialist in livestock for St. Francois Countys University of Missouri Extension.

University of Missouri county extension councils, made up of elected, appointed and delegated citizens in Missouris 114 counties, help guide local educational programming. The members are partners in the educational process, from needs assessment through program implementation and evaluation of outcomes. The extension council works with regional specialists to provide the county educational programs, manage finances of local extension operations, provide personnel to carry out extension activities and elect and organize the local extension council.

Prior to leading the 2023-2024 St. Francois County Extension Council members in their oath of office, St. Francois County Clerk Kevin Engler said, One of my duties as county clerk is swearing in boards around the county. It's always a pleasure being here. It gives me the chance to enjoy some good food and good company. Now, first I want to thank you all for serving. It is so tough to get people to serve. I've been involved in the chamber, the Lions Club, the Elks, and different organizations here, like the city council."

There's so much other stuff going on, and you could just say no, and you didn't, and we appreciate that. This isn't a long swearing in or anything, but the commitment that you make when you say, I want to make a difference, is significant. As a citizen of this community, I think it's important that we have people step up and say, I want to make a difference, and I will serve so that things are better in this community, in the ag community, so that our children have a better future in this area.

The new board consists of Jim Howard, District I; Ryan Aubuchon, District II; Harold Gallaher, county commissioner; Dolores Howard, re-elected council member, District I; Keith Schweigert, District I; Nathan Peterson, re-elected council member, District II; Matt Pigg, Farm Bureau; Jay Scruggs, re-elected council member, District I; Amanda Stegall, newly-elected council member, 4-H Council; Misty Castleberry, newly-elected council member, District I; Eric Davis, newly-elected council member, District I; Chris Spurgin, newly-elected council member, District II; Savannah Newhouse, newly-appointed council member, MFA; Isabelle Owens, newly-appointed council member, youth representative; and Peggy Trousdale, newly-appointed council member, 4-H Council.

Retiring council members recognized during the program were Rob Carrow, District II; Shea Davis, District I; Tom Heberlie, Cattlemen; Erin Sullivan, District I; and Robert Sullivan, District I.

Graham recognized the Philip and Sara Falch family of Farmington who were among families honored during the 65th annual Missouri Farm Family Day held Aug. 15 at the Missouri State Fair. The Falch family was selected as the St. Francois County Missouri Farm Family by the University of Missouri Extension and Farm Bureau. The family includes Lane, 18, Levi, 3, and Luke, 2.

Each year, the fair sets aside a day to recognize farm families from across the state that are active in their communities, involved in agriculture, and/or participate in local outreach and extension programs such as 4-H or FFA.

The Falch family operates a 54-acre sheep farm south of Farmington. Lane is a member of Bear Creek Kidz 4-H and Farmington FFA. He shows sheep at the St. Francois County Fair and nationally. Lane has held multiple offices in Bear Creek Kidz 4-H, as well as the office of vice-president for multiple years at the Junior American Shropshire Association. Lane is currently a student in the Ag Scholars Program at Missouri State University-Columbia.

Graham recognized the farms of August and Florence Guggenberger and Richard and Karen Worley as Missouri Century Farm Club members for 2022. The Missouri Century Farm programs history dates back to 1976 because of the Missouri Committee for Agriculture that was co-chaired by James B. Boillot, director, Missouri Department of Agriculture; and Elmer R. Kiehl, dean of the College of Agriculture, University of Missouri.

The committees purpose was to organize the American Revolution Bicentennial celebration in Missouri. One activity that was initiated by the committee was the Centennial Farm project, which awarded certificates to persons owning farms that had been in the same family for 100 years or more. Interest in the program continued after 1976.

The College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, and University of Missouri Extension planned a 10-year update in 1986 called the Century Farm program. This program has been sustained as a yearly event, with more than 100 farms recognized each year. In 2008, the Missouri Farm Bureau became a program co-sponsor.

Richard Worley finished out the program with a PowerPoint presentation about the history of his familys farm.

The evenings program concluded with closing remarks by Howard.
Nuclear Power Plant Leaked 400K Gallons of Radioactive Water in Minnesota

Cooling towers release heat generated by boiling water reactors at Xcel Energy's Nuclear Generating Plant in Monticello, Minn. on Oct. 2, 2019. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP, File)

Minnesota regulators announced on Thursday theyre monitoring the cleanup efforts by Xcel Energy following a leak of 400,000 gallons of radioactive water from the utilitys Monticello nuclear power plant last fall. The company said theres no danger to the public.

The leak at the Xcel Energy plant in Monticello was not revealed to the public until now because it poses no health and safety risk to the local community or the environment, according to the Minneapolis-based utility company.

We have taken comprehensive measures to address this situation on-site at the plant, Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy-Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, said in the statement.

While this leak does not pose a risk to the public or the environment, we take this very seriously and are working to safely address the situation.

The Minnesota Department of Health said the leak did not reach the Mississippi River.

Xcel Energy said in a press release that the company took swift action to contain the leak to the plant site. It has not been detected beyond the facility or in local drinking water.

The energy company said that the safety conclusions were made following ongoing monitoring of more than two dozen on-site monitoring wells.

We continue to gather and treat all potentially affected water while regularly monitoring nearby groundwater sources, Clark said.

We will continue to partner with local groundwater specialists, and we remain in close cooperation with state and federal regulators and our local community throughout the remediation effort.

Public Transparency

While Xcel reported the leak of water containing tritium to state and federal authorities and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last fall, state officials said they waited to get more information before going public with it.

The four-month delay in notifying the leak to the public raised questions about public safety and transparency. However, industry experts on Friday said there was never a public health threat as the radioactive water never reached a threshold that would have required public notification.

This is something that we struggle with because there is such concern with anything that is nuclear, said Victoria Mitlyng, a spokesperson with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The concern is very, very understandable. That is why I want to make extra clear the fact that the public in Minnesota, the people, the community near the plant, was not and is not in danger.

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency spokesman Michael Rafferty said Thursday that officials knew that one of the plants monitoring wells contained tritium in November, but Xcel had not yet identified the source of the leak and its location.

Now that we have all the information about where the leak occurred, how much was released into groundwater, and that contaminated groundwater had not moved beyond the original location, we are sharing this information, he said, adding the water remains contained on Xcels property and poses no immediate public health risk.

When asked why Xcel Energy didnt notify the public earlier, the company said: We understand the importance of quickly informing the communities we serve if a situation poses an immediate threat to health and safety. In this case, there was no such threat. The company said it focused on investigating the situation, containing the affected water, and determining the next steps.

State agencies are monitoring Xcel Energys cleanup operations, which have reportedly recovered about 25 percent of the spilled tritium. The cleanup will continue throughout the year.

The Minnesota Department of Health says government officials and Xcel are working on a permanent solution to manage the contaminated water.

Xcel Energy is considering building above-ground storage tanks to store the contaminated water it recovers. It is also weighing how to treat, re-use, or dispose of the collected tritium-laced water.

Leak Discovery

Xcel discovered the leak on Nov. 21 from a pipe between two buildings at its Monticello plant.

The company said it notified the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state on Nov. 22 after it confirmed the leak. Since then, it has been pumping groundwater and storing and processing the contaminated water, which contains tritium levels below federal thresholds.

The Monticello plant is about 35 miles northwest of Minneapolis, upstream from the city on the Mississippi River.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that occurs naturally in the environment and is a common by-product of nuclear plant operations. According to the NRC, it emits a weak form of beta radiation that does not travel very far and cannot penetrate human skin. The NRC says a person who drank water from a spill would get only a low dose.

The NRC says tritium spills happen from time to time at nuclear plants. Still, it has repeatedly determined that theyve either remained limited to the plant property or involved such low offsite levels that they didnt affect public health or safety.

Xcel reported a small tritium leak at Monticello in 2009.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Persecution, Not ProsecutionRamaswamy Calls on DeSantis and Haley to Join Him in Condemning Trump Indictment

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, on March 3, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Commentary

CHARLESTON, S.C.The afternoon of March 18, only hours after rumors of Donald Trumps possible indictment by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg in the Stormy Daniels affair went flying around the internet, insurgent presidential candidate entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy called upon two other fellow candidates, announced Nikki Haley and presumed Ron DeSantis, to join him in a vehement condemnation of this potential action.

Calling it persecution, not prosecution Ramaswamy made this call at the Vision 24 National Conservative Forum at the Charleston Area Convention Center where Haley was speaking. She never mentioned the Trump indictment in her speech that preceded Ramaswamys.

Ramaswamy acknowledged that it would be to the possible advantage of other Republican candidates were Trump to be indicted or even wind up behind bars, but insisted this was an important matter of principle that all candidates should agree upon.

Using the justice system to punish or destroy political opponents in the midst of a campaign is the absolute wrong way to govern a constitutional republic, let alone a democracy of any sort. It is the road to being a banana republic.

Ironically, it might be Ramaswamy, the most overtly MAGA candidate besides Trump himself, who would profit most were the 45th president find himself unable to run.

Earlier in the day, the candidate had posted the following on Twitter:

A Trump indictment would be a national disaster. It is un-American for the ruling party to use police power to arrest its political rivals. If a Republican prosecutor in 2004 had used a campaign finance technicality to arrest then-candidate John Kerry while Bush & Cheney were in power, liberals would have cried foul  and rightly so. Principles go beyond partisanship. Let the American people decide who governs. This will mark a dark moment in American history and will undermine public trust in our electoral system itself. I call on the Manhattan District Attorney to reconsider this action and to put aside partisan politics in service of preserving our Constitutional republic.

As of this writing, no other candidate other than Trump himselfthat I know offrom either side has made a public statement on the potential indictment.

Traveling in South Carolina with the Ramaswamy campaign, the candidate told The Epoch Times he is making this public announcement in part to discourage Bragg from going ahead. Its not easy to predict what would flow from such an indictment but, judging from what I have seen on the internet and heard in conversation here, it would not be pretty.

A country that is already riven almost as no time since the Civil War would be driven further apart. Ramaswamy is not going too far in using the word disaster in his tweet. It is also, as he said a dark moment.

I will have much more to say about my observations of the Ramaswamy campaign after I have watched him speak at the Rock Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Manning, South Carolina.

One thing I will say now: his campaign is not as much of a long shot as I thought it was.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Reality Star Todd Chrisleys Son Kyle Charged With Assault

SMYRNA, Tenn.Kyle Chrisley, the son of reality TV star Todd Chrisley of the show Chrisley Knows Best, has been charged with aggravated assault in Tennessee, authorities said.

The arrest comes just months after his father and stepmother, Julie Chrisley, were both sentenced to several years in prison for charges including bank fraud and tax evasion.

Kyle Chrisley was charged Tuesday with aggravated assault in Smyrna, news outlets reported, citing Rutherford County Sheriffs Office spokesperson Lisa Marchesoni. Chrisley was booked in the Rutherford County jail and later released on $3,000 bond, Marchesoni said.

The tight-knit, boisterous Chrisley family gained fame with the reality show, which was first recorded in the Atlanta area and later in Nashville. Smyrna is about 15 miles south of Nashville.

Federal prosecutors said the couple engaged in an extensive bank fraud scheme and then hid their wealth from tax authorities while flaunting their lavish lifestyle.

Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Julie Chrisley got seven years behind bars, according to the U.S. attorneys office in Atlanta.
Shen Yun Performing Arts curtain call at Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts on March 17, 2023. (NTD)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.Paul Lagatta, a network technician, attended Shen Yuns evening performance at Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts on March 17.

It was Mr. Lagattas first time watching the show, and he has never seen anything like this before.

Its very entertaining and athletic, but theres also a story behind it. Its just very powerful. In todays society, more people need to hear something like this and witness it. Im very moved by it, he said.

Theres a divine message in there that theres something greater than just what we are doing here on this earth.

The worlds leading classical Chinese dance and music company, Shen Yun Performing Arts was founded in 2006 by a group of leading Chinese artists who had fled the persecution of the communist party.

Prior to the regimes violent takeover and its spread of atheism, China was known as the Celestial Empirea country deeply rooted in spirituality and the belief in the divine.

Paul Lagatta enjoyed Shen Yuns evening performance at Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts on March 17, 2023. (Yawen Huang/The Epoch Times)

Since Shen Yuns establishment, the New York-based artists have made it their mission to bring back the glory of Chinas lost civilization.

Mr. Lagatta was touched by the artists dedication and thought they are very brave to speak up for what they believed in.

Whats happening in China today is an unfortunate situation. Its heartbreaking to see, but Im glad they have the courage to [speak up] because Im sure they have families thatas a result of what theyre doingmay be dealing with some persecution. Its moving.

His biggest takeaway from Shen Yun is that, as human beings, we need to be kind to each other.

[The performance] showed us that theres good in all mankind. We need to be compassionate and love one another. I think if more of that can be passed onmaybe we can change.

He would also like to commend the performers for their passion and skill.

Theyre just fabulous, simply fabulous! he exclaimed. Im just amazed at their athletic performance and their crafteven the musiciansyou can tell that theyve spent a long-time practicing.

Usually, something that is made to look effortless takes a lot of training.

Dan King (L) attended Shen Yuns evening performance at Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts on March 17, 2023. (Yawen Huang/The Epoch Times)

Also in the audience was biomedical engineer Dan King. He, too, was inspired by the beauty and message of Shen Yun. The performance far exceeded his expectations.

Visually, it was absolutely stunning, the music was absolutely beautiful as well, he said.

The storytelling was beautiful in a way that it took us back to [Chinas] ancient traditions but also [showed] us the contemporary challenges that this culture is facing.

In addition to reviving traditional culture, Shen Yun is also dedicated to bringing awareness to the human rights issues in China today.

I loved that, and I think theyre doing a great job telling the story. They are bringing beauty and even comedy into the show but also introducing more recent [challenges], Mr. King expressed.

I think thats powerful. Its a great way of letting people emotionally feel and not just educate them on the conflicts that are going on in China.

He also loved the energy of the artists and will definitely be introducing Shen Yun to others.

Sitting where I was sitting, you can hear how fast the dancers are moving with the snaps of the costumes. You can tell not just how graceful they are but also how powerful they are, he said. The women are incredibly graceful, and the men are incredibly acrobatic.

Ill be telling others about this experience. Its been very, very good.

Reporting by Yawen Huang and Jennifer Teng.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
OTTAWA, CanadaAmbassador Harry Tseng from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada attended Shen Yun for the first time on March 17.

Exiting the National Arts Centre at the conclusion of the evening, Mr. Tseng said Shen Yun was very beautiful and definitely lived up to its reputation.

What we saw today was Chinas divine-inspired culture. The performance incorporated a lot of spiritual messages, and it portrayed the true spirit and essence of China.

Based in New York, Shen Yun Performing Arts was founded in 2006 by elite Chinese artists who had fled the persecution of the communist regime.

Based in New York, Shen Yun was established in 2006 by a group of leading Chinese artists who had fled the persecution of the communist party.

Under the regimes violent rule, Chinas 5,000 years of traditional culture were destroyed, and the spread of atheism was rampant. Yet for thousands of years, Chinese people were very spiritual and believed that their culture was a gift from the heavens.

Shen Yun is now dedicated to reviving these traditions and showcasing to the world, through dance and musicthe beauty of China before communism.

Mr. Tseng is very impressed by Shen Yuns mission to bring back traditional culture.

I learned from school at a young age that Chinas culture is very profound. Shen Yuns performance really solidified that idea today. It was stunning, he said.

The music combined with the dances, the prowess of the performers, the message [Shen Yun] deliveredit was a very special and unforgettable experience.

Sitting next to ambassadors from Japan and Haiti in the audience, Mr. Tseng added that he could tell they, too, were amazed by Shen Yun. This is an excellent way to showcase our culture and our origin. Its wonderful, he said.

Referring to the spiritual aspect of Shen Yun, Mr. Tseng thought Shen Yun is a wake-up call for everyone.

In mainland China, we all know that atheism is prevalent. However, Chinese culture is passed down from the heavens. It is a divine culture. This is a reminder for everyone in modern society, he expressed.

Mr. Tseng also loved Shen Yuns story dance depicting an iconic scene from the famous Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

It portrayed the respect that is shared between a lord and his subjectthe idea that we must be loyal and true in all our endeavors. This is something we no longer talk about in modern society. This legend really gave us something to think about.

Moreover, Mr. Tseng said he would definitely be telling his friends and family about the performance.

Ill tell them that Shen Yun is just as beautiful as we have all heard. The show is of a very high calibre, and you can learn about Chinese culture even as you enjoy the artistic performance. It is a rare and valuable experience.

Reporting by NTD and Jennifer Teng.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
SAO PAULO, BrazilOsmar and Sandra Zogbi were happy to see the traditional culture of ancient China live on through a group in New York, even though it is not freely expressed in communist China today. After attending Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Teatro Bradesco on the evening of March 17, the Zogbis shared their appreciation.

Today, we as humans, we are needing much more of that, to be human. Where is humanism? Humanism is lacking for human beings, said Mr. Zogbi, businessman and one of Brazils most prominent investors. [Shen Yun] makes us remember the emotion, the joy, the sadnessI like it a lot.

New York-based Shen Yun is the worlds premier classical Chinese dance company, and has a mission to share with the world 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.

In the performance were three words highlighted: truth, compassion, and tolerance, which Mr. Zogbi said was much needed.

I think the world really needs that. We dont have in any world without this three, he said.

Mr. Zogbi added that the performance was full of beauty, and he enjoyed the fact that, being based in New York, they were free to travel the world and show that beauty to everyone.

Mrs. Zogbi, a psychologist, thoroughly enjoyed the beauty as well.

I am enchanted with history, tradition, and their strength in showing the world their struggle through art, culture for the world, she said.

Reporting by Mary Mann.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
Silicon Valley Banks collapse is rippling into China. Thousands of Chinese companies are listed among the banks clientswith over $240 million in assets on the lineand 57 are on a special list belonging to the Chinese Communist Party. Those same companies fall under the foreign depositors category that the United States is set to protect. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) penned a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, expressing concern over handouts to the Chinese regime. Estimates say the bank had nearly $14 billion of uninsured foreign deposits.

Topics in this episode:
Thats Not True: Biden Denies Family Received Money From Chinese Firm via Hunter Biden Associate

President Joe Biden speaks with reporters before departing from the South Lawn of the White House on Marine One in Washington on March 17, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

President Joe Biden on Friday denied claims that an associate of his son Hunter Biden transferred over $1 million to members of the Biden family received from a Chinese energy firm.

Bidens response came after the GOP-led House Oversight Committee released information from financial documents showing that Robinson Rob Walker dispersed funds to Bidens family members after State Energy HK Limited wired $3 million to an account in his name.

The committee also called for Walker to testify before the committee.

A reporter from The Epoch Times sister media, NTD, confronted Biden with the question on the South Lawn of the White House before the president boarded Marine One to head to his home in Wilmington, Delaware, for the weekend.

Any reaction to House GOPs memo about your familys dealings, sir? NTD White House correspondent Iris Tao asked.

My familys dealings? Biden asked.

Yes. Revealing that Hunter Bidens business associate sent over $1 million to three of your family members. Any reaction to that report? Tao asked.

Thats not true, Biden said.

BREAKING: President #Biden reacts to House GOPs new memo about his family dealings related to #HunterBiden, saying, Thats not true, after asking me back, My family dealings? @RepJamesComers memo, citing bank records, says Biden family members received $1M from Hunter https://t.co/h108Mqhfv1 pic.twitter.com/xdCuuUNvcU  Iris Tao (@IrisTaoTV) March 17, 2023

House Oversight Seeks Walkers Testimony

On Friday, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote to Walker asking him to appear for a transcribed interview before the panel and requesting confirmation by March 24.

According to Comers office, subpoenaed financial records reveal that from 2015 to 2017, Biden family membersHunter Biden, James Biden, Hallie Biden, and an unknown Bidenand their companies collectively received over $1.3 million in payments from accounts related to Walker.

Most of the payments to the Biden family came after Rob Walker received a $3 million wire from a Chinese energy company, Comers office stated.

According to the House Oversight panel, a recent revelation found that on March 1, 2017, State Energy HK Limited wired $3 million to Walkers Robinson Walker LLC. After that, payments were gradually sent to Biden family accounts, which included accounts belonging to Hunter, James, and Hallie Biden, from March to May 2017.

After the Robinson Walker, LLC account received $3 million from State Energy HK Limited, Biden family members and their companies began receiving incremental payments over a period of approximately three months, a memo from the committee said. The recipients of the money included Hallie Biden, companies associated with Hunter Biden and James Biden.

President Joe Biden, with son Hunter Biden, arrives at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, N.Y., on Feb. 4, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

An unknown bank account with the identity Biden also received payments up to around $70,000, according to the memo. Its unclear who operated that account.

Although Republicans asserted that the transfers were evidence that a Chinese state energy firm was linked to the Biden family, their letters only indicated that the funds were transferred from Walkers account to the Biden family accounts in March 2017. There was no direct evidence provided showing that the money came from China.

A White House spokesperson criticized Comers findings and argued that investigating Bidens family was a waste of time. The spokesperson singled out Hallie Biden as being unfairly targeted by Republicans. A spokesperson for Hunter Bidens lawyers dismissed Comers claims to Fox News as a baseless conspiracy but confirmed that payments were made to Hunter, his uncle, and Hallie Biden.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
Top Republican Orders Probe Into Whether Federal Funds Were Used in Potential Trump Indictment

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks at a bill signing ceremony for H.J. Res. 26 at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on March 10, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on March 18 ordered Republicans to investigate whether federal funds were used in the reported looming indictment against former President Donald Trump.

Here we go againan outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA [district attorney] who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump, McCarthy said in a statement after Trump said it looks like hell be arrested soon for an alleged misclassification of a payment.

Im directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, shared McCarthys statement on social media, as did the Republican House Judiciary Committee account.

Dont worry, Liberal DAs are working just as hard to indict actual criminals in Democrat-run cities. Just kidding. Its all politics, the latter wrote on Twitter.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) cited one of the Federalist Papers, which reads: This power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people.

Roy wrote, How much federal funding does the Manhattan DAs office get?

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in New York on Jan. 13, 2023. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Possible Indictment

The indictment against Trump, a Republican, is said to be coming from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat.

On March 18, Braggs office acknowledged receipt of questions about the possible indictment but didnt answer them.

According to media reports, the indictment would be for a payment made to Stormy Daniels, who has claimed that Trump had an affair with her. The payment apparently wasnt classified properly.

Trump said the allegations are fully debunked, and a spokesperson told Fox News that Trump is completely innocent.

As speaker, McCarthy leads the Republicans in the House. Republicans flipped control of the lower chamber in the 2022 midterms after earning more votes than Democrats in key districts in multiple states, including New York.

However, New York City remains under tight Democrat control.

Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.), who served as the top lawyer in the second effort to impeach Trump, in 2022Trump was acquitted by the Senatecriticized McCarthys remarks.

Speaker of the House of Representatives who has no idea what evidence the state DA has in support of grand jury indictment seeks to weaponize the federal government to undermine the rule of law for political purposes, Goldman said in a statement.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) said, No one is above the law.

Republicans appeared to be unified behind the announcement.

[Speaker McCarthy] proves again that through his leadership [House GOP] will not tolerate the Democrats weaponization of government and political persecution in the taxpayers dime, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) wrote on Twitter. The government serves the people NOT the Democrat Party.
Trump Suggests He Will Be Arrested Next Week

Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before his speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center National Harbor, Md., on March 4, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump has issued a statement saying he expects to be indicted next week by the Manhattan District Attorneys Office and called his supporters to protest and take our nation back!

The Manhattan District Attorneys Office is investigating Trump for his companys classification of a $130,000 reimbursement to his former personal attorney Michael Cohen over a payment allegedly made to adult actress Stormy Daniels.

The former president has repeatedly condemned the probe as a partisan witch hunt and in a Saturday statement on Truth Social, Trump doubled down on his rhetoric.

Trump said that illegal leaks from the corrupt & highly political Manhattan DAs office indicate that he will be arrested on Tuesday of next week. He insisted that no crime has been proven and that the possible indictment in the case would be based on an old & fully debunked (by numerous other prosecutors!) fairy tale.

Protest, take our nation back! Trump urged his supporters in the message.

The Manhattan District Attorneys Office declined to comment on Trumps statement.

Witch Hunt

Trumps possible indictment stems from the alleged misclassifying of a $130,000 hush payment made to Daniels not to disclose an affair between the two, which Trump has denied. A grand jury was empaneled in the case and expectations have been building for an indictment.

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the former president has not been formally notified of any pending arrest.

There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DAs office, to NBC and other fake news carriers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level, Cheung said.

President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system, he added.

Cheung told Fox News in a statement Friday that Trump is completely innocent and that the probe is a politically motivated attack to hamstring his run for reelection in 2024.

Democrats are at it again, pushing the Nuclear Button and attacking a President because of a disgraced extortionist, Cheung said. This will backfire massively for the Democrat Party, and end in disgrace for our Nation.

The idea that a possible indictment and arrest of Trump would backfire was taken up by several prominent public figures, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Musk said in a post on Twitter that he believes if Trump is indeed arrested next week, the former president will be re-elected in a landslide victory.

Trumps lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, told MSNBC that if the former president is indeed indicted, he would follow normal procedures and surrender.

Rumors of the indictment and what would be an unprecedented arrest of a former president have prompted reports that law enforcement agencies are bracing for protests and making security arrangements.

An indictment would involve setting a date and time for Trump to surrender, with the former president then delivered by his Secret Service detail to the Manhattan DAs office for fingerprinting and mugshots. Following arrest processing in cases where a defendant is allowed to surrender, normal procedures suggest Trump would face an arraignment before a judge and then probably be released on his own recognizance.

Former GOP congressman and Truth Social head Devin Nunes told Newsmax on Friday that reports of the possible indictment show the nation is becoming a banana republic where the justice system is used as a weapon against political rivals.

As Ive said for a very long time now, as the person who led the investigation into the Russia hoax, that we have slipped into a banana republic in this country where you have a two-tiered system of justice, where Democrats run scot-free, and then someone like President Trump, or other Republicans, are held to this ridiculous standard, Nunes told the outlet.

Nunes, like Musk, believes that a Trump indictment would backfire.

If they do move forward and indict, itll just make it even easier for President Trump to win election because people are going to see this for what it is, Nunes said. [It is] just a farce, and another attack on Trump at all costs to stop him from becoming president again.

Gary Bai and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report. This article has been updated with comment from Trumps spokesperson.
Not long after chef Eckhard Thalwitz moved to Virginia with his wife and son, his brother Wilfried Thalwitz invited them on a drive to Graves Mountain in Syria. The lush mountain countryside of Madison County reminded them of their beloved native Germany.

After decades of working in large hotels and restaurants from Switzerland to the French Riviera to Morocco, Eckhard Thalwitz was ready for something inviting and special on a more intimate scale: a family-style restaurant.

He saw a shuttered space and started to dream.

It was the 29 Diner sitting on the side of the road, said his son, Jerome Thalwitz. In 1974, The Bavarian Chef opened in that spot along U.S. 29 in Madison.

Decades after passing the torch to his son, Eckhard Thalwitz died on March 10, surrounded by his family. The restaurant he dreamed of with the impeccable international cuisine and the welcoming atmosphere continues to thrive.

Thats one of the things my father wanted to do  welcome people to his kitchen, Jerome Thalwitz said. You came in as a stranger and left as a friend. That was the biggest fingerprint of The Bavarian Chef.

The restaurant became a destination not only for diners and for a close-knit staff, but also for a family that shared a love for cooking, traveling and soaking in all the flavors the world had to offer.

I started working with my dad when I was 11 years old, Jerome Thalwitz said. We loved doing anything fresh and local, and we loved to collaborate.

Born in 1937, Eckhard Thalwitz was 14 when he started his culinary career with an apprenticeship at the Ritters Park Hotel in Bad Homburg and the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Munich, Germany. Thats where he was able to work with respected chef Alfred Walterspiel. Kitchens around the world followed  in Vevey, Switzerland; Mandelieu-la-Napoule on the French Riviera; and Morocco, where he cooked in Casablanca and Tangiers and worked as King Mohammed Vs private chef.

Travel remained one of Eckhard Thalwitzs passions throughout his life, and his souvenirs often were ideas for dishes to try at home. Jerome Thalwitz said he and his dad sampled a German dish during a trip in the late 1970s and knew they could do it better.

He loved to laugh. He loved sharing a meal, sharing experiences, sharing stories, daughter-in-law Christine Thalwitz said. I enjoyed every story he told. It was captivating. She eventually wrote a book about his experiences.

When Thalwitz decided to retire in 1987, he handed the kitchen over to the son whod started his own career at his fathers side. He left his mark on The Bavarian Chef, and he was so proud for Jerome to continue the tradition, Christine Thalwitz said.

Since taking the helm, Jerome and Christine Thalwitz have maintained the traditions diners loved  the cozy atmosphere, the generous portions, the welcoming staff  and introduced some innovations of their own.

Jerome Thalwitz brought his own formal training and his family cooking heritage to the table, and he enjoys bringing Virginia produce into his offerings. While maintaining a commitment to German specialties, he has added new schnitzels to the menu to appeal to American tastes.

Jerome and Christine Thalwitz opened the Bavarian Chef Fredericksburg in 2010, eventually selling it in 2019. And in 2013, they launched the food truck and catering company in 2013. The food truck often appears at wineries, weddings and outdoor celebrations.

One thing always remained the same: Jerome Thalwitz checked in at the end of the shift to let his proud father know how the evenings meal service went.

Id call my parents every night on the way home. I would tell him every night what we served, and he loved it, Jerome Thalwitz said.

Retirement proved challenging to a man whod had little time to sit still over the years for the chess matches and family dinner table conversations he savored.

Once Eckhard Thalwitz saw a promising location on the side of the road again, before long, he was chef/owner of Eckhards in Topping.

The man was just unstoppable, Jerome Thalwitz said. He saw an abandoned 7Eleven and built a restaurant there.

Another adventure beckoned the man who loved sailing and spending time near the water. He rented a backhoe, his son said, and built his own swimming pool.

One thing wont change at The Bavarian Chef in its founders absence. Jerome Thalwitz calls it applying the parental lens to his own passion, one thats shared by his staff.

With every plate, I ask, Would I serve this to my father, and what would he say? I ask myself every day, he said.

Eckhard Thalwitz is survived by his wife of 61 years, Brunhilde Bruni Thalwitz; son and daughter-in-law Jerome and Christine Thalwitz; grandchildren Alexi, Jared and Katya; sister Gisela Taylor and brother-in-law Dell; sister-in-law Margret Thalwitz and her children, Gunnar Thalwitz and Dora Thalwitz; and her husband, Lucas Butler, and their three children.

Learn more about the family and the restaurant at thebavarianchef.com.
Trump Breaks Silence With First Facebook Post Since 2-Year Ban

This illustration photo show the Facebook page of former President Donald Trump on a smartphone screen in Los Angeles, Calif., on March 17, 2023. (Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump formally announced his return to Facebook on Friday, posting on the tech platform for the first time since his personal account was suspended more than two years ago.

IM BACK! Trump wrote on his official page, more than a month after Facebook parent company Meta restored his access to Facebook and Instagram in February. However, Trump had not posted anything up until now.

Trumps post included a short video of his remarks after winning the 2016 presidential election. The clip then fades to a Trump Make America Great Again 2024 screen.

Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business, the former commander-in-chief said in the 12-second clip.

Alphabet Inc.s YouTube, meanwhile, restored Trumps channel this week after two years of restrictions, a spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times on March 17.

The streaming service suspended Trumps channel for similar reasons as Meta, saying it had broken its rules by broadcasting content that encouraged violence following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach

The 76-year-old Republicanwho is running for president againposted the same 12-second clip on his official YouTube channel on Friday, the same day the streaming service welcomed him back.

Facebook initially banned Trump indefinitely after the Jan. 6, 2021, upheaval, but the tech platform later changed it to a two-year suspension.

Meta said in a statement in late January that Trumps personal pages would be reinstated in February, but it stressed that it would institute heightened penalties of a suspension between one month and two years if the former president violates the firms rules.

Grave Mistake

Twitter, which also banned Trump following the Capitol breach, reinstated the former presidents account in November last year after more than 15 million Twitter users voted in an online poll.

However, Trump has yet to post on the platform. On Feb. 20, he acknowledged that many of his followers have been waiting for him to return to both Twitter and Facebook after two years of being banned from the sites, but he said that he prefers to use his own Truth Social platform instead.

They want me back so badly on Twitter, the 45th president said. They want me back on Google. They want us back badly on Facebook.

Since the start of his social media site, TruthSocial.com, Trump has extensively used that medium for conveying his messages to the American people, despite Twitter having reinstated his account.

This illustration photo shows a person checking the app store on a smartphone for Truth Social, owned by Trump Media & Technology Group, and its website on a computer screen in the background, in Los Angeles, Calif., on Oct. 20, 2021. (Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump has nearly five million followers on the newly-found platform, which was created in October 2021 by U.S. media and tech company, Trump Media & Technology Group.

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, said last year that the ban targeting Trumps account was a mistake and morally wrong. The ban, Musk said, actually alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.

Im fine with Trump not tweeting. The important thing is that Twitter correct a grave mistake in banning his account, despite no violation of the law or terms of service, Musk said on Twitter in November 2022. Deplatforming a sitting President undermined public trust in Twitter for half of America, he said.

Savannah Hulsey Pointer contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Trump Conviction Would Probably Be Overturned on Appeal: Dershowitz

If former President Donald Trump is indicted, hell probably be convicted but an appeal would likely lead to the conviction being thrown out, legal expert Alan Dershowitz said on March 18.

I dont think there will be a motion to dismiss that succeeds. This is New York justice. In New York, of course you can indict a ham sandwich. But in New York, you can also convict a ham sandwich because the jury pool will be very much against Trump and the judges will be very much against Trump, Dershowitz, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, said during an appearance on Fox News.

So, if I were him, I would be worried today. Hell probably ultimately win on appeal, but do judges today have the courage  to do something favorable to Trump in a city which overwhelmingly despises Trump? Thats whats wrong with this justice system.

Trump is reportedly set to face an indictment for a payment made to Stormy Daniels, an adult actress who has made the contested claim that he had an affair with her. The payment was made by Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, and Trump reimbursed the lawyer. Trump has said the allegations were debunked.

Dershowitz, who was part of Trumps impeachment defense team in 2020, agreed. There is no crime here, he said.

Used His Own Money

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said in a statement that most campaign finance violations involve spending other peoples money illegally or accepting money that you should not.

Trump did neither. He used his own money to resolve a private dispute, irrespective of any campaign. The impending indictment is based on an untested, tortured legal theory. This is an absurd abuse of the criminal process in our politics. It must be seen for the partisan pathetic ploy it is, Gaetz, a Trump supporter, said.

News of a possible indictment against President Trump is just ANOTHER example of the Lefts derangement, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) added.

This is a TOTAL SHAM involving a weak case from years ago with questionable witnesses, he said on Twitter.

Rudy Giuliani, another former Trump lawyer, said on Newsmax that the case would be a violation of due process and would eventually be dismissed if brought.

Prosecutors have come out against this, and said, Hey, dont do this: This will get him elected president,' Giuliani said. This is such a miscarriage of justice, itll get him elected president.

Other Reactions

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said an indictment wouldnt change his support of Trump.

Hell no, Vance said on Twitter. A politically motivated prosecution makes the argument for Trump stronger. We simply dont have a real country if justice depends on politics.

An indictment would be outrageous if true, Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) said. The leftist Manhattan DA resembles Stalins secret police attacking only Republicans and letting crime explode. Harassing President Trump to distract from their own failures is the lefts plan.

But while many Republicans defended Trump and cast the potential looming charge as an abuse of power, Democrats said they would support an indictment.

Proving a misdemeanor here, not that hard. Falsifying business records, the evidence there is probably pretty strong. The trickier case is going to be proving the felony. In order to prove the felony, you have to prove intent to conceal, Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-N.C.), a former prosecutor, said on Fox.

One of the key aspects of the DAs case is not only do we have evidence that Michael Cohen was reimbursed for that, but that the reimbursement happened in phases. Speaks to intent, he added.

I applaud the Manhattan DA if he is actually bringing these charges, because we know, number one, the courage that it takes to go after this particular character, and number two, we also know that there will be a heightened level of scrutiny on this kind of case, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said on MSNBC. And so we know that if you decide to actually indict a former president, you actually are coming with a pretty strong case.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said on the channel that shes constantly asked by people when Trump will be arrested.

I have never seen, most people have never seen or believed, we would have a president who has acted in the way that he has, she said, adding later: This president conducted himself in a way that he does not deserve not to be arrested. He should be arrested. He should be indicted.

Discussing Within White House

While neither the White House nor President Joe Biden has commented on the reported indictment, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said theyre talking about it.

Im sure theyre discussing in the White House among the presidents political advisers right now  how do you campaign, and keep this campaign about the American people and the Biden presidency and his accomplishments and not about Donald Trump,' Psaki said on NBC.

Biden has not launched a reelection bid but had repeatedly suggested hes going to run.

Its not about the president going out and explaining Trumps legal woes and whether hes guilty or not guilty or should be convicted, Psaki, who now works for NBC, said. It is about President Biden staying on the track of communicating what hes doing for the public.
Uber Challenge to California Contractor Law Revived by US Appeals Court

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)

A U.S. appeals court on Friday revived a lawsuit by Uber Technologies Inc. and subsidiary Postmates Inc. challenging a California law that would require them to provide more proof that workers are independent contractors, a classification that helps the companies save millions.

In a major win for app-based services that heavily rely on contractors, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the state must face claims that the law known as AB5 is unconstitutional because it improperly singles out app-based transportation businesses while exempting many other industries.

Uber hailed the 9th Circuit decision in a statement.

This is yet another signal that efforts to take away drivers independence and flexibility will ultimately fail, the company said.

The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said in a statement that it was reviewing the decision and assessing its next steps.

We will continue to defend laws that are designed to protect workers and ensure fair labor and business practices, Bontas office said.

AB5, which took effect in 2020, imposes a higher bar to show that workers are independent contractors rather than employees, who have greater legal protections and can cost companies up to 30 percent more.

California lawmakers exempted many jobs and businesses from AB5s reach, including referral agencies that connect workers and customers, but explicitly did not exempt app-based transportation and delivery services.

That means Uber is subject to the law while pet-sitting service Wag, which has been called Uber for dogs, is not.

A three-judge 9th Circuit panel on Friday said the piecemeal fashion of the exemptions to the law was enough to keep Ubers lawsuit alive.

The exclusion of thousands of workers from the mandates of AB5 is starkly inconsistent with the bills stated purpose of affording workers the basic rights and protections they deserve,' Circuit Judge Johnnie Rawlinson wrote for then court.

The court said the federal judge in Los Angeles who dismissed the case must also reconsider her earlier ruling declining to block AB5 pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

The decision comes after a California state appeals court on Monday revived a ballot measure passed by nearly 60 percent of voters in 2020 that exempts app-based transportation services such as Uber and rival Lyft Inc. from the scope of AB5. The ballot measure had been struck down by a judge.

The 9th Circuit decision and the ruling reviving Prop 22 may not have an immediate effect, as the state and a labor union that challenged the ballot measure are likely to appeal them.

By Daniel Wiessner
US Animal Welfare Organization Calls for Shipment of 1,000 Lab Monkeys Not to Be Returned to Cambodia

A laboratory monkey interacts with employees in the breeding centre for cynomolgus macaques (longtail macaques) at the National Primate Research Center of Thailand at Chulalongkorn University in Saraburi, on May 23, 2020. (Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images)

An animal welfare organization is calling for a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-funded biomedical research company not to return a shipment of over 1,000 monkeys back to Cambodia after federal agencies flagged the shipment last year.

Liz Tyson Griffin, programs director and head of sanctuary at Born Free USA, said in a March 16 press release that the organization communicated to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services its willingness to provide a lifetime sanctuary for the long-tail macaques.

On March 13, Born Free USA said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services announced that the monkeys would be sent back to Cambodia, where they would be reintroduced into the same illegal system and end their short lives in a laboratory.

These young monkeys will either be abandoned with no attempt at rehabilitation, or simply recycled back through the system and re-exported for exploitation in other labs, Griffin said. Either way, their future is bleakthis is a death sentence. They deserve safety. They deserve to be cherished as individuals and not exploited as commodities.

According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the monkeys remained at Charles River Laboratories (CRL) as of March 14 because of a campaign to pressure the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service into releasing the monkeys to a sanctuary instead.

PETA said it pledged $1 million toward the relocation of the monkeys to a Born Free USA sanctuary in Texas.

Charles River Labs Subpoenaed

In 2022, the Department of Justice charged members of an international primate smuggling ring with multiple felonies related to trafficking the monkeys into the United States, according to a November 2022 press release.

The smugglers were alleged to be supplying CRL with monkeys.

Buried within its February financial press release was CRLs statement on the DOJs subpoena of the company related to the investigation.

The Company has been informed that this investigation relates specifically to several shipments of NHPs [non-human primates] received by Charles River from its Cambodian supplier, CRL said. Charles River intends to fully cooperate with the U.S. government as part of their investigation. Due to ongoing investigations and the heightened focus on the Cambodian NHP supply chain in recent months, Charles River has voluntarily suspended NHP shipments from Cambodia at this time.

An NBC News report said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife had contacted several sanctuaries over the last six months, including Born Free USA, to see about housing the monkeys, adding that it isnt clear why the shipment was initially flagged.

According to the DOJ, the monkeys have been protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 1977 and require special permits to be imported into the United States.

Excruciating Experiments

In 2021, the taxpayer watchdog group White Coat Waste Project (WCW) spotlighted NIAIDs funding of what WCW called excruciating experiments on rhesus monkeys. The monkeys are owned by NIAID, and bred and maintained by CRL on Morgan Island off the coast of Beaufort, South Carolina.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources owns the island and leases it to CRL.

Justin Goodman, vice president of advocacy and public policy for WCW, previously told The Epoch Times that in many of these experiments, pain relief was intentionally withheld.

Most recently, WCW has worked with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) to reintroduce bipartisan federal legislation called Violets Law, named after a hound WCW saved from a taxpayer-funded lab.

The legislation would require all federal labs to enact policies allowing animals to be retired and adopted out when testing has ended.

Its cruel and unnecessary to euthanize dogs, cats, and other animals in federal research labs which are healthy enough to be adopted out and live happy lives, said Mace. We are leading this commonsense, bipartisan effort to ensure that federal agencies can retire and re-home animals no longer needed in taxpayer-funded research whenever possible.

The Epoch Times contacted CRL, Born Free USA, and the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife Services for comment.
US No Longer Seeking Death for Man Convicted in Sjodin Case

A memorial with a photo of Dru Sjodin and handwritten notes from fellow sorority members hangs in the entry of the Gamma Phi Beta house on the University of North Dakota campus in Grand Forks, N.D., on Nov. 18, 2004. (Kory Wallen/AP Photo)

U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday that they will no longer seek the death penalty for a Minnesota man already on death row but awaiting resentencing for the kidnapping and killing of college student Dru Sjodin in 2003a case that led to changes in sex offender registration laws.

U.S. Attorney Mac Schneider in North Dakota filed a notice with the court withdrawing his effort to seek the death penalty for Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.a move he told The Associated Press he had to make after he was straightforwardly directed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to do so.

Sjodin, a Minnesota woman, was a 22-year-old University of North Dakota student when she was abducted from a Grand Forks, North Dakota, mall parking lot in November 2003. Rodriguez, a sex offender, was arrested the next month. Despite several massive searches, Sjodins body wasnt found until the following April near Crookston, Minnesota.

Rodriguez was convicted in 2006 and was awaiting new sentencing after a judge overturned his original death sentence.

Eric Montroy, Rodriguezs public defender, did not immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment. A phone message left with Sjodins mother also was not immediately returned.

Schneider said in an interview that he informed Sjodins mother, Linda Walker, in person on Monday of the decision and spoke with other relatives by phone. He declined to characterize their reaction, saying they could decide whether to disclose that.

Sjodins death led to a dramatic shift in the way Minnesota handles sex offenders, with a drastic increase in the number who were committed indefinitely for treatment even after their prison sentences had run their course. Also, the national sex offender public registry, intended to give the public information on the whereabouts of registered sex offenders, was renamed for Sjodin.

North Dakota Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley, who was the U.S. attorney who prosecuted Rodriguez, was critical of the decision not to seek the death penalty.

This result is a grave affront to justice and to the hearts and souls of all who loved and cared for Dru Sjodin, Wrigley said in a statement.

The only possible sentence for Rodriguez now is life in prison without the possibility of parole, Schneider said. He wasnt sure when formal sentencing would take place.

Hes going to draw his last breath in a federal prison, Schneider told the AP.

Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. (L) is helped into a sheriffs car after waiving extradition at the Polk County Courthouse in Crookston, Minn., on Dec. 3, 2003. (Ann Heisenfelt/AP Photo)

In 2021, Garland announced a moratorium on federal executions and a review of execution processes. The Department of Justice wont issue orders to execute anyone while the moratorium is in place, but it doesnt stop the agency from pursuing new death sentences.

The Biden Justice Department has withdrawn permission to seek the death penalty in more than two dozen cases. However, in most other cases, defendants either hadnt gone to trial or hadnt been sentenced yet.

Forty-four inmates are on federal death row, and Justice Department lawyers have generally fought all their efforts to have their death sentences thrown out.

Rodriguezs previous death sentence was overturned in September 2021, when then-U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson ruled that misleading testimony from the coroner, the failure of lawyers to outline the possibility of an insanity defense, and evidence of severe post-traumatic stress disorder had violated Rodriguezs constitutional rights.

Then-President Donald Trump resumed executions in 2020 after a 17-year hiatus.

The first capital case tried under Biden ended Monday with a split among jurors that means the life of an Islamic extremist who killed eight people in a New York City will be spared. Many were surprised that Bidens Justice Department continued to pursue the death penalty for Sayfullo Saipovfirst authorized during Trumps presidencygiven Bidens opposition to capital punishment.

In January, the Justice Department announced it would not seek the death penalty for Patrick Crusius in a 2019 shooting at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart that left nearly two dozen people dead. Crusius has since pleaded guilty to federal hate crime and weapons charges.
US Nuclear Submariners Give Australians A Glimpse Into Life at Sea

A nuclear propulsion Ohio class submarine, the USS Florida sails on Jan. 22, 2003 off the coast of the Bahamas. Australia as part of the AUKUS deal will get the tech for nuclear powered subs. (David Nagle/U.S. Navy/Getty Images)

Highly trained U.S. submariners live in tight and tough conditions aboard their nuclear-powered vessels but theyre immensely proud of the dangerous work they do deep below the surface of the sea.

Sailors from the USS (United States Ship) Asheville this week gave politicians, Royal Australian Navy brass, diplomats and journalists a peek into their life aboard the stealthy attack vessel, as news of Australias plan to buy its own nuclear-powered submarines was announced.

The Ashevilles crew of 130 men share their 110 metre-long Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine with more than 20 torpedoes, Tomahawk missiles and a nuclear reactor-powered engine that takes up about half of the boat.

Its a similar vessel to the Virginia-class submarines Australian sailors will crew from 2033 under the $368 billion (US$246.8 billion) AUKUS deal with the U.S. and the U.K.

Chief Petty Officer Freddy Aguirre, who has been a submariner for almost half his life, says it can be difficult living and working on the Asheville in such a confined space for months at a time, but new shipmates soon adapt.

Its definitely challenging being at sea, we have to be ready for everything, Aguirre told AAP in waters off the West Australian coast.

I like the comradery, it makes the job. Its not about rank, its about getting the job done right.

Every room, nook and cranny has been designed to serve multiple purposes and stow supplies and essential equipment.

Crew sleep, eat and socialise as others work around them in the windowless 10-metre-wide hull.

All reported being unphased by the lack of sunlight and the nuclear reactor that produces heat to power turbines that drive the submarine.

A lot of people dont understand the technology. I think theyre scared of it, but I think its pretty magnificent, the engineering behind it, Aguirre said.

About half the crew, colloquially known as nukes, are tasked with monitoring and maintaining the nuclear power plant and other essential systems.

They undergo a year and a half of intensive training at the U.S. Navys nuclear power school in Charleston before they take up their roles.

The same facility is teaching Australian naval officers, as the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) prepares to commission its own nuclear-powered fleet.

The so-called nukes, along with the rest of the crew, also have to complete another 10 or so months of training on the job before theyre fully fledged submariners.

Reactor controls technician Ethan McClellan said the training, which was described by some onboard as a rite of passage, is demanding and definitely not for everybody.

Its the biggest test you have as a submariner, McClellan said.

The seaman was upbeat about daily life on the Asheville, which is broken into three eight-hour segments, with equal time for work, relaxation and sleep.

Theres always lots to do onboard once you finish for the day. We have the latest games and movies, McClellan said.

The crews tiny bunks with privacy curtains are spread throughout the vessel, including under the racks of six metre-long Mk48 ADCAP torpedoes.

Sonar technician Jazz Yu beamed with pride as he described his job on the Asheville.

We listen to sounds in the water and analyse what it is and whats making it, Yu said.

Ive heard earthquakes and lightning striking the water from under the water.

The Florida native works in the Ashevilles cramped and dimly lit control room with about a dozen other submariners, including navigators and weapons officers.

There are two periscopes in the centre and the walls are packed with computer screens, gauges and other controls in a scene straight out of a Hollywood war movie.

Dive dive dive, sounded over the tannoy as the crew prepared to submerge to 500 feet (150 metres).

Two helmsmen took control and the vessel slipped beneath the waves as their steely-eyed skipper, Commander Thomas Dixon, watched on and other officers relayed vital data.

U.S. submarine group commander Rear Admiral Rick Seif told the tour group there were no spectators in a submarine crew and the U.S. navy was made up of men and women of action, who worked hard so the vessel could stay in action.

A nuclear-powered attack submarine is one of the most complex machines that has ever put to sea, but what really makes it special is not all that technology, its the sailors, Seif said

They are our secret weapon.

The veteran submariner, who is soon to be promoted to a two-star admiral, likened life onboard the Asheville to living on a remote outback station, where everybody did their bit to help fix problems so the vessel could stay in the fight.

Its based in Guam, in the Western Pacific region, with four other U.S. attack submarines that are expected to visit Australia for training, logistics support and maintenance with increasing frequency in the coming years.

There will be a ramp-up not just in the number of visits but the pace of activity and what we do in those visits, Seif said.

Business is good in the undersea warfare area so there is a lot for us to do.
Vegas Terrorism Suspect Sentenced for Sexually Abusing Girl

LAS VEGASA Las Vegas man has been sentenced to federal prison for sexually abusing a young girl.

Stephen Thomas Parshall, 38, was ordered to serve 33 years in a federal prison Monday, court records show. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey in Las Vegas also sentenced Parshall to lifetime supervision upon his release.

The years-long sexual abuse, which prosecutors say began when the victim was younger than 10, was uncovered in 2020 while police and federal agents were investigating Parshall and two other men in connection with an alleged terrorism plot targeting protests in Las Vegas.

Parshall pleaded guilty in October 2022one day before a federal jury trial in the abuse case was set to beginto two counts of sexually exploiting a child, one count of coercion and enticement, and one count of receiving and distributing child pornography.

He has had a change of heart, and he wishes to plead guilty this afternoon to the charges, Parshalls attorney, Robert Draskovich, said at the hearing, according to court transcripts. Parshall was not offered a plea deal.

Authorities say Parshall was first arrested by Las Vegas police in May 2020 with Andrew Lynam Jr. and William Loomis while the men filled glass bottles with gasoline in a plan to firebomb a protest over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The FBI, police, and prosecutors say the trio with military experience belonged to the loose anti-government boogaloo movement that supports overthrowing the U.S. government. Parshall and Loomis were formerly enlisted in the Navy and the Air Force, respectively, while Lynam was an Army reservist at the time of their arrests.

According to a federal criminal complaint, investigators confiscated Parshalls cellphones as part of their investigation and found images of him sexually abusing a young girl on one of the devices.

On another cellphone, investigators found sexually explicit images that a teenage girl had sent to Parshall at his request.

Prosecutors also accused Parshall of using various social media websites and apps to trade child pornography. The criminal complaint states that Parshalls usernames for his accounts included nopictoobad and pervysage.

Parshall and Lynam are currently scheduled to stand trial November in the federal terrorism case. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Loomis, now 42, was sentenced in January to four to 20 years in a Nevada prison after reaching a deal with prosecutors and pleading guilty last October to providing material support for the commission of an act of terrorism, a felony.
Far from all the urban noise and city lights, a cluster of igloos rests on the shores of an Arctic lake. But they are no ordinary igloos; theyre made of glass.

Inside, guests nestle in snug beds and gaze up at a majestic, starry expanse with breathtaking auroras visible through the sky roof. Outside, wolverines, foxes, and beavers wander throughout the night, leaving tracks in the pristine white snow, while the only sound for miles is the hooting of owls.

Situated at Lake Ranuanjarvi in the region of Lapland, Finland, a typical week at Ranua Resort consists of sleigh rides and ski trips through the forest, with the occasional snowmobile ride or peaceful snowshoeing jaunt. When its time to warm up, a sauna and hot chocolate next to a roaring fire beckon.

This unique pastoral lodging was dreamt up by entrepreneur Johanna Koivunen 40 years ago. Conceived as an environmental tourism destination, in 1983 the Finn established a park devoted to Arctic wildlife. Here, just below the Arctic Circle, it carries out conservation efforts.

A view of the northern lights from inside a glass igloo at Ranua Resort in Finland. (Courtesy of Ranua Resort)

Later expanding it to include accommodation in the form of villas, campsites, and 20 modern igloos, park CEO Koivunen explains why the concept of glass igloos, in particular, works so well. It really is the perfect way of observing the stunning nature we have around us, she told The Epoch Times. Because we have so little pollution in the skies [here], there is all this phenomenon that we can see, for instance: the Northern Lights, they are so clear and visible.

So, we started thinking that, if we could observe them from the comfort of our glass igloo it would be a really nice experience to offer.

The hamlet of Arctic Fox Iglooswith 10 family units and 10 for couplesis purposely built facing north, presenting the best opportunity for catching the spectacle of an aurora light show.

Northern lights seen over a glass igloo at Ranua Resort. (Courtesy of Ranua Resort)

Each igloo, besides being kitted out with plush bedding, contains a cozy kitchenette and private bathroom and shower. But the real treat, according to Koivunen, is being so close to such exquisitely clean and untouched nature and breathing in such fresh air.

I think that everyone should have this opportunity at least once in their lifetime, she says, adding that the best reviews come from those who took in aurora borealis, visible in the heart of wintertime from the start of September until April.

We cannot order them, Koivunen says. And we cannot say for sure that in two weeks time you will see them, because its Mother Natures work.

For some, who journey from afar in hopes of seeing them, the northern lights hold cultural significance. They are associated with ancient myths of various cultures, one of which might explain why some couples may be eager to spend a few nights in a glass igloo.

Ive heard that if a baby is conceived under the northern lights, Koivunen says, the baby is meant to become very lucky, and to have a very, very good life.

Inside an Arctic glass igloo. (Courtesy of Ranua Resort)

The lights can appear extremely clearly and all of a sudden, she says.

The feeling you get when you start seeing the different shades of green and purple, sometimes even pink lights, dancing in the sky  it really is something special even for a Finn like me, who was born and raised under the northern lights, basically.

During winter, her company arranges aurora borealis viewing tours, traversing the forest on snowmobile, husky or Finnish horse sleigh, or skis. In springtime, the day lengthens though there is still lots of snow, making for joyful winter-scapes.

In summer, due to the Arctic Circles position, the sun doesnt set and Finns have what they call a midnight sun. During these months, the northern lights vanish, but there is still much to appreciate in Ranua such as boating out on the lake.

Come autumn, when the leaves start to turn, an abundance of berry and mushroom-picking possibilities unfold.

The exterior of several Arctic glass igloos in winter. (Courtesy of Ranua Resort)

At this time, nature is very beautiful with different shades of yellow and orange and brown, Koivunen says. Its a very, very nice time to start waiting for the northern lights and to go into the forest to enjoy what the forest has to offer us.

A large part of what awaits in the forest is, of course, the Arctic wildlife living as close to their natural habitat as possible. The park, built inside the forest, contains some 50 different species. Koivunen lists a few: The animals include polar bears, brown bears, wolves, wolverines, lynxes, foxes, Arctic foxes, different kinds of owlslike snowy owls and eagle owls, plus eagles, otters, beavers, reindeer, moose, all the kinds of animals that are native to Finland.

The sunny interior of a glass igloo. (Courtesy of Ranua Resort)

She goes on to explain that the enclosures are very large, allowing the animals to live very close to a natural kind of life.

The trail that runs through the park is about 2 miles (3 kilometers) long. While observing animals from a safe distance, visitors get to experience what a real Finnish forest is like and how precious it is.

We should really cherish the unique nature we have in the Arctic regions, Koivunen says. Its the responsibility of every one of us to maintain and conserve it.

Aurora borealis seen near the horizon near the cluster of glass igloos at Ranua Resort in Finland. (Courtesy of Sami Takarautio via Ranua Resort)

A glass igloos interior at Ranua Resort. (Courtesy of Ranua Resort)

Glass igloos in autumn at Ranua Resort. (Courtesy of Ranua Resort)

Glass igloos in summer at Ranua Resort. (Courtesy of Ranua resort)

A gorgeous lakeside scene at Ranua Resort in Finland. (Courtesy of Ranua resort)

Snowmobiling at Ranua Resort in Finland. (Courtesy of Ranua resort)

Husky sledding at Ranua Resort in Finland. (Courtesy of Ranua resort)

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
A woman who was pulled over for suspected drunk driving is crediting the traffic cops who stopped her and got her to the hospital in the nick of time. The driver was suffering from an undiagnosed brain tumor and emergency surgery saved her life.

On Dec. 2, 2022, police officers PFC Bret Aton and PFC Raymond Schoonmaker of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, responded to a report of a suspected drunk driver. The officers located the vehicle and observed the driver swerving between lanes and bumping the curb several times.

They signaled for the driver to pull over and met teacher, Tamara Palmer.

Tamara Palmer complains of a headache. (Courtesy of Mount Pleasant Police Department)

Ms. Palmer did not have any indications of being impaired by alcohol or drugs, Mount Pleasant Police Department (MPPD) shared on Facebook, alongside stills of the officers interaction with Palmer from a body camera. While speaking to her, the officers realized she continuously complained of a headache. The officers determined that Ms. Palmer was possibly having a medical episode, and requested an ambulance.

However, little did the officers know at the time, Palmer was having symptoms of an undiagnosed brain tumor. On Feb. 19, over two months after the traffic stop, Palmer contacted MPPD to share the whole story.

Once she was taken to the hospital, doctors located a brain tumor and rushed Palmer in for an emergency 8-hour surgery. She has since been discharged and is doing great.

Ms. Palmer feels that these officers absolutely saved her life, MPPD wrote. Without their quick analysis of the situation, the outcome could have ended differently.

Netizens agreed, with one person commenting, Great job recognizing this and not making assumptions about why she was acting that way. Yall were her angels in disguise that day!

Thank you for being wonderful, thoughtful human beings! Hopefully other law enforcement officers will follow in your footsteps, wrote another.

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
Wyoming Adopts Abortion Pill Ban

Mifepristone (Mifeprex) and Misoprostol, the two drugs used in a chemical abortion, are seen at the Women's Reproductive Clinic, in Santa Teresa, N.M., on June 17, 2022. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon has signed a bill prohibiting abortion pills while allowing a separate measure that restricts abortion to become law without his signature.

Gordon signed the bill into law on Friday, prohibiting chemical abortions in Wyoming, which became the first state in the country to prohibit the abortion pill outside of a full ban on the procedure.

I believe all life is sacred and that every individual, including the unborn, should be treated with dignity and compassion, Gordon wrote in a March 17 letter (pdf) to the Wyoming secretary of state, in which he explained that he was letting House Bill 152Life Is a Human Rightto go into law without his signature.

Violations of the ban on prescribing and selling abortion pills are punishable by up to six months in jail and a $9,000 fine.

Abortion pills have already been prohibited in 13 states where there are blanket bans on all types of abortion, and access to the pills is limited in 15 other states.

My promise to protect the unborn has been fulfilled, state Sen. Tim Salazar, a Republican and the sponsor of the legislation, wrote on social media Friday.

Salazar noted that nearly all abortions in Wyoming are ones that are induced chemically.

Abortion Pills in Spotlight

The issue of abortion pill access was in the spotlight this week in a Texas court, where a federal judge questioned a Christian organizations attempt to reverse the long-standing U.S. approval of mifepristone, a key abortion drug.

Medication abortions, involving a combination of mifepristone and another drug, became the favored method for terminating pregnancy in the United States even before the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, which for nearly 50 years ensured unfettered access to abortions.

The ban on abortion pills in Wyoming is set to take effect in July, subject to any legal proceedings that might cause delays. The start date for the comprehensive legislation banning all abortions, which Gordon allowed to become law, is unspecified.

Despite an earlier ban being challenged in court, abortion is still legal in Wyoming up to the point of viability, when the fetus can survive outside the womb.

Gordon said in a statement that the Life Is a Human Right Act might lead to a lawsuit, delaying the resolution of the abortion bans constitutionality in Wyoming.

He also mentioned that plaintiffs in an ongoing lawsuit had filed a challenge to the new law earlier in the day, in case he did not veto it.

I believe this question needs to be decided as soon as possible so that the issue of abortion in Wyoming can be finally resolved, and that is best done with a vote of the people, Gordon said in a statement.

Wyoming American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) advocacy director Antonio Serrano criticized Gordons decision to sign the abortion pill ban.

Serrano said that a persons health, not politics, should guide important medical decisionsincluding the decision to have an abortion.

In six of the 15 states where access to abortion pills is restricted, an in-person physician visit is required. Such laws may be upheld in court in the face of challenges, as states have long-standing authority over the practices of physicians, pharmacists, and other providers.

States also regulate telemedicine consultations for prescribing medications. In states with abortion pill restrictions, health providers could face penalties, like fines or license suspension, for attempting to send pills through the mail.

In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the abortion pill for ending pregnancies at up to seven weeks gestation or less. In 2016, the FDA extended the use in pregnancies at up to 10 weeks gestation.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the abortion drug has been increasingly prescribed and has become the most common method of abortion in the United States.
Letitia Prosser, an aspiring ballet dancer, attended Shen Yun Performing Arts with her father Bill Prosser at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, in Orlando, Fla., on March 17, 2023. (Sally Sun/The Epoch Times)

ORLANDO, Fla.Letitia Prosser, an aspiring ballet dancer, has wanted to see Shen Yun Performing Arts for over ten years, and finally, she and her father, Bill Prosser, an architect, were able to attend the performance at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando on March 17.

Ms. Prosser said she was amazed at the Shen Yun dancers synchronization and clarity of the movement.

You can see the inner work of the artist, she said, You can see the clarity of their thought and the clarity in themselves and their mind as they dance.

Thats a very important part of bringing something higher to people who watch you, she added. You have to make them think of something bigger than themselves, or its not really art.

New York-based Shen Yun is the worlds premier classical Chinese dance company. Presenting a culture that draws upon ancient Chinas Buddhist and Daoist philosophies, Shen Yun depicts story-based pieces that tell tales from ancient times to the modern-day.

In the past, artists looked to the divine for inspiration and cultivated virtue in order to create uplifting art. Today, Shen Yuns artists follow in this noble tradition, which is why audiences feel there is something different about Shen Yun, says the companys website.

The tradition that they carry on is beautiful, and its very important, said Ms. Prosser. Im very passionate about that continuation of the human spirit and of freedom and discipline  and the artistic liberty to create beauty and to give it to people around us.

Since 2006, Shen Yun has performed at top theatres worldwide with a mission to revive Chinas 5,000-year-old traditional culture. Shen Yun says its performances demonstrate China before communism, hence they are not allowed in China to perform.

To the artists of Shen Yun, Ms. Prosser wanted to commend them for their artistry.

Keep on the work because its important, and its an insult to those who want you to stop, she said.

Reporting by Sally Sun and Jennifer Schneider.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
Appeal to find missing Danish man

PHUKET: A concerned daughter is calling for any information that leads to finding her father, Sven Erik Johannessen, who has been missing in Phuket since last Saturday (Mar 11).

tourismSafety

By The Phuket News

Saturday 18 March 2023, 10:22AM

MISSING: Sven Erik Johannessen. Photo: Supplied

UPDATE!!! Svens daughter Ditte has confirmed: "He has been found and is doing well..  thank you so much for the huge help you have been it is really appreciated

ORIGINAL STORY:

Tourist Police have been notified and local police are looking for him, explained Ditte Johannessen.

We talk almost every day and he sends me pictures of his day. He is reported missing to the Danish police, Danish embassy, Thai embassy in Denmark and lots of local Danish people are looking for him,

His disappearance has already been reported in Danish media, she added.

He has a heart condition and needs medicine every day. He arrived in Phuket on March 1 but we dont know his hotel, Ms Johannessen said.

Mr Johannessen is 189cm tall and of fair complexion. It is not known what clothes he may be wearing at this time.

Any persons who believe they have seen Mr Johannessen are urged to contact local police or call the Tourist Police hotline 1155.

Alternatively his daughter DitteJohannessen can be contacted by email at dittejohannessen@hotmail.com or via her Facebook page.
Russians still top Phuket arrivals

PHUKET: After a two-month hiatus, Phuket Immigration has released statistics of the number of international arrivals landing in Phuket, with Russian nationals still holding the top spot for the first two weeks of March.

immigrationtourismRussianChinese

By The Phuket News

Saturday 18 March 2023, 11:38AM

According to the report, released yesterday (Mar 17), a total of 184,762 foreigners entered the country via Phuket International Airport from Mar 1-15.

Of those 47,525 were Russian nationals, with a further 21,414 arriving from China. Indian nationals placed third with 14,320 arrivals, followed by arrivals from Kazakhstan (9,703) and Germany (9,602).

Of note, the most recent previous daily report by Phuket Immigration marked that 117,595 Russian nationals had arrived in Phuket from Dec 1-18. Arrivals from India held the second spot on the Top 5, with 49,669 arrivals.

For the first time included in Phuket Immigration arrival reports yesterday was that 214,528 foreigners were registered as staying at an accommodation venue.

The report carried the warning: The host, the owner, the occupier of the dwelling, the hotel manager, when a foreigner stays, has a duty to inform the immigration officer within 24 hours. Violation is punishable under section 38 of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522.

MARINE TRAFFIC

Also newly released yesterday was a report of foreigners arriving in Phuket by sea, with a total of 16,035 foreigners cleared to enter Thailand via Phuket from Mar 1-15.

There were eight cruise liners and 31 private yachts arriving in Phuket during the period, along with eight cargo ships but no new fishing boats registered as officially entering the area.

The top 5 nationalities of marine traffic entries were Indonesia (4,146), Malaysia (3,636), United States (2,283), United Kingdom (952) and Singapore (804).

KEEPING SCORE

Another new addition to statistics released was a notice informing how many foreigners had been given warnings or deported under the new system of red and yellow cards, launched earlier this month.

Four foreigners had been issued yellow card warnings: Two French citizens, one Ukrainian national and one Swedish national.

A second yellow card for any of the four may now see them deported from Thailand.

Two foreigners had been arrested and received red cards, meaning deportation: one a Swedish national, the other a French national.

The report marked four categories of offences relating to foreigners: Group 1) Offences relating to body and life; Group 2) Offences relating to property; Group 3) Special cases; and Group 4) Cases in which the state is the victim.

Five foreigners had been deemed to have committed Group 4 offences, namely offences against the state.

A further five foreigners had been found to have breached immigration law by failing to register their place of residence, as required by Section 38 of the Immigration Act.
War crimes court issues Putin arrest warrant

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court on Friday (Mar 17) announced an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.



By AFP

Saturday 18 March 2023, 12:27PM

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said Putin was liable for arrest if he set foot in any of the courts member states. Photo: AFP / file

The Hague-based ICC said it had also issued a warrant against Maria Lvova-Belova, Russias presidential commissioner for childrens rights, on similar charges.

Moscow dismissed the orders as void. Russia is not a party to the ICC so it was unclear if or how Putin could ever end up in the dock.

War-battered Ukraine welcomed the ICC announcement, with President Volodymyr Zelensky hailing the historic decision.

The courts shock notice came hours after other news with the potential to significantly impact Russias war on Ukraine, including a Moscow visit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping and more fighter jets for Kyivs forces.

More than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since the February 24, 2022 invasion, according to Kyiv, with many allegedly placed in institutions and foster homes.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan told AFP that Putin was now liable for arrest if he set foot in any of the courts more than 120 member states.

He said the arrest warrants were based upon forensic evidence, scrutiny and whats been said by those two individuals.

The evidence we presented focused on crimes against children. Children are the most vulnerable part of our society, said Khan.

The ICC said judges found there were reasonable grounds to suspect Putins criminal responsibility and grant Khans application for the warrants, which were made back on February 22.

ICC President Piotr Hofmanski said the execution of the warrants depends on international cooperation.

HISTORIC DECISION

During a meeting with Putin in mid-February, Lvova-Belova said she adopted a 15-year-old child from the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

Now I know what it means to be a mother of a child from Donbas  it is a difficult job but we love each other, that is for sure, she told Putin.

She added that we evacuated childrens homes into safe areas, arranged rehabilitation and prosthetics for them and provided them with targeted humanitarian assistance.

The arrest warrant for Putin, a sitting head of state of a UN Security Council member, is an unprecedented step for the ICC.

Set up in 2002, the ICC is a court of last resort for the worlds worst crimes, when countries cannot or will not prosecute suspects.

Prosecutor Khan launched an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine just days after Russias invasion.

Khan recently posted pictures from a visit to Ukraine alongside empty cots in an empty childrens care home, and said that investigating alleged child abduction was a priority.

Its poignant, he said. One sees empty cribs and empty beds juxtaposed with paintings by those children on the walls.

Zelensky, who met Khan on his visit, welcomed the arrest warrants for his nemesis in Moscow.

A historic decision from which historic responsibility will begin, Zelensky said.

Ukraines Western allies also hailed the move.

US President Joe Biden said the warrant was justified, and makes a very strong point, while noting that the United States is not a member of the ICC.

There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible must be held accountable, a State Department spokesperson said. The ICC Prosecutor is an independent actor.

Britain called the decision welcome and the European Union said it was just the start. Human Rights Watch said it was a big day for the many victims of Russian forces.

VOID

The Kremlin dismissed the warrants.

Russia, just like a number of different countries, does not recognise the jurisdiction of this court and so from a legal point of view, the decisions of this court are void, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The ICCs Khan however said there were so many examples of people that thought they were beyond the reach of the law.

Look at (Slobodan) Milosevic or Charles Taylor or (Radovan) Karadzic or (Ratko) Mladic, he said, referring to a series of war criminals from the former Yugoslavia, and former Liberian president Taylor, who have faced justice.

Earlier in the day, Beijing and Moscow announced that Chinese leader and strategic ally Xi would be in Russia next week to sign accords ushering in a new era of ties.

The United States has accused China of mulling arms shipments to support Russias campaign  claims Beijing has strongly denied.

The arrest warrants come a day after UN investigators said Russias forced transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children to areas under its control amounts to a war crime.

The investigators said parents and children had spoken of youngsters being informed by Russian social services that they would be placed in foster families or adopted.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, but Kyiv has accepted the courts jurisdiction and is working with Khans office.

Russia denies allegations of war crimes by its troops. Experts have said it is unlikely it would ever hand over any suspects.

Ukraine has long requested fighter jets from Western allies, although it is seeking primarily modern US-made F-16s.
The Isle of Wight County School Board last week narrowly passed a revised policy that, among other things, states that there is no systemic racism or bigotry perpetuated by the United States or any governmental entity.

That principle is one of several that establish a framework for teaching about controversial issues in the divisions schools. Other new principles outlined in the policy include that parents or guardians have the sole responsibility for guiding their childrens views on controversial topics and that no one is inherently a victim or oppressed due to their race (consciously or unconsciously), skin color, gender, religion, national origin, sex, medical condition, age, martial status, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status, or disability.

Isle of Wight County is home to fewer than 40,000 residents. Nearly 60 percent of the school divisions 5,600 students identify as white. About 25 percent identify as Black.

The new language is part of a heavily revised version of the divisions policy on teaching controversial issues.

The previous version of the policy had been revised less than two years ago, and stated that the study of controversial issues would be carried out in an atmosphere free from bias, prejudice, or coercion. It was based on the Virginia School Boards Associations model policy on the topic, said division spokeswoman Lynn Briggs.

The revisions were approved in a 3-2 vote on March 9, after multiple people spoke in opposition to them during nearly one hour of public comments. Board chair John Collick and members Jason Maresh and John Mark Wooster voted to approve the changes. Members Denise Tynes and Michael Cunningham voted in opposition.

The changes were reportedly brought forth by Maresh, whose campaign for school board in the fall focused on banning divisive concepts from school. In the last couple of years the issue has become a political talking point, with conservative politicians taking aim at critical race theory and other concepts. Gov. Glenn Youngkin last year issued an executive order banning these concepts from being taught in schools.

Maresh said he is aware of the optics of having so many people speak against the policy during public meetings. But he said he is also attuned to the position of all his constituents.

As has been pointed out numerous times, I campaigned, in large part, for the premise behind this policy, he said. Its no secret. And I was elected by 67 percent of the voters in my district.

Maresh notes that the policy does not restrict or inhibit teachers from teaching about controversial issues, but just directs them to do so in a way that does not promote or persuade students to presume that controversial topics should be viewed through any particular lens.

Those criticizing the revised policy say it is unnecessary and adversarial toward teachers. They say the original policy was sufficient.

The school system and parents should be partners, working together for our childrens success, one parent said during the meeting. As partners, that means that some minimum level of trust is required for the partnership to workAbsent any evidence of a problem, were basically labeling teachers as untrustworthy and needing to be watched.

Maggie Halstead, a history teacher at Windsor High School, also spoke in opposition to the revisions during last weeks meeting.

Im not guiding my students to follow my beliefs because I have to introduce both sides of an issue or teach the historical facts and how it affects people today, Halstead said. Just because what I teach, per the (Virginia Department of Education) and College Board standards, does not align with the political or religious beliefs of certain individuals of this county, does not mean Im indoctrinating my students.

Matthew Ployd, a history teacher at Smithfield High School and president of the Isle of Wight Education Association, said the revisions to the policy address a a problem that is completely manufactured and inflated by some board members in order to make political points with their base.

Ployd said the policy also does not outline protocols about implementation.

Who determines if theres a violation, who determines the consequences? he said.

Ployd also said the principle in the policy denying that systemic racism exists is erroneous and false.

Where is your data-driven evidence that there are no ethnically-biased institutions in this country? he said. There is plenty of empirical data from a plethora of studies which states that there are are, intentional or otherwise.

Isle of Wight County was one of the first communities in Virginia to face a legal challenge for its failure to comply with school desegregation orders following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling. To avoid integration, a group of parents in the county formed an education foundation and, in 1967, opened Isle of Wight Academy, a whites-only, private K-12 school.

Historical events like the subverting of desegregation orders, redlining practices, voter suppression and environmental and zoning decisions are often recognized as contributors to current racial inequalities, ranging from educational outcomes to health disparities to the wealth gap.

Ployd said the boards updated a manifesto, and said that some teachers have quit because the harassment they feel coming from this board just isnt worth it.

Maresh said he agrees that most teachers in the division are already in alignment with the policy.

As such, an implementation of this policy should have very little to any impact on the great work that Isle of Wight County Schools accomplishes every day, he said.

Ahead of the vote, Tynes and Cunningham both indicated they would vote against the revisions because of the number of people who spoke against them. Tynes noted that students were among those criticizing the revisions.

I hear them and I listened and I will continue to advocate for them because that is the reason why were here, she said.
Saint-Laurent, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain. High 52F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Low 41F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Retro Roundup now turns to the best soul songs of the 1960s. The decade was an especially effective time for intense, heartrending songs from several labels, especially Stax/Volt out of Memphis, Tennessee and even Motown to an extent.

I write, to an extent, because Motown was largely pop. It was rarely what one would call deep soul. Still, not all deep soul was memorable deep soul.

Here are Retro Roundup's favourite 1960s soul songs, some of them deep:

Otis Redding- Try A Little Tenderness: If anyone asks me what my favourite songs are from the artist who many consider to be the greatest 1960s soul star of all time, I would say Trick Or Treat (unreleased for decades) and Look At the Girl (from the 1969 album Love Man, and basically an an outtake from a couple of years before). But those are both infectious ravers  the latter song is a cover version that far surpasses the original by the McCoys, a white group. But Try A Little Tenderness, a cover version of a much older song that is contained on the great Dictionary of Soul album, is included here because it's filled with soul intensity. It starts off slow with exceptionally soulful singing from Otis, and then suddenly speeds up with some of the most intense singing I've ever heard. Almost everything Otis sang from his Volt label start in 1962 to his passing in a plane crash in 1967 was great, but this one is really special.

James Brown- Prisoner of Love: Last time, when I discussed JB's greatest songs, I focused more on his funk and rhythm exercises, particularly the Let Yourself Go/There Was A Time/I Feel All Right medley on Live At The Apollo Vol. 2, my favourite live album. My choice here is not the 1963 JB single, itself a superb cover version of a much older hit by Perry Como, but a much lengthier, highly intense rendition with an ending that is nearly as explosive as the closing section of the full version of the funky Super Bad. On this Prisoner of Love, after some very heavy instrumentation, JB screams at the close like he's seen the pits of Hell.

James and Bobby Purify- I Don't Want To Have To Wait: This soul duo, in reality cousins James Lee Purify and Robert Lee Dickey, are most famous for the punchy I'm Your Puppet, but that's closer to pop. This slower song was recorded for the duo's label Bell, but it sounds like the best ever soul song not recorded for Stax/Volt. (On a side note, these artists can be compared to Stax's Sam and Dave and both overlapped in terms of song choices, but Sam and Dave are not included on my list because I prefer their more fast-paced, less soul-intense songs.)

Jimmy Ruffin- What Becomes of the Brokenhearted and The Temptations-Since I Lost My Baby: These two Motown songs don't have the intensity of the greatest deep soul, but they do have another quality I really like: empathy. Regarding the Ruffin song, I'm growing to like the version on the box set The Motown Story, in which, over the song's instrumental intro, Ruffin discusses how he came to record the song. There's something about the sequence between the end of his monologue and when the music switches to full volume that is especially effective.

Bessie Banks- Go Now: This song is best known as a bigger hit by an early version of the British group the Moody Blues. Banks, here on the Blue Cat label, sings with wonderful gospel (there's that word again) intensity. But my favourite of her songs remains the tearjerking Try To Leave Me If You Can. But that's from the 1970s, so it's not eligible for this list.

Next time: Retro Roundup's favourite Beatles solo songs.
The Corvallis Sister Cities Association is gathering items to make 500 first aid kits to send to Uzhhorod, Ukraine, which has been Corvallis sister city for more than 30 years. When individuals, mostly mothers with children, fled to Uzhhorod for safety, they lost most of their belongings, including first aid kits. Local residents are asked to consider donating items for the kits and/or helping pack the kits. There are five drop-off sites for the first aid kit items. To see a list of items and drop-off sites, visit https://sistercities.corvallis.or.us/first-aid-kit-project.

Local artists Earl Newman has created an original screen print and donated it to the Corvallis Sister Cities Association Refugee Fund. Copies are numbered and signed. See sistercities.corvallis.or.us/Uzhhorod for a picture of the print. Contact Carol Trueba, Caroltrueba@gmail.com or 541-760-8081, to purchase.

A local poet, Linda Chisholm, has dedicated a book of poetry, What Does One Say, to the Corvallis Sister Cities Association Refugee Fund prior to her passing. Copies are for sale at $25 each. Contact Carol Trueba, Caroltrueba@gmail.com or 541-760-8081, for details.

Local artists Isabella and Allessandra Bakker have painted two sunflower pictures, Field of Hope and Rise. They were reproduced by Kathy Rackham King and are available as greeting cards or posters. Four notecards (two of each print) are $25, and 8x10 prints are $25 each. Contact Carol Trueba, Caroltrueba@gmail.com or 541-760-8081, to purchase.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
ORESTE P. DARCONTE is a former publisher of The Sun Chronicle. Reach him at opd999@gmail.com .
Job Title: Legal & Collection Officer (Fresher Jobs)

Organisation: Al-Mansour Automotive

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

About US:

The conglomerate was first established in 1975 by the late Mr. Loutfy Mansour to enter the automotive market in Egypt. It didnt take long for Mansour to reach its record-breaking sales by becoming the exclusive dealer for General Motors (GM) in the same year and soon became a household name by 1980, franchising popular automotive brands; Opel, Chevrolet, Isuzu, and ACDelco.

Fast forward to 2001, Mansour Automotive was given exclusive distribution rights for all General Motors brands and products in Egypt. For an outstanding 4 decades, Mansour Automotive has won the hearts and trust of millions of customers by following their philosophy With Mansour, you are in safe hands.

Job Summary: A legal Officer who is a Lawyer by profession need to have skills in analyzing the documents correctness, and he will be screening each and every document and find out if there is any fraudulent or manipulated documents given for loan approval. He should be technically sound to find out the correctness of the documents online and have contacts to check certain documents from the government records.

Secondly, he will be handing legal cases, coordinating with the Retainer for legal actions, attending police stations and handling customers, sending default notices for non-payment on behalf of the company, Coordination with the collection team for recovery, and Handling legal issues faced by the company in coordination with Legal Retainer.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Handling Police cases and complaints  need to represent the company in case of any dispute, recover the impounded motor cycle from the police station.

Handling legal cases on behalf of the company  whenever we receive any legal notice from the customer, It has to be handled wisely in coordination with the legal retainer and resolves the issue

Handling police reports in case of Theft and Accidents  for insurance claim purposes.

Supporting collection by sending default notices to the customers, visiting the customer and enforcing the clause of the agreement in case of impounding legally.

Updating Management, the legal cases status, Insurance claim status and Document verification Sampled cases on a daily basis

critical analysis of the documents received from the customer and determining the documents are clean and there is no fraudulent or manipulated documents. TAT within 1 day









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The applicant must hold a Bachelors Degree in law

At least two years of experience as a Legal Officer (Optional)

Good Experience in handling Police Officers, Government officers

Excellent customer service and Communication Skills

Strong verbal and written communication  Local Language, Uganda

Should know the legal implication of each and every issue faced by the company and advise.

Should have good Customer Service Experience

Excellent phone and presentation skills.

Proficiency in Microsoft Office and Word

Knowledge of SAP is an additional advantage

How to Apply:

All candidates who wish to join Al-Mansour Automotive in this capacity should apply online at the link below.

Click Here

Deadline: 1st April 2023

For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
A Linn County man has died in the custody of the Oregon Department of Corrections.

According to a DOC news release, Donald Dale Johnson, 73, died Friday, March 17. Johnson was lodged at Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario and died at a local hospital.

The department has notified Oregon State Police, as is protocol for in-custody deaths.

Johnson entered DOC custody July 14, 2016, out of Linn County with an earliest release date of Oct. 28, 2028, the news release said.

According to Oregon's online court database, Johnson was convicted of two counts of first-degree sexual abuse committed against a minor.
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, Sophomore; 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.

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A large crowd gathered around the open sides of the makeshift courtroom in the eastern Congolese village of Kamanyola in early March to watch the culmination of a trial of 15 military officers for the rape of minors.

They watched in silence, some craning to see better, as a soldier stripped the epaulettes off a colonel whom a judge had just ordered be dishonourably discharged from the army and sentenced to seven years in prison for raping a local 14-year-old girl last September.

The fact that a very high-ranking officer has been sentenced is a very eloquent message that no one is above the law, said Judge Innocent Mayembe, who had found 12 of the soldiers guilty.

The Feb. 27  March 9 trial by a mobile military court offered a rare chance of justice for rape in conflict-hit eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where an estimated 40% of women have experienced sexual violence in some form, according to a 2010 study in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

During the trial, held in an open-air wooden structure, several victims and one victims father offered their testimonies in specially designed hoods that obscured their faces  an indicator of the fear of stigma that stops many from coming forward.

I dont have any friends anymore, one of the victims said.

Holding the hearings in the local community helps show people the need to speak up about cases of sexual violence, said lawyer Armand Muhima, whose organisation funded the trial. The goal  is to educate the people so they know that the law is there for everyone.

Muhima works for the Panzi Foundation, an organisation set up by Nobel prize-winning gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, who campaigns to help the hundreds of thousands of women raped in eastern Congo since the region plunged into conflict in the 1990s.

The Second Congo War, which killed millions of people, formally ended in 2002, but Congolese forces are still battling scores of armed groups in eastern regions, fuelling the long-running sexual violence crisis.

In a 2014 report on the fight against impunity for such crimes, the U.N. Joint Human Rights Office in Congo (UNJHRO) said some progress had been made.

But most cases of sexual violence are never investigated or prosecuted, and very few are even reported, it said.

The same year, the government launched an action plan to combat sexual violence by members of the military under which hundreds of commanders committed to report cases.

In 2022, 314 people in Congo, including 71 soldiers and 143 members of armed groups, were convicted of offences related to human rights violations and abuses such as sexual violence, according to UNJHRO, which supported 12 investigations by military courts and seven mobile court hearings.

The mobile courts, mostly funded by foreign donors, have been operating in Congo for over a decade, bringing judges, prosecutors, and defence lawyers to remote villages in an effort to show local communities that crimes committed far from urban centres are not beyond the reach of the law.

Even when cases are opened, the judicial process can be slow.

On Monday, NGO the Congolese Society For the Rule of Law asked authorities in a statement why it had taken over a year to schedule a trial for defendants in connection with the rape of over 100 women and girls in a high-profile case from 2016.

The father of a victim at the Kamanyola trial said he just wanted justice for his daughter.

I need to see this case come to an end according to the law. I dont ask for anything (else), he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said he expects to be arrested on Tuesday as New York prosecutors consider charges over a hush money payment to a porn star, and called on his supporters to protest.

Illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorneys office  indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven  the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week, Trump wrote on Truth Social.

A spokesman for Trump said the former president had not been notified of any arrest. Trump provided no evidence of leaks from the district attorneys office and did not discuss the possible charges in his post.

Protest, take our nation back! said Trump, whose supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat.

The probe comes as Trump seeks the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2024.

No U.S. president  while in office or afterward  has faced criminal charges. Trump has said he will continue campaigning even if he is charged with a crime.

A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office has been investigating a $130,000 hush payment Trumps former personal lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn actor Stormy Daniels, declined to comment.

Sources have said Braggs office has been presenting evidence to a grand jury about the payment, which came in the waning days of Trumps 2016 campaign in exchange for Daniels silence about an affair she said she had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump has denied the affair happened and called the investigation by Bragg, a Democrat, a witch hunt.

An additional witness is expected to appear before the grand jury on Monday, at the request of Trumps lawyers, a person familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

Trumps statement that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday is based on news reports that Braggs office is going to be meeting with law enforcement to prepare for a possible indictment, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, on Saturday decried the investigation.

Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump, McCarthy said on Twitter.

RECKLESS

McCarthys predecessor as speaker, Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi, who like McCarthy was present at the Capitol when hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the building, battling with police, denounced Trumps call.

The former presidents announcement this morning is reckless: doing so to keep himself in the news and to foment unrest among his supporters, Pelosi said in a statement. He cannot hide from his violations of the law, disrespect for our elections and incitements to violence.

Braggs office earlier this month invited Trump to testify before the grand jury probing the payment, which legal experts said was a sign that an indictment was close. Trump declined the offer, the person familiar with the matter said.

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance violations tied to his arranging payments to Daniels and another woman in exchange for their silence about affairs they said theyd had with Trump, among other crimes. He has said Trump directed him to make the payments. The U.S. Attorneys office in Manhattan did not charge Trump with a crime.

The probe is one of several legal woes Trump faces as he seeks the Republican nomination for the presidency.

Trump is also confronting a state-level criminal probe in Georgia over efforts to overturn the 2020 results in that state.

A special counsel named by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is currently investigating Trumps handling of classified government documents after leaving office, as well as his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Braggs office last year won the conviction of the Trump Organization on tax fraud charges. But Bragg declined to charge Trump himself with financial crimes related to his business practices, prompting two prosecutors who worked on the probe to resign.

Trump leads his early rivals for his partys nomination, holding the support of 43% of Republicans in a February Reuters/Ipsos poll, compared with 31% for his nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not yet announced his candidacy.

Trump in 2018 initially disputed knowing anything about the payment to Daniels. He later acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment, which he called a simple private transaction.

Cohen, who served time in prison after pleading guilty, testified before the grand jury this week. Grand jury proceedings are not public. Outside the courthouse in lower Manhattan, he told reporters he did not testify out of a desire for revenge against Trump.

This is all about accountability, he said. He needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, spoke with prosecutors last week, according to her lawyer.

Trump founded his Truth Social media platform after being banned by Twitter, Facebook and YouTube following the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. He has since regained his accounts on those services, though he limited his Saturday statement to Truth.

His messages on Truth Social are very concerning as he is declaring the entire justice system corrupt, said Jennifer Stromer-Falley, a senior associate dean at Syracuse University and an expert in social media use during elections.

SOURCE: REUTERS
[March 17, 2023] MOGU Announces Resignation and Appointment of Chief Executive Officer

MOGU Inc. (NYSE: MOGU) ("MOGU" or the "Company"), a KOL-driven online fashion and lifestyle destination in China, announced the resignation of Mr. Qi Chen ("Mr. Chen") as the Chief Executive Officer of the Company (the "CEO") due to personal reasons, effective March 17, 2023. Mr. Chen will retain his position as the chairman of the board of the directors (the "Board"). Mr. Chen has confirmed that he has no disagreement with the Board and there is no other matter relating to his resignation as the CEO that needs to be brought to the attention of holders of securities of the Company or The New York Stock Exchange. The Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Yiming Fan ("Mr. Fan") as the new CEO of the Company, effective March 17, 2023. Mr. Fan has been serving at the Company since 2014, and served as a brand director, a vice president of marketing and a general manager of business of Mogujie prior to his appointment as the CEO. At his prior position, Mr. Fan was in charge of the Company's live video broadcast, platform operation, marketing, branding public relations and other businesses. At the same time, Mr. Fan serves as a visiting professor at Suzhou University and acted as the final judge of various international marketing communication awards. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Fan worked at an advertising company for 5 years, which is a member of The American Association of Advertising Agencies. Mr. Fan graduated from Jiangsu Normal University, majoring in advertising. "I want to congatulate Mr. Fan on his new role at the Company," commented Mr. Qi Chen as the chairman of Board. "Mr. Fan is a proven business leader with a strong track record. His leadership and extensive experience will strengthen the Board and help MOGU fulfill its mission of making fashion accessible to everyone. I look forward to working with him closely as we enter the next exciting phase of our growth story."



About MOGU Inc. MOGU Inc. (NYSE: MOGU) is a KOL-driven online fashion and lifestyle destination in China. MOGU provides people with a more accessible and enjoyable shopping experience for everyday fashion, particularly as they increasingly live their lives online. By connecting merchants, KOLs and users together, MOGU's platform serves as a valuable marketing channel for merchants, a powerful incubator for KOLs, and a vibrant and dynamic community for people to discover and share the latest fashion trends with others, where users can enjoy a truly comprehensive online shopping experience.

For more information on MOGU, please visit: http://ir.mogu-inc.com. Safe Harbor Statement This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. MOGU may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about MOGU's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in our annual report on Form 20-F, the 6-K and other documents filed with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and MOGU does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230317005125/en/

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[March 17, 2023] POLISHED.COM INVESTIGATION INITIATED by Former Louisiana Attorney General: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Investigates the Officers and Directors of Polished.com, Inc. - POL

Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Polished.com, Inc. f/k/a Goedeker Inc. (the "Company") (NYSE: POL). In August 2022, the Company disclosed that it would not timely file its "quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2022 within the prescribed time period" because it required additional time to complete a newly announced investigation and that it was no longer in compliance with NYSE regulations due to that failure. Then, in October 2022, the Company disclosed that its Chief Executive Officer and President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer and Secretary, had resigned from the Company effective immediately. The Company has been sued in a securities class action lawsuit for failing to disclose material information during the class period, violating federal securities laws, which remains pending. KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Polished's officers and/or directors breached their fidciary duties to its shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.



If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of Polished shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-833-938-0905 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-pol/ to learn more. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients - including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230317005330/en/

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[March 18, 2023] INR 2.5 Cr funding won by Social Startups from IIITH's social incubator AIC-IIITH

Social Startups supported by AIC-IIITH, IIITH's social incubator have won INR 2.5 Cr funding support from Government of India and showcased at various G20 startup meetings.

and showcased at various G20 startup meetings. Two startups from green energy and animal husbandry space have been selected for INR 1 Cr each from AIM, NITI Aayog's ANIC and accessibility tech startup for INR 50 lakhs of BIRAC's BIG grant.

AIC-IIITH, which supports tech-based Social Startups has supported 41+ social startups and facilitated creation of 300+ jobs and INR 2+ Cr of funding. HYDERABAD, India, March 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- We need to move toward achieving sustainable and inclusive growth to help India achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). As part of this Atal New India Challenge (ANIC) a flagship program of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, has selected AIC-IIITH's Social Startups Jivoule Biofuels, a Hyderabad-based green energy company and Verdant Impact, a Jaipur-based animal husbandry platform for funding of INR 1Cr each. This amount will be disbursed after the startups successfully complete the due-diligence process. A big part of achieving SDGs also included supporting People with Disabilities. Recognizing this, AIC-IIITH's SunQulp Tech has been selected for a grant of INR 50 Lakh from Biotech Ignition Grant (BIG), the largest early-stage biotech funding programme in India. BIG is the flagship programme of Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Department of Biotechnology. AIC-IIITH's vision is "Catalyzing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using technology to become a thought leader in the space of technology for social impact." This aligns with ANIC's aim "to seek, select, support and nurture technology-based innovations that solve sectoral challenges of national importance and societal relevance." Similarly BIG which seeks 'provides the right admixture of fuel and support to young startups and entrepreneurial individuals' align with AIC-IIITH's goals to "Validate prototypes and business models to help move India ahead in achieving the U.N. SDGs." Thus, AIC-IIITH's tech-based social startups are a perfect fit for these programmes.



Jivoule Biofuels founded by Chandrasekhar Nandigama is working to set up a compressed biogas plant in Hyderabad. They recently started operating a biogas-based power generation plant in Tirupur. Verdant Impact run by Founder and CEO Manish K. Prahlad is a full-stack animal husbandry platform. The platform provides farmers with backward ad forward linkages for purchase and sale of livestock and services like Animal ICU, a digital livestock healthcare ecosystem.



SunQulp started by the team of Amit Panwar (Founder) and Dushyant Kumar (Co-Founder) have created SmartVest, a low-cost, one of its kind, unique navigation solution for the visually impaired people to help them in their movement. It is a wearable vest that guides the wearer while walking by talking to them in human voice and gives them real-time information about their path and the obstacles to avoid, helping them go places with confidence. Congratulating the Startups, Prof. Ramesh Loganathan, Director of AIC-IIITH said, "This financial investment by AIM and BIRAC in AIC-IIITH startups validates and reaffirms our approach of seeking to support the use of technology by social entrepreneurs to tackle pressing social and environmental challenges faced by India."

Jivoule Biofuels was part of AIC-IIITH'S Raftaar - Covid Acceleration Program supported by EPAM Systems as part of its ESG commitment. Verdant Impact and SunQulp Tech are part of the 3rd cohort of Akash, AIC-IIITH's Flagship Incubation Program. AIC-IIITH's Startups Jivoule Biofuels, Verdant Impact and Next Skills 360 were also part of various G20 startup meetings organized by the government across India. AIC-IIITH Foundation, social tech incubator of IIITH, runs multiple cohorts of social startups under various programs like Akash, flagship incubation program and Dhanush Micro Incubation program. AIC-IIITH has also run programs funded by various corporate partners like EPAM, HDFC and Pernod Ricard India Foundation, providing grants to startups. Till date AIC-IIITH has supported 41+ startups, created 300+ jobs and facilitated INR 2+ Cr of funding in diverse social impact sectors like Medtech, Agritech, Greentech, Climate, Edtech etc. AIC-IIITH startups raised INR 75+ cr in funding till date. About AIC-IIITH Foundation is an Atal Incubation Center set up exclusively for incubating and supporting tech-based social enterprises. It seeks to deploy entrepreneurial energy and technological innovation for social impact to help India achieve the SDGs. Supported by the Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Government of India, AIC-IIITH FOUNDATION also seeks to nurture the social enterprise ecosystem by acting as a platform for sharing ideas and insights. With over 10,000 sq. ft space consisting of co-working spaces, conference room, meeting space and other facilities, AIC-IIITH FOUNDATION aims to provide collaborative space to entrepreneurs. These benefits are further enhanced by the multiplying effect of agglomeration effects and network effects of being situated in the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), IIIT-Hyderabad, which is a cluster of incubation centers, research labs and resources. For further information, please contact at: [email protected] or For details visit our Website - https://aic.iiit.ac.in/ and for update follows us Facebook- www.facebook.com/AICIIITH Twitter- @IiithAic and LinkedIn- linkedin.com/in/aic-iiith-foundation-12ab541a1/ About CIE IIIT Hyderabad: IIIT Hyderabad is the first IIIT to be set up in the country, in 1998. IIIT Hyderabad is a research university that ranks in the country for research in various areas of computer science. IIITH also strongly emphasises on translating research into products and startups. To enable this, the Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE) was set up in 2008, which has since grown to be the largest academic incubator in the country. The Centre has very active programs across the spectrum of a startup journey. Entrepreneurship courses and workshops for students, Product Labs to seed new products from research, a pre-incubation program to help entrepreneurs create new startups, incubation to nurture early-stage startups, mentoring programs to improve strategy and business development of the startups, investor pitch days, and several talks/workshops from experts and successful entrepreneurs. CIE-IIITH was supported by DST (TBI) and MeitY (TIDE) in the initial years. Today, there are very active programs focused on emerging technology startups, research-based startups, medical technologies, and social technology startups. In the past 14 years, CIE has housed over 450+ startups that have raised about 250 Cr funding and created over 2500 jobs. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1900509/IIITH_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/inr-2-5-cr-funding-won-by-social-startups-from-iiiths-social-incubator-aic-iiith-301775573.html

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Woe is we all on Monday morning

There was a lot of yawning going on at the state Capitol Monday.

And thanks to 2022 lawmakers Cathy Kipp, Patrick Neville, Jeff Bridges and Ray Scott, the legislature no longer has the opportunity to stomp its feet about the time switch, or at least make laws about it.

Thats because the lege passed, and the gov signed, a bill last year putting Colorado on DST year-round, but only if Congress passes it and four states in the western United States also approve.

That, fortunately, has happened: Wyoming, Utah, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho (with a caveat that only the northern half would make the switch) have adopted laws to make the change permanent once Congress acts.

The congressional action came this close to making it last year; the Sunshine Protection Act, a multi-year effort by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, won unanimous consent from the Senate last year but never got consideration from the full House. Then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi was opposed, and the measure died on the last day of the last Congress.

Rubio has introduced a 2023 version; Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-FL has introduced the same in the House. Where Speaker Kevin McCarthy stands on the issue is unknown.

Greg Brophy was nowhere to be found in the Capitol Monday, as his dream has now come true.

Pi/Pie Day at the Capitol

Tuesday was Pi Day, and lawmakers never pass up a chance for pi. Or pie.

Rep. Meg Froelich of Greenwood Village challenged fellow lawmakers to see how much of magical number starting with 3.14 they could remember, but as it turns out, Froelich needs to hit the books.

All she could get right was the first three numbers, a no-brainer. She tried for six but got the last three wrong.

She then threw down to Rep. Kyle Brown of Louisville, who acquitted himself nicely, remembering Pi to 3.14159265.

Speaker Julie McCluskie said the only thing you need to remember about pi or pie is whether to serve it with whipped cream.

Rep. Richard Holtorf of Akron talked about the pies he likes: strawberry, pumpkin, rhubarb and cow, though the latter is not what you would have found in the House kitchen on Pi Day. Thank goodness!

And there was pi, and pie, for all.

Does the Senate president have a hidden accoutrement?

Capitol M has worked diligently this week to solve one of the burning questions of our time: Did Senate President Steve Fenberg in his youth wear a nose ring?

Alas, a definitive answer could not be obtained. This college picture, cheerfully shared by Mindy Miller, his senior advisor, shows Fenberg in his college days, along with a group of neer-do-wells: Joe Neguse, Lisa Kauffman, Leslie Herod and Zach Zaslow, now the comms guy for Childrens Hospital.

Is Fenberg wearing a nose ring? He wont say but the rumors are flying.

This week's journal victim...

...is Rep. Lisa Frizell of Castle Rock, who pleaded with lawmakers on Monday to approve the journal in honor of Douglas County and the beauty within, including Devils Head, Greenland Ranch and the Cherry Creek Trail.

The motion was also in honor of the beauty of Colorado, but got a resounding no from anti-outdoors lovers, apparently.

Given that she couldnt find enough folks to celebrate how beautiful Colorado is, she switched tactics. We love to have a good time in this chamber, sometimes at the expense of others," she said Tuesday.

The other was Rep. Ron Weinberg and this peculiar photo. The aye vote would keep Frizell from distributing the photo on everyones desk, she said.

Apparently, its not that desirable a photo, because for one, the ayes definitely outweighed the nos. Weinberg, by the way, had already beat a hasty retreat out of the chamber to avoid the whole thing.

Wednesday, unfortunately, was an opportunity for lawmakers to show they do not love Girl Scouts, or Girl Scout cookies. Frizell, a former Girl Scout and leader, tried to get yes votes in honor of the Girl Scouts, but apparently theres a bunch of lawmakers who should have their cookie buying privileges revoked.

Waiter, theres a fly in my soup!

If you had on your filibuster BINGO card Holtorf doing his best imitation of a high-class waiter, complete with silver platter, you definitely win.

A filibuster is busy work. Last week, House Republicans launched one to delay action on HB 1219, the bill setting up a three-day waiting period for firearms purchases.

Its hard work, talking for hours on end, and apparently thirsty work, too, as evidenced by the following.
[March 18, 2023] DEADLINE: Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Norfolk Southern Corporation and Announces Opportunity for Investors with Substantial Losses to Lead Lawsuit

The law firm of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP announced that it has filed a class action lawsuit seeking to represent purchasers of Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) common stock between October 28, 2020 and March 3, 2023, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"). Captioned Bucks County Employees Retirement System v. Norfolk Southern Corporation, No. 23-cv-00982 (S.D. Ohio), the Norfolk Southern class action lawsuit charges Norfolk Southern and certain of Norfolk Southern's 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 Norfolk Southern class action lawsuit, please provide your information here: https://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases-norfolk-southern-corporation-class-action-lawsuit-nsc-html You can also contact attorney J.C. Sanchez of Robbins Geller by calling 800/449-4900 or via e-mail at [email protected]. Lead plaintiff motions for the Norfolk Southern class action lawsuit must be filed with the court no later than May 15, 2023. CASE ALLEGATIONS: Norfolk Southern is a rail transportation company that implemented a strategy known as "Precision Scheduled Railroading" ("PSR"), which is associated with hyper-efficient operational changes designed to increase revenues and decrease costs. Operational changes typically include reductions in staff; longer, heavier trains that can stretch up to miles in length; and tighter schedules. The Norfolk Southern class action lawsuit alleges that defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Norfolk Southern's PSR, including its use of longer, heavier trains staffed by fewer personnel, had led to Norfolk Southern suffering increased train derailments and a materially increased risk of future derailments; (ii) Norfolk Southern's PSR was part of a culture of increased risk-taking at the expense of reasonable safety precautions due to Norfolk Southern's near-term focus solely on profits; (iii) Norfolk Southern's PSR rendered Norfolk Southern more vulnerable to train derailments and train derailments with potentially more severe human, financial, legal, and environmental consequences; (iv) Norfolk Southern's capital spending and replacemnt programs were designed to prioritize profits over Norfolk Southern's ability to provide safe, efficient, and reliable rail transportation services; (v) Norfolk Southern's lobbying efforts had undermined Norfolk Southern's ability to provide safe, efficient, and reliable rail transportation services; (vi) Norfolk Southern's commitment to reducing operating expenses as part of its PSR goals undermined worker safety and Norfolk Southern's purported "commitment to an injury-free workplace" because Norfolk Southern's PSR plan prioritized reducing expenses through fewer personnel, longer trains, and less spending on safety training, technology, and equipment such as hot bearing wayside detectors (a/k/a "hotboxes") and acoustic sensors; (vii) Norfolk Southern's rail services were, as a result of its adoption of PSR principles, more susceptible to accidents that could cause serious economic and bodily harm to Norfolk Southern, its workers, its customers, third parties, and the environment; and (viii) Norfolk Southern had failed to put in place responsive practices and procedures to minimize the threat to communities in the event that these communities suffered the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous and toxic materials.



On February 3, 2023, eastbound Norfolk Southern Railway Company general merchandise freight train 32N derailed 38 railcars in East Palestine, Ohio, leaving behind what the Associated Press called "a mangled and charred mass of boxcars and flames." The derailed equipment included 11 tank cars carrying hazardous materials that subsequently ignited, fueling fires that damaged an additional 12 non-derailed railcars. On February 6, 2023, responders engaged in a controlled detonation and burn of the vinyl chloride, spewing massive volumes of chemicals into the vicinity. The chemicals released from the derailment entered the air and water of the surrounding residential areas, the closest of which were only 1,000 feet from the site of the accident. On this news, the price of Norfolk Southern stock fell.

Then, on February 8, 2023, after lifting a previously issued evacuation order, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine stated that Norfolk Southern was "the one[] who created the problem. It's their liability. They're the ones who ought to pay for it." Following their return, numerous residents reported hazardous air quality and other health and environmental concerns. On this news, the price of Norfolk Southern stock again fell. Thereafter, on February 13, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency stated that it had concluded that Norfolk Southern may be responsible for the cleanup costs of the derailment site or the costs incurred by the EPA for area cleanup. On this news, the price of Norfolk Southern stock once again fell. Next, on February 15, 2023, reports emerged that Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost was considering taking legal action against Norfolk Southern over the derailment. On this news, the price of Norfolk Southern stock again fell. Finally, on March 6, 2023, Norfolk Southern announced a 6-part plan to improve operational safety that included, among other things, adding about 200 temperature sensors along its tracks where existing sensors are at least 15 miles apart, reviewing the temperature levels that set off alarms for train crews, and adding more acoustic sensors that analyze vibrations for potential problems. On this news, the price of Norfolk Southern stock fell, further damaging investors. The plaintiff is represented by Robbins Geller, which has extensive experience in prosecuting investor class actions including actions involving financial fraud. You can view a copy of the complaint by clicking here. THE LEAD PLAINTIFF PROCESS: The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 permits any investor who purchased Norfolk Southern common stock during the Class Period to seek appointment as lead plaintiff of the Norfolk Southern 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 Norfolk Southern class action lawsuit. The lead plaintiff can select a law firm of its choice to litigate the Norfolk Southern class action lawsuit. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff of the Norfolk Southern 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 more than $1.75 billion for investors in 2022 - the third year in a row Robbins Geller tops the list. And in those three years alone, Robbins Geller recovered nearly $5.3 billion for investors, more than double 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.

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Again, it's worth repeating that it's only March but Kansas City is, yet again, in the midst of a great deal of human suffering by way of homicide, violence and political turmoil.



And so . . . We don't mind setting aside this post for links that don't really fit anywhere else but deserve attention.

Check TKC news gathering . . .

8 Kansas City homicides in one week, families grieve for answers KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Violence has overwhelmed the city, police, and victims' families, as there have been 8 homicides in Kansas City just this last week alone. "This is definitely a trying time for the entire city," said Melesa Johnson, Director of Public Safety for Mayor Quinton Lucas.

Kansas City emergency crews rescue man who climbed television tower Turner Twyman/KMBC SOURCE: Turner Twyman/KMBC Emergency crews are working to rescue someone who climbed up to the top of a radio tower in Kansas City on Friday. The tower is located at 31st and McGee Street in Kansas City. Police are unsure why the individual climbed up the tower.

UMKC philosophy professor Clancy Martin on his new book How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind Author and professor of philosophy at UMKC Clancy Martin's newest book, How not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind, is available March 28, published by Pantheon. The book is a comprehensive study of suicidal ideation from various worldviews.

Woman killed by Volvo front-end loader at her Kansas City workplace A woman was killed when she was struck by a Volvo front-end loader in the 4000 block of Winchester Ave. She was working at her job location when she was struck by it at around 4:28 p.m. on Friday, according to Kansas City police. The pedestrian was declared dead at the scene, police said.

Family mourns homicide victim, plans vigil The family of Elizabeth Stivers is mourning after she was killed Tuesday evening in Lykins. They plan to hold a vigil on Sunday, March 19, at 7 p.m. at 4300 E. 7th Street. Her cousin, Jamie, has started a GoFundMe for funeral expenses, saying Elizabeth "was taken from this world too soon."

Developing . . .
One person is dead after a fight at an apartment building in Toronto's Beaconsfield Village neighbourhood Sunday night.
By Jeff Murphy, March 17, 2023





As part of the OVATION Performance Series at the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg elementary school students in grades second and third will be treated to a performance by What If? Puppet Theater (formerly Mesner Puppet Theater) April 5-6. This is one of a variety of OVATION presentations this spring.



WARRENSBURG, MO  The University of Central Missouri OVATION Performance Series has announced five performing arts events for the spring 2023 season. OVATION is a curated selection of world-class dancers, musicians, and theatre performers who will bring exceptional high-energy artistry to West-Central Missouri.



The series opens at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 28 in Hendricks Hall with a performance by internationally renowned tap dancers Ana Tomioshi and Gerson Lanza, performing with jazz pianist James Fernando, and musicians from UCM Music. Tomioshi, a Brazilian native, and Lanza, from Honduras, will showcase a unique integration of African-inspired tap dance and jazz music. Masterclasses for UCM students as well as dance students from Warrensburgs Center Stage Academy will provide developing dancers with a unique learning opportunity.



Commenting on this opening event, Ashley Miller-Scully, chair of UCM Theatre and Dance, noted, What a wonderful opportunity and experience it is to have professional tap dancers visit our campus, teach master classes to our students, and perform their talents for our university and community. Live tap dancing to live music is such a rare and special event and its one not to be missed. I guarantee the audience is going to love it.



OVATION continues Wednesday and Thursday, April 5-6 with second and third graders from Warrensburg elementary schools being treated to a private performance by the What If? Puppet Theater (formerly known as the Mesner Puppet Theater). The company celebrates the arts as essential for early childhood development while continuing its longstanding reputation as a leader in the field of puppetry.



Internationally renowned percussionist Yun Ju Pan will perform at 7 p.m. Monday, April 17 in Hart Recital Hall. Her solo performance career has taken her to every continent, and she is rapidly becoming known as a master educator in the field of percussion performance and teaching. While visiting Missouri, she will be a featured clinician at the Missouri Day of Percussion and will work with UCM Percussion students. Dr. Pan is currently the Director of Administration and International Arts at the Taiwan Percussion Arts Alliance, and the Founder and Director of P Play Percussion Group in Taiwan.



The Elliott Student Union auditorium stage comes to life Thursday, April 20 with a performance by the Africana Fefeworwor Dance Ensemble (AFDE). Founded in 1991, AFDE is one of Ghana's foremost cultural groups, dedicated to preserving and celebrating diverse cultural traditions of music and dance in Ghana and greater Western Africa. AFDE has a focus on fostering musical and dancing talent among the less fortunate and encouraging connectedness across their communities, which is shown among its members, ranging from 4 to 6 years old.



The OVATION series concludes on Friday, April 21 with a performance by the Charged Particles jazz trio and saxophonist Tod Dickow at 7 p.m. in Hart Recital Hall. Celebrating their 30th anniversary performing, Charged Particles features three virtuosos from the U.S. playing jazz while crossing stylistic boundaries and blending diverse traditions to create new sounds. The trio's repertoire blends jazz with elements of Latin music, funk, classical music, and other genres. The band brings a similar approach to playing arrangements of tunes by other jazz artists and traditional jazz standards by the composers of America's most popular songs from decades ago, each played with a new twist. The ensemble's performance of this music on their new CD, Live at the Baked Potato! (Summit Records), has received rave reviews and accolades, including being labeled as one of the Favorite Jazz Releases of 2021 by Jazz Times Magazine; recognized by Downbeat Magazine as a performing group that brings exciting, satisfying stuff; and described by Jazz Podium as a tight unit that keeps the band sound exciting throughout.



All performances in the OVATION series are free, and the series benefits from generous support made possible by the Missouri Arts Council and the UCM College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. For more information, contact series director, Dr. Mia Kim, mkim@ucmo.edu at 660-543-8900 or visit the series webpage.
Belgiums Defence Ministry is planning to hand over 240 military trucks to Ukraine.

The relevant statement was made by The Brussels Times, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The first Volvo Cargo, Volvo Shelter, Volvo Fassi, and Volvo Manumat vehicles are scheduled for delivery next week. They will be used to ferry troops and equipment to the front line.

The Belgian army has a reserve of around 400 Volvo Cargo, Volvo Shelter, Volvo Fassi, and Volvo Manumat vehicles. This includes cargo models, lifting vehicles, and breakdown trucks. These vehicles will be phased out and replaced with newer vehicles this year.

According to Belgiums Defence Material Resources Department, the phasing out of the vehicles has been planned for several years, but their replacement has been turbocharged by the war in Ukraine. Thus, the Belgian army can transfer the majority to the Ukrainian army.

These trucks have been in service since as early as 1992, but remain in good condition. All the vehicles are set to be inspected and refurbished where necessary before they are shipped to eastern Europe. Additionally, the Belgian side will send spare parts and instruction manuals for the trucks.

Photo: Alf van Beem / Creative Commons
Japans Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Germanys Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a meeting in Tokyo agreed to work with allies to continue strict sanctions on Russia and assistance for Ukraine.

According to NHK, the two leaders confirmed the necessity to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine as soon as possible, and that Russia's nuclear weapons threat is absolutely intolerable.

Kishida and Scholz also agreed to enhance cooperation, in particular in the defense sector.

They promised to work together toward the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima in May. The agenda is expected to cover global issues such as strengthening the United Nations, including the Security Council reform, as well as nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

It is noted that Kishida has now completed one-on-one talks with all of the other G7 leaders ahead of the summit in Hiroshima.

As reported by Ukrinform, last year the Japanese government provided Ukraine with various aid worth about $1.6 billion.
The Canadian Ministry of Defense showed the process of sending another tranche of military aid to Ukraine.

The relevant video was posted on the Instagram page of Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand, Ukrinforms own correspondent reports.

More Canadian aid is en route to Ukraine. Were providing an armoured recovery vehicle to help Ukraine sustain the heavy armour that weve donated, the posting reads.

Read also: Canada sends another batch of Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine to Europe

Anand stressed that Ukraine will win  and we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

As reported earlier, since Russias full-scale invasion, Canada has provided $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine. Ukraine received another $4 billion from Canada in the form of financial, humanitarian, and other assistance.
On the ninth anniversary of the illegal "referendum" in Crimea, the Swedish Foreign Ministry, which currently presides over the European Union, emphasized its commitment to the territorial integrity of Ukraine and the fact that Russias attempt to annex the peninsula will never be recognized.

The foreign ministry made the relevant statement on Twitter, Ukrinform reports.

Today marks the anniversary of Russias illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Sweden does not, and will not, recognise Russias illegal annexations of Ukrainian territory, the tweet reads.

The ministry said the country will continue our unwavering support for Ukraine.

As reported, on March 16, 2014, in the temporarily occupied Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, contrary to Ukrainian legislation and that of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the so-called "referendum" on the status of Crimea took place  practically at Russias gun point, with the support of the Kremlins propaganda.

Read also: Explosion reported near Russian military base in Crimea

Ukraine, most of the UN member states and international organizations recognized the sham "referendum" staged by the occupiers as illegitimate.

On March 18, 2014, the so-called "agreement on the accession of the Republic of Crimea to the Russian Federation" was signed in the Kremlin.
On Saturday, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu issued a statement demanding that all Russian nationals be expelled from positions they hold in the Council of Europe.

Reinsalu posted the statement on Twitter, attaching the text of the official letter, Ukrinform reports.

"Considering Russia's ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine and Russia's complete disregard for international law, it is unacceptable that Russian citizens continue to work in the Council of Europe," the letter says.

The letter is addressed to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, and the head of the CoE Committee of Ministers Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir.

Reinsalu also noted that the presence of Russian citizens in the Council of Europe discredits the organization created to protect and strengthen human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in Europe.

"Risks of external pressure being exerted upon staff members cannot be underestimated either. Therefore, further steps are needed in order to retain credibility of the Council of Europe," the letter states.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on Friday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iceland and the President of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir, on the anniversary of Russia's expulsion from the Council of Europe, condemned Moscow for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and killing of civilians, and called for the perpetrators to be held accountable.

Earlier, Germanys Bild published an investigation reporting that the son of Russias Foreign Intelligence Agency (SVR) General Vladimir Nebyvaev, Igor Nebyvaev, 39, heads the Strasbourg-based CoE body for combating money laundering, Moneyval.

Member of the European Parliaments Special Committee on Foreign Interference, Tomas Zdechovsky, has called for the immediate dismissal of the son of a senior operative with Russias Foreign Intelligence Service from the Council of Europe body.

We can't allow Russian hand to control EU counter money laundering measures. Russian Foreign Intelligence general son is an executive director of Moneyval - this is the biggest scandal on the issue of Russia's penetration of EU institutions since the war has started, the MEP said.
Home > 2023 > India Vs China: In Himalayan Hydropower diplomacy | Santhosh (...)

by Santhosh Mathew *

Abstract

As opposed to the regarded Chinese hydro-hegemony in the South Asian and the Southeast Asian region, India is often questioned about its own hegemonic practices of conducting hydro-relations with the Himalayan nations which largely impedes cooperation. Focusing mainly on the India-Nepal hydropower diplomacy, numerous treaties like Kosi, Gandak or Mahakali treaty has been largely ineffective in cases of major disagreements ranging from hydropower generation, distribution, flood management or the building and maintenance of dams between the nations. Simultaneously, the rise and persistence of the China factor in terms of hydro diplomacy and socio-political factors in the region challenges Indias policies of hydro-poltik with the Himalayan nation.

This paper analyses the factors determining the hydro-relations between India and Nepal encompassing domestic and geopolitical conditions in comparison with Chinas existing and building inroads in the Himalayan hydropower sector.

The paper talks about the impediments and opportunities in the field of hydropower diplomacy and assesses the contemporary as well as previous socio-political factors that has been dictating the perceptions and hence determining the trajectory of the said cooperation.

Introduction

The Himalayan region gets its characteristic identity owing to the flowing rivers such as Ganga, Brahmaputra and Indus which often defy the spatial boundaries of the riparian states covering China, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan bringing in a confluence of multifaceted factors of bilateral and multilateral relations like socio-political, ecological, and historical aspects which dictate the cooperation dynamics amongst the nations.

Energy becomes one of the major areas of converging interests in the geopolitics and geoeconomics of these nations which trickles down to impact the micro as well as macro-economic conditions. In the contemporary sphere, the increase in demand coupled with high cost and impact on climate change has compelled all nations to look forward to renewables and the Himalayan region seems to have its own perks of having numerous rivers that makes the hydropower energy crucial in the overall Himalayan diplomacy.

Looking at Nepal, the upper riparian nation has a hydropower generation potential of 80,000 MW power. But so far it has installed a capacity of 800 MW only which leaves a huge potential for harnessing the energy. The countrys hydropower is mostly dependent on small run-of-river projects banking on the rivers. It faces huge energy scarcity during the dry season as these rivers freeze which leads to unavoidable power cuts by the Nepal Electricity Authority on an average of 15-18 hours being a common phenomenon throughout the country. Comparatively Bhutan, which has an estimated hydropower potential of a technically feasible 23,760 MW has harnessed 2326 MW of the existing potential which shows a better growth curve than that of Nepal with higher potential.

This ability of Bhutan to effectively harness its hydropower resources comes from strong standalone schemes as introduced by the Kingdom like projects which are environmentally friendly and techno-economically lower cost bearing. The second factor stems from its close cooperation with India as a large energy market. India has been largely instrumental in providing both financial and technical support to develop numerous hydro power projects in Bhutan. On the contrary Nepal has been apprehensive towards the development of its hydropower potential due to perception of Indian assertion in the hydroelectricity generation which impedes the collective potential in hydro cooperation between India and Nepal.

Irritants of India-Nepal Hydropower Diplomacy

Lack of mutuality in the water-sharing treaties- Examining the Indo-Nepal water sharing treaties there is a clear debate of hydro-hegemony over mutuality which largely hinders cooperation.

In case of the Kosi Agreement of 1954, it was signed to construct a barrage which was primarily meant to control massive floods and devastation in Bihar. This creation of a low-head diversion or a barrage dam has been unconventional to witness due to any lack of storage capacity at all being proposed only for flood control. Besides, upon its construction Nepal agreed to give its management rights to India on a lease for 199 years which is a cause of apprehension for a part of Nepal which seas India being given unfair controlling rights over a barrage that has a normal working life of 50 years. Additionally, the lack of any mention for the irrigation coverage in India or the lack of transparency over the amount of hydro power generation quantum and the failure to provide proper financial assistance to the people displaced as promised by India, leaves too many questions unanswered that leads to the existing threat perception in the cooperation. [1]

In case of the Gandak Agreement of 1959, in contrast to Kosi agreement it contained detailed descriptions of the irrigation cover to be provided to Nepal but did not mention the benefits to India. The overall benefits of the Gandak project are far below the projection due to less availability of irrigation water, increasing sand deposition, no compensation for the displaced people and various other factors.

In case of the Mahakali Treaty of 1966, which was ratified by more than two-thirds majority of the Nepalese parliament, despite of strong disapproval from many parliamentarians oversees the agreed upon creation of three dams at Sarada, Tanakpur and Pancheshwar. However, despite the agreed upon shared costs, there has been no progress on the projects due to various socio-political and environmental factors.

Territorial Disputes-

Territorial disputes between India and Nepal like the Kalapani and the Susta disputes has been two of the major impediments in the hydro cooperation between the nations. While the Kalapani issue can be tracked back to the Sagauli Treaty of 1816 passing through Nepals monarchy to the modern-day democracy, at the core of the contemporary issue lies the debate over the origination of the river either from the territory east of Kali or west of Kali River. Additionally, the river appears to change its course due to climate change as well as changes in flowing patters, a problem that lays at the crux of the Susta territorial dispute. Susta, bordering Bihar to the south was on the right bank of the river Gandak when the Sugauli treaty was signed to determine Nepalese territorial claims. However, in due course of time the river changed its course and falls on the right bank which is under Indian control as opposed to be on the right bank when the treaty was signed.

Chinas Himalayan Hydro-Poltik

Expanding from its initial interest of using Nepal in preventing Tibet from breeding any discontent against China, today China has made several inroads in Nepals education, health, hydel and infrastructure sectors. As a part of the Belt and Road Initiative under the Trans-Himalayan Multidimensional Connectivity network, Nepal has a significant exertion of Chinese soft and hard power as well as its political narratives. This could be seen in numerous foreign policy decisions as taken by Nepal like not attending the BIMSTEC counter-terrorism exercise hosted by India in 2018. New Delhi expressed its disappointment as this absence was seen as Nepals popular reservation towards seeing BIMSTEC as an anti-China military alliance.

Similarly, the Nepali communist party has been seen to create numerous obstacles opposing the implementation of the MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) grant including a narrative of the grant being linked to USs Indo-Pacific Strategy which consecutively turned the narrative largely as anti-India.

In case of India-Nepal hydro-power trade, the possibility of buying power at a cheaper rate from Nepal and making it available over an electric grid system to consumers in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India could possibly become a regional game-changer but faces a roadblock as to Indias opposition to the involvement of Chinese contractors in the UTKHEP project [2] therefore delaying the process. The Tamakoshi project also known as Nepals Three Georges dam given the size and potential has been operational since 2021 and has been constructed by civil construction companies like Chinas Sinohydro and Austrias Andritz Hydro. Indias refusal to purchase power from the 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi Hydroelectric Project (UTKHEP) also comes with disallowing the Nepali government from opening the bilateral transmission from the power plant to Bangladesh which adds to the anti-India sentiment.

Similar Chinese assistance via PowerChina Resources Ltd can be seen towards the Upper Marsyandi project in western Nepal which contributes for lessening the power shortage supply of Nepal by producing electricity of two billion megawatts hours adding to national grid.

In contrast India has been holding to deliver on big-ticket projects like

Domestic Power Dynamics of the Himalayan Nations

India has always been perceived to be selfish in Nepals sensitive matters. This includes not delivering upon the river treaties and the implementation of various projects, denying to cooperate on the electric grid transmission to other nations, reluctance to respond to border encroachments, undefined trade and transit crises and embargoes.

Firstly, in cases of trade there is a huge trade deficit in Indias favor and Nepal never seems to be acquiring the comparative advantage of the increased exports as the lower-priced Indian products flood the Nepalese market making the domestic market unable to compete.

Secondly, Indias activism for an inclusive constitution has been often perceived to be intrusive along with the alleged involvement and support for the Madhesi movement as well as the 2015 blockade. During the blockade which India strictly stirs clear of any participation saw an array of economic sanctions and embargoes affecting people largely in the Pahadi and Terai region.

Thirdly, Domestic politics in Nepal with dominant communist parties like CPN (UML) has consistently protested India and has been closer to China. Even the Nepali Congress has often favored the anti-India stance. Adding this to the China influence comes the resultant 2019 and 2020 border crisis regarding the Kalapani issue and the constant redrawing of the physical map of both the nations. With the return of Pushpa Kamal Dahal as the current Prime Minister of Nepal the predictions of an equi-proximity with both China and India can be seen on various matters which has be maneuvered in the right direction if India wants to change its anti-perception in the nation.

Indias Himalayan Hydro-hegemony

Bhutan with its tremendous hydropower potential, exports around 45 per cent of its hydropower to India and has a long-standing history of mutual cooperation in the sector. The electricity generation in Bhutan was developed in 1960s by Indian assistance. Right from the beginning the Indian governments over time have been contributing to successfully accomplish the hydropower agreements, starting with the Jaldhaka Agreement of 1961. This liaison continues with other landmark projects like the commissioning of Bhutans first mega project namely the Chukha Hydropower project which was fully funded by the Government of India. A very recent torchbearer of this cooperation is the Mangdechuu Hydroelectric project inaugurated in 2019.

However, this idealized yardstick of hydro-diplomacy has started to fizzle away with numerous questions on what is next for India in cases of Himalayan hydro-diplomacy.

Firstly, the most common reason of this fizzling is the delay in project completions leading to unwarrantable cost escalations as argued by the National Council of Bhutan. An example of the same has been the joint venture between Druk Green Power Corporation and the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited of India in the Pnatsangchu Hydroelectric project and the Kholongchu project [3] which failed to meet the respective deadlines causing the overall financial framework to shoot up. This delay has been due to lack of consensus regarding the feasibility of the barrage, dispute over construction work and capital as well as division of responsibilities.

Secondly, both the neighbors have not be able to efficiently negotiate the power tariff, with market price of electricity bought by India being often cheaper than the domestically available hydropower in India as well as the low average for the power imports from Bhutan there is a clear trade imbalance. While there has been a significant amount of discissions on Chinese debt trap, India stands at the entrance of the same conversation as Bhutans debt to India keeps on increasing with every year. In 2017 Bhutans debt to India revolving projects like Mangdechhu, Pnatsangchu 1 and 2 stood at the cost of INR 12,300 crores, amounting to 77 per cent of Bhutans debt and 87 per cent of its GDP. The World bank has also identified Bhutans external debt to GDP ratio as 99 per cent making it one of the top ten countries with higher external debts.

This financial burden that Bhutan faces due to India is primarily due to two reasons. First the changing hydropower projects partnerships from a 60:40 model (60 percent grant and 40 per cent loan) to 30:70 model and second, the involvement of Indian private companies as well as the increase Indians working on this hydropower projects is seeing the questioning of Indian intentions as the local Bhutanese companies and the population feels deprived of their source of employment.

Therefore, while India and Bhutans hydropower diplomacy can be seen as an ideal framework, it seems to be heading the Nepal way and the only reason it will not head the same way any time soon is due to the past success and politically strong connections within which seems to avert the Chinese interest better than Nepal does.

Conclusion

With the rapidly changing yet continuing geopolitical functioning of South Asia, these Hydropower dominant nations of the Himalayas are often left with little to no choice but to engage with everyone to meet their own interests with policies like amity with all and enmity with none. In such cases the ideal approach for India would not be mindless competition with Chinese investment in the hydropower sector but also cooperation along similar lines. Because with ages of historical mishaps with these projects and the vulnerability of domestic politics does not sit well with the Indian interests. Additionally the geographic proximity of China to these nations makes it a natural stakeholder in the hydro power sector. Therefore, the Indian diplomacy should be more concerned about the substantial economic boost it can give to these Himalayan nations as well as the timely delivery of the infrastructure projects as done by China to build confidence in the cooperation for a holistic Himalayan Hydro diplomacy.

* (Author: Dr.Santhosh Mathew is Associate Professor, Centre For South Asian Studies, School of International Studies & Social Sciences, Pondicherry Central University, India)
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Lagos, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Mar, 2023 ) :Vote counting started following local elections in Nigeria on Saturday, three weeks after the ruling party won a presidential poll that the opposition said was marred by fraud.

With President Muhammadu Buhari stepping down in May after two terms, many hoping for change were disappointed in the way elections were conducted last month, a sentiment which could impact the local poll.

Africa's most populous nation is electing more than 900 state assembly lawmakers and 28 governors, with a particularly competitive contest in the commercial capital Lagos.

Election observers Yiaga Africa noted "a marked improvement in the management of election logistics" on Saturday despite some "incidences of voter intimidation and harassment".

Both the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of the opposition are contesting the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25 election in a legal battle that could extend over several months.

They claim that technical mishaps allowed for ballot manipulation, which the electoral commission, INEC, denied.

After a day of relatively peaceful voting in Lagos, many people kept watch as election officials proceeded to count ballots manually before they were to be uploaded online.

"I am pleased with the counting so far. The election has been free and fair. I hope INEC will do what is normal and declare the rightful candidate as the winner," said 25-year-old nurse Bimpe Adepeju.

- 'Opportunity for change' - Earlier in the day, heavy security was seen deployed across the city of some 20 million people.

Considered the fiefdom of president-elect Bola Tinubu, outsider Peter Obi of the LP caused a stir last month by winning the most votes in Lagos state thanks to widespread support from Nigeria's youth.

One of Obi's supporters who showed up to vote on Saturday in the Agidiigbi Ikeja area was Damilola Adisa, a 20-year-old economics student.

While her candidate lost the presidential race, the first-time voter said she sees "this election too as an opportunity for a change".

Governors are powerful positions in Nigeria, with some controlling state budgets that are larger than those of several African nations.

Most states are currently governed either by the APC or the PDP, whose leader Atiku Abubakar came second in the presidential elections.

Whether the growing popularity of Obi, who came third after Abubakar, will translate at the governorship and local assembly levels remains to be seen.

Tinubu is a former governor of Lagos and remains highly influential in the state where his party's candidate Babajide Sanwo-Olu is running for re-election against Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (LP) and Olajide Adediran (PDP).

Other hotly contested races took place on Saturday in southern Rivers and northern Kano, while northeast Adamawa could see the election of Nigeria's first woman governor.

- Risk of violence - A decisive factor in these local elections will be turnout -- though more than 93 million Nigerians are registered to vote, just over 24 million cast a ballot in February.

In Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria and second biggest pool of voters after Lagos, many residents said voting had started on time and that electoral staff appeared better prepared than in February.

"This is a great improvement compared to the mess we experienced during the presidential election," said Ahmad Awwalu, a 27-year-old motorcycle mechanic before casting his ballot at Hotoro Primary school.

However, in several areas of Kano, thugs showed up at polling units to intimidate voters and in some cases destroyed electoral material, according to local media and election observers.

Vote buying was also reported in at least eight different states, Yiaga Africa said.

Electoral violence and bribes for votes are recurring problems in Nigeria, worsened this year by a lack of cash following a botched Currency swap.

"When you are offered money you should take it but vote your conscience," Buhari told local media after casting his vote in his hometown of Daura.
ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th March, 2023) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday confirmed the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative following the negotiations between the parties concerned.

The grain deal signed between Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations in July 2022 and extended for 120 days in November 2022 was due to automatically renew for another 120 days on March 18 unless either of the signatories object. Russia said on Monday it did not mind extending the deal but only for 60 days, which was confirmed by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday.

"As a result of our talks, we have managed to extend the deal on the grain corridor," Erdogan was quoted by the TRT Haber broadcaster as saying, giving no details regarding the extension period.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, also known as the Initiative on the Safe Transportation of Grain and Foodstuffs from Ukrainian ports, provides for the export of Ukrainian grain, food and fertilizers over the Black Sea from three ports, including Odesa. The package agreement also includes a memorandum of understanding between Russia and the UN to unblock Russian grain and fertilizer exports via the Black Sea.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has accused on Saturday the Manhattan District Attorney of abusing his power by trying to pursue "political vengeance" against former US President Donald Trump

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th March, 2023) US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has accused on Saturday the Manhattan District Attorney of abusing his power by trying to pursue "political vengeance" against former US President Donald Trump.

"Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA (district attorney) who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump," McCarthy tweeted.

The speaker added that he was directing relevant committees of the House of Representatives to investigate if public Federal funds were used to interfere in elections "with politically motivated prosecutions" against Trump, who announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election late last year.

Earlier in the day, Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he expected to be arrested on March 21 and called on the US public to go out and protest. Trump criticized a "corrupt and highly political" Manhattan District Attorney's Office for trying to arrest him based on "an old and fully debunked" charges. CNN reported later in the day, citing an unnamed Trump spokesperson, that the former US President believed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg "hates him."

Trump's possible arrest is reportedly connected with alleged illegal payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 in a bid to prevent her from disclosing her 2006 sexual affair with him. Trump has denied all accusations.
(@FahadShabbir)

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday announced the extension of a deal that allowed exports of Ukrainian grain to resume following Russia's invasion

Ankara, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Mar, 2023 ) :Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday announced the extension of a deal that allowed exports of Ukrainian grain to resume following Russia's invasion.

"Following talks with the two parties, we have assured the extension of the deal that was due to expire on March 19," Erdogan said in comments broadcast on Turkish television, just hours before the agreement was due to expire at midnight.

Erdogan did not say for how long the deal was extended, but Ukraine's infrastructure minister said the deal had been extended for 120 days.

"(The) Black Sea Grain Initiative agreement is extended for 120 days. Grateful to Antonio Guterres, the United Nations, President Erdogan, Minister Hulusi Akar and all our partners for sticking to the agreements," Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Twitter.

Ankara had previously said it wanted a 120-day extension, while Russia was in favour of a 60-day extension.

Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 saw Ukraine's Black Sea ports blocked by warships.

But a deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations in July 2022 -- and signed by Kyiv and Moscow -- had allowed for the safe passage of exports of critical grain supplies. The initial agreement was extended in November until March 18.

Ukraine was one of the world's top producers, and the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative has helped soothe the global food crunch triggered by the conflict.
Russia, China and Iran have completed three-way naval exercises in the Arabian Sea that included artillery fire at targets on the sea and in the air, the Russian defense ministry said on Saturday.

The exercises, off the Iranian port of Chabahar, took place as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to host his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Moscow for a three-day state visit starting on Monday.

Russia has continued to stage military exercises with partners, especially China, despite the strain on its armed forces from the year-long war in Ukraine, where it has failed to achieve any major advance since last summer.

The Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the Chinese destroyer Nanjing were involved in the drills that took place on Thursday and Friday, the defense ministry said.

The Gorshkov, which is equipped with Russia's latest-generation Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, also took part in joint naval exercises last month with China and South Africa.
The United Nations confirmed that the deal to export Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports, which was due to expire Saturday, has been extended, but it did not say for how long.



According to the terms of the agreement, the renewal should be for 120 days, but Russia said it will extend it for only half that period.



Russia agreed to extend the grain deal for only 60 days, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russias TASS news agency on Saturday. "We repeat once again. Russia agreed to extend the deal for 60 days."



The Black Sea Grain Initiative, alongside the Memorandum of Understanding on promoting Russian food products and fertilizers to the world markets, are critical for global food security, especially for developing countries, U.N. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. We remain strongly committed to both agreements and we urge all sides to redouble their efforts to implement them fully.



Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who, along with the United Nations, helped broker the deal, also confirmed it had been extended but did not specify for how long.



Ukraines infrastructure minister had said in a tweet that it was for the full 120 days.



For weeks the United Nations has been working to keep it fully functioning after the Russians had raised complaints about its implementation.



Since it was signed on July 22 in Istanbul and renewed in November, the initiative has facilitated the safe export of nearly 25 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs from three Black Sea ports in Ukraine to global markets.



A corresponding Memorandum of Understanding between Russia and the United Nations has made inroads in easing concerns of anxious banks, insurers, shippers and other private-sector actors about doing business with Russia.



As a result, markets have been calmed and global food prices have continued to fall, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Friday. Griffiths and U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan met earlier this week in Geneva with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin, as they sought to keep the Russians fully onboard.



The U.N. has emphasized that the grain deal has been critical in lowering global food prices, which spiked because of COVID-19 and then Russias invasion of Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine are major global food producers.
As the clock ticked toward a possible expiration of the Black Sea Grain Initiative on Saturday, there were calls at the United Nations on Friday for it to be fully extended, as Russia complained that it was not beneficial enough.

Right now, the U.N., under Secretary-General [Antonio] Guterres leadership, is doing everything possible to make sure that the Black Sea Grain Initiative can continue. We continue to engage closely with all parties, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told a U.N. Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

Since it was signed July 22 in Istanbul, the initiative has facilitated the safe export of nearly 25 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs from three Black Sea ports in Ukraine to global markets. A corresponding Memorandum of Understanding between Russia and the United Nations has made inroads in easing concerns of anxious banks, insurers, shippers and other private-sector actors about doing business with Russia.

As a result, markets have been calmed and global food prices have continued to fall, Griffiths said. He spoke by video from Geneva, where he and U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan met earlier this week with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin.

Griffiths told council members it is vital for global food security that both agreements continue and are fully implemented.

That would entail a four-month extension Saturday, but Russia has said it is not benefiting enough from the deal and will agree to only a 60-day renewal. Turkey, which helped broker the deal, and Ukraine both want the full 120 days.

The efforts of the secretary-general have not generated results, and we cannot accept that, either, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council.

He said that the deal was not adversely affecting Russias economy but rather it was hurting the developing world, which it is intended to help, by not sending enough grain. He also called it complete lies that Russias military action had caused any kind of global food crisis.

Moscow has repeatedly said its fertilizer and food products are under Western sanctions. They are not, but many companies are fearful of doing business with Russian companies and inadvertently running afoul of Western measures.

And when it comes to sanctions, we have gone to extraordinary lengths to communicate the clear carve-outs for food and fertilizer to governments and to the private sector. Simply put, sanctions are not the issue, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, adding that the grain must flow freely.

Ukraines envoy said that despite nearly 50,000 square kilometers of his countrys agricultural land not being suitable for use because of landmine contamination or active hostilities, the countrys farmers had still managed to export nearly 25 million metric tons of food since August 1.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative should be renewed after it expires on March 18 for at least 120 days, as it is foreseen, before an unlimited period, U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya of Ukraine said. Its coverage should be extended to Ukrainian ports in the Mykolaiv region.

Of the Security Councils 15 members, 14 expressed a need for the deal to continue, with only Russia withholding its full support.
The influx of expats into Vietnam, especially the capital Hanoi, has brought changes in various fields to meet their needs, including in real estate.

Vietnam was the seventh best destination in the world for expats, according to the 2022 Expat Insider survey by InterNations, which threw up opportunities for the country's real estate.

84% of expats in Vietnam said they are happy with their lives compared to a global rate of 71%.

Several factors have contributed to the blossoming of expat communities in major cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh.

Many people choose Vietnam for the opportunities it offers to develop their talents, increase their incomes and achieve a stable life. Strong economic integration has also led to an increase in the number of foreign experts sent to Vietnam by international corporations.

The expat community is often categorized as a high-income group. They have experience of all kinds of high-class living spaces, which clearly explains the strict requirements they have for their homes.

Like successful young Vietnamese, they place a strong emphasis on criteria such as diverse facilities, spacious living area, and a convenient location to experience a comfortable life like in developed countries.

The local community is also an important consideration when expats choose their living space. They want to have similarities in culture and lifestyle and find long-term relationships.

In Hanoi, Tay Ho is becoming a popular destination for elite expats to live and work. Located in the middle of the area is West Lake, the citys largest natural lake. It is well-known for its lovely landscapes and fresh air, an ideal choice for nature-loving expats.

Besides, Tay Ho is set to become the new administrative center of Hanoi, and so the infrastructure is well developed, making it easy to travel from there to the city center, outskirts or the airport.

Furthermore, Tay Ho has high-quality and wide range of facilities and services. Foreign residents can easily choose international schools for their children and international hospitals and clinics for themselves and their families if needed.

There is also a diverse range of restaurants, cafes and bars, bringing the vibes of many regions such as Asia, Europe, N America, and Latin America, etc.

This vibrancy has been igniting the real estate market of the West Lake area. Many high-end apartments, meeting elite customers need for convenience and luxury, are being built. They include the SOHO (small office, home office) model, which is catching peoples attention.

A SOHO unit can be used flexibly both for living and as an office. Although this type of model is already popular in developed countries, it has only been emerging in Vietnam in recent years.

SOHO model unit. Photo by SOHO @ Heritage West Lake

SOHO Heritage West Lake has been developed on the SOHO model. It is one of the rare shining stars that satisfies the high expectations of both expats and young Vietnamese elites who have lived abroad. Located on Lac Long Quan street, SOHO Heritage West Lake is just a few minutes' walk from the West Lake.

Here, residents can enjoy the fresh and stunning ambience of the West Lake and the myriad of vibrant restaurants and bars stretching along the lake. Besides, the real plus points, a modern design and advanced equipment, will conquer the hearts of the intellectual expat and young elite alike.

The design, services and amenities of SOHO Heritage West Lake are in no way inferior to high-end project complexes abroad.

A view of the SOHO @ Heritage West Lake hall. Photo by SOHO @ Heritage West Lake

The project itself also focuses on building a modern, civilized and international community. Therefore, even if residents do not have much time to go out, they can still find the opportunity to connect and widen their networks right within the building.

SOHO Heritage West Lake has 30 premium internal facilities that offer residents a convenient and luxurious living experience. As outstanding individuals in the intelligentsia group, foreign experts and young Vietnamese entrepreneurs understand the importance of staying fit and healthy, physically and mentally.

Recognizing this demand, SOHO Heritage West Lake has a range of state-of-the-art health and wellness utilities.

This includes a four-season swimming pool that does not use chemicals, an outdoor fitness area offering a unique blend of nature and fitness and a fully-equipped modern indoor gym and yoga studio.

The fitness room of SOHO @ Heritage West Lake. Photo by SOHO @ Heritage West Lake

Besides, CapitaLand, the project developer, also teamed up with Toong, the first co-working space chain in Vietnam, to create an advanced co-working space spanning over 900 m2 in the building.

Not just a place to live, SOHO Heritage West Lake also focuses on creating a dynamic lifestyle and a civilized, international community.

Every aspect of SOHO Heritage West Lake has been carefully crafted to meet the needs of elite expats and young Vietnamese entrepreneurs, making it the perfect choice for their dream home.

With the current imbalance in real estate supply-demand in Tay Ho, a SOHO project like SOHO Heritage West Lake is expected to sell out soon.
The Brazilian government is studying whether to regulate internet platforms with content that earns revenue such as advertising, its secretary for digital policies, Joao Brant, said Friday.

The idea would be for a regulator to hold such platforms, not consumers, accountable for monetized content, Brant told Reuters.

Another goal is "to prevent the networks from being used for the dissemination and promotion of crimes and illegal content," especially after the riots by supporters of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia in January, fueled by misinformation about the election he lost in October.

Brant said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government also intends to make companies responsible for stopping misinformation, hate speech and other crimes on their social media platforms. Platforms would not be held responsible for content individually, but for how diligent they are in protecting the "digital environment," he said in an interview.

Brant did not detail what the regulatory body would look like but said the government wants to regulate monetized content and prevent the platforms from spreading misinformation.

"What the body would do is monitor whether the platforms are fulfilling their obligations well, and not deal with individual content published by users. That must be up to the courts," he said.

Brant did not specify the role the judiciary would play in fighting misinformation.

Any proposal would require changes to the regulatory framework in the 2014 law known as the "Marco Civil," which governs the internet in Brazil and protects the rights of users.

The law's Article 19 exempts platforms from legal responsibility "for damages resulting from content generated by third parties," unless there is a specific court order for the removal of the content.

For Brant, the current framework "generates an incentive for platforms not to take care of the public space of debate."

The absence of accountability for content that is promoted, monetized or presented as advertising must be reconsidered, he said, adding, "For them to have zero responsibility for that content is very bad."

Brazil's Supreme Court has been discussing the constitutionality of Article 19 since 2017, based on a lawsuit filed by Meta Platforms Inc., owner of Facebook and WhatsApp.

Meta questioned its responsibility for removing content without a court decision in a case involving a fake Facebook profile. The court scheduled a public hearing on the issue for March 28.
A strong earthquake shook southern Ecuador and northern Peru Saturday, killing at least a dozen people, trapping others under rubble, and sending rescue teams out into streets littered with debris and fallen power lines.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported an earthquake with a magnitude of about 6.8 that was centered just off the Pacific Coast, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Guayaquil, Ecuador's second-largest city.

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso in a televised address to the nation said the earthquake killed 12 people.

One victim was a passenger in a vehicle crushed by rubble from a house in the Andean community of Cuenca, according to the Risk Management Secretariat, the South American country's emergency response agency.

In the coastal state of El Oro, three people died and several were trapped under rubble, the agency reported. In the community of Machala, a two-story home collapsed before people could evacuate, a pier gave way, and a building's walls cracked, trapping an unknown number of people.

The agency said firefighters worked to rescue people while the National Police assessed damage, their work made more difficult by downed lines that interrupted telephone and electricity service.

In Guayaquil, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Quito, authorities reported cracks in buildings and homes, as well as some collapsed walls. Authorities ordered the closure of three vehicular tunnels in Guayaquil, which anchors a metro area of over 3 million people.

Videos shared on social media show people gathered on the streets of Guayaquil and nearby communities. People reported objects falling inside their homes.

One video posted online showed three anchors of a show dart from their studio desk as the set shook. They initially tried to shake it off as a minor quake but soon fled off-camera. One anchor indicated the show would go on a commercial break, while another repeated, "My God, my God."

A report from Ecuador's Adverse Events Monitoring Directorate ruled out a tsunami threat.

The earthquake was also felt in Peru, from its northern border with Ecuador to the central Pacific coast. No deaths or injuries were immediately reported. In the northern region of Tumbes, the old walls of an Army barracks collapsed, authorities said.

Ecuador is particularly prone to earthquakes. In 2016, a quake centered farther north on the Pacific Coast in a more sparsely populated area of the country killed more than 600 people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula's annexation from Ukraine Saturday, the day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader accusing him of war crimes.

Putin visited an art school and a children's center that are part of a project to develop a historical park on the site of an ancient Greek colony, Russian state news agencies said.

On Friday, the court accused Putin of bearing personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine during Russia's invasion of the neighboring country starting almost 13 months ago.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world denounced as illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded that Russia withdraw from the peninsula as well as the areas it has occupied since last year.

Putin has shown no intention of relinquishing the Kremlin's gains. Instead, he stressed Friday the importance of holding Crimea.

"Obviously, security issues take top priority for Crimea and Sevastopol now," he said, referring to Crimea's largest city. "We will do everything needed to fend off any threats."

Putin took a plane to travel the 1,821 kilometers (1,132 miles) from Moscow to Sevastopol, where he took the wheel of the car that transported him around the city, according to Moscow-installed governor Mikhail Razvozhaev.

The ICC's arrest warrant was the first issued against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Children's Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.

The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow, but welcomed by Ukraine as a breakthrough. However, the chances of Putin facing trial at the ICC are highly unlikely because Moscow does not recognize the court's jurisdiction or extradite its nationals.

Despite the court's action and its implications for Putin, the United Nations and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Saturday that a wartime deal that allowed grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia was extended, although neither said for how long.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov tweeted that the deal had been renewed for 120 days, the period that Ukraine, Turkey and the U.N. wanted. But Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian news agency Tass that Moscow agreed to a 60-day extension.

Russia and Ukraine are both major global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other affordable food products that developing nations depend on. They signed separate agreements with the U.N. and Turkey last year to allow food to leave Ukraine's blockaded ports.

Russia has complained that shipments of its fertilizers  which its deal was supposed to facilitate  are not getting to global markets. The country briefly pulled out of the agreement in November before rejoining and agreeing to a 120-day renewal.

Meanwhile, Putin signed a law Saturday that imposes stiff fines for discrediting or spreading misleading information about volunteers or mercenaries fighting in Ukraine. The law calls for a fining individuals 50,000 rubles ($660) for a first offense and up to 15 years in prison for repeated offenses.

The measure mirrors one passed in the early days of the war that applied to speaking negatively about soldiers or the Russian military in general.

Fighters from the Wagner Group, a private Russian military company known for fierce tactics, have taken key roles in Ukraine, particularly in Russia's grinding campaign to seize the eastern Donetsk province town of Bakhmut.

In Ukraine, authorities reported widespread Russian attacks between Friday night and Saturday morning. Writing on Telegram, the Ukrainian air force command said 11 out of 16 drones were shot down during attacks that targeted the capital, Kyiv, and the western Lviv province, among other areas.

The head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko, said Ukrainian air defenses shot down all drones heading for the capital. Lviv Governor Maksym Kozytskyy said Saturday that three of six drones were shot down, with the other three hitting a district that borders Poland.

According to the Ukrainian air force, the attacks were carried out from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov and Russia's Bryansk province, which also borders Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military reported that between Friday morning and Saturday morning, Russian forces launched 34 airstrikes, one missile strike and 57 rounds of anti-aircraft fire. It said falling debris hit southern Ukraine's Kherson province, damaging seven houses and a kindergarten.

Russia is still concentrating the bulk of its offensive operations in Ukraine's industrial east, focusing attacks on Bakhmut and other parts of Donetsk province.

Regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said one person was killed and three wounded when 11 towns and villages in the province were shelled Friday.

Further west, Russian rockets hit a residential area overnight in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital of the partially occupied province of the same name. No casualties were reported, but houses were damaged, Anatoliy Kurtev of the Zaporizhzhia City Council said.

British military officials said Saturday that Russia was likely to expand mandatory conscription to replenish its troops fighting in Ukraine. The U.K. Defense Ministry said in its latest analysis that deputies in the Russian Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, introduced a bill to change the draft ages for men to 21-30, from the current 18-27.

The ministry said many Russian men ages 18-21 claim exemptions from military service because they are enrolled in higher education institutions. The wider age range would mean they would have to serve eventually. British officials said the law would likely pass and take effect in January 2024.
The International Monetary Fund said Friday its executive board has approved changes to its financing policy aimed at countries facing exceptionally high uncertainty.

The measure is widely viewed as a way to open a new loan program for Ukraine as it enters the second year of fighting back a Russian invasion.

The IMF said in a statement, The changes apply in situations of exceptionally high uncertainty, involving exogenous shocks that are beyond the control of country authorities and the reach of their economic policies, and which generate larger than usual tail risks.

Meanwhile, DreamApp recently conducted a sleep quality research study on 745 Ukrainians and how the Russian invasion has affected their sleep, dreams and mental health.

A little more than 82% of the participants said they remembered their dreams, which is an indication, DreamApp said, of superficial sleep that does not provide a full rest.

When the brain does not receive enough sleep, traumatic experiences cannot be processed adequately, causing further strain on mental health, according to Jesse Lyon, Dream Apps chief dream scientist. It effectively traps these experiences in the brain causing a state of constant tension and heightened fight-or-flight response.
Israelis packed city streets Saturday in nationwide demonstrations now in their 11th week against plans by the hard-right government to curb the Supreme Court's powers, which critics see as a threat to judicial independence.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who says his aim is to balance out branches of government, wields a parliamentary majority along with his religious-nationalist coalition allies, but his planned judicial overhaul has sparked concern at home and abroad.

As the changes head toward ratification, the protests have escalated, affecting the economy  the shekel has slipped  and extending to a threat by some military reservists not to heed call-up orders.

President Isaac Herzog has appealed for the overhaul to be postponed and presented an alternative plan to the changes Wednesday which was swiftly rejected by the prime minister.

"I came with my friends here to Tel Aviv to demonstrate against what is called reforms," Ronen Shaike, 47, told Reuters at a demonstration in the city, saying he wanted to defend the country's democracy, which he accused the government of seeking to destroy.

Netanyahu, who returned to office for a sixth term in late December, has said the demonstrations are aimed at toppling him. He is on trial in three corruption cases and denies all wrongdoing.

"I'm here to demonstrate with the people of Israel, against the revolution, against the changing of our state," said Dalia Yosef, 72, also at the Tel Aviv demonstration.

Earlier Saturday, protesters demonstrated at a central village where far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was spending his weekend.

"Protest against me as much as you want," Ben Gvir said on Twitter. "I will fight for your right to protest. But why gather outside the windows of the synagogue with loudspeakers, honk, scream and make people violate Shabbat?"

Protests even spread to the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlements have long been considered a political stronghold for Netanyahu's right-wing coalition partners. More than 50 mostly modern-Orthodox Jewish protesters chanted traditional Jewish songs holding blue and white flags at a central junction in the West Bank settlement of Efrat.

"What they are trying to do is monopolize, to have all the power in their hands," Shmuel Wygoda, a college professor told Reuters in Efrat. "Once you have all the power in the hands of one side, it is a change, which we know from history, from totalitarian regimes, that all the power is unfortunately used against the people."
For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in Russia's war on Ukraine. All times EDT.

9:41 p.m.:

9 p.m.: Ukrainian forces outside the battered eastern city of Bakhmut are managing to keep Russian units at bay so ammunition, food, equipment and medicines can be delivered to defenders, the army said, according to Reuters.

And in the latest claim to have inflicted heavy casualties, Kyiv said its troops had killed 193 Russians and injured 199 others during the course of fighting on Friday.

Russia has made the capture of Bakhmut a priority in its strategy to take control of Ukraine's eastern Donbas industrial region. The city has been largely destroyed in months of fighting, with Russia launching repeated assaults.

"We are managing to deliver the necessary munitions, food, gear and medicines to Bakhmut. We are also managing to take our wounded out of the city," military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevaty told the ICTV television channel.

8:20 p.m.: Ukraine is not forcibly mobilizing women, contrary to rumors spread through Russian Telegram channels, according to a March 18 statement by Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar, The Kyiv Independent reported.

Maliar said that women will not face compulsory mobilization, even to serve as medics.

"Kremlin propaganda continues to spread fakes and myths," said Maliar, "using manipulated facts to influence Ukrainian society."

She reiterated that draft notices will not come through the popular e-governance app Diia.

Earlier, Maliar made a statement denying that mobilized Ukrainians are thrown into the front line without preparation, in response to news reports about poorly prepared and equipped Ukrainian units in Bakhmut.

7:30 p.m.: The U.S. should continue supporting Ukraine, former Vice President Mike Pence and New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said on Saturday, a position that puts them at odds with the top two contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, Reuters reported.

Foreign policy has emerged as the main ideological fissure within the Republican Party as the 2024 nominating contest heats up.

While former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have called for dedicating resources to domestic issues rather than Ukraine, several other declared and likely presidential candidates have portrayed themselves as unwavering defenders of the eastern European county.

Both Pence and Sununu have defended Ukraine before, but their Saturday comments were particularly pointed and come as the Republican foreign policy feud intensifies.

6:45 p.m.: The Kyiv Independent reports: A video posted by Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand showed a cargo plane being loaded with a vehicle that appears to be a Bergepanzer 3, which can tow heavy armor, transport or evacuate troops and clear obstacles. 5:52 p.m.: 4:40 p.m.: The United Nations confirmed that the deal to export Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports, which was due to expire Saturday, has been extended, but it did not say for how long, VOA's U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer writes. According to the terms of the agreement, the renewal should be for 120 days, but Russia said it will extend it for only half that period. Russia agreed to extend the grain deal for only 60 days, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russias TASS news agency on Saturday. "We repeat once again. Russia agreed to extend the deal for 60 days." 4:07 p.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Crimea on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia's annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine as allies of Kyiv in the fight against the Russian invasion issued statements condemning the annexation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Russian state TV showed a video of a casually dressed Putin walking with a group of officials in Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014, eight years before launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine says it will fight to expel Russia from Crimea and all other territory that Russia has occupied in the year-long war. 3:11 p.m.: Russian strikes killed two people and wounded eight in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Saturday, the mayor said, accusing Moscow of having used cluster bombs in the attack, Agence France-Presse reported. "Russia continues to spread terror," Oleksandr Goncharenko said in a Facebook post. "Consequences of Kramatorsk bombardment with cluster bombs: two people were killed and eight were wounded, three of them seriously." AFP journalists on the ground heard around 10 explosions go off nearly simultaneously just before 4 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) and saw smoke above a park in the southern part of the city. 2:18 p.m.: Ukrainians have reacted with a mix of support and skepticism to news that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued warrants for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a Russian children's rights official for their roles in alleged war crimes relating to the illegal transfers and deportations of children from occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Anton Buryak, a 21-year-old construction worker from Novomykhailivka, an occupied town in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, told RFE/RL that he supports this decision "because Putin's war crimes did take place." "I personally know of cases of children being forcibly taken to Russia from the occupied territories," he said on Saturday. 1:15 p.m.: Ukrainian Forces Fight Off 'Unlimited' Russian Attacks on the Donetsk Front: Standing just behind the front line in Donetsk, the former industrial city of Avdiyivka lies in ruins. As Russian shelling continues, the few remaining residents say they're not going anywhere. Despite the risk to life and limb, Ukrainian civilians carry on while the defending army says it's holding the line in this hot zone just southwest of Bakhmut. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has this report. 12:20 p.m.: Russia has notified all parties to the Black Sea grain deal that the agreement has been extended for 60 days, and it said again it would not consider another extension until its concerns have been addressed, Moscow said Saturday via its TASS news agency.

10:15 a.m.: VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer notes that Ukraines infrastructure minister is tweeting that the grain deal has been extended for 120 days, and the U.N. said it be issuing a statement soon.

8:35 a.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed amendments to the Russian Criminal Code, introducing harsher punishments for "discrediting participants" of Moscow's all-out war against Ukraine, the Russian state-controlled RIA Novosti news site reported on March 18, according to The Kyiv Independent.

The new punishments include a fine of up to about $67,000 and a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

Additionally, Russians could be punished for discrediting not only the Russian army but also "volunteer formations, organizations or individuals who contribute to the fulfillment of the tasks assigned to the Armed Forces." The Russian Defense Ministry calls irregular armed formations fighting in Ukraine  the state-backed mercenary Wagner Group  as volunteers.

7:15 a.m.: Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday that Turkey would make efforts to further prolong the Black Sea grain deal enabling exports of grain from Ukraine, on the day the pact is due to expire, Reuters reported. "Russia agreed an extension of the grain deal for only two months. We will make efforts for a further extension of the deal after two months," Cavusoglu said in a joint news conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Cairo. 6:25 a.m.: Russia, China and Iran have completed three-way naval exercises in the Arabian Sea that included artillery fire at targets on the sea and in the air, the Russian defense ministry said Saturday, according to Reuters. The exercises, off the Iranian port of Chabahar, took place as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to host his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Moscow for a three-day state visit starting on Monday.

5:15 a.m.: The latest intelligence update from the U.K. defense ministry said Russia will probably widen its military conscription as its invasion of Ukraine goes on. Under a law likely to pass, the age range for conscription would go from the current 18-27 to 21-30 next year.

4:17 a.m.: The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, said in its latest Ukraine assessment that Russian forces conducted limited ground attacks across the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line. They also continued offensive operations in and around Bakhmut and along the outskirts of Donetsk City.

Russian sources that Russian forces repelled Ukrainian forces along the front line in southern Ukraine.

3:11 a.m.:

2:10 a.m.: The Kyiv Independent reported that Ukrainian forces shot down three drones over Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Two more hit targets, causing serious damage to an infrastructure facility in Novomoskovsk, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

1:09 a.m.:

12:02 a.m.: U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley on Friday spoke of their "unwavering support" for Ukraine during a call with their Ukrainian counterparts, the White House said, according to a Reuters report.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined the end of the call, the readout said.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
Malawi rescue teams started using sniffer dogs Friday to locate the bodies of people trapped under rubble left after Cyclone Freddy destroyed their houses. The Malawi government announced that Zambia has sent two aircraft to help with rescue efforts and more nations are pledging to do so.

Authorities in Malawi are still coming to terms with the scale of Cyclone Freddys destruction.

Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya told VOA Friday about the challenges they face locating the remains of people trapped under muddy rubble, which is why sniffer dogs are an asset.

Most of the dead bodies are under rubble and it is becoming difficult to find out where the bodies are. So, today we engaged these dogs from this morning," Kalaya said.

Early this week, Malawi search and rescue teams  comprised of police, the Red Cross and the military  were deployed to rescue people trapped in trees and rooftops by the cyclone.

Lameck Kalenga is deputy chief of military operations in Malawi.

He told a news conference Thursday that the military team also faced significant challenges.

Our boat capsized, and we had all occupants in that boat submerged in water," Kalenga said. "They managed to swim, others to the shore but others  they swam on and held on to trees that were surrounded by water. So, we had like three officers who were surrounded by water, but by yesterday [Wednesday] all of them were rescued.

Authorities in Malawi say there are still many areas that cannot be accessed by either vehicles or boats.

However, the Zambian government Friday sent two aircraft to help the search and rescue team in Malawi access those hard-to-reach areas.

One of these aircrafts is a relief aid aircraft, which is bringing relief aid to Malawi," Kalenga said. "And the other one is [an] MI8 helicopter, which will be used to gain access in those inaccessible areas. Mainly Mulanje, Phalombe and Nsanje.

The Department of Disaster Preparedness in Malawi said search and rescue teams from South Africa, Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom are expected to arrive soon.

In the meantime, Mozambique has also pledged to assist Malawi with an aircraft.
Millions of dead and rotting fish are fouling a vast stretch of river in Australias Outback. The scene is occurring just as the region is experiencing a sweltering heat wave.

This is the third mass death of fish the region has experienced since 2018.

This time, it is occurring in the Darling River in the town of Menindee.

Officials say the rivers low levels of oxygen are to blame.

Theres dead fish as far as you can see, Menindee resident Graeme McCrabb told Agence France-Presse.

Cooler temperatures are expected next week.

Some information for this report came from the Agence France-Presse.
Here is a summary of some of the stories making headlines this week:



Native Americans debate Indigenous land acknowledgements: In one ear and out the other?



Land acknowledgements are formal statements that recognize Indigenous custodianship of geographic areas on which institutions stand or events take place.



Evolving from Canadas Truth and Reconciliation Commission, land acknowledgments are becoming increasingly common at U.S. universities and sporting events.



But are they effective?



Cutcha Risling Baldy, a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and an associate professor of Native American Studies at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, tells NPR they are a good start but believes institutions should go on to assist Indigenous peoples in uplifting and upholding their sovereignty and self-determination.



Kevin Gover, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and undersecretary for museums and culture at the Smithsonian Institution, worries that if land acknowledgements become routine, or worse yet... strictly performative, they will lose their meaning.



Read more:





Lac du Flambeau tribe in Wisconsin lifts weekslong road blockades



The Lac du Flambeau Tribe has agreed with the town of Lac du Flambeau to reopen four roads on the northern Wisconsin reservation that it barricaded in late January. The deal is temporary as parties to the dispute have 90 days to work out a longer-term solution.



The roads were built in the 1960s on tribal land and are the only access route for non-Native residents in more than 60 households that are scattered among reservation land.



Easements to use the roads expired in 2013, and negotiations to extend them have so far failed. The Lac du Flambeau Tribal Council says it is owed $20 million for trespassing on its land since the easements expired.



Read more:

Cayuga Nation locked in power struggle





The New York Times this week reports on a leadership dispute inside the Cayuga Nation in New York, which one observer has called one of the more volatile in Indian Country today.



The feud pits Cayuga Chiefs and Clan Mothers, the traditional government of the Nation, against Clint Halftown, the Cayuga Nation representative federally recognized by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.



Traditionalists say Halftown has no authority under their system of governance outlined in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Great Law of Peace because they view his council as an entity of the federal government.



Halftown says more than 60% of Cayuga Nation citizens signed a statement of support affirming the current Nation Council and delegitimizing the Unity Council. He says Cayuga-owned buildings destroyed by National Council bulldozers were illegal.



Read more:



NAGPRA compliance: Lots of promises but not enough follow-through



ProPublica reports that its ongoing Repatriation Project has sparked waves of promises by institutions to redouble efforts to repatriate thousands of Native American ancestral remains in their collections.



But seeing is believing, according to Shannon OLoughlin, a Choctaw Nation citizen and chief executive of the Association on American Indian Affairs. She told ProPublica that museums and universities have interpreted the law in ways that have allowed them to resist returning remains and stay out of the limelight for years.



But, hey, theyre saying it in the public, so were gonna hold them to it, she said.



Read more:



Portland Museum apologizes to Native mother



The Portland Art Museum in Oregon has apologized after one of its employees asked a Kayuk mother to remove the traditional woven basket in which she carried her baby.



Sophie Neuner posted about the March 11 incident on her Facebook page:

According to the nice white lady, [my childs] baby basket is a danger to the art and also my baby.  Racism is alive and well in these walls."

The museum issued an apology on Facebook and Twitter Monday and has since amended its policy to read: We kindly request that bags, backpacks, or items larger than 11 x 17 x 6 be left outside the Museum. Babies in carriers are permitted. Other bags should be carried at your side or in front, and not worn on ones back.

VOA checked visitors guides for several major art museums across the U.S. and found that bans on the wearing of backpacks are common because they can damage works on display. These include the Smithsonian Institutions in Washington, D.C. The National Museum of the American Indian, a Smithsonian entity, advises visitors, "Suitcases, large umbrellas, and large backpacks are not allowed in the galleries."
A spattering of protests were planned in France over the weekend against President Emmanuel Macrons controversial pension reform, as garbage continued to reek in the streets of Paris and beyond amid a strike by refuse collectors.

An eerie calm, returned to Paris Saturday after two nights of thousands-strong protests across the French capital, with one flash point at the elegant Place de la Concorde where angry protesters tossed an effigy of Macron into a bonfire to cheers from the crowd. Police dispersed people with tear gas and water cannons and there were hundreds of arrests.

Protesters are trying to pressure lawmakers to bring down Macrons government and doom an unpopular retirement age increase hes trying to impose without a vote in the National Assembly.

Further protests were planned Saturday in Paris as well as in the cities of Marseille and Nantes, but they were expected to be smaller than in previous days.

In Paris 12th district Saturday, trash piled up meters away from a bakery, wafting fumes encouraged by the mild weather and sunshine. Some Parisian residents buying their weekend baguette blamed Macrons administration.

The government should change its position and listen to the people because what is happening is extremely serious. And we are seeing a radicalization, said Isabelle Vergriette, 64, a psychologist. The government is largely responsible for this.

The districts mayor, Emmanuelle Pierre-Marie, was out and about from the crack of dawn voicing concern in her neighborhood about the consequences of the refuse pile-up, which has become a visual and olfactory symbol of the anti-pension action.

Food waste is our priority because it is what brings pests to the surface, said Pierre-Marie. We are extremely sensitive to the situation. As soon as we have a dumpster truck available, we give priority to the places most concerned, like food markets.

Strikes in numerous sectors, from transport to energy, are planned for Monday. The Civil Aviation authority asked that 30% of flights be canceled at Orly, Paris second airport, and 20% in Marseille.

Laurent Berger, head of the moderate CFDT union, said the retirement reform must be withdrawn.

We condemn violence. ... But look at the anger. Its very strong, even among our ranks, he said on RMC radio.

On Friday, one day after Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne invoked a special constitutional power to skirt a vote in the chaotic lower chamber, lawmakers on the right and left filed no-confidence motions to be voted on Monday.
A person opens an image file of a list containing personal data of students of a primary school, including names, phone numbers and email addresses. Photo by VnExpress/Tuan Hung

Le Manh, an admissions officer for a university, said he was offered money to sell data of students who had applied to the school for VND10,000 (42 cents) each.

After last years university entrance examination, Manh says he received a phone call from a person who wished to buy a list of students whose scores were not high enough to enter the school. The person said for each contact offered, Manh would receive VND10,000, but that he would need to provide at least 1,000 contacts for the deal.

After Manh refused the offer, the caller continued to contact other people at the school offering to buy the data at a higher price, but failed.

The student data was contained in an Excel file, including names, phone numbers, email addresses and even their family members phone numbers.

Manh said the blatant sales pitch for student data might be the reason why some received entrance offers from schools they have never even heard of, before they even knew that they failed to get into their school of choice.

Schools and language centers in Vietnam have been resort to buying data of students from bigger institutions to build their potential client base.

Hoai Thuong, who works at a kindergarten, said she frequently receives calls that offer to buy lists of data regarding her students.

"They said they were from language centers that wanted to admit more students," she said, adding that someone had offered VND3.5 million for a data file for students aged 3-4 .

Vu Ngoc Son, technical director of Vietnam Cybersecurity Technology, said several schools are still not aware of the importance of information security.

"Some schools publish student and parent data in detail right on the schools website," he said, adding that data sale on the Internet is something that has been around for years. However, this data has been used lately for scams, which is dangerous, Ngoc noted.

"People are often less vigilant when a scammer tells them their and their childrens information accurately," said.

Around 14 parents in HCMC have been scammed out of VND825 million this month by scammers who claimed the parents children were involved in accidents and required surgery, according to the Ministry of Education and Training. At least two parents in Hanoi were scammed VND240 million by the same trick.

The Ministry of Public Security last year said the data of over two-thirds of Vietnamese were being collected and shared online, partially due to incomplete cybersecurity legal rules.

The illegal trade of telecom users personal data may result in fines of up to VND200 million and prison sentences of up to three years, in accordance with Vietnamese law.
The White House is rejecting Beijings proposal for a cease-fire in Ukraine, ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinpings meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week, saying it would ratify Russias territorial gains in Ukraine.

However, officials say the administration fully supports Xi talking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy so that China may consider Kyivs perspective. Zelenskyy is scheduled to hold a phone call following the Chinese leaders meeting with Putin.

John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, spoke Friday with VOA Chinese Service White House correspondent Paris Huang. He said the U.S. still hasnt seen evidence that China has provided lethal weaponry to Russia. He said the U.S. will deliver more assistance to Ukraine in the coming days.

Kirby also spoke of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wens upcoming trip to the U.S., to which Beijing has objected.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: The International Criminal Court, the ICC judges, just issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for the deportation of children. What does this mean for U.S. policies toward Putin? Does that mean President Joe Biden will not be meeting Putin in future?

John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications: Look, this is just breaking news. We're going to have to take a look at this before we can make any kind of official comment. Separate and distinct from that, President Biden has been clear, we want to make sure that Russia is held accountable for the atrocities, for the war crimes, for the crimes against humanity that they are perpetrating inside Ukraine and against the Ukrainian people. We're going to continue to help international bodies as they collect evidence and begin to analyze that evidence going forward. But I won't go any further than that right now.

VOA: China's President Xi Jinping is going to Moscow to meet with Putin next week. Do you think Xi Jinping's words carry weight in Putin's mind? Any concern about this meeting?

Kirby: We know that China and Russia have been improving and increasing their relationship in many different ways, both sides have been. I can't speak for the kind of influence that Mr. Xi might have over Mr. Putin. We'll just have to see what it is they decide to talk about. What we are concerned about is that President Xi hasn't talked to President Zelenskyy and we believe it's important that he do that as well - that he doesn't just get the Russian perspective here on this war, but that he gets President Zelenskyys perspective. And I would also say, while we're at this, we've seen in the China 12-point so-called peace proposal, they talk about a cease-fire. And we'd be concerned if coming out of this meeting there was some sort of a call for a cease-fire, because right now, while a cease-fire sounds good, it actually ratifies Russia's gains on the ground. It actually serves Russia's purpose for a cease-fire to basically call a stop right now without any acknowledgement that Russia is illegally inside Ukraine.

VOA: What is your response to the assessment that if there's a cease-fire that can temporarily put aside the question of territorial boundaries, that that kind of cease-fire might be what is feasible?

Kirby: That doesn't serve Ukraine's interests. Doesn't serve the world's interests. It doesn't serve the U.N. Charter's interest. It would be a violation of the U.N. Charter. Look in the first line of the Chinese proposal - it says that they want to see sovereignty respected. Well, you know what? We agree with that, everybody should agree with that, and if you want to see sovereignty respected, then that means you don't call a cease-fire right now which ratifies Russia's gains and their conquest and leaves it at that, at the expense of the Ukrainian people.

VOA: What is the administration and NATO's proposal that may be coming forward for lowering tensions? And on that note, can you give us the administration's current thinking of the discussion of the Germany, France and U.K. defense pact for Ukrainians to encourage peace talks with Moscow?

Kirby: We all want to see this war end, and it could end today if Mr. Putin would pull his troops out. That's not going to happen, so I think we all envision the possibility that there could be some sort of negotiated settlement. I won't speak for other countries and what their sovereign approach to this is. For the United States perspective, it's nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine - no negotiation, no settlement discussion can or should take place without Ukraine being squarely in the middle of it, and President Zelenskyys perspective fully and completely understood and respected. That's where we are.

VOA: President Xi Jinping is going to talk to President Zelenskyy virtually, according to China. So, what would you like to see from that call, and have President Zelenskyy talk to the U.S. side about what kind of message he's going to convey to President Xi?

Kirby: We fully support President Xi talking to President Zelenskyy. We think it's important that he gets the Ukrainian perspective. And I won't speak for President Zelenskyy but I'm sure that if he gets that opportunity, he'll be very frank and forthright with President Xi, as he has been with leaders around the world, about what this war is doing to his country and to his people, and how much he's willing to continue to fight off Russian aggression and defend his sovereignty and his independence. And we believe that a more comprehensive picture of those efforts, and President Zelenskyys goals and objectives, are absolutely good for President Xi to hear.

VOA: Can we expect President Biden and President Xi's phone call to happen before Xis visit to Moscow? And if that happens, what would President Bidens message to President Xi be?

Kirby: I'm not going to get ahead of the president. The president said he wants to keep the lines of communications open with China. He means that, and he said he would look forward to a potential discussion with President Xi here in the near future. Nothing's on the schedule right now, but the president has made his intent obvious to all of us, and we look forward to getting [to] that place in the days and weeks ahead.

VOA: CNN reported that Ukrainian forces shot down a drone that was used during the war, and it turned out to be - it was made by a Chinese company. Is purchasing that kind of drones from Chinese companies, although they are private companies, a violation of sanctions?

Kirby: I don't know the specifics on this report, so I'm not going to address that. That's the first I heard of that, but we have not seen China enforce sanctions against Russia and we have been calling, since the beginning, for all nations to observe these sanctions and abide by them, and we certainly want China to be included in that, but I don't have the details on this particular account.

VOA: There are Chinese companies that have shipped the assault rifles, Chinese-made rifles and drone parts, and body armor through Turkey and UAE to Russia. You said earlier that those are long-standing deals. Does that mean if there's new deals coming out, that will be a violation?

Kirby: Our understanding is that these are long-standing business transactions, and we don't have information or confirmation that any of those dual-use items are actually on the battlefield. Now, again, that's just where we are right now. We have not seen the Chinese move in a direction to provide lethal weaponry to Russia. They've not made that decision, that official decision. And so, we urge them not to. What I can tell you is we don't think it's in China's best interests to provide lethal weapons to Russia, to Mr. Putin, so that he can turn around and just kill more innocent Ukrainians. It's hard to see how that's in China's best interests. They have a choice to make, and we obviously have made it clear privately to them and certainly publicly where we think they ought to come down on this.

VOA: U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has confirmed that he will meet with the President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen in California in early April. China is going to react. What precautions is the administration taking in case of China's retaliation?

Kirby: First of all, I won't speak for Speaker McCarthy and his schedule or that of Taiwan's leaders. These transits are not new. They happen and have happened in the past in a fairly routine way. And again, I won't speak to the particulars of who Speaker McCarthy will meet or when. He can speak to that. We just need to put this into some perspective here, because these are routine, because they have happened before, these transits, there should be no reason for anybody to overreact one way or the other. As we have said many, many times, we do not seek a conflict with China, we don't seek any kind of escalation in the tensions in this relationship. As a matter of fact, as we've just been talking about, the president wants to keep the lines of communication open. He wants to be able to continue to try to build on the progress that he and President Xi were able to make in Bali. Now, unfortunately, that progress has been stunted somewhat by the fact that they flew a Chinese balloon over the country, but he believes that it's still the most consequential bilateral relationship in the world, and he wants to keep those lines open.

VOA: Honduras announced that it will cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan and switch to China. Is the Biden administration concerned about China's growing influence in America's backyard? And what are you doing to prevent this from happening?

Kirby: We arent actively telling countries to choose between the United States and China. We're not, and these are sovereign decisions that nations have to make. We would hope that Hondurans, just like other people around the world, will see what China is trying to do with their expanding influence - that they will see that this is all about China's self and not about a genuine belief in the power of partnerships around the world. All I can do is speak for our foreign policy. We have a very active, engaged foreign policy in Latin America and we're going to continue to pursue that.

VOA: Taiwan will certainly be disappointed if Honduras actually cuts the tie. So how can the U.S. convince Taiwan and other allies that siding with the U.S. is beneficial diplomatically?

Kirby: Again, these are decisions that countries have to make, and I understand Honduras has to make this decision on their own, but we would just hope that Honduras and the Honduran people understand the potential risks and downsides that come with simply accepting China's influence and entering into negotiations with China that may not actually be in the best interest of the Honduran people.

VOA: Ukraine is having an ammunition shortage. Are you confident that Ukraine will be able to achieve their goals on the battlefield in the next few weeks or months? Are the U.S. and its partners trying to speed up the delivery and production right now?

Kirby: We have been putting security assistance in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers at an unprecedented rate and with a sense of urgency that we all have shared over the course of a year now, and that will continue going forward. I'm not going to get ahead of Ukrainian operations, or what they're going to need, or where they're going to be. That's for them to talk to. You're going to see another delivery package here from the United States in [the] coming days, and I think you'll see in that package the kinds of materiel, weapons and ammunition that we believe are going to be vital to Ukraine succeeding in the weeks and months ahead.

VOA: Last week Russia launched a massive missile attack against Ukraine using the type of rockets that Ukrainians don't have the ability to intercept for now. When will the first Patriot battery arrive in Ukraine?

Kirby: The Department of Defense will have a much better sense of that than I do. It's going to be many months before a Patriot battery can be delivered into Ukraine. I will remind that we continue to provide a full range of air defense capabilities to Ukraine, short and medium range, and it's not just us, it's our allies and partners that are doing that as well. There are four things that we think the Ukrainians need the most right now: artillery, ammunition, armored capability and air defense. And I think, again, if you look at what we have provided in recent months and what we will continue to provide, you'll see that we prioritize air defense.

VOA: Following Tehrans and Riyadh's normalization of diplomatic relations, Saudi Arabia's finance minister said Saudi will soon invest in Iran. Are you concerned that this will be a way for Tehran to circumvent the U.S. sanctions?

Kirby: Iran is a destabilizing actor throughout the region. Make no mistake about that. Whether it's the way they're treating their own people, whether the support for the terrorist groups - Hamas and Hezbollah as well as the Houthi rebels - or the attacks on maritime shipping, and let's not forget the provision of hundreds of lethal drones to Russia, so that Russia can, again, kill more Ukrainian people. That's what the regime is signing up to. They're killing their own people who are protesting in the country and they're helping Russia kill Ukrainian citizens, innocent people who are not involved and should not have ever been invaded. That's what Iran is up to. I'll let Iran and Saudi Arabia speak to this arrangement. If this arrangement can decrease tensions, if it can help us end the war in Yemen, if it can make safer the people living in Saudi Arabia, including 70,000 Americans, then that's all to the good and we support that, but it remains to be seen whether it was going to actually have that effect.

VOA: The Persian New Year, Nowruz, is coming up in a few days. What is the Biden administrations message to the Iranian people?

Kirby: The president will have a message. I certainly won't get ahead of that, but obviously, we wish the very best to the Iranian people for Nowruz and for the new year. We recognize that as we do wish the Iranian people a better new year, that the last year visited upon them an inordinate amount of suffering and pain at the hands of their own regime. And no citizen of any country should have to go through what so many Iranians have had to go through. But of course, our issues are with the regime in Tehran, it's not with the Iranian people. And again, we certainly wish that they have a better, safer, a more secure, and a more prosperous new year than they had last year.
Signers of the political deal in Sudan say a transitional civilian government is expected to be named in April. Both civilian and military officials agreed Wednesday to expedite restoration of civilian rule in Sudan, where the military has ruled since a 2021 coup. But some groups are against the framework agreement and many Sudanese are skeptical that the military will ever give up power.

Signatories to the December 2022 Political Framework Agreement met on Wednesday to discuss progress toward restoring a civilian-led government in Sudan.

Speaking to the press shortly after the meeting, Khalid Omer Yousif, the official spokesperson of the civilian coalition that signed the agreement, says the meeting focused on expediting the process of drafting a new constitutional document.

The document, he said, will be the basis to govern the upcoming transition in Sudan.

He says participants also resolved to form a technical team that consists of representatives of the civilian coalition and military forces and other experts,

The body will be tasked with reviewing the agreement and drafting the constitution.

He said, the meeting discussed the general progress on the political process and resolved a number of issues, including discussion on the remaining two complex matters, the transitional justice and military and security reforms. He said, those two issues are to be discussed in the ongoing political conference that should end before the holy month of Ramadan.

Ramadan begins March 23.

The December 2022 framework agreement requires that the parties to the political process organize a conference to discuss issues that need a national consensus.

Yousif says once discussions on transitional justice and military and security reforms are finished, the technical committee will start drafting a final political agreement that will lead to the establishment of a new civilian government in early April.

He said, The joint technical and coordinated committee that comprises the signatories to the agreement and the trilateral mechanism is expected to urgently draft a new timeframe for the discussion of the remaining issues before signing of the final political agreement as soon as possible.

Some signatories of the 2018 peace deal aimed at settling Sudans internal conflicts refuse to join the ongoing political process because they reject the framework and want to maintain the 2019 constitutional declaration made after the overthrow of longtime president Omar al-Bashir.

Many Sudanese are skeptical the military will completely give up power, regardless of any deals that are struck.

Khartoum resident Sahar Al-Jazuli says the October 2021 military coup negatively affected the revolution for democratic rule in Sudan and said supporters of democracy will not accept any agreement that doesnt serve justice.

Speaking to VOA via a messaging application Friday, Al-Jazuli says Sudanese people are now more aware of their rights and they will continue to speak up once they realize the framework agreement doesnt serve their interest.

Our people have learned a lot, he said, and they became more aware of their political rights as citizens by participating in the revolution. The Sudanese people learned and understood the meaning of uprooting rights, he said. They became determined toward achieving the slogans of the revolution, freedom, peace and justice.

However, another Khartoum resident, Al-Nazir Adam Musa, applauded the military for what he called courageous steps to leave the political scene and allow the country to be under civilian rule.

He said, What we expect from the current framework agreement is that it would help the country to overcome the ongoing political deadlock because the military is determined to hand over the power to civilians. He said, This is a good gesture so far.

Ibrahim Al-Merghani, the head of the political bureau at the opposition Democratic Unionist Party, predicted the ongoing talks on the framework will bear fruit.

There are not many differences among national political forces about the transitional issues, he said. He added, the differences will not affect the dialogue, which he forecasts will lead to completion of the transitional period and sustainable democracy in the country.
Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Will Ukraine-Russia grain deal continue?

The package deal that facilitates the export of Ukrainian grain, Russian food and fertilizer products to international markets faces another renewal on Saturday. If neither party objects, it will automatically continue. But Russia has said it wants only a 60-day extension, rather than the agreements mandated 120 days. Ukraine and Turkey, which helped broker the deal, have both backed the four-month extension.

During a Security Council meeting Friday afternoon on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths told council members that the deal is vital for global food security and must continue and be fully implemented. He said the U.N. is doing everything it can to make sure the Black Sea Grain Initiative can continue. Under it, Ukraine has exported almost 25 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs from three ports since the deal was signed in late July, while Russia has received assistance in removing obstacles to the export of its food and fertilizer products.

Hague tribunal seeks Putins arrest for war crimes

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant on Friday for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes for his alleged involvement in the abduction of children from Ukraine.

This comes on the heels of a report published Thursday from an international commission of inquiry that alleges Russia has committed wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine. The report is based on more than 500 interviews as well as satellite images and visits to detention sites and graves.

Special envoy for Myanmar warns no political settlement in sight

The United Nations envoy for Myanmar said Thursday that the prospect for a political settlement to that countrys military takeover is unlikely. With both sides intent on prevailing by force, there is no prospect for a negotiated settlement, Special Envoy Noeleen Heyzer told the General Assembly in a briefing on the situation.

Nuclear watchdog says uranium missing in Libya

Some 2.5 tons of natural uranium stored in a site in war-torn Libya have gone missing, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Thursday, raising safety and proliferation concerns. The IAEA said it is working to clarify the circumstances of the removal of the nuclear material and its current location.

Labor study: Essential workers underpaid, ill-treated

A new study by the International Labor Organization finds that essential workers are undervalued, underpaid, laboring under poor working conditions, and exposed to treatment that "exacerbates employee turnover and labor shortages, jeopardizing the provision of basic services." Data from 90 countries show that during the COVID-19 crisis, key workers suffered higher mortality rates than non-key workers overall, with transport workers being at highest risk.

In brief

 The United States, Albania, Japan and South Korea co-hosted an informal meeting of the Security Council, known as an Arria meeting, on Friday to highlight North Koreas ongoing human rights violations and their link to Pyongyangs illegal WMD and ballistic missile programs. Two North Korean defectors shared their stories. The hosts pointed to Pyongyangs use of forced labor to earn revenue and other abuses used to fund its weapons program while its population struggles with food insecurity. China blocked the hosts from airing the meeting on the U.N. website and their representative said the session was not constructive.

 Humanitarian efforts continued this week to assist victims of Cyclone Freddy in Malawi and Mozambique. Search-and-rescue operations continue in Malawi and aid efforts are scaling up as floodwaters subside. Aid workers are mobilizing air transport and boats to ship supplies to areas that cannot be reached by road. In Mozambique, the U.N. is working with authorities to reach more than 49,000 displaced people and access areas that remain cut off by floodwaters. The U.N. says cholera is also spreading and there is a shortage of water purification supplies. On Thursday, the U.N. released $10 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund for cyclone relief.

 The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to renew its assistance mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, for another year. In a second decision, the council was also united in passing a resolution calling on the secretary-general to launch an independent assessment for an international approach to Afghanistan. The panel would report to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres by mid-November with recommendations for an integrated and coherent approach to dealing with humanitarian, political and development challenges in the country.

 The secretary-general announced the members of his next Youth Climate Advisory Group on Thursday. The seven young climate leaders come from Colombia, Gambia, Ireland, Philippines, Poland, St. Lucia and the United States and will each serve a two-year term. Guterres has said that young people are on the front lines of the climate fight and are central to keeping society on track to meet global goals to slow the planets warming. The U.N. says the advisers will work with youth climate movements and leaders around the world to bring youth perspectives and solutions directly to the secretary-general and to major climate decision-making meetings.

Next week

March 22 is World Water Day and the U.N. will mark it this year with a three-day conference on charting a course to a more water-secure world. The U.N. says by the end of this decade, the global demand for fresh water is expected to exceed supply by 40%. The conference will look at ways to integrate water and climate policies for current realities. A major outcome is expected in the Water Action Agenda, which will include commitments from governments, businesses, civil society and other groups.
The White House is rejecting Beijings proposal for a truce in Ukraine, ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinpings meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week and a subsequent phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

We'd be concerned if coming out of this meeting there was some sort of call for a cease-fire, said John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications in an interview with VOA on Friday. While a cease-fire sounds good, it actually ratifies Russias gains on the ground.

Putins foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, earlier Friday said the talks with Xi could yield new approaches to the war in Ukraine.

Im sure that our leader and the Chinese leader will exchange their assessments of the situation there, he said. We shall see what ideas will emerge after that.

Kirby suggested that a cease-fire could provide Moscow with the opportunity to prepare for a more effective assault on Ukraine in the future. A cease-fire at this point, he added, doesn't serve Ukraine's interest and would be a violation of the U.N. Charter as it would take away from the recognition that Russia is illegally inside Ukraine.

Cautiously welcoming Beijings involvement, Zelenskyy said success would depend on actions not words.

Last month Beijing released its 12-point framework for a political settlement in Ukraine, calling for a direct dialogue as quickly as possible to reach a comprehensive cease-fire.

The document lacked specifics about resolving Russias occupation of Ukrainian territory or security guarantees for Ukraine. It did not call for the withdrawal of Russian forces.

Chinese motives

By proposing a cease-fire, the Chinese appear to be trying to salvage something for Putin, said David Kramer, executive director of the George W. Bush Institute.

The Russian forces are not doing well, he told VOA. And we don't need the Chinese intervention at this point.

Not all observers are quick to dismiss Beijings diplomatic overtures. Given that Putin has burned his bridges with the West and become more dependent on China, Xi may have a decent chance of brokering peace, said George Beebe, director of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a think tank that advocates restraint in U.S. foreign policy.

He has limited room for maneuver[ing] in rejecting the Chinese involvement altogether, Beebe told VOA.

On the Ukrainian side, Beebe noted that while they are not dependent on Beijing, they realize that China is potentially an important wild card. Zelenskyy would want to engage with Xi if only to prevent Beijing from supporting Putin militarily, which could alter the wars outcome.

Slim prospects

The prospects for a cease-fire acceptable to the warring parties at this point are slim.

Recent polls show that 85% of Ukrainians believe no territorial concessions are acceptable even if that means a longer war. Kyiv is demanding that Russia pull back from areas taken since its February 2022 invasion as well as from the Crimean Peninsula, which Putin illegally annexed in 2014.

Meanwhile, Moscow would oppose any truce that would require it to withdraw from newly annexed Ukrainian territories, said James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. It is even less likely to agree to withdraw from Crimea.

Its held it since 2014, Acton told VOA. It is a crowning achievement of Putin's reign.

Even with little prospect of a concrete outcome, the announcement of the meeting with Xi provided a diplomatic boost to Putin on the same day the International Criminal Court announced it wants to put the Russian leader on trial for alleged war crimes.

Because of the warrant, should Putin travel to a country that is party to the ICC, that country has the legal obligation to arrest and surrender him to the court, ICC President Piotr Hofmanski told VOA.

Growing diplomatic ambition

Xis plan to visit Moscow is the latest sign of the Chinese leaders growing diplomatic ambition, following last weeks announcement of a Beijing-brokered deal that allowed Iran and Saudi Arabia to reestablish diplomatic relations after seven years of hostility.

China is signaling that it wants to be involved in a future peace process, said Moritz Rudolf, a fellow at Yale Law Schools Paul Tsai China Center.

Part of it is to be perceived as an international responsible great power, he told VOA.

This makes Washington uncomfortable. I don't think the United States wants to be in a situation where China develops a reputation around the world for being a peacemaker, Beebe said.

Kirby insisted that the administrations opposition to the cease-fire is not because it was proposed by China.

I've been very clear. It's about the principle of a cease-fire called for right now, which would essentially just ratify Russias gains, he said.

Paris Huang, Misha Komadovsky, Guofu Yang contributed to this report.
One of the top priorities for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this year is to add more companies to a sanctions list for using forced labor in China's Xinjiang region, a senior DHS official said on Friday.

Robert Silvers, DHS undersecretary for strategy, policy and plans, said another priority this year was to work to persuade like-minded countries in Europe, as well as Japan, Australia, India and others, to pursue enforcement regimes similar to those of the United States.

The department was assigned by the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to create a sanctions list for companies known to traffic in forced labor.

"One of our highest priorities for 2023 is to add additional entities to that list," Silvers told an event at the Hudson Institute in Washington.

"We are very aware based on credible reporting from the NGO and other communities that there's a significant number of companies that are operating in Xinjiang or around Xinjiang that are engaging in these abhorrent practices, and we want to name them, and we want to ensure that their goods do not come into this country," he said.

Beijing denies any abuses and rejects allegations by rights groups and governments of forced labor and internment of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority of around 10 million people in the western region of Xinjiang. The United States has accused China of genocide in Xinjiang.

"We've seen darkness in Xinjiang province. We continue to see darkness," Silvers said, adding that DHS was in a position to step up the pace of imposition of sanctions.

It is also possible to remove companies from the entities list if they prove they have "cleaned up" their act, Silvers said. DHS is very interested in using technology, such as DNA testing, to determine whether cotton products came from Xinjiang, he said.
Here's a summary of Uyghur-related news from the past week:

Uyghur culture, cuisine come alive at California restaurant

Kusan Uyghur Cuisine, a restaurant in San Jose, California, has been serving authentic Uyghur food for four years. The restaurant is run by Uyghur brothers who aim to introduce their culture and food to those who may not be familiar with it.

Activists: Chinese public service video perpetuates racist stereotypes

A Chinese government public service video depicting a Uyghur actor as a drug dealer preying on Chinese women has sparked controversy for perpetuating racist stereotypes. This portrayal is ironic and painful for Uyghurs, who historically have been victims of drug trafficking, according to activists and researchers interviewed by Radio Free Asia.

China, US clash at UN event over accusations of Uyghur persecution

China accused the United States of politicizing a U.N. event against Islamophobia after the U.S. ambassador drew attention to China's treatment of its Uyghur minority. The Chinese ambassador accused the U.S. of trying to sow discord between China and Muslim nations. The U.S. ambassador cited the treatment of Uyghurs in China as an example of discrimination and violence against Muslims, while China rejected the accusations, calling them "baseless" and accusing the U.S. of committing genocide against Native Americans and war crimes in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

News in brief

Carlsberg, a multinational brewing company, has been accused of being complicit in mistreatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China, where it has owned the Xinjiang Wusu Beer Group since 2015. Abduweli Ayup, a human rights activist, told VOA that he has witnessed Uyghur men being forced to consume Wusu beer during Ramadan in 2015. Carlsberg told VOA that the allegations were unfounded and that they prohibit the use of any form of forced labor. However, some experts on Uyghur human rights have criticized Carlsberg's operations in the region as unethical.

Quote of note

We have also determined that the Chinese government has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang. The international community must continue to condemn these atrocities. We must continue to demand accountability. And we must continue to call for all those unjustly detained in the PRC to be released and reunited with their families.  Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., speaking at U.N. event against Islamophobia
In October last year, a Russian news site published a short video of Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary army, sitting with four men on a rooftop terrace in the resort town of Gelendzhik, on Russia's Black Sea coast. Two are missing parts of a leg. A third has lost an arm. They are identified as pardoned former convicts, returned from the front in Ukraine after joining Wagner from prison.

"You were an offender, now you're a war hero," Prigozhin tells one man in the clip. It was the first video to depict the return of some of the thousands of convicts who joined Wagner in return for the promise of a pardon if they survived six months of war.

Reuters used facial recognition software to examine this video and more than a dozen other videos and photographs of homecoming convict fighters, published between October 2022 and February 2023. Reporters were able to identify more than 30 of the men by cross-checking the images with social media and Russian court documents.

In their ranks are murderers, thieves and a self-declared "Satanist." Several are in hospital recovering from wounds sustained in the fighting. Reuters managed to make contact with 11 of these men. Five agreed to be interviewed by phone and messaging app. What follows is the most detailed insider account yet of Wagner's convict army: the fighters' recruitment and training, the combat they saw in Ukraine, and their uncertain future in a Russia turned upside down by war with its neighbor.

Four of the men said they were personally recruited by Yevgeny Prigozhin as he toured Russia's prison system to bolster his private army. Some of the men were deployed to Ukraine's eastern Bakhmut region, site of some of the most intense fighting of the one-year-old conflict, where one man described the "utter hell" of the battlefield. Thousands have been killed on both sides. The battle for the city of Bakhmut now hangs in the balance. A former Wagner commander who fled to Norway in January has said he witnessed members of Wagner's internal security administering brutal treatment to prisoner recruits, including executions for desertion.

Combat training, some conducted by veterans of Russia's special forces, was short but intensive, according to the men. Ukrainian and Western officials say Wagner is sending poorly prepared fighters to certain death in eastern Ukraine. Mike Kofman, an expert in the Russian military at the Arlington County, Virginia-based CNA think tank, told Reuters the two to three weeks of training received by the convict recruits would be unlikely to bring them up to speed, even if some of the men had prior military experience.

"It takes time to learn combat basics, receive individual training, and you also need some collective training as a unit on top of it - a couple of weeks alone isn't going to do that much for you," Kofman told Reuters. A more rigorous training scheme would last several months.

All five ex-prisoners expressed a fierce loyalty to Prigozhin for giving them a second chance at life. Though Reuters could not independently confirm the men's accounts of their service, many of the details were consistent with one another. Russia's Defense Ministry and penal service did not respond to detailed questions for this article, nor did Prigozhin and Wagner. Prigozhin has previously described Wagner as "probably the most experienced army that exists in the world today" and said its casualty rate is comparable with other Russian units.

From jail to the Ukraine front

When Prigozhin began touring Russia's sprawling penal system in summer 2022 offering pardons to those who agreed to fight in Ukraine, word quickly spread among prisoners.

Rustam Borovkov, from the small town of Porkhov, near Russia's border with Estonia, was one of the four men filmed on the rooftop terrace. Court records show that the 31-year-old was six years into a 13-year term for manslaughter and theft in late July when Prigozhin reached his prison, Penal Colony No. 6 in Russia's western Pskov region. Borovkov and two friends had broken into a house to steal homebrewed alcohol, according to the court papers. One of them struck the homeowner, who died as a result.

Borovkov had heard from inmates in St Petersburg that Prigozhin was traveling from prison to prison in search of recruits. "I knew right away that I would go," he told Reuters, "even before he came to us."

Borovkov said he stood with several hundred other prisoners to hear Prigozhin speak. They were given three days to decide whether to join Wagner in return for freedom. About 40 signed up and after three days and a polygraph test, aimed at rooting out drug addicts, they were on their way to war.

Two months later, in September, as a Ukrainian counter-offensive gathered pace, a film emerged on social media of Prigozhin telling convicts in the Volga River region of Mari El that they had only five minutes to make a decision  and those who changed their minds after joining would be shot as deserters.

In another video, published in February this year, Prigozhin tells convicts that fighters are paid 100,000 rubles ($1,300) monthly, with the possibility of additional bonuses. That's far above Russia's average monthly wage of around 65,000 rubles . But Borovkov told Reuters his only motivation for joining Wagner was the promise of a pardon. "I have a small child. I wanted to get back to my family." He said prison officers tried to persuade him not to go because he played an important role as head of his cellblock's medical unit.

Six-time convicted thief Yevgeny Kuzhelev said a sense of patriotic duty drew him to Wagner. The 29-year-old was serving time in Russia's southwestern Samara region for stealing cognac, beer and instant coffee from supermarkets in the Volga car-making city of Togliatti, according to court papers.

"I was sentenced to 3 years and 7 months and I'd already served two years. So I didn't have long left. But I went anyway. Why? I thought about it, and I am sure that if I had been free at the time, I would have one hundred percent gone to fight. I would have gone as a volunteer," he said. "I remember how from February, when it all started, I called my aunt from time to time from prison. She kept telling me that this friend of yours went [to Ukraine], then another one, then a third, a fourth ... And I knew that I would have done the same."

Kuzhelev said the recruitment process took about two weeks, and during this time inmates were free to back out without consequence. Those who enlisted were moved to separate accommodation in the prison, where they encountered a new respect from the prison officers.

"Among us there was a man who was serving a 25 year sentence," Kuzhelev said. "He had a few months left of his term and he signed up. The prison officers asked him: 'What the fuck are you doing?' And he told them: 'Everything is fine, I'm going.' How can you not respect such a decision?"

Reuters was unable to establish the identity of the prisoner or what happened to him.

'It was clear they were going to die'

Prigozhin has said previously that Wagner's convict fighters spend a month undergoing rigorous combat drills, sleeping for only four hours a day. The fighters who spoke to Reuters said they received two to three weeks of intensive and well-organized training. Some credited it with saving their lives.

The war in Ukraine is straining Russia's military capacity. Late last year, Putin announced the mobilization of reservists into the army. They would receive just 10 to 20 days' training before deployment to the front. Basic training for infantrymen in the U.S. and British armies is around 22 weeks.

One of the convict recruits told Reuters he traveled to a Wagner training camp in the Russian-controlled part of eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region. Borovkov said training was conducted by former members of Russia's special forces. "Everything was organized at the highest level," said Borovkov, who previously served with the military force that secures Russia's railways. "It wasn't that they gave me a machine gun, showed me how to shoot and that's it. No, they explained everything, and in great detail. Mining, demining, tactics, shooting, physical training. Everything."

The men who spoke to Reuters said that most of the inmates who joined Wagner had some kind of military experience. They had previously served as conscripts under Russia's one-year military draft or as professional soldiers. The convicts with the most military experience were appointed squad commanders, two of the men said.

"When we got to training, we were asked in detail who knew what, who had served, where they served," said 38-year-old Dmitry Yermakov, who joined Wagner 10 years into a 14-year sentence for kidnapping. He declined to discuss his criminal record. "And then, when we had been divided into units, they let the lads choose their own commanders. By that time I had already earned some kind of authority, so I was chosen."

Yermakov said the recruits who realized the gravity of the situation and asked instructors to repeat drills were the best prepared for what was to come. "Those were the men who were genuinely ready to go to war," he said. Others hoped merely to run down the clock on their six-month stints, hoping that they would receive their pardon having seen as little combat as possible. Of these men, Yermakov said: "It was absolutely clear they were going to die."

Paralyzing fear and adrenaline

Of the five men who spoke to Reuters, three said that they had fought in the area around the eastern city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has cost thousands of lives on both sides. Wagner is spearheading Russia's months-long push to take the city, which had a pre-war population of 75,000 but is now in ruins. Prigozhin has referred to Bakhmut as a "meat grinder," and said his men's task there is to bleed the Ukrainian army dry.

Ukrainian and Western officials have compared the battles around Bakhmut to the First World War, and accused Wagner of using convicts in human wave attacks. According to the United States, by mid-February Wagner had suffered more than 30,000 casualties in Ukraine, including 9,000 dead, almost all of them convicts. Prigozhin has insisted, however, that the casualty rate among convict fighters is comparable to other Russian units.

Yermakov, the convicted kidnapper, said that some fighters lost their nerves in the first hours of battle. "What do they see there? Corpses ripped to shreds. And what do they do? Some of them vomit, some of them cry, and some of them don't want to climb out of the trench. Fear takes over."

Other fighters recalled only the thrill of combat.

"It was amazing," said Andrei Yastrebov, a 22-year-old native of St Petersburg, who was serving time for car theft when he joined Wagner. Yastrebov also goes by the name Andrei Kiriyenko on social media. "So much adrenalin. I wish all real men would join Wagner. You can write that. The Ukies ran and Wagner fucked them up."

Four of the men interviewed by Reuters were seriously injured and invalided out of Ukraine long before completing their stints. They said Wagner had told them that time spent in hospital and rehabilitation would be counted towards their six-month terms and they would receive clemency regardless. Two said they have already got their pardons.

Yermakov lasted only four days before receiving a serious wound to his arm and groin in mid December while dragging a wounded comrade to safety. He said his squad had been tasked with taking and holding a road junction near the village of Pokrovske, on the eastern approach to Bakhmut. He described his final day on the front as "utter hell," lying flat on the ground for 24 hours as Ukrainian tanks and mortars shelled his squad's position and drones flew overhead.

"In a war, you're almost always lying flat on the ground. It's the only way to survive," said Kuzhelev, the convicted thief. He told Reuters he spent two months at the front before receiving a shrapnel wound to his arm. "We always wish people 'Happy Birthday' after they have been wounded" because they have dodged death. "That's what they said to me," he added.

A new start

Now free years ahead of schedule, whether at home or facing long periods of treatment and rehabilitation, the surviving fighters are returning to a country where their actions on the frontline are lionized by many. Prigozhin has previously said that he is giving convicts who join Wagner a "second chance" at life, and an opportunity to redeem themselves.

Earlier this month the State Duma passed a law making it a crime to "discredit" Wagner fighters. The law, which previously applied more narrowly to Russia's armed forces, was extended at Prigozhin's request.

Prigozhin's growing power has not been greeted warmly by all sections of the Russian elite. In February, a long-running feud between the Wagner leader and Russia's military chiefs exploded into open hostility. Prigozhin accused Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov of "treason," saying they were starving Wagner of munitions out of personal animosity towards him. Shoigu and Gerasimov could not immediately be reached for comment. Earlier the same month, Prigozhin said he had ended Wagner's recruitment of prisoners, hinting in an interview that he was forced to do so by unnamed officials.

The five fighters interviewed by Reuters felt a deep personal gratitude to Prigozhin for recruiting them and wiping their criminal records.

"We're better than ordinary citizens," said Yastrebov, the car thief, now at home in his native St Petersburg. "We are not ex-convicts now, thanks to Wagner."

In a January video, Prigozhin is shown telling injured convict fighters: "The police must treat you with respect. Everything has already been agreed at various levels, so that there is no nit-picking If necessary, I myself will call and talk to the governors and so on, and we will find a solution."

For Kuzhelev, who as of February had been in a Krasnodar region hospital for four months, Prigozhin had given him a new lease on life. Court documents show he spent almost seven of his 29 years in prison for six separate convictions. "The last time I was sent to prison, I was thinking: 'Well, here I am again, what's next?'" he said. "I'll serve a year, another, a third, and then what? I'll go out, and what am I going to do on the outside? What am I going to do with myself, given my background?"

"Well, now I'm clean. I have some money. I can think about the future. Think about getting a mortgage to buy an apartment  I have all this thanks to our esteemed Yevgeny Viktorovich," Kuzhelev added, using Prigozhin's patronymic as a sign of respect.

All five of the men who spoke to Reuters said either that they would remain with Wagner after their six month service, or were seriously considering doing so.

Some said they wanted to get back to the frontlines as soon as they were able to. Nikita Lyubimov, a native of the Volga city of Cheboksary who had been serving a four and a half year sentence for grievous bodily harm, said his first priority was "to support the lads, to recover as soon as possible, and get back to the front line." The 23-year-old had received a shrapnel wound two months into his initial stint in Ukraine, and was invalided out.

The men said that the able-bodied among them were offered the chance to sign on as professional full-time mercenaries, while the injured were offered supporting roles. Borovkov, who is getting a prosthetic arm after amputation, said that he had been offered a job at a Wagner hospital in Luhansk when he recovers.

Yermakov said he hoped to recover sufficiently to re-enroll as a contract mercenary, and hoped to be deployed in future to Libya, Syria or the Central African Republic, where Wagner operations predate the group's present campaign in Ukraine. He cited limited prospects available in Russia's civilian economy as pushing him towards returning to Wagner.

"People work hard without days off for 12-14 hours a day, and at best they earn 50-60,000 rubles ($672-$806) a month," said Yermakov, who told Reuters he has two small daughters. "I will return to the (Wagner) company and I will definitely be able to earn 150,000 rubles ($2,000) a month."

For others, a return to Wagner offers an alternative to sinking back into a life of crime. Kuzhelev, who has spent almost seven of his 29 years in prison, told Reuters that he hoped that service in Wagner would enable his young daughter to build a career in future, without the stigma of her father's criminal past.

"My daughter, when she grows up, can go on to study banking, or attend the police academy," said Kuzhelev. "And she will not have problems because her father was in prison. Isn't that motivation? Of course it is."
BLANTYRE - Cyclone Freddy, which dissipated this week after a record-breaking rampage, has caused more than 400 deaths in southern Africa and affected more than half a million people in Malawi, the UN said Friday.

"Over 500,000 people have been affected - including 326 people killed and over 183,100 people displaced," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report.

It warned that the figures were expected to rise in the coming days in the country of nearly 20 million people.



"The record-breaking weather system hit Malawi at the end of the rainy season when rivers and water bodies were already at high levels," OCHA said.

The storm dumped six months' worth of rainfall in six days in southern Malawi, leaving a trail of destruction and severely destroyed infrastructure as well as flooding farmland.

United Nations World Food Program (WFP) country director Paul Turnbull said Friday it was clear that the country "will need significant support".



Many areas were rendered inaccessible "restricting movement of assessment and humanitarian teams and life-saving supplies," he said.



"We are ramping up as quickly as we can under the circumstances" he added in a statement, vowing to assist around 130,000 people affected by the "tragic" situation.



So far, the government puts the number of displaced at more than 183,000, said President Lazarus Chakwera, who has appealed for global aid to tackle the humanitarian needs.



Over 300 emergency shelters have been set up for survivors, while the army and police continue searching for bodies.



The storm struck as Malawi was in the grips of its deadliest ever cholera outbreak, according to the World Health Organization.



There is "a risk that the ongoing cholera outbreak could worsen, with children being the most vulnerable to this crisis," UNICEF spokeswoman Fungma Fudong told AFP.



UNICEF noted that Cyclone Freddy has left more than 280,000 children in Malawi in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.



- 'No house, no food' -



Mervis Soko, a 29-year-old mother of three from Phalombe, one of the hardest hit districts located 120 kilometers east of Blantyre, said the storm had plunged her family deeper into poverty.



"We are destitute, we literary have nothing. We are just people. All the crops have been washed away," she told AFP.



Loveness Makhala and her husband picked up iron sheets and bricks from the rubble of what used to be their house.



Just a month away from annual harvesting, she bemoans the loss of "everything - potatoes and maize - all gone".



"I can't imagine how we will get through the year with no house and no food," said the mother of four.



Neighboring Zambia has stepped in to deliver relief kits and food, including hundreds of tents, blankets, mosquito nets, maize and beans, its defense minister Ambrose Lufuma said in a statement.



The cyclone first struck southern Africa in late February, hitting Madagascar and Mozambique, leaving Malawi unscathed.



The storm then moved back out over the Indian Ocean, where it drew more power from the warm waters before making a rare course reversal to slam into the mainland a second time.



The rains have eased since Wednesday but Freddy is still on track to become one of the world's longest tropical storms.
Steve Herman

WASHINGTON  Former U.S. president Donald Trump, in a social media posting Saturday, told his followers that, based on what he called leaks from the Manhattan district attorneys office, he expects to be arrested Tuesday.

Trump, in the message on his Truth Social platform, called on his supporters to PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!

There is no confirmation from authorities of any criminal charges against Trump. Media reports in the past several days have indicated law enforcement agencies in New York City have been discussing security arrangements for the surrender of Trump, should he be indicted.

If Trump is indicted it will be yet another norm broken by the man who has infamously proclaimed his intent to disrupt the entire political universe, said Bradley Moss, a Washington attorney specializing in litigation involving national security.

If Trump were to be criminally charged it would mark the first time in American history a former president is arrested.

The fact that a former president of the United States may be indicted within hours or days is absolutely unprecedented if it happens, said David B. Cohen, a political science professor, who researches presidential history at the University of Akron. Theres a long history in the country of very powerful people avoiding any kind of accountability for their actions and this may be a situation which disproves a lot of the non-believers out there who think that there are two different systems of justice.

Both Moss and Cohen noted Richard Nixon, who resigned as president in 1974 due to the Watergate scandal and was subsequently pardoned by his successor Gerald Ford, is the only former U.S. president to face the potential level of legal jeopardy confronting Trump.

Unlike Nixon, who faded into obscurity after his ignominious departure from the White House, Trump is running again for president after losing reelection to Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden in the 2020 race. Only one president has ever achieved a non-consecutive comeback, Grover Cleveland, in 1892.

Cleveland, however, did not leave office the first time in 1889 mired in controversy, as did Trump in 2020.

Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination, noted Cohen at the University of Akron. If he's not in jail and he continues to stay in the race I think he is absolutely going to be the nominee of the Republican Party.

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Others see a Trump indictment throwing the presidential race into disarray.

No one knows what impact this will actually have on the 2024 campaign. Everyone is speculating wildly because we have never had a previous situation against which to compare, Moss told VOA. We are in unchartered territory.

Trump is expected to be challenged for the partys nomination by several prominent Republicans, possibly including his former running mate, former vice president Mike Pence, as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Trumps former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has already jumped into the race.

Trumps call for protests if he is arrested next week echo the incendiary rhetoric he posted online before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when rioters broke into the building and temporarily disrupted the ceremonial Electoral College vote tabulation certifying Bidens election.

Trump has faced criminal investigation for decades, primarily in connection with his New York real estate business, and his time as president led to other investigations but he has never been criminally charged. This latest case, which could see him taken into custody, where he would be fingerprinted, photographed for a mugshot and arraigned, involves hush money payments his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to an adult film performer who allegedly had an affair with Trump.

Cohen was repaid $310,000, Trump has acknowledged, but the former president has contended the financial transaction was legal as part of a nondisclosure agreement.

Cohen, five years ago, pleaded guilty in federal court to making an illegal payment to former actress Stormy Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) for the principal purpose of influencing the 2016 presidential election and said he did so at Trumps direction. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for that and other crimes.

A surrender by Trump at the office of the Manhattan district attorney would likely attract demonstrators and the potential of physical clashes between the former presidents supporters and detractors.

U.S. Secret Service agents in charge of Trumps security detail at his home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida have been in touch with the New York office of the Secret Service to discuss how to get the former president into the district attorneys office, according to federal law enforcement sources, as reported by CNN and NBC.
Soldiers stand next to military vehicles as people gather to protest against the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar, February 15, 2021. Photo by Reuters/Stringer

The Vietnamese Ambassador to the U.N. called all parties to exercise restraint, stop violence and dialogue to reach a peaceful solution to the Myanmar issue.

During the meeting on Thursday to address the situation in Myanmar of the United Nations General Assembly (UN), Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, head of the permanent Vietnamese delegation to the U.N., said that "relevant parties must exercise restraint to the fullest extent, end violence, and begin meaningful, inclusive dialogue" to reach a peaceful, sustainable solution that is in line with the will and interests of the people of Myanmar.

The ambassador also expressed Vietnam's concern about Myanmar's situation, especially the serious humanitarian crisis that is having a great impact on women and children in this country, according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Vietnam calls on all parties to ensure humanitarian and medical access for the people of Myanmar, in compliance with international humanitarian law, Giang said.

Vietnam welcomed the efforts of Indonesia, currently the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for 2023, as well as supported the close cooperation between the U.N. and ASEAN in promoting the settlement of the Myanmar issue.

Vietnam also called on the international community to support ASEAN's efforts, promote dialogue and reconciliation on the basis of respect for Myanmar's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

More than two years after the Myanmar military took over power, the situation in this Southeast Asian country is not yet stable.

Myanmar military commanders have promised to draw up a roadmap for holding new general elections to restore elected government, but no election plans have been set for the foreseeable future.

Myanmar officials on Feb. 1 announced an extension of the state of emergency for another six months.

A day after that, they declared martial law in 37 towns. Myanmar on February 22 added three towns to the list of martial law.

The Myanmar military junta declared martial law in 37 more towns across the country and added three more onto the list on Feb. 22, putting the number of towns under the law to 47.

When martial law is in effect, the military commander of an area or country has unlimited authority to make and enforce laws.
Despite the barriers prohibiting entry to Hanois famous Train Street, it is still a popular destination for many foreign visitors who say it would be a "waste" to close down the attraction.

Hanoi Train Street, famous for its makeshift coffee shops along the train track, runs for around two kilometers from Le Duan through Tran Phu, Cua Dong and Phung Hung Streets in the heart of Hanoi's Old Quarter.

While one part of its was blocked off last September due to safety concerns, another part between Tran Phu and Dien Bien Phu streets is not and many foreign tourists can still be found there.

"From a safety perspective, sitting to enjoy coffee along the train track could be worrying, but I haven't seen it anywhere else in the world, so its unique," Kathy, a female foreign tourist said.

"This is the first time Ive seen a train running so close to houses and the sight is really spectacular," said John, also a tourist.

For John, sitting next to the track and watching the train run through rows of old houses was a "one-of-a-kind and unique experience."

Tourists film a train with their phones as it runs through old houses and coffee shops on Hanoi Train Street, March 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh

"Ive never seen a place like this," said Ann from the Philippines. "Back home, its really boring because there are no places like Hanoi Train Street. We wish to have an interesting experience like everyone, and Id like to introduce my friends to this place."

Train Street became famous in 2014, when the sight of a train running right through the heart of a densely packed residential area was published in foreign newspapers and magazines, especially in the U.S and U.K.

It was closed for a while in 2019 over safety concerns, before it was hit by Covid-19. Since Vietnam reopened tourism in March last year, the street has again started drawing crowds of tourists.

Hanoi authorities shut down coffee shops and selfie hotspots and set up barriers along the street as a safety measure. The ban came a couple days before a South Korean tourist was hit by a train while slipping through the barrier despite the siren indicating a train's arrival going off. The person was not seriously injured and managed to leave the place afterward.

However, many foreigners said it would be "really wasteful" to close down Hanoi Train Street, saying it is an internationally famous site and even people who have never been to Vietnam known about it.

"Its a pity. Its not easy to visit Train Street these days. I dont understand why it was closed for tourists. Is it not safe? Its not like all tourists have accidents here," Kathy said.

Kathy said she saw a police officer there who did not stop her from entering the street.

Ann said most tourists know about the train schedules hung in front of every coffee shop and she wondered if it is really necessary to ban visitors from visiting the street.

Instead of closing down the tourist attraction, the government should turn it into a safe tourist hotpot to provide livelihood for local people and boost tourism revenues.

"Im sure all visitors want to visit here. This is a definite must-visit when in Hanoi, so it shouldn't be banned," Ann added.

A representative from Hang Bong Ward in Hanois Hoan Kiem District said it is difficult to prevent foreign tourists from entering the Hanoi Train Street.

In addition to the language barrier, local authorities also grapple with personnel shortages, the representative said.

Travel firms lead large groups of foreign tourists there, which has somewhat "pacified" authorities, the representative added.

Train streets have long existed in Asia and are often tourist gems.

In Thailand, Maeklong Market, which spans for over 100 meters along the railway near the Mae Klong Railway Station, has become a famous tourist attraction with trains running at fixed times.

Shifen Old Streets in Taiwan is famous for its collection of lanes and alleys in and around the Shifen railway station area.

*Tourists' names have been changed for anonymousity.
Tourists at a beach of Koh Tao Island, Surat Thani Province, Thailand. Photo by Reuters

Thai police this week arrested two foreign tourists carrying Swedish and Brazilian passports for overstaying their visas as part of the governments expanded campaign to crack down on violators.

The 34-year-old Swedish tourist who overstayed his visa by 75 days was detained Friday by Thai immigration police on Koh Samui Island in the Surat Thani District, around 650 kilometers from Bangkok, The Thaiger reported.

On Monday, a 64-year-old Brazilian tourist was detained at Surat Thani Hospital for overstaying his visa for 10 days.

Both are awaiting deportation.

Thailand, which has witnessed a strong tourism recovery since late last year, is stepping up its crackdown against tourists who overstay their visas.

Overstaying for 90 days or more entails deportation and a ban on entering the country again.

Thailand received 11 million foreign visitors last year, and the government hopes to receive 30 million arrivals this year.
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At the center of Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News and Fox Corporation is a deceptively subtle First Amendment question: How may a news outlet speak about false claims made by a public figure? Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight A Delaware judge will soon decide whether to grant summary judgment to Fox or Dominion, instead of sending the case to a jury. But that wont be the end of the case. Unless the parties reach a settlement, the case could eventually wend its way to the US Supreme Court, where the justices would have to confront this core question.

The facts of the case have been widely reported, and the enormous number of statements by Fox executives and employees has been usefully summarized by the Washington Post. Among the revelations: Fox personalities from CEO Rupert Murdoch to TV host Tucker Carlson privately acknowledged that President Donald Trump was lying when he claimed fraud cost him re-election.

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Legally, the two sides mostly agree on the facts. Hence the outcome is ultimately going to hinge on how the courts apply defamation law. The basic background is the famous 1964 case New York Times v. Sullivan, where the Supreme Court held that a public figure suing for libel must prove that the defamatory statements were made with knowledge of their falsehood or with reckless disregard for their falsehood. Although Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have made noises about softening the Sullivan standard, it remains good law.

Ordinarily, it doesnt matter whether the published libel came from someone employed by the media outlet or someone else. In the Sullivan case, for example, the defamatory statements appeared in an advertisement published in the New York Times. In theory, therefore, Fox could be held liable even for statements made on the air by guests such as Rudy Giuliani, who repeatedly made false and defamatory statements about Dominion on Fox shows.

That sounds bad for Fox. And to be sure, a highly formalistic application of existing libel law would probably lead to a win for Dominion.

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Where things start to get tricky is where a news outlet chooses to report on public statements by public figures that it knows to be false. That wasnt directly addressed by the Sullivan case.

On one highly formal reading of existing law, Fox could be held liable simply for choosing to air statements by Trumps lawyers and supporters that Fox knew were false. Technically, that would be considered publishing a libel.

But that cannot be the law, at least not if we care about the First Amendment. Many TV channels carried video of Trumps lawyers repeating election fraud claims. Technically, that entailed publishing those claims. It makes no sense to suggest that those outlets are liable for defamation. If they are, then the public wouldnt even be able to learn about Trumps election denial, or the threat it poses to democracy.

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So whats the legal difference between Fox and, say, CNN? One possibility, which Dominion seems to embrace, is that it was fine for news outlets to report what Trump and his supporters were saying, provided they explained that the claims were false. Essentially, the idea is that I am not libeling you if I repeat a defamatory statement and then quickly add that the statement is not true.

The difficulty with this logic is that it would require the media to say which side of any factual dispute it believes to be objectively correct  something that might not always be possible or desirable. It could open the door to a barrage of lawsuits against media outlets.

An alternative, urged by Fox, is for the courts to allow a media outlet to defend itself affirmatively against the charge of libel by saying it was engaged in neutral reportage. The Supreme Court has never officially adopted this doctrine, and its status in state courts is a bit murky. If adopted, it would protect media outlets that quote election denial, provided they reported the information neutrally.

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Neutrality, of course, may be in the eye of the beholder. Does neutral reportage require covering both points of view? What if the outlet devoted more time to the false view, as Fox certainly did? These are conceptually challenging questions  ones that courts might not be very good at answering.

Dominion says that Fox cannot rely on the neutral reportage theory because its on-air personalities didnt only report the election denial, they endorsed it. That seems to have been true in a number of instances.

Fox rejoins, however, that its on-air personalities are opinion journalists and analysts, not reporters. Under the First Amendment, opinion gets nearly absolute protection. The case might then turn on whether the opinion journalists were making statements of fact. In practice, it can be hard to disentangle opinion statements from fact statements. Does everything labeled opinion count as an opinion? Or can there be factual statements embedded in opinion journalism?

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That leads us to Foxs most aggressive First Amendment argument: that it should get immunity from libel laws so long as it was discussing newsworthy topics. Given that the sitting president of the United States was asserting election fraud, the subject was certainly newsworthy.

Taken to its logical extreme, however, a newsworthiness exception to libel would basically let the media say whatever it wanted about public figures, true or not. Public figures would never win another libel case. It seems unlikely that the Supreme Court would go so far beyond the Sullivan rule, which makes it hard but not impossible for public figures to sue successfully.

So what should the new rule be? Under the logic of the Sullivan decision, the best result might be to require a news outlet that knows a statement is false to contextualize it.

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The outlet need not say it believes the statement is false; just that it is reporting what someone else thinks. If the statement is made by an employee of the outlet, then the outlet should make it clear that the statement reflects the employees opinion, not a fact. If this approach were adopted, it would not matter how many times the outlet repeated or reported the false claims, so long as they were presented as someone elses factual claims or as opinion.

Requiring this sort of context does place some burden on the outlets speech. The corresponding benefit, however, is to preserve the core idea behind the law of libel: that no one, not even the media speaking about a public figure on a newsworthy topic, may knowingly repeat defamatory lies as statements of fact.

If we abandon that basic idea, we will launch public discourse into a fully fact-free zone. Donald Trump has already done his best to put us there. The courts and the Constitution should not give him an after-the-fact victory.

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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery and the Refounding of America.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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Jewelry from the Angkor period during a ceremony held to unveil a collection of stolen Angkorian artifacts at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh. Photo by Kok Ky/Cambodia's Government Cabinet/Handout via AFP

Cambodian leader Hun Sen unveiled a collection of stolen Angkor crown jewelry on Friday which was recently returned to the kingdom after decades in Britain, pleading for other long-lost treasures to be handed back.

Gold crowns, necklaces and amulets were among the trove of treasures from the Angkor period, which ran from the ninth to 14th centuries AD when the Khmer empire dominated vast parts of Southeast Asia.

The Cambodian culture ministry characterized the items -- expected to go on display at the national museum -- as "priceless cultural heritage".

"I appeal to museums, institutions and Khmer artifact collectors to continue to return those items voluntarily to Cambodia," Hun Sen told the ceremony.

"Heritage items should be returned to their country of origin."

The culture ministry last month discreetly received 77 pieces from the family of the late, disgraced British art dealer Douglas Latchford.

Two 10th-century sculptures recently returned by the United States were also displayed on Friday.

Dominic Williams, the British ambassador to Cambodia, tweeted that it was an "extraordinary privilege to see these previously stolen artifacts displayed in their ancestral home."

When he died in 2020, Latchford was awaiting trial in the United States for art trafficking, and the same year his family agreed to return the antiquities to Cambodia.

The family returned five stone and bronze artifacts in 2021.

Thousands of antiques and artifacts were stolen from Cambodia during the conflict and genocide of the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.

Last year, the United States returned 30 looted items, including bronze and stone statues of Buddhist and Hindu deities that were carved more than 1,000 years ago.

The Cambodian government has been negotiating with other countries, including the United States, and private collectors to return more Khmer artifacts to the kingdom.
The miner positions itself as a responsible, transparent operator. For example, Oyus materials sourcing program buys personal protective equipment made by local co-operatives. Nevertheless, the underground mine was beset by a series of long delays and cost blowouts after construction began in 2019, compounded by a long-running dispute with the Mongolian government that only ended last year when Rio waived a $US2.4 billion ($3.6 billion) debt owed by the government. Loading Its not been a smooth ride. Lets be honest about that. We have had our challenges, we have had our setbacks, Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm says. And tensions remain  chiefly a fight over the companys tax liability. Rio has a 66 per cent stake in Oyu, the government has 34 per cent. It takes two to tango. There was no way we could solve everything in one go, Stausholm says. Bulgantuya Khurelbaatar, Mongolias border ports minister and a former employee of the mine, isnt giving ground though. Locals wont be happy if the government treats big Western investors differently to them, she says.

We will try, of course, to be amicable. But at the same time, we also have to ensure that because this is the first large project, and lots of other big mining projects are looking at how were going to be resolving this issue; its going to probably set a precedent. Excavating access tunnels deep underground at the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine. This was the first big project in a country that is nomadic and very dependent on agriculture, she says. We have a much more shamanistic kind of culture where we pay homage to the Mother Earth. Its quite difficult to endorse mining. But its Mongolias authoritarian and assertive neighbours, China and Russia, that really hold the keys to the success of Rios $7 billion bet on the mines new underground operation. Along with its host country, the company is squeezed between two unstable geopolitical fault lines. Rio was quick to stop purchasing Russian goods and services when the West imposed severe economic sanctions after Moscow marched on Kiev, triggering the ongoing deadly Ukrainian conflict that has upended Europe and sparked a global energy crunch.

We went out as the first mining company saying we would cut our commercial ties to Russia, and weve done so, and it wasnt easy, says Stausholm. Its really not our job to tell countries what you do. But the mines huge Komatsu haulage trucks  the size of a large two-storey house  which carry 290 tonnes of ore in each load as they climb out of the 650-metre deep open-cut pit, are thirsty consumers of diesel. And the hundreds of 4WD vehicles, heavy machinery, semi-trailers and buses used to move people and goods around the mine and open-cut pit  which will eventually stretch nearly 3 kilometres in length  also suck up huge quantities of fuel. The copper ore is processed in a vast crushing, concentrator and packaging complex. Credit: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg The mines huge energy needs  equivalent to about a quarter of Mongolias production capacity  are dependent on electricity from China and fuel from Russia. Khurelbaatar says the mining sector, in which Rio is by far the largest player, accounts for half of the nations entire petroleum use.

Diesel and fuel is all imported from Russia. There is no other option. What are the choices? Khurelbaatar says. Recognising its vulnerability and lack of energy security, Mongolia is constructing its first refinery, she adds. Rios copper boss, Bold Baatar, is more blunt. Its a work in progress. Russia does not supply us directly. We buy our goods from Mongolian suppliers, and look for alternative suppliers from many parts of the world. This is something that we are working on, he says. The open pit mine at the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold prospect. Credit: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg Its a similar story with the mines relationship to China. The copper ore yielded up by the Gobi Desert is processed in a vast crushing, concentrator and packaging complex. Oyus concentrator is so large, it claims the title of the biggest industrial unit ever built in Mongolia. When the one-tonne bags of concentrate emerge from the facilitys bagging plant, they are just 100 kilometres by road to the nearest border point with China.

And thats where nearly all of it is shipped. Of the 25 million tonnes of copper consumed globally, China gobbles up about 13.6 million tonnes. North America processes about 2.4 million and Europe 3.7 million. Presently, Oyu produces 130,000 tonnes of copper concentrate a year, a figure that is expected to jump to 500,000 when the mines new underground shafts hit full capacity from 2028 to 2036. When it reaches that pitch, it will supply two per cent of world demand and be the globes fourth-largest copper mine. Workers tie bags of copper concentrate in the bagging plant at the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine. Credit: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg [We live] in the world where everything that we do  drive a Tesla or use an iPhone  needs copper and most of that, like it or not, is manufactured in China, says Baatar. Its a dependence that neither he nor Stausholm shy away from.

Theres a lot of trade with China. We buy power [from them], we sell [them] copper concentrate, Stausholm said. We have a very big business into China. Im not particularly worried from our standpoint as youre seeing China opening up right now. Mongolia is geographically very close to China, and thats where we are selling the copper concentrate, he said. Loading Rios dependence on Chinese energy may be offset in the future by an agreement to source power from the Mongolian grid. Stausholm said Rio was also intent on expanding renewable energy generation for the mine. Oyus expansion is one of the mining giants most important growth projects  a key plank in its ambition to diversify away from iron ore and push deeper into minerals that will increasingly be needed in a low-carbon economy. Theres a lot of talk about battery materials, but if you really do your numbers, you will see the big numbers are in copper and aluminium. From an environmental point of view, youll see these super-scale copper mines are the most efficient [way to extract that], rather than a lot of smaller, older mines, Stausholm says.
When we meet up the morning after her Melbourne event, Williams is entirely relaxed: warm-hearted, engaging, keen for a chat and without the sort of airs and graces some bestsellers have. If its a different world shes publishing into, its a familiar one for her and her readers that she writes in The Bookbinder: shes back in Oxford, back around the time of the First World War, back at Oxford University Press, and back with a cast of strong female characters. And two main characters from The Dictionary, suffragette Tilda Taylor and compositor Gareth Owen, return with her. I loved these lovely characters who I felt perhaps needed a bit more breath in their bodies. The Bookbinder is about orphan sisters Peggy and Maude Jones, who live modestly on a narrowboat on the Oxford canal in Jericho. They work in the bindery at the press, where they fold the printed sheets to be stitched and bound and turned into books. The Clarendon Building in 1920 when it was the home of Oxford University Press. Credit: Getty The First World War is breaking out and soon men will be leaving the press for the trenches, Oxford will see an influx of refugees from Belgium, and the suffragettes will ease campaigning in favour of backing the war effort.

But Peggy is frustrated. She wants more. She feels restricted by obligations to her less robust sister who has some form of echolalia. Peggy wants to read more than the incomplete pages she folds. She yearns for knowledge, but is restricted by her gender and her class. Across the road from the press is Somerville College and thats where she really would like to be. Fat chance, though, given the nature of society at the time. I wondered whether Williams felt nervous going back to the world of her first book. Its success could have piled extra pressure on her, aware that she had a large readership she could disappoint. But no, she was writing it before The Dictionary appeared. It was when she made her final research trip to Oxford that the idea came to her. She needed information about the women who worked in the bindery because in that first one Gareth had the eponymous dictionary bound and printed as a love token for Esme, who had collected the womens words excluded from The Oxford English Dictionary. A still from the 1925 film Oxford University Press and the Making of a Book showing women at work in the bindery. Credit: Oxford University Press The bindery was split quite literally into the mens side and the girls side, which is interesting. There was so little about them, but I did find some photographs from the 1920s, which were just wonderful, so that gave me this setting.

She also found a film from 1925 called Oxford University Press and The Making of a Book, which goes through all the processes at OUP. The Dictionary of Lost Words has been adapted for the stage, optioned for a TV series and is the inspiration for a concerto. Credit: Theres this one little section in the bindery where they have the women folding the pages and there was footage of a woman gathering the sections and it was so beautiful and thats when I wondered if she ever read the pages. When Williams was doing academic work, she would start with a question, and she approaches her fiction similarly. For the new novel she was interested in various forms of censorship, but particularly systemic censorship. For working-class people and women in particular at that time, theres a certain amount [of censorship] that goes on because you have no access to the books, to the systems, to the colleges, to the workplaces. The question really was who gets to make knowledge, who gets to access it. And whats the consequence when it is denied.

Peggy sees the war as an opportunity. Before, as Williams points out, it was difficult for many women to break free of the class and gender restrictions. The war changed everyones perception of what women were capable of. Women were required to take the jobs of men for England to keep running, she said. The women who took on all those male jobs were working-class women. So the bus drivers, the factory workers, the bomb makers  they were working-class women. And so theres the argument that if women can do mens work they should be able to vote, yet working-class women were denied their vote for another 10 years. TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO PIP WILLIAMS Worst habit? I seem unable to leave my seatback in the upright position, even on the shortest domestic flight. Greatest fear? Self-censorship - not speaking against injustice when I see it/hear it/feel it. The line that stayed with you? Tell all the truth but tell it slant  (Emily Dickinson) Biggest regret? Self-censorship - not speaking against injustice when I should have. Favourite room? The room my partner built out of strawbales. It has an old stained-glass window and an eccentric bookcase made from recycled timbers that reaches to the ceiling and spans an entire wall. The artwork/song you wish was yours? I am undone by music played in the minor key, and Erik Saties Gnossienne No 1 brings me to tears. If you could solve one thing There is a temptation to aim high (climate change, inequality, greed), but on a more modest note, if I could solve WORDLE, in hard mode, Id start the day happy. Williams was also struck by the historical parallels. In her book traumatised refugees flee the horrors inflicted by the Germans in Belgium to the physical safety of Oxford. The five sections of The Bookbinder are each headed by the title of the book Peggy is folding. One is The Oxford Pamphlets, a series that included Thoughts on the War by the Sydney-born Oxford classics scholar, Gilbert Murray.

Theyre an amazing resource for how people were thinking at the time. They were written by all sorts of people, all of them men. Gilbert Murray wrote a few, and you could read them and simply replace Russia for Germany and Ukraine for Belgium and it would almost be contemporary. We shouldnt be shocked when history repeats itself, but its constantly repeating itself, which is a sad indictment on humanity. Pip Williams with her first edition of The Oxford English Dictionary after winning the Independent Booksellers book of the year award for The Dictionary of Lost Words two years ago. Credit: Ben Searcy As a young child, Williams lived with her parents in Wales, but was three when they moved to Queensland in search of the surf. Her father was obsessed. It was South Africa, Cape Town, or the Gold Coast or the Sunshine Coast. It was all about surf ... Im not sure how much mum had to do with it. Her father got a job in the cane fields but found it just too hot so they moved south and into a flat on Manly beach. She went to Mackellar Girls High School and, after a spell overseas, to Charles Sturt University for a degree in social science and psychology, to UNSW for her masters, and Adelaide for her PhD in public health.

But she never thought of writing as a career even though she always wrote  three first chapters of a Puberty Blues-type novels by the time she was 13 and a poem published in Dolly magazine when she was 15. Dyslexia didnt help. She reads fluently, she says, but slowly and finds it tiring. Thats why creative-writing courses were out; she didnt want to read long books. It was bad enough doing HSC. I never read them, I just read the bridging notes. I remember my English teacher telling all of us so seriously, you will not pass if you rely on them. Well, Im here to tell you, you can.  Her first book, Time Bomb, was written with two other academics and was about how work makes us time poor. By then she certainly was and at the end of her academic tether as well. She and her partner Shannon and their two boys had moved to the Adelaide Hills, wanting a simpler life and to grow their own food. They spent a summer in Italy working on organic farms for inspiration. But the move wasnt really working out, partly because of my job. Being a researcher and writing research papers and grant applications is kind of relentless and uses up all creative energy, she said. The call to writing was getting louder and louder. I had managed to subdue it for 30 years, but it was starting to impact my mental health. I knew I couldnt do it while I was doing intellectual writing and research. The Italy trip was to be a circuit breaker but when she returned it seemed nothing had changed. Shannon was the one who said why not write about Italy and sort out what it means. And I did. One Italian Summer was published in 2017.

Loading Williams thinks of her books as children: At some point you have to stop taking credit for them. So others have now adopted The Dictionary. It has been adapted for the stage by Verity Laughton in a production to be directed by Jessica Arthur, and will premiere in September in Adelaide before a season at the Opera House. It has been optioned for a limited TV series, and Canberra composer Marian Budos is writing a book-concerto for harp and orchestra based on it. The characters will be represented by individual instruments  Esme is the harp. If the outcome of reading that first book made you think about dictionaries and how their words are chosen, The Bookbinder of Jericho will make you look at the physical making of your books, in addition to further questions about class and gender. Theres no stitching or hand folding involved here; the bindings all glue. And there are certainly no bindery women involved  theyre all within the pages. Pip Williams will be appearing at the Sydney Writers Festival on May 26 and 27 The Bookbinder of Jericho is published on March 28 at $32.99.
While the number of ADF recruits with neo-Nazi backgrounds appears small, and there is no evidence they have engaged in extremist activities while in the military, their discovery raises questions about the adequacy of military vetting. Loading The US military is grappling with cases of infiltration by active white supremacists on a scale far greater than that in Australia. A security source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the ADF still had gaps in its vetting programs that made it vulnerable to neo-Nazi infiltration. Defence declined to comment on individual soldiers but said it investigates and acts when personnel are identified as potentially involved in unlawful or inappropriate activities.

There was no place for unlawful or inappropriate association with groups or organisations that engage in advocacy for extremist ideology, extremist views, or criminal activity within the Australian Defence Force, it said in a statement. Defence works closely with law enforcement and intelligence agencies to identify and counter threats to Defence and Defence personnel involving ideologically motivated extremism. Leadership change Two years after The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald conducted a major undercover expose of Australias neo-Nazi movement, a fresh nationwide investigation has established the identities of emerging or previously unknown neo-Nazi leaders. They include key figures from Australias most active neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network, whose members  according to a police counter-terrorism briefing seen by this masthead  are known to have previously had access to firearms and weapons training. NSN advocates for its members to spur a white revolution to inspire change for the white race, achieved through overthrowing the current social and political order to establish a National Socialist system, the police briefing states.

Loading The NSNs New South Wales cell leader is Jack Eltis, a tradesman who has conducted training events for neo-Nazis in NSW. The NSN has nominated him to fill any national leadership vacuum if the groups most prominent member, Melbourne man Tom Sewell, is jailed in connection to aggravated burglary charges. Sewell has been charged but is yet to face a committal hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court. Eltis has posted on encrypted chat groups, reviewed by this masthead, about how the tyrannical Jewish system and its police and security apparatus are attempting to convict Thomas Sewell with overreaching charges. In the posts, Eltis attacks counter-terrorism authorities who have charged NSN members in Victoria, NSW and South Australia with ludicrous fabricated terrorism charges. The men in our organisation know that no temporary sacrifice is too great for the future of the white race, he says.

When contacted by this masthead, Eltis was unapologetic about his leadership role in the NSN and attacked the media and counter-terror agencies for what he claimed was the harassment of his organisation. He confirmed he believed there was no pathway for political change via the current Western liberal democratic framework but said the NSN rejected the use of violence. In Queensland, the NSN has appointed ex-university student Gabe Seymour as its leader, assigning him the task of collating and publishing the groups propaganda via encrypted online platforms. Queensland man Gabe Seymour. Seymour has travelled to Sydney and Melbourne, including as recently as December, to participate in NSN training and recruitment events. The NSNs activities were comprehensively exposed by this mastheads Nazis Next Door investigative series with 60 Minutes in 2021. That investigation revealed it as an organisation that privately celebrated the Christchurch terrorist, and was seeking tracts of rural land to establish a white ethno-state and access to firearms.

Seymour did not respond to efforts to contact him. Two well-known NSN leaders, Melbournes Sewell and Adelaides Patrick Patmore, have since faced criminal charges after investigations by state counter-terrorism authorities. Patrick Patmore outside the South Australian District Court. Credit: Nine News In late February, Patmore was sentenced in the South Australian District Court to at least 19 months home detention and banned from contacting fellow NSN members, and those from the affiliated European Australian Movement, after counter-terror detectives found a small and crude explosive device in his shed, homemade knives, a machete, a battleaxe and ammunition. In sentencing Patmore, judge Michael Burnett also said he had been found with documents describing ways of committing a terrorist act, as well as the manifesto of the Christchurch terrorist.

A leaked audio recording Patmore posted to an encrypted extremist chatroom after he began home detention revealed that he was seeking to push the limits of his detention order in order to continue communicating with fellow neo-Nazis. I am going to see how far I can push that because the feds f---ed up with the wording [of the communication ban]  Im still waiting to talk to my lawyer on that before I push the limits there just to be a prick, Patmore said on the leaked audio. I told the feds as they f---en left the courtroom. I made sure they knew I knew they f---ed up. I cant talk to anyone from the NSN. And my query was, who is a member and who is not. Who is a member in the eyes of us, national socialists, or the eyes of the state? A leading NSN figure was convicted for a violent attack then boasted on a podcast that he had also manipulated his court-ordered sentence conditions. Ive managed to game the system a little bit, which I wont go into too much detail, he said, revealing he used a special-circumstances clause to conduct his community service at home, sewing on a loom.

The activities of the NSNs established and emerging leaders suggest that while media scrutiny and efforts by counter-terror authorities have slowed the groups activities, dedicated members continue to seek to access firearms and radicalise young Australians. Online posts from Seymour, a former pharmacy student at the University of Queensland and an ex-Chemist Warehouse employee, on encrypted channels populated by NSN members, reveal he has distributed a manual on how to manufacture guns using a 3D printer and undertaken firearms training. The posts reveal Seymour has also celebrated the actions of the Christchurch terrorist and contemplated committing an act of violence. Am I dumb enough to ruin my life over a hatred of society. Almost. Not yet. But almost, he wrote in a series of posts in which he also wrote of killing Muslims. In other posts, Seymour mocks ASIO, promotes the concept of a race war  a staple of neo-Nazi propaganda  and makes repeated antisemitic references.

Seymours identity was confirmed by anti-fascist researchers from the White Rose Society using online surveillance. They matched photos he posted of neo-Nazi propaganda at his Queensland home to pictures of a house listed for sale on a real estate website. Public records linked Seymour to this home address. Loading In one social media post showing flags, Seymour says: Gotta give ASIO something nice to look at. The ability of extremists to access weapons was highlighted in the recent fatal shooting of two police officers in Queensland, assessed by police and ASIO as an act of politically motivated violence, primarily motivated by a Christian violent extremist ideology. In February, the Albanese government committed to move on a long-standing failure of state and federal governments to better share intelligence and licensing data on firearm possession.

In investigating white supremacists access to firearms, this masthead has uncovered links between active right-wing extremists and serving police officers. In Victoria, highly active NSN member Nathan Bull, 21, is the son of a Victoria Police officer who is currently on extended leave and who failed to declare his sons neo-Nazi activities. The force declined to comment on the police officer, whom this masthead is not naming for legal reasons, but said in a statement: While we know people cant choose their family, the policy outlines what relationships must be declared to ensure any actual or perceived risks are managed. Bull is a frequent participant in NSN training events and has also posted NSN propaganda on encrypted platforms, recently encouraging neo-Nazis to disrupt a queer youth event at the Victorian Pride Centre. In Queensland, social media posts reveal that an active neo-Nazi who is the partner of a policewoman has sought advice in encrypted neo-Nazi group chats about finding online forums for police who are shitty or who go against the grain.
For the Aussie theatre producer, his Almost Famous panning proves the point that in showbiz, its not if but when you fail  and how you respond.

March 18, 2023

by Konrad Marshall
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 In his landmark book Australias Defence, which chronicled the nations defence policy in the lead-up to the Vietnam War, historian Thomas Millar stressed that the first point to remember about the Australian island-continent is not that it is a continent but that it is an island. Its a point others have felt the need to make repeatedly since. Almost six decades after Millars book was published, retired Army major-general Mick Ryan says Australia continues to lack an oceanic consciousness. Look at our myths, our stories, our movies, he says. Think Sidney Nolans paintings of Ned Kelly or Peter Weirs film Picnic at Hanging Rock. Theyre all about the land. Theyre not about the ocean, but were surrounded by it. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden shake hands during the AUKUS announcement. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Ryan says this helps explain why the Australian Army has traditionally held pre-eminence among the three military branches, with the Navy and Air Force trailing behind. If the past week doesnt change Australians deeply ingrained habit of looking inward to the land, rather than outward to the sea, then nothing will. The nation awoke on Tuesday to learn the government plans to spend between $268 billion and $368 billion over the next 30 years developing a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines. Even over a long time frame, it is a staggering amount of money.

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Just as the 1980s marked a turning point for the Australian economy  the tearing down of tariff barriers, workplace deregulation, the sale of iconic government assets  the past week represented a new era in Australian defence policy. Standing at the San Diego Naval Base alongside US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: The scale, complexity, and economic significance of this investment is akin to the creation of the Australian automotive industry in the post-World War II period. Only six nations possess nuclear-powered submarines, which are in many ways as technologically sophisticated as space shuttles. Australia will become the seventh within a decade if the most ambitious defence project in its history goes to plan. Such a colossal undertaking will force the country to confront fundamental questions about itself. Are we foremost a continent or an island? Are we happy to be a plucky middle power in the Asia-Pacific or are our geopolitical ambitions more consequential? How much of the budget should be allocated to the military compared to, say, the National Disability Insurance Scheme or Medicare? Are we too dependent on the United States, or should we hug our closest ally even tighter to keep us safe in an era of great power rivalry? The past week has seen a rare eruption of bipartisanship, with the Coalition throwing full support behind Labors submarine plan (just as Labor did in opposition when Scott Morrison created the AUKUS pact). But the praise has been far from unanimous. Former prime minister Paul Keating used an incendiary appearance at the National Press Club to describe the submarine plan as the worst deal in all history. Why was Australia spending so much on submarines, he asked, when China has no desire or capacity to invade the Australian mainland? In essence, Keating was daring Labors base to rise up and demand the government tear up the AUKUS pact.

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Defence Minister Richard Marles says the submarine program is being driven by the biggest conventional military build-up that we have seen since the end of the Second World War  a clear reference to China. We need to respond to this, he said this week. A failure to do so would see us be condemned by history. As a trading island nation, so much harm can be done to us before ever setting foot upon our shores. The nation is dependent on shipping routes for almost all of its imports  including fuel  which makes it highly vulnerable to a blockade that shuts us off from the rest of the world. Marles argues Australias interest in promoting free movement throughout the region means we must have submarines that can travel further and faster than our current vessels. The COVID-19 pandemic required ordinary citizens to become instant amateur epidemiologists, able to distinguish between surface and airborne disease transmission. Similarly, to make an informed judgment about whether Australia is making a wise investment in nuclear-powered submarines requires a familiarity with concepts only naval experts previously needed to consider. Loading Take snorting. Its a term Marles only used publicly for the first time this week but is essential to understanding why Australia is investing in such expensive technology. Snorting describes the process by which submarines rise to the surface of the ocean to expel contaminants, replenish their oxygen supplies and recharge batteries. Diesel-powered submarines like Australias current Collins-class vessels have to snort regularly to continue to operate. But rapid advances in technology are making even brief snorts highly risky. This problem doesnt apply to nuclear-powered submarines, given their generators dont need oxygen, allowing them to stay submerged for months at a time and only needing to surface to restock food. As Peter Dean, a defence expert at the University of Sydneys United States Studies Centre, explained in a panel session this week: In a world where theres increasing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance from satellites to sensors in the water, its becoming more and more difficult for conventionally powered submarines to be survivable and maintain stealth ... Every submariner Ive ever spoken to in Australia would say if they had a choice they would have a nuclear-powered submarine from a tactical, strategic and operational point of view.

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Albanese justified the huge price tag by saying nuclear-powered submarines are less detectable, theyre faster, theyre able to stay away from the port for longer than our current vessels. Theyre essentially just much, much better, he said. And we should acquire assets which best defend our nation. No one disputes that the submarines represent a massive leap forward in technology. The question is whether they are a smart use of taxpayer money, how soon they will arrive and whether they make Australia more or less likely to be drawn into a possible war with China, its biggest trading partner. Defence Minister Richard Marles (right) and then-British PM Boris Johnson talk to Autumn Benson, a first-year-apprentice at BAE Systems, at the companys submarine shipyards in the British port of Barrow-in-Furness in August last year. Credit:Latika Bourke A historic step The United States has transferred its top-secret nuclear-powered submarine technology to just one other nation in its history: the United Kingdom in 1958. Thirty years later, however, another country came close to acquiring the technology, a tale that reveals the many ways such a complicated project can be derailed. In 1987, the Canadian government announced plans to develop a class of at least 10 nuclear-powered attack submarines because of their speed, range and ability to operate under the Arctic ice. Overruling the advice of senior Navy officers, US president Ronald Reagan announced he supported the transfer of US reactor technology to its northern neighbour.

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Technical problems soon emerged: a French-designed submarine proved too noisy and slow, while a rival British-designed vessel didnt have enough torpedo tubes. Public opposition rose in Canada thanks to a daunting price tag and the view that defence spending should take a back seat following the fall of the Berlin Wall. The project was cancelled in 1989 and Canada never acquired a nuclear-powered submarine. Loading This is precisely the scenario Keating would like to see play out in Australia. As for Albanese and Marles, its the nightmare they are determined to avoid. Theres a range of views among defence experts, but the reaction to the governments submarine plan, unveiled on Tuesday, was generally positive. Michael Green, who served as special assistant on national security affairs to president George W. Bush, describes it as a Goldilocks solution that will benefit all three member nations and deliver nuclear-powered submarines to Australia faster than anticipated. Richard Dunley, a naval expert at UNSW, says the plan looks about as good as you can imagine and better than a lot of us expected. But the potential for things to go wrong when it is put into practice is unavoidable. The idea of this being delivered on time and on budget seems highly improbable, Dunley says. Three degrees of risk Like a video game in which players advance through increasingly difficult levels, the submarine plan begins simply and becomes increasingly complex and risky as it goes on.

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What Keating didnt reveal was that the government also had given him the benefit of a private, early briefing on the AUKUS deal. And that Albanese has returned every phone call Keating has made to him. Loading And how did Keating repay this respectful treatment? Apart from attacking the deal itself, which is fair game, he tried to undermine Albanese every way he could. He made the absurd claim that the government had no mandate for the policy. In fact, Albanese took the AUKUS plan in principle to the 2022 election as Labor policy. Next, Albanese and Wong had sold out to the US, he claimed, and betrayed Labors Left faction (Keating was a member of the Right faction and loathed the Left). The two principal people on the Left in Australia are now Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong, Keating said. And what theyve done, they have, essentially, accommodated the strategic wishes of the US. Uncritically. Uncritically.

How did this happen? According to Keating, Albanese had relied on two seriously unwise ministers in Wong and Marles, the Defence Minister. And Albanese had been befuddled by his own small-target election strategy into doing Americas bidding. Loading The ship of state, according to Keating, is in the hands of a ship of fools. As usual, everyone else is wrong. Only Keating can be right. Keating went out of his way to abuse Wong. He accused her of being a weak foreign affairs minister who merely aped Liberal Party policy, and then this: Running around the Pacific Islands with a lei around your neck handing out money, which is what Penny does, is not foreign policy. Its a consular task. This is gratuitous, condescending and insulting. He went on to extend the insult to the Pacific Islands themselves: Foreign policy is what you do with the great powers. What you do with China. What you do with the US. This government, the Albanese government, does not employ foreign policy.

The Pacific doesnt matter, apparently. As Keating well knows, the Pacific Islands are key to Australian security. The Japanese Imperial Army established its bases in Papua New Guinea and the Solomons to cut off Australia from the world. The geography hasnt changed. No, it seems Keating wanted to rubbish the Pacific Islands simply because its been one of Wongs priorities. On Friday Albanese made a point of praising Wong. She would go down as Australias greatest foreign minister, when history looks back  when you look at her achievements in less than one year as foreign minister, our relationship with France has been repaired, our relationship with the US has never been stronger, our relationships in ASEAN has never been stronger  Weve put back together the Pacific Islands Forum. Albanese said Wong will go down as Australias greatest foreign minister. Credit: Rhett Wyman Keating so lacks self-awareness that he volunteered to the press club that he had tried to control Penny Wong. Ill tell you a little story, said Keating. He brought up a book I wrote in 2021, Red Zone: Chinas Challenge and Australias Future. In Sydney, the book was launched by Malcolm Turnbull. Keating said he tried to stop Wong from launching it in Canberra. For context and full disclosure, Keating has been critical of my analysis and reporting of China for some years. At the press club this week, he variously described me as a psychopath, a maniac, the enfant terrible and old acid drop himself.

None of which I begrudge in the least. His invective can be hilarious. And free speech is a bedrock Australian value. Though Keating doesnt necessarily agree, as he explained. Wong, he said, was going to launch the book and add some comments to the back cover: So I discuss it with Gareth Evans and Bob Carr about this, and I said, Youve got to tell her if she goes to the launch and she puts something in the back of the book, Im into her. And I think Carr is too. And so she didnt.  For someone whod just admitted to leading a group effort to bully Labors leader in the Senate and foreign affairs spokesperson into silence on China, he looked inordinately pleased with himself. But towards the end of his appearance, the chair, the ABCs Laura Tingle, said: I have received a message that Penny Wong actually launched Peter Hartchers book, contrary to what youre saying. Keating: No. No, shes launched it, but she didnt put the sticker on the back. If he meant an endorsement, he was wrong about that, too. By telling this story, Keatings exposed himself as an obsessive, a bully and a would-be censor. All to protect the Chinese Communist Party from criticism. Does he really think it so fragile?

Evidently. For instance, where most saw Chinas trade bans on Australia as economic coercion, Keating at the press club dismissed them as mere commercial reactions. And asked his view of Xi Jinpings mass repression of Chinas Uyghurs, denounced as genocide by five Western parliaments and investigated by the UN as possible crimes against humanity, Keating would only say that theres a dispute about that. Chinese President Xi Jinping. Credit: AP But while Keating did an outstanding job of protecting the interests of the CCP, Australian Labor, he seems to think, can fend for itself. Its hard to see what Keating achieved this week, other than diminishing himself and alienating Labor. Because Labor and the Coalition agree on the AUKUS plan, Keatings opposition is colourful but irrelevant.

As for the submarines, Keating argued that Australia should build, say, 50 more of its existing six conventionally powered Collins-class boats, and not get the nuclear-powered subs. Because the Collins-class would be able to prevent an enemy from crossing the beach, he said. But this is not the only definition of Australian security. As Marles this week explained, because Australia is an island nation dependent on maritime trade, so much harm can be done before ever setting foot upon our shores. Australia needed to be able to protect its shipping access and economic lifelines at great distances, and nuclear-powered submarines would allow it to do so. Asked about the prospect of war, Albanese restrained himself, in a way a Morrison government minister might not have: I dont think it is constructive to talk about war, he said on Network 10s The Project on Thursday. We want peace and security in the region. The advantage of nuclear subs are they can go faster, they are quieter, they can stay at sea for longer, they are just better. And, cutting through all the pyrotechnics of the week, Albanese went to the bottom line: That provides a greater deterrent, then that is a good investment.
Mexico City: Mexicos president says that US families were to blame for the fentanyl overdose crisis because they dont hug their kids enough.

The comment by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador caps a week of provocative statements from him about the crisis caused by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid trafficked by Mexican cartels that has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths per year in the United States.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Credit: AP

Lopez Obrador said family values have broken down in the United States because parents dont let their children live at home long enough. He has also denied that Mexico produces fentanyl.

On Friday (local time), the Mexican president told a morning news briefing that the problem was caused by a lack of hugs, of embraces.
Delegates at the event (Photo: Vietnamese Embassy in France)

The event took place at the Municipal Theater of Fontainebleau and attracted a lot of people in the city and neighbouring areas.

First of all, a symposium named "France - Vietnam relations, from the Fontainebleau Conference in 1946 to French Prime Minister Edouard-Philippe's historic visit to Vietnam in 2018" was organized. During the symposium, Dr. Pierre Journoud, a lecturer at Paul Valery Montpellier University 3 and an expert in Vietnamese studies, highlighted special milestones in the relationship between Vietnam and France

Besides, Ms. Amandine Dabat, a 5th generation descendant of King Ham Nghi, delivered a speech "Ham Nghi, exiled king, artist in Algeria" to help the French public understand more about the king as an artist  an aspect that few people know about.

In addition, visitors also had a chance to enjoy performances of traditional Vietnamese musical instruments and music, as well as explore the presence of Western classical music in Vietnam through the documentary film "Once upon a bridge in Vietnam" by young filmmaker Francois Bibonne.

The Vietnamese Embassy in France highly appreciated the initiative and efforts to organize the event, especially when Vietnam and France are celebrating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations and 10 years of strategic partnership.

These event are more significant as they were held in Fontainebleau city where the Franco-Vietnamese negotiation conference took place in 1946 and also the city where President Ho Chi Minh traveled to during his visit to France in the same year./.
The Administrative Judiciary Court of the State Council issued a ruling on Sunday obliging the Ministry of Youth and Sports to dismiss Mortada Mansour from the presidency of Zamalek SC after having been previously convicted on charges of defamation.
Protesters have vandalized the Nice office of the president of the Republican party in an apparent threat to get his right-wing party to vote to block President Emmanuel Macrons pension reform. Eric Ciotti tweeted a photo of his office in the French Riviera city with shattered windows, after a paving stone was thrown at it overnight into Sunday. The words the motion or the stone were scrawled at the scene, in reference to the motions of censure against the pension reform that will be voted on Monday in the National Assembly in Paris. Ciotti has said his party will not vote for the motions, meaning they are unlikely to succeed.
PARIS (AP)  A smattering of protests against President Emmanuel Macrons plan to raise France's retirement age from 62 to 64 took place Saturday in Paris and beyond, as uncollected garbage reeked in the streets of the French capital amid a strike by sanitation workers.

Largely non-violent protests were held in various cities, including Nantes and Marseille, where protesters got past police to occupy the main train station for around 15 minutes. In the eastern city of Besancon, hundreds of demonstrators lit a brazier and burned voter cards.

In Paris, police sought to restore calm after two consecutive nights of unrest. Police banned gatherings on the Champs-Elysees avenue and the elegant Place de la Concorde, where protesters tossed an effigy of Macron into a bonfire as a crowd cheered Friday night.

Several thousand protesters gathered Saturday evening at a public square in southern Paris, the Place d'Italie, then marched toward Europes biggest waste incineration plant, which has become a flashpoint of tensions. Some set trash cans on fire, and protesters chanted mottos such as the streets are ours as firefighter sirens wailed.

Protesters are trying to pressure lawmakers to bring down Macrons government and doom the unpopular retirement age increase hes trying to impose without a vote in the National Assembly.

After Macron ordered Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to invoke a special constitutional power to skirt a vote in the chaotic lower chamber, lawmakers on the right and left filed no-confidence motions against her Cabinet on Friday. The motions are expected to be voted on Monday.

Some Paris residents who were out buying their weekend baguettes blamed Macrons administration for the fumes wafting from the trash piled up near a bakery in the city's 12th district.

The government should change its position and listen to the people because what is happening is extremely serious. And we are seeing a radicalization, Isabelle Vergriette, 64, a psychologist, said. The government is largely responsible for this.

The districts mayor, Emmanuelle Pierre-Marie, was out and about from the crack of dawn voicing concern in her neighborhood about the consequences of the uncollected garbage, which has become a visual and olfactory symbol of the actions to defeat the president's pension reform plan.

Food waste is our priority because it is what brings pests to the surface, Pierre-Marie said. We are extremely sensitive to the situation. As soon as we have a dumpster truck available, we give priority to the places most concerned, like food markets.

Police have requisitioned garbage workers to clean up some neighborhoods, but heaps of refuse remain.

More labor strikes were planned for Monday in numerous sectors, from transportation to energy. The Civil Aviation authority asked to have 30% of flights canceled at Orly, Paris second airport, and 20% in Marseille.

Trade union confederation CGT warned that at least two oil refineries might be shut down starting Monday. Industry Minister Roland Lescure said the government could requisition personnel  order workers back to their posts  to avoid fuel shortages.

At Saturday's protest, Melodie Tunc, 22, said Macron passing the bill without a vote was the last straw. Marching carefully to avoid garbage piled up on Paris streets, she said, It is a good thing that garbage in the streets is so visible. It tells people how garbage collectors are so useful.

The government used force to pass its bill. But we have to fight for our social achievements and the only way to do it is to take to the streets, she said.

Macron has argued that requiring people in France to work two more years is needed to invigorate the country's economy and to prevent its pension system from falling into a deficit as the population ages.

Laurent Berger, head of the moderate CFDT union, said the retirement reform must be withdrawn.

We condemn violence. ... But look at the anger. Its very strong, even among our ranks, he said on RMC radio.

Jade le Deley in Paris contributed.

Follow AP's coverage of the French government: https://apnews.com/hub/france-government
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - A 2nd alarm fire happened at the 1200 block Lebanon Street in Bethlehem Saturday morning.

According to Housing Authority on-scene, one person is displaced, but the apartments on either side of the fire are undamaged.

No roads have been officially closed.

No injuries have been reported.
HELLERTOWN, Pa. - A woman was hurt after her vehicle crashed into a pole off of I-78 in Northampton County Friday night.

It happened on Main Street and Cherry Lane in Hellertown around 7:40 p.m., according to borough police.

Borough police say the woman was getting off a ramp at I-78 East when somebody behind her beeped a car horn. The woman slammed the gas and ended up hitting a pole, borough police said.

The vehicle then rolled over onto its side.

The woman was transported to the hospital with what police described as minor to moderate injuries.

There are no road closures related to the wreck.

Borough police say the cause of the accident has not yet been determined.
ALLAMUCHY TWP., N.J. - Three men are charged after authorities say they kidnapped and killed a man, then dumped his body near a wooded area off Interstate 80 in Allamuchy Township, Warren County last summer.

In a news release this week, the New Jersey State Police say Mustafa Manns, 28, William Dixon, 24, and Nishir Rios-Figueroa, 30, all of Newark, N.J., are charged with murder, kidnapping, and other offenses.

On Thursday, August 18, 2022, at 12:26 p.m., troopers from Troop B Hope Station responded to the report of human remains found by a New Jersey Department of Transportation employee who was cutting grass on Interstate 80 eastbound in the area of milepost 16.6. Detectives from the New Jersey State Police Major Crime North Unit identified the victim as Quadree Burch, 27, of Newark, N.J., who was reported missing out of Newark on August 9, 2022, state police said.

During the five-month investigation, detectives from the Major Crime North Unit established a timeline of events and determined that the homicide occurred on August 7, 2022, according to the news release. Through various investigative means, detectives connected the suspects to the victim and placed them in the vicinity of the crime scene, according to state police.

Authorities say Manns, Dixon, and Rios-Figueroa kidnapped Burch and drove him to Allamuchy Township, where he was shot and killed on the side of Interstate 80.

On January 13, 2023, Major Crime North Unit detectives traveled to the Westchester County District Attorney's Office in White Plains, New York, to interview Rios-Figueroa. He previously surrendered to authorities on January 6, 2023, on unrelated auto theft charges. Nishir Rios-Figueroa was charged with felony murder, murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and kidnapping. He is currently awaiting extradition back to New Jersey.

On January 19, 2023, State Police detectives with the Major Crime North Unit, Fugitive Unit, Electronic Surveillance Unit, and members of the K-9 Unit converged on a residence on Lyons Avenue in Newark where they arrested Manns without incident, according to the news release. Manns was charged with felony murder, murder, weapons offenses, conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, and robbery. He was lodged in the Warren County Jail.

William Dixon was charged with felony murder, murder, weapons offenses, conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, and robbery. Dixon had been lodged in the Essex County Jail since August 24, 2022, for allegedly threatening two associates of Quadree Burch, state police said.

Police did not state a motive for the kidnapping and killing.

This incident is being investigated by the New Jersey State Police Major Crime North Unit with the assistance of the Warren County Prosecutors Office, Ocean County Prosecutors Office, Essex County Prosecutors Office, and Newark Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by the Warren County Prosecutors Office.
OHRID, North Macedonia (AP)  The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo have tentatively agreed on how to implement a European Union-sponsored plan to normalize their relations after decades of tensions between the two Balkan wartime foes, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Saturday after chairing talks between them.

Speaking at a news conference after nearly 12 hours of talks in the North Macedonian lakeside resort of Ohrid, Borrell told reporters that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti " have reached an agreement on how to do it.

They agreed last month to the wording of an 11-point EU plan to normalize relations following the neighbors 1998-1999 war and Kosovos declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008.

Objective today was to agree on how to implement the agreement accepted in the last high-level meeting, Borrell said. "This means practical steps on what has to be done, when, by who and how.

Both countries hope to join the European Union one day, and they have been told they must first mend their relations. Solving the dispute between Serbia and Kosovo has become more important as war rages in Ukraine and fears mount that Russia could try to stir instability in the volatile Balkans, where it holds historic influence.

Borrell said that despite the fact that a more ambitious text was proposed at the beginning of Saturday's negotiations than the one the parties have accepted, it will become an integral part of their respective European Union path.

Parties could not reach an agreement on this more detailed proposal, Borrell said. Kosovo lacked flexibility on the substance (of the agreement), while Serbia previously stated principle not to sign although they are ready to implement.

It is clear that both parties will gain a significant benefit from this agreement, because the dialogue is not only because Kosovo and Serbia  It is about the stability, the security and the prosperity of the whole region, Borrell said.

The EU plan calls for the two countries to maintain good neighborly relations and recognize each others official documents and national symbols. If implemented, it would prevent Belgrade from blocking Kosovos attempts to seek membership in the United Nations and other international organizations.

The agreement, drafted by France and Germany and supported by the U.S., doesnt explicitly call for mutual recognition between Kosovo and Serbia.

Although tentatively agreeing on the EU plan reached last month, Serbia's populist President Vucic seemed to backtrack on some of its points after pressure from far-right groups, which consider Kosovo the cradle of the Serbian state and Orthodox religion.

Vucic said Thursday that he won't sign anything at the Ohrid meeting and earlier pledged never to recognize Kosovo or allow its U.N. membership. He repeated Saturday that he has not signed the implementation document although Kurti insisted on it.

Today wasn't any kind of a D day, but it was a good day, Vucic said. In the months ahead, we are facing serious and difficult tasks.

On the other hand, Kurti complained that Vucic did not sign the implementation deal on Saturday.

Now it is up to the EU to make it internationally binding, Kurti said.

Kosovo is a majority ethnic Albanian former Serbian province. The 1998-1999 war erupted when separatist ethnic Albanians rebelled against Serbias rule, and Belgrade responded with a brutal crackdown. About 13,000 people died, mostly ethnic Albanians. In 1999 a NATO military intervention forced Serbia to pull out of the territory. Kosovo declared independence in 2008.

Tensions have simmered ever since. Kosovo's independence is recognized by many Western countries. But it is opposed by Belgrade with the backing of Russia and China. EU-brokered talks have made little headway in recent years.

Serbia has maintained close ties to its traditional Slavic ally Russia despite the war in Ukraine, partly because of Moscows opposition to Kosovos independence and possible veto on its U.N. membership at the Security Council.

Associated Press writers Dusan Stojanovic contributed from Belgrade, Serbia, Llazar Semini from Tirana, Albania, and Konstantin Testorides from Skopje, North Macedonia.
LONDON (AP)  Britain's interior minister arrived in Rwanda on Saturday for a visit aimed at reinforcing the U.K. government's commitment to a controversial plan to deport some asylum-seekers to the African country.

Ahead of her visit, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the migration policy will act as a powerful deterrent against dangerous and illegal journeys.

Britain's Conservative government wants to stop migrants from reaching the U.K. on risky journeys across the English Channel, and a deportation agreement signed with Rwanda last year was part of measures intended to deter the arrivals. More than 45,000 people arrived in Britain by boat in 2022, compared with 8,500 in 2020.

Under the plans, some migrants who arrive in the U.K. in small boats would be flown to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed. Those granted asylum would stay in the African country rather than return to Britain.

But the 140 million-pound ($170 million) plan has been mired in legal challenges, and no one has yet been sent to Rwanda. The U.K. was forced to cancel the first deportation flight at the last minute in June after the European Court of Human Rights ruled the plan carried a real risk of irreversible harm.

Human rights groups cite Rwanda's poor human rights record, and argue it is inhumane to send people more than 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) to a country they dont want to live in.

Earlier this week, a group of asylum-seekers from countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria were granted permission to launch court appeals against the British government's decision to relocate them.

Defending the plan, Braverman said it will support people to rebuild their lives in a new country as well as boost Rwanda's economy through investments in jobs and skills.

She is expected to meet President Paul Kagame and her counterpart, Vincent Biruta, to discuss details of the deportation agreement.

Sonya Sceats, chief executive at the nonprofit Freedom from Torture, described the policy as a cash-for-humans" plan.

Rather than pushing through this inhumane and unworkable policy, ministers should focus on establishing safe routes to the U.K. and tackling the unacceptable backlog of asylum claims, so people fleeing war and persecution can rebuild their lives with dignity," she said.

Follow APs coverage of global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
Day 21 of the NREGA Dharna: AADHAAR Nahi, Sudhaar Chahiye

It has been 3 weeks of the NREGA Dharna today - and the Ministry of rural Development (MoRD) continues to ignore workers grievances and refuses to meet with worker delegations. In addition to the demands of (i) immediate removal of the NMMS app, (ii) reversal of the order dated February 3, 2023 requiring all NREGA payments be made via the Aadhar Based Payment System (ABPS), and (iii) timely payment of wages and immediate release of wages that are pending for over a year, the workers from Jharkhand also highlighted how carelessness on the part of government officials caused distress for workers.

Hailing the tradition of protest which led to the formation of Jharkhand, Ramchandra Manjhi from West Singhbhum, Jharkhand, inspired his fellow workers to continue their protest. Manju Devi, Sandhya Kumari, and Sugya Devi highlighted the issues they had faced due to NMMS - their attendance had not been recorded correctly and they were not paid for the work they had done. Wilson Toppo, a NREGA worker from Latehar district, spoke about how incorrect details had been entered in his jobcard by the computer operator at the block, due to which he has not received full payment for the work he did in the last 3-4 months.

Prof. Jean Dreze and speakers from LibTech India discussed the newly-mandated ABPS system. They highlighted how under the new system, NREGA work could only be given to workers who had completed aadhaar seeding and aadhaar authentication. This is a very complex, technical process that even bankers and government officials do not understand, let alone NREGA workers. Secondly, wage payment can now only be made for workers who have completed their NPCI mapping - which is less than 50% of NREGA workers as per the MoRDs own data. These interventions are in gross violation of the rights provided to workers under NREGA.

Workers also highlighted the inadequate funding in NREGA, comparing the paltry NREGA wages to the benefits given to the capitalist class in the country. Slogans were raised to increase NREGA wages to Rs. 800/day, which is the bare amount required to live a life of dignity. Jharkhands folk songs were also sung, focussing on the spirit of resistance and respect for jal, jangal, zameen that has always been important to Jharkhand citizens.

On March 15, 2023, the MoRD released a statement acknowledging the difficulties faced under the mandatory ABPS system, and the NMMS app - finally an acknowledgement of workers troubles. However, the 15 day extension given by the statement is not even a little bit enough. The ABPS linking of 13 crores NREGA workers cannot be completed within this time. The mandatory ABPS must be abolished. The problems plaguing the ABPS are inherent to the system and will continue to plague NREGA workers. As is said in Jharkhand now, NREGA karega, toh marega - workers will be forced to leave the program if the MoRD continues to introduce such reforms, and turn a deaf ear to what workers actually want.

We invite you all to the dharna and request your support to spread the news and solidarity for the protest. For further information, please contact James (9852910778), Anuradha (9433002064), Apurva (9313759050), Sabhil (7587808159), Laavanya (9910746743), Richa (9452232663), Ashish (9973363664) or write to us at nrega.sangharsh.morcha[at]gmail.com.
The Egyptian Armed Forces urged on Saturday evening for "the safeguarding of the safety and security of Egyptian troops who were in Sudan to conduct joint training with their Sudanese counterparts."
Fierce fighting raged in Sudan's capital despite an hours-long pause Sunday to address humanitarian needs including the evacuation of wounded, on the second day of battles that left three UN staff among more than 60 civilians killed.
Palestinian and Israeli officials are due to meet on Sunday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh for a follow-up meeting to last month's Aqaba summit, informed sources told Ahram Online.

Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Authority Hussein Al-Sheikh and the Head of the Intelligence Service Majed Faraj will represent the Palestinian delegation in Sundays meeting.

Former Palestinian minister Hassan Asfour told Ahram Online that the Presidential Advisor for Diplomatic Affairs Majdi Al-Khaldi might also join.

Three weeks after the Aqaba summit in Jordan, the two sides will discuss measures to reduce tensions before Ramadan.

The so-called "security" meeting will have the same format as the previous summit, with the participation of officials from the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the United States.

The fate of the Sharm El-Sheikh meeting was "uncertain" after the recent escalations by Israeli occupation forces and settlers, a Palestinian source told Ahram Online earlier this week.

However, Asfour, as well as two other sources familiar with the matter, confirmed that the two sides have agreed to attend the meeting with the main objective of monitoring the agreements reached in Aqaba and discussing implementing policies on the ground before and during the holy month of Ramadan.

The February meeting in Jordan led to an agreement on a temporary freeze on Israeli settlements, which Tel Aviv later revoked.

The Aqaba statement ended with an agreement to establish a joint security committee to examine renewing Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation and another to establish a civilian committee to advance confidence-building economic measures.

However, Israeli crackdowns continued in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Since the Aqaba summit, Israel has killed 18 Palestinians and wounded at least 400 others.

On 11 March, the Palestinian Authority initiated a rare meeting with Palestinian factions to try to persuade them to keep tensions low especially during Ramadan. However, Hamas and Islamic Jihad boycotted the meeting, while other factions called on PA leaders to end security coordination with Israel.

Hamas, who recently sent a high-level delegation to Russia for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, warned Israel against "any attempt to use the upcoming month of Ramadan to alter the status quo in Jerusalem, saying "it will provoke an angry response from Palestinians."

The Haram Al-Sharif compound (the Temple Mount) is expected to be one of the most volatile and complicated issues discussed during the talks in Sharm El-Sheikh.

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...Gusty Winds and Elevated Fire Conditions Today, Frost Potential Tonight... Westerly winds will be sustained around 15 to 20 mph today with gusts of 30 to 40 mph. The strongest gusts are expected to be across portions of southern Illinois, southwest Indiana, and northwest Kentucky. This may cause small tree limbs to break and loose outdoor objects to be blown around. In addition to the gusty winds, relative humidity values are expected to fall below 25 percent in many areas. This combination will lead to elevated fire weather concerns today. Caution should be used in any outdoor burning. Tonight, winds will decrease, setting the stage for temperatures to fall into the mid to upper 30s across northern portions of southern Illinois and southwest Indiana. This may lead to patchy frost developing, mainly for areas north of the I-64 corridor.
An Iranian court sentenced two people to death over an October attack on a shrine in the southern city of Shiraz that cost over a dozen lives, the judiciary said Saturday.

The pair were convicted of assisting in "corruption on earth, armed rebellion and acting against national security", the judiciary's Mizan Online website reported, citing Kazem Moussavi, the chief justice of Fars province.

Moussavi said they "were directly involved in the arming, procurement, logistics and guidance of the main perpetrator of the terrorist attack" on the Shah Cheragh mausoleum on October 26 that killed 13 people and wounded 30 others.

Three other defendants in the case were sentenced to prison for five, 15 and 25 years for being members of the Sunni Muslim extremist Islamic State (IS) group, he said.

The verdicts against the five could be appealed before the supreme court, he added.

The main perpetrator of the attack, identified by media outlets in Iran as Hamed Badakhshan, died of injuries suffered during his arrest, Mizan said.

In November, the Islamic republic said 26 "takfiri terrorists" from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan had been arrested in connection to the attack.

In Shiite-dominated Iran, The term takfiri generally refers to jihadists or proponents of radical Sunni Islam.

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Melanie is an immunocompromised parent raising two children in upper Manhattan with her partner. Her daughter is 13 years old and her son is 4.

At 42 years old, Melanie takes over 10 pills a day, including eight for her two auto-immune diseases, lupus and Sjogrens syndrome.

Teachers protest with signs calling for increased COVID-19 testing, outside P.S. 64 Earth School Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021, in New York [AP Photo/Brittainy Newman]

The World Socialist Web Site recently interviewed Melanie for the Global Workers Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Melanies real name has not been used at her request.

Tim Avery: How has the pandemic affected you and your family?

Melanie: I personally came down with COVID in November of last year. It was not a good experience at all. I believe I got it from my daughters school, because her school shut down the week before Thanksgiving when 17 teachers out of 64 turned up positive for the virus.

I think it spread through the community from her school and I wound up getting it, sadly. It was panic mode. I live in a small apartment. Even though I wore a mask while I had it and tried to avoid my kids, it was extremely hard because I still had to do my duties as a mom.

I had previously gotten sick in October. Since I was hospitalized on a Saturday, my partner had to stay home to watch our children, and he wound up getting fired from the restaurant he worked at the next day. He has not been able to obtain a job since.

At my daughters school, I havent seen any uptick in cases lately, but at my sons school I know there was at least one case. Its a scarier experience for my son because hes autistic, and he doesnt like to have anything around his mouth.

The problem Im encountering with my son is not so much COVID-19, hes just getting sick a whole lot. Last week he recovered from an ear infection, he went back to school Monday of this week, and by Wednesday he had a runny nose again, he was coughing, and I had to keep him out of school. I took him to an urgent care clinic on Thursday, he got a fever, and I had to keep him out.

So, my son hasnt been able to go to school a full week without getting sick. When the urgent care clinic prescribed him ibuprofen, I went to CVS and they didnt even have it, so Ive had to call my mom whos out of state to see if she can send me medication I can have on hand for both my kids.

This is my thing: If were still having people who are dying from COVID on a daily basis, there still needs to be awareness of that and there still need to be precautions in place. I really dont like that theyre trying to push the narrative that things are back to normal, that the economy is growingwhich I think, excuse my language, is utter B.S., because its not growing.

People are suffering, like myself. I dont work, I cant work. Others out there who were working and lost their jobs due to medical reasons havent been able to recover or find work. It is not easy. The way that they want to pay people, its not enough to survive, especially with food prices at an all-time high. I just had to ask my mom to send me money again so I can have a little food in my house until I get my food stamps on Tuesday.

So, the pandemic has messed up my life. I dont even know, with my health, what type of damage I have. Its scary. Just going to the doctors, I have to be really cautious about certain things to make sure that Im actually getting the care that I need and that I actually know the truth of whats going on with my body.

TA: I heard you were keeping one or both of your children out of school for a timecan you tell us more about that?

Melanie: I kept my oldest remote for a little over two years. She has a leak in her heart, and I was afraid with all the cases in her school. She was also not mentally in the right frame of mind to go back into school, because she was worried about that herself.

She was supposed to go back to in-person learning in March of 2021. We were at the cardiologist when I got the news, because I was trying to make sure that it was okay for her to go back. When we found out, she started plucking out her eyelashes and her eyebrows.

So, I made the decision that it wasnt right for her to go back. I spoke to the superintendent and obtained a letter from her psychiatrist and her therapist and she was able to stay remote.

My son has an IEP [Individualized Education Plan] for his autismhe needed physical therapy, occupational therapy and essential instructionso he was doing that for a while. So, I kind of held him back from pre-K because, at the time, they werent offering vaccines for young children, so I was actually more afraid for him because hes younger.

My son went back to in-person learning in September of last year. My daughter went back in August of last year. Shes been enduring a lot of bullying. Academically, I think her school hasnt been helping her to the fullest, and Ive been going back and forth with them about that since September because shes currently failing one of her classes.

TA: Do you get communication about COVID-19 cases in your childrens schools?

Melanie: No. Honestly, with my daughters school, no. I think all schools try to keep it on the hush-hush. My sons school is a little more transparent, they still send tests home if theyve had a case in the schools, which I think might be because theyre dealing with younger children. If there happens to be a case in his class, they already have a Google classroom set up as a backup.

TA: Do you know whether your childrens schools open the windows or have modern filtration systems that can remove the COVID-19 virus from the air?

Melanie: With my sons school, no. His classroom is on the second floor and its inward. I visited once and didnt see any filtration systems or open windows. I think my daughters school sometimes opens the windows, but I dont believe they have any filtration systems either.

TA: What are some other concerns you have about your childrens schools?

Melanie: My daughter goes to a charter school. I say to them, if youve seen a lot of cases of COVID, shouldnt you offer hybrid or remote learning? The school has the funding. They can do it if they want to, all charter schools can do it, they just dont want to do it.

My daughter is scared of me passing away. I can sit there and tell her everythings going to be okay, but shes still going to worry because she knows my medical condition. I have to let her know my medical condition, because, God forbid, if something happens and someone asks her what does your mommy have? I need my daughter to know what I have.

TA: The Democratic and Republican parties have put billions of dollars into bank bailouts and, more recently, escalating the war in Ukraine rather than education. What do you think about this?

Melanie: I think them investing all this money into the war in Ukraine has taken a toll on the US. Look what the cost of eggs is: $10. Youve got people who cant afford to stay in their apartments. Youve got people who cant afford to get food because now meat has gotten to be $30 or more. Im sure [baby] formula is still an issue. And now youve got cough syrup, Tylenol, ibuprofen. Giving Ukraine billions and billions of dollars when we cant even survive here in the United States is not how you fix the United States.

TA: The WSWS has called for a global policy of eliminating COVID-19that is, using lockdowns, high-quality masks, air filters, and every tool in the arsenal of public health to put an end to the virus once and for all. Do you think societys wealth should be redirected for this purpose?

Melanie: Yes, we should. The US should invest more money toward COVID-19. The virus has mutated so much, we cant keep track of it. COVID kills more people than the flu and pneumonia, it does more damage. If there were more investment toward COVID, the world would be a better place, but because the narrative of the US is weve got to keep the economy moving, they dont care.
The World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) has continued to receive correspondence from postal workers around the country speaking out against the crushing increase in workloads facilitated by the collusion of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) with Royal Mail.

The new write-ins come from across the UK: London, Lincoln, Peterborough, Coventry, Nottingham, Hull and Antrim in Northern Ireland.

Strikers at Alder Hills delivery office, Bournemouth, December 23, 2022 [Photo: WSWS]

Many postal workers have spelt out how the agreement on revisions activity based on the March 2 Joint Statement between the CWU and Royal Mail has harmed their health and wellbeing, with impossible new work targets drawn up.

This is leading to the trashing of letter deliveries as parcels are prioritised for profits and to postal workers suffering management harassment, stress and exhaustion to complete punishing new workloads.

My delivery has got 100 extra calls. How am I to complete my delivery in my hours?

One worker described how their workload had trebled, start times had been altered with no respect for their life-work balance, and how overtime was enforced on pain of having annual leave requests denied.

Changed our start times, usually allowed to use our break to take kids to school. Lies from management  take 3 days mail in one day. Poor management  telling us to get a job somewhere else if we dont like it. Intimidating atmosphere with regards to taking out mail when there is lots. Expected to work overtime or this will be used against you like not taking holidays when requested, swearing at employees made to look stupid. Also being paid differently to other workers, an hour for one and 1 hour and 15 for others. Days off missed and moved not being paid correctly. All done on a paper sheet then inputting as they see fit. If we are ill we are constantly being called every day even with sick notes asking us if we are coming back tomorrow? We arent psychic  constant harassment.

Contrary to claims made by the CWU that revisions would no longer be imposed through executive action by management, one postal worker explained, Changes have already been pushed through in Chippenham. Workloads are unmanageable and many rounds uncompleted every day.

Another described having to work over their shift time to complete deliveries: Our walks have been increased, and the way they do this is to close down a walk and split it between a few other walks. So your part will be in a completely different area. I try to do it but usually go over my time in order to complete the walk. The job I was doing for one and a half years is turning into a nightmare.

In a desperate attempt to deflect attention from their complicity in the cost-cutting exercise, the CWU announced on Wednesday it was conducting a revisions feedback exercise, stating, Our reps across the UK are doing an incredible job ensuring Royal Mail stick to the terms of the joint statement.

We can clearly see though that many of you are under unbearable pressure. We have developed the form below for you to let us know if there are major issues in your office so we can allocate a representative to support you and deal with them.

This was derided by postal workers who pointed out it only serves to illustrate how divorced the union officialdom is from those on the shopfloor if they need a questionnaire to establish what all postal workers know and are reporting about the sweatshop conditions.

One worker commented on the CWU Facebook page, So in reality the truth is you dont like the negative comments on the Facebook pages and thats why youd prefer members to fill in a form, and received many likes from colleagues.

That this was an exercise in sweeping everything under the carpet was quickly confirmed by a desultory CWU announcement later that day reporting that 800 responses would be received, and meetings would take place at the national level.

As another postal worker commented regarding the pathetic questionnaire exercise being carried out by the union while it suppresses the renewed strike mandate returned by members last month: Powerful set of data, powerful Yes vote from the ballot, powerful posties all over the country standing up for ourselves, but powerless CWU letting RM [Royal Mail] walk all over them, says it all, complete joke for everything us posties have sacrificed!!!!

In the comments received by the WSWS, postal workers have expressed their opposition to the way the CWUs leading officials Dave Ward and Andy Furey have placed a straitjacket over the dispute using the arbitration service ACAS.

Ward has promoted former leader of the Trades Union Congress Brendan Barber, brought in to oversee the backroom talks and block further strikes, as an experienced facilitator. The CWU has meanwhile maintained a complete silence over the more than 500 million paid out to Royal Mail shareholders and investors, while repeating company talking points about the financial challenges and difficult market conditions facing Royal Mail.

In response to the article Sell-out being prepared in closed door talks between Royal Mail and CWU exposing this anti-worker line-up, a postal worker stated:

Absolutely spot on, we stood firm and followed the rhetoric of our union leaders, stamped our feet and cheered their hard stance in London, got suspended for being a leader in the office, for what. This union were grand until outside elements were introduced, Brendan Barber, and now we are in bed with the same Royal Mail who have tried to starve us back into work during the strike action. Should what we believe happen and we are sold out, be prepared for the greatest exodus of members the unions have ever seen because this is not just a change to our workplace, its an attack on our families and home life.

Another commented: The Royal Mail and CWU are colluding together and cannot be trusted. Only a few months ago the Royal Mail paid Simon Thompson [CEO] and shareholders million. Now they saying the companys struggling and CWU are saying the same thing so can someone answer me this question, if this was the case why did you Simon Thompson take the money as well as the shareholders. So now you are making the posties pay the money you stole, and ACAS and CWU are all in on this shame on you all.

We encourage postal workers to contact the WSWS to report on their conditions and discuss how to take forward the fight.
In a highly provocative move, British and German fighter jets intercepted a Russian refueling aircraft Tuesday over the Baltic Sea during a routine flight from St. Petersburg to the exclave of Kaliningrad. Coming the same day as the downing of a US drone by Russia, the interception, which was justified by Britains royal Air Force as necessary because the Russian plane approached Estonian airspace, underscores that tensions between the NATO imperialist powers and Russia are stretched to breaking point in the Baltic region as well as in Ukraine.

The British and German jets reportedly escorted the Russian plane for several minutes before allowing it to proceed on its way. The operation was the first time that British and German fighter jets collaborated as part of the Baltic air policing programme, which Britain will lead for the coming four months.

A B-52 bomber releases a bomb during a training operation. [Photo: US Department of Defense]

Less than 72 hours before the interception, a US nuclear-capable B-52 bomber came within a few kilometres of Russian airspace in the Gulf of Finland. The incident was clearly pre-planned and aimed as an intimidatory act. The B-52 flew northwards from Poland through Swedish and Finnish airspace before turning back shortly before reaching the Russian island of Gogland, known as Suursaari in Finnish, in the Gulf of Finland. The island, which lies just 40 kilometres off the Finnish coast and less than 200 kilometres west of St. Petersburg, is home to a Russian radar station and helicopter base. On its return flight, the B-52 passed over the Baltic republics.

Although the incident was barely reported outside of the Swedish and Finnish media, military analysts in the region made no bones about its significance. Mika Aaltola, director of the Finnish Institute for International Affairs, commented on Twitter, The Gulf of Finland is one of Europes most strategically important straits, [and one] where Russia has increased its activities, for instance on Suursaari. This is how de facto allies are taken care of and a counter-deterrent message is sent.

There is much to suggest that the B-52s flight was a calculated provocation discussed at the highest levels. Immediately prior to the B-52s flight, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto was in Washington for talks on Finlands NATO membership with US President Joe Biden. As they met March 9, a story published by the Finnish state broadcaster YLE noted that Russia has stepped up military activity on Gogland significantly since 2014.

The fact that the highly unusual flight hardly received any media coverage makes it all the more sinister. Based on what is known about the flight, there is little doubt that it came perilously close to triggering a Russian response. What precisely would have happened had the B-52 strayed into or too close to Russian airspace? Would Russia have fired on it from its Gogland base? And given the highly tense stand-off in the region involving NATO and Russian land, air, and naval forces, what would have been the response to such an incident?

The flight also occurred shortly after the resumption of talks between Finland, Sweden, and Turkey on the two Nordic countries admission into NATO. Although Ankara gave the green light for Finnish membership Friday, Turkey continues to refuse to approve Stockholms application, citing Swedens support for organisations like the PKK that Ankara views as terrorists. Earlier this week, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson acknowledged for the first time publicly that Finland may become a NATO member prior to Sweden due to Turkeys continued opposition to approving Stockholms application. When Finland joins NATO, the military alliances border will be significantly extended with Russia, which shares a 1,300-kilometre border with Finland.

Niinisto was in Turkey Friday for talks with Erdogan, who announced following their meeting that Turkey would give its approval to Finland joining NATO.

Finnish and Swedish NATO membership is fully endorsed by the major imperialist powers within NATO as a means to open up a northern front in the war with Russia. American imperialism is already in the process of vastly expanding its presence in the Nordic region, which will give it improved access to the Baltic Sea and Russias borders with Norway and Finland. Last June, an updated defence cooperation agreement came into force between the US and Norway that grants American troops unimpeded access to agreed areas and places the soldiers under American rather than Norwegian law. Similar agreements are in the works with Finland and Sweden. Strategic locations like the Baltic Sea island of Gotland and an airbase in the Finnish Arctic could become agreed areas in agreements with Stockholm and Helsinki.

The dangerous escalation of tensions in the Baltic and High North comes as Washington and its European allies prepare the ground for a further expansion of their involvement in the Ukraine war. Following Russias downing of the American drone Tuesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced that Warsaw would provide Ukraine with up to 12 MIG-29 fighter jets, with four to be delivered immediately. Slovakia followed suit Friday, committing to send a small number of MIG-29s to its Ukrainian neighbour. Although these announcements stop short of sending modern NATO warplanes to Kiev, a precedent has now been set for more jets to follow.

The increasingly desperate military situation facing Ukraine, which has suffered upwards of 100,000 military deaths since the war began according to a recent Politico report, is increasing the likelihood of a catastrophic escalation culminating in a direct clash between nuclear-armed powers. If the US and its European imperialist allies are to preserve the credibility they have staked on inflicting a devastating military defeat on Russia, they will soon have little choice but to deploy troops of their own on the ground and ship modern NATO warplanes to Kiev.

NATO is in the midst of numerous military exercises across Europe involving many thousands of soldiers. A March 13 press release reported: In March, 20,000 NATO troops, plus Finland and Sweden, train to defend Norway in exercises Joint Viking and Joint Warrior, the largest drills in Europes Arctic this year. In the Mediterranean, ships, submarines and aircraft from nine NATO Allies conducted anti-submarine warfare drills during exercise Dynamic Manta. France is holding its largest military drill in decades as part of Orion 23, involving 19,000 Allied troops over three months. Around 600 German troops are practicing defending Lithuania during Griffin Lightning. Flying out of Spain, US B-52 bombers hold joint drills with Allied air forces across Europe.

In June, the German air force will lead Air Defender 2023, the largest military operation in the air since NATOs founding. More than 10,000 soldiers from 18 countries, including 210 warplanes, will conduct war games in European airspace. Aircraft will operate from bases across Germany, the Netherlands, and Czech Republic between June 12 and 23.

To speak of this coordinated continent-wide military mobilization as separate exercises is a distortion of reality. What is increasingly coming into view is the open preparations by the US-led aggressive military alliance for a direct shooting war with Russia, which is brought ever closer due to the deepening crisis of the far-right regime in Ukraine.
Microsoft President Brad Smith addresses a media conference regarding Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard and the future of gaming in Brussels, Tuesday, February 21, 2023. [AP Photo/Virginia Mayo]

In a letter to European regulators, the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union last month spoke in favor of Microsofts bid to acquire video game giant Activision Blizzard King (ABK) for $68.7 billion. If successful, the acquisition would create the worlds second-largest video game company behind the Chinese firm Tencent.

In the letter by CWA President Chris Shelton, sent on February 20 to Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission, the union declared it had entered a dialogue with Microsoft that resulted in an agreement to ensure the workers of Activision Blizzard have a clear path to collective bargaining if the merger is completed. Therefore, Microsofts binding commitments will give employees a seat at the table and ensure that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard benefits the companys workers and the broader video game labor market.

The letter to the European Commission follows an earlier letter to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last June along the same lines. We now support approval of the transaction before you because Microsoft has entered an agreement with CWA to ensure the workers of Activision Blizzard have a clear path to collective bargaining, the union wrote at the time.

Surpassing Sony and Apple, Microsoft would own some of the most popular game franchises, such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Minecraft. The computer software monopoly, based in Redmond, Washington, currently has a market value of $1.85 trillion and is the third most valuable company on Wall Street.

Microsofts drive to gain a larger share of the global video game marketthe industry is forecasted to generate nearly $600 billion annually by 2030has prompted some of its competitors to object to the deal through the European and US trade regulators.

In December 2022, following early expectations that the European Commission, the executive of the EU, would accept the deal, the FTC filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Microsoft-ABK deal on the grounds that Microsoft would have near-unchallengeable market share, allowing Microsoft to lock consumers into its Xbox gaming ecosystem.

In response on January 17 of this year, the European Commission announced a formal objection to the merger, citing similar concerns as those of the FTC. Microsoft responded by offering concessions to ensure European regulators approve the deal, but objections by regulators persist. For example, the UK competition regulator issued a protest earlier this month.

The CWAs intervention is highly significant. Many video game workersamong the most highly exploited in the software industry, with endless imposed overtime during the crunch periods preceding a games releasehave joined or are seeking to join the CWA in order to counter brutal working conditions. In 2020, the CWA launched its Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE) program. It has amassed roughly 3,000 new members at ABK and more across various other tech companies and indie game development studios. In addition to the gaming industry, the CWA unionized 1,200 workers under the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) in 2021 at Alphabet, Googles parent company.

The calculations of the bureaucrats who control the CWA, however, are entirely different from the legitimate and progressive aspirations of the workers. Their support for the merger shows how they seek to use the framework of collective bargaining to establish a corporatist relationship with management, exchanging the union leaderships support for massive profits for access to dues money from workers.

Last year, workers at ABK subsidiary Raven Software went on strike against the firing of 12 quality assurance workers. In addition to their reinstatement, strikers also demanded the resignation of then ABK CEO Bobby Kotick and the board of directors, the conversion of all contractors to full-time employees, improved representation, pay transparency and unbiased third-party audits. Afterwards, workers joined the newly-created Game Workers Alliance, a CWA subsidiary.

The CWA intervened to shut down the strike on January 22, 2022 without any of workers demands being met, only four days after Microsoft announced its bid for ABK. Five months later, the CWA signed a neutrality agreement with Microsoft, in which the company agreed not to do anything to deter union organizing efforts. Two weeks after that, the CWA sent its letter to the FTC.

There was a clear quid pro quo at work, in which Microsoft exchanged a neutrality agreement with the CWA in exchange for the bureaucracys support for the merger. There are no doubt other concessions that the CWA agreed to which have not been made public yet.

Such deals are often worked out by union officials in exchange for neutrality agreements. This included concessions agreed to by the International Association of Machinists in 2008 as part of the deal to bring it into Boeings newly acquired plant in Charleston, South Carolina, and a 2014 secret agreement between the United Auto Workers and Volkswagen.

The CWA, which only weeks prior had expanded into Microsoft-owned game company ZeniMax Studios, has hardly said a word about the 10,000 layoffs that Microsoft announced earlier this year. Its only public statement on January did not even make a show of opposing the layoffs, declaring instead that Members of the ZeniMax worker bargaining committee will be developing proposals that reflect their needs and provide alternatives to layoffs. In other words, they will propose cuts equal to the cost savings sought in layoffs by Microsoft.

The CWA has sold out one strike after another in companies where it has long had a presence. This includes the shutdown of the strike by 40,000 Verizon workers in 2016 and the strike in 2019 by 22,000 AT&T workers in the US South.

Those tech workers who have joined the CWA or who will decide to join the CWA at Microsoft and ABK will now have to grapple with the problem of the union bureaucracy, which uses them as pawns to establish close and lucrative working ties with management. To fight this, it is necessary to learn from the example of unionized autoworkers, railroad workers and others and form rank-and-file committees to oppose both management and the betrayals of the pro-company union bureaucracy.
This week, as part of an international series of events titled, The war in Ukraine and how to stop it, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) in Australia held meetings in Melbourne, the countrys second largest city, and the regional New South Wales (NSW) town of Newcastle.

IYSSE meetings have already taken place in the US and Sri Lanka, with more to come in those countries as well as the UK, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, France and Germany.

The two Australian meetings attracted youth, students and workers, both in person and watching live online from around the country.

A section of the meeting in Melbourne [Photo: WSWS]

Speakers explained the history of the conflict in Ukraine which is in essence a US-NATO imperialist war against Russia, and the socialist and international strategy to end it. They also pointed to the preparations in the Asia-Pacific region for a US-led confrontation with China, which the ruling elite in Washington view as the chief threat to their global hegemonic rule.

These developments, attendees were told, threatened to spiral into a nuclear catastrophe unless youth and students joined the fight to build an international anti-war campaign.

IYSSE members Morgan Peach and Phoebe Burnham spoke at the Melbourne meeting on Tuesday evening.

Peach who chaired the event, said the war in Ukraine was rapidly developing into an open military confrontation between the US and its NATO allies, and Russia. This is not a local or regional conflict, which will be confined to Ukraine, but one which threatens to spark a catastrophic Third World War, he said.

Peach also highlighted Australias involvement in US-led war plans against China and referred to the Labor governments $368 billion decision earlier that day to purchase nuclear-powered submarines as part of the AUKUS military alliance with the US and Britain.

Burnham noted the social crisis confronting youth and its relationship to the war drive.

War abroad means war against the working class at home. As more than $575 billion over a decade is to be spent to expand the military, Australias ruling elite is slashing spending on education, healthcare and social infrastructure, she said.

Evrim Yazgin, national convenor of the IYSSE in Australia, delivered the main report in Melbourne. He explained that the US-NATO war in Ukraine and the drive to war against China were part of Washingtons attempts to shore up its domination over the worlds markets and resources.

Evrim Yazgin [Photo: WSWS]

The speaker also counterposed the Marxist internationalism of the IYSSE to that of fake left organisations such as Socialist Alternative in Australia who have become open cheerleaders for imperialism.

In the traditions of genuine revolutionary Marxism and socialist internationalism, the IYSSE opposes all the tendencies in the fake left who pledge their allegiance to imperialism under the guise of defending the so-called Ukrainian right to self-determination. We are for the unity of Russian and Ukrainian workers against their own capitalist governments, and against the war, Yazgin stressed.

Yazgin elaborated the necessity for the anti-war movement to be oriented to the international working class and drew on the lessons of history. The Russian Revolution in October 1917 overthrew the profit system in a socialist revolution and established the worlds first workers state. It was the most progressive event in human history and the worlds greatest ever anti-war movement, setting in motion the end of the First World War.

The Newcastle meeting was addressed by leading IYSSE members Robert Creech, John Davis and Oscar Grenfell, who is an upper house candidate for the Socialist Equality Party in the March 25 New South Wales state elections.

Creech, who is president of the IYSSE club at the University of Newcastle, highlighted the rapid escalation of the war in Ukraine by the US and NATO powers, including the sending of 120140 main battle tanks by 12 NATO member nations to Ukraine to fight Russian forces.

In March last year, Biden promised the public that the US would not send offensive equipment and tanks and planes to Ukraine, because this would trigger World War III. Nevertheless, this is precisely what NATO is doing and discussing, Creech said.

Davis drew attention to the barrage of militarist propaganda presented in the Red Alert series of articles appearing in Australian newspapers the Age and Sydney Morning Herald the week before which were aimed at making the population accept that war with China is inevitable.

The authors of Red Alert, Davis said, insist Australia must be prepared to fight in a US-led war against China, not in the distant future, but immediately. These articles, he added explained promote the stationing of nuclear weapons and up to 200,000 US troops in northern Australia, as well as reintroducing conscription.

Oscar Grenfell reviewed the historical origins of the war in Ukraine, pointing out that US strategists saw the Stalinist bureaucracys dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 as an opportunity for American imperialism to exercise its unchallenged dominance over the globe.

Oscar Grenfell [Photo: WSWS]

Grenfell explained that the anti-war movement cannot be based on appeals to one or another section of the capitalist class. He drew on the experience of the anti-Iraq War protests of 2003 which were the largest anti-war rallies of all time. The leaderships of that movement, however, promoted the bankrupt perspective that this illegal war could be stopped by appealing to the United Nations, European powers such as France and Germany, or the Labor Party in Australia and the Democrats in the US.

He concluded by pointing to the only social force capable of ending war. The dangers are great. But we know that the same contradictions that lead to imperialist war, propel the working class onto the path of socialist revolution. That is the basis for building an international anti-war movement, he said.

The meetings prompted a lively discussion with attendees asking IYSSE speakers a range of questions. These included the motivations of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the socialist perspective needed to combat climate change, and how to end the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and save lives.

A student in Newcastle asked how the IYSSE would build the anti-war movement. In response, IYSSE speakers raised that the latent anti-war sentiment among students and the shift to the left in the broader working class due to the cost-of-living crisis needed to be imbued with a political perspective. The IYSSE, the speakers stressed, has a program: that of world socialist revolution.IYSSE members spoke with students and young workers who attended the meetings.

In Melbourne, Aden, a psychology student at La Trobe University and a warehouse worker, said, the meeting was very informative. I got a lot out of it. The Ukraine-Russia situation is very complex, but I agree with the IYSSEs attempts to build an anti-war movement.

Aden [Photo: WSWS]

On the cost-of-living crisis, the student said, Its getting hard to survive out there. Governments spending so much on the military doesnt make sense. Its about profit.

Vicky, studying digital media at Victoria University, said: I think the meeting provides a fresh perspective. Its refreshing not to hear about simply good and bad because its not just about good or bad. Its interesting to see it from the class struggle and the imperialist outlook and their real interests.

The world is in the imperialist stage. The bourgeoisie is exploiting the population. Governments have geopolitical interests. War is the extent to which theyre willing to go. The US wants to secure its geopolitical interests. I think that the IYSSE targeting youth is the way forward because they are the future.

A young food production worker in Melbourne said the meeting was eye opening. He explained that he not previously known about the US promotion of far-right forces in the CIA-orchestrated 2014 coup in Ukraine that toppled a pro-Russian government.

He also referred to a leaked phone call between Victoria Nuland, the State Departments top official on Europe and Eurasia, and Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Ukraine, in 2014. The audio was played at the IYSSE meeting.

I didnt believe America was involved directly in the coup, until I heard that phone call. US officials were talking about which particular politicians in Ukraine should form the new government.

Prudence, a data analyst student who attended the meeting in Newcastle, said: The meeting challenged me to learn more about the pastpast wars and the political climate, how this relates. Theres a sayingthose who fail to learn from history are going to repeat it.

The student commented on how the war has affected ordinary people. I come from Kenya and were a very agricultural-based country, and we rely on imported fertiliser. After the war in Ukraine started, the prices of fertiliser went up.

She endorsed the IYSSEs fight to mobilise students, youth and the working class internationally to fight against war. I agree with that perspective, especially because governments have to get the money to fund wars from somewhere. Theyll cut back on budgets for sectors like education or health. You mentioned that the Russian people in the revolution helped to end the First World Warthere is proof that this works.

Details for the Sydney meeting:

7pm AEST, 4 April

T2 Theatre, 14 Sir Christopher Ondaatje Ave

Macquarie University

14 Sir Christopher Ondaatje Avenue,

Macquarie Park, NSW

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-war-in-ukraine-and-how-to-stop-it-tickets-578612424337

Contact the SEP

Phone: (02) 8218 3222

Email: sep@sep.org.au

Facebook: Socialist Equality Party Australia

Twitter: @SEP_Australia

Instagram: @socialistequalityparty_au

TikTok: @sep_australia

Authorised by Cheryl Crisp for the Socialist Equality Party, Suite 906, 185 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week outlined a truly chilling vision of basing the countrys entire economy on militarism and war.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with US President Joe Biden at Point Loma naval base, March 13, 2023, San Diego. [AP Photo/Evan Vucci]

He was speaking alongside US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the US naval base in San Diego to unveil details of the AUKUS plan to supply Australia with nuclear-powered long-range submarines, which are designed specifically for attacking China from its coastal waters.

Albanese boasted that his Labor government was making the biggest single investment in Australias defence capability in our history, predicted to cost an astronomical $368 billion over 30 years.

This was dressed up as deterrence from aggression but it is a pivotal part of the escalating military encirclement of China by the US and its closest partners, accompanied by the provocative Red Alert declarations in the corporate media of the necessity to prepare for war with China within three years.

Albanese equated the AUKUS pact to the establishment of a car industry in Australia by the US transnational corporations General Motors and Ford in the wake of World War II. The scale, complexity and economic significance of this investment is akin to the creation of the Australian automotive industry in the post-World War II period, he declared.

Albanese thus likened the expansion of civilian industry following the last world war with the building of an economy based on destructionthe production of weaponry for the next world war, almost certainly a nuclear one that would threaten the very survival of humanity!

This would require, the prime minister emphasised, a whole-of-nation effort. That means the establishment of a total war economy in which all else, including social spending and the jobs, wages and conditions of the working class, must be subordinated to the requirements of a vast military expansion.

Albanese proposed tying the future of young people to the fortunes of the military and weapons manufacturers, feeding off the eventual construction of eight submarines in Australia. He spoke of creating jobs and growing businesses, right around Australia and educating young Australians today for the opportunities of tomorrow.

In reality, comparatively few jobs are going to be created by the AUKUS deal, and even within an expanded military. Those who are incorporated are going to be trained to produce and use weapons capable of killing millions. The vast majority of youth will be condemned to unemployment and poorly paid, insecure casual jobs.

To compare the auto industry, which once directly or indirectly employed hundreds of thousands of workers, with AUKUS submarine production, touted to create 8,500 jobs at its peak in the 2040s, is a reactionary fraud on every level.

In the first place, an escalating US-led war is already underway, against Russia in Ukraine, and this is a prelude to war against China, with US generals and media outlets warning of war by 2025. Under the AUKUS deal, US nuclear submarines will be already based in Western Australia by the end of this year.

Secondly, the post-World War II launch of government-subsidised car assembly production in Australia, first by General Motors from 1948 and then by Ford in the 1950s and 1960s, was predicated on the military victory of US imperialism in the world war against German and Japanese imperialism.

After two such global conflagrations in the first half of the 20th century, at the cost of tens of millions of lives, the United States prevailed. Washington established a military and economic hegemony over most of the world that paved the way for the global expansion of US industrial and financial giants.

On that basis, and with the assistance of the Stalinist bureaucracies in suppressing the revolutionary post-war struggles of the working class, global capitalism was restabilised after disastrous decades of war and depression. That laid the foundation for a short period of boom, during which workers forced the ruling class to make certain concessions, such as health, education and welfare programs.

During this period, American companies set up auto, whitegoods and other industries in other countries, including Australia. By the late 1980s, however, globalised production and the corporate exploitation of cheap labour platforms had shattered the post-World War II model. In Australia that led to the ruthless closure of the auto assembly industry, and many other manufacturing facilities, culminating in the shutdown of the last GM Holden assembly plant in Elizabeth, South Australia in 2017.

For decades, especially since the Hawke and Keating Labor governments of 1983 to 1996, Labor and the unions have enforced the dictates of the financial elite and globally-mobile transnational entities that scour the world, looking for the cheapest production costs and the highest rate of return for ultra-wealthy shareholders.

Albanese, echoing Biden, held out the prospect of good jobs, with good wages. In reality, the conditions of workers, whether employed by the giant weapons makers or enlisted in the armed forces, will be brutal, dictated both by corporate profit-making and the sacrifices demanded for the war effort, as happened in both world wars.

Far from an era of well-paid jobs, what is being prepared is sweatshop conditions in industries of mass destruction.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is standing in the March 25 New South Wales state election to oppose this entire program of militarism and war. We are the only party doing so. As we explain in our election statement, together with our sister parties around the world we are building an international anti-war movement of the working class, directed against the source of war, the capitalist profit system itself.

We say: Two world wars are enough! Stop the warmongers! Tens of billions for education and healthcare, not for militarism and war!

Albaneses propaganda about a future jobs bonanza is a cynical effort, working hand in glove with the trade union bureaucrats, to overcome widespread opposition among workers and young people to the prospect of a catastrophic nuclear war.

A whole-of-nation war economy requires political repression. It means silencing the anti-war sentiment that has continued since the horrors of the barbaric US-led interventions in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, all based on proven lies.

Against the war-mongering nationalism of Labor and the unions, workers and young people need an international perspective, aimed at unifying their rising struggles globally against the corporate oligarchies and governments that demand they fight and kill each other for the benefit of the wealthy elites.

Above all, what is required is a socialist perspective, aimed at establishing workers governments to completely reorganise society in the interests of social need, not private profit. Socialist measures, including placing the massive corporations under public ownership and workers control, are the only way to establish basic democratic and social rightsincluding to decent, well-paid jobs and high-quality free education and healthcare for all.

We urge all our readers to support our election campaign and, above all, to join the SEP to build the revolutionary party needed to overturn capitalism and halt the plunge into World War III.

Contact the SEP

Phone: (02) 8218 3222

Email: sep@sep.org.au

Facebook: SocialistEqualityPartyAustralia

Twitter: @SEP_Australia

Instagram: socialistequalityparty_au

TikTok: @sep_australia

Authorised by Cheryl Crisp for the Socialist Equality Party, Suite 906, 185 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000.
In an attempt to deflect blame for a recent spate of high-profile derailments, American railroad Norfolk Southern has alleged that possible manufacturing defects with some of its railcars could be the fault.

A derailed Norfolk Southern train in Springfield, Ohio, March 3, 2023. [Photo: @Breaking_4_News]

The railroad infamously poisoned the working class town of East Palestine, Ohio, in early February. After a derailment of railcars carrying toxic substances, the contents were deliberately burned, releasing harmful substances into the local areas waterways, soil and air.

Since then, derailments have continued on a regular basis across the US, while both big business parties, the Democrats and Republicans, as well as the mainstream media, work to cover up this massive social crime.

Norfolk Southern released a press statement on March 9 about an urgent safety issue related to a derailment of a 212-car train in Springfield, Ohio, that occurred on March 4. According to the statement, the company discovered while cleaning up the site that a specific model and series of railcars had loose wheels, which could cause a derailment.

The railcars in question are manufactured by National Steel Car (NSC), a company located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Norfolk Southerns aim with the press release is to imply that these alleged defects could be the same reason for the massive derailment in East Palestine.

In response to the press release, the Association of American Railroads issued a continental advisory on the same day urging its members to idle railcars that used wheelsets mounted by NSC.

Transport Canada, the federal ministry overseeing railroads in the country, directed Canadian railroad companies to immediately take similar action. According to a worker at National Steel Car who spoke to the World Socialist Web Site, Canadian National, which owns the tracks running out of the NSC plant, temporarily halted the passage of railcars during the week of March 6, causing them to pile up in the yard. The backlog has since been removed.

Around 675 railcars manufactured by NSC between August 2022 and March of this year have been identified as potentially having this issue, although no conclusive evidence exists that manufacturing defects were the cause of one or more derailments. An official NSC statement noted that no conclusions have been reached at this time as to any cause in the Springfield derailment.

Norfolk Southern certainly has ample grounds for desiring a scapegoat on which to pin the blame for the recent East Palestine disaster. As the World Socialist Web Site noted in a perspective shortly after the derailment, the source of the endless series of so-called accidents in the rail industry is the profit motive of the railroad corporations and the capitalist system as a whole:

The reasons for this high rate of accidents are well-known to 120,000 railroaders in the US. The locomotives, railroads and workforce have been driven into the ground by years of cost-cutting by management. Trains have been lengthened to up to three miles long, controlled by only two people. Because of Precision Scheduled Railroading and similar attendance policies, workers are often forced to operate these massive machines with only a couple of hours of sleep.

National Steel Car is no less ruthless in its pursuit of profit than its railroad customers. The company operates a brutal workplace regime at its Hamilton plant, which has earned the nickname National Death Car and National Coffin among employees for the high number of deaths on the job. Its owner, the convicted fraudster and multi-millionaire Greg Aziz, utilizes a highly exploitative piecework system to squeeze as much profit as possible out of the companys 1,500 employees.

Last June, 51-year-old welder Quoc Le was brutally killed on the job after a 2,000 pound bulkhead fell on him. In an interview with a fellow NSC worker, it was revealed that Le, despite being an experienced welder, was inadequately trained for the particular job he was assigned to, and was brought in at the last minute as a substitute because of the companys notoriously high turnover rate. The previous few years have witnessed a series of preventable deaths.

Since Les death, little has been done to improve safety at the plant. Just weeks ago, the company was cited by the Ontario Ministry of Labour for excessive manganese fumes, a byproduct of welding specific metals. A ventilation system that management called state-of-the-art was shown to be completely useless. Presented with the options of overhauling it or providing personal protective equipment to workers, the company decided to go with the cheaper alternative of giving half face respirators with disposable cartridges to employees on the production line.

A semi-permanent regiment of ministry investigators is present at the plant as a concession to the massive outrage among the workers that erupted last summer following Les death. Workers walked out en masse after their colleague was killed and were joined by other workers and supporters in the city. Along with the spate of violent deaths, COVID-19 ran rampant with no safeguards in the plant and injuries like crushed limbs and strains in every part of the body are a common daily experience for workers.

The Ministry of Labour has carried out investigations after every death at NSC, and each time issued fines or warnings that constitute nothing but a slap on the wrist. For Aziz and company shareholders, who are acutely aware of the dangers of working at NSC, this is the price of doing business, and a trifling one at that.

Like their counterparts in the railroad unions, who sold out their 100,000 members last winter and prevented them from going out on strike, the United Steelworkers (USW), who represent NSC employees, have done nothing to improve safety, working conditions or pay for their members. In fact, their pro-capitalist perspective is the reason for the rampant exploitation and risk that continues at the company.

After Les death, USW officials, including USW District 6 Director Myles Sullivan and Local 7135 President Frank Crowder, made bombastic speeches at a brief demonstration outside the plant, but limited their calls to appeals to the governmentthe same one that for years has turned a blind eye to the slaughterhouse conditions at NSC, no matter which political party was in power.

Like every other union, the USW tells its members that conditions can only be improved by appealing to company shareholders to keep jobs in Canada, thereby demonizing workers class brothers and sisters in the US, Mexico and around the world. They tell their members to vote for the big business Liberals or New Democratic Party at the polls, even though these parties have imposed ruthless austerity measures on the working class and criminalized every strike that threatened to escape union control.

In one contract struggle after another at NSC, the USW bureaucracy has ensured sellout contracts that have whittled down workers pay, benefits and pensions. This includes a 2012 sellout contract in which two-tier wages were introduced for the first time and pensions were split.

As NSC workers prepare for the upcoming contract negotiations this spring, they must follow the example of their class brothers and sisters on the American and Canadian railroads, who have formed rank-and-file committees to seize control of their struggle from a set of privileged union bureaucrats.

Nothing is won without a fight, and the task is not to appeal to the bosses or politicians, but to wage a struggle against capitalism and for the international political unity of the working class. We encourage NSC workers to contact us today to learn how to build a rank-and-file committee at your workplace.
Germanys coalition government is intensifying its pro-war policies. The focus of Chancellor Olaf Scholzs government statement on Thursday was the NATO war offensive against Russia. Although this is leading to a direct clash between the nuclear powerson Wednesday, Russian warplanes caused the downing of a US droneScholz again spoke out in favour of further arms deliveries to Kiev in order to defeat Russia militarily in Ukraine.

What he had said on this subject two weeks ago here in the German Bundestag remained unchanged: We support Ukraine in its fight for freedom, for self-determination, for territorial integritypolitically, financially, humanitarianly and also with weapons. And support would continue as long as it is necessary.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivers a speech during the debate at the German parliament (Bundestag) in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022. [AP Photo/Markus Schreiber]

The words freedom and self-determination are familiar propaganda. In fact, the NATO powers provoked Moscows reactionary invasion of Ukraine. Now, they are continually escalating the war to subjugate Russia. Moreover, Germanys ruling class is using the conflict to reestablish itself as Europes leading military power after losing two world wars.

Currently, an aggressive campaign is underway to push rearmament even faster. On Tuesday, Eva Hogl (Social Democrat, SPD), the Bundestag (parliamentary) defence commissioner, presented the new defence report and painted the absurd picture of an ailing and completely broken German army. The Bundeswehr (armed forces) were not fully operational and had too little of everything. The media voiced a similar lament. Germanys leading power was running on fumes, complained the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. And the Suddeutsche Zeitung claimed, Militarily, Germany remains a developing country.

With its propaganda offensive, the ruling class is pursuing two interrelated goals. The first is to further increase annual military spending and the special fund for the Bundeswehr of over 100 billion that was approved last year. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) demanded 10 billion more per year even before the budget debate began in the Bundestag, and Hogl has brought the sum of 300 billion into play for the special fundmore than six times the amount the government currently spends on health and education.

The second is to further increase military support for the Ukrainian army, which is increasingly on the defensive in the Donbas and suffering terrible losses. The sums that Germany has already provided to Kiev are enormous. In the past 12 months, Germany had supported Ukraine and its citizens bilaterally with more than 14 billiona very substantial contribution that is also appropriate for our country, Scholz boasted in the Bundestag. Added to this, he said, was the German share of European support, which for this year alone totals 18 billion.

Scholzs message was that Germany continue this course. Together with its European partners, his government would continue to ensure that Ukraine receives weapons and equipment to hold out and defend itself. He said it was particularly important to quickly provide Ukraine with the ammunition it needs. At the upcoming EU summit next week, he said, further measures will be decided together with our EU partners to achieve an even better continuous supply.

At their last meeting, EU defence ministers had already agreed to massively ramp up ammunition production and organize a veritable war economy across Europe. According to reports, Germany alone plans to spend 20 billion on munitions over the next few years. The same arms companies that supplied Hitlers Wehrmacht (army) are setting up new production facilities in Germany and, like Rheinmetall, are even planning to build a tank factory directly in Ukraine.

In his government declaration, Scholz left no doubt about the reactionary and anti-working class character of the war and rearmament policy. It is not about freedom, human rights and democracy, but about predatory imperialist interests. And it is the working class that is supposed to foot the bill for this militarist madness.

Scholz announced that economic relations will be diversified, especially with regard to the purchase of raw materials. And the EUs competitiveness would be very intensively addressed. This was the prerequisite for economic success, and our competitiveness is the prerequisite for Europes future as a geopolitical player. Competitiveness was only possible in the long run, on the basis of stable budgets throughout Europe, he said.

Competitiveness and stable budgets are code words for the dismantling of social welfare systems and all remaining working class gains. Across Europe and around the world, capitalist governmentswith the active support of the unionsare organizing historic attacks on working class living standards, while increasingly resorting to dictatorial methods.

On Thursday, Frances Macron government announced it would use the undemocratic mechanism of Article 49.3 of the French constitution to force the hated pension reforms past parliament and against the declared will of the people. For weeks, millions in Franceas in many other European countrieshave been striking and protesting to express their anger against the planned attacks and pro-war policies. The response of the ruling class is violence. Yesterday, police in Paris attacked striking refuse workers with tear gas and batons. Earlier, the government had announced that it would forcibly conscript the workers. On Friday night, police attacked protesting workers across the country.

Resistance is also growing in Germany, and the ruling class is responding, as in the past, by stepping up militarism at home as well. On Thursday, Lieutenant General Carsten Breuer replaced General Eberhard Zorn as inspector general of the Bundeswehr, the most senior military officer. Breuer is the commander of the Bundeswehr Territorial Command, which was newly established only last autumn, and had previously headed the German governments Coronavirus Crisis Staff. In his new role as inspector general, he will not only push the return to national and alliance defencea euphemism for preparing for full-scale warsinitiated by Zorn, but also strengthen the military as an instrument of domestic repression.

To stop the danger of dictatorship and world war, workers must combine their struggles across Europe and internationally and conduct them independently of the unions and establishment parties based on a socialist program. This requires the formation of independent rank-and-file action committees and the building of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) and the Fourth International as the new political leadership of the working class.

All capitalist parties support the right-wing and militarist course of the German government. Significantly, Scholzs speech was applauded not only by deputies of the governing SPD, Liberal Democrats (FDP) and Green parties, but also, according to the minutes, by representatives of the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and the Left Party.
On Friday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russias commissioner for childrens rights, for alleged war crimes.

The International Criminal Court said Friday, March 17, 2023 it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine. [AP Photo/Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP]

The move is transparently political. It takes place as the US and NATO powers are orchestrating a massive escalation of the war against Russia over Ukraine, and amidst ever more open statements from government officials that the aim of the war is regime change in Moscow.

The specific allegations filed against Putin and Lvova-Belova are listed under Article 8 of the Rome Statute, adopted in 1998, which includes grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other serious violations of international law. The arrest warrants specifically allege the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

The official filing of warrants were approved by judges in the ICC and announced by Karim A. A. Khan, a British lawyer and the ICCs chief prosecutor. It follows months of propaganda, spearheaded by the Biden administration, alleging crimes against humanity and genocide on the part of the Russian government.

While the existence of the warrants was made public, the supposed evidence underlying them was not. The specific claims of the unlawful deportation of children have been promoted in the US media, including the New York Times, based on unsubstantiated allegations by the Biden administration and the Ukrainian government.

One often cited study, published by Yale University in February, claims that 6,000 children have been transported to Russia. The institute that conducted the study is part of the US government-backed Conflict Observatory, which was established for the purpose of producing war propaganda. The initial $6 million in funding for the observatory was provided by the State Departments Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, which states that its mission is to anticipate, prevent, and respond to conflict that undermines US national interests.

For its part, Russia has acknowledged the movement of populations from the war-ravaged eastern portions of Ukraine to Russia, including children primarily from orphanages. It has noted that anyoneincluding teachers and childcare workerswho continues to work in areas under Russian control are in danger of being accused as collaborators and killed by far-right Ukrainian forces.

As with the previous charges of war crimes, the US-led campaign is characterized by a staggering level of hypocrisy. By any objective standard, every US administration in recent memory is guilty of crimes far worse than any that have been alleged against Putin: From the nuclear obliteration of two Japanese cities at the end of the Second World War; to the leveling of North Korea between 1950-1953, to the point where not a single building was left standing; to the mass slaughter and pyrochemical incineration that was the US-led Vietnam War; through the thirty years of unending and expanding war that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The state leading the campaign for war crimes charges against Putin is responsible for torture at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, the bombing of wedding parties and other civilian gatherings in Afghanistan, the Guantanamo Bay prison, and drone assassination.

Since the issue of the mistreatment of children is raised in the arrest warrants, we should recall the infamous statement by then US ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, who declared in 1996, in reference to half a million dead children from US-backed sanctions against Iraq, We think the price is worth it.

The United States does not even recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC out of concern that it could at some point be used to indict and prosecute American government officials. While the Rome Statute, under which the warrant against Putin has been issued, was signed by Bill Clinton, he never sent it to the Senate for ratification. In 2002, as his lawyers were drawing up memoranda intended to justify preemptive war and torture, President George W. Bush informed the UN that the US no longer intended to ratify the statute.

In 2020, the Trump administration announced that it was placing economic sanctions and travel restrictions on ICC investigators after they began looking into charges of war crimes, including torture, rape and sexual violence, by the US military in Afghanistan and at CIA torture centers in Eastern Europe. The ICCs new prosecutor, Khan, dropped the investigation of US torture in 2021, shortly after he was appointed.

The central purpose of the warrants is to fuel the propaganda offensive for an enormous escalation of the US-NATO war against Russia. It is clearly timed to coincide with the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow, starting on Monday, which has the stated aim of discussing a proposal for a negotiated settlement to the war, including an immediate cease-fire.

The US and NATO powers, however, do not want an end to the war but its expansion. On Friday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that we certainly dont support calls for a cease-fire. Amidst a catastrophic loss of life by Ukrainian forces, the US and its European allies are flooding the country with advanced weaponry in preparation for a major offensive within the next two months.

The charges of war crimes are part of an effort to brand the Putin government as an outlaw regime, justifying a war for regime change, which has as its aim the dismantling of Russia.

The New York Times, which functions as a channel for US intelligence agencies, wrote in its article on the warrants (Arrest Warrant From Criminal Court Pierces Putins Aura of Impunity) that they put Mr. Putin in the same ranks as Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the deposed president of Sudan, accused of atrocities in Darfur; Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader imprisoned for abuses during the Balkans war; and the Nazis tried at Nuremberg after World War II.

The message is that whatever the immediate impact of the charges, they are intended as a signal, not only to Putin but also to Xi, that the war will be escalated until Putin ends up with a similar fate as Milosevic.

The US and NATO powers are presently discussing behind the scenes plans for the introduction of NATO troops into the conflict. The propaganda over war crimes and genocide could be used to blame Russia for any provocation or manufactured incident that would be used as a justification.

None of this implies support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the actions of the Putin government, which represents a faction of the Russian oligarchy. The invasion of Ukraine was a reactionary and bankrupt response of this oligarchy to Russias encirclement by the US and NATO. But the United States systematically provoked the war and now, more than one year after it began, is preparing a massive and catastrophic escalation.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced on Tuesday that her government is cutting its diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of China.

Chinas Foreign Ministry responded by expressing its willingness to establish ties with Honduras under the One China principle.

Chinese president Xi Jinping and Honduran president Xiomara Castro [Photo: Kremlin.ru, Office of the President of Taiwan]

Honduras will join Gambia, Sao Tome & Principe, Panama, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Burkina Faso, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and Nicaragua in making the shift in the last ten years.

The decision reduces Taiwans diplomatic allies to only 13a measure of Washingtons falling economic and political influence in Latin America in relation to China, which the Pentagon has branded as the main threat in the region. At the beginning of the millennium, all seven countries on the Central American isthmus recognized Taiwan, now only Guatemala and Belize remain. The rest of those with ties to Taipei consist of Paraguay, a collection of small island nations in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and the Holy See.

In the second largest of the remaining countries, Paraguay, outgoing President Mario Abdo Benitez has warned his successor that it would be a mistake to break ties with Taiwan, but last September he asked Taiwan to invest at least $1 billion in the country to fend off internal pressures to make the switch.

A 2021 study in Foreign Policy Analysis found that Paraguay was losing 1 percent of its yearly GDP by maintaining ties with Taiwan.

Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Reina explained on television Wednesday that the decision to sever ties to Taipei was based upon economic considerations after Taiwan refused to increase its aid and credit lines. Cooperation with Taiwan adds up to $50 million [yearly], which is what Honduras collects in taxes in a day, he said. The idea is to seek mechanisms for greater investments, trade.

Reina then claimed that establishing greater economic ties with China is ultimately aimed at meeting the urgent needs of the Honduran people. However, the decision doesnt alter the position of Honduras in world capitalism as a cheap labor platform with close access to the US market.

In the context of a nearshoring push by Washington to incentivize corporations to move production from Asia closer to the United States, the drive to compete for Chinese capital will only add to pressures to maintain widespread poverty as a means of keeping wages low. Currently more than seven million of the 10 million Hondurans live under the official poverty line.

Its left demagogy notwithstanding, the capitalist Castro administration took this decision at the behest of the Honduran oligarchy. This was shown by the reaction of Armando Urtrecho, head of the main Honduran business organization COHEP, which previously backed ties with Taiwan to maintain US support. Speaking in front of a USAID poster and the US flag at an event Wednesday, Urtecho told reporters that he neither supports nor rejects ties with Beijing.

The United States has historically and hypocritically coerced other countries to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan to counter Chinese influence globally, even as Washington itself has formally recognized Beijing and not Taipei since 1979.

The relations between Taiwan and Central America were originally cemented on the basis of anti-communism and blood as Taipei provided aid, arms and military training to a series of US-backed military dictatorships and right-wing movements that carried out murderous repression in the region.

Legislators from both US parties responded to Castros announcement with threats. Honduran President Xiomara Castro is moving her country closer to Communist China while the world is moving away. The Honduran people will suffer because of her failed leadership, tweeted Republican Senator Bill Cassidy.

Meanwhile, Democrat Bob Menendez, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote that the decision will have implications lasting long beyond the current leadership A decision to recognize Beijing is not about the competition between the US & China, but it is about the kind of future that Hondurans want to build for themselves & their children.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress have previously threatened to introduce legislation that would cut ties with and aid to governments that switch from Taipei to Beijing. In Honduras, the Obama administration backed a military coup in 2009 that ousted president Manuel Zelaya (2006-2009), Castros husband, who had expressed interest to Chinese diplomats in recognizing Beijing, while also increasing economic ties with the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez.

But even the coup regime under President Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014) attempted to establish ties with Beijing, which at the time did not seek to disrupt a rapprochement with Taipei. Subsequently, president Juan Orlando Hernandez (2014-2022), who will be tried in New York for drug charges next month, agreed to a $300 million loan from Beijing to build the Patuca III dam.

Castro had promised during her electoral campaign to establish ties with Beijing. However, reflecting fears of US reprisals, she said as recently as January 29 that establishing diplomatic ties with China was not a priority. Foreign minister Reina similarly insisted on February 2 that negotiations with China for a new hydroelectric dam did not mean they would establish official ties.

Reina even felt compelled on Wednesday to clarify, Were not looking to break our relationship with the United States.

According to the Honduran Central Bank, 30.9 percent of exports and 31.4 percent of imports are with the United States, compared to 0.2 percent and 17.3 percent, respectively, with China.

The move takes place as the Biden administration rushes headlong to turn Taiwan into a frontline state for a war against China, even as the Pentagon escalates its involvement in the war against Russia over Ukraine.

Biden has effectively ended its strategic ambiguity, whereby Washington formally recognized Taiwan as part of China under Beijings One China policy, while arming and keeping strong relations with Taipei.

Amid frequent visits of top officials between both countries, the White House formally pledged to arm Taiwan and train its troops on US soil, while sharply increasing the presence of US troops in the island.

Last month, Washington canceled a planned diplomatic visit to Beijing and struck down a Chinese surveillance balloon and several other unidentified objects to whip up a war frenzy against China. On Wednesday, Australia announced that it will purchase US nuclear-powered submarines as part of the US-led military encirclement of China.

The Xiomara Castro administration, like the other Pink Tide bourgeois regimes in Latin American, is entirely committed to defending the capitalist nation-state framework used by the national ruling elites to institutionalize their corrupt deals and by US imperialism to plunder and dominate the region. Consequently, no bourgeois political force offers an alternative to US imperialist oppression and the drive to World War III.

Castros recognition of Beijing will only help drag the country and the region further into the looming conflagration between the United States and China, both nuclear powers with the worlds largest economies and militaries.

The only alternative to imperialist war is the political mobilization of the international working class against capitalism and its nation-state system. As explained by Leon Trotsky in the 1934 statement War and the Fourth International:

South and Central America will be able to tear themselves out of backwardness and enslavement only by uniting all their states into one powerful federation. But it is not the belated South American bourgeoisie, a thoroughly venal agency of foreign imperialism, who will be called upon to solve this task, but the young South American proletariat, the chosen leader of the oppressed masses.
The Israeli occupation army said Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket toward southern Israel Saturday evening.

The rocket fell and exploded in an open area, triggering warning sirens in the Nahal Oz community to the east of Gaza City.

There were no reports of casualties or damage. The Israeli occupation army usually responds to such rocket fire with airstrikes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, raising the possibility of further violence just ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The rocket attack comes a day before Israeli and Palestinian officials are set to meet in Egypt in a U.S.-backed effort to defuse violence that has soared especially in the occupied West Bank that included east Jerusalem for nearly a year.

The meeting in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh is a follow-up to last months meeting in Jordan for the same purpose. However, deadly Israeli raids in the West Bank continued since the Feb. 26 meeting in Aqaba. Twenty-three Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed in the ongoing bloodshed since then.

Since the start of this year, 85 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed 14 people in the same period.

Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to the leading Israeli rights group BTselem. Palestinian attacks against Israelis during that same time killed 30 people.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their future independent state.

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My Lost Country is a moving and poetically evocative film directed by Ishtar Yasin Gutierrez. A piece of autobiography and a tribute to the filmmakers theater director father, the work is intended, above all, as an act of resistance against the imperialist devastation of Iraqi culture and society.

My Lost Country

Ishtar Yasin was born in Moscow in 1968 into a left-wing artistic family. Her father, Mohsen Sadoon Yasin (1932-2014), spent most of his life in exile from Iraq. The family was in Chile at the time of the September 1973 military coup and took refuge in Costa Rica. Ishtar Yasin later attended the VGIK film school in Moscow, during the perestroika period. In the 1990s, she worked as a playwright, director and actress in Costa Rica.

The WSWS reviewed Yasins 2008 film The Road (El Camino). We suggested that it was a haunting film about life, life for children especially, in Central America, carried offat its bestwith a certain poetic touch. Out of the tragic social situation in Nicaragua and Central America, the filmmaker has fashioned something neither sensationalized nor sentimental. It is an intelligent and artistically graceful work.

Yasin has written, produced and directed three feature films and numerous documentaries, in which she addresses, in her own words, issues such as economic migration, sexual abuse and exploitation, the oppression of the capitalist system, domestic violence, exile and resistance.

My Lost Country opens with the filmmaker at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad, in 2022, in the Theater Arts Department, where her father studied and worked decades before. Miraculously, the building has survived. Classrooms and a theater are empty, however. A sense of loss is pervasive. There are images from the 1960s, when the place was busy and full of students. We hear this:

In the first days In the very first days In the first nights In the first years In the very first years

Mohsen Sadoon Yasin giving direction to Iraqi actress Fawzia Aaref, in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, in the Theater Department of the Iraq Institute of Fine Arts, created by director Haqi Al Shibli

The film proceeds as a collage of wide textural range, so described by the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the worlds largest such festival, where My Lost Country was recognized in 2022 for its Outstanding Artistic Contribution. Family photographs, videos, theater posters, newspaper clippings, recited poems and letters build a picture of Yasins father, his life and struggles and her intense relationship with him.

More than that, the filmmaker generates a series of complex imagestops spinning, charcoal drawings come to life, Sumerian goddesses in masksin an effort to convey the experience of exile and separation, and the consequences of bloody neo-colonial war.

One of the strongest elements in the film is its effort to bring to life Iraqs vibrant cultural conditions in the 1950s and 1960s. A production of Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream, for example, at the Institute of Fine Arts. (Later, in exile, Yasins father will direct Ionescos Exit the King and Buchners Woyzeck, as well as plays by Gorky and Friedrich Durrenmatt, among many other works.)

We see the enthusiastic faces of young actors and actresses, dedicated to art and, one imagines, the cultural development of the country.

The filmmaker shifts from these early, optimistic pictures to footage of her father as an older man, in London, in 2014. He gazes out the window at a conventional city scene. I have this problem, he explains. For a long time I hear different songs, and I cant stop listening to them  Folk songs, old songs, from Iraq.

Mohsen Sadoon Yasin and Ishtar Yasin

In another sequence, shot in a theater in Santiago in 2008, Ishtar Yasin asks her father whether he will ever return to Iraq. Its been 40 years, he replies. I cant go back. Not before, during Saddam Hussein. Not now, during the current invasion  the American invasion. What did they [the Americans] leave? A destroyed country.

The war and its aftermath, he says, forced more than two million people in Baghdad to move from one side of the city to the other because there are Shiites and Sunnis. Tell me, who loves the United States? Mohsen Yasin asks. Tell me a country or nation that really loves the United States.

Im neither Sunni nor Shiite, he explains. My country, I think I lost it. My lost country.

We see extraordinary film footage of Iraq in the 1920s and 1930s, including images of British archaeological excavations in Nineveh. From there, the director turns to her father touring the British Museum, which displays Iraqi artifacts.

Mohsen Sadoon Yasin and his daughter Deyar Yasin at the British Museum, 2013

There is the wedding of Ishtar Yasins parentsthe bride from Chile, the groom from Iraq. Images of the filmmaker as a little girl, telling a story. After the CIA-military coup in Chile, father and daughter live apart as the parents separate.

One of the most poignant sections of My Lost Country includes selections from letters between the two during these years. Her father writes, Be brave  you are always with me. On another occasion, Ishtar, think of everything that is happening in the world. Do not be indifferent to the tragedy of others. You have to be a clean, healthy person. A humanist.

There is a remarkable video taken in the student residence in Moscow in 1986. The young film student, Ishtar, tells her questioner, gesturing toward the small room, We cant just live like this. We need a different world. We have to look for something else  I believe that cinema should be like music.

The first war of the US-led imperialist coalition against Iraq in 1991 is perhaps too painful to show in complete images. We see the bombing of Baghdad in fragments, the video images broken up. The music is eerie, disturbing. The Trees cry blood, we hear someone recite.

Now, her father enters his last days. An old man in a small room, crowded with papers, books, art work, photos. He discusses directing a stage version of Argentine writer Julio Cortazars well-known 1946 short story, House Taken Over, about a brother and sister whose family house is taken over by unexplained entities. The story was interpreted as an anti-Peronist work. Mohsen Yasin is older and slower. In this final period of his life, father and daughter sit on the ground in front of a tapestry that simply reads Babylon.

In a corridor of the National Theater of Baghdad, 'The Modern Art Theater Group.' Right to leftMundar Jelmi, Mohsen Sadoon, playwright and actor Taha Salem, actress Wedad Salem, an unknown girl and Makki Al Badri

We return to Baghdad, to the Theater Arts Department, to the same empty chairs, rooms. In the ruins of what is apparently Mosul, the filmmaker listens to gorgeous music played by a lutist and a violinist. She plants a tree with a little girl. The goddess Inanna walks through the rubble (the Sumerians worshipped her as Inanna, the Assyrians and Babylonians as Ishtar.)

Before, we heard Ishtar Yasin say at one point, With my Uncle Salman, we watched the sunset on the Tigris River. Now, whether its the Tigris or not one doesnt know, but the films final image is that of shining water at dusk, a bridge over a river with people crossing it, to the almost painfully exquisite music of Bach.

My Lost Country is poetic and moving. It communicates something important about one of the great crimes of modern times, the decades of US aggression against the Iraqi people. On the basis of out and out lies, which they knew to be lies, 20 years ago this week, the Bush administration and the American war machine unleashed barbaric violence against the country of 26 million people. More than one million Iraqis are estimated to have died as a direct or indirect result of the US invasion and occupation. The WSWS has referred to the onslaught against Iraq as sociocide, the deliberate destruction of the infrastructure of modern civilization.

As the WSWS argued in 2007, Iraq, once among the most advanced countries of the region, has been reduced, in terms of basic economic and social indices, to the level of the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa. What is involved is the systematic destruction of an entire society through the unleashing of violence and criminality on a scale not seen since Hitlers armies ravaged Europe in the Second World War.

During the filming of My Lost Country in Mosul, Iraq, 2021. Khalid Al Rawi (lute), Mustafa Basil (violin) and the director Ishtar Yasin

My Lost Country is not a historians or a sociologists reaction to the events. It is a sensitive artists and a daughters response.

In her directors statement, Ishtar Yasin explains that the films images are intertwined like fragments of life, the film is built like a poem, like music.  The film is the invocation of the history, the culture, mythology of Iraq. It is the reconstruction and transmission of a spiritual memory. She argues that the Iraqi people need to rise from the ashes, build a free Iraq, where everyone have the same rights, where everyone is just Iraqi, without corruption, repression, and foreign occupation.

Poetry is important in art, but it is not everything. Sober, painstaking social and historical analysis is also vital. My Lost Countrys indictment of American imperialisms crimes in Iraq is indelible, unanswerable.

But historical and political questions remain, and the concrete roles of parties, movements and leaderships and their programs and perspectives. The presence of the 1973 coup in Chile in the film raises the question of popular frontism and the betrayal of the Chilean working class by Stalinism and social democracy under Allende, which left workers and left-wing intellectuals vulnerable to the military torturers and fascists. In general, there is the issue of the counterrevolutionary role of the Communist Parties in Chile, in Iraq, in Costa Rica and, for that matter, the Soviet Union, with all the resulting disastrous consequences for masses of people.

We hope to interview the filmmaker and ask her many questions about Iraqi culture and society, about her life and work. The appearance of a left-wing film about the situation in Iraq, past and present, is an event of genuine importance.
An administrative court declined on Saturday to rule in a lawsuit filed by an Egyptian Christian couple to regain the custody of their five-year-old adopted boy Shenouda, citing lack of jurisdiction on the subject matter.

Related The NCHR calls for returning boy Shenouda to parents who raised him pending court decisions

The court explained that it lacks the jurisdiction to rule on returning the boy to the couple who raised him or reversing the decision by the authorities to assign him to the Islamic faith.

The case of five-year-old Shenouda stirred a public controversy and outcry in late 2022 when authorities took the boy from his parents amid a family dispute over inheritance.

The investigation into the child's paternity was triggered by a report filed by a relative of Shenouda's father who did not want the child to share in family inheritance.

After DNA tests revealed that Shenouda's parents were not his biological parents, the authorities took custody of Shenouda, placing him in an orphanage. The authorities at this point assigned him to the Islamic faith as customary in the case of abandoned children and renamed him Youssef.

The Christian couple say they found the boy when he was only days old in a church in Cairo.

They explained that they named the boy Shenouda and raised him as their own son in their Christian faith.

The couple plan to appeal the court's ruling, according to their lawyer.

Egyptian law does not assign a specific religion to children with unknown parents.

However, the Civil Status Department at the Ministry of Interior, which regulates all personal documentation matters, assigns children with unknown parents to the Islamic faith customarily.

While adoption is prohibited under Egyptian law, the government oversees a foster care system known as kafala for abandoned children.

In early January, the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) issued a statement calling for the return of Shenouda to the parents who raised him while the courts rule on the matter.

The NCHR called on the Ministry of Social Solidarity, which oversees child care matters, to consider the child's best interest in all decisions.

The council also asserted that removing the child from the family that raised him violates article 80 of the Egyptian Constitution, Child Law No.12 of 1996, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

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A man was sentenced by a Misdemeanor Court on Saturday to six months in prison for killing a cat intentionally earlier this month.

The case started after a woman lodged a complaint against an employee at a popular restaurant in Downtown Cairo, accusing him of deliberately killing a cat on 5 March.

The court found the defendant guilty after reviewing CCTV footage from the street a s well as hearing the testimony of witnesses who said they saw defendant throw the stray cat in front of a moving car.

The court handed down the maximum penalty of six months in prison to the defendant under Article 357 of the country's Penal Code, which criminalises killing or causing serious harm to animals intentionally.

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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced on Saturday in Cairo that there is currently coordination to hold a meeting between President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"We are working to facilitate a meeting between the heads of state, before or after the Turkish elections, and this will be on a date of their choice," Cavusoglu said during a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry following their talks at Tahrir Palace.

Cavusoglu arrived in the Egyptian capital earlier in the day for a new round of discussions aimed at normalising relations between the two countries, marking the first high-level visit in over a decade.

Shoukry said the consultations with his Turkish counterpart were "deep, frank, and transparent."

He added that the two countries have the political will to restore normal relations after the events of recent years.

The meeting tackled the restoration of representation at the level of ambassadors. No date has been set though for the exchange of ambassadors.

"We will come to this point at the appropriate time, in accordance with the positive results that this path brings," Shoukry said.

"Diplomatic relations between the two countries has not been severed. It has been existing at the level of charge d'affaires  there was representation of Egypt in Ankara and representation of Turkey in Egypt," Shoukry added.

These positive results, Shoukry noted, started with finding as common visions on many issues, including bilateral relations and regional topics.

"We look forward to everything that can benefit both countries," Shoukry added, noting that the meeting discussed all issues affecting bilateral relations and regional situations.

"I'm very glad that we are taking concrete steps for normalising relations with Egypt... We will do our best not to rupture our ties again in future," Cavusoglu said.

Enhancing economic ties

The Turkish foreign minister stated that his government is encouraging companies to invest in Egypt.

He also expressed Turkey's desire to increase both trade and tourism with Egypt.

In previous statements, Turkish Charge d'Affaires Salih Mutlu Sen noted that the number of Egyptian tourists who visited Turkey in 2022 exceeded 200,000, breaking previous records for tourism between the two countries.

Shoukry affirmed that despite past strains in official relations, economic ties between Egypt and Turkey remain important.

"Egypt has always been keen to maintain economic relations with Turkey," Shoukry stated, noting that in recent years, economic cooperation between the two countries had grown, with trade exchange reaching $9 billion.

Shoukry added that Turkish investments in Egypt had reached $2.5 billion, saying that he expects economic ties to improve further.

Regional developments

In their talks, the two foreign ministers discussed a range of issues, including the latest developments in the Palestinian territories, with Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu stating that he hoped that tensions would not escalate during the holy month of Ramadan, especially around the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem.

They also discussed the latest developments in Syria, as well as ways to counter terrorist organisations there.

The two ministers touched on the issue of Libya, but did not reveal the details of their discussions to the press.

Libya has been a major point of tension between the two countries in recent years, especially following the border demarcation agreement between the Turkey and Libyan Government of the National Accord of Tripoli. Egypt has rejected the agreement.

The ministers also discussed the reconciliation agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well as the latest developments in Iraq. The Ukrainian-Russian crisis was also discussed, given the potential impact of the conflict on both Turkey and Egypt, the Turkish foreign minister said during a press conference.

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Officials from Egypt and Qatar held the first meeting of the Egyptian-Qatari military committee in Cairo, the Egyptian Armed Forces announced on Saturday.

The meeting was held under the co-chairmanship of Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces Lt. General Osama Askar and Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces Lt. General Salem bin Hamad Al-Nabit.

During the meeting, Lt. General Askar asserted the importance of prospects of military cooperation and exchanging expertise between the two countries, adding that there was a consensus of visions on joint plans that will benefit the two countries.

From his side, Lt. General Al-Nabit asserted the importance of increasing military and training cooperation during the next stage to achieve the best interests of both countries' armed forces.

Lt. General Askar and Lt. General Al-Nabit also inspected one of the Armed Forces' industrial edifices, including the production lines of engineering industries, the Air Force Academy and the Naval Forces command.

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No. 4 seed Tennessee (23-11, 13-3 SEC) will host No. 13 seed Saint Louis (17-17, 10-6 Atlantic 10) Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

Tipoff between the Lady Vols and Saint Louis is slated for 1 p.m. EDT. The contest will be televised by ABC.

The winner between Tennessee and Saint Louis will advance to the second-round against the winner of the No. 5 Iowa State-No. 12 Toledo game (3:30 p.m. EDT, ESPN2).

PHOTOS: Lady Vols Basketball in NCAA Tournament through the years

PHOTOS: Kellie Harper through the years

Ahead of the Tennessee-Saint Louis contest, Vols Wire looks at pregame social media buzz. Pregame social media buzz is listed below.

An elite environment for #MarchMadness! The best fans in America are ready to cheer on @LadyVol_Hoops as their NCAA Tournament journey gets started Saturday on Rocky Top.  Tennessee Athletics (@Vol_Sports) March 17, 2023

I can't wait to cheer on our Lady Vols right here on Rocky Top this Saturday. See you there!  https://t.co/ebxLqeIiHz  Donde Plowman (@DondePlowman) March 13, 2023

Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Its Billiken Game Day! pic.twitter.com/0GllfEtlbH  Saint Louis WBB (@SaintLouisWBB) March 18, 2023

2023 NCAA Tournament: Kellie Harper previews the Tennessee-Saint Louis first-round game https://t.co/4sPL46zClO  Vols Wire (@VolsWire) March 17, 2023

Hours update Come see us today! LET'S GO LADY VOLS!!!!  pic.twitter.com/fWPpZ2fmBh  VolShop (@UTVolShop) March 18, 2023

How to watch the first-round NCAA Tournament game between the Lady Vols and Saint Louis on Saturday. https://t.co/NHak050vas  Vols Wire (@VolsWire) March 17, 2023

Cancel all your plans, WBB is on today#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/jFYiVj3VZC  NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 18, 2023

Story originally appeared on Vols Wire
By Azernews

Sabina Mammadli









An interdepartmental working group on hydrogen has been established in Azerbaijan in order to conduct research and prepare proposals for the production of hydrogen in the country, Deputy Director of Azerbaijan's State Agency on Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources Kamran Huseynov said.

He made the remark at the panel discussion themed "Hydrogen as a Tool for the Transition to Clean Energy" as part of the "Green Hydrogen: Path to Decarbonization" seminar.

The official noted that the working group collaborated with the European Bank for Development and Reconstruction (EBRD) to develop a study on the topic "Assessment of Potential for a Low-Carbon Hydrogen Economy in Azerbaijan". Thus, in January last year, a kick-off meeting was held with a consultant selected by the EBRD, during which a project plan was presented to interested parties, he added.

Besides, Huseynov stated that Azerbaijan is working on four more bills of the draft law on electricity production.

"They are related to supporting mechanisms for the participation of active producers, the issuance of certificates for the production of renewable energy and information systems for renewable energy sources. These bills have been prepared and are currently being approved by the Cabinet of Ministers," he said.

The deputy director also highlighted that leveled cost of green hydrogen (LCOH) in Azerbaijan can be competitive with other markets given the relatively low cost of renewable energy production. He added that the Southern Gas Corridor can be used to deliver hydrogen mixed with natural gas to energy markets.

According to the official, another option for supplying green hydrogen can be an autonomous H2 pipeline.

The production and export of green ammonia and green hydrogen can also be considered as an option, taking into account rail and pipeline links with other countries," Huseynov said.

The official of the agency underlined that Azerbaijan Renewable Energy Agency was established in accordance with presidential decree dated September 22, 2020.

The main objectives of the agency are to increase the share of renewable energy sources within the installed electricity generation capacity up to 30 percent by 2030, to transform the liberated territories into the "Green Energy" Zone, and to ensure the participation of the private sector in this area, he stressed.

Speaking at the event, Director of the Azerbaijan Renewable Energy Agency (AREA) under Energy Ministry Javid Abdullayev emphasized that the green energy production potential in Azerbaijan is about 200 GW.

Abdullayev then noted that Azerbaijan intends to increase the share of renewable energy in electricity generation to 30 percent by 2030.

"The agreement signed last December between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hungary, and Romania will allow supplying up to four gigawatts of green energy to Europe," the official said.

Moreover, Director of Masdar Azerbaijan Murad Sadikhov stated that the company plans to implement various projects in Azerbaijan.

In particular, he noted that the company plans to implement a 1 GW onshore wind project by 2026, a 2 GW offshore wind project, and a green hydrogen project by 2033, and further expand the use of solar, onshore, and offshore wind by 2037.

"In 2022, Masdar and Azerbaijans Energy Ministry signed an agreement on the development and investment in renewable energy sources. Also in 2022, the parties signed an implementation agreement that covers a number of offshore wind energy projects and green hydrogen production," he said.

He also added that the company signed an agreement with SOCAR to explore the potential for electrification of their offshore oil and gas facilities in the Caspian Sea using offshore wind power.
Tunisian interior minister Taoufik Charfeddine, a close aide of President Kais Saied, announced Friday he had resigned to spend more time with his three children following the death of his wife last year.

Charfeddine, 54, who had held his post since October 2021, told reporters he wished to thank the president for "his understanding and for allowing me to be relieved of my duties".

"The time has come for me to dedicate myself to this responsibility she left me," he said.

Replacing Charfeddine as interior minister is Kamal Feki, governor of Tunis since 2021 and also part of Saied's inner circle.

A former lawyer, Charfeddine was a key figure in the election campaign that propelled the previously little-known Saied to the presidency in 2019.

After Saied froze parliament and sacked the then-government in a dramatic July 2021, Charfeddine became a close adviser.

As the president pushed through sweeping changes to the country's political system, concentrating near-total power in his office, Charfeddine was one of the most outspoken defenders of Saied's power grab.

Saied's office regularly released video footage of the two men's meetings in the presidential palace.

During the wave of arrests that accompanied Saied's power grab, Charfeddine held news conferences to defend the incarceration of opposition politicians.

Last month, Charfeddine was by Saied's side as Tunisia faced an international outcry over a tirade by the president against illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

"There is no question of allowing anyone in an illegal situation to stay in Tunisia," the president said in one of his videotaped meetings with the minister.

"I will not allow the institutions of the state to be undermined or the demographic composition of Tunisia to be changed."

The president's speech two nights previously had triggered a wave of violence against African migrants and prompted several West African countries to organize repatriation flights for fearful nationals.

On March 8, more than 30 Tunisian non-governmental organizations demanded an apology from Charfeddine after he branded them as "traitors" to the president's many critics in the private sector, the media, and trade unions.

They accused him of using the "language of threat and intimidation" to "sow division" among Tunisians as part of a "dangerous populist discourse that foreshadows a police state" like the one overthrown in the country's 2011 uprising.

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A pedestrian was struck and killed near the Clemson University campus and a student has been charged with driving under the influence, according to South Carolina officials.

The pedestrian, later identified as 68-year-old Robert Barrett, was struck just after 8:00 p.m. on March 15, according to a news release from the Pickens County Coroners Office and the Clemson University Police Department. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Michael Lee Lyon III, a student, is charged with driving under the influence, according to a report from the Clemson University Police Department.

An officer who spoke to Lyon after the crash reported that his eyes were glossy and dilated and a very strong odor of burnt marijuana was coming from the vehicle, the report says.

Witnesses told police that Barrett appeared to hesitate in a median before crossing the street outside of a crosswalk and getting hit, according to the report.

Officers later took a religious medallion off of Barretts body to give to family members/, who said he always carried it with him, the report says.

Barrett is remembered as a treasured husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend, according to his obituary. He was an avid pickleball player and member of the Clemson University Methodist Church, where he led Bible study and started the group Methodist Men.

He once worked as a professor in the Clemson University business school and retired as the Dean of the Business School at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina, the obituary says.

He volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels and programs helping low income families file taxes, according to his obituary.

Most of all, Bob poured his heart into the grandchildren he adored, the obituary says. ... His kindness and selfless spirit will be remembered by many.

A friend of Barrretts wrote on Facebook that he was a precious, sweet, kind, bright star in the pickleball community.

Even though he was one of the strongest players he was so sweet about playing with the weaker ones, she wrote. ... I truly enjoyed every minute I got to play with him. He was amazingly fast.

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Other players wrote in comments that they enjoyed playing with Barrett and were grateful for having known him.

Always one of my favorites to play with from day one, one person wrote. He radiated kindness and encouraged all the time.

He was always so welcoming from day one, inviting me to play, giving encouragement when I was not doing well, praised me when I hit a good shot, another friend said. A sweet kind soul.

Clemson is about 140 miles northwest of Columbia.

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More than 1,600 mustatils have been documented in Arabia, and they date back around 7,000 years.

Archaeologists in Saudi Arabia have discovered ancient human remains buried near hundreds of scattered animal bones inside a 7,000-year-old desert monument, a ritual site used by a prehistoric cult.

The remains, those of an adult male approximately in his 30s, were found inside a mustatil, a structure that takes its name from the Arabic word for rectangle. The ruin is one of more than 1,600 mustatils discovered in Saudi Arabia since the 1970s. Mostly submerged beneath sand, the structures were built when the Arabian Desert was a lush grassland where elephants roamed and hippos bathed in lakes.

The mustatils' builders were members of an unknown cult. As a change to the climate slowly transformed the land to desert, cult members likely gathered to protect it by sacrificing their cattle to unknown gods, researchers say. Now, a new mustatil excavation, detailed in a study published March 15 in the journal PLOS One , has revealed more details about the mystifying structures and their worshippers lost to time.

"Almost nothing has been written on the mustatils and beliefs that surrounded them," study lead author Melissa Kennedy , an archaeologist at the University of Western Australia, told Live Science. "Only 10 mustatil have been excavated, and this study is one of the first to be published. So we still don't know a lot about this tradition yet."

Mustatils vary in their appearance, but they are typically long rectangles formed from low rock walls around 4 feet (1.2 meters) high. Excavations have revealed complex structures inside some of the ruins, including interior walls and pillars that give way to central chambers possibly reserved for feasting and ritual sacrifices, Kennedy said.

Related: Vast 4,500-year-old network of 'funerary avenues' discovered in Saudi Arabia

Worshippers entered the mustatils from one end and walked anywhere from 66 to 1,970 feet (20 to 600 m) or more to the other, arriving at a rubble platform called the head. A chamber inside the head housed a beytl  a sacred stone, sometimes originating from a meteorite  that cult members used to commune with their gods.

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An annotated image of the mustatil excavated by the researchers.

The mustatil excavated by the researchers, located 34 miles (55 kilometers) east of the ancient city of AlUla, is 460 feet (140 m) long and constructed from local sandstone. Its beytl is a large upright stone, around which the researchers found 260 fragments of animal skulls and horns. The bone pieces are mainly from domesticated cattle, though the researchers said some fragments belonged to domesticated goats, gazelle and small ruminants.

"They would most probably have brought animals with them, potentially slaughtered them on-site, offered the horns and upper parts of the skull to a deity, while potentially feasting on the rest of the remains," Kennedy said. "We can't be certain if the slaughter occurred on-site or somewhere else, as we haven't found the rest of the animal remains. However, we think that it most probably occurred on-site, as the horns, particularly the keratin  which degrades very quickly  were in such good condition. It suggests that there was probably only a short period of time before the removal of the horns and their offering in the mustatil."

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Immediately to the north of the mustatil's head, the researchers found a cist, a type of burial chamber built throughout the Neolithic and Bronze ages across Europe and the Middle East. Analysis of the interred bones belonging to the man revealed that he was in his 30s or early 40s when he died and that he probably had osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease that is the most common form of arthritis. Radiocarbon dating of the human and animal bones showed that the man was buried 400 years after the animals had been slaughtered  a sign that the mustatils were sites of repeated pilgrimages.

"We are finding more and more evidence for humans being interred in mustatils," Kennedy said. "However, these burials are always later; they do not date to the same time period as the animal offerings. We hypothesize that the mustatil sites retained their importance even after their use ceased and that later generations would bury their dead at these places as a way of asserting ownership over these structures, essentially claiming a link with the past."

The purpose of the mustatils' ceremonies remains an enigma. As the desert-spanning structures were built during the Holocene Humid Period  a phase that lasted between 7000 B.C. and 6000 B.C. for Arabia, making it and North Africa much wetter but still prone to droughts and slow desertification  the researchers think there could be some connection between the rituals practiced inside these structures and a communal desire to bless the drying land with rain.

They are now testing this hypothesis by geographically mapping the close placement of mustatils to prehistoric pastoral lands, rivers and lakes. The investigation, which is ongoing, could reveal the connections between ancient religious practices and the region's primeval climate crisis.
On February 28, there was an open house for residents to see plans for Interstate 95 at the LPGA Boulevard interchange in Daytona Beach. More than 250 members of the public showed up for the preview.

Some who attended recognized the need for updating current roadways. Others noted that the project could not come fast enough and urged that the implementation be sped up.

This is exactly the nature of participation we need from every community.

Road work ahead:5 FDOT projects in Volusia bound to have an impact on traffic

Daytona projects:Much-anticipated overhaul of Daytona's East International Speedway Boulevard to begin

Storm recovery:FDOT recommends $100 million buried walls to shore up erosion-plagued sections of S.R. A1A

A highway from Maine to Miami

I-95 is an integral part of our social fabric. As one of the countrys busiest highways, this 1,900-mile corridor connects 110 million people from Maine to Miami. It traverses 15 states and serves as a major freight route, serving 40% of the United States' gross domestic product. Additionally, I95 is also a major hurricane evacuation route on the east coast, providing critical emergency access to millions.

Locally, it is the backbone of regional transportation in East Central Florida. Much of the portion we use daily in Volusia County, a total of 46 miles and 8 interchanges, was designed during the Eisenhower administration and built in the 1960s. In Volusia County, we have enjoyed momentous growth over the past few decades. In the last decade alone, we have experienced 14% growth in our county population, which is expected to reach nearly 675,000 by the year 2045 based on Bureau of Economic and Business Research projections.

Steven Buck, a project development administrator with the Florida Department of Transportation, stands in front of a rendering of a proposed new interchange to replace the existing one at Interstate 95 and LPGA Boulevard at an open house at the clubhouse at LPGA International in Daytona Beach recently.

Past projects

Over the years, federal, state, and local governments have worked together to implement improvements along I95. These include the construction of new interchanges and major modifications to existing interchanges. For example, a $206 million project completed in 2020 made improvements to the I4/I95/US 92 interchange along with widening I95 from four lanes to six lanes from north of State Road 44 to north of US 92. Additionally, there have been operational improvements at the SR 442 and SR 44 interchanges, and a complete resurfacing of I-95.

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Ongoing projects

Currently, four interchange projects are underway in Volusia County.

I-95 at US 1 interchange: A Project Development and Environment Study and Design is concurrently underway for the existing interchange at I-95 and US 1 in Ormond beach. This interchange was constructed as part of the original interstate system and needs modernization to improve its safety and overall operation. The PD&E Study is evaluating improvements to the I-95 interchange as well as the approximately one-mile segment of US 1 between Plantation Oaks Boulevard, Broadway Avenue and Destination Daytona Lane. The purpose of this study is to improve safety, accommodate future travel demand, and enhance pedestrian connectivity. On January 30, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the Moving Florida Forward initiative to expedite transportation projects over the next four years, which includes $340 million in construction funding for this project. Residents are urged to attend the upcoming public hearing scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on March 30 at The Chapel, 1805 US 1, Ormond Beach. More information on the project is available online at https://www.cflroads.com/project/419772-2.

I-95 at LPGA Boulevard interchange: The interchange at I-95 at LPGA Boulevard provides the northern gateway to Daytona Beach. The area has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years. What used to be a rural area back in the 1980s, is now home to several major residential and commercial developments. In addition, a number of new major developments have been approved in the area and many more are coming. This project will improve the interchange as well as widen LPGA Boulevard from US 92 to Williamson Boulevard, including the Tomoka River Bridge,a in coordination with Volusia County and Daytona Beach. The right-of-way is partially funded for fiscal year 2027, while construction is currently unfunded. More information on the project, including alternatives, can be found online at https://www.cflroads.com/project/448456-1.

I-95 at Pioneer Trail interchange: Construction of this project could begin as early as this fall, and would add access/exit to I-95 between SR 421 and SR 44. Without the proposed interchange, the existing interchanges will experience severe congestion given the future development that is already approved and/or underway in the area. The Pioneer Trail interchange will reduce congestion at adjacent interchanges by diverting traffic and providing more travel options. A reduction of up to 70% in travel delays is expected at the SR 421 interchange and 75% at the SR 44 interchange. The construction cost is expected to be around $100 million and the project is currently funded. More information on the project is available online at https://www.cflroads.com/project/436292-1.

I-95 at Maytown Road interchange: This interchange is being coordinated with Volusia County and is planned to be funded by the Miami Corporation to help accommodate their development in the area. The project is included in the Connect 2045 Long Range Transportation Plan and the 2022 Volusia County Comprehensive Plan. However, the project has not gone through state and federal planning, project development or environmental approval processes.

Future plans

Looking ahead, the Florida Department of Transportation is embarking on a strategic plan for I95 to develop a long-term, shared vision with the members of the communities and local stakeholders along the corridor. The plan will include all applicable modes of transportation and will address various goals with respect to mobility, safety, resiliency/environment, and technology. Community engagement will be a key aspect of the project, and everyone is invited to share ideas and feedback in an open, inclusive, and respectful setting.

Despite how much has changed since it was built in the 1960s, I-95 continues to be vital to the communities around it.

Maryam Ghyabi-White is the CEO & President of Ghyabi Consulting & Management, LLC and serves as an adjunct professor at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She is also a consultant to FDOT and local governments on complex infrastructure projects throughout the State of Florida. She serves as Vice Chair of the St. Johns Water Management District. She is also an avid supporter of Pace Center for Girls and serves on the National Board of Directors.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Major projects coming for I-95 corridor in Volusia County
The Arizona Department of Transportation has issued the next round of freeway closures and restrictions for the upcoming weekend, impacting highways across the Valley.

Notable closures will be seen along stretches of Interstate 17 and U.S. 60 with restrictions only slated for westbound I-10.

The arrival of Taylor Swift touching down in Glendale ("Swift City") will create a mix of concert and regular commuting traffic toward the West Valley, causing much busier than normal conditions on area freeways. Heavy traffic is expected for both nights of Swift's Era's Tour beginning Friday afternoon, March 17 and Saturday night, March 18.

As always, drivers are advised to allow for extra time and plan alternate routes. Additionally, drivers should be prepared to slow down and merge safely when venturing through work zones. Travel and roadway conditions can always be checked at az511.gov to stay up to date.

No "Bad Blood" en route to "Swift City" please

Details: A busy afternoon is expected to hit westbound Interstate 10 in Phoenix as well as Loop 101 (Agua Fria Freeway) in Glendale ("Swift City") on Friday afternoon, prior to the kick-off of The Era's Tour. Heavy traffic is also anticipated on the second night of Swift's Glendale stay, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, March 18.

ADOT is advising fans traveling to the concert from Chandler or the southeast Valley to consider using westbound/northbound Loop 202 (South Mountain Freeway) to bypass I-10 in the downtown Phoenix area.

Parking down at State Farm Stadium opens at noon, with doors and gates to follow at 4:30 p.m., with the show slated to start at 6:30 p.m.

Glendale will be closing these Loop 101 on-ramps from approximately 5 to 7 p.m. to assist with traffic flow:

Northbound: Indian School Road, Camelback Road and Cardinals Way

Southbound: Glendale Avenue

Concertgoers are advised to practice patience after the concert and be prepared for even heavier freeway traffic along stretches of Loop 101 and I-10 in the West Valley.

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Glendale plans to close the north and southbound Loop 101 off-ramps at Cardinals Way, as well as the Loop 101 HOV off-ramps at Maryland Avenue, from around 9 to 11:59 p.m.

Southbound Interstate 17 closed between Pinnacle Peak and Union Hills

Details: The southbound I-17 will be closed between Pinnacle Peak Road and Union Hills Drive for a pavement improvement project. The following ramps will also be closed:

Both Loop 101 ramps to southbound I-17

Southbound I-17 ramps to Loop 101

Southbound I-17 on-ramps at Jomax and Happy Valley roads

When: 9 p.m. Friday, March 17 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 20

Alternate Routes: Southbound I-17 drivers can exit ahead of the closure and use southbound 19th Avenue to reach eastbound Loop 101 or keep heading south to travel past the closure.

Eastbound US 60 closed between McClintock and Country Club drives

Details: Eastbound U.S. 60 will be closed between McClintock and Country Club drives for a pavement improvement project. The following ramps will also be closed:

Both Loop 101 ramps to eastbound U.S. 60

Eastbound U.S. 60 on-ramps at Mill Avenue and Rural Road

When: 9 p.m. Friday, March 17 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 20

Alternate Routes: Drivers can use eastbound Loop 202 (Red Mountain or Santan Freeways) as alternate freeway routes. Eastbound U.S. 60 drivers can exit ahead of the closure using eastbound Baseline Road or Southern Avenue to travel beyond the closure.

Westbound Interstate 10 narrowed between Riggs Road and Gila River Bridge

Details: Westbound I-10 will be narrowed to one lane overnights between Riggs Road and the Gila River Bridge (near State Route 587).

When: 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday, March 19 through Thursday, March 23

Westbound Interstate 10 narrowed at Watson and Miller roads

Details: Westbound I-10 will be narrowed to one lane between two miles east of Watson Road to one mile west of Miller Road for a widening project.

When: 9 p.m. Friday, March 17 to 12 p.m. Sunday, March 19

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Freeway closures issued for Phoenix area, Taylor Swift concerts
Heavy rains from a series of atmospheric river storms have filled another San Luis Obispo County lake to the brink of spilling for the first time in more than two decades.

Lopez Lake near Arroyo Grande was at 92.6% capacity as of Friday afternoon, according to data from SLO County Public Works, a massive gain from where it was just three months ago.

As recently as Dec. 10, Lopez was at a mere 22% of capacity. On Jan. 1, it was at 24%.

Less than a week ago, however, the reservoir had improved to 66% filled.

The combination of multiple atmospheric rivers in January and March now have it nearly at capacity.

Its definitely going to spill, San Luis Obispo County Public Works Department spokeswoman Paula McCambridge told The Tribune. Its the last of the (county-maintained) reservoirs to reach 100% capacity.

McCambridge said because the reservoir continues to fill with runoff from the recent storm, the lake level is rising each day. If the region got no more rain, she said Public Works estimates Lake Lopez would spill in about eight days.

Tuesdays storm could be enough to put it over the top, she said.

McCambridge said the last time the reservoir spilled was in 1999. In the lakes more than five decades in operation, it has spilled 18 times in total, she added.

As of Friday afternoon, the water level at Lopez Lake was at 518 feet, while the spillway level is at 522 feet, according to Public Works.

The reservoir, which was established in 1968, can store a maximum of 49,388 acre-feet of water and contained 45,751 acre-feet of water as of Friday, according to the data. It is also used for recreational activities such as boating, camping, fishing and mountain biking and also provides water to residents of the Five Cities area of SLO County.

The view of Lopez Lake from the Hi Mountain Condor Lookout Aug. 4, 2010.

Public Works to monitor for flooding impacts from lake spilling

Although the lake hasnt spilled in 24 years, McCambridge said Public Works has ensured that the condition of the spillway itself  which will direct the overflowing water into Arroyo Grande Creek  has been maintained through that time with regular maintenance and inspections.

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We want the public to know that the reservoirs arent something that come to our attention just in the case of heavy rains, she said. Its our highest priority, public safety. So we dont wait to react to situations.

According to McCambridge, when the reservoir does spill, the Public Works Department will keep a close eye on stream gauges and perform on-site monitoring to watch out for potential flooding along the creek area.

It is possible that there would be flooding, she said. If we have a high-impact storm, we are expecting a lot of water.

Oceano in particular has already been at risk of flooding throughout this winters extreme storms thanks to its location near the Arroyo Grande Creek Levee. During recent storms, officials issued evacuation warnings and in some cases, orders, as water levels rose in the area.

McCambridge said if there is a need for an evacuation due to an extreme influx of water in the creek during the next storm, the county is prepared to issue orders immediately.

Weve got boots on the ground and people at their computers, and so at the earliest sign of information that the public needs to have, the public will have it, she said.

Two other SLO County reservoirs already spilling

Lopez Lake would the the third local reservoir to reach capacity this winter.

Earlier this week, Whale Rock Reservoir near Cayucos spilled for the first time in 18 years.

The last time Whale Rock was close to capacity was in May 2019 when it reached 90%.

By the afternoon of March 11, the reservoir reached 111% capacity.

And Santa Margarita Lake has been overflowing into the Salinas River since Jan. 9.

It was at 105% of capacity as of Friday.
An arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin has been issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which accuses him of war crimes by taking hundreds of Ukrainian children from orphanages.

The court accuses Mr Putin and his childrens rights commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, of unlawful deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

It means the courts 123 member states must detain Mr Putin and him over for trial if he sets foot on their territory.

He becomes only the third serving president in history to be issued a warrant, after Sudans Omar al-Bashir and Libyas Muammar Gaddafi.

It is one of the most ambitious cases that the ICC has undertaken, and the symbolism of the first warrant issued over Russias invasion is marked by going right to the top of the Kremlin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it a historic decision, from which historic responsibility will begin.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia does not recognise the ICC and considers its decisions legally void. Ex-president Dmitry Medvedev described the warrants as toilet paper.

ICC chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, said that many of these children, we allege, have since been given up for adoption in the Russian Federation and that a Russian law change has made it easier for the children to be adopted by families.

We must ensure that those responsible for alleged crimes are held accountable and that children are returned to their families and communities... we cannot allow children to be treated as if they are the spoils of war, Mr Khan said.

Ms Lvova-Belova said last month she had adopted a child from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, now under Russian control.

Russias invasion has decimated cities across Ukraine (REUTERS)

Its great that the international community has appreciated this work to help the children of our country: that we dont leave them in war zones, that we take them out, that we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people, she said, according to RIA Novosti.

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Mr Khan said multiple, interconnected investigations are continuing. Ukraine is a crime scene that encompasses a complex and broad range of alleged international crimes. We will not hesitate to submit further applications for warrants of arrest when the evidence requires us to do so.

Britains foreign secretary, James Cleverly, welcomed the steps by the ICC to hold those at the top of the Russian regime to account. Work must continue to investigate the atrocities committed, he tweeted.

Andriy Yermak, chief of Ukraines presidential staff, said the warrant was only the beginning. Ukraine has cooperated closely with the ICC and was currently investigating over 16,000 cases of forced children deportation to Russia, he said. It has managed to secure the return of 308 children so far.

Mr Khan opened his investigation into possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine a year ago. He highlighted during four visits that he was looking at alleged crimes against children and the targeting of civilian infrastructure by Moscows repeated missile assaults.

A recent US-backed report by researchers at Yale University said Russia has held at least 6,000 Ukrainian children at sites in Russian-held Crimea. The report identified at least 43 camps and other facilities where Ukrainian children have been held that were part of a large-scale systematic network operated by Moscow.

Although the issue of a warrant is deeply embarrassing for Mr Putin, it is unlikely he will see the inside of a courtroom. Russia signed the Rome Statute in 2000, but never ratified it to become a member of the ICC, and finally withdrew its signature in 2016. The court relies on its 123 member states to enforce arrest warrants. The court's president, Piotr Hofmanski, said in a video statement: The ICC is doing its part of work as a court of law. The judges issued arrest warrants. The execution depends on international cooperation.

The ICC has the power to charge political leaders with waging aggressive war but given that Russia is not a signatory, that avenue was closed off, particularly as Moscow would also use its UN Security Council veto to limit further powers. However, it could leave Mr Putin marooned in his own nation.

Stephen Rapp, US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues under former president Barack Obama, said: This makes Putin a pariah. If he travels, he risks arrest. This never goes away. Russia cannot gain relief from sanctions without compliance with the warrants.

Mr Peskov said Russia found the questions raised by the ICC outrageous and unacceptable. Asked if Mr Putin now feared travelling to countries that recognised the ICC, Mr Peskov said: I have nothing to add on this subject. Thats all we want to say.

The ICC warrant came a day after a UN-backed investigative body accused Russia of committing wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine, including wilful killings and torture, in some cases making children watch loved ones being raped and detaining others alongside dead bodies.
By Jacqui Palumbo, CNN

(CNN) -- A former photojournalist, Aida Muluneh now creates images that pose questions, rather than offering answers.

Muluneh has spent years creating surrealist photographs of stately African women bearing symbols that reckon with conflict, history and power. Painted eye motifs  as well as her subjects' unflinching gaze  represent the need to bear witness, chairs represent seats of influence, and curtains pull back to show the stagecraft of politics.

Now, the Ethiopian artist's images have taken over hundreds of bus shelters in New York, Chicago, Boston and her current home of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, through the exhibition "Aida Muluneh: This is where I am," commissioned by Public Art Fund, a New York City-based nonprofit.

Though Muluneh's work has already served as public art, including open-air exhibitions in Europe, "This is where I am" is her largest public installation to date.

"Whenever I have an opportunity to display my work in very public spaces, I usually engage with those kinds of projects," she said. "I've always believed you have to bring art to the people as well, not only contain it within elite spaces, or museums or galleries."

In one striking image from the installation, titled "To speak in silence," Muluneh uses a recurring object in her work  the traditional Ethiopian coffee pot, or jebena  as a call for open dialogue in her birth country.

Muluneh won't be drawn on exactly what dialogue needs to be had, but in recent years Ethiopia has seen political instability, and armed conflict in the country's Tigray region.

"I come from a culture where we don't speak openly about things. There isn't really open discourse," Muluneh said in a phone interview.

A\u00efda Muluneh's "To speak in silence," on display at a bus shelter.

Courtesy Aida Muluneh Studio

"To speak in silence," as with her other images, bears signifiers instantly recognizable within her culture, Muluneh said. The scene is rendered in the vivid green, yellow and red of Ethiopia's flag, while a seated woman, eyes to the camera, is flanked by twin figures who each hold the curved handle of the jebena. In perfect symmetry, they tilt the vessels, though no liquid spills.

Story continues

"Our coffee ceremony has a lot of symbolism in it... it's a gathering point to have discussions, to enjoy moments, and so forth," Muluneh explained. For her, the jebena "is symbolic as a form of communication."





Poetic inspiration

Across her work, Muluneh uses hand-painted backdrops and body paint on her models  who have been cast from Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast  to heighten the images' potency and dreamlike effect.



She has produced a series around water scarcity for the nonprofit WaterAid, photographed in the inhospitable salt flats of Dallol, Ethiopia, as well as work for Norway's Nobel Peace Center, exploring how hunger is weaponized during war.

The latest body of work takes its name from the poem "This is where I am" by the Ethiopian poet and novelist Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, written in 1974  the year that the Ethiopian Revolution began, and that Muluneh was born. Five years later, Muluneh and her mother left the country, moving to Yemen, England and Cyprus, and eventually, Canada.

The poem's emotionally charged prose is set against the backdrop of war as the protagonist watches on in horror, bearing the weight of responsibility.

Gabre-Medhin "expresses this sense of helplessness or frustration" in dealing with the impact of war, Muluneh explains  "all these things that as artists, we become witnesses to. We play a role in documenting those moments."

A\u00efda Muluneh (pictured center) and two models on set

Aida Muluneh and two models. Courtesy Aida Muluneh Studio

But Muluneh's images are more enigmatic than direct. World events are rarely neat, and Muluneh resists the idea that open discussions mean having to take hardline stances.



"With this body of work, I'm really curious how the reception is going to be from my own people," she said. "But these are the conversations I feel we need to have  regardless of whether people want to have it or not  and I think we spend too much time in silence."

"Aida Muluneh: This is where I am" runs through May at more than 330 bus stops in New York City, Chicago, Boston and Abidjan.

Snap, looks at the power of a single photograph, chronicling stories about how both modern and historical images have been made.

The-CNN-Wire

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Bill Maher celebrated St. Patricks Day on Friday during his Real Time on HBO  or, as he referred to it, Alcoholic Christmas  by bringing up the dangerous parallels between the religious hatreds that fueled politics in last century Ireland and the turmoil in todays United States between Democrats and Republicans.

You cant think about the Irish without thinking about the division, Maher said, harkening back to the violent rebellions that created a fractured society there. Now, the same level of intensity is bubbling between Democrats and Republicans here, he noted. We used to pray for the nation. Now each side prays the other side doesnt destroy the nation.

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Taking excerpts from a speech former President Donald Trump gave recently at the CPAC convention, Maher noted how it reflected an almost Biblical level of intensity about smiting the other side. It was big talk from a guy who cant even shut up his girlfriends, Maher joked, but then noted, Thats where we are. Your fellow citizens arent just wrong. They are heretics that have to be destroyed.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene recently called for a national divorce between red and blue states. She is playing with the kind of fire that made Northern Ireland a living hell, said Maher. Yet he also cited statistics where a full third of voters agree with her and want a national divorce.

Just voicing this idea is dangerous, Maher said. It reinforces the idea that you cant talk to those people.

The problem is that a simple separation is not so simple. There are conservatives who support abortion, and liberals who are against defunding the police, and many more examples where views dont fit into neat boxes that would be at home in states created by ideology.

Story continues

Seems like we need a lot more new countries, Maher said. Or we could just stick with the one.

You cant be a patriot and not be for the whole United part of United States, he emphasized. He suggested that we modify a phrase that is heard frequently on St. Patricks Day, about how everyone is Irish on the day. Instead, how about a motto that indicates, Were all Americans every day, he said.

Earlier in the show, Maher had an interview with Noa Tishby, Israeli actress, producer, and author of the book Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth.

They talked Israel politics, Tishby defending the Israeli actions in Gaza, which she termed institutionalized terrorism.

Maher noted that Israels actions against Palestine are losing traction with liberals, according to polls.

If they spent a day in Gaza, they would see what liberalism is not, Tishby countered.

The panel discussion featured Forward Party founder and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, and Democratic Congresswoman from Michigan Elissa Slotkin.

Yang touted the benefits of his Universal Basic Income plan, while both he and Slotkin tried to explain the mess caused by the collapse of several banks in the last week.

In a funny moment, Maher brought up San Franciscos reparations plans, which would grant $5 million to the descendants of enslaved Black Americans along with a host of other benefits. Even I didnt go this far! said Yang, laughing.

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Brendan Rodgers, pictured, has highlighted the threat of Ivan Toney (Adam Davy/PA) (PA Wire)

Brendan Rodgers has highlighted the threat of Ivan Toney as Leicester prepare to face Brentford on Saturday.

Toney has been in fine goalscoring form again this campaign having notched 16 so far, behind only Erling Haaland and Harry Kane in the Premier League.

The 27-year-old has earned another call-up to Gareth Southgates England squad to face Italy and Ukraine in the Euro 2024 qualifiers.

Ivan has been fantastic, Rodgers told a press conference.

You can see that hes grown since hes come in, he has that confidence, that technical quality but hes a street player also.

Hes aggressive, strong and just an outstanding player so we have to be ready for the team because theyve got some other good players and we collectively have to go and play well as a team to get the result.

Leicesters meeting with Brentford will be the last of this month as teams go into the upcoming international break.

The two sides have contrasting results heading into the match, with Brentford losing just once in 14 league matches and Leicester on a four-game losing streak.

Rodgers said: We will give the players that are here and some of the staff a chance to reset.

Its been a challenging season and thats always important in long and hard seasons but at the same time we will get some work done and welcome the boys back from the international break free of injury.

But then weve got a real run of games that we can look forward to.

Rodgers has dismissed any murmurs about players not trying and insists his squad have always shown fight.

I dont think thats in question  I think the players have given everything, he added.

Clearly, obviously they are not at the height of confidence but I think the players have given everything and I think the frustration is in those costly moments and maybe we do switch off or dont quite get into position and then we get punished by it.

But the players are really really good. An honest group of players and my job is to stay positive with them in this tough moment and we have shown before that we can come through that.

Victor Kristiansen and Jonny Evans are doubts for the trip to the Gtech Community Stadium due to injury.

Fellow defender Wout Faes is suspended as he was sent off late in the 3-1 defeat to Chelsea last weekend after receiving two yellow cards.
Israeli forces shot and killed yet another Palestinian on Friday, adding to the already high number of casualties in the ongoing conflict. This brings the total number of people killed in the conflict this year to 100, with a vast majority of them being Palestinians.

The Palestinian health ministry announced the death of Yazan Omar Jamil Khasib, 23, who died "after the occupation (Israel) opened fire on him at the northern entrance of Al-Bireh" city near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli army said, "soldiers spotted a suspect and asked him to identify himself. The suspect drew a knife and approached the forces who responded by opening fire".

No military personnel was injured in the incident, it added.

In only 76 days, since the start of the year, the Israeli occupation army has claimed the lives of 86 Palestinians, including children.

Thirteen Israeli adults including members of the security forces have been killed over the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official sources from both sides.

Since the 1967 War, Israel has maintained its occupation of the West Bank and Jerusalem, which has been a source of ongoing conflict.

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, adopted in 1967, calls for Israel to withdraw from the territories it occupied in this war, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

* This story has been edited by Ahram Online.

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California's oldest state prison will get overhauled into a "one-of-a-kind" correctional institution that borrows rehabilitation practices from places such as Norway, Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said.

Under the proposed $20 million plan, San Quentin State Prison will be transformed from a maximum-security prison into one focused on rehabilitation and education to improve public safety and reduce recidivism rates in the state, Newsom said. More immediately, it would also be renamed San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.

Newsom visited the prison, located in Marin County on a peninsula north of the Golden Gate Bridge, Friday afternoon to announce the plan, which he said he hopes becomes a model for the nation and world.

"We want to be the preeminent restorative justice facility in the world," Newsom told reporters.

MORE: A new scientific method for bail reform

Officials highlighted high rates of recidivism in California -- two-thirds of people incarcerated in the state will return to prison within three years of their release, according to state Department of Corrections figures.

"We have failed for too long," Newsom said.

PHOTO: Aerial view San Quentin State Prison, July 8, 2020, in San Quentin, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

An advisory group made up of criminal justice, rehabilitation and public safety experts will advise the state on the transformation. Formerly incarcerated individuals, representatives of crime victims and survivors -- a "critical" part of this process, Newsom said -- will also be among the members. The group will be co-chaired by former San Quentin Warden Ron Broomfield and Brie Williams, a professor of medicine at the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations.

Newsom is allocating $20 million in his 2023-24 budget proposal, which will be voted on by the state legislature, to begin the "reimagining and repurposing of the facility," his office said in a statement. Newsom said the goal is to have the plan in place by 2025.

"I'm not naive about how difficult this is going to be," the Democratic governor said. "But we are here with a sense of urgency and a sense of intentionality."

Story continues

MORE: Healing behind bars: San Quentin inmates release hip-hop mixtape

The San Quentin plan is the latest in the Democratic governor's efforts to reform the state's prison system, which have included ending the state's use of private for-profit prisons and placing a moratorium on executions in the state.

San Quentin's death row unit, the nation's largest, is being shut down and all condemned inmates moved to other prisons. Both the existing condemned row housing unit and a Prison Industry Authority warehouse "will be transformed into a center for innovation focused on education, rehabilitation and breaking cycles of crime," Newsom's office said.

The model in Norway -- known for its low recidivism rates and emphasis on humanity in the prison system -- has inspired practices in other facilities in California's state prison system, as well as in North Dakota, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

The Anti-Recidivism Coalition, an advocacy group that works to end mass incarceration, called California's plan a "massive move towards rehabilitation."

PHOTO: California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks inside a warehouse at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., Mar. 17, 2023. (Eric Risberg/AP)

The governor's plan has faced some pushback from state lawmakers over what the changes mean for victims and how it would work.

Republican state Assemblymember Tom Lackey said the proposal has "zero consideration for the victims of crimes." Republican state Assemblymember Joe Patterson said he was "skeptical" of the program "given the secret prison releases by this administration."

When asked what the greatest challenge will be in getting the plan done, Newsom said, "Fires, droughts, social unrest, pandemics," before pointing to the team of state leaders who joined him at Friday's press briefing and saying, "Committed people find ways of getting things done."

PHOTO: Incarcerated men visit with California Gov. Gavin Newsom after he spoke inside an empty warehouse at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., Mar. 17, 2023. (Eric Risberg/AP)

Newsom said the new plan is "building off the success" of other rehabilitation programs in San Quentin, which is known for its own accredited liberal arts degree program, a popular podcast "Ear Hustle" and the inmate-produced newspaper the San Quentin News.

Broomfield, who until co-chairing the advisory group was the prison's warden, said the plan will "enhance and scale the efforts we have taken here for many years, and it will give San Quentin more resources, more programming space and more support needed to bring true innovation and culture change to our department."

California Gov. Newsom announces new vision for San Quentin State Prison: 'We have failed for too long' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
MILAN  Apparel interlinings manufacturer Chargeurs PCC has been providing structure, literally, to fashion for more than half a century. Now, the company is ready to scale up the business via sustainable luxury fashion, acquisitions and services.

Much of Chargeurs strength has laid in the companys ability to evolve and adjust, and to sense where the market was headed, for example, fashions embrace of stretch fabrics for enhanced practicality.

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Weve always pioneered and championed innovation, said Gianluca Tanzi, Chargeurs PCCs chairman and chief executive officer, referencing the warp knit weft insert conceived more than 50 years ago in partnership with loom maker Karl Mayer.

The second driver of growth is that weve grown into a multinational company with widespread distribution. We develop a global collection aimed at all clients across regions, he said, highlighting that Chargeurs PCC has 30 regional offices.

In 2022, the company posted 220 million euros in sales, up 33.4 percent versus the previous year.

Sustaining momentum is Tanzis main task going forward.

The company generates the bulk of its revenues in the U.S., followed by France and Italy, where the luxury industry is overperforming and beating other segments.

Its global presence has come in handy to tap into emerging markets, too, including Colombia and Peru, currently go-to manufacturing hubs for garment-makers in the American continent. Plus, the company has leaned into its expertise to serve nascent luxury fashion businesses, including in Asia, where it is courting local designers.

In addition to growing our market share and opening new markets, Turkey and Mexico currently being the ones on our radar, we believe that we should be able to sell products from different categories to our existing clients, Tanzi said.

The executive is confident that the companys diversification  for instance it also owns the Senfa enterprise located in Frances Alsace region that specializes in coatings  will help Chargeurs exploit new business avenues and simultaneously bank on cross-selling.

Story continues

Its wide-ranging products includes interlinings weighing around half an ounce that are particularly useful for tulle gowns, but also linings and paddings.

The latter category includes the trademarked Nativa woolen stuffing, a luxurious alternative to man-made fibers and down typically employed for puffers.

Through its a Nativa product, Chargeurs forged ties with Gucci, inking a four-year, renewable partnership for the supply of the trademarked blockchain-backed woolen padding sourced from regenerative agriculture farms.

Chargeurs Luxury Fibers trademarked Nativa woolen padding.

The product was developed and distributed through the companys Chargeurs Luxury Fibers division and includes 100 percent woolen paddings, as well as a soon-to-launch product blending of 50 percent Thindown and 50 percent wool, both partially recycled.

The executive noted that the company generates 30 percent of its overall revenues from sustainable products.

We are most dedicated to clients operating in the luxury segment, he said, noting how premium companies are also a driver in research and development. Case in point, the Zero-Water interlinings dyed with a waterless formula were the result of couture clients upping the ante on their sustainability requests.

With R&D centers spread across production sites and three Innovation Studios strategically located in Milan, Paris and New York, key cities for the fashion business, Tanzi highlighted the companys speed in developing new solutions.

Counting 7,000 clients overall, including European and U.S. designer brands and haute couture houses, the company sees further growth opportunities in the M&A space.

Chargeurs PCC is part of France-based Chargeurs, a holding company publicly listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, and its current composition is the result of acquisitions made over the years, of Peronne, France-based Lainiere de Picardie in 1972, and PCC in 2018.

We are always very attentive to opportunities and our goal is to grow both organically and by way of M&A activities geared at acquiring know-how and markets where we are lagging behind, he said.

He dodged questions about whether the company has already spotted an acquisition target, beyond saying the team is carefully assessing a few businesses.

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Determined is a word that best describes Rosemary Dew Blanchard.

Whether reeling in a catch while deep sea fishing off the North Carolina shores or learning to ride horses at age 57, Blanchard would say: It isnt life that matters so much, its the courage you bring to it, her son George Blanchard III told The Charlotte Observer.

A Virginia native and longtime Charlotte resident, Blanchard died Feb. 9 at age 99.

The eldest of four children, she was the first person in her family to go to college.

Blanchard was 16 when she started her studies at Roanoke College in Virginia, graduating with a bachelors degree in biology and chemistry. In 1940, 3.8% of women had completed four years or more of college, according to Statista, a market and consumer data company.

She always wanted to make a contribution to society, her son said. She was interested in the medical field and wanted to make a difference.

Rosemary Dew Blanchard was involved for many years with the Charlotte Symphony.

A path to science and love

After graduating college, Blanchard was invited to work at the University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville on cutting-edge science research developing electroencephalogram device in the emerging field of brain wave studies. The EEG was revolutionary at the time, her son said.

Blanchard would spend nine years conducting lab research there, where in 1951, she earned a masters degree in speech pathology. She also met her groom-to-be, George Blanchard Jr., who was studying to be a neurosurgeon.

A year later, they married.

Rosemary and George Jr. Blanchard met when she was working in the lab at University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

From science to the symphony

In 1954, after their son was born, the Blanchards moved to a home in Charlottes Plaza Midwood neighborhood.

As George Blanchard Jr. set up his neurosurgeon practice, his brides focus turned from her career to making a difference in the community.

She always put other people first, George III said. Looking through family photos, he said he realized she was the one behind the camera, not in front of the camera.

While a stay-at-home mom for George III and her daughter Jane, born in 1956, Blanchard became committed to growing arts and culture in Charlotte, mostly working with the Charlotte Symphony for over 20 years.

Story continues

She was not a musician but had a deep appreciation for the music, George III said. His father, who died in 1983, also loved music and played a little piano.

She served on the board of directors and president of the Symphony Womens Association, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra board and as chairwoman of the search committee that brought Maestro Leo Dreihuys to Charlotte.

Driehuys, who died in 2019, arrived in Charlotte in 1977 from the Netherlands, leading a Charlotte Symphony of part-time musicians, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. When he retired in 1993, he had doubled the number of full-time musicians in the orchestra, led them on a European tour and was playing in a state-of-the-art uptown venue uptown he helped push for.

Leo Driehuys was the eighth music director for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. He held the role from 1977 to 1993.

Blanchard involvement in the orchestra led to a meeting with First Lady Nancy Reagan at The White House in the 1980s and took her to Poland in the 1990s.

Blanchard also was a founding member of the North Carolina Association of Symphonies and The Charlotte Assembly social organization. She was involved in other local groups, too, including the Arts & Science Council, the Mint Museum Auxiliary and the Golden Circle Theatre.

She inspired me to be involved in the arts myself, said George III, who earned a drama degree in theater from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He also went on to earn a special education degree.

She encouraged us to try, and always pointed you in the right direction, he said.

Rosemary Blanchard in the late 1960s with her two children, son George III and daughter Jane, who died in 2020.

Kind, fun and accomplished parents

George said his mother put her family first, even sitting through a Jimmie Hendrix concert in 1969 when his parents had to take his sister to the concert because he didnt want to sit with her.

Blanchard loved roses of any color, the PBS television series Downton Abbey and of course, classical music. She was an impeccable dresser and great cook.

Family friend Margaret Ducky Calhoun Hemenway praised Blanchards chipped beef on toast for breakfast and red snapper caught at Litchfield Beach in South Carolina, on the Kenneth W. Poe Funeral & Cremation Service website. Jane and George were blessed to have two kind, fun and accomplished parents who made their homes such joy-filled and inviting places, she said.

Blanchard also loved her friends, who she would meet up with weekly when she was able to shop and dine out, said Patricia Tolbert, Blanchards caregiver of nine years.

She was my employer, friend, mother. Thats how she treated me, and she loved all her friends.
Minnesota agencies announced this week they are monitoring the cleanup of about 400,000 gallons of radioactive water that leaked from a nuclear generating plant near Minneapolis this past fall.

The leak at the Xcel Energy plant in Monticello was not revealed to the public until now because it "poses no health and safety risk to the local community or the environment," according to the Minneapolis-based utility company.

"We have taken comprehensive measures to address this situation on-site at the plant," Chris Clark, president of Xcel EnergyMinnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, said in a statement Thursday. "While this leak does not pose a risk to the public or the environment, we take this very seriously and are working to safely address the situation."

PHOTO: Xcel Energy's nuclear generating plant in Monticello, Minnesota, March 17, 2023. (KSTP)

The leak was detected by routine groundwater monitoring systems and confirmed on Nov. 22, 2022, according to Xcel Energy, which said it notified the state and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that day.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are monitoring the cleanup at the plant, which located is along the Mississippi River, about 40 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

"The leak has been stopped and has not reached the Mississippi River or contaminated drinking water sources, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said in a statement Thursday. "There is no evidence at this time to indicate a risk to any drinking water wells in the vicinity of the plant."

MORE: FBI adds $50K reward in NC power station attacks, as sheriff accuses utility company of stonewalling

Xcel Energy said the leaked water contains levels of tritium -- a byproduct of the production of electricity by nuclear power plants that emits low levels of radiation -- that are below Nuclear Regulatory Commission safety thresholds. The company said it has been pumping, storing and processing the water for reuse and has so far recovered about 25% of the tritium released.

Story continues

Ongoing monitoring from more than two dozen wells has determined the leaked water is "fully contained on-site" and has not been detected in any local drinking water, Xcel Energy said.

PHOTO: Xcel Energy's nuclear generating plant in Monticello, Minnesota, March 17, 2023. (KSTP)

"We continue to gather and treat all potentially affected water while regularly monitoring nearby groundwater sources," Clark said. "We will continue to partner with local groundwater specialists, and we remain in close cooperation with state and federal regulators and our local community throughout the remediation effort."

State agencies are also reviewing data, including the well-sampling results, while monitoring the cleanup, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said.

"Our top priority is protecting residents and the environment," Kirk Koudelka, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's assistant commissioner for land and strategic initiatives, said in a statement. "We are working to ensure this cleanup is concluded as thoroughly as possible with minimal or no risk to drinking water supplies."

MORE: Ohio sues Norfolk Southern over East Palestine toxic train derailment

The leak occurred in a water pipe that runs between two buildings. Water is being diverted to an in-plant water treatment system to prevent water from leaving the plant until a permanent solution can be installed this spring, Xcel Energy said. An inspection found no other leaks, according to the company, which added it will examine the pipe that leaked "to better understand why this happened."

When tritium-contaminated water leaks occur, they are usually contained to the power plant property or "involve such low offsite levels of tritium that they do not affect public health and safety," the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

Cleanup underway after 400,000 gallons of radioactive water leaked from nuclear power plant originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Concordia University Wisconsin closed three satellite campus centers throughout the state at the end of January, including its Appleton location on College Avenue.

Even though the doors closed at the Appleton, Madison and Milwaukee (Miller Parkway) centers on Jan. 31, the university has and will continue to serve students who used those locations through virtual instruction. The centers were mainly used for continuing education programs and other adult learners.

The main Mequon campus remains open.

While virtual learning was a "steep" adjustment for many students, over time, the students in the continuing education programs housed at the satellite centers came to prefer online learning over in-person, according to a letter from the university obtained by The Post-Crescent.

"Over time, most of our accelerated students came to prefer the flexibility and expanded course offerings that our online format affords," the letter said.

More:Student success, staff support and mental health among top priorities for candidates for Appleton school board

The letter, written by then interim president Bill Cario, said closing the centers to in-person learning allows the university to be "better stewards" of its resources by creating more financial opportunities and course offerings.

"... The centers have allowed us to promote Concordias educational mission to communities that might not have otherwise had access to a Concordia education. But as with many things in education, the centers time has passed," Cario wrote in the letter.

More:Menasha school district selects Matthew Zimmerman as new superintendent

Reach AnnMarie Hilton at ahilton@gannett.com or 920-370-8045. Follow her on Twitter at @hilton_annmarie.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Concordia University closed Appleton, Madison and Milwaukee centers


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Over the last few years, Dakota Johnson has continuously made a statement at the Hollywood events she's invited to. While most folks wouldn't wear her daring outfits themselves, Dakota does have moments that inspire them to look for their own version online.

Back in May 2017, the Fifty Shades of Grey actress traveled to Florence, Italy to attend the Gucci Cruise 2018 fashion show. Instead of showing up in something avant-garde, Dakota drew attention with a black halter-style midi dress with a deep V-neckline. The dress' pattern also played into the theme of summer, mixing both floral and polka dot prints. What's more, a pearl-encrusted bow was strategically placed at the midriff to marry both the top and bottom parts of the dress, which was backless.

To keep in line with the breezy feel of the outfit, Dakota made the rest of her appearance just as effortless.

Vittorio Zunino Celotto - Getty Images

WWD - Getty Images

While the Cha Cha Real Smooth star's dress was black with pops of floral, she accentuated the color pink with a velvet embroidered purse as her accessory. She also chose a pair of metallic slides for shoes and minimal jewelry, including a simple necklace and rings. Dakota pulled her long hair back into a chic half-up, half-down style. Finishing off the look, she swiped on black eyeshadow and a neutral lip color.

When Gucci posted the actress' appearance at the event on Instagram, followers couldn't believe how great she looked. They proceeded to let the fashion brand (and by association, Dakota) know so in the comments.

"Dakota is quite a goddess," one person wrote in the Instagram comments section. "Beauty Queen ," a different user agreed. "My girl killing it ," another added.

While splurging on a Gucci dress may be something people are interested in, there are other ways to achieve the same look for a lot less. We pulled some great options that will have you feeling as carefree as Dakota. Take a look at the choices below and have fun shopping!

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Iranian-American artist Davood Roostaei passed away suddenly this week in Los Angeles, where he has called home for the last 23 years, his publicists at Anderson Group told TheWrap on Friday.

Roostaei was born in Iran in 1959 and studied at Tehrans Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1970s, until the Islamic Revolution made that impossible. He was jailed for two years for his art that was deemed subversive by the new regime. After his release, he sought asylum in Hamburg, Germany, where he embraced the neo-expressionism die neue Wilde style. He gave up brushes and began to paint with only his fingers and went on to create a technique he called Cryptorealism.

As he explained in 2022, Cryptorealism is an expression of hidden meaning revealed through layered imagery, which requires active participation by the observer.

Also Read:

Lance Reddick Remembered by James Gunn, Ben Stiller, Wendell Pierce: A Man of Great Strength and Grace

Famous collectors of Roostaeis work include Paul McCartney, Anthony Hopkins and Hillary Clinton. His paintings are currently on display at Beijings Museum of Contemporary Art, Vancouver Fine Art Gallery and Pashmin Art Gallery in Shanghai and in Hamburg. Many of Roostaeis works have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In January, L.A. art critic Peter Frank wrote about Roostaei in Whitehot Magazine, saying The painter, himself tossed about on the swells of history  not just art history, but human history  has devised a method for displaying and hiding both image and meaning

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Bobby Caldwell, What You Wont Do For Love Singer, Dies at 71
Djimon Hounsou has been acting in prestigious dramas and big-budget blockbusters for decades, but he says he's still fighting for proper recognition and fair pay in Hollywood.

In a new interview with the Guardian, the Shazam! Fury of the Gods star, 58, said that he feels "cheated" by the inequalities he's experienced and is "still struggling to try to make a dollar" after years of hard work.

"I've come up in the business with some people who are absolutely well off and have very little of my accolades," Hounsou said. "So I feel cheated, tremendously cheated, in terms of finances and in terms of the workload as well. I still have to prove why I need to get paid. They always come at me with a complete low ball: 'We only have this much for the role, but we love you so much and we really think you can bring so much.'"

He added that fellow actor Viola Davis "said it beautifully: she's won an Oscar, she's won an Emmy, she's won a Tony and she still can't get paid. Film after film, it's a struggle. I have yet to meet the film that paid me fairly."

Djimon Hounsou

Karwai Tang/WireImage Djimon Hounsou

Hounsou, who grew up in Benin and France before moving to the U.S. to pursue acting, felt iniquities from the early days of his career. He first broke out with a leading role in Steven Spielberg's historical drama Amistad, and though his performance was critically acclaimed, Hounsou was overlooked for an Oscar nomination while his costar Anthony Hopkins received one.

"Maybe I was early," Hounsou told the Guardian. "If my movies had come out today I definitely would have gotten an Oscar already."

Hounsou did eventually earn Oscar nominations for 2003's In America and 2006's Blood Diamond. But for the latter film, his costar Leonardo DiCaprio received the Best Actor nomination, slotting Hounsou into the Best Supporting Actor category despite the film focusing on his character.

"I felt seriously cheated," Hounsou admitted. "Today, we talk so much about the Oscars being so white, but I remember there was a time where I had no support at all: no support from my own people, no support from the media, from the industry itself. It felt like: 'You should be happy that you've got nominated,' and that's that."

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Still, Hounsou did credit his most recent role in the Shazam sequel as an improvement in the types of work he's offered, giving him more significant screen time and a comedic part.

"Out of them all, the DC universe has a level of respect," he said. "There wasn't much to the role at first and I did it and it was fun. But the second time around it was a little more respectful."

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Simply put: On the confidentiality agreements, we went too far.

When we assembled the framework for our Safe Space Coalition to address sexual misconduct on Delaware State University campuses, it became clear that the hard, but necessary, discussions would entail the examination of sensitive information. We could not make students full partners in the process without granting them access to that information, and transparency has been a key operating principle of this effort.

I, along with my senior advisors, initially determined that everyone working on this coalition  faculty, staff, and students alike  should be bound by our normal Confidentiality Policy in order to protect personal information about survivor stories. I agreed largely because I would not want highly sensitive information to be shared inappropriately or leaked in social and traditional media outlets without the consent of survivors themselves. The commitment to the privacy of survivors was reinforced after the town hall I held with the students in January. They deserve to share their stories without fear of public comment or retribution.

Delaware State University President Tony Allen spoke at the university's graduate commencement ceremony on May 12, 2022.

But FIRE  the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression  and others, including the press, are also correct that we could have better tailored our message. Our intention was to honor and respect survivors privacy; we never intended to silence debate or comment. In fact, since the January protest, we have been open and transparent in our communication, outlining our near-term strategies  convening two public report outs, one to the University and one in a parent forum open to all  developing a Safe Space Coalition landing page at www.desu.edu/ssc easily accessible to the general public, and continuing to commit to monthly report outs on the coalitions work. In fact, on Friday, March 17, we announced the April 25 convening of a public Safe Space conference to talk specifically about sexual assault awareness and education.

Earlier:National free-speech watchdog, ACLU pen letters to Delaware State condemning student NDAs

Our view:Enough with free-speech limits at Delaware State. President Allen, please fix it

I was resolute at the start of this process that instead of writing a memo in the moment and walking away, I wanted the campus community to lean in. Across the higher education space, 1 in 4 women report incidences of sexual assault. We also know that such instances are underreported and not just limited to heterosexual interactions.

Nonetheless, the responsibility for the confidentiality agreements is mine.

Our students are the great-grandchildren of the young men who came to Delaware State College at the beginning of World War II to learn to fly so that they could join the Tuskegee Airmen to fight for their country despite segregation and prejudice. Some of them never came home.

They are the grandchildren of the students who led sit-ins at local diners against Jim Crow, and who marched fearlessly in 1968 to protest both the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and adverse conditions on campus. They did not retreat when Delawares governor ordered in the State Police and National Guard, or even when the college expelled several student leaders.

They are the peers of those students who took peacefully to the streets a few years back to protest the violent deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

They are the fellow students of the student-athletes who, not a quite a year ago, showed poise and courage in the face of an unconstitutional, race-based stop and search in south Georgia.

They are, in short, young people who have learned from the history that our faculty has taught them that Frederick Douglass was right: Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.

They deserve our unwavering support in the face of adversity and if we want them to be a part of the solutions to the Universitys most pressing concerns, they need to know that such a process is clear and transparent.

So where do we go from here?

I have informed the Board of Trustees that the University will be dropping the requirement for a confidentiality agreement to participate in the Safe Space Coalition. The onus of ensuring that sensitive material is handled correctly falls on the leaders I have assigned to these working groups, who will need to build an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect with their student collaborators.

This is not going to be easy or pretty. There are raw truths to be examined on all sides. Leaders make decisions, and therefore they also make mistakes. The leaders I admire own up to their mistakes and fix them. Thats who I aspire to be, and the example I want to set for our students and our community.

I know we wont be right all the time, but were still leaning in.

Tony Allen is president of Delaware State Univerisity.

Tony Allen

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware State University President: non-disclosure agreements wrong
The East St. Louis city clerk has been charged with misdemeanor election interference.

City Clerk Debra Hamilton-Tidwell, 67, is accused of using her official title and signature along with city letterhead during an ad campaign to promote her re-election, according to authorities.

She faces one count of election interference, a Class B misdemeanor, in St. Clair County court.

When reached by phone Friday, Hamilton-Tidwell referred questions to her lawyer, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

Hamilton-Tidwell previously spoke to a columnist for the St. Louis American newspaper this month about an allegation that she used official city clerk letterhead to solicit campaign donations in violation of state law.

The March 4 column stated that Hamilton-Tidwell told the columnist she was unaware of the violation and has ceased using the letterhead in her solicitations.

The Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation Special Investigations Unit started investigating an election allegation against Hamilton-Tidwell on Feb. 6, the agency stated Friday in a news release.

The St. Clair County States Attorneys office approved the charge on Wednesday, and Hamilton-Tidwell surrendered herself to the St. Clair County Sheriffs office on Thursday.

She has been released from custody after posting bond. Her first court appearance is scheduled for June 1.

Illinois State Police said Friday the investigation was open and ongoing and no further information would be released.
Western officials are hoping for progress this weekend in EU-mediated talks between Serbia and Kosovo's leaders, in a new attempt to ease decades of tensions between the Balkan wartime foes and solve one of Europe's longest-standing disputes.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti are to meet on Saturday at North Macedonia's lakeside resort of Ohrid.

They tentatively agreed last month to the wording of an 11-point EU plan to normalize relations following the neighbors' 1998-1999 war and Kosovos declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008.

Both countries hope to join the European Union one day, and have been told they must first mend their relations.

Solving the dispute has become more important as war rages in Ukraine and fears mount that Russia could try to stir instability in the volatile Balkans where it holds historic influence.

This is the time for the leaders of Kosovo, Serbia, and of the entire Western Balkans to show courage and to demonstrate shared responsibility for the success of the EU accession process of the region, said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who will chair Saturday's meeting.

He said the talks will focus on how to implement the EU plan that calls for the two countries to maintain good neighborly relations and recognize each others official documents and national symbols.

If implemented, it would prevent Belgrade from blocking Kosovos attempts to seek membership in the United Nations and other international organizations.

The tentative agreement, drafted by France and Germany and supported by the U.S., doesnt explicitly call for mutual recognition between Kosovo and Serbia.

We will focus our discussion on the Implementation Annex of the recent EU Agreement that will result in the far-reaching normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, Borrell wrote in a blog.

Both together will, in essence, result in the normalization of life of people in the region and open Kosovos and Serbias respective paths towards joining the EU.

Although tentatively agreeing on the EU plan reached last month, Serbia's populist President Vucic seemed to backtrack on some of its points after pressure from far-right groups which consider Kosovo the cradle of the Serbian state and Orthodox religion.

Vucic said Thursday that he won't sign anything at the Ohrid meeting and earlier pledged never to recognize Kosovo or allow its U.N. membership.

On the other hand, Kurti said the implementation of what was already agreed upon should be the focus of the Ohrid talks.

Im an optimist but it is not up to me whether this will succeed or not, Kurti said. I offered to sign the European proposal (at the last meeting in Brussels) but the other side was not ready and refused.

Thousands of far-right Serbian supporters, chanting Treason, Treason," marched in downtown Belgrade Friday evening demanding that Vucic reject the latest EU plan. They carried a large banner reading No to Capitulation and called for the Serbian presidents resignation if he signs the plan.

Kosovo is a majority ethnic Albanian former Serbian province. The 1998-99 war erupted when separatist ethnic Albanians rebelled against Serbias rule, and Belgrade responded with a brutal crackdown.

About 13,000 people died, mostly ethnic Albanians. In 1999 a NATO military intervention forced Serbia to pull out of the territory. Kosovo declared independence in 2008.

Tensions have simmered ever since. Kosovo's independence is recognized by many Western countries but is opposed by Belgrade with the backing of Russia and China. EU-brokered talks have made little headway in recent years.

Serbia has maintained close ties to its traditional Slavic ally Russia despite the war in Ukraine, partly because of Moscows opposition to Kosovos independence and a possible veto on its U.N. membership at the Security Council.

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WORCESTER - It wouldnt take much thought for a shopper walking past Erin Giftstore to realize the kiosk at the middle section of the Worcester Public Market brings a piece of Irish culture to the city.

Since February, flatcaps and newsboy caps, wool mitts, scarves and sweaters with braided knitting and Celtic insignia and shamrocks on jewelry, have added a bit of green to Worcester, a city which Ireland-born-and-raised Jennifer Courville has called home since 1990.

The Irish heritage in the U.S., and especially in Worcester, is so important, said Courville. People have kept it alive for generations and I find that extremely impressive. That means a lot to me, especially as I grow older and I'm far away from where I'm from.

Jennifer Courville, owner of Erin Giftstore at Worcester Public Market, talks with a customer.

Courville  whose maiden name is Lane  imports all the goods at Erin Giftstore from Ireland with few exceptions with the help of her siblings living there.

Her brothers lead a family business with roots in their fathers ambition to sell wool knitwear which started in 1964.

For the Lane family, who operated under the name Erin Knitwear, it was very much a family business in which both parents and children were involved.

The name of the business was inspired from the phonetic spelling of the Irish language pronunciation of Eirinn.

I want people who are of Irish (origins) to feel that they are in an Irish store. If you were to go home to Ireland and walk into my familys store, which is much bigger than mine, you will see the same things. I want it to make Irish people feel at home. Jennifer Courville, owner of Erin Giftstore

In Ireland, the tradition of knitting and crocheting wool sweaters, hats, purses, gloves and other items originate from the Aran Islands, a cluster of islands off the countrys western coast.

Courville said that since a young age, she helped with measuring, tagging, bagging and transporting anything made of locally sourced wool from area knitters to stores.

Jennifer Courville, owner of Erin Giftstore at Worcester Public Market.

In 1979, the Lanes opened their own brick-and-mortar store first called The Irish House and later Erin Giftshop, next to Blarney Castle, a medieval landmark not far from Courvilles home in Cork.

Story continues

Courville was 27 years old when she decided to leave her life in Cork, Ireland as an insurance broker in 1990 to pursue - what she told her mother at the time - a change.

More:'What does it mean to be Irish in this country?' In Worcester, a question amid celebrations as St. Patrick's Day nears

At the time, the plan was to be back home in just six months, but a Worcesterite husband and two children later, Courville is still living in Worcester.

Not long after moving to the United States, Courville started working in the graphic design department at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette until 2006 when she put her career on hold to focus on caring for her two sons with special needs.

There is a lot of work involved when you have special needs children especially with school, said Courville. I sort of worked part time throughout the next few years.

In recent years, with Courville's sons now grown and comfortably independent, the idea of extending the family business to Worcester was not sounding so foreign to Courville.

When the lease at the Worcester Public Market expired for a similar store like Courville's called The Tinkers Cart and the owner decided against renewing, founder and president of the market Allen Fletcher looked for a business to fill the space.

Hearing of the opening, Courville brought up the idea to Fletcher. In an email, he said of Courville, She had done her homework, and we had confidence in her.

Weeks later, she was offered the space, which naturally prompted a call to her siblings.

First, they said Youre mad, laughed Courville. Then they said, Its one thing to have worked in the store all these years, another to begin it from scratch.

But if you want to do it, we will come and we will help.

When Courville visualized the shop in her head, she wanted it to be as authentic as what you'd find in Ireland.

Other than the clothing, other items also include porcelain ornaments with sayings in Irish language writing fonts, perfumes, whisky chocolates and even donkey milk soap - a spicy-scented soap made of actual donkey milk.

Courville says what the shop represents, culturally and visually, is what she often misses from her country of origin since moving to Worcester.

I want people who are of Irish (origins) to feel that they are in an Irish store, said Courville. If you were to go home to Ireland and walk into my familys store, which is much bigger than mine, you will see the same things.

I want it to make Irish people feel at home.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Since February, Jennifer Courville has operated an Irish wool clothing shop at the Worcester Public Market
WAYNE TWP.  A two-story home on state Route 93 was destroyed by fire Friday morning.

No injuries were reported.

Multiple fire departments were called out at 11:30 a.m. to assist the Wayne Township Fire Department as the house was in flames.

Dover Fire Chief Russ Volkert is seen looking over the mop-up of a house fire Friday on state Route 93 in Wayne Township. Multiple area fire departments were called in around 11:30 a.m. to assist the Wayne Township Fire Department with the two-story house fire.

Nate Anderson, a technician for the Ohio Department of Transportation, said he and other crews who were working in the area passed by, noticed the smoke and went up to the home to see if anyone was inside. The homeowner was working in the garage and unaware of the fire, said another ODOT crew member. That's when 911 was called.

Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze at a two-story house Friday morning in Wayne Township.

Wayne Township firefighters first responded, along with Strasburg, Sugarcreek, Baltic, Dover, Winesburg, and East Holmes. An active working fire hydrant near the front of the home was located and used in addition to a water shuttling system, requiring tankers from all over the area.

Chief Josh Yoder said that he was "appreciative of all the help and that working the fire went well." He also noted the total personnel from each department which came to 39 firefighters.

Multiple teams of workers from Northeast Ohio Natural Gas Corp. were also called to assist in shutting off the gas line at the front of the home which had caught fire at the meter.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but no foul play is suspected.

T-R staff photographer Andrew Dolph can be reached via email: adolph3@gannett.com, or on Twitter: @andrewdolph

Firefighters responded to a fire at a two-story house on state Route 93 Friday morning in Wayne Township.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Wayne Township home destroyed by fire
If you happened to stop by the State House on Wednesday, you would have seen massive Irish and Italian flags flanking the Senate rostrum, in honor of two of Rhode Island's largest ethnic groups.

But March isn't just the month of St. Patrick's Day and St. Joseph's Day. It's also the month of Norooz, also known as Persian New Year. So, this week, a traditional haftsin table also appeared in the State House  for the first time ever.

"Its a way to build community and come together," said Maryam Attarpour of the Iranian-American Cultural Society of Rhode Island, who played a major role in making it happen.

Maryam Attarpour packs up cookies and flowers from a display table set up outside the State Room on Thursday afternoon in a first for the the RI State House, an honoring of the Persian New Year coming on Monday.

Haftsin tables are the symbol of the Persian New Year, which occurs on the spring solstice. They typically display at least seven different items whose names start with the letter "S" in Farsi, including garlic, an apple, sumac, and a dish of vinegar.

A bowl of goldfish was also once considered customary, but putting live animals on display is frowned upon today. The State House haftsin, which is located on the second floor overlooking the atrium, gets around that by incorporating a candle with a goldfish design.

Most of the items come from Attarpour's personal collection. She said that she was excited to give people an opportunity to learn about her favorite Iranian holiday.

Attarpour came to Rhode Island when she was 3, and grew up in Pawtucket and Providence. Back then, Rhode Island's Iranian community was so small that taking part in cultural gatherings required driving to Boston.

Political Scene: The little-known story of House Speaker Shekarchi's Iranian roots

"For the longest period in my life, I didnt really have much connection to my Iranian culture," she said.

When she got to URI, she discovered that there were actually quite a few students from Iran on campus, and petitioned to create the university's Iranian cultural alliance.

Attarpour, who now works for the United Way of Rhode Island, said that State House staff were "really, really receptive to the idea" when she proposed having a haftsin table on display for Norooz. (Although House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi is Iranian, the Iranian-American Cultural Society didn't coordinate directly with him, she said.)

Story continues

During the time that it took her to set up on Wednesday, several people stopped to ask about the haftsin table, Attarpour said.

"The curiosity is there, which is great," she said.

The Iranian-American Cultural Society is also hosting a Norooz potluck celebration on Saturday at the International House of Rhode Island, which is located on the East Side of Providence. As of Wednesday afternoon, free tickets were still available for the 10am to 12pm time slot.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Norooz or Persian New Year honored at RI State House with haftsin table
Live music is coming to a concert venue, coffee shop, brewery, bar, bowling alley, movie theater and museum near you.

Fort Collins Music eXperiment  or FoCoMX  unveiled the lineup for its annual all-Colorado music showcase Friday, with more than 400 musical acts set to perform on more than 30 stages April 28-29.

This year's FoCoMx lineup showcases a range of genres from folk and bluegrass to metal and EDM. It also features special performances from hip-hop artist Grieves, Darren Garvey of Elephant Revival, Salome Songbird, Heavy Gus (featuring Stelth Ulvang, touring member of The Lumineers) and Sean Kennedy of Tickle Me Pink.

What to know about FoCoMX

This weekend-long event is essentially a live music takeover, with more than 400 musical acts performing at concert venues, coffee shops, bars, restaurants and more spots across Fort Collins. Wristbands are required to get into participating venues during the festival.

FoCoMX kicks off at 3:30 p.m. April 28 and continues starting at noon April 29, with shows spanning both days.

A full lineup and schedule of the weekend can be found at focomx.org.

Another festival announcement:Taste of Fort Collins unveils 2023 headliners

What's new about FoCoMX this year

The festival's popular silent disco will be in a new location this year, moving from Old Town Square to The Exchange.

This year's lineup will feature free live music in Old Town Square.

The Fort Collins Musicians Association, which puts on FoCoMX, will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for most musicians performing a song at one time. The attempt will take place at the Lyric, 1209 N. College Ave., on April 29.

How to get wristbands to FoCoMX

Wristbands for the weekend music festival will cost $50 through April 27. Those wristbands can only be ordered online at focomx.org. Wristband prices will go up to $60 each on April 28-29.

You voted. We counted:Here's the winner of the Coloradoan's March Madness sandwich bracket

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: FoCoMX, the Fort Collins music festival, unveils lineup for 2023
(Getty/iStock)

A former detainee of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp has claimed that Florida governor and 2024 presidential contender Ron DeSantis witnessed him being tortured during the time he was stationed there.

Mansoor Adayfi, a Yemeni citizen who was held for 14 years on the US Naval base in Cuba, told The Independent in an extraordinary interview that he was brutally force-fed by camp staff during a hunger strike in 2006, and that Mr DeSantis was present for at least one of those sessions.

The United Nations has characterised the force-feeding of hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay as torture. The US government has denied that the practice amounts to torture, and it has been used against prisoners over successive administrations during hunger strikes.

Mr DeSantis was stationed on the base between March 2006 and January 2007, according to his military records.

An investigation by The Independent details the following claims:

Two prisoners held at the camp at the time Mr DeSantis was stationed there claim he witnessed the forced-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners.

Mr Adayfi claims that Mr DeSantis had initially told him he was there for the detainees welfare.

Mr DeSantis was stationed at Guantanamo during a year marked by riots, hunger strikes and death.

Part of his role was to field concerns and complaints from prisoners.

Mr DeSantis emerged from his time at Guantanamo as an advocate for its continued use, and against the release of detainees.

Mr DeSantis has not responded to several requests from The Independent for comment on the allegations and for clarity about his role in the notorious prison camp.

As an assumed candidate for the 2024 election, Mr DeSantis is likely to face questions about this time in his career and what impact  if any  witnessing the treatment of Guantanamo detainees has had on his politics.

Until now, he has not spoken in detail about this part of his career. In public, he has advocated for the continued use of Guantanamo Bay to hold detainees suspected of involvement of terrorism, but he has not spoken in detail about his time spent at the camp.

Story continues

Bleeding, vomiting and screaming

Mansoor Adayfi describes it as one of the worst stretches of his 14-year imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay. In 2006, he was in the midst of a hunger strike with a number of his fellow detainees in protest over the conditions inside the notorious prison. A new team had been brought in to break the strike with a more aggressive form of force-feeding. One day, he recounts with emotion in his voice, he was strapped to a chair in the yard by his head, hands, waist and feet, and a feeding tube was forced into his nose. He was bleeding and vomiting and screaming while an assortment of uniformed military personnel watched from the side.

Mansoor Adayfi spent 14 years as a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay prison camp. He lives in Belgrade, Serbia (The Washington Post/Getty)

Years later, now released from the camp without charge and trying to rebuild his life in Serbia, Adayfi came across a photograph online of someone he says he recognised from that day. Until then, he says he knew the man as a young Navy lawyer stationed at the prison, but now he had a name: Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida.

Adayfi says that the same man had watched the terrible episode unfold from behind a chain link fence.

He was watching, and I was really screaming, crying, Mr Adayfi, a Yemeni, tells The Independent in a lengthy video interview from his home in Belgrade. I was bleeding and throwing up. We were in the block yard, so they were close to the fence.

Mr DeSantis has spoken sparingly of his time at Guantanamo Bay, where he served between March 2006 and January 2007 with the US Navy, at 27-years-old, as a judge advocate general (JAG), a job which entailed providing legal representation to military personnel and ensuring the US military complied with the law. There is little mention of it in his new book and he has offered few details of what he did on the campaign trail.

But since serving at the controversial military prison, Mr DeSantis has consistently argued for it to remain open, and spoken against the release of prisoners, even though most are held for years without charge.

At a time when Mr DeSantis appears to be preparing to run for president, the accusations from the former prisoner may shed new light on the potential candidates military career. They allege that he witnessed treatment of detainees that the United Nations condemned as torture, and went on to become a champion of the facility that practised it.

Mansoor Adayfi was held at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years (AP)

In 2006, the year Mr DeSantis arrived at Guantanamo, the camp was rocked by hunger strikes, violent riots and protests from prisoners over their conditions. Camp officials began to take a more aggressive tack to bring the hunger strikes to an end in the early part of the year.

In February of that year, camp authorities began to implement a more aggressive regime of dealing with hunger strikers, according to a New York Times report from the time.

That method, according to the Times, involved strapping some of the detainees into restraint chairs to force-feed them and isolate them from one another after finding that some were deliberately vomiting or siphoning out the liquid they had been fed.

Mr Adayfi says his first interaction with the young navy lawyer was memorable. When they first met, he didnt know his name  camp staff do not use their real names around prisoners for security reasons  but the man he would later come to learn was Mr DeSantis told Mr Adayfi that he was there to help him.

I dont remember exactly when DeSantis came because we had no watch, no calendar, nothing, he says. He came to talk to us along [with] others  medical staff and interpreters. And we explained to him why we were on hunger strike. And he told us, Im here to ensure that you get treated humanely and properly. We were talking about our problems with the brothers, the torture, the abuses, the no healthcare.

This was something strange, because nobody told us that before, Mr Adayfi adds.

Mr DeSantis was memorable for his appearance, too.

He was handsome with beautiful eyes, he says.

Mr Adayfi recalls that he initially believed Mr DeSantis when he told him he was there to help, but he says that quickly changed after he claims he was present for his force-feeding. On the day in question, Mr Adayfi says Mr DeSantis was standing behind a fence in the yard behind the November and Oscar blocks of Camp Delta, watching him being strapped to the chair and force-fed.

He knows about everything  about the hunger strike, the torture, the abuse in the camps. And his job was to ensure that we were treated humanely

Mansoor Adayfi

He was there with medical staff, there was other officers, there was some interpreters. There was like a group of them there, he says.

In his memoir, Dont Forget Us Here, Lost and Found at Guantanamo, Mr Adayfi describes one incident of force-feeding in detail.

Guards pushed me into the chair. They tightened the chest harness so that I couldnt move, then strapped my wrists and legs to the chair. Every point of my body was tightly restrained  I couldnt move at all. One of the male nurses stood in front of me holding a long, thick rubber tube with a metal tip. Another nurse grabbed my head and held it tightly while the male nurse forces that huge tube into my nose. No numbing spray. No lubricant. Raw rubber and metal sliced the inside of my nose and throat. Pain shot through my sinuses and I thought my head would explode. I screamed and tried to fight but I couldnt move. My nose bled and bled, but the nurse wouldnt stop.

When they were done feeding me, the nurse pulled hard on the tube and ripped it out of my body. It felt like a knife coming through my nose and it bled badly. Blood ran everywhere. I couldnt breathe and my stomach was so full I thought I would explode.

Throughout lengthy questioning from The Independent about the finer details of his interactions, Mr Adayfi was insistent that the man he knew as a lawyer at Guantanamo was Mr DeSantis. Mr Adayfis description of his initial interaction with Mr DeSantis, for example, where he claims the young lawyer explained his role at the camp, matches the description given by Mr DeSantiss superior of his job. The dates of key events in the camp during 2006  such as the deaths of three prisoners  match publicly available information regarding the timeline of Mr DeSantiss posting.

Amounting to torture

Mr Adayfi characterises the forced-feeding episodes he suffered as torture. That assessment is supported by numerous United Nations reports, including one in 2006 which said of the practice at Guantanamo: [t]he excessive violence used in many cases during transportation, in operations by the Initial Reaction Forces and force-feeding of detainees on hunger strike must be assessed as amounting to torture as defined in article 1 of the Convention against Torture.

The World Medical Association said in 2006 that the force-feeding of hunger strikers constitutes a form of inhuman and degrading treatment.

The US government, over several administrations, has defended the practice and consistently denied that it amounts to torture. In a lawsuit brought by four detainees in 2013, government lawyers said of the practice: It is the policy of the Department of Defense to support the preservation of life and health by appropriate clinical means and standard medical intervention, in a humane manner, and in accordance with all applicable standards.

Barack Obama, who as a candidate promised to close the prison at Guantanamo, but defended force-feeding there when he was president, replied to a question about it by saying: I dont want these individuals to die.

A US Navy doctor displays a restraint chair in the detainee clinic in the Gitmo maximum security detention center at the US Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Getty)

After Mr Adayfi says he saw Mr DeSantis at one of these force-feeding incidents, he didnt talk to him again.

At that time, I dont want to see his face. But other prisoners, they talked to him. Some of the prisoners splashed him with faeces and urine and spit on him, he says.

Mr Adayfi was released from the prison camp in 2016 with no charges. He kept in touch with other former detainees spread across the world in various locations and started to try to rebuild his life. Then one day, in 2020, he saw a photograph of Mr DeSantis online.

He says he shared the image with some other released former detainees, who also recognised him. He also shared the image with his book editor at the time, Antonio Aiello. When contacted by The Independent, Aiello confirmed this account and says he had multiple discussions with Mr Adayfi about Mr DeSantis going back roughly two years.

Mr Adayfi first made the claims publicly in November 2022, on the Eyes Left podcast. That account of Mr DeSantiss presence during force-feeding matches the one he gave to The Independent.

But Mr Adayfi is not the only former detainee who says that they recognised Mr DeSantis from their time at the prison camp.

Ahmed Abdel Aziz, a former prisoner who was released after 13 years without being charged with a crime and is currently back at home in Mauritania, also claims that Mr DeSantis witnessed the force-feeding at Guantanamo.

Although he did not take part in the hunger strike himself, Mr Aziz tells The Independent that he witnessed dozens of force-feeding sessions in 2006 himself, and it was not uncommon for large groups of camp staff to watch them from the side.

Sometimes a big bunch of people will come, sometimes two or three, sometimes the medical staff would come alone with the guards. Among them was this man, he says, referring to Mr DeSantis.

He was not there all the time, he says. He was watching. He cannot stop it, he doesnt have the authority, but he could stand against that or write to his higher-ups, to Washington, to other departments and tell them whats going on.

Like Mr Adayfi, Mr Aziz says doesnt remember exactly when he realised the lawyer he knew from Guantanamo was Mr DeSantis, but he dates it roughly to a few years ago, when one of his friends sent him a picture.

As soon as I saw his picture I know him very well because he spent a long time there, maybe six months or eight months, he says. Most of the people in there, once we see them, we dont forget them, he adds.

Mr Adayfi says many of the force-feeding incidents took place outside the Oscar and November blocks of Delta Camp. (The Independent)

Mr Adayfi says he believes the American people should know that Mr DeSantis  now a national political figure on the cusp of declaring a run for the White House  was aware of and observed what he endured at Guantanamo.

Im not trying to say DeSantis was giving orders to the force-feeding. I didnt see him giving orders to the guards, and I dont think he was in a position to give orders to the guards. But he was there watching. He knows about everything  about the hunger strike, the torture, the abuse in the camps. And his job was to ensure that we were treated humanely, he says.

Mr DeSantiss military records show that he had duties at Guantanamo Bay Naval base between 1 March 2006 and 31 January 2007. His duties are listed as Trial Counsel, Command Services Attorney, as well as JTF-GTMO scheduler/administrative officer.

Retired Navy captain Patrick McCarthy, who served as staff judge advocate at the detention facility and supervised Mr DeSantis, said in a 2018 interview that his duties required interacting with detainees and hearing their complaints.

If any complaints were raised, Ron would have been among the folks I sent down to talk to the detainees, Mr McCarthy told the Miami Herald. He said in the same interview that Mr DeSantis would have made sure the complaints were addressed in a way that was consistent with the law.

In his recently released book, The Courage to be Free, Mr DeSantis wrote that part of the reason he enlisted in the military in 2004 was so that he might be able to take part in prosecutions at the camp.

One recruiter told me that the assumption was that the Iraq campaign would be over relatively quickly, and that there would be a need for military [judge advocate generals] to lead prosecutions in military commissions of incarcerated terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, he wrote. He added that it seemed like a good opportunity to make an impact.

Mansoor Adayfi (Slavoljub Milanovic)

At the time, allegations of torture and ill-treatment of detainees at the camp were rife. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which had conducted visits to the camp since 2002, wrote to the US government in June 2004 to decry the system of interrogation there as an intentional system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture. The report, which became public in November of that year, alleged humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes, use of forced positions, as well as exposure to persistent loud noise and music and some beatings.

The use of torture at Guantanamo Bay  euphemistically referred to as enhanced interrogation by the Bush administration  was approved by defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld for use as early as 2002. Those techniques included hooding, stress positions, isolation, stripping, deprivation of light, removal of religious items, forced grooming, and use of dogs, according to a 2005 Human Rights Watch report.

The chaotic situation at the camp continued throughout the year. On 10 June 2006, three prisoners died in one night. The US military determined that Yassar Talal al-Zahrani, Mani Shaman Turki Al Habardi al-Tabi, and Ali Abdullah Ahmed, all died by hanging, but researchers claimed the investigations into their deaths "failed to conform to minimum standards.

Enemy combatants

As of February 2006, the month before Mr DeSantis arrived, the US government held more than 500 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay as alleged enemy combatants. Mr Adayfi was one of them.

Born in a small village in Yemen, he was just 18 when he went to Afghanistan in 2001 to conduct what he says was a research mission into al-Qaeda on behalf of a sheikh at an Islamic institute outside of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. According to his account, detailed in his book, Mr Adayfi was captured by Afghan warlords and handed over to the CIA at a time the intelligence service was offering rewards. He then says he was taken to a CIA black site, where he was tortured.

According to a Department of Defense file on Mr Adayfi that called for his continued detention in Guantanamo, dated 2008, the US government described Mr Adayfi as an admitted member of al-Qaeda who possessed prior knowledge of the 11 September 2001 attacks as well as other planned attacks against US interests, and also claims that he was identified as a commander of evacuating front line forces assessed to be Usama Bin Ladens (UBL) 55th Arab Brigade during hostilities against US and Coalition forces.

Mr Adayfi says he repeatedly denied the interrogators accusations that he was a member of al-Qaida, but says he later gave a false confession in anger at his ill-treatment.

I was angry. I was hurt. I said things that I didnt mean, but I was in a deep, dark hole, he recalled in his memoir. I wanted to teach them that they couldnt kill and torture us and expect us to love them for it.

Before his release, the US government also amended its assessment of Mr Adayfi, saying in a declassified report that it was unclear whether he actually joined al-Qaeda and was probably  a low-level fighter.

Mr Adayfis sister and brother died during the 14 years he was held at Guantanamo. He emerged from the prison he entered at 19 years old a different person. He says he still suffers from the impact of the time he spent at Guantanamo, and the force-feeding was just one part of it.

They totally destroyed our life. The interrogations, sexual assault, the beatings, the long-term confinement, mental, psychological, physical abuse, just name it, he said of his treatment at the prison camp and in CIA custody before his arrival.

They broke our lives, and we still struggle to live now, he adds.

DeSantis speaking at a rally in Hialeah, Florida in November (Reuters)

When asked how he feels about Mr DeSantis today, Mr Adayfi says he has no ill will towards him, but does not believe he should be president.

Hes a bad person, you know. I like America, and such people, when they come to power, they create a lot of problems.

I have no hate against him. But at the same time, as a lawyer, as someone who is a graduate of law and believes in the law, he should have known better, he says.

I would ask him why would he want to keep Guantanamo open. As a lawyer, there should be a presumption of innocence, not guilt. If you love your country, if you love your people, if you believe in American values, you should be the first one who called for the closure of Guantanamo. And if you think we are criminal terrorists, okay, take us and try us before your justice system.

Following his time at Guantanamo, Mr DeSantis went on to serve as a JAG in Iraq. Later, he became a congressman for Floridas sixth congressional district, at which time then-president Barack Obama had proposed closing the prison by executive order. Mr DeSantis spoke out numerous times against the idea.

At a congressional hearing chaired by Mr DeSantis in 2016, the then-congressman forcefully argued for Guantanamo to remain open.

The presidents conclusion that the detention facility should be closed is based in part on his idea that the facility is a recruiting tool for Islamic jihadists, but this represents a misunderstanding of the nature of the terrorist threats we face., he said. These are not the type of people that will abandon their jihad against America and our allies simply because we close Guantanamo Bay, he told the House of Representatives Subcommittee of National Security, part of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

In the same session, he spoke briefly of his time there.

When I was in the Navy I was there for a time and it is a very professionally run facility. Anybody in this room would rather spend a night there than in like the Fallujah jail or something like this. I mean, it is just night and day. And the people that are guarding that facility are under an awful lot of pressure because those detainees are very hostile to them, and they know that if they do anything that they are all of a sudden going to be subject to  so it is a very stressful environment for our uniformed personnel who are there, he said.

In a campaign ad for his successful 2018 run for governor, images of Mr DeSantis in his navy uniform are shown as a narrator described him as a JAG officer who dealt with terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

Mr DeSantiss office did not respond to several requests for comment.
Opposition lawmakers in France's National Assembly booed and jeered as Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced she was pushing through controversial pension reforms as it looked clear the government did not have the support to win the planned vote.

Deputies began singing the Marseillaise, the French national anthem, in an attempt to drown her out as she criticized what she called deliberate blocking tactics by some deputies during the debates.

"We cannot gamble on the future of our pensions, this reform is necessary," Borne told lawmakers, to explain why she was invoking special constitutional powers to see the bill passed, after it seemed clear that the lower house would not reach agreement by the afternoon deadline.

Within minutes, an angry crowd gathered at the Place de la Concorde, across the river from the National Assembly, to denounce the move. French unions called for more protests across the country and promised to step up strikes nationwide.

A protester waves a SUD trade union flag during a demonstration on Place de la Concorde in Paris, after the French government pushed a pension reform plan through parliament without a vote, on March 16, 2023. / Credit: THOMAS SAMSON/AFP via Getty Images

Unions and opposition lawmakers were furious that, after weeks of debate in the National Assembly and then the Senate, the government opted to force the reforms through using special powers under Article 49:3 of the constitution. And it is a blow to President Emmanuel Macron, who had promised to reform France's complicated pension system when he was going for election and then reelection.

Several weeks of lively preliminary debates in the lower house, during which several thousand amendments were tabled, concluded without agreement. After a number of modifications to the bill, the Senate voted in favor of the reforms on Saturday, March 11, then again on a final reading this morning.

This is not the first time President Macron's minority government has used Article 49:3 when it looked like it would not get the needed support to pass a bill.

The far-right National Rally party immediately promised to bring a motion of no-confidence in Macron's government. That is the only way the reforms can be halted now. The far-right previously lost another no-confidence vote but if they can gather wider support among the opposition, they could hope to bring down the government.

Story continues

The far-left has also threatened to bring a no-confidence motion but it remains to be seen if they would be prepared to fall in behind a joint motion.

Protesters march in a demonstration against French government's plan to raise the retirement age, in Paris, March 16, 2023. / Credit: Firas Abdullah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

However, the conservative Les Republicains party was quick to say it would neither bring nor vote a motion of no confidence in the government. Party president Eric Ciotti said the way the reforms had been pushed through was "a failure of several years of politics" and showed, he said, "a deep crisis in our institutions".

"The government ruined this reform that, I repeat, I thought necessary.  A vote was possible. The LR group had a majority in favor of the reform  a modest one, but a majority," he said.

Unless a no-confidence motion is won, the reforms will now go into effect later this year. One of the key points of the reform is a change in the retirement age from 62 to 64, which will be rolled in gradually over the next 4 years.

The new law will also raise the number of years needed to retire on a full pension, meaning many people who began working in their mid-twenties, or mothers who took time off work to raise children, will have to work until they are 67 before they can receive a full pension.

The controversial reforms prompted nationwide demonstrations and strikes since January, causing transport chaos on designated days of action. Blockades continue at France's oil refineries, some train services are reduced, and in Paris and some other cities, piles of trash have been piling up since last week, when refuse collectors went on strike. They have voted to continue their movement until at least March 20.

Garbage cans overflowing with trash on the streets as collectors go on strike in Paris on March 16, 2023. Garbage collectors have joined the massive strikes throughout France against pension reform plans. / Credit: Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

More than 7,000 tonnes of trash are heaped on street corners all over the French capital. Rats have been climbing out of the sewers in their thousands, attracted by the sudden availability of easy pickings. Adding to the problem, strikers have blockaded the three garbage treatment plants in the city.

Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo rejected calls from the Interior Minister and the Paris police chief to requisition workers to clear the trash. However, the police chief has now said he can go over her head and order some of them back to work  although since they are employees of the city, that may not happen right away.

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As the five musicians, one of whom was accompanied by his wife, arrived at A&R Studios in New York City on Monday evening March 18, 1963, none would have guessed that they were about to give jazz an almost unprecedented shot in the arm with Getz/Gilberto. Jazz was still, at this point, closer to the mainstream of popular taste, but it was still a minority interest. Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto were, however, about to change all that.

Joining them that day were pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim, Tommy Williams on bass, drummer Milton Banana (he was born Antonio de Souza on January 25, 1927), and the Brazilian guitarist whose wife was with him was, Joao Gilberto, her name as we now all know is Astrud, but at this point, the 22-year-old had not even recorded a song. Getz thought of this as another record to capitalize on the success of Jazz Samba that he and Charlie Byrd had recorded a year earlier and had just finished its week-long run at the top of the Billboard album chart. A month earlier Getz had recorded with guitarist Luiz Bonfa and that album would be called Jazz Samba Encore.

Listen to Getz/Gilberto now.

From the cover painting by Olga Albizu, admittedly from Puerto Rico, to the soft samba sounds, to the subject of the songs  Corcovado and Ipanema are in Rio de Janeiro  Getz/Gilberto oozes Brazil from every groove.

Getz/Gilberto came a year later and made No.2 on the Billboard charts and went on to spend close to two years on the bestseller list. In 1965 it won the Grammy for Best Album of the Year across all musical genres, the first time a jazz album was so rewarded, and has subsequently continued to be one of the half dozen best-selling jazz albums of all time. Aside from all that it proves conclusively that jazz can be commercial and artistically satisfying.

Everything that could possibly be said about this album has already been said, but It was an afterthought in the studio to get Astrud to sing in English on the two tracks as it was felt they needed some tracks that could get radio airplay. Norman Gimbel who subsequently wrote English lyrics to many classic Brazilian songs wrote the lyrics to The Girl From Ipanema. He also wrote the lyrics to Sway the Mambo classic that was a hit for Dean Martin and much later the words to Roberta Flacks Killing Me Softly With His Song. Astruds beautiful vocal on The Girl From Ipanema helped propel the 45 release onto bestseller charts around the world, including No.5 in the USA where it also won a Grammy as Song of the Year.

Story continues

The musicians were back in the studio the following day to finish off the album. When Billboard reviewed the LP in April 1964 they simply said, The sensuous tenor sax of Stan Getz combines with the soft-edged voice of Brazils famous Joao Gilberto in a program of lovely Brazilian music. So possibly they, and everyone else, did not expect Getz/Gilberto to do as well as it did.

Getz/Gilberto is part of a career-spanning five-disc set, Stan Getz Bossa Nova Years, available on both CD and vinyl, along with Big Band Bossa Nova, Jazz Samba, Jazz Samba Encore! and Getz/Almeida.

For the latest music news and exclusive features, check out uDiscover Music.

uDiscover Music is operated by Universal Music Group (UMG). Some recording artists included in uDiscover Music articles are affiliated with UMG.
Hal Dresner, a veteran writer for film and television who is credited for the memorable line, What we have here is a failure to communicate in the film Cool Hand Luke, died Friday in Ashland, Oregon of cancer. He was 85 and his death was confirmed by his family.

Dresner had a long career as a writer and producer, working on The Harvey Korman Show, The Eiger Sanction, CBS Summer Playhouse, MASH, and more.

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Born in June 1937 in New York City, he graduated from the University of Florida and moved to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting.

He was also the author of The Man Who Wrote Dirty Books, a comic novel.

He was a mentor to Garry Shandling and Richard Lewis, according to a family friend.

Survivors include his daughter, Amy Paloma Dresner, and his sister, Rea Dresner of Pennsylvania. No memorial has been planned.

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WOODS HOLE  Under a blue sky teeming with squawking seagulls, as a clean breeze snapped the flags flying over Research Vessel Tioga, Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll on Thursday toured the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution pier at the Iselin Marine Facility.

The visit was to hear about the work scientists are undertaking to meet the challenges of climate change, their research into the marine ecosystem, and their work to develop and put to use new technologies for monitoring the oceans, as well as to highlight the administration's commitment to supporting coastal resiliency solutions, green energy, and a blue economy.

"My administration is committed to going all in on climate, and in our recent budget proposal we've proposed historic investments in efforts to address our changing climate," Healey said. "That includes significant funding for coastal resiliency efforts for building up the infrastructure that we need."

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, left, and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, center, along with state Rep. Dylan Fernandes, D-Woods Hole, take in the sphere from the Alvin submersible during a tour Thursday along the docks of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole.

She noted she has also established a climate chief posting  the first of its kind, she said  "who's overseeing all of this work in driving a climate economy."

"I've said we have the opportunity to make historic investments in marine science and fisheries, as well as in industries that are going to power us away from fossil fuels," Healey said. "I think the work that's going on here at Woods Hole is really incredible. It really is not just a national force and leader. It's a global leader when it comes to some of these areas that I really want to invest in as governor."

Healey-Driscoll administration budget dedicates 1% of state's overall operating budget for fiscal 2024 to energy, environment office.

The Healey-Driscoll administration recently filed its fiscal 2024 budget recommendation, a $55.5 billion plan that, among other things, makes significant investments in climate action, according to the governor's office.

The budget dedicates 1% of the states overall operating budget to the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. As part of that, the administration is looking to triple the budget of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to support local entrepreneurs, decarbonize buildings and "make the state the global capital of the clean energy economy," according to the governor's office.

Story continues

During her Woods Hole visit, Healey noted Massachusetts has "an opportunity to really build out in a way no other state is positioned to do, a blue economy."

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey chats on Thursday with Capt. Peter Collins, right, and first mate James Missios aboard the research boat Tioga on a tour of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole.

"We can create so many great jobs by investing in innovation, research, technology, (and) manufacturing," she said, "and really that can run all the way from Woods Hole here in Falmouth to North Adams in the Berkshires. That's what's possible if we drive this with intentionality and that's something that the lieutenant governor and I are committed to doing."

Healey and Driscoll were joined Thursday by Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper, state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, and state Sen. Susan Moran, D-Falmouth, state Rep. Dylan Fernandes, D-Woods Hole, and state Rep. David Vieira, R-Falmouth, Falmouth Acting Town Manager Peter Johnson-Staub, and members of the Falmouth Select Board.

An underwater device developed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was used to find the remains of a shot-down balloon off the coast of South Carolina.

The tour included a stop in a lab where Carl Hartsfield, director and senior program manager of the oceanographic institution's Oceanographic Systems Lab, told them about scientists' work on remote environmental monitoring units, or REMUS vehicles, described by the institution as "low-cost autonomous underwater vehicles designed by the Oceanographic Systems Lab to operate with a simple laptop computer."

Focus on blue economy:Cape Cod Community Colleges hopes new STEM building will bring community together

"They do a whole host of things," Harstfield said, explaining they can explore 97% of the water column, meaning they are capable of the deepest dives into the ocean.

He noted the technology is some of the leading technology in the world and Woods Hole scientists are some of the only people in the world who can do it. The torpedo-like vehicles, according to the institution, were initially conceived for coastal monitoring, but are now also used as platforms "for a wide variety of instruments at a range of ocean depths." The U.S. Navy is among the entities that employs the vehicles  for example, Hartsfield said, a REMUS was used to find the remains of the suspected Chinese spy balloon that was recently shot down off the coast of South Carolina.

After hearing about the capabilities of the vehicles, and how they can go on a mission and autonomously return to a berth, Driscoll said they are like the "ultimate" household robot vacuum.

Healey and Driscoll show commitment to climate issues and blue economy, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution leader says.

Healey and Driscoll also stopped by the research vessel Tioga and met Capt. Peter Collins, and first mate James Missios, hearing about the work they are doing related to water quality management in Cape Cod Bay on behalf of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

Another stop was to see the institution's submersible Alvin, which was used to survey the Titanic wreck. Peering through one of the small port holes in the titanium sphere, designed to transport a pilot and two scientists to crushing depths, Driscoll shook her head and pronounced, "never in a million years." The interior is about the same space as a telephone booth.

Never-before-seen footage of Titanic wreck site released to public: Watch live

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (center) chats with state Rep Dylan Fernandes, D-Woods Hole, and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll with state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, left, during a tour on Thursday of the docks at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole.

Leading Thursday's tour was institution Deputy Director and Vice President for Science and Engineering Richard Murray, who said the the institution and its partners, NOAA Fisheries Science Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, the United State Geological Survey and SEA Education Association are thrilled with the Healey-Driscoll administration's commitment to climate issues and blue economy.

Murray called the leaders' support "refreshing and invigorating."

"The investments you are making," he told them, "are the proverbial rising tide that lifts all boats."

Gain access to premium Cape Cod Times content by subscribing.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Proposed budget for fiscal 2024 prompts Healey visit to Woods Hole
PAL (Play, Advocate, Live Well) Spartanburg has been spreading trails throughout Spartanburg, and they aren't slowing down.

The organization opened the Hub City Hopper, the bike trail that runs from the Mary Black Rail Trail through downtown Spartanburg to Daniel Morgan Avenue, in December.

PAL will be celebrating the completion of the Beaumont Mill Village Pathway, Saturday, March 18, at 11 a.m. This completion marks two new additions in three months to the Daniel Morgan Trail System, also called "The Dan."

Earlier this week, PAL, along with the city's Parks and Recreation department, received a unanimous vote of support for their planned revitalization of Duncan Park at the last City Council meeting.

However, their most recent win is the agreement made between them, Conserving Carolina, and Upstate Forever with Norfolk Southern for the sale of the Saluda Grade Rail Line.

Laura Ringo of Play Advocate Live Well (PAL), talks about the latest additions to the Daniel Morgan Trail System (The DAN) in the Beaumont Mill neighborhood on March 14, 2023.

The acquisition of the rail line is expected to be complete in two years. In three to five years, the Saluda Grade Trails Conservancy, the name of the coalition of PAL, Conserving Carolina and Upstate Forever, will be able to bring a 31-mile long recreational rail trail to northern Spartanburg County and Western North Carolina.

While the exact sale price is part of the confidential agreement, PAL Director Laura Ringo said the state has already committed $5 million toward the acquisition. The PAL and Upstate Forever are advocating for an $11 million dollar investment from the state this year, and plan to fundraise for the remainder of the South Carolina half of acquisition price.

Conserving Carolina of Hendersonville, NC will be contributing the other half of the total acquisition costs.

However, the benefits of the trail will outweigh the costs, Ringo said.

"This is going to be transformational for the entire region of Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina," Ringo said. "It's going to have a tremendous impact on the economies of Inman, Campobello, Landrum, Tryon and Saluda, and it's going to be a great resource for health and recreation.

Story continues

"We've done a preliminary economic impact study, and it shows that in the first year alone of the project, there will likely be at least 125,000 visitors who hopefully will stop and have lunch in one of the downtowns, potentially stop in the shops and spend their money in these communities."

The Saluda Grade Trail will run from the city of Inman through Campobello, Landrum, then across the NC border to Tryon, Saluda and Zirconia. The trail will feature rural scenery, historic landmarks, nature preserves, lakes and waterfalls. It may even be tied into The Dan in the future, Ringo said.

"Eventually, we hope that the Saluda Grade will connect into The Dan and that we'll get some people to come and stay in hotels and really build Spartanburg County as a major outdoor recreation destination," Ringo said.

Here are more details on PAL's big start to 2023:

Laura Ringo of Play Advocate Live Well (PAL), talks about the latest additions to the Daniel Morgan Trail System (The DAN) in the Beaumont Mill neighborhood on March 14, 2023.

Beaumont Mill Village Pathway to connect Adams Park to McCracken Middle School

Beaumont Mill Village Pathway features a paved walking trail and a bridge over Lawsons Fork Creek. The new, one-third mile trail starts in Beaumont Mill Village's Adams Park, crosses the river, and winds up the hill where it connects with the Upper Drayton Trail by The Lively, a new apartment complex across from Drayton Mill.

"The bridge is a great partnership that happened with Spartanburg Water," Ringo said. "When they installed the new sewer line, they agreed to put a pedestrian bridge on top, and we are so appreciative of that partnership."

The result of another partnership with Norfolk Southern can be seen on the other side of the bridge: a section of covered trail under the Norfolk Southern trestle.

Map of the new Beaumont Mill Village Pathway and its connections.

"(It) took us about six years to get full approval from the railroad and then get through construction. It ties into the existing lower Drayton Trail and then ties into the Beaumont Mill Village," Ringo said. "It's a great way to connect these two mill village neighborhoods as well as the many apartments and other things that are happening. And the canopy allows us to go downstream to connect into the River Birch Trail."

Once that final connection is made, walkers on the pathway will able to take it from Adams Park all the way to McCracken Middle School and the Cottonwood Trail.

A makeover is planned for Spartanburg's Duncan Park

Duncan Park is an important connector on The Dan, acting as the meeting spot for The Mary Black Rail Trail and the planned Fairforest Creek Trail.

"It's a great facility that could have even more amenities included and it's the city's largest park, so it can be a major recreation destination," Ringo said. "Our hope is that the parks are really a major destination along the trails. So if you want to go out for a walk and stop for lunch or have family that wants to play, the parks and the trails are tied together and feel like a cohesive recreational opportunity."

Aerial view of Duncan Park including lake.

Ringo said the next step, now that City Council approval has been obtained, is to conduct a survey of the park and render drawings for the desired changes, like the lakeside renovations. A Friends of Duncan Park committee will also be created to allow for a community voice throughout the renovations process. Residents interested in joining the committee can email info@palspartanburg.org.

A pilot program for lake programming is planned for the fall.

The Dan: A growing trail system and growing plan

The Dan will connect Spartanburg from west to east and out to several county parks. Four trails have been completed  the Upper and Lower Drayton trails, which were complete when the trail system was announced in 2019, the Hub City Hopper, completed in 2022, and the Beaumont Mill Village Pathway, completed this year.

The target size of the trail system has grown as well, from an initial 32 miles in 2019 to now 55 miles of connected trails, and a little more than 20 miles are complete so far. PAL hopes to have the majority of The Dan within the urban footprint completed by 2030.

A trail connection near Country Club Road, which will include a side path from the Mary Black Rail Trail to Glendale, is currently under construction. A connection from Glendale to Clifton is planned to begin construction next year.

Map of the Daniel Morgan Trail System with existing and planned trails and connections.

The next trail to be completed is the River Birch Trail, which will connect the Upper and Lower Drayton Trails. Ringo said it is expected to open this summer.

"Our next big piece that we expect to open will be the River Birch Trail. Right now, (the segment) from McCracken Middle School to East Main Street is open, so the next phase is East Main Street up to (Beaumont Mill Village)," Ringo said. "So then you could park at Adams Park and you could get all the way up to the Spartanburg Regional campus at Mary Black or all the way to McCracken. And if you were to use the existing Cottonwood Trail, you could have some additional miles."

Samantha Swann covers food and restaurants in Spartanburg County. She is a University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College alumna. Contact her with your burning restaurant questions, recipes, and new dinner specials at sswann@shj.com or on Instagram at @sameatsspartanburg. Can't get enough food news? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for foodies, Spartanburg Eats.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: PAL celebrates trail growth, Saluda Grade sale, Duncan Park approval
A strong earthquake with its epicenter off Ecuador shook northern Peru and much of Ecuador Saturday, authorities said.

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck at 12:12 local time (17:12 GMT), with its epicenter 52 miles (85 kilometers) northeast of the Peruvian city of Zarumilla, near the border with Ecuador, the National Seismological Center of Peru reported.

Hernando Tavera, head of Peru's seismic institute, told RPP radio that the epicenter was off the coast of Ecuador's largest city Guayaquil.

"As far as we know, there is no significant damage to buildings or people," he added.

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The history of the swastika: From a sign of luck and fortune to a symbol of evil

Three iterations of the swastika. From left: a swastika on a Nazi arm band, a swastika next to the Norse god Odin, and a swastika on a Buddha statue From left: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images, National Museum of Denmark, Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The swastika is now an infamous sign of hatred, extremism, and genocide.

But it has a long history and has been used by cultures worldwide to signify good fortune and luck.

Carlsberg and Finnish Air used it in their branding before the Nazis hijacked it.

Last week, historians in Denmark announced they had discovered the oldest evidence of people worshipping the Norse god of war and death, Odin.

Next to the portrait of Odin was a small swastika-like sign, once a signifier of peace, wealth, and fortune.

Today, the swastika is seen by many as a symbol of hatred, extremism, and danger. But it has a long and diverse history that stretches way beyond its cruel co-option by Adolf Hitler and the German Nazi party a century ago.

The origins of the swastika

The word swastika comes from the Sanskrit word svastika, which translates to "good fortune" or "wellbeing."

The oldest known use of the swastika is seen on a 15,000-year-old mammoth ivory bird statue discovered in 1908 by Ukrainian scientist Federik Volkov.

On the chest of the bird, held in The National Museum of the History of Ukraine, Kyiv, is an engraving of joined-up swastikas, according to the BBC. The statue was discovered alongside a range of "phallic objects," suggesting the swastika was used as a good luck symbol to invite fertility.

The swastika in Asia

Today, the swastika is still widely used in a number of Indian religions.

In Jainism, the swastika represents the four states of existence: Heavenly beings, Human beings, Hellish beings, and subhuman life.

In the Zoroastrian faith, one of the world's oldest religions, the four prongs of the swastika represent water, fire, air, and earth.

And in Buddhism, the sign is used to represent Buddha's footsteps, known as manji.

Rangoli art on Diwali festival, India Getty Images

Across India, the symbol is seen on shop doors, vehicles, food packaging, and at festivals, according to AP.

It has also been adopted in other parts of Asia. In China, the symbol is known aswan and was declared the "source of all good fortune" by Empress Wu in 693. The use of the swastika alongside a wish multiplies that wish 10,000 times, according to the Pacific Asia Museum.

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Swastika in Europe

Worshipers of the Norse religion used the swastika symbol as early as 401 AD.

Most commonly, the symbol is seen next to depictions of Thor, the Norse god of thunder, the sky, and agriculture. It is also seen next to his father, Odin.

But it wasn't just Nordic people that were using the swastika. The symbol is known to have been used by Celts, Druids, and Vikings.

US art director Steven Heller, author of "Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption?" told the BBC that the swastika was used in Europe to manifest good luck until the early 20th century. "The sign was used in many ways before Hitler adapted it. A sign of good fortune, fertility, happiness, Sun, and it was given spiritual import as well as commercial value when it was used with or as a brand or logo," said Heller.

An old bottle of Carlsberg with a swastika logo Leber/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Less than 100 years ago, many companies used the symbol in their branding. The beer company Carlsberg had it on its logo, as did the Finnish Air Force and even the British Boy Scouts.

However, that all started to change in the 1920s.

Co-opted by the Nazis

Some researchers believe that people of Aryan culture used the symbol as a sign of luck and prosperity.

Aryanism is often linked to a belief in racial purity, but "Aryans" were originally Indo-European or Indo-Germanic people who settled throughout India, Iran (then known as Persia), and Europe, according to the United States Holocaust Museum.

The classification of Aryanism was often used to refer to the shared languages used within the culture, but later it shifted to be used as a racial categorization.

The BBC reports that the similarity in these languages to German is thought to have influenced Hitler's belief that the Aryans  especially those from India  and Germans had a "pure" lineage.

Another theory is that Hitler would have simply seen the symbol repeatedly growing up.

After Hitler's Nazi Party chose the swastika as its official symbol in 1920, it slowly became identified with racial purity, extremism, and totalitarian terror, a long way from its roots as an emblem of good fortune.

When the Nazi Party took power over Germany in 1933, Hitler decreed that the German state flag had to be flown alongside the now-infamous red flag that boasts a huge black swastika.

Today, the once-innocent swastika is now considered an incarnation of evil representing genocide, gas chambers, and the millions murdered in the Holocaust.

But some are trying to change that. They don't want people to forget the atrocities of Hitler's Third Reich but do want to revive the wide cultural significance of the swastika.

Sheetal Deo and her husband, Sanmeet Deo, hold a Hindu swastika symbol in their home in Syosset, N.Y., on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022. AP Photo/Andres Kudacki

In 2022, Sheetal Deo, from New York  which has a population of 1.6 million Jews  told AP that she was asked to remove her Diwali decor, the Hindu festival of lights, displayed at her Queens apartment building, which had a swastika on it.



She told AP that she does not believe she should have to apologize for a sacred symbol simply because it is often conflated with its tainted version, saying doing so is "intolerable."

But Steven Heller told AP, "A rose by any other name is a rose. In the end, it's how a symbol affects you visually and emotionally. For many, it creates a visceral impact, and that's a fact."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Doug Jones, Omri Katz Hocus Pocus

Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock Doug Jones (L) and Omri Katz in Hocus Pocus (1993)

The witching hour has arrived for Hocus Pocus fans at 90s Con!

At the 1990s-themed convention in Hartford, Connecticut, on Saturday, Hocus Pocus cast members Thora Birch, Vinessa Shaw, Jason Marsden and Omri Katz reunited for a panel discussion about the iconic 1993 Disney movie, moderated by PEOPLE's Michael Gioia.

During the panel, the group responded to a fan who inquired about why they weren't involved in the sequel to the original film, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in July.

"We weren't invited to that meeting. So we don't really know why we weren't invited," Katz, 46, said. "I think the fan base really wanted to see something with us. ... Yeah, I don't know. It's hard to really figure out the decisions that are made regarding what they want to do."

FREEFORM - Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Halloween Bash - Freeform announced today that it will air "Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Halloween Bash," an all-star party in honor of the cult classic films milestone anniversary. The 90-minute special, filmed at the iconic Hollywood Forever Cemetery to celebrate the movies status as a Halloween staple, will premiere on SATURDAY, OCT. 20, at 8:15 PM EDT/PDT as part of Freeforms "31 Nights of Halloween" programming event. (Valerie Durant/Freeform via Getty Images) OMRI KATZ

Valerie Durant/Freeform via Getty

Birch, 41, explained that "the process in No. 2 being brought about was so long," and having them return "was something that was discussed."

"The desire [and] the concept of maybe doing [a sequel] was about 10 years. But then there were numbers of different writers that came on board and different directors, and so the story and the concept and the direction in which they wanted to take, too, kept evolving and changing and growing," she said.

RELATED: See the Hocus Pocus Cast Then and Now

"I do know that there were, along the way, some concepts and some ideas about ways to bring us back. And for whatever reason, it just didn't work," she continued. "Some of us were going to be on, some of us weren't. And then it just was such a roller coaster ride.

Birch added: "What we like to say in the business: we had scheduling conflicts."

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 16: Thora Birch attends the Premiere of Netflix's "Outer Banks" Season 3 at Regency Village Theatre on February 16, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Frazer Harrison/Getty

Marsden, 48, said he's "been in this business long enough to not get your hopes up about anything, really."

"I did speak with Mr. David Kirschner, [who created and produced the film]. He said he did try to fight to get you three especially," he continued. "But there's a committee. It's a team. It's an IP now  intellectual property. It's close to your hearts, but it belongs to a committee now. And so it's left up to them to make the right decisions."

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FILM STILLS OF 'HOCUS POCUS' WITH 1993, THORA BIRCH, BETTE MIDLER, KATHY NAJIMY, KENNY ORTEGA, SARAH JESSICA PARKER IN 1993

Snap/Shutterstock

Hocus Pocus also starred Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, Doug Jones, Larry Bagby and Tobias Jelinek, who were not present at Saturday's panel in Connecticut.

The beloved Halloween favorite spawned a long-awaited sequel last year, which saw Najimy, 66, Midler, 77, and Parker, 57, reprise their characters awakened decades after their defeat in the original movie and seek revenge in modern-day Salem, Massachusetts.

Jones, 62, also returned for the sequel, which made its mark as Disney+'s No. 1 movie debut domestically based on hours streamed in the first three days of its release back in October.

RELATED VIDEO: Sarah Jessica Parker Is Joined by Matthew Broderick and Their Daughters at Hocus Pocus 2 Premiere

Ahead of the film's release, Midler told PEOPLE that the cast and crew knew the story had more to give beyond the beloved first film.

"We all wanted to do it," she said, noting that Parker was one of the people who really pushed to make it happen. "What we couldn't understand was after the thing snowballed, we couldn't understand, as we spoke together, we would often speak together, and [think] why don't they ever give us a sequel?"

"It wasn't like a crazy, aggressive push," she continued. "It was just that we felt that it had a life outside of what it had had. And eventually 30 years later, they came to their senses!"
A new prohibition on the use of student IDs to vote has already attracted two lawsuits, just two days after Gov. Brad Little signed the bill into law.

March for Our Lives Idaho, a gun safety advocacy group, on Friday filed a complaint in federal court against Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane over a law that bans using student IDs to vote. Babe Vote, a youth-led organization that helps register young people to vote, announced on Friday that it had also filed a lawsuit against the state over the bill, in state court.

In a complaint filed on Friday, March for Our Lives alleged that the law banning student IDs unconstitutionally discriminated against young people, who are likely to be students. A Boise High student, Rosaura Albizo Barron, was also a plaintiff on the lawsuit.

The Babe Vote lawsuit, filed in concert with the League of Women Voters, alleges the law violates the Idaho Constitution.

At a press briefing Friday, 18-year-old Babe Vote volunteer Saumya Sarin said the legislation makes the organizations voter registration work more difficult and discourages young people from voting.

There is no need for (House Bill 124), and the Legislature knows it, she said. Idahos secretary of state told the Legislature that there has been no voting fraud associated with student IDs.

McGrane supported the student ID law, having told lawmakers that only 104 voters used student IDs to cast their ballots. But he also said he supported another bill that would require the state to provide free voter ID cards for people without another proper form of voter ID. Lawmakers have yet to pass that bill.

The Republican-dominated Legislature is also considering a bill to eliminate the ability to sign a voter affidavit, in place of showing a personal ID card.

Sarin said Babe Vote has succeeded at increasing voter turnout among young people. Since 2018, she said Idaho has seen an 66% increase in voter registration for people between ages 18 and 19.

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This legislation sends a dangerous message to young voters, she said. We should be doing everything we can to get more young people voting, not creating burdens for them.

Bills on affidavits, voter registration move forward

Two other bills curtailing how new voters can prove their residency got closer to becoming law Friday.

House Bill 126 would require residents to use a limited list of documents to show proof of residency and proof of identification to register to vote. The bill would also give voters  including students  who dont drive the option of receiving a free four-year ID from the Idaho Department of Transportation, which could be used to prove a residents identity.

McGrane said Idaho law is currently inconsistent by requiring one kind of identification to register to vote and a different kind to cast your vote on Election Day.

Currently, residents can use multiple documents to prove their residency, which Rep. Brandon Mitchell, R-Moscow, told the House State Affairs Committee on Friday could include a scuba diving instructor ID card or a box mailed to a person with their address on it.

To vote, Idaho law allows the use of a drivers license, U.S. passport or federal photo ID, tribal photo ID or concealed weapons permit.

The new bill would align the different requirements by restricting the documents that can be used when registering.

Other inconsistencies exist between types of registration. If you register online with an Idaho drivers license, for example, you dont have to show proof of residency in person. But if you register by mail with the same license, you do. The new law would make online registrants also show in-person proof.

This has been a very important piece of legislation for this office, McGrane told a House committee on Friday. When we talk about photo identification and voting, we actually have two different standards in the state and it confuses people. Almost every time I talk to legislators, it gets confused about what identification were talking about.

Sam Sandmire, a Boise resident, told legislators that she volunteers on campaigns to help people register to vote, and that the new requirements would make it more burdensome for people to become voters.

The problem with this bill is it takes away some of the IDs that were formerly acceptable to register, she said.

Lawmakers on the House committee referred the bill for amendments. McGrane told the Idaho Statesman by phone on Friday that he expects to reintroduce the bill with minor changes.

We should be encouraging people to vote

A second bill, House Bill 137, would remove another option for voters on Election Day, which is to sign an affidavit at the polls swearing their identities if they dont have valid forms of ID.

Though used by only a small portion of voters, supporters say it is a backstop that allows voters to cast their ballots even when theyve forgotten their ID at home.

The bills sponsor, Rep. Joe Alfieri, a R-Coeur dAlene, told the House State Affairs Committee on Friday that he was worried about people lying on the affidavit.

I think thats very loose, Alfieri said. We require some form of identification for virtually everything else that we do in society.

Sandmire at the committee meeting said the affidavit is the only backstop that someone has if they have issues at the polls, noting that she knows a student who used an affidavit to vote once when she forgot her purse at her grandmothers house, several counties away.

It is illegal to fill out an affidavit fraudulently, and theres jail time and there are huge fines, she said. People are not going to do that. We should be encouraging people to vote, not suppressing their votes.

According to the secretary of states office, 0.4% of voters used an affidavit to vote in 2022, which was about 2,400 people. Close to 99% of voters used a drivers license.

Another bill, House Bill 259, outlawing election officials from providing unrequested absentee ballots or absentee ballot applications passed the House on Friday.

A fourth bill, House Bill 205, which would have gotten rid of absentee voting without a particular reason  like serving in the military, being disabled, or attending a university  died in the House on Monday.
Iggy Pops debut solo album, The Idiot, marked a radical departure from the incendiary, guitar-based proto-punk of his former band, The Stooges. First released on March 18, 1977, it was written and recorded in collaboration with David Bowie, and its electronic veneer and melancholic atmosphere had much in common with Low, Heroes and Lodger, the three Bowie albums widely referred to as his Berlin Trilogy.

Listen to The Idiot on Apple Music and Spotify.

An artistic rebirth

Its been widely documented that Bowie played a vital role in Pops artistic rebirth, not just through shaping The Idiot, but also in helping him get his life back on track during the mid-70s. Indeed, when The Stooges split in disarray after 1973s Raw Power, Iggy struggled with personal issues, even spending time in a Californian mental institution. Bowie, though, stuck by his friend, later taking Pop along as his companion on his extensive Isolar  1976 Tour, in support of the Station To Station album.

Following the tour, in July 1976, Bowie and Pop holed up in Chateau dHerouville, the same French location where Bowie recorded his covers album, Pin Ups, in 1973 and would soon record much of Low. Bowie and Pop then set about putting together many of the songs which would feature on The Idiot. The sessions were loose and ad hoc in design, and the two musicians were augmented by bassist Laurent Thibault and drummer Michel Santangeli, who added to rough tracks already taped by Bowie.

During these initial sessions, Thibault supplied Bowie and Pop with a tape loop of industrial noise, which laid the foundation for The Idiots remarkable closing track, Mass Production. According to Paul Trynkas Iggy Pop biography, Open Up And Bleed, Bowie was like a child transfixed by a train set when he heard the tape, which was spliced together in sections and went on to supply the ominous, droning backdrop for the song. Its oppressive atmosphere was perfectly matched by Pops numbed-out lyric, which was inspired by his memories of watching a machine press at Ford Motors River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan.

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Pop later recalled conversations with Bowie about how much I admired the beauty of the American industrial culture that was rotting away where I grew up, according to Joe Ambrose in Gimme Danger: The Story Of Iggy Pop. Like the beautiful smokestacks and factories whole cities devoted to factories!

I cant put out a song like that

During the Chateau sessions, Bowie and Pop worked up two future classics, China Girl and Nightclubbing. The former reflected upon Pops relationship with his Asian girlfriend Keulan Nguyen, and Bowie would later re-record it for his multi-platinum 1983 album, Lets Dance.

Theres a beautiful obligata, romantic melody at the end its echoed by those sort of gypsy guitars, if you will, Pop said in a 2019 interview with Sirius XM. And that [melody] David wrote. I thought it was really lovely.

Nightclubbing, meanwhile, sprang from an incident during downtime at the Chateau after The Idiots initial sessions wound down. Reputedly inspired by some cheap Halloween masks and an old-time melody Bowie began playing on the studio piano, the tune inspired Pop to write a lyric mostly based on my experiences tagging along to the discos of Europe with Bowie, in little more than 20 minutes.

The memorable, loping beat for this haunting song  which has since been covered by Grace Jones and The Human League, as well as featuring in the Trainspotting soundtrack  came to fruition out of necessity, simply because there was no one around to play drums that day.

The only thing left to augment it in the room was a little Roland drum machine, Pop said in 2019. [Bowie] said, I cant put out a song with something like that as a drum track, so I said, No, but I can, and he got that. So we did it with that and that beat is sampled in a lot of very successful hip-hop records now.

Our suspicions were true: the man is a genius

Additional sessions for The Idiot moved onto Munichs Musicland Studios and to Berlins Hansa Studio 1, where excellent tracks such as the Neu!-esque Funtime, the pulsing electro-pop of Sister Midnight and Pops hypnotic paean to The Stooges, Dum Dum Boys, were finished off with overdubs from Bowies regular rhythm section of Carlos Alomar, Dennis Davis, and George Murray. Producer Tony Visconti then achieved a final mix at Hansa and the album was issued with a cover photograph of Iggy, inspired by German painter Erich Heckels Roquairol.

The Idiot effectively resurrected Iggy Pops career. It peaked inside the Top 75 of the Billboard 200 in the US and even snuck into the UK Top 30, giving Pop the momentum to follow through with the abrasive, guitar-streaked Lust For Life later in 1977.

The albums reputation has since grown exponentially. Though it was greeted by relatively modest reviews in 1977, Pop biographer Paul Trynka has asserted that The Idiot prefigured the soul of post-punk, and the records futuristic soundscapes are still being absorbed by popular culture today. The album has since been cited as a touchstone by influential artists ranging from Depeche Mode and R.E.M. to Joy Division and Nine Inch Nails, though Siouxsie Sioux perhaps put it best when she said The Idiot provided a re-affirmation that our suspicions were true: the man is a genius.

The Idiot can be bought here.

For the latest music news and exclusive features, check out uDiscover Music.

uDiscover Music is operated by Universal Music Group (UMG). Some recording artists included in uDiscover Music articles are affiliated with UMG.
Josh Duggar, who appeared with his family on the TLC reality show "19 Kids and Counting" and was convicted on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography, had another two months added to his prison sentence.

That's on top of the 12-and-a-half-year sentence he was handed down on May 25, 2022, after being found guilty of those charges five months earlier. The website for the Federal Bureau of Prisons website currently lists Duggar's release date as Oct. 2, 2032, but Insider reports that his original prison release date was Aug. 12, 2032, and that prison records showed an updated date to read Aug. 22, 2032 earlier this week.

RELATED: Suspect Arrested After Georgia Man Found Dead In Rolled-Up Rug

The extended sentence comes after tabloids like The Sun reported last month that Duggar, who's 35, was taken to solitary confinement after authorities found him trying to sneak a cellphone into prison, according to Law & Crime. The outlet reported that obtaining a cellphone would have especially alarmed authorities due to the crimes the former reality show star was convicted of.

Josh Duggar

Josh Duggar Photo: Washington County Sheriff's Office

The government had said they'd found more than 600 illicit images on Duggars work computer, though the number was disputed by his lawyers, according to Law & Crime. The charges he was convicted of included receiving possessing child pornography showing the abuse of victims as young as toddler-aged.

One video reportedly featured the sexual assault of an 18-month old. Prosecutors had said that Duggar went out of his way to conceal the illegal content, since his work computer was outfitted with anti-porn software that was installed after data hacked from the Ashley Madison website exposed him as pursuing affairs during his marriage.

Duggar got around this by installing a Linux partition on the device, and then viewing the sex abuse videos and images through encryption, according to Law & Crime. He was also allegedly able to cover up what he was viewing and downloading by using other programs.

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Missing teen Fredarrious Wilson

Before the convictions, Duggar, a Christian activist, was the center of other scandals, including allegations that he sexually molested several of his sisters when all parties were minors. Duggar later apologized for wrongdoing after those allegations were exposed.

Last month, lawyers for Duggar  who has maintained his innocence in the child porn possession charges, claiming that someone else must have downloaded the illicit files  asked a federal appeals court for a new trial, hoping to have his convictions overturned.

Duggar's attorney Justin Gelfand told a three-judge panel on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Feb. 16 that while authorities searched his Arkansas car dealership in 2019 for his devices, he was "interrogated outside the presence of his attorney after law enforcement had physically taken his phone from his hand when he was attempting to contact his counsel," FOX affiliate KNWA reported.

Oxy App

That appeals court said it would "take the case under advisement," without giving an expected date for their decision.

Duggar is serving his sentence at the low-security Federal Correctional Institution in Seagoville, a suburb of Dallas.
PARIS  Kering is pledging to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent.

The parent of Balenciaga, Gucci, Saint Laurent and other luxury brands aims to make those cuts in absolute terms by 2035, using 2021 emissions as a baseline. Forty is a key number for Kering, which in 2017 laid out a 40 percent reduction in environmental footprint by 2025, a goal surpassed this year.

More from WWD

The new reduction targets will include its own operations and its external value chains, covering scopes 1, 2 and 3 under the GHG Protocol in an effort to decarbonize the company and its suppliers.

We are setting this new absolute target, spanning scopes 1, 2 and 3 of the greenhouse gas protocol, because if we want to truly decarbonize our global businesses, we need to move from carbon-intensity reductions to absolute reductions. I am convinced that impact reduction in absolute terms combined with value creation must be the next horizon for truly sustainable companies, said Francois-Henri Pinault, Kering chairman and chief executive officer.

Speaking to WWD, chief sustainability and institutional affairs officer Marie-Claire Daveu delved into the companys ambitious cuts.

When you look at what is happening all over the world linked with climate change, we would want to go a step further. We are really taking into account all the greenhouse gas emissions [that] are linked with our production, she said.

Looking at the companys previous targets, Daveu noted that they were focused on intensity, but that if companies continue to grow, so do their emissions. This new target makes a direct connection between Kerings growth and its GHG emissions, and caps it.

That means the company will have an overall emissions pie, with various brands adding to the mix. As emissions are upped in one category or brand, the company will make cuts or compromises elsewhere. Daveu emphasizes these reductions will be achieved without using offsetting, and adds that large-scale events, such as a destination fashion show, are taken into account.

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Most people are speaking about intensity, so to change to a target that is in absolute value is very important, she said. For us, its a game changer.

Each brand will have the same 40 percent target and time frame, though Kering is approaching each brand differently and working with specialized teams within each brand. Fashion and fine jewelry have vastly different needs, she noted, particularly with waste, and those tradeoffs will have to be very pragmatic within the companys overarching conglomerate structure.

And, pragmatically, that will lead to new business models and a different approach to pricing.

In the luxury sector, we prioritize value and less volume. Its also a way to increase the craft and sophistication of your product, increase the quality, durability and to develop more exclusivity for your clients, she said. At the end of the day, you increase also the pricing. So this is where you make the correlation between the growth of the business and the de-growth of the greenhouse gas emissions. It will be in the DNA of the price.

The target will require overhauls and upgrades of many systems, Daveu said. These include an AI solution in a trial phase to better predict production quantity and product mix, and to increase the quality of raw materials. Design teams will be tasked to improve the durability and recyclability of its materials, and embed circularity into products.

Because it includes scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3, we will also have to work with our suppliers to continue to push them to have and to use more sustainable materials and more sustainable processes, said Daveu, citing as an example energy and emissions cuts at the factory level. Then we will have to put that to scale. For me, thats key.

The company unveiled its Circular Lab in Milan under Gucci in February, and Daveu said developing new ways of using and reusing materials in a closed loop will be a major pillar of the reduction. She also cited Balenciagas mushroom-based Ephea, and Guccis biobased wood pulp, wheat and corn material Demetra, as two examples of more eco-friendly textiles the company has developed that can be taken to scale. The company is also working with VitroLabs to create lab-grown leather.

At a Kering sustainability event held Friday at The Shed in Hudson Yards in Manhattan, Guccis executive vice president of corporate affairs and sustainability Antonella Centra spoke about the houses cross-fertilization efforts regarding circularity.

Weve had a strong endorsement from our shareholders and top management for this [circular] approach, began Centra, citing the companys pre-existing history in sustainability. Gucci is developing the path  or the way  for the group with the open-source [Circular Lab] platform. As we say, sustainability is not a competitive thing. You need to join forces to be able to grow and scale.We didnt have to reinvent the wheel, we simply maximized what was already effective and efficient within our organization.

VitroLabs founder and CEO Ingvar Helgason also joined in on the morning conversations, alongside Kering partners Conservation International and Business for Social Responsibility.

Kering is working with 255 start-ups on innovations from the raw-material stage to end-of-life, up from 120 two years ago.

Daveu said she hopes the idea of reducing GHGs by absolute value will change the mindset in the fashion industry. Im sure that it will become the way of thinking, not only for companies, but also for people. You have to plan in comparison to something else, but at the end of the day, you have to be responsible for how many tons of C02 you emit.

Daveu added that the biggest challenge is implementing in various jurisdictions that have varied regulations. She compared that to when she first took on the role at Kering in 2012 and launched the idea of the Environmental Profit and Loss account in 2015.

People have conviction about the fact that we have to act, and the diagnosis is very clear. Ten years ago when I joined the company that was not the case, she said. Now its not a question of what the challenge is, its a question of speed.

Kering is set to release its full EP&L on March 22.

Best of WWD

Click here to read the full article.
Slipknot's Corey Taylor at Knotfest Finland, 2022 | Credit: Venla Shalin/Redferns

Slipknot are bringing Knotfest to Australia for the first time later this month. All three events on the festivals inaugural east coast run are now sold out. Slipknot will headline the three-date festival tour, alongside Parkway Drive, Megadeth, Trivium, Northlane, Spiritbox and plenty more.

It might still be possible to get your hands on a ticket  Knotfest Australia is utilising Ticketeks fan-to-fan Marketplace, which lets customers buy and sell tickets in a safe and secure manner.

Slipknot  Yen

Knotfest Australia launches at Melbournes Flemington Racecourse on Friday, 24th March. Sydney is next, with Centennial Park hosting the event on Saturday, 25th March. It wraps up in Brisbane at RNA Showgrounds on Sunday, 26th March.

Set times for all three events can be accessed via the Woov app. You can also find the details below.

Knotfest Melbourne  Set Times

Stage 1

11.50  12.20: Bad Omens

12.50  13.20: Alpha Wolf

13.50  14.30: Spiritbox

15.10  15.50: In Flames

16.35  17.20: Northlane

18.05  19.05: Megadeth

20.20  21.50: Slipknot

Stage 2

11.20  11.50: Malevolence

12.20  12.50: Void Of Vision

13.20  13.50: Knocked Loose

14.30  15.10: Story of the Year

15.50  16.35: Amon Amarth

17.20  18.05: Trivium

19.05  20.20: Parkway Drive

Knotfest Sydney  Set Times

Stage 1

11.50  12.20: Bad Omens

12.50  13.20: Alpha Wolf

13.50  14.30: Spiritbox

15.10  15.50: In Flames

16.35  17.20: Northlane

18.05  19.05: Megadeth

20.20  21.50: Slipknot

Stage 2

11.20  11.50: Malevolence

12.20  12.50: Void Of Vision

13.20  13.50: Knocked Loose

14.30  15.10: Story of the Year

15.50  16.35: Amon Amarth

17.20  18.05: Trivium

19.05  20.20: Parkway Drive

Knotfest Brisbane  Set Times

Stage 1

12.20  12.50: Bad Omens

13.20  13.50: Alpha Wolf

14.20  15.00: Spiritbox

15.40  16.20: In Flames

17.05  17.50: Northlane

18.35  19.35: Megadeth

20.50  22.20: Slipknot

Stage 2

11.50  12.20: Malevolence

12.50  13.20: Void Of Vision

13.50  14.20: Knocked Loose

15.00  15.40: Story of the Year

16.20  17.05: Amon Amarth

17.50  18.35: Trivium

19.35  20.50: Parkway Drive

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Further Reading

Knotfest Australia Sideshows Announced for Megadeth, Trivium, Spiritbox and More

Parkway Drive: Our Abilities Have Finally Caught Up to Our Imaginations

Slipknots Jay Weinberg: Weve Become a Better Band and Better Band Mates

The post Knotfest Australia is Completely Sold Out, Set Times Announced appeared first on Music Feeds.
Here's a new one: Get high and go to Waco.

Let us explain.

Actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard were at South by Southwest on Thursday for a featured session on their baby product company Hello Bello. Turns out, a Hello Bello factory is in Waco.

Enter: the drugs.

"I want to add, if you're ever in Waco and you're on mushrooms, I implore you to go to our factory," Shepard joked, noting that the factory looks like it's out of a Dr. Seuss book. The factory is huge and has clouds all over it. (Also, please don't yell us: You obviously should not do drugs. We're just reporting here!)

More:'What is happening?': boygenius surprises Austin airport travelers with two SXSW 2023 shows

Vox Media's Sam Sanders leads a featured session with Hello Bello's Erica Buxton, from left, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard on Thursday, March 16, 2023, at the Austin Convention Center. They talked about building their brand, Hello Bello, during South by Southwest titled, "Building a Brand Through Community."

Shepard and Bell's hourlong session was a lively one and included topics such as the diaper industry, zero waste factories, the couple's marriage and family. But our favorite parts where when the conversation turned to Texas. The couple wanted Hello Bello's products to be made in the U.S. and landed on Waco when looking for a place to build their factory.

"When we went to Waco and cut the ribbon basically, and see the facility, the mayor of Waco was there," Bell said, with the same excitement people probably use to describe meeting her.

More:What stars at Texas Film Awards said about being Texan, Willie Nelson and more

Waco is synonymous with Chip and Joanna Gaines these days, and when the town was mentioned, you could feel the Texans in the crowd perk up.

"Did y'all hang with the Magnolia folks," asked Sam Sanders, the Vox Media journalist moderating the session.

"We did," Shepard said.

"They designed our lobby! Chip and Joanna designed our lobby," Bell said.

Isn't that such a fun little tidbit? And that wasn't the only Texas shout out. Shepard asked the crowd to raise their hands if they were from Austin. Many hands went up, to Shepard's delight.

"You guys live in the greatest city in America and I apologize for always so often talking about how great it is and being part of the people who have moved here," Shepard said. "We're so delighted to be here."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Chip and Joanna Gaines helped Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard's baby biz
Ohio State University

Maybe Ohio State should drop the 'state'

I read the March 14 dispatch.com article, "Ohio may prohibit employees at public universities, colleges from striking," with great interest as a retired professor from Ohio State University and one who follows developments in the university sometimes with delight and pride, and other times with dismay and foreboding.

I doubt most Ohioans know that none of the universities in the state system are supported by state funds, they are assisted.

More:Ohio may prohibit employees at public universities, colleges from striking

Only a portion of the funding of any of the 63 state assisted institutions of higher education comes from the state of Ohio.

When I joined the university in 1973, the portion of their $2 billion budget provided by the state was 22% of the total. It has gradually diminished in proportion over the years.

In the 1990s, OSU negotiated to have certain specific state controls lifted in return for a lesser percentage of state funding. By the turn of the century, the percentage of state assistance was single digits.

Today, the operating budget is $8 billion and the amount of state funding has become proportionately less.

More:Letters: Politicians have failed in the war against COVID-19

This history of reduction of state assistance is critical to the potential passage of legislation that will increase state control of university operations, affiliations, teaching and research.

Such a heavy-handed political powerplay obviates the potential for divestiture from state affiliation to institute private non-profit status for Ohio State University.

There is a tipping point just ahead where acceptance of state assistance will not be worth the bother. Seven to 9% of budget is a fair chunk of change but endowments and program restructuring could make state assistance superfluous; especially if that assistance is even less than what is was a decade ago.

The university administration would likely wince at giving up state as part of their identity.

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That will be a small price to pay for preservation of academic excellence without interference from politicians with an anti-intellectual agenda.

Joseph A. Koncelik, Lewis Center

Store it Safe

As a pediatrician, I have seen a significant increase in children suffering from depression and anxiety in the last several years.

I have also seen a large increase in children and teens with thoughts of suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for those ages 10 to 25. This is a fact that we cannot ignore.

The Ohio Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics Store it Safe program (ohioaap.org/storeitsafe) has been developed and vetted by healthcare providers, parents, teens and gun advocates.

The program trains healthcare providers to screen for depression and anxiety and provides resources for families. It provides information on how to screen for firearms, medications and other weapons at home, as well as lock boxes for families to keep firearms and medications out of the hands of youth undergoing a mental health crisis.

Ohio AAP is seeking funding in the fiscal year 2024-2025 budget to expand this work statewide. Im asking lawmakers to strongly consider this request to execute work below:

Continuation of quality improvement work and SIS program advancement statewide

Funding of lock boxes

Statewide messaging campaign

I stand with the Ohio AAP in asking lawmakers for this critical funding and I call on other pediatricians and advocates to do so as well.

Dr. Rachael Morocco, Ohio AAP member, Lewis Center

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Letters: Senate Bill 83 a threat to Ohio State University
Stephen Waguespack led Louisiana Association of Business and Industry for 10 years but is now the latest Republican running for governor. The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) announced an interim president and CEO on Wednesday.

Jim Patterson, LABIs vice president of government relations, has been named LABI's interim president and CEO. Patterson has served the organization for more than 30 years and currently oversees the day-to-day activities of its lobbying team.

"There is no one better placed to step into this role than Jim Patterson, said Board Chairman Jude Melville. Patterson states he is honored by the confidence LABI's officers have shown in his ability to serve the. Also, Patterson directs the councils for Taxation and Finance, Employee Relations, and Trade, Transportation, and Tourism.

Stephen Waguespack runs for governor and steps down from LABI

According to Patterson Louisiana is at a pivotal point in history, and LABI is ready to advance positive policies that Louisiana desperately needs.

One Acadiana hosted a discussion with the group in Lafayette Thursday to share their outlook on business policies before the Louisiana Legislature's regular session and thoughts on how Louisianas business community can engage in the 2023 election season.

Marie Centanni, founder of Centanni Communications, Beverly Haydel, founder of Sequitur Consulting, and Andree Miller, director of political action committees for LABI led the discussion.

The discussion explored current issues, how the 2023 election season could impact these things, and as a citizen how to make a difference. LA23: A Road Map to Louisiana's Future is a project to improve the success rate of Louisiana's business and economic development.

In 2022 Louisiana was among the top ten states with outbound migration according to the discussion. Nearly fifty percent of people say they are leaving because they're looking for a new job or a company transfer. On average, the population growth from 2021-2031 is projected to decline by -6.3%.

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Other concerns presented in regional sessions included the education and talent supply being significantly low, economic developments lacking incentives, the complexity of the tax system, and safety and resiliency due to crime, healthcare, and insurance.

According to a Pew Research Center poll in 2022, 71% of U.S. adults rate strengthening the economy as a top policy priority.

Miller said through proposing the LA23 project, she hopes it will be viewed as a comprehensive plan that the next set of elective officials will embrace.

The nationwide search for a permanent LABI president and CEO will begin in the next few weeks.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: The LABI named Jim Patterson as interim president and CEO on Wednesday
Egyptian renowned Islamic chanter Mahmoud ElTohamy has been celebrated on Saturday afternoon by the UAEs Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF).

ElTohamy along with Emirati composer Ihab Darwish received a 'special recognition' as part of the Abu Dhabi Festival awards.

The duo was honoured for their exceptional work on Abu Dhabi Festival's commission and production of the epic Symphony of Three, as stated by the festival organisers.

"I am honoured for my long collaboration with UAE and ADMAF that is always done professionally in world-class standards," ElTohamy told Ahram Online after the ceremony, thanking the Abu Dhabi Festival organisers.

The Abu Dhabi Festival, which was founded in 2004, is part of the contribution that the ADMAF makes to the UAE capitals designation as a UNESCO City of Music, which commissions, produces, preserves and presents works of music and art aims to create rich cultural experiences in the UAE and beyond.

The Abu Dhabi Festival main awards went to the American composers Academy Award-winner David Shire and Emmy Award-winner John Debney and film music producer Robert Townson; in addition to Iraqi oud player Naseer Shamma for their outstanding lifetime contributions to music bestowed, as stated the festival organisers.

The awards were presented by Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak and ADMAF Founder Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo.

The Symphony of Three, which was composed by Shire, Debney and Darwish, featured many musicians from across the globe, including ElTohamy.

It was commissioned last year in honour of the planned Abrahamic Family House that combines a synagogue, a church and a mosque at the interfaith complex on Saadiyat Island.

For four years of collaboration with UAE and ADMAF, I am proud that we introduced works that uplift the Islamic chanting form of art. This really boosts my project in Islamic chanting and Arabic Fosha poetry reviving, ElTohamy added.

Most famous for Qamaron and El-Burda and many other traditional poems, the 44-year-old ElTohamy started his career in childhood by following in the footsteps of his father, the pioneer Sufi chanter Sheikh Yassin ElTohamy.

He performed Sufi poetry chants at traditional Sunni Islamic events across the country for crowds that sometimes numbered in the hundreds of thousands and at large moulid events in Cairo's Al-Hussein and Al-Sayeda Zeinab districts.

Eltohamy has collaborated with Egyptian Grammy Award winner Fathy Salama and his band Sharkiat in a project launched in 2018 titled Sufism vs Modernism.

He also collaborated on various projects with music producers from younger generations, including Rouh El-Maliha with Molotof, a key player in the Egyptian rap scene most known for Wegzs hit Dorak Gai.

Graduates of ElTohamys Islamic Sufi Chanting School in Cairo, which he established in 2014, also participated in a number of Abu Dhabi Festival events including the Symphony of Three.

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Short link:


The Canadian Space Agency's new logo retains elements from its original 1996 mark but rearranges them to evoke taking flight and a sense of pride as a new era of space exploration begins.

When the first Canadian astronaut to launch to the moon lifts off with NASA's next Artemis mission, he or she will do so wearing a new symbol of Canada's efforts in space.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) on Thursday (March 16) debuted a new logo to represent the growing role of the country's space program.

"An exciting era of space exploration is unfolding before us, and the CSA seeks to enter this new chapter with a modern identifying symbol," read a statement from the agency. "The Canadian Space Agency is modernizing its visual identity with a new simplified logo."

Related: Everything you need to know about NASA's Artemis program

The new mark features two main elements.

At top is the maple leaf, Canada's national emblem. According to CSA, the leaf "generates pride and a sense of belonging," in addition to its association with the country, as is known all around the world.

The maple leaf also gives the impression of taking flight.

It symbolizes "daring invention and our sights set on the future, ready to push the boundaries of ingenuity and innovation," CSA's description read.

Trailing the maple leaf are three stars, which at its most basic interpretation are a representation of space. The stars are also meant to convey brilliance, intelligence and expertise, as well as the strength of the community, which includes all those involved in Canada's space program, including industry, scientists, academia and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) organizations.

A circular version of the logo also includes the full, spelled-out name of the agency wrapping around the top in English and in French ("Agence Spatiale Canadienne") at the bottom.

Canadian Space Agency astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Jenni Sidey-Gibbons, Joshua Kutryk and David Saint-Jacques. One of the four will fly to the moon on NASA's Artemis II mission in 2025.

In 2019, CSA entered into a new agreement to help develop the Gateway, a human-tended research and logistics platform in lunar orbit. For its part, CSA and its industry partners are developing a new robotic system that will assist in repairs and maintaining the moon's first mini space station.

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Referred to as "Canadarm3," the new arm builds off Canada's legacy of providing the original Canadarm for the space shuttle and Canadarm2, which is still in use at the International Space Station.

CSA is also developing the country's first robotic lunar rover, which in collaboration with NASA will help in the international search for water ice in the lunar soil.

In return for these contributions, NASA reserved a seat for a CSA astronaut on its first crewed mission to fly around the moon in more than 50 years. The identities of the Artemis 2 crew members will be announced on April 3 during an event held at NASA's Ellington Field, near Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"Just over-the-moon proud to see Canada as the one partner flying on this historic first mission with NASA," Joshua Kurtyk, one of CSA's four active astronauts who are eligible for the seat on Artemis 2, wrote in a social media post. "Our unique innovative, exploratory and pioneering spirit at work, and a direct link to Canada's future prosperity and security."

The prior Canadian Space Agency logo dates back to 1996.

Related stories:

 Canadian Space Agency: Facts & information

 Artemis moon rocket looks ready for astronaut missions, NASA says

 Canada eyes new astronaut flights with Axiom Space

CSA's new logo replaces an earlier design that was first introduced on Nov. 4, 1996. The now-retired mark also featured a maple leaf, but instead of leading off the emblem, it was positioned below a stylized horizon with the sun's rays extending from behind and a vector extending to a four-pointed star (of the same style on the new logo). Instead of its full name, the Canadian Space Agency's English and French acronyms ("CSA" and "ASC") appeared in italic below the maple leaf.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2023 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
Melissa Joan Hart visits the SiriusXM Studios on April 3, 2019 in New York City.

Taylor Hill/Getty

Clarissa Explains It All star Melissa Joan Hart is still eager to return to her breakout role  just not with the concept pitched seen so far.

The 46-year-old actress shared her thoughts about the proposed plot of the now stalled revival of her early '90s Nickelodeon hit.

"I believe it was that Clarissa is divorced and moving to California with her two kids and living on the beach in California with her aunt," she told Insider. "So, I don't know. It wasn't my favorite way in."

RELATED: Melissa Joan Hart Reveals Clarissa Explains It All Reboot Was 'Squashed' by Nickelodeon: 'We Tried'

When asked if she would rather revisit playing Clarissa or reprise the titular role on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Hart responded, "Of course whatever I say I'm going to piss off half the people."

She then admitted that portraying Clarissa again would be "more fun."

"I do feel like Sabrina wrapped up really nicely with her riding off on the motorcycle with Harvey," she explained. "I think that ending on Sabrina was so iconic that I don't want to go back and try to recreate that and have another good ending."

CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL, Melissa Joan Hart, 1991-1994

Nickelodeon/Courtesy Everett Collection

RELATED: Melissa Joan Hart Remembers Her 'Bossy' Days on the Clarissa Explains It All Set

At last year's 90s Con, Hart revealed plans were no longer moving forward to revisit Clarissa Explains It All, which ran for five seasons from 1991 to 1994.

"We tried that, actually," Hart said at the fan convention. "Nickelodeon got a new president, and they kind of squashed the whole thing."

She continued, "So it was actually in the works and yeah, it just sort of disappeared. It took like a year to do the contracts, which was the hardest part, and then it just kind of fizzled out. So I don't think [it will happen]."

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.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news in 2018 that Hart and series creator Mitchell Kriegman were in talks to reboot the sitcom.
Nancy Meyers is addressing the drama surrounding her new movie after parting ways with Netflix over its big budget earlier this week.

The director, who is the mastermind behind rom-com classics like 2006's The Holiday and 2003's Something's Gotta Give, confirmed the currently stalled project's title and teased a hint about its storyline in an Instagram post on Saturday.

"There's been a lot written about my new film," Meyers wrote. "Here's one thing I can easily clear up  and that's the title  Paris Paramount. It's from a quote by the brilliant and elegant comedy director (dare I say creator of the romantic comedy) Ernst Lubitsch."

She added, "The movie is about a group of people making a film and the magic and mystery of what we do. As always, Lubitsch said it best."

Alongside her caption, Meyers shared a quote from the German director, which read, "I've been to Paris, France, and I've been to Paris, Paramount, and frankly, I prefer Paris, Paramount."

In the comments section of her post, authors Ina Garten, Gary Janetti, and Danny Pellegrino shared their support for Meyer's film, with Pellegrino noting, "We will be watching wherever it ends up!"

Meyers and Netflix were unable to come to an agreement over the budget for the film, which would have marked Meyers' first feature-length directing project in nearly a decade, per The Hollywood Reporter. In the days following the split, Deadline reported that Warner Bros. has expressed interest in acquiring the project, which Meyers will write, produce, and direct.

Nancy Meyers

Karwai Tang/WireImage Nancy Meyers

Meyers' departure from the streaming service comes just weeks after the director seemed to confirm rumors that Scarlett Johansson, Owen Wilson, Penelope Cruz, and Michael Fassbender were in talks to star in the film. It is unclear, however, whether the actors will appear in it now given its recent shakeup.

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On March 8, Meyers posted a screenshot of a Google search that featured an article about the potential casting alongside the words, "Scarlett Johansson to direct Nancy Meyers for Netflix." She teasingly captioned the post, "Google, you're so close."

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

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This article was collaboratively written by Rachel Rosenbloom + Buzzy, our creative AI assistant.

Let me introduce you to the underrated, underappreciated, and unbelievably amazing North Adams, Massachusetts. Yes, you read that right. This little town packs a punch with great food, amazing hikes, and museums that'll leave your jaw on the floor. Sure, the weather can get a little wild in the winter, but that's just part of its charm. So grab your coat and let's dive into the top 7 reasons why you need to make North Adams your next travel adventure.

Visionsofamerica / Getty Images

1. A Foodie's Wonderland

First things first, the food in North Adams is chef's kiss. Seriously, I thought I had died and gone to food heaven. You've got everything from mouthwatering Italian cuisine to artisanal coffee shops that make you want to renounce your Starbucks loyalty. You'll never run out of delicious options to stuff your face with. Trust me, you'll need those calories for the next item on the list.

2. The Great Outdoors

You might think you know what a hike looks like, but you haven't really hiked until you've done it in North Adams. Mount Greylock, the tallest peak in Massachusetts, is right here in our backyard. Let me tell you  those views from the summit are worth every single drop of sweat. Just be prepared to fall in love with Mother Nature all over again.

Amy Cadotte / Getty Images/EyeEm

3. Museums That'll Make Your Heart Sing

If you're an art lover, prepare to have your mind blown. The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a game-changer. Picture an old mill turned into a sprawling, jaw-dropping contemporary art haven. Plus, there's always something new to see, so you'll never get bored.

4. Small Town Vibes with Big City Culture

One of the best things about North Adams is that it's got this perfect mix of small-town charm and big-city culture. You'll feel like you're stepping back in time, but with all the modern amenities you could want. It's like Gilmore Girls meets Brooklyn  who wouldn't want that?

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Denistangneyjr / Getty Images

5. Festivals, baby!

North Adams knows how to throw a party. From the FreshGrass Festival to the North Adams WinterFest, there's always something happening to keep you entertained. So, get ready to dance, sing, and eat your heart out, because there's no party like a North Adams party!

6. Snow-pocalypse

Sure, the weather can be extreme in the winter, but guess what? It's still gorgeous! Embrace your inner Elsa, bundle up, and enjoy the beauty of snow-covered landscapes. Plus, there's nothing like warming up with a cup of hot cocoa after a day spent frolicking in the frosty wonderland. Yakoniva / Via Alamy Stock Photo

7. Charming Small-Town Vibes

Last but not least, you'll fall in love with North Adams' friendly locals, picturesque streets, and unique shops. This charming town will make you feel like you're the main character in a Hallmark movie  who doesn't want that?
File A Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is launched at Pyongyang International Airport, in Pyongyang, (via REUTERS)

North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) hours before South Koreas president landed in Japan for a summit about nuclear threats.

The missile was launched from Pyongyangs Sunan area at 7.10am on Thursday and it fell in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, said South Korean and Japanese assessments.

The suspected ICBM flew about 1,000km at a maximum altitude of 6000km after taking a 70-minute-long flight, they said.

This was North Koreas third round of missile tests in the span of a week after firing two strategic cruise missiles from a submarine on Sunday and two short-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday.

The increasing number of weapon tests have widely been expected as South Korea and the US military began their massive Freedom Shield exercise on Monday that is set to run for 11 days.

In a statement, US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the test needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.

The missile launch happened just hours before South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol landed in Japan.

The conservative president is visiting his neighbouring country for a bilateral summit his office praised as an important milestone in relations for the two Western allies that have not always seen eye to eye with each other.

US soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division participate in the joint Freedom Shield (FS) exercise with South Korean soldiers in Paju, South Korea (EPA)

The two-day visit is the first made to Japan by a South Korean president in 12 years to discuss measures to conter the threat of North Koreas nuclear weapons programme and bilateral relations in an attempt to put behind years of animosity.

The two countries have a long history of acrimony which goes back to Japans 1910-45 colonial rule in the Korean Peninsula.

Yoons Tokyo trip faced domestic opposition for allegedly rushing historical reconciliation in the interest of improving relations with Japan, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee arrive at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, (AP)

North Koreas ICBM test on the day of the Yoon-Kishida summit may have been intended to aggravate those politics but instead makes patently clear the need for deepening security cooperation among US allies.

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The Norths leader Kim Jong-un held a high-level meeting ahead of the drills and called his military to be ready to repel what he called frantic war preparations moves (sic) by his countrys rivals.

The trajectory of the suspected ICBM was similar to the one held on 18 Februrary when a Hwasong-15 was launched. North Korea said that test was meant to further bolster its fatal nuclear attack capacity against its rivals.

The Hwasong-15 is one of the Norths three ICBMs, all of which use liquid propellants that require pre-launch injections.

Mr Kim has vowed to build solid-propellant missiles that are more mobile and harder to detect before their launches as fuel for the missiles gets filled much in advance before the launch.
I love stories about outsiders who dont get Rhode Island, like folks who think were part of New York  but this one may be my favorite.

Youve doubtless come across the Chinese company Anker, which sells phone chargers, cables and so much other stuff theyve got a $24 billion market cap.

Well, sorry to break it to you, but if you live here, you could have trouble getting your purchase delivered.

Anker doesnt ship to islands.

Including Rhode Island.

This week, that news was amusingly posted on Reddit, a discussion website, by an R.I. user named Sesto.

Anker won't ship to RI because they think we're an actual island, Sesto wrote.

He was not pleased by this, so wrote to the company explaining RI is indeed part of the contiguous United States.

Jon Del Sesto

Ankers response?

They have doubled down and told me that it's an island, he posted.

Ankers customer service response to Sesto: We are sorry to say that we do not ship a product to an island as of yet.

This seemed to touch nerves among Rhode Island Redditors. Hundreds responded, and I agree. How dare Anker. Were ridiculed enough for being the smallest state  a sixth as big as tiny Hawaii. Casual U.S. maps sometimes leave R.I. out. I once heard of a visitor from England saying, Rhode Island's such a funny little state - is it necessary?

And now Anker declares us an atoll or reef? Its one thing to be the Ocean State, another to be cast into the sea.

Reddit commenters weighed in with amusing thoughts.

Maybe a snarky comment about how New England isn't in England? said EllisDee3.

More from Patinkin:Seriously, who still has AOL email? Why I held on until the shame was too much

Others, noting that Rhode Island was founded by outcasts and still acts that way, felt Anker had a point.

I mean mentally thats pretty accurate, said devinmarieb.

EpicSteak had fun with it, too: I live in Attleboro, is this Island you speak of close to me? Is there a ferry?

We managed to reach Sesto  real name Jon Del Sesto. Hes 34, born in Johnston, grew up in Smithfield, lives in Cranston and works for Warwicks Gamm Theater as manager of design and media.

Story continues

He is used to his home state getting no respect. Once, he flew to San Diego to work at Comic Con, and they assumed Rhode Island was a Boston suburb. The name badge they gave him read, Jon Boston."

Such moments prompted him to stand up this week for Rhode Islands geographical honor.

He explained that the Anker thinks were an island story was first posted by the states legendary online humorist, @rhodeislandprobz, who has 127,000 followers on Twitter and 90,000 on Instagram.

Del Sesto, his RI pride offended, followed up by contacting Anker to insist we really are part of the contiguous states.

I explained Rhode Island shouldn't be grouped in with The Marshall Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, etc., he said.

Ankers response?

If you have a friend or family member in the US mainland you may consider having the product shipped there, they wrote. Then they can forward it to your address. How convenient.

Admittedly, Rhode Island was originally the island of Aquidneck, which today, along with populous Jamestown, makes us a bit of an archipelago. But so Anker doesn't panic, we have these things called bridges.

Del Sesto vowed to make this a Reddit crusade, and by Thursday, with all the sharing, it went viral.

By Friday, the crowd had won.

Ankers website has a page explaining that U.S. orders only go to the contiguous states, not to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, a few others, and Rhode Island.

High times:A still-paranoid '70s guy visits a RI cannabis store and finds a brave new world

Friday morning, Del Sesto checked that page again, and Rhode Island was no longer on it. Apparently, someone in China determined were not a reef after all and restored us to the contiguous 48, a major victory in international diplomacy.

Im thinking the State Departments China desk might want to hire Jon Del Sesto.

I woke up today, he wrote on Reddit, and am very happy to announce that Anker now has 1 million more people to ship to.

Another poster observed: All it took was a little internet bullying.

Del Sestos victory became doubly clear midday Friday when he got a message from an Anker rep named Tina who apologized and said, Weve officially confirmed that Anker products can be shipped to Rhode Island.

Perhaps, Del Sesto mused, well all get Anker gift cards to make amends.

But either way, hes happy to say one more Rhode Island misconception has been cleared up.

Perhaps next, Reddit can convince people were not part of New York.

Nah  thats wishing for too much.

mpatinki@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Anker wouldn't ship to Rhode Island, until John Del Sesto stepped in
PANAMA CITY  The U.S. Department of Labor says failed safety practices by an Alabama marina cargo contractor might have been the cause of a Panama City resident's death.

According to a news release from the Labor Department, a 28-year-old Panama City resident was killed in September while hoisting about two tons of paper onto a boat for Premier Bulk Stevedoring LLC. The incident occurred in a ship's cargo hold in Panama City.

An investigation by the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found the incident might have happened because the company allowed operation of cargo cranes without proper training.

"OSHA learned a crane operator lacked a clear view of employees in the hold below as they loaded 7-foot-high rolls of paper five at a time ... when the ship pitched and the load crushed the worker against the vessel's wall," the release reads.

Arrest tally:Panama City Beach Police arrest more than 250 so far this spring break season

A reminder:PCB officials remind locals they aren't exempt from March's beach alcohol ban

Premier Bulk Stevedoring LLC, a marina cargo contractor based in Mobile, Alabama, declined to comment on the incident. Representatives from the Labor Department wrote in an email they would not release the victim's name.

The release says that OSHA cited the Alabama company for two serious violations and one repeat violation. The agency issued the company a similar violation in December 2020 "after federal inspectors found a crane operator and worker guiding the driver not in the line of sight of each other."

OSHA also cited the company for failing to ensure the cargo-handling supervisor completed an accident prevention course. The citations resulted in more than $43,700 in penalties.

The release, which was dated March 10, states Premier Bulk Stevedoring LLC had 15 business days from receiving the citations to comply, request a conference with OSHA officials or contest the investigation's findings before OSHA's commission.

"Less than two years ago, OSHA cited Premier Bulk Stevedoring for unsafe loading operations and our investigation into this tragic September 2022 fatality found the company again operating in a dangerous manner," Jose Gonzalez, OSHA area officer director, said in the release. "Their failure to follow established safety procedures caused a young worker to needlessly lose their life."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Premier Bulk Stevedoring cited after fatal Panama City cargo accident
This article was collaboratively written by Brent Sievers + Buzzy, our creative AI assistant.

When you think of travel destinations in the US, the usual suspects come to mind: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago. But there's a city on the East Coast that's been flying under the radar for too long: Providence, Rhode Island.

I recently journeyed to Providence and discovered it to be a hidden gem for adventure seekers looking for an off-the-beaten-path experience. Here are just a few reasons why it's worth the visit:

That's right folks, Providence is home to the 2nd largest carpeted mall in the world. Now, I know what you're thinking- bigger isn't always better. But when you step foot into this mall and feel the plush carpet under your toes, you'll get it. Plus, you can shop until you literally drop onto that carpet. Loodog at English Wikipedia. - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 3.0 / Via commons.wikimedia.org

Oldest Enclosed Mall in the US

Yep, Providence has TWO malls making our list. The Arcade Providence is the oldest enclosed mall in the United States. History and shopping, combined? You're welcome. Marc Dufresne / Getty Images

Polar Express Abandoned Factories

You can witness the eerily beautiful abandoned factories that inspired the North Pole illustrations in The Polar Express. I mean, come on, who wouldn't want to connect with their inner child? Digidreamgrafix / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Get Your Grub On

The food scene in Providence is lit. From mouth-watering food trucks to cozy, local cafes, your taste buds will be seriously blown away. There's something for everyone, and its finger-lickin fantastic. Wirestock / Getty Images

An Artsy Wonderland

As home to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, Providence is teeming with art, creativity, and inspiration. Immerse yourself in the coolest exhibits, performances, and  heck, even the street art is worth turning around for a second look! Cheunghyo / Getty Images

Get Lost in Time

Providence boasts some seriously old-world charm. Up your architectural knowledge game while you walk down the historic Benefit Street, or take an engaging and hilarious walking tour led by a local guide who knows all the juiciest tidbits. Chuyn / Getty Images
Laura Gallegos (center) and her mother, Juana Franco, the future owners, gesture toward the new Habitat for Humanity house under construction at 2015 S. Bernard Drive in Bloomington. At right is Indiana State Treasurer Daniel Elliott. Braver Angels, a volunteer national organization, recruited local politicians and candidates to help with the build.

The house under construction at 2015 S. Bernard Drive, Bloomington, attracted a good bit of political attention last weekend.

A number of elected local officials  plus candidates for office  responded to a request for help at the site where Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County has a two-story, four-bedroom house rising.

The future owners were working, too: Laura Gallegos and her mother, Juana Franco. Laura is on staff at Bloomington Center for Global Children.

Laura, her children  Erick, 6, a student at Arlington School, and Zoe, 13, a seventh grader at Tri-North  and Grandma Juana now live in a basement rental apartment in Bloomington.

The kids cant wait to have their own rooms and to play at the park nearby, Laura told Habitat representatives.

The political workforce at the construction site was rounded up by Braver Angels Indiana, a volunteer-run national organization that Don Byrd, Indiana state coordinator, describes as dedicated to bridging the political divide for tolerance and understanding, including down-to-earth projects like helping out at Habitat sites.

Byrd said he counted seven Republicans and four Democrats among the construction volunteers pounding hammers, cutting wood and stuffing insulation, including State Sen. Shelli Yoder and Ellettsville Town Council member William Ellis.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Braver Angels Indiana brings Dems, Reps to Monroe County Habitat build
House Republican Leader Tony McCombie R- Savanna, center, with other House Republicans talks about legislative action to help combat the opioid crisis during a press conference at the state Capitol Thursday, March 16, 2023.

Outside of his time in Springfield, state Rep. Bill Hauter, R-Morton, serves as an anesthesiologist and emergency physician in Peoria. The representative's practice often has him on the frontline of a growing problem nationwide and in Illinois: the opioid epidemic.

Illinois Department of Public Health officials point to a surge in synthetic drugs such as fentanyl for driving an increase in opioid overdose deaths. Data from IDPH shows synthetic opioid deaths have increased by 2,736% since 2013 and caused nearly 2,500 deaths in 2020.

Responding to overdoses often requires the use of emergency medication treatment such as naloxone, which Hauter said is not always enjoyed by those overdosing.

State Rep. Bill Hauter R-Morton, talks about the opioid crisis during a press conference at the state Capitol Thursday, March 16, 2023.

"So many times, in the emergency department, we see somebody that we've saved their life and they couldn't be more angry at us for withdrawing them from their narcotic," he said. "They never want to have Narcan (brand name for naloxone) again because it withdraws them immediately."

Opioids:Pritzker, Raoul announce plans for state's millions from opioid settlements

Through a bill advancing in the Illinois House, Hauter hopes the interactions and overdoses will be reduced.

On Thursday, Hauter and fellow Republicans joined House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna to discuss House Bill 3203. The bill would allow pharmacists and retailers to sell over-the-counter fentanyl test strips that check for the presence of fentanyl or fentanyl analogs in a controlled substance.

County health departments also would be permitted to distribute the strips free of charge. The measure has received bipartisan support from Democrats.

This bill will help save lives, said McCombie. Fentanyl is a deadly drug that is taking far too many lives and as we continue to take steps to address the opioid epidemic affecting Illinois families, our priority with this legislation is to single out fentanyl.

McCombie was grateful for the bipartisan support on the bill, although noted that was not the case for her other fentanyl-related piece of legislation.

Story continues

House Bill 3210 would amend the Illinois Controlled Substances Act and calls for increased penalties for those selling any scheduled drug containing fentanyl or using a form of electronic communication in an effort to support its transaction.

Anyone caught selling would face a prison term ranging from nine to 40 years or a fine not exceeding $250,000, while those using an electronic device could be fined up to $100,000. The bill was referred to the House Rules Committee, never moving beyond the first reading, and will not see any voting action McCombie said.

State Sen. Sally Turner, R-Beason, introduced an identical version of the bill with Senate Bill 73 and also has not had any votes. She attempted to pass the same bill in a previous General Assembly.

Several bills on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers have been filed, including House Bill 1121 from state Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago. The bill passed in its third reading earlier this week in a unanimous fashion and allows any trained overdose responder to use a drug adulterant testing supply.

The responder has to be enrolled in the Drug Overdose Prevention Program, which is administered by the Department of Human Services, Division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery.

McCombie is a co-sponsor of Guzzardi's bill, while the Democrat also backs the bill from the Republican leader. She is hopeful similar efforts to reach across the aisle will become more commonplace. more efforts like these will be made in both chambers to reach across the aisle in the matter.

"I'm going to guess that everyone in this room knows someone or some family that has been affected by this drug," she said. "So, it's real and we have to get ahead of it. We are behind schedule on stopping this."

March 24 is the deadline to advance bills in the House out of third reading.

Contact Patrick Keck: 312-549-9340, pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Republican-led fentanyl bill advances in Illinois House
Despite two months of strikes and some of the biggest protests in decades, Macron's government on Thursday imposed the bill to hike the retirement age from 62 to 64.

The move sparked angry demonstrations across the country in the evening, with more than 300 people arrested nationwide, according to the interior minister.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Thursday invoking article 49.3 of the constitution to impose the pension overhaul by decree also provoked tumult in parliament and moves to file a motion of no confidence in the government.

The situation presents Macron, who has only made occasional public comments on the matter, with one of his biggest challenges less than one year into his second and final mandate.

On Friday morning, some 200 protesters briefly blocked traffic on the ring road outside the capital.

Soumaya Gentet, 51, a CGT union member from supermarket chain Monoprix, said she was incensed and would continue to protest until the bill was revoked.

"They're not taking into account what the people want," she said.

Her colleague Lamia Kerrouzi agreed. "Macron doesn't give a fig about the people," she said.

"He doesn't understand the language of the people. It needs to be repealed."

In the energy sector, strikers were to halt production at a large refinery by this weekend or Monday at the latest, CGT union representative Eric Sellini said.

Strikers continued to deliver less fuel than normal from several other sites, he added.

Unions have called for another day of mass strikes and protests for next Thursday, branding the government's move "a complete denial of democracy".

'Total failure'

Macron put the pensions reform, which also seeks to increase the number of years people have to work to receive a full pension, at the center of his re-election campaign last year.

But the 45-year-old centrist lost his parliamentary majority in June after elections for the lower-house National Assembly.

"We can't take the risk of seeing 175 hours of parliamentary debate come to nothing," Borne told parliament as she invoked article 49.3 amid jeers and boos from opposition lawmakers.

The move amounted to an admission the cabinet lacked a majority in the lower house to make the changes, despite appealing to the right-wing opposition Republican party for support.

Borne has used the controversial constitutional loophole 11 times since becoming head of government last year.

A bill is then considered adopted unless lawmakers vote no confidence in the government.

Several opposition parties, including the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) and far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen, were set to call the no-confidence vote by Friday afternoon.

Borne's cabinet is largely expected to survive, thanks to backing from the Republicans, despite an increasingly febrile political situation.

Le Pen has called Thursday's cabinet move "a total failure for the government", while Jean-Luc Melenchon of the LFI urged for "spontaneous rallies across the country".

'Wreaking havoc'

Trains, schools, public services, and ports have since January been affected by strikes against the proposed reform.

A rolling strike by municipal garbage collectors in Paris has caused about 7,000 tonnes of trash to pile up in the streets, attracting rats and putting off tourists.

Thousands of protesters massed opposite the parliament on Thursday evening.

Police used tear gas and water cannon in the evening to clear protesters after a fire was lit in the center of the historic Place de la Concorde, and similar scenes unfolded across France.

The ensuing unrest saw 310 people arrested around the country, including 258 in Paris, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told RTL radio on Friday.

"The opposition is legitimate, the protests are legitimate, but wreaking havoc is not," he said.

An AFP photographer on Friday morning saw damage including a burnt-out public bicycle, a shattered shop window, and a scorched car in Paris.

According to polls, two-thirds of French people oppose the pension overhaul.

The political implications of forcing through the reform are uncertain.

The head of the CGT union, Philippe Martinez, warned this week that Macron risked "giving the keys" of the presidency to Le Pen at the next election in 2027 when Macron will be barred from seeking a third term.
Residents living near a Minnesota nuclear power plant have questioned why public officials waited nearly four months to tell them about a massive leak of radioactive water from the facility.

Some 400,000 gallons of water containing tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, leaked from Xcel Energys Monticello nuclear power plant in late November, officials confirmed publicly for the first time on Thursday.

The Xcel Energy plant is located on the banks of the Mississippi River about 35 miles from Minneapolis. The closest neighbourhood is around a mile from the plant.

It happened in November? It would have been nice to know since we live next to the power plant, Daniel Fure, a Monticello resident, told local news station KSTP. The public should know whats going on. If we dont know anything about it, we cant say anything. We dont know anything about it.

Other residents took out their frustrations at being kept in the dark on the City of Monticellos official Facebook page after it shared Xcel Energys press release on the incident.

This is the first Ive heard of this. I live very close to the plant. Wish theyd come check our wells, wrote Sally Berthiaume.

Should have been told about this issue back in November when it took place, added Shari Sharp Oravetz.

The Independent reached out to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Minnesota Department of Health and Xcel Energy for comment.

The energy company said in a press release that the leaked water is fully contained on-site. It has not been detected beyond the facility or in any local drinking water, and poses no health and safety risk to the local community or the environment, the release added.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the state of Minnesota were notified by Xcel Energy on 22 November, the same day the presence of a leak was confirmed. The leak came from a water pipe running between two buildings. So far 25 per cent of the tritium released has been recovered.

Story continues

The company said the water contains levels of tritium below NRC safety thresholds and that state agencies are monitoring Xcel Energys remediation work.

We live and work in the community, too, and the safety of our hundreds of Monticello employees and the surrounding area is a top priority, Theo Keith, an Xcel Energy representative, told The Independent in an email.

We understand the importance of quickly informing the communities we serve if a situation poses an immediate threat to health and safety. In this case, there was no such threat.

Now that we have thoroughly investigated the issue, contained the leak, and mapped out a path forward, we are at a place where we can share with the public not only what has already been done, but what were going to do next. This timing allows us to provide the most accurate and complete understanding of the situation.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that occurs naturally in the environment and is a common by-product of nuclear plant operations.

It emits a weak form of beta radiation that does not travel very far and cannot penetrate human skin, according to the NRC. A person who drank water from a spill would get only a low dose, the NRC says.

State officials said they waited to get more information on the leak before going public with it.

We knew there was a presence of tritium in one monitoring well, however Xcel had not yet identified the source of the leak and its location, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency spokesman Michael Rafferty told The Associated Press.

Now that we have all the information about where the leak occurred, how much was released into groundwater, and that contaminated groundwater had moved beyond the original location, we are sharing this information, he added.

Mr Keith also told The Independent that no other leaks of contaminated water have occurred at the Monticello nuclear plant or the companys other nuclear facility, Prairie Island, in the past 12 months.

Many operating nuclear plants have had some level of tritium leakage at some point during their operations.aIn the late 2000s, Monticello experienced a tritium release smaller in scale than this one and we worked with state agencies to resolve it.

That leak came from a sump, rather than a pipe as this most recent one did, and we took action to reline all ofaour sumps following that leak, the statement added.

With reporting from The Associated Press
On a blustery March morning, a wind gust lifted a dust wall hundreds of feet high from a bare piece of land south of Coolidge. It engulfed 23 cars and was blamed for a road accident. Ten days later, it happened again, a dust cloud, a car accident.

The source of the hazard was an unplanted plot of fine-grain soil that ran for half a mile along State Route 87. That day, a machine operator was preparing to level 160 acres for the planting season when the dirt was swept by gusts of wind. Accident victims sued the farmer and won a $400,000 settlement.

In the roughly 20 years since the accidents, seasonal dust storms and serious concerns over fallow fields have persisted. Dust storms remain the second-biggest cause of road accidents in Arizona, and thousands of people fall sick every year from wind-transmitted, deadly fungal infections. The increased number of dry, unplanted plots in Pinal County due to recent water cuts could worsen the problem.

Some researchers believe they are close to new solutions. A team from Arizona State University is testing ways to grow back the skin of desert soils  the thin, living, natural layer that prevents wind from scooping up dust.

By monitoring dust sources and unique weather events and evaluating two bio-inspired methods to grow new soil crust, the team aims to offer new solutions for immediate and long-term dust control.

The methods are not entirely new. Biological crust restoration and enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation have been studied for over a decade. But applied research at this scale is still rare for biocrust, and until now there has been no commercial application of either method for dust control.

The best available technology for fugitive dust control, like a construction site, is to run a water truck. And in Arizona, when it's 40 degrees centigrade and it's 15% relative humidity, you can run a water truck all day, said Edward Kavazanjian, a researcher on the grant and the director of the Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics.

Story continues

We wanted to find a better way, a more sustainable way 

The research project is funded by a three-year $4.5 million grant from the Arizona Board of Regents, which will also support research at Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona, where scientists study the growth patterns and transmission of coccidioides fungal spores, and are working to track hotspots of the fungus.

Polluted air: Summer storms are a spectacle, but the dust in them is hazardous to your health

Building new desert skin

On January 25, Pinal County said that new, more stringent dust-control rules will take effect in June on the western side of the county, arising from Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

In 2012, the EPA determined that the area does not meet national air-quality standards for PM-10, air-suspended particles of dust and smoke 10 micrometers or less in diameter. That placed the west Pinal area as a PM-10 non-attainment area. In 2020, the EPA reclassified it as serious non-attainment.

Arizona failed to meet the deadline to achieve attainment and will now have to prove that west Pinal County is reducing its PM-10 emissions by 5% every year.

The situation is identical to what Maricopa County experienced some years back. If west Pinal County doesn't achieve the 5% reduction, the government could freeze federal transportation funds, and new projects could be put on hold until a new dust-control plan is submitted and approved by the EPA.

The penalty would be a massive punitive action, according to Timothy Franquist, environmental director of the Maricopa Association of Governments, the agency leading the effort to create a new state plan for west Pinal County. The situation in Pinal County is different than the one in Maricopa mainly because of the scale of the issue.

It is a low-risk situation because we have identified control measures, said Franquist.

The measures can be very expensive. The most important will likely be paving dirt roads, which make up 67% of all PM-10 emissions according to the most recent inventory from 2017. Other steps include watering, an expensive measure in the desert, and treating both construction sites and miles of roads with dust suppressants.

Synthetic polymers and a wide array of other products are frequently used for dust control on roads and construction sites. Annual treatment costs about $10,000 per mile. But some of them may be toxic and are not as suitable for large areas of ground, like fallow fields.

A more sustainable solution to keep dust in the ground, according to ASU researchers, would be to build new soil crust for immediate and long-term relief.

Biocrust restoration recovers and accelerates the growth of microbial communities that are naturally present in desert soils, and creates a living layer that protects soil from wind erosion. Enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation, or EICP, is a bio-inspired technique that uses bean-extracted enzymes to precipitate calcium carbonate in the soil (a main component of limestone that is regularly used in agriculture) and creates an artificial crust.

The idea is that biocrust restoration could be used as a long-term solution for plots that might be left fallow indefinitely, while the calcium carbonate crust could act as a treatment for areas that require immediate dust suppression.

Matthew Fraser and Pierre Herckes, also from the ASU team, will continue to monitor wind-blown dust with 14 sensors placed throughout the area, identify extreme weather events and agricultural activity and trace the source of dust to measure the treatments effectiveness.

Repairing the land: How researchers hope to preserve and restore 'biocrust,' the desert's protective skin

Biocrust research is growing

Biocrust restoration research has exploded in the last decade, and land managers are increasingly more invested in protecting biocrust as a key resource, said U.S. Geological Survey ecologist Sasha Reed, who has worked extensively in arid lands restoration but is not part of the ASU research team.

For fallow plots that will go unplanted indefinitely, this could be a long-term solution. The mighty microbes are ecosystem engineers that can improve habitat for other species and endure extreme weather events but would die crushed under tractor tires.

It is a self-perpetuating ecosystem. It's the natural way the desert has to keep the soil in place, said Ferran Garcia-Pichel, a biological soil crust scientist and researcher on the regents' grant.

Biocrust restoration at this scale has never been done. ASU's one-acre plot experiment is one of the largest scales attempted. A larger restoration project was attempted in Utah and was the world's largest and maybe the world's only biocrust farm outdoors, according to Reed with the USGS, who took part in the project. The biocrust died when it was taken from the breeding grounds into the field.

The ASU team faces similar hurdles. Out in the open, biocrust is not growing as fast as they need. In natural conditions, it can take decades for it to repopulate an area.

And of course, that's not quick enough, said Brian Scott, a scholar conducting ASU's field trials in Pinal County. We need to be able to grow biocrust in our incubation chambers in a season and get it transplanted into the field.

Reed, with the USGS, believes this is precisely the scale at which science needs to be happening today. There is a wealth of research and management experience to support biocrust restoration, and it will be needed so more tools for arid lands restoration in the West are available soon.

We need to know these things now so that managers have options, she said.

Dry lands: ADEQ is treating soil along I-10 in Pinal County to reduce dust storm risk

Agricultural dust control is one small piece of the puzzle

The quest to reduce PM-10 emissions by 5% each year in west Pinal County will require a holistic approach. New rules for construction sites will be in place in June, and cities in the county will have to scale up road paving starting next year.

Farmers will also be expected to adopt more best management practices, such as leaving crop residue on the fields for longer, establishing multi-year crops or planting wind barriers.

Agricultural plots are not the major source of dust in west Pinal County. According to a 2017 inventory of PM-10 sources, 67% of all dust came from 5,897 miles of unpaved roads. A wide variety of users stir dust from them daily. Harvesting and tilling practices made up only one-tenth of total daily dust levels.

But land tillage, laser land-leveling and harvesting can still create significant road visibility issues and health hazards.

Since 2006, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, which oversees agricultural best management practices, has received 81 complaints about dust coming from farms.

Farm machinery is kicking up dirt making a giant cloud covering the whole neighborhood in the skyline ranch subdivision and further, wrote one complainant in 2019. I suffer from asthma and this is a serious health hazard for the children walking to schools in the area. This has been going on for YEARS.

The agency has conducted 132 inspections since the non-attainment area was declared in 2012.

Another source of dispute is how much the extreme weather exacerbates the dust problem. Paul Ollerton, the farmer sued for the dust-cloud wreck about 20 years ago, is now chairman of a committee within ADEQ that oversees dust-control methods for farming.

In his view, most farmers abide by best practices and do what they can to avoid dust, tilling only when necessary and running a water truck when they level the ground. He said the EPA should analyze more closely the influence of high winds and the region's soil types.

At the time the road accident occurred, an operator in Ollertons farm was running a water truck to settle the dust during leveling, he said.

It was out of my control. We did everything to the best of our financial ability and knowledge to prevent it," he said. You just cant put enough water out.

When Maricopa County was fighting for PM-10 attainment, officials argued that much of the dust-levels issue was out of their control, classifying as exceptional events the driving cause of air pollution. The EPA agreed.

Ollerton has been outspoken and pushed back against some of the demands of the EPA that farmers adopt more best management practices. He also delivered more information and records of their activity to the agency.

The increase in fallow land is something to worry about, he said, and farmers will need support in finding new, better ways to deal with dust on their plots.

A lot of our (best management practices) are based on, you know, using water, using water, using water, he said. "And water, it's just not there anymore."

Clara Migoya covers environment issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send tips or questions to clara.migoya@arizonarepublic.com.

Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Support environmental journalism in Arizona. Subscribe to azcentral today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Fallow fields worsen dust hazards, ASU tests bio-inspired solutions
An earthwork defense at Fort Fisher with a replica cannon. State funds could be used to restore more of the Civil War fort's defensive mounds.

The most visited state historic site in North Carolina could soon be getting a second financial shot in the arm from Raleigh.

State Rep. Ted Davis Jr., R-New Hanover, has introduced a bill that would provide an additional $2.9 million for renovations to the Fort Fisher Historic Site at the southern tip of New Hanover County.

If approved by legislators and signed by Gov. Roy Cooper, this batch of money would be used to rebuild three of the Civil War-era fort's earthworks that housed a telegraph office, field hospital, living quarters and ammunition storage depots.

Fort Fisher is located at the southern tip of New Hanover County, an area known for its storms, wind, humidity and biting flies during the hot summer months.

The state funds would be matched by a $1 million donation from the Friends of Fort Fisher.

Fort Fisher played a vital role during the war between the states. The Confederate fort was key to keeping Wilmington's port open as a lifeline for the South, especially after the Union blockaded and seized most of the Confederacy's other ports. Union troops twice tried to seize Fort Fisher, failing in December 1864 before eventually succeeding less than a month later. The Civil War ended soon after the fort's fall.

State funds could be used to restore some of the living and supply quarters the Confederates built into Fort Fisher's earthen defenses.

Thanks to the growing popularity of the Cape Fear region as a tourism destination and coastal living locale, Fort Fisher has seen a surge in visitation in recent years. The historic site hosted more than 1 million visitors in 2021  the first time the site has reached six figures. Ten years ago, the historic site drew just over 600,000 visitors, according to the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

But the fort's visitors center, built in the 1960s, was only designed to handle 25,000 visitors a year.

That's prompted the state to commit $22 million, out of a total project cost of $25.5 million, to build a new 22,000-square-foot visitors center. The project will also include construction of a new 10,000-foot facility for the state's Underwater Archaeology Branch. The archaeologists are currently housed in a small complex just north of the fort's visitors center.

Story continues

SUPER STORMSLearning from Hurricane Ian: Why we should prepare for more storms like it

In a nod to the historic site's exposed position with nearby water on two sides, the new visitors center will have a significantly higher elevation that the current building to help it deal with tidal and storm-driven flooding  something that's expected to get worse in coming decades due to climate change raising sea levels and producing larger and more powerful hurricanes. A rock revetment was built in the 1990s on the site's oceanside to protect historic areas and U.S. 421 from encroaching erosion.

According to Davis' bill, allowing the second phase of the fort's renovations to move forward while the first phase is already underway could allow a savings of nearly $260,000 on the estimated $3.6 million project.

Reporter Gareth McGrath can be reached at GMcGrath@Gannett.com or @GarethMcGrathSN on Twitter. This story was produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund and the Prentice Foundation. The USA TODAY Network maintains full editorial control of the work.

Several earthworks remain at Fort Fisher. State funds could be used to restore more of the defensive mounds at the Civil War-era fort.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: NC could help fund restoration of earthworks at Fort Fisher
A Ukrainian medic runs through a partially dug trench on the frontline outside Bakhmut on March 5, 2023. John Moore/Getty Images

UK intelligence suggests Russia's new offensive is on its last legs, just a month after it began.

Russian forces have depleted their "combat power," the assessment said.

"Even local offensive actions are not currently sustainable," it added.

Russia's new offensive in Ukraine, which began last month, has seemingly fizzled out, based on a new UK intelligence assessment.

In recent days, Russian troops and the Wagner Group's forces have "obtained footholds west of the Bakhmutka River in the centre of the contested Donbas town of Bakhmut," the British Ministry of Defense said. But the intelligence assessment added that "more broadly across the front line, Russia is conducting some of the lowest rates of local offensive action that has been seen since at least January 2023."

The British Defense Ministry said this is likely because Russian forces have depleted their "combat power" to such a degree that "even local offensive actions are not currently sustainable."

Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) March 17, 2023

Russia has paid a massive price in soldiers, mercenaries and released convicts in the battle for Bakhmut, which has raged on for months despite the city's questionable strategic significance.

"Right now, there is intense fighting in and around Bakhmut and the Russians are making small tactical advances but at great cost. Elsewhere, the front line remains relatively static, with significant exchanges of artillery but no significant maneuver gains by either side," Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said at a press conference with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin on Wednesday.

Milley said that Russia is paying "severely in terms of lives and military equipment."

The Institute for the Study of War, which has closely tracked the fighting in Ukraine, in its latest assessment said that the somewhat slower pace of Russian attacks in and close to Bakhmut suggests that the Wagner Group's offensive in the area is "likely nearing culmination."

Story continues

Russia has pressured Ukrainian defenders with so-called human wave attacks designed to overrun their trenches, and while they and the artillery barrages have exacted a heavy toll it hasn't been enough to force a full withdrawal. What's more, Russia has failed to use superior air forces to strike the trenched, defensive network, fearing that close operations would cost them even more aircraft.

There's been an evolving debate between Kyiv and its Western partners over Ukraine's insistence on continuing to defend Bakhmut, which analysts have suggested could fall to Russian forces in the coming days. Ukraine has argued that reinforcing its position in Bakhmut will force Russia to exhaust valuable men and munitions in what has become the bloodiest battle in a brutal war of attrition for both sides.

Michael Kofman, director of the Russia Studies Program at the Center for Naval Analyses, recently traveled to Bakhmut to observe the fight in person. "Happening in the fight now is that the attrition exchange rate is favorable to Ukraine but it's not nearly as favorable as it was before. The casualties on the Ukrainian side are rather significant and require a substantial amount of replacements on a regular basis," Kofman said in an appearance on the War on the Rocks podcast this week.

Read the original article on Business Insider
French TV festival Series Mania started out playfully with a slew of humorous digs directed at its starry guests during the opening ceremony, including Brian Cox, back in town to hold a masterclass and introduce the latest episode of his smash hit Succession.

I didnt have time to watch Season 3. I have to see my children grow up, Brian!, exclaimed host Daphne Burki, before introducing this years opening show Greek Salad by Cedric Klapisch: A prequel to Norwegian Omelette, always starring Romain Duris, Burki joked.

More from Variety

Series Mania general director Laurence Herszberg joined in on the fun, giving a shoutout to Emily in Pariss Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, attending with co-star Arnaud Binard: She became a symbol of a Parisian woman. I hope there isnt too much weight on your shoulders, Philippine!

Jumping from stage onto the screen, Herszberg also starred alongside artistic director Frederic Lavigne in a video clip spoof of The Crown, which saw Hugo Bardin, known by his drag name Paloma, appointed as the Queens successor.

We have been doing these films for three years now, but before, we would only parody French series. This is the first time we decided to take on a show thats world-famous and we even found a place that looked just like [Buckingham Palace], Lavigne told Variety after the ceremony.

He also noted that despite a lighter note, current protests in France against the governments proposed pension reform plan are very much on peoples minds  as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine and the situation of women in Iran and Afghanistan, as pointed out by Herszberg. Nicole Ansari-Cox also took a stand on the festivals violet carpet, presenting the slogan Woman, Life, Freedom.

Story continues

While jury president Lisa Joy  joined by Emmanuelle Beart, Anurag Kashyap, Chris Chibnall, Judah Levi and Lou Dillon  underlined the importance of world-creation, whether its the world at large in a series or the emotional landscape of the characters, as well as looking for things that resonate with people, Frederic Lavigne opened up about multiple new trends, starting with stories set in the 1980 and 1990s.

I am not exaggerating  at one point we counted and it was half of the shows we were receiving. We were getting fed up! It probably has to do with the fashion from that time bouncing back, and Strange Things really launched the trend. Also, it was the childhood of many creators who are coming up now.

Brian Cox

But setting shows in the recent past also allows its creators to talk about present struggles, he said. From economical issues to terrorist threats and womens rights.

We have several shows about abortion, which was not allowed back then. The subject is coming back as some countries are trying to steal these rights once again. Like in the Quebecois limited series Disobey, premiering in the International Panorama section, one of the many female-led stories this year.

There are almost no male roles anymore! To sell a show, you need a female protagonist, said Lavigne, also mentioning Greeces Milky Way, Funny Woman, Helena Bonham Carter starrer Nolly and Germanys A Thin Line.

There are two twin sisters hacking companies that dont care about climate change. A few years ago, we would have had two brothers instead. Its a strong tendency, but we probably have to balance it a little bit more [in the future].

Lavigne also commented on shows getting shorter and shorter these days  a big change from the days of Mad Men, allowed to simmer for a whooping seven seasons.

The number of episodes is shrinking as well. Its just cheaper this way: With recurring shows, everyone keeps asking for more money or starts competing. Also, platforms need fresh content every week. They love to announce new projects with new talent: We have Tom Cruise! But they know they wont have Tom Cruise four years in a row, so its better to have one miniseries with Nicole Kidman.

Not shying away from big names either, with Desperate Housewives Marcia Cross arriving in Lille later this week, the festival tries to do everything, everywhere, all at once, observed Lavigne. Just like a certain Oscar winner.

We can show small arthouse shows and big titles, but we are convinced that our role is to find stuff that nobody expects or wouldnt be able to see otherwise, he noted, mentioning new shows from Iran (The Actor) and Pakistan-India (Limboland).

Now, shows are worldwide and I would say that local platforms are even more daring. Also, nobody thinks that you shouldnt make a series before your first feature, for example, citing Milky Way, director Vasilis Kekatos, who won in Cannes for his short.

Still, there is no denying a mainstream hit like Emily in Paris either.

From a realistic point of view, for French people this show makes no sense. The Parisians go: What? Thats not my city. But in a way, [Jean-Pierre Jeunets] Amelie was the same. Its a love-hate relationship: We love hating the show and we love that it makes France look good. I live near this square from the show and I often see American tourists there, taking pictures. Of course, it has nothing to do with our daily life  especially now, with the garbage crisis caused by the strike. Everyone says that next season will be called Garbage in Paris.

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Many victims dont remember being drugged or assaulted until hours later.

Many victims dont remember being drugged or assaulted until hours later.

Four years ago, Taylor Hansen decided to go out with some work friends to a bar in town. Shed just moved to Austin, Texas, so she figured it was a good chance to acquaint herself with the city and get to know her co-workers better.

Hansen and her colleagues would each nurse a few drinks over the course of the evening. It was around an hour after the second drink that she and one of her friends went up to the bar to get their third.

While my friend and I were waiting for our drinks to be made, a few men started talking to us and asking us strange questions, which in hindsight I believe was to distract us from what they were planning on doing, Hansen, now 25, told HuffPost.

The pair of friends went back to their table, where Hansen texted her boyfriend and told him she was headed home soon. But within 20 or 30 minutes of ingesting her drink, she was fully unconscious.

Suspecting shed been roofied  or that something else was seriously wrong with their new co-worker  Hansens group acted fast, calling an ambulance to pick her up.

Based on what I learned in the [emergency room] ... I believe I was drugged with GHB  or liquid ecstasy, as its also known, Hansen said. One of my work friends texted our group chat the next morning to check on us, and thats when I learned that my friend that went up to get her third drink with me that night was also drugged.

Unfortunately, the bar had no cameras near the drink station, so there was no way to identify whoever had drugged them.

I later looked at some photos and videos from that night that we had all taken, and in one of the photos, you can see the men that had spoken to my friend and I up at the bar, but their backs were to the camera, Hansen said. The bar has since been shut down.

The date-rape drug youve likely heard about most is Rohypnol, which the 90s slang roofie is a remnant of. But these days, GHB and ketamine are more commonly used in drug-facilitated sexual assault cases, according to Maria Michonski, a statewide training specialist at the Sexual Assault Center service provider in Nashville, Tennessee.

Story continues

Those two are used frequently because they ... result in incapacitation in the extreme, are easy to drop into a drink subtly, and will leave the bloodstream and body systems in a number of hours, making testing for them after an assault incredibly difficult to impossible, Michonski told HuffPost.

But any drug that makes someone loopy, groggy or otherwise incapacitated can be used to roofie someone, said Dr. Kate Rowland, an associate professor in the department of family and preventive medicine at Illinois Rush University.

Its also worth noting that sometimes people can be drugged by drugs they take intentionally, she said. Perpetrators may offer a victim a pill claiming its a small dose of one drug, when in reality its a big dose of another drug.

I just want people (especially women) to know that date rape drugs are not some rarity that only come out at frat parties.Kat Abughazaleh, in a viral Twitter thread about her date-rape drug experience

Many experts say its alcohol thats the most common date-rape drug.

At least 50% of sexual assaults involve alcohol consumption by the perpetrator and/or victim, Michonski said.

We think of date-rape drugs as any substance that alters the coherence and physical/mental ability of a person and removes their capacity to consent to sexual interaction or contact, and/or that is used by a perpetrator as a vehicle or tool to enact sexual violence, she said.

Thirteen percent of all college students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, or RAINN.

As a story from Media Matters researcher Kat Abughazaleh suggests, spiking drinks isnt an uncommon occurrence outside of college campuses, either. In a Twitter thread last year, Abughazaleh, who lives in the Washington area, detailed how she came to realize something had been put in her drink one night. Abughazaleh said that the next morning, she had horrible brain fog, difficulty articulating ... [her] thoughts and a massive headache.

I just want people (especially women) to know that date rape drugs are not some rarity that only come out at frat parties, she wrote in the thread, which went viral on the platform.

Unfortunately, because date-rape drugs arent always easy to detect  they blend in too well with drinks  many victims dont realize theyve been drugged or assaulted until hours later.

With that in mind, HuffPost asked experts like Michonski to describe some of the most common signs that someone has been nonconsensually drugged.

Feeling fatigued, disoriented or dizzy is a common sign of being drugged.

Feeling fatigued, disoriented or dizzy is a common sign of being drugged.

You feel fatigued, disoriented or dizzy.

Although it depends on the substance, common symptoms of being drugged include fatigue, dizziness, nausea, feeling drunk or intoxicated, disorientation and just not feeling well, according to Rowland.

In general, people who have been drugged with a roofie are having a good time and feeling fine until the drug hits their system, she said. They then often feel very unwell, falling down or staggering drunk once the drug kicks in.

Thats the point when the perpetrator will likely try to assist [the victim] out or help them, Rowland said.

You experience unconsciousness or a blackout.

Frequently, these drugs can result in someone completely losing consciousness or quickly getting to a blackout state, Michonski said.

Someone may appear conscious  theyre awake and moving, even speaking  but are so intoxicated by the substance they are not cognitively able to remember what is happening and are not functioning from a reliable mental space to make decisions or give consent, she said.

Your vision or hearing is off.

You might experience blurred sight, or some form of tunnel vision or double vision, Michonski said.

These drugs can also dull your sense of hearing, making it more difficult to know what is happening around you or what is being said to you, she explained.

Youre vomiting or otherwise feeling badly hungover.

People often report waking up and feeling thirsty or extremely hungover, or even vomiting, said Dr. Ralph Riviello, a professor who chairs the emergency medicine department at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Oftentimes this is perceived as worse than usual after drinking, he said. If the person had not consumed alcohol, its confusing and not expected.

If you think you've been drugged, tell someone you can trust as soon as possible.

If you think you've been drugged, tell someone you can trust as soon as possible.

You have gaps in your memory.

Sometimes the only sign youve been drugged is waking up and having no recollection of how the night went down. You might feel like you mysteriously lost a chunk of time or only remember what happened up until a certain point.

Someone whos been drugged may have gaps in their memory but still have the sense that something is wrong, Rowland said. Their body may be sore, or they may feel that they have had intercourse that they dont remember.

There are signs of possible sexual assault.

Indications that youve been drugged and sexually assaulted include painful urination, genital pain, and possible genital bruising or tenderness, Riviello said.

You may notice fluid  lubricant and/or semen  around or coming from your vagina or anus, he said. There may be torn clothes. If the assailant re-dressed them after the assault, clothes, especially underwear, may be incompletely put back on or backward.

Heres what to do if you suspect youve been roofied.

If you think youve been drugged, there are things you can do during and after the incident to take care of yourself, mentally and physically.

In the moment, attempt to identify a safe bystander who can help you.

As soon as possible, tell someone you trust or a bystander that you think youve been drugged, so that you can make a record of whatever you remember and get medical care, Michonski said.

Share with them as much as you can: who you think did it, how you think you were drugged, how you are feeling, what an emergency contact number is for you, she said.

Also, try to save the beverage you were drinking; it could potentially be tested to see what you were drugged with.

Stick with your group and dont go anywhere alone with someone you dont know. Definitely dont attempt to ride it out without medical assistance, and dontkeep information to yourself, Michonski said.

You can make all other decisions about reporting, pursuing an investigation later once you are medically safe and back to complete coherence, Michonski added.

If you suspect youve been drugged, you should identify a safe bystander who can help you.

If you suspect youve been drugged, you should identify a safe bystander who can help you.

Get medical help as soon as you can.

Since many date-rape drugs leave the body quickly  within 12 to 72 hours  its important to act fast. Seek care in the emergency room, preferably one that has sexual assault nurse examiners to conduct a medical forensic examination, Riviello said.

During that exam, potential forensic evidence will be collected, packaged and transferred to the crime lab, he said. Even if you do not press charges, it is worthwhile to have the exam and collect evidence to preserve it in case you change your mind.

They can also perform drug and alcohol testing using blood or urine specimens.

If you cant get to a hospital immediately, RAINN recommends saving your urine in a clean, sealable container as soon as possible, and placing it in the refrigerator or freezer.

For help locating a hospital or medical center that provides exams and testing, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673).

After seeking help, make an effort to take care of yourself and your mental health.

If youre feeling distressed in the days, weeks, months or even years after being drugged, reach out for help. If you dont know who to go to, or how youll afford therapy, call your local rape crisis center. Almost all have a hotline and advocates who can give you advice on what to do and where to go, as well as provide emotional support, Riviello said.

Most of all, dont underestimate the stress and trauma of your experience. Remind yourself that this all too commonly happens  to women and men, and to people of all ages, not just college students  and that youre not alone or to blame for the violence done to you.

Hansen, the woman drugged at an Austin bar, said shes still speaking with a therapist to work through her trauma.

Its scary how fast you can be drugged unknowingly, even when you think youre being alert and aware of your surroundings, she said.

Get help if you need it, she added. It is so violating and scary, and it can be really hard to process the stress of an event like this alone.

Need help? Visit RAINNs National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Centers website.

Related...
This article was collaboratively written by Amy Asciutto + Buzzy, our creative AI assistant.

When I first heard about Stanley, Idaho, I sort of thought it was a made-up place. But after a quick Google search, I discovered this hidden gem nestled right in the heart of the Sawtooth Mountains did, in fact, exist. I'm talking about a place that offers river rafting, yurt stays, and small town vibes all in one little slice of paradise.

Here are just a few reasons why Stanley, Idaho, should be at the top of your travel bucket list.

1. The Sawtooth Mountains are breathtaking.

Let's start with the obvious. I'm talking snow-capped peaks, pristine lakes, and endless hiking trails kind of breathtaking. If you're an outdoorsy type, then you need to add this spot to your list. Trust me, the photos don't do it justice. Anna Gorin / Getty Images

2. Theres river rafting and kayaking galore.

If you're looking for a little bit more adventure, Stanley has got you covered with its river rafting and kayaking experiences. From calm cruises to white-knuckle rapids, there's something for every level of thrill seeker. And if you're lucky, you might even catch a glimpse of some local wildlife along the way. Steve Smith / Getty Images/Tetra images RF

3. Even with all the available adventure, there are still plenty of small town vibes.

One of the things that makes Stanley so special is its small town vibes. Sure, it might be a bit out of the way, but that's part of its charm. You won't find any big chain stores here. Instead, you'll be greeted with smiling faces, local shops, and a real sense of community. And if you're lucky enough to visit during one of the town's many festivals, then you're in for a real treat. Christiannafzger / Getty Images/iStockphoto

4. Did I mention the yurts???

Last but not least, we can't forget about the yurts. Stanley offers some truly unique yurt stay experiences that are unlike anything you've ever seen before. Imagine waking up to the sound of the river outside your door or falling asleep under a blanket of stars. It's the perfect way to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Amy Asciutto / BuzzFeed

Now, I should mention that there is one downside to all of this awesomeness  and that's getting there. Stanley is a bit hard to reach. You'll need to fly into Boise, which can be a bit pricey, and then rent a car to drive. But trust me, it's worth it. Once you're there, you'll feel like you've stumbled upon a secret paradise that only a select few are lucky enough to experience.

Amy Asciutto / BuzzFeed
The state Department of Public Heath has issued an advisory that warns against consuming fish from major bodies of water in MetroWest and Greater Milford, citing contamination in many of the region's rivers, lakes and ponds.

In a report published last month by the department's Bureau of Environmental Health, the department advised residents against consuming fish caught in 20 bodies of water in MetroWest and Greater Milford, including the Sudbury River, Cochituate Lake and Beaver Pond.

Among the contaminates cited in the report include mercury, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), the pesticide chlordane and PFAS (toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). The advisories range in severity, with some recommending that certain fish only be consumed once or twice per month, while others advise to never eat fish that come from a certain body of water. The report also classifies the health risk between higher at-risk populations (such as children under 12, or pregnant or expecting to become pregnant women) and the general population.

One of the region's bodies of water from which the state advises that no fish be eaten is the Sudbury River, due to its high concentration of mercury. Alison Field-Juma, executive director of OARS, a nonprofit that oversees the watersheds of the Assabet, Concord and Sudbury rivers, said the mercury comes from different sources  some local and some not.

Bernie Kane:Ashland man remembered for his Nyanza Superfund site advocacy, civic engagement

"Every watershed in the state has some level of mercury in it, because it is in the air," she said. "Coal-burning plants from other states burn coal, which contains mercury, and that gets in the air and drifts east into Massachusetts. In the case of the Sudbury watershed, there is a superfund site in Ashland, the Nyanza cleanup, which decades ago put a high concentration of mercury in the water. It's still there, so Sudbury has a much higher concentration than most rivers."

Story continues

This public health advisory posted at Lake Cochituate in Natick warns visitors of contaminated fish, March 9, 2023.

Consuming larger fish leads to higher risks

Concerns for public safety are increased, depending on the type of the fish. Eating a larger, predatory fish higher up on the food chain poses a greater risk to humans due to that fish having consumed other fish that may be contaminated. The risks posed by consuming fish with a high concentration of mercury or other chemicals include an increase in potential problems of the central nervous system and possible adverse effects on the cardiovascular system, according to the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Many waterways with fish consumption advisories have posted signs to alert residents of the dangers of consuming the fish. But Field-Juma said despite the signs, she's confident people are still fishing and eating what they catch.

Victor Ganchin, of Ukraine, now living in Wellesley, feeds a Canada goose at Lake Cochituate in Natick, March 9, 2023.

"I think a lot of people might not know, and if you are poorer, catching fish and eating it is a great source of protein," she said. "You also might have people who assume that they are fine, even with knowing the risks."

Bill Murphy, Framingham's director of public health, said that while catching fish in Framingham is safe, residents should strongly avoid eating their catch.

Addressing PFAS:Natick marks milestone in quest for clean water as new filters go online

"Getting this information translated to communicate these PFAS findings will be critical to reduce risk to the diverse population in Framingham," he said. "Fishing recreationally is fine, just dont consume your catch."

Besides mercury, other contaminants such as PFAS, a chemical compound that is frequently used in various consumer products such as clothing, packaging and cosmetics due to its waterproof qualities, can also be found in dangerous concentrations in MetroWest waterways. The chemicals typically end up there by being improperly disposed of by humans into the wastewater system, which makes its way into the water.

Legislation aims to reduce contaminants

While Massachusetts has relatively strong restrictions involving PFAS, many products that are manufactured overseas and imported here contain high concentrations, which pollutes the water.

State Rep. Kate Hogan, D-Stow, filed legislation earlier this year aimed at cleaning up PFAS from waterways. Hogan's legislation aims at establishing a PFAS remediation trust fund and to restrict the use of PFAS in food packaging and consumer products. The bill, called the Mass PFAS Act, was filed after a review of the findings from a task force created to determine the impacts of PFAS in Massachusetts.

"The Mass PFAS Act is a foundational bill and what we hope to do is clean up existing PFAS contamination, but also prevent future contamination," Hogan said. "What we learned on the task force was that remediation is very important, but also equally important was the need to prevent future contamination in Massachusetts."

A new public health advisory posted at Lake Cochituate in Natick warns the public about contaminated fish, March 9, 2023.

Hogan also said the trust fund addresses remediation projects in Massachusetts, and that hopefully the bill will be able to help control manufacturing and use of PFAS products in the state. That's challenging because the current understanding of what products contain PFAS isn't always clear.

"The aim is to include packaging and consumer products, we know that can be done because those products contain PFAS," Hogan said. "We hope all products that knowingly contain PFAS can be banned by 2030, and then we can hopefully begin to understand more products where PFAS hasn't been identified.

'Forefront' of PFAS mitigation:State Rep. Hogan lauds Hudson's new water treatment system

"We are trying to ensure that industries understand the regulation."

Due to issues with contamination stemming from coal-burning in other states and imported products with dangerous chemicals, Field-Juma said the best way for local residents to make a difference is to support legislative efforts such as Hogan's to help clean up local spots. Field-Juma also said people are responsible for protecting wildlife that is impacted by contaminants.

"We also need to keep in mind the impact these are having on wildlife," she said. "The chemicals could be impacting fish reproduction, so what happens if the fish population declines? Bald eagles were endangered, but their population has rebounded due to human efforts. What happens if the bald eagle eats contaminated fish? And a bald eagle can't read the sign telling them not to."

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Don't eat fish from 20 MetroWest bodies of water, state says
A Texas truck driver who used a spycam to catch his wife cheating on him and later killed her and her boyfriend, was sentenced to life in prison this week.

Jordy Husein Suljanovic, 46, was dealt a life sentence without the possibility of parole in the 2018 murders of his wife, Adriana Perez, 41, and her boyfriend, Omar Santamaria-Ruiz, 33, the Harris County District Attorneys Office announced, KTRK-TV reported. He was convicted on capital murder charges on Tuesday following an eight-day trial.

RELATED: Suspect Arrested After Georgia Man Found Dead In Rolled-Up Rug

On Oct. 2, 2018, Suljanovic gunned down Perez and Santamaria-Ruiz after he caught the pair having sexual relations in real-time using a secret camera hed covertly installed at the couples Houston home. According to investigators, the truck driver was notified of the salacious recording while he was away from the home working on a long-haul job. Suljanovic later returned to his home where he shot and killed Perez and Santamaria-Ruiz in the closet of the master bedroom, prosecutors said.

When he saw his 41-year-old wife and her 33-year-old lover at the house, he returned home and killed both of them, waking their children in the middle of the night with the gunshots, prosecutors said in a statement this week.

Missing teen Fredarrious Wilson

Officials say Suljanovic later enlisted his son and accomplice, Jordy Suljanovic Jr., to assist in disposing of his own mothers body, as well as the remains of Santamaria-Ruiz. The pair drove to Louisiana following the double-murder where they dumped the victims corpses. Santamaria-Ruizs body was left in the woods near Natchitoches. Suljanovic Jr. admitted to dumping Perezs body by the Atchafalaya River near Baton Rouge, police said.

In 2022, Suljanovic Jr., pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence in the case. He was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the grisly killings.

Story continues

Following the murders, Suljanovic, a one-time refugee, had attempted to flee with his family to Mexico City, and later back to his native Bosnia after learning hed been charged with murder. He was arrested in London and was later extradited back to Texas to face charges, according to KTRK-TV.

Oxy App

This man killed two people, including the mother of his children, and tried to flee the country to escape responsibility, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. We know that domestic violence can escalate to murder, and that is why it is so important to seek justice for the victims in cases like this.

Prosecutors noted that Suljanovic had a long history of domestic abuse involving his slain wife prior to her murder.

"She had been verbally and physically abused by him. And since she was born and raised in Mexico, she didnt have citizenship of her own and probably didnt feel like she could leave, she couldnt go anywhere," Assistant District Attorney Lauren Bard said, FOX 26 Houston reported.
Three men have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston in connection with the Nov. 17 armed bank robbery of Rockland Trust Bank in Tisbury on Marthas Vineyard, according to the U.S. Department of Justice on March 16.

Miquel Antonio Jones, 39, of Edgartown, and Omar Odion Johnson, 32, of Canterbury, N.H., were each indicted on one count of armed bank robbery and aiding and abetting.

Romane Andre Clayton, 21, of Jamaica, was indicted on one count of being an accessory after the fact to armed bank robbery.

Jones, Johnson and Clayton will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date, according to the Justice Department.

Three armed and masked individuals robbed a Rockland Trust Bank on Nov. 17, 2022, in Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard, according to the police and federal prosecutors. The individuals entered the rear door of the bank wearing dark clothing and masks resembling an older man with exaggerated facial features.

Attorneys for Jones and Johnson were not immediately available for comment Friday.

Two of the men remain in custody, and one was released with conditions

Miquel A Jones was arrested Nov. 18 after he was stopped by police while driving. Johnson was arrested Nov. 26 during a car stop in New Haven, Connecticut, and Clayton was arrested Dec. 9 in Connecticut.

Following their arrests, Jones and Johnson pleaded not guilty in state court to armed robbery and conspiracy. Bail for each man was set at $300,000 with conditions. The pair remained in custody as of March 16, according to the Justice Department.

Clayton was released on conditions imposed originally by a judge on Dec. 12 in New Haven, Connecticut, according to Christina Sterling, spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins. While on release, Clayton must not violate any laws, if authorized must cooperate in the collection of any DNA samples, must let the court know of any residence or phone number change, if ordered must sign an appearance bond and must appear in court as required and, if convicted, must surrender as directed to serve a sentence that the court may impose.

There are fines and prison time associated with the charges if the men are convicted.

Conviction of armed bank robbery carries a penalty of up to 25 years in prison, five years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine, according to the Justice Department. The charge of being an accessory after the fact provides for a sentence of up to 150 months in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.

Story continues

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations, according to the Justice Department. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

On Nov. 17, at around 8:15 a.m., the Rockland Trust bank in Vineyard Haven was robbed at gunpoint by three people. According to police, robbers wearing dark clothing and masks that looked like an older man with exaggerated facial features entered through the back of the bank and held semi-automatic weapons. They forced a teller to open a vault at gunpoint, stealing $39,100. They also tied up employees with plastic ties and duct tape. They stole a vehicle from a teller, later driving it to Manuel F. Correllus State Forest next to Marthas Vineyard Airport where they abandoned it around 8:30 a.m.

Gain access to premium Cape Cod Times content by subscribing.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Rockland Trust bank robbery on Vineyard: 3 indicted in federal court
Elderly drivers are more prone to accidents involving illegal lane crossings, while novice drivers cause more collisions, according to the Korea Transport Institute.

The institute analyzed 5,348 traffic accidents between 2011 and 2013 involving damage to people. Drivers aged 60 or above were more prone to accidents like driving on the wrong side and turning at intersections.

A KOTI spokesman said, "Elderly drivers are less able to judge distances between objects and often swerve too sharply."

But novice drivers are more prone to collisions during lane changes or rear-ending other cars at traffic lights.

"Novice drivers are not adept at maneuvering their cars and inexperienced in making swift decisions behind the wheel, and they get into accidents while speeding," the spokesman said.
A Georgia House committee unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that would codify a ban on the use of TikTok on state-owned devices.

This is all about national security, said Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, the bills main sponsor. This is not a content moderation bill.

The bill would codify into state law Republican Gov. Brian Kemps directive last year prohibiting the use of TikTok, a highly popular video hosting service that runs user-submitted videos, and other similar applications.

TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, Byte Dance, and there is concern that its ties to the Chinese government could expose sensitive state data to a foreign government.

It only takes one computer and one device to make us vulnerable, Anavitarte told the state Houses Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.

The concern [is] foreign adversaries having ownership [of social media platforms] and the security concerns on government devices.

The bill would also apply to similar social media platforms that are directly or indirectly owned by foreign adversaries.

However, it provides exceptions for law-enforcement investigations, cybersecurity research and for other governmental purposes.

If passed, Georgia would join at least 25 other states that have banned TikTok on state-owned devices.

In other social media news, a separate House committee Wednesday approved a proposal to create a study committee focused on social media accountability. The study committee would be tasked with reviewing foreign influence on social media platforms in Georgia, the potential impacts of social media on youth mental health and censorship of speech by social media companies.

This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
A trendy Spanish womens retailer is expanding to North Carolina with plans to debut at a Charlotte mall.

Zara will open at SouthPark mall by 2025, Insider online publication reported this week. Mall officials declined to comment to The Charlotte Observer about the plans.

Behind Zara plans

Heres what Insider said about the plans:

 The Charlotte store is one of 30 planned new stores, relocations or renovations in the U.S., Zara parent company Inditex CEO Oscar Garcia Maceiras told investors Wednesday.

 Inditex will invest 1.6 billion euros, about $1.7 billion, expanding stores and warehouses worldwide, including at least 10 new locations across the U.S.

 Last year, store sales jumped 23% across Inditex brands, including Zara.

 Zara has less than 100 stores in the U.S.

Trendy fast-fashion brand

The fast-fashion company, like competitor H&M that opened its first Charlotte store 10 years ago at Carolina Place Mall, are known for replicating recent high-fashion designs and mass producing them at a low cost. H&M has two other locations in Charlotte at SouthPark and Northlake malls.

The closest Zara stores are in Atlanta with two locations.
Trump says he'll be arrested in New York Tuesday; his lawyer says it's based on 'tea leaves' and Fox, not the DA

Trump on Saturday lashed out at the Manhattan DA's office about a looming 'hush-money' indictment.

He said on Truth Social he "will be arrested on Tuesday" and urged "protest."

A Trump attorney says no date has been set, and that the DA has kept the defense in the dark.

In a vitriol-laced Truth Social post early Saturday, Donald Trump said he expects to turn himself in on Tuesday in the Manhattan district attorney's hush-money case  a date his own lead defense attorney could not confirm.

Lead defense attorney Susan Necheles said the Trump defense team had received no information from the DA's office that Trump would be "arrested"  his word  on Tuesday or on any other specific day, though she was careful not to directly contradict her clients' Truth Social post.

"President Trump is basing this on press reports," Necheles told Insider of the Tuesday date.

"This is a political prosecution and the DA leaks things to the press instead of communicating to the lawyers as they should," Necheles said.

Necheles did not specify which "press report" Trump might be looking at. There has been no reporting of a specific date for Trump to surrender to Manhattan authorities.



She could not confirm if Trump was referring to a Fox News report from Friday. The report said that the district attorney's office 'asked for a meeting' with law enforcement, in order to plan for an indictment that a court source told Fox "they are anticipating" next week.

Necheles said that the DA's office has recently been out of touch with the defense, and that this has allowed rumors and "tea leaves" to steer the perception of what is happening in the case.

"We're all reading tea leaves because they refuse to communicate," she told Insider. "It's been over a week and I haven't gotten any information from them, which is not normal," she said.

"In normal, run-of-the-mill cases, they'll be talking to us about what date they expect to turn in an indictment. They'll be saying 'we'll let you know,'" she added. "That's the normal conversation you would have with prosecutors."

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In his Truth Social post, Trump derided the prosecution as based upon a "fairy tale" and urged "protests."

Trump cited "illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan District Attorney's office" as the source for his belief that "the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week."

"Protest, take our nation back!" concluded the former president's post, which was written in all capital letters.

A spokesperson for the DA's office declined to comment.

Speculation has been growing for weeks about the prospect of a Trump indictment. The Manhattan district attorney's office has been investigating Trump in connection to an illegal $130,000 hush-money payment made to the adult-film actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

The Manhattan grand jury has been hearing witness testimony since mid-January, including on Monday and Wednesday from Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, a star witness in the prosecution's case.

But there are no credible accounts to emerge publicly that the grand jury has voted to indict Trump or anyone else, a necessary first step that would then lead the DA to contact Trump's attorneys and negotiate his surrender and arraignment.

This breaking story has been updated to include additional comment from Trump's attorney, and to add detail from Saturday morning's Truth Social post.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Ronnie Floyd, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources lead investigator of the Tyler Doyle case, described the hours surrounding when Tyler Doyles jon boat took on water.

The SCDNR released 11 folders with dozens of files Thursday detailing their efforts and materials collected during their search of missing boater Tyler Doyle. They were obtained by the Sun News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Floyd wrote in a Feb. 9 statement, two weeks after the Loris man was last seen, that he had looked into theories suggested online, but found no evidence and believes that Doyle drowned and is still missing.

With all the many super sleuths out there on the internet and the many tips and stories I have listened to, I still at this point do not have any information that would lead me to any other conclusion other than that Tyler Doyle is drowned in a boating incident and has yet to be located.

A crew with the North Myrtle Beach Rescue Squad posted this photo of their Facebook page of the search for missing boater Tyler Doyle. Facebook page of North Myrtle Beach Rescue Squad

Floyds statement lays out a rough timeline of the events of the night Tyler Doyle went missing.
A Maxim machine gun in position near Kharkiv, Ukraine. Mykhaylo Palinchak

Ukraine has used a WWI-era machine gun on the front line to mow down the enemy.

"It only works when there is a massive attack going on," a Ukrainian soldier told BBC News.

The brutal fighting in Ukraine, filled with trenches and heavy casualties, has frequently been compared to WWI.

Ukrainian forces have used Maxim machine guns, a weapon often associated with World War I, to mow down frontal assaults by Russian troops in the battle for Bakhmut.

"It only works when there is a massive attack going on," a Ukrainian soldier identified as Borys, 48, recently told BBC News of the Maxim gun. "Then it really works."

"We use it every week," Borys added.

Ukrainian forces have found the Maxim M1910  was first introduced in 1910 (the initial version of the gun emerged in the 1880s) and employed by the Imperial Russian Army during World War I  useful in the fight against the Russians. Ukraine's troops have modified the guns with modern add-ons such as optics and suppressors, according to reporting from Task and Purpose.

S Sebag Montefiore (@simonmontefiore) March 16, 2023

Hiram Maxim, a key inventor of portable machine guns in the 19th Century, used the recoil force of a bullet to eject its cartridge and feed the next round in from an ammunition belt.

The fighting in Ukraine has repeatedly garnered parallels to World War I, with both sides locked in a brutal war of attrition featuring trenches, relentless artillery barrages, and heavy casualties. In this environment, even some of the weapons of that era have come in handy as Ukrainian troops face human wave attacks on the front line  tactics common to World War I.

Ukraine has also apparently utilized a type of World War I-era sniper decoy, employing dummies meant to fool enemy snipers.

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But while the fight in Ukraine might have similarities to World War I, the modern weaponry and surveillance also prevalent on the battlefield  particularly drones  have made it all the more deadly by giving troops few places to hide.

The Ukraine war has essentially become "World War I with 21st century ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance]," Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Insider in January.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Relocating for love? 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way star Kris Foster fell in love with Colombia native Jeymi Noguera after meeting online. But did the Alabama native move to South America? Keep reading to find out where Kris currently lives.

How Did 90 Day Fiances Kris and Jeymi Meet?

The international couple were introduced to TLC viewers during season 4 of 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way, which premiered in January 2023.

Im 40 going on 20, because thats how I feel, Kris said during a confessional. And I look like it too.

The mother of two  who shares daughter Starr and son Dayne with her ex-husband  met her love on the internet and established a virtual relationship before meeting in person.

90 Day Kris and Jeymi

I never was happy, Kris said of her past, adding that she saw a crazy ad online for an international dating website. I have a soulmate from it. She just so happens to be a woman.

Kris and Jeymi met for the first time in Jeymis home country of Colombia as Kris prepared to uproot her life in the United States for a move closer to the equator.

Ive waited 40 years to be openly in a relationship with a female, she said. I dont want to wait any longer. So, I have decided to move to Bogota.

Did 90 Day Fiances Kris Move to Colombia?

Despite her children having reservations about their mothers move to another country, Kris explained, I got pregnant at 16. The very first time I had an intimate relationship. Ive lived for my children, but now its time for me to have my own life.

While its unclear if Kris has officially made her big move, the reality star often shares photos and videos from Alabama and Bogota, Colombia, leading fans to believe shes currently traveling between the two locations.

All he wanted was a chicken n waffles shake for his birthday!! Yummy!!! Kris shared alongside a series of photos with her son in March 2023. "The people working at Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts are so nice!!! Hooked us up with some great deals!!!!

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While the mother of two did not tag her location on the post, she liked a comment by a fellow Bama girl which read, Nothing like Sweet Home Alabama!!!

Just days prior, however, Kris shared an update of her city life in the South American capital city.

During the March 12 episode, they were forced to postpone their wedding when Kris had to travel back to the United States to attend a court date about her stolen motorcycle.

Jeymi explained that Kris leaving reminded her of problems they previously had in the past, including when Kris ghosted her on her 30th birthday.

Eight months ago, Kris was supposed to come see me for my birthday, but she got cold feet, she recalled in a confessional. She disappeared for one month. She no tell me nothing, and I think maybe the relationship is over.

While they eventually reconciled, Jeymi admitted that Kris can be unpredictable.

They tied the knot during the April 2 episode, though returned to having a long distance relationship soon after.

In a teaser clip for the April 16 episode shared by People, Kris explained that she needed to go back to the United States for two weeks to get a medication prescription. During the trip, she experienced unforeseen medical issues and decided to stay in Alabama so that she could work and save money.

"It kills me because I don't think you realize just how bad this is for me," Kris told her wife via a call. "I don't enjoy this at all. I want to be there just as much as you want me there. But I'm having to work here because I can work here."

After Kris explained in a confessional that she felt responsible to provide for them because the Colombia native wasnt working, the couple was shown arguing when Jeymi accused Kris of caring more about money than their marriage.

Jeymi then complained that Kris didnt keep in touch during her trip and pointed out that the mother of two only called three times within the past three months.

Where Does 90 Day Fiance Star Kris Foster Live Today?

Despite Jeymis concerns, Kris seemingly confirmed that theyre still together by sharing several photos from their engagement via Instagram on March 28, 2023. While she didnt tag the location, it can be assumed that the pair are living together.

On April 6, Kris revealed she was in Bogota, Colombia, by sharing a photo from a restaurant she was at.
WASHINGTON  The Biden administration on Friday warned against China pushing a one-sided peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

White House spokesman John Kirby said Chinese President Xi Jinping should reach out directly to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy now that Xi is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The so-called peace plan China has proposed, Kirby said, would formalize Putins gains and allow Russia to continue to occupy parts of Ukraine.

It would be a classic part of the China playbook to go into a meeting like this, come out of it saying `Look, were the ones calling for an end to the fighting and nobody else is, Kirby said. The reason why the rest of the world is not calling for that right now is because it would effectively ratify Russias geographic gains inside Ukraine and it would put Mr. Zelenskyy at a distinct disadvantage.

Related: International Criminal Court members issue arrest warrant for Putin over war crimes

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo prior to their talks in Beijing, China, Feb. 4, 2022.

The latest

Chinas leader is spending several days in Russia next week for what Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesman said would be a trip for peace.

China has called for a cease-fire and peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, along with releasing a vaguely worded proposal to end the fighting.

China claims to be neutral in the war but has avowed a no limits friendship with Russia and has criticized the sanctions against Russia.

China's rising influence

President Xis trip to Russia comes days after Beijing brokered talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia to re-establish diplomatic ties.

China has made no secret of fact that it wants to expand its influence around the world, whether thats in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Kirby said Friday.

The United States has been making its own efforts to counter Chinas growing influence. On Monday, Biden joined the leaders of Australia and the United Kingdom to unveil a highly anticipated plan to modernize Australias submarine fleet as a counterweight to Chinas military buildup.

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Nuclear warfare?: China arming Russia? Fears of new Cold War rise.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (L), US President Joe Biden (C) and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (R) hold a press conference after a trilateral meeting during the AUKUS summit on March 13, 2023 in San Diego, Calif.

Lethal aid possible?

The upcoming meeting between Xi and Putin also follows warnings from Washington that China is considering providing lethal support to Russia.

Politico reported Thursday that between June and December of 2022, Chinese companies  one of them a state-owned defense contractor  shipped 1,000 assault rifles and other equipment with military use to Russian entities.

Kirby said the sales were part of pre-existing, long-standing business transactions between Chinese companies and the Russians. Nothing indicates those rifles are intended for use on the battlefield, he added.

But while theres no sign Beijing has decided to provide lethal support to Russia, Kirby said, the administration also hasnt seen indications theyve taken that option off the table.

'It's hard, but they're holding on': On the ground in Ukraine, the war depends on U.S. weapons

No call set between Biden and Xi

Biden, who has stressed the importance of keeping the lines of communication open with Xi, last met with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in November.

After the U.S. shot down Chinese spy balloon that flew through American airspace last month, Biden said he planned to speak with Xi.

Kirby said Friday that call has not yet been arranged.

Contributing: Associated Press.

US President Joe Biden (R) and China's President Xi Jinping (L) shakes hands as they meet on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on November 14, 2022.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: China should include Zelenskyy in peace talks with Putin: White House
Spend a laid-back weekend peeling spice-coated shrimp, tipping back local oysters, and sipping frozen cocktails in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Alabama Tourism Department

Its just past five oclock, probably, and Im drinking rum out of a pineapple while my children rollick with strangers kids on a pirate ship. Were waiting for a table at a waterfront restaurant after spending the day on a nearby beach with sugar-white sand and clear turquoise water. It felt a little like a vacation in the Caribbean.

Were overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, though, on the coast of Alabama. Gulf Shores, along with its neighbor Orange Beach, are resort towns just about an hours drive from Floridas Pensacola airport. There, we spent a laid-back long weekend peeling spice-coated shrimp, tipping back local oysters, and sipping tropical cocktails, all with a backdrop of a white-sand coastline.

Its not hard to find a room in this seaside community, but only one hotel is situated inside Gulf State Park, a 6,500-acre recreation area on the Gulf of Mexico. Opened in late 2018, The Lodge, a sustainability-focused Hilton property, makes a convenient diving off point for immersing into the areas beaches, outdoor activities, and restaurants. Onsite, find Woodside restaurant, an all-day venue for indoor and outdoor dining amid live oak trees, with cornhole games and music in the evenings.

Gulf Shores Orange Beach Tourism

Related:This Old Gas Station in Mobile, Alabama, Is the Cheese Shop of Our Dreams

For more live music, theres Lulus, situated on a quiet little stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway. Run by Lucy Buffett, the sprawling seafood mecca channels the fun, easygoing vibe her brother Jimmy Buffett is also known for. The allergy-friendly menu includes crab-smothered nachos, fresh snapper, and cheeseburgers. (This is paradise, after all.) Dont skip a slice of the stand-out Key lime pie for dessert. Diners with kids will especially appreciate on-site activities like an arcade, caricature artist, and a full-fledged ropes course, making the often-long wait for a table feel like part of the fun.

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Another stellar spot for families is GTs on the Bay, where a table on the terrace overlooking Wolf Bay also overlooks a massive wooden play structure shaped like a pirate ship. Kids can burn off energy in the sand, while parents get a few brief minutes of respite to feast on fried Gulf shrimp paired with the aforementioned boozy pineapple cocktail.

Courtesy of The Lodge at Gulf State Park

For a quintessential coastal lunch, stop by The Gulf and dont be surprised when you accidentally stay all day. Repurposed shipping containers are home to a bar and restaurant, which spills out onto the palm tree-shaded sand. After ordering from the menu of salads, shrimp tacos and fish sandwiches, take a seat at a picnic table and watch the boats float by.

Related:A Highly Opinionated Guide to Eating in Birmingham

Another stay-all-day spot, CoastAL opened in late 2022 from the same team behind boisterous waterfront venue Flora-bama Yacht Club. At the new beachfront locale, pull up one of the 400 bar seats to sample some of the regions best bar snacks, including tuna poke nachos, marinated crab claws and a housemade pimento cheese platter. (The 600-plus seat restaurant is slated to open this spring, and will be breaking down whole fresh fish on site.)

While nothing feels especially extravagant in these breezy beach towns, there are a few restaurants to seek out for a special meal. Located on the Orange Beach marina, Fisher's Upstairs is helmed by five-time James Beard Award semi-finalist chef Bill Briand, whose menu includes elevated classics like Gulf shrimp and grits and sweet corn fritters with house-smoked fish.

Gulf Shores Orange Beach Tourism

Downstairs, Fishers Dockside features a slightly more casual menu of Southern coastal cuisine, with fried fish baskets, crawfish and artichoke dip, and icy platters of local Murder Point oysters. The recently-opened restaurant at Zekes Landing and Marina serves steaks and seasonal fish, plus a stand-out seafood tower with local oysters, crab legs, and ceviche  inside a stylish dining room or on the outdoor patio.

Related:Some of America's Best Sausage Comes From a Tiny Town Down South

For a frozen daiquiri or mimosa in flavors you didnt know you needed, head to High Tide Daiquiris and Mimosas, where Key lime, Red Bull, and the Mardi Gras special king cake are offered alongside all the classic flavors. The shop also sells elaborate charcuterie boards and, for those on the run, offers 16-ounce bags filled with daiquiris to go, perfect for bringing to the beach.

For our last meal in town, we sought out what we heard was some of the Gulf Shores best seafood at longstanding family-run shop Lartigues. The specialty market is packed to the gills with rows of shrimp and crab boil seasonings and trays filled with mountains of fresh shellfish, crab, and shrimp. Theyll steam your order on the spot, and add sides like red potatoes and corn on the cob. We took the haul, including a few mini Key lime pies, to the picnic tables in the back of the shop. Theres no views of the water, but in the midst of feasting on sizzling shrimp, no one noticed.

For more Food & Wine news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Food & Wine.
Clarification: An earlier version of this guest opinion column contained the incorrect byline. The author is Tennessee State University business professor Achintya Ray.

Metro Nashville government argues that the property tax rate is significantly lower than other major metros in Tennessee.

For example, the urban services district tax rate of $3.254 per $100 of assessed value is considerably lower than Chattanoogas $4.487, Knoxvilles $4.584, and Memphiss $6.163.

One might believe that Nashvillians pay significantly lower property taxes than other prominent Tennessee metro region residents. However, a close objective analysis of publicly available data paints a different picture.

Nashvillians may be the most taxed urban property owners in Tennessee, and the gap is stunningly wide.

Hear more Tennessee Voices: Get the weekly opinion newsletter for insightful and thought provoking columns.

How poorer people are paying more in taxes

Property taxes are levied on the assessed value of the property and are considered a highly regressive form of revenue collection.

Think about two neighbors with nearly identical properties, each with an appraised value of $500,000. Suppose both households pay effectively 1% of the appraised value in property taxes. Therefore, each of these neighbors pays $5,000 in property taxes.

Assume that neighbor A is a single retired lady who makes $40,000 annually. Neighbor B has two working professionals bringing in a combined household income of $200,000.

In this scenario, the poorer neighbor A pays 12.5% of her income in property taxes and neighbor B pays only 2.5% of their income in property taxes. In other words, the poorer neighbor pays five times in property tax as a percentage of income than her more prosperous neighbors.

This is the central concept of a regressive tax where less prosperous people pay proportionately more in taxes than their wealthier counterparts.

Sign up for Black Tennessee Voices newsletter:Read compelling columns by Black writers from across Tennessee.

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How disparities pan out among cities

The regressive nature of property taxes may be particularly hurtful for single women, the elderly, minority owners, etc., if their property valuations increase faster than their take-home incomes.

Recent research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia shows that faulty valuation methods can further exacerbate the regressivity by over-assessing relatively inexpensive homes compared to their expensive counterparts.

This assessment anomaly may significantly affect property owners of modest means and worsen home affordability.

The regressive nature of property taxes may be particularly pernicious for Nashvillians compared to the rest of Tennessees urban property owners.

Every tax, direct or indirect, may ultimately be evaluated by looking at the impact of that tax on ones net income.

Sign up for Latino Tennessee Voices newsletter:Read compelling stories for and with the Latino community in Tennessee.

Here is an example of the inequity: Nashville v. other cities

Budget data reveals that Nashville collects about $1.607 billion in property taxes. With a population of about 704,000, an average Nashvillian pays a whopping $2,283 in property taxes. With a per-capita income of about $44,000, an average Nashvillian pays about 5% of income in property taxes.

Achintya Ray

Meanwhile, an average Knoxville person pays about $955 in the combined county and city property taxes or about 3% of income. In other words, an average Nashville person pays about 1.4 times more in property taxes than an average Knoxville person.

Extending the same methodology, an average Brentwood person pays about $531 in the combined county and city property taxes or just about 0.7% of per-capita income. The comparable figures stand at about $1,031 per person or about 2.79% of income for Murfreesboro, $1,441 per person or about 4.2% for Chattanooga, and $1,293 per person or about 4.53% of income for Memphis.

In other words, an average Nashville person pays about 4.3 times more than an average Brentwood resident, about 2.2 times more than an average Murfreesboro resident, about 1.6 times more than an average Chattanooga resident, and about 1.8 times more than an average Memphis resident.

Tax burden puts Davidson County residents at a disadvantage

It may be noted that these simple calculations do not distinguish between residential and commercial properties and arrive at the proportional tax burden conveniently by distributing all collected property taxes over the relevant total population.

It is possible that Metro Nashvilles stifling property tax burden may put Davidson County residents at a steep disadvantage and might have been leading to economic stagnation even when the overall region is experiencing spectacular growth.

This aspect needs more investigation in the coming days.

Achintya Ray, Ph.D. is a professor in the College of Business at Tennessee State University

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Property tax burden hits Nashville harder than other Tennessee cities
A woman is in custody after being accused of stealing $60,000 from her 93-year-old sister, Tennessee police said.

Memphis Police say the woman, 76, took her sister to First Horizon Bank on more than one occasion in 2022. The woman had her sister issue cashiers checks to her.

The woman received two cashiers checks from her sister, totaling $60,000, police said in an affidavit.

Police said that the woman also tried to withdraw another $30,000 from her sisters account, but that time the bank teller said that the 93-year-old was showing signs of memory issues, and they declined to make the withdrawal.

When investigators spoke with the 93-year-old, she said she did not remember being taken to the bank by her younger sister.

The 93-year-olds niece has power of attorney, and told police that her aunt had a major neurocognitive disorder. She said her aunts sister had no legitimate reason to take the money, according to the affidavit.

The woman was arrested on March 16 on felony charges of theft of property and financial exploitation of the elderly, and was booked into the Shelby County Jail, according to jail records. She was released on bail on March 17.

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Considering the sometimes "very tense" history between Washington and The Hague, "it would not be surprising that it would take them a moment to think through their position," Leila Sadat, a Yale Law School fellow and international criminal law professor at the University of Washington in St. Louis, told VOA.

U.S. officials appear hesitant to publicly cheer the ICC action, given past American antipathy for the court. The United States was one of only seven countries (along with China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar and Yemen) to vote against the court's establishment in 1998 at the United Nations.

A prosecutor presented the allegations, which were reviewed by independent judges who decided "there is a sufficient reason to believe that these crimes have been committed by these persons and as a result of this consideration, the arrest warrant was issued by the court today," ICC President Piotr Hofmanski told VOA.

Putin and a Russian official, Maria Alekeseyevna Lvova-Belova, commissioner for children's rights, are accused of deporting people, particularly children, from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia beginning Feb. 24, 2022, the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant Friday for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of war crimes for his alleged involvement in the abduction of children from Ukraine.

The U.S. ambassador at the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, walked away from reporters on Friday when asked to comment about the court's arrest warrant for Putin. "I think this is just breaking news," responded National Security Council spokesman John Kirby when asked about it by VOA. "We're going to have to take a look at this before we can make any kind of official comment."

Kirby did say President Joe Biden "has been clear we want to make sure that Russia is held accountable for the atrocities, for the war crimes, for the crimes against humanity that they are perpetrating inside Ukraine against Ukrainian people." Kirby added that the United States will assist international bodies collecting and analyzing such evidence going forward, "but I wouldn't go any further than that right now."

Numerous U.S. administrations have expressed concern that American soldiers could face trial by the international court at The Hague in the Netherlands. That fear escalated in 2012 when proceedings were opened into war crimes in Afghanistan possibly committed by the Taliban, Afghan government forces and the U.S. military.

The administration of then-President Donald Trump, in 2020, imposed sanctions on the ICC's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda and other senior officials of the court, a year after the United States imposed a travel ban on ICC personnel. The sanctions were lifted by the Biden administration.

Ukraine, like the United States, is not a member of the ICC, but it has granted the court jurisdiction over its territory. "A historic decision from which historic responsibility will begin," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on social media. "The head of the terrorist state and another Russian official have officially become suspects in a war crime. The deportation of Ukrainian children is the illegal transfer of thousands of our children to Russian territory."

"This is a big day for the many victims of crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine since 2014," said Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch. "With these arrest warrants, the ICC has made Putin a wanted man and has taken its first step to end the impunity that has emboldened perpetrators in Russia's war against Ukraine for far too long. The warrants send a clear message that giving orders to commit or tolerating serious crimes against civilians may lead to a prison cell in The Hague," he said.

"This is an important decision of international justice and for the people of Ukraine," said European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. "No one responsible for crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, regardless of their status, should escape justice," said the foreign affairs ministry of France.

Russia, also not a member state of the ICC, has repeatedly said it does not recognize the court's jurisdiction. The official reaction in Moscow on Friday was expectedly one of rejection. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the very questions raised by the ICC were "outrageous and unacceptable."

"Decisions of the International Criminal Court are of no consequence in our country, including from the legal perspective," said foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on the Telegram messaging app. "Russia isn't a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and is under no obligation arising from it. Russia doesn't cooperate with the organization, and any potential arrest recipes' originating from the international court will be null and void for us."

The ICC does not have its own police force or other ways to enforce arrests. But the warrant compels ICC member states to arrest Putin or Lvova-Belova if they were to travel to their country. "There are political consequences" if those countries do not enforce the arrest warrants, ICC President Hofmanski told VOA. "But obviously, nobody can force the states to comply with a legal obligation of the treaty." Asked if Putin now feared traveling to countries that recognized the ICC, Kremlin spokesman Peskov replied: "I have nothing to add on this subject."

Law professor Sadat, who is a special adviser to the ICC on crimes against humanity, said from The Hague that the warrant for Putin "could definitely dampen his travel plans if he wished to travel abroad." Sadat added that while the repercussions on the political stage may be more significant when a head of state is involved, "in terms of the principles of justice, all defendants are equal before the court."
Chinook salmon along the coast of California and southern Oregon Coast continue to suffer lingering impacts from the region's mega-drought, and it has cost fishermen a chinook season this spring.

It's also likely chinook salmon fishing will remain closed off the California coast for the next year as the Pacific Fishery Management Council tries to help the fish rebuild from years of record drought.

Given conditions in the Klamath and Sacramento rivers over the last year, the canceling of a season in April and early May wasn't a surprise to sport fisherman Jim Yarnall, a member of the councils salmon advisory subpanel of fishing and tribal representatives.

The season, which could have taken place along the California coast and northward to Cape Falcon, Oregon through May 15 was canceled to protect fall chinook in the Sacramento River, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service.

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READ MORE: Latest climate change news from USA TODAY

Salmon in California's Sacramento River were at near-record low numbers last year, and the Klamath River fall chinook had the second lowest abundance forecast since current assessment methods began in 1997.

The proposed management plan for the California coast for the coming year includes no alternatives that allow fishermen to keep chinook salmon, but a limited season is possible off southern Oregon. After a public hearing, the Council will meet in early April to finalize the schedule.

A chinook salmon jumps in the Sacramento River in California.

Drought impacts salmon

Salmon, including chinook, Californias predominant species, rely on plentiful waters to hatch and travel from their spawning grounds to the ocean, and then to migrate back again and drop the eggs that produce the next generation of fish.

Water in California and much of the west has been anything but plentiful for years.

Low river flows and high river water temperatures have affected the salmon's survival, especially as they emerge as eggs and need to go downstream to the ocean, said Robin Ehlke, salmon staff officer for the management council. "There are just less and less fish."

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Its likely some fish also die as they return to spawning grounds

Banner seasons in the past couple of years, even though limited, may also have played a role.

Scientists use models to estimate how many fish there are and anticipate fishing pressure from commercial and recreational fishermen, based on data for catch and field surveys for returning salmon.

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Their current forecasts for the Sacramento river chinook are low and not much above the goal needed to ensure viability, Ehlke said. Right now some of those salmon stocks are forecast to be at a low level and it would be pretty risky to have a fishery and not meet those conservation goals."

For the past couple of years, the models used to estimate fish populations have been performing poorly, thanks to the impacts of climate change and the drought, Yarnall said. The people running these models, theyre pulling their hair out. Its an unfortunate place where we are and its going to impact a lot of livelihoods.

A complex puzzle

Managing the salmon, the regions water supply and the fishing seasons is a complex puzzle, Yarnall said. Thats in part because it would be hard to butcher a watershed much more than the present-day Sacramento-San Juaquin regional river system, with all its dams and reservoirs, he said.

Federal and state water managers juggle all the moving parts, trying to manage water flow for flood control, agriculture irrigation, public water supply and wildlife. Sometimes, Yarnall said, the fish get the short end of the stick.

How are salmon fishing seasons set?

Seasons are set a year in advance, with the possibility of amendment.

NOAA Fisheries gives the management council and its advisory panel guidance on the numbers they expect to see.

State fisheries managers release abundance numbers.

The council knows it needs to get a set amount of salmon back out of the ocean and up the rivers to their spawning grounds to keep a healthy stock of salmon, Ehlke said.

The council and its advisory panels craft proposed seasons that meet the minimum goals

A public hearing and comment period take place

A final proposal is forwarded to NOAA Fisheries for review and approval.

Having no spring season was one option crafted by the advisory panel last year for the annual management plan for 2022-2023, she said. Based on that advice, the council concluded the no fishing option was the most reasonable and posed the least risk.

Obviously everyone wants to fish, but most fishermen understood the status of where the salmon are and understand they need to make sure those salmon stocks remain healthy, she said. Taking a pause of a year  so hopefully the salmon has time to regain their strength  seems appropriate.

Hope for the future

Yarnall remains optimistic about the chinook in California.

If theres a silver lining in all of this, California has been wet here since December, he said. Snowpack is high. The reservoirs are filling and salmon are an amazingly resilient species.

If we get out of the way and given half a chance, he said, you can see them bouncing right back in three years to an abundant fish stock.

Dig deeper:

Dinah Voyles Pulver covers climate and environment issues for USA TODAY. She can be reached at dpulver@gannett.com or at @dinahvp on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fishing season canceled: Feds close California chinook salmon season
Indiana police are looking for a teenager who went missing two days ago and is believed to be in "extreme danger."

Scottie Morris, 14, was last seen on Thursday around 8:30 p.m., according to police in his hometown of Eaton, located about 75 miles northeast of Indianapolis. He was reported missing that night, local police said.

Indiana State Police declared a silver alert -- a statewide alert used in cases of missing children and missing endangered adults -- Friday night in the disappearance of the teen.

"He is believed to be in extreme danger and may require medical assistance," state police said.

PHOTO: Indiana State Police released this undated image of Scottie Morris. (Indiana State Police)

After local police called off the search for the night on Friday amid frigid temperatures, a search party reconvened Saturday morning to continue looking for Morris.

Hundreds of people -- including crews from area police and fire departments, leaders from the teen's school district and classmates -- turned out to help find the teen, ABC Indianapolis affiliate WRTV reported.

MORE: 8-year-old Washington girl missing since 2018 found safe in Mexico: FBI

"It's impressive how many people have come together, so quickly," Eaton Police Chief Chris Ligget told the station.

"In this day and age, it's so important to see how a community can come together like this," he added.

MORE: 2-year-old boy found alive in Florida woods about 24 hours after he went missing

The search so far has been primarily focused on fields, a forest and river in the area, according to WRTV. Infrared drones, bloodhound teams and boats have been deployed, police said. Volunteers have also been asked to check structures, including sheds and abandoned homes, WRTV reported.

Morris is described as being white, 5' 4" tall, 150 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing black shoes, red and black shorts and a white T-shirt with writing on the front.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Eaton Police Department at 765-396-3297 or 911.

Indiana police looking for missing teen who may be in 'extreme danger' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Spring is in the air...which means it's not too early to start thinking about your summer. And specifically, vacations! If you're looking for an off-the-beaten path escape away from the crowds, you're in luck. Here are some lesser-known alternatives to popular summer vacation destinations that are well worth a trip before word gets out further  both in the US and beyond.

US & CANADA:

1. Instead of Hawaii, go to Oregon.

There are some pretty obvious differences between Hawaii and Oregon (namely, that only one of these places is an island with a year-round tropical climate. But hear me out: Oregon offers sweeping Pacific coastline, a temperate rainforest, incredible hiking, scenic farmland, waterfalls, and some of the most picturesque scenery in the country. There may not be palm trees and coconuts, but Cannon Beach is a pretty spectacular place to sunbathe on a warm summer day. And while you won't find the Road to Hana, a drive along the Pacific Coast Highway isn't too shabby. Getty Images

The landscapes throughout the state are so diverse and nothing short of jaw-dropping.

The Oregon Coast  from Astoria to Bandon  is home to jagged coastline, state parks, hiking trails galore, sweeping sand dunes, and freshly caught seafood. You can even go whale watching or boating for Dungeness crab. In the Columbia River Gorge you can hike to hidden waterfalls and sip on hard cider made at local apple and peach orchards. And don't forget about Crater Lake National Park, a giant volcanic crater surrounded by cliffs and the Valley of the Giants, a rainforest that houses some seriously impressive Douglas-fir and Hemlock trees. Chase Dekker Wild-life Images / Getty Images

2. Instead of Cape Cod, go to Fire Island.

Cape Cod is one of the most visited vacation destinations in the Northeast, and with good reason. But high season on the Cape comes with hefty price tags to match on hotels and home rentals. For a similar down-to-earth feel, beautiful beaches, stunning summer sunsets, and quaint, small-town vibe, Fire Island is an excellent alternative. This tiny barrier island (just 31-miles long) is close to New York City, making it easily accessible for a short weekend or longer vacation. And you won't find any cars on slow-paced Fire Island; rather, the preferred method of transportation is bicycle or boat. Annemarie Leonardi / Getty Images/EyeEm

Each of Fire Island's hamlets has a totally distinct feel.

Ocean Beach is the most lively town complete with seafood restaurants, ice cream parlors, bars, and shops; Cherry Grove is a favorite among LGBT travelers; Kismet is a free-spirited hamlet known for its party scene, and hotel-free Saltaire is the place to go for its peaceful, relaxing atmosphere. Whether you're looking to rent a house, lay low, and cook your meals at home or stay in a hotel, beach-hop, and explore the surrounding towns, Fire Island offers something for every type of traveler. Scott Heaney / Getty Images/iStockphoto

3. Instead of the Canadian Rockies, go to Idaho.

Summer is high season in the Canadian Rockies, when people flock to take in the natural beauty of Banff National Park, Jasper National Park, and glacial-fed Lake Louise. But right here in the US, Idaho is an exceptionally underrated destination for the great outdoors. It boasts both Rocky Mountain and Pacific Northwest scenery, complete with deserts, water falls, lava fields, mountains, and lakes galore. J. Christopher Photography / Getty Images/500px

This state is paradise for anyone who loves the great outdoors.

Hike in Sun Valley, raft down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, camp and fish in the Sawtooth Mountains, explore Coeur dAlene with its forested lake, and blend urban comforts with outdoor adventure in the hip city of Boise. And make a point to visit Stanley, a small town with a big personality in the Sawtooth Valley, which is the gateway to all the rafting, fishing, and great outdoors the area has to offer. Anna Gorin / Getty Images

INTERNATIONAL:

4. Instead of Santorini, go to Tinos.

When you think of the Greek Islands, your mind likely immediately travels to Santorini. And while this popular Aegean destination is most certainly beautiful, it's over-saturated with tourists from all over the world. For a similar vibe, equally stunning scenery, and very few crowds, consider Tinos instead. Lemonan / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Set just 30 minutes from Mykonos by boat, this island feels like an undiscovered gem.

In Santorini you'll struggle to get a seat at the packed and overly expensive restaurants, but each of the dozens of villages in Tinos boast down-to-earth tavernas serving simple, perfectly cooked seafood from just offshore. There are picture-perfect villages to explore like Pyrgos and Kardiani, wineries where you can sip local Greek varietals, and glistening beaches like Livada, Kolimvithra, and Ormos Giannaki. Mariedofra / Getty Images/iStockphoto

5. Instead of Sicily, go to Sardinia.

As if Sicily weren't already popular enough, the most recent season of White Lotus has all but guaranteed that everyone and their mother will be flocking to Palermo this summer. For a quieter Italian beach getaway with all the same allures, check out the nearby island of Sardinia. The jewel of the Mediterranean Sea floats between Italy and North Africa. And like Sicily, it's home to idyllic beaches, jutting mountains, and a blend of charming fishing villages and posh resort towns. Andrea Pistolesi / Getty Images

Sardinia's Costa Smeralda  a 12-mile stretch of coast  is the most popular part of the island among visitors, but there's so much more to explore.

There are ancients ruins and ports like Su Nuraxi Nuraghe and Porto Flavia, natural wonders like Neptune's Grotto, and the enchanted town of Castelsardo. While you're there, take a boat ride around Maddalena Islands, explore the island's fantastic hiking trails, and sample the local cuisine like pane carasau, Sardinian flatbread, and culurgiones, a stuffed pasta similar to ravioli. Ellen Van Bodegom / Getty Images

6. Instead of the Algarve, go to Alentejo.

There's no doubt that the Algarve is a beautiful beach destination, but summer is primetime tourist season where you'll be fighting for a tiny sliver of beach. If you're looking for a quieter Iberian getaway, set your sights on the Portuguese region of Alentejo. This historic area, a place made unique by its Portuguese, Roman, and North African influences, has everything from the bustling cities of Evora and Portalegre to golden beaches and scenic countrysides dotted with wildflowers and cork forests. Alexander Spatari / Getty Images

You won't find any of the Algarve's summer crowds in this up-and-coming region.

The sleepy beach town of Comporta feels worlds away from the busy Algarve towns like Albufeira and Lagos. Here, you'll find seafood shacks just steps from the Atlantic Ocean, bike paths alongside rice paddies, and highly curated boutiques selling locally designed goods. And it's worth mentioning that Alentejo is quickly putting itself on the map as a renowned wine destination. Joe Daniel Price / Getty Images

7. Instead of Croatia, go to Slovenia.

In recent years, Croatia has become one of the most popular summer destinations in Europe, but people are only just beginning to understand all the allures of its northern neighbor, Slovenia  a safe and budget-friendly country with so many diverse landscapes. For an urban escape, there's the capital city of Ljubljana with its green spaces, bridges spanning the Ljubljanica River, open air markets, and outdoor cafes. Westend61 / Getty Images/Westend61

From alpine lakes and gorges to medieval cities, this country has it all.

Beyond the city, the Alps surround Lake Bled and the lesser known Lake Bohinj, while Vintgar Gorge offers similar scenery to Plitvice Lakes National Park but without all the tourists. And finally there's Piran, a popular resort town on the Adriatic Coast with a colorful main square and medieval walls that will give you serious Dubrovnik vibes. Janoka82 / Getty Images/iStockphoto

8. Instead of the Italian Alps, go to Georgia.

You could visit some combination of Piedmont, the Dolomites, and Lake Como in the Italian Alps this summer, or you could head to Georgia before it inevitably becomes one of Europe's most popular destinations. With a unique history shaped by Russia, Turkey, and Persia and its incredibly diverse landscapes (think: monasteries built into rocky caves, deep gorges, dramatic mountains, and fairy-tale-like towns built deep in valleys. Stefan Cristian Cioata / Getty Images

Tbilisi might just be one of the coolest cities in Europe.

The capital city of Tbilisi is a fascinating, hipster locale with narrow streets, a thriving food scene, leafy squares, and an old town that feels stuck in time. It's also a great base camp from which to take day trips to nearby Gori, Uplistsikhe, and Mtskheta. Georgia also claims to be the birthplace of wine, and you can visit many family-run vineyards to taste the country's signature orange wines in Sighnaghi or Kakheti. Claude Letien / Getty Images

9. Instead of Iceland, go to the Faroe Islands.

Over the last decade, affordable, short flights have made Iceland an ever-trending destination. But sadly, it's getting harder and harder to avoid the tour buses in this beautiful country. So instead of Iceland, check out the Faroe Islands. Technically part of Denmark, this archipelago sits between Iceland and Norway in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Summer is the best time to visit as the Faroe Islands burst into green, mossy life, wildflowers bloom, and the days are long and bright. Roberto Moiola / Getty Images

Like in Iceland, the weather changes here in an instant, so bring your layers, but the scenery is nothing short of jaw-dropping.

Drive past Mulafossur Waterfall and fjords surrounded by mountains; take a ferry to Kalsoy island with its jutting, green cliffs; spot puffins in Mykines; hike to Lake Srvagsvatn, a lake "infinity pool" overlooking the sea; and explore the colorful fishing towns of Nolsoy and Gjogv. The capital city of Torshavn may be small, but it's well worth exploring the historic area of Tinganes with its grass-covered roofs, quaint streets, and cozy nordic restaurants. Abbphoto / Getty Images/iStockphoto

10. Instead of Paris, go to Dordogne.

Dreaming of a French getaway this summer? While everyone flocks to Paris and the South of France, do something a bit more original by visiting the Dordogne Valley. This picturesque area in southwestern France  just east of Bordeaux  is home to fairy-tale medieval villages, rolling meadows, and some of the most charming scenery in the country. Xantana / Getty Images/iStockphoto

The towns that make up this French region could have come straight out of a storybook.

Don't miss the hilltop town of Domme, Beynac-Et-Cazennac with its cobblestone streets and chateaux, and Sarlat known for its open-air markets selling everything from regional cheeses to fresh strawberries. If there's one main reason to travel to Dordogne, it's for the cuisine: it's known for some of France's most luxurious foods like Perigord truffles, foie gras, and Bergerac wines. Fraser Hall / Getty Images

11. Instead of the South of France, go to Turkey's Turquoise Coast.

The Turkish Riviera, also known as the Turquoise Coast, is a stretch of Mediterranean beach towns between Fethiye and Antalya (and once you see the glistening beaches and iridescent water, you'll understand exactly why it deserves the nickname). Here you'll find ancient cities like Xanthos and Arykanda that are perched high on hilltops and rich in spectacular ruins. There are also gorgeous resort towns like Kas, Bodrum, Kalekoy, and Alanya, which are set between the mountains and the sea. Anna Cinaroglu / Getty Images/EyeEm

You'd be hard pressed to find this unique blend of history and scenery anywhere else.

History buffs will love the ancient ruins like the Temple of Apollo, the Temple of Athena, and ancient theaters. And the beaches and landscapes are as striking as any of the rivieras in western Europe, only this is more affordable and less populated. One of the best ways to see the Turquoise Coast is by boat, stopping to snorkel in the azure Mediterranean, and sunbathe at the best beaches like Oludeniz, Iztuzu, and Patara. Getty Images
Theres a good chance youve heard of (and perhaps even raised a salted glass in honor of) the holiday known as Cinco de Mayo, or the fifth of May, so its high time you learned a little bit more about the event. Read on for some fascinating Cinco de Mayo facts so you can enjoy the fiesta with a little knowledge under your belt.

1. Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexicos independence day

This commonly held belief is, indeed, a big misconception: Although Mexico did achieve a major victory against the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, this success was more of a much-needed morale booster rather than a strategic win. That said, by the time the Battle of Puebla came to pass, Mexico had already enjoyed more than 50 years of independence from Spainfreedom won after an 11-year war that ended on September 16, 1810. As for Cinco de Mayo, that celebration is simply to honor a single battle in which the underdog achieved an unlikely defeat against French troops, who saw Mexicos unpaid debt as an opportunity to invade and expand Napoleons colonial empire. But how did a single battle earned such lasting symbolic significance? Well, the Mexican army was seriously outnumbered with poor supplies, yet still managed to emerge victorious. In fact, the win was so impressive that it is credited with invigorating the resistance movement. (Hows that for an abbreviated history lesson?)

Getty Images

2. Cinco de Mayo is also not a federal holiday in Mexico

Although the day is celebrated in the city of Puebla (where the epic victory occurred) with military parades and a smattering of other festivities in the street, Cinco de Mayo is not considered to be a major holiday in the rest of Mexicosave the occasional battle re-enactment. In fact, Cinco de Mayo is a much bigger deal in the United States, particularly in places with large Mexican communities. In Mexico, the holiday is not recognized at the federal level. In other words, its pretty much business as usual on Cinco de Mayo in Mexico since banks, stores, and just about everything else remains open.

Story continues

John Parrot/Stocktrek Images

3. Cinco de Mayo celebrations came stateside thanks to F.D.R.

So how did this commemoration from another countrys history become a holiday in the United States? Glad you asked. It turns out we have good old-fashioned diplomacy to thank for stateside Cinco de Mayo celebrations. President Franklin D. Roosevelts Good Neighbor Policy, passed in 1933 to improve relations with Latin American countries, paved the way for Cinco de Mayo to become a more mainstream American holiday. That said, Californians had jumped on the Cinco de Mayo bandwagon far sooner, due to the large Mexican immigrant population in the state.

MattGush/Getty Images

4. Cinco de Mayo is celebrated with street festivals

Cinco de Mayo is typically honored across the United States with jubilant street festivals that attract sizable crowds. All sorts of merry-making is liable to take place, but some celebrations are bigger than others (more on that later). Depending where you are on the big day, parades, live music, dancing, food and drink might factor into the festivities.

5. Mole Poblano is the official dish of the holiday

Its easy enough to locate a taco vendor, score a margarita or indulge in a burrito (preferably one the size of your face) on Cinco de Mayobut you might be surprised to know that none of these Mexican fare favorites are considered to be the official dish of Cinco de Mayo. For a more authentic celebration of the holiday, opt for a dish that features mole poblano instead: This rich, dark brown saucemade with Mexican chocolate and a boatload of spicesboasts incredibly bold flavor and a divine balance of texture. Mole Poblano hails from (you guessed it) the Mexican city of Puebla where the historic battle victory occurred.

6. Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston hold mega celebrations

As you might expect, some American cities hold bigger celebrations than others when it comes to Cinco de Mayo. So where can you find the best bash on May 5th? Head to Los Angeles, where festivities take over both Olvera Street and Broadway; Chicago and Houston have similarly raucous celebrationsthe former boasts a parade in the Pilsen area of the city (with all the trappings of a solid Cinco de Mayo event), while a host of Houston businesses get in on the action with holiday specials.

7. Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexican culture in the United States

Although this holiday is technically intended to celebrate the outcome of the Battle of Puebla, it has taken on a much broader meaning in the United States. These days, the occasion has come to be a celebration of Mexican culture in general, so youre unlikely to see military-themed parades or battle re-enactments here but rather a wide-range of cultural representations, from dance to dining.

8. The holiday has significance for the Chicano Rights movement

Cinco de Mayo has a place in American history beyond F.D.R.s Good Neighbor Policy. In fact, this holiday has close ties to the Chicano Rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s: This activist movement used the occasion as a call to action, which inspired an often overlooked communitynot unlike the way in which the Battle of Puebla emboldened the Mexican resistance in 1862.

9. Cinco de Mayo is recognized as a national holiday in the U.S.

We hinted at this fact already, but the truth is that Cinco de Mayo is more of a holiday here in the United States than it is in Mexico. And some might say our version of the fiesta is actually an adaptation that often misses the mark, since those celebrating typically show up for the margaritas and miss the symbolism. Nevertheless, with the help of George W. Bush and the powers that be in Congress, Cinco de Mayo became an official national holiday in 2005 (though folks were definitely taking advantage of the days festivities well before that).

10. Festivities feature traditional Mexican music and dance

As previously mentioned, Cinco de Mayo in America is all about celebrating Mexican culture. (Note: Were not talking about pounding margaritas from a beer bong, which has absolutely nothing to do with Mexican culture.) The richest Cinco de Mayo celebrations will likely feature traditional Mexican mariachi musica type of music that dates back to the 19th century and is deeply rooted in the countrys revolutionary past. And yes, mariachi music will make you want to dance, which is why youre also likely to see colorfully-clad dancers in Puebla dresses performing traditional steps (i.e., the baille folklorico) that owe their origin to Mexicos Independence Day (which is on September 16th and not May 5th, remember?).

issam elhafti/Getty Images

11. Cinco de Mayo is celebrated around the globe

Interestingly enough, the United States is not the only country to have turned Cinco de Mayo into a holiday. It just so happens that countries around the world love a good fiesta: Cinco de Mayo celebrations can be enjoyed in Canada, Australia and Japan, to name a few.

iStock / Getty Images

12. Americans eat and drink *a lot*

In the U.S., Cinco de Mayo is marked by lots of dancing, lots of drinking and lots of food. And while we know theres a lot of indulging that goes on, just how much food and drink Americans consume to commemorate the holiday might surprise you. According to Produce News, folk in the U.S. eat a staggering 81 million pounds of avocados on Cinco de Mayo. Thats loads and loads of yummy guacamole. And of course, you want to wash that down with a nice margarita, which is why the International Wines and Spirits Record (IWSR) also reports that the U.S. drinks more tequila than any other nation on the holiday.

11 Mardi Gras Traditions You Need to Know About (from King Cakes to Coconut Throwing)
As days grow longer, we find ourselves turning towards lighter menu options, which in turn set us thinking about white wine. One of our go-to spots for complex whites that are terrific for drinking on their own but also pair well with a wide range of foods is Alsace, in the northeast corner of France. With about 1,000 producers making wine from several aromatic white varieties, Alsace offers a lot of choice. The cream of the crop from this narrow 75-mile-long region along the Rhine River, just across from Germany, come from 51 grand cru vineyards. Covering hillside sites that offer the best sun exposure and ideal growing conditions, vineyards that were first given official status in 1975 have been home to wine of great renown for hundreds of years.

Its proximity to Germany is the reason that so many of the family-owned winery names as well as varieties grown here such as Riesling and Gewurztraminer here have Germanic rather than Gallic origins. Pinot Gris, which is French through and through but is also cultivated in Germany, is at home in Alsace as well. Aromatic whites are those that have notes of floral and spice in their bouquet in addition to stone fruit and citrus flavors. For the most part, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Pinot Gris from here are dry, but even those with higher residual sugar exhibit vivid acidity that keeps them from seeming overly sweet. This brilliant acidity is also one of the reasons that these wines age so well; far from being easy-drinking whites meant to be consumed young, they will last for years if stored properly and bring joy to your palate in years to come. You will note some slightly older vintages among our picks; while these are drinking well now, they still have plenty of life left in them.

More from Robb Report

Dry Riesling is terrific with anything breaded and fried, including Wiener schnitzel and fried chicken. Its also terrific with sushi and mixed raw bar. Riesling with a touch of residual sugar works well with foods that combine sweet and spicy elements such as General Tsos chicken or shrimp with sweet chili sauce. Gewurztraminers more floral profile and notes of ginger make it a natural alongside chicken tagine, pork fried rice, or green curries. Although Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are the same grape, Pinot Gris from Alsace is made in a complex, mineral-driven style. The classic pairing is flammekueche, a local pizza-like flatbread topped with cheese, onion, and bacon, but we also enjoy it with fondue, raclette, or spicy dishes like tandoori chicken or even buffalo wings. These wines are also go nicely with green salads that include cheese and fruit among their ingredients. Here are nine whites from Alsace to help you welcome spring.

Domaine Marcel Deiss 2017 Mambourg Grand Cru Alsace

Mambourgs reputation dates to 783 AD; during the Middle Ages it belonged to monasteries and vines were tended by monks. This multi-variety field blend of white grapes is fermented and aged in barrels for 12 months and has floral, stone fruit, and baking spice aromas. It is generous in the mouth with amazing roundness and bright acidity and flavors of yellow peach, ripe apricot, and jasmine. An excellent wine to pair with spicy food.

Buy Now: $85

Domaine Zind Humbrecht 2020 Hengst Grand Cru Gewurztraminer

Translated roughly as stallion in local dialect, the vines of the Hengst are situated on a steep southeast facing slope near the village of Wintzenheim in Alsace. The vines are 69 years old and produce concentrated, flavorful grapes. This wine is pale gold in color with aromas of Bartlett pears, ginger, white peach, and cinnamon. It is soft on entry, with voluptuous body and flavors of citrus blossom, white stone fruits, and dried sage. The winemaker is quick to note that although the wine has 16.5 grams of residual sugar it does not taste sweet; in fact, the sugar contributes to the generous mouthfeel. Drink now or through the next two decades.

Buy Now: $59

Trimbach Gewurztraminer Cuvee des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre 2013

The Trimbach family has been making wine since 1626, spanning 13 generations and almost four centuries. This wine is a tribute to the Lords of Ribeaupierre who ruled over Alsace during the Middle Ages. It has amazing youthfulness for a 10-year-old wine, with aromas of tropical fruits, fresh ginger, ripe summer peach, and rose petal and flavors of nectarine, caramelized pineapple, and honeysuckle. Enjoy now or hold; in our opinion it will continue to improve over the next 10 years.

Buy Now: $69

Albert Boxler 2015 Grand Cru Brand Riesling Alsace

This luscious wine is made by Jean Boxler using grapes from the renowned Grand Cru Brand vineyard. His grandfather Albert started the estate after World War II and became the first generation of Boxlers to sell the family wine commercially. It is straw colored in the glass with aromas of Fuji apple, Meyer lemon, and white citrus blossoms and has racy acidity with flavors of Anjou pear, lemon zest, and brown baking spices. Drink now or over the course of this decade.

Buy Now: $78

Jean Baptiste Adam 2016 Vieilles Vignes Le Riesling Kaefferkopf Alsace

Grapes used to produce this enchanting Riesling come from the Kaefferkopf Grand Cru. It has an enticing bouquet of acacia honey, honeysuckle blossom, and caramelized orange peel. There is elegant texture in the midpalate with flavors of yellow peach, dried mango, and guava. The finish is round with a touch of crisp acidity in the post palate.

Buy Now: $78

Hugel 2013 Grossi Laue Pinot Gris Alsace

This delectable wine is made from 100 percent Pinot Gris grapes grown on the Hugel estate. The harvest started on October 1 and was a classic with healthy, well-balanced grapes. Golden straw colored in the glass this Pinot Gris has aromas of flint, ripe stone fruits, and guava with flavors of tropical fruits, caramelized pineapple, and tarte Tatin. It has bright acidity and full mouth roundness and a persistent finish. Its drinking beautifully right now so enjoy right away or over the next few years.

Buy Now: $102

Pierre Sparr 2016 Grand Cru Mambourg Pinot Gris Alsace

With 33 grams of residual sugar per liter, this delightful Pinot Gris is considered sweet, but thanks to its bright acidity it tastes very balanced and is not cloying on the palate. Aged in stainless steel tanks for eight to 10 months it has aromas of white flowers, ripe apricot, toasted hazelnut, and canned peaches in the complex bouquet. It is very well structured with good mouthfeel and flavors of nectarine, caramelized orange peel, and beeswax.

Domaines Schlumberger 2015 Les Princes Abbes Pinot Gris Alsace

Pinot Gris grapes for this delicious wine are grown in the town of Schimberg in the Guebwiller Valley. After fermentation and pneumatic pressing the wine is allowed to rest on its lees for just about 7 months. It is golden yellow in color with aromas of almond blossom, Tangerine zest, toasted hazelnut, and a touch of freshly picked anise. In the mouth there are flavors of Fuji apple and candied orange peel with a lingering note of licorice root in the long, long finish.

Buy Now: $60

Domaine Weinbach 2019 Clos de Capucins Cuvee Colette Riesling Alsace

The estate currently known as Domaine Weinbach has had vines planted since the ninth century and was first established as a winery by Capuchin monks in 1612. Today it is run by Catherine Faller and her two sons Eddy and Theo using biodynamic and organic methods. This exquisite wine is light gold in color with aromas of honeysuckle and jasmine blossoms, anise fronds, and yellow peach. There are flavors of apricot, quince, and nectarine on the midpalate with well-structured minerality and balanced acidity. Drink now or lay down for a decade or so.

Buy Now: $57

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While ice fishing in Canada, Sam Boucha battled a monster lake trout for nearly an hour before realizing the hole in the ice was not big enough for the fish, so her boyfriend Brad Molloy started drilling a second hole.

In the meantime, the fish spit the hook, but Boucha managed to plunge her arm into the icy water and grab ahold of the fish, and waited for the expanded hole in the ice.

I was frozen, Boucha told CBC. We had a shack to warm up in afterwards so it was nice, but, yeah, it was bare-handed, arm down the hole to my shoulder, holding on to that fish until the second hole was drilled.

Boucha told Outdoor Life she could barely hold it through the 2-foot ice hole.

Once the hole opened up, Boucha pulled it through the opening. The lake trout measured 57 inches with a 31-inch girth. It topped out at 50 pounds on a hand scale but was estimated to weigh 57 pounds based on a calculation from the measurements.

It was the biggest fish Boucha has ever caught.

Ive caught a 35-pound trout before and this was something similar, so were pretty excited, she told CBC. It was unreal.

The fish died, so Boucha plans on mounting it and putting it in a family cabin or in her home. She donated a pectoral fin and an ocular bone to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry for research and to get the fishs age.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Ice fisherman catches odd-looking fish that was considered suspicious

Boucha made the catch on Red Lake in the town of Red Lake, Ontario. Though some people were upset that the fish died, many commenters on social media were positive about the catch.

[One] was from a family friend here in Red Lake and he was like, Youre a fishing goddess, Boucha told CBC. I like that.

Photos courtesy of Sam Boucha.

Story originally appeared on For The Win
Local officials and water quality experts are calling for a renewed emphasis on infrastructure to reduce the frequency of harmful algae blooms like red tide.

Congressman Vern Buchanan led a red tide roundtable Friday to discuss the impact of the algae and brainstorm solutions. The group agreed that reducing stormwater runoff and wastewater spills could alleviate algae blooms.

Improvements to water infrastructure, such as the pipes that carry sewage, could produce substantial benefits to water quality. Old pipes and wastewater systems contribute to spills and leaks that harm local waterways.

Its all about nutrients  and we have proof, said Sandy Gilbert, founder of the Solutions to Avoid Red Tide (START) organization.

Since October, a persistent bloom of red tide has plagued Southwest Florida, including Manatee Countys beaches on Anna Maria Island. Red tide, which is caused by a microscopic organism called Karenia brevis, can lead to widespread fish kills and cause respiratory issues for humans.

Buchanan started the discussion by highlighting the challenges that red tide can make for the region. Visitors and residents choose Florida for its environment, but red tide tends to keep people away from the beach.

In the past few weeks, Manatee County has removed more than 3 1/2 tons of dead fish that washed ashore.

Young people enjoy the beach and weather just feet away from a roundtable discussion on increased levels of red tide in the Southwest Florida at the Beach House Restaurant in Bradenton Beach Friday.

Red tide threatens local water quality

I cant think of anything more important than water quality, said Buchanan, R-Longboat Key. Red tide has wreaked havoc on marine life, our waters and the many businesses that rely on Floridas tourism-based economy.

While several groups are researching the effects of red tide and how to mitigate its frequency, policymakers agree that the main goal should be the reduction of nutrients entering the water. Ed Chiles, a passionate water quality advocate, said reducing fertilizer use or preventing sewage overflows can help.

Its not one thing. Its everything, said Chiles, who leads the local All Clams on Deck initiative using clams to promote clean water. It is whats going on with wastewater treatment plants. Its what going on in your yards.

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Chiles Beach House restaurant, 200 Gulf Drive in Bradenton Beach, hosted Fridays roundtable discussion.

Ed Chiles talks about the All clams on deck program during a roundtable discussion on increased levels of red tide in the Southwest Florida at the Beach House Restaurant in Bradenton Beach Friday.

Nutrients feed algae, experts say

Studies have shown that red tide blooms grow stronger when K. brevis is fueled by nitrogen and phosphorus, which are common nutrients in sewage, fertilizer and stormwater runoff. Investing in infrastructure that collects those nutrients before entering Florida waterways is one way to clamp down on red tide, the roundtable concluded.

Were seeing some impacts that are very troubling, said Ed Sherwood, executive director of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, referring to local seagrass losses. The work we need to do is really focused on improving our aging wastewater infrastructure, our stormwater and also looking at the contribution of emissions.

Red tide is a naturally occurring phenomenon, but scientists say human activities and nutrient pollution tend to make the blooms worse.

Fertilization is running off into the water, and its a big factor, Buchanan said.

U.S. Congressman Vern Buchanan (R) participates in a roundtable discussion on increased levels of red tide in the Southwest Florida at the Beach House Restaurant in Bradenton Beach Friday.

Buchanan backs infrastructure needs

Ron Huibers, chairman of the city of Holmes Beachs Clean Water Committee, urged Buchanan to support local infrastructure needs.

Buchanan, who has previously pushed bills supporting red tide research across the finish line, said he supports using federal money for local projects that could reduce the frequency of harmful algae blooms.

If you need infrastructure, I want to find a way to get that done, Buchanan said. I dont care what it costs.

Theres a lot of infrastructure that we can do. Its going to be expensive, but its the right thing to do, he added.

Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge also touted the countys capital improvement plan, which includes over $1 billion toward projects that improve wastewater systems over the next five years.

The congressman said he hopes to have another proposal signed into law. Buchanan recently filed a bill that would allow states suffering from harmful algae blooms to qualify for disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Buchanan has successfully advocated for red tide funding before. In recent years, he has secured $8 million for red tide research and another $100 million to combat harmful algal blooms.

Longboat Key town commissioner Maureen Merrigan, center, during a roundtable discussion on increased levels of red tide in the Southwest Florida at the Beach House Restaurant in Bradenton Beach Friday.

Ed Chiles talks about the All clams on deck program during a roundtable discussion on increased levels of red tide in the Southwest Florida at the Beach House Restaurant in Bradenton Beach Friday.

John Chappie, Mayor of Bradenton Beach during a roundtable discussion on increased levels of red tide in the Southwest Florida at the Beach House Restaurant in Bradenton Beach Friday.
WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden on Thursday said he is supporting a Senate bill that would repeal decades-old military authorizations and formally end the Iraq and Gulf Wars.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., reintroduced the bipartisan legislation that would prevent future presidents from misusing military force without congressional authorization. He introduced similar legislation in 2019 to repeal authorizations for military force in the Gulf and Iraq Wars were originally issued in 1991 and 2002..

The current bill to repeal the authorization for the use of military force, or AUMF, passed a key procedural hurdle Thursday afternoon 68-27. A vote before the full Senate is expected next week.

Kaine's proposed bill has dozens of bipartisan cosponsors and is supported by top leaders.

"Americans are tired of endless wars," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. said Wednesday. "... this is the week the Senate will begin the process to end the legal authority that started the Iraq War two decades ago."

Stay in the conversation on politics: Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter

Kaine bill gives Congress more war powers

U.S. Marines from the 2nd battalion/8th Marines wear their gas masks March 21, 2003 as they prepare to advance towards Iraq.

In addition to repealing the authorizations for use of military force specifically for the Iraq and Gulf Wars, Kaine's bill also gives Congress more power in determining when to send troops into combat.

"This is part of a larger strategy of getting Congress to really own a responsibility that we should jealously guard  which is determination about when the nation should be at war and the ability to declare 'OK, the war is over'," Kaine told USA TODAY.

He also noted the congressionally-approved authorized military action could be misused by presidents years later for unintended purposes.

"If congress has authorized military action... but then if we just leave that authorization on the books long after the war is over, it really creates an opportunity for mischief," Kaine said.

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More: U.S. returns 2,700-year-old artifact believed looted during the fall of Baghdad in 2003

Biden supports AUMF bill

President Joe Biden talks to reporters after a lunch with Senate Democrats at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, March 2, 2023.

Biden, who previously served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is backing Kaine's bill and would support passage of the legislation.

Repealing the authorizations would not impact current military operations, according to a statement from the Biden administration, because the United States does not have ongoing military activities related to the decades-old authorizations.

Kaine credited support from the Biden administration as part of his reasoning for re-introducing the bill this Congress, saying the president understands the role of Congress from his time in the upper chamber.

More: Biden puts a twist on 'America First' even as he moves to unravel Trump's foreign policy

March 19 marks 20-year Iraq war anniversary

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill after impeachment trial proceedings against President Donald Trump adjourned for the day in Washington, Jan. 25, 2020.

The 1991 and 2002 authorizations for the Iraq and Gulf Wars passed more than two decades ago. March 19 marks the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War invasion.

Kaine first introduced legislation repealing the military force authorizations in 2019. The House passed the bill in June 2021, but it died in the Republican-controlled Senate. Kaine said his colleagues have become more concerned about Congress advocating for the authorization responsibility to the president.

Military force authorizations should be repealed because Iraq is now an ally to the United States, Kaine said. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Baghdad at the beginning of the month.

'A reckoning is near': America has a vast overseas military empire. Does it still need it?

When is the AUMF vote?

Kaine's bill passed a procedural hurdle Thursday and will move to a floor vote in the full chamber next week, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden supports Senate bill to end Iraq war military authorizations
The long-stalled African American monument on the State Capitol grounds would get $3 million to fund it if lawmakers include North Carolina Gov. Roy Coopers proposal in the final budget. And a top Republican has indicated his support.

The African American monument project has been waiting for several years and would be built on the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds. There is no monument at the historic Capitol in the center of downtown Raleigh that recognizes the contributions of African American people in North Carolina.

Senate leader Phil Berger, an Eden Republican, told reporters on Thursday he still supports the project, which has been stalled for more than three years.

Funding for the project was part of the 2019 state budget that never became law, and after briefly resurfacing in 2020, was tabled after protesters and the government removed statues honoring the Confederacy on the Capitol grounds. The 2021 budget did not include funding for the African American monument, The N&O previously reported.

Weve supported it in the past. Well just see how it works out as far as the budget this time, Berger said Thursday, adding that he hasnt talked to Republican budget committee members about it.

But I think its known that I have supported that in the past, and will continue to support it, Berger said.

The N&O has asked lawmakers about the project on and off for years.

Sen. Dan Blue, the Senate minority leader and a Raleigh Democrat, told The News & Observer last month that the project needs to move forward more urgently now than before. He referenced all the springtime field trips students make to the Capitol complex.

There is no experience on the Capitol grounds of Black existence in North Carolina, Blue said.

Coopers budget proposal released Wednesday would allocate $3 million this upcoming fiscal year for the project. The money, higher than the $2.5 million for it in the failed 2019 budget bill, would be used to complete the planning, design and construction of the monument. The project, would be led by the African American Heritage Commission within the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

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Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Reid Wilson told The N&O in an interview Thursday that the project has been in pause mode waiting for legislative funding.

Wilson said the Capitol is the most important block of honor in the state, and sends a message about what the state chooses to honor.

If the funding comes through this year, next steps would be selecting a designer after a bidding process, then creating a more significant and concrete design for what the area would look like, and then finally construction.

Confederate monuments are gone

A 2016 state report about the monument said it should be designed with the most frequent Capitol visitors  schoolchildren  in mind. The report recommended several aspects of what the monument would look like, including that it would feature a bas relief timeline on the small hill adjacent to the Wilmington Street sidewalk. Bas relief is slightly raised images off a flat surface. The monument could stand on multiple elevations on the grounds. Recommended materials are bronze and granite, like other monuments at the Capitol.

At the time of those recommendations, the African American monument would have been placed on the same Union Square with mostly monuments featuring white men and three honoring the Confederacy, The N&O reported in 2020. Protesters tore down Confederate soldier statues that year during the protests that followed Minneapolis polices killing of George Floyd, and the rest of the monuments were removed by the state.

A new African American monument could mean that women would be represented at the Capitol. One of the Confederate statues had featured a nameless woman. The only woman on the Capitol grounds now is Lady Liberty, holding a palm frond atop the large memorial to World War I, World War II and the Korean War on the Edenton Street side of the Capitol.

Wilson said the monument would recognize and honor the many contributions African Americans have made to the state of North Carolina. Thats an important message for people to see and hear and experience, whether its a school field trip or people going down to the bluegrass festival.

Thats why its so important to have on the Capitol grounds  that it signifies the state recognizes that, he said.

A few blocks away, a separate project honoring the Black experience in North Carolina  particularly the struggle for freedom  will open this summer. North Carolina Freedom Park, which is being built with public and private money, features a steel piece of public art at the center called the Beacon of Freedom. Quotations from North Carolinians are inscribed along the walls of the park. Freedom Park, which could be finished in June, takes up part of the block between the Executive Mansion and the Legislative Building.

The legislature has given funding to Freedom Park, but not the Capitol monument. The Legislative Black Caucus continues to have the monument on its list of priorities.

I think it was a missed opportunity, Sen. Natalie Murdock, a Durham Democrat, told The N&O in February. I think with the reckoning weve honestly had nationwide, it really, really should be there.
HOPKINTON  The hiking trails on the western edge of Rhode Island follow some of the same footpaths walked by the Narragansetts and other tribes to reach hunting and fishing grounds, trade routes, ceremonial sites and villages.

I recently hiked one of those trails, called Tippecansett South, and enjoyed the natural setting that included dark tunnels of mountain laurel, granite ledges and outcroppings, log bridges over wetlands and a canopy of oak, maple, pine and beech trees.

I found few visible signs of the Native Americans who lived and traveled here for thousands of years. However, I did spot  almost hidden in the overgrown brush along the path  the remains of the settlers and farmers who pushed out the Native Americans. There are stone walls and cellar holes, mill foundations and a cemetery  if you search hard enough.

The Tippecansett South Trail is a lengthy and at times strenuous hike, but its also invigorating.

More:These 10 Rhode Island trails should be on your bucket list

A 5-foot-tall stone pillar marks the trailhead at the Rhode Island/Connecticut border.

Three trails, one path on the Rhode Island-Connecticut border

A hiking buddy and I set out from the trailhead on Camp Yawgoog Road, across from a 5-foot-tall stone pillar that marks the state border and is carved with RI on one side, Conn. on another, and 1990 on a third.

At the start, three trails follow the same path and are marked with different colored rectangles: yellow for the Tippecansett Trail; pastel blue (the color used by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association) for the Narragansett Trail; and dark blue for the Freeman Trail. More on those later.

The flat first segment of the path passes a green sign that says the property is owned by the Rhode Island Boy Scouts, which allows hikers to cross the land at their own risk.

Just ahead, the trail turned wet and muddy in places, and we crossed several streams and wetlands on bog bridges and two moss-covered, square logs.

Walking RI:Stroll through industrial history in Slatersville, America's first planned mill village

Story continues

Walking RI:See rugged coastline and 100-year-old ruins at Narragansett's Black Point

In the mood to explore some caves?

After that, the trail turns rockier and climbs to exposed granite outcroppings and ledges, named Dinosaur Caves and Cliffs, that are split by deep crevices. One high point overlooks a 30-foot drop. When I hiked this area a few years ago, a colleague did some spelunking and went down about 8 feet into one of the small caves. But thats not for me these days.

Three trails  Tippecansett South, Narragansett and Freeman  follow the same path along the states western border.

Along the ridge, we spotted and tasted some sprigs of wintergreen, which reminded me of the Teaberry gum I chewed as a kid.

After crossing the ledges, the trail splits. One leg, on the right, runs steeply down through a ravine to the bottom of a cliff. We decided to stay left on the ridge, though, and soon came to a junction.

The pastel blue blazes break off to the west into Connecticut and mark the Narragansett Trail. Another segment of the Narragansett Trail runs southeast through Rhode Island. In Connecticut, the path covers about 15 miles and travels all the way to Lantern Hill. The first section of the trail skirts Green Pond to an impressive 40-foot dam, where water tumbles down to a stream that flows through a deep, mossy ravine.

The yellow and dark blue-blazed trail continues north across a massive, smooth, exposed ridge, lined with small pine trees, that some call Dinosaur Rock and may remind hikers of the bald, rocky summits of small mountains in New Hampshire.

At the north end of the ledge, the dark blue-blazed Freeman Trail breaks to the right and east. It runs through the back of Camp Yawgoog and intersects with the white trail on its way to Hidden Lake.

Walking RI:Roughing it on the Pachaug Trail

In June, the trail will lead through brilliant blooms of mountain laurel

We stayed left on the yellow-blazed Tippecansett, which derives its name from a Narragansett word meaning at the great clearing.

The trail flattened and passed through dense underbrush and more thickets of mountain laurel that will bloom with brilliant white flowers in June. The trail then turns east for a short section before eventually shifting north and again running close to the Connecticut border. I learned later that the trail, marked in the 1940s, had been rerouted at least a couple of times to curb an erosion problem and avoid the western section of the Boy Scouts camping area called Curtis Tract.

The trail stayed flat for about another mile before leaving the Boy Scout property and following an old grassy road that widened and passed some stone walls, clearings and second-growth forests on the right.

Walking RI:Take a refreshing winter hike by a peaceful stream at Tucker Woods Preserve in Charlestown

One section of the Tippecansett South Trail includes a steep climb up a rocky ledge.

Hidden in the brush: A historical cemetery

Theres an old graveyard in the underbrush to the east of the trail. The Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Commission lists the graveyard as Hopkinton 79 and has documented 13 unmarked fieldstones in a plot that measures 25 by 30 feet. But many hikers report that the heavily overgrown cemetery is difficult to find.

The old farm lane turned into a gravel road, and I heard cars and trucks on Route 138. To the right I saw some stone walls, cellar holes and foundations.

This area was first settled by Colonists in the 1740s and became the sparsely populated rural part of the village of Rockville. Early inhabitants included Benjamin Maxson and his family and later the Burdick family.

Walking RI:Want a great place for an educational family hike? Try Browning Woods Farm in S. Kingstown

The trail crosses a smooth, flat granite ledge that may remind hikers of the bald summits of small mountains in New Hampshire.

Some people still live there.

On the gravel road, workers were building a new house on the right. Several older houses stood on the left.

When the short road ended at Route 138, we turned left on the paved road and walked about 100 yards. At a sign for Exeter, the yellow-blazed Tippecansett Trail continues north for a short distance on a wooded dirt road lined with laurel and rhododendrons before reaching a fork. The Tippecansett Trail goes left through the Arcadia Management Area to Beach Pond, across Route 165, and then farther north to Escoheag Road.

We decided to save that for another day and turned east at the fork to follow the blue-blazed Dye Hill Trail that ran along a raised dirt road above a swampy area before a slow, gentle incline to the crest of a small hill.

On the left, we found a large, rectangular stone foundation next to a pile of rubble that may have been a chimney or fireplace. On the right, a dirt driveway led by cleared fields, an old electrified fence and a cabin.

Walking RI:Spectacular bay views and Colonial and tribal history at Mount Hope Farm

Flooding on the path? A sign of beavers at work

We took a right on Grassy Pond Road and walked downhill until reaching a flooded section of the road. We walked on the berm to keep our feet dry.

Continuing down the road, which recently had been regraded, we passed a farm with a horse out front, the start of a side trail to Brushy Brook and a high wooden tower in the front yard of another house.

Grassy Pond is east of the Tippecansett South Trail and just south of Route 138.

The road intersects with Route 138, just south of Grassy Pond. We met some local residents along the route who said the flooding results from beaver activity that blocks a stream that feeds Grassy Pond. State workers and other volunteers regularly pull down the beaver dam to unclog the waterway.

One local also pointed out the foundation of an old mill on flat, cleared land adjacent to the stream that runs to Grassy Pond.

After studying the pond, we headed right on Route 138 and then turned south into the woods on a wide, stone wall-lined path that was once Spring Street, the original route through the area.

Walking RI:Discover why hikers and anglers love the 'wild and scenic' Beaver River

Walking RI:Follow in the footsteps of Trappist monks in Cumberland

About a hundred yards later, we passed another stone foundation before reaching the Tippecansett Trail that we had walked in on. We retraced our steps to the trailhead.

In all, we hiked 6.5 miles over 3.5 hours.

To me, the best part of the hike was the untouched, natural terrain, which probably hasnt changed much since the Indigenous peoples walked through these forests and crossed the outcroppings, ledges and cliffs.

As we completed our walk and passed the Boy Scouts sign, I recalled that part of the Scouts Code is to leave no trace. That certainly fits much of the Tippecansett South Trail.

If you go ...

Access: Off Route 138, turn onto Camp Yawgoog Road to the gates of the Scout camp. Turn right and drive 1.2 miles to the trailhead.

Parking: Available for a few cars at a turnout.

Dogs: Allowed but must be leashed.

Difficulty: Moderate to difficult over ledges, outcroppings and cliffs.

Trail Tip: RI Cemetery Weeks

Dozens of free tours, cleanups, gravestone conservation demonstrations, talks and other programs about historic cemeteries will be held in April and May, organized by the Rhode Island Advisory Commission on Historical Cemeteries and the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission.

For a calendar of events, visit preservation.ri.gov/ricw-calendar.

John Kostrzewa, a former assistant managing editor/business at The Providence Journal, welcomes email at johnekostrzewa@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Up for a challenge? Hike the Tippecansett South Trail | Walking RI
Chinese President Xi Jinping is making a state visit next week to Russia where he will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin from Monday to Wednesday, China and the Kremlin said Friday.

The two last met in China last year when Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics and in September at a regional conference in Uzbekistan.

Next week's visit was announced a day after China urged Russia and Ukraine to begin peace talks to end their conflict. Russia invaded Ukraine more than a year ago.
Wondering where your state tax return is? No need to keep up the nail biting. Weve got answers.

The Internal Revenue Service began accepting and processing tax returns in January.

If you havent filed your taxes yet, they are due by April 18 because April 15 falls on a Saturday and Emancipation Day, a holiday observed in Washington, D.C., is April 17.

When will returns be processed?

More than 168 million individual tax returns are expected to be filed this year, according to the IRS.

If your return does not contain any errors or red flags, refunds are typically delivered within 21 days of electronic filing, with the option of having the money directly deposited in your bank account, according to the IRS.

What to do if you already filed your taxes

If you successfully completed your return at some point since filing season began, the IRS is able to review it and your return should be pending.

Has it been more than 21 days since your tax return was submitted? Delaware has a state tax refund locator that can help you figure out where your money is.

What if I need a filing extension?

If you request an extension, you'll have until Oct. 16 to file your return.

This does not grant you more time to pay your taxes. It allows you only more time to complete and submit your tax forms.

When is the Delaware state income tax deadline?

Delaware began processing 2022 individual income tax returns on Jan. 23, according to the states Division of Revenue.

The filing deadline for personal income tax is Monday, May 1.

The state began issuing refunds on Feb. 15.

More about your taxes: Delaware property tax reassessment could become more frequent under this proposed bill

More Delaware tax return details: Tax season 2023 officially started in Delaware: Here are key deadlines to keep in mind

Tax filing tips

Residents are encouraged to file their taxes online at tax.delaware.gov or to go through other electronic filing programs to receive their refunds faster. Requesting refunds by direct deposit also will improve refund processing, said the Division of Revenue.

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Tax preparation assistance

Free tax preparation services are available throughout Delaware.

United Way of Delaware, Nehemiah Gateway Community Development Corp. and First State Community Action Agency are providing free tax preparation services to Delawareans.

Services will be extended to those with an annual household income up to $60,000 and those with zero taxable income but who must file to receive a tax credit.

The returns are prepared by trained, IRS-certified volunteers who work on behalf of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.

Volunteers are knowledgeable about tax credits and deductions such as the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit and other credits that might benefit qualified households.

Although the general deadline to file 2022 tax returns is April 18, this free tax preparation program will be available through April 22. Appointments are available for in-person and virtual needs.

For more information, contact www.uwde.org, www.nehemiahgateway.org or www.firststatecaa.org.

Reporter Anthony DiMattia contributed to this report.

More:See how Delaware governments are using your tax dollars. Search the salary database

Got a tip or a story idea? Contact Krys'tal Griffin at kgriffin@delawareonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: How to find your Delaware state tax return, filing help and more
Former President Donald Trump said he expects to be arrested Tuesday in connection with a Manhattan district attorney investigation and called on his supporters to protest, even as uncertainty remained about whether any legal action was actually imminent.

Trump's advisers Tuesday made clear they had no specific knowledge of the timing of any possible indictment, even as the former president made the comments on Truth Social, the social media network he founded.

Trump is under investigation for a $130,000 payment he made just before the 2016 election to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels about an earlier affair. The former president has denied wrongdoing, and federal investigators ended their own inquiry into the payments in 2019.

An indictment of Trump would send the U.S. political world into unprecedented territory - not just the first indictment of a former president, but one who is in the midst of again running for the White House. And his calls for protest also echoed similar statements by the former president ahead of Jan. 6.

Trump attorney Joe Tacopina confirmed that Trump's reference to the timing of any possible charge is not based on any contact from Manhattan district attorney's office.

"No one tells us anything, which is very frustrating," Tacopina said in an email to USA Today. "President Trump is basing his response on press reports, and the fact that this is a political prosecution and the DA leaks things to the press instead of communicating to the lawyers as they should."

Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for Manhattan's District Attorney's office, declined to comment on the former president's statement.

Testimony from former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who arranged for the payment and already has been convicted and served prison time, could help bring the first charges in history against a former president.

On Truth Social Saturday, Trump urged his supporters to "Protest, take our nation back!"

Story continues

"The far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week," he wrote in all caps.

A Trump spokesperson speaking on background told USA TODAY that there has been "no notification" of a possible Trump indictment other than news media reports and "leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DAs office."

Manhattan prosecutors on Wednesday met with Daniels. She thanked her attorney in a tweet for "helping me in our continuing fight for truth and justice."

Laurence Tribe, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, said Trump's looming indictment in New York is uncharted waters.

"There really is no precedent for indicting a former president," Tribe said. "It's anyone's guess exactly what would happen."

Experts say Trump arrest unlikely

Trump says hell still run for president again if hes indicted in any of the current investigations into his conduct. His first rally of the 2024 presidential race is scheduled for March 25 in Waco, Texas.

An indictment is not the same as an arrest; it's a formal charge of a crime, while an arrest is when a person is taken into custody. An arrest of Trump is not likely, said former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti.

Typically defendants are not arrested in cases like this one when theyre represented by counsel," he said.

Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor and University of Michigan law professor, said a self-surrender is more likely in cases like Trump's.

"Unless he is a risk of flight or danger to the community, self surrender seems typical in this kind of case," she said. "He would be booked and have his fingerprints and mugshot taken, and then likely released on bond.

Tribe said its likely that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg will offer Trump a more anonymous way to turn himself in, though it's unlikely the former president would accept such routes.

Im sure he wishes there were an escalator he could descend in order to self-surrender, he said. Its his standard technique to turn everything into publicity, and they will undoubtedly raise a lot of money surrounding his self-surrender.

Trump's call for protests raise concerns

While Trumps spokesperson acknowledged there has been no notification related to the timing of possible criminal charges, the former presidents call for protests drew the concern of law enforcement involved in preparing for such an event.

The appeal for demonstrations, said one official familiar with the arrangements, may immediately require a larger security footprint in New York and more agents assigned to shadow the movements of the former president.

The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly on the matter, also was not aware of a definitive time for any possible prosecution announcement.

Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who testified against him, said Trump's call to action for his supporters echoes those ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

"Donalds post is eerily similar to his battle cry prior to the January 6th insurrection; including calling for protest," Cohen told USA TODAY. "By doing so, Donald is hoping to rile his base, witness another violent clash on his behalf and profit from it by soliciting contributions.

With Trump facing possible criminal charges, W. Ralph Basham, a former Secret Service director, said the prospect raises unprecedented questions for the Secret Service and the boundaries of the agency's obligation to provide lifetime protection for the former president. Basham, who served during the George H.W. Bush administration, said he was unaware of any provision that would allow the agency to drop its protection obligation, even if a protectee was sentenced to a prison term. "We are in uncharted territory here," Basham said. "I'm sure the attorneys are scrambling to find answers to those questions."

"I'm not aware of anything... that would preclude them (Secret Service agents) from escorting a former president to a detention center in the event of a conviction and prison sentence," Basham said, adding that the agency would then have to consider "establishing a presence" at a detention center for the duration of any sentence. "I just don't know," he said. "The lawyers are going to have to figure this out."

Meet Michael Cohen: Who is the liar and felon who might help convict his former boss, Donald Trump?

Trump being treated 'like an ordinary citizen'

While a future Trump indictment would be historic, perhaps even greater in significance is that the justice system is working as it should, Tribe said.

He's being treated the way he should be treated, like an ordinary citizen, he said. Having a mugshot being fingerprinted, having to stand in front of a judge and answer, Do you plead guilty or not guilty?

"The same thing happens to other ordinary citizens," he continued.

Dig deeper:

Contributing: Kevin Johnson, David Jackson

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump expects to be arrested Tuesday in Manhattan probe
First 'Cageless Animal Shelter' Aims to Change the Way the Country Looks at Pet Adoption

Dogs and cats roam free at Best Friends Pet Resource Center.

In Bentonville, Arkansas, one new animal shelter hopes to inspire the future of animal adoption. Best Friends Pet Resource Center creates a joyful, accessible environment for animal lovers and pet owners of all ages, though their true superstars--of course--are the animals.

At this shelter, dogs and cats don't live in kennels. During the daytime, they inhabit rooms within the center so they can meet potential adopters. At night, though, they get to go home with loving foster families.

View the original article to see embedded media.

If you think their adoption program is impressive, just wait until you hear about all the resources and amenities they have for people! The crowd favorite has to be the gigantic indoor slide (for humans), though the lounge spaces and DIY dog wash stations are invaluable for the entire community. The coffee shop even doubles as a cat cafe, where anyone can meet adoptable felines!

Susan Cosby, the shelter's senior adviser of strategy and integration, told Fox News that she hopes this shelter will have a lasting impact.

"Right here in Northwest Arkansas," she said, "were actually creating the future of animal sheltering that we hope is going to be a model for our nation." Cosby herself has worked with plenty of animals living in kennels, and she knows firsthand that they're not the way to go.

She explained, "it is not a healthy environment for them to stay happy. They develop behavior problems over time." At Best Friends' Northwest Arkansas location, though, that's no longer a concern.

Best Friends also has an incredible goal of making the entire country 'no-kill' by 2025. Their new cage-free and community-driven center is a great step toward this goal, especially since the shelter aims to help pet owners, too. As their website lays out, Best Friends Pet Resource Center, "offers support for families to keep pets in homes," through resources such as a free pet food and supplies pantry.

Story continues

Whether you're looking to get help or to give help--or even to give an animal a home--stopping by Arkansas' newest animal shelter is never a bad idea.

Looking for more PetHelpful updates? Follow us on YouTube for more entertaining videos.

Or, share your own adorable pet by submitting a video, and sign up for our newsletter for the latest pet updates and tips.

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Former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner in the 2024 election, will hold his first rally as a declared candidate in Waco on March 25.

He will speak at 5 p.m. at Waco Regional Airport, about 90 minutes south of Fort Worth, his campaign said Friday.

The 45th president could be under indictment by the time he lands in central Texas. News reports Friday cited law enforcement sources saying Trump could be charged in New York as early as next week on alleged hush money paid to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied the allegations.

So far, the only other widely known declared candidate for the GOP nomination is Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who served as ambassador to the United Nations under Trump. But the list of Republican politicians expected to enter the race include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

President Joe Biden is expected to seek a second term.

For Trumps rally, undisclosed guest speakers begin at 2 p.m. ahead of his 5 p.m. remarks.

On the eve of last falls election, Trump staged a Save America rally near Corpus Christi. In January 2022, Trump spoke to thousands in Conroe ahead of the March primaries. The summer before, Trump appeared with Gov. Greg Abbott at the Mexican border to criticize Bidens immigration policies.
Before founding a nonprofit organization helping impoverished children in Honduras in 1997, Gastonia native Rodger Harrison was a successful commercial real estate executive, pilot, musician and paramedic.All those experiences helped prepare him for the task when he became passionate about finding ways to help the Mayan Chorti Indian children in a place with little or no medical care, education programs or disaster relief systems.

Rodger Harrison holding a Mayan Chorti Indian child.

Harrison spoke to the Belmont Rotary Club recently about Paramedics for Children International of which he is the founder and president. Accompanying him to the Rotary meeting was Roz Morton, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, who helped start the organization 26 years ago and still serves as its secretary and treasurer.Rotarian Dr. Gary McCord of South Point Family Dentistry, a long-time friend of Harrison and a board member of the group, arranged the Rotary Club presentation.

After more than 25 years of work, Paramedics for Children now has a clinic called Clinica la Esperanza (Clinic of Hope) providing quality medical care to some of the poorest communities in Central America. And it recently opened Hacienda la Esperanza (Hacienda of Hope). This bed-and-breakfast provides lodging for individuals, families and groups of up to 26 people. It often serves as a base of operations for mission groups coming to the area for service projects. All of the proceeds go to supporting the clinic.

Paramedics For Children International founder Rodger Harrison (left) and Paramedics for Children Secretary and Treasurer Roz Morton told Belmont Rotarians about their work over more than 25 years on behalf of some of the worlds poorest children in the mountains of Honduras. Harrisons long-time friend and Rotarian Dr. Gary McCord of South Point Family Dentistry, who is a PFCI Board member, arranged the program. On the right is Dr. Chris Maino, also of South Point Family Dentistry.

After retiring from real estate at age 40, Harrison worked several years as a paramedic with Gaston County Emergency Medical Services. He was sidelined with a shoulder injury in 1997 when he traveled to Central America and discovered the cobblestone streets and adobe buildings in the village of Copan Ruinas, near famous Mayan ruins in Honduras.

I jumped ship and stayed there and studied Spanish, he told the writer of an article in the Journal of Emergency Medical Services.

He quickly discovered how poorly supplied were the schools in the rugged mountainous region and began a series of return trips bringing supplies, which were delivered on horseback, and using his paramedic training to provide some basic medical care.

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Then disastrous Hurricane Mitch struck the region in 1998 bringing 12 inches of rain per day for several days and 120-mph wind. More than 1.5 million were left homeless and 10,000 were killed in Honduras.

Hacienda la Esperanza (of Hope) provides lodging and other support for travelers and for mission groups providing services and assistance in the area.

Working from North Carolina, Harrison and Morton organized a collection of disaster supplies and equipment, donation of a truck to take the cargo to Florida and a plane to fly it to Honduras. Many more such trips followed before in 2001 Harrison moved to Honduras full time to continue the work, while Morton stayed in the Carolinas to manage fundraising.An early Paramedics for Children focus became training rescue personnel to use the new equipment that was arriving and also providing ambulances in a region where none existed. Harrison used his EMS connections to solicit donations of used ambulances when communities acquired new. By 2004, Paramedics for Children had developed the first volunteer ambulance service in Central America, with 50 ambulances and 340 volunteer EMTs.Harrison told Rotarians that reaching new generations of donors, both individuals and corporate, is one of the most important objectives of Paramedics for Children today.We also must bring more missions and missionaries to Honduras, he said. We now have a place where churches can bring mission groups, providing a full-time staff, lodging, travel and support for any type of project. Some examples of projects, he said, include medical outreach, delivering school supplies, planting fruit trees, revivals and retreats.For more information, visit PFCI.org. For general information, donations and business, call Roz Morton at 704-763-2251, or email her at Roz.Morton@ParamedicsForChildren.org.For Honduran operations and volunteering information, email Rodger Harrison at Rodger.Harrison@ParamedicsForChildren.org, or call him in Honduras at +504.2651.4676.

Rotary is an international service organization with 1.4 million members in more than 200 countries. "Service Above Self" is the Rotary motto. Rotarians work together to promote peace, fight disease, support education, grow local economies and protect the environment.

Belmont Rotary Club, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2025, meets for lunch and a program on local topics each Wednesday, 12:30 - 1:30 p.m., at the Home2 Suites by Hilton in Belmont. Guests interested in learning more about local businesses and issues and how Rotary serves the community are welcome. For more information, visit www.belmontrotaryclub.com.

Ted Hall is a member of Belmont Rotary.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Gastonia native has devoted his life to helping children in Honduras
An aerial shot of the deformed fin whale with severe bend halfway along its spine.

An aerial shot of the deformed fin whale with severe bend halfway along its spine.

A fin whale with a severely deformed spine was recently filmed struggling to swim off the Mediterranean coast of Spain. This extreme case of scoliosis was likely caused by a vessel strike and will probably cause the gentle giant to slowly starve, experts say.

The injured, 56-foot-long (17 meters) fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) was spotted March 4 by a boat's crew off a beach at Cullera near Valencia. The boat's captain thought the whale was trapped in a fishing net and alerted the Spanish Civil Guard, who sent out a team of biologists and veterinarians from the Oceanographic Valencia aquarium. After arriving on the scene, it became obvious that the whale was not trapped; Instead, it had "scoliosis of unknown origin," according to a Facebook post from Oceanographic Valencia.

The researchers attempted to put a tracking device on the injured animal's back, but it was too deformed for the satellite tag to successfully attach. After "a few hours of attention," the fin whale slowly headed away from the coast and out into deeper waters where it disappeared from view, Oceanographic Valencia representatives wrote.

Experts told Live Science that the scoliosis was probably caused by a vessel strike that broke the whale's back.

Related: Breaching humpback whale body slams boat in Mexico, injuring everyone on board

"The term scoliosis simply refers to an abnormal lateral curvature of the spine," Jens Currie , chief scientist of the Pacific Whale Foundation in Hawaii, told Live Science in an email. "The cause of scoliosis can take many forms, but the most common is blunt force trauma."

It's is likely that the whale "was recently struck by a vessel," Currie said, an opinion shared by Erich Hoyt , a research fellow at Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) in the U.K., and Simone Panigada , president of the Tethys Research Institute in Italy. But the experts also noted that it's hard to know exactly what happened.

It's possible for large whales to be born with scoliosis or develop it in their early years. But young whales that develop scoliosis almost never live to adulthood, Currie said.

Story continues

Baleen whales  a group that includes fin whales, blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus), humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and others  feed by lunging through large shoals of tiny crustaceans known as krill. To do this, they rely on their enormous tails, or flukes, to rapidly propel themselves through the water. But according to the footage, the injured whale is unable to do this, which means it is probably starving.

"We can see from the video that the whale is already very skinny and beginning to look unhealthy," Currie said. "It is very unlikely it will survive." Baleen whales can survive for many months without properly eating, which means that injuries like this can lead to a "slow and painful death," he added.

Related: Watch footage of 1,000 baleen whales in record-breaking feeding frenzy in Antarctica

This is not the first case of whale scoliosis linked to vessel strikes. In December 2022, a humpback whale called Moon was spotted in Hawaii with a broken back, after swimming more than 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) from British Columbia, Canada using only her flippers, according to The Guardian . Last year, Panigada spotted another fin whale with scoliosis near Barcelona, although its spinal deformity was less severe.

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But most whales dont survive an encounter with a vessel. In total, around 20,000 whales are estimated to be killed by vessel strikes every year, due to a more than 300% increase in global shipping traffic since 1992, according to Friend of the Sea , a non-governmental organization based in Italy. But it's hard to track this because strikes are often unreported and most killed whales will never be found, Hoyt said.

In addition to vessel strikes, whales are also exposed to a lot of noise from shipping that can disrupt their navigation, feeding and communication. "I would say it [ship traffic] is one of the main problems cetaceans face globally," Currie said.
A bipartisan coalition of House lawmakers are forming a Congressional Colorado River Caucus, with the goal of collaborating on ways to best address worsening drought conditions across the seven-state basin.

Together, and working with our colleagues in the Senate, we will collaborate with each other and state and local leaders, putting the interests of our communities above all else, Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) said in a statement on Wednesday.

Neguse, who serves as ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Federal Lands, announced the creation of the caucus, which will include members from six of the seven Colorado River states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

The lawmakers intend to discuss the critical issues affecting the Colorado River, which provides water for 40 million people across the West.

Members of the caucus will work together towards our shared goal to mitigate the impacts felt by record-breaking levels of drought, according to Neguse.

We must protect the reliability and consistency of this critical water source, he said.

The Congressional Colorado River Caucus follows a similar bipartisan effort launched in the Senate by Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) last month.

The Senate caucus  whose members come from all seven basin states, including Wyoming  formed with the goal of helping sparring factions agree on consumption cutbacks.

Negotiations about reducing Colorado River water usage have been taking place for months, following a call from the federal Bureau of Reclamation for the states to come to an agreement.

The result of these discussion thus far has been two opposing proposals  a joint deal from six out of the seven states, followed by a competing offer from the outlier, California.

In the Congressional Colorado River Caucus announcement on Wednesday, Neguses office noted that a consensus has yet to be reached, but negotiations are ongoing.

Story continues

Leading the caucus alongside Neguse is Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), while members include Reps. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.), Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Mark Amodei (R-NV), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.), Chris Stewart (R-Utah) and John Curtis (R-Utah).

Water is our most precious resource, and we must address the uncertainty caused by the severe drought that is impacting 40 million residents of Arizona and the Southwest, Ciscomani said in a statement.

I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues on solutions that bring together the Upper and Lower Basins and secure a strong water future for us all, he added.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Insider's reporter visited McDonald's locations in Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland, trying everything from Nutella muffins to stuffed, deep-fried olives. Joey Hadden/Insider

I recently went to Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland and went to a McDonald's in each place.

I tried every item I could get my hands on that I haven't seen in my home country, the US.

I loved the chicken wings and curly fries, but wouldn't order the Chocovanilla pie again.

While visiting four European countries for the first time in 2022, I went to one McDonald's in each place.

McDonald's in Berlin. Joey Hadden/Insider

When I travel internationally, I tend to avoid familiar fast-food chains to make sure I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to try new local foods.

But McDonald's is known for having select menu items in different countries around the world that I can't eat at home, from mozzarella sticks in Australia to sweet potato shakes in Japan. I was curious to see how menu items might differ in Europe.

So when I embarked on a 2-week train trip through Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland, I stopped at a McDonald's in each country to try the sandwiches, sides, and desserts that I thought were the most unlike the items I've seen at home.

While the McDonald's locations I visited looked similar to those I've seen in the US, they had menu items I'd never seen or tried before.

McDonald's in Rome (L) and Berlin (R). Joey Hadden/Insider

I went to McDonald's locations in the cities of Berlin, Vienna, Rome, and Zurich.

In all of these cities, I thought McDonald's locations were easy to spot with the same iconic "M" logo on the signage out front, just like in the US.

Inside, the stores reminded me of the chain's locations around the US with similar large ordering screens to what I've seen at home.

From first glance, they didn't seem all that different from what I was used to. But once I started reviewing each menu, many items stood out as unique and different. There was still the tried and true Big Mac, but there were also things I'd never seen before, like chicken wings.

Here are the dishes that stood out to me most, ranked from best to worst.

All the locations I visited had the original McDonald's fries I'm used to. But in Germany and Austria, they offered additional fry shapes I hadn't seen before. These were the best things I ate at any McDonald's in Europe.

Story continues

McDonald's fries in Vienna (L) and Berlin (R). Joey Hadden/Insider

I'm a fan of the original, thin, straight, McDonald's fry. I saw these on all the European menus, but in Germany and Austria, I saw other shapes, too, which excited me. So I ordered fries in both countries.

In Germany, I was able to order curly fries, which cost $3 for a medium size. I found them to be crispier and more flavorful than the original McDonald's fry. According to McDonald's, the curly fries come with a spice mix, and I thought the addition of spices brought out more of the potato flavor in the fries, which I appreciated.

A few days later in Austria, I saw potato strips on the menu in addition to regular fries. They were about the same price as the curly fries in Germany. They looked to me like potato wedges with a ridged texture. Like the curly fries, I thought the strips were crispier than the original McDonald's fry. I also liked that they were thicker than both the curly and original fry, giving them more soft potato filling. I thought they were delicious.

I left these countries wishing that the McDonald's locations in the US had more fry variety.

I found the next-best dish In Germany and Italy  fried chicken wings, which I thought tasted better than the standard McNuggets I'm used to.

Wings in Germany (L) and Italy (R). Joey Hadden/Insider

I've been eating McDonald's chicken nuggets since I was a kid, but if the chain's US locations had wings, I would have switched up my order a long time ago.

While dining at the McDonald's locations in Berlin and Rome, I spotted fried chicken wings on the menu, in addition to the standard McNuggets.

According to McDonald's, the wings are marinated and then freshly fried. It was not clear to me what was in the marinade, but I felt like the flavor of the marinate really enhanced the taste of the chicken overall.

Since fried chicken is one of my favorite foods, I ordered them at both locations. For five wings, I paid about $4 in each city. I thought the wings were moist with lots of flavor, although in my opinion, they were crispier in Rome than in Berlin.

In both locations, I thought they tasted like they came from a full-service restaurant rather than a fast-food joint, and I would definitely order them again.

A muffin stuffed with Nutella in Italy was my favorite McDonald's dessert I tried in Europe and ranks third on this list.

The author digs into a Nutella muffin at McDonald's in Rome. Joey Hadden/Insider

From pies to McFlurries, I've always been a fan of a McDonald's dessert item to top off my meal.

But none impressed me as much as the Nutella muffin I only saw in Italy for less than $2.

I love Nutella, so I thought I'd likely enjoy this pastry. But I thought the muffin was even more delicious that I expected because it tasted like a fresh-baked yellow sheet cake.

Each bite was moist, spongy, and light, and the center of the muffin was filled with Nutella, a creamy, decadent chocolate hazelnut spread.

To me, the ratio of Nutella to the muffin itself was ideal and each bite was simultaneously cakey and Nutella-filled. Five months later, I'm still thinking about this muffin, and I wish they sold it at my local McDonald's.

Germany's menu had the famous McRib I've been hearing about my whole life, and I was surprised by how much I liked it. It ranks fourth on my list.

The McRib at a McDonald's in Germany. Joey Hadden/Insider

A slab of boneless pork smothered in barbeque sauce on a bun with pickles and onions  this is the famous McRib sandwich I've been hearing about for years.

According to CNN, McDonald's first started serving the McRib in Kansas City in 1981 and discontinued it four years later. Since then, it's been an exclusive and widely-loved menu item offered at select times and select locations around the world in limited quantities, including in the US, according to the same source.

However, I'd never seen an elusive McRib on a McDonald's menu myself until I visited Germany. Since the sandwich is so well known, I knew I had to see what all the hype was about. So I ordered it for about $5.

I'm not a huge fan of barbeque, so I wasn't expecting much from this order. But I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Reminiscent of the sloppy Joes I ate for lunch in grade school, I found the McRib to be soft and loaded with sauce, making it easy to chew. The pickles and onions diversified the flavors and textures, which I appreciated. I would order the McRib again  if I can find it.

In Switzerland, the McDonald's paprika chicken sandwich tasted unlike any meal I'd had at the fast food chain before, and was the fifth-best item I tried.

The chicken paprika sandwich in Switzerland. Joey Hadden/Insider

I'd never seen a paprika-based McDonald's item before going to Switzerland, so when I saw the chicken paprika sandwich on the menu, I knew I had to try it. At $9, it was one of the more expensive items I ordered.

According to McDonald's, the sandwich comes with breaded chicken, cheese, and a spicy paprika sauce.

I thought the sauce was sweet and tasted like tomatoes with a slight kick. In my opinion, the sauce paired well with the crispy texture of the breaded chicken and melted cheese slice. I would definitely order it again.

While there were menu items in all four countries that I would order again, there were also a handful of dishes that I didn't enjoy as much, like the Chocovanilla pie in Austria: number six on my list.

A Chocovanilla pie at McDonald's in Austria. Joey Hadden/Insider

I've enjoyed McDonald's apple pies in the US in the past, so I decided to try a different flavor in Austria that I hadn't seen before: Chocovanilla. I only saw it in Austria, and it cost me about $2.

The pie fit in the palm of my hand and had a chocolate outer layer with a creamy vanilla filling.

To, me the pie's flavor was decent. I thought it tasted like an Oreo, but not quite as sweet. However, I thought the pie was crunchier and greasier than the apple pies I've liked at McDonald's in the US.

It felt a bit like biting into an egg roll, and I wouldn't order it again.

I didn't enjoy the deep-fried stuffed olives in Italy that rank seventh for me.

The author tries fried, stuffed olives at at McDonald's in Rome. Joey Hadden/Insider

I'm not a fan of olives generally. But I'd never tried one stuffed and fried before, so I decided to give it a shot in Italy to see if I'd enjoy it more than a fresh olive.

I ordered deep-fried stuffed olives, which is McDonald's rendition of the Italian appetizer Olive all'Ascolana, in which olives are stuffed with meat, battered, and deep fried, according to Brand Eating. I paid about $3 for the appetizer, which I only saw in Italy.

There didn't seem to be much meat in the olive and I found I could barely taste it in combination with the olive and deep-fried shell. I also thought the crispy outer layer seemed to dry out the olive.

For me, this was one of the lowest-ranking McDonald's items I tried, but a bigger fan of olives might have enjoyed it more, I thought.

To me the most disappointing item was the Big Rosti, a hash brown burger in Germany. But I'd still try it again.

A hash brown burger at a McDonald's in Germany. Joey Hadden/Insider

Of all the menu items, the Big Rosti I tried in Germany disappointed me most because it was the one I was most excited about.

According to McDonald's, the sandwich has a burger patty, bacon, cheese, and a hash brown in the middle. I ordered the sandwich with fries and a drink for about $10. I saw this item on menus in Germany and Austria.

I've always loved stuffing my burger with a hand full of fries, and a hash brown is sort of like an extra large, extra crispy fry. So I thought this burger sounded amazing and would turn out to be my favorite item.

But the hash brown felt overcooked to me, making the texture dry and crumbly. In my opinion, this ruined the whole burger, which was otherwise pretty good.

But since it sounded so good to me initially, and because I liked the burger so much on its own, I think I would order it again to see if the overcooked hash brown was just a bit of bad luck.

And at the very least, I'd definitely order the sandwich without the hash brown inside.

Read the original article on Insider
John Boyega has made peace with the role that previously caused him anguish that he made public, but now says made a man of him.

The star of JJ Abramss Star Wars reboot previously called out Disney for its treatment of his character Finn, stormtrooper turned resistance fighter.

More from Deadline

He said in 2020 of Finns spotlight in The Force Awakens followed by his diminished role over the course of the franchise:

What I would say to Disney is, Do not bring out a black character, market them to be much more important to the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. Its not good. 

Three years later, he is more sanguine, telling The Times of London:

For me Star Wars has made the man, in a sense The experiences, the fun times, good times, ugly times, bad times, it makes you who you are as you navigate through the industry, and that has definitely been interesting.

Regarding the finale, which saw Finn reunited with his Star Wars co-stars, he reflected:

I feel like the arc that JJ tried to tie up, thats where I feel comfortable with the release of him. And since then Ive been able to enjoy, as a fan, The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Im enjoying the balance of all things.

Last year, the British actor said he was warmed by seeing how differently Disney handled similar fan criticism of Moses Ingram in Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Boyega stars in Breaking, available for digital download on March 27, a title on which he also serves as exec producer. He plays the lead role in the real-life story of Marine veteran Brian Brown-Easley, who in 2017 robbed a Los Angeles bank after his benefits cheque had been stopped.

Best of Deadline

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Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
'The Hills' alum looked right at home in the famous geothermal spa.

Kristin Cavallari's "final stop" on her tour of Nordic countries is sure to give you FOMO.

On March 16, The Hills alum took to Instagram to share a roundup of images from her recent visit to Iceland. Alongside a carousel of seven photos, Cavallari wrote, "And for the final stop, ICELAND. From the blue lagoon to a snowmobile ride to an ice cave, this is a trip Ill never forget."

Just as her caption noted, Cavallari's photos showed her enjoying Iceland's iconic Blue Lagoon, where she perfectly dressed for the occasion. Specifically, Cavallari, alongside longtime friends Justin Anderson and Austin "Scoot" Rhodes, donned an icy white swimsuit and blue-grey face mask for a dip in the famous geothermal spa.

The R&R didn't stop at the lagoon, as Cavallari also gave a peek at her perfect legs with one snap from her luxurious looking bathtub.

Anderson also shared a look at their Iceland adventure, uploading images from their visit to an ice cave. He wrote, "SNOWMOBILE DAY  the ice cave we found was unreal, the waterfall was magical, drove right by the geysers  and now back to hotel to EAT  i love vacations- always working up your appetite with fun sightseeing stuff in between ok?"

Prior to landing in Iceland, Cavallari and company paid a visit to Finland, where they saw the Northern Lights, and Sweden, where they enjoyed a sauna.

And it seems as though fans aren't ready for Cavallari to head back home, as many called for her to make more stops while abroad. One fan inquired, "What about Norway? Did you miss out on the fjords?"

Another chimed in, "Next time come by Copenhagen."

In fact, a third even suggested she turn her travels into a reality show. (It's not a bad idea, actually!!)

We can't wait to see where she jets off to next!

Next: Kristin Cavallari Gets Honest About Her Romantic Life, Including Tyler Cameron
KYODO NEWS - Mar 18, 2023 - 16:30 | All, World

The United States has confirmed that rounds of Chinese ammunition have been used in battlefields in Ukraine and suspects they were fired by Russian forces, government sources said Friday.

Whether the ammunition was supplied by China remains unclear, the U.S. administration sources said, while adding Washington is poised to take action if it is verified Beijing made the shipments.

Amid a myriad of disagreements between the United States and China, officials have recently said Washington possesses intelligence indicating that Beijing is considering sending arms and ammunition to Russia.

"It's something that we are vigilant about and continuing to watch carefully," a U.S. State Department official told Kyodo News.

The United States has notified some of its partners about the confirmation, according to the sources.

The confirmation came as Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to travel to Moscow for a three-day state visit from Monday. In his first trip to Russia since its invasion of Ukraine began in February last year, Xi is widely expected to reaffirm his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In talks with Xi, U.S. President Joe Biden warned him of serious consequences if China provides military support to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

The U.S. government has determined that the ammunition found in Ukraine was produced in China after analyzing its composition and other factors, the sources said.

However, they did not disclose what kind of ammunition was found.

With the war in Ukraine entering its second year, the confirmation could further stoke tensions between the United States and China. Biden said earlier this week that he expects to speak to Xi soon, without elaborating.

China has increasingly tried to present itself as a neutral peace broker and repeatedly denied any intention to supply Russia with arms for the Ukraine war. But it has avoided condemning the Russian invasion.

As fighting in eastern Ukraine intensifies, Western officials have said that Russian troops and the Wagner Group, a mercenary force fighting for the Kremlin, have been struggling with shortages of shells.

The founder of the private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, last month accused the Russian military and Defense Ministry of not providing enough ammunition for its fighters.

While the Ukrainian military is also facing shortages, the mercenary force is now trying to divert weapons from its operations in other countries for use in the ongoing war, according to the sources.

U.S. news website Politico reported this week that Chinese companies have sent Russian entities 1,000 assault rifles, drone parts and other equipment with potential military uses.

Customs data showed the shipments were made between June and December last year, according to Politico.

It said the data did not show whether the items were sent to Russia specifically to help its war effort in Ukraine.

"We still have the same level of concern that we did last week about the potential for China to supply lethal weapons and lethal capabilities to Russia," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said in a press briefing on Friday. "We still don't believe they've taken it off the table."
As police officers responded to a gas station shooting in Georgia, they heard more shots fired at a second gas station and raced over there, federal officials said.

A witness told police the gunshots were fired from a car that drove away, leading one officer to pull over its driver soon after in Jonesboro on July 30, 2021, according to court documents.

The driver, Larry Edward Foxworth, 48, of Jonesboro, told police he shot at both gas stations because he was hoping to kill Arab and Black people he believed were inside, prosecutors said.

After he was arrested, he boasted about having struck a blow for white supremacy and excitedly asked officers if anyone had died in the attack, court documents say. Ultimately, no one was hurt or hit in the shooting, according to prosecutors.

Now, a judge has sentenced Foxworth to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime based on actual or perceived race or color, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced in a March 16 news release.

That this crime did not become yet another notorious massacre is no credit to (Foxworth), his sentencing memo says. He tried, sincerely, to perpetrate murder on a mass scale. Nothing but sheer luck stopped his shots from finding their intended targets.

McClatchy News contacted Foxworths attorney for comment on March 17 and didnt immediately receive a response.

Ahead of Foxworths sentencing, prosecutors emphasized the need for a lengthy prison sentence and described him as unquestionably a brutal and dangerous person, according to the sentencing memo.

The case dates to July 30, 2021, when Foxworth used a Glock pistol and repeatedly fired at one Jonesboro gas station and convenience store before doing the same at another location minutes later, prosecutors said.

At both gas stations, his bullets struck through the windows and doors of the convenience stores, according to officials.

One of the stores cashiers who survived the shooting quit afterward, prosecutors said. The event caused her extreme anxiety for months.

Story continues

Foxworth had a prior criminal history including convictions related to assaults, prosecutors said.

Hate-fueled violence not only traumatizes the victims, but it threatens and intimidates an entire community, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division said in a statement. This sentence demonstrates the importance of holding accountable those who commit racially-motivated violence.

Jonesboro is about 15 miles south of downtown Atlanta.

Mom working for DOJ exposes sons snitches after hes accused of robbery, feds say

Driver nearly ran woman over, then screamed racist slurs at her in DC, feds say

Aryan Circle prison gang had suspected gay inmate beaten as rite of passage, feds say
French pay TV group Canal+ has ordered a second season of its dazzling historical drama Marie Antoinette. BAFTA-nominated Ed Bazalgette (The Last Kingdom, Doctor Who) will direct the first four episodes.

While Deborah Davis (The Favourite) still on board as creator, season 2s writing team is led by Louise Ironside, joined by Charlotte Wolf, Francesca Forristal and Andrew Bampfield.

More from Variety

The series, which is being backed by Banijay and Capa Drama (Newen Studios), is expected to start filming in the fall. The new season will continue telling the epic story of the avant-garde young queen, played by Emilia Schule (Kudamm 56/ 63), with Louis Cunningham (Bridgerton) as the king of France, Louis XVI.

Commissioned by Canal+s Creation Originale unit, the upcoming season will portray how the royal couple at their height of their power faced an unprecedented financial crisis. The incessant attacks of Provence and Chartres against the royal couple stirred up the hatred of the nobles while disastrous consequences.

Produced by Capa Drama and Banijay Studios France, Marie Antoinette will once again be distributed globally by Banijay Rights.

The first series proved a hit outside of France. It sold to over 70 territories, including PBS Distribution in the U.S., BBC First in Australia and BBC Two and iPlayer in the UK, which reported consolidated viewing figures of 2.1 million for its premiere in 2022. The show also sold to broadcasters across Europe and Latin America.

Without a doubt, Marie Antoinette has been a popular drama with our buyers worldwide, and this is testament to the world-class producers in France who have created a premium, returning series for the international market, said Cathy Payne, CEO of Banijay Rights.

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The flawless, high-quality production is filled with glamourous talent and lavish locations, and were thrilled to offer a landmark new season of this unique interpretation of the fashionable French queen to global audiences, Payne continued.

Marie Antoinette is produced by Claude Chelli and Margaux Balsan for Capa Drama, Stephanie Chartreux for Banijay Studios France.

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Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
It was the late 6os, and when my husband began a job teaching in Fayette County, Georgia, we moved to a new town under development called Peachtree City. The community included a post office attached to a bank, one small grocery, a cafe, and a handful of new homes.

I began working as the youngest teller at the bank with fewer than 10 other employees. Floy Farr was the bank president, a founding father of Peachtree City, and in 1968 also chairman of the state's finance council for the Democratic Party. When Mr. Farr realized math was not my specialty, but people were, he appointed me the greeter. He also prayed one day that I might be able to balance my cash drawer.

Lynn, I have a lunch meeting with a gentleman from South Georgia. Please let me know when he arrives because I will be in my office until then." It was not unusual for Mr. Farr to receive dignitaries, politicians, CEOs, architects, and farmers throughout the day.

Hear more Tennessee Voices: Get the weekly opinion newsletter for insightful and thought provoking columns.

Our first conversation left me red-faced

Mr. Farrs guest was a bit late, but finally, a gentleman walked through the heavy glass doors to my window. "Hello," he said with a friendly smile, My name is Jimmy Carter, and I have a lunch appointment with Mr. Farr. "

First Lady Rosalynn Carter and President Jimmy Carter are greeting guests in front of the Blue Room of the White House April 17, 1978 for their gala reception for members of the Country Music Association.

He is expecting you but is on the phone now." I continued, "I hear you are considering running for governor of Georgia. What do you do now?"

Im a peanut farmer! he laughed as he replied.

Mr. Carter must have read my mind because he described his credentials and achievements. "Whoa, so you must be pretty smart, hey?" I responded with a red face.

When Mr. Farr heard the ensuing laughter, he decided to get the intelligent peanut farmer away from his over-friendly, borderline-brash employee. Once they retreated to his office, my main interest was preparing my sandwich in the back room.

The room was a storage area located off a small bookkeeping area. Complete with a card table that held a coffee pot, paper cups, a loaf of white bread, and enough room to make a sandwich. There was a small fridge where we housed a few sodas, condiments, and folks lunches. The only seating was a black vinyl and chrome loveseat, big enough for two, surrounded by stacked boxes of papers.

Story continues

Sign up for Latino Tennessee Voices newsletter:Read compelling stories for and with the Latino community in Tennessee.

They included me in the lunch

As I began slicing my one banana, Mr. Farr peered around the door. "Lynn, do you have enough lunch for two more folks?

"Yes, sir, I can share, but I thought the two of you would get fried chicken down at the cafe?" I questioned.

"Nope, we decided to stay here. Just slice the banana thin, and we can all eat lunch!" Mr. Farr stated with gusto while Jimmy nodded in agreement.

I prepared the thinly sliced banana sandwiches, placed them on paper plates with doled-out chips, and proceeded to take my lunch to the teller station when I heard, "No, please stay and eat with us," the two gentlemen insisted.

Lynn, let me show you my pride and joy, Mr. Carter exclaimed as he stood to retrieve a wallet from his back pocket. Here she is, my baby daughter, Amy Lynn!

I sat cramped between the two men on the old loveseat as they talked politics, a future governors race, and finance. With every idea they had, they asked a 20-year-old her opinion. Of course, I gave one, but I was still trying to figure out why I was involved.

Sign up for Black Tennessee Voices newsletter:Read compelling columns by Black writers from across Tennessee.

'I would have fried a chicken'

When my regular 30-minute break was over, Mr. Farr insisted I stay until the three of us walked to the lobby over an hour later. I hugged the man from Plains, Georgia, goodbye and began my return to the teller line when Mr. Farr stopped me.

Lynn Walker Gendusa

Lynn, watch Jimmy until you can no longer see him. Never forget this day because that man you see leaving is going to the top. And one day, you will tell your grandchildren how you shared a banana sandwich with a president."

I wrote President-Elect Carter a letter in 1976 recalling the day Mr. Farr insisted we share my lunch and his prediction as we watched him walk away. I ended the letter with, If I had known you were going to be elected president, I would have fried a chicken!

Of course, he responded with a note and an invitation to his presidential inauguration because sometimes decent, God-loving, family men don't fall prey to the charm of power.

I didn't have the money to travel to Washington, but today I have a story to tell my grandchildren about the kind, generous man whose humble character went to the top and far beyond. Plus, the insight of the remarkable, loving man who knew he would.

Lynn Walker Gendusa is a writer in Georgia and the author of the book "Southern Comfort." She is originally from Monterey, Tennessee.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: I met Jimmy Carter before he was a president and he was a gentleman
Rep. Larry Householder, center, takes the oath of office after being elected as the new Speaker of the Ohio House. He and previous Speaker Ryan Smith, not pictured, battled for the position for months.

Cheryl Roberto served as a commissioner on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio from 2008-2012. She was also a member of the independent consulting team at Synapse Energy Economics retained by Illinois to review Exelons claims.

With the conviction of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder for racketeering conspiracy related to the $61 million in bribe money paid by FirstEnergy Corp in return for a $1.3 billion for its nuclear plants, it is timely to reflect on the harm resulting from this scandal and consider action to ameliorate it.

Despite its corrupt genesis, Gov. Mike DeWine was initially reluctant to support a repeal of the bailout and has since maintained that the bailout itself was good policy, supporting 1,500 Ohio nuclear plant jobs and keeping nuclear power in the energy mix.

But is that true?

Cheryl Roberto

When FirstEnergy Corp threatened to shutter its nuclear power plants unless it received a multi-year billion dollar plus bailout, Ohio legislators sprang to action to adopt the bill FirstEnergy officials themselves had crafted.

Neither the legislators nor the governor required FirstEnergy Corp to prove its need, diverting closer examination by trumpeting concerns of preserving the jobs and tax base that anchored the impacted Ohio communities.

More:FirstEnergy text messages say Lt. Gov. Husted pushed for more money for nuclear plants

In fact, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted pressed to make the bailout even bigger. Legislators camouflaged the impact of the new customer charges required to pay for the bailout by gutting energy efficiency and renewable energy programs that had successfully delivered millions in savings.

A different approach got better results.

Compare Ohios approach to the one Illinois took.

Exelon threatened to close nuclear plants in Illinois, eliminating 3,500 jobs, impacting $63 million in annual local taxes, and ceasing generation of 30 percent of Illinois carbon-free energy unless it received a subsidy.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker did not ask Exelon what it wanted.

Story continues

He demanded that Exelon demonstrate what it needed.

His administration hired an independent firm to analyze Exelons claims that it would be forced to close plants. The subsequent report acknowledged that two of Exelons nuclear plants faced a real risk of becoming uneconomic in the near term, that Illinois could reasonably determine that it is in the public interest for the plants to remain in operation, warranting public support.

However, such support should only be provided when it was demonstrably required and only after a transparent, annual process. With this information in hand, Pritzker negotiated and signed the resulting bi-partisan comprehensive energy legislation.

While this 900-page piece of legislation is too big to summarize here, three elements are relevant and worth mention.

First, it included a financial safety net for the nuclear plants that only provided a subsidy when it was needed; and importantly shared any upside with customers when the plants did well.

Second, it expanded energy efficiency programming.

And third, it expanded ethics reform directly targeting utility company behavior.

In Ohio, because of the scandal, the House Bill 6 subsidy was reversed, and those plants did not receive the bailout; yet remain operational, calling into question the need for a bailout after all.

Under the policy design in Illinois, the plants also remain operational, but Commonwealth Edison customers are receiving an average bill credit of $237 per year from the utility. In future years, customers are likely to see a continuation of this credit because financial support was designed as a safety net, sharing both the risk and reward of nuclear plant operation.

While in Ohio customers have been deprived of a projected $890 million dollars of energy efficiency savings annually and no utility ethics reform has manifested, Illinois customers are able to participate in robust energy efficiency programs and utilities must now conform to strict ethical requirements.

Ohioans deserve an energy policy that improves our lives; not one designed by corrupt politicians and aided by the unwitting officials who are unquestioningly willing to enrich utility investors and their executives with cash from customers wallets.

It isnt too late for DeWine, Husted and the legislators to step up.

Cheryl Roberto served as a commissioner on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio from 2008-2012. She was also a member of the independent consulting team at Synapse Energy Economics retained by Illinois to review Exelons claims.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Opinion: Was bailout at center of Larry Householder conviction needed?
Anxiety is growing among Republicans that Trump-aligned candidates who failed to cross the finish line last year could come back to haunt them in 2024, costing the GOP another chance at winning back power in Washington.

Kari Lake, who ran for Arizona governor in November and lost to Gov. Katie Hobbs (D), is weighing a bid for Sen. Kyrsten Sinemas (I-Ariz.) seat, while Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) is considering a run against Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) after costing the GOP the governors mansion last year.

The list goes on: Republican Joe Kent is gunning for a rematch against Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) after he was narrowly defeated in 2022; J.R. Majewski, whos House campaign imploded last year after it was revealed that he misrepresented his military service, has floated another challenge to Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio); and Bo Hines has already filed paperwork to run again for a North Carolina House seat he lost in November.

The growing list of Trump loyalists weighing congressional runs has Republicans now warning against writing them off as possible GOP nominees once again.

There are people out there that just wont go away, one Republican strategist familiar with Senate campaigns said. All the folks out there that want to say, Oh, theyre nobodies, they dont matter  they need a reality check. Kari Lake doesnt speak for the whole party, but shes loud; she knows how to get attention. And, at least to an extent, it holds the rest of the party back.

Lake, Mastriano and other candidates are among a cohort of Trump-aligned Republicans who have questioned or espoused baseless claims about the 2020 election. While they prevailed in their respective primaries, their candidacies ultimately cost the party key races in the general election in swing states like Arizona and Pennsylvania in a midterm year that was assumed to favor Republicans.

Concerns over the Republican Partys candidate quality was brought to the fore ahead of the November midterms by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who cited that as reason for his bearish stance on the GOPs chances of retaking the upper chamber. But it came too late after many of the partys primaries had already wrapped up.

Story continues

Those same concerns remain as the GOP now stares down the possibility of many of those same candidates running again. Some Republicans warn it would be a mistake for them to mount new campaigns.

Some of these people are just a glutton for punishment, said Arizona-based GOP strategist Barrett Marson.

The only thing worse about being a loser is being a two-time loser. And people like Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano did not resonate with a broad swath of voters, and theres nothing in the months since the election where they have changed or recognized their shortcoming and altered their strategy or message, he continued.

In Pennsylvania, Republican strategist Vince Galko noted that GOP members in the state have also expressed anxiety about a possible Mastriano Senate bid.

Theres certainly a lot of hand-wringing going on amongst party leaders and donors and the political establishment with the thought of Doug Mastriano running for U.S. Senate because he starts off with solid name I.D. and a very strong base and if he should be on the same ticket as former President Trump, that would possibly give him a leg up as well, he said.

I think I, like many Republicans  you have to get to the point where you want to win, right? Galko added.

The split-screen between Trump-aligned candidates and more establishment Republicans has not only become apparent at a national level but also on a state and local level. Last month, Kristina Karamo, another Trump-aligned candidate who has questioned the 2020 election results and lost her secretary of state race in Michigan last cycle, was elected the Michigan GOP chair last month.

Over in Colorado, former state Rep. Dave Williams  an election denier who tried to get the anti-Biden phrase Lets Go Brandon as part of his name on the ballot and lost his GOP House primary against Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.)  was elected Colorado GOP chair earlier this month.

While Republicans believe that national groups can opt to work around state parties in key races, some acknowledge having pro-Trump populists as state party chairs can offer unnecessary headaches for viable candidates.

The fact that the chairmen of some of these parties can get on TV and say crazy things and then force candidates to respond to those crazy things, well, thats detrimental, said a GOP consultant based in the West who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

Heading into 2024, both Senate and House GOP campaign arms have signaled that theyre handling their Republican primaries differently, with the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) already notably wading into the Indiana GOP Senate primary while the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is signaling itll stay out of the primaries.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), has also agreed to stay out of safe Republican districts that have an open-seat primary after reaching a deal with the conservative Club for Growth amid McCarthys bid to become Speaker earlier this year.

Chairman Daines has been clear hes willing to do whatever it takes to nominate candidates who can win both a primary and a general election, said NRSC communications director Mike Berg.

Some Republicans say theyd like the House campaign arm to get involved in some of the House primaries.

Of course they will be on offense in a lot of districts around the nation in addition to trying to retain incumbents, but I do think that they should  consider getting involved in some primaries, maybe not all of them, said Dick Wadhams, a former Colorado GOP chairman. But there are some that do make a big difference obviously.

Wadhams worried that a repeat of pro-Trump candidates who lost their midterm races last year could potentially deny Republican majorities from being elected in both the House and the Senate.

But other Republicans believe some of those concerns can be addressed at a candidate-recruitment level.

Theres no use losing sleep over this. We just got to put our head down and focus on recruiting diverse and exciting candidates who can outrun the top of the ticket and unite the party, said one Republican House strategist, using Reps. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) and John James (R-Mich.) as examples.

Overall, many Republicans are signaling that the party and its candidates need to offer a forward-looking vision to voters and not focus on past elections.

Elections are always about the future, said Dallas Woodhouse, a longtime Republican operative and executive director of the conservative South Carolina Policy Council. And I think the people that put forward a forward-looking, optimistic vision for the future are going to be in a lot better shape. Voters are craving that, I think, without question.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Saudi Arabia is establishing a new national airline called Riyadh Air in another attempt to boost tourism. Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images

Saudi Arabia announced a new airline that will connect its capital city to over 100 destinations worldwide.

Riyadh Air will help diversify the kingdom's economy and make it less dependent on oil revenue.

The country is trying to change its image after generations of historically strict laws.

Saudi Arabia is not historically known for its beach resorts and rolling landscapes, but the country is hoping to win over global tourists with reformed social laws and a new way to access the kingdom.

On Sunday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced Riyadh Air  a new national airline that will connect Saudi Arabia to over 100 destinations across the globe by 2030. Former Etihad Airways CEO Tony Douglas was appointed CEO of the company, which is wholly owned by the country's Public Investment Fund.

Riyadh Air will be in addition to Saudia  the nation's current flag airline based in Jeddah  and will have its hub at Riyadh's King Salman International Airport. The space is currently being reimagined as a "mega-airport" with upgraded facilities and infrastructure.

"The new national carrier will leverage Saudi Arabia's strategic geographic location between the three continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe, enabling Riyadh to become a gateway to the world and a global destination for transportation, trade, and tourism," the country said in a press release.

According to its website, Riyadh Air, which is expected to generate $20 billion in "non-oil GDP growth" and create over 200,000 jobs, is hiring pilots for a Boeing fleet. The Wall Street Journal reported the aircraft deal could be worth $35 billion.

The news comes as the Middle East's biggest country hopes to attract some 100 million tourists by 2030 by reinventing itself with modern laws and investing over $800 billion into new cities and infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia's poor global image as a tourism destination was due in part to its historically harsh social rules which were enforced by the mutawa, religious police who could arrest citizens for simply playing music or wearing heavy makeup, Politico reports.

Story continues

However, the country began to change in 2017 when Mohamed bin Salman took power and created "Saudia Vision 2030," a campaign to diversify the nation's economy, become less dependent on oil revenue, and develop public services like education, health, and tourism.

As part of his commitment, Salman slashed the power of the mutawa, opened movie theaters, and reformed social laws, like giving women more work opportunities and the ability to get a driver's license.

But cultural clashes may deter tourists from entering Saudi Arabia's newly opened doors. Up until 2019, foreigners  including US citizens  couldn't get visas to enter the nation for tourism, and many watched as the nation executed Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018  a move US intelligence agencies determined was approved by the Crown Prince himself.

Moreover, alcohol is illegal and the kingdom still outlaws homosexuality, making it difficult for some visitors unfamiliar with Shariah (Islamic) law to visit without risking financial penalty or imprisonment.

Things like dabbing, wearing shorts, or playing loud music during prayer times can get tourists into trouble.

However, some experts say travelers should look at the bigger picture before blacklisting Saudi Arabia as a leisure destination, and consider the opportunity as a learning experience.

"I strongly believe it is possible to travel responsibly in destinations with poor ethical records," Justin Francis, CEO of activist travel company Responsible Travel, told Conde Nest Traveler. "Frankly, it would be hard to name a single destination with a clean record on the environment, animal welfare, and human rights."

Read the original article on Business Insider
In The Know by Yahoo

Robyn DelMonte has no shortage of ideas or opinions when it comes to celebrities and the brands they work with. Gibson Johns interviews the woman behind the ever-popular TikTok account @GirlBossTown about all things social media, celebrity, branding and marketing, and where she sees the success she's achieved over the past year and a half going for her. They discuss her early days as a content creator, meeting Hailey Bieber, Kylie Jenner and other celebs she's commented on, her opinions on Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn's breakup, the help she got from the D'Amelio family and much more.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy joked on St. Patrick's Day that theres a brewing clash between him and President Joe Biden: Whos more Irish?

Because for America, we know the stakes are high. That a clash is brewing, people say, between the president and I of what should we do? What would be the ramifications for the entire nation in the coming months? I think you might be able to settle this for us. Which one of us is more Irish? McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Friday at the annual St. Patrick's Day luncheon at the Capitol.

McCarthy and Biden were joined by lawmakers and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar Friday at a Friends of Ireland Caucus St. Patricks Day Luncheon where the two spoke of their Irish ancestry and finding common ground.

"From one Irish American to another, I want to strive every day to live up to the example of President Reagan and Tip O'Neill," McCarthy said, addressing the president.

Biden said he agreed with McCarthy that theres no reason why we cant find common ground, and he hopes that we can turn this breakfast into more of an everyday relationship.

There's no reason why we can't hope to change this direction of extremism of both our parties, Biden said, adding that its about the power of friendship.

Biden and McCarthys relationship this year has been marked by finding a path forward on raising the debt ceiling. In Bidens State of the Union speech last month, he scolded Republicans about their past interest in cutting the nations biggest entitlement programs. Biden later met with McCarthy in search of a path to lifting the nations debt ceiling.
The three-time SI Swimsuit Issue cover model proved her professionalism after taking a spill in 2018.

Kate Upton was photographed by Yu Tsai in Aruba. Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Kate Upton is a veteran of the SI Swimsuit franchise. The three-time cover model made her magazine debut in 2011, when she was named Rookie of the Year.

Upton earned back-to-back covers immediately following her debut, after being photographed in Australia (12) and Antarctica (13). The model went on to land her third cover in 17, after posing in Fiji.

The 30-year-old models 2018 photo shoot in Aruba with photographer Yu Tsai was certainly one for the books. You may recall a breathtaking image in which Upton stood atop a rock wearing only a gauzy skirt with waves crashing behind her.

What you may not know, however, is that Upton did just about anything for The Little Mermaid-inspired snapshotincluding nearly getting swept away by the wave!

We found this beautiful cove to shoot at for the afternoon, Upton recollected at the time. And there was this huge rock in the middle of the water that they wanted me to climb on.

Kate Upton was photographed by Yu Tsai in Aruba. Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

The vision for the photo was definitely a hero shot, you know the long skirt with all the tulle flowing in the wind with the water coming up, Upton explained. Very The Little Mermaid. And I really saw the vision for the photo, but as I climbed on the rock, I did look out and was like, This is going to end badly.

As Upton struck her pose atop the rock with only her hands covering her chest, a wave crashed in and sent the model plummeting into the water. Luckily, a member of the Swim Team rushed in at the right moment and kept Upton from getting seriously hurt. While she did tumble into the water, she emerged with a smile.

Upton later reflected on the moment when she was a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

It was really scary, she told Fallon. And you know, that moment when the wave hit, I lost all control.

The model also laughed about not being concerned about exposing herself as she fell into the water.

Story continues

Whenever its life of death, you free the nipple, she quipped.

Ultimately, Uptons professionalism and sacrifice was worth it. Tsai captured what is now an iconic image at the perfect moment. Below are two additional photos of Upton rocking the Todd Patrick Designs tutusafely on land.

Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Check out the rest of the images from the Uptons 2018 photo shoot in Aruba here.

Make sure to follow SI Swimsuit on YouTube!
Suspect Charged With Murder Of Dylan Rounds By DNA Evidence, Although Body Has Not Been Found

A 60-year-old man has been charged with aggravated murder, and abuse of a corpse in relation to the disappearance of 19-year-old Utah farmer Dylan Rounds, who has been missing for nearly a year and whose body has yet to be found.

James Brenner had been incarcerated at Weber County Jail for a federal firearms case since July of last year when the Box Elder County Sheriff's Office filed new criminal charges against him on Friday, according to jail records. The firearms charges stem from a search of Brenner's trailer during an investigation into Rounds' disappearance that turned up a host of weapons. He has pleaded not guilty in the firearms case, according to Law & Crime.

RELATED: Reality TV Star Tim Norman Sentenced To Life In Prison For Murder-For-Hire Plot

Brenner was identified as a suspect in Rounds' disappearance about a month after the teen's family last heard from him in late May of 2022, but was not initially charged, according to reporting by FOX13 Salt Lake City.

Rounds, from eastern Idaho, was last seen on his property in Lucin, Utah, near the state's Nevada border, which relatives say he had recently purchased to jumpstart his agricultural aspirations.

Missing person Dylan Rounds

Dylan Rounds Photo: Box Elder County Sheriff's Department

Investigators said that Rounds contacted his grandmother by phone on May 28, telling her that he was "putting the grain truck into shelter," according to reporting by East Idaho News.

The young farmer's boots were found yards away from his RV a few days later, a detail that his mother said stuck out, because, as she told News Nation, they were the only pair he had.

At that point, it should have been treated as foul play, his mom, Candice Cooley, told News Nation last June. You just dont see someones boots in the desert thats missing.

We knew the first day we got out there when we saw Dylans boots what happened, Cooley told KSLTV on Saturday.

A dark substance found on one of those boots was first thought to be grease or oil, then blood from an animal, Rounds' family told East Idaho News.

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But recent testing determined that it was Rounds' blood, and that DNA belonging to Brenner was also present, according to a probable cause statement obtained by Law & Crime.

A courthouse image of Randy Murdaugh.

At the time of Rounds' disappearance, Brenner was "squatting" in a trailer approximately five miles away, police said.

Rounds' location data led police to his abandoned phone near a pond, investigators wrote. A time-lapse video featuring Brenner and timestamped around the time of the victim's disappearance was discovered on the device.

"The video showed [Brenner] with blood stains on his arms and shirt as he is cleaning a gun," investigators wrote in their probable cause statement.

Testing of that shirt uncovered traces of Rounds' DNA, according to the affidavit.

Box Elder County Sheriff's deputies and FBI agents searched Brenner's trailer on June 16 of last year. Inside, they said they found ball ammunition, ignition caps, black powder and speed loads. However, "no muzzle loader firearms [were] located in the trailer at that time."

But three days later, a neighbor identified only as D.H. in documents surrendered three black powder guns that he told police Brenner had given him for "safekeeping." When the neighbor asked why Brenner was handing over the weapons, the 60-year-old allegedly replied that "the last time he had trouble with the law they took everything from him, and he did not want the things he had left to be taken again."

Brenner had faced several previous felony convictions, investigators wrote, including a 2012 conviction for felony possession of a firearm that landed him a 33-month prison sentence.

After another interview with the FBI on June 21, D.H. mentioned that Brenner had also given him a .22 caliber rifle, loaded with five rounds of ammunition around the same time as the other weapons. The neighbor told authorities that he did not initially hand over the rifle because "he had been owed money by the rifle's original owner and felt that he should have a claim over the [gun]... to cover the debt."

Investigators wrote that they seized several firearm accessories and components, including gunpowder, various ammunition and a muzzle loader, in another search of Brenner's trailer that day.

Oxy App

Despite a "thorough" search, investigators have not yet been able to locate Rounds' corpse "due to the Defendant removing and concealing it," they wrote in their probable cause statement.

"Although the remains of Dylan Rounds have yet to be located, we are hopeful that they are found in the future," the Box Elder County Sheriff's Department wrote in a press release last week. "We express our condolences to the family of Dylan Rounds.

Rounds' mother said that the charges against Brenner were "good news" after nine devastating months with no new information.

We dont have a conviction and we dont have Dylans body, but we won the first battle," she told KSLTV on Saturday. For us, this is a win. We have fought so hard for charges.

She said she is confident that a search party of Rounds' family and friends will eventually turn up his body.

When the weather breaks, and we can get out there  and if some sort of deal hasnt been cut and were still facing trial  we will spend the whole summer out there finding our son, and we will find him, she told KSLTV.
By Azernews

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov spoke on the phone with Turkiye's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Azernews reports, citing the Foreign Ministry.

The ministers discussed the issues of bilateral and regional cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkiye, as well as topical issues on the agenda within the framework of international organizations.

The ministers also exchanged views on the current situation in the region and other issues of mutual interest.
KYODO NEWS - Mar 18, 2023 - 21:09 | All, Japan, World

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Saturday that Japan will carefully monitor the developments of an investigation against Russian President Vladimir Putin after holding talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Tokyo.

Scholz also said he supports the International Criminal Court's issuance Friday of an arrest warrant for Putin on the grounds he has overseen the war crime of forcible deportation of Ukrainian children during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It was the first time that the court in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state of a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. Neither Russia nor Ukraine is a party to the court, but Kyiv allows ICC jurisdiction over war crimes.

Kishida said at a joint press conference after the summit with Scholz that they have shared the view that they will never tolerate Russia's threat to use a nuclear weapon against Ukraine while pledging to continue imposing sanctions on Moscow.

The meeting came as Japan, which holds this year's Group of Seven presidency, seeks to lay the groundwork for a G-7 summit to be hosted in Kishida's home constituency of Hiroshima in May. Germany was the G-7 chair last year.

The G-7 also involves Britain, Canada, France, Italy and the United States, plus the European Union. In January, Kishida made a weeklong trip to the G-7 countries other than Germany in the run-up to the summit in the western Japan city.

Kishida has been eager to pitch his vision of a world without nuclear weapons at the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb in August 1945, amid growing fears that Russia might use a nuclear device against Ukraine in the ongoing war.

During the meeting on Saturday, Kishida and Scholz confirmed that they will join hands to pave the way for the success of the G-7 summit in Hiroshima.

The two leaders also agreed that Japan and Germany will work together to reform the United Nations, as they have expressed a willingness to become permanent members of the Security Council of the international organization.

Russia is one of the five veto-wielding permanent council members, along with Britain, China, France and the United States. All are nuclear powers.

Some critics have claimed that the council has appeared dysfunctional, particularly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Meanwhile, Japan and Germany held their first high-level intergovernmental talks on Saturday in Tokyo.

The countries confirmed that they will bolster their economic security cooperation in the mineral and semiconductor fields to strengthen supply chains in the face of China's increasing military and economic influences across the globe.

Related coverage:

International court issues war crime warrant against Putin over Ukraine
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has signed a bill into law banning abortion clinics in the state, making it the latest to restrict the procedure since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Cox, a Republican, signed H.B. 467 after it passed the state Senate on March 2 and state House on March 3, both along party lines.

Abortion clinics will be required to close either by the end of the year or when their licensee expires, whichever comes first.

MORE: How some providers are working around abortion bans since Roe v. Wade was overturned

Additionally, after May 2 of this year, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services will not be allowed to grant or renew a license of an abortion clinic.

Under the legislation, all abortions will be required to take place in a hospital, which is defined as "a general hospital licensed by the state."

PHOTO: Senators work in the chamber, March 2, 2023, at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City. (Rick Bowmer/AP)

Currently, Utah bans abortion after 18 weeks. The ban was passed in 2019 but didn't go into effect until the Supreme Court overturned Roe. H.B. 467 also removes the rape and incest exemption from this law.

Cox previously told reporters he would sign the bill, which also defined the term "abortion" to remove any confusion surrounding the law.

"One of the concerns with the trigger bill that medical providers had across the state was there a lack of clarity that would have made it hard for them to perform legal abortions," Cox said at the time.

The governor's office referred ABC News to Cox's press conference on PBS Thursday when reached for comment.

MORE: Do voters care about abortion heading into midterms?

Anti-abortion groups, such as Pro-Life Utah, applauded the decision.

"Thank you, Governor Cox for signing this bill into law!" the group said in a statement. "We value your commitment to protect the pre-born."

However, abortion rights advocates, slammed the bill and said it basically eliminates access in the state.

"HB 467 is nothing but shameful procedural and political maneuvering intended to get around a valid court decision and prevent Utahns from accessing abortion," Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement when the bill first passed the state House. "Today's passage is just one part of a nationwide campaign by anti-abortion extremists to end legal abortion throughout the United States, and it will have devastating impacts on Utah communities."

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PHOTO: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks during a news conference at the state Capitol, March 3, 2023, in Salt Lake City. (Rick Bowmer/AP)

Utah lawmakers also passed a law in 2020 banning all abortions except if the mother's health is in danger or in cases of rape and incest reported to the police.

However, the ban was blocked from going into effect after the 3rd District Court issued an injunction, which was upheld by the state Supreme Court.

Utah governor signs bill banning abortion clinics across the state originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
TOPSHOT-ISRAEL-POLITICS-JUSTICE

Israelis protest efforts by the hard-right government to undercut the judiciary, in Tel Aviv on Feb. 25, 2023. Credit - Jack GuezAFP/Getty Images

15 years, spread across three separate runs as Israels Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has plenty of hard-won political experience. Hes never needed it more.

Deadly confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank have been building for the past year. As in the past, Israeli defense forces claim to have killed militants, while Palestinians charge that many civilians are among the dead. The result: the Israeli human-rights group BTselem has called 2022 the deadliest year in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in nearly 20 years, with an estimated 154 Palestinians killed. Palestinian attacks killed 25 Israelis and foreign nationals in the same period. So far this year, Israelis have killed 80 Palestinians, and Palestinian attacks have killed 14 Israelis.

Even more startling is the increasingly intense political battle among Israelis over changes proposed by Netanyahu to the authority of Israeli courts. His government has proposed a plan that would strip Israels Supreme Court of much of its power in three ways. First, it would allow the Knesset, Israels parliament, to override court decisions with a simple majority vote. Second, it would end the Supreme Courts right to strike down pieces of legislation that the court finds incompatible with Israels Basic Laws, which serve as the countrys constitution. Third, it would give elected officials a greater role in selecting the judges who serve on the court.

Supporters of the plan say its a long-overdue reform that will limit the ability of unelected judges to wield unchecked power over legislation created by the peoples chosen representatives. Thats especially true for those who say the court is dominated by activist judges who rule against them on immigration laws, West Bank settlement policies, and military conscription for the ultra-Orthodox. Critics charge that Netanyahu, who is on trial now for allegations of corruption, wants to remove checks and balances on his power, dangerously undermining Israeli democracy by allowing any government that can muster 61 of 120 Knesset votes to enact whatever it can pass.

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A solid majority of Israelis oppose the reform. A February survey from the Israel Democracy Institute, for example, found that about two-thirds of respondents say the court should keep the right to strike down legislation that judges believe violate the Basic Laws. In fact, nearly half of voters who support Likud, Netanyahus own party, agree.

Read More: How Israels Far Right Is Prompting Outrage from the Jewish Diaspora

That might explain why anti-government protests of recent weeks have been so large and loud. On March 11, weeks of demonstrations culminated as hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in a display of anti-government fury unprecedented in Israels history. Adding to the drama, a showdown between the governments National Security Minister and Israels Attorney General over how to respond underscored the depth of anger on both sides.

There are also fears that unless he makes major changes to the proposed judicial reforms, Netanyahu may soon be managing serious economic fallout. Venture-capital and tech firms have threatened to leave the country if the law is passed, and analysts both inside and outside the country have warned that judicial reforms could lower the countrys credit rating, sharply raise the cost of borrowing, and scare off foreign investment.

In recent years, Netanyahu has struggled to form majority governments without support from far-right parties and populist lawmakers that seek confrontation rather than compromiseincluding with Palestinians. The Prime Minister himself has proved an able political acrobat, one who can appease just enough people to keep the lights on and his government moving forward. But these are his biggest tests yet. 
An Oakland County judge set bond at $1 million cash for a woman who fled to her native Thailand on Jan. 3  two days after police said she killed a Michigan State University student as he walked on a road in Rochester Hills in the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 1.

Tubtim "Sue" Howson, 57, of Oakland Township was charged Friday, March 17, 2023 with failure to stop at the scene of an accident resulting in death.

Tubtim Sue Howson, 57, was charged with failure to stop at the scene of an accident causing death  a 5-year felony  in the crash that killed 22-year-old Benjamin Kable. Judge Lisa Asadoorian of 52-3 District Court said the global reach of numerous law-enforcement agencies, led by the Oakland County Sheriff's Office and the FBI, showed that "you can run but you can't hide." Asadoorian demanded that Howson surrender her passport, and driver's license and if she is able to post bond, not leave her home for any reason other than to appear in court.

Benjamin Kable

Howson's attorney, Bloomfield Hills-based Jalal Dallo, told the court that federal agents already had stripped Howson of her driver's license and two passports. He argued that she posed no flight risk, having surrendered to authorities in Thailand. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said his department was thankful to the judge "for her attention to the fact that clearly, the defendant has been a flight risk to the extreme." The county's crash investigators believe that Howson was driving the 2015 BMW that a witness saw strike Kable, a Shelby Township resident, while he was either standing or walking on Rochester Road south of Whims Lane in Oakland Township. The crash happened at 5:49 a.m., according to a news release from Bouchard's office.

According to the release, Howson, who lived in Oakland Township not far from the crash, fled the scene. The release said that investigators "obtained a description of the vehicle and believed the driver was a female of Asian descent. A tip led Investigators to identify Howson as the driver. Howson, who is a dual citizen of both the United States and Thailand, left Michigan two days after the crash and flew to Bangkok."

Story continues

More:Opinion: I'm an MSU student. 1 month after shooting, we're still healing

More:Michigan Senate OKs proposals to expand gun safety measures in step forward for Democrats

Howson, her lawyer told the court, "left the scene in a panic" and flew to Thailand not to evade responsibility but instead "for support, to "sit down with her husband," who was in Thailand for his job, "and decide what to do." She has been in the United States for 12 years, has worked for Whole Foods for 11 years, and has been married for more than 20 years, her lawyer said.

"The Thai authorities didn't feel she needed to be in custody. She returned (to the U.S.) on her own. The federal (extradition) case has been dropped," he said. Soon after Howson arrived in Thailand, her husband flew back to the U.S. and told law enforcers that she would turn herself in, her lawyer said.

"No way is she going to miss" any court hearings, Dallo said. But Asadoorian denied the defense attorney's requests that his client be allowed to return to her job and visit a doctor if necessary.

Kable, a senior in electrical engineering at MSU, was walking along Rochester Road after attending a New Year's Eve party and had been forced out of an Uber vehicle for an unknown reason shortly before the accident, according to previous reports. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His father, Michael Kable of Shelby Township, said after the hearing that his son's death was ruinous to the family. With his tearful wife standing nearby, Michael Kable said he'd been especially close to Benjamin, the couple's youngest child.

"We're just happy to see justice finally happening," Michael Kable said, adding: "The Oakland County Sheriff's Office was really instrumental in making this happen. And (U.S. Rep.) John James really reached out to us. ... It's very difficult to lose a child. It's an emotional roller coaster."

More:Michigan launches dashboard for data about violent deaths

Michael Kable of Shelby Township stands inside a courtroom in Rochester Hills on March 17, 2023, after a woman was charged with leaving the scene of an accident causing death in the vehicle crash that killed Kable's son, Benjamin Kable.

Contact Bill Laytner: blaitner@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Woman who fled U.S. charged in hit-run death of MSU student
Vaughn "Sam" Humphrey, a veteran of World War II who turns 102 on Saturday, is seen in portrait at Palagio Senior Living Center in Orange Park. He moved to the Jacksonville area after his Bonita Springs home was damaged by Hurricane Ian last year.

Vaughn "Sam" Humphrey has quite a story to tell: He's a World War II Army veteran of the Battle of the Bulge, he turns 102 on Saturday and just this last fall a neighbor carried him out of his Bonita Springs home as the water inside it rose and rose during Hurricane Ian's onslaught.

But he insists none of that's really worth making a fuss about. And while he's patient and good-natured and accommodating, he'll give it to you straight.

I dont like talking about it. In fact, I didnt even want this today, he said this week.

By this, he means a reporter and photographer, there to meet him at Palagio Senior Living in Orange Park.

And as for the Saturday birthday party that's been planned for him by local chapters of Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution?

Veteran's story: With diary revealed, Jacksonville woman tells of reticent father's life as a POW in Germany

Veteran honored: France gives its highest honor to 100-year-old WWII paratrooper from Live Oak who fought on D-Day

'We stick together:' WWII's Sullivan brothers remembered at Mayport

I would rather they didnt do it. It was all Davids idea, he said of his nephew. "I dont like publicity."

DAR's Betty Reed, who's helping organize the party, was sitting at a table with him inside the Palagio. She smiled. Humble and modest, she said.

That's the way Sam Humphrey has always been, said his nephew, David Humphrey, 85, the David who came up with the idea for the party.

He and his wife Carolyn live at Palagio next door to Sam, who moved up to join them after selling his hurricane-damaged home in Southwest Florida.

Growing up in Iowa, David, a Vietnam veteran, never heard his Uncle Sam tell much of anything in the way of war stories. He would just say he didn't remember much about it and anyway he didn't want to talk about it.

"I think its been a good defense mechanism, a coping mechanism, and a lot of guys are like that," David said.

Sam Humphrey during World War II. He turns 102 on Saturday.

He did manage to interest his uncle in a Band of Brothers tour, which takes visitors to war sites from Normandy to Munich. But that interest disappeared as soon as Sam saw a concentration camp on the agenda. His division had liberated two concentration camps.

Story continues

Thats the ones you want to forget," Sam Humphrey said.

Farm life and Hurricane Ian

Sam Humphrey chuckled slyly at the inevitable question asked of any centenarian: What's the secret to a long life?

It wasnt good clean living when I was younger," he said. "I was 46 years old before I ever got married, and you can imagine the running around we done.

Its remarked that he doesnt look 102.

Well, theres days I feel that way," he said. "No, I feel pretty good most of the time. Ive always walked a lot, but now I just shuffle along. But I go out in the back every day and make the circles out there, sit down a little while and get up and walk them again. Or shuffle them along.

He's always gone by Sam instead of his given name of Vaughn. He's not sure why. He's heard that it's because he had red hair when he was young and an aunt started calling him Sandy, which turned into Sam, but he can't vouch for the accuracy of that.

'I didn't know any better:' Wounded WWII medic from Jacksonville Beach downplays heroism

He grew up on a farm outside North English, Iowa, where his parents, Clarence and Alba, raised animals and grew corn, along with crops such as soybeans and wheat. The family lost their farm in the Depression and had to rent a property until they could another farm years later.

Even though there were six Humphrey children, Clarence and Alba took in other kids during the Depression, kids from town who were hungry and at least had some food on the farm.

Young Sam worked hard, waking up early, milking cows by hand, doing whatever else was needed.

During World War II, Sam Vaughn wrote a letter to his mother back home in Iowa, bearing an Army censor's stamp on the top left. In it, he expressed gratitude for news from home, noting at one point: "I got Joe's letter yesterday. I bet Johnie sure was mad when they put that chicken in his water tank."

During high school he rode a horse 13 miles each day, into North English, to go to classes. Sometimes, if it was storming, he spent the night at a cousin's house in town, but otherwise that was his routine.

It was a good life, he supposes, the only one he knew at the time.

He drove a truck after high school, until he was drafted in November 1942 and sent to Camp Dodge, Iowa. After the war he came home and drove a truck again, delivering farm goods to markets, until he eventually became a machinist at a big company that made radio and communications equipment.

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'Your mother wears Army boots': 100-year-old Clay County vet remembers her WWII service in New Guinea and the Philippines

His late wife Burnadean was some six years older. She had an uncle in Bonita Springs near Naples, and after Sam retired in 1983 they visited there. After that, they split the year between Iowa an Bonita Springs until going fulltime Florida in 1993.

Burnadean was killed in a car accident in 2010, and after that Sam lived alone in their house in Bonita Springs. He was doing fine on his own until the hurricane.

He said he wasn't scared  the winds actually weren't too bad  but there was nothing he could do about the water overflowing from a nearby canal and invading his home.

Neighbors came to check on him. "By the time they got there, the water was coming in my house and they carried me out of there," he said. He ended up selling the house and moving up to Northeast Florida next to his nephew.

He's OK with that, he said. It's not worth making a fuss.

A Bronze Star

In Europe, Sam Humphrey, the truck driver, drove a Jeep in the 41st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 11th Armored Division, much of the time with his commanding officer, Lt. Col. Herbert M. Foy Jr., as a passenger.

Asked if he felt in danger in that Jeep, he chuckled.

Oh, youre right out in the open. They had a canvas top you could put up, but  

Sam Humphrey, who served in the Army at the Battle of the Bulge, lives in a senior living center in Orange Park after his southwest Florida home in Bonita Springs was damaged by Hurricane Ian.

David Humphrey mentions that his uncle won a Bronze Star during his service, but has never told him how that happened.

A few days before his 102nd birthday, Sam Humphrey's not about to change that.

All they told me," he said, "was bravery beyond the call of duty, so I dont know. I dont know what it was.

Then he's asked: Is he proud of what he did in Europe, so long ago?

Oh yeah, I guess," he said. There was a long pause. "Proud the way it turned out, I guess.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: WWII vet in Jacksonville survived Battle of the Bulge, Hurricane Ian
Former Vice President Mike Pence said he's confident Donald Trump "can take care of himself" when it comes Trump's assertion that he expects to be arrested Tuesday, and Pence expressed frustration over "what appears to be a politically motivated prosecution of the former president."

"Here we go again. Another politically charged prosecution against the former president of the United States," Pence told reporters after a foreign policy forum in Des Moines on Saturday. "I think many Americans are taken aback at the unprecedented indictment of a former president, but also the fact that the Manhattan D.A., in the midst of a crime wave in New York City, then says that indicting the former president is his highest priority. It tells you everything you need to know about the liberal left in this country."

Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media site, early Saturday that he expects to be arrested Tuesday in connection with a Manhattan District Attorneys investigation.

Representatives for Trump later said the former president didn't have any direct knowledge that he would be arrested Tuesday and was making an assumption based on media reports, the New York Times reported.

The D.A. is looking into a $130,000 payment Trump made just before the 2016 election to silence allegations he had an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.

More:Donald Trump claims he will be arrested Tuesday in Manhattan probe, calls for protests

The former president has denied wrongdoing, and federal investigators ended their own inquiry into the payments in 2019.

Posting in all capital letters on Truth Social, Trump said the prosecution's case against him was based on a "fairytale," and described himself as the "far and away leading Republican candidate" who "will be arrested on Tuesday of next week."

And in an echo of his calls to protest his 2020 election defeat Jan. 6, Trump urged his supporters to, Protest, take our nation back.

Story continues

Pence, who has stepped up his criticism of Trump and his role in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, did not condemn Trump's calls to protest.

We respect the right of Americans to let their voice be heard and to express the frustration over what appears to be a politically motivated prosecution of the former president," he said. "But we want to send a very clear message that violence will not be tolerated and that anyone that would engage in violence will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Pence was in Iowa on Saturday for a foreign policy forum hosted by the Bastion Institute. He appeared alongside U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst for a conversation that touched on international trade, border security, relations with China and Taiwan, and Russia's war in Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters after the event, he said Iowans and Americans want to focus on those and other issues, rather than Trump's latest legal proceedings.

"I'm confident President Trump can take care of himself," Pence said. "My focus is going to continue to be on the issues that are affecting the American people. Today, to be honest with you, I had one person here mention this issue to me. Everybody else talked to me about issues affecting their family's prosperity and security of this country. And that's where my focus will remain."

Pence is expected to launch a presidential campaign later this year, though he said he's still giving the issue "very careful consideration."

In an interview with the Des Moines Register, Pence said he expects to have "a very clear sense of our calling in the coming  likely in the coming month."

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Register. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Donald Trump arrest? Mike Pence calls it 'politically motivated'
Credit - Illustration by Always With Honor for TIME

On a trip from Toronto to Brazil, Eileen Rhein landed in Sao Paulo and found that her luggage had not joined her. My suitcase took an around-the-world trip without me, she says of the experience.

Rhein, who documents her travels on Instagram at @lighttravelsfaster, says it took eight days to recover her suitcase, which meant eight days without the essentials shed planned to have with her, such as clothes and toiletries. Now she places Apple AirTags which use Bluetooth signals to track an items locationin her luggage, so she can keep tabs on her belongings as she travels. I love getting off the plane at Charles De Gaulle and seeing the alert that my luggage is at Charles De Gaulle, she says.

The travel industrys rebound has brought horror stories of lost luggage, missed flights, and crowded security nightmares. Its easy for travelers to think that mucking through the discomforts of airports is just the price to pay for taking a trip, but that doesnt always have to be the case. We spoke with travel experts and frequent flyers who shared their tips for making the most of the airport experience.

Pack essentials in a carry-on

For Samantha and Ryan Looney, travel influencers who share their familys travels on their blog and Instagram @samandryanlooney, its important to be proactive to avoid any extra hassle in the case of lost luggage.

I have a better-safe-than-sorry approach where I pack a change of clothes, toothbrush, my makeup, [and other] essentials in my carry-on even if Im checking a bag, says Samantha. That way if they lose your bag, youre not just stuck in your lounge clothes that youve been traveling all day, unable to brush your teeth.

Rhein also recommends putting a TSA-approved lock on suitcases and never putting any necessities or high-value items in a checked bag in case they go missing or are searched.

Carry infants in a sling

The Looneys, who travel with their 2-year-old, also recommend wearing a baby sling through the airport to make traveling with young kids a little easier. When you have them in a stroller they have to get out and walk through [security] while they check the stroller. But if youre carrying them on your person, youre able to just keep them on.

Story continues

They also say to keep an eye out for an oversized baggage line if youre checking in bulky items like a stroller or car seat. There is an oversized baggage line for most airlines that can be shorter than the typical line, says Samantha. It could totally save you from waiting in a long line, especially if youre short on time.

Dont be in such a rush

Despite the urge some might have to spend the hours before a flight parked in front of the gate, experts admitted to arriving at the airport on the later side. Most travelers arrive at about the three-hour mark, and I find that thats the time when the [security] line is the longest, says Rhein. I actually like to arrive closer to the nick of time.

Different airports often have different check-in times, so Mo Sayid, co-founder of Hacks.Travel, a service which emails a weekly roundup of travel deals, recommends looking up the timings at your regional airport. If its a major airport like LAX, depending on the terminal, it might take you a little bit longer, but for smaller airports like Burbank, you can get there an hour before, says Sayid.

Splurge on comfort

All travelers recommended enrolling in TSA PreCheck, a government-run expedited security screening, if you travel frequently. They also said that airport lounges are worth the price if you travel oftensome credit cards even pay enrollment fees for TSA PreCheck or offer lounge access as perks.

We have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars just by being able to show up early and avoid eating overpriced airport food, says Ryan. Ive even had a shower there, adds Rhein.

Travel consultant Martinique Lewis recommends signing up for a program like Priority Pass, which provides access to a network of airport lounges and restaurants around the world for an annual fee. Its the best option for frequent travelers who might not get lounge benefits because they dont have travel credit cards. Priority pass not only gives you access to lounges, but it also allows you to eat at restaurants and have activities like massages, says Lewis, who used her pass at over 30 airports last year. Why pay 50 dollars for a sandwich and drink when you can pay at the beginning of the year and use it unlimited? It is the way to go.

Call a car from the airport

When its time to leave the airport, Rhein says hold off on breaking out your map and learning a citys public transit. Incorporate the cost of uber or taxi into your flight cost, Rhein says. If I arrive stressed and exhausted because Ive been struggling with my suitcase on the MetroI, it starts my trip off on a bad note. Its an extra level of stress.
Younger, more liberal, more weighted to the south: Californias political demography is shifting, particularly as two of its political lions move off the stage. For generations, the Bay Area has punched above its weight in terms of influence, and Californias political position has grown up  and old  with it. Thats changing.

Just two years ago, all three plum California offices  the governorship and both Senate seats  were held by Bay Area Democrats (Jerry Brown, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris). The governorship still remains in Bay Area hands, but Senator Alex Padilla, a veteran of Los Angeles politics, holds the Harris seat, and the race to replace Feinstein, who announced last month that she will not seek a seventh term, includes two formidable Southern California candidates.

The Senate race, in turn, has touched off jockeying to replace those who would replace Feinstein. In almost every instance, the congressional seats would be filled by new officeholders who are younger, more liberal or more oriented toward Southern California  sometimes in combination.

Gov. Gavin Newsom took over in 2019, maintaining San Franciscos hold on the governors office, though replacing the iconoclastic Brown with a younger, more staunchly and predictably liberal Democrat.

With Feinstein preparing to wind down her historic career, the trend is set to continue.

Congressman Adam Schiff, the best-funded and best-known of Feinsteins would-be successors, would shift power south. He was a federal prosecutor in the Los Angeles U.S. Attorneys Office, and his congressional district cuts across Los Angeles, Glendale and Pasadena.

Some of the same would be true for Congresswoman Katie Porter, a more junior member of Congress who won her Orange County seat in 2018, part of a wave of Democratic victories born out of revulsion for then-President Donald Trump. Porter, known for her tough, populist questioning of congressional witnesses, would represent a more liberal senator than Feinstein, as well as a more southern one.

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Both Schiff, 62, and Porter, 49, are downright youthful compared to Feinstein, who will be over 90 when she leaves office.

The third major contender for the Feinstein seat is Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who represents Oakland but grew up in the San Fernando Valley. At 76, shes hardly a youngster, though notably younger than Feinstein, and she is a standout liberal.

To run for the Senate, those congressional members are giving up their House seats and, again, the likelihood is that they will be followed by officials as liberal as they are, and often younger (geography is less relevant for House seats, since they are geographically more compact). In Schiffs case, for instance, a large field of candidates has emerged  he was first elected to the seat in 2001, so this is the first opportunity in more than 20 years to win it without getting by Schiff. They include moderate Democrat State Sen. Anthony Portantino and more progressive candidates such as Nick Melvoin, a member of the Los Angeles Unified School Board; former Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, who is endorsed by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass; and Assemblywoman Laura Friedman.

Lee is among Congress most liberal members. She was famously the only member of Congress to oppose the authorization to use military force after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, so it will be hard to find a successor to her left. But her Oakland congressional district is not about to elect a conservative or even a moderate. Going forward, the seat will almost certainly be held by a liberal who is younger than Lee.

Only in Porters case is a shift to the right a distinct possibility, and even there it is a longshot. Porter was the first Democrat ever to win her Orange County seat, and she has had to fight to keep it even as redistricting moved her from the 45th district to the 47th.

In 2020, she beat Republican Scott Baugh by about 9,000 votes. Baugh has announced plans to run again now that Porter is eyeing the Senate, though he will face stiff competition from state Sen. Dave Min, a progressive who has Porters endorsement and the advantage of running in a presidential year, which tends to boost turnout and help Democrats.

All of that gives the progressive and southern wings of the California Democratic Party plenty to cheer about.

Still, there is lament along with the excitement  nostalgia for a politics that sublimated partisanship beneath progress. Thats an idea that once defined California. Its master practitioner was Earl Warren, a progressive Republican who had roots in both south and north  born in Los Angeles, raised in Bakersfield, drawn first to politics in Alameda County  and who commanded California politics in the 1940s and early 1950s.

Leadership, Not Politics, was Warrens campaign slogan and guiding principle across his three consecutive terms as governor.

The coming generation of California political leaders, already taking shape, will more closely resemble the electorate  younger, more liberal, more rooted in Southern California. It is likely to stand firmly with immigrants, demand better wages for workers and health care for all. These leaders will not tolerate symbolic border walls, corporate malfeasance or police abuse.

But the Warren legacy  carried on by Brown and Feinstein, each in their own way  of independence from party orthodoxy and leadership before politics, gave the state balanced budgets, gun control, wilderness and coastal protection and a powerful response to climate change, often by mastering the politics of the middle.

As veteran Democratic political consultant Bill Carrick noted, they did big things. Those ambitions may suffer as well.

Jim Newton is a veteran journalist, best-selling author and teacher. He worked at the Los Angeles Times for 25 years as a reporter, editor, bureau chief and columnist, covering government and politics. He teaches at UCLA and founded Blueprint magazine.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: How California political power could shift south after Feinstein
Verywell Health / Jessica Olah

Fact checked by Nick Blackmer

A federal court in Texas issued a preliminary ruling calling for the FDA to suspend or restrict its approval of a key abortion drug, mifepristone.

Mifepristone is one of two drugs that comprise the most common method of medication abortion.

Misoprostol, the second drug, is considered safe and effective when used alone in off-label abortion care.

A federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary ruling to end access to the abortion drug mifepristone, including in states where abortion is legal.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is allowing for seven days to pass before his ruling takes effect. This means the Supreme Court or an appeals court has the opportunity to appeal the decision.

A coalition of anti-abortion groups initiated the case last month, asking Judge Kacsmaryk to force the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to withdraw its approval of mifepristone.

This will mean that the most common way of providing abortions in this country, with over two decades of rigorous scientific testing providing evidence of its safety, will no longer be accessible to people throughout this country, including in states that have overwhelmingly supported abortion access such as New York, California, Massachusetts, and Illinois, said Leah Coplon, CNM, MPH, a nurse-midwife and Director of Clinical Operations at Abortion on Demand.

Medication abortion accounts for more than half of the abortions reported in the United States each year. The regimen involves taking two drugsmifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone, known by its brand name Mifeprex, stops the pregnancy from progressing by blocking the hormone progesterone. Misoprostol then empties the uterus.

But even without mifepristone, a few doses of misoprostol alone is safe and nearly as effective as the two-drug regimen. The FDA hasnt approved a misoprostol-only abortion regimen, but major medical organizations say providers can prescribe it off-label for inducing abortion up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. The risk of adverse events is less than 2%.

Story continues

Is Using Misoprostol Alone Safe and Effective for a Medication Abortion?

A February study, the first to look at the use of misoprostol for abortions in the U.S., found the misoprostol-only method to be 88% effective without intervention. Studies from other countries have reported efficacy rates as high as 99% and the World Health Organization cites it as a good alternative when mifepristone is unavailable.

In the standard medication abortion, mifepristone prepares the cervix for misoprostol. Without that first step, the process can take as long as five days to complete, said Caitlin Blau, DO, a family physician and abortion care expert at Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula, Montana.

It may include a little bit more physical discomfort, and requires monitoring and follow-up to make sure that the process is complete, which is true of the standard regimen as well, Blau told Verywell. Why would we want a patient to have cramping and bleeding for several days and be uncomfortable when theres a better alternative?

The efficacy of misoprostol varies depending on the dosage and the way its administered. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends giving at least three doses three hours apart until the pregnancy has passed.

Sometimes, though, it takes more than three doses for the regimen to be effective, Blau said. In that case, its important that patients can access additional pills. She said its fairly easy to fill misoprostol prescriptions in most U.S. pharmacies.

Abortion On Demand, a telehealth company that provides abortion medications by mail, will also offer a misoprostol-only option to its patients, according to Coplon. In anticipation of the ruling, I think sharing the word that misoprostol-only abortions are safe and effective and that we cannot stop fighting for all those seeking care is important, she said.

Planned Parenthood already offers its patients the option to take misoprostol alone, according to Bhavik Kumar, MD, MPH, a family physician and Medical Director for Primary and Trans Care at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.

How Will Banning Mifepristone Affect Abortion Access?

Despite the effectiveness of a misoprostol-only regimen, reproductive rights advocates say a ruling that disrupts access to mifepristone narrows options for patients at a time when abortion is restricted or totally banned in many states.

Without the use of mifepristone, it takes away a great option for patients to be able to choose, Kumar told Verywell. [My patients] would get to decide what their priorities are whats best for them and what makes sense for them. And so not having this option is a real loss for many patients.

The lawsuit was brought by the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents antiabortion organizations and four doctors who say theyve treated patients with mifepristone. The group claims the FDA approved a dangerous drug regimen without sufficiently studying it. They also object to moves to make medication abortion more accessible, including by mail delivery.

Lawyers from the Justice Department, representing the FDA and a company that makes mifepristone, cited decades of scientific research on the safety and efficacy of the drug, the New York Times reported. The lawyers also noted mifepristone has been regulated more closely than most other drugs under the FDAs Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) safety plan.

According to the American Medical Association, mifepristone is one of the best-studied medications in the U.S. There have been more than 630 clinical trials, including 420 randomized controlled studies, involving mifepristone.

Serious adverse eventsblood transfusion, hospital admission, or infectionoccur in about 0.5% of medication abortions.

This means medication abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol has a better safety profile than other commonly used medications like Tylenol or Viagra, said Lauren Ralph, PhD, MPH, associate professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.

Judge Kacsmaryk's decision marks the first time a court has ordered the government to withdraw or suspend approval of a longstanding medication against objections from the FDA and the drugs manufacturer. The move could also have far-reaching implications for the approval and regulatory process for drugs.

What Happens If the Abortion Pill Is Really Banned?

With increased restrictions on medication abortion, Kumar said he expects more patients to travel out of state to seek surgical procedures in states where abortion is still legal. That could swamp clinics, forcing people to wait longer to get care.

Restricted access and further anti-abortion litigation could dissuade people from pursuing abortion care when they need it, he said.

The reality is banning abortion never stops the need for abortion, Kumar said at a press briefing. As a physician, it is my ethical duty to ensure that care is safe, patient-centered, and accessible. Attacks like this on a critical and safe medication make my job and that of other compassionate healthcare providers much more difficult.

If the Texas court decision remains in place and mifepristone loses FDA approval, people may be able to continue accessing the two-drug combination from organizations like Aid Access, which ships the drugs from a pharmacy in India.

For now, patients can still access the standard medication abortion regimen through their health providers and mail-order telehealth companies in states where abortion is legal.

The most important thing to know is that we as your local abortion providers and abortion clinics are here for you, Blau said. Were fighting for you and were ready to care for you.

The Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline is a free resource that anyone in any state can access. It is staffed by abortion who providers who offer medical advice to people going through abortion or miscarriage. Telehealth companies including Plan C, Abortion on Demand, Just the Pill, Hey Jane, and Carafem offer video visits with providers and medication abortion by mail.
A House Democrat said he might vote in favor of impeaching Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas over the construction of two 30-foot walls at the border with Mexico.

Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) said at a press conference on Friday that he might vote for an impeachment resolution if Republicans bring one up against Mayorkas, though for different reasoning than his GOP colleagues.

While Republicans have slammed Mayorkas and the Biden administration for high numbers of undocumented immigrants coming into the country, Vargas said he might vote to impeach Mayorkas over the issue of the border walls being built at Friendship Park in San Diego.

The park is located on a cliff over the Pacific Ocean between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, according to Border Report, an outlet owned by Nexstar Media Group that focuses on coverage of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Hill is also owned by Nexstar.

Vargas said he wants Mayorkas and President Biden to halt the construction of the walls at Friendship Park, which Border Report reported has served as a meeting place for families to gather with a wall between them.

He told us that he would help us, and he hasnt done it, Vargas said, referring to Mayorkas. He betrayed us.

The outlet reported that U.S. Border Patrol officials have said the existing barriers are decaying and have become a danger to the public, migrants and agents in the area. They have said the barriers need to be replaced with the new walls.

But Vargas, who represents the area in the House, and other local leaders have expressed concerns that the walls will end public access to the area. Vargas said Mayorkas promised him that the construction would be stopped.

The construction started a few weeks ago and is expected to be completed in six months, the outlet reported.

The Department of Homeland Security hired an outside law firm last month to help Mayorkas respond to a potential Republican-led impeachment inquiry. Mayorkas has vowed that he would not be pushed out of his position by his opponents.

Story continues

Republicans in the House have been somewhat divided about the path forward on Mayorkas, however, as some wanted to impeach Mayorkas immediately upon the GOP taking control of the House, while others wanted to take time to build a case against him.

Two articles of impeachment have been introduced in the House against Mayorkas.

Vargas is the first Democrat to publicly say they are open to considering an impeachment vote against Mayorkas.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Its been a tough few months for Ron DeSantis.

Donald Trump and his allies have blasted him as Meatball Ron, Ron DeSanctimonious, a groomer, disloyal and a supporter of cutting entitlement programs. Now, hes getting criticism from many mainstream conservatives for calling Russias invasion of Ukraine a territorial dispute.

Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times

Is all of this making a difference in the polls? There are signs the answer is yes.

In surveys taken since the Trump offensive began two months ago, DeSantis, the Florida governor, has steadily lost ground against Trump, whose own numbers have increased.

It can be hard to track whos up and whos down in the Republican race, since different pollsters have had such wildly divergent takes on Trumps strength. In just the past few days, a CNN/SSRS poll showed a tight race, with DeSantis at 39% and Trump at 37% among registered voters, while a Morning Consult poll found Trump with nearly a 2-to-1 lead, 52% to 28%.

In this situation, the best way to get a clear read on recent trends is to compare surveys by the same pollsters over time.

Over the past two months, weve gotten about a dozen polls from pollsters who had surveyed the Republican race over the previous two months. These polls arent necessarily of high quality or representative, so dont focus on the average across these polls. Its the trend thats important, and the trend is unequivocal: Every single one of these polls has shown DeSantis faring worse than before, and Trump faring better.

Sometimes its hard to explain why the polls move the way they do. This doesnt seem to be one of those cases. Its easy to tell a tidy story about why DeSantis has slipped.

 The DeSantis election bump is over. In the aftermath of the midterms, DeSantis benefited from extensive media coverage of his landslide win in Florida and Trumps role in the GOPs disappointing showing.

 Trump went on offense. Beginning in mid-to-late January, Trump began testing various lines of attack, criticizing DeSantis loyalty and his consistency on COVID issues. In early February on his Truth Social site, Trump shared a photo and posts suggesting DeSantis was grooming female students when he was a high school teacher two decades ago. He has kept up the pressure ever since.

Story continues

 DeSantis is on the sideline. When Trump attacked him, there was not much of a defense by DeSantis or counterattacks on Trump, whether by DeSantis or his allies. DeSantis hasnt even declared his candidacy yet.

Its a little hard to figure out which of these explanations matters most. Looking more carefully at the data, theres reason to think all of these factors play a role.

For instance, theres decent evidence that DeSantis was slipping even before Trumps attacks began in earnest. A Monmouth University poll from Jan. 26 to Feb. 2 showed a significant deterioration in DeSantis support compared with a poll from early December. At this early point, the shift in the Monmouth poll and other surveys looks more like a fading post-midterm bounce than the effect of Trumps attacks.

But DeSantis has kept losing ground in more recent polls, long after his midterm bump should have dissipated. This week, a Quinnipiac survey showed Trump making big gains over just the last month, with his lead growing by 12 points.

On average, DeSantis has lost 4 points in polls taken over the last month compared with polls by the same pollster between Jan. 15 and Feb. 15.

How important is it that DeSantis is losing ground? It may wind up not mattering much in itself, but it could say something important about the challenges facing the DeSantis campaign.

So far, theres little evidence that DeSantis has suffered serious or irreparable damage, even if hes lost ground against Trump. His favorability ratings, for instance, remain strong: The new Quinnipiac survey showed him with an exceptional 72-6 favorability rating among Republicans. If the media conversation becomes more favorable, his position against Trump could easily rebound.

But there is a chance this episode betrays a deeper problem for DeSantis, even if the attacks themselves havent been especially harmful. He and his team have failed to respond to the attacks or shift the conversation, and its possible thats because he and his allies dont think they can safely engage the former president. It would help explain why Trumps attacks have largely gone uncontested. It would help explain their effort to narrow areas of substantive disagreement with Trump, including on a topic like Ukraine in which DeSantis is now at odds with around half of his own likeliest supporters.

It wouldnt be surprising if the DeSantis team was hesitant to engage someone who remains popular among Republicans and who has, shall we say, an ability to engage asymmetrically, as his groomer attacks highlighted. Thats a lesson a few former presidential candidates from Florida learned all too well in 2016.

But if attacking Trump carries risks, so does allowing him to punch without a vigorous defense or a counterpunch. If you need proof, you can just look at DeSantis slipping poll numbers.

c.2023 The New York Times Company
KYODO NEWS - Mar 18, 2023 - 14:06 | All, World

The International Criminal Court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the grounds he has overseen the war crime of forcible deportation of Ukrainian children during Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the ICC's action as "historic." The Kremlin reacted strongly, with Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov calling it "outrageous" and "unacceptable," according to Interfax news agency.

While there is little chance Russia will agree to a handover of Putin under the current regime, his ability to travel would be largely restricted as he could face arrest if he visits any ICC member state, including Japan.

It is the first time the court in the Hague has issued an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state of a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. Neither Russia nor Ukraine is a party to the court but Kyiv allows ICC jurisdiction over war crimes.

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said there are "reasonable grounds" to believe Putin bears criminal responsibility for "the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children" from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.

"Incidents identified by my office include the deportation of at least hundreds of children taken from orphanages and children's care homes," he said in a statement. "Many of these children, we allege, have since been given for adoption in the Russian Federation."

The court also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian presidential commissioner for children's rights, on the same charges.

Khan said the arrest warrants against the two are only "a first, concrete step with respect to the situation in Ukraine," noting that the Eastern European country has become "a crime scene that encompasses a complex and broad range of alleged international crimes."

"We will not hesitate to submit further applications for warrants of arrest when the evidence requires us to do so," he said.

U.S. President Joe Biden called Putin a "war criminal" following Russia's invasion of Ukraine that began in February last year, and after reports surfaced of killings of many civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha that was occupied by Russian troops.

Following the ICC's move to issue arrest warrants, Biden told reporters on Friday that Putin "clearly committed war crimes."

A U.S.-backed report released in February this year said at least 6,000 Ukrainian children have been held in camps and other facilities in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea since the start of the war last year.

The report by the Conflict Observatory provides evidence of the Russian government's systematic efforts to sever communication links between the deported children and their relatives in Ukraine, prevent the children's return to Ukraine, and "re-educate" them to become pro-Russia, according to the U.S. State Department.

The United States, meanwhile, is not a party to the ICC.

Related coverage:

China's Xi to pay 3-day state visit to Russia from March 20

G-7 vows to strengthen coordinated sanctions on Russia over Ukraine
The sight of an elk herd numbering about 30 animals was apparently too much to resist for a 66-year-old man who repeatedly shot into the herd as if it were his own shooting gallery, and later blamed elk fever for his illegal actions near Nehalem, Oregon.

Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Troopers cited the unidentified man for shooting from a road, unlawful take/possession of antlerless elk, and unlawful take/possession of bull elk. The troopers seized a .308 rifle for evidence, along with the elk the man had tagged and processed, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The man had permission to hunt on private property. He legally killed a cow elk, field-dressed the animal and left the area, the landowner told officials.

The guy came out and stopped at the road, and started shooting, the landowner said. I told another hunter, who said the guy shouldnt have left. He should have called state police and turned himself in.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Man kills grizzly bear and cub, and attempts to cover up his crime

Instead, the landowner called the man and encouraged him to return to the field, call OSP and turn himself in for poaching, which is what the man did. Had he not, the landowner presumably would have done so.

The subject expressed remorse after the event and blamed elk fever.

Once OSP F&W Troopers reached the scene, they found three wounded elk wandering with the herd of about 30 animals. A trooper put down a mortally wounded cow elk, and the following day, troopers put down a mortally wounded bull. A wounded cow elk ran into the Nehalem River and presumably drowned.

Fortunately, the elk meat was not wasted. Two elk went to the Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde and one elk went to the Tillamook County Jail.

Generic elk photos courtesy of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Story originally appeared on For The Win
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

A Florida drag queen compared legislation targeting LGBTQ issues backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to Nazis.

Other drag queens and local politicians called the administration's efforts "fascism."

The state recently moved to revoke the liquor license of a hotel that hosted a drag show.

Florida drag queens compared recent moves by state Republican lawmakers targeting their performances  including Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration's efforts to revoke the liquor license of a hotel that hosted a drag show  to Nazis in the 1930s.

"It's fascism, it's complete and total, unregulated, fascism. and they're just doing whatever they want and it's so dangerous and so scary," drag performer Mr Ms Adrien  who asked to go by their stage name  told Insider.

DeSantis' administration moved to pull the Hyatt Regency Miami's liquor license after one of its partner facilities hosted a drag queen Christmas show where some children were in attendance.

In a previous statement to Insider, DeSantis' press secretary Bryan Griffin told Insider that the governor "stands up for the innocence of children in the classroom and throughout Florida."

But advocates like Equality Florida say the incident is an example of the DeSantis administration "selectively weaponizing state agencies" to target drag performers and venues that are not harmful for children.

And Chris Caputo, a city commissioner in Wilton Manors, Florida who has spoken in support of LGBTQ issues, said the current situation reminds him of "Nazi Germany."

"This governor and the current Republican administration are succeeding by marginalizing groups and tearing them off."

Florida doesn't feel like home, one drag queen said

Adrien, who was born and raised in South Florida, is now an Orlando-based drag queen and said recent anti-LGBTQ political shifts make the state feel like it's no longer home.

Specifically, Adrien said ongoing narratives about drag shows and minors, like the complaint against the Hyatt Regency Miami on Tuesday, are "trying to paint a picture that just isn't real ... It's a fake narrative."

Story continues

They also cited recent and proposed legislation  including an education bill dubbed by critics as "Don't Say Gay" that limits how topics like gender are discussed in classrooms  as examples of what they called dangerous power grabs.

"It's exactly what we were taught about in schools about how the Nazis rose to power," Adrien said. "Textbook, bullet point for bullet point."

DeSantis' office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on the criticism.

A drag photoshoot of Mr Ms Adrien. Mr Ms Adrien

Adrien said that while they've faced hate and harassment before, there are newer concerns about people attending drag shows undercover to take pictures and videos that, out of context or falsely edited, could be used against queens.

The environment in the state is increasingly hostile, they said.

'Those safe spaces will go away'

Jason DeShazo is president of Rose Dynasty Foundation Inc. and performs as drag queen Momma Ashley Rose.

Rose Dynasty Foundation is a non-profit "whose mission is to provide a safe and family-friendly atmosphere for all people no matter their gender, race, sexual orientation, and/or religion," according to the website.

Their drag brunches, as documented by NBC News, have welcomed children and families.

But after DeSantis' move to revoke liquor licenses at the Hyatt Regency and two other locations, drag performers like DeShazo's group and Adrien could face difficulty finding work.

DeShazo called the efforts "a witch hunt" and fears the legislation and efforts to limit drag could prevent LGBTQ kids from finding communities to support them.

"This could very well change the way our whole organization is ran, if we can even function as an organization," DeShazo said. "Those safe spaces will go away."

Rose Dynasty Foundation Inc. holding performance art drag event. Amy Drefke/Jason DeShazo

According to both DeShazo and Adrien, the economic effects of Florida's rhetoric is already being felt: venues are concerned about their performances' content, shows have been canceled, and queens have dropped out of events out because of fears of public backlash.

Adrien said it's hitting drag queen's wallets.

"They want us to be broke and they want everyone to be afraid of us," they said.

A huge multi-colored flag flies over Ocean Drive as people participate in the Pride Parade, during the Miami Beach Pride Festival, in Lummus Park, South Beach, Florida on September 19, 2021. GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images

Despite concerns, advocates are still protesting.

Caputo is currently helping organize "March in Heels," a "protest to address Florida HB 1011 and other anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Florida," according to the event's Facebook page.

HB 1011 would restrict what types of flags government buildings can fly, preventing the display of LGBTQ+ flags, pride flags, and other flags not specified in the bill.

And both drag queens say they'll still perform. DeShazo said he made a promise to families and children that he would fight against legislation and restrictions. Adrien said they do drag out of love and won't give up on it.

"I don't think it's in my nature to give up," they said. "Because giving up, to me, would be rolling over dead."

Read the original article on Business Insider
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.  A Florida English professor whose lessons about racial justice put him at odds with his university's administrators has been fired, the professor said.

Sam Joeckel, a veteran professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University, said in a statement Thursday that the West Palm Beach school had made the disappointing decision to terminate my contract early.

The move comes a month after school administrators told Joeckel they were investigating a concern raised by a parent that he was indoctrinating his students by incorporating lessons about racial justice into his writing composition course.

Joeckel, who has taught at the 3,700-student Christian school for two decades, said he has long included teachings about racial justice in the class and that administrators had never expressed concerns about them before.

They did this for a clear reason: my decision to teach and speak about racial justice, Joeckel said. The timing of this is not a coincidence as we are dealing with an anti-woke crusade from Governor DeSantis and other far-right politicians and activists. PBA was clearly influenced by this toxic political ideology.

'We value academic freedom': Students walk out in protest of Ron DeSantis' education policies

Politics: Trump's blistering attacks on Gov. Ron DeSantis continue. Will he ever hit back?

Palm Beach Atlantic University English Professor Samuel Joeckel was been placed under review for alleged "indoctrinating" students by teaching about racial justice in his Writing and Composition class. The professor was later fired by the university, he says.

School investigates Joeckel's class

Students in Joeckel's class read and analyze passages about the topic, discuss them and write short essays of their own. But he said he does not express his own opinions on the issues examined and does not require students to take a certain stance on them.

The school declined to comment on the matter, but its provost said last month in an internal memo obtained by The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network, that she was seeking to better understand the pedagogical rationale for including these extensive lectures in a Composition II class.

Faculty are free to choose a theme that unifies their Composition II course, Provost Chelly Templeton wrote. However, it is important that the Composition II objectives remain the focus of the course.

Story continues

Education: The fight for African American studies in schools isn't getting easier, even after 50 years

A GOP war on 'woke'? Most Americans view the term as a positive, USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds

After administrators alerted Joeckel that he was being investigated, the professor announced what had happened on Instagram.

Joeckel noted in the Feb. 16 post that he was first told that his contract would not be renewed until the university completed its investigation on the same day DeSantis was scheduled to appear at PBAU for a speaking engagement.

Students campaign in support of Joeckel

The post spread quickly, drawing a campaign by some of Joeckel's students to protect his job.

Students and former students peppered the university president's office with calls of support and published a letter signed by more than 300 students and former students. A separate online petition to save his job has garnered more than 1,800 signatures.

Danielle Hawk, a former student of Joeckel's and an organizer of the letter drive, said last month that the incident underscored the need for the school's professors to have more academic protections.

More: DeSantis push to overhaul Florida universities advances in state legislature

'A chilling effect': What happens to our culture when books are banned

They got a complaint and his contract was immediately put on pause," she said. "There was not any sort of due process where they can appeal. They do not have tenure. So one of the things that we want to see out of this is a due-process policy created for faculty members.

Professor may seek legal action

The battle over his position may not be over, though. Joeckel has hired an attorney and said that he may fight his termination in court.

Because PBA took these actions, I will have no choice but to pursue my legal options to fight back and show PBA, and other institutions, that they cannot get away with this, he said.

What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day.

Follow reporter Andrew Marra on Twitter: @AMarranara.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach Atlantic professor fired after racial justice lessons
This commentary is written by Darragh O'Brien, Ireland's minister for housing, local government and heritage. He will represent his country at this week's Savannah St. Patrick's Day Parade.

I am honoured to travel to Savannah to celebrate St. Patricks Day. I can think of no better place to celebrate the strength and endurance of Irelands ties in the United States. Each year St. Patricks Day offers us an opportunity to reconnect with our diaspora and the 70 million people worldwide of Irish background, tens of millions of whom call America home.

Centuries ago Irish emigrants found a welcoming community in Savannah, one that was built on the values of hospitality, cooperation and hard work. They helped to build this city into the thriving port that it is today.

Boys and girls with The Flags of Ireland kept the crowd entertained while marching down Tybrisa Street.

Today, those same values continue to drive the relationship between Ireland and Savannah. We have built strong partnerships in academia, trade, and tourism and we are committed to continuing to deepen and strengthen those partnerships in the years to come.

The relationship between Wexford and Savannah is something truly special. At the height of Irish migration to Savannah, almost 60% of Irish arrivals in Savannah came from Wexford and this historic bond has been nourished and further developed in recent years.

Last year, the signing of the Wexford-Savannah Partnership Agreement by the Chair of Wexford County Council, Barbara-Anne Murphy, and Mayor Van Johnson marked a significant milestone in this relationship. In addition, the Wexford campus of Georgia Southern University welcomed its first students last summer with another cohort due this year. This makes Georgia Southern the first public university in the United States to open a bricks-and-mortar campus in Ireland. A landmark achievement.

These successes, amongst others, are testament to the continued benefits of our collaboration, and evidence of the commitment on both sides of the Atlantic to driving this partnership forward.

Story continues

A year of anniversaries

This year, we are proud to mark a particularly special St. Patricks Day. Ireland is celebrating three major anniversaries that go to the heart of our identity as a country. We mark the centenary of Irelands joining of the League of Nations; the 50th anniversary of our accession to the then European Economic Community; and the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. All along the path of our development as an independent nation, our U.S. friends and partners have stood by us and provided support when we needed it.

As we approach the anniversary of the transformational Good Friday agreement, signed in April 1998, we recall in particular the momentous role of the U.S. in helping to bring about peace and an end to the Troubles, as well as their efforts to maintain and nourish that peace in the years that have followed.

Darragh O'Brien

As we celebrate 100 years of Ireland in the world, and a century of our countrys engagement as an independent and active member of the international community in the promotion of democracy, peace and security, I want to thank our U.S. partners and our diaspora for being with us on that road.

Looking back on the progress we have made as a country gives us confidence to look forward with hope. The story of Irelands bond with Savannah, with Georgia and with the American South is no different  we are rooted in a shared history but looking to the future with optimism for what we can achieve together.

A chairde, in celebration of the road we have travelled together, I wish you all a Happy St. Patricks Day. Beannachtai na Feile Padraig oraibh go lei.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Irish minister says St. Patrick's Day reconnencts with Savannah Irish
Are you ready for another D.C. nomination battle? Apparently, Joe Biden is.

The president selected Julie Su to replace Marty Walsh as the secretary of Labor. That position isnt usually controversial, but a stark dividing line is taking shape in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

When the body confirmed Su as deputy Labor secretary two years ago, what should have been a slam dunk turned into a partisan battle. She slipped across the finish line after a party-line 50-47 vote.

The Wisconsin-born, Harvard-educated attorney worked for a few civil rights organizations before leading the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency.

It sounds like a standard warmup to a federal appointment, at least if you dont consider the problems she caused for the formerly Golden State.

Su botched pandemic unemployment claims

Julie Su speaks during a Senate committee hearing to become Deputy Secretary of Labor on March 16, 2021, in Washington.

Serving in Gov. Gavin Newsoms Cabinet, Su allowed more than $11 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims during the pandemic.

There is no sugarcoating the reality, Su said when announcing the massive scam in 2021. California did not have sufficient security measures in place to prevent this level of fraud, and criminals took advantage of the situation.

As Labor secretary, she would oversee the nations unemployment insurance program. Over the COVID-19 era, that agency pumped $888 billion into job relief programs.

About one-eighth of that total was spent in California.

She supported a law that hurt many industries

Worse still, Su supported passage of Californias Assembly Bill 5, a law that essentially abolished independent contractors in the state as a shot at tech companies such as Uber and Lyft.

A court affirmed tech companies being able to exempt themselves via the ballot this week, and other politically powerful groups like doctors and lawyers were able to score themselves exemptions. (Even freelance journalists had to lobby to get themselves exempted from the law.)

AB 5 has wrecked Californias trucking industry, and the industry is currently mired in a legal fight while its already exacerbating the nations supply-chain woes.

Story continues

Biden sought to bring AB 5 to the nation with the PRO Act last Congress. Since that stalled, the president is likely to push Su to execute it via administrative action.

Arizona is well aware of California's failures

Longtime locals often tell incoming refugees, Dont California my Arizona. Seeing Sus money-wasting, job-killing track record, taxpayers should expand that to Dont California my America.

From our vantage point next-door, Arizona knows all too well what Sacramentos policies have wrought on their state.

Californias population has shrunk each year since 2019, while Arizonas has increased.

More of Arizonas new residents come from California than from any other state. They arent here for our seaside views, but for the strong economy, low cost of living and quality of life.

The last thing the shaky national economy needs is an infusion of radical Californian policies.

Why Sens. Sinema, Kelly must oppose Su

Thankfully, Arizona has a say in this.

Julie Sus confirmation fight will hinge on two votes in the Senate. Who better to stop it than two Arizonans familiar with Sacramentos dismal failures?

Both Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly campaigned as independent pragmatists willing to buck the Democratic caucus for commonsense policies.

Theres no better way to prove their maverick bona fides than to oppose this train wreck of a nomination. Sinema will demonstrate her bipartisan spirit. Kelly, paradoxically, will help his partys chances in 2024.

Having Julie Su burn taxpayer money on fraudulent schemes and throw a straitjacket on the labor force would be wildly unpopular with voters in both parties. If we are to avoid a recession, America needs every job it can get  union or non-union.

Their votes might be unpopular with Chuck Schumer and Gavin Newsom, but that would make it even more successful among Arizonas contrarian voters.

Jon Gabriel, a Mesa resident, is editor-in-chief of Ricochet.com and a contributor to The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. On Twitter: @exjon.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Julie Su hurt California. And Biden wants her as Labor secretary?
The Biden administration has recently ramped up pressure on TikTok over national security concerns stemming from its ties to China, and apparently the Justice Department and the FBI are also applying pressure of their own.

Forbes first reported that the agencies are actively investigating ByteDance, TikTok's parent company. The investigation was reportedly initiated after some employees leveraged the app to spy on U.S.-based journalists  an incident corroborated by an internal investigation late last year.

Now, The New York Times and other outlets have matched Forbes' reporting, confirming that the Fraud Section of the Justice Department's Criminal Division is coordinating with the FBI and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to investigate the breach of user privacy.

In the internal investigation, ByteDance found that some employees accessed data on American journalists' TikTok accounts in order to investigate who at the company was leaking information to reporters. Of employees involved in the incident  who were fired after the fact  two were part of the company's operations in China.

The latest revelations come a week before TikTok's CEO is scheduled to testify before Congress  an appearance that's likely to be met with deep suspicion, even by tech hearing standards. In the days leading up to the hearing, the Biden administration has stiffened its posture toward the company considerably, threatening to ban the app in the U.S. if TikTok's Chinese owners don't sell the company.

TikTok rebuffed the White House's new demand for divestiture, arguing that selling the company won't address the government's concerns. TikTok pointed to its own proposed solution instead, though convincing the U.S. government that a China-based company operating in the U.S. should be allowed to self-regulate is a difficult sell. To mitigate concerns about the app's relationship with China, TikTok launched a $1.5 billion initiative known as "Project Texas" that would store U.S. user data domestically and subject the company to an auditing process conducted by American tech giant Oracle.
The couple used to enjoy excursions to the lakes, before nitrous oxide affected their ability to walk. Vito Oliveri

When Vito Oliveri, 34, and Emily Shuford, 30, first used nitrous oxide they felt instant euphoria.

Eight years after first using the drug, Oliveri got pins and needles and woke up unable to walk.

Experts are worried about nitrous oxide's potential harms amid the rise of super-size canisters.

When Vito Oliveri first tried nitrous oxide in his twenties he didn't expect a legal drug that gives a quick high to temporarily paralyze him and his fiancee years later, leaving them unable to walk their four dogs.

As recently as early last year, Oliveri, 34, who lives in Portland, Oregon, near some of the best ski resorts in the US, would often ski or take trips to the lakes with his fiancee, Emily Shuford, 30.

"I'd typically be on the mountain on a Monday like today, but we just can't. Emily uses a cane and I probably can't walk a mile. We've been limited to the house, probably since April of last year," Oliveri told Insider in February.

Nitrous oxide, also called "laughing gas" or "hippie crack," is used as a painkiller during labor and for whipping cream in catering. But it's grown in popularity as a recreational drug in the US, Australia, and Europe in recent years, with people inhaling it for a relaxed, giggly, euphoria that lasts, on average, one to two minutes.

Experts have become increasingly concerned about nitrous oxide and its potential harms, particularly amid the rise of super-size stainless steel canisters, which came onto the market in around 2017 to "deliberately target" recreational users, according to a recent European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction report.

"Maybe once every five or six years, I'll see a patient who's had a stroke from taking cocaine. Yet, every week, I'm seeing this in my ward. So from my point of view, this is actually a bigger problem," Dr. David Nicholl, a consultant neurologist at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, UK, told Sky News on March 1.

Discarded nitrous oxide canisters. Malcolm P Chapman/Getty Images

When Oliveri first took the drug, he attached a silver lipstick-sized capsule containing 0.2 ounces of nitrous oxide to a whipped cream dispenser and filled up a balloon that he inhaled the gas from. He liked it right away.

Story continues

Oliveri said that while the "little crackers" can taste bad, the bigger cylinders are more convenient, tasteless, and produce stronger euphoric effects.

Laughing gas can inactivate vitamin B12 in the body

Nitrous oxide can paralyze people because it destroys nerve cells within the spinal cord by inactivating vitamin B12, which is essential for maintaining the lining of the nerves, Alistair Noyce, a consultant neurologist working in a London hospital in the UK, told Insider.

That nerve damage can also cause tingling and numbness of the affected body part, with the severity of symptoms depending on how extensive the damage is, according to Noyce, who is also a professor at the Preventive Neurology Unit at the Wilson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary, University of London.

People can also lose their balance because signals that tell the brain where body parts are positioned don't get transmitted properly, Noyce.

Oliveri, who has trouble balancing from the nerve damage caused by nitrous oxide, falls over when his dogs jump on him or pull their leash. He now sends two of his dogs  a chocolate Labrador and German Shepherd  to doggy daycare once a week so they get enough exercise.

Oliveri shared his story to raise awareness of the dangers of using nitrous oxide.

"There's a warning on alcohol bottles, there's a warning on cigarettes that tell you what's going to happen but for nitrous oxide, there's nothing," Oliveri said.

A nitrous oxide cylinder. Vito Oliveri

A doctor has seen people in their teens and twenties disabled by nitrous oxide

It's legal to possess nitrous oxide in most countries, but some have criminalized supplying it for recreational purposes.

The Netherlands recently banned its possession and sale over concerns about nerve damage and traffic accidents from people driving high, and the UK, where its illegal to sell but not to possess, could soon follow.

In the US, New York state banned its sale in 2021, partly because of the risk of abuse, and in California recreational use is a misdemeanor.

While it's rare for people who don't use the drug often or in low quantities to get nerve damage, Noyce said he'd seen patients experience it after one use but he doesn't know if those cases happened at random or if they were susceptible for some reason.

Noyce said he'd seen people, mostly in their teens and twenties, at the hospital who were "really very disabled" from using high quantities of nitrous oxide, needing to use a walking frame or wheelchair, and others who were incontinent or unable to get an erection.

Noyce said that there isn't an agreed definition of "heavy use," but a ballpark figure is using more than 10 to 15 canisters more than once a week, citing his own research, while the Dutch Poison Centre classes puts it at inhaling 50 or more balloons in a single session.

Users who develop symptoms like numbness, unexplained incontinence or problems with erections should stop taking it, immediately seek help, and tell a doctor that they use the drug because prompt treatment with vitamin B12 injections is "crucial," Noyce said.

"Some recover, some don't," he said.

Super-size cylinders are easier to use but more dangerous

Oliveri first tried the drug when he was 26 years old, partying with co-workers on a cannabis farm in California, before he met Shuford.

He took it at parties for about a year and stopped until he moved to Portland in 2020 and discovered the super-size cylinders containing 20 pounds of nitrous oxide  equivalent to 1,600 0.2-ounce capsules  and costing around $400 each.

As the cylinders weren't available in his area, he'd use 400 to 500 canisters a day for about a year to achieve the same euphoric effects.

"As soon as they run out you're like, ah, I need more," he said.

Noyce believes that the super-size cylinders are more dangerous than canisters, in part because it's easier to take large quantities. People turn a valve on the big cylinders to fill a balloon, rather than having to screw a tiny canister onto the end of a dispenser and awkwardly twist each time.

Emily Shuford and Vito Oliveri have both been affected by using nitrous oxide. Vito Oliveri

Nitrous oxide can cause psychological dependence

Shuford first tried a small canister of laughing gas during the couple's first Christmas together, after they met at a cannabis dispensary in 2018, and she instantly liked it, too.

However, it wasn't until June 2021 when a company started selling super-size cylinders from 10am to 10pm daily in Portland that they started using the drug heavily, unable to stop for weeks at a time.

The couple bought cylinders to feed their cravings, even when they wound up in hospital, unable to walk from nerve damage.

According to Noyce, nitrous oxide isn't physically addictive in the same way that drugs such as heroin are, but can cause "an element of psychological dependence."

"Patients endorse that they crave it when they're not taking it, they're irritable, they're constantly chasing the same original feeling that they got and that leads to higher and higher quantities," he said.

Oliveri said that the couple shared around two super-size cylinders a day for weeks at a time, only pausing if they vomited or experienced flu-like symptoms.

"The high only lasts 10 to 15 seconds and then your mind just wants to do it again," Oliveri said.

As well as health issues it landed them in financial trouble. Oliveri said that the couple could spend up to $1,300 in a day.

Over six or seven months Oliveri said they spent $20,000 on a credit card and another $50,000 cash.

Their savings gone, Oliveri now works for a delivery service.

Vito Oliveri and Emily Shuford have struggled to stop using nitrous oxide. Vito Oliveri

One day, Oliveri woke up unable to walk

Oliveri first noticed something was wrong in April 2022 when his legs started uncontrollably shaking and he struggled to stand still. Unknown to him, this was a sign of nerve damage from nitrous oxide.

A month later, the couple used two super-sized cylinders before a flight to Mexico, and Oliveri's legs became so shaky that he had to hire an automated chair to get around the resort.

By June 2022, the pins and needles were "extreme." One day he woke up numb from his belly button down and couldn't walk.

He was with Shuford, but had to ring a friend to help carry him to the car and drive him to the local hospital, where doctors said that nitrous oxide had damaged his nerves and treated him with vitamin B12 injections.

Oliveri said that it was eight weeks before he could move around the house with a cane, and then another five weeks to walk without it, though his ankles still "don't work completely" so, like his other friends that use the drug, he "hobbles."

Oliveri said it was his supplier who first told him that the drug could inactivate B12, after he noticed Oliveri "wobble walking."

"Prompt treatment with B12 injections probably offers the best chance of recovery but won't protect you if you carry on using," Noyce said. Some people try to supplement with vitamin B12 tablets to try to prevent themselves from coming to harm, but Noyce said that's not thought to work.

The couple tried to stop using the drug after Oliveri got home but couldn't. Five months later, in November 2022, Shuford was hospitalized for 17 days because she couldn't walk. It took six weeks of physical therapy before she could walk without a cane.

The couple again tried to quit, and they did for a month, but would get stressed or bored and start to crave its euphoric effects.

Speaking after a recent three-day binge, Oliveri said that he felt "pretty upset" about using the drug because it's hard for him to walk again. The couple can't fully flex their ankles up or down, or move their toes properly, but are doing exercises to try to improve that.

As of March 16, the couple hadn't touched the drug for a few weeks.

"We're gonna try to really be done now, we are able to walk now so we gotta stay ahead of it," he said.

Do you have a powerful story to share with Insider? Please send details to cschusterbruce@insider.com

Read the original article on Insider
"The Story With Martha MacCallum" - Credit: Getty Images

Hours after Donald Trump announced in a caps lock rant that he anticipates getting arrested next week, his former vice president Mike Pence joined the chorus of Republicans criticizing the Manhattan district attorney and questioning his motives.

Like many Americans, Im just, Im taken aback, Pence told SiriusXMs Breitbart News Saturday morning after Trumps Truth Social post. You have a major crime wave in New York, especially in New York City. You have literally a Democratic party thats literally dismantled the criminal justice system in that city, undercut the NYPD, and this is what the Manhattan DA says is their top priority?, referring to Alvin Bragg.

More from Rolling Stone

"It Reeks Of the Kind Of Political Prosecution That We Endured Back In The Days Of The #Russia Hoax" @Mike_Pence on the report of pending @realDonaldTrump arrest in NY

via @BreitbartNews Saturday with @mboyle1 pic.twitter.com/GrAvyzEgkC  SiriusXM Patriot (@SiriusXMPatriot) March 18, 2023

Pence continued, It reeks of the kind of political prosecution that we endured back in the days of the Russia hoax and the whole impeachment over a phone call. And the one thing I know is, I know that former President Trump can take care of himself But I have the same reaction everybody else does to this, these reports.

The ex-vice president continues to stand by Trump despite the fact that the former president endangered my family on January 6, 2021; a White House security officer testified to the committee that members of Pences security detail went so far as to call their families to say goodbye, such was the fear for their life and safety. Pence has similarly said that Trump shouldnt face charges for his role in the Jan. 6 riots, and that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.

The expected charges against Trump  believed to be related to a $130,000 hush money payment made to porn Actress Stormy Daniels in October 2016  come after years of Manhattan prosecutors sprawling investigation into alleged financial crimes, and arrives nearly two years after Trumps longtime chief financial Allen Weisselberg was charged in relation to tax fraud for facilitating the payment of $1.7 million in untaxed benefits to the ex-presidents moneyman.

Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted Saturday following Trumps announcement.

Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.



Im directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by https://t.co/elpbh7LeWn  Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) March 18, 2023

Im directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.

As Rolling Stone reported, within the twice-impeached ex-presidents inner political orbit, there is a widespread belief that any criminal charges from the Manhattan DA would only boost Trumps popularity among 2024 Republican primary voters, a sentiment that Marjorie Taylor Green echoed in her own unhinged way on social media.

If the Manhattan DA indicts President Trump, he will ultimately win even bigger than he is already going to win, she tweeted Saturday.

And those Republicans that stand by and cheer for his persecution or do nothing to stop it will be exposed to the people and will be remembered, scorned, and punished by the base. President Trump did nothing wrong and has always fought for the American people, and we all know it, which is why we love him.

Best of Rolling Stone

Click here to read the full article.
A recent barrage of winter storms has helped rescue much of California from years of drought, but the state is bracing for possible floods and continued groundwater shortages in the months ahead.

At this time last year, the entire Golden State was coping with drought. Now nearly 64 percent of it is drought-free, after a series of atmospheric rivers inundated much of the region with rainfall and heaped piles of snow across the Sierra Nevada mountain range this season.

The improvements have been so drastic that the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California even moved this week to rescind all water use restrictions.

The abnormally wet winter will further improve drought across much of the western U.S. as the snowpack melts in the coming months, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared in its Spring Outlook this week.

These circumstances have wiped out exceptional and extreme drought in California for the first time since 2020, with further progress anticipated this spring, the agency added.

But with such an influx of water also come many challenges  including the risk of dangerous floods, as well as a need to improve methods for filling up depleted groundwater reservoirs.

Coming out of a drought and having this much snowpack in the mountains and a threat of floods, clearly there is a big interest in squirreling away as much of this water as we can, Thomas Harter, a professor of water resources at University of California, Davis, told The Hill.

Snowmelt this spring could lead to welcomed water supply benefits in much of California and the Great Basin, while helping boost key Colorado River reservoirs, according to NOAA.

Yet floods have already begun to bombard the U.S. West  conditions that will likely worsen this spring, as Sierra Nevada snowpack melts on already saturated soil, according to NOAA.

Californias historic snowpack, coupled with spring rain, is heightening the potential for spring floods, Ed Clark, director of NOAAs National Water Center, said in a statement.

Story continues

And its not just California that could be facing floods. Clark said that approximately 44 percent of the U.S. is at risk for flooding this spring.

Most of the eastern half of the continental U.S. will experience some flood risk in the coming months, with moderate to major flooding along the Mississippi River, according to NOAA.

In California, there are two specific regions currently experiencing significant floods: the Salinas Valley and the southern Sierra Nevadas, according to University of California, Los Angeles climate scientist Daniel Swain.

The Salinas Valley, where rainfall recently ruptured a levee on the Pajaro River, is among the most productive agricultural areas in the state.

This has been really disruptive in these communities and will have significant impacts on agriculture coming out of the Salinas Valley probably for a while, Swain said during virtual office hours on Friday.

Meanwhile, a prolonged period of lower-elevation snowmelt in the southern Sierra Nevadas has filled the areas small reservoirs to capacity, meaning that theyre spilling water essentially as fast as it comes in, according to Swain.

He warned that this water is spilling into the foothills, especially into the San Joaquin Valley, another important agricultural region that neighbors the Salinas Valley.

This is not going to be over the next few days. This is likely going to persist and potentially get worse in the weeks to come, Swain said.

During that time, this winters massive amount of precipitation will also be challenging the state to optimize its storage capabilities  particularly as groundwater stockpiles remain low.

Harter, from UC Davis, described a spatial disconnect between the mountain locations where most of the precipitation occurs and the valley floors where most water users are located.

Most of the water falls in the winter and we really need most of it in the summer, and so we have a time disconnect, he said.

Effective storage and conveyance mechanisms are therefore critical to bridge these gaps, according to Harter.

He described three types of natural storage that can refill in one season: snowpack, surface water reservoirs and soil moisture.

But the fourth type of storage, groundwater reservoirs, requires much more time to fill, the professor explained.

We need at least one average or wet year to make up for what were pulling out of groundwater extra in a dry year, Harter said.

Over the past 25 years, he continued, there have been nine average or wet years and 16 dry years  creating a budgetary imbalance.

Stressing that it is possible, however, to accelerate the groundwater recharge process, Harter credited Californias government for recently pushing forward a variety of related policies.

Earlier this month, for example, the California State Water Board approved a petition from the federal Bureau of Reclamation to divert more than 600,000 acre-feet of San Joaquin River floodwaters for storage, recharge and wildlife refuges.

We need to increase the amount of charge, Harter said. Its like a bank account. You either increase the amount of earnings, or you decrease the amount of outlays from your account.

California may need to prepare itself to inject even more into that account, as a three-year La Nina streak concludes and El Nino conditions begin to take shape this summer, according to the NOAA Spring Outlook.

El Nino typically brings hotter and drier conditions to the northern U.S. and Canada and increased flooding in the Gulf Coast, the Southeast and parts of California, according to NOAAs National Ocean Service.

In line with these patterns, the NOAA Spring Outlook predicted ongoing extreme to exceptional drought across portions of the southern High Plains, the Northwest U.S. and the northern Rocky Mountains, as well as in parts of New Mexico and Washington state.

There is right now a pretty strong prediction that we are headed for an El Nino territory, said Swain, describing a sudden shift from cold to very warm temperatures in the eastern Pacific.

From late 2023 into 2024, I would expect global average temperatures to be really on the highest end of what weve seen historically, if not above that, he added.

Stressing that it is still early to speculate as to what this means for California, Swain said that a strong El Nino event could come with another very active wet winter next year.

While years of record-breaking drought are currently providing a bit of a buffer from a flood risk perspective, there would be no such barrier during next year, he explained.

We are going to have the legacy of this years very wet conditions and especially the very heavy snowpack, probably all the way through the summer, Swain said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Heres what needs to come next in the Murdaugh saga.

The public sector needs to come clean.

Yes, we all want to know what Alex Murdaugh did with the money. Where is the $8 million to $10 million the disbarred Hampton attorney is accused of stealing over a number of years? He admitted to stealing in his recent six-week murder trial, which took a jury all of 45 minutes to find him guilty of killing his wife and son.

And everyone wants him to be held accountable for taking money from poor, unsuspecting clients before he was fired by his familys powerful law firm and disbarred by the South Carolina Supreme Court.

But we first need answers on our public system of criminal justice  a system that will long outlast the Murdaughs.

What did a state grand jury find in its investigation of what took place four years ago when a Murdaugh boat crashed into a bridge piling at Parris Island, killing 19-year-old Mallory Beach and opening the Murdaugh mystique for the whole world to see?

That mystique, fueled by 86 years of a Murdaugh acting as the solicitor in a rural five-county area in the lower reaches of South Carolina, has been shown to be rancid.

The grand jury was to look at obstruction of justice after the boat crash, which could get to the core of the feeling that some people enjoy a different set of justice than the rest of us.

State Attorney General Alan Wilson and State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel need to tell the public what will be done about:

 The actions of Alex Murdaugh and his late father, Randolph Murdaugh III, on the night Mallory Beach was killed.

According to court documents, Alex Murdaugh and his father dashed to the Beaufort Memorial Hospital emergency room that night and started trying to pin the crash on a boat passenger other than his son, the late Paul Murdaugh. Paul was subsequently charged with being the boat driver but never faced trial before he was murdered.

Columbia attorney Joe McCulloch, who is representing that boat passenger, told me that the state grand jury is still looking into it, to the best of his knowledge.

Story continues

What have they found?

What does it means when Alex Murdaugh tells a boat passenger in the emergency room that he can take care of him.

Take care of him? How? With whose cooperation?

We know from the murder trial that Alex Murdaugh had a badge from the 14th Circuit Solicitors office hanging from his pants that night in the hospital, even as witnesses said he smelled of alcohol as he urgently worked to coordinate a story line to the benefit of his son by imposing himself on people being medically treated and quizzing a law enforcement officer.

Why did he have a badge? What did it represent?

Who all knew that Alex Murdaugh had a blue light in his company car? Why was that permitted? Who was supposed to prevent that?

 The actions of law enforcement on the night of the boat crash.

Why did Paul Murdaugh not undergo a field sobriety test?

Whey did authorities not take a blood sample from Paul Murdaugh?

The mayhem at the scene is well documented, but four years later we are led to believe that it was business as usual, that there is nothing to see.

 The actions of law enforcement following the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh on a family estate outside Hampton on June 7, 2021.

How does a key piece of evidence  a supposedly blood-spattered T-shirt worn by Alex Murdaugh  get presented to the county grand jury considering murder charges, when in fact it was not spattered with blood? How does the SLED chief investigator in the murder case not know immediately after testing that the T-shirt was clean? How does a SLED investigator get away with telling the grand jury that the way shotguns around the Murdaugh house were loaded linked Alex Murdaugh to the murders, when actually investigators found no such thing?

After Murdaugh was convicted of murdering Maggie and Paul and sentenced to two life sentences, both the state attorney general and SLED chief promised more investigations.

Theyve got plenty to look at. But even the murder convictions dont answer the question of how we got into this mess and who all aided and abetted it.

David Lauderdale may be reached at LauderdaleColumn@gmail.com.






KYODO NEWS - Mar 18, 2023 - 07:21 | All, World

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday condemned North Korea's recent test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile in violation of resolutions adopted by the world body's Security Council.

A statement from his spokesman said that Guterres urges North Korea to "immediately desist" from such destabilizing actions and "fully comply with its international obligations under all relevant Security Council resolutions."

He also calls on Pyongyang to resume dialogue toward lasting peace and the complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, it said.

On Thursday, North Korea test-fired an ICBM just hours before a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Tokyo. The projectile came down in the Sea of Japan.

Meanwhile, after an informal meeting on human rights in North Korea at the Security Council, Albania, South Korea, the United States and Japan criticized the ICBM launch in a joint statement.

On behalf of the four countries, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield read out the statement asserting that Pyongyang's development of weapons of mass destruction is "underpinned" by many of its human rights violations.

"The use of forced and exploited labor -- both domestically and overseas -- support this unlawful and threatening program," the statement said.

It added that North Koreans experience "severe economic hardships" due in part to the country's focus on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Related coverage:

North Korea says it launched Hwasong-17 ICBM as "warning to enemies"

Japanese, South Korean leaders improve ties, vow to resume mutual visits
Even with more resources to conduct the federally mandated count of people experiencing homelessness in Northwest Florida and the highest count in eight years, the preliminary numbers still appear to show a large undercount of the area's homeless population.

Opening Doors of Northwest Florida is reporting the preliminary numbers from this year's "point in time" count on its website at 949 people recorded as homeless in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. The number is a 30% increase over the previous year's count of 727 and the highest number recorded in the count since 2015.

Opening Doors of Northwest Florida Executive Director John Johnson told the News Journal the numbers are still preliminary, and the organization is going through the data to ensure no duplications.

"The reason why we put the numbers on the website, those preliminary numbers, is to just give the community a sense of where we are," Johnson said. "Until we're able to make it official, I'm hesitant with giving any projections at this point."

Opening Doors of Northwest Florida is the area's federally designated "continuum of care" organization, which is required to conduct the survey of the homeless population as well as a count of available housing and shelters.

Johnson, who is also co-chair of the Northwest Florida Homeless Reduction Taskforce, said the preliminary numbers would change when the final count is released and no decisions should be made based on the numbers.

Preparing for the count: Getting accurate number of homeless is crucial. Officials hope actions this year will help.

Annual survey questioned: Escambia County Commissioners question huge discrepancy in homeless population counts

Last year, county commissioners raised questions about the count when it reported only 727 homeless individuals, while Community Health of Northwest Florida reported serving more than 7,600 patients who were unhoused.

The disparity in the two numbers does not appear resolved in the latest count.

Story continues

Connie Bookman, CEO of Pathways for Change and co-chair of the Northwest Florida Homeless Reduction Taskforce, said most of the problems with the "point in time" count are because of the rules set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development about how the count must be conducted.

Rocky Harrison, 90 Works president of operations, collects information from one of the area's homeless on Palafox street on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023. Opening Doors of Northwest Florida leads an annual "point-in-time" count of the area's homeless population, however experts say large segments of the population go uncounted.

The count must be conducted in a couple of days based on who was homeless in a single night in January, and individuals participating in the count must agree to answer a survey with detailed demographic information.

Because of that, Bookman said, the numbers end up being much smaller than the actual homeless population.

"We know for a fact that there are at least 1,500 adults and 4,000 children who are experiencing homelessness, and that comes through the school system," Bookman said. "They're able to track that."

The preliminary Opening Doors of Northwest Florida numbers report only 34 children experiencing homelessness.

This year, volunteers had three days to canvas Escambia and Santa Rosa counties to ask people if they were homeless on the night of Jan. 23.

More:Pensacola Veterans Village provides a home and chance for veterans to get on their feet

The local governments of Escambia County and Pensacola, along with organizations like Be Ready Alliance Coordinating for Emergencies and Community Health of Northwest Florida, provided volunteers to conduct the count.

Johnson said they had more than 100 volunteers to conduct this year's count and were able to canvas broad areas of both counties.

Pensacola Councilwoman Allison Patton, who volunteered to conduct surveys for the count and encouraged others to participate, said after seeing the survey conducted first hand she recognizes all of the challenges for a single survey to be anything more than a snapshot, and it should be used along with data from other sources.

"There are other times during the year where we have events and things that will help us understand more about the scope of that issue for our community," Patton said. "But I think all of us would agree that whatever the final number is, it doesn't capture all homelessness in our community."

Bookman said many of the volunteers came forward to help the community to get a better count to be able to access more federal funding.

"What will happen is counties or continuums of care that have more homeless are going to have access to those (federal) dollars, and we're shut out of that," Bookman said.

Johnson denied that the "point in time" count has any connection to the amount of federal dollars from HUD that come to the community.

Despite the problems with the count, Johnson said the count is used to drive policy decisions of how to spend the resources that do come in from the federal and state levels.

"One of the reasons why we do the count, first of all, we're mandated  we're statutorily required," Johnson said. "Plus, it helps us with our planning, with how we distribute federal and state funding that we received to our area."

However, information published by the federal government note that the "point in time" count is "the main data source" for measuring the progress communities are making on homelessness.

"These counts help us all identify where progress is being made and where redoubling of effort is required," as a summary from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration puts it.

Other states put it more bluntly.

"These numbers are also used to determine federal funding allocations to address homelessness," a publication from the California Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council said about the "point in time" count.

Johnson acknowledges the survey had limitations, such as requiring individuals to agree to answer detailed questions, but he said often an individual would be approached by multiple volunteers throughout the day and someone may decline an interview with one person but be willing to talk to another person.

Johnson said the count is valuable because it can provide insight into who is homeless or growing trends in the community.

Johnson said one small trend that is emerging in this year's count is the need to provide service to homeless people who are transgender and aren't accepted at local shelters.

"It's a very, very small population," Johnson said. "But it's more than we had last year."

Despite the challenge, Johnson said this year's count was the best as far a community participation.

"I still believe we missed people, and I still believe that there were people that no matter who interviewed them, they said no," Johnson said.

Rocky Harrison, 90 Works president of operations, collects information from one of the areas homeless in downtown Pensacola on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023. Opening Doors of Northwest Florida leads an annual "point-in-time" count of the area's homeless population, however experts say large segments of the population go uncounted.

Rocky Harrison, 90 Works president of operations, collects information from a homeless veteran on Palafox street on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023. Opening Doors of Northwest Florida leads an annual "point-in-time" count of the area's homeless population, however experts say large segments of the population go uncounted.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia Santa Rosa homeless 'Point in time' count short despite increase
Marking the first day of spring and the renewal of nature, the Persian New Year will be celebrated from March 20 to 21.

The holiday, known as Nowruz, highlights the values of peace and solidarity among generations, families, and neighbors, contributing to cultural diversity and friendship among peoples and different communities, according to Asia Society Texas.

Literally translated as new day, Nowruz is celebrated by more than 300 million people in the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East, United States and Canada. Celebrating Nowruz is a celebration of life in harmony with nature, the AST says.

Heres how the holiday will be celebrated in Texas.

Sample crafts for Asia Society Texas Spring Break 2023: Nowruz, which takes place March 1417, 2023.

Where: Asia Society Texas Center, 1370 Southmore Blvd, Houston

When: Fri, Mar 17, 5:30  8:30 PM

Get tickets to the free event here.

An all-ages celebration will feature performances, arts and crafts activities, cultural learning opportunities, stories, music and food.

Where: Keepers Austin, 5701 W Slaughter Ln, Building D, Austin

When: Tue, Mar 21, 6:30  9:30 PM

Get tickets here.

In honor of Nowruz, Chef Amir Hajimaleki will serve a five-course dinner, which will include traditional Persian dishes and ingredients.

Where: Central Market, 4001 North Lamar, Austin

When: Sun, Apr 2, 4  8 PM

Every year for over a decade, hundreds in the Austin Persian community have gathered at Central Market to celebrate the Spring Equinox. The free, family friendly event will have music and dance performances, activities related to Nowruz celebration, as well as Persian Nowruz food available for purchase at the Central Market Cafe.

More Texas Nowruz Events
ROLAND - Oklahoma state Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, does not believe the rod should be spared when it comes to corporal punishment for disabled children in some cases.

And Olsen has been the center of attention in a battle over a corporal punishment bill that involves spanking disabled children.

With verses from Proverbs, Olsen spoke out at the Oklahoma state Capitol Tuesday. Stories about his comments made national news.

As Oklahoma House Bill 1028 that would ban public schools from using corporal punishment on disabled students was presented Tuesday, Olsen quoted scripture as he opposed it on the House floor.

"He that spareth his rod hateth his son," Olsen said, quoting from a version of Proverbs 13:24. "So it tells us that if you will not use the rod on a disobedient child, you do not love that child. That's what the book said."

Oklahoma state law allows school personnel to use corporal punishment on special needs students if the parent has provided written consent.

House Bill 1028 has not advanced in Oklahoma, as it failed Tuesday by a narrow vote but could be heard Monday with another chance to pass.

Olsen says he supports corporal punishment of students with disabilities in some cases when the parents approve it.

In an interview with The Southwest Times Record, Olsen explained his position on the issue and what happened on the House floor Tuesday.

"Our present statute concerning corporal punishment for children who are disabled, present law is that it is illegal in the state of Oklahoma but the only exemption is if the parents specifically give authorization and tell the school district they want this done," Olsen said.

"So that is the exception to the general prohibition. And even then if the parents want it they may not get it because school districts can make their own policies toward corporal punishment."

The bill would have taken away the exemption and "no parent ever could authorize their child to be handled with corporal punishment when they're willfully disobeying. So I did object to the bill, partly on the basis of one of my own constituents."

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He said he has a constituent who has a daughter with Asperger's Syndrome and who has high intelligence but has behavioral issues at times.

"What this man tells me is that corporal punishment is what is necessary to keep her in line," Olsen said.

He said he knows there are many cases a child, "may not have the capacity to understand directions."

"In those cases, it would be entirely inappropriate. But what I did maintain was that parents should maintain the option when the child understands what is right or wrong," Olsen said.

He quoted Proverbs Chapter 8.

"Part of that chapter says, 'By me, princes rule and kings reign,' so the thought there was that it is a good thing for legislators to look at Biblical principles as they weigh the very critical matter of making laws for people that the people are going to have to follow," Olsen said.

A child psychiatrist also debated the bill and argued corporal punishment is needed at times, Olsen said. The bill failed 45-43 in the Tuesday vote

National media picked up the story about his use of scripture, and the office telephone started blowing up, he said. The emails started coming in.

"People's reaction to it was real interesting to say the least," Olsen said. "There are a lot of people in the country who do not believe in corporal punishment at all, and I have had some interesting reactions."

"It got quite a reaction. I think it was a reaction to how I quoted scripture and the fact that I maintained that at times this is the proper thing," Olsen said.

As for his stance on the bill that will get a second chance Monday, March 20, he gave a summary of his viewpoint that supports parents making the decision in some cases.

"What we have, we've got a lot of people who want to take away that liberty away from the parents to make that decision," Olsen said. "And as with all things, you or I or someone else may not agree exactly with how a parent raises their children but in my judgment, we would certainly want to leave a lot of liberty to the parents on the details on how they raise their child and I do feel like the parent should have that liberty to judge their own child's condition, judge their own school district.

If they're comfortable with the people who might possibility might potentially be administering the corporal punishment they should have that liberty if they believe it is best for their child."

Olsen was elected in 2018 to represent Oklahoma's representative District 2 that covers Sequoyah County.

More:Lawmakers 'thought they were voting against the Bible,' author of anti-spanking bill says

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Oklahoma state Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, talks about spankings
A bill that has passed through Kentucky's legislature taking aim at health and school policies regarding transgender youths has drawn reactions from across the state  including the threat of a legal challenge.

Senate Bill 150 was hurriedly approved Thursday by the state's Republican-supermajority legislature, with provisions that include allowing teachers to misgender trans students and preventing gender-affirming care for people under age 18. It's unlikely to be approved by Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, but the legislature would have the opportunity to override a veto with another vote at the end of the session in late March.

The backlash from opponents, many based in Louisville, was swift.

For subscribers:From taxes to an anti-trans onslaught: Key takeaways from the Kentucky legislature

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, a Democrat in his third month in office, derided the legislation as "unconscionable," describing it as one that "goes after children, their parents and the health care professionals they turn to for guidance and care" in a Twitter statement Thursday.

"The legislature needs to stop these attacks on our LGBTQ+ neighbors and their families, and focus on the real needs of Kentuckians," Greenberg wrote. "l also want the LGBTQ+ community to know that you are not alone in this. I share your anger and despair. This vote does not reflect the views of the majority of Kentuckians. We will keep fighting and ultimately we will win."

The ACLU of Kentucky is ready to fight, too. The nonprofit said it would challenge what it's called "the worst anti-trans bill in the nation" in court should it become law, with interim executive director Amber Duke describing it as "a desperate attempt to score political points by targeting people who simply want to live their lives."

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"ACLU-KY policy strategists and attorneys will continue to analyze the final version of the bill," a Thursday statement from the group said. "If this unconstitutional measure becomes law, our legal team stands ready to see the commonwealth in court."

More on SB 160:What to know about the controversial anti-trans bill just passed in Kentucky

Local school districts are paying attention as well. Jefferson County Public Schools spokesperson Carolyn Callahan said the district is reviewing the bill and has "concerns about any legislation that could harm marginalized student populations," while Bullitt County Schools Superintendent Jesse Bacon said his district would "work to implement the requirements of SB 150 in a manner that aligns with our district's Core Values ... and provides our students with the best opportunity to be successful."

"One of our top priorities will always be to do everything we can to ensure EVERY STUDENT feels safe, valued, supported, and loved," Bacon added in an email. "We believe this is foundational in creating an environment where all kids can reach their full potential and achieve important benchmarks for success. Strong and supportive parental/school relationships are key components of our strategy to achieve this goal."

Jefferson County Teachers Association President Brent McKim said the Louisville union is pushing for Beshear to issue a veto. But if the legislation becomes law, he said, the group will work to develop guidance for its members so they can be in compliance while also creating the "most safe and welcoming learning environment possible for all their students."

"One of the many problems with SB150 is that it leaves a great deal up to interpretation, which could create problems for innocent educators who are accused of violating provisions of the bill by individuals who interpret certain provisions of the law in a particular way," he added. "In situations like this, the association will provide all necessary legal and other services for our members who may become caught up in the ambiguities and problematic provisions in the bill."

Greater Louisville Inc., the city's chamber of commerce, voiced concerns that the bill "will be detrimental to our economic development efforts and diminish progress made to make Louisville an inclusive community. Similar efforts in other states have had wide-ranging economic impacts  for example, after North Carolina legislators passed a law in 2016 that required citizens to use bathrooms that correspond with their biological gender, Forbes estimated the state's economy took a hit of more than $600 million in the first year alone. The law was taken off the books in 2020.

"We have worked with partners to oppose this legislation, and other discriminatory bills, over the past several years," a GLI statement said.

More headlines:George Rawlings, founder of Oldham County firm that employs hundreds, dies at 77

You may like:The end of his offspring: A day with Secretariat's last known daughter, Trusted Company

The Archdiocese of Louisville is paying attention. In a statement, Archbishop Shelton Fabre said the bill "includes various provisions concerning complex issues."

"At this time, I want to affirm the respect and dignity that is due to every human person regardless of the circumstances of their lives," Fabre said.

Despite the backlash, the bill has some support in the commonwealth as well.

The Family Foundation, a state group that says it stands for Kentucky families and biblical values, called on Beshear to sign the bill into law, applauding its "strong protections for parental rights" and its aim to prevent children from receiving transition services and "age-inappropriate promotion of sexual orientation & gender identity topics."

David Walls, the group's executive director, said the bill "ensures commonsense prevails with student privacy protections in restrooms and locker rooms" and thanked the legislators who voted in favor of the bill and "took a bold stand for protecting Kentucky children."

Albert Mohler, president of Louisville's Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the provisions in the bill should make sense to "the vast majority of Kentuckians and certainly the Kentucky Baptist and evangelical Christians." School teachers shouldn't be put in a position of "having to rewrite human identity" by using students' preferred pronouns, he said, and limits on gender-affirming treatment for minors "make sense."

Reporters Krista Johnson and Ana Rocio Alvarez Brinez contributed. Reach The Courier Journal's breaking news team at lounews@courier-journal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Senate Bill 150 anti-trans policies could draw ACLU lawsuit
It may seem surprising that Elska Magazine, a publication dedicated to sharing the bodies and voices of real queer men around the world, didn't make it to SanFrancisco until now. But that was by design.

Early on Elska had become known for featuring less obvious' cities, explains Elska editor and chief photographer Liam Campbell. For example we chose to spotlight places like Yokohama, Japan(and not Tokyo), or Haifa, Israel (instead of Tel Aviv), and our first US city was actually Providence, Rhode Island. San Francisco is a much more obvious choice, but to me the point of Elskas choice of locations is to show that LGBTQ life is everywhere  in the less known cities Elska reveals that we exist there as well and find ways to thrive; in the more known cities Elska shows that we all have the same wants, hopes, and needs. In a sense we can prove with this edition how 'normal' or 'normalized' we can be."

Now, more than seven years into the project, Campbell is ready to take readers "up close and personal with a cross section of ordinary local men from what is arguably the most legendary gay city on Earth. For a place with such a huge gay history like San Francisco I find it especially empowering to see just how free we are able to be. Of course weve not conquered all the barriers put before us, but we can witness especially in San Francisco how strong and un-erasable our community is."

Elska San Francisco features local guys who are part of the citys LGBTQ+ community. It introduces international readers to the men who live in what Campbell calls "this renowned beacon of gay life." He adds, "Each was photographed in their own neighborhoods and in their own homes, revealing some of their city and their intimate environment; and wearing their own clothes, revealing their style, or sometimes not dressed at all, revealing their bodies and facing all vulnerabilities."

Enjoy our sneak peek of the sexy men in this issue of the magazine below. All photos Liam Campbell.

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Kramer E

muscular man in briefs

Liam Campbell/Elska

Wesley F

Asian American man shirtless in black underwear

Liam Campbell/Elska

Liam Campbell/Elska

Asian American man in briefs holds a full length mirror

Jessie F

Black man stands in a jock strap with his hand on his chest in a glass elevator

Liam Campbell/Elska

Adam N

blue-eyed man with arms crossed in underwear stands by a window, shaded by blinds

Liam Campbell/Elska

Kevin L

Latinx man sitting in sweatshirt and socks

Levi B

skinny man in boxers lounging on a couch

Dawn T

Asian American man sits on a chair in blue underwear and a gold chain

Liam Campbell/Elska

Art S

Man in open long sleeve shirt and boxers sits on arm of chair

Liam Campbell/Elska

Scotty S

gay man wearing t-shirt and jock kneeling on chair on porch

Liam Campbell/Elska

Jake T

gay man in cut off t-shirt and black kilt stands outside in industrial setting

Liam Campbell/Elska

Zee L

Asian American man wears jeans and a leather jacket over bare chest, stands arms outstretched

Liam Campbell/Elska

Asian American in sleeveless shirt and red boxer briefs

Liam Campbell/Elska

Tal M

Man stands in front of window, naked but covered by curtain

Liam Campbell/Elska

Sean T

man lies shirtless in bed, lit by rainbow colors

Liam Campbell/Elska
Hundreds of the top U.S. companies, and a slew from Utah, are finding success via Irish expansions. | Sarah Gambles, Deseret News

While March 17 is the day set aside to honor the passing of Saint Patrick and to celebrate all things Irish, hundreds of U.S. companies, and over a dozen Utah brands, are embracing the country on a full-time basis and building prosperity there with co-headquarters and satellite office operations.

Ireland has found deep success in courting interest and investment from U.S. companies thanks to its low taxes, highly skilled workforce, economic and political stability, and excellent location for accessing European markets and consumers. And, aside from the occasional brogue encounter, no language barriers to navigate.

Ivan Houlihan oversees work in the western U.S. for Irelands Investment and Development Agency, IDA Ireland for short, and said his country is the ideal location for any company looking to stretch its operations into the European marketplace.

Lets face it, if youre in Utah and you need to reach customers internationally, support customers internationally, youre going to need a presence outside of the U.S., Houlihan said. And thats where Ireland comes in.

Related

IDA reports over 890 U.S. companies have operations in Ireland including most of the stalwarts of the tech world. Microsoft, Intel and Apple have had operations in Ireland for over 20 years and others, including Google, Facebook/Meta, Amazon and Salesforce, have been there over a decade.

Ireland Investment and Development Agency

Utah has its own bevy of business heavy-hitters with Irish operations including Qualtrics, Ancestry.com, Merit Medical, Overstock.com and others.

Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson said his company launched its first office in Ireland in 2013 and made a $1 million investment in an expanded facility in 2019 that helped accommodate a growing staff.

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Our Irish team has been instrumental in many of our technology innovations over the years including advancements in machine learning, augmented reality and even blockchain applications, Johnson said. Weve had an office there for 10 years and currently have about 75 employees working in Sligo. Its a team that really complements our Utah staff.

Johnson also noted that his Irish staffers have helped evolve the broader culture at Overstock, including making contributions to understanding the best path to life/work balance from their location in Sligo, on Irelands northwest coast and part of the countrys scenic Wild Atlantic Way.

Houlihan said that while Irelands 12.5% tax rate on business revenues up to $750 million is a powerful attractor, there are broader and deeper business resources and support mechanisms that help keep companies there once they arrive. And many, like Overstock, expand their presences after they realize the benefits.

Were a very vocal and strong member of the European Union, coming up on 50 years of membership, Houlihan said. We have a very pro-business environment and maintain very good engagement at a political level with investors in Ireland. The Irish government is very keen to listen to companies that have invested in the country and respond to them.

Houlihan said one of the major driving forces for U.S. companies that set up shop in Ireland is access to talent, and particularly so for companies with specialized needs like tech firms, pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers. While the Irish government has thrown its support behind the universities and schools that are growing its homegrown talent pool, Houlihan noted the countrys immigration rules make it easy for companies based there to access labor needs across the European Union.

If youre an EU resident, you dont need a visa or work permit to work in Ireland, Houlihan said. There is free movement. And the free flow of knowledge and talent.

Johnson said Overstocks experience in recruiting top tech talent for its Ireland operations jibes well with Houlihans assessment.

Almost all of our employees there are Irish, Johnson said. Weve been able to fill positions there, including senior roles in highly technical areas, quite easily. Its a very talented workforce.

Irelands geographic location reflects the role it wants to play as a go-between for U.S. businesses looking for better connections and access to the EUs 550 million customers and 250 million workers. The U.S. conducts over $1 trillion in trade with EU countries every year and over $250 billion annually with Ireland alone.

Stephen LeFevre, director of strategic and foreign affairs at World Trade Center Utah, said Ireland has outperformed many of its EU member nations when it comes to proactively recruiting, and supporting, U.S. businesses interested in operating there.

Ireland has been very good at telling their story, LeFevre said. Theyre business friendly and they do everything they can to make it easy to set up operations there.

LeFevre said hes heard positive reviews from Utah companies that have found success in Ireland and the country has built some very impressive Utah business connections.

Ireland Investment and Development Agency

And its a success arc thats continuing to grow.

Last year, 167 U.S. companies expanded into Ireland including Utah companies Market Star and Biomerics. South Jordan-based medical device maker Merit Medical opened an Irish manufacturing facility in 1993 with 22 employees and has since expanded to over 1,000 workers.

Qualtrics, which was recently acquired in a $12.5 billion deal by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Silver Lake, launched its Dublin office in 2013 with six employees and recently reported it was on track to employ over 600 there by 2024.

After announcing an expansion of the companys Ireland-based staff in 2018, Qualtrics founder Ryan Smith said there was something he found very familiar about the Irish capital.

Dublin felt like Provo to us, Smith said. There is more of a scrappy culture.

Houlihan said Irelands value proposition remains vibrant for any company interested in expanding its footprint and leveling up its prospects and offered an open invitation to Beehive State operators to check it out for themselves.

Were a partner for your international success, Houlihan said. And wed love to talk to more Utah companies about how they can become more successful.
Ian Nance is shown with a South Carolina Low Country longbeard.

South Carolinas Low Country longbeards are kindred spirits with Floridas Osceola gobblers. These swamp-loving birds persist in frustrating even veteran turkey hunters with their similarly capricious natures and infuriating bouts of lockjaw, often unexpectedly slipping silently into set-ups. And as I wandered out of a hardwood bottom near Estill in the spring of 2020 after they hung another "L" on me, I vowed revenge if I ever returned.

The Low Country consists of 11 counties in the southeastern corner of the state. Unfortunately for their collective chambers of commerce, this region has been in the news lately with the national spotlight on the so-called Murdaugh Murders, when local attorney and power broker Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife and son in 2021, among other alleged crimes.

But that won't deter any hunters. The Low Country long has been a focus of sportsmen, especially inland of Charleston, Beaufort and Hilton Head where salt marshes transition to timber, open-field agriculture, bottomland swamps and sparse human populations that have allowed deer and turkey to thrive. This abundance of game places these counties within the sights of traveling hunters, where their economic impact is critical to local economies.

More:Gearing up for turkey hunts can really pack your vests

Ive hunted the Low Country off and on for over 25 years, from the Salkehatchie River between Ulmer and Olar, north to Ehrhardt, and down to Allendale and Estill. Physically, little has changed in these towns over the decades. These communities stubbornly endure along U.S. Routes 301 and 321, frozen in amber since Interstate 95 was opened and siphoned away the traffic.

What has changed has been the adoption of game management practices that fostered better-quality whitetail deer. The popularity of turkey hunting, too, blossomed over this time. This resulted in higher nonresident demand for leases that continues to rise today.

Regulation increasing because of popularity of turkey hunting

More pressure on the wild turkey resource brought the call for additional research and management money. Nonresidents once were afforded three free turkey tags with a short-term hunting license and big game permit. Currently, it's two tags for $100, plus the hunting license and big game permit. Five turkey tags sell for $5 for Sourg Carolina residents.

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The harvest structure also has changed. The 2023 hunting season in the Low Country begins March 22, near the peak of breeding season. No more than one tom may be shot on private lands between then and the 31st to prevent the harvest of too many gobblers before mating with hens. This is unique but could start a trend as turkey populations decline across the South.

Finding turkeys was never my issue on my friend's Estill lease. Those birds were semi-aquatic in the swamps, though. I watched a hen swim from one fallen gum tree to another one evening while roosting a gobbler who plopped into that impenetrable swamp the next morning, leaving me shaking my head and defeated. For a lifelong Osceola hunter, it rang all too familiar.

Fortunately, I did tag a pair of gobblers near the same swamp over Easter weekend of my 2021 revenge tour. As advertised, both birds sneaked into the decoys quietly to soft yelping from my scratch call. And I'm fortunate they did. Last year, the landowner sublet the turkey hunting rights out from under my buddy to another party for an untoward sum.

Such is life and modern reality for Low Country turkey hunters.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: South Carolina's Low Country popular spot for turkey hunting
North Korea has Dennis Rodman. Russia has Steven Seagal.

The Under Siege actor was awarded an Order of Friendship medal after continuously supporting President Vladimir Putin even amid the invasion of Ukraine. Seagal accused the United States government of spending billions of dollars on disinformation, lies in the media to try to discredit, demoralize, and destroy the emerging morale of Russia during an event held by the International Movement of Russians in Moscow (via The Independent).

More from IndieWire

Over half of the people in America actually love Russia and love Russians and know that theyre being lied to, Seagal said. My father was pure Russian, and I was raised in a pure Russian household, because my mother was completely immersed in the Russian culture and she did not have parents. So I grew up with Russian culture.

The Michigan native continued, I grew up loving Russia and loving all of what I learned about it from a very early age. And for me, I am one million percent Russophile and and one million percent Russian.

Seagal was named the Russian Foreign Ministrys special representative for Russian-American humanitarian relations in 2018. The Order of Friendship medal this year was to celebrate Seagals great contribution to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation, as Putin said.

In 2020, Seagal recorded a birthday message for Putin, saying, Today is President Putins birthday. I just think that we are now living in very, very trying times. He is one of the greatest world leaders and one the greatest presidents in the world. And I am really hoping and praying that he gets the support and the love and the respect that he needs. And that all the tribulations that are going on now will be over soon, and we will be living in a world of peace.

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For anyone to think that Vladimir Putin had anything to do with fixing the elections, or even that the Russians have that kind of technology, is stupid, Seagal also said. And this kind of propaganda is really a diversionso that the people in the United States of America wont really see whats happening.

Seagal was previously banned from Ukraine and deemed a threat to national security.

Best of IndieWire

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
In this image from Jordan Miller News, a fire burns in train cars Feb. 3 after a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

What happened in East Palestine, Ohio, is tragic, awful and deeply concerning.

We hope the residents get some answers and find a way forward. We also hope this accident means we can start to see change in the rail industry.

Its not impossible to fathom the next East Palestine could be in Kansas. Really, it could happen to any small town with a railway. Heck, it could happen to a big one, too.

Imagine if an accident like that happened in Newton, Auburn or Alma? Imagine if it happened in Topeka, Manhattan or Wichita? What could something like that mean for our communities? For our state?

We dont want to find out. And we need to do what we can to prevent it from happening.

The Topeka Capital-Journals Andrew Bahl reports states across the country are considering improvements to rail safety in the wake of the East Palestine accident. Nationally, 15 states have introduced legislation to limit train length, increase safety mechanisms and ensure adequate crew sizes.

In Kansas, these ideas have long been proposed but have not gotten much traction due to long-running legal concerns. But there are signs that might be changing.

Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick, who has long introduced legislation to increase rail safety, told Bahl the railroads need to be good neighbors.

Bahl also reports train derailments in Kansas are inevitable, finding 53 train derailments in the state between 2018 and 2021, an average of more than one per month. None were as serious as the Norfolk Southern accident in Ohio, but two people were injured as a result of the Kansas incidents and the derailments caused more than $8 million in damage.

Legislation in the Senate Transportation Committee would prohibit freight companies from running trains of over 8,500 feet in length. They also would be required to leave 250 feet between any rail crossings and cars being stored nearby.

The rail industry seems to believe this law wont hold up if passed.

Nevertheless, we appreciate the legislature for taking up the issue and giving it consideration.

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It's nice to see that local and state officials are asking questions, trying to be proactive in preventing derailments in Kansas. The legalese might make this difficult, but we wish them luck. It's too important not to try.

We want to make sure Kansas stays safe from avoidable disasters.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas leaders to must ensure rail safety after East Palestine crash
UBS is in talks about a merger with Credit Suisse. Arnd Wiegmann/Getty Images

UBS is in talks to acquire part or all of Credit Suisse, the Financial Times reported.

The talks come after a harrowing week for Credit Suisse, whose shares sank to a record low.

The likely merger of Switzerland's two largest banks comes a week after SVB collapsed.

Two of Switzerland's largest banks and their regulators are thrashing out a merger deal that could be fast-tracked by Switzerland, the Financial Times reported.

The Swiss National Bank and Swiss regulators brokered talks between UBS and its embattled smaller rival Credit Suisse as the only way of restoring confidence in the latter lender, the newspaper reported Friday.

Later Saturday, the Times cited people familiar with the situation, reporting that the country is ready to use emergency measures to facilitate a takeover by UBS of Credit Suisse. Typically, UBS would have to allow shareholders weeks before such a deal was made, but with emergency measures, that waiting period could be skipped.

Both UBS and Credit Suisse declined to comment to the FT and Bloomberg.

Outflows from Credit Suisse hit almost $11 billion a day late this week as confidence dwindled, two unnamed sources told the FT.

The boards of both banks were meeting this weekend, suggesting that a deal is imminent. But Bloomberg reported later on Saturday that according to sources, the investment banking and trading arms of the bank are sticking points for the two sides.

UBS was asking the Swiss government to cover some legal costs or other losses if a deal was done, Bloomberg reported citing unnamed sources. They suggested that UBS could buy its rival's wealth and asset management divisions, and sell the investment banking division.

Swiss regulators told their US and UK counterparts that a merger of UBS and Credit Suisse was their "plan A," per the FT. UBS posted a $7.6 billion profit last year and is in far better financial health than its smaller rival, which made a loss of $7.9 billion.

Deutsche Bank is also mulling whether parts of Credit Suisse might appeal and their potential value in the event of a breakup, Bloomberg reported. A representative for the bank declined to comment to the outlet.

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The FT also reported that BlackRock had explored making an offer for Credit Suisse, but a representative told Insider that it had "no interest" in acquiring part or all of the Swiss bank.

Talks about a UBS-Credit Suisse tie-up come just a week after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sent shockwaves throughout the banking sector as investors and deposit-holders feared other banks could be next.

Credit Suisse was hit particularly hard by investors' concerns since it's faced a slew of other challenges recently, including an announcement last week that it would delay its 2022 annual report after an inquiry from the SEC.

To make matters worse, this week, the Zurich-based bank's largest shareholder, Saudi National Bank, warned it would not be able to invest more cash into the bank without facing regulatory hurdles.

On Thursday, after shares of Credit Suisse hit a record low, the troubled bank said it had secured a $50 billion lifeline from the Swiss central bank.

However, shares fell a further 8% in Zurich Friday, valuing the bank at about $8.8 billion.

Read the original article on Business Insider
An Indian businessman (R) shops at the Yiwu International Trade Market in Yiwu City, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 2, 2023. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The 17th China Yiwu Cultural and Tourism Products Trade Fair will be held from March 31 to April 2 in the city of Yiwu, the world's leading small commodities market located in east China's Zhejiang Province, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

For the first time, this year's event will set up new zones for digital trade and Chinese fashion goods, said the ministry, adding that the event will bring audiences new experiences with new technologies, such as naked-eye 3D, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).

More than 3,300 standard booths will be set up, covering an exhibition area of over 60,000 square meters. The number of booths this year is 12 percent greater than last year, while the number of exhibited products stands at about 160,000, 7 percent more than the previous event. 
Members of the Ceatl Tonalli dance circle during a ceremonial dance in Seattle in 2017.
A Ruger AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, center, sits on display with other rifles on a wall in a gun shop in Lynnwood. A debate about guns at the state House in Olympia this past week veered into a confused, though revealing, discussion about "hypermasculinity" and the man-gun connection, writes columnist Danny Westneat. (Elaine Thompson / AP)
by Xin Ping

As the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) coincided with the one-year anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Ukraine issue inevitably came under the spotlight. The slogan "Stand With Ukraine" and weeping for the Ukrainian people more or less became "mealtime prayers" that featured regularly in HRC speeches, especially those of Western countries.

According to latest data of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 8,000 non-combatants have lost their lives and nearly 13,300 have been injured since the outbreak of the conflict. No doubt, victims of war deserve the sympathy and support of the entire world, and peace is the only option lying ahead of us.

Yet the way the West "stands with Ukraine" is awfully puzzling. Instead of calling for peace talks, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs James Cleverly mentioned explicitly the use of sanctions in his speech at the high-level segment of the HRC session. At a side event concerning Ukraine, some Western countries reaffirmed their support for Ukraine "no matter how long it takes" without mentioning peace talks, as if they were offering Ukraine sticks and asking Ukrainians to calm a bear's anger by poking it.

What's more puzzling is this fervor "to fight fire with fire" reached such a pitch that Ukraine supporters believe that the only way out of the crisis is not bringing Ukraine to the negotiating table, but to the battlefield to fight until the very last Ukrainian.

For them, even the slightest allusion to dialogue and peace talks is tagged as "pro-Russian" and "soft," while supporting Ukraine to fight an endless war has become the touchstone of a country's respect for democracy and human rights. Those countries who dare to suggest otherwise are arbitrarily labelled as "authoritarian" and must be denounced.

Even worse, lavish offers of military aid have become a requisite for Western countries to "defend democracy and freedom." While some countries are still wearing the fig leaf of providing "non-lethal support," others have clamored for "no limits" on military aid. In the past year, the European Union spent a whopping 3.6 billion euros on Ukraine, and the United States, a true warmonger, frittered away 31.8 billion U.S. dollars of taxpayers' money. A month ago, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Ukraine and brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a new 450-million-euro assistance package, beaming as if incognizant of the ravages of weapons and war.

For many countries, the year 2022 was not an easy one. Ukraine, whose economy was paralyzed, finance collapsed and manpower was in shortage, muddled along on Western aid. Russia suffered heavily from extreme sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies. The United States was faced with the dilemma of whether to keep carrying the unbearably heavy burden of assisting Ukraine or to fall down on its promise. Europe ended up being a battlefield again more than seven decades after World War II, hurry-scurry with soaring energy prices, capital flight and public discontent.

"To fight fire with fire" is not and should never be the answer to the Ukraine crisis. Otherwise, why does humanity assemble negotiating tables and establish international mechanisms and initiatives supporting dialogues? We live in an age rife with challenges, but also full of hope. Human civilization has lasted for 10,000 years. Undoubtedly, there is a wiser way to achieve a lasting peace in the world.

Editor's note: Xin Ping is a commentator on international affairs, writing regularly for CGTN, Global Times, Xinhua News Agency, etc. He can be reached at xinping604@gmail.com

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Xinhua News Agency.
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UNITED NATIONS, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Martin Griffiths, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said Friday the world body is doing "everything possible" to ensure the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

On July 22, 2022, Russia and Ukraine separately signed a document in Istanbul with Turkiye and the United Nations on grain and fertilizer exports from Ukraine and Russia to ensure supplies to global markets amid the Russia-Ukraine armed conflict.

The deal, initially in effect for 120 days, was extended in mid-November 2022 for another 120 days to March 18.

"Right now, the United Nations, under the leadership of our secretary-general, is doing everything possible to make sure that the Black Sea Grain Initiative can continue," Griffiths told a Security Council meeting on the situation in Ukraine, convened a day before the deal is set to expire.

"We continue to engage closely with all parties," he said via a video link.

Russia and the United Nations also signed a parallel memorandum of understanding in July 2022 to facilitate unimpeded exports of Russian food and fertilizer.

The signing of those agreements was a critical step in the broader fight against global food and security crisis, especially in developing countries, Griffiths said.

"As a result, markets have been calmed and global food prices have indeed continued to fall," he said, noting that under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, close to 25 million metric tons of foodstuffs have been safely exported from Ukraine since August.

The World Food Programme has been able to transport more than half a million metric tons of wheat to support humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen, Griffiths added.

Early this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said Russia agreed to extend the grain export deal by 60 days, after talks with UN representatives in Geneva.

Russia "does not object to another extension of the 'Black Sea Initiative' after its second term expiration on March 18, but only for 60 days," Vershinin said in a statement. 
Let's be grateful that Ron DeSantis devotes so much of his time raging over drag queens and bragging how he punished Disney for disagreeing with him. An obsessive pursuit of "woke" has kept the Florida governor and apparent presidential candidate from mucking around serious matters. But, sadly, not always.

DeSantis shocked many foreign policy experts, including some in his Republican Party, after characterizing Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a mere territorial dispute between two countries and of not much import to America. Cozying up to Tucker Carlson, DeSantis obediently mimicked the Fox News celebrity's on-air opinion, whether the governor and/or Carlson believed it and/or not.

When Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, then-Rep. DeSantis offered a very different view. "We in the Congress have been urging the president, I've been, to provide arms to Ukraine," he said back then. "They want to fight their good fight."

For DeSantis, spending grown-up time on a threat to the Western alliance might seem an unwanted distraction from his main theme of waging a comic-book war against "woke." For example, his administration has just revoked the Hyatt Regency Miami's alcohol license because it hosted "A Drag Queen Christmas."

The theatrical displeasure centered on the presence of young people in the audience. That the minors had to be accompanied by an adult did not apparently matter to the ministers of Miami morality. To DeSantis, the parental right to make such judgements is a sometimes thing, rhetoric to the contrary.

How fortunate that "Some Like It Hot" was made in 1959 and not 2023. It has Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon dressed in drag to hide from the mob as they scamper through the "Seminole Ritz Hotel" in Miami. Their exaggerated portrayals of women are hilarious to those with an intact sense of humor.

In one scene, Osgood Fielding III, a besotted rich yachtsman played by Joe E. Brown, proposes marriage to Lemon dressed as "Daphne." An exasperated Lemmon pulls off his wig and declares, "I'm a man!" to which Brown replies, "Well, nobody's perfect."

One can't imagine such gender-bending horseplay getting by the censors in a DeSantis-ized Miami.

Did the movie include performers "wearing sexually suggesting clothing" as specified in the charges against the Hyatt's drag queen show? It did, but the performer was Marilyn Monroe singing "I Wanna Be Loved By You" in an almost-dress, her gender identification unmistakable.

If Shakespeare's works are not to the Florida governor's taste, just as well. Some of the bard's female characters disguised themselves as men. And back in Elizabethan days, male actors took on female roles because women were not allowed on the stage. The term "in drag" originally referred to male actors wearing long skirts that dragged on the stage floor.

DeSantis might want to address the Bugs Bunny problem. On over 40 occasions, the "wacky wabbit" cavorts in female dress, most memorably as the Brazilian samba queen, Carmen Miranda.

We also had Donald Duck playing a "femme fatale" in "The Three Caballeros," a cartoon that sailed by the censors in 1944. Donald Duck is a product of the evil Disney studios, so going after him might seem a win-win in the DeSantis mindset.

The big risk for DeSantis is making his opponent Donald Trump seem deep by comparison. Trump was in Iowa talking about ethanol. He warned that DeSantis was against Social Security. "That's a bad one," Trump added, rubbing it in.

As bystanders in the political farce consuming much of the Republican race for president, we can give thanks that DeSantis has decided to battle against the sinister forces of wokeness and leave the important issues pretty much alone.

But too bad about Miami. It used to be fun.
A man identified has Shehari Choudari has been arrested by the authorities at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, for smoking in the toilet on an Indigo flight, reports IANS. As per the report, the incident took place on Saturday, March 18, 2023, when the accused was travelling on an Assam-Bengaluru IndiGo Flight 6E 716. The accused passenger had smoked in the toilet while the flight was in the air, endangering the safety of other passengers.

The crew of the IndiGo flight noticed the smell in the toilet and reported it to the authorities. Upon landing at the Bengaluru International Airport, the airport police arrested one person identified as Shehari Choudari. He was taken into custody as soon as he got down at the Bengaluru airport.

As per IANS, the incident had taken place at 1.30 AM on Saturday morning and the airport police have taken up investigation in this regard. This is one of the many incidents of passenger smoking inside the flight.



In the first week of March, a 24-year-old woman was caught smoking in the toilet on an Indigo flight from Kolkata. She was arrested on her arrival in Bengaluru and was later released on bail.

Multiple incidents of smoking on international flights have been reported as well, the majority being witnessed on Air India.
An IndiGo flight transporting passengers from Ranchi-Pune made an emergency landing at the Nagpur airport after one of the passengers onboard had a medical emergency, as per an airport official on Friday. About 10 p.m. on Thursday, he claimed, Flight 6E 672 was diverted to the Nagpur airport, adding that the passenger was transferred to a hospital where he was later confirmed dead.

Clarifying the situation, the Indian carrier gave a statement informing that the passenger was provided with medical assistance but did not survive. "The passenger was unconscious on the flight and was rushed to the hospital for medical assistance but unfortunately did not survive," the airline's spokesperson said in a statement.

Also read: Vistara To Shift Flight Ops At Bengaluru International Airport To New Terminal 2 From March 26

Recently there have been multiple instances of passengers dying during flights. Previously, a Delhi-Doha IndiGo flight had to make an emergency landing in Karachi, Pakistan, because of a medical emergency. The ill passenger was then provided medical assistance at the airport, where he was declared dead. Following this, the flight was parked for around 5 hours at the Jinnah International Airport and then was allowed to take off for its return to Delhi.

The passenger became ill while aboard, and the captain requested an emergency landing at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, according to officials with the Civil Aviation Authority in that city.

Even before that, a Madurai-Delhi IndiGo flight made an emergency landing at Indore's Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport after the health of a 60-year-old passenger onboard deteriorated mid-journey. After landing, the passenger was rushed to the hospital for medical assistance but was declared brought dead by the medical staff. It was known that the passenger suffered from heart disease, which led to his demise.

With PTI Inputs
Jatin Pratap Singh, a famous fashion model and Digital Content Creator, has been an inspiration and role model for many youngsters around the world. Because of his hard work over the years, the charming boy has a fan base of over a million on social media.

Jatin has grown to become a well-known name in lifestyle and fashion blogging. All of his efforts are finally paying off, and one proof is his 4 years milestone in his social media journey.

His style and personality have always been able to spark an interest in his audience, encouraging him to continue his journey and explore more. We can all agree that it is an undeniable fact that he has become a brand of his own. But the journey has not been that smooth at all for Jatin. Not many people know that Jatin had always dreamt to be in limelight but his dad always wanted him to pursue medical and to fulfil his dads dream, he started preparing for his medical entrance. But due to lack of interest and seeing all his other friends growing, Jatin joined a hotel management course.

Jatin went from being a small-time blogger to a full-fledged content creator, he is a true example of how one should never give up on their dreams.

Talking about what motivates him to be positive all the time, he reveals It is an ongoing process. There are days when I am super happy all the time and there are even days when even a small minor thing affects me. There was a time when I had no motivation to do anything. My world was constricted, and I felt like tight. I think it is quite natural to feel that way as its a human tendency. I keep myself surrounded by loved ones. They keep me sane and grounded.
New Delhi: In a bid to intensify a sustainable and healthy food chain in the Middle East, leading processed food producer IFFCO Group on Friday opened the region's first 100 per cent plant based meat factory here. Located in Dubai Industrial City, the THRYVE factory will provide nourishing, sustainable and healthy local plant-based meat products inspired by the unique flavours of Middle Eastern cuisine.

Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, said the 100 per cent plant-based meat factory supports the UAE's Food Security Strategy and our mandate to mitigate the impact of climate change. The opening of this innovative new facility also supports our efforts to protect the country's ecosystems and enhance its food and water security and diversify our food sources, she said, adding that the new factory represents a significant contribution to sustainability in the food supply chain.

Hadi Badri, CEO of the Dubai Economic Development Corporation at Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism said: It contributes to Dubai's economic diversification journey in line with the goal of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33 to consolidate the emirate's status as one of the top three global cities.

The THRYVE plant-based venture, developed using cutting-edge food technology, contributes to at least three UN SDG's: good health and well-being, responsible consumption and production and and climate action.
MUMBAI: The official poster of actors Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed's upcoming series 'Barzakh' was unveiled by the makers ahead of its global premiere at the Series Mania festival in France. A Zindagi Original, the Pakistani show is directed by Asim Abbasi of 'Churails' and produced by Shailja Kejriwal. The series will see Fawad, one of the most popular actors in the sub-continent, in the role of a single parent battling guilt and loss.

Sanam plays the central female character who is mysterious as well as compassionate in the show which blends together magical realism and supernatural fantasy within a family reunion setting, and deals with themes of love, loss and reconciliation.

'Barzakh', which translates as 'obstacle' or 'purgatory', will be screened as part of International Panorama line-up, a 12-title competitive section and is also nominated in several categories such as Best Series, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor as well as the Student Jury award and the Audience award.

"Coinciding with our Series Mania premiere, our poster that we now reveal to the world offers an early glimpse into what can be expected from the series - abstract beauty and ambiguity that reflects the complexities in navigating human relationships in a post-modern world," Khan said in a statement. Saeed, who earlier worked with Khan in the popular Pakistani drama ?Zindagi Gulzar Hai?, said it feels surreal to attend the Series Mania festival.

"'Barzakh' is a story that I connected with from the minute I heard it and in Asim Abbasi's hands, it's been crafted into a moving, beautiful series that will renew our faith in love and life.

"It's what led me to not only take on the challenging role but also made me look at life in a different light. It is very different from what we have seen on screen and all the actors have performed extremely different diverse roles," she added.

Held annually at Lille in France, the Series Mania festival, since its inception in 2010, has been instrumental in recognising and curating the best series across the world.

According to Abbasi, "Barzakh" explores the themes of love and memory. "We wanted a visual that represented love in its eternal manifestation, but, which like memory, also had a fleeting, ephemeral quality about ? like time slipping by and evaporating around us, leaving behind a distant, but vivid, memory of the moment it all began," he said.

Producer Kejriwal said 'Barzakh' is the first ever Indo-Pak cross-border series to premiere at a global stage. "Amidst the excitement, we are extremely proud to be presenting the series poster - as enigmatic and as beautiful as the series we have collectively created. This has been a genuine labour of love that has transcended borders, signified by the fact that we will be premiering to a wholly international audience that has gathered from across the globe," she added.

'Zindagi Gulzar Hai' had introduced Fawad and Sanam to Indian audiences and continues to be one of the most loved Pakistani dramas in the country, followed by Fawad and Mahira Khan's 'Humsafar'.

Abbasi shot to global fame with his Netflix film 'Cake' and gained further acclaim with Zindagi show 'Churails', a show that told stories of women from different strata of Karachi and how they come together to fight social evils through a secret detective agency.
Pro-Khalistani Amritpal Singh has been detained from Punjab's Nakodar. Singh, who heads the radical organisation named Waris Punjab De, has been making headlines these days for all the wrong reasons. As per the reports, Amritpal Singh's six other supporters have also been detained from Punjab's Jalandhar district.

Amritpal Singh's "open challenges" to the government, pressers with armed men guarding him, and a look like separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale have left the nation shocked. Amritpal Singh is the head of Sikh extremist organisation 'Waris Punjab De' - a small group of people who call themselves followers of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala - the separatist leader who was killed in Operation Blue Star in the year 1984. Amritpal, who used to live overseas for past many years, took over as the new chief of Waris Punjab De after the death of its former president Deep Sidhu in a road accident. The event which saw Amritpal Singh's anointment was held in Jarnail Singh Bhindrawala's village Rode in Moga district.

Amritpal, who is a resident of Jandupur Khera village in Amritsar, was appointed as the new head of the organization just four months ago. The 'Waris Punjab De' organization - a group of armed extremists - was formed by Deep Sidhu, an accused in Delhi violence. Amritpal joined the "pressure group" amid pro-Khalistan slogans, and called upon the Sikh youth to get ready for the "next war".

Amritpal, who had moved to Dubai in 2012 along with his family, returned to Punjab in August 2022. Recently, a case of kidnapping and assault has been registered against Amritpal and 25 others. This comes after a Sikh preacher named Varinder Singh uploaded a video accusing Amritpal and his followers of kidnapping and beating him up.

Amritpal married a NRI woman on February 11, who is living with him in Punjab now. Amritpal holds a resemblance to Bhindranwale and also dresses like him.

He had also opposed agricultural laws during the farmer's movement, which was also joined by Deep Sidhu.

Live TV
February 23 can be termed a black day in history for Punjab Police. It was on this day when supporters of Khalistani preacher Amritpal Singh broke into Ajnala Police Station to get Lovepreet Singh freed. The Punjab Police could not have felt so helpless ever while the Ajnala incident brought disgrace to the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government as well. While the opposition parties criticised the Mann government, the chief minister maintained that the situation is under control. A week later, on March 2, CM Bhagwant Mann met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi laying the foundation for crackdown on Amripal Singh.

What Happened on February 23?

The Punjab Police had registered cases against Singh and his supporters in Ajnala for alleged hate speech. Singh gained more prominence in February this year when a man complained alleging he had been kidnapped and beaten by the associates of the radical preacher. An FIR was registered against Amritpal Singh and six of his associates. Police later arrested one Lovepreet Singh Toofan, a close associate of Amritpal, in the matter.

On February 23, self-styled Sikh preacher and Khalistan sympathiser Amritpal Singh and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, broke through barricades and barged into a police station in Ajnala, extracting an assurance from the police that his aide and kidnapping case accused Lovepreet Singh would be released. The Punjab Police said on February 24 that the demonstrators had used the holy Guru Granth Sahib as a shield and attacked police personnel in a cowardly manner, leaving six of them injured. Lovepreet Singh walked out of jail on February 24.

What Happened In March 2 Meeting Between Bhagwant Mann and Amit Shah?

During the meeting, Mann discussed the law and order situation with Shah. Mann reportedly told Shah about the circumstances leading to the Ajnala incident. The chief minister said he had discussed with the home minister the issue of drones and drugs along the border. He said the issue of shifting the barbed wire along the border was also discussed. Shah then ordered the dispatch of about 1,900 personnel of the CRPF and its specialised anti-riot unit to Punjab for strengthening the security grid. Out of the 18 continents, eight are drawn from the anti-riot Rapid Action Force (RAF) while the rest are regular ones. To maintain the secrecy of the operation, it was said that the companies will assist the state police in security duties during the three-day Sikh festival of 'Hola Mohalla' that was celebrated between March 8-10.

The central government officials had said the Union Home Ministry has been "closely monitoring" the situation in Punjab in the wake of renewed activities of some Khalistani supporters. Dubai-returned Amritpal Singh was last year anointed head of 'Waris Punjab De', which was founded by actor and activist Deep Sidhu who died in a road accident in February last year.

What Transpired After 'Hola Mohalla' Leading To Crackdown On Amritpal Singh Today?

The Centre and the Punjab governments wanted the festival to happen peacefully. Meanwhile, the security agencies kept zeroing in on the movements of the Khalistani leader. The security agencies had planned to arrest the radical preacher after meetings of the G20 which concluded yesterday. Today, the Punjab Police in collaboration with the CRPF-RAF, launched a crackdown against radical preacher Amritpal Singh. Internet services were suspended across Punjab as police launched the crackdown.



Amripal's cavalcade was intercepted by police in Mehatpur village in Jalandhar district today. Some supporters of 'Waris Punjab De' chief shared some videos on social media claiming that policemen were chasing them. A video also showed Amritpal sitting in a vehicle and one of his aides could be heard saying policemen were after 'Bhai Saab (Amritpal). Another supporter in a field shared a video in which he was claiming that policemen were after him.

According to reports, while police has arrested many supporters of Amritpal Singh, the radical preacher is still on the run after a dramatic chase that took place when his convoy was on way to Jalandhar's Shahkot tehsil. Punjab Police said that a massive manhunt has been launched to nab him.
Chandigarh: The Punjab Police on Saturday launched a huge state-wide cordon and search operation against 'Waris Punjab De' members. As per police, 78 individuals have been apprehended, with many more being detained. Several others, including Amritpal Singh, have fled and a massive manhunt has been initiated to apprehend them.

The police claimed that it has so far seized nine weapons, including one.315 bore rifle, seven 12 bore rifles, one revolver, and 373 live rounds of various calibers during the statewide operation. Waris Punjab De are involved in four criminal cases involving inciting hatred between classes, attempting to kill, attacking police officers, and impeding the lawful performance of public servants' duties feature de elements. FIR stands registered for the attack on Ajnala Police Station.

Meanwhile, internet services have been suspended till 12 pm Sunday, said a senior official of the Home affairs department. Amripal's cavalcade was reportedly intercepted by police in Mehatpur village in Jalandhar district on Saturday. Though he managed to escape, six of his supporters were learnt to have been detained. Some supporters of 'Waris Punjab De' chief shared some videos on social media claiming that policemen were chasing them.

A video also showed Amritpal sitting in a vehicle and one of his aides could be heard saying policemen were after 'Bhai saab' (Amritpal). Another supporter in a field shared a video in which he was claiming that policemen were after him.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Police asked people to maintain peace and harmony. "Request all citizens to maintain peace & harmony. Punjab Police is working to maintain Law & Order. Request citizens not to panic or spread fake news or hate speech," it said in a tweet.

Punjab Police has launched action against Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh and his aides. Details awaited. pic.twitter.com/mhrlf6HY7A  ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2023

Last month, Amritpal and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, broke through barricades and barged into the Ajnala Police Station on the outskirts of the Amritsar city, and clashed with police for the release of one of Amritpal's aide.

All mobile internet services, all SMS services (except banking & mobile recharge) & all dongle services provided on mobile networks, except the voice call, in the territorial jurisdiction of Punjab shall be suspended from 18th March (12:00 hours) to 19th March (12:00 hours) in https://t.co/NN3LeXoRZt pic.twitter.com/z3vXg4v158 March 18, 2023

During the incident, six policemen including a Superintendent of Police rank officer had suffered injuries.

Amritpal Singh said in an interview with ANI that incident and subsequent release of Lovepreet Singh will "change the course of the future". Amritpal Singh said "Punjab Police acted in a hurry based on wrong intelligence reports and authorities gave false information about him that he does not have support. "When I am going to the public, this could happen any day if you have enough evidence to charge me."
NEW DELHI: Radical preacher Amritpal Singh, who is on the run following a police crackdown, has been maintaining close links with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and some terrorist groups based abroad, official sources said on Saturday. Amritpal Singh, who had even issued a veiled threat to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has been trying to destabilise the situation in Punjab by indoctrinating and attracting the Sikh youth into the fold of his outfit "Waris Punjab De".

The radical preacher is believed to be a close associate of UK-based Khalistani terrorist Avtar Singh Khanda. Khanda is believed to behind Amritpal Singh's meteoric rise, sources said.

Khanda is a trusted lieutenant of leader of the banned Babbar Khalsa International Paramjit Singh Pamma, who often holds theoretical training classes for the Sikh youth to radicalise them.

Also Read: Crackdown On Amritpal Singh: Special Punjab Police Team, 18 CRPF-RAF Companies, 19,000 Personnel - How Bhagwant Mann, Amit Shah Planned To Hunt Down Khalistani Leader

The trio have been aiming to destabilise Punjab by ideological indoctrination of the Sikh youth with extremist views, they said.

Khanda gives online demonstrations from Birmingham and Glasgow on how to make improvised explosive devices by using commonly available chemicals.

Amritpal Singh also has links with chief of the International Sikh Youth Federation Lakhbir Singh Rode, who is wanted in India in cases of smuggling of arms and explosives, including RDX, conspiracy to attack government leaders in New Delhi and spreading hatred in Punjab.

When Amritpal Singh was in Dubai, he was in close touch with Rode's brother Jaswant.

The radical preacher was known for asking his comrades to stay armed and he formed a new group called Anandpur Khalsa Army (AKF). This group is always around him with dangerous weapons, they said.

Amritpal Singh, who was a transport operator in Dubai, came in contact with the ISI there, sources said.

The agents of the ISI believed to have told him to motivate the innocent young Sikhs in the name of religion.

After coming to Punjab, at the behest of the ISI, Amritpal Singh tried to spread the influence of his group 'Waris Punjab De'.

Later, he launched a campaign called 'Khalsa Waheer' and strengthened his organisation by going to villages.

He stirred up the issues of Punjab and started inciting the Sikhs against the Government of India.

He has been successful in getting people to do what he wanted under the guise of religion and this helped the ISI to carry out its design in Punjab, they said.

Amritpal Singh was anointed the head of the 'Waris Punjab De' following the death of its founder - actor and activist Deep Sidhu - in a road accident in February last year. The event was held at Moga's Rode, the native village of slain militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

A major police crackdown was underway in Punjab against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his supporters over charges of spreading communal tension in the state.
Photo taken on Aug. 4, 2022 shows the White House and a stop sign in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

No matter what the United States will do to defend its position, the international community can now easily see that Washington does not want to see an end to the conflict it has done so much to foster and escalate all along.

by Xinhua writer Guo Yage



BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Russia from March 20 to 22 at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

Xi's visit to Russia will be a trip of friendship, cooperation and peace, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Friday in a daily news briefing.

He also reiterated China's position on the ongoing Ukraine crisis, saying that "China will continue to uphold its objective and just position on the Ukraine crisis and play a constructive role in promoting peace talks."

Surprisingly, or not, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby responded by saying that Washington opposed a possible call by China for a ceasefire in Ukraine because it would allow Russia to "restart attacks."

No matter what the United States will do to defend its position, the international community can now easily see that Washington does not want to see an end to the conflict it has done so much to foster and escalate all along.

Moreover, the United States is apparently not willing to see a political solution to the crisis, nor does it want to see that both sides can settle for peace.

Although Washington always tries to portray itself as a sympathizer with the weak, that is certainly not who it is. The fact is that the United States, together with its allies, are piling up military assistance to Ukraine, and would rather let the conflict-torn Ukrainians continue to suffer from the bloody crisis until their last drop of blood is spilled than put a stop to the conflict.

People inspect the aftermath of shelling of the city market in Donetsk, Dec. 12, 2022. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua)

It might seem cold-blooded and even self-contradictory. Yet if you take a deeper look into why it is so, you can find that the United States as a matter of fact takes the crisis as a business in which it can make a big fortune.

To be more specific, Washington, by prolonging the conflict, can weaken Russia and force Europe to further rely on the United States in security matters so that it can consolidate its hegemony. Plus, it can also profit enormously from the crisis. The recent news claiming that the United States was responsible for explosions of the Nord Stream pipelines can tell so much.

According to the latest data from market research firm Kepler, in the context of the escalating crisis in Ukraine, natural gas transmission channels of Russia-Europe pipelines have been restricted, and the demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the EU has surged.

Specifically, the EU's LNG imports from the United States increased by 23.59 million tons compared with 2021, a year-on-year rise of 154 percent.

The world has suffered terribly because of an egoistic and self-serving United States. Because of the conflict, the Ukrainians have lost hugely; the Europeans are dragged into a quagmire, and the world is being forced to be separated along an ideological divide. Moreover, the food, energy and financial crises the conflict has triggered continue to wreak havoc.

Now it is increasingly clear that to pursue its self-interests, Washington can do anything, like stalling peace efforts and opposing a ceasefire. To be a responsible major country, the United States should stop being the destroyer of peace and creator of crises, shift to the right side of history, and help bring this disaster to an end. 
New Delhi: Delhi woke up to cooler weather on Saturday (March 18) morning as it rained lightly late at night. After the drizzle, cloudy skies and cold winds were also observed in the capital city. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) reported on Friday that several parts of the country may experience rainfall and thunderstorms from March 17 to March 20.

A sudden change of weather swathes Delhi, as rain lashes several parts of the national capital. Visuals from the India Gate area. pic.twitter.com/rwhqT0XtRs  ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2023

According to the IMD, states including Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan are likely to experience light to moderate rainfall, along with thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds in this period.

In Delhi, light rainfall is expected again on Sunday (March 19). "Thunderstorms with light to moderate intensity rain would occur over and adjoining areas of Kaithal, Narwana (Haryana). Light to moderate intensity rain would occur over and adjoining areas of isolated places of Delhi (Alipur, Burari, Karawal Nagar)"

"Civil Lines, Seelampur, Vivek Vihar, IGI Airport, NCR (Loni Dehat, Hindon AF Station, Gurugram, Manesar) Deoband, Najibabad, Shamli, Bijnaur, Chandpur, Bagpat, Meerut, Khekra, Modinagar (U.P.) during next 2 hours," tweeted Regional Met Centre New Delhi

The Chennai Regional Meteorological Centre of IMD predicted thunderstorms and lightning for the city on Friday night. The IMD stated that light to moderate rain with thunderstorms and lightning may occur in certain districts of Tamil Nadu, including Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Erode, Salem, Coimbatore, Thiruppur, Theni, Dindigul, Madurai, Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi, Thirunelveli, and Kanyakumari, within the next three hours.

Additionally, the weather department warned that light to moderate rainfall is possible in certain areas of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

On March 17, the IMD's Mumbai Regional Meteorological Centre had predicted thunderstorms and lightning in Maharashtra. The IMD also urged people to take necessary precautions in preparation for the upcoming wet and stormy weather.
NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said he does not see a "middle path" to end the logjam in Parliament as the Opposition's demand for a JPC probe into the Adani issue was "non-negotiable" and the question of an apology over Rahul Gandhi's remarks in the UK does not arise. In an interview with PTI, Ramesh said the government is rattled by 16 Opposition parties coming together to demand a joint parliamentary probe into the Adani issue and is resorting to a "3D orchestrated campaign -- distort, defame and divert".

The former Union minister also hit out at BJP MP Nishikant Dubey's efforts to seek termination of Rahul Gandhi's membership of Lok Sabha over his remarks in the UK, saying all this was "intimidation" and part of efforts to distract from the real issues.

The remarks by the Congress general secretary in-charge communications comes amid the logjam in Parliament over Gandhi's remarks during his recent trip to the UK, with both houses failing to transact any significant business on the first five days of the budget session's second half.

Also on Friday, Home Minister Amit Shah said the current logjam in Parliament can be resolved if the Opposition comes forward for talks and that the government will go "two steps ahead" if the Opposition takes "two steps forward".

Asked if there is any chance of finding a middle path to break the current logjam in Parliament with the BJP sticking to its demand of Rahul Gandhi's apology and Congress seeking a JPC probe into the Adani issue, Ramesh said, "I don't see any middle path because our demand for a JPC is non-negotiable and the question of an apology does not arise."

"In order to divert attention from this legitimate and reasonable demand for a JPC, the BJP is insisting on an apology. An apology for what, the current prime minister (Narendra Modi) has repeatedly in China, Germany, South Korea and in various parts of the world used forums to raise domestic political issues and to criticise his political opponents. He should be making an apology why should Rahul Gandhi be making any apology for highlighting what the state of democracy is in our country today," he said.

There is an "undeclared emergency" prevailing in the country, Ramesh alleged.

Asked about the BJP's charge that Gandhi sought intervention of foreign countries, the Congress leader dismissed the charge, calling it "absolute bunkum and nonsense".

He argued that whatever Gandhi said in the UK is a matter of record with its videos and transcripts available.

"He (Gandhi) is very clear, he said 'India's problems have to be solved internally through the electoral process, these are internal issues'. But he also said democracy in India is a public good and if India is democratic, not only India benefits but the world also benefits," Ramesh said.

"This is a canard, an absolute lie that is being propagated by the BJP," he said of the BJP's foreign intervention charge.

Whatever remarks are being attributed to the former Congress chief, he never said it, Ramesh said.

"What the BJP has been doing in the past couple of days is that it is distorting Mr Rahul Gandhi's remarks in order to divert. This is the 3D orchestrated strategy of Mr Modi -- distort, defame and divert. Why divert, because there is growing evidence daily of the complicity of the establishment, the PM himself, in this massive scam of Adani in which crores and crores of rupees of public institutions LIC, SBI and other financial institutions are involved and crores of crores of Indians are suffering because of this cronyism," Ramesh alleged.

Asked about BJP MP Dubey's demanded that Gandhi be expelled from the House for his remarks in the UK, Ramesh said, "This is intimidation. If they want to give a motion to the Speaker, they are welcome to do so. Mr Gandhi will reply."

According to rule 357, Gandhi is allowed a personal explanation in Parliament, Ramesh said, citing that in 2015, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad was allowed a personal explanation in response to some remarks made against him by Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was in the Congress back then.

"Yesterday, for almost 15 minutes the microphones went off, it was collective mute," he alleged.

Later, in a tweet, Ramesh hit out at Shah over his remarks Friday of lndira Gandhi refusing to discuss domestic politics abroad.

"Amit Shah says that Indira Gandhi & Atal Bihari Vajpayee never took domestic politics abroad. He is right. The man who started criticising India all over the world was Shah's Saheb beginning in 2014," he said and attached a video montage of some of Modi's remarks during his visits abroad.

On disruption rather than debate becoming the norm, Ramesh said the Opposition does not have a say as it is also not allowed to discuss issues such as Adani, China as well as economic matters.

"One of the fundamental rules of a parliamentary democracy is that the Opposition must have its say and the government will have its way. We know we don't have the numbers in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha but we are not even allowed to have our say and now efforts are being made to tarnish the Opposition's (image), saying that Opposition is responsible (for the adjournments)," he said.

Ramesh said that it was the treasury benches that forced the adjournments, and not the Opposition.

"Normally, it is the Opposition protests that force adjournments, here it is the government that is forcing the adjournment because it is not interested in any debate or any discussion," he claimed.

During his interactions in the UK, Gandhi alleged that the structures of Indian democracy are under attack and there is a "full-scale assault" on the country's institutions. He also told British parliamentarians in London that microphones are often "turned off" in the Lok Sabha when an opposition member raises important issues.

Gandhi's remarks triggered a political slugfest, with the BJP accusing him of maligning India on foreign soil and seeking foreign interventions, and the Congress hitting back at the ruling party by citing instances of Modi raising internal politics abroad.
New Delhi: With the help of overseas Sikh separatists, Pakistan's external spy agency ISI has been the brain behind pushing Amritpal Singh back to India with an aim to revive terrorism in Punjab, according to officials. Singh, aged around 30, was a truck driver in Dubai before the ISI, with the help of Khalistan supporters based outside India, radicalised him so that he could plunge Punjab again into the dark days of terrorism, they said. Threatening Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Punjab Chief Minister Bagwant Singh Mann, the radical Sikh preacher had been openly making statements about declaring secession from India and forming Khalistan. He spoke about former prime minister Indira Gandhi and chief minister Beant Singh who were assassinated by terrorists.

While Gandhi was shot dead by her own guards, Beant Singh was killed by Dilawar Singh, who acted as a human bomb. The radical preacher claimed that many Dilawars were ready in the current scenario of Punjab. Be it his rally at Tarn Taran on this year's Republic Day or his media interviews, he had openly supported separatism and the formation of Khalistan.

Also Read: Punjab Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira Urges CM Bhagwant Mann To Not Charge Amritpal Singh Under UAPA, NSA

He incited the Sikh youths to resort to armed rebellion against the democratically elected governments in order to oppose the supposedly discriminatory treatment being mete to achieve the 'ultimate goal' of the formation of 'Khalistan', the officials said.

During a function at Rode in Moga district, Singh had said that governments run by non-Sikh have no right to rule over the people of Punjab and that the people of Punjab must be ruled over only by Sikhs. He has been styling himself on the lines of terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was killed during Operation Blue Star in 1984, by copying his attire, mannerisms, carrying an arrow, keeping a battery of armed bodyguards and taking the shield of religion.

Singh, who is at present on the run, is also alleged to have links with Lakhbir Singh Rode, head of the International Sikh Youth Federation who is sought for trial in India and wanted in cases of Arms Smuggling (including RDX explosive), conspiracy to attack government leaders in New Delhi and spreading hatred in Punjab.

Tracking his movements, the officials said that Singh, during his stay in Dubai, was in close touch with Rode's brother Jaswant. Having made his comeback to Punjab at the behest of ISI, Singh took the help of Amrit Sanchar to set up his organisation. Later he launched a campaign called 'Khalsa Waheer' and strengthened his organisation by going to the villages, they said.

He stirred up the issues of Punjab and started inciting the Sikhs against the government by invoking religion. "The lower strata of society and aimless youth became an easy target of Singh and he started exploiting the sentiments in the name of religion," a source said.

In the name of organising Amritpan Ceremonies to baptise Sikh youth and connect them with religion, his attempt was to make an army of disenchanted youth who were ready to take on the state, officials alleged. Not considering the sanctity of pious places like Gurdwara, his so-called army vandalised two Gurdwaras for keeping some furniture for the elderly and disabled people to sit, they said.

According to the officials, his main aim was to push Punjab towards dark decades of militancy which have been overcome by great difficulty and a lot of sacrifices. The officials claimed that the organisation headed by Singh was getting funds from Pakistan.

The radical Sikh preacher had taken over the control of accounts of Waris Punjab De with the help of his uncle Harjit Singh, thus making it a family-run organisation. They said the so-called preacher had been using Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji during his February agitation for his personal interests and was considered as a kind of blasphemy.

This act of Singh was condemned by the entire Sikh community and after the incident, Shri Akal Takht Sahib formed a committee and ordered an investigation into the matter. The officials alleged that Singh went to Jathedar Akal Takht and threatened him to remain silent.

Singh had said in a statement that the Ajnala incident is "not violence" and also threatened to unleash "real violence" in the future.

(The above article is sourced from news agency PTI. Zee News has made no editorial changes to the article. News agency PTI is solely responsible for the contents of the article)
New Delhi: The highly-decomposed body of a 66-year-old man from Mauritius was found close to an underpass in the Geeta Colony area here, police said on Saturday. The deceased has been identified as Bagwath Lutchmee, a resident of Mauritius, they added.

Lutchmee came to India on February 6 on a tourist visa and his body was found on Friday evening after a passerby informed police, they said.

Delhi | A highly decomposed body of a foreign national born in 1956 was found near an underpass in Geeta Colony area. Passport and other documents have also been recovered from the spot. Further investigation is underway: DCP Shahdara, Rohit Meena (17.03) pic.twitter.com/wx7ygugtqA  ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2023

The body seemed to be two to three days old. It has been preserved in a hospital.

Teams have been formed and a probe has been launched, a senior police officer said, adding that they are visiting the areas where the deceased had gone before his death for inquiry purposes.
New Delhi: The Kochi Municipal Corporation has been ordered by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to pay Rs. 100 crore in compensation for their alleged negligence in their duties, which resulted in a fire at Brahmapuram, a waste dump site in Kochi. People living around the dump site area suffered from severe breathing problems and other health issues as the smoke engulfed all surrounding areas. According to a health advisory to the general public on March 4, 2023, people were asked to wear masks and stay indoors.

In addition, 120 oxygen beds were set up, 30 fire tenders, 45 excavators, 14 high-capacity water pumps, and four helicopters along with 350 firemen and 150 supporting staff were engaged in mitigation efforts at the site as per an ANI report.

The Tribunal based its decision on a media report which stated that on March 2, 2023, a fire occurred at the waste dump site in Kochi, causing severe air pollution and a public health crisis.

The NGT found that the Kochi Municipal Corporation had neglected their duties for a long time, leading to this incident, and ordered them to pay compensation for remediation measures and to address the public health issues of the victims. The NGT also noted that good governance in waste management had been neglected for a long time, which poses a threat to the rule of law, and called for an inquiry to determine culpability in the larger public interest.

The State authorities were criticized for their attitude of total neglect, and the NGT urged them to uphold the Constitution and the mandate of environmental law.
Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah today launched a scathing attack on the J&K administration and the police for the security lapse in the case of conman Kiran Bhai Patel. Accusing the government of serious failure and security lapses, Abdullah said the root cause of such incidents was the absence of civilian government.

"The present administration is full of sycophants who are only serving the PMO and only want to please the PMO," said Abdullah.

Omar was in Kulgam to offer prayers on the death anniversary of senior National Conference leader Wali Mohammad Itoo, who was killed in a deadly IED attack by Hizbul in 1994.

Omar Abdullah, while addressing a gathering, said, "While the leaders and workers of my party are being denied security, a con man was provided Z plus security four times."

The National Conference leader also alleged that an attempt was being made to cover up the matter by blaming an administrative official for the mess while protecting the security officials.

Abdullah added, "The lapse is not of the Deputy Commissioner but of the ADG Security providing security. The conman used to travel to the LoC, conduct security meetings, stay in five-star hotels and officers were licking his shoes for better postings.

Taking a jibe at the absence of the central government and civilian elected government, Omar Abdullah said that while this man (Kiran Patel) was caught, people don't know how many more have come and gone back.

Kiran Bhai Patel, a Gujarat-based conman, had managed to fool the entire security establishment in J&K four times by flouting state protocol and misusing Z-plus security during the last six months.

The whole episode has caused huge embarrassment to the security establishment as it prepares to host G-20 meetings and other high-profile events soon.

While talking to reporters, Abdullah said that the only people who benefited from this government are frauds.

Accusing the BJP of fearing elections, Omar Abdullah said that BJP cannot face the people and there is no other reason why elections are being delayed in Jammu and Kashmir.
PATNA: Manish Kashyap, a YouTuber wanted by the Bihar Police for allegedly sharing fake videos of "attacks on migrant workers in Tamil Nadu", surrendered before the law enforcers in West Champaran district on Saturday, a statement said. The Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police has registered three cases against Kashyap and others on the charges of "indulging in spreading fake videos of migrants being killed and beaten up in Tamil Nadu on social media".

The EOU has also frozen four bank accounts belonging to Kashyap.

"Kashyap, wanted by Bihar Police and Tamil Nadu Police in fake news matter of labourers issue in the southern state, surrendered before the police on Saturday fearing arrest and attachment of his belongings," a statement issued by the EOU said.

"Six teams constituted by the EOU along with Patna and Champaran Police were continuously conducting raids on his locations at various places and hideouts since yesterday (Friday). He surrendered at Jagdishpur police station of Bettiah on Saturday fearing arrest and other legal action," it added.

The EOU had on March 6 registered its first FIR in connection with the case and booked four persons, including Kashyap.

EOU sleuths have already also arrested Aman Kumar from Jamui in connection with its investigation into the first FIR. Those named in that FIR included Aman Kumar, Rakesh Tiwary, Yuvraj Singh Rajput and Manish Kashyap.

J S Gangwar, Additional Director General of Bihar Police (Headquarters), had told reporters last week that the EOU probe has found that 30 fake videos of migrants getting beaten up and killed in Tamil Nadu were widely shared on social media, spreading panic among the labourers and forcing them to flee the southern state.

The Tamil Nadu Police has also registered 13 cases to probe the matter. Earlier, the Bihar government had also sent a four-member team of top officials to Tamil Nadu to coordinate with officers who were investigating the matter in the southern state.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) which seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants who came here from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014, has been into controversy since it was passed by Parliament. While a case is also filed against the act in the Supreme Court, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar was asked about his view on the new US envoy to India Eric Garcetti's statement that CAA is discriminatory towards Muslims, the EAM said that countries like the United States and Germany already have similar laws.

"First of all, when CAA was passed, there was a debate and people in this country tried to make it an international debate. It was interesting because when I went around the world and explained to different countries please look at your citizenship criteria and tell me, are you less specific in terms of how you have defined the criteria than we have? Take the United States (for example), the two very well-known amendments there, something called the Lautenberg amendment and Specter amendment, which actually single out specific communities and specific faiths, and give them a faster pathway into citizenship...This is not just the US, if you look at Europe, the Germans have a faster citizenship pathway for people of German descent in other countries," said Jaishankar to a news channel.

He further said that people being persecuted in many countries have nowhere to go than India. "In many cases, the people who are persecuted have nowhere else to go except to India. If you are a Hindu in Pakistan, who is being oppressed, where else will you go other than India?...Let him (Eric Garcetti) come here, pyar se samjha denge," said Jaishankar.

During his interview, Jaishankar also lashed out at Rahul Gandhi over his Cambridge speech.
With the Punjab Police on the hunt for radical Khalistani preacher Amritpal Singh, Congress Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira has urged Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to not charge the 'Waris Punjab De' (WPD) chief with draconian laws. In a tweet, Khair said that the government should charge him for the Ajnala incident and not send a wrong message to Sikh youth. Amritpal Singh is on the run while his 78 supporters have been arrested by the state police in a day-long crackdown.

"I urge Bhagwant Mann not to charge Amritpal Singh under draconian laws like UAPA or NSA as theres no terror activity involved. He can be charged in Ajnala incident otherwise itll be presumed youre surrendering Sikh youth to central agencies! Why no action against Bishnoi till now?" said Khaira.

The Congress MLA's remark came after the Punjab government launched a major crackdown against Khalistan sympathiser Amritpal Singh. The elusive preacher himself, however, gave the police a slip and escaped their dragnet when his cavalcade was intercepted in Jalandhar district, even as authorities stepped up security at several places and suspended internet services in the state till Sunday noon.

The police said it has launched a "massive state-wide cordon and search operations (CASO)" in the state against elements of 'Waris Punjab De' (WPD), headed by Singh, against whom several criminal cases had been registered.

During the operation, a total of 78 persons have been arrested so far, while, several others have been detained for questioning, it said. Amritpal Singh and others are on the run and a massive manhunt has been launched to nab them, a police spokesperson said.

Some supporters of 'Waris Punjab De' chief shared some videos on social media claiming that policemen were chasing them. A video also showed Amritpal sitting in a vehicle and one of his aides could be heard saying policemen were after "Bhai saab" (Amritpal).

During the state-wide operation, nine weapons, including one .315 bore rifle, seven rifles of 12 bore, one revolver and 373 live cartridges of different caliber have been recovered so far, the police said.

The police spokesperson informed that the WPD elements are involved in four criminal cases relating to spreading disharmony among classes, attempt to murder, attack on police personnel and creating obstructions in the lawful discharge of duties of public servants.

Also Read: Amritpal Singh Maintaining Close Links With Pakistan's ISI, Terror Groups: Sources

An FIR dated February 24 stands registered against WPD elements for the attack on Ajnala Police Station, he added. Last month, Amritpal and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, broke through barricades and barged into the Ajnala Police Station on the outskirts of the Amritsar city, and clashed with police for the release of one of Amritpal's aide. After the incident, in which six policemen including a Superintendent of Police rank officer had suffered injuries, the AAP government in the state had faced severe flak and was accused of kowtowing to extremists.

A heavy deployment of security forces had been made near village Jallupur Khera in Amritsar, the native place of Amritpal Singh, for the operation.

Dubai-returned Amritpal Singh was last year anointed the head of 'Waris Punjab De', which was founded by actor and activist Deep Sidhu who died in a road accident in February last year.

Officials said Amritpal Singh has been maintaining close links with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and terrorist groups based in foreign countries. Amitpal Singh, who had even issued a veiled threat to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has been trying to destabilise the situation in Punjab by indoctrinating and attracting Sikh youths into the fold of his outfit 'Waris Punjab De', sources said.

Meanwhile, Punjab Police asked people to maintain peace and harmony. "Request all citizens to maintain peace & harmony Punjab Police is working to maintain Law and Order. Request citizens not to panic or spread fake news or hate speech," it said in a tweet.

Earlier this month, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed with him the prevailing law and order situation in the border state.

The Centre had sent about 1,900 personnel of the CRPF and its specialised anti-riot unit RAF for strengthening the security grid. Officials said the Union Home Ministry is "closely monitoring" the situation in Punjab in the wake of renewed activities of some Khalistani supporters.

The radical preacher is believed to be a close associate of UK-based Khalistani terrorist Avtar Singh Khanda, who is the person behind his meteoric rise, they said.

Khanda is a trusted lieutenant of the banned group Babbar Khalsa International's leader Paramjit Singh Pamma, who is involved in radicalising Sikh youths. The trio has been aiming to destabilising Punjab by ideologically indoctrinating Sikh youths with extremist views, they said.

In February this year, a man complained at Ajnala Police Station alleging he had been kidnapped and beaten by the associates of the radical preacher. An FIR was registered against Amritpal Singh and six of his associates. Police later arrested one Lovepreet Singh Toofan, a close associate of Amritpal, in the matter.

The arrest of Toofan prompted Amritpal to issue a warning to the police to revoke the case against him, and the matter turned ugly when hundreds of his supporters broke through police barricades and stormed the police complex, armed with automatic guns and sharp weapons.

Toofan was released under pressure but only after the police informed the court that they would be investigating the matter further. (With PTI inputs)
Moscow: The International Criminal Court's arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin has "no meaning" for the country, "including from a "legal point of view" as the nation had withdrawn from the ICC treaty in 2016, a spokeswoman for the ministry of foreign affairs said, CNN reported. Rejecting the warrant on Friday, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the ministry of foreign affairs, said, "Russia is not a member of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it. Russia does not cooperate with this body, and possible [pretences] for arrest coming from the International Court of Justice will be legally null and void for us."

Russia is not a member of Rome Statute of ICC & bears no obligations under it. Russia doesn't cooperate with this body & possible warrants for arrest coming from the International Court of Justice will be legally null and void for us: Russian Foreign Ministry Spox Maria Zakharova https://t.co/oYNeQeFroN pic.twitter.com/pFcIqI6oEo  ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2023

Meanwhile, former Russian President and deputy chair of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, compared the ICC's arrest warrant for Putin to toilet paper.

Taking to Twitter, Medvedev said, "The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. No need to explain WHERE this paper should be used," with the toilet paper emoji.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. No need to explain WHERE this paper should be used.  Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) March 17, 2023

Earlier, ICC on Friday issued an arrest warrant against Russian President and Russian official Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova for the alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia, reported CNN.

The Hague-based ICC accused the Russian president of responsibility for war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine during the war that has been ongoing for over a year.

The Hague-based court said in a statement on Friday that Putin "is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of the population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation".It also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for children`s rights in the office of the president of the Russian Federation on similar allegations, reported Al Jazeera.

Russia did not immediately comment following the ICC`s move on Friday. Russia denies committing atrocities since it invaded Ukraine in February last year.

The warrants came a day after a United Nations-backed inquiry accused Russia of committing wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine, including the forced deportations of children in areas it controls, reported Al Jazeera.

The UN genocide convention defines "forcibly transferring children of the group to another group" as one of five acts that can be prosecuted as genocide. However, the successful extradition of President Putin could prove a far greater challenge as Russia does not recognise the jurisdiction of the international criminal court in The Hague, reported DW News.

Russia denies deliberately harming civilians but its defence ministry has claimed to have targeted Ukraine`s energy infrastructure.

Russia signed the Rome statute, which governs the ICC, in 2000 but never ratified the agreement to become a member. It formally withheld its signature from the founding statute of the ICC in 2016, a day after the court published a report classifying the Russian annexation of Crimea as an occupation.

Since Russia`s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has severed ties with several prominent international organisations, deepening the country`s isolation from the west.
People mourn during the funeral of Yazzan Khseib in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, March 18, 2023. A Palestinian was killed by Israeli soldiers on Friday after he tried to carry out a stabbing attack near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement. (Photo by Nidal Eshtayeh/Xinhua)

RAMALLAH, March 17 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian was killed by Israeli soldiers on Friday after he tried to carry out a stabbing attack near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement.

Yazzan Khseib, 23, was killed after he was shot by Israeli soldiers north of the city, the statement says, without elaborating.

An Israeli army spokesman said in a press statement that a young Palestinian man tried to stab an Israeli soldier north of Ramallah.

Other soldiers in the area opened fire, "neutralized" the assailant, and killed him. A knife was found with him, and no injuries were reported among the Israeli soldiers, according to the statement.

The tension between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has been rising in recent months.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that 89 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers this year. Meanwhile, official Israeli figures said that 14 Israelis were killed in attacks carried out by Palestinians. 
Pulwama (Jammu and Kashmir): A brief gunfight took place between terrorists and a joint team of forces in the Mitrigam area of Pulwama in South Kashmir on Saturday (March 18) in the early hours of the morning, during which terrorists managed to escape.

Police said that acting upon a specific intelligence input generated about the presence of terrorists in Mitrigam Village of Pulwama, a cordon and search operation was launched during predawn hours. As the searches intensified, the hiding terrorists fired upon the search party leading to a brief gunfight in the area.

After a brief exchange of firing, there was no fire from the other side and during searches, no terrorists were found at the encounter site, said police.

It seems that during the initial exchange of fire, terrorists managed to escape, taking advantage of darkness, a police officer said.

Meanwhile, the State Investigation Agency (SIA) is carrying out raids at multiple locations in central and south Kashmir districts as part of the investigation with regard to terrorists, and secessionist cases registered by the SIA.

Sources said that sleuths of the investigating agency with the assistance of the local police and the CRPF carried out raids in the summer capital Srinagar, Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian, and other districts.

The SIA teams also raided the residence of Sarjan Ahmed Wagay @Barkati son of Abdul Raziq Wagay, a resident of Reben Zainapora in the Shopian district.

Official sources said raids are being conducted in connection with a case already registered at the SIA. The details of the case will be shared later, he said.
BJP MP from Jharkhand Nishikant Dubey is in the eye of the storm over his fake MBA degrees as both the Congress and the Trinamool Congress have accused him of furnishing fake degrees in his election affidavit. TMC MP Mahua Moitra posted multiple tweets with photos of Dubey's degree claiming that they are fake. She said that Dubey in his 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha affidavits claimed to have done a 'part time MBA from Delhi University'. She underlined that prior to 2019, a full list of educational qualifications was required to be listed.

"On 27.08.2020 Delhi University in a written reply clearly stated NO SUCH candidate with the name of the Honourable Member was either admitted or passed out from any MBA program in DU in year 1993 as claimed in affidavits. Also answered a RTI stating same. In 2019 Lok Sabha affidavit Honble Member makes no mention of MBA and instead only states he has a PhD in Management from Pratap University Rajasthan in 2018. Please note- One cannot do a PhD from UGC deemed uni without valid masters degree," alleged Moitra.

Honble Member in his 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha affidavit claimed to be part time MBA from Delhi University. Please note- prior to 2019 full list of educational qualifications was required to be listed.

(1/3) pic.twitter.com/dcI3FaAuFa  Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) March 17, 2023

On 27.08.2020 Delhi University in a written reply clearly stated NO SUCH candidate with the name of the Honourable Member was either admitted or passed out from any MBA program in DU in year 1993 as claimed in affidavits. Also answered a RTI stating same.

(2/3) pic.twitter.com/HmOBpfBbgl  Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) March 17, 2023

The TMC MP further alleged that Dubey in his PhD application to Pratap University made no mention of a DU MBA degree. "Now finally see this. Honble member in his PhD application to Pratap Uni makes NO mention of DU MBA degree & instead miraculously has another MBA transcript from Pratap Uni itself from 2013-15! Clearly loves collecting MBA degrees :-) - never know which one may work," she alleged.

In 2019 Lok Sabha affidavit Honble Member makes no mention of MBA and instead only states he has a PhD in Management from Pratap University Rajasthan in 2018 .

Please note- One cannot do a PhD from UGC deemed uni without valid masters degree (3/3) pic.twitter.com/Ym4fGxFYSx  Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) March 17, 2023

Taking another swipe at the BJP MP, Mahua Moitra said, "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. And people who have fake degrees & have lied on affidavits should definitely not throw the rule book."

Now finally see this. Honble member in his PhD application to Pratap Uni makes NO mention of DU MBA degree & instead miraculously has another MBA transcript from Pratap Uni itself from 2013-15! Clearly loves collecting MBA degrees :-) - never know which one may work. pic.twitter.com/HdzVg9Xahy  Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) March 17, 2023

The TMC said that people now want to see Dubey's MBA degree certificate issued by Delhi University in 1993 and asked the BJP MP to do a whatsapp forward to her.

Am very keen to see Honble Members attendance record at Pratap Uni for full time MBA 2013-15 given he was full time MP then & match with LS attendance & constituency visits. Btw Pratap Uni MBA transcript has spelt cumulative incorrectly so dont know how genuine it is :-) pic.twitter.com/u1HoRPAjoZ March 17, 2023

Moitra further made a tweet highlighting anomalies in the degrees issued by Pratap University. "Am very keen to see Honble Members attendance record at Pratap Uni for full-time MBA 2013-15 given he was full-time MP then & match with LS attendance & constituency visits. Btw Pratap Uni MBA transcript has spelt cumulative incorrectly so dont know how genuine it is," she said.

On the other hand, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal asked Nishikant Dubey to first look after his degree before attacking Rahul Gandhi.

However, the BJP MP hit back at the allegation. Taking to Twitter, Dubey said that the RTI sent to Delhi University had the wrong address and added that DU can't respond to an RTI which was not sent to it.

"This order of the Honorable Supreme Court, along with the Election Commission, who accepted that I have a valid degree is a certificate to send the Bengal MP and her gang to Agra. This certificate is heart-wrenching and shocking for the woman MP from Bengal," said Dubey.

                                                      pic.twitter.com/pEl773V0om  Dr Nishikant Dubey (@nishikant_dubey) March 17, 2023

In another tweet, Dubey asked her supporters to not use foul language against the Bengal woman MP for having 'distorted mentality'
New Delhi: Several opposition MPs have petitioned President Droupadi Murmu for immediate action over social media trolling of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud while he was deliberating on a case related to the governor's role in Maharashtra during the last government formation.

In a letter to the President, the Congress Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha termed such online trolling a "brazen case of interference with the course of justice" and has called for immediate action against the culprits.

Opposition MPs write to President Droupadi Murmu seeking action against those supporting and sponsoring online trolling of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud who is hearing the Maharashtra politics case. #CJIDYChandrachud #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/loItTTqyYX  Bar & Bench (@barandbench) March 17, 2023

Tankha was supported by several opposition MPs, including Congress' Digvijaya Singh, Pramod Tiwari, Shaktisinh Gohil, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Amee Yajnik, Ranjeet Ranjan, Imran Pratapgarhi, Shiv Sena(UBT)'s Priyanka Chaturvedi, AAP's Raghav Chadha, SP's Ram Gopal Yadav and Jaya Bachchan.

A copy of the complaint has also been sent to the Minister of Law, Minister of IT, and the Police Commissioner of Delhi. In a similar complaint to the Attorney General of India, Tankha has demanded strict action against those accused of trolling.

Urging the president for immediate action against the troll army defaming the administration of justice and the Chief Justice of India, the complaint said the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court headed by CJI D Y Chandrachud is seized of and hearing an important Constitutional issue in the matter of government formation and the governor's role in Maharashtra.

"While the matter is subjudice, the troll army, presumably sympathetic to the interest of the ruling party in Maharashtra, has launched an offensive against the Hon'ble Chief Justice of India. The words and contents are filthy and deplorable, which has garnered views in lakhs on social media platforms.

"In a matter which is subjudice and in seisin before the Supreme Court, such despicable conduct is only possible if such people enjoy the support of the ruling dispensation. Your excellency and the constitutional and statutory authorities in India are dutybound to protect the dignity and decorum of the Indian judiciary," the MPs' letter said.

It cited Justice J S Verma's remark in the Vineet Narain case: "Be you ever so high, the law is always above you".

"This also is a brazen case of interference with the course of justice. We expect immediate action not only against the persons indulging in trolling but also against the people behind it, i.e., supporting and sponsoring it. As law-abiding Parliamentarians, we expect immediate action against the culprits," the MPs said in their petition to the President.

In their complaint to the Attorney General, Tankha said he and other MPs are appalled by the filthy conduct of the troll army presumably sympathetic to the interest of the ruling party in Maharashtra against the Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud.

He also sought time from him, saying a delegation of Parliamentarians would like to call on him on Monday after court hours to beseech him to "use your position as the Attorney General of India for initiating strong and exemplary action".

Tankha urged the attorney general to seek a report from the Delhi police commissioner about names and details of people involved in the trolls and the ones supporting and encouraging them.

He also sought to issue directions to the ministries of IT and law to demonstrably ensure visible action against the despicable trollers and their IDs as "what is at stake is the majesty of law, the dignity of the court and the image of our constitutional institutions".

"On the basis of the information which is sought from the police commissioner and the two ministries, initiate strong and exemplary legal action against the despicable troll leaders and their sympathisers. As the first law officer of the country, it is your beholden duty as the protector of law and the constitution on behalf of the Union of India to take the following prompt and strict actions."

"We expect action on your part at the earliest in the interest of law and administration of justice," the complaint said.

The issue of trolling judges has been raised several times in the top court with former CJIs also expressing concern over the issue.

Earlier this month, CJI Chandrachud highlighted the problem of rolling in an age "when people are short on their patience and tolerance".

"Every little thing that we do... In everything that you do, you face the threat of being trolled by someone who doesn't share your point of view," the CJI said at an event recently. The Supreme Court has cited the issue of trolling several times and had favoured regulation on it in 2017.

Speaking at an event in November on Constitution Day in 2021, former Chief Justice of India N V Ramana expressed concern over "increased attacks on the judiciary in the media, particularly social media" and said they appear to be "sponsored....Motivated and targeted".

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has also said that CJI Ramana had also written to him requesting a law to curb social media criticism of judges. However, Rijiju said it was not feasible to restrict criticism of judges through legislation.
NEW DELHI: The situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)in eastern Ladakh remained "very fragile" and is "quite dangerous" in military assessment because of close deployments of troops of both sides in some pockets though substantial progress has been made in the disengagement process in many areas, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday. Jaishankar also said that he and former Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi had reached an in-principle agreement in September 2020 on how to resolve the issue and that it is for China to deliver on what was agreed to.

In an interactive session at the India Today conclave, the external affairs minister also made it clear that the relationship between the two countries can not return to normal until "these problems" are sorted out.

The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a standoff for the past three years at certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement of troops from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.

"This is a very, I would say, challenging and abnormal phase in our ties with China. Why I say that is because from 1988 when Rajiv Gandhi went there till 2020 the understanding was that peace and tranquility on the border would be maintained," Jaishankar said.

The external affairs minister also referred to agreements between the two sides to not bring large forces to the border, adding a "very specific" set of understandings and even protocols were put in place on the handling of various situations.

Jaishankar said the Chinese violated the agreements in 2020 and the consequences were seen in the Galwan Valley and other areas as well.

"We have deployed our troops, we have stood our ground and the situation to my mind still remains very fragile because there are places where our deployments are very close up and in military assessment, actually therefore, quite dangerous," he said.

"Now we have made substantial progress when it comes to disengagement in many areas. There are many areas where we have ongoing discussions. It is a painstaking job and we will do that," he said.

"We have made it very clear to the Chinese that we cannot have a breach of peace and tranquility, you can't violate agreements and then want the rest of the relationship to continue as though nothing happened. That's just not tenable," Jaishankar added.

The minister's comments came a day after Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande said that the situation along the LAC is stable but there is a need to keep a "very close watch" on it.

In his remarks, the external affairs minister also referred to his meeting with his new Chinese counterpart Qin Gang on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Delhi on March 2.

"My most recent encounter in this regard was with the new foreign minister Qin Gang when the G20 foreign ministers meeting took place and we had a long discussion about it. In September 2020, Wang Yi and I had an in-principle agreement on how to resolve it. So the Chinese have to deliver on what was agreed to and they have struggled with that," he said.

Asked why the Chinese side is struggling to deliver, Jaishankar said the question should be put to the Chinese side.

"That's a question you need to ask them. I cannot answer it. Because, for me, it is very clear cut. Until these problems are sorted out, we will not return to a normal relationship. I want to make that very very clear," he said.

On February 22, India and China held in-person diplomatic talks in Beijing and discussed proposals for disengagement in the remaining friction points along the LAC in eastern Ladakh in an "open and constructive manner".

The meeting took place under the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC).

The eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area.

The ties between the two countries nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.

As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in 2021 on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area.
New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday expressed concern over the case of a conman posing as a PMO official and getting requisite perks, saying if the government is serious about the country's security then it must make it clear who will resign for the lapse. Kiran Bhai Patel from Gujarat has been arrested by police from a five-star hotel in Srinagar for posing as an 'additional secretary' in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and enjoying security cover besides other hospitality. He had three cases registered against him in his home state, police said on Friday. At a press conference, Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said it was a very serious matter pertaining to the country's security and the government probably was not focussed on such matters as it was "busy protecting the prime minister's best friend".

"If anyone asks questions to the Modi government, he is anti-national. Which national interest are you serving? If you are at least a little serious about the security of the nation, then tell me that at the political level who will resign in this matter?" Khera said.

                Z+    ' ' 



       ?



                    ?



: @Pawankhera  pic.twitter.com/xPO7JYTMyV  Congress (@INCIndia) March 18, 2023

"Our three essential questions are -- can a PMO officer get Z+ security, should Z+ security be given and is Z+ security availed so easily. It is very important to know from which level the instructions to give security to a thug came?" he said.

In a sensitive area like Jammu and Kashmir, a person has been cheating the security forces for five months and is roaming in those areas with Z+ security by making a PMO card, where common citizens cannot go, he said and raised questions over the government's intelligence mechanism.

Khera said the government must answer whose resignation will be taken for this lapse.

The ruling party has such a toolkit that the one who asks questions of them is an anti-national while one person takes Z+ security by printing fake cards of the PMO, the Congress leader alleged.

According to court documents, Patel was on his third visit to the Kashmir valley and was subsequently nabbed by alert security officials on March 3.



Patel had claimed he had been given a mandate by the government to identify buyers for apple orchards in south Kashmir and a couple of IAS officers were in awe of him as he had been dropping names of high-ranking bureaucrats and politicians in the national capital.
Rajasthan SET Admit Card 2023: The Guru Govind Tribal University in Banswara will soon release the Rajasthan SET Exam Admit Card 2023. The University is scheduled to conduct the Rajasthan State Eligibility Test (SET) on March 26, 2023, and the hall tickets for the same are expected to be issued shortly on the official website- ggtu.ac.in.

Candidates who have applied for the Rajasthan SET 2023 exams will be able to download the Rajastna SET Hall Ticket from the official website following the simple steps given.

Here's How to Download Rajasthan SET Admit Card 2023

Step 1: Visit the official website - ggtu.ac.in.

Step 2: On the homepage, click on the SET 2023 tab

Step 3: Click on the link that reads "Rajasthan SET Admit Card 2023"

Step 4: In the newly opened tab, entre your credentials like registration number, mobile number and DOB

Step 5: Rajasthan SET Hall Ticket 2023 will appear on your screen, check it and download

Step 6: Take a printout of the Rajasthan SET Admit Card 2023 and save it for future reference

Rajasthan SET 2023 Exam Date

The Guru Govind Tribal is all set to conduct the Rajasthan SET 2023 exam on March 26, 2023, at various centers across the state for a total of 29 subjects. Rajasthan SET is a qualifying exam for candidates who wish to become assistant professors in various colleges and universities in Rajasthan. The direct link for the Rajasthan SET Admit Card 2023 will be provided here as soon as it is released on the official website. Meanwhile, candidates can check their district of exam centre for the Rajasthan SET 2023 through the direct link here.
Los Angeles: Actor Lance Reddick, who appeared in major TV series like 'The Wire', 'Fringe' and 'Bosch' and films like the 'John Wick' franchise, which is set to debut 'John Wick: Chapter 4' next week, died of natural causes aged 60.

Variety has confirmed with his representative. He was found dead at his Studio City home in Los Angeles on Friday morning, according to TMZ, which first reported the news.

In the upcoming 'John Wick: Chapter 4', which is set to release in theatres on March 24, Reddick reprises his role as Charon, the concierge at the Continental Hotel in New York City who appeared in all four entries.

Charon worked alongside Keanu Reeves' un-retired hitman, notably looking after John's new dog in the second installment and joining in on the gun-toting action in the third movie. Reddick was also slated to appear in the upcoming 'Ballerina' spinoff, starring Ana de Armas.

Known for playing hardened police chiefs and other men of authority, Reddick was born in Baltimore on June 7, 1962.

He studied music composition and earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Rochester. He moved to Boston in the '80s and earned a Master of Fine Arts from Yale in 1994.

His first major TV role came during Season 4 of prison drama 'Oz' in 2000. He played Detective Johnny Basil, an undercover officer who tries to shut down the drug trade but soon becomes an addict himself and murders a corrupt cop by pushing him down an elevator shaft. After being sent to Oz, Basil gets stabbed to death by Seth Gilliam's character Clayton Hughes.

He was later cast as Baltimore police lieutenant Cedric Daniels, one of the leads, on 'The Wire' in 2002.

He had previously auditioned for the roles of Bubbles (which went to Andre Royo) and William 'Bunk' Moreland (Wendell Pierce). Daniels was in charge of the narcotics division and slowly rose through its ranks during the show's five-season run, butting heads frequently with his superiors.

In the show's finale, he resigned from his post as commissioner and became a criminal defence lawyer.

After 'The Wire' ended in 2008, Reddick joined 'Fringe' later that year as Phillip Broyles, a special agent for Homeland Security and head of the Fringe division. The group investigated cases relating to fringe science, pseudoscience and alternate timelines.

In 2014, he was cast as another police chief, but this time on Amazon's 'Bosch' series, which ended in 2021. He played deputy chief Irvin Irving and was nominated for a Saturn Award for the role, after earning two nods for 'Fringe'.

More recently, Reddick starred as Albert Wesker last year on Netflix's short-lived series 'Resident Evil', an adaptation of the popular zombie video game. He also provided voice work on Season 2 of Amazon's 'The Legend of Vox Machina', which was released in January. His other voice roles included the villain Sylens in two popular PlayStation games, 'Horizon: Zero Dawn' and 'Horizon: Forbidden West', which released last year, plus voicing Commander Zavala in the long-running 'Destiny' franchise.

Reddick was cast as the Greek god Zeus in Disney+'s highly anticipated 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' series, adapted from the popular tween books by Rick Riordan. His other upcoming roles include Hulu's 'White Men Can't Jump' remake, set to release May 19, Danny DeVito's 'St. Sebastian', Netflix's Shirley Chisholm biopic 'Shirley', 'The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial' and the space drama 'Apteros'.

Throughout his nearly 30-year career, he also appeared in 'Lost', 'CSI: Miami', 'American Horror Story: Coven', 'The Blacklist', 'One Night in Miami', 'Angel Has Fallen' and 'Godzilla vs. Kong'.

Reddick is survived by his wife, Stephanie Reddick, and children Yvonne Nicole Reddick and Christopher Reddick.
New Delhi: Kiara Advani is all set to resume the shoot for S Shankar's directorial RC-15 in Hyderabad for a song shoot schedule, joining Ram Charan after the glorious win of Natu Natu from RRR at the Oscars.

Kiara will be flying down to Hyderabad on Saturday, 18th March, for the next schedule of RC-15, directed by S Shankar. Ram Charan, on the other hand, is also returning to the sets from LA after representing India with the splendid win of Naatu Naatu at the Oscars.

All eyes on the duo, as they prepare for their next film together which is mounted on a large scale and has everyone excited ever since the announcement.

Looking forward to an interesting lineup of films with RC-15 and Satyaprem Ki Katha, Kiara Advani has got everyone glued to her next moves.
Oprah Winfrey has some sound advice for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. People Magazine reports that Oprah was recently interviewed by Gayle King, a longtime friend of the television legend, on CBS Mornings about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attending King Charles' coronation on May 6.

"It's been reported that Harry and Meghan have received an invitation to the coronation," King asked Oprah."Do you think they should go? Do you think they should not go? Is it something you'd like to comment on?" Oprah replied, "I think they should do what they feel is best for them and for their family. That's what I think. That's what the bottom line is - it comes down to: What do you feel like is the best thing for you?"

"They haven't asked me my opinion," Oprah continued, as reported by People Magazine. A week ago, People Magazine reported that a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said in a statement, "I can confirm The Duke has recently received email correspondence from His Majesty's office regarding the coronation. An immediate decision on whether The Duke and Duchess will attend will not be disclosed by us at this time."

Buckingham Palace has not made any official comment about it so far. Relations between the Sussexes, who relocated to Meghan's home state of California in 2020, and the royal family have remained strained after Prince Harry's memoir was released this January. In an interview with ITV's Tom Bradby surrounding the book, Harry said of the coronation, "There's a lot that can happen between now and then. But, you know, the door is always open. The ball is in their court. There's a lot to be discussed, and I really hope that they are willing to sit down and talk about it."King Charles, 74, was said to be eager for the situation "calm down" in time for his coronation.

Also Read: Disha Patani To Mouni Roy: When Bollywood Divas Sizzled In Black, Check Pics

As reported by People, a source close to the royal household earlier revealed: "It is such a momentous occasion for Charles, and he would want his son to be at the coronation to witness it. He would like to have Harry back in the family. If they don't sort it out, it will always be part of the King's reign and how he has left his family disjointed. He has had a reputation as a distant parent, and it would be awful for him for that to continue."
New Delhi: Veteran actress Zeenat Aman has shared a throwback picture from 1977 saying it is to inspire "evening plans" for Saturday.

Taking to Instagram, Zeenat shared a monochrome picture dressed in a neck plunging sequined dress. In the picture, she can be seen combing her hair.

She shared the picture with the caption: "Some Saturday glam to inspire your evening plans! I've seen this image of myself floating around on the Internet, and thought it would be good to add some context to it.

"The year was 1977, and the cast and crew of Krishna Shah's Shalimar had gathered at the Turf Club in Mumbai for the film's 'mahurat'. It was a packed, high-profile event and everyone was dressed to the nines.

"My glorious silver gown was created by renowned costume designer Mani Rabadi based on a design of my own making. Its plunging neckline and sleek silhouette certainly turned some heads. In fact, Mani literally sewed me into the gown to give it that exquisite fit."

Zeenat added: "We had several international actors in attendance that day, including Gina Lollobrigida. She later backed out of the production, amongst swirling rumours that we had locked horns. British actor Rex Harrison wasn't at the event, but he was in the film. One day on set, he told me - 'A beautiful girl like you should get married immediately'. I had a good laugh over that. And for the record, I think that's a terrible reason to get married.

"Shalimar didn't quite dazzle the audience, but it was a thrilling adventure all the same. We shot the film in both English and Hindi, shooting each scene twice over."

On the work front, Zeenat Aman is making her OTT debut soon with the web series 'Showstopper'.
BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- China's property market has seen a strong recovery after a tough year in 2022, as the economy logged palpable expansion at the beginning of 2023 and an array of policies to shore up the sector have taken effect.

In the Jan.-Feb. period, encouraging signals indicated rising confidence on both ends of supply and demand of the market, a "pillar" of China's economy, with its added value accounting for 6.1 percent of the country's gross domestic product last year.

To reinforce the trend of stable growth in the sector, China is setting out to optimize structure on the supply side to defuse risks and address the pressing needs of key groups on the side of demand.

CONFIDENCE FOR STEADY GROWTH

In February, 55 out of 70 large and medium-sized cities saw month-on-month increases in new home prices, up from 36 in January, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Meanwhile, 40 cities witnessed higher resale home prices, up from 13 in the previous month.

Warming signs were also seen on the second-hand market as prices went up 0.7 percent and 0.1 percent month on month in first and second-tier cities, respectively, while such prices remained flat in third-tier cities to end a losing streak.

The effect of government policies to stabilize the property market gradually appeared, and the housing demand was further unleashed, said NBS Senior Statistician Sheng Guoqing.

Compared with 2022, a decline in investment and sales in the real estate sector largely narrowed during the first two months of this year. Specifically, the drop in property development investment narrowed by 4.3 percentage points, that for real estate developers' funds in place shrank by 10.7 percentage points, and the decrease in commercial housing sales in terms of floor area narrowed by 20.7 percentage points, NBS data showed.

Ni Hong, minister of housing and urban-rural development, told media during the country's "two sessions" earlier this month that he "has full confidence" in the steady recovery of China's property market. China's optimized anti-epidemic response has benefited both the supply and demand side by promoting work resumption of real estate projects and stimulating demand, he said.

The country's commercial housing sales reversed the streak of decline for 13 months in January and February this year.

Work to ensure timely delivery of pre-sale housing is under solid advancement, effectively protecting the lawful rights and interests of home buyers and improving reasonable financing for property developers, he said, noting that the confidence of market entities is recovering.

Ni also underlined the impact of the country's policies to ensure people's well-being by supporting the purchase of first and second homes while curbing housing speculation.

"We expect the recovery of the property market to adhere to the principle that housing is for living in, not for speculation, satisfy people's rigid housing demand and demand for housing improvement, avoid sharp ups and downs in the market, and promote high-quality development of the sector," he added.

RISK PREVENTION ON SUPPLY-SIDE

In this year's government work report, China pledged to ensure effective risk prevention and mitigation in high-quality, leading real estate enterprises, help them improve debt-to-asset ratios, and prevent unregulated expansion in the real estate market to promote stable growth.

To fend off systemic risk triggered by a mix of real estate risks and risks in the financial sector and local government debts, Ni said accurate measures will be taken to offer equal support to quality state-owned and private property developers to improve their debt and asset situations and meet their reasonable financing needs.

At the same time, measures will support property enterprises with risks to survive, with strict crackdowns on violations of people's interests under laws and regulations.

Work will also be done to vigorously rectify the order of the real estate market and create an honest and trustworthy market environment, Ni said.

It offers support from the supply side and helps ease the liquidity strain of the sector by effectively preventing and resolving the risks of high-quality, leading housing firms and improving their balance sheets, according to China Galaxy Securities Co., Ltd.

Everbright Securities Company Limited predicted that based on the strict control of debt scale, the industrial pattern of commercial housing development will be reshaped by meeting reasonable financing demand of the market and prudently dealing with the risks of some leading firms with radical development plans, which will promote the healthy and sustainable growth of the property sector.

FOCUS ON PRESSING DEMAND, KEY GROUPS

Highlighting the work of ensuring people's wellbeing as one of the key objectives of the country, this year's government work report has proposed to "improve the housing support system, support people in buying their first homes or improving their housing situation, and help resolve the housing problems of new urban residents and young people."

Demand for first homes and housing improvement is projected to remain high in the coming decade. From 2021 to 2035, first homes with a total floor area of about 3.9 billion square meters will be required, accounting for 18 percent of the total demand for housing, while the need for housing improvement is expected to be around 12 billion square meters, taking up 54 percent of the total demand, according to a report released by the Beike Research Institute.

The country will continue to implement city-specific and targeted policies to vigorously meet the rigid demand for home-owning and housing improvement to increase confidence and promote steady recovery and healthy development of the real estate market, Ni said.

Stressing the importance of the continuous recovery of new housing sales, Dongxing Securities Corporation Limited said policies at both ends of supply and demand are forming a synergy to stabilize the property sector, and market sales are bottoming out.

To solve the difficulties for new city residents and the youth, Ni said measures will be taken to increase the supply of affordable rental housing and the construction of long-term rental housing.

While supporting housing leasing and increasing housing supply, different cities will implement policies according to their specific market and population situations, and formulate standards such as mortgage and purchase restrictions in a differentiated manner to stimulate potential purchasing power, according to Haitong Securities Company Limited. 
The Indian Railways has achieved the electrification of two crucial routes that would allow it to run electric trains in the northeastern state of Meghalaya for the first time. The Dudhnai-Mendipathar single-line section of 22.823 track kilometers and the 34.59 track kilometres double-line segment between Abhayapuri and Pancharatna on March 15 were both officially opened by the Northeast Frontier Railway.

Taking note of the achievement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rejoiced in the achievement of the Indian Railways. "Wonderful news for Meghalaya and furthering connectivity in the Northeast," he tweeted. Furthermore, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw shared a video of the electric train starting from its journey with the caption, "Electric train for the time in Meghalaya."

Also read: Ashwini Vaishnaw Shares Video Of Woman Travelling With Pet Dog On Train, Netizens React

The Railways stated that Mendipathar is currently the sole station in the northeastern state of Meghalaya that has been open since the prime minister's inauguration in 2014. Trains pulled by electric locomotives will now be able to run directly from Mendipathar in Meghalaya following the commissioning of electric traction, improving the average speed.

Wonderful news for Meghalaya and furthering connectivity in the Northeast. https://t.co/AZjPuBr2Ul  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 17, 2023

"More passenger and freight carrying trains will be able to operate through these sections with full sectional speeds. Punctuality will also increase in this section. Parcel and freight carrying trains hauled by electric locomotives from other states will be able to reach Meghalaya directly," the statement said.

Electrification will significantly improve the mobility of trains in northeast India. In addition to the reduction in pollution due to the shift from fossil fuel to electricity, the efficiency of the Railway system in the region will also improve, the statement said. It said this would facilitate seamless traffic and save the time of trains moving to and from northeastern states apart from savings in precious foreign exchange.

With PTI Inputs
When a working woman becomes a mother, she automatically becomes part of the "working mothers" collective. The same, however, is not true for men: The term "working father" is not a term that is commonly used, although everyone understands its meaning. Since language is never neutral, it is easy to understand why this difference exists: According to social norms, motherhood is a primary source of identity for women, yet fatherhood is not for men. That's why it is not surprising that even the policies and measures established for creating a work, personal life, and family balance have been mainly aimed at women and only residually at men.

The situation, nevertheless, is slowly changing in Europe, since men also want to take part in childcare and since the demographic context compels them to take on a serious role in the duty and the right to provide care.

Parents who adapt their work to create a balance

Research on reconciling work and family life coined the term known as the "one-and-a-half earner model" to refer to the core family model where both parents work but one of them (usually the woman in heterosexual couples) reduces her working time in order to take on childcare obligations. Although this model is especially widespread in central European countries such as Austria and Germany, the underlying cause of this model (where it is the woman who subordinates herself, adapts or even renounces her work life in order to raise her children) is common in many other countries.

Thus, in Europe as a whole, about 6.4 per cent of fathers (compared to 34 per cent of mothers) with dependent children up to the age of 15 have adapted their work in some major way as a result of their paternity, such as reducing their working hours, working part-time or switching to less demanding tasks. This percentage ranges, however, from less than 5 per cent in most of the eastern countries up to more than 20 per cent in the Netherlands or Switzerland (with relatively high percentages in the Nordic countries as well).

Although the profile of these working parents varies according to the countries, in addition to the type of adaptation they make, in Europe as a whole it is more likely that adaptations have been made in the case of white-collar workers (except managers), when the contract is temporary, in the case of the self-employed when the partner works more than 40 hours and has a high level of education, and when they work in "family-responsible" companies (understood as those that at least offer time flexibility to their staff).

Also read: Pomegranate Health Benefits: 4 Ways In Which It Can Help In Weight Loss - Check Dietician's Advice

Actions that companies can take

During the 2019-2022 period, the Men in Care European project, co-funded by the European Commission, implemented actions in companies and organisations in eight European countries to promote male joint responsibility and thereby progress towards a society in which men also put care at the centre of their lives. The public policies that most encourage parents to start providing care with the arrival of their first baby were studied. It was determined that countries with non-transferable and well-paid birth or parental leave have more parents who use them compared to countries that have transferable, poorly paid, or low-capped policies.

In Spain, Iceland, Norway and Slovenia, parents used the benefits much more than in Germany, Austria or Poland. Since 2021, Spain has become the only country in the world to offer non-transferable, equal leave for mothers and fathers. After a baby's first year of life, which can be essentially covered by the different leaves of absence from employment, companies can promote joint responsibility in care through other policies used by men, such as reducing overtime, compressing the working day, adapting working hours and work shifts to childcare needs, a 30-to-35-hour working week without salary reduction, and regulated and voluntary remote work.

An infographic and a company guide have been drawn up to explain how to support male caregivers in seven steps and the benefits for companies. Workshops have also been held with working parents and management staff, which interested entities can request through the Spanish National Distance Education University (UNED). Lastly, the project's partner organisations make seven policy recommendations at the European level to incorporate men into caregiving.
Islamabad: A vehicle in Imran Khan`s convoy overturned on Saturday while the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief was on his way to Islamabad to appear in court in the Toshakhana case, ARY News reported. Earlier today, Imran Khan departed for Islamabad from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore.The region is reportedly placed under heavy security in advance of Imran Khan`s visit to Islamabad`s Judiciary Complex in order to maintain peace and order and prevent anything unpleasant from happening.

On Friday the Pakistan government shifted the Toshakhana case hearing venue from the additional sessions court to a comparatively safer Judicial Complex over security concerns of Imran Khan, Pakistan-based Dawn newspaper reported. Khan will appear before Additional Session Judge Zafar Iqbal in the case after he issued the former prime minister`s non-bailable arrest warrants after he had frequently skipped court dates, alleging "security threats" from his attorney.

On March 14, when the Islamabad police travelled to Lahore to arrest Khan in accordance with the court`s instructions, they encountered resistance; as a result, more than 60 police officers from Islamabad and Punjab were hurt, and several PTI workers were also hurt, Geo News reported.

Meanwhile, Imran Khan also received protective bail in nine cases by Lahore High Court (LHC). The protective bail was approved for five cases in Islamabad and three cases in Lahore. Imran Khan secured bail in the cases filed in Lahore till March 27, whereas, the protective bail in five cases in Islamabad was approved till March 24
Lahore: Over 10,000 policemen launched a major operation at Imran Khan's Zaman Park residence here and arrested dozens of workers of his party even as the former Pakistan prime minister is in Islamabad to attend a hearing in a corruption case. The police personnel removed barricades from the entrance of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief's residence and removed all camps the PTI activists had erected to protect their leader. During the operation, some 10 workers reportedly were injured and over 30 were arrested. Footages on social media show police beating PTI workers after entering Khan's residence, where the 70-year-old leader claims his wife Bushra Bibi is also present. Punjab caretaker government information minister Amir Mir told reporters that the police operation has been launched to clear the Zaman Park area.

"Zaman Park had become a no-go area. As many as 10,000 Punjab police took part in the operation to clear it. We had also reports that the members of banned organisations were also hissing there," he said.

Police reached the residence of Imran Khan in Lahore as former Pakistan's PM is scheduled to appear before a court in Islamabad in connection with the hearing into the Toshakhana case



Punjab Police has arrested more than 20 party workers, reports Pakistan's Geo News pic.twitter.com/0zhcKGtT8x  ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2023

The minister further said a number of PTI workers have been taken into custody. During the operation, Mir said three policemen and six PTI workers suffered injuries.

He said that police had search warrants for Imran Khan's residence. "The anti-terrorism court had issued the search warrants of Khan's residence and (only) after that police entered his house," he said.

The ousted prime minister, decrying the police operation, tweeted: "(As I left for Islamabad to attend Toshakhana hearing) meanwhile Punjab police have led an assault on my house in Zaman Park where Bushra Begum is alone."

'Under what law are they doing this' This is part of the London Plan where commitments were made to bring absconder Nawaz Sharif to power as quid pro quo for agreeing to one appointment.

Khan, in a video message, said the incumbent government wanted to put him in jail at the demand of its exiled leader Nawaz Sharif. "They wanted to hold elections after sending me to jail. They have completely been exposed," he said.

Today's action comes as the Lahore High Court earlier on Friday granted a request by Punjab IGP Dr. Usman Anwar to search Khan's Zaman Park residence as part of an investigation into attacks on police teams, Dawn newspaper reported.

Khan also tweeted the siege of Lahore was not about ensuring his appearance in the court but aimed at imprisoning him and preventing him from leading the PTI's election campaign.

The PTI leader has been in the crosshairs for buying gifts, including an expensive Graff wristwatch he had received as the premier at a discounted price from the state depository called Toshakhana, and selling them for profit.

Established in 1974, the Toshakhana is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stores precious gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, and officials by heads of other governments and states and foreign dignitaries.

"Theyre now trying to enter Chairmans (Imran Khan) house where only Bhusra Bibi is present. We dont even see these kinds of acts in Martial laws," tweets Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)



(Pics-screengrab from video tweeted by PTI) https://t.co/MleDnP5GVL pic.twitter.com/9thavuNzpI  ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2023

Khan was disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan in October last year for not sharing details of the sales.

The election body later filed a complaint with the district court to punish him, under criminal laws, for selling the gifts he had received as prime minister of the country.

Khan, who has vehemently denied those charges, is set to be indicted in the case.

Meanwhile, Islamabad police have issued a traffic advisory, stating that due to tight security measures around the Judicial Complex in G-11, citizens may face difficulty in traffic movement, leading to inconvenience.

The Islamabad administration on Friday night imposed Section 144 in the capital, prohibiting private companies, security guards, or individuals from carrying weapons. It is mandatory for drivers to carry their vehicle registration documents while driving.


UNITED NATIONS, March 18 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy to the United Nations (UN) on Friday called on relevant parties to do their utmost to mitigate the humanitarian consequences of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

All relevant parties must also step up efforts to de-escalate the situation and cease hostilities as quickly as possible, Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told a Security Council open briefing on the situation in Ukraine.

The international community should scale up relief for all affected people, speed up the repair and restoration of civilian infrastructure, and do its utmost to mitigate the impact of the conflict on people's lives, Geng said, noting that China has provided multiple batches of emergency humanitarian aid to Ukraine and developing countries affected by the spillovers of the crisis.

"Basic norms of international humanitarian law must be earnestly observed," he said. "Under any circumstances, the protection of civilians must come first."

All parties to the conflict should stay rational and exercise maximum restraint and avoid actions that endanger the safety and security of nuclear facilities to minimize the risk of accidents, Geng added.

He said China supports the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in fulfilling its safeguard functions and playing an active role in promoting the safety and security of nuclear facilities.

The Chinese envoy stressed that spillovers of the conflict must be managed, urging relevant countries to stop abusing unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction" to eliminate the disruption of international economic and trade cooperation caused by those measures.

China hopes that the Black Sea Grain Initiative will be implemented fully and effectively in a balanced manner, and the memorandum of understanding signed between Russia and the United Nations can also be implemented, Geng said.

"Diplomatic efforts for a peaceful solution must be relentlessly advanced," he said. "The international community must promote talks for peace with utmost urgency, create conditions for the resumption of negotiations, and facilitate the parties concerned to do so without preconditions at an early date to give peace a chance."

Facts have shown that the continuous supply of offensive weapons, resorting to bloc confrontation and political isolation are not helpful for resolving the crisis, he said.

On the Ukraine issue, China always stands on the side of peace, dialogue and humanity. China has issued a paper stating its position on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis and will continue to work with the international community to play an active role, Geng said.

The Chinese envoy reiterated that China's position on the Ukraine issue remains unchanged. 
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has congratulated the Azerbaijani people on the Novruz holiday.

Dear compatriots!

I sincerely congratulate you on Novruz holiday and extend my wishes for a spring mood, good health and success in your future endeavors.

The Novruz holiday, which has very ancient roots in the land of Azerbaijan, is a sacred gift of our ancestors to present generations. Passing the test of time and leaving indelible traces in peoples memory over the centuries, this holiday has penetrated the depths of the spiritual world of our people since ancient times and played an important part in the formation of our traditional values. The rich inner world of our great-grandfathers, their wise philosophy of life and bright dreams about the future are fully embodied in the spring holiday.

The Novruz holiday, which represents sublime human feelings and has a rejuvenating power, paves the way for sincere relations between people, strengthens the feelings of friendship, mercy and kindness, and contributes to a harmonious development of our society around a single ideology. Novruz traditions, which we consider an integral part of our national existence and protect from external influences, are an expression of our respect for our spiritual wealth and, at the same time, our valuable contribution to the treasure of human culture.

The large-scale projects being implemented in our ancient lands for which our deeply revered martyrs gave their lives, the extensive construction work and the life being revitalized with the return of our people to their native lands, add a special atmosphere and symbolic meaning to the arrival of spring to the Land of Fire this year.

I am sending my holiday greetings to our fellow compatriots who live far from our country, whose hearts beat with love for Azerbaijan and who welcome this spring together with us.

I do hope that this remarkable holiday brings new joy, abundance and prosperity to every home and household.

Happy Novruz!

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, March 17, 2023
by Dana Halawi

BEIRUT, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Rita el-Husseini stares carefully at the price tags set in U.S. dollars at a supermarket in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. She holds her mobile phone to calculate the price of each item she needs to pay in Lebanese pounds.

"Most people in Lebanon work in the public sector and receive their salaries in Lebanese pounds. Why would prices be set in U.S. dollars?" she asked.

"Every time I want to buy anything, I have to calculate the price in Lebanese pounds to figure out if I can afford it," she told Xinhua.

Layal Abdine, who works at a public school in Beirut, told Xinhua her salary is around 7 million Lebanese pounds (about 65 U.S. dollars).

Abdine said she feels anxious every time she goes to the cashier to pay for her products because a few dollars are equivalent to hundreds of thousands of Lebanese pounds, which eats up her shopping budget, she added.

On Feb. 16, Lebanese caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam announced that supermarkets in Lebanon would price their products in U.S. dollars starting Feb. 22 in response to the sharp daily fluctuation in prices due to the fast change in the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar to the Lebanese pound.

"We cannot change the prices of 38,000 products daily in supermarkets with every change in the U.S. dollar price," Salam said, adding that customers can pay in Lebanese pounds according to the daily exchange rate of the U.S. dollar.

People in the public sector perceived the minister's move negatively, while employees of the private sector who are partly paid in dollars or those receiving income from foreign countries welcomed the step, saying that it "makes their lives easier."

Wassim Marrouch, who was buying diapers for his baby, believes the economy ministry's decision to price items in U.S. dollars is wise.

"People will be able to pay a specific amount in U.S. dollars instead of witnessing daily changes in prices set in Lebanese pounds," he said.

Lebanon's steep financial crisis caused a collapse of the local currency by over 90 percent, plunging over 80 percent of the population into poverty.

Official statistics estimate that around 80 percent of the Lebanese population is employed in the public sector which pays salaries in the collapsing local currency, making it hard for them to meet their most basic needs, including food and medicine.

The Lebanese people have to cope with multiple exchange rates, including the official rate set at 15,000 LBP, the central bank's Sayrafa rate used by commercial banks and foreign exchange dealers set at 79,500 LBP, and the current black-market rate at 107,000 LBP, which reflects the actual value of the U.S. dollar.

The economy minister defended his move by saying that these are temporary solutions and exceptional measures to adapt to the quick change in the exchange rate.

The minister was accused of attempting to dollarize the Lebanese economy, which he denied, adding that he is keen to protect the national currency. Still, he said exceptional measures are needed to overcome the current difficult situation.

Adnan Rammal, a representative of the trade sector in the Economic and Social Council, told Xinhua that the decision to price products in supermarkets in U.S. dollars benefits importers, supermarkets, and customers.

Meanwhile, he added, clients will find it easier to compare prices between supermarkets since the prices are now fixed in U.S. dollars instead of witnessing daily price changes in Lebanese pounds.

Bassem El-Bawab, an economist and a business instructor at the American University of Beirut, told Xinhua that the drawback of such a step is that consumers will get used to dealing with the U.S. dollar, which will undermine the national currency over time.

"This is psychologically bad," he said.

He added that with time, consumers might ask for their wages to be paid in U.S. dollars since prices are set in foreign currency and eventually lead to the entire dollarization of the economy. 
Welcome to "Go! Ms. Farmer," where we meet wonderful women in rural China. On our third stop, vlogger Alysa Kees savors authentic Hakka food with Xiao Limei, a rice wine brewer.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch a new X-ray astronomical satellite, Einstein Probe (EP), at the end of this year, said Yuan Weimin, principal investigator of the satellite project.

Yuan, who is also a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), revealed the latest progress of the EP project at the recent 35th National Symposium on Space Exploration.

"The satellite has entered the final stage of development," he said.

According to the scientist, the probe is expected to capture the first light from supernova explosions, help search for and pinpoint gravitational wave sources, and observe the mysterious transient phenomena in the universe.

Scientists have found that there are many transient and explosive sources in the universe, most of which can radiate huge amounts of energy in a very short period of time and show complex brightness variations in the X-ray band, such as black holes that are devouring stars.

"These fast transient sources are crucial to cosmology and galaxy studies, but are currently poorly understood by scientists," said Yuan.

Further research requires a new generation of detection equipment with extremely large fields of view, high sensitivity, high resolution, and fast response capabilities, he added.

But the important question in this regard is how to make such equipment.

Biologists discovered early on that the lobster's eye is different from other animals. Lobster eyes are made up of numerous tiny square tubes, pointing to the same spherical center. This structure allows light from all directions to reflect in the tubes and converge on the retina, which gives the lobster a large field of view.

Scientists then simulated the lobster eye to create a telescope to detect X-rays in space.

Through cooperation with other organizations, the X-ray Imaging Laboratory of NAOC began the research and development work on lobster-eye X-ray imaging technology in 2010 and finally made a breakthrough.

The team carried out the test validation of the technology on the telescope Lobster Eye Imager for Astronomy (LEIA) -- a pathfinder of the EP instrument -- which was launched in July 2022, and revealed the world's first batch of large-field X-ray snapshots of the sky captured by the LEIA.

"Thanks to the lobster-eye telescope technology, the Einstein Probe will be able to monitor the currently poorly known soft X-ray band with a large field of view and high sensitivity," Yuan said.

"This technology will revolutionize monitoring of the X-ray sky, and the test module shows the strong scientific potential of the Einstein Probe mission," said Paul O'Brien, head of Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester.

According to Yuan, the EP will carry out systematic sky surveys to monitor high-energy transient objects in the universe.

The mission is expected to discover cloaked black holes and map the distribution of black holes in the universe, and help us to study their formation and evolution. The probe will also be used to search for X-ray signals accompanying gravitational wave events and pinpoint them, Yuan said.

The satellite program, part of a space science project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has attracted extensive attention worldwide, with the European Space Agency, the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany and the French space agency participating in it. 
WASHINGTON, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Saturday that he will be arrested next week.

Trump, in a post on Truth Social, wrote that "illegal leaks" from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office indicate that he "will be arrested on Tuesday of next week."

"Take our nation back," Trump added, issuing a call for his supporters to protest.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is reportedly investigating whether Trump falsified business records in connection with an alleged hush-money payment made to an adult film star during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump's lawyer has said he has no plans to participate in the probe, and the Republican, who served as U.S. president from January 2017 to January 2021, has denounced the investigation as a witch hunt. 




BRATISLAVA, March 18 (Xinhua) -- "We just need to build on the tradition of what worked, and help each other to know each other better." Former Slovak Foreign Minister Pavol Demes has spoken highly of diplomatic ties between his country and China over the past 30 years.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
SEOUL, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The strategic forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has conducted an intercontinental ballistic missile launch drill as a gesture of warning against the ongoing U.S.-South Korea war drills, said a state media report Friday.

A Hwasongpho-17 was launched on Thursday from the Pyongyang International Airport, climbing up to a maximum altitude of 6,045 km and flying a distance of some 1,000 km before accurately landing on a preset area in the open waters off the eastern coast, the DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The DPRK's top leader Kim Jong Un, who presided over the launching event, applauded the reliability of the operating systems of the country's nuclear strategic forces, said the KCNA report.

Meanwhile, Kim took the occasion to reiterate the DPRK's "resolute will to respond with a nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation," and asked the strategic forces to strictly maintain a rapid response capability in the event of any armed conflict and war, the report added.

In tandem with the latest missile launch, the country's main newspaper Rodong Sinmun published a commentary on Friday, underscoring that the Hwasongpho-17, which was launched a day earlier, should serve as clear evidence that "the DPRK nuclear forces are not for advertisement."

Citing the DPRK law on the policy of nuclear-armed forces, the article said the country would make a resolute response to anyone trying to encroach upon its sovereignty and security.

"The United States should stop at once the reckless military provocations and war drills against the DPRK," the commentary said.

South Korea and the United States on Monday kicked off the Freedom Shield exercises, an annual large-scale joint military drill, which would last until March 23. 
BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- A recently released report titled "Toward Modernity: The Value of Xi Jinping's Economic Thought" has explored the origins of Xi's economic thought from the perspective of local governance.

When working in different localities, Xi put forward a series of new ideas, new ways of thinking and new measures concerning economic work. His years of solid practice on the ground have enriched his experience and enhanced the depth of his theoretical thinking, laying a solid foundation for his economic thought to take shape and evolve.

Recounting Xi's stories of economic governance when he worked at the local level, the report, which was released by New China Research, the think tank of Xinhua News Agency, has offered a vivid illustration on how Xi's economic thought helped promote local development.

The following piece tells Xi's story in Zhejiang.

From October 2002 to March 2007, Xi served as deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Zhejiang Provincial Committee, acting governor of Zhejiang Province, and secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee.

During his work in Zhejiang for more than 1,600 days, Xi traveled over all 90 counties, cities and districts in this province, and put forward a series of important statements and concepts that became an important source of his strategy for governing the country after becoming general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

GREEN DEVELOPMENT

Located in the hinterland of the Yangtze River Delta, Anji County in Zhejiang Province has a vegetation coverage rate of 96 percent. At the entrance of Yu Village of Anji County, a sentence was written on a stone tablet: "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets."

This is the origin of the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets".

On Aug. 15, 2005, Xi, then secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, visited Yu Village and put forward the concept for the first time.

Yu Village had once developed a "stone economy" by selling high-quality limestone mined from mountains. It was covered in dust and smoke all year round. At the beginning of the 21st century, the village shut down all cement plants and mines to improve the environment.

During the visit, Xi said: "It is a brilliant move for you to shut down the mines."

"We used to say that we wanted both lucid waters and lush mountains, as well as mountains of gold and silver. In fact, lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," he added.

A few days later, he published a commentary in a column for Zhejiang Daily, pointing out that lucid waters and lush mountains can bring mountains of gold and silver, but mountains of gold and silver can't buy lucid waters and lush mountains. The two have contradictions, but can be dialectically unified at the same time.

Guided by this concept, Yu Village has formed a new type of rural ecological economy, in which the village can attract tourists and develop agriculture at the same time.

In an interview with Xinhua in October 2022, Wang Yucheng, Party chief of the village and head of the village committee, said that Yu Village has been a direct beneficiary of the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," with villagers' per capita disposable income increasing sevenfold in the past decade.

The concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" opened a new path for Zhejiang's development.

In 2019, the province passed the acceptance test of the pilot project of national ecological province construction. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the level of public satisfaction with the ecological environment in Zhejiang Province has increased for 11 consecutive years.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Xi has summarized and interpreted the concept on many occasions.

In 2013, he put forward the theory of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," featuring coordination between conservation and development, on the international occasion for the first time.

In October 2015, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee put forward a philosophy of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development for the first time.

In 2017, the concept was written into the CPC Constitution.

The concept promotes economic development and ecological conservation in China at the same time, and injects positive energy into the harmonious coexistence between man and nature on a global scale.

PRIVATE ECONOMY

Zhejiang, one of the important birthplaces of China's private economy, is home to more than 9 million market entities, meaning there is one business owner in every seven people based on its permanent resident population.

Vigorously developing the private economy was one of the tasks Xi attached great importance to during his stay in Zhejiang.

When he worked in Zhejiang, Xi once said, "the biggest advantage of the province is the first-mover advantage of the private economy. I have been thinking about how to leverage this advantage."

He reiterated that the private economy represented the vitality of Zhejiang, it is necessary to continue to encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public economy, and state-owned and private enterprises should be treated equally.

He also led the formulation of a series of policies and measures to promote the new development of the private economy.

During his survey in local areas of Zhejiang, Xi often paid visits to private companies, taking heed of their difficulties and demands.

In December 2002, he visited some major private-economy cities -- Ningbo, Taizhou and Wenzhou. During the trip, Xi highlighted several keywords, including rebuilding advantages, deepening reform and improving the work style.

"I am very concerned about the development of the non-public economy. If the company has important issues in the future, you can come directly to Hangzhou and meet me in my office," Xi said to Nan Cunhui, CHINT Group's chairman, during his inspection visit to the company.

In 2003, in response to the requirements of the Zhejiang provincial Party committee and provincial government, the company planned to implement an internationalization strategy to build itself into an advanced electrical appliance manufacturing enterprise.

Xi spent almost two hours in his office patiently listening to Nan's report and gave positive encouragement. Now, recalling the meeting at the time, Nan is still deeply moved.

A slew of policy measures have significantly invigorated private enterprises in the province. In the 2022 list of China's top 500 private companies, Zhejiang had 107 companies listed, ranking first for 24 consecutive years.

More importantly, the private and the state-owned economies in Zhejiang have been integrating with each other, complementing each other and developing side by side.

RURAL REVIVAL

In June 2003, Xi, then secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, initiated the Green Rural Revival Program. He planned to renovate about 10,000 incorporated villages in the next five years and transform about 1,000 central villages among them into examples of moderate prosperity in all respects.

Ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year in 2003, Xi visited Hengkantou Village located at an old revolutionary base in Yuyao City of Zhejiang.

During a discussion, he said, "Only when people in old revolutionary base areas become rich, can Zhejiang truly achieve common prosperity. Only when people in old revolutionary base areas live a well-off life, can Zhejiang truly turn into a well-off society in an all-round way."

With the promotion of the Green Rural Revival Program, Hengkantou Village, once impoverished and backward, had become a well-off and civilized village by developing red tourism, which refers to visiting historical sites with revolutionary legacies, and utilizing green resources.

On March 1, 2018, more than 2,000 villagers in Hengkantou Village received a reply from the Party's top leader. The villagers wrote a letter to Xi on Feb. 10, telling him the latest development of the village, but didn't expect him to reply soon.

Although 15 years had passed, Xi had always been concerned about the villagers and was pleased with the development of the village.

Great changes have also taken place in Xiajiang Village, Chun'an County, which is 300 kilometers away from provincial capital Hangzhou and also a grassroots work base for Xi when he worked in Zhejiang. He went to Xiajiang Village four times for investigation and wrote letters twice to encourage villagers.

Adhering to the concept of green development, Xiajiang Village has changed from "the dirty, chaotic, and poor" to "the green, wealthy, and beautiful." The per capita disposable income of the village in 2021 reached 46,959 yuan (about 6,800 U.S. dollars), more than 20 times that of 20 years ago.

"The great changes in the small mountain village benefited from Xi's care and the strategy of 'making full use of eight advantages and implementing eight major measures,'" said Jiang Lijuan, Party chief of Xiajiang, also a delegate to the 20th CPC National Congress.

The strategy, put forward by Xi in 2003, called on the province to make use of its eight advantages, such as system and mechanism advantage, location advantage and industry advantage, to implement eight major measures for Zhejiang's development.

Guided by the strategy, the Green Rural Revival Program, Mountain-Sea Collaboration Project, and other projects got implemented successively in Zhejiang.

A large number of poor mountain villages have become ecological and well-off by utilizing green resources, expanding agriculture based on unique local features, and cooperating with developed districts and counties for development. More and more villagers began enjoying a better life.

In 2015, Zhejiang became the first province in China to complete the task of poverty alleviation at a high level.

In the past 10 years, the income gap between urban and rural residents in Zhejiang has narrowed from 2.37 fold to 1.94 fold, and the gap between the highest and lowest incomes of local residents has narrowed from 1.76 fold in 2013 to 1.61 fold.

During Xi's tenure in Zhejiang, he pointed out that there should be no blind spots in the modernization drive, and not a single village, town, or person should be left behind in the pursuit of moderate prosperity in all respects.

Xi has been committed to the concept of "not a single person should be left behind" throughout his work, whether it's winning the battle against poverty, building a moderately prosperous society in an all-around way, or promoting common prosperity steadily. 
JERUSALEM, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Attracted by China's strong economy and big market, an increasing number of Israeli enterprises are looking forward to intensifying cooperation with China, said Ilan Maor, president of the Israel-China Chamber of Commerce.

"China is such a big economy that you cannot think about the global market, industry and financial system without it," Maor told Xinhua in a recent interview, stressing that given the strength and effectiveness of the Chinese government and economy, as well as the energy and diligence of the Chinese people, the future looks bright for companies seeking to enter the market.

In his office in the Israeli economic hub of Tel Aviv, Maor recalled the Chinese-Israeli business projects he had witnessed. From daily consumer goods to high-tech electronic industries, cross-industry and multi-field business exchanges between the two countries are in full swing, he noted.

Maor said facts have proved that many Israeli enterprises have become stronger after collaborating with Chinese partners that have great financial capabilities and offer growth possibilities.

"The Chinese market is a major market for any company that wants to grow," he said, adding partnership with a strong Chinese company will increase the chance of a company's success.

China is Israel's largest trading partner in Asia and the second largest in the world, and also the largest source of Israel's imported goods.

According to China's General Administration of Customs, the volume of bilateral trade between China and Israel totaled 25.45 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, registering an increase of 11.6 percent year-on-year.

"China is by far the biggest producer in the world and one of the biggest markets in the world. We've seen China opening up more and more in the past decades, and this is a critical trend for the future of the economy," said Maor, noting the future of Israel's technology depends on its capacity to cooperate with powerful economies.

After the Chinese Spring Festival in January, Maor visited several Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Changzhou and Jinan, where he met with a number of business partners and government officials.

"It was amazing to see the cities full of life. All the restaurants and places are full of people. You saw the energy and you could feel the energy in the air," he said.

"Their eagerness to make things happen and cooperate was amazing. They are working to achieve their plans, and they are open to cooperation, investment, and businesses," he noted.

As an important participant and facilitator of business exchanges between China and Israel, Maor has kept himself updated with China's development targets. He said he has full confidence in China to achieve a growth target of around 5 percent for 2023.

"China has a very smart government that knows how to design the goals, and how to execute them, that's one very big advantage. The Chinese economy is at its core very strong with a big market. When the hardworking people put their efforts altogether, the results are there," he said. 
BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- A recently released report titled "Toward Modernity: The Value of Xi Jinping's Economic Thought" has explored the origins of Xi's economic thought from the perspective of local governance.

When working in different localities, Xi put forward a series of new ideas, new ways of thinking and new measures concerning economic work. His years of solid practice on the ground have enriched his experience and enhanced the depth of his theoretical thinking, laying a solid foundation for his economic thought to take shape and evolve.

Recounting Xi's stories of economic governance when he worked at the local level, the report, which was released by New China Research, the think tank of Xinhua News Agency, has offered a vivid illustration of how Xi's economic thought helped promote local development.

The following excerpted piece tells Xi's story in Shanghai.

From March to October 2007, Xi served as the secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Shanghai Municipal Committee. At that time, Shanghai was at a crucial stage of reform and development.

During his tenure of seven months and four days as Shanghai's Party chief, Xi traveled to all the districts and counties to conduct rounds of investigations and studies, and proposed a series of plans and requirements -- touching aspects ranging from opening-up, regional integration to innovative development.

LET CHINESE AIRLINERS SOAR

At 9:19 a.m. Dec. 9, 2022, a C919, China's domestically-developed large passenger aircraft, was delivered to its first customer, China Eastern Airlines.

From the approval of the project in 2006 to the delivery of the airliner in 2022, the C919 project has undergone a painstaking journey of design, manufacture, flight test and eventual commercialization.

Xi has been paying close attention to China's airliner development. "We must exert much effort to take our own large aircraft to the sky," he said.

In 2007, the development of China's homegrown regional jetliner ARJ21 entered the critical phase of assembly. On Sept. 20 that year, a convention was held to ensure the jetliner was ready to fly in the year that followed. Although it was not as significant as the completion of assembly or the maiden flight, Xi still attended the event and expressed the wishes that the jetliner would soar in the sky with pride.

Seven years later in May 2014, Xi, who by then had become general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, visited the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd., the C919's developer, on an inspection tour. He boarded the C919 exhibition model and learned about the design of the airliner.

To develop China into a great country, we must develop the equipment manufacturing industry and the large aircraft, setting a good example, said Xi.

He stressed that China ought to provide greater financial support for the development and manufacture of domestic large aircraft.

Large aircraft is a crown jewel of the manufacturing industry and a piece of equipment of paramount importance to a country. It energizes the development of an entire industrial chain and exhibits a country's sci-tech innovation capabilities.

The development of the C919 is indeed a vivid example of how Xi attaches importance and devotes his personal efforts to advancing innovative development.

YANGTZE RIVER DELTA

Not long after taking office as Shanghai's Party chief, Xi made plans for an inspection tour to the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. When his staff was about to finalize the itinerary, Xi suggested making an additional stop at Yiwu, Zhejiang.

By then, Yiwu had become the world's largest marketplace for small consumer goods. Many Shanghai officials who participated in the tour said that after the visit, the strategy of integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta had left a strong impression on them.

Xi once used an analogy to elaborate on the relationship between Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region. He noted that the emergence of a central city is the result of conglomerated resources and elements, and is enhanced by serving, energizing and facilitating the development of its surrounding areas.

"Just like a heart, when there are more arteries connected to it, giving it an abundant supply of blood, it will beat more vibrantly," he said.

Xi has always been paying close attention to the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta. He personally planned, directed and promoted this major strategy after ascending to the position of general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, and announced the decision of making it a national strategy at the opening ceremony of the first China International Import Expo in 2018.

Energized by the national strategy, the Yangtze River Delta region, which takes up only 4 percent of China's land area, was able to contribute about 25 percent of China's total GDP. It has now become one of the most vibrant, open and innovative regions in the country. 
"This AUKUS is again, a major blow to the NPT-based nuclear non-proliferation regime." A Pakistani expert has warned that the AUKUS military pact between the U.S., Britain, and Australia poses a significant challenge to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
By Azernews

Under Iran's patronage, Armenia blocked the adoption of a declaration in OSCE condemning the terrorist attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran, Azernews reports.

Yerevan hindered the discussions that continued for nearly two months and did not allow the adoption of the declaration condemning the treacherous attack on the embassy, conveying condolences to the families of the victims of terrorism, and emphasizing the importance of conducting a thorough investigation in order to ensure justice.

We should note that this, once again, shows that Armenia, in addition to being the main representative of Iran in the OSCE, is not an interested party in peace and security.

During the 49th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is a member of 57 countries, held in Mauritania, one of the 5 resolutions adopted yesterday was the resolution entitled "Attack against the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Tehran". The resolution strongly condemns the deadly armed attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy to Tehran on January 27, 2023, calls on the Iranian government to thoroughly investigate the attack, bring the perpetrators to justice, and in accordance with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the Republic of Azerbaijan to Iran It is called to ensure the protection of diplomatic missions in the territory of the Islamic Republic.




BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The amendment to the charter of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the amended charter were released Saturday via Xinhua News Agency.

The amendment was approved at the first session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC, which was held from March 4 to 11.

The charter comprises six chapters with around 10,000 Chinese characters.

A comparison table of the original and amended versions of the charter was also released.

Historical experience has proven that only by adapting to new circumstances, enriching its content and setting new standards, can the CPPCC charter better play its role and advance the development of the cause of the CPPCC, said an official with the National Committee of the CPPCC on Saturday.

Since its general framework and main content were nailed down in 1982, the CPPCC charter has undergone five amendments in 1994, 2000, 2004, 2018 and 2023, respectively. 
YINCHUAN, March 18 (Xinhua) -- After a visit to northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, members of a German delegation were visibly impressed with what the region's fertile land has to offer.

"We had the chance to taste the Ningxia food, and had great wine and Goji berries," said Friederike Doerfler, Agriculture and Food Counsellor of the German Embassy in China, referring to the local specialties. "All of us will bring those memories back to Beijing or wherever we go."

The 15-member delegation, including representatives of the German Agricultural Society, known as DLG, and the country's various agricultural firms, paid a four-day visit to Ningxia earlier this month, seeking more business opportunities in areas such as agricultural machinery, livestock breeding and winemaking.

Located in the Yellow River basin, Ningxia has a long farming history and boasts fine irrigation conditions. It is a producer of high-quality wine, Goji berries, milk, beef, mutton, and organic vegetables.

"Having visited the high-standard farmland construction and the development of animal husbandry in the region, I saw some similarities between Ningxia and Germany in developing modern agriculture, which makes it possible for future cooperation," said Leely Zhang, managing director of DLG.

In fact, advanced German agricultural machinery and equipment have already been widely used in the production of high-quality grain, vegetables and fruits, pasture and forestry in Ningxia.

"About 80 percent of our agricultural machines were imported from Germany," said Wang Wei, general manager of an agricultural company in Ningxia's Ningwu City that sells about 14 tonnes of forage each year and owns two standardized breeding bases with over 2,200 beef cattle.

Wang expressed hopes that German manufacturers could invest and build factories in Ningxia so that local farmers can benefit from advanced agricultural machines at a lower cost.

A large part of the machinery Wang's company uses was manufactured by CLAAS, a world-famous farm-machinery maker based in Germany.

"We always regard China as the most potential market," said Zhang Jinwang, general manager of CLAAS China, who has visited Ningxia four times.

In recent years, exchange and cooperation between Ningxia and Germany have prospered in various fields. In 2022, Ningxia and Germany recorded 1.94 billion yuan (about 281 million U.S. dollars) in imports and exports, up 134.4 percent year on year.

German enterprises have invested in 13 companies in Ningxia involving the manufacturing of bearings and the lithium-ion battery industry, said Fan Huafeng, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Ningxia's regional Party committee, adding that modern agriculture has emerged as a new area of cooperation between the two sides.

Hua Zhimin, director of Ningxia's agriculture and rural affairs department, expressed hopes that cooperation between Ningxia and Germany could be further strengthened in agricultural technology, machinery and equipment, smart agriculture and personnel training.

"We will do our utmost to provide sound services and support to promote win-win development," said Hua.

In response, Doerfler said, "We offer high-quality machinery and you can use it for producing high-quality products." "I think it's a win-win combination." 
PARIS, March 17 (Xinhua) -- French police used tear gas on Friday evening to disperse some 4,000 protesters that expressed their discontent over the pension reform and the forced passage of the pension reform bill by the government.

For the second night, Place de la Concorde (Concorde Square), facing the National Assembly across the river Seine, became the place for protesters to express their anger over the government's forced passage of the pension reform bill that used a special constitutional power.

In the footage broadcast on television, clashes broke out between the police and some protesters. An effigy of French President Emmanuel Macron was also shown burnt by protesters.

On Thursday evening, spontaneous protests turned violent across France. According to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, some 10,000 people gathered at Place de la Concorde, while 52,000 participated in demonstrations organized in 24 other cities across France.

French police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse people at Place de la Concorde and arrested more than 200.

More public service sectors, including energy, railway, aviation, announced on Friday to extend their strikes following the use of the special constitutional power by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to force passage of the pension reform bill.

Over 10,000 tons of garbage has piled up in the streets of Paris due to the municipal sanitation workers' strike against the government's controversial pension reform bill, the City Hall said on Friday.

Borne on Thursday activated an article of the country's Constitution that allows the government to force passage of the controversial pension reform bill without a vote at the National Assembly.

According to Paragraph 3 of Article 49 of the French Constitution, the prime minister may, after consulting with the Council of Ministers, impose the adoption of a bill by the National Assembly without a vote. The only way for the National Assembly to veto this is to pass a no-confidence motion against the government.

Two no-confidence motions have been filed by Friday afternoon against the French government.

Should any of the motions be endorsed by an absolute majority -- 289 votes in favor -- Borne would have to submit to Macron the resignation of her government. 
WINDHOEK, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's Minister of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform Calle Schlettwein on Friday called for intensified collaboration among sectors to ensure sustainable water supply and safeguard the country's freshwater resources.

Speaking at the commemoration of World Water Day, which falls on March 22, Schlettwein highlighted the growing challenge faced by Namibia in managing freshwater resources sustainably due to increasing demand for water resulting from population growth, socio-economic development, and food production.

According to Schlettwein, the effects of climate change, such as rising temperatures and increased rainfall variability, are taking a toll on surface water resources, making them increasingly unpredictable and vulnerable to pollution.

Water is valuable to households for food production, cultural norms, provision of health, education, economic activities, and maintenance of the natural environment, Schlettwein said, adding that if demand for water is mismatched with available water resources, there is a risk of depleting resources and not meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.

To address these challenges, Schlettwein called for increased investment in water infrastructure, including water treatment facilities, and equitable distribution of water to all communities, including rural areas.

He also emphasized the need to encourage young water professionals to develop interests in water-related research to determine resource potential and sustainable development.

Informed management requires an improved knowledge base, institutional capacity, and enhanced governance to unlock sustainable development of groundwater resources for socio-economic development, water and food security, and climate change resilience, according to Schlettwein.

"Our aim is to create awareness that we need to increase our efforts and interventions to accelerate change so that our communities, who are less privileged, have access to improved sanitation and water services," he said. 
This photo taken on March 17, 2023 shows a cyclone-affected area in Blantyre, Malawi. More bodies have been recovered in Malawi's southern region hit by Cyclone Freddy, bringing the total death toll to at least 438 as of 09:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) Friday, said the country's Department of Disaster Management Affairs. The death toll rose from Thursday's 326, said the department in its fifth update, adding that approximately 345,183 people (or 79,602 households) have been displaced and 505 camps have been set up to accommodate them. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua)

BLANTYRE, Malawi, March 18 (Xinhua) -- More bodies have been recovered in Malawi's southern region hit by Cyclone Freddy, bringing the total death toll to at least 438 as of 09:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) Friday, said the country's Department of Disaster Management Affairs.

The death toll rose from Thursday's 326, said the department in its fifth update, adding that approximately 345,183 people (or 79,602 households) have been displaced and 505 camps have been set up to accommodate them.

The cumulative number of injured people has reached 918, with another 282 reported missing, said Charles Kalemba, commissioner of the department.

The commissioner said his department, humanitarian partners and councils "continue to facilitate the provision of relief assistance to affected and displaced households, with search and rescue operations led by the Malawi Defence Force, the Malawi Police Service, the Department of Marine, the Malawi Red Cross Society and communities underway."

He added that the Malawi Police Service has deployed sniffer dogs for search and rescue, and recovered nine bodies in the town of Chilobwe.

Foreign missions, governments, local and international organizations, companies and individuals of goodwill are rendering support to Malawi, after Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera declared a state of disaster earlier in the week, said the commissioner. 

A woman weeps at a cyclone-affected area in Blantyre, Malawi, March 17, 2023. More bodies have been recovered in Malawi's southern region hit by Cyclone Freddy, bringing the total death toll to at least 438 as of 09:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) Friday, said the country's Department of Disaster Management Affairs. The death toll rose from Thursday's 326, said the department in its fifth update, adding that approximately 345,183 people (or 79,602 households) have been displaced and 505 camps have been set up to accommodate them. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua)

Police officers conduct search and rescue work with sniffer dogs at a cyclone-affected area in Blantyre, Malawi, March 17, 2023. More bodies have been recovered in Malawi's southern region hit by Cyclone Freddy, bringing the total death toll to at least 438 as of 09:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) Friday, said the country's Department of Disaster Management Affairs. The death toll rose from Thursday's 326, said the department in its fifth update, adding that approximately 345,183 people (or 79,602 households) have been displaced and 505 camps have been set up to accommodate them. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua)

A girl is seen at a temporary camp set up to accommodate displaced people in Blantyre, Malawi, March 17, 2023. More bodies have been recovered in Malawi's southern region hit by Cyclone Freddy, bringing the total death toll to at least 438 as of 09:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) Friday, said the country's Department of Disaster Management Affairs. The death toll rose from Thursday's 326, said the department in its fifth update, adding that approximately 345,183 people (or 79,602 households) have been displaced and 505 camps have been set up to accommodate them. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua)

People conduct search and rescue work at a cyclone-affected area in Blantyre, Malawi, March 17, 2023. More bodies have been recovered in Malawi's southern region hit by Cyclone Freddy, bringing the total death toll to at least 438 as of 09:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) Friday, said the country's Department of Disaster Management Affairs. The death toll rose from Thursday's 326, said the department in its fifth update, adding that approximately 345,183 people (or 79,602 households) have been displaced and 505 camps have been set up to accommodate them. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua)

People are seen at a temporary camp set up to accommodate displaced people in Blantyre, Malawi, March 17, 2023. More bodies have been recovered in Malawi's southern region hit by Cyclone Freddy, bringing the total death toll to at least 438 as of 09:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) Friday, said the country's Department of Disaster Management Affairs. The death toll rose from Thursday's 326, said the department in its fifth update, adding that approximately 345,183 people (or 79,602 households) have been displaced and 505 camps have been set up to accommodate them. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua)

People carry a body during search and rescue work in Blantyre, Malawi, March 17, 2023. More bodies have been recovered in Malawi's southern region hit by Cyclone Freddy, bringing the total death toll to at least 438 as of 09:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) Friday, said the country's Department of Disaster Management Affairs. The death toll rose from Thursday's 326, said the department in its fifth update, adding that approximately 345,183 people (or 79,602 households) have been displaced and 505 camps have been set up to accommodate them. (Photo by Joseph Mizere/Xinhua)
TOKYO, March 18 (Xinhua) -- An event of warm and friendly exchanges centered around giant pandas was hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Japan on Friday evening, with the guests sharing love for the cute animal as well as anecdotes about the China-Japan relations.

Attending the big warm party held at a hotel here in Japan's capital city were Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, Director of Ueno Zoo Yutaka Fukuda, head of the Panda Protection Institute of Japan Toshimitsu Doi, and more than 230 giant panda fans who have been active on the front line of friendly exchanges between Japan and China.

The panda-themed event came not long after Japanese people waved goodbye to the beloved Japan-born giant panda Xiang Xiang as well as three other pandas returning to China in February.

Before the evening party formally kicked off, a documentary film was released on cooperation between the two countries on giant panda protection and research, which evoked happy memories of the audience about pandas.

"When I was a child, I would stand in a long queue with my family to see giant pandas. It's an experience I will always remember," or "Japan held a writing competition about giant pandas, in which I participated and won a prize" was among people's cited experiences related to pandas.

Yang Yu, charge d'affaires of the Chinese embassy in Japan, said when addressing the event that the giant panda is not only a messenger of friendship between China and Japan, but also a symbol of world peace.

"We are ready to work with Japan and other countries in the world to build the Earth all people live on into a truly peaceful home," he added.

In September 2017, Governor Koike announced that the female panda cub born three months earlier at Ueno Zoo was named Xiang Xiang, who soon became a nationwide star and permanently a trending topic on local media.

In February this year, Xiang Xiang returned to China after living in Japan for five years.

At the party, Ueno Zoo Director Fukuda updated the panda fans on how well Xiang Xiang is doing in China, while Koike said she wishes Xiang Xiang to grow up healthily in China and become a great mother.

In talking to people charmed by the giant panda photos that he has taken for years, photographer and blogger of "Mainichi Panda" Takahiro Takauji said that he is planning to organize a group tour of panda fans to China to visit Xiang Xiang.

"I can feel everyone's deep love for giant pandas," said Ruriko Kojima, a Japanese artist to go to China for studies. "I hope to go to China as early as possible to see them, and to introduce more of the real China to Japanese people. "

Araki Tatsuo came to the event wearing a panda mask and a panda tie and carrying a panda doll.

"Through the giant pandas, I can better introduce Chinese culture to everyone and let people feel the charm of China," said the special researcher at the University of Tokyo.

Zhu Jianrong, a professor at Japan's Toyo Gakuen University who has long been active in the friendly exchanges between China and Japan, commented on the event: "When it comes to giant pandas, people have a lot to share."

"We need more such events like this tonight to offer an opportunity for the Japanese people to feel the charm of China and to have a better understanding of China," said Zhu. 
YANGON, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar kicked off its 58th gems exhibition in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw on Friday, the state media reported.

The exhibition is aimed at getting foreign currency income and obtaining economic benefits for the citizens, it said.

Myanmar's State Administration Council Chairman Min Aung Hlaing also attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition, the report said.

The event will put a total of 295 pearl lots, 120 gems lots and 2,150 jade lots on sale under an open tender system during the seven days until Thursday, it said.

Foreign merchants may purchase the jade, gems and pearl lots in the U.S. dollar, euro, the Chinese yuan and Thai baht, and local merchants may buy them in the local currency, the kyat, it added.

The event has been held since 1946. 
North Macedonia is on course to join the European Union (EU) by 2030, the European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said on Friday, Azernews reports citing Xinhua.

Varhelyi was speaking at a joint press conference with North Macedonia's Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

The two EU senior officials attended the 16th meeting of the Stabilization and Association Council to review North Macedonia's accession to the EU. The Council is being held for the first time in Skopje.

"What this meeting symbolizes is that North Macedonia will become an EU member state," said Varhelyi.

During Friday's meeting, the Council praised the country's focus on reforms, the harmonization of laws and practices with European standards, and policies of "good neighborliness."

"North Macedonia practices European values, and we have no doubt we are on the right European path," said Kovachevski.
COLOMBO, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's President Ranil Wickremesinghe will present the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the parliament next week, a government official said on Saturday.

State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said this when addressing a meeting. According to him, the IMF will also publish the agreement on its website and its board will meet on March 20 to finalize the bailout package worth 2.9 billion U.S. dollars.

Sri Lanka started the related negotiations with the international lender in 2022 after the South Asian country was hit by a severe economic crisis. 
PARIS, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Over 10,000 tons of garbage has piled up in the streets of Paris due to the municipal sanitation workers' strike against the government's controversial pension reform bill, the City Hall said on Friday.

Refuse collectors have been on strike in Paris for 12 days. On Thursday, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced she is activating a special constitutional power to force passage of the pension reform bill, leading demonstrators to set garbage on fire in the French capital.

Striking sanitation workers are also blocking the three waste incinerators in the Paris suburbs.

However, not all the city's 20 arrondissements (quarters) are invaded by garbage, since ten are serviced by private companies.

Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo supports the social movement against the pension reform bill. "The claim of the garbage collectors of the City of Paris who legitimately wish not to work two more years is fair," she said at the beginning of the strike.

Her position has sparked controversy in Paris, with many accusing her of contributing to the poor state of hygiene and rats in the city.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin asked Hidalgo to use administrative measures to force refuse collectors and street cleaners to come back to work, but Hidalgo has refused.

The Paris police force has therefore requisitioned municipal workers to "evacuate most of the waste, and ensure that a collection service can be set up." Those who refuse to comply will face a 10,000 euro (10,600 U.S. dollars) fine and six months in prison.

The sanitation workers began striking to express their discontent over the pension reform bill, which will raise the legal retirement age for this category of worker from 57 to 59. Their colleagues in other major French cities such as Marseille, le Havre and Nantes quickly lent their support to the movement.

Elisabeth Borne's announcement she is activating Article 49.3 of the country's constitution, allowing the government to force passage of the pension reform bill without a vote at the National Assembly, has sparked anger across the country.

Spontaneous demonstrations on Thursday saw protestors in Paris using garbage as barricades during clashes with security forces, and setting garbage bins on fire. 
PARIS, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Two no-confidence motions had been filed by Friday afternoon against the French government led by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who forced passage of the controversial pension reform bill without a vote in the National Assembly.

The first multiparty motion was filed by the centrist opposition group LIOT. It was co-signed by 91 opposition deputies from different parties.

The second motion was tabled by the far-right National Rally party, which has 88 deputies in the National Assembly. The deputies argue that the pension overhaul is "unfair and unnecessary."

Borne on Thursday triggered an article of the country's Constitution that allows the government to force passage of the controversial pension reform bill without a vote in the National Assembly.

According to Paragraph 3 of Article 49 of the French Constitution, the prime minister may, after consulting with the Council of Ministers, impose the adoption of a bill by the National Assembly without a vote. The only way for the National Assembly to veto this is to pass a no-confidence motion against the government.

Should any of the two no-confidence motions be endorsed by an absolute majority -- 289 votes in favor -- Borne would have to submit to French President Emmanuel Macron the resignation of her government. 
Washington: However, he agreed with the court's assertions that Russian President Vladimir Putin committed "war crimes" in Ukraine. US President Joe Biden acknowledged on Friday that Washington does not recognise the International Criminal Court.

When asked about the ICC on Friday night before boarding a helicopter, Biden responded, "Well, I think it's justified. "But the issue is that neither we nor the rest of the world recognise it. However, I believe it makes a very compelling point.

According to Biden, Putin "clearly committed war crimes," in response to a different reporter. In addition, he asserted that the allegations regarding payments made by Chinese nationals to members of his family were "not true" and that the US banking crisis has subsided.

Also Read: Germany plans to visit Taiwan at its highest level in decades

Along with Russian children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, Putin was charged earlier in the day with "unlawful transfer of population" by the Hague-based ICC Pre-trial Chamber. The assertion appears to be based on how the Kiev government interprets Russian efforts to remove kids from frontline regions that the Ukrainian military has frequently attacked with weapons from NATO.

The announcement was dismissed as meaningless by the Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry, who noted that Russia is not a signatory to the Rome Statute of the ICC and that the tribunal has no jurisdiction whatsoever in the nation.

Also Read: US security forces prepare for a potential "arrest" of Trump

Other Russian officials claimed that the ICC had just destroyed itself, proving how "worthless and insignificant" organisations supported by the West have become. Dmitry Medvedev, a former president of Russia and vice-chair of the Russian Security Council, compared the ICC "warrant" to toilet paper.

Although the ICC was designed to be similar to the US-backed "tribunals" for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Washington withdrew from it in 2002 and passed a law allowing "all necessary and appropriate means" including military force to be used to free any American or citizen of an ally country who had been detained by the court.

Also Read: Two teenagers are detained in Israel for setting a mosque on fire

A total of 45 nations, including China, India, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, do not acknowledge the court's jurisdiction.
EU mulling sending one million shells to Ukraine by end of 2023 17 March, 09:41 PM Ammunition near Ukrainian military positions in Bakhmut (Photo:REUTERS/Lisi Niesner)

Several European Union countries are pushing for the transfer of one million shells to Ukraine by the end of the year, Germanys Handelsblatt reported on March 17.

The European Council welcomes facilitation in the immediate provision of ammunition to Ukraine, in particular through joint procurement. However, it should be noted that this passage has not yet been finalized and the wording may still be subject to changes until March 23-24, Handelsblatt reported.

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Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Finland, and Romania are among the group of countries that insist on a specific promise regarding shells for Ukraine. France supported the initiative, while Germany is still considering.

Research by analysts in Brussels shows that Ukraine now produces 110,000 projectiles per month, while 350,000 are needed for a successful counteroffensive during this period, the publication said.

Representatives from over 50 countries discussed the provision of ammunition to the Ukrainian military, including artillery, tanks, and air defense, at the 10th Ramstein-format meeting on March 15.

The EU is expected to sign off on a joint ammunition procurement plan for Ukraine in the coming week, said Bloomberg.

Ukraine has appealed to the EU to send Kyiv 250,000 artillery shells a month to ease a critical shortage, reported The Financial Times.

Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov stated that Ukraine requires one million shells in total.

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Hungary, Tukey, to ratify Finland's accession to NATO separately from Sweden 18 March, 01:05 AM Hungary and Turkey ratify Finland's NATO membership separately from Sweden (Photo:NATO.int)

On March 27, the Hungarian parliament will hold a vote to ratify Finland's accession to NATO, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said in a Twitter post on March 17.

This means that Hungary is following Turkeys example and will approve Finland's entry into the alliance separately from Sweden.

The head of the ruling Fidesz party in the parliament, Mate Kocsis, confirmed that his party will consider the issues of ratifying the protocols of Finland and Sweden joining NATO separately.

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"On behalf of the Fidesz group, I would like to inform you that we have decided to support Finland's accession to NATO, he wrote on Facebook.

We will postpone the vote in parliament on this issue until March 27, when we (will) vote unanimously in favor."

Kocsis added the decision regarding Sweden's accession to NATO will be made by later.

Earlier on March 17, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country is starting the process of ratifying the protocol on Finland's accession to NATO.

At the same time, Ankara and Budapest arent planning to ratify the accession to NATO of another Scandinavian country  Sweden.

Sweden and Finland simultaneously filed bids to join NATO in May 2022 amid Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. Applications must be ratified by the parliaments of all NATO member states.

Hungary and Turkey are the only remaining allies to ratify Sweden and Finland joining the alliance.

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Slovakia ready to hand over fighter jets and air defense systems to Ukraine 18 March, 10:43 PM MiG-29 (Photo:  )

Minister of Defence of Slovakia Jaro Nad has signed a bilateral state agreement with Ukraine on supply of 13 MiG-29 fighter jets and two SA-6 Kub air defense systems to Ukraine, Martina Kakascikova, a spokesperson for the Defence Ministry, told the TASR on March 17.

Slovakia will also transfer an air defense control system, spare parts and missiles, Kakascikova said.

Slovakia has declared that it "stands on the right side of history," the spokesperson said.

"Human life is the most valuable thing, and I believe that Slovakian technology will help to protect more people," she said.

Video of day

She added that this agreement meets the foreign policy interests of Slovakia and is in line with all legal requirements and Slovakian obligations.

The Slovak government unanimously approved the transfer of fighter jets to Ukraine on March 17.

Meanwhile, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on March 16 that Warsaw would hand over the first four MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in the coming days.

Warsaw currently has about 10 MiGs, which it received in the early 1990s from the German Democratic Republic GDR army. The exact number of jets to be transferred wasn't specified, although the Polish government has already approved the decision.

"In the coming days we will first transfer, if I remember correctly, four fully operational planes to Ukraine," Duda said. While other planes are currently under maintenance, he added.

Poland will replace these Soviet-era jets with U.S.-made F-35s and South Korean FA-50 fighters, Duda explained.

The Ukrainian Air Force believes that modernized Soviet MiG-29 fighters will be a serious help to them, but that they are unlikely to change much at the front.

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LONDON (Reuters) - BlackRock said on Saturday it had no plans or interest to acquire embattled Swiss lender Credit Suisse, a spokesperson for the U.S. asset manager said.

BlackRock is not participating in any plans to acquire all or any part of Credit Suisse, and has no interest in doing so," the spokesperson told Reuters.

The Financial Times reported earlierthat BlackRock was working on a rival bid for Credit Suisse aiming to upstage a plan for UBS to acquire the struggling bank. The U.S. investment giant is evaluating a number of options and working with other investors, the FT added.

(Reporting by Elisa Martinuzzi, writing by Karin Strohecker)
As the Oscars came to a close, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded its top prize to the longtime frontrunner  yet one of the unlikeliest winners in years  when Everything Everywhere All at Once took home Best Picture.

The film beat out All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, The Fabelmans, TAR, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, and Women Talking for the honor. Its ability to triumph over many more conventionally Oscar-friendly films is a testament to both the films quality and the changing nature of the Oscar race. It also won the most Oscars of any Best Picture winner, seven, since 2008s Slumdog Millionaire won eight, and the most Oscars of any film full-stop since 2013s Gravity also won seven.

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In addition to Best Picture, Everything Everywhere All at Once also won Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for writer-director duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh, Best Supporting Actress for Jamie Lee Curtis, Best Supporting Actor for Ke Huy Quan, and Best Film Editing.

Kwan and Scheinerts multiverse saga eschewed the typical award season strategy, premiering at SXSW last March instead of waiting for a strategic fall release. But genuine grassroots enthusiasm and overwhelmingly positive reviews allowed the indie blockbuster to go wire-to-wire and win the top prize after spending nearly a year at the front of the pack.

In creating a multiverse so wide that even the greatest of miracles are reduced to mere statistical inevitabilities, Daniels have made something truly special: A movie that celebrates the infinite possibilities of its medium by finding a measure of I wouldnt trade it for the world beauty in every permutation, IndieWires David Ehrlich wrote in his review following the films SXSW premiere. A movie that reconciles the smallness of our lives with the infinity of their potential. A movie that will forever change the way you think about bluetooth, butt plugs, and Brad Bird  about everything bagels and everything else. This may not be the only universe there is, but its the only one weve got. But if were able to see it clearly, theres an outside chance it might just be the only one we need.

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The win marked the end of a massively successful award season for Everything Everywhere All at Once. In addition to its Oscar haul, the film won the top prizes at the Directors Guild of America Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Writers Guild of America Awards, and the Independent Spirit Awards. By the time Oscar voting closed last week, a strong showing for the A24 film felt like a near certainty.

But the predictability doesnt change the historical significance of the win. The cast and crew have always been open about the fact that the films Oscar campaign holds outsized importance for those who want to see more Asian representation in Hollywood. The fact that Yeoh and Quan dominated awards season as older Asian actors only added to the sense that this was the kind of trajectory-altering moment that doesnt come around every year.

Its been joyous, but at the same time, [there is] the sense of responsibility or the stress [when fans] come up to you and say, You are doing this for us, star Michelle Yeoh recently told IndieWire. I swear to God I was thinking, What if I didnt get nominated? A year ago, you didnt even think about it, and then suddenly youre thinking, Please, please, please get me nominated. Please just get me nominated. And then you are thinking, If I dont get nominated, all these people will be so goddamn disappointed.

Yeoh went on to say that she hopes films like Everything Everywhere change the culture to the point where it no longer feels like an event when Asian people contend for major awards.

That it would start being a normal thing. That it doesnt look like, Oh my God, theres four Asians being nominated! Does that mean theres too many of us? I definitely hope thats not the case, Yeoh said. Our filmmakers, especially our community, are generous enough and they understand how we need to embrace each other  and continue to do so.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is the second A24 film to win Best Picture, following 2017s Moonlight. The indie distributor continues to punch above its weight as it competes against deep-pocketed studios and streaming services each award season. The company also produced Kwan and Scheinerts 2016 debut feature Swiss Army Man, and recently signed the directing partners to a first-look deal to develop TV projects. The Daniels have both said that they are happy to have A24 as a home for their creative projects moving forward.

We dont really love meetings, Scheinert told IndieWire in an interview at SXSW last year. Just having a home is kind of a comfort.

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Dawn French reunited with Jennifer Saunders for another Comic Relief highlight

From the Vicar of Dibley to her endless impressions, Dawn French has been a leading lady in comedy for decades.

But thats not to say shes ever resting on her laurels.

Not only did she break the internet with her new boyfriend earlier this year and went on a hugely successful tour (with a suitably shocking name), Dawn has delivered what many are calling one of her best performances ever for this years Comic Relief.

A post shared by Dawn French (@dawnrfrench) A photo posted by on

In the United Kingdom, Comic Relief is an annual fundraiser which unites comedians and other celebrities to raise money for charity.

It was founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis  responsible for movies like Love, Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral - and comedian (and Dawns ex) Lenny Henry in response to the famine in Ethiopia.

For this years fundraiser, Dawn turned her comedic talents onto one of the surprise reality hits on both sides of the globe  The Traitors.

Popular after airing a season of non-famous competitors in the UK and a celebrity edition in the United States, the Traitors involves lots of backstabbing and betrayal.

For the skit, Dawn brought together a cast of super famous individuals from different industries.

From Ewan McGregor to model David Gandy, Absolutely Fabulous Jennifer Saunders and even Dame Mary Berry, it was a riotous sketch perfectly capped off by Dawns spot on impression of BBC host, Claudia Winkleman.

Claudia was such a fan of Dawns portrayal the pair posed together earlier this month  giving fans online a case of seeing double!

After the sketch aired, fans took to social media to praise Dawn.

They say never meet your idols, I say meet them cos @Dawn_French was bloody lovely and really looked out for me and wilf!  please donate to comic relief Red Nose Day - link in my bio xxx #faithful #comicrelief pic.twitter.com/euSzOKMjtpMarch 17, 2023

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One, a contestant named Maddy who appeared in the UKs season of The Traitors, wrote about meeting the funny lady, They say never meet your idols, I say meet them cos @Dawn_French was bloody lovely and really looked out for me and wilf![sic]

Dawn French being Claudia Winkleman is one of the funniest impressions I've ever ever seen. I'm Claudia Winkleman, half woman, half fringe. I can not stop laughing.

And the only person who could compete with Dawns hilarious sketch is Dawn herself.

Many fans said that this new skit was only surpassed by a now iconic Comic Relief sketch which saw Dawn French put the french into her kiss with Hugh Grant.

Dawn puckered up to Notting Hill star Hugh in 1995 wearing a dress held together by safety pins  an ode to the Versace look made famous by Hughs then girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley.

After playing coy for a while, Dawn and Hugh ended up locking lips for a long, long time  to rapturous laughter.

After she became famous for the kiss, Dawn followed it up with some seriously admirable smooches, including Johnny Depp, George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

Here's hoping to many more legendary Dawn French appearances for Comic Relief!
By Azernews

EU Ambassador to Azerbaijan Peter Michalko in a Twitter post expressed his deep sorrow about the landmine explosion in Agdam on March 16 that killed two young men, Azernews reports.

In addition, the ambassador expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and noted that the EU will continue to support Azerbaijan in mine clearing.

I am deeply saddened by the news of a landmine explosion in Agdam on 16 March. My heartfelt condolences go to the families of the victims. The EU will continue its support to Azerbaijan in demining work, the ambassador tweeted.

Two Azerbaijani citizens  Israil Hasanov, born in 1999, and Amid Hasanov, born in 1987, died in the mine explosion in Agdam on March 16.
It used to be the go-to bank for Silicon Valley. Now its on the block.

More from Fortune:

But rather than an overheated auction, regulators looking to sell off what remains of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank have thus far gotten a cool reception. Last weekend, the FDIC held an auction of SVB and was expected to announce a winning bidder on March 13. But a single buyer didn't materialize, with large banks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America apparently passing.

Now bids for Silicon Valley Bridge Bank and Signature Bridge Bank are due Friday, a person familiar with the situation said.

Should the FDIC fail (again) to find a white knight to buy the whole bank, it will be forced to sell it off piecemeal, and that's where private equity comes in, a group of investors the FDIC does not look upon favorably. Several alternative asset managers including Blackstone, Ares and Carlyle Group are interested in the $74 billion loan book and are evaluating whether or not to bid, several sources familiar with the sale process said. (Separately, Silicon Valley Bank's parent firm, SVB Financial Group, filed for Chapter 11 protection in New York. Silicon Valley Bridge Bank is not part of the bankruptcy process.)

If the private equity players are allowed to bid and are successful, the transaction would not be considered a win from the government's perspective. Blackstone and Carlyle both started out as private equity firms, typically buying controlling stakes in companies, often using debt, and then selling them for a profit. Many of the big PE firms have gone public and have diversified beyond buyout transactions into areas like credit, real estate and infrastructure. (Ares, by comparison, has always been a lender but also does private equity investing, as well as real estate and wealth management.) Now called alternative asset managers, the firms would buy the SVB loans at a discounted-cant-lose price, said one buyout executive. Im surprised there wasnt more interest [for SVB], the exec said.

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The process is a major reversal for Silicon Valley Bank, once one of the most powerful lenders for venture startups. Founded in October 1983, SVB banked nearly half of Silicon Valley startups. It had $209 billion in assets as of Dec. 31. More than half, or 56%, of its loans were to venture and private equity firms at the end of 2022, according to its annual report. SVB also pioneered the use of venture debt, which are loans to investor-backed startups, according to the company website. SVB catered to a strategically important market, which should make the bank pretty valuable, the executive said. The fact that no one is stepping up makes me concerned that there are [SVB] loan problems, the exec said.

The FDIC, with its auction of SVB and Signature, would prefer to sell a bank to another bank because it cares about the deposits, according to buyout executives. Regulators are concerned that buyers who arent regulated as bank holding companies could use the deposits to do something risky. (The Federal Reserve supervises and regulates all bank holding companies, according to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.) This is one reason why following past bank failures the FDIC has sought other banks to buy them. For example, in 2008 JPMorgan Chase acquired Washington Mutual after it collapsed for $1.9 billion. JPMorgan Chase also rescued Bear Stearns when it bought the investment bank for $10 a share in 2008 at the request of the U.S. government. Jamie Dimon, J.P. Morgan Chase's chairman and CEO, later said he regretted buying Bear Stearns. JPMorgan Chase isnt stepping forward this time around for SVB or Signature. (On Thursday, several large banks, including JPMorgan Chase, agreed to provide $30 billion in deposits to First Republic, in a bid to rescue the lender.)

PE firms certainly have the financial wherewithal to do a deal: Collectively they have $1.92 trillion in dry powder, or unallocated capital, as of March, according to Preqin, a provider of data to the alternative asset industry. Private equity also has a long history investing in financial services, including banks, but they can't just buy huge stakes outright. The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, which gave the Federal Reserve oversight of banks, doesnt specifically mention private equity but states that a fund or company that owns 25% or more of a banks voting stock, or exercises a controlling influence, is a bank holding company, according to Todd Baker, the former head of corporate strategy & development at three large banks and ex-partner with law firms Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Morrison Foerster, who teaches fintech at Columbia Law School. This means that PE firms cannot acquire more than 24.9% of a banks voting equity without becoming bank holding companies. If they did, this would subject the bank to onerous activities restrictions, capital requirements and ongoing Federal Reserve supervision, which is an untenable position for PE firms, Baker said.

The Bank Holding Company Act also doesnt allow funds to act in concert, Baker said. Multiple private equity firms could theoretically invest in a single bank, but each would have to limit their stakes to 24.9% or less and agree to other restrictions on their influence, like not working together, he said. It doesnt make sense for PE firms to not work together to achieve business success, he said.

A sale of SVB loans to an alt manager like Carlyle or a Blackstone also doesnt bode well for the future of SVB as a whole, the buyout executive said. Someone else would buy wealth management, investment banking, fund of funds business, but the commercial bank would be a very expensive restart with no loans, a venture executive said.

Earlier this week, the board of SVB Financial Group named a restructuring committee to explore strategic alternatives for the SVB Capital and SVB Securities businesses, as well as other assets and investments. SVB Capital and SVB Securities are not part of the bankruptcy. Their sale has generated significant interest, a March 17 statement said.

Private equity might not be the FDICs first choice for a buyer, but as the saying goes, sometimes beggars cant be choosers.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

More from Fortune:
Gilberto Ramirez said in the lead-up to his comeback fight against Gabriel Rosado after being outclassed by Dmitry Bivol in November that he was ready.

Evidently he wasnt.

The former 168-pound titleholder, schedueld to face Rosado on Saturday at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California, failed to make weight on Friday and the 175-pound fight was cancelled, according to promoter Golden Boy.

The co-feature between 140-pounders Joseph Diaz Jr. and Mercito Gesta will now be the main event (DAZN).

Golden Boy didnt release Ramirezs weight. However, ESPN reported that he came in at 182.6 before the official weigh-in, a whopping 7.6 over the limit.

Ramirez (44-1, 30 KOs) was set to fight at 175 for the seventh time.

Due to Gilberto Zurdo Ramirez failing to make the contracted weight, Zurdo vs. Rosado has been canceled, Golden Boy said in a news release. We are very disappointed for letting our fans down, and will work with Gabriel Rosado to bring him back to the ring very soon.

Joseph JoJo Diaz, Jr. vs. Mercito No Mercy Gesta is the new main event for Saturday, March 18.

Diaz (32-3-1, 15 KOs) is a former 130-pound titleholder but the Angeleno has lost his last two fights, wide decisions against Devin Haney (135) and William Zepeda (140).

Gesta (33-3-3, 17 KOs) is a former 135-pound title challenger from the Philippines. Hes coming off a unanimous decision victory over Joel Diaz Jr. last April.

Related

Dmitry Bivol dominates overmatched Gilberto Ramirez to win wide decision

Story originally appeared on Boxing Junkie
Loro Piana opened its new store at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, California, on Wednesday with a new limited collection authenticated by the blockchain, which is a first for the brand.

The collection is made from Gift of Kings, the companys extra soft, breathable and crease resistant wool fiber. The company describes it as one of the oldest, most prized and exclusive wools in the world  which, at 12 microns, is even finer than baby cashmere and almost as fine as vicuna. Each of the special items is numbered by a unique digital ID and carries a QR code on the label, allowing it to be verified and traced. Scanning the code confirms the authenticity and allows the purchaser to access more information about the items journey from farm to store.

More from WWD

Customers can also register their ownership of, for example, the Rodney jacket, which is an item from the new line. According to the company, thats in keeping with a legacy-tracing approach, can only be passed down from generation to generation after the transmission of the certificate of ownership. The blockchain logs every transaction and change of ownership, and the record is available online via an app or website.

A look at Loro Pianas new boutique at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, California.

The concept plays into one of Loro Pianas selling points. The brand describes itself as one of the very few luxury fashion brands with a fully integrated value chain: The Gift of Kings wool is the result of Loro Pianas presence in New Zealand and Australia since the 70s where flocks of merino sheep have been tended to by generations of committed local breeders who have brought the wool to an astounding level of quality and fineness, it said. Our customers will be able to receive details that no other competitor can offer, such as fiber purity, fineness and length.

The interior is cast in neutral tones to spotlight the apparel.

The space was designed to emphasize the brands long history of working with only the finest wool fibers.

Only 20 items will be available to start and at the Stanford Shopping Center boutique only. Each one is also tied to an exclusive digital artwork by London-based artist Charlotte Taylor, who reinterpreted The Gift of Kings journey as 3D sculptures.

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On Wednesday, the store opening highlighted the collection, technology and art behind it with panel talks to educate customers. However, the boutique will also carry all of the brands latest mens and womens clothing, plus accessories.

This location has a minimal, modern sensibility, with a facade in kummel, Loro Pianas signature color, as well as neutral tones of golds, beiges and blues. Other details highlight or draw inspiration from the fabric, including oak furnishings and cashmere coverings for walls and upholstery.

The maison has a long tradition of offering the finest wools in the world  next year marks its centennial  but its no stranger to newness. In recent years, the company welcomed a new chief executive officer, Damien Bertrand, new approaches like last falls CashDenim (cashmere denim) and a new vision for how it communicates about the stealth wealth brand.

The store, accented in wood and lush carpeting, leans into tactility as a way to define the space.

The boutique carries womens and mens collections, as well as accessories.

This week, in a WWD exclusive interview, Bertrand explained his intent to explain more the savoir faire and craftsmanship of Loro Piana because its so unique and no one has this level of quality and obsession for quality, which is sustainable.

He didnt discuss technology specifically. But the partnership with the Aura Blockchain Consortium suggests the craft of Loro Piana is so unparalleled, it must be protected in ways that only tech can achieve.

As for this technology specifically, luxury authentication could be one of the most resilient parts of a blockchain world that has been contracting lately. If it is insulated from the struggles dogging cryptocurrency and NFT support, that may be because the real value isnt in the tech itself, but the physical products tied to it.

Loro Piana chief executive officer Damien Bertrand

Thats been a vision for the Aura Blockchain Consortium since its inception. It was formed by Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Prada Group and Richemonts Cartier in April 2021 to explore the technology to raise the standards for luxury goods.

This may be Loro Pianas first foray into digital authentication, but it wont be the last. Its first phase begins in mid-March, but from the spring 2023 collection on, the brand plans to extend digital certification to all of its new products made of The Gift of Kings across all of its stores worldwide.

Best of WWD

Click here to read the full article.
China is lowering its expectations for talks with the United States and has become more defensive, observers said, warning that a planned call between the leaders of the two countries offered little prospect of meaningful gains.

While both sides still see the need to repair deteriorating ties, Beijing has come to understand that its relationship with the US would not return to its previous state, according to Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

"China no longer thinks that it needs to have a relationship like in the past," he said.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Lu Xiang, an expert on US-China relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China was getting impatient because it believed an earlier consensus between the two nations' leaders had not been implemented.

When President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden met at the G20 summit in Indonesia in November, the White House said competition between the two nations should not veer into conflict, and a Chinese government statement quoted Biden as saying the US was not seeking a new cold war and did not support independence for Taiwan.

"You can say that China is getting impatient," Lu said. "The meaning of the talks is impacted if the US has no desire to implement the consensus."

On Tuesday, when asked for details of a possible call between Xi and Biden, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the two countries maintained "necessary communication".

But he added that "communication should not be carried out for the sake of communication".

"The US side should show sincerity, work with China to take concrete actions to help bring China-US relations back to the right track," Wang said.

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China watchers said the comment was one of many signs that Beijing could be losing patience and was lowering its expectations for talks between Xi and Biden.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said earlier on Tuesday that Biden planned to hold a phone call with Xi now that the annual session of China's legislature had concluded.

Robert Sutter, an international affairs professor at George Washington University in the US capital, said Wang's remarks were reminiscent of the position China adopted when former foreign minister Wang Yi met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in July.

During their meeting, China presented four demands to the US that it would have to meet if it wanted to improve ties, including a list of China's key concerns and American legislation it wanted to change.

"[China] seems to be backtracking a little bit now," Sutter said. "They are not satisfied with the situation and so they are again hinting that there are preconditions [for talks]."

He said Beijing could propose further conditions for talks between Xi and Biden to proceed, and there were parallels that could be drawn between Wang's remarks and past comments by the Chinese government.

When China halted military talks with Washington following an August visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the US House of Representatives, a defence ministry spokesman said the US "must show sincerity and take action" if it wanted to have constructive dialogue with Beijing.

President Xi Jinping (left) and US President Joe Biden meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian island of Bali, on November 14. Photo: AFP alt=President Xi Jinping (left) and US President Joe Biden meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian island of Bali, on November 14. Photo: AFP>

"I think there's a lot of posturing going on right now," Sutter, a former US national intelligence officer for East Asia, said. "That's my overall sense of the situation."

Wu said Chinese officials had been showing "much more aggression" when dealing with the US.

In a rare and direct comment earlier this month, Xi criticised the US during a panel discussion on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress.

"Western countries led by the United States have implemented all-round containment, encirclement and suppression of China, which has brought unprecedented, severe challenges to the country's development," he said.

Sutter said Xi's comments were a clear indication that China was publicly taking a tougher approach when dealing with the US, adding that Beijing's growing criticism was a "cumulative" response.

Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea have started leaning more towards Washington in recent months. The Philippines has done the same, and had recently expanded a defence pact with the US, granting American troops access to additional bases.

This momentum created by the US and its allies and partners in the region had led to greater tension in the US-China relationship, Sutter said.

"These kinds of actions aren't attractive to China, of course," he said. "And the US is moving evermore to counter the various challenges that China poses."

Wu said that even though China appeared to have adopted a more assertive stance towards the US, Beijing would maintain some form of economic engagement with the West.

Philippine Army commander Lieutenant General Romeo Brawner (front row, second from left) and US Lieutenant General Xavier Brunson (third from left) pose for a photo with Filipino and American soldiers during the opening ceremony for Salaknib, the annual joint exercise by the two armies, at Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija province, Philippines, on March 13. Photo: Reuters alt=Philippine Army commander Lieutenant General Romeo Brawner (front row, second from left) and US Lieutenant General Xavier Brunson (third from left) pose for a photo with Filipino and American soldiers during the opening ceremony for Salaknib, the annual joint exercise by the two armies, at Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija province, Philippines, on March 13. Photo: Reuters>

One indication of that was Yi Gang's reappointment as governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank. Yi, who gained his PhD in economics in the US, was previously a professor at an American university.

Some China watchers had earlier suggested that Yi could help China raise its profile on the global stage while maintaining policy stability at home.

"China wants to keep the relationship going and benefit from economic interaction with the US," Wu said.

Ni Feng, director of CASS' Institute of American Studies, said Beijing had not changed its attitude towards high-level communication between the two countries, but it was not clear the Xi-Biden phone call would happen because Washington had backtracked on its previous promises.

"I personally think that China is not unwilling to communicate, there's no shift of attitude towards communication," Ni said.

Benjamin Ho, an assistant professor with the China programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said China was likely to continue to talk to the US - but not on the basis of being characterised as a competitor or adversary.

"So long as the existing rhetoric in Washington continues, China is unlikely to want more of the same," he said.

Analysts said they did not expect any talk between Xi and Biden to amount to much. Wu said he did not have high hopes and that "nothing substantial" would come out of it.

Sutter said he also thought that the US was not expecting "awful lot" from it.

"They do want those talks to avoid war and manage this competition so we don't have a military conflict," he said. "I think that's been the goal.

"The Biden administration recognises that there is going to be a lot more tension as the US takes these actions to counter these Chinese challenges and so they're trying to manage it so it doesn't lead to this big problem for the US and the world."

Beyond the talks between the two leaders, Sutter warned that there were various sensitive issues that could lead to a further deterioration in US-China ties. They could range from a collision between Chinese and American aircraft to further tit-for-tat sanctions and issues involving Taiwan and the South China Sea.

If Beijing lost patience with the US, Sutter said the Chinese government could respond with measures that would be "detrimental to the world".

Additional reporting by Amber Wang

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Rubicon Organics

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 17, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rubicon Organics Inc. (TSXV: ROMJ) (OTCQX: ROMJF) (Rubicon Organics or the Company), a licensed producer focused on cultivating and selling organic certified, premium cannabis products, is pleased to announce that it will be reporting its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2022 (Q4 2022) on Friday, March 31, 2023.



The Company will be hosting a conference call to discuss Q4 2022 results on Monday, April 3, 2023. Conference call details are as follows:

Time: 7:00 AM PT / 10:00 AM ET Conference ID: 24261214 Local dial-in: +1 (416) 764 8646 Toll Free N. America: +1 (888) 396 8049 Webcast: https://viavid.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1605437&tp_key=8f0f665564

ABOUT RUBICON ORGANICS INC.

Rubicon Organics Inc. is the global brand leader in premium organic cannabis products. The Company is vertically integrated through its wholly owned subsidiary Rubicon Holdings Corp, a licensed producer. Rubicon Organics is focused on achieving industry leading profitability through its premium cannabis flower, product innovation and brand portfolio management, including its flagship super-premium brand Simply Bare Organic, its premium flower and hash brand 1964 Supply Co., its premium concentrate brand LAB THEORY, its mainstream brand Homestead Cannabis Supply and its topical brand Wildflower.

The Company ensures the quality of its supply chain by cultivating, processing, branding and selling organic certified, sustainably produced, super-premium cannabis products from its state-of-the-art glass roofed facility located in Delta, BC, Canada.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Margaret Brodie

Interim CEO & CFO

Phone: +1 (437) 929-1964

Email: ir@rubiconorganics.com

The TSX Venture Exchange or its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

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Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, statements regarding Rubicon Organics goal of achieving industry leading profitability are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as will or variations of such word or statements that certain actions, events or results will be taken, occur or be achieved. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events or developments to be materially different from any future results, events or developments expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. The forward-looking information in this press release is based upon certain assumptions that management considers reasonable in the circumstances, the ability to attract and retain a new CEO and new independent directors, the impact on revenue of new products and brands entering the market, and the timing of achieving Adjusted EBITDA profitability and cash flow positive. Risks and uncertainties associated with the forward looking information in this press release include, among others, dependence on obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals, including acquiring and renewing federal, provincial, local or other licenses and any inability to obtain all necessary governmental approvals licenses and permits for construction at its facilities in a timely manner; regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including bureaucratic delays or inefficiencies or any other reasons; any other factors or developments which may hinder market growth; Rubicon Organics limited operating history and lack of historical profits; reliance on management; the effect of capital market conditions and other factors on capital availability; the Companys ability to attract and retain skilled staff; competition, including from more established or better financed competitors; the need to secure and maintain corporate alliances and partnerships, including with customers and suppliers; and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors should be considered carefully, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Although Rubicon Organics has attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other risk factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements. Rubicon Organics assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, even if new information becomes available as a result of future events, new information or for any other reason except as required by law.




The full resumption of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran still faces difficulties despite the diplomatic agreement brokered by China this month, and Beijing should be realistic about its power to broker deals in the region, a former senior diplomat said.

In a move that surprised many, China helped arrange the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two Middle East powers that were severed in 2016.

Wu Sike, a former Chinese special envoy for Middle East affairs, said the tripartite communique issued on March 10 would improve the atmosphere in the Middle East.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

"But it is difficult to say that all problems can be solved. This is not very realistic," he said. "But in any case, it is moving towards stability. China will try its best to do what it can do, step by step.

"China has always attached great importance to the Middle East. If relations between countries in this region improve, it will certainly be beneficial to China's regional construction efforts, including the Belt and Road Initiative."

Wu said China was invited to be a mediator "because both countries understand the country's enduringly balanced role in foreign affairs, which is fundamental to be seen as trustworthy".

But he added that China should be realistic in pushing forward with other solutions to problems in the region, including the conflicts between Israel and Palestine, and in Syria, saying those issues were complicated.

"We have to know how much we can achieve and what things can have sustainable results. This is realistic. You can't just do everything," he said.

Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran in 2016 after the storming of its embassy in Tehran in an escalating dispute between the two countries over Riyadh's execution of a Shiite Muslim cleric.

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The communique issued last week said Iran and Saudi Arabia would reopen their embassies within two months, and resume talks on security, trade, investment and culture.

Diplomatic observers said the deal would make it easier for China and Middle East nations to engage.

"The signing of the agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran will certainly enhance the expectations of the outside world for China," said Fan Hongda, a professor at Shanghai International Studies University's Middle East Studies Institute.

Jonathan Fulton, a senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said the deal presented China as an alternative power for resolving regional issues.

"It does signal Beijing's willingness to wade into hotspot issues in a way that it has resisted until now, so that may be a sign of things to come in other regions," he said.

Implicitly criticising the United States' approach to such issues, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that the Saudi-Iranian dialogue in Beijing had been a successful exercise in the implementation of a strong global security initiative.

"The facts prove that 'pulling one faction and fighting another', 'divide and rule' and 'confrontation by camps' is never the right way to deal with security issues," he said.

But observers said economic considerations, including trade, investment, and the Belt and Road Initiative - the project kicked off by President Xi Jinping in 2013 to boost global trade and infrastructure connections - remained at the forefront of China's support for a more peaceful Middle East.

Wu Sike, then China's special envoy for Middle East affairs, addresses a news conference at the Chinese embassy in Tehran in July 2014. Photo: Xinhua alt=Wu Sike, then China's special envoy for Middle East affairs, addresses a news conference at the Chinese embassy in Tehran in July 2014. Photo: Xinhua>

"The major interests of China, at this stage, are still economic," said Zeno Leoni, an affiliate at the Lau China Institute at King's College London.

"China has realised that the US is not capable or willing to stabilise the security of the region, so a more proactive role of Beijing is necessary."

Saudi Arabia and Iran are China's top sources of oil to power the world's second-largest economy. China has also been Iran's largest trading partner for the past decade and it has been Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner since 2018, when it replaced the European Union.

From 2005 to 2022, China invested over US$273 billion in the Middle East and North Africa region, according to the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, with 46 per cent of the money flowing into the energy sector.

In 2021, China's crude oil imports from Arab countries reached 264 million tonnes, accounting for more than half of the country's oil imports.

"The primary advantage for China is a less volatile region," Fulton said. "It does a lot of business in the region and gets a lot of its energy from the Gulf, so having a more stable security environment is important for China's own interests."

Leoni said China needed to focus more on the Middle East and the Global South - nations in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Oceania - because there had been some resistance to China from Western nations since the start of the Ukraine war due to suspicions about China's ties with Russia.

Fulton said China's worsening bilateral ties with the US, European anger over China's support for Russia, and Asian concerns about tensions in the Taiwan Strait, meant Beijing needed "more positive stories on the foreign policy front".

But even though Beijing is taking on a more ambitious diplomatic role, Wu said its fundamental diplomatic logic would not change.

"It is China's basic policy to solve global problems peacefully through dialogue," he said.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
How savers can keep their money safe when banks collapse

There was good news for the UKs tech sector on Monday morning when HSBC stepped in to rescue the UK arm of failed US lender Silicon Valley Bank.

SVB, headquartered in California, dealt exclusively with tech and start-up businesses and has been bought by HSBC for 1.

The rescue deal means UK firms who banked with SVB have had their deposits protected, with tech bosses breathing a sigh of relief following an anxious weekend waiting to learn if their cash would be secured.

The collapse of SVB brought back grim memories of the financial crash of 2007/8, which had far-reaching consequences for countries around the world.

Could we be about to see another crash?

Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, has said that SVBs collapse does not represent a systemic risk to the UKs financial services sector.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor and the Bank of England echoed those comments in statements released on Monday morning after HSBC bought SVB.

The Bank of England, which is independent of government, said: No other UK banks are directly materially affected by these actions, or by the resolution of SVBUKs US parent bank. The wider UK banking system remains safe, sound, and well capitalised.

PM worked with chancellor and Bank of England to rescue firm while travelling to the US (PA)

Customers protections

Even if there was another crash there are regulations in place to protect the money people have in their bank accounts.

Customer deposits held by banks, building societies and credit unions in the UK and Northern Ireland that are authorized by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, up to 85,000.

This includes, for example, eligible deposits in current accounts, savings accounts, cash ISAs (held with a deposit taker) or savings bonds.

A PRA-authorised firm may own several banking and building society brands but customers are only protected to the value of 85,000 across all their accounts.

This means that anyone who has deposited in more than one account under a single brand, or multiple accounts under different brands owned by a single firm, is only protected up to a total of 85,000 across all these accounts, the Bank of England says.

Story continues

There will be temporary deposit protection for up to 6 months above the 85,000 limit for certain types of deposits classified as temporary high balances, such as the proceeds from private property sales. Protection will be up to 1million in most cases.

People with eligible deposits that add up to more than the deposit protection limit may wish to take steps to keep their deposits fully protected (eg by splitting their deposits across different PRA-authorised firms), it warns.

What if I have more than 85,000 in the bank?

There are more than 1,500 PRA-authorised banks, building societies and financial institutions in the UK, including major high-street lenders such as Barclays, HSBC, and Natwest.

For those who have more than 85,000 in a single bank account, it might be a good idea to spread this money to another bank to make sure youre covered by the deposit scheme.

On Monday morning, Londons FTSE 100 Index tumbled as banks remained in the red amid the fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, despite emergency action in the US to protect customers and the rescue deal in the UK.

The top tier fell nearly 2 per cent in morning trading, down 132.2 points at 7616.2, with banks and financial stocks extending share losses seen on Friday.

HSBCs 1 deal to take over the UK arm of failed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB UK) did not halt the slide on the London market as fears over contagion mounted.

Expert says banks not at risk despite stock market falls

But Martha Lane Fox, president of the British Chambers of Commerce, said the failure of Silicon Valley Bank was "very different" from the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 and that consumers should not be concerned,

Asked on BBC Radio 4s Today programme about the wider questions following the collapse, she said: "It was a banker that provided extra careful services for the sector that is growing very rapidly and is demanding attention from all of us because its going to be a vital part of how we position ourselves in the future and our economys strength in the future.

"You could argue it was a single point of failure, or you could argue that it was enabling this patchwork of incredible businesses to grow quickly.

"This is not a collapse because of risky management. In many ways, its not similar to the banking collapse in 2008 or Lehmans collapse or anything like that." She described it as a "very different structural problem".
WORCESTER - The Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging Inc. has always supported grandparents who are taking an active role in their grandchildrens lives, offering support groups and other services, but soon, Worcester senior citizens will have a new place to go for help.

The Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging recently announced the development of Grandparents Raising Grandkids Resource Center, which will focus on hiring and training community health workers to support families with Black, Indigenous and people of color in which grandparents are the primary caretakers.

Made possible by $1.2 million out of $18 million in federal funds secured by U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, the resource center is one of 15 projects across the second district supported by the funds authorized through the 2023 Omnibus.

The center is expected to be operating by May 2023 and will start with six health workers who are Black, Indigenous and people of color, who will connect grandparents with key services including language translation, housing, transportation, mental and behavioral health and culturally-competent and medically-tailored food services, and educational opportunities.

The Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging website cited COVID-19 and the opioid crisis as potential reasons for the rise in grandparents raising grandkids. These older adults may in turn need outside support if they are not physically or mentally prepared to take on the full-time child care years or even decades after raising their own children.

The Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging encourages grandparents raising grandchildren to reach out for help either by calling (508) 852-5539, visiting www.seniorconnection.org or following on social media at @cmaaging.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: New place to go for help: Support on way for grandparents raising grandkids
(Bloomberg) --

Most Read from Bloomberg

Talks to contain the crisis of confidence in Credit Suisse Group AG extended into Sunday, with Swiss officials and UBS Group AG racing to put together a deal to take over or break up the battered lender before markets open in Asia.

The parties are seeking to navigate thorny issues such as a government backstop and the fate of Credit Suisses investment bank, after UBS put aside its initial opposition to a deal with the smaller rival, people briefed on the discussions said. UBS is asking the Swiss government to take on certain legal costs and potential future losses in any takeover, said the people, with one report putting the figure at about $6 billion.

The complex discussions over what would be the first combination of two global systemically important banks since the financial crisis have seen Swiss and US authorities weigh in, some of the people said. Talks accelerated Saturday, with all sides pushing for a solution that can be executed quickly after a week that saw clients pull money and counterparties step back from some dealings with Credit Suisse. The goal is for an announcement by Sunday evening at the latest, the people said.

Under one likely scenario, the deal would involve UBS acquiring Credit Suisse to obtain its wealth and asset management units, while possibly divesting the investment banking division, the people said. Talks are ongoing on the fate of Credit Suisses profitable Swiss universal bank, which is likely appealing to UBS but may leave the countrys domestic banking sector too concentrated, the people said, asking not to be identified describing private discussions.

Representatives for UBS, Credit Suisse, and the Swiss finance ministry declined to comment.

Story continues

A government-brokered deal would address a rout in Credit Suisse that sent shock waves across the global financial system over the past week when panicked investors dumped its shares and bonds following the collapse of several smaller US lenders. A liquidity backstop by the Swiss central bank briefly arrested the declines, but the market drama carries the risk that clients or counterparties would continue fleeing, with potential ramifications for the broader industry.

Other financial firms including Deutsche Bank AG are monitoring the situation in case attractive Credit Suisse assets go on the block either in a UBS acquisition or other form of breakup, according to people briefed on those discussions.

The discussions raise questions over the future of Credit Suisses bold plan to spin out its investment banking unit under the storied First Boston brand. The firm had been working to legally and operationally separate the business that would become CS First Boston, but those efforts are in nascent stages. Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Koerner has said the firm was looking at a potential initial public offering for the business in 2025.

Credit Suisse has also been shrinking its trading business, but that still carries a large chunk of the banks capital requirements.

The investment bank is the bit that most people want to spin off, said James Athey, investment director at Abrdn. Thats likely where a lot of these exposures are. So thats the challenge that needs addressing.

UBS executives had been opposed to an arranged combination with its rival because they wanted to focus on their own wealth management-centric strategy and were reluctant to take on risks related to Credit Suisse, Bloomberg reported earlier. Credit Suisse has been unprofitable over the course of the last decade and has racked up billions in legal losses.

Credit Suisse had 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.3 billion) in legal provisions at the end of 2022 and disclosed that it saw reasonably possible losses adding another 1.2 billion francs to that total, with several lawsuits and regulatory probes outstanding, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Credit Suisses market value has plunged to about 7.4 billion Swiss francs, from a 2007 peak of more than 100 billion francs. UBSs market value is 60 billion francs. Clients pulled more than $100 billion of assets in the final three months of last year as concerns mounted about its financial health, and the outflows have continued even after it tapped shareholders in a 4 billion franc capital raise.

Read More: Credit Suisse Weakness Disclosure Adds to Risks: Legal Outlook

A fusion between the two Swiss banking giants, whose headquarters face each other across Zurichs central Paradeplatz square, would be an historic event for the nation and global finance.

The two banks, both counted by the Financial Stability Board as systemically relevant globally, are interlinked through frequent exchanges of executives from one side of Paradeplatz to the other. Both Chairman Axel Lehmann and CEO Koerner are former decision-makers at UBS.

--With assistance from Bastian Benrath, Sagarika Jaisinghani and Dinesh Nair.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Vietnams trade with top 11 Asian markets is set to grow significantly

Vietnams trade with 11 other major Asian markets could rise significantly in value by 2030, according to an industry study released by UPS.









Vietnams trade with 11 other major Asian markets could rise from 326 billion USD to 465 billion USD by 2030. (Photo courtesy of UPS)

"Clearing the Runway for Intra-Asia Trade" sheds light on trade growth drivers, potential headwinds, and multi-stakeholder action required to unlock the 2030 opportunity.



Trade in just 12 key markets (Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam), known as the Asia 12, accounts for 88% of intra-Asia trade today and could more than double in value from 6.4 trillion USD in 2020 to 13.5 trillion USD in 2030.





Vietnam has rapidly grown into an important regional manufacturing hub. The country is expected to leverage this position further in the coming decade and trade value with the rest of the Asia 12 is forecast to rise from 326 billion USD to 465 billion USD by 2030.





Intra-Asia trade holds incredible potential over the coming decade, built off the immense economic success that key regional economies have accomplished in recent years, said Michelle Ho, President for UPS Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.





According to the study, four segments have driven the surge in trade among the Asia 12: retail, industrial manufacturing and automotive (IM&A), high-tech, and healthcare. In Vietnam, these segments accounted for 82% of trade with the rest of Asia in 2020.





The high-tech segment, a key export industry that constitutes 43% of Vietnams intra-Asia trade value, will drive future growth given the rise in digitalisation across the Asia 12. The IM&A segment, meanwhile, accounts for 21% of the countrys trade within Asia today, and this is expected to double by 2030 thanks in part to government support to boost the manufacturing sector.





Additionally, Vietnams participation in trade deals such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (RCEP) and Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) allows businesses to access a wider range of export markets and consumer goods with reduced trade barriers.





The study also pointed out a number of barriers that, unless addressed, may stagnate trade within the Asia 12. Specifically for Vietnam, lack of progress on logistics infrastructure could constrain its ability to serve centers of demand in rapidly developing economies.





Multi-stakeholder action is required to reduce impediments to regional trade and harness the opportunities to steer intra-Asia trade towards take-off.





Businesses with trade interests in Vietnam and those in the logistics sector must build resilience against potential headwinds while at the same time be ready to capture opportunities presented by the growth in intra-Asia trade. This includes diversifying supply chains, digitalising completely, and integrating micro, small and medium-sized enterprises into regional supply chains.





Small businesses are vital to the Vietnamese economy, and one of the many things this report highlights is the importance of making sure our SMB customers are getting the support they need so that the full potential of intra-Asia trade can be realised over the next decade, said Squall Wang, managing director UPS Vietnam.





At UPS we are doing that by helping businesses digitalise and simplifying the shipping process, he said.





Export financing





Vietnam's exports contributed to 82% of its GDP, indicating how deeply entrenched exports is within the entire nation. Particularly noteworthy is that 35% of Vietnams exports is dependent on SMEs who have working capital as a key roadblock to their growth aspirations.





Sumit Dutta, founder & CEO of ASEAN Business Partners (ABP), said: Vietnam has huge potential to grow exports in many sectors but lack of credit is hampering SMEs from expanding."





Dutta adds that the Vietnamese Government has taken several steps to encourage export-oriented businesses by providing support in the form of loans, credit guarantees, and other financial services. However, there is scope for alternate options.





ABP is working with several multinational companies to bring in the right export financing platform for the exporters. These solutions can meaningfully meet the requirements of SMEs in growing ASEAN economy, especially in Vietnam, said Dutta who is also former CEO of HSBC Bank in Vietnam.





Le Toan Thang, Deputy Director of National Start-up Support Center (NSSC) under National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialisation Development (NATEC) under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), said that Vietnam innovative start-up enterprises in particular and SMEs in general are in need of trade/export financing through innovative platforms that have been applied globally as well as need of professional consultancy from international experience./
By Azernews

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President and Fist Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and their daughter Arzu Aliyeva have visited the Tartar district, Azernews reports.

The President participated in the inauguration of the Talish-Tapgaragoyunlu-Gashalti Sanitarium road.

President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and their daughter Arzu Aliyeva also viewed the conditions created in the secondary school in the Sugovushan settlement and participated in the groundbreaking ceremony for the residential area.

The Azerbaijani President, the First Lady and their daughter Arzu Aliyeva familiarized themselves with the Sugovushan water reservoir and its main water channel after their overhaul as well as construction of tourism infrastructure facilities along the water reservoir.

President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and their daughter Arzu Aliyeva arrived in the Talish village where they examined the village master plan and viewed the conditions created in the administrative building, kindergarten and secondary school.

Then, President Ilham Aliyev lit the Novruz bonfire in the Talish village and congratulated the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the holiday.

Address of President Ilham Aliyev to the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of Novruz holiday

- Dear brothers and sisters.

I sincerely congratulate you on the upcoming Novruz holiday.

This is the third time I am sending my Novruz greetings to the people of Azerbaijan from our native Karabakh. This is great happiness. Today, we are honoring the memory of our heroic martyrs who gave us this happiness. May Allah rest the souls of all our martyrs in peace! I am sending my warm greetings to the heroic Azerbaijani soldiers who gave us this happiness. We have regained our native lands at the cost of their lives.

During the Second Karabakh War, the entire Azerbaijani people were as united as a fist. I am sending my greetings to all the people of Azerbaijan again. I wish the Azerbaijani people continued success and victories!

Our lands were under occupation for nearly 30 years. Armenia carried out a policy of ethnic cleansing against our people. Hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were forced out of their native lands, became refugees and displaced persons. Acts of genocide, injustice and war crimes were committed against our people. We will never forget that. We must never forget that.

For 30 years, we raised our voice of justice in all international organizations because of the occupation. Unfortunately, there was no reaction to our words from any institution. On the contrary, the mediators involved in the Karabakh conflict tries not to solve the issue but to freeze it. The new information that has been emerging over the two and a half years since the Second Karabakh War confirms this again.

We have restored our rights, we have restored on the battlefield. In 44 days, we expelled the contemptible enemy from our lands and raised the Azerbaijani flag in Karabakh. This is the brightest page of the centuries-old history of Azerbaijan. For 44 days, the people of Azerbaijan were united behind our army like a fist. We liberated the occupied lands by shedding blood.

Unfortunately, Armenia has not yet learned the lessons of the Second Karabakh War. Because we are seeing that revengeful forces have risen in Armenia. Territorial claims against Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani lands are still being put forward in Armenia. We are warning the Armenian leadership to refrain from these dirty deeds. We are also warning certain countries that stand behind Armenia from here, from the liberated village of Talish, to stop these dirty deeds. No external force can shatter the will of the state and the people of Azerbaijan.

For 30 years, Armenia, as well as its patrons and allies, tried to use various opportunities and means to prevent us from doing our legitimate work. They wanted to tire us with meaningless negotiations. They wanted us to come to terms with the occupation.

So much effort was made to make us start cooperating with Armenia during the occupation. The people and the state of Azerbaijan overcame all those attempts by showing strong will. Because ours is the cause of justice. During the occupation, I repeatedly said that if the issue is not resolved peacefully, we will liberate our native lands from the invaders through war. Notice how impudent the Armenian leadership became  they wanted to deprive of the Azerbaijani people of their legitimate rights by saying Karabakh is Armenia, full stop. Unfortunately, the forces behind Armenia, including the countries that co-chaired the Minsk Group at the time, did not react to this statement in any way. And now, after Azerbaijan has liberated its native land, just look at how many unfair steps are being taken against us and how many shady dealings are being committed. Armenias patrons, the countries involved in Armenia's policy of aggression have declared an information war on us. In some countries, they organize certain conferences and symposia related to the internal affairs of Azerbaijan. Some pro-Armenian countries recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is not on the world map and does not exist in the territory of Azerbaijan. What does that mean? It means that during the occupation, the only purpose of all those forces was to perpetuate this occupation. They wanted not to resolve the conflict, but to freeze it.

During the Second Karabakh War, so much pressure was put on us and so much assistance was provided to Armenia. Several cargo planes full of weapons were sent to Armenia on a daily basis. Mercenaries from foreign countries were sent there. Armenias allies tried to stop us in different ways. But no-one could stand in our way. I said that we would rather die than go back. Either the freedom of Karabakh or death! No-one could stand in our way. They cannot stand in our way today and wont be able to tomorrow either. If someone thinks that the ugly plans drawn up against us can succeed, they are wrong. Every dirty plan against us will be met with our strong will, our strong policy and our Victorious Army.

Notice what the Armenian leadership, which used to say that Karabakh is Armenia, full stop, is saying now. Today, they are asking us to give them the opportunity to live on an area of 29,000 square kilometers. Why didn't they say this during the occupation? During the occupation, why did they attempt to annex all our occupied lands under the name of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and publish books about that? Why didn't international organizations and certain pro-Armenian countries, who turned a blind eye to these ugly and illegal acts, criticize Armenia at that time? How much longer do we have to deal with double standards? How much more hypocrisy do we have to face?

We applied force to restore our territorial integrity in accordance with the UN Charter, liberated the territories of Azerbaijan recognized by the international community, expelled the enemy, crushed the Armenian army, and brought it to its knees. This is our rightful duty. We are building and creating now, including here in the village of Talish, in the settlement of Sugovushan, in Hadrut, in Shusha and all other liberated lands. Armenia devastated and plundered these territories. For 30 years, they dismantled the stones from our buildings one by one and sold them in the markets both in Armenia and in its neighboring country. But we are building and creating.

Notice that less than a year after the reconstruction of the village of Talish began, 20 families have already returned to Talish village and a total of 180 will return. In less than a year, about 180 families will live in Talish village. All opportunities have been created here for these families. Everyone can see the beautiful houses, schools, kindergartens and public buildings that have been built here. Employment opportunities have been created. We are a nation of builders. Unlike Armenia, we build and create in our own territory.

Today, Armenia, which used to say that Karabakh is Armenia, full stop and threatened us with a new war, is going out of its way to find itself a new patron. They are showing to the world again how treacherous and ungrateful they are. Now they are looking for a new owner. They dont know whose feet to fall under. All this is to no avail. There is one condition for them to live comfortably on an area of 29,000 square kilometers  Armenia must accept our conditions, officially recognize Karabakh as the territory of Azerbaijan, sign a peace treaty with us and carry out delimitation work according to our conditions. Only under these circumstances can they live comfortably on the an area of 29,000 square kilometers, which is all they want now. If Armenia does not recognize our territorial integrity, we will not recognize their territorial integrity either. Armenia and the hypocritical countries behind it should know what the result will be. They should know that no dirty plan against us will work. We have power, we have friends, we have a strong position in the world and we have a strong determination. We demonstrated this during the war and in the post-war period.

Talish village was liberated on October 3, 2020. A week after the start of the Second Karabakh War, we already liberated the village of Talish by shedding blood. At the same time, we liberated the settlement of Sugovushan.

During the Second Karabakh War, that military operation was of great importance. Because we waged our war of freedom in different directions, including this direction. Therefore, the successes achieved in this direction were of great importance for the future course of the war. At the same time, it also raised the morale of our Army and our people. Because the strategic importance of Talish village was obvious to everyone.

For 44 days, we were only moving forward and did not take a single step back. We showed the strength and high moral qualities of the Azerbaijani people on the battlefield for 44 days. Not a single person deserted our Army. According to the latest information, there were not 10,000 but 11,000 deserters in the Armenian army. They should not forget this, and if they do, we will remind them. Let no-one forget the results of the Second Karabakh War. Everyone should accept the new realities. No-one should forget that our lands had been under occupation for 30 years, and these important factors for the future peace agreement should not be forgotten. Because we see situations sometimes that as if there was no war, as if there was no occupation, as if no-one turned Aghdam into the Hiroshima of the Caucasus. They want to forget it and make us forget it. It will never be the case. The realities of the occupation, the realities of the war and the post-war realities must and will be reflected in the peace negotiations. Otherwise, there will be no peace agreement. If Armenia doesn't need it, we don't need it either. Let's see what the end will be.

We are standing in our native Karabakh today, in our native Zangezur land, and we will live here forever. The people of Azerbaijan rightfully live with a sense of pride. Each of us, including the Azerbaijanis living abroad, has been living with pride for two and a half years. We have proved to everyone, to the whole world that we are a great nation, and as a country that has restored its territorial integrity on its own, we will continue to only move forward. Just as we advanced for 44 days during the Patriotic War, we are advancing and will continue to advance in all fields and directions in the post-war period too.

I want to congratulate my dear people on the occasion of the upcoming Novruz holiday from the bottom of my heart. Let me once again complete my speech with the famous words, Karabakh is Azerbaijan!

x x x

Then, President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and their daughter Arzu Aliyeva viewed the conditions created at the Club community center, and had a conversation with villagers.

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(Bloomberg) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc.s Warren Buffett has been in touch with senior officials in President Joe Bidens administration in recent days as the regional banking crisis unfolds.

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There have been multiple conversations between Bidens team and Buffett in the past week, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The calls have centered around Buffett possibly investing in the US regional banking sector in some way, but the billionaire has also given advice and guidance more broadly about the current turmoil.

Buffett has a long history of stepping in to aid banks in crisis, leveraging his cult investing status and financial heft to restore confidence in ailing firms. Bank of America Corp. won a capital injection from Buffett in 2011 after its stock plunged amid losses tied to subprime mortgages. Buffett also tossed a $5 billion lifeline to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2008 to shore up the bank following Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.s collapse.

Representatives for Berkshire Hathaway and the White House didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. Officials at the US Treasury Department declined to comment.

US regulators unveiled extraordinary measures to assuage customers last weekend, promising to fully pay out uninsured deposits in the failed banks. Shares in regional banks continued to fall this week on fears the pain would spread.

Bidens team, wary of political blowback, has moved to orchestrate backstops that dont require direct government spending from taxpayers, including the Federal Reserves actions. Big US banks voluntarily deposited $30 billion to stabilize First Republic Bank this week, a move regulators described as most welcome. Any investment or intervention from Buffett or other figures would continue that playbook, looking to stem the crisis without direct bailouts.

Story continues

--With assistance from Max Reyes and Katherine Doherty.

(Updates with details of conversations in second paragraph.)

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Justin LeHew was so bothered by the image of a tattered POW/MIA flag flying on a Fredericksburg building, the retired Marine decided to walk across the country to remind others why that black-and-white banner is so important.

LeHew recruited two other Marine veterans to join him on the effort they called The Long Road. During the 3,365-mile trek from Massachusetts to Oregon along U.S. 20, LeHew of Fredericksburg; Coleman Rocky Kinzer of Hawaii; and Raymond Shinohara, who joined the two in Illinois, gained a fresh perspective of their homeland.

When you stepped away from the TV and internet, America really wasnt what people were telling you it was, at least not on Route 20, LeHew said. Youre being told they hate America or they dont like the military. Well, no they dont. Every single town came out waving flags, and theyre really proud of their communities.

Particularly in the heartland, the team entered towns where students lined sidewalks, giving fist bumps and singing hymns, and adults of all ages held photos of loved ones who died in military uniform. They met private citizens and veterans groups who offered food, lodging and hot showers as well as police who wanted to escort them to the next village.

Granted, the walkers didnt get that kind of reception in busy cities, especially in the Northeast, but that might have been because there hadnt been any buzz about the team when LeHew and Kinzer set off from Boston Harbor on June 6. That soon change as word spread, particularly through the groups Facebook page.

The way the two chose the starting date sums up the spur-of-the-moment approach they took. As they talked about the effort, LeHew looked at a certificate in his office, given to his father who survived the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944.

Once the two knew when to start, they had to figure where. LeHew started looking at maps and discovered Route 20 crosses the country, allows pedestrians and is known as the Medal of Honor highway.

LeHew also happens to be the national commander of the Legion of Valor, an organization open to recipients of the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross and the Air Force Cross.

And, hes chief operating officer of History Flight, a privately owned nonprofit based in Fredericksburg that researches, recovers and brings back to the United States remains of those killed in combat as far back as World War II. Since 2003, the group has recovered the remains of 130 servicemembers who were missing in action, and it also has handed over to the government another 250 sets of remains, which are in the process of being identified.

LeHew wanted to do something personal for those whod died in combat, as well as those still missing, and their families. In his mind, crossing Route 20 on foot would bring attention to the POW/MIA flag, History Flights effort to raise money to recover remains, and the campaign, going on last year, to make Route 20 the Medal of Honor highway.

Being like the town crier from town to town, we were walking and talking to people about why the black flag is on their post office and everything else, LeHew said.

When word spread about their various missions, people responded. In the 12 states the team walked through, they met at least one family in each state with a loved one whose remains were still missing.

One of those encounters happened in a little sliver of New York, LeHew said, south of Lake Erie. Residents Fritz and Madolyn Kubera had seen a story about the walking Marines and set out to find them.

The couple  hes 90 and shes 85  took down from the wall a framed photo of her brother, Sgt. Jack Mathers, along with the medals he earned. He was 18 when he was declared missing in action, on Nov. 28, 1950, in Korea.

Over the years, shes saved clippings of every story about service members whose remains were found, and she went to mass to pray for them and their families. She also told her children about her brother, who couldnt wait to be like his older brothers and go into the service.

Kubera said she was thrilled to share her brothers story with LeHew and Kinzer.

I never expected to go out before 8 oclock in the morning and go looking for two Marines I didnt know, she said during a phone call this week. But I was so interested (in their walk) because weve always been looking for Jack, we never stopped looking for him.

The remains of more than 81,000 American servicemembers have never been found, including those who served in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Cold War, LeHew said.

The government of North Korea has not allowed access to American officials to look for remains and thats taken away hope for so many, LeHew said.

However, in 2018, North Korean officials turned over 55 boxes of possible remains. About 200 servicemembers have been identified from the fragments and work continues to locate others. He hopes Madolyn Kuberas brother is among them.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency compares the DNA of remains with samples in its database from family members of veterans. The challenge, according to the DPAA, is not having DNA samples from descendants of all those missing in action.

Along the walk, LeHew carried DNA kits with him and encouraged family members of the missing to send in their samples. He also provided information about the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, at dpaa.mil/, which includes information on how families can get an annual report about the missing service member.

It was one of many pieces of equipment LeHew hauled in a cart behind him. He bought a child carrier, normally pulled behind a bicycle, and adapted it into a chuck wagon of sorts that he could pull as he walked. It contained tents, food, clothes and shoes, since the walkers had to get a new pair every 300 or 400 miles.

Kinzer and Shinohara carried rucksacks filled with 40 to 50 pounds of gear. The backpacks represented the heavy burden carried by generations of warriors who have served since 1775 and as a reminder that we will never surrender and never leave a fallen comrade behind, according to a press release the team sent out before the walk.

The journey took 6 months and subjected the walkers to the heat and humidity of summer in the Northeast as well as the below-zero temperatures of the Pacific Northwest. One of the highlights was walking through Yellowstone National Park as Route 20 runs through 88 miles of the park.

As late October neared, the park service closed four of five gates into Yellowstone and told the walkers they could enter through the open remaining gate, if they got there by a certain time, before the weather turned too treacherous. The men had averaged 20 to 25 miles a day, walking, but stepped up the pace to be at Yellowstone in time.

It was worth the effort as they were the only ones hiking through the park that time of year. They stuck to the parks rule about saying 25 meters away from herds of buffalo, even when the bison and other wildlife tried to get closer to them.

LeHew said Yellowstone was the highlight of a trip that, three months after completion, still doesnt seem real. He continues to receive mementos of the journey, from copies of newspaper stories to an intricate Quilt of Honor made by a woman named Cathy Miracle who lost a son in combat.

In a story from The Berkshire Eagle in Massachusetts, Kinzer said he was excited to get a closeup look of so many parts of the country.

You know, after you spend years defending your nation, he said, its nice to be able to see it.
The arcane inner workings of Roberts Rules of Order were on full display during the Tuesday, March 14, meeting of the Fremont City Council.

Following the rescinding of a new library policy allowing for the relocation of books in Keene Memorial Library on Tuesday, March 14, questions arose from the public about the votes and motions during the meeting as council members tried to figure out what exactly they were voting on.

Roberts Rules of Order is a set of guidelines and procedures intended to help manage meetings, including of political bodies, boards, businesses and other entities. The rules are used by the vast majority of governmental bodies across the United States.

The use of the rules arose on Tuesday after Ward 4 City Council Member Sally Ganem asked that an item be put on the March 14 agenda revisiting the Feb. 14 approval  in a 7-1 vote  of a new library relocation policy created by Ward 1 Council Member Paul Von Behren.

That policy allowed for parents of children ages 11 and younger to request, in writing, the relocation of possibly offensive books or materials from the childrens section of the library to the adult section. The policy took several weeks to develop, and went into effect on Monday, March 13.

But, the policy was short-lived, in part due to Ganems reservations and request to revisit the original Feb. 14 vote. To reconsider a previously approved item, the city council is required to pass a motion to revisit the item within three meetings of the original approval.

On Tuesday, March 14, the council voted 7-1 to re-examine the Feb. 14 decision.

Following two hours of public comment and debate, the council then discussed the Von Behren policy, which led to confusion among the council, the audience, Mayor Joey Spellerberg and City Attorney Travis Jacott as to what was actually being voted on.

Council President Mark Jensen initially proposed a motion to totally rescind the Von Behren policy amendment.

Then, Ganem proposed a new version of the policy without making a motion, which would include retaining Von Behrens original policy details, but adding in a new section to it that would allow for the book relocation requests to be appealed similar to the current policy in place.

That proposal from Ganem was never voted on, nor was Jensens motion to rescind the policy entirely.

Jacott intervened during the discussion several times, telling the council his interpretation of the situation.

To clarify what the motion is, the item on the table is the (Feb. 14) amendment (from Von Behren) to the library policy ... a yes vote would be accepting the amendment. A no vote would be not accepting the amendment, he said.

Spellerberg then said there had been a motion by Jensen to rescind the policy, then asking Jacott for further clarification.

Legal ... I want to follow the right process here, Spellerberg said.

Jacott then explained that what the council was voting on was the original Feb. 14 policy amendment made by Von Behren, not Jensens motion to rescind it.

The motion before the council at that time was Von Behrens original amendment from Feb. 14, a motion that on March 14 was seconded by Ward 2 Council Member Glen Ellis.

In the reconsideration of Von Behrens Feb. 14 motion to add the new policy, the council then voted 6-2 to reject the policy from Feb. 14 with Von Behren and Ellis voting yes to keep the policy and the remainder of the council voting no to not add the policy.

That decision of two yes votes and six no votes reversed the Feb. 14 vote to add the new policy to the librarys manual.

Ward 3 Council Member James Vaughan said on Friday that the vote semantics were at first a bit confusing, but after Jacotts explanation, he understood the action the council was voting on.

I was certainly one of the council members initially confused prior to voting, but I felt confident about what I was voting on after additional clarification from legal, Vaughan said.

After the Von Behren policy amendment was rescinded, the entire library policy manual then needed to be re-voted on according to Jacott, this time without Von Behrens amendment from mid-February.

That motion to re-approve the library policy manual without Von Behrens Feb. 14 policy amendment was made by Jensen and seconded of by Vaughan.

The council voted 5-3 to re-approve the library policy manual without Von Behrens amendment. The no votes were from Von Behren, Ellis and new council member Tad Dinkins.
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.

Spring Craft Show, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fremont Mall. The show will feature handmade crafts, homemade food and more.

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.

Public skating, 1-3 p.m., Sidner Ice Arena, Fremont.

Rodgers + Hammersteins Cinderella, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Arlington High School Gym, Arlington. Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for students and seniors.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.

Central College Flying Pans Steel Band concert, 7 p.m., Clemmons Hall, Midland University campus, Fremont. The concert is free and open to the public. From Pella, Iowa, the Central College Flying Pans Steel Band performs diverse styles of music from traditional calypso, soca, and reggae to that of classical, Latin, disco, techno, and rock and roll.

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.

Woodcliff Lions Club Blood Drive, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Woodcliff Community Center, south of Fremont. All blood types are needed. To schedule an appointment, contact Nicole Johnson at njohnson@fumainsurance.com or 402-306-0505, or go to www.redcrossblood.org and enter Woodcliff.

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.

Benefit Spaghetti Feed for Marty Guthrie, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., One Horse Saloon, Nickerson. Proceeds will help pay the medical bills for Guthries throat cancer.

St. Lawrences 35th Annual Chicken Fried Steak Dinner, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Mohr Auditorium, Scribner. Dine in, take out and in-town delivery are available. The dinner will include homemade chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, brown gravy, green beans, dinner roll and dessert. Meals are $12 for ages 10 and older. Dine-in meals for kids ages 4-9 are $6 while dine-in meals for kids 3 and under are free.

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.

Public skating, 1-4 p.m., Sidner Ice Arena, Fremont.

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.

Fremont Planning Commission meeting, 5 p.m., Fremont Municipal Building, second floor, 400 E. Military Ave. The meeting is open to the public.

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.

Keene Memorial Library Board meeting, 6:30 p.m., Fremont Municipal Building, second floor, 400 E. Military Ave. The meeting is open to the public.

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.
Editors Note: This is the second in a two-part series about Vietnam veterans. March 29 is designated as National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

Richard Wadkins really did have a close shave.

The Fremont mans narrow escape came when he was in Vietnam. The young soldier had gone to an off-base barbershop for a haircut and shave. The barber shaved him with a straight razor, which had a long blade with a handle.

But the barber later assumed a different job  one with deadly intent.

We killed him that night coming through the wire (of the base) with a satchel charge (explosive device), Wadkins said.

Wadkins realized the barber could have cut his throat, killing him, during the shave.

That shook me up for a few days, Wadkins said. He gave me a good haircut and a shave, but when they come through the wire after dark, its a whole different ballgame.

****

Decades later, Wadkins recalled his service in Vietnam and the hostile reception he got after returning home.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of March 29, 1973, when the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, was disestablished and the last U.S. combat troops departed Vietnam. More than 58,200 American military personnel died in the war.

Various local veterans groups are planning an observation at noon April 1 at the Vietnam Veterans Perpetual Living Memorial in Clemmons Park in Fremont. The public is invited to the event during which Dodge County residents killed in Vietnam are remembered.

****

Wadkins was 23 and living in California when he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1968.

They had the two-year enlistment program, he said, telling why he enlisted. I figured the draft was coming up.

Wadkins went through basic training and also training to work on helicopters as a mechanic. He was sent to Dong Ba Thin, a U.S. Army base about 15 miles from Cam Rahn Bay in Vietnam.

Instead of being a mechanic, they put me in as a door gunner on a Chinook helicopter, he said.

During Vietnam, Chinooks primarily were used to transport troops and bring supplies and equipment to remote outposts, along with evacuating wounded soldiers from combat zones.

I went on flight missions, he said. We flew every day and for every 25 hours of combat flight, they issued you an air medal. I think I had 26 of them by the time I left.

Wadkins remembers when the helicopter flew to a landing zone one day.

As soon as we set down to unload cargo, ammunition, food, they (the Viet Cong) fired a mortar round, he said.

The mortar exploded about halfway down the hill from helicopter, throwing rocks and debris at the aircraft. No one was injured.

Another time, the helicopter was leaving an airfield in Saigon.

I was looking out the door gunners window and I saw green tracers (bullets) coming up at us, he said.

Wadkins asked the pilot if he could shoot back.

No, were just going to call in an airstrike, the pilot said.

One time, the helicopter landed in a little village where U.S. military had set up an ambush for the Viet Cong.

The helicopter pilot relayed a message to the crew.

Dont be shooting the guys in the grass. Theyre ours, the pilot said.

Wadkins recalls more of that situation.

We walked up to the village and they (U.S. military personnel) were hidden in the grass, he said. Every once in a while, you could see a little head pop up and look around.

The Viet Cong never entered that ambush.

During his time in Vietnam, Wadkins would earn the rank of Specialist E5.

The last month he was in that country, Wadkins went for a physical examination and learned the vision in his left eye had decreased.

So they grounded me, Wadkins said.

He was put in charge of the tactical operations center at night.

One night, he and a radio operator heard a mortar round hit inside the base.

I got up and flipped the switch for the siren to wake everybody up, Wadkins said. Everybody started showing up with their weapons.

But no more mortar rounds were fired.

A major came into the center.

Who hit the siren? the major asked.

Wadkins thought he was in trouble.

I did, Wadkins admitted.

But instead of being reprimanded for waking everyone up for a single mortar round, Wadkins was complimented for his vigilance.

Good job, the major said.

Wadkins reflects on the value of being watchful.

When you starting thinking its nothing, it usually turns out to be something, he said.

Wadkins got out of the service in June 1969. He was a truck driver for the next 35 years. In 2002, he moved from California to Nebraska, where a sibling and her spouse lived.

I kinda stayed, he said.

Wadkins retired 2008. He has five children and several grandchildren.

Today, he shares his thoughts about the war.

The government sold us out, basically, he said. First, they sent us there to fight a war that wasnt ours, then we got no recognition when we came home.

Wadkins recalls going through a California airport.

They had some protestors in there that would call us baby killers and spit at us, but being in uniform, you cant react to it, because you become a bad person, he said.

More than one Vietnam veteran has said he didnt tell people he was in the war for a long time.

If they asked, I might have told them, Wadkins said. But then their next question is, Did you kill anyone?

Wadkins grew tired of those questions.

It seems like everybody wants you to share the bad war stories, he said.

After Wadkins retired, he went to the Veterans Administration. Someone there asked what Wadkins thought about having served in Vietnam.

I told him I spent the last 40 years trying to forget, Wadkins said, adding that he didnt want to talk about it.

Years later, Wadkins is more at ease when discussing his time in Vietnam.

I talk about more now, he said. Doesnt seem to bother me as much. Certain times of the year you get down.

That usually happens in November and December as he recalls being in Vietnam and not getting to see two young daughters and missing them during the holidays.

The daughters are grown now and he gets to see them.

Wadkins recalls friends he made in Vietnam.

I had some good friends over there, Black and White. They were really close friends, but when you get out of the service, you just lose contact, he said.

He and the helicopter crew chief have stayed in touch to this day, however. Wadkins looks forward to the division bunker party for the 243rd Aviation Brigade in May.

These days, Wadkins spends time riding his Ultra Glide Harley Davidson motorcycle.

He likes the freedom he feels while riding and the camaraderie of being with other riders in the In Country Vietnam Motorcycle Club.

We rode to Gulf Port, Mississippi last year, he said.

Like other veterans, Wadkins said if he had to do it all over again, he still would have served his country.

Id do it again in a heartbeat, because of patriotism and duty to my country, he said. Im still patriotic no matter what.
Keene Memorial Library has been in the headlines for not so positive reasons. But KML has so very much to offer and is truly a hub for the public.

They offer homebound deliveries for those requesting reading materials that cant get to the library for health or transportation reasons.

They offer on-site library visits to residents at both of the towers and the Friendship Center on a monthly basis. They have books to borrow to look through and also specific requests from residents. Also book exchanges are offered to many of the elderly care facilities.

They do a variety of outreach visits to inform the community of what all is available to them at the library  library cards, how to access library materials, attending events/programming. These may be done at schools, care facilities or even other city activities to show what there is for the community to be involved in.

They have their youth services share getting ready for kindergarten as well as story time for younger audiences. Older kiddos can enjoy using their imaginations building Legos weekly. Adult programming may involve trivia or author visits. Every month there is something new and different in-library being offered to all ages being library-themed challenges or activities.

They offer Book-a-Librarian which involves setting a time to request one-on-one time with a staff member for digital or educational help. This may be about accessing electronic materials on their devices or for job seekers. This may be requested in either English or Spanish.

This is all in addition to keeping up with physical and e-book requests from library card holders. The goal is to offer a wide variety of programming and reading materials for all walks of life and interests.

The staff and leadership of our library is outstanding! Please support them and all that they have done and will continue to do for our community.

Denise Kay

Fremont
While most attention is paid to the policy work I do for Nebraskans in Washington, D.C., my first priority will always be ensuring government is working for all taxpayers. When I was governor, I was proud of the progress we made to streamline and simplify how Nebraskans interact with state agencies, but navigating the federal bureaucracy can be even more daunting. It can be particularly daunting if you need help in a hurry.

Thats why I am excited about the team of dedicated caseworkers we are assembling across Nebraska. This past week, we launched our Mobile Office Hours program and I had the pleasure of opening our constituent service office at 304 N. 168th Circle, Suite 213, in Omaha. We also have an office in Scottsbluff and are working to open our Kearney and Lincoln offices soon.

My team is specially trained to assist you with a concern, complaint, or question of services, eligibility, or benefits from a number of federal agencies. While my office cannot ask agencies to change their rules, we can inquire about the status of your situation and provide oversight to ensure your case is being handled properly.

This time of year, many Nebraskans begin to make plans for summer vacations, study abroad programs, and more. My office has already begun receiving questions about passport applications. According to the State Department, routine passport applications take 8-11 weeks and 5+ weeks for expedited processing. While its always better to allow extra time for your application, there are times where you need more immediate service. My team stands ready to assist you in navigating any delays.

For example, Michelle from Cass County paid for expedited processing of her passport earlier this year. After nine weeks she still hadnt even heard back from the State Department. Her special family trip was quickly approaching, and she reached out to my office to see if there was anything to be done. Our team was able to reach out on her behalf, clear up the delay, and had her passport in hand to her before her trip. Unfortunately, we cant always promise such a successful conclusion to a case, but our team will always do everything in our power to help Nebraskans in need.

My office has also begun receiving requests for help dealing with other federal issues, like Social Security, tax returns, veterans benefits and visas. Families frequently lack the requisite paperwork to request military burials or tax exemptions and my team is able to help you get connected to resources that will help you get answers. You can find necessary privacy release forms and more information on the Services tab of my website, www.ricketts.senate.gov. There is also a Frequently Asked Questions page with more specific instructions.

Its very rewarding to hear success stories from Nebraskans when they get the help they need. I also welcome your policy ideas for ways to protect the Good Life and improve the lives of every Nebraskan. Im committed to giving you the service and transparency you deserve and I look forward to finalizing the locations of more Mobile Office Hours and our other Lincoln office in the coming weeks.

Along with Senator Deb Fischer and the rest of my colleagues in the Nebraska delegation, my team and I are here to serve you. Contact my team and I anytime by phone at 202-224-4224, on my website ricketts.senate.gov, or via email contactricke@ricketts.senate.gov. I am honored to serve our great state and will continue to work to protect the Good Life from Washington.
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has done it again.

For the seventh consecutive year, the Colorado Springs zoo is being recognized as one of the top 10 zoos in North America by USA Today, this year earning fourth place.

Also being recognized this year is the acclaimed Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit, earning its spot as the second-best zoo exhibit in North America. This is the fifth year the exhibit has been put in the national spotlight.

Jenny Koch has been the marketing director at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for the past decade. She said that although the zoo was pleased to see it was nominated again this year, it didnt come as too much of a surprise.

Weve really started to get on people's radar, and weve been growing and improving year after year. More and more people have gotten to know us, and recognize what we do here, Koch said.

Being up close and personal with wild animals from all around the world is a true wonder for many to behold, and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has taken that wonder one step further as they prioritize creating environments and inspirational experiences that bring people closer to animals.

You know, the mountainside is a really special place, and its an unusual venue for a zoo, Koch said. We really strive to allow people to get closer to the animals than you do in other places, and other people remark that they felt really close, and made close connections with our animals during their visit.

The exhibits at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo remove as many physical barriers as safely possible between zoo guests and their animals. Patrons can feel the soft fur coat of an Australian wallaby in their immersive Australian experience, waddle adjacent to the colony of African penguins, or even hand-feed the largest giraffe herd in North America, a collective of 17 giraffes.

The giraffe feeding was really cool. Usually, you see animals from a distance at the zoo, its amazing to get that up-close experience with them, said Meghan Cox, a California native who was visiting the zoo for the first time on the chilly Friday. I think its really cool that the zoo is built into the mountains, so you get to go on this little mountain adventure walking through all of the exhibits.

Her mother, Charlotte Cox, shared her daughters enthusiasm when speaking about the Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit.

The eagle, she was just so beautiful. The exhibit is just spectacular, Charlotte Cox said.

The Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit appropriately hugs the highest elevation on the mountainside of the zoo property.

The expansive exhibit is home to an array of local species including a pack of endangered Mexican wolves, a Canada lynx, an Alaskan moose, a bald eagle, two grizzly bears, three mountain lions and four river otters.

Relishing in the views of the river otters at play was the Cordia family, who were also visiting the zoo for the first time. Jessica Cordia praised the zoos ability to create such an intimate experience for her children.

I absolutely love it and well be back as soon as possible, Cordia said. "The proximity and design of the zoo seem very conducive to allowing the animals to be in their natural environment. It seems the design is really fluid and functional.
By Azernews

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and their daughter Arzu Aliyeva have visited Tartar district.

According to Azernews, during the visit, President Ilham Aliyev has met the residents of Talish village. Having addressed the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the Novruz holiday in the Talish village of the Tartar district, President has also quoted the illegal Armenian claims of Azerbaijani territories.

Unfortunately, Armenia has not yet learned the lessons of the Second Karabakh War. Because we are seeing that revengeful forces have risen in Armenia. Territorial claims against Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani lands are still being put forward in Armenia, the President said.

We are warning the Armenian leadership to refrain from these dirty deeds. We are also warning certain countries that stand behind Armenia from here, from the liberated village of Talish, to stop these dirty deeds. No external force can shatter the will of the state and the people of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani President underlined.
After five years of litigation and multiple Colorado Court of Appeals and Supreme Court rulings that former El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder could be sued for the intentional detention of a man after he posted bond, the county will pay $25,000 in damages, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado announced in a release Friday.

According to the ACLU, which represented plaintiff Saul Cisneros, El Paso County Attorney Kenny Hodges made the formal offer of judgment sum, which Cisneros accepted. The court formally entered judgment on Thursday, ending a five-year legal battle for compensation.

Unlike out-of-court settlements in which the defendant admits no liability, an offer of judgment allows a formal court judgment to enter against Sheriff Elder, in his official capacity as Sheriff of El Paso County, ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein said in the release. After a five-year wait  our client was happy to resolve this lawsuit to avoid what could have been a delay of several additional years of litigation.

Saul Cisneros entered the El Paso County jail following his arrest in November 2017. Four days later, his daughter posted a $2,000 bond, according to past Gazette reporting. However, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had issued an immigration detainer and administrative warrant asking the jail to hold him in order for federal authorities to take him into custody on suspicion of being in the country illegally. Neither document had a judge's signature, and the request was for a 48-hour detention.

Nevertheless, Elder continued to detain Cisneros in custody for four more months. Cisneros sued Elder in 2018 for false imprisonment, and the former sheriff lost a motion to dismiss in El Paso County District Court in 2020.

But Elder appealed to the Court of Appeals, arguing that the Legislature clearly intended to immunize him for keeping Cisneros jailed on an immigration hold far beyond ICEs legal 48-hour window. He prevailed before a panel of appellate judges, who determined the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act only permits pretrial detainees to sue for actions "due to negligence." Because Elder intentionally held Cisneros in jail, the appellate panel's two-member majority believed the sheriff's actions made him immune from liability.

Judge David J. Richman, who dissented at the time, called that interpretation literal but illogical, and argued in favor of allowing the lawsuit to proceed.

Cisneros then appealed to the state Supreme Court, arguing it was nonsensical to think that a sheriff could only be held liable for negligently violating a person's rights, but not if he made the conscious decision to do so.

In March 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Cisneros on the belief that negligent conduct should be the minimum type of behavior subject to civil liability, reviving the lawsuit.

"As a result, defendants sued for injuries resulting from the operation of a jail could successfully defend against liability by claiming that they did not accidentally cause the plaintiff injury but rather they meant to harm the plaintiff," wrote Judge Richard L. Gabriel. "In our view, such a result would be absurd."

The case returned to the Court of Appeals in September, where Richman again rejected the sheriff's remaining argument left unaddressed in the Supreme Court's decision: whether Cisneros' prolonged detention was due to Elder's operation of the jail. According to Richman, that decision not to release an inmate who has posted bond lies "at the heart" of a sheriff's duties and is directly related to jail operations.

Since Cisneros' detention, Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill in 2019 that now bars state law enforcement officials from detaining people based solely on federal immigration warrants lacking a judge's signature.
The allegations: harassment, stalking, verbal and physical abuse.

The scene: the Manitou Incline.

It's a case calling the accuser and accused along with other regulars of the iconic trail to an El Paso County courtroom Monday. A scheduled hearing regards a temporary restraining order. The alleged victim says she wants it to be permanent.

The accuser: Noelia Sanchez, who in recent months has been among a wave of people pushing numbers on the mountain, racking up laps up and down the brutal, vertical set of stairs.

The accused: Chasidey Geissler, who has been building on a record set last month. She became the fifth person credited with 1,000 Incline laps in a calendar year, besting the all-time womens mark set in January by Rachel Jones.

For as long as the former railway has been a fitness phenomenon  dating back to the railway's closure in 1990  competition has been core to the Incline culture. Regulars have long considered that competition as friendly. They've considered it part of the Incline's special camaraderie, where people have bonded over the burn, where they have tested their limits and found kinship and redemption along the way. The steps gaining 2,000-plus vertical feet in less than a mile have inspired stories of overcoming trauma, loss and addiction.

Sanchez says it was that kind of inspiring, encouraging environment that led her to setting a goal of 500 laps in a calendar year, an increasingly popular goal for others.

"I had no idea what I was getting into," Sanchez says. "It was supposed to be a fun thing."

That was until she says she started feeling uncomfortable and soon "scared" around Geissler.

In court filings, Sanchez alleges Geissler early this month "yelled in my face in front of a crowd saying that she wants me to break my f--king neck, and I better watch my back and be careful she doesn't push me down the Incline stairs." Sanchez went on to claim Geissler acted on those alleged threats, saying Geissler "hit me in the back and caused me to lose my balance and nearly fall down the cliff edge of the stairs." Sanchez added that she was being "stalked and followed in Manitou Springs along the local trails."

A judge granted Sanchez a temporary restraining order, signed on the basis of Sanchez's claims "constitut(ing) a credible threat, that an imminent danger exists."

Geissler denies the claims. On the contrary, she says she's been the victim of a "bizarre" social setting built around the Incline.

Geissler expressed a sentiment similar to one of her accuser.

"Had I known what I would go through this year, I don't know if I would have done" the 1,000 challenge, Geissler says. "I had no idea. I thought this was a pure, supportive place. And then the better I got at (the Incline), the worse I was treated."

Several close to the situation say it is the latest in a series of events that has cracked the foundation of one of this region's most beloved, symbolic attractions. They describe the past year and a half on the Incline as "heartbreaking" and "totally nuts" and "all kinds of ridiculous."

"Mind-boggling," says Fred Baxter, one of the Incline's oldest ambassadors going back to the '90s. "I can't believe this is going on."

He calls himself a friend of Geissler's, saying he has felt forced to speak out and pick a side in what has been a time of division, dating to before the Sanchez-Geissler dispute. This is not the first restraining order filed in recent months from Incline happenings.

"It's tearing people apart," says Roger Austin, a record holder who says he has followed developments from afar  from friends more active on the Incline today and from Facebook, where tensions have regularly flared.

Austin says he has no loyalties but to the Incline itself.

"It's really sad," he says. "The Incline used to be this happy place."

Forming the clubs

Records show Jill Suarez filed for a restraining order against Greg Cummings on Nov. 7 last year. Suarez has been regarded as the Incline Queen for her decades-long presence, while Cummings was hailed the Incline King in 2020 upon his record 1,825 laps logged in a calendar year. Suarez's request was dismissed.

Later, on Jan. 4, records show a temporary restraining order was placed on Suarez by Trevor Becker. An agreement was reached out of court between the two neighbors living near the Incline's base.

One dispute between Becker and Suarez was captured in a video in which Becker recorded his neighbor at a doorstep. In what appears to be a boiling point, the two go back and forth with accusations of harassment, including Becker saying Suarez was yelling at people on the Incline.

"There's actually a reason behind all that," Suarez counters. "You think everybody needs to fall in line with you guys. No, people don't. They don't."

She was referring to a committee that Cummings formed in 2022. The five-person committee  which does not include Becker, who is a supporter with the nonprofit Incline Friends  was formed to set rules and expectations for people seeking membership in the "500 Club" and "1,000 Club."

The decision-making committee and policies, outlined in paperwork to be signed by prospective members, would be housed in a limited-liability company Cummings created called Colorado Incline.

To be "officially" recognized in records posted and maintained by Becker at the base, to be listed in record sheets posted on Facebook's extremely popular Official Manitou Incline Page that Becker also maintains, the paperwork must be signed.

"That has ticked off a lot of the old-timers," says Ann Labosky, an Incline regular who has counted Cummings a friend for 30-plus years. "They're wondering, like me, 'What in the heck are you trying to do?'  You know, I told Greg, People on the Incline are doing it for a good, hard workout. They dont need anybody else to track their numbers.'"

It's simple, Cummings says.

He says he's trying to uphold the integrity of Incline achievements, to respect the pain and sacrifice those achievements require. He knows the requirement all too well. In his daily and nightly push to 1,825 laps, he told of a strained relationship with family and of near-death experiences on the Incline, passing out on multiple occasions due to complications from Type 1 diabetes.

"It's something that I admire in individuals who do it, and I'm proud of it," Cummings says. He has shown that admiration by awarding plaques to new 500 and 1,000 club members  what has become something of a celebratory ritual atop the mountain, the king bestowing honor.

The paperwork is simple, Cummings says. It details standards not so unlike standards of Fastest Known Time, the online clearinghouse for obscure, outdoor records. For Incline records, one is expected to declare intent, use a tracking app like Strava and, in a wrinkle, take selfies at the top and bottom of each lap, as Cummings did for his records.

Another wrinkle in the club contract: a code of conduct section calling for record-goers to "treat others with dignity, respect, empathy, kindness, and be encouraging and polite to all." The contract adds that "public degradation of the club, a member, or a potential member is unacceptable and grounds for dismissal from the club(s)."

Respect, empathy, kindness  that all might sound good to a pastor like Wade Gardner. But Gardner, a devout Incliner and record holder since 2004, does not like what he sees in Cummings' group.

Nor did Gardner agree with Suarez's behavior at the center of past restraining order cases. But he agreed with her concerns about "falling in line." (Suarez could not be reached for this article.)

"I grew up in a cult, another part of my story," Gardner says. "And I so see cult behavior in Greg's power plays, rules on silence, search for control and power. I never signed the paper."

Role models at odds

Cummings denies the label. "This is not some strange, religious cult," he says. "If people don't want to be part of the club, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that."

But if they do, they have to be nice. And what's wrong with that? Becker asks.

"I think the Incline 500 Club and 1,000 Club members are role models of our community," he says. "They're on the Incline more than anybody else, talk to tourists more than anybody else. I think they have an ethical and moral responsibility."

That has repeatedly been broken by Geissler, Becker and Cummings say. Rachel Jones, the womens record holder before Geissler, has also rallied around Sanchez.

Behind her quiet, humble demeanor, Sanchez is a fierce hiker, Jones says. Jones says that explains why Geissler has targeted her friend.

Geissler "seems to be aggressive towards women who may challenge her record," Jones says.

Both Geissler and Jones say their own relationship took a turn somewhere along their ways to 1,000 laps on the Incline. Geissler says Jones' push "did speed me up," while Jones says "I made it clear that I was not in competition with her." Geissler says she has observed otherwise from Jones.

Geissler says her passing questions to Sanchez about laps and progress  common banter among regulars  "were somehow taken as harassment." It's gone far beyond those questions, says Jones, who claims she herself has "been slandered, flipped off on the trail multiple times and physically ran into."

Gardner, the pastor, says he offered to mediate a conversation between Geissler and Jones, both of whom he considers friends. He says Geissler reluctantly agreed to sit down, while Jones declined.

Jones says her attempts to resolve the situation have been through Cummings and the committee. She's one of the five who sits on that committee.

Separate from the club's code of conduct form, a document was prepared for Geissler to sign, agreeing to no contact with Sanchez. Jones says Geissler broke the agreement soon after.

"We all just want her to leave so things can go back to normal," Jones says.

The case of Mr. X

That's what some say this is about. "They're just trying to drive (Geissler) away from the Incline," Gardner says. "I'm like, Are you kidding me? You're solving problems by creating more problems."

Some see this as mirroring a situation from last year involving a man Cummings has referred to as Mr. X. In a phone call with The Gazette, the man requested continued anonymity, stating fear of retribution and hinting at deeper hostilities.

"I'd be scared," Mr. X said. These people are crazy, man. Its sad.

Publicly last year, Mr. X had been reticent about what some saw as a bold effort to top Cummings' all-time record on the Incline. That reticence, Cummings later suggested, could be drawn from the man secretly cheating.

It was a suggestion from a nearly 5,000-word diatribe Cummings posted to Facebook last October. Cummings wrote of an initial encounter with Mr. X, who expressed interest in the 500 Club but lacked what Cummings said was the necessary evidence of progress. Cummings called himself "overly sympathetic" of the man's situation. Cummings described himself as maintaining sympathy, while rumors flew about him trying to discredit Mr. X.

This was while Cummings embarked on a lengthy investigation into Mr. X's record attempt. It included nights of camping on the Incline, "a huge amount of time away from family," Cummings wrote, "lots of inconvenience and a significant amount of money."

Baxter, the long-going Incline ambassador, says he asked Cummings to stop the investigation. "All it did was create sides," Baxter says, with some defending Mr. X's record claim and others supporting Cummings.

In the end, people were left bitter. In the Facebook post, Cummings wrote of a conversation in which Mr. X asked for forgiveness and Cummings tried consoling him. Mr. X told The Gazette that he felt manipulated.

"When I read that (Facebook post)  I couldn't finish reading it," he said. "My heart was broken."

Also, Cummings wrote of ugly comments made by Suarez and her "coddling" of Mr. X. Clear, too, at the time was Suarez's and Geissler's friendship. Later on Facebook, Suarez praised Geissler's record push on the Incline while Cummings and others criticized her for simultaneously taking shots at Jones.

Suarez isn't around much anymore. Neither is Mr. X, Geissler says. "When he is, it's in the middle of the night."

'It breeds itself'

Sanchez and Geissler crossed steps amid what could be called a fast and furious couple of years on the Incline. Just look at those record sheets on the Official Manitou Incline page.

Of the 26 names listed in the all-time 500 Club  Cummings was the first from 2011  half were added between 2021 and 2022. The same time has seen three of the five names added to the 1,000 Club. Other records have been logged in the past year: most climbs in a day; most climbs in a week; most climbs in a month; and the most "Inclinathons," a mark set by Jones, with 13 ascents in a row on 10 separate occasions in 2022.

Cummings says his investigation into cheating last year was the catalyst for the committee. These years of ramped-up record chasing required some oversight and regulation, supporters say.

Roger Austin disagrees. He's been listed in the 500 Club and 1,000 Club, recalling years he and Cummings traded records before Cummings settled the score with his 1,825 laps. That was the kind of friendly competition that some see as eroding on the Incline.

"I messaged Greg," Austin says. "I said, 'I don't want to be in your 500 Club or your 1,000 Club or your Inclinathon Club, none of it. It's causing too many problems."

Baxter says he declined Cummings' request to join the committee. "I could see where it was going," Baxter says.

Competition can be healthy until it's not. It can be like a "snowball," building and rolling toward unintended consequences, explained a University of Colorado-Colorado Springs specialist last year as he observed the Incline record chasing.

Said Dr. Andrew Subudhi, a self-described "recovering addict" of ultra running and chair of the school's Human Physiology and Nutrition Department: "You get involved with a group of people, and they're your friends and family, and your whole life revolves around these types of events. And it breeds itself."

Some say Cummings needs to let go. "He has delusions of grandeur at times, and sometimes he thinks things are bigger than what they are," one longtime friend says.

Says another, Gardner: "That club is an insiders and outsiders club. And if he tries to keep it running, it's going to continue to create these problems."

Austin says he has his doubts. "He wants to be the Incline King."

Cummings says nothing could be more foolish," adding: "We love having records broken. When the cheater took my record, I was all about congratulating him. Then I found out it was a bunch of falsehood.

Finding things out has been a burden, he says.

I have spent literally hundreds, hundreds of hours investigating each of these individuals and having conversations with people and meetings and on and on. And for what? I get headaches and people saying Im not fair and Im being mean and this and that. I am doing my absolute best at trying to keep this club solid and to keep the individuals in it as being the kind of individuals we want to be in it.

All Cummings wants, he insists, is for things to go back to normal. He says he wants the Incline to be the happy, supportive place people have known it to be. And that's what it will be, he promises, when this Geissler and Sanchez situation is settled.

But no matter what comes from court, the accuser and accused have individually spoken of a similar path forward.

Similarly, they say, the Incline was a place of purpose and growth before it was a place of personal ruin. And both say they're thinking of leaving it behind.

The Gazette's Zachary Dupont contributed to this report.
Police are investigating after two people were shot at a bar in north Colorado Springs early Saturday morning.

Shortly after 1 a.m., officers were dispatched to the New Havana Bar and Grill at 2165 Academy Place, where they found two people with gunshot wounds.

Both victims were taken to the hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries, police said.

During the investigation, police learned that the shooter was a patron at the bar who had been involved in a disturbance with other patrons. The shooter reportedly went to a car in the parking lot and shot multiple rounds toward bar's entrance before leaving.

Saturday's double shooting is the fifth shooting at the bar since August.

Police did not announce any arrests and say the investigation in on-going.
Less than a year after the reconstruction of the village of Talish began, 20 families have already returned to Talish village and a total of 180 will return, said President Ilham Aliyev as he addressed the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the Novruz holiday in the Talish village of the Tartar district.

In less than a year, about 180 families will live in Talish village. All opportunities have been created here for these families, the head of state noted.

We are a nation of builders. Unlike Armenia, we build and create in our own territory, the President of Azerbaijan added.
The contractor that built the 38,000-square-foot Pikes Peak Summit Complex more than 14,000 feet atop America's Mountain is suing the city of Colorado Springs for breach of contract.

GE Johnson Construction Company Inc. filed the lawsuit in El Paso County district court March 8, claiming the city has not paid for work its crews carried out under contract to build the state-of-the-art visitor center after "compensable delays outside of (GE Johnson's) responsibility or control prevented" the company from completing the project on time.

A contract between GE Johnson and the city states the contractor is entitled to financial compensation for "increased expenses" caused by project delays GE Johnson is not responsible for.

Crews broke ground on the project around Aug. 3, 2018, the suit claims, with a scheduled completion date of Oct. 30, 2020. But delays GE Johnson said were the fault of the city and that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the completion date back nearly eight months, to June 23, 2021.

After approved change orders, GE Johnson claims the cost of the project is $60,040,888 and that the city "has wrongfully withheld payment of (GE Johnson's) final two payment applications that properly requested the remaining contract amount." It was unclear Friday how much of that approximately $60 million the city has paid to GE Johnson.

The company is suing the city to recover damages, fees "and other losses to which it is entitled," court documents state.

"The new Pikes Peak Summit Complex was a complicated construction project, and the city is very appreciative of GE Johnsons willingness to undertake the work. As is often the case in complex construction projects, there remain a few issues that prevent the city and GE Johnson from closing out the contract at this time," Mayor John Suthers said in a brief statement emailed Friday afternoon. "One such issue of concern for the city is the wastewater system for the visitor center. We have been in conversations with GE Johnson to resolve pending issues, and we remain hopeful that we will be successful in our negotiation efforts."

Suthers did not provide further detail regarding the city's concerns about the wastewater system and did not comment specifically on the project delays nor outstanding construction costs.

"Despite having invested considerable time and effort, GE Johnson and the city of Colorado Springs have thus far been unable to resolve certain disputes that arose on the project," GE Johnson spokeswoman Laura Rinker said Friday. We remain committed to seeking a fair resolution to those disputes, but cannot offer further comment on pending litigation."

The project's timeline stalled almost immediately, according to the lawsuit. First, the "delayed execution" of an agreement between the city and the U.S. Forest Service to allow the work on the summit complex to get underway pushed the construction schedule back at least nine weeks, the contractor states, constituting "a compensable delay under the contract."

As the city and GE Johnson agreed that crews would work between May 31 and Sept. 30, when work conditions on the mountain were "reliable and productive," the initial nine-week delay cut the already shortened "build season" down from about 120 days to around 56 days, "making it virtually impossible for (GE Johnson) to finish the work it originally anticipated completing during the 2018 calendar year and before winter conditions set in," the lawsuit states.

Crews attempted to work through the winter season in 2018-2019, according to court documents, but weather conditions at the top of the mountain made construction difficult and presented safety hazards. GE Johnson "incurred significant additional costs for which (Colorado Springs) is now required to pay" because of the delay, the lawsuit states.

GE Johnson alleges the delay to finalize the agreement between the city and forest service caused other setbacks in blasting, foundation and excavation work performed as part of the project. Crews also discovered in July 2019 they would need to do additional work to properly flatten the ground surface at the top of Pikes Peak where the new complex would be built.

GE Johnson and the city agreed this was "extra work as a result of unforeseen site conditions" entitling the contractor to "an increase in the contract sum for its direct material, labor and equipment costs," the lawsuit states.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 further delayed the project. Though work continued, GE Johnson saw a "10% loss in labor productivity," the company claims in the lawsuit.

The new Pikes Peak Summit Complex opened in June 2021. Made up of hurricane wind-tested glass and steel, the new facility is more than three times the size of the former summit house and includes a "grand staircase" with views of Mount Rosa and the sprawling Arkansas River Valley. It also boasts interactive displays, a museum, interpretive signage and an extensive walkway around the summit.

The lawsuit showcases a rare dispute between the city and one of the largest general contractors in the state and Rocky Mountain region, which has worked hand-in-hand with Springs officials as it's built some of the area's highest-profile public and private projects since it was founded more than a half-century ago. GE Johnson's portfolio of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of projects includes hospitals, government buildings, elementary schools, university buildings, offices, apartments, hotels, sports facilities and tourist attractions.

Among its many Colorado Springs projects just in recent years: downtown's U.S Olympic & Paralympic Museum and Weidner Field multipurpose stadium; Ent Credit Union's north-side headquarters; the gutting and renovation of The Broadmoor hotel's Broadmoor West guest building; the 110-bed Children's Hospital Colorado; the 72-bed St. Francis-Interquest hospital scheduled to open July 11; and a 375-room hotel that's expected to debut next year as part of the Air Force Academy's new visitors center.

The company also has spearheaded or partnered on numerous projects outside Colorado Springs, including in Pueblo, the state's ski resort towns, California, Kansas and Wyoming.

GE Johnson was founded by company namesake Gilbert E. Johnson in 1967; he died in 2000. Johnson's son, Jim, took over the company three years before his father's death.
In Colorado, suicide is the leading cause of death for teenagers and young adults. Legislators are trying to help address that with one small change.

Beginning in August, House Bill 1007 requires Colorado's higher education institutions to print the phone and text numbers of statewide and national mental health crisis and suicide hotlines on the back of student IDs.

Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill into law Friday.

"Awareness is so important," Polis said. "Adding this information is one more step to reinforce access and the importance of access and services for mental and behavioral health."

In 2021, 10% of Colorados suicide deaths were among college-age adults (19 to 24), according to the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado. Thats nearly twice the suicide rate of youths ages 10 to 18.

Advocates say the transition period of early adulthood can take a toll on a persons mental health, with the stress of increased financial and social responsibility adding to the loss of lifelong support systems.

Nationally, in the 2020-21 school year, more than 60% of college students met the criteria of at least one mental health condition, and about 25% of the age group said they had seriously considered suicide.

The bipartisan-sponsored bill received unanimous approval from the Senate this month and passed the House with a 59-3 vote in February.

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Bill sponsor Rep. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder, said she hopes it will increase access to essential services, and reduce the stigma of using them. Amabile said her son has greatly benefited from calling crisis hotlines in the last year after previously attempting suicide twice.

"I'm committed to doing everything I can do during my time in the Legislature to help prevent suicide," Amabile said. "This is just one small piece. There's a lot more that we can and should and will do."

The three lawmakers who opposed the bill were Republicans, with one, Rep. Scott Bottoms of Colorado Springs, saying the Legislature shouldn't force businesses "to do the government's bidding."

Republican bill sponsor Rep. Marc Catlin of Montrose, however, said his district in particular has experienced an increase in youth suicides in recent years. Catlin said the bill is an invitation for young Coloradans to reach out for help, which he said was difficult for him to do as a young man.

While testifying in support of the bill, college freshman Taleen Sample, 19, said shes been receiving phone calls from her friends before, during and after suicide attempts since she was 14.

I cannot begin to recall all of the times that Ive pleaded with a friend to lower a gun from his head or take a few steps back from the ledge of a roof, Sample said.

I will never know what to say to people who trust me with their lives.  Young people do not know how to convince our friends that things will get better.

Last year, the Legislature passed a similar bill, requiring suicide hotlines to be added to high school student IDs. Sample helped draft that bill while a member Colorados Youth Advisory Council.

In addition to expanding the mandate to colleges, HB 1007 also requires higher education institutions to distribute suicide hotline information to students who got their IDs before the change took effect.
Colorado Springs sales tax revenues rose modestly in February for the third straight month, a sign that spending by consumers and businesses might have slowed  though it hasnt bottomed out.

It hasnt fallen off a cliff, but, definitely things are cooler than they were, said Tatiana Bailey, a local economist and executive director of Data-Driven Economic Strategies, a Springs nonprofit.

A Colorado Springs Finance Department report released this week shows city sales tax collections last month totaled $16.1 million, a 1.4% increase over February 2022. The city levies its sales tax on the purchase of TVs, cars, furniture and other items; last months revenues reflect spending in January.

Year-over-year city sales tax revenues now have increased every month since July 2020.

But on a percentage basis, revenue gains totaled less than 2% each of the last three months after a string of double-digit gains early last year and during nearly all of 2021.

The Finance Department report shows some key retail sectors tracked by the city saw year-over-year revenue declines in February. Among them: building materials, 9%; furniture, appliances and electronics, 8.9%; utilities, 3.8%; clothing stores, 2.9%; and department and discount stores, 1.2%.

Long-term mortgage rates spiked to more than 6% in the second half of last year, and averaged 6.6% nationally this week, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. Higher rates have priced some buyers out of the market and contributed to a sharp reduction in local home construction, some Springs builders have said.

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That slowdown accounts for some of the revenue decline from building material sales, Bailey said. Also, fewer homes being built means fewer sofas, bedroom sets, refrigerators and the like are being purchased to stock them, she said.

Solid increases in other retail categories during February helped offset losses elsewhere, the Finance Department report showed. They included auto dealers, 14.2%; miscellaneous retail, 7.9%; restaurants, 6.9%; and auto repair and leases, 6.7%.

Even as consumer and business purchases have leveled off, city officials arent fretting because of the revenue gains from, among others, auto dealers, restaurants and miscellaneous retail, which includes online purchases, said Charae McDaniel, the Springs chief financial officer.

Colorado Springs sales tax pays for more than half of the citys annual general fund budget, which includes spending on parks, roads and other basic services. The citys use tax, levied on equipment and machinery purchased outside the Springs, totaled $931,213 in February and was up 40.8% on a year-over-year basis.

Februarys combined sales and use tax revenues totaled $17.1 million  up 8.6% when compared with the same month last year.

We are not, at this point, worried about our budget or where we stand as we move through the year, McDaniel said. The total sales- and use-tax percentage change is pretty much in line with what we had thought would be occurring and what we had planned for. So at this point, we are business as usual.
Picking up prescription medications could soon be as easy as buying a candy bar in Colorado  if a new bill from the state House is passed into law.

House Bill 1195 would allow pharmacies to use automated vending machines to dispense prescription medications to patients. The machines could be put in hospitals, health clinics or retail pharmacies, and could operate outside of regular pharmacy hours so patients have more time to pick up their medications.

The House approved the bill in a 58-4 vote on Friday, sending it to the Senate for consideration.

This bill removes unnecessary barriers to improve access to the medication patients need, said bill sponsor Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Commerce City. Coloradans with long or untraditional working hours often struggle to access the prescription medication they need because their pharmacys hours often don't align with their work schedule.

Under the bill, patients would need to provide their prescription and interact virtually with a pharmacist via a video call on the machine in order to pick up their medication. The medications would be pre-counted and stocked in the machine.

The machines could dispense any medications, including opioids.

The bipartisan-sponsored bill received broad support from both sides of the aisle, though the four representatives who voted against the bill were all Republicans: Scott Bottoms of Colorado Springs, Brandi Bradley of Littleton, Ken deGraaf of Colorado Springs and Stephanie Luck of Penrose. None explained their no votes.

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During a committee hearing on the bill, some raised concerns about people breaking into the machines to access opioids, but proponents of the bill said the machines are exceptionally theft proof and would be monitored at all times.

Bill sponsor Rep. Matt Soper, R-Delta, said in addition to helping working class people who cant visit pharmacies during working hours, these machines could expand access to medication for people in rural or underserved areas without nearby pharmacies.

This is one of those major bills, Soper said. They allow for better access whether in a health care facility or in a rural setting. ... The possibilities are certainly almost endless here.

Automated prescription dispensing systems are already allowed in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas, according to the health care technology company MedifriendRx.

Several groups, including Kaiser Permanente, University of Colorado Health and the Colorado Retail Council, are backing the bill. No organizations registered or testified in opposition to the measure.

The Houses passage of HB 1195 came on the same day that Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 1071 into law, expanding the number of potential prescribers in Colorado by making qualifying psychologists eligible to apply to prescribe mental health medications to their patients.

Polis and Democratic state legislators also rolled out a package of health care bills this week, which they say is intended to increase access to and reduce costs for health care in Colorado.
Colorado has among the worst recidivism rates in the country, with over 50% of people released from prison ending up back behind bars within three years.

On Friday, Colorado lawmakers passed a bill supporters say would help change that.

If signed into law, House Bill 1037 would reduce prison sentences for non-violent offenders who complete higher education while incarcerated. It would deduct six months for earning a certificate, one year for an associate or bachelors degree, 18 months for a master's degree and two years for a doctorate degree.

Too often, formerly incarcerated individuals rejoin the workforce with limited education on top of already being at a significant disadvantage relative to their peers due to their criminal history," said bill sponsor Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver. This bill will help reduce recidivism rates and better prepare Coloradans to find good-paying careers once theyve left prison."

Prisoners who pursue higher education while incarcerated have been found to be less likely to return to crime after theyre released. Recidivism rates drop to 13.7% for prisoners who earned associates degrees, 5.6% for those who earned bachelors degrees and 0% for those who earned masters degrees, according to a 2006 national analysis by Emory University.

Over 48% of U.S. adults age 25 and older have a postsecondary education, but less than 13% of inmates have attained the same level of education, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Senate passed the bill in a 28-6 vote on Friday, following the House's 61-1 approval last month. Though the bill had bipartisan sponsorship and support, only Republicans opposed it.

Sen. Kevin Van Winkle, R-Highlands Ranch, said he doesn't oppose incentivizing higher education in prisons, but is concerned that offenders in Colorado already don't serve enough of their original sentences.

"Inmates should certainly pursue every opportunity to better themselves. The bigger issue I have is with the need for sentencing reform in our state," Van Winkle said. "Colorado inmates serve on average less than half of their sentences."

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In the Colorado Department of Corrections, the average sentence for a class 2 felony is 377 months, while the average time served is 164.5 months, according to a 2021 report from the department. The average time served was 50% or less of the average sentence for class 3, 4, 5 and 6 felonies, as well as level 1, 2, 3 and 4 drug felonies.

Colorado lawmakers advance bill to prevent police from lying to minors during interrogations

Multiple Republicans who voted in favor of the bill said they were initially opposed, but changed their minds after seeing the data on how education reduces recidivism and hearing testimony from former prisoners.

In a public hearing on the bill, Bikram Mishra said he was incarcerated in Colorado for 12 years, during which time he participated in numerous college courses and earned certificates. Now, Mishra said he works with outgoing prisoners to help them prepare to reenter society.

Mishra said having access to education was rehabilitative for him, providing him with the hope and motivation needed to turn his life around.

If I were to not have that, I definitely would have joined the ranks of the revolving door of prisoners, Mishra said. I understand there might be many in our community that feel that thats what we get for breaking the law. But we are still in society, and we really want to be good members of society.

Under the bill, prisoners released prior to completing their degree could also choose to finish to earn time off of their parole.

The bill will now be sent back to the House to approve changes made by the Senate.

The Senate amended the bill to give all money saved by shortening sentences of qualifying inmates to the Department of Higher Education to continue facilitating higher education programs in prisons. Originally, the money would have been split with the Department of Corrections, but the Department of Corrections wanted the money to only go towards the education programs, said Rep. Stephanie Luck, R-Penrose, who voted against the bill in the House for that reason.

Appeals court says judge, DA, corrections agency could blow past deadlines, still send man to prison
Eshraq Investments (Eshraq) has announced that it has entered into an agreement for the sale of all the 58 apartments it owns in Burj Daman-DIFC-Dubai for a total sale consideration of AED162 million ($44 million).

The transactions are a continuation of the companys steady progress on its three-year land and low-yielding investment monetization programmme.

As per the deal, the parties expect to complete all legal and administrative requisite processes for the transfer of the apartments in the coming weeks, said a statement from Eshraq.

The company intends to deploy the sale proceeds for its upcoming dividend distribution to shareholders, debt repayment, new investments, and share buyback, it stated.

Chairman Jassim Alseddiqi said: "We are very pleased with the strategic sale of the Burj Daman units. In spite of their strong demand, the units generated very low yield of 3% for the company."

"The sale of the units will unlock liquidity to better deploy in other profitable opportunities and returns to shareholders in the form of dividend and share buyback. We are also exploring sale and partnerships for the remaining plots and real estate assets to enhance shareholder returns," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Hinting that he will seek another term, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said he will not be swayed by recent polling that shows a majority of Iowans, including a third of Iowa Republicans, hope he decides not to seek another term in 2022.
Legislation that might limit the acquisition of new public lands  and was approved by the Iowa Senate on Tuesday  did not advance from a House subcommittee on Thursday amid significant public opposition.

Senate File 516 was tabled by an environmental protection subcommittee because only one of the three committee members thought it was ready for wider consideration.

It was refreshing to see people there that were willing to listen to both sides of the argument, sort it out for themselves and figure out which way to vote rather than just putting the Farm Bureaus stamp on it and moving on, said Fred Long, president of the Iowa Conservation Alliance.

The bill would strip existing wording from Iowa law that directs state agencies to acquire and protect open space lands and to create recreational trails throughout the state. The bill would prioritize maintenance for existing public lands and trails over new acquisitions.

Environmentalists, hunters, bicyclists and county leaders decried the bills perceived intent to limit new public areas in the state.

Rep. Dean Fisher, a Garwin Republican who led the subcommittee meeting and was the lone supporter for the bill, said it would merely insist on the common sense practice of maintaining what weve got.

I dont see this as limiting growth in trails and parks and public lands whatsoever, he said.

The bills initial sponsor, Sen. Annette Sweeney, an Alden Republican who leads the Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee, has also said her aim is not to restrict those acquisitions.

However, limiting public land acquisition is precisely why the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation supports it, according to one of its representatives. It is the only lobbyist group to declare support for the bill.

Our members have set policy that the state of Iowa should concentrate on management of currently owned land and reduce the efforts to acquire more public land, said Kevin Kuhle, state policy advisor for Farm Bureau. Our members feel strongly about this issue.

He said there is low-cost, less-desirable farmland and potential pasture land that could be sold to beginning farmers rather than sold to the state for public parks or wildlife areas.

Another bill last year proposed by Sweeney  which advanced from her committee but didnt get a vote by the full Senate  would have limited the amount of money the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and counties could pay for land, and would have effectively penalized landowners who sold to the state or counties.

The true potential effects of the current bill are unclear, opponents said, because it is a vaguely written modification of current law.

Theres some nebulous, subjective language on maintenance in there, said Eric Goranson, who represents Iowa Pheasants Forever and the Iowa Bowhunters Association. And were not quite sure why it was rewritten that way, unless its to set up for frivolous lawsuits or something else.

Pete Hildreth, conservation and recreation division administrator for the DNR, said any notion that public land his department manages is not being well maintained is not accurate.

The bill ultimately failed to advance Thursday because Rep. Austin Baeth, D-Des Moines, outright opposed it  This is a horrible bill, he said  and because Rep. Helena Hayes, R-New Sharon, said it needs to be discussed further.

There are some significant issues you guys have brought up that really, really do concern me, and I want to give you due diligence, she said.

The bill had passed in the Senate with a 33-14 vote.
Critics cant agree on what woke means. Going back a bit into our history is the idea of Black people being woke from the oppression of the white man and what we, as a society, can do about it. But the term has been appropriated for a variety of left-wing causes.

On the other side of this is MAGA, which is short for "Make America Great Again," former President Donald Trump's campaign slogan. What is this MAGA movement, and what does it mean to be in it?

Like woke, being MAGA is also hard to define.

Most political movements have difficulty defining themselves, and finding the right label has been a challenge.

For example, Im a libertarian republican, but hawkish -- a contradiction in our basic political terminology. Just as calling me MAGA would be inaccurate, so perhaps, too, is calling me conservative, depending on whos talking at any given moment.

The woke idea has been appropriated mainly by white liberals at the expense of Black people and has come with such force because the authoritarian tendencies from the left leave you woke or out of the crowd.

The white liberal political groupthink that comes with the term, and the movement for transgender rights, a mainly trendy white issue, continues to transform as white people exploit civil rights for white aims. Woke, at this point, varies from non-racist or even anti-racist to acculturate leftist movements that have little to do with whether Im going to be gunned down by police while eating a donut.

Like woke, MAGA has become a word and a movement taken from its small-government, dovish roots and hijacked, not from liberal authoritarian whites but Christian nationalist authoritarian whites and/or the alt-right.

Instead of reveling in shrinking the government and protecting borders, MAGA has become a rallying cry for a minority of white conservatives who see a browning America and want to make adjustments to the racial harmony of the country. Some commenters at the Charlottesville, Virginia, rally went so far as to advocate for a country that is 85% white and Christian. Where does that come from? Trump certainly never suggested anything like this.

Woke and MAGA appear to be at odds with each other, but they have some similarities in goals that are worth noting. Not to silence the cries of Black people with legitimate complaints, MAGA wants more police training and more funding for law enforcement. If the left thinks more money will fix the schools, why wont it fix the police? Why is it anti-woke to even suggest it?

At the heart of the Black community are serious deficits in education. Like the GOP before it, MAGA seeks to push hard for school vouchers -- not because white donors cant afford it, but because too many Black students cant. They want those kids in school with their own kids, and the right-wing fight against the soft segregation of public school districts is noteworthy and important.

While well continue to hear authoritarians try to use terminology and labels to divide the public by race, religion and partisanship, we must remember that our struggles and hardships end up hurting us all the same, even after the division. The question we should be confronting is how these terms are used to divide us, and we should be answering it by seeing our common enemy and fighting that instead.

To be woke is to be MAGA, because both movements are about ensuring an equitable and fair society. The nations underclasses, across racial lines, have been abandoned by the institutions that govern us. They have been abandoned by the leaders of movements primarily interested in enriching themselves at the expense of the rest of us.

We need to ignore these labels to establish a consensus in moving America forward and finally making America great again for everyone.
The Danville Rotary Club recently paid tribute to two honorary members: Don Dees and Roy Gignac. Combined, they have 87 years in Rotary International is over 87 years! The club and board has decided to make these gentleman honorary members for their years of service to club, Rotary International and the community. Dees is a Paul Harris Fellow and a sustaining member. Gignac is a major donor, multiple Paul Harris Fellow and past president of the Paul Harris Society and PolioPlus Society.
The third anniversary marking the start of the COVID-19 pandemic  at least when the impacts reached the Dan River Region  quietly passed this week.

The particular date  March 13, 2020  may not be enshrined in the history books with other milestones, but it was a day when cancellation chaos ensued and the world  even our small part of it  started to grind to a halt.

Actually, it was the prior evening when Averett University said it was transitioning to online learning even though there were no COVID-19 cases on campus or reported in the Dan River Region at the time. The school was following step with other national counterparts to limit in-person interaction that could spread the virus.

Next came the closure of local libraries and virtually all activities staged by Danville Parks and Recreation were paused. Individual organizations also joined the shutdown stampede originally thought to only last a few weeks.

Danville Community College announced it was extending spring break by a week to give college leaders more time to set the best course of action.

But it was 2 p.m. that same day that Gov. Ralph Northam announced all Virginia schools would shutter for two weeks, a move coming by a simple news release and catching many teachers and students by surprise as the school day was nearing an end.

Over the last three years, 550 residents of Danville and Pittsylvania County have died at the hands of the coronavirus. Nearly 34,000 cases have been officially logged by the Virginia Department of Health, but the real number of infections are many times that number, experts believe.

Fast forward three years and the pandemic is all but an afterthought.

In retrospect, its easy to look back to say more could have been done, Dr. Scott Spillmann, director of the Pittsylvania-Danville Health District, told the Register & Bee this week.

This pandemic lasted far longer than we (collectively) imagined, he said in an email. Had we known/suspected that it would last so long we could have planned and executed somewhat differently, with short, intermediate and long term strategies.

Instead, it was a learn as we all go scenario, he explained.

At first we didnt know what we didnt know, he said.

But one thing Spillmann did know: the coronavirus was sure to find a path to Southside Virginia.

Over at Sovah Health, Dr. Sheranda Gunn-Nolan, market chief medical officer, became the face of COVID-19 for the hospital by giving video updates on the situtation. Looking back, she said the region pulled together in the face of an unknown enemy.

This community should be incredibly proud of their response to COVID-19, she wrote. As a community, we came together and supported each other.

Shes quick to say it wasnt easy and acknowledge the victims of the virus.

But if you take a moment to stop and look around  we accomplished so much, she explained. I want to say we will never have to do that again, but I dont have that crystal ball.

If that time does come again, shes hopeful residents will remember the lessons learned and realize we can once again succeed.

What if it happened again?

In the early days, more people stayed at home and when they did venture out, masking was required. But soon, pandemic fatigue set in, even for the most health conscious. Gatherings grew and those masks eventually came off.

Given the experience three years ago, if a health event like COVID-19 hits again, would residents heed recommendations or would the lingering fatigue take a toll?

Gunn-Nolan hopes people would stand on the side of health and science.

If faced with a similar event, I think begrudgingly people would do what they needed, she explained, even if that meant another round of masking and quarantines. I believe there is still great appetite of aiding our fellow man.

For the health department, Spillmann said the ordeal brought to the forefront the need for adequate funding and other resources.

This pandemic illuminated the importance of learning from past experiences and preparing adequately for the next, he told the Register & Bee. Equally importantly is establishing and nurturing relationships among public health, government, industry and communities to partner actively for the benefit of all; of course, this is best accomplished in times without a crisis, and ideally on an ongoing basis.

He explained it takes everyone pitching in to make that happen.

Doing so will likely lessen the blow of future such pandemic challenges, Spillmann said.

For the hospital  even with all the chaos  COVID-19 provided a real-life learning situtation.

We have always had emergency response infrastructure, however that infrastructure now also includes emergency response for a global pandemic, Gunn-Nolan said. We were calculated in our response and our process going through the last three years to be sure we created a reproducible map truly in preparation for the next one.

She would love to say well never face anything to that magnitude in the future. Then again, the coronavirus pandemic was never on her radar either.

Lessons learned

Sensitivity to all aspects of our populations and their unique concerns and experiences are crucial, Spillmann explained when asked what the most significant lesson was learned over the last three years.

Building and keeping relationships are key, along with preparedness through proper planning, integrity, transparency, flexibility of thought and action, he said.

As a physician, Gunn-Nolan said  despite everything learned so far  theres still a lot to study.

On any given day, the way you practice medicine can completely change out of necessity, she explained. Camaraderie with colleagues is essential to success.

For the hospital, there are things that just cant be predicted. For instance, the mass exodus of health care professionals across the nation as fallout from the pandemic.

On any given day you may have to be fluid and adjust the way you continue to care for your community, she said.

When looking at the community, Despite everything we thought we knew life changes quickly, she said. The support of your fellow neighbors is essential to success.

A different path?

Gunn-Nolan said, looking back, shes not sure they would have done anything differently.

I think the smart move from this community was to gather leaders of different backgrounds within the community to formulate a plan, she explained. This allowed transparency at all levels from health care to law enforcement to goods and services.

In addition, every voice mattered. She hopes thats a lesson that lasts.

This was a rapidly evolving health issue for the world, Spillman explained, when asked the same question about what could have been done differently. While science was responsible for technical/medical issues, there have been many other aspects to consider to protect successfully our US and world populations, in todays society.

Addressing those features strategically are important, he said.

Lingering impacts

Even when someone comes down with COVID-19 and recovers, there are impacts that linger, often called long COVID.

Quite frankly, while we have seen some health effects thus far, we really do not know the long term effects and will not for some time to come, Spillmann explained. Right now we are simply too close to the beginning of this pandemic to have sufficient information.

At Sovah Health, they are already seeing younger and younger patients come in with strokes and blood clots, Gunn-Nolan said when asked about the impacts of long COVID.

Younger patients are needing long-term oxygen therapy, she said. Unfortunately, I think this is a trajectory that we will continue to see for many years to come.

Spillmann continues his refrain of vaccination as the key to prevention, along with his now-famous 3 Ws  wash hands, watch distance and wear a mask  along with routine healthy habits to keep the body in shape.

He said things like healthy nutrition, proper rest, hygiene practices and regular physical activity will go a long way to being healthy.

As a society, addressing the symptoms of health risks in communities, and their root causes will help protect our locales and our country, he concluded.
A New Bloomfield, Pa., woman is dead after being mauled by two Great Danes Thursday.

Perry County Coroner Robert Ressler said the incident occurred around 5 p.m. on the 700 block of Clouser Hollow Road in Center Township.

Kristen Potter, 38, went to feed the dogs while their owner was away when they attacked and killed her, he said.

Ressler cited traumatic injuries caused by the dog attack as the cause of Potter's death and ruled her death accidental.

The dogs were euthanized by a local veterinarian, he said.

Pennsylvania State Police are conducting an ongoing investigation into the incident.
GREENSBORO  Summerfield residents dominated Thursday nights meeting with Guilford County legislators, asking them to turn down any de-annexation request from developer David Couch.

I believe the de-annexation of the land and Summerfield would be very much an overreach of our state government, David Saunders said at the town hall meeting. The de-annexation of this much acreage would be opening a can of worms in our area and for the state's other small towns.

The Summerfield Town Council has twice turned down requests that would have allowed Couch to develop the Villages of Summerfield Farms on nearly 1,000 acres stretching from Summerfield Road to Interstate 73.

The planned development community would include apartments, cottages, townhouses, traditional and estate homes, as well as small stores and restaurants. Many residents have opposed the development, especially the apartments, the number of which Couch cut in half to 600.

While no bill to de-annex Couchs property has been filed according to the General Assemblys website, the town issued a statement last week that Couch has asked lawmakers to pass legislation removing the property from the town limits.

The devil is in the details and the devil is in the de-annexation, Chip Person said at Thursdays meeting. I'm going to ask you to please vote no and if you took the big money from Mr. Couch, maybe you ought to consider recusing yourself.

Couch also spoke, stating that much of what was said at the meeting about his development was untrue.

State Sens. Phil Berger, Michael Garrity and Gladys Robinson, and Reps. Cecil Brockman, Ashton Clemmons, Amos Quick III and Pricey Harrison attended the meeting. Reps. John Faircloth and Jon Hardister were absent.

Summerfield residents werent the only ones upset with developers.

Katie Gumerson, a High Point resident with a Jamestown address, told legislators that the recent annexation and rezoning of nearly 500 acres along Guilford College and Mackay roads will overwhelm the area. (Information has been changed to correct an error. See correction at bottom of story. 7:45 p.m. March 20, 2023)

She blasted the town for allowing the development by D.H. Horton on the former Johnson property.

Theres no plans for schools, 1,500 (units) are going to be crammed in this almost 500 acres  doubling the size of Jamestown, she said. Gumerson said residents already are dealing with poisonous water conditions from the Randleman Watershed.

We demand better, Gumerson said. I urge you to look at the Jamestown government very closely, as theyre not representing the residents.

Greensboro resident Cheryl Pratt said her city is doing something good that could be derailed by proposed state legislation.

The city is trying to write new rules on short-term rentals  to make sure that folks can have these businesses but yet not impact neighborhoods (so) that entire streets disappear and become mini-hotels, said Pratt, who lives in a neighborhood near downtown.

It's very frustrating to be working on this project with the city and then find our legislators at the state level are working against us and trying to make it to where cities are not allowed to regulate short-term rentals."

David Wharton, president of the Dunleath Neighborhood Association, agreed. Please let local government do its job and please keep big state government off our backs, he said.

Elma Hairston, President of the High Point NAACP, advocated for raising the average wage in North Carolina.

People deserve to have a decent standard of living, she said. I have traveled across the country in my business endeavors and North Carolina is branded the cheap labor state. I dont like hearing that."

Beverly Bard of High Point asked the legislators to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, which would put equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex in the U.S. Constitution.

Mary Nelle Smith of the Criminal Justice Roundtable of the League of Women Voters urged officials to support legislation that would eliminate bail on people charged with Level III misdemeanors and get rid of fines for failure to appear in court.

Other speakers supported Medicaid expansion and more funding for school psychologists, social workers and nurses. Residents also sought support for more affordable housing, epilepsy awareness and Minority/Women-owned Business Enterprises.
AlUla, the ancient crossroads of civilisations in north-west Arabia that is now emerging as a global destination for cultural and natural heritage, will be the site of the first in-person meeting of representatives of the Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO.

The villages, including AlUla Old Town District, were recognised in December as part of UNWTO's Best Tourism Villages (BTV) initiative which "recognises villages that are an outstanding example of a rural tourism destination with accredited cultural and natural assets, that preserve and promote rural and community-based values, products, and lifestyle and have a clear commitment to innovation and sustainability in all its aspects  economic, social, and environmental."

UNWTO has organised the first iteration of the Best Tourism Villages Award Ceremony and meeting of the BTV Network in AlUla on March 12-13. The event will be a forum for knowledge-sharing on topics such as best practices, community empowerment, and public-private partnerships. It will also review the programme's 2022 activities and 2023 work plan.

Delegates originating from Switzerland to Vietnam will gather at AlUla's Maraya multi-purpose venue, which holds the Guinness record as the world's largest mirror-clad building, with mirrors covering its 9,740 sq m surface. The UNWTO Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili, is expected to attend.

The BTV programme aligns with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which aims to triple tourism's share of the national economy to 10%. In 2019 Saudi Arabia introduced eVisas for citizens of 49 countries, and this February the Kingdom introduced a 96-hour stopover visa.

For the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) the gathering affirms AlUla's legacy as a cultural crossroads. A place of collaboration and cultural exchange for a millennia, there is a natural synergy between the destination and the UNWTO's BTV programme. The inclusion of AlUla on the 2022 list is an accolade in support of RCU's careful regeneration, cultural rejuvenation, and curated redevelopment of heritage destinations. RCU is honoured not only by AlUla's inclusion as a BTV but by its selection as host of this inaugural BTV global gathering, officials said.

Ahmed Al Khateeb, Minister of Tourism, Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia, said: "The Ministry is proud to partner with UNWTO to host the Best Tourism Villages 2022 Awards Ceremony and jointly convene the first meeting of the BTV Network in the historic destination of AlUla, one of the villages across the globe recognised for its innovative approach to transforming the tourism sector."

Pololikashvili said: "For rural communities everywhere, tourism can be a true gamechanger in providing jobs, supporting local businesses and keeping traditions alive. The Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO showcase the power of the sector to drive economic diversification and create opportunities for all outside of big cities."

Amr AlMadani, CEO of RCU, said: "This gathering of the world's best tourism villages serves several purposes for RCU: it allows us to share insights with destinations that share our commitment to sustainable regeneration, it showcases Maraya as a leading venue for conferences. It also provides our guests with the opportunity to visit AlUla, including the remarkable site of Hegra, which in 2008 was inscribed as Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site." - TradeArabia News Service
Editor's note: This is the fourth email the Independent Record has received from Hands On Global Executive Director Valerie Hellermann, of Helena, who is delivering medical aid and offering comfort to people in Ukraine and is making her third trip to the area since Russia launched a war in February 2022. This email from Hellermann arrived 6:57 a.m. Friday. Portions of this report have been edited for clarity.

Today we met the war.

We drove to Zytomyr to deliver ortho supplies to a clinic. On the two-hour drive we passed bombed-out buildings, houses and bridges. In the town we saw the school, apartment buildings, houses and hospitals that were hit by missiles.

The hospital remaining has many complex patients injured by war.

We met with an amazing group of surgeons in the trauma orthopedic dept. There were 2 ortho trauma wards; one for septic patients and one for those with no infections as well as separate ICUs for these patients. Many patients coming from the front lines of the war have dirty wounds which can and do get infected. This limits the type of surgery that can be performed.

We were introduced to some patients and, OMG, heartbreaking, such horrible injuries. These surgeons are brilliant, innovative and dedicated to saving limbs and preserving or reestablishing function.

These patients are mostly civilian military, far from home. Sent to these specialists but with no family around to support their healing.

Due to the war, families have limited transportation and limited funds. It is a long and painful healing with many having years of multiple surgeries ahead of them. The hospitals do not have hospital" beds with electric controls or air mattresses to prevent pressure sores.

There are 3-4 patients in a room, very close together  good for camaraderie but not for rest and infection control. They are all so young and with such a difficult path ahead. When we asked Dr. Vitalil the impact of war, he said  catastrophic. The number of patients they receive each week, and some everyday is overwhelming. All hospitals now take many many military who are after all civilians defending their country not career army.

The medical people we have met are just amazing, dedicated and inexhaustible.

In Zytomyr we were also met by 2 women working for a community foundation, Janna and Oksana. They have dedicated themselves to serving their communities multiple needs during this war.

They gather supplies for the over 12,000 IDPs (internally displaces persons) in their town. They deliver food, distribute clothing, support the civilian military by buying bulletproof vests and helmets, support free media and have designed special bulletproof vests and helmets for reporters, They work tirelessly on so many projects to support the community I am in awe of their accomplishments ,their dedication.

We returned to Kyiv rather late and had one more delivery to make to Denys at the Kyiv civilian trauma hospital.

It was late (10 p.m.). He met us at the ambulance entrance. I had worked with him last march in the IDP clinic in Chernivtsi He is on for 24 hours and had just finished a surgery and had three big surgeries scheduled for tomorrow. He looked older and tired but dedicated and very happy to get the ortho supplies. These supplies are donated from Dr. Herzenberg and Randy Huber They are limb-saving and we are honored to be the couriers

Our last delivery will be to Dr. Valentin, who is currently a patient himself. It sounds like he has COVID.

We are considering going back to Zytomyr to volunteer for a few days before going back to Budapest

By the way, we are staying in a hotel in Kyiv 2 blocks from President Zelenskiys office. We figured it was safe here. It has an air raid shelter 4 floors below the main floor.

Only 1 air raid siren today.

For more on Hands On Global, go to https://www.facebook.com/handsonglobal/
Vote now until noon on April 20th to support the businesses that you think are the best in the New Braunfels area.
HICKORY  Redhawk Publications announces the book release of "Well Crafted: The History of Furniture Manufacturing in Western North Carolina."

Written by Richard Eller, professor of history at Catawba Valley Community College, the book discusses the historical rise, fall, and rise again, of furniture in western North Carolina. It also provides personal accounts with an array of industry leaders and crafters alike that helped create this unique legacy.

For the last 150 years, furniture has been the most important economic force in western North Carolina. "Well Crafted: The History of Furniture Manufacturing in Western North Carolina" follows what became an industrial powerhouse from its workshop days to mammoth factories.

Countless thousands did their part to help build our furniture industry, said Eller. Commerce generated from their efforts put much food on the table for families in the foothills, as well as paying many mortgages and sending many kids to college, including me.

Eller began his research in the 1990s as his thesis while attending graduate school in at UNC-Charlotte. When I began, I thought it would be a rise-and-fall story since offshoring looked like the end of the once great industry. Jobs were going elsewhere, and factories were shutting down, he remembered. I shelved the story for a while and went on to other historical topics like Piedmont Airlines, the Miracle of Hickory, and the Untouchables, but I kept an eye on the health of furniture making.

In 2018, Eller was leading a book club for the Historical Association of Catawba County when one of the participants, the owner of Hickory Furniture Mart, Leroy Lail, found out about Ellers previous research and encouraged him to pursue the subject. The new book features an introduction by Lail.

For over 60 years, Leroy has been a leader in the industry. If he thought a history of western NC furniture was a good idea, I had to go with it, said Eller about the writing of "Well Crafted."

He suggested the title.

Lail connected the author with numerous folks who provided critical insights into the furniture industry. Among them was the late Glenn Hunsucker, who rose from hourly worker to president of Prestige Furniture.

"Well Crafted" focuses specifically on the western end of the states industry.

The first book launch for the release of "Well Crafted" will be held at Patrick Beaver Memorial Library on Monday, April 24, at 6 p.m. At the event, Eller will discuss his research, some of the many memorable persons he chronicles, and sign books.

To purchase the book, visit: https://tinyurl.com/RichardEllerWellCrafted

Redhawk Publications is an artistic initiative of the Catawba Valley Community College, publishing written works of interest for the local community, North Carolina, and the entire United States. Established in 2017, Redhawk Publications offers over 100 titles to date and is one of only three community colleges nationwide with a publishing press. For additional information on Redhawk Publications, visit its website at https://redhawkpublications.com, or contact Patty Thompson at pthompson994@cvcc.edu.
HICKORY  The Catawba County Truth & Reconciliation Committee will present the next in its Civil Discourse lecture series at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 1.

Michelle Colbert is a recognized authority on the history of Stone Mountain, home of the largest Confederate memorial in the United States. Colberts talk will provide an overview of the history of Georgias Stone Mountain, its relationship with the politics of the state, and the ways in which Atlantans have interacted with and reacted to the sites Confederate imagery.

Colbert works with Riggs Ward Design as a public historian and develops content for museum exhibits across the country. She earned a Master of Arts in Architectural History and a Graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of Virginia School of Architecture and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Kennesaw State University.

Colbert's research interests are centered in studies of pop culture and the modern South with an emphasis on race, class, and the built environment.

Examining sites like Stone Mountain can be useful in recognizing creative ways to reclaim and reinterpret public space, according to Colbert.

The 45-minute lecture will be followed by a live question-and-answer session with the audience.

The program will be presented virtually on the committees Facebook page which can be accessed by visiting the website https://cctrc.wordpress.com/
" " Eva Duarte Peron was an incredibly effective politician who climbed her way from poverty to the first lady of Argentina. Hulton Archive/ Getty Images

If there's one time of day that holds special significance for older Argentineans, it's probably 8:25 p.m. At that minute, on July 26, 1952, Eva Peron died of cancer at the age of 33. Immediately, news of her death began to broadcast throughout the country, and hundreds of thousands of people in the capital city, Buenos Aires, and beyond made their way to the presidential residence to mourn their beloved Evita. The lines to visit her body lying in state at the Ministry of Labor building stretched in multiple directions around city blocks. After 13 days of citizens filing through, touching, kissing and even collapsing on her coffin, the government had to call the public viewing to an end for fear that the exposure would damage her corpse.

Yet, she wouldn't be permanently buried for more than 24 years.

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In popular culture, Eva Peron's name evokes scenes of Madonna bellowing "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from the musical biopic "Evita." In reality, Eva Duarte Peron was an incredibly effective politician who climbed her way from impoverished child of the Argentine pampas, or plains, to the first lady. After her husband Juan Peron won the presidential election in 1946, Eva assumed control of the Ministry of Labor. From that position -- meeting with union leaders, workers, teachers and others -- she generously doled out wage increases, promises of government-funded housing and suffrage for women. In exchange, the working class gave Eva its unwavering loyalty and devotion.

Standing on the balcony of the presidential residence, Casa Rosada, Eva Peron would address the crowds below as los descamisados, or "the shirtless ones." That slang term for the working class used to be an insult wielded by opposition political parties, but the die-hard Peronists reclaimed it as a symbol of labor pride [source: Fraser and Navarro]. Those swooning supporters began referring to her affectionately as "Evita."
CONCORD  Cabarrus County learned in February that it received a $1 million block grant allocation to help support mothers and families impacted by substance abuse.

Finance Director Jim Howden shared information about the grant at commissioners March 6 work session.

The grant comes from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services.

The allocation aims to support and expand the SUN Project to impact more families and support more community partners. It is the second $1 million grant the program has received this fiscal year.

In December, officials announced that the first grant would expand the Cabarrus-based program into Rowan and Stanly counites. The additional allocation would allow for a more adequate scaling of the project in those additional counties and develop the infrastructure for the project to maintain long-term sustainability.

The SUN Project is a collaborative system of care for pregnant mothers with substance use disorders and their infants and families. The project provides legal tools, data mechanisms and logistical processes to address social determinants of health, such as housing, transportation and childcare.

For more information on the SUN Project, visit cabarruspartnership.org, click on Family Programs and select the SUN Project.

Also, during the work session, commissioners:

Heard an update from Assistant County Manager Kyle Bilafer on the new Cabarrus County Courthouse and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) headquarters. According to Bilafer, both projects have seen significant progress in the last 30 days. At the Courthouse, furniture installation began, concrete was poured on the public plaza and crews started landscaping around the exterior. Also, crews started final inspections on the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. The Courthouse is scheduled for a spring 2023 opening. At the EMS headquarters, crews finished the exterior brick, started the exterior metal installation and finished the ceiling grid for phase one (lobby, training and fitness areas). The facility is set to open later this year.

Heard an update from EMS Chief Jimmy Lentz and Deputy Chief of Support Services Kara Clarke on the Randomized Cluster Evaluation of Cardiac Arrest Systems (RACE-CARS) trial grant. In partnership with Duke University, the research trial aims to improve survival from sudden cardiac arrest. EMS received $12,000 from the grant. The money will be used to purchase equipment and supplies to support training and educating the public in CPR and further support the RACE-CARS trial. To learn how to save a life of someone experiencing cardiac arrest, visit bit.ly/CabCoEMSCPR.

Heard an update from Active Living and Parks Director Londa Strong and Assistant Director Byron Haigler on the Camp T.N. Spencer Pool contract with Trident Pool. The company requested a price increase to cover insurance, labor and materials. The current contract includes lifeguards, site management, maintenance, chemical applications and pool and restroom cleanings. Strong shared that the 2023 pool season will run from June 12 through Aug. 6. The pool will be open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends.

To watch the full agenda meeting, visit youtube.com/cabarruscounty.

The regular meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. on Monday (March 20) at the Cabarrus County Government Center in downtown Concord.

Residents can watch commissioner meetings on the Cabarrus County livestream at cabarruscounty.us, on YouTube (@CabarrusCounty) and on CabCo TV (Spectrum Cable Channel 22).

Stay updated on these and all county programs and projects by visiting www.cabarruscounty.us and following Cabarrus County at facebook.com/cabarruscounty and on Twitter @CabarrusCounty.
GOLD HILL  John Earnhardt of Hendersonville is set to be the featured speaker as Gold Hill Village Historic Methodist Church kicks off a yearlong series of events to celebrate 175 years of ministry in the Gold Hill community.

John, a cousin to Dale Earnhardt, grew up in Gold Hill. Born in a tavern, John was delivered by a praying Adventist nurse. Growing up during the early days of NASCAR, he spent much of his childhood playing around a racetrack with his cousin Dale. Both boys had blue eyes and brown hair. Many people thought they were brothers.

Both families were bootleggers who became racers. But how different would be their destinies. Dale would become known as The Intimidator and immortalized as a legend in NASCAR racing, savoring 76 wins in Victory Lane. John, who used to lie on the bootleg beer in the back of his fathers truck, would take a different road to glory. Not one paved with asphalt or filled with cheering fans, but it would lead to the ultimate Victory Lane.

NASCAR, moonshining and gold mining have been part of the areas history. Hear how the Gold Hill Village Historic Methodist Church played a big part through all of this. The church began in the 1840s and is still alive in 2023.

John will be offering a series of sessions to be held at his childhood church, the historic Gold Hill Methodist sanctuary, located at 730 St. Stephens Church Road in the Gold Hill Village. These sessions will be held in March, July and November. Other events will be coming throughout the year.

John and his wife, Crystal, will be speaking at the church:

Friday, March 24, 6:45 p.m. Story of Earnhardt Family (Bootlegging & Fast Cars)

Saturday, March 25, 6:45 p.m. The White Flag

Sunday, March 26, 9:15 a.m. Gods Plan for My Life (Gods Plan for Each of Us)

Sunday, March 26, 6:45 p.m. Three Steps to Success (How to be Successful)

Come hear John and his wife Crystal at these upcoming sessions as you experience some of the history of Gold Hill, laugh and enjoy fellowship, special music groups, and hopefully encounter a renewal of the Holy Spirit in our community.
VinFast, the Vietnamese automaker with plans to assemble cars in North Carolina, confirmed the departures of three chief executives on Friday, a week after the company announced it would delay the opening of its multibillion-dollar facility in Chatham County.

In a statement provided to The News & Observer on Friday, a VinFast spokesperson said the companys deputy chief executive for global sales and marketing left due to personal reasons, while its chief marketing officer and chief service officer left due to changes in management model and specific requirements of the business.

In January, VinFast consolidated its North American operations, a move the company said would result in eliminated positions.

VinFasts entrance into the U.S. auto market has been uneven. In November, the company shipped its first 1,000 electric SUVs to California with the aim of getting them to customers by the end of 2022. But the cars went undelivered as VinFast implemented software updates to extend their mileage range.

On March 1, the company announced it had delivered its first 45 cars to U.S. customers.

NC site delay

Last Friday, VinFast confirmed it wouldnt begin operating its North Carolina assembly plant until 2025, a year later than originally planned. The site is to be the companys first U.S. factory and is set to occupy 2,150 acres southwest of Raleigh near the Chatham County town of Moncure.

In a statement, a VinFast spokesperson said this delay was due to the company needing more time to complete administrative procedures.

Construction on the site has not yet begun. Before VinFast can put a shovel in the ground, it has to obtain permits from Chatham County, including a stormwater plan and initial building permits for footing and foundation.

All of the permitting processes with Chatham County are progressing as we would expect of any other applicant, said county spokesperson Kara Dudley.

About a year ago, VinFast unveiled its plans to build in North Carolina. According to its incentive agreement with the state, the automaker intends to employ 7,500 people and invest $4 billion into vehicle assembly and battery plants near Moncure.

Last week, a VinFast spokesperson said the company has already started clearing the site in preparation for heavy construction and expect to begin soon.

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.

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Raffles Hotel Le Royal, one of Cambodia's most iconic hotels, is set to welcome Michelin-starred French Chef Patrice Hardy, who will present some of his most celebrated culinary creations during two days of exclusive meals at the hotel's renowned Restaurant Le Royal on March 30 and 31.



Chef Patrice's gastronomic expertise draws from his extensive experience in illustrious restaurants worldwide, including the two-Michelin-starred Le Palme d'Or at Hotel Martinez in Cannes and the one-Michelin-starred La Brettonniere in Boulogne-Billancourt and La Truffe Noire in Neuilly.



The back-to-back lunch and dinner offerings will feature highlights from his latest culinary venture, Le Mazet, located on France's southern coast. The Michelin Guide has praised Chef Patrice's love for fine produce, particularly truffles, which feature prominently on his special dinner menu.



Dinner guests will savour a five-course meal that includes a veal tartare with Borghi truffle, goose liver in Bonbonniere with green asparagus and yellow wine emulsion, poached sea bass with artichoke duo and truffle butter, beef onglet marinated with caramelised shallots and red cabbage, and a sumptuous bread pudding with aged cognac siphon and apple-prune puree. The dinner is priced at $95++.



For lunch, guests can choose from a three-course menu that features creamy Parmesan cheese soup with poached egg or marinated mackerel fillets with beetroot and ketchup sorbet. The main course includes Takeo River lobster risotto spicy bisque or free-range chicken supreme stuffed with potato mash and cola sauce, and a dark chocolate tart with parsley ice cream to conclude. Lunch is priced at $38++.



To complement the exquisite meals, guests will also have the opportunity to discover the exclusive Louis XIII Cognac Experience, which will be served tableside from a decanter. Wine pairings are also available for both lunches and dinners.  TradeArabia News Service
ComEd has long been a source of political patronage. The companys Deferred Prosecution Agreement with federal prosecutors even references how former House Speaker Michael Madigans old-fashioned patronage system obtained ComEd meter reader jobs for its precinct workers.

Madigans wasnt the only patronage network to do this. It was a widespread practice and, as old-timers tell it, became even more important when Mayor Harold Washington, Chicagos first Black mayor, cut some prominent white politicians out of the citys patronage spoils.

Madigan came up through a city ward system that was fed by patronage. But his people would always say that because he started his career as an employee of the Illinois Commerce Commission, he didnt much care for utility companies. So, when ComEd did things like fire a bunch of his Statehouse lobbyist allies during a 2007 battle with Senate President Emil Jones and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, he liked them even less.

After Blagojevich and Jones departed the scene, Madigan was left as the unrivaled Statehouse king. ComEd bent over backward to get into his good graces and Madigan seemed, at least from a distance, to enjoy the groveling. It helped that Madigans own members complained at the time that the companys services had deteriorated and that ComEd wasnt respecting them when they complained. Madigan couldnt have squeezed the company if his members loved ComEd.

The company eventually got much of what it wanted, but it always had to jump through Madigans many hoops, even more so than other interests did. Eventually, those hoops included things like funding no-show contracts for Madigan cronies through various folks in Madigans circle.

ComEd wasnt alone, of course. Madigans crew put the arm on plenty of special interests. He would often bring hand-written lists of people he wanted taken care of to his meetings with governors. He was running a small army, and his soldiers required sustenance.

ComEd stood out partly because it often needed things, and because of its patronage history and because it had so many jobs and so much money for contracts. It was the old Willie Sutton story. When the notorious criminal was asked why he robbed banks, he reportedly said, Because that's where the money is.

And Madigans top lieutenant Mike McClain made sure ComEds key executives never forgot that Madigan could turn on them at any moment and the company would go right back into the penalty box. They complied mainly because they didnt want any trouble, and when that compliance led to legislative successes, that, in turn, helped their own careers.

It was likely no accident that, after working closely with Madigan and McClain, ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore was being paid $2.7 million a year, according to Crains Chicago Business. Pramaggiore is now on trial in the ComEd 4 bribery case, along with McClain and lobbyists Jay Doherty and John Hooker, a former ComEd official.

The federal government claims that their behavior crossed numerous legal boundaries. The defendants claim, in part, that this was simply the way things were always done.

But times changed, and Madigans demands became ever-more voracious while the feds were listening in. It was almost like making a U-Turn in front of a police squad car. Theyre gonna get you for that.

If McClain had any doubt that the feds were looking at both him and Madigan, it shouldve been confirmed when he decided to cooperate with their investigation into a fraudulent scheme involving a federal immigration program that granted visas to millionaire foreign investors. The feds asked him at the time, for instance, why he used code words when speaking or writing emails about Madigan.

McClain admitted that he referred to Madigan as our friend in e-mails and in public conversations because people might be listening to or reading McClains conversations, the government claimed in a court filing last month.

The defendants also claim that the federal government essentially shoe-horned whatever they found into a vast criminal conspiracy case. They saw what they wanted to see, McClains defense attorney Patrick Cotter told jurors.

But the prosecution claims that Madigan could kill any bill he wanted to kill. So, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker told jurors last week, according to the Chicago Tribune, The defendants bribed him, and they did so by paying Madigans associates through jobs and contracts at ComEd.

And he did indeed get a whole lot of those.
MATTOON  The Coles County Veteran Support Coalition has welcomed Carolyn Cloyd as a member of its board of directors.

Cloyd, an executive assistant with the Mattoon Chamber of Commerce, has been a volunteer with the VSC since the organization began operating in Coles County and has long been involved with helping veterans and veterans causes.

She is co-organizer of the Illinois Run for the Fallen which has been held in Charleston for the last 13 years and served with the Family Readiness Group for the local Illinois National Guard unit, Company A, 634th BSB, for five years.

Cloyd is also a historian with a passion for military history and writes articles on a variety of historical subjects, with a concentration on telling the stories of men and women who have served in our armed forces. She is currently creating a military display for the Coles County Historical Society honoring Coles County services members.

Many of my family members have served this country, dating back to my great-great-great-great-grandfather who came from Ireland and then served in the Revolutionary War and my father who served in the United States military for 23 years, three of those years in a combat zone, said Cloyd. I was born on a military base and I was raised with respect and appreciation for those who serve.

The VSC provides assistance to Coles County veterans in immediate need with its Mess Hall Meals, Reboot, and Heros 6 programs. These programs provide companionship to veterans in nursing homes, assistance for veterans in need, help for veterans suffering from PTSD, and friendship.

for more about the group, go to veteranssuppportcoalition.com, its Facebook page or call Connie Jones at 847-612-2547.
The attorneys for the family of Shanquella Robinson identified a suspect connected to Robinsons death in a letter that they sent this week to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Attorneys Ben Crump and Sue-Ann Robinson are asking for immediate diplomatic intervention from the U.S. government in what they describe as a transnational criminal case in Robinsons death. Robinson, 25, a Charlotte native, was a 2018 graduate of Winston-Salem State University.

Sue-Ann Robinson and Shanquella Robinson are not related. Crump is a well-known civil rights advocate and a personal injury attorney.

Shanquella Robinson died Oct. 29, 2022, while she was on a vacation at a resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Six people who accompanied Robinson to Mexico returned to the United States the next day, according to the letter.

Three people brought Robinsons luggage to her mothers home in Charlotte, and they told her mother that Robinson died from alcohol poisoning.

However, an autopsy revealed that Robinson died of a severe spinal cord or neck injury.

A Mexican prosecutor has said that Robinsons death is being treated as a femicide, a term used in Central and Latin America to describe the violent death of a woman.

On Nov. 16, 2022, one of the people who traveled to Mexico with Robinson shared a video around the WSSU campus, the letter said. The video showed Robinson, who was nude, being beaten in the resort villa by a woman. A witness identified that woman as Dejahanae Jackson.

Jacksons last known address is in Jamestown. Jackson, 27, could not be reached by the Journal for comment.

Mexican authorities in Baja California Sur are investigating the circumstances surrounding Robinsons death, the letter said. An arrest warrant has been issued for Jackson.

She has not been arrested.

According to news reports, the FBI office in Charlotte also is investigating the case.

The U.S. government can follow extradition protocol and turn over those responsible for Robinsons death to Mexican authorities, the letter said. Another option is that U.S. federal law enforcement agencies can ask Mexican authorities to allow U.S. prosecutors to handle the case because suspects are U.S. citizens.

My clients recognize that the U.S. government has many priorities and responsibilities, but (they) believe that intervening in this case would not only serve the interests of justice but also send a clear message that transactional criminal activities will not be tolerated, the letter said.

The letter contains attachments that include witness statements from people who work at the resort villa and the names of six people who registered at the villa.

Those names included Robinson and Jackson. The Journal couldnt reach the other people who were listed.

The documents also include witness statements. One witness, Suni Jehseel Popoca Millan, who works as a customer service concierge at the resort, told a Mexican investigator that he received a text on Oct. 29 from Jackson who told him, I think my friend has alcohol poisoning and needs emergency service and someone to speak or translate in Spanish for us.

A doctor later told Popoca Millan that Robinson was unconscious and that she needed to be hospitalized, the document says. According to news reports, Robinson died at the villa.
A Winston-Salem man said in a voicemail to a friend that his roommate had threatened to kill him the same day police officers found the man dead Feb. 16 inside his home, according to a search warrant.

Crystal Patterson arrived at the house on Wharton Avenue after she learned of Benjamin Hastings Beesons death and allowed an officer to listen to the voicemail in which Archie Corey Devon McArthur could be heard threatening to kill Beeson in the background, the warrant says.

McArthur and Beeson lived in the house.

Patterson also told the officer that she texted McArthur the following morning, and McArthur told her that Beeson was still at home. McArthur said he had run away because of an altercation between (him) and Beeson that night.

McArthur, 35, is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and robbery with a dangerous weapon in Beesons death, according to an arrest warrant. Winston-Salem police arrested McArthur Feb. 19 at the Surry County Jail in Dobson.

McArthur was transferred to the Forsyth County Jail where he is being held with no bond allowed on the murder and kidnapping charges and with his bond set at $75,000 on the robbery charge, court records show.

McArthur also is accused of holding Beeson for a ransom and restraining and moving Beeson from one place to another place in order to harm him.

Kira Boyd, a police spokeswoman, declined to comment on the matter.

Benjamin Porter of Winston-Salem, McArthurs attorney, said his client denies any involvement in Beesons kidnapping and murder.

According to an arrest warrant, McArthur is accused of stealing a cellphone and a wallet with a total value of $100 from Beeson.

When police found Beesons body, they noticed wounds to his face and forehead consistent with a struggle or fight, the search warrant said.

Police responded to the home on Wharton Avenue at 9:15 p.m. after they received a call from Robert Shields, Beesons friend, about a dead body inside the house, according to the warrant and a police news release. When officers arrived, they found Beeson dead inside the home.

Shields told police he went to the house earlier on Feb. 16 to check on Beeson, the warrant said. Shields was concerned that when he spoke with Beeson on the night of Feb. 15, Shields overheard Beeson being involved in what sounded like a bad fight with McArthur, Beesons roommate, the warrant said.

In their search of the home and two vehicles that belonged to Beeson, investigators seized a pocket knife, two bags of marijuana, a scale, a white powder in a plastic bag, a crystal substance in a plastic bag, a black shirt, a ski mask, two hard drives with their data from the homes video surveillance system and two cameras, according to the search warrant.
Fruit farmers in the Triad and across much of North Carolina are bracing for another round of sub-freezing temperatures that threaten to damage their early-blooming crops after record warmth in January and February.

So far, were good, Steve Robertson, who grows strawberries on his farm in King, said Friday.

About 10% of Robertsons berry crop was damaged when temperatures plunged into the 20s Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, the fourth-generation farmer said Thursday.

To protect the fragile plants, which were coaxed to bloom weeks early by the warmest first two months of a year ever recorded in the Triad, Robertson covered the fields overnight with large tarps.

Blossoms and small fruit that were touching the fabric were bitten by the freeze, he said, but where they were underneath and there was an air gap, theyre still good.

Now, Robertson and other growers of strawberries, blueberries, peaches and apples face a second March cold snap.

Temperatures in the region are expected to dip back into the 20s Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights, according to the National Weather Service.

Frost and freeze conditions could kill crops, other sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor plumbing, the NWS Raleigh Office said in an advisory late Friday afternoon.

Its a problem for farmers like Robertson because blooms represent the essential pollination stage of fruit development. But an especially warm February made some plants and trees think it was April or May, when they typically begin to flower  a trend expected to continue in the future as climate change makes a growing number of winter days feel more like spring.

Thats just about the worst scenario you can have with a crop like strawberries because (the weather) is gonna fool them then there they go, Robertson said. Theyre gonna be putting on blooms and then here we go, in reverse.

Sundays forecast calls for overnight lows of about 24 at the farm, which could prompt Robertson to rethink his approach to protecting the crop.

You get down to the low 20s, theyre not going to do any good, he said of the coverings, which cost about $2,000 an acre.

In that case, the strategy may shift to spraying water on the plants so they end up covered with a layer of insulating ice that keeps them near 32 degrees. But thats a more labor intensive  and environmentally unfriendly  process.

You might be running a pump and water for 15 or 16 hours, Robertson explained. Thats a lot of diesel fuel and a lot of water.

Its the kind of delicate balance that farmers face, especially as climate change drives weather extremes and confuses nature.

I dont know, Robertson said with a hint of exasperation. Strawberries are great, but theyre just a nightmare. Theyre just so hard to take care of.

And everybody wonders why they cost so much.
Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and several other prominent Lincoln women participated in a panel discussion in front of hundreds of girls at Nebraska Innovation Campus on Saturday.

Inspire Girls 2023 is meant to educate and empower girls in areas such as careers, education and life skills.

"We want to play a larger role in empowering the next generation of leaders," Natalia Wiita, president of the Journal Star and a member of the Inspire advisory board, said in welcoming attendees.

In 2015, Inspire started as a way to recognize female leaders in Lincoln. In 2019, the first Inspire Girls event was hosted at Innovation Campus.

Panel members included Jen Landis, assistant professor of graphic design at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Ava Thomas, West region president of Lee Enterprises; Charlie Foster, assistant vice chancellor for Inclusive Student Excellence at UNL; Gaylor-Baird; Michaella Kumke, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Lincoln; and Andy Johnson, assistant sociology professor at Doane University.

After ice breakers, the panel welcomed questions from the audience.

When asked about what female empowerment means, Gaylor Baird said that individuality is key.

"Be true to yourself," she said. "Don't let the messages about what you can and can't do hold you back ... be you."

The next question was tough: Why do men think less of women?

"Sometimes they're taught to think that," Foster explained. "We can change their minds by showing them how awesome we are."

A member of the audience then asked how to stay true to your confidence in male-dominated spaces.

Landis recalled her time at an advertising agency.

Whenever there was a meeting, she would sit where the most important person was supposed to sit, and set her personal belongings out to take up space.

Piper Jensen attended with her grandmother and took Foster's words about positivity in the face of adversity to heart.

"It was really inspirational," she said.

After the panel discussion, attendees visited booths set up outside the auditorium.

Youth Leadership, Launch Leadership camp and other local organizations brought educational materials and prizes to give to participants.

The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office and the Nebraska Safety Council brought goggles that imitated the vision of a person under the influence, then challenged those who wore them to play cornhole or walk in a straight line.

Ayva Freehling thought the booths were interesting.

"It was really fun," she said. "Getting to see all the equipment and learn about it."

The event was sponsored by Doane University and the Journal Star.

Top Journal Star photos for March 2023
A former Lincoln restaurant owner who in 2021 was at the center of a plot to steal drugs from the Nebraska State Patrol's evidence storage facility pleaded guilty Friday to his role in one of the highest-profile drug cases in the state's history.

George L. Weaver Jr. spent the summer of 2021 directing the theft and resale of pounds of marijuana, kilos of cocaine and grams of fentanyl from the State Patrol's evidence facility in Lincoln, federal prosecutors said at the 37-year-old's plea hearing Friday.

For months, Weaver pulled off the scheme with the help of his girlfriend, 37-year-old Anna Idigima, who worked for years as a State Patrol evidence technician until August 2021, when she was fired for stealing drugs that were being held in completed cases, awaiting destruction orders, according to prosecutors.

Both Weaver and Idigima were federally indicted in October 2021 for conspiracy to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, a detectable amount of fentanyl and marijuana.

Idigima pleaded guilty in February to her role in the conspiracy and, like Weaver, will face a minimum of 20 years and up to life in federal prison. Both will face sentencing this summer.

At Idigima's hearing last month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Fullerton said video surveillance from the evidence facility showed Idigima opening sealed boxes, taking drugs out, putting them in garbage bags and loading those bags into her car "on several occasions between" June and August 2021.

The scheme came crashing down soon after, when investigators with the Lincoln/Lancaster County Narcotics Task Force uncovered the plot, which came as Lincoln and Southeast Nebraska experienced an unprecedented rash of overdoes.

Fentanyl-laced cocaine led to 35 overdoses in the Lincoln area between July 25 and Aug. 19, according to police data. Nine victims and one unborn child died as a result of those overdoses, Lincoln Police officials said in September 2021, when they announced the arrest of Weaver and Idigima.

A subsequent audit of the State Patrol's storage facility found that 154 pounds of marijuana, 19 pounds of cocaine and 6 pounds of fentanyl were missing.

"We have an employee  a former employee  who, by all indications, was a competent, trusted employee for 14 years. Until she wasn't," State Patrol Col. John Bolduc said then.

Prosecutors never directly tied Weaver or the stolen drugs to any of the fatal overdoses in Lincoln.

At Friday's hearing, Fullerton said laced cocaine that Weaver sold led to the overdose of a Nebraska City couple at their home on Aug. 4, 2021, and to a man in Lincoln on Aug. 18. Two of the three had to be revived with CPR and all three needed Narcan, an opioid-reversal drug, and were treated at hospitals in Lincoln and Omaha.

She said Weaver had fronted bricks of cocaine to numerous other dealers and collected payment later. And buyers often knew the source of the drugs, Fullerton said. Some paid Idigima directly, via CashApp.

One witness told investigators that they saw Idigima attend a drug deal with Weaver and didn't see her face again until it appeared in the newspaper following news of the couple's arrest.

Weaver initially pleaded not guilty and was headed for trial. But Fullerton said evidence against him continued to mount even after his arrest.

The prosecutor said a jailhouse witness reported that Weaver had bragged about his girlfriend's theft from the State Patrol and said he had mixed the cocaine with fentanyl because the powerful opioid is addictive.

In the end, Weaver pleaded guilty to one count in the conspiracy and, in exchange, prosecutors dropped three additional counts he faced.

"Mr. Weaver, do you want this court to accept your plea of guilty?" U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Zwart asked him at Friday's hearing, which he attended in-person, wearing shackles and jail-issued orange garments from head to toe.

"Yes, your honor," he responded.

Narcan, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, can be purchased and deployed by anyone and is available for free at eight area pharmacies, a list of which is published at stopodne.com.

Milestones in women's history from the year you were born Milestones in women's history from the year you were born 1919: National Women's Party sparks 'Watchfires of Freedom' 1920: The 19th Amendment becomes law 1921: Edith Wharton wins the Pulitzer Prize 1922: First woman serves in the Senate 1923: Equal Rights Amendment is first proposed 1924: First woman diplomat gets to work 1925: Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman governor in the U.S. 1926: Gertrude Ederle swims the English Channel 1927: Women petition to become 'persons' in Canada 1928: Britain's Equal Franchise Act becomes law 1929: Nigeria's Women's War wins rights 1930: Frances Marion writes Oscar-winning 'The Big House' 1931: Jackie Mitchell strikes out two of baseball's best 1932: Amelia Earhart's first solo flight across the Atlantic 1933: First female Cabinet member is appointed 1934: First woman serves on board of directors of a major corporation 1935: National Council of Negro Women is founded 1936: Wallis Simpson is Time's first female Person of the Year 1937: First woman climbs the Adirondack High Peaks 1938: First woman wins the Nobel Prize in Literature 1939: Kitty O'Brien Joyner is NASA's first woman engineer 1940: First African American woman wins an Oscar 1941: Wonder Woman debuts 1942: First woman is awarded Purple Heart medal 1943: Women's Army Corps is created 1944: French women win the right to vote 1945: Ireland's laundry workers go on strike 1946: UN establishes the Commission on the Status of Women 1947: First woman wins a Nobel Prize in medicine 1948: UN Declaration of Human Rights debuts 1949: 'The Second Sex' is published 1950: First girl plays Little League baseball 1951: Rosalind Franklin makes crucial DNA discoveries 1952: Grace Hopper revolutionizes computers 1953: First woman breaks the sound barrier 1954: UN Convention on the Political Rights of Women goes into force 1955: Rosa Parks sparks Montgomery Bus Boycott 1956: Women march on Pretoria 1957: First television show built around a female protagonist airs 1958: First woman wins multiple Grammys 1959: Tibetan Women's Uprising commences 1960: Sri Lanka elects world's first female prime minister 1961: India bans dowries 1962: Katherine Johnson helps send a man to space 1963: Betty Friedan publishes 'The Feminine Mystique' 1964: First woman of color elected to Congress 1965: Dolores Huerta directs a five-year strike 1966: National Organization for Women is founded 1967: First woman runs the Boston Marathon 1968: Miss America ignites 'bra burning' protests 1969: Nation's first 'no fault' divorce law passes 1970: First woman plays American football 1971: Reed v. Reed is decided 1972: Title IX goes into effect 1973: Roe v. Wade is decided 1974: Women earn the right to open their own credit cards 1975: Icelandic women go on strike 1976: First class of women enters West Point 1977: First woman wins an EGOT 1978: Pregnancy Discrimination Act passes 1979: UN adopts the Women's Bill of Rights 1980: First democratically elected female president takes office 1981: First woman is appointed to the Supreme Court 1982: First African American principal ballerina leads a U.S. company 1983: Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space 1984: First woman is selected VP candidate for a major political party 1985: Guerilla Girls forms 1986: Oprah becomes first woman to own and produce her own talk show 1987: First woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 1988: Switzerland establishes Federal Office of Gender Equality 1989: First woman receives IBM fellowship 1990: First female president of the Americas is elected 1991: Anita Hill testifies before the Senate 1992: Junko Tabei finishes climbing the Seven Summits 1993: Family Medical Leave Act becomes law 1994: Violence Against Women Act passes 1995: Fourth World Conference on Women commences 1996: United States v. Virginia is decided 1997: First female secretary of state joins Cabinet 1998: Senegalese mothers end female circumcision in their villages 1999: Google's first female engineer gets to work 2000: Million Mom March commences 2001: Take Back the Night Foundation forms 2002: U.K.'s Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act passes 2003: Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace ends a civil war 2004: March for Women's Lives takes place 2005: Kuwait's Blue Revolution secures women's suffrage 2006: Iran's One Million Signatures campaign ends polygamous marriage 2007: First woman Speaker of the House takes the gavel 2008: Rwanda becomes first country with majority-female legislature 2009: Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is signed into law 2010: First woman wins Oscar for Best Director 2011: Saudi Arabian women protest driving ban 2012: UN passes resolution to ban FGC 2013: Pentagon announces end to ban on women in combat 2014: Malala Yousafzai wins the Nobel Peace Prize 2015: Emma Sulkowicz carries her mattress across campus 2016: Hillary Clinton becomes first female presidential candidate for a major party 2017: #MeToo movement takes off 2018: Record-breaking number of women are elected to Congress 2019: First all-woman spacewalk 2020: First woman elected US vice president 2021: Most gender-balanced Olympics in history 2022: Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes first African American woman to serve on US Supreme Court
When a student boards Yvonne Johnsons school bus for the first time, their eyes grow wide and fill with wonder.

Sometimes they even crack a smile, marveling at the twinkling lights, bright colors of paper, zigzagging streamers, stickers galore  all features of Johnsons Love Bus that she drives five days a week for the Omaha Public Schools.

Students will find Johnson in the driver seat, welcoming them into her small sanctuary. Her patterned clothes, full face of makeup, curly hair and flowery scent make children so comfortable they call her Momma.

Theyre not my students. Theyre my babies, Johnson said. And I tell my babies I love them, both the big ones and the little ones. I want them to know that Im safe to be with.

The 25-year veteran bus driver has been operating the Love Bus for the last five years. Every few months, she spends multiple days decorating the exterior and interior of the vehicle to match the current season or holiday, like fall, Christmas, Valentines Day and spring.

Most of the decor comes from a discount store. One year she spent $200 decorating for Christmas because she couldnt help herself.

Johnson created the Love Bus after being inspired by the bus of a co-worker, who has since retired. But instead of simple window stickers or trim, Johnson said she goes overboard each year to make the bus environment as welcoming as possible for her students.

You have to give them something to focus on, or all they are going to do is go to sleep or misbehave, Johnson said. They dont spend a lot of time with me, but its enough time that I can leave good memories that I had as a child.

Leslie Lopezs son, Julian, has been riding Johnsons bus since he started prekindergarten in August at Gomez Heritage Elementary. Julian has autism and rarely speaks, but Lopez said he always has a big smile seeing the bus arrive each morning.

My son loves the bus, how it is always decorated with seasonal colors, Lopez said. He loves her. She is very noble and sweet with children.

Another of Johnsons students from Gomez didnt speak the entire first semester. But when Johnson decorated for spring earlier this month, the student boarded the bus, looked up and said flower.

I said, OK, she is going to get flowers in her departing package, Johnson said about the gifts she gives to students at the end of the year.

Sometimes Johnsons giving doesnt stop at the bus  shes been known to send high school students money after they graduate to help with their college experience. Johnson doesnt have children of her own.

I just love it, she said. I didnt birth them, but they are mine.

Days can be long for Johnson, who gets up at 2:30 a.m.

She said it takes her a while to get her lashes on for the day. At 5:30 a.m., she gets to work and goes through a safety checklist for her bus before taking off around 6 a.m. to pick up students enrolled at Gomez and Bryan High School.

Johnson said she occasionally helps with busing around noon, but work for the evening routes begins around 2:15 p.m.

Of course with 13 babies on here, it can get pretty long, so I may get back by 5:45 p.m., Johnson said. Ive driven 12 hours a day before.

Johnson is part of the bus driver fleet employed through OPS, not Student Transportation of America, which transports the majority of students in the district. OPS drivers transport about 2,000 students, mostly in special education.

Student Transportation of America has been experiencing worsening staff shortages, impacting bus route coverage  about 74% of routes through the vendor are covered by a full-time driver.

On the routes that the district handles itself, 89% are covered by a permanent driver.

OPS bus drivers are like a family and work together to handle staff shortages when they happen, Johnson said. She thought about working as a substitute driver at one point but found out if she did, it wouldnt be guaranteed she would drive the Love Bus.

She said without the decorated bus, she wouldnt be able to bring joy to others.

It matters not just to the students  my co-workers, principals and teachers come on here and love the feeling on here, Johnson said. People in traffic have honked me down, because its dark in the morning and you can see all these lights. And theyre like, Whats going on in there? You do all that for the kids? I say yes. And its kind of contagious.

Photos: OPS driver decorates her bus for students
After spending 16 years in an aging building in Lincoln's University Place neighborhood  and a few short months crowded into the Police Department's downtown headquarters  LPD's Northeast Team has moved into its new digs.

The new state-of-the-art station opened its doors to the public Friday morning following a news conference that marked the end of a years-long process of finding and outfitting a new home for the Northeast Team.

The standalone police station, at 5201 R St., replaces the Northeast Team's previous facility at 4843 Huntington Ave., where the team spent 16 years in the footprint of the Nebraska Wesleyan University campus.

The geographical police team outgrew that 1920s-era building, which the city leased, and moved out in January.

"They're happy as a clam," Assistant Police Chief Brian Jackson said at Friday's news conference, joking about the crowd of police officers and civilian staff members standing a few feet behind him in the station's parking lot along R Street.

Jackson, who helped guide the project from its origins under former Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister, appeared at the news conference alongside Police Chief Teresa Ewins, Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, four City Council members and dozens of police personnel.

Gaylor Baird, who has touted millions' worth of investments her administration has poured into the city's public safety agencies amid her reelection campaign, described the new police station as a "long-term investment in public safety" that would aid in the department's ability to police the growing city.

The new station, which sits a few blocks north of O Street, is roughly a mile south of the previous Northeast Station. Jackson has repeatedly said the move south won't affect the department's response times to calls for service in northeast Lincoln.

"We have to realize our officers call this home, but once they're ready to start their shift, have their lineup, (then) they're out in the community; they're in their cars," he said.

"Our response time is not dictated by a single point on the map. Our response time is based on where our officers are at any given time when those calls for service come out."

Still, for Capt. Jeff Bucher, who took over the Northeast Team in September after serving as the head of LPD's criminal investigation division, the move came with a sigh of relief after the team's two-month stay downtown  4 miles from the new station.

The renovated building was initially set to be ready late last year, but a supply chain delay on a crucial electrical panel caused months of delays. The panel  which was supposed to ship in October  still hasn't arrived, but city inspectors approved occupancy without that piece of equipment.

"We worked a bypass with the city to get us in here a little bit quicker, because I felt it was a huge public safety issue, the fact that we were downtown for a while, coming to Northeast and the time delay," Bucher said.

Bucher said much of the new station was designed with input from officers including Capt. Mayde McGuire, who Bucher replaced as the head of the Northeast Team after she transferred to the department's education and personnel unit.

The single-story station includes a lineup room, co-ed locker room, private changing and shower rooms, two break rooms, three interview rooms, a weight room, a garage for fingerprinting and storage and a storm shelter with 2-foot concrete walls.

The bay of desks and offices that will house officers and sergeants on duty is designed with an open-floor plan to foster open and seamless communication  something that Bucher said at times proved difficult on Huntington Avenue, where the station was two stories.

Bucher joked that it was "scary" finally moving into the new building after spending months in limbo.

"It's a good feeling," he said, more seriously. "I think I need to get settled in here and then get back into the community, but I think it's gonna be a really good thing. (I think) it's gonna be a positive thing for the community, I really do."

Lincoln's 911 dispatch center, which the city shares with Lancaster County, will also move into the new building, when work on the western half of the building is finished and the electrical panel the city has been waiting on arrives.

Jackson said the city's decision to combine the Northeast Station and dispatch center into one project was an act of "good stewardship" from city leaders.

The building cost the city $7 million to purchase and renovate  but ultimately cost city taxpayers a fraction of that, Jackson said.

The city paid for the station with $4.5 million in federal CARES Act funds and a combined $2.5 million of asset forfeiture funds and money re-appropriated from elsewhere in the department's annual budget.

When the Northeast Team moved into the University Place station in 2006, the City Council signed a 15-year lease with the Kinport Corporation, which owns the building. It cost the city $184,800 in the initial year and the rate was adjusted annually based on changes to the consumer price index, according to the lease agreement.

The city extended its lease an extra year in September 2021, paying $20,101 per month through the end of August 2022, when the city signed a final, five-month extension with Kinport. The city paid $20,101 to lease the building in September and $21,000 per month for the last four months of the lease.

Most dangerous cities in Nebraska Dangerous Cities in Nebraska 6. South Sioux City 5. Scottsbluff 4. North Platte 3. Lincoln 2. Grand Island 1. Omaha A note about the numbers
THE HAGUE  The International Criminal Court said Friday that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

It was the first time the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

The ICC said in a statement that Putin "is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."

It also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Children's Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.

The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow  and welcomed by Ukraine as a major breakthrough. Its practical implications, however, could be limited as the chances of Putin facing trial at the ICC are extremely unlikely.

But the moral condemnation will likely stain the Russian leader for the rest of his life  and in the more immediate future whenever he seeks to attend an international summit in a nation bound to arrest him.

"So Putin might go to China, Syria, Iran, his ... few allies, but he just won't travel to the rest of the world and won't travel to ICC member states who he believes would ... arrest him," said Adil Ahmad Haque, an expert in international law and armed conflict at Rutgers University.

Others agreed. "Vladimir Putin will forever be marked as a pariah globally. He has lost all his political credibility around the world. Any world leader who stands by him will be shamed as well," David Crane, a former international prosecutor, told The Associated Press.

The court's president, Piotr Hofmanski, said in a video statement that while the ICC's judges issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them. The court has no police force of its own to do so.

The court can impose a maximum sentence of life imprisonment "when justified by the extreme gravity of the crime," according to its founding treaty, the Rome Statute, establishing the ICC as a permanent court of last resort to prosecute political leaders and other key perpetrators of the world's worst atrocities  war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Still, the chances of Putin facing trial remain extremely remote, as Moscow does not recognize the court's jurisdiction  a position it vehemently reaffirmed Friday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Russia doesn't recognize the ICC and considers its decisions "legally void." He added that Russia considers the court's move "outrageous and unacceptable."

Peskov refused to comment when asked if Putin would avoid making trips to countries where he could be arrested on the ICC's warrant.

Ukraine's human rights chief, Dmytro Lubinets, has said that based on data from the country's National Information Bureau, 16,226 children were deported. Ukraine has managed to bring back 308 children.

Lvova-Belova, who was also implicated in the warrant, reacted with dripping sarcasm. "It is great that the international community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country, that we do not leave them in war zones, that we take them out, we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people," she said.

Ukrainian officials were jubilant at the move.

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it a "historic decision, from which historic responsibility will begin."

"The world changed," said presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the "wheels of justice are turning," and added that "international criminals will be held accountable for stealing children and other international crimes."

In Washington, President Joe Biden called the ICC's decision justified, telling reporters as he left the White House for his Delaware home that Putin clearly committed war crimes. While the U.S. does not recognize the court either, Biden said it makes a very strong point to call out the Russian leader's actions in ordering the invasion.

Olga Lopatkina, a Ukrainian mother who struggled for months to reclaim her foster children who were deported to an institution run by Russian loyalists, welcomed news of the arrest warrant. "Everyone must be punished for their crimes," she said in an exchange of messages with the AP.

While Ukraine is also not a member of the global court, it granted the court jurisdiction over its territory and ICC prosecutor Karim Khan visited four times since opening an investigation a year ago.

Besides Russia and Ukraine, the United States and China are not members of the 123-member ICC.

The ICC said its pretrial chamber found "reasonable grounds" that Putin "bears individual criminal responsibility" for the child abductions "for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others" and for failing to "exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts."

After his most recent visit this month, ICC prosecutor Khan said he went to a care home for children just over a mile from front lines in southern Ukraine.

"The drawings pinned on the wall  spoke to a context of love and support that was once there," he said in a statement. "But this home was empty, a result of alleged deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation or their unlawful transfer to other parts of the temporarily occupied territories."

"As I noted to the United Nations Security Council last September, these alleged acts are being investigated by my office as a priority. Children cannot be treated as the spoils of war," Khan said.

On Thursday, a U.N.-backed inquiry cited Russian attacks against civilians in Ukraine, including systematic torture and killing in occupied regions, among potential issues that amount to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.

The sweeping investigation also found crimes committed against Ukrainians on Russian territory, including deported Ukrainian children who were prevented from reuniting with their families, a "filtration" system aimed at singling out Ukrainians for detention, and torture and inhumane detention conditions.

But on Friday, the ICC put the face of Putin on the child abduction allegations.

Timeline: A look at key moments in a year of war between Russia and Ukraine A month-by-month timeline of the war in Ukraine The war in Ukraine that began a year ago has killed thousands, forced millions to flee their homes, reduced entire cities to rubble and has fueled fears the confrontation could slide into an open conflict between Russia and NATO. A look at some of the main events in the conflict. Feb. 24, 2022: Russia invades Ukraine March 2, 2022: Russia takes Kherson, gets stuck near Kyiv March 29, 2022: Russia withdraws from Kyiv, shifts focus east April 2022: Mass graves discovered in Bucha April 9, 2022: Russia strikes train station, killing 52 civilians April 13, 2022: Ukraine sinks Russian missile cruiser May 16, 2022: Ukraine defenders surrender key steel mill May 18, 2022: Finland, Sweden apply for NATO membership June 2022: Western weapons flow into Ukraine June 30, 2022: Russian troops pull back from Snake Island July 22, 2022: Deal struck on grain exports July 29, 2022: 53 killed in missile strike on prison Aug. 9, 2022: Ukraine strikes air base in Crimea Aug. 20, 2022: Daughter of Russian ideologist killed in car bombing Sept. 6, 2022: Ukraine counteroffensive retakes parts of Kharkiv region Sept. 21, 2022: Putin orders mobilization of reservists, stages illegal "referendums" Sept. 30, 2022: Putin claims annexation of 4 regions October 2022: Bridge linking Crimea and Russia attacked November 2022: Russia retreats from Kherson Dec. 5, 2022: Ukraine uses drones to hit Russian targets Dec. 21, 2022: Zelenskyy visits US Jan. 1, 2023: Ukraine kills scores of freshly mobilized Russian soldiers Jan. 12, 2023: Russia claims capture of Soledar Jan. 14, 2023: Russian strike kills 45 in apartment building Feb. 20, 2023: Biden makes surprise visit to Kyiv
YUTAN  The Nebraska National Guard said goodbye Friday to 13 of its soldiers deploying to Germany to help train Ukrainian soldiers in their struggle to fend off a Russian invasion.

Gov. Jim Pillen and U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts joined Guard leaders and family members for a sendoff ceremony at the headquarters of the 1st Squadron, 134th Cavalry Regiment on the units base near Yutan.

Your mission ahead is really important, Pillen said. I know youre going to be incredibly successful.

Maj. Cody Cade, who works as a historian for the Nebraska National Guard, will lead the team in its work at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in southeastern Germany. The Nebraskans will help teach their Armed Forces Ukraine counterparts as part of a new combined-arms training program.

That training is designed to better prepare the Ukrainian forces to launch an offensive or counter any surge in Russian attacks. The Nebraska group will be gone for up to a year.

Many members of the Ukrainian armed forces are civilians who were quickly sent to front-line combat units despite having little or no military training.

Its a unique mission that will have real-world consequences for the people of Ukraine, Cade said.

In a January visit to Grafenwoehr to mark the start of the combined-arms training, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described it as a key to helping Ukraine retake territory in the eastern and southern part of the country.

This support is really important for Ukraine to be able to defend itself, Milley said.

The U.S. had been doing combined-arms training inside Ukraine before the Russian invasion, Cade said. But after the war began, U.S. National Guard and special-operations forces serving as trainers left the country.

The new training is a continuation of that effort, which also involves other European allies. Previously, the U.S. had focused mostly on training Ukrainian forces how to use and maintain certain weapons systems, including howitzers, armored vehicles and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS.

The Nebraska team wont be the first Guard soldiers the Ukrainian forces have worked with. Ricketts said the California National Guard has a military-to-military relationship with Armed Forces Ukraine that dates back 30 years. The Nebraska National Guard has similar partnership programs with the militaries of the Czech Republic and Rwanda.

To help the Ukrainians after the Russian invasion, California Guard leaders set up a 24-hour emergency operations center to provide daily advice. They also sent ballistic vests, helmets and portable field hospitals to Ukraine.

The Ukrainians have fought bravely for the past year. And a large part of that was because of the training they received for the last several decades from the California National Guard, Ricketts said. The aggression of Russia cannot be allowed to stand.

Cade said the soldiers will leave Monday for several weeks of preparation and training in Arkansas and Texas before heading to Germany.

This will be the longest deployment of Capt. Jon Gronewolds 15-year National Guard career.

Im excited to assist the Ukrainians fight for freedom, he said. It really is such a good mission, to help others who are in need right now.

Gronewold said its hard to leave behind his wife, Emily, and 14-month-old daughter, Ada, in Lincoln  although cellphones and the internet make it possible to keep in closer touch than when Gronewalds father, retired Brig. Gen. Scott Gronewold, deployed to Bosnia and Iraq two decades ago.

Theres a piece of me thats incredibly proud of him, Emily Gronewold said. But having a daughter now, it makes me emotional thinking that hell be missing a year of her growing up.

Scott Gronewold said it is harder to send a son off on deployment than to go himself.

What he will see, the experiences he will have, theyre unique, he said. Their mission has real-world implications. I told (Jon) what you do matters.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.

Photos: 90 Nebraska National Guard soldiers returned from Iraq in July 2017
Steve Glenn, a Lincoln businessman and member of Rotary 14, will be presented with the Rotary District 5650 Humanitarian Service Award during the annual conference of clubs from Eastern Nebraska and Western Iowa.

He is being recognized for his extraordinary service to Ukrainian refugees as they fled the invasion of their country. Barbara Bartle, current Rotary district governor, and Carol Horner, immediate past governor, will honor Glenn at the organizations event at Nebraska Innovation Campus Saturday, April 1.

Though Glenn has led a life of service, he has provided herculean efforts to support Ukrainian refugees. In March of 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, he launched Operation Safe Harbor, an effort to provide temporary housing for refugees arriving in Poland as they fled the war in Ukraine. These refugees were predominantly women and children. He leveraged his contacts in the travel industry to partner with a hotel in Warsaw to provide rooms for displaced families. Providing the privacy and relative peacefulness of a hotel room was a critical benefit to traumatized families; much more favorable than sleeping in cots in an open gymnasium.

He utilized his points, airline mileage and personal funds to send employees from his company, as well as Rotarians from eastern Nebraska and Western Iowa, to be "boots on the ground" in Warsaw. He enlisted his church to serve as the fiscal agent for tax-deductible donations, keeping overhead to a minimum. He worked with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs ) in Warsaw to coordinate who would be staying at the hotel, provided transportation from the train station to the hotel, dispatched his contacts to procure medicine and guided the refugees toward the government benefits provided by Poland.

As other needs arose, Glenn and his team of volunteers did their best to support them with respite babysitting, language translation, building relationships with other donation centers, providing diapers, toothbrushes, clothing and, most importantly, emotional support.

Among those who traveled to Poland as part of Operation Safe Harbor were Angie Muhleisen, president of Union Bank and Trust, a number of UBT employees, Bartle of Lincoln, Kathleen Nene Nolan of Omaha, Don Hutchens of Lincoln, as well as Brian Wallingford, Whitney Holcomb and Tamara Forbes who work at Glenns Executive Travel agency.

In recognizing Glenns efforts, Horner, a former Rotary district governor leading the initiative to select the recipient, said, Steves effort is extraordinary. It personifies what a Rotarian and a person of action should do. Steves effort (done on extremely short notice and with far reaching impact) is unsurpassed. I think I could say with pretty good confidence that there hasnt been a Rotarian in decades that accomplished as much humanitarian benefit in so short a time. This is a once in a lifetime moment.

The Humanitarian Service Award is not an annual recognition. Instead, it is given as someone such as Glenn illustrates an extraordinary effort. The award is coordinated and decided by current and past District 5650 governors.

Glenn helped raise over $1 million, and more than 1,200 Ukrainians were impacted by Operation Safe Harbor. Late in 2022, the city of Warsaw received a grant from JP Morgan Chase for Ukrainian housing, and the hotel was sustained as part of this grant. Glenns focus transitioned away from meeting these temporary needs toward more permanent solutions such as job training; preparing to pass the baton to local, sustainable programs. Glenn is guiding his efforts to support the refugees as they integrate more fully into Poland while they await cessation of the war in their country.

This effort represents the best of Rotary, of service above self with integrity, flexibility, business acumen and leveraging of networks. Glenn utilized the tools he had and the people he knew to make a significant impact in the lives of hundreds of Ukrainian refugees.

Glenn will be among many people recognized, including those listed from each club for the Golden Wheel Award, at the District conference banquet the evening of April 1. There are 39 Rotary clubs in the District that includes eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. Each year, they gather for a conference to recognize and celebrate the change theyve made in their communities, across the United States and around the world. There are 1.4 million members in Rotary clubs in 200 countries.
RACINE  Matthew Peterson has been honored as the 2023 St. Patricks Person of the Year by St. Patrick Parish, 1100 Erie St., for his long and varied service.

Joining the parish officially in 1988, it has been Petersons faith home for over half his life. He notes that it was the friendly and welcoming people that attracted him to St. Patricks. It was that same atmosphere, along with the warmth and inspiration of the priests of the Missionary Community of St. Paul that have kept him there.

St. Patricks was the site of Petersons marriage and the baptism and subsequent sacraments for his three children. It is now also home for his grandson who assists him regularly in his role as usher at 9 a.m. Mass.

Peterson has contributed to liturgies in a number of ways, including serving as a lector, Eucharistic minister and sacristan. He has served on the Finance Council and the St. Patricks Day Committee since 2007.

Peterson gave his time for 12 years as a mentor for students at John the 23rd Educational Center, an after-school ministry of the parish that assists students in succeeding in school and in life.

Peterson brings his positive, can-do attitude and his ready smile to whatever activity he participates in, from dartball to finance meetings and from planning to cleanup.

I am honored and humbled by this award, Peterson said. I feel blessed to be part of this extended and diverse family, and the family is blessed with the community of St. Paul. They have served the parish as shepherds since 2003, bringing us a valuable global perspective. They inspire us with their scriptural insights and their loving embrace of all people. They are much beloved for their guidance and for the life and energy they bring to our parish family.

The award was presented to Peterson March 17 during the special liturgy that initiated the celebration of the parishs patron, St. Patrick. A family party with food followed.
RACINE  There might not have been a cloudless sky of blue, but Downtown Racine received a sea of green Saturday.

The annual St. Patricks Day parade started at noon at the intersection of State and Main streets and proceeded down Main before turning onto Sixth Street and ending at City Hall, 730 Washington Ave.

A few hundred lined the route to watch the entrants, such as the Carriage Pub pedal bike and Margret Hinze, Miss Racine 2023. Others included the Lighthouse Brigade, Root River Rollers and multiple singing and dancing groups.

Local government officials and groups such as Racine Mayor Cory Mason, Alderman Henry Perez, Alderman Jeff Coe, Friends of Kelly Gallaher, City of Racine Transit and Bryan Steil for Wisconsin were also present.

With the temperatures in the low 20s during the parade, many chose to watch the procession inside local cafes, pubs and other businesses.

Shannon Tobias, a troop mom with St. Lucys Girl Scouts, said that the cold weather did not deter her girls from getting ready for the parade.

They were still running around there with snow pants on and hand warmers, Tobias said. The energy was there when they were setting up the trailer around nine in the morning, I hope the energy is still there when the parade starts. We will definitely see.

Don Fowlkes and his party hunkered down inside The Ivanhoe, 231 Main St., before the events of the parade.

Its a very bitter cold, Fowlkes said. Definitely could have been a better day.

Despite the cold, Fowlkes said he and his family were going to brave it once the parade started.

Ron Christensen, a Racine businessman and resident who died in October 2022, was the posthumous grand marshal for the parade.

Born near the Irish holiday, on March 19, he was known to have never missed the Racine St. Patricks Day parade.

10 photos from Downtown Racine's St. Patrick's Day parade Fiddling Miss Racine Sidity Movement All swagged out Wild moves Waiting for the parade Ron Christensen Racine Raiders CNH Beads
The notes Lynne Montgomery left hidden around her home, discovered as investigators tried to figure out how and why she died on Feb. 27 from apparent blunt force trauma injuries, appear to tell the story.

Help Shannon is hurting me, said one note in 83-year-old Montgomerys handwriting, found on a notepad in the drawer of her nightstand at her home in the southwestern Wisconsin village of Benton, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

On another page of the same notepad, the complaint states, a note appeared to read, She dragged me from the basement to try and get in my safe ... Help!

The person referenced in the notes is Shannon C. Bussan, 29, of Elizabeth, Illinois, the wife of one of Montgomerys grandchildren. The notes are among the clues that led Lafayette County authorities on Wednesday to charge Bussan with first-degree intentional homicide for Montgomerys death.

In the complaint, investigators used video and cellphone data to conclude Bussan lied about her whereabouts on the day Montgomery died, including the time that she first arrived at Montgomerys home on Carr Factory Road on Bentons northern edge.

Bussan claimed she arrived shortly before 4 p.m. that day to find Montgomery badly injured and unresponsive in her bedroom, but the video and cellphone evidence put her there more than three hours earlier, according to the complaint.

Based on this information, Shannon was the last person to speak to and see (Montgomery) before she sustained injuries and ultimately died, the complaint concludes.

On Thursday, Lafayette County Sheriff Reg Gill said Bussan had been arrested the day before at the Jo Daviess County Sheriffs Office in Galena, Illinois. Records indicate she was booked into the Lafayette County Jail on Thursday.

Bussan is scheduled to make an initial court appearance on Monday.

Watch out for Shannon

The notes in the nightstand drawer were not the only ones that appeared to refer to Bussan, the complaint states. In a computer bag Montgomery used only when she traveled, her daughter told investigators, a small index card was discovered.

On one side was written, Watch out for Shannon Help me. On the other side, Shannon she knocked me down in the basement dragged me upstairs threw me down tried to strangle me try to open my safe I dont know what she will do next.

According to the complaint:

Bussan called 911 at 4 p.m. on Feb. 27 to report she had found Montgomery face down on her bedroom floor after Montgomery didnt come to the door as Bussan visited with her three children.

A deputy who was first at the scene said Montgomery was still warm to the touch. In her call to 911, Bussan said her grandmother-in-law was not warm. She speculated during the call that Montgomery had fallen.

An autopsy found bruising consistent with a physical assault, including multiple blunt force trauma injuries to the head and face, and her arms and legs. She also had rib fractures.

Dr. Robert Corliss said Montgomerys death could have been caused by smothering, either by a pillow, having her face forced into a surface or a hand placed over her nose and mouth. Death could also have been caused by compression asphyxiation  a heavy object on her body preventing the movement of breathing, his autopsy found.

Montgomerys family told investigators her home was usually neat and orderly, but when they arrived after her death, it was in an unusual state of disarray, with things found out of place.

Manic state

Speaking with investigators, Bussan said she had plans that day to help Montgomery sell antiques online. She said she had left home around noon and went to her mothers home in Hanover, Illinois, where she and the children stayed until around 2:45 p.m. Her mother was not at home then, she said.

Bussan said Montgomery was acting kinda weird when she called Bussan sometime before 1 p.m.

Four people who had lunch with Montgomery at the local VFW post that day told police she was pleasant and had no visible bruises, scratches or cuts. She had left the VFW sometime between 12:15 and 12:45 p.m.

After getting to Montgomerys home, Bussan said, she did not get a response at the door so she went inside and found Montgomery on her bedroom floor. She claimed that because of poor cellular service, she didnt call 911 right away and said she ran all over the house looking for a phone to use until she remembered that she had her own cellphone.

In the meantime, she said, she also called her husband. Her husband told investigators that Bussan was in a manic state when she called, enough that he feared for her safety. He said she had called him repeatedly, and throughout the calls she said things such as, I dont want to go to prison, Im sorry about all of this, and I didnt take things and she told him to take their children somewhere safe.

At Montgomerys home, investigators noticed that a heavy safe had been dragged into the garage. But the next day, family members said, someone had moved the safe back to a bedroom closet where it was normally kept.

As for the notes, Bussan said she doesnt understand why she didnt see them, since she had searched the nightstand as she looked for a phone. She admitted telling her husband she was going to prison but denied she did anything to Montgomery.

I could never hurt anyone, she said. I wont even kill a mouse at our house. Why would I hurt grandma?

Investigators noted some injuries on Bussans hands, but she said they had happened days earlier from various causes.

Im done

In a second interview, this one with a state Division of Criminal Investigation agent, Bussan explained she had said she was going to prison because, I just immediately thought that, OK, now they found this note. They say its me. Now Im done. Im done. Now theres a note. Im the one who finds grandma. How convenient. Now theres a note the next day.

But the timeline that Bussan had first explained to police appeared not to match the evidence gleaned from security cameras on Main Street in Benton or evidence from a search of Bussans cellphone.

Bussan called 911 at 4 p.m. and said she had only arrived at Montgomerys home a few minutes earlier. While she claimed she was at her mothers home in Illinois until around 2:45 p.m., video surveillance and cellphone location data put her in Benton starting around 11:13 a.m. that day.

Video, from outside the public library and a bank, showed Bussan driving a few vehicles behind Montgomerys car as Montgomery headed home after lunch. Location data from Bussans cellphone put Bussan at Montgomerys home by 12:52 p.m.

Recovered messages from her phone also showed Bussan had tried to contact her husband repeatedly for an emergency starting at 3:40 p.m. She did not call 911 for another 16 to 20 minutes.
1. Yes. Switching back and forth every spring and fall is cumbersome and annoying.

2. Yes. It makes sense, although it would take a bit of getting used to at first.

3. No. The bill isnt enforceable. The federal government would have to approve the switch.

4. No. If other states dont follow suit, it could make long-distance travel problematic.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say without knowing all the impacts of the proposed change.

Vote

View Results
Attendees stand next to aligned candles forming the word "Children" during a commemorative event to mark the first anniversary of the bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theatre, in front of the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv, March 16, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP-Yonhap





The Kremlin said Friday that the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin was legally "void" since Moscow does not recognize the Hague-based court's jurisdiction.







Top Russian officials and propagandists seethed with anger, while members of the opposition hailed the move.







"Russia, just like a number of different countries, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and so from a legal point of view, the decisions of this court are void," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.







Russia is not a member of the ICC.







Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the decisions of the ICC "have no meaning" for Russia.







"Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it," she said on Telegram.







"Russia does not cooperate with this body and possible recipes for arrest coming from the international court will be legally void as far as we are concerned," Zakharova said, without referring to Putin by name.







Former President Dmitry Medvedev also took to Twitter, likening the warrant to toilet paper.






National Ag Day, on March 21, is when producers, agricultural associations, corporations, universities, government agencies and countless others across the U.S. celebrate American agriculture.

Agriculture provides almost everything we eat, use and wear every day, and increasingly contributes to fuel and other bio-products. On this, the 50th National Ag Day, Illinois Farmer Today is featuring people for whom agriculture plays a pivotal role in their lives.

One is a 4-year-old boy still starry-eyed at the big farm equipment Mom and Dad and

Grammy and Papa drive. Another is a grandfather and Vietnam veteran who laid the foundation for his sons and grandsons to farm. And the third is a teenage city girl who discovered the importance of agriculture in FFA at her high school.

Through the eyes of a 4-year-old

As told by 4-year-old Jameson Maitland.

DANVERS, Ill.  My name is Jameson Maitland. Im 4 years old. I want to be a farmer someday like my Daddy, Papa and Big Papa.

Big Papa (John) was a senator too, but I dont know if I want to do that. He lives with Little Mama (Joanne) on a nearby farm.

Daddy says the Maitlands have been farming the land where Papa and Grammy (Johnny and Terri) live since 1898.

I like riding tractors with my daddy (Justin). He picked me up at school when we got a new John Deere tractor, so I could come too. I had to wait a week and a half before we could get it. I asked every day if it was the day we got the new tractor.

I dont drive tractors yet. Im not big enough yet.

Mommy (Melissa) works at State Farm Insurance and Daddy is a farmer growing corn and soybeans, wheat, and food for his cows. He drives snowplows and assembles farm equipment.

Daddy also has 17 Angus cows on pasture. He calls them a hobby to keep the freezer full.

What I like best about farming is planting corn with Daddy, fixing tractors with Papa, and riding in the combine or grain cart with Grammy.

Mommy and Daddy say Im polite, outgoing and a good helper. I have a little brother named Nash who is my best friend. Hes 1 year old.

When Daddy asks me what I learned today at school, I always say, Everything.

Initially reluctant farmer passes on love of ag

MANITO, Ill.  By age 16, Darrel Kammeyer had enough of hogs and grain on the family farm in Bellflower, Illinois, that he got a job at a Chevy dealership.

That teenager might be surprised to know that he would eventually farm for decades, building the foundation for his sons and their children to farm as well.

You never know, he says.

After serving in Vietnam in 1969-70, he worked at an Oliver tractor dealership which led him back to the fields. When his dad asked if he would farm with him in 1972, Kammeyer said yes.

He didnt know then that both his sons would be farming 50 years later.

They do a good job. I consider them good farmers, he says.

Kammeyer farmed near San Jose in central Illinois with his father, for eight years, and when it was time to go out on his own, he and his wife Bonnie started their farm here in Manito.

In the early 2000s, Kammeyer was active in both state and national corn associations and the Farm Bureau, because he says the industry needs advocates.

Today the Kammeyers grow seed corn, field corn, and seed beans on rented and owned, irrigated and non-irrigated land.

Like Kammeyer, his two sons had off-farm educations and experiences before settling into their careers. Scott trained as a machinist and studied agriculture in college before farming full-time with his dad. Steve worked at the ethanol plant for 15 years until he was ready to farm full-time and bought his fathers shares.

Kammeyer, now 74, officially retired six years ago when Steve took his place.

I help in the spring and fall. Im not the hired man. I do the fun stuff, he says. Once in a while I make a mistake. Sometimes they are expensive, sometimes not.

His grandson, Austin, is a high schooler who plans to study agriculture in college and work off-farm for a time before farming full-time.

His dad just turned 50, so it will be a while, Kammeyer said.

The intricacies of the precision planter impress Kammeyer today.

My dad commented once that his Pop could not believe (the advancements to) the eight-row planter, says Kammeyer. He wonders what his dad would think of the GPS, auto steer, and the precision planting elements his family uses today.

Its fun to be on the same farm all these years, but some days test your patience, he says.

You farm this land down here when it lets you, not when you want to, he says.

The family finds ways to work with that fact.

Only once did I ever collect crop insurance for lost yield, says Kammeyer, who saw some of his best corn yields ever last year.

Unlikely advocate

COLFAX, Ill.  The voices speaking out for agriculture today may not be from people with a farming background, agribusinesses, commodity groups or lobbyists. They may be from teenagers like Sara Kate Edwards who simply appreciates farmers and the ag community.

The clothes we wear, the food we eat, even the vehicles we drive are all tied to agriculture. It is important to support the industry and to tell people why it is important, says the high school junior.

Her viewpoint comes from growing up in Colfax, a town of about 1,000 in central Illinois where many of her classmates at Ridgeview High School are tied to agriculture.

Growing up in a rural community, I understand the importance of it. We need to respect and protect it, she says.

Her grandfather, now retired, was a farmer and grain bin company owner. Still, she says she has gained much of her appreciation for ag from classes at school, her FFA advisor Ariel Bunting, and friends. She wants to spread the word to more people in more places.

She attributes her improved communication skills to taking part in the ag sales competition.

Im a more confident speaker, she said.

FFA isnt like sports, where supporters are cheering from the sidelines, Edwards says. But the supporters help students go to competitions, earn scholarships and hold events.

Giving and caring go both ways. A hallway in her high school features a plaque honoring golden farmers for what they do. FFA members also say thank you to farmers by taking them meals at harvest.

Students are readying for the Ridgeview FFA Alumni Auction at the high school in Colfax on March 18. It features a pork chop meal, a silent auction and a live auction. Monies raised go to Ridgeview FFA students to cover conference and convention registrations and scholarships.

Edwards made an item to sell at the auction. She and her classmate, Bailey Vandergraft, built a wooden planter for flowers in their ag mechanics class. She jokes that each of their families will likely bid it up, and the planter may come home with one or the other family.

Edwards hasnt decided what she will study in college or what career path to take yet. It likely wont be in agriculture, but she says she will continue to increase awareness and support the industry wherever she ends up.

Illinois has 8-peat as number 1 soybean state

Illinois is the No. 1 state in soybean production for the eighth consecutive year, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The service estimates Illinois soybean farmers raised 677.25 million bushels on 10.75 million harvested acres with an average yield of 63 bushels per acre.

Illinois had the top 11 counties for soybean yield nationally. Piatt County, with 74.2 bu./acre, leads the country.

McLean County led the nation in soybean production with just over 21 million bushels. Iroquois, Champaign, Livingston, and La Salle counties placed 4th through 7th nationally.

Illinois had the top five counties in the country for total corn production. McLean County led the way with nearly 71 million bushels of corn produced. Iroquois, Livingston, La Salle and Champaign were No. 2 through No. 5.

Stark County had the highest average corn yield in Illinois at 240.6 bu./acre
Tuesday, April 4 is election day in Wisconsin.

The spring election is non-partisan, which means no office is associated with a political party. If you are a politics junkie, the closest you can come to a political race is for the Wisconsin Supreme Court is between a conservative and a liberal. All other elections are for local elected officials. Another function of the spring election is a time for local municipalities and school districts to put referendums before the people.

The Village of Lake Hallie has two referendums before voters April 4. Referendums are often called questions. The first question on the ballot is to allow the Village of Lake Hallie to exceed the levy limit by an additional $110,000 for the purpose of funding the Villages law enforcement-related expenses to include increasing the full-time officer staffing. If approved, this amount will increase the villages levy on an ongoing basis.

The second question to appear on the ballot is to allow the Village of Lake Hallie to exceed the levy limit by an additional $700,000 for the purpose of obligatory public safety debt service ($235,000) and village road improvements ($465,000). If approved, this amount will increase the villages levy on an ongoing basis.

The reason for these referendums is simple. In 2006, the Wisconsin Legislature capped increases of a municipal tax levy based on net new construction. In short, if you do not have much new construction in your community, you have a problem. The Legislature lets you borrow money but that increases debt, which is also capped.

If one year your community builds 100 new houses, next year you had better build 102 more. Complicated yes; a good idea no. The Village of Lake Hallie is growing but the net new construction last year was 2%. You are very aware the cost of living has gone up more than 2%. So, the referendum questions are on the ballot.

Question 1 asks the residents to fund a new police officer position. Police Chief Edward Oregon is planning for future growth of the village and an increased need for services. The Village of Lake Hallie has a large commercial center. Since I arrived in Hallie in 1976, the question of funding the police and how many officers to have has been a hot topic. The topic has cooled down over the years but the need for police services has increased.

People do not try and settle issues by themselves like they used to. People call the cops quicker and ask them to intervene more often. Add to that drug and mental health issues, responses to alarms, medical emergencies, traffic concerns and domestic abuse all make for a busier police force.

One member of the public inquired why more part time or reserve members were not used. Students graduating from Chippewa Valley Technical Colleges law enforcement programs are looking for full-time work. If you hire a part-time or reserve officer, by the time they are fully trained, they move on to something else.

Question 2 asks for more money for roads and to pay off Chippewa Fire District debt. The Chippewa Fire District has a recurring debt of $250,000 per year until 2028. The village share of that debt is $105,000 per year. The Chippewa Fire District has been fiscally conservative by wise use of debt to fund new fire trucks. It has smoothed out the debt over a 15-year period. Yet costs continue to go up, in part because the Wisconsin Legislature refuses to expand Medicaid uncollected revenue for Emergency Medical Services for Medicaid patients.

When a municipal budget gets tight, the funds come out of repairing and building roads. That budget has taken major hits over the years. The Village of Lake Hallie currently repairs and maintains 90 miles of roads. New roads in subdivisions are paid for by developers. Yet, as we all know when the roads are turned over to Lake Hallie, the village needs to maintain them. The request for an additional $465,000 is reasonable.

The Village Board has been completely transparent on these issues. One other fact with the Lake Hallie Municipal Building and Fire Station being paid off the tax levy should remain stable. Both referenda deserve your support.
One of three men accused of driving past an elementary school playground Wednesday and yelling death threats and vulgar language has posted cash bond.

Hunter Gundlach, 19, La Crosse, posted a $5,000 bond that was imposed Thursday by La Crosse County Circuit Court Judge Ramona Gonzalez.

Gonzalez rejected a plea from another defendant to be released on a signature bond. Alex Pataska, 18, La Crosse, remains in the La Crosse County Jail on a $2,500 cash bond.

A third suspect, Brady Hove, 19, La Crosse, was released Thursday on a $5,000 signature bond. He is the only suspect who doesn't have another open criminal case.

All three face felony charges of making terror threats and misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct.

The three are accused of driving past Blessed Sacrament Elementary School in La Crosse during recess and yelling a stream of threats and profanities toward students on the playground. Several students told police that one person screamed, "You're all going to die." Students said the vehicle's occupants were wearing ski masks.

The complaint says police obtained video from the school and recognized the vehicle as associated with Gundlach and Pataska. The vehicle was reportedly involved in multiple theft, shoplifting and property damage complaints.

Gonzalez scheduled a March 29 preliminary hearing for Gundlach and Pataska.

Hove has an initial appearance set for March 23.
I had been bringing Holocaust survivors to La Crescent High School when I taught there.

Eighteen years ago, after retiring from teaching, I went to Rick Kyte, chairman of Ethics and Leadership at Viterbo University, where I was teaching History of the Holocaust, and proposed to him that we bring a series of Holocaust speakers to the area. Rick agreed and for all these past years we have been working together to make this dream a reality.

Since 2005, 21 Holocaust speakers and survivors have stood on the Viterbo stage, 19 of them survivors, and told their horrendous stories of inspiration. Like World War II veterans, Holocaust survivors are dying at an alarming rate. Soon the world will be left to rely on memoirs and videos to learn the lessons of the Holocaust.

My husband, Marv, and I have been blessed to spend time with all the survivors we have helped bring to our area, and their response is always the same. They cannot get over how honored they feel and how positive their welcome is. Their stories are not tales of doom and gloom but rather of love and hope. Instead of coming away depressed, audiences come away inspired and grateful for what they have. We may take our area hospitality for granted, but the survivors do not. I want you to know just how grateful Holocaust survivors are for your appreciation.

To all of you who have come to hear our survivors, thank you for your graciousness to them and for recognizing how important it is to share their stories. The interest you have shown by attending their events and by the respectful questions generated following their presentations, show them how much you care about their messages. Our community has embraced our guests. The hospitality you have shown, and the interest in their stories and lives has not gone unnoticed. Thank you for accepting the gifts Holocaust survivors have given you.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, March 23, we will bring Holocaust survivor Peter Feigl to the Viterbo Fine Arts Center to speak to our community free-of-charge. Ninety-three-year-old Peter, who graced our stage in 2012, will return in conjunction with the 16th annual Holocaust Educators Workshop at Viterbo for Holocaust educators March 23-24. He was scheduled to present a year ago but was unable to travel due to illness. Do come early to ensure getting a seat.

Peter was born in 1929 in Berlin, Germany, the only child of secular Austrian parents. Upon returning to Austria in 1937, Peters parents had him baptized as a Catholic to protect him from Nazi persecution of Jews, but he was still identified as a Jew by the Nazis. The Feigls fled several countries to escape continued discrimination and oppression, but Peters parents were arrested and murdered at Auschwitz in 1942. making him an orphan at age 13.

Helped by Quakers and others, Peter was hidden in various places including the French village of Le Chambon which helped save 3,500 Jews, mainly children. Peter wrote two diaries from August 1942 through May 1944. Defying all odds, both diaries were recovered after the war and have been cited in several documentaries, exhibits and books. Eventually in May 1944, provided with false identity papers, Peter was helped across the border into neutral Switzerland with the assistance of the Jewish underground and emigrated to the U.S. in July 1946.

He served three years in the U.S. Air Force. For 35 years, Peter pursued a career in international sales of aircraft and related services in the public sector and spent over five years as a Senior Negotiator in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He and his wife raised two daughters and have two grandsons, both Penn State graduates. Since retiring, he has traveled the world speaking about his experiences during the Holocaust. Peter is the only living diarist of the 14 featured in the book Salvaged Pages: Young Writers Diaries of the Holocaust edited by Alexandra Zapruder. Peter will sign books which will be on sale that evening.

To meet Holocaust survivors in person is to touch history. No two stories are exactly alike, but the sense of the story  the impact of terror, deprivation, and personal loss  touches the listener. It is difficult to describe the feeling of awe a person experiences when hearing history from one who lived it. Please do not miss this opportunity. It is only a matter of time before there are no more survivors to teach us the importance of not being bystanders when we see injustice occur.
According to an ancient Ukrainian legend, a chained evil monster under the earth will escape and wreck havoc throughout the world unless an abundance of Ukrainian eggs are created.

We need more people involved in saving the world, said Betsy Midthun, Ukrainian egg artist, one egg at a time.

With distressing news continuing to come out of Ukraine, the Holmen Area Community Center is offering a peaceful and hopeful alternative: an art class creating colorful eggs utilizing traditional designs, symbolism and methods.

The class will be taught by Midthun, who was first introduced to the technique in the 1980s. In 2022, she renewed her interest in the craft due to the war in Ukraine. Utilizing a wax-dye technique named pysanky, which means to write, the class provides instruction for beginners on how to create a special egg decorated with symbolic colors and designs.

The tradition of Ukrainian eggs dates back to the pre-Christian era, Midthun said. Raw eggs, symbolizing life and believed to contain great powers, were decorated in springtime and considered a talisman against evil.

Midthun said the decorating technique involves drawing with bees wax on a raw egg before dipping it in successive dye baths. Its not only fascinating but meditative and relaxing  except if you drop the raw egg, she said.

HACC will host three, three-hour classes: 1 p.m. April 2, 1:30 p.m. April 4 and 6 p.m. April 5. The classes are limited to 12-15 participants; children 10 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Cost is $25 for HACC members, $30 for nonmembers. To register, visit www.holmencc.org or call HACC at 608-399-1870.

The Holmen Area Community Center is located at 600 N. Holmen Drive. For more information, visit Holmencc.org.
In campaign stops across the state and in media interviews, conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Dan Kelly has consistently emphasized his devotion to the state Constitution.

After qualifying for the April 4 election in last months primary, Kelly praised voters who reaffirmed the centrality of the Constitution to the work of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In a 10-minute speech before the Wisconsin Counties Association Legislative Conference on Wednesday, he used the word Constitution or constitutional 14 times.

Referencing liberal opponent Janet Protasiewiczs repeated references to personal values, Kelly said later that he had no doubt that (voters are) going to come out in droves to protect the Constitution, because they know thats what protects the liberties that they treasure so much.

But some conservatives worry Kellys broad appeals to the Constitution may not be a winning strategy.

Its very difficult to imagine voters keying in so strongly on the notion of protecting the Constitution because its relatively esoteric, longtime Republican strategist Brandon Scholz said. Voters respond to issues, whether theyre for or against. But something like defending the Constitution is almost nebulous.

Its even more abstract for voters considering most probably dont know much about the state Constitution, Scholz said. They might know the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, but who knows the Wisconsin Constitution?

Kellys focus on defending the Constitution compared with Protasiewiczs concentration on specific issues makes Kellys challenge even tougher, and it makes Protasiewiczs challenge even easier, Scholz said.

Theres no public polling to show whether Kellys messaging prioritizing the Constitution is working, said Bill McCoshen, a Republican operative who had supported and given conservative candidate Jennifer Dorow advice during the primary.

But I dont think its a broad enough message, he said. The people who are hardcore supporters of the Constitution are already with Kelly. So hes not broadening his base.

Outcomes in Wisconsin Supreme Court race, challenge to abortion law seen as inextricably linked

Kellys strategy would be more effective if he talked more about Protasiewiczs embrace of issues such as abortion and redistricting and less about the state Constitution, McCoshen said.

Given what I know from our own research about the different sorts of democratic attitudes Wisconsinites hold, talking about the Constitution and ones fidelity to it probably feels good to most people, said UW-Madison journalism professor Mike Wagner, who studies political communication. But its probably not at the top of their list when theyre making a decision about who they want to be a Supreme Court judge.

Campaign spokesperson Jim Dick dismissed such concerns, adding there was an obvious reason for Kelly to focus on the states charter: The Constitution is the center of our judicial system, not something to be cast aside in favor of ones personal political ambitions.

He also criticized what he said was Protasiewiczs political ploy of hinting at how she would rule on cases, even if she wont say so outright.

In response, Protasiewicz spokesperson Sam Roecker said while she was a prosecutor and judge for decades following the Constitution, Dan Kelly has been a partisan extremist, picking and choosing what parts of the Constitution hed like to follow.

Roecker did not clarify what parts of the Constitution he alleged Kelly didnt follow.

Kellys strategy has two likely purposes, UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said.

Its a kind of general way to convey that youre serious about following the Constitution and enforcing the law and not overstepping the boundaries of your institution, Burden said. But its also kind of a nod to conservative activists  that my philosophy is like yours.

Kelly has been far less willing than Protasiewicz to discuss specific issues such as abortion and redistricting. He says thats because the race shouldnt be about political issues. But the resulting difference in the candidates messages is largely in line with how liberals and conservatives typically run campaigns.

Republicans do best in races when they make appeals to broad values, such as defending liberty, while Democrats do better when they discuss the specific changes they want to see in government, according to Michigan State University political science professor Matt Grossman and Boston College associate political science professor David Hopkins, who together wrote the book Asymmetric Politics: Ideological Republicans and Group Interest Democrats.

Abortion, crime

Which kind of messaging engages voters most depends on how the public perceives the race. As it stands, abortion is and will remain a top concern for Wisconsinites on both sides of the debate, Burden said.

After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year, Wisconsins moribund 1849 near-total ban on abortion has come back into play. Opponents are challenging the law in a case that will likely be decided by the state high court.

Janet Protasiewicz has massive early spending advantage in Wisconsin Supreme Court race

Eighty-four percent of registered voters in Wisconsin favor abortion exceptions for rape and incest, which arent included in the current ban, according to a Marquette Law School Poll from November. And only 37% of Wisconsinites favored overturning Roe v. Wade.

Crime has also become issue in the race, with conservatives going after Protasiewicz over instances where they say she was lenient on defendants. But Protasiewicz has also emphasized public safety in her ads, accusing Kelly of being soft on crime and saying he defended child sex predators in court.

Protasiewiczs crime message, Burden said, does put Kelly on the defense on an issue where he should probably have the greatest strength. So if hes having to explain or backpedal a little in that area, hes going to have real, real difficulty confronting her on the issues where she might be advantaged.

With Protasiewicz largely defining the stakes of the race and liberals making up the majority of primary voters, Kelly and conservatives have the incentive to release more hard-hitting ads and take a more aggressive position toward Protasiewicz, Burden said.

But conservatives didnt run any TV ads promoting Kelly in the first week after the primary. A conservative group since put down $1 million to boost Kelly, but thats a small fraction compared with the $7 million liberals have reserved, as of last week, in ads between the primary and general election.

This is really kind of a key point in time in the general election where conservatives have to step forward if they want to keep the seat, Scholz said.
Wisconsins longest-serving secretary of state, Doug La Follette, resigned Friday from the position he has held for more than four decades, with former state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski tabbed to lead the office.

The 82-year-old La Follettes announcement comes just months after the Democrat was reelected in November to his 11th consecutive term in office in a narrow win over Republican state Rep. Amy Loudenbeck, of Clinton.

In his resignation letter to Gov. Tony Evers, La Follette said serving as secretary of state has been the honor of my lifetime.

I am so proud of all I have accomplished in my many years of public service, and grateful for the many people Ive had the privilege of getting to know in this role, La Follette said.

Evers, a Democrat, appointed Godlewski, 41, to the role of secretary of state, effective Saturday. She becomes the third woman in state history to hold the office, according to the governors office.

Godlewski will serve the remainder of La Follettes four-year term, which concludes in January 2027.

Evers said in a statement La Follettes retirement leaves an incredibly important role to fill, and I want to thank him for his years of dedication to the people of Wisconsin throughout his long career.

In a critical position that has seen no turnover in decades, maintaining continuity with a leader whos prepared and committed to fulfilling this offices constitutional obligations could not be more important  and theres no one more uniquely qualified or better suited for the job than Sarah, Evers added.

Some pushback

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, in a statement criticized Evers for filling La Follettes seat, rather than calling for a special election. LeMahieu called on the governor to order a special election for the seat and, in the meantime, appoint either current staff or a nonpartisan individual to hold the seat until a special election is completed.

This suggests a premeditated action to award the power of incumbency to a partisan ally, LeMahieu said. It is an insult to voters of Wisconsin and our democratic process.

Godlewski led the bipartisan effort against a constitutional amendment seeking to abolish the state treasurers office. The effort was ultimately rejected by more than 60% of Wisconsin voters in 2018. Godlewski was elected state treasurer later that year.

Rather than seek reelection last year, Godlewski opted to run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Ron Johnson, of Oshkosh, but dropped out of the race before the August primary. Johnson ultimately won a third term in office last fall.

Now we see why Godlewski ducked out of the U.S. Senate race, as she was apparently promised a soft landing, Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Brian Schimming said in a statement.

I am humbled

Godlewski was appointed by Evers in 2019 to chair the Governors Task Force on Retirement Security, which worked to develop new strategies to address concerns among the states aging population, including the lack of retirement savings and security.

It was a privilege to serve the people of Wisconsin as state treasurer for four years, and I am humbled that Governor Evers has called upon me to serve as secretary of state, Godlewski said in a statement. To become just the third woman in our states history to hold this office is the honor of a lifetime. I know how important this role is and my responsibilities are, and Im looking forward to getting to work.

La Follette fended off a GOP push for his office last year that included proposals to install into the office more controls over state elections  powers that currently reside with the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The bipartisan agency faced mounting criticism from Republicans over how it handled the 2020 election, despite no evidence of widespread fraud.

Loudenbeck told The Associated Press that those who voted for La Follette should be upset and those who voted for her should be outraged.

This move coming so soon after the election raises questions once again about the tactics used by those in power who will do anything to keep that power, she said in a statement.

La Follette faced legal threats from then-state Sen. Kathy Bernier, R-Chippewa Falls, last year for not sending out documents to Congress and other states  as required by approved legislation  about holding a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution to limit federal powers. La Follette ultimately sent the documents shortly before the August primary.

Less influence

The Legislature already has stripped many of the secretary of states powers over the years. Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker removed the offices power to publish bills after La Follette delayed publishing the former governors Act 10 collective bargaining law in 2011.

The offices budget and staffing also have been reduced over time, and the office currently has just a few duties, including processing annual requests to authenticate documents for trade, travel, adoptions and education.

After many years of frustration, Ive decided I dont want to spend the next three and a half years trying to run an office without adequate resources and staffing levels, La Follette wrote in his resignation letter. After decades of public service, I must now focus on my personal needs.

La Follette did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

The secretary of state also serves on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, one of the states oldest agencies. The board has several responsibilities, including holding title to nearly 77,000 acres of school trust lands and managing more than $1 billion in assets, including the Common School Fund, which distributes annual net earnings to public school districts.

La Follette, a distant relative of former governor and U.S. Sen. Robert Fighting Bob La Follette, was first elected secretary of state in 1974 and served one term before stepping down to run for lieutenant governor.

Vel Phillips, the first Black candidate to hold statewide office in Wisconsin, was elected after La Follettes departure.
Xinhua Covers Helga Zepp-LaRouches Remarks to Pakistan Webinar on Global Security Initiative

March 17, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)Xinhua news agency featured Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and chairwoman of the Schiller Institute, in its coverage of a March 16 webinar in Pakistan, discussing the implications of Chinas Global Security Initiative in the context of the turbulent strategic situation. The Islamabad-based Asian Institute of Eco-Civilization Research and Development, a think tank headed by Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, organized the webinar. Ramay has addressed several Schiller Institute conferences. Participants in the event came together from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Malaysia, Sweden, Germany, and Russia, among other nations. Zepp-LaRouche was one of the four distinguished panelists whom Xinhua mentioned: Chinas role in regional and world peace benefits all countries in the region and the international community, and the country would continue to play its part as a world peace defender, said Helga Zepp-LaRouche, chairperson of the International Schiller Institute, Germany.

Citing the example of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, she said that China is trying to pacify the conflict in a strong diplomatic way, calling for establishing peace between the two countries. She said over 80 countries and regional organizations have expressed their appreciation and support for GSI, expressing hope that all countries would work together for the betterment of humanity.

Shakeel Ahmad Ramay of the think tank that sponsored the event, said: With the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, the GSI highlighted that the desire of having a safer and peaceful world is impossible without social and economic development as poverty and food insecurity trigger conflicts and jeopardize global security.

Founding Chairman of the Center for New Inclusive Asia Ong Tee Keat, a former Malaysian MP and Transport Minister, underlined that no country can strengthen its own security at the expense of others, saying that through GSI, the security concerns of all stakeholders are given due consideration, according to the press release.

Xinhua also covered the Deputy Minister of Economy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Abdul Latif Nazari, who said Global Security Initiative is a logical solution for ending conflicts between governments and preventing the destruction of world peace.

The Xinhua release was published on the website of Chinas State Council Information Office, the chief information office of the Chinese government. The webinar was also briefly covered on the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) website, which displayed a cabinet photo of six participants, including Stephen Brawer, chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden (BRIX); Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, Ong Tee Keat, RIAC Program Manager Julia Melnikova, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, and Minister Abdul Latif Nazari of Afghanistan.
The United States is considering updating racial and ethnic categories recognized in the country for the first time since 1997. The governments Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plans to decide on the new categories next year. It is holding three meetings open to the public this week to discuss the issue.

Supporters of the proposed changes say the new categories will help the government get more exact information about the countrys population.

The changes would create a new category for people of Middle Eastern and North African ancestry, also known by the acronym MENA. They are now classified as white but say they have been undercounted. Another change would combine questions about race and ethnicity into one.

With the changes, the government would try to get more detailed answers by asking about country of origin.

Besides helping to give a picture of the U.S. population, the categories are used to enforce civil rights, voting rights and employment discrimination laws.

The U.S. Census Bureau studies the population. It carries out a count every 10 years and collects other information about the countrys people. The study includes questions about race and ethnicity and must follow OMB definitions of such.

Currently, it includes five categories of race. They include White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.

The most recent Census study was in 2020. The Census Bureau website states that the categories generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country. And the agency notes that People may choose to report more than one race to indicate their racial mixture.

Public comments

The OMB has collected more than 4,300 comments about the possible changes.

Shalini Parekh wrote that she wants a way for South Asian people to identify themselves differently than East Asians from places like China or Japan. She said that when these groups are put into only one category, it is harder to identify issues that relate to one group but not another.

Nyhiem Way said he is tired of people mixing the terms African American and Black. He and others want to distinguish descendants of enslaved people from black immigrants from Africa who were not enslaved.

Mixing African American with Black has blurred what it means to be an African American in this country, he said.

Way works for a pharmaceutical company in Athens, Georgia, and spoke about the issue in a telephone interview.

However, some people disagree with expanding categories and classifications. They say that could weaken the idea of a single American identity and increase separation between groups.

By creating and deepening sub-national identities, the government further contributes to the decline of one national American identity, wrote Mike Gonzalez, an expert at The Heritage Foundation, a research and education group based in Washington, D.C. He commented on the OMB web page seeking public opinions on the proposed changes.

Byron Haskins is a retired government worker from Lansing, Michigan. He suggests the U.S. stop using racial and ethnic identifications. Haskins says the practice supports the continuation of deeply rooted unjust social systems and ideas.

Instead, he said people should be able to identify themselves as they wish.

You need to search for the truth and not just stay with the old categories because someone decided, That is what we decided, Haskins said.

But Houda Meroueh thinks that having more categories could be helpful. She described herself as a 73-year-old Arab American woman.

When I go to the doctors office, I do not feel they have the information necessary to understand my medical history or my culture, she said. For all these reasons I want to be counted as who I am. Not as white.

Im Andrew Smith.

Mike Schneider reported this story for The Associated Press. Andrew Smith adapted the story for Learning English.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

category -n. a classification or grouping with members that share certain characteristics

distinguish -v. to see or understand the difference between two or more things

blur -v. to make something appear unclear

interview -n. a discussion where one person asks another person questions, usually for an official purpose

contribute -v. to add to

decline -n. the weakening or diminishing of something

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A Fremont pork processing plant will be able to add a second shift and double its capacity to 5.6 million pigs a year once the company completes a plant renovation and expansion under way, a company official said this week.

Wholestone Farms will be "one of the most modern, efficient pork plants, not only in the U.S. but the world," said Luke Minion, interim chief executive officer and board chairman.

Wholestone Farms, which is owned by 200 farmers in several midwestern states, has been renovating the plant since acquiring it from Hormel in 2018.

A $25 million federal grant, announced last week, will pay a portion of the costs. Minion said his company is grateful for the grant. He said the total costs of the project are "well above" the grant amount. For comparison, he said, a new plant can cost $500 million.

The company's goal is to restore the plant to "like-new status," he said.

"That includes a number of projects: a new wastewater treatment plant that's completed already; a rendering facility, which is just about completed...; a brand-new what we call cut floor, which will be finished in September," he said. "A whole bunch of things."

Currently, the Fremont plant has about 1,300 employees and can process about 11,000 pigs a day with an eight-hour shift, he said. In a year, that's about 2.8 million pigs, he said.

Once the construction is done, the plant will be able to run 16 hours a day, adding a second shift and raising the annual capacity to roughly 5.6 million pigs a year.

The plant would add between 800 and 1,000 employees, he said.

Minion said he's confident that with some planning the company can staff the second shift from within the area.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the plant remained open, and currently it doesn't have a staffing problem, he said.

"This facility has been in this town for a very long time," he said. "And so there's a lot of people familiar with this work, familiar with this workforce, and now the facility is really all new and so it's a great place to work."

Minion said consumers should start seeing the Wholestone Farms brand more often in the retail market.

From 2018 to 2021, Wholestone Farms sold all of its products from the Fremont plant to Hormel. So people would have been buying Wholestone Farms pork with the Hormel label, he said. In 2022, the company started selling to others in addition to Hormel.

In January, for the first time, the company started putting the Wholestone Farms label on retail products, Minion said.

"You'll see Wholestone Farms in grocery stores, all across the Midwest and across the United States, and that customer list is growing for us here, and we're pretty excited about that," he said.

The grant was awarded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program.

According to the USDA, the program provides grants to help eligible processors expand their capacity.

USDA Rural Development, it said, designed the expansion program to "encourage competition and sustainable growth in the U.S. meat processing sector, and to help improve supply chain resiliency."

Minion said per-capita pork consumption hasn't changed much in the U.S., so the demand domestically has been flat, other than increases for a growing population. But exports have been growing for many years, he said.

He said that there have been discussions in the industry about whether the pork supply chain in the United States is concentrated in too few owners.

"The big four that own over 85% of the U.S. pork supply chain are not farmer-owned," he said. "So it's not only expansion of capacity. It's expansion of capacity along with diversifying who's in control of the pork supply chain."

Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg said Wholestone Farms has been a good corporate partner.

"It's been tremendous to see their growth and commitment to Fremont," he said.

He said the Wholestone Farms expansion hasn't stirred controversy the way a Costco chicken plant did a few years ago.

"Agriculture is our strength," he said.

Wholestone Farms took over a plant that was there for decades and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in it, he said.

For the most part, he said, everybody in Fremont wanted to get behind that.

"The last thing that we wanted to do in Fremont was to shut the plant south of town," Spellerberg said. "I think that we understand our strengths. We also understand the opportunities that these companies give to the people that are around the Fremont community and the businesses that support them."
Police have arrested a 32-year-old Lincoln man on suspicion of felony child abuse resulting in the death of a 22-month-old boy, who died Friday morning after he was hospitalized Sunday, according to authorities.

Joshua Tackett was already being held at the Lancaster County Jail on two weapons charges relating to the case.

Police arrested Tackett on Tuesday for the weapons charges, both felonies, and cited him Friday on suspicion of the child abuse charge, the Lincoln Police Department said in a news release.

In court records, investigators said the child's mother, a 30-year-old woman, brought the unresponsive boy to a Lincoln hospital with "numerous bruises and injuries to his body," Sunday afternoon.

Hospital staff later told police that the boy had suffered "significant injuries" and was taken by helicopter to an Omaha hospital in critical condition. He died of his injuries Friday, LPD said.

The boy's mother told police she had noticed numerous bruises and injuries on his body since she began dating Tackett in January, investigators said in court records.

Tackett is not the child's father. He lived with the boy, his mother and three other children  who have since been taken into state custody  at an apartment near Seventh and G streets, according to criminal and juvenile court filings.

Tackett's mom was charged with a felony for alleged tampering with evidence in the case. The Journal Star detailed the investigation into Tackett in a story Thursday.

It's unclear if the boy's mother will face charges.
On this version of Hot off the Wire:

 The International Criminal Court says it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

 President Joe Biden welcomed Irelands prime minister to the White House for a St. Patricks Day meeting joined by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

 Wisconsins Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette has resigned, three months into his 11th consecutive term in office.

 The mystery to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic now has some new clues. International scientists have found raccoon dog DNA comingled with the virus in previously unavailable genetic data.

 Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his government will move forward with ratifying Finlands NATO application, paving the way for the country to join the military bloc ahead of Sweden.

 China is accusing the U.S. of spreading disinformation amid reports the Biden administration is calling for TikTok's Chinese owners to sell their stakes in the company.

 Twenty years ago, the Associated Press' Yves Dam-Van and Jerry Harmer were embedded in a U.S. Marines artillery unit as it prepared to invade Iraq. As the invasion began, Harmer kept a diary. The following excerpts have been edited for brevity.
A Lincoln man has been charged with two felony gun crimes and remains under investigation for felony child abuse in the suspected homicide of a 22-month-old boy, police and prosecutors alleged in court filings.

Police were sent to CHI Health St. Elizabeth on Sunday after the child's mother, a 30-year-old woman, brought the unresponsive boy to the east Lincoln hospital with "numerous bruises and injuries to his body," Lincoln Police Officer Brent Lovette said in an emergency custody affidavit filed Tuesday in Lancaster County.

Hospital staff later told police that the boy had suffered "significant injuries" and was taken by helicopter to an Omaha hospital in critical condition.

Multiple family members later announced the boy's death on social media.

His mother told police that she had noticed numerous bruises and injuries on the boy's body since she began dating her boyfriend, Joshua D. Tackett, in January, Lovette said in the affidavit. Tackett is not the child's father.

The boy's mother said Tackett, a 32-year-old Lincoln man, had "passed out" while holding the 22-month-old in late February and fell on top of him, Lovette said.

The boy had not put weight on his swollen left leg since then, his mother told police. But she did not take him to a doctor.

The 30-year-old woman also told police that the boy fell down a staircase at their apartment, near Seventh and G streets, late last week, but seemed uninjured from the fall, Lovette said in the affidavit.

The boy's condition worsened over the course of the weekend until around noon Sunday, when his mom put him down for a nap, Lovette said in the affidavit.

When she tried to wake her son three hours later, he was unresponsive, according to the affidavit. She then took him to the hospital  weeks after his leg was injured and nearly three full days after he fell down the stairs.

Police suspected Tackett was involved in the boy's injuries nearly immediately and began surveilling his apartment, according to court records.

Hours after the boy's mom had taken him to the hospital, Tackett's own mom  58-year-old Karen Vestecka  arrived at his apartment at 720 G. St. at around 7 p.m. and left soon after, carrying a pair of shoes and a green rifle case.

Investigators performed a traffic stop on Vestecka, who told them that she had learned the 22-month-old had suffered a brain bleed, a black eye, a swollen ankle, bruising and wouldn't open his eyes, Lincoln Police Investigator Patrick Murphy said in an affidavit stemming from the traffic stop.

Police believe Vestecka retrieved Tackett's Ruger AR .556 rifle from the apartment in an effort to shield her son from felony gun charges, since Tackett is prohibited from owning firearms due to prior felony and domestic violence-related convictions, Murphy said in the affidavit.

Instead, prosecutors charged both Vestecka and her son.

The 58-year-old was charged with tampering with physical evidence, a felony, for interfering with the investigation.

And prosecutors charged Tackett  the man suspected of causing the injuries that led to the 22-month-old's death  with two counts of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person after police found a second gun, a shotgun, in his apartment, Murphy said in the affidavit for the 32-year-old's arrest.

Police arrested Tackett at his brother's house Tuesday and took him to the Lancaster County jail.

At his initial court appearance Thursday afternoon, prosecutors described Tackett as a suspect in an ongoing child abuse investigation that had led to "serious injury or death."

Deputy County Attorney Jessica Murphy said Tackett had evaded law enforcement for two days after the 22-month-old was taken to the hospital by "hiding out" at a relative's house.

Tackett has not been charged in the boy's death.

For the firearms charges, Judge Laurie Yardley set Tackett's percentage bond at $500,000. The 32-year-old must pay $50,000 to be released.

Three other children who lived at the apartment Tackett shared with the 22-month-old's mother have been taken into state custody.

It's unclear if the mother is under criminal investigation in her son's death.

The Lincoln Police Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday afternoon.
Police are investigating a pair of deaths at a southwest Lincoln home believed to be accidental, the department said.

Shortly before noon on Friday, Lincoln Police were called to a home in the 700 block of Old Cheney Road where they found a 31-year-old man and a 30-year-old man dead in a garage at the rental home, according to a press release from Lincoln Police.

According to the press release, a 35-year-old man reported that he discovered his two roommates unresponsive in the garage.

Four additional residents of the same home were transported to an area hospital as a precaution for suspected carbon monoxide poisoning, according to the release.

Several people who lived at the residence spoke with officers as police and fire vehicles blocked traffic. A few of those individuals went with police to be interviewed along with an Spanish-language interpreter.

Police said the investigation is in the very early stages. Investigators were still on the scene Friday afternoon collecting evidence and working to determine the circumstances surrounding this incident.

The Lincoln Police Department is asking anyone with information about this incident to call 402-441-6000 or if they wish to remain anonymous to call Crime Stoppers at 402-475-3600.
Agriculture producers in Nebraska have earned their standing as world leaders in agriculture through their excellence and tradition of respecting the natural resources with which our state is blessed. No one cares more about the land and water of our state than the farmers and ranchers whose livelihoods depend on careful management these resources.

Unfortunately, top-down overreach from Washington  such as the President Bidens 30 by 30 Executive Order, which created an arbitrary target of setting aside at least 30 percent of U.S. land and water for public conservation by 2030  demonstrates how out of touch the White House is with so many Americans. For generations, Third District communities, small businesses, agriculture operations, and landowners have relied on sustainable stewardship to preserve our states agriculture-driven lifestyle and economy. Across the nation, local communities know best the needs and characteristics of their resources, and it is imperative we continue to fight for their rights amid unprecedented encroachment from Washington bureaucrats.

Within our federal system of checks and balances Congress has a tool to rein in the executive branch called the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The CRA allows Congress to nullify, through votes in both the House and Senate, regulations proposed by the executive branch, even if a regulation has already taken effect.

Previously, I led the effort in the House to use the CRA to block the Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. The Obama administrations WOTUS rule had grossly enlarged EPA authority over land and water through a redefinition of federal jurisdiction of navigable waterways in the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA). Unfortunately, after my resolution easily passed both the House and Senate, it was vetoed by President Obama.

This goes to show how many fights in Washington are fought over many years. In the case of Sackett v. EPA, WOTUS has been the subject of a fifteen-year legal battle after EPA claimed the CWAs redefinition of navigable waterways applied to the Sackett familys land in Idaho.

Much to the relief of farmers and ranchers across the country, in December 2018, President Trumps EPA announced a replacement rule, which both honored relevant court decisions and included a more appropriate definition of navigable waterways. However, President Biden undid this progress by proposing a new WOTUS rule.

The Supreme Court is now expected to rule on Sacket v. EPA to clarify among the various ways federal courts have interpreted the CWA. In 2022, I joined in sending the court an amicus brief to express my strong support for limiting EPAs overreaching definition of WOTUS and for policies that protect the environment while also ensuring that states retain their traditional role as the primary regulators of land and water resources.

This week, with my support, the House passed H.J.Res. 27, a CRA resolution to formally disapprove of the Biden administrations ongoing assault on rural America. WOTUS is an unconstitutional enlargement of federal authority and threatens the rights of farmers and ranchers across the country to manage even the ditches and puddles on their property.

I have great confidence in our ability to develop workable solutions to protect our planet for future generations; however, the answer is not in handing more power to Washington bureaucrats far removed from the needs of most Americans. Failing to stop the administrations overreaching WOTUS rule would devastate communities, hardworking families, and small business owners across Nebraska  which will inevitably lead to even higher costs for consumers, especially at a time we cannot afford them.
Oscar Balderas had recently moved from one unit into another in his Monona Hills apartment building when he woke up to the smell of smoke early Saturday.

With his jacket in his previous apartment, unit 129, Balderas walked down the hall, prepared to go through the motions of a minor accident, as if it were a drill  not the deadly blaze it proved to be.

Thats when he saw the fire through a window, right above unit 112  the one he had just moved into.

I saw that fire, just all over. Oh my God, said Balderas, 68.

One person is dead and at least 70 people were evacuated in the fire that broke out in the apartment building at 353 Owen Road in Monona.

Authorities had not released the name of the person found dead.

Damage to the building, which is not habitable, is expected to exceed $2 million, authorities said. A precise cause was not determined.

Firefighters were already on their way for a fire alarm at about 3:45 a.m. when dispatchers received additional calls from residents reporting smoke and flames, Monona Fire Chief Jeremy McMullen said. Initial calls had come in about 3:30 a.m.

Firefighters arrived to find heavy fire and smoke, with debris falling from the building at times, McMullen said at a news conference Saturday afternoon.

The fire was brought under control by 9 a.m., and one person was found dead, McMullen said.

The fire appears to have started in the vicinity of apartment 204 and appears to have been unintentional, he said. Firefighters also rescued six cats, most of which are in the care of Dane County Animal Services.

Kisiah Johnson, 52, was also asleep in her apartment when she awoke to the smell of smoke.

Once she realized the severity of what was happening, she jumped into action and left as quickly as possible.

I was like, Where are my joggers? Johnson said. I grabbed my coat, unplugged my cell phone, grabbed (my bag) and got out the door.

I started banging on peoples doors, saying it was a real fire, Balderas said.

While Balderas helped a neighbor evacuate through the stairs, Johnson was in the parking lot waiting with others.

I had a lady in my car. She just had on a T-shirt and a shawl, Johnson said, remembering how hectic the aftermath was. Once I got her in the car ... I needed to use the bathroom, so I went to the Kwik Trips and then came back and was just driving around to see how it was.

All Johnson could say as she saw the burning building was, This is crazy. Crazy.

The fire was upstairs, but it spread all the way down through the elevator. So I know my apartment, it ... it burned all the way down, said Balderas.

I dont want to go through that ever again, he said. Ever again.

The American Red Cross opened a shelter for those displaced by the fire at St. Stephens Lutheran Church, 5700 Pheasant Hill Road, Monona. Food and essentials were being provided in addition to any shelter needs.

Many agencies in Dane County and beyond responded and assisted in the evacuation, McMullen said.

Even the Red Cross was unaware of how severe the damage would be.

We had our disaster action team respond right away to help with immediate needs on the ground, and then as time went on we realized, Oh boy, this is going to be much larger, said Kyle Kriegl, executive director of the Southwest Wisconsin Chapter of the American Red Cross.

There were between 30 and 35 residents at the Red Cross shelter Saturday. It was not known how long a shelter would be needed.

Well be working with them and kind of determining that for each on a case by case basis, but that could all depend on what their needs are, Kriegl said.

Donations or help can be arranged through the Red Cross at 1-800-236-8680.

Remembering the 1996 fire that destroyed Madison's Hotel Washington Hotel Washington before the fire Club de Wash before the fire Hotel Washington fire Hotel Washington fire Hotel Washington fire Hotel Washington fire Hotel Washington in ruins People watch Hotel Washington blaze Hotel Washington fire Hotel Washington fire Fighting the fire Extinguishing hot spot Friends embrace Freezing water Hotel Washington fire Barber's Closet fire damage Hotel Washington flowers Gutted hotel with flag Hotel Washington vigil Hotel Washington service Fire investigators Salvaging what they can Washington Hotel steps State Journal front page Feb. 19, 1996 State Journal coverage Feb. 19, 1996 State Journal coverage Feb. 19, 1996 Trumpf Hotel, 1906 Hotel Washington in 1935
Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz said she favors the court debating its administrative rules in public, but conservative candidate Daniel Kelly said such a policy promotes grandstanding instead of efficiency.

Those hearings should be open, Protasiewicz told the Wisconsin State Journal editorial board on Tuesday. Im all about transparency.

She noted that Kelly was among the five conservative justices who in 2017 voted to curtail the 22-year practice of allowing the public access to Wisconsin Supreme Court meetings where the justices deliberate on rules pertaining to the state court system.

I find that decision disturbing, she said.

In the previously public meetings, Wisconsin high court justices would discuss and vote on changing judicial policies across the state court system, from when they should recuse themselves from Supreme Court cases and rules regarding evidence to coming up with new ways to encourage state lawyers to provide free legal services.

Some hearings on proposed rules remain public under a state law, but the votes on those rules are private.

It was obvious to me that when the camera was on, there were people who were grandstanding, Kelly told the State Journal editorial board on Thursday in describing his opposition to making the meetings public. His vote to return to closed meetings was meant to facilitate frankness and open conversation between the justices, he said.

Deliberating over rules in closed meetings brought about the openness and willingness to test and to debate the issues that came before us, which trumped the lack of transparency by not allowing public access, Kelly said.

In 1995, the Wisconsin Supreme Court justices voted unanimously to meet in public when it deliberates on petitions to alter its rules, making it the first state in the country to do so. Four years later, the court further expanded its open meeting policy.

That policy allowed the public to tune into, for example, the justices considering whether concealed weapons should be allowed in the court and whether they should recuse themselves from cases in which the litigants have donated to their campaigns.

In 2012, the court rolled back its open meetings policy, and did so again five years later, drawing ire from the liberal bloc on the court.

Proponents of the change said closed sessions would promote collegiality. Opponents said it would reduce transparency.

Kelly also expressed doubt Thursday about proposed rules that would require justices to recuse themselves from a case if theyve received a campaign contribution from litigants or their attorneys.

If those who advocate (for) a particular person being elected would know that theres no possibility that (the candidate) could sit on a case that they would have, that would chill their speech, Kelly said. Theyd be unwilling to speak, because they would want the full court to have the ability to sit on and decide the case thats come before it.

The candidates previously differed on a similar recusal question. Protasiewicz said she would recuse herself from cases involving the Democratic Party of Wisconsin after the organization donated $2.5 million to her campaign. Kelly, who hasnt received a direct donation close to that amount, said hed consider recusing himself on a case-by-case basis.

Thats one of the reasons why Ive not received contributions like that, because I dont want that to create a potential recusal problem, Kelly said.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin raised $56,061 in the first five weeks of 2023. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin raised over $3.5 million in that period.

Republican Party of Wisconsin chair Brian Schimming since said on WisconsinEye that the partys fundraising numbers have since increased drastically.

One proposed recusal rule asked for justices to recuse themselves from cases if a litigant donated $1,000 or more to their election campaigns. Another proposed rule would require recusal if a litigant or one of the lawyers on a case donated $10,000 or more.

Every single proposal that Ive seen so far deals with half the ledger, Kelly said. We talk about what if an individual or organization has supported you in your run for the court? And we never talk about what happens if an individual or organization spent massive amounts opposing you.

Resentment is a more powerful emotion than gratitude, he added.

But he expressed doubt about a rule requiring justices to recuse themselves from cases involving groups based on their donations, saying it could lead to sophisticated gameplay.

You could have organizations that would choose to spend heavily against a justice, knowing that if that justice wins and then a case comes before the court, you can force them off the case, Kelly said.
Madison has won final approval to create a potent tax incremental financing district that could help deliver a record $115 million to support a host of initiatives on the evolving South Side.

The Madison Joint Review Board, made up of representatives from the city, Madison School District, Dane County and Madison Area Technical College, on Friday unanimously approved the new TIF district that can mean tens of millions of dollars for housing, streets, parks, bus rapid transit stations, bike and pedestrian improvements, development loans, land purchases, small business assistance and more.

Im really excited, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said. Im grateful for the Joint Review Boards approval. This will bring an unprecedented level of investment to the South Side.

The borders of the TIF district, called TID 51, are the Beltline, Fish Hatchery Road, John Nolen Drive and Wingra Creek. Its intended to address long-overdue infrastructure needs, historical inequities and needs from absorbing much of the town of Madison last fall, city officials have said.

All told, TID 51 is projected to have $99.4 million in costs eligible for TIF funding, and $15.5 million in costs that would be repaid through assessments to property owners or with state or federal grants. The city also intends to apply a so-called half-mile rule that allows the city to spend tax revenues within a half-mile of the districts boundaries.

Also Friday, because some TIF districts take time before they start producing new tax revenue, the Joint Review Board unanimously approved amending the project plans of two successful TIF districts on the Near East and East sides to donate $65.2 million in support of TID 51 over its first five years.

In addition, the board amended an existing district on the South Side, TID 42, to provide $2.8 million for stormwater and parking structure costs at the Village on Park mall.

In January 2022, the City Council adopted the South Madison Plan, which recommended the creation of a new TIF district to help address displacement due to gentrification, increase home ownership and maximize opportunities for existing residents and business owners.

With TIF, the citys most potent economic development tool, the city and other local taxing entities agree to freeze property values in an area. Tax revenues from growth are then invested in private development, initiatives or public infrastructure. When investments are repaid, the district is closed and the higher-valued property is fully returned to the tax rolls.

Madison appears on a lot of 'best of' lists. Here are 25 of them Best place to live Best Beer Best biking Best city for the young and broke Best state capitals Best naked bike ride Most caring city Best remote work situation Best city for recent grads Best city to rent with pets Best School Best place for kids Best food truck Best college football Sportiest city Best outdoor activities Best work-life balance Best city for runners Best scientists Best place to walk Most successful women Greenest city Best place to retire Happiest city Most dog-friendly city
As the U.S. Supreme Court mulls the constitutionality of President Joe Bidens broad student loan forgiveness plan, lawmakers in many states are looking to expand their own student debt repayment programs.

Every state but North Dakota has at least one loan forgiveness plan. The catch is that most of the 129 state plans are tailored to just a single industry or profession  such as doctors, teachers, police officers or farmers. Or the plans are targeted to people who agree to work in places with a dire need for their services.

Maine, for example, awards forgivable loans to high school, college or graduate students who are state residents and intend to become teachers  but recipients must repay the money, with interest, if they end up working out of state. California has a loan repayment program for physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners and other health care providers who agree to practice in areas with a shortage of those professionals.

In contrast, Bidens plan would provide loan forgiveness of up to $20,000 for any individual borrower making less than $125,000.

But the same factors driving Bidens plan  namely, the fast-rising cost of higher education and the mountain of debt Americans have accumulated to pay for it  are spurring many states to consider expanding their plans. At least two dozen bills are moving through legislatures this spring.

Nearly 44 million borrowers owe a total of $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt, an average of $37,574 per person, according to the Education Data Initiative, an education research group.

I think theres been a lot of pressure, over the past five or 10 years, for states to step in due to the weight of student debt, said Adam Minsky, a Boston lawyer whose practice is devoted to helping student loan borrowers. If the (Supreme) Court strikes down (Bidens) initiative, it would add pressure for states to step in.

Minsky said he doesnt think a ruling that strikes down Bidens program would adversely affect state programs, largely because the state plans are so narrowly tailored. The legal challenge to Bidens order revolves around a post-9/11 law that gives the secretary of education the power to forgive the student loans of borrowers affected by a war or a national emergency.

The plaintiffs, six Republican attorneys general, are challenging the Biden administrations argument that the COVID-19 pandemic was a qualifying emergency.

Minsky, who also is the author of a handbook on student loans aimed at lawyers and law students, said its unlikely any state would adopt a broad plan like Bidens, mostly because of the open-ended cost.

State programs, including the ones under consideration by legislatures this year, generally are capped.

Georgia lawmakers are considering at least four bills, including one that would repay loans for college graduates who become law enforcement officers.

Republican state Sen. Bo Hatchett said he introduced that bill on behalf of GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, who included the plan in his budget. Both the House and Senate have passed versions of the legislation, and as soon as one chamber passes the others bill, it will be sent to Kemp for his signature.

Law enforcement officers are critical to the state, but often they are faced with seeking other careers to pay off their loans, Hatchett said in a phone interview. The bills would allocate $3.2 million to fund loan repayment for up to 800 officers, up to $20,000 per officer, in exchange for five years of service in a law enforcement role in Georgia.

He said the program will be open  first come, first served  regardless of what major the officers degree is in.

Across the state of Georgia and across the country, were seeing a shortage of law enforcement officers, he said, who are critical to protecting the citizens of the state and who are heeding the call of public service.

Kemp is one of 22 Republican governors who signed a letter opposing Bidens student loan forgiveness plan. In an email to Stateline, Kemps spokesperson, Garrison Douglas, said there is no comparison, since Bidens plan was formed by executive fiat, while the legislative branch is shaping the Georgia program.

The other bills in Georgia would forgive college loans for certain nursing faculty, medical examiners and General Assembly staff members. The nursing faculty and medical examiner bills each have been approved by one chamber.

Representatives from both parties in other legislatures also are working on expanding financial assistance for certain kinds of workers. Two bills in New York, for example, would increase the amount of student loan reimbursement from $3,400 per year to as much as $8,000 a year for attorneys serving the indigent.

Meanwhile, in Missouri, a GOP-sponsored bill would forgive student loans for a broad swath of health care professionals who agree to work in underserved counties. The amounts of the loan forgiveness and the specific counties would be left to the state health department.

And in Maryland, a bipartisan $2 million bill would give veterinarians who have at least $40,000 in student loans from veterinary school up to $20,000 per year, for up to five years. The bill is a response to the shortage of vets in Maryland, which is also a problem around the country.

4 charts that show what Biden's student loan forgiveness means for America 4 charts that show what Biden's student loan forgiveness means for America One-third of federal borrowers would see their debt completely forgiven The rising cost of tuition has made it harder for students and families to pay for college Average federal loan packages have grown faster than the average grant size Today, loans are one of the most widely distributed forms of federal aid
This State Journal editorial ran on Feb. 28, 1993:

It's the transportation equivalent of the age-old question, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" If Highway 12 between Middleton and Sauk City is expanded to a four-lane divided highway, will the state be laying the "egg" of more development and traffic? If the state fails to modernize one of the most unsafe highways in southern Wisconsin, is it ignoring a 400-pound "chicken" that is certain to devour more victims?

There is no question in our minds which comes first, and that's plucking the killer chicken. It is time to put the lives of people ahead of the overblown fears of those who think a wider strip of asphalt will forever destroy the rural character of northwest Dane County.

To travel from Middleton to Sauk City along Highway 12 can be a pleasure drive. Neat farms, rolling hills and picturesque valleys are there to break up the monotony for motorists -- if they dare take their eyes off the road. For all its scenery and character, Highway 12 is treacherous. It has a fatal accident rate more than three times higher than other routes in its class. In the past seven years alone, 20 people have lost their lives on this highway and scores more have come dangerously close.

Each day, according to the state Department of Transportation, 11,000 vehicles travel this stretch of Highway 12. That's up 1,000 vehicles per day from the previous year. By 2000, no other rural two-lane highway in Wisconsin will carry more traffic. ...

Opponents say a four-lane highway only invites more development and more traffic, but the reality is that Highway 12 congestion will only get worse, no matter what the state does to improve the road.

The DOT's "Brake 12" route safety program has helped, but it's only a stopgap solution. The Highway 12 Study Committee, the state Transportation Projects Commission and most local officials agree - a four-lane freeway is overdue. The Dane County Regional Planning Commission has included a four-lane Highway 12 in its regional transportation plan since 1978, and the Transportation Projects Commission recently ranked Highway 12 expansion at the top of its priority list.

What about the "egg'' argument? Won't a four-lane Highway 12 invite sprawl? Not if citizens, local officials, regional planners and the DOT insist otherwise.

It's important to remember that DOT is planning an expressway much like Highway 151 in western Dane County, which means limited access. The agency has already promised it will restrict access to points approved by local governments. That precludes strip development. The DOT has also pledged to work with public and private agencies on carpooling, van-pooling and commuter bus strategies for Highway 12 and elsewhere in Dane County.

A four-lane expressway will cut the death rate by 70%, reduce the accident rate by even more, save energy and serve people and businesses in Sauk City, Baraboo, Reedsburg and Middleton. There are legitimate environmental and planning concerns, but they can be met while proceeding with Highway 12 expansion plans. The chicken comes first; the egg can be kept in its shell.
Reviving offline fairs show China's burgeoning economic recovery

09:08, March 18, 2023 By Hong Zehua, Ye Ting, Deng Ruixuan, Ding Le ( Xinhua

* As China has dynamically optimized and adjusted its COVID-19 prevention measures, Chinese and overseas enterprises are looking forward to participating in more offline fairs this year.

* After the Spring Festival holiday, Guangzhou has held more than ten offline fairs and exhibits, with over 50 events lined up for the first quarter of the year, according to the municipal commerce authority.

* Fairs and conventions serve as bridges between supply and demand, gathering people, goods, capital, and technology to promote industrial upgrading, employment, consumption, resource allocation, and innovative development.

GUANGZHOU, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Surrounded by butterfly- and rabbit-shaped lamps, workers are busy assembling illuminations, while others rehearse for the highly anticipated light show at the upcoming 28th China (Guzhen) International Lighting Fair (GILF).

Set to kick off on March 18, the fair in Guzhen Town, Zhongshan City, south China's Guangdong Province, has fully resumed offline exhibitions with an exhibition area of more than 1.5 million square meters, said Kuang Zhi, secretary of the Party committee of Guzhen Town.

Last year, the 28th GILF was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it has been rescheduled for this year and has attracted more than 3,500 companies and over 60,000 registered professional buyers, including more than 2,400 professional buyers from over 110 countries and regions.

Located in the Pearl River Delta, Zhongshan is one of China's manufacturing hubs featuring furniture, home appliances, and illuminations. Exhibitions and fairs are crucial for local enterprises as they facilitate transactions and cooperation.

As China has dynamically optimized and adjusted its COVID-19 prevention measures, Chinese and overseas enterprises are looking forward to participating in more offline fairs this year.

People visit the 27th China (Guzhen) International Lighting Fair (GILF) in Zhongshan, south China's Guangdong Province, Oct. 22, 2021. (Xinhua)

BOOMING EVENTS

"I will not lose this chance to see and check new items here," said Issam Sarakbi, a buyer from Syria visiting the GILF, who advised his friends working in the illumination industry to come to China. Face-to-face meetings are helpful for building trust and cooperation, he added.

Besides the GILF, the Fifth National Forest Fire Protection Equipment Exhibition and Emergency Rescue Equipment Exhibition was held on Feb. 8 in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou.

The fair featured hundreds of advanced products and technologies, including aviation firefighting equipment and intelligent unmanned aerial vehicles. It is estimated that over 80 percent of exhibitors who attended the fair received purchasing orders.

"It's a pleasure to meet our old friends face-to-face again. We are excited to take advantage of the event to showcase our advanced products to buyers nationwide," said Shen Dong, director of an exhibiting company.

After the Spring Festival holiday, Guangzhou has held more than ten offline fairs and exhibits, with over 50 events lined up for the first quarter of the year, according to the municipal commerce authority.

"Member companies of our association are eager to hold exhibitions as offline fairs resume," Lu Xiaokun, deputy director of Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Association.

The 13th China Guangzhou International Performing Arts Fair, part of the Guangzhou Cultural Industry Fair, concluded last week with an estimated turnover of about 500 million yuan.

The event attracted around 500 participants from 35 countries and regions, including performing arts groups, stage performing companies, management companies, and other industry players.

Offline fairs have seen a comeback as China optimized and adjusted measures for COVID-19 prevention and control. Exhibitors scramble to register for upcoming events.

Suspended last year due to the pandemic, the Beijing Book Fair has resumed offline, attracting over 100,000 visitors since commencing on Feb. 24. Over 700 publishers gathered at the exhibition center, bringing about 400,000 kinds of exquisitely printed books with rich content for the audience.

The whole industry was eager to see a business comeback, said Zhang Shuo, a publicity manager from the Beijing-based publisher CITIC Press Group. Many publishers sent out invitations to distributors nationwide, designed their exhibition booths and organized live-streaming teams for the fair after the Spring Festival holiday.

This photo taken on Dec. 29, 2022 shows the exterior view of an exhibition hall of the China Import and Export Fair in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Lu Hanxin)

BUILDING CONFIDENCE

Fairs and conventions serve as bridges between supply and demand, gathering people, goods, capital, and technology to promote industrial upgrading, employment, consumption, resource allocation, and innovative development, said Chu Xiangyin, chief research fellow at China Convention/Exhibition/Event Society.

The long-established Canton Fair, also known as the China Import and Export Fair, will kick off both offline and online on April 15 in Guangzhou. The exhibition area will reach 1.5 million square meters this year, with more than 30,000 Chinese and foreign companies expected to partake in the fair's 133rd session.

As offline exhibitions resume this year, buyers and sellers from all over the world look forward to seeing the largest scale Canton Fair ever, said Harley Seyedin, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in South China.

Lu Xiaokun expects a surge in the exhibition industry in the first quarter of 2023, which will boost industry confidence and promote social consumption while also promoting the resumption of work and production.

Last year, the Central Economic Work Conference emphasized developing the modern service sector and unlocking the domestic market's potential. This year's government work report also mentioned that major trade events have delivered positive results, which boosted reform and development with high-standard opening up.

"Fairs are an important platform for building a modern market system and an open economic system, and have become a leading industry in promoting economic development," said Chen Xunchao, deputy director of the Trade Development Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce.

Chen added that fairs play a vital role in promoting high-level opening-up and high-quality development by connecting supply and demand and linking circulation and consumption.

The Boao Forum for Asia is a non-governmental and non-profit international organization committed to promoting regional economic integration and advancing the development goals of Asian countries. Its annual conference will be held entirely offline from March 28 to 31 this year.

Representatives of governments, business, academia and media from all over the world will be invited to attend the event, seeking strategies for development and ways to deepen cooperation in the international community, according to the forum's official website.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
The United States and China are in a race, and the winner will determine the leading superpower of the future.

While this contest has been going on for many years, Americans from all walks of life are starting to see it in their everyday lives, raising concerns.

The impacts of this competition are all around us  just look up. A Chinese-made aerial object was recently spotted crossing the sky over the United States. While this spy balloon is just one instance in a series of escalations from China, its a visible sign to Americans just how real the threat is.

The Chinese Communist Party wants to replace the United States as a global superpower, whether through technological supremacy, economic dominance or military innovation. Chinese President Xi Jinpings own report laying out the future of China confirms his long-term policy agenda focused on political control and global influence, including through technology innovation.

The director of the FBI has even gone as far to say, The greatest long-term threat to our nations information and intellectual property, and our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China  and by extension, to our national security.

But the risk never seems to have been this great, or this clearly displayed.

Nowhere is this greater than in new technology. This area of competition between our two nations has rightly been put under a national spotlight because of Chinas significant and concerning advances.

Chinas tech growth didnt happen by accident. China has poured resources into its tech sector as Xi views it as an essential component to advancing Chinas leadership. According to a recent report, China is investing about $1.4 trillion from 2020 and 2025.

To counter this rising threat from China, Congress must support smart policy solutions that advance and strengthen American technology and innovation  a vital asset to our national security and economic prosperity  and ensure that new emerging technologies are coming from U.S. companies rooted in our values. If not, we will be handing over our leadership to China, which has leveraged cutting-edge technologies to surveil and spy on its people.

As a veteran who has fought for our freedoms, this threat from China should not be taken lightly. What if the U.S. military was left depending on tech from China? From securing our data and deterring cyberattacks, technology is vital to our national security. We need to invest in our own companies to ensure we never end up in a place where we have to rely on foreign companies.

Thankfully, Wisconsinites have Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Green Bay, chairing the Select Subcommittee on China, ensuring we address this growing threat from China and understand the stakes.

This committee helps ensure we dont see a future where China becomes the number one tech exporter. Our economy, national security and freedoms depend on our ability to compete and lead.
A plan to transplant grizzly bears into the Bitterroot Mountains thats been stalled for 22 years must be actively reconsidered, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

Because the (U.S. Fish and Wildlife) Service has unreasonably delayed in implementing its 2000 Record of Decision and Final Rule regarding grizzly bears and failed to conduct a supplemental EIS (environmental impact statement) based on the changed circumstances, plaintiffs succeed, U.S. District Judge Don Molloy wrote in his March 15 opinion in Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystem Alliance v. FWS and Idaho. Molloy ordered FWS to present a plan for updating the Bitterroot grizzly project by April 15, or he would impose a timeline himself.

The case stems from an effort in the 1990s to create an experimental population of grizzly bears in the Bitterroot Ecosystem  one of six recovery areas designated as grizzly habitat under the Endangered Species Act protection plan. While the 25,140-square-mile expanse of the Bitterroots along the Montana-Idaho border and an extensive roadless and wilderness complex farther west in Idaho were historic grizzly strongholds, the entire population was killed off in the early 20th century.

After almost 15 years of public debate and scientific research, FWS approved a plan to transplant 25 grizzly bears in the Bitterroot Ecosystem in 2000. Unlike naturally occurring grizzlies in the Northern Continental Divide and Greater Yellowstone ecosystems, those Bitterroot bears would be an experimental population managed through a local community advisory committee.

But the FWS plan was finalized just as President Bill Clintons administration was transitioning to that of President George W. Bush. Bushs Interior Department officials changed course in 2001 and chose a no action option. Confusingly, that 2001 proposed rule was never officially adopted.

Now, almost 40 years have passed, and nothing has been done; no bears, no community advisory committee, no community or other educational instruction in towns or schools for bear safety, safe practices in garbage storage techniques, and other ways to reduce attracting bears, Molloy wrote. Because the federal government had never officially dropped the reintroduction plan, Molloy ruled it was obligated to carry out its commitment.

However, the intervening 22 years have complicated everyones positions, to the point Molloy wrote further delay may be the most appropriate remedy to ensure that grizzly bear recovery efforts are based on contemporaneous and accurate scientific data  The remedy conundrum creates the unenviable prospect of forgiving one wrong to prevent another.

The biggest change came from the grizzly bears themselves. Specifically, last year, government biologists confirmed a grizzly sow had successfully denned and had cubs in the Bitterroot Ecosystem. Along with a growing collection of sightings, tracking collar records and other evidence of grizzly presence, bear advocates decided to revive the debate over the dormant plan.

The confirmed bear den was the trigger, Alliance for the Wild Rockies Executive Director Michael Garrity said on Thursday. The Bitterroot ecosystem is the lynchpin to recovering and delisting grizzly bears because it is the connecting corridor between the Cabinet-Yaak, Selkirk, Northern Continental Divide and Yellowstone ecosystems grizzly populations. Of all remaining unoccupied grizzly bear habitat in the Lower 48 states, this area has the best potential for grizzly bear recovery, primarily due to the large wilderness area. To recover and delist grizzly bears, there has to be one connected population.

Under FWS rules, the agency cant set up an experimental population in the same place a naturally occurring population has occupied. In his order, Molloy resolved that problem by ordering FWS to complete a new environmental impact statement reviewing how the bears are managed and what people must do to ensure they can persist there.

Grizzly bears received threatened status under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. At that time, fewer than 1,000 grizzlies still survived in the Lower 48 states  down from an estimated 50,000 at the time of the Lewis and Clark Voyage of Discovery in 1805. And while those grizzlies used to roam almost everywhere west of the Dakotas between Canada and Mexico, the remainder were restricted to about 2% of their former habitat.

Today, about 2,000 grizzlies occupy the Rocky Mountains between Glacier National Park and northern Idaho south to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of Wyoming and Idaho. The governors of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming have all petitioned to have the grizzly delisted from federal protection. In February, FWS began a formal review of the grizzlys ESA status. However, it noted that recent state efforts to liberalize grizzly killing could result in continued ESA management, rather than delisting.

The presence of grizzly bears in the Bitterroots can affect lots of other human activity. For example, proposals to log old-growth forests and mine in the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly recovery area of northwest Montana have to account for the impacts on the roughly 50 grizzlies living there. Grizzly activity in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem restricts the use of hounds for hunting black bears and access for snowmobiles. Molloy noted in his order that FWS delay in implementing the 2000 grizzly reintroduction plan resulted in nobody in the Bitterroots having policies in place to keep bears out of trash, keep hikers food secured in the backcountry or other adaptations common in places like Kalispell or West Yellowstone.

FWS spokesman Joe Szuszwalak said the agency was reviewing Molloys decision and had no further comment on Thursday.
The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund has released $10 million to help the Government of Mozambique cope with the aftermath of Tropical Storm Freddy, which left 51 dead and much destruction.

The announcement was made by the spokesperson of the UN Secretary-General on Thursday, 16, in New York, at his daily press conference.

Stephane Dujarric added that in addition to this aid, our partners continue to work closely with the authorities to help some 49,000 displaced people who are seeking safety in nearly 140 accommodation centers.

Also according to Dujarric, in Malawi, which counts almost 300 dead so far, UN Resident Coordinator Rebecca Adda-Dontoh is visiting the flood-affected areas and has called on the international community to increase its solidarity with people affected by the cyclone.

The World Food Program has made available additional search and rescue capacity, which has now reached 200 people.

Operations, however, have been hampered by the difficult weather. We are also facing challenges in delivering supplies, said the spokesman for the UN secretary-general.
International NGO Doctors without Borders denounced on Friday Algerias continuing expulsion of thousands of migrants who are abandoned in the desert of northern Niger without access to shelter, healthcare, protection, or basic necessities.

Thousands of migrants expelled by Algeria and abandoned in the desert (in the north) of Niger are stranded, without access to shelter, health care, protection or basic necessities, the NGO said in a statement referring to an unprecedented situation.

Between 11 January and 3 March 2023, 4,677 migrants arrived into Assamaka, the NGO noted, adding that fewer than 15% of them were able to access shelter or protection when they arrived.

The Integrated Health Centre (IHC) in Assamaka supported by MSF is overwhelmed as thousands of migrants are seeking shelter in the facility.

The majority of people who have recently arrived in Assamaka have settled in the IHC compound, due to a lack of space in the transit centre, said Schemssa Kimana, MSF project coordinator for Agadez, quoted in the statement.

According to Kimana, there are people sleeping in every corner of the facility. Some have set up makeshift tents at the entrance or in the courtyard. Others are camping in front of the maternity ward, on the roof, or in the waste area.

Temperatures in Assamaka  an arid town  can reach 48 degrees Celsius, so people seek refuge from the heat wherever they can find it. This has led people to sleep in very unhygienic places, such as waste areas, which can expose them to health risks including contagious diseases and skin infections.

The lack of available shelter forcing people to sleep in these conditions is appalling. This situation is now an emergency  it is untenable for anyone to remain living in these conditions.
As the new dean of the University of Montanas Alexander Blewett III School of Law, Elaine Gagliardi hopes to build upon her alma mater's strong program by focusing on tradition and improved communication.

After the law schools first search for a dean failed last spring, Gagliardi decided to apply for the position with the encouragement of her colleagues, students and alumni.

It was heartwarming to have people that Ive admired very much support me in what I was doing as interim dean, Gagliardi said. Im a graduate of this school. Ive loved this school. Ive given a lot of my life to this school and its very important to me.

Born and raised in Missoula, Gagliardi obtained a bachelor's degree in economics from Yale in 1982, returned to Montana to get her law degree from UM in 1985 and later received a specialized law degree in taxation from New York University.

She also served two judicial clerkships and worked as an attorney at firms in Washington and Connecticut before returning to Missoula, where she worked for George Law Offices with her uncle Alex George, who inspired her to become a lawyer.

Since stepping into the role as interim dean of the law school last summer, Gagliardi has already worked to re-engage students with traditions that went into hibernation during the COVID pandemic.

I knew we had incredible students, Gagliardi said. Coming back from COVID, what I learned when I began visiting with students at the beginning of the year is that we really needed to build our community, return to our traditions.

In those conversations, she learned that some law students did not know who Bertha was. Bertha, the beloved mounted moose of the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, has been kidnapped by law school students for nearly a century. As retribution, forestry students fill the lobby of the law school with trees.

They had not heard about Bertha and this is like a 100-year tradition at our law school, Gagliardi said. So we visited about that and they went and stole Bertha and the foresters came and it looked like a forest in here.

While students were returning to campus after COVID shutdowns, the law school saw a shake-up in leadership. Former dean Paul Kirgis resigned from his position in October 2021 after students from the program said he and associate dean Sally Weaver discouraged them from reporting allegations of sexual harassment and assault to the universitys Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX.

As interim dean, Gagliardi prioritized having listening sessions with students, faculty and alumni. One of the main takeaways from those sessions was that communication at the law school needed to improve.

I hope they know that when I hear concerns from them that I take them to heart, Gagliardi said.

In an effort to build transparency and connections with students, Gagliardi hosts lunch with the dean on a monthly basis, where students can directly ask her questions. Additionally, faculty and staff at the law school have all undergone in-person Title IX training and first-year law students have participated in similar training since shes been interim dean.

Ive tried to make this very clear, starting with our intro programming, Gagliardi said. "And I have gone to students directly to visit them, that we will report on their behalf as were required by law if theres an issue that needs to be reported to Title IX."

Despite the tumultuous past years, the law school rose in national rankings in 2022, up 31 spots from the previous year. Moreover, the law school is frequently regarded as one of the best value law schools in the country and is nationally ranked for clerkship placement.

Last fall, the law school welcomed its most diverse class in history with the number of minority students at Montanas only law school increasing from 11% to 20% in three years.

I believe building a strong community and working as a team is incredibly important, Gagliardi said. A leader cannot move an organization forward unless we all see a vision and that vision cant be just mine. It needs to start with the vision weve had for all the years that Ive been associated with the school, which is to train lawyers to be able to solve the issues of the people of Montana and the region.
BEIJING  Genetic material collected at a Chinese market near where the first human cases of COVID-19 were identified show raccoon dog DNA comingled with the virus, suggesting the pandemic may have originated from animals, not a lab, international experts say.

Other experts have not yet verified their analysis, which has yet to appear in a peer-reviewed journal. How the coronavirus began sickening people remains uncertain. The sequences will have to be matched to the genetic record of how the virus evolved to see which came first.

"These data do not provide a definitive answer to how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important to moving us closer to that answer," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday.

He criticized China for not sharing the genetic information earlier, telling a press briefing that "this data could have and should have been shared three years ago."

The samples were collected from surfaces at the Huanan seafood market in early 2020 in Wuhan, where the first human cases of COVID-19 were found in late 2019.

Tedros said the genetic sequences were recently uploaded to the world's biggest public virus database by scientists at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

They were then removed, but not before a French biologist spotted the information by chance and shared it with a group of scientists based outside China that's looking into the origins of the coronavirus.

The data show that some of the COVID-positive samples collected from a stall known to be involved in the wildlife trade also contained raccoon dog genes, indicating the animals may have been infected by the virus, according to the scientists. Their analysis was first reported in The Atlantic.

"There's a good chance that the animals that deposited that DNA also deposited the virus," said Stephen Goldstein, a virologist at the University of Utah who was involved in analyzing the data. "If you were to go and do environmental sampling in the aftermath of a zoonotic spillover event  this is basically exactly what you would expect to find."

The canines, named for their raccoon-like faces, are often bred for their fur and sold for meat in animal markets across China.

Ray Yip, an epidemiologist and founding member of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control office in China, said the findings are significant, even though they aren't definitive.

"The market environmental sampling data published by China CDC is by far the strongest evidence to support animal origins," Yip told the AP in an email. He was not connected to the new analysis.

WHO's COVID-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, cautioned that the analysis did not find the virus within any animal, nor did it find any hard evidence that any animals infected humans.

"What this does provide is clues to help us understand what may have happened," she said. The international group also told WHO they found DNA from other animals as well as raccoon dogs in the samples from the seafood market, she added.

"There's molecular evidence that animals were sold at Huanan market and that is new information," Van Kerkhove said.

The coronavirus' genetic code is strikingly similar to that of bat coronaviruses, and many scientists suspect COVID-19 jumped into humans either directly from a bat or via an intermediary animal like pangolins, ferrets or racoon dogs.

Efforts to determine the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic have been complicated by factors including the massive surge of human infections in the pandemic's first two years and an increasingly bitter political dispute.

It took virus experts more than a dozen years to pinpoint the animal origin of SARS, a related virus.

Goldstein and his colleagues say their analysis is the first solid indication that there may have been wildlife infected with the coronavirus at the market. But it is also possible that humans brought the virus to the market and infected the raccoon dogs, or that infected humans simply happened to leave traces of the virus near the animals.

After scientists in the group contacted the China CDC, they say, the sequences were removed from the global virus database. Researchers are puzzled as to why data on the samples collected over three years ago wasn't made public sooner. Tedros has pleaded with China to share more of its COVID-19 research data.

Gao Fu, the former head of the Chinese CDC and lead author of the Chinese paper, didn't immediately respond to an Associated Press email requesting comment. But he told Science magazine the sequences are "nothing new. It had been known there was illegal animal dealing and this is why the market was immediately shut down."

Goldstein said his group presented its findings this week to an advisory panel the WHO has tasked with investigating COVID-19's origins.

Mark Woolhouse, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Edinburgh, said it will be crucial to see how the raccoon dogs' genetic sequences match up to what's known about the historic evolution of the COVID-19 virus. If the dogs are shown to have COVID and those viruses prove to have earlier origins than the ones that infected people, "that's probably as good evidence as we can expect to get that this was a spillover event in the market."

After a weeks-long visit to China to study the pandemic's origins, WHO released a report in 2021 concluding that COVID-19 most probably jumped into humans from animals, dismissing the possibility of a lab origin as "extremely unlikely."

But the U.N. health agency backtracked the following year, saying "key pieces of data" were still missing. And Tedros has said all hypotheses remain on the table.

The China CDC scientists who previously analyzed the Huanan market samples published a paper as a preprint in February suggesting that humans brought the virus to the market, not animals, implying that the virus originated elsewhere. Their paper didn't mention that animal genes were found in the samples that tested positive.

Wuhan, the Chinese city where COVID-19 was first detected, is home to several labs involved in collecting and studying coronaviruses, fueling theories that the virus may have leaked from one.

In February, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Energy had assessed "with low confidence" that the virus had leaked from a lab. But others in the U.S. intelligence community disagree, believing it more likely it first came from animals. Experts say the true origin of the pandemic may not be known for many years  if ever.

Interactive: 12 charts that show COVID-19 variants, vaccinations, hospitalizations, cases and deaths Your browser does not support the iframe HTML tag. Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9 or later.
" " With more than 400 research centers across the country, the U.S. Geological Survey offers hundreds of volunteer opportunities. LWA /Stone/ Getty Images

From collecting native plant seeds in Alaska's Denali National Park to digging for fossils in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Geological Survey offers hundreds of volunteer opportunities to those wanting to donate time to natural science.

With more than 400 research centers across the country, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) monitors volcanoes, earthquakes, glacier melting, soil contamination, oil reserves levels and water quality in groundwater, rivers and lakes across the country.

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It's also the nation's largest mapping agency, best known for its topographic maps -- those that show land contours like mountains -- as well as aerial photos taken by satellite [source: USGS].

A bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the USGS employs 10,000 scientists and support staff who study the topography of the U.S, its natural resources and environmental hazards like earthquakes, wildfires, floods and climate change.

Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, the agency was created by an act of Congress in 1879 to inventory the vast lands acquired by the U.S. in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. The agency's mission was -- and remains -- to classify public lands, examine their geological structures and inventory their mineral resources [source: USGS].

Its scientists work in all 50 U.S. states, including major offices in Lakewood, Colo. and Menlo Park, Calif. For volunteers, the USGS offers dozens, if not hundreds of opportunities to help the scientists perform their research.

To find one, simply click on the state you want on a map on the USGS Web site and it will list what's available, including a description of the position, time requirement, qualifications and benefits [source: USGS]. In some cases, you even get a free USGS hat.

Read on to learn how to become part of the USGS's National Maps Corps.
Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast

One of the most surprising moments at Sundays Oscars was remarkable not for shock value but because it was a commonsense move that doesnt happen more often: In his acceptance speech, Everything Everywhere All at Once director Daniel Scheinert thanked his teachers.

These are teachers that changed my life, mostly public school teachers, he said, and listed them by name.

The hundreds of teachers I interviewed for my book The Teachers: A Year Inside Americas Most Vulnerable, Important Profession across-the-board mentioned two aspects of teaching that brought them the most joy: seeing students a-ha moments when they grasped a concept, and hearing from former students who thanked them. The gratitude means more to educators than the public might assume. Many teachers keep students and parents thank-you notes in their workbags and reread them when theyre having a tough day.

Tough days have been adding up lately; teachers said the profession has never been more difficult than it is now. In addition to personally thanking them, as Scheinert did, the best way we can show our gratitude to educators is to give them the working conditions they deserve.

Teachers deserve smaller class sizes and larger paychecks. Penny, a Southern middle school math teacher whom I followed for a year, was a veteran teacher with 18 years experience and a salary of $47,000. Higher pay for teachers benefits students, too. Students math and English test scores are significantly higher in districts that offer a higher base salary to teachers, according to a 2022 study.

Kids Do Better In Schools With Teachers Unions

Teachers deserve a safe working environment in which violence is not tolerated from students, parents or staff, and educators can report it and other transgressions without fear of retaliation. Many teachers told me they dont advocate for themselves because theyre afraid that speaking up will endanger their job (which is why Ive omitted or changed their names). They deserve fair, effective protections and mitigations contractually in place for school shootings and contagions. They deserve functioning HVAC systems and water fountains.

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Teachers deserve more staffing: paraeducators, counselors, aides and a nurse in every school. When teachers are told to do more with less, a frequent phrase, the imbalance doesnt just overwork teachers, it endangers students.

Our counselors are overwhelmed by the number of crisis situations they face on a daily basis. At the same time, we cut a counselor and reduced support services like social work due to budget cuts, said a Michigan high-school English teacher. Students often come to me for support, but I have limited training in social-emotional support techniques, and the school simply does not have the support services in place to help these students. This is not an isolated problem. It is a national crisis.

Teachers deserve to helm every committee determining school operations rather than policymakers who proclaim what should happen in the classroom despite never having taught in one. So often, the government or administration tells teachers what we need to be doing. But were the ones in the classroom, spending hours a day with our students, hearing firsthand what theyre struggling with, seeing with our own eyes what changes really need to happen, said a Colorado high-school science teacher.

Teachers deserve student loan forgiveness, tax credits for every penny they spend on school supplies, paid parental leave, time to observe other classes, less standardized testing and to be treated as skilled professionals. Society gives respect to doctors, lawyers, firefighters, and military personnel. We, too, are professionals with training, advanced degrees, and state licenses. But teaching doesnt get the same degree of respect as those other professions, said a New Jersey high-school foreign-language teacher.

Teachers deserve a well-defined, realistic job description and enough protected school-day planning time to fulfill that job within their paid contracted hours. They deserve staff who assist with behavioral challenges, communicate with parents, and enforce consequences. Districts are wasting money on curriculum initiatives that add to teachers workloads without helping students, said a Maryland kindergarten teacher. Ive had two real moments of despair and demoralization this month alone, both of which are related to money spent on resources being pushed down teachers throats, without asking what we really needwhich is always, always people, because you cant buy time.

And teachers deserve our trust. Theyre some of the most educated people in our workforce, said Denisha Jones, who directs the graduate teacher education program at Sarah Lawrence College. We expect them to know so much about so many different areaschild development, social-emotional development, curriculum development and assessmentand they do learn all that. We know what children need to make sense of the world. Its really hard to get them there when so many people are questioning whether we know what were doing.

At home, parents can model this trust for their children. Parents who are against their teachers, those kids know, Jones said. Every teacher can tell you which child has a parent at home that mocks teachers. Those parents are a vocal minority, but they are vocal. The majority do not stand up to say something. Thats the hardest part. We dont have enough of those voices. We need allies to push back in all sorts of spaces when they hear people saying something derogatory about teachers. Being open and explicit about support for teachers and schools is really important.

To do so, consider forming community support groups to amplify educators voices, writing op-eds, taking out ads in media outlets or publicly testifying in support of teachers to school boards and district officials. Parents and community members can ask teachers their opinions on school board proposals, and write open letters, petitions, or sign-on statements that back the teachers stance. The more visible the support for teachers, the better.

As Scheinert said, teacher change lives. They are the most influential professionals during the formative years of future generations, and they are the key to fixing a floundering, needlessly politicized education system. Its time we all thank them by treating them right.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Fernando Jorge is jet-lagged. The jewelry maker has just returned from launching his residency at L.A. gallery and boutique Just One Eyewhich runs through May 1and is about to fly to St. Moritz to exhibit at the prestigious design fair Nomad. Hell then hit Art Basel Hong Kong before traveling to the Miami edition later this year; in between hell make trips to his native Brazil as well as to Italy, where much of his jewelry is made. So, Im lucky to catch him at his new Mayfair showroom, to which he relocated last year. A light-filled loft kitted out with midcentury Brazilian furniture and art, it shares a building with art gallery Spruth Magersnot entirely a coincidence, given Jorges organic transition from the fashion realm toward the world of art and design.

Fernando Jorge Disco bracelet

During the pandemic, some of my clients were more focused on design and art than fashion, and high-end jewelry fits in this category, he says. His response was twofold: He made his entire back catalog available online, from a $900 tigereye pendant to a 54-carat, price-upon-request diamond necklace. And he concentrated on creating investment pieces with bigger, more abundant diamonds, topping out core collections with high-jewelry interpretations of his signature designs. This came full circle at Just One Eye, where he unveiled additions to his debut Fluid collectionincluding diamond-studded bombe-style rings and earringsa series made for his masters program at Central Saint Martins in London, which brought Jorge to the attention of buyers and editors in 2010.

More from Robb Report

Since that graduate show, Jorge has won four Couture design awards and the 2019 Gem Award for jewelry design. His pieces are worn by everyone from East London creatives to international socialites to A-listers including Michelle Obama and Beyonce. His design DNA is a curvaceous, abstract sensuality that effortlessly balances distinctive creativity with wearable simplicity. When I started, I had a desire to disrupt, he says. I still have the desire to disrupt, but nowadays, it feels to me more disruptive to design more traditional and timeless pieces.

Story continues

Fluid Diamonds pave ring

His clientele is also evolving. It was interesting to see photographers, artists and dealers engage with my workpeople who look at art as an object and asset, Jorge says of his L.A. residency. Despite his growing presence in the sphere, he doesnt categorize himself as an artist. The purpose of jewelry is to be admired and collected and worn.

As he explores the crossover between elevated art and everyday adornment, Jorge says hes navigating in both lanes as a designer for high-end private clients as well as a full-fledged fine-jewelry brand. Its still my creative vision, and me behind every design. But we have built a universe that allows me not to be the focal point. Im happy that the jewelry can speak for itself.

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Click here to read the full article.
Lucy Liu

Lucy Liu doesnt hold back when it comes to discussing all things parenthood.

Lucy, whose skincare routine is surprisingly affordable, recently opened up about having a child via surrogate when she was 47 years old - a decision that she says didnt take much thinking or planning.

"I didn't have a plan," Lucy, now 54, said to The Cut in an interview pegged to the release of her new movie, Shazam! Fury of the Gods. "I just thought, I want to change the conversation a little bit. I didnt want to talk about the next project. I felt like I was reading the same script. I got tired of it. I didnt want the same dialogue. Id heard myself say the same things many, many times and just thought, 'Well, this cant be whats next.' It wasnt enough. I didnt mull it over too much. I didnt do a lot of research, I just pulled the trigger.

Lucy Liu

Now a mom to 7-year-old son Rockwell, the actress also discussed not over-preparing for the arrival of her little one back then.

"I can think myself out of something easily," she said on the record. "If I think too much I won't do it. It's better for me to feel something and just go for it. A lot of people read books about parenting. I didn't do any of that. I was like, 'When the child is here, I'm just going to figure it out.' "

One thing she did keep in mind, though, was the environment she'd want her child to grow up in.

"I definitely wanted to raise a kid in New York," she told the publication. "People will say, It's not convenient, you don't even have a car,' but, this way, they're going to see all the things. ou're going to show them what's safe and what's not, and they're going to understand that through experience. It's hard to build common sense when you're in a car all the time. They're going to smell the smells."

This isnt the first time that the Charlies Angels star has opened up about motherhood.

Lucy Liu wears a red one shoulder dress with sequin detailing

She specifically addressed what it's like to be a famous parent in the past.

While chatting with ELLE Canada at the end of 2022, Lucy described how Rockwell responds to folks that approach her mom for photos or autographs. "I'll just say 'Oh, that person recognized me and likes my work,' and he'll say 'Okay,'" she explained. "It's very cut and dried."

As for details regarding her decision to have a child via gestational surrogacy, she told People back in 2015 that "it just seemed like the right option for me because I was working and I didn't know when I was going to be able to stop. I decided that was probably the best solution for me and it turned out to be great."

Is she still open to finding a partner that could potentially help raise Rockwell? "Absolutely," Lucy said to The Cut. "But I think its an investigation. It hasnt occurred to me that that should be the next thing. I think it will present itself when its supposed to, but Ive never lived according to whats supposed to happen next. Ive been proposed to but  I dont know. I dont know if Ive ever followed a social norm."
A voters casts her ballots inside the Crooked Alley KidSpace in Groveport on Election Day on Nov. 8.

Ohio pulled out of a multi-state voter registration database Friday as GOP criticism mounts against a little-known system championed for curbing election fraud.

The Election Registration Information Center, known as ERIC, was founded by Republican and Democratic election officials in 2012 to help states maintain accurate voter rolls. As a member state, Ohio would submit voter registration data and driver's license information to help identify voters who died, moved or had duplicate registrations.

Members must also mail registration information to residents who aren't signed up to vote. Ohio first joined ERIC in 2016.

More:Secretary of State Frank LaRose touts Ohio elections alongside election deniers at CPAC

Election officials, including Secretary of State Frank LaRose, have emphasized the importance of keeping accurate voter rolls to prevent fraud. But LaRose told the organization after its meeting Friday that Ohio will leave because it failed to implement reforms he called for.

"I cannot justify the use of Ohios tax dollars for an organization that seems intent on rejecting meaningful accountability, publicly maligning my motives, and waging a relentless campaign of misinformation about this effort," LaRose wrote to ERIC executive director Shane Hamlin.

What's happening with ERIC?

LaRose's decision follows the departure of several other Republican-leaning states, including Florida and Missouri. ERIC's critics contend the group is a liberal effort to register more voters and falsely claim that it's funded by philanthropist George Soros, a frequent target of GOP ire. (Member states fund ERIC. It got some initial assistance from Pew Charitable Trusts, which received funding from Soros, according to the Washington Post.)

Hamlin disputes the claims and accused others of spreading misinformation about the organization. ERIC still maintains support from some Republicans, including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

"States claim they want to combat illegal voting & clean voter rolls  but then leave the best & only group capable of detecting double voting across state lines, (ERIC)," Raffensperger tweeted earlier this month. "Reacting to disinformation theyve hurt their own state & others while undermining voter confidence."

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States claim they want to combat illegal voting & clean voter rolls - but then leave the best & only group capable of detecting double voting across state lines, @ericstates_info. Reacting to disinformation theyve hurt their own state & others while undermining voter confidence. pic.twitter.com/cggmrXPtut  GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState) March 8, 2023

LaRose previously signaled that Ohio would withdraw from ERIC if its leaders didn't agree to certain reforms, such as loosening requirements for member states to contact unregistered voters. He also set his sights on David Becker, an ex-officio board member who LaRose said has a "highly partisan" reputation.

The Ohio Voter Rights Coalition previously urged LaRose to keep Ohio in ERIC, calling it the "epitome of effective collaboration and smart election administration."

Becker heads of the Center for Election Innovation & Research and often speaks out against false voter fraud claims fueled by former President Donald Trump's loss in 2020. Ahead of ERIC's Friday meeting, Becker said he wouldn't accept renomination as a non-voting board member.

That wasn't enough to appease LaRose.

"You have chosen to double-down on poor strategic decisions, which have only resulted in the transformation of a previously bipartisan organization to one that appears to favor only the interests of one political party," LaRose wrote. "I believe the current actions and inactions of ERIC will effectively set in motion its demise."

Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

Get more political analysis by listening to the Ohio Politics Explained podcast

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio pulls out of ERIC amid criticism by Republicans, election deniers
What our itchy eyes and noses have long suspected is finally confirmed: the Triangle  specifically Raleigh  is one of the worst places in the U.S. for seasonal allergies.

In a report released Thursday, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) named Raleigh as one of this years Allergy Capitals, meaning its among the most challenging cities in the country for those with seasonal pollen allergies.

The full report ranks the 100 most-populated U.S. metropolitan areas, but Raleigh and another North Carolina city, Greensboro, ranked in the top 20. Other North Carolina cities, including Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Durham, appear on the list, but with average or better-than-average ratings for seasonal allergies in those locales.

The report calculates and assigns rankings to the cities based on total pollen scores for tree, grass, and weed pollen, over-the-counter medication use and the number of allergy specialists in each city. The report and rankings are based on data from the previous year.

Wondering where, exactly, Raleigh falls in the top 20 rankings? And what does it mean for Raleigh to be an Allergy Capital?

Here are key takeaways from AAFAs 2023 Allergy Capitals report.

Raleigh is one of the worst places in U.S. for seasonal allergies

Raleigh ranks 16th in the list of most challenging places in the United States to live with seasonal pollen allergies, according to AAFAs report.

That ranking also places Raleigh as the most challenging place in North Carolina to live with season allergies, with the city ranking higher than the other North Carolina cities included in the report.

Overall, according to the report, Raleigh has a worse-than-average overall ranking for seasonal allergies. The overall ranking is based on these five data points:

 Tree pollen: Raleigh ranked 39th for tree pollen, based on the daily pollen count in the city for this type of pollen.

 Grass pollen: Raleigh ranked 16th for grass pollen, based on the daily pollen count in the city for this type of pollen.

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 Weed pollen: Raleigh ranked 11th for for weed pollen, based on the daily pollen count in the city for this type of pollen.

 Sale and use of over-the-counter allergy medicine: Raleigh received a worse-than-average ranking in this category.

 Number of allergists and immunologists: Raleigh received a worse-than-average ranking in this category.

Raleighs No. 16 ranking this year is a big jump from last year, when the City of Oaks was ranked 81st in the Allergy Capitals report and was assigned a better-than-average overall ranking for seasonal allergies.

How do other NC cities rank for seasonal allergies?

While Raleighs ranking makes it the worst place in North Carolina for seasonal allergies, other North Carolina cities are also included in the report. Heres how they ranked:

 Greensboro ranked 19th overall, placing it in the top 20 with Raleigh. Greensboro received an average ratings for pollen counts and worse-than-average ratings for allergy medicine use and allergy specialists.

 Winston-Salem ranked 29th overall. Like Raleigh and Greensboro, Winston-Salem received a worse-than-average overall rating for seasonal allergies.

 Charlotte ranked 32nd, earning an average overall rating for seasonal allergies.

 Durham ranked 79th, with AAFA deeming the Bull Citys overall seasonal allergy rating as better-than-average.

How to cope with seasonal allergies

In addition to issuing the Allergy Capital rankings, AAFA also provides advice for how to cope with and manage seasonal allergies  something those of us in No. 16 Raleigh could surely use.

AAFA recommends:

 Managing your contact with pollen. Limiting your exposure to pollen can reduce the symptoms and impacts you get from it. AAFA recommends, among other suggestions, limiting your outdoor activities to days with low pollen counts, keeping your windows closed during peak-pollen times and removing your shoes before you enter your home to avoid tracking pollen inside.

 Taking allergy medicine. Taking over-the-counter or prescription allergy medicine can prevent and treat allergy symptoms. You might try nasal corticosteroid sprays to reduce inflammation in your nose, antihistamines to relieve sneezing and itching, decongestants or other options.

 Rinsing out your nose. A nasal rinse can help clear your sinuses and nose, AAFA says. A recipe and instructions for a saline sinus rinse are available from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology at aaaai.org/tools-for-the-public/conditions-library/allergies/saline-sinus-rinse-recipe.

 Asking your doctor about immunotherapy. If you do not get complete relief from medicines that treat allergy symptoms, talk with your allergy doctor about immunotherapy, AAFA says. Immunotherapy is a long-term treatment that can help prevent allergic reactions or make them less severe. It can change the bodys immune response to allergens.

More information

Looking for more information about this years Allergy Capitals, or want to see the full report and rankings? Visit the AAFAs website at aafa.org/asthma-allergy-research/allergy-capitals.

OTC meds vs. allergy shots: A UNC doctor weighs in on NCs early pollen season
In his new cookbook, the Atlanta chef uses international flavors to make cooking vegetables more exciting and delicious.

Andrew Thomas Lee

Vegetables are chef Steven Satterfields muse. The James Beard award-winning executive chef of Atlantas acclaimed Miller Union has long championed vegetable-forward cooking. He published his first cookbook, Root to Leaf, a 500-page tome on seasonally-driven cooking, in 2015, and is back eight years later with his second book, Vegetable Revelations, which builds on his career-long love affair with veggies.

From top to tip, Satterfield sees potential in every part of the vegetable, in the same way another chef might look at every part of an animal. As co-author Andrea Slonecker writes in the beginning of Vegetable Revelations, "There are parts of vegetables that I never considered worth saving, but now do: things like fennel stalks, broccoli stems, and squash seeds. His recipes have taught me that fennel stalks can be used interchangeably with the bulb, perhaps sliced thinly for a crunchy salad. I now peel the bottoms of broccoli stems and cut them into tender coins for roasting, and puree squash seeds to thicken soup.

Meat is not absent from Satterfields cooking, but is often used to highlight vegetables. This is a reversal of the norm, where vegetables are typically the supporting character for proteins. His new book also has a pointedly international perspective, drawing on flavors, spices, and techniques from his travels, and the global pantry of ingredients at his fingertips in the multicultural city of Atlanta, especially places like the Buford Highway Farmers' Market.

Andrew Thomas Lee

Root to Leaf was a very controlled, restrained, and beautifully simple presentation of where my head was at the time, really honoring the ingredients and doing very little to them, says Satterfield. By contrast, recipes in Vegetable Revelations have layers of flavor that can be a lot more punchy and lively on the palate, and are derived from other cultures, taking inspiration and guidance from them, he says.

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Atlantans already know what a gem the Buford Highway Farmers' Market is. The sprawling store has long been a resource for produce and other ingredients not sold in commercial grocery stores, with aisles divided regionally, representing every part of the world. From fresh galangal and rambutan, to affordable freshly packed bulk spices, the Buford Highway Farmers Market is just as much an asset to chefs like Satterfield as it is to home cooks, and in particular, the many immigrant communities that make up Atlanta.

Beyond just the market, the highway it sits on, Buford Highway, is home to a stretch of restaurants and small-businesses that offer some of the most diverse dining experiences in the Southeast. This coupled with his travels to Italy, Mexico, and England has enriched Satterfields cooking style, and he wants it to enrich yours too. This is why the first half of Vegetable Revelations is a glossary of flavorful recipe building blocks, which sets you up with a roster of global spice blends, sauces, and condiments that are then folded into full recipes in the second half of the book.

Take Satterfields Mole Crunch: A crunchy topping inspired by the complex flavors of the rich sauce from Mexico and made from raisins, pumpkin seeds, guajillo chile, and cacao nibs. The topping can be used on any vegetables you have on hand, or protein for that matter, but is also specifically used in a recipe for Buttery Roasted Parsnips later on in the book.

In this way, the cookbook is designed to be used both prescriptively as a recipe resource, but also as a jumping off point for your own dish development using the fundamentals it provides. The book is also broken down by botanical family (nightshades, brassicas, and more), as vegetables within each plant family are often interchangeable, which allows readers even more room to experiment.

Different people have different things that excite their palate. And a lot of times when Im making a recipe from a cookbook, I might desire a bit more acid, a little more salt, or maybe even a touch less fat, Satterfield says, so I want people to use this book as a guide, not a hard rule.

Vegetable Revelations comes out April 18th. You can preorder a copy, and try out his recipe for Peas And Ramps With Mushrooms And Semolina Gnocchi from the upcoming book.

For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Southern Living.
Both the U.S. and Russia have signaled an interest in hunting for an advanced, $32 million drone downed over the Black Sea on Tuesday, but the search is complicated by the fact the unmanned aerial aircraft plunged into deep water near Crimea.

The U.S. will also face serious limitations of what American crews could achieve in a search area close to Russian territory.

U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) declined to speak on the specifics but said the recovery remains a priority.

We take the protection and recovery of this aircraft very seriously, but the aircraft has not been recovered at this time, a USAFE spokesperson said in a statement.

Speaking to CNN on Wednesday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. was looking into how it might retrieve the MQ-9 Reaper drone but admitted it may not be recovered after it fell into very deep water.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said at a press briefing later Wednesday that the drone is in waters as deep as 5,000 feet.

Any recovery operation is very difficult at that depth by anyone, he told reporters.

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley (Associated Press/Achmad Ibrahim)

Another roadblock is the greater than yearlong absence of any U.S. ships in the Black Sea, but Milley said Washington does have a lot of allies and friends in the area that will work through recovery operations. U.S. forces are stationed at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Romania, which borders the Black Sea.

Meanwhile, Russia is appearing more confident in pulling the Reaper from the depths.

Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russias Foreign Intelligence Service, said Moscow has the ability to recover the drone, according to The Associated Press. And Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russias Security Council, told Russian media they planned to search for the downed aircraft.

Story continues

I dont know if we can recover them or not, but we will certainly have to do that, and we will deal with it, Patrushev said, per the AP.

Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, said both Russia and the U.S. have the capabilities to retrieve objects that have fallen into deep water. But any American recovery operations could raise the risk of another escalation, Biddle added.

The likelihood you could end up accidentally triggering something that could escalate is a more important stake than the equipment the Russians might find, he said.

US military releases footage of Russian warplane forcing down Air Force drone

The Reaper drone was flying over the Black Sea in international airspace when it was flanked by two Russian jets, which harassed it for more than 30 minutes. One Russian jet dumped fuel on it and one Russian jet damaged the propellor of the drone, forcing it down Tuesday morning local time, according to U.S. European Command.

Russia maintains the drone maneuvered sharply and crashed on its own and said the unmanned aircraft acted provocatively by approaching Russian territory.

Russia will have an easier time searching for the aircraft because it appears to have fallen into the waters off the west coast of Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014. Russia maintains naval bases and airfields on the Crimean Peninsula.

Turkey, a NATO ally considered the friendliest to Moscow, controls the only access point from the Mediterranean Sea into the Black Sea. Under a protocol of the Montreux Convention, Turkish officials can limit naval ships from entering  a power it has exercised after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A successful Russian recovery could pose serious intelligence concerns for Washington, but U.S. officials said they took steps to minimize sensitive intelligence collection from Russia should they find the drone first and added it would likely have limited value.

Rubio: US should fly more drones over Black Sea, protect them with jets

It probably broke up, theres probably not a lot to recover, frankly, as far as the loss of anything of sensitive intelligence, Milley said Wednesday. We did take mitigating measures so we are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value.

Washington has provided hundreds of small, tactical Switchblade drones to Ukraine, some of which have been recovered by Russian forces on the battlefield.

But the Pentagon has never supplied Kyiv with Reaper drones, which are more sophisticated, can fly further and are much larger, with a wingspan of 66 feet.

The advanced drones can linger over targets for 24 hours and are capable of carrying munitions such as laser-guided Hellfire missiles.

Pentagon officials would not say whether the drone was armed at the time it crashed.

The U.S. military has flown aircraft over the Black Sea since before the war, but the downed MQ-9 is the first time Russian warplanes have damaged a U.S. aircraft in that timeframe. It marks a prime opportunity for Moscow to swoop in and obtain confidential technology, if any remains. The drone could also be an opportunity for Russia to promote propaganda of U.S. involvement in the war in Ukraine or reinforce further action in the Black Sea.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu talked with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday, warning that Moscow views the flights around Crimea as provocative and will continue to respond to future provocations, according to a readout from the Russian Defense Ministry on Telegram.

Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow with the CFR, said the downed Reaper would provide insights into American technology.

The Russians would like to get their hands on it, he said.

Biddle, from Columbia University and CFR, said that although U.S. technology is more advanced, many countries operate similar drones.

The value of the Reapers intelligence for Russia is limited compared to the risk of an escalation, he argued.

This whole episode is about dangerous behavior that created an incident of escalating a war, Biddle said. I dont know that the stakes in keeping the Russians from getting parts of a drone are sufficient to warrant risking the war by operating naval forces cheek-to-jowl with the Russians.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
VALDESE  Deputies ended up seizing weapons, ammunition and a moonshine still from a man who asked them to check his house because he thought he was being chased.

Ronald Ray Stroup, 52, of Valdese, was charged with felony possession of a weapon by a felon and possession of a weapon of mass destruction after an incident March 10, according to a press release from the Burke County Sheriffs Office.

The charges came after Stroup flagged down a passerby and told them he had been shot and had someone chasing him, the release said.

The passerby called 911, and deputies arrived on the scene and escorted Stroup back to his home, the release said.

When they got to his house, Stroup asked the deputies to check his home. During their sweep of the residence, deputies found two guns and a fermentation barrel and ingredients to produce moonshine, the release said.

They also found several holes in the wall, which were consistent with Stroup saying he had discharged his own firearm inside the home, the release said.

The scene was secured and deputies obtained a search warrant for the home. When the search warrant was executed, deputies found a sawed-off shotgun, another firearm, ammunition and a moonshine still, the release said.

North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement was contacted and the still was seized, the release said.

Stroups bond was set at $30,000 secured, the release said.
HICKORY  Local poet Scott Owens recently shared significant achievements in his career in 2022.

Owens said he received two awards and was nominated for several others for his 17th and 18th books of poetry, Worlds Enough and Prepositional, published by Redhawk Publications.

His poem Pansies, a metaphor about people and ideas that, like the flower, are often taken for granted, yet hearty, was recently selected for a North Carolina public poetry program called Poetry in Plain Sight. This 10-year-old program, sponsored by the North Carolina Poetry Society, North Carolina Writers Network, Winston-Salem Writers and Press 53, prints selected poems on posters and places them in shop windows around Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Burnsville, Wilmington, Durham, Greenville and Raleigh.

Another of Owens poems, What Poems Are About, was chosen as a winner in the North Carolina Poetry Societys Alice Osborn Award for Poems for Children. The poem was written as a companion piece for his book of poems for children, Worlds Enough, illustrated by Newton artist, Missy Cleveland.

Owens most recent book, Prepositional: Selected and New Poems, was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, his second such nomination. Four of the poems from that collection were nominated for Pushcart Prizes.

Owens looks forward to another busy year in 2023 as he has two new collections scheduled for release. All In, a collaboration with poet Pris Campbell and sequel to their earlier volume, Shadows Trail Them Home (Clemson University Press), will be released by Redhawk in early June. And Round Here: Images From and Near Catawba County, a collaboration with photographer Clayton Joe Young, is scheduled for publication in November.

Owens will teach a workshop called, Inspiration Surrounds Us at the Catawba County Library in Newton on April 19. He will give readings at the Bethlehem Branch of the Alexander County Library on April 25, Poetry Hickory at Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse in Hickory on June 13, and at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville on June 16. He will teach another workshop at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown on June 15.

In addition to writing and teaching at Lenoir-Rhyne University, Owens owns and operates Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse in downtown Hickory with his wife, Julie. For more information, contact Owens at asowens1@yahoo.com.
The flags colors of green and orange represented Irish nationalism and the Protestant minority. The white in the middle symbolized lasting peace.

For his participation in the failed rebellion, Meagher was given a death sentence, but the sentence was commuted to a life in an Australian penal camp. By 1852, Meagher had made his escape and soon found his way to America, where he became a successful lawyer and newspaperman.

When the Civil War broke out in the United States, Meagher joined the Union army, leading the Fighting 69 Irish brigade. By wars end, he was a brigadier general.

Not long after wars end, Meagher was named Montanas territorial governor. On July 1, 1867, the 43-year-old was in Fort Benton and allegedly fell from a steamboat and drowned. His body was never found.

The Montana Standard's Tracy Thornton contributed to this story.
At the beginning of the year, many people have their eyes set on goals. Some of these goals may include increasing your income, starting a dream business, or both if you're reaching for the stars. Before you get your hands dirty in the sometimes chaotic combination of formal employment and entrepreneurship, here are a few pitfalls to avoid.

NOT HAVING A PLAN FOR YOUR SIDE HUSTLE INCOME

People get side hustles for different reasons. It could be to help make ends meet, save toward a dream vacation or grow your business to a point where you can quit your job. Catching up on my retirement savings is one reason I decided to start a side hustle.

But you need a plan for that motivation to help make your side gig worthwhile. Think about having goals for your income and a strategy in place to help you achieve those goals.

For instance, you could divert funds from your side hustle into retirement savings accounts like an IRA. This is a way to put away more for retirement, and you could reduce your taxable income, depending on how much you make, because contributions may be tax-deductible .

The plan I conjured up thanks to my side gig income is increasing my 401(k) contributions at my full-time job so I'm on track to max out that account this year. I also opened a SEP IRA, a simplified employee pension plan, for 2023 to put more money away for retirement and potentially reduce my taxable income .

Eric Nisall , an accountant in Coral Springs, Florida, suggests having what he calls a "failure fund" if your goal is to eventually transition into full-time entrepreneurship. It's something he developed when he began the journey of full-time employment and building a business.

"When at my last two CPA firms, I was working at building my own business at the same time. I realized, if I'm going to do this, I need to start putting money away so that if I don't grow, I (won't) suffer," he says.

Nisall put money he saved from coupons and any extra bucks he made from a raise or overtime into that fund.

NOT BEING AWARE OF TAX IMPLICATIONS

Oftentimes, people think having a side hustle means they can make extra money without reporting it, says Atiya Brown , a certified public accountant and certified financial education instructor in Dallas.

"I think that people need to realize all of their income is going to be taxed," she says. "So, if they're starting a side hustle, they need to get organized so that they don't miss any income that needs to be reported, because then the interest and penalties are going to pile on."

The IRS says anyone who earns $400 or more from self-employment must file a tax return.

I was not organized and didn't have a solid plan for paying taxes when I first started. When I realized I owed the IRS almost $15,000 in both taxes and penalties, I clutched my pearls. I thought I would need to save and pay my taxes in one large sum. Now, I know there are multiple ways to pay self-employment taxes.

"Because the government is an earn and pay system, you can choose." says Brown.

These choices include estimated quarterly tax payments, changing your W-4 withholdings so it covers your self-employed taxes, or paying in one lump sum, she explains.

Brown adds that the IRS has penalties for underpaying on your taxes. To help avoid this, you can use the IRS withholding calculator to see how much you should withhold to cover your side hustle taxes . Depending on how much freelance money you made, you might have several new tax forms to fill out, so if you aren't sure what the best option is, consider talking to a tax professional.

PUTTING YOUR MAIN SOURCE OF INCOME IN JEOPARDY

Having a 9-to-5 job and a side hustle means you're choosing to work during your free time. For this reason, you want to make sure your side gig is worth your time financially and healthwise. I remember taking on too much freelance work and having to chip away at the work on evenings and weekends. By the time I sat down to calculate my per-hour earnings, I realized I was underpaid. I went back and did research on market rates and was intentional about saying yes only to higher-paid jobs. This meant I didn't need to do as many side gigs and could earn more money than before.

Overworking can also affect your health, which can put your main source of income at risk, says Nisall.

"You gotta make sure that you're eating, sleeping, taking care of your body and your mind," he says. "Your mental and physical health are going to play a big part in this whole thing, especially if you're trying to balance your 9-to-5 and growing a business."

Speaking of putting your main job at risk, consider asking your employer what its policies are around side gigs. When I joined my current place of employment, I was transparent about the side gigs I had. My employer shared rules around the type of side work I could do without violating company policy. If I wasn't aware of the policies, I could have mistakenly breached them and risked the income that pays my bills.

___

100 best community colleges in America Intro #100. Kansas City Kansas Community College #99. Harper College #98. Central Wyoming College #97. Oakton Community College #96. San Diego Mesa College #95. CUNY Kingsborough Community College #94. Manchester Community College - New Hampshire #93. Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College #92. Redlands Community College #91. College of Lake County #90. Glendale Community College - California #89. Lewis & Clark Community College #88. Pinellas Technical College - Clearwater #87. Stanly Community College #86. Amarillo College #85. Eastern Arizona College #84. Northwest College - Wyoming #83. Kapi'olani Community College #82. St. Philip's College #81. Howard Community College #80. Savannah Technical College #79. Saddleback College #78. North Central Kansas Technical College #77. Montgomery College #76. Cerritos College #75. Chipola College #74. Skyline College - San Bruno #73. Northeast Community College #72. Blue Ridge Community College - North Carolina #71. Johnson County Community College #70. West Valley College #69. Chippewa Valley Technical College #68. Pinellas Technical College - St. Petersburg #67. Kauai Community College #66. Metro Technology Centers #65. Northeast Wisconsin Technical College #64. De Anza College #63. Northcentral Technical College #62. Honolulu Community College #61. Mission College #60. Southeast Community College #59. College of Eastern Idaho #58. North Seattle College #57. Ogeechee Technical College #56. Florida Gateway College #55. Sandhills Community College #54. Tennessee College of Applied Technology - Nashville #53. Lincoln Land Community College #52. Moorpark College #51. Santa Monica College #50. Wayne Community College #49. Elgin Community College #48. Texas State Technical College #47. Santiago Canyon College #46. MiraCosta College #45. Western Suffolk BOCES #44. Minnesota State Community and Technical College #43. North Dakota State College of Science #42. Southwest Wisconsin Technical College #41. Southwestern Community College - North Carolina #40. Canada College #39. Southwest Mississippi Community College #38. Santa Rosa Junior College #37. Ohlone College #36. Holmes Community College #35. Cuesta College #34. University of South Carolina - Lancaster #33. Western Iowa Tech Community College #32. Nicolet Area Technical College #31. Roxbury Community College #30. Pasadena City College #29. College of San Mateo #28. Alexandria Technical & Community College #27. Mt. San Antonio College #26. Southern Regional Technical College #25. Brazosport College #24. Wallace Community College - Dothan #23. Waukesha County Technical College #22. Allan Hancock College #21. City College of San Francisco #20. Lake Tahoe Community College #19. North Florida College #18. Western Technical College - Wisconsin #17. Renton Technical College #16. New Mexico Military Institute #15. Mitchell Technical College #14. Lake Area Technical College #13. Lakeshore Technical College #12. Bellingham Technical College #11. Collins Career Technical Center #10. The Ohio State University - Agricultural Technical Institute #9. Craven Community College #8. Atlantic Technical College #7. Southeast Technical College #6. Las Positas College #5. Santa Barbara City College #4. Moraine Park Technical College #3. Fox Valley Technical College #2. Northwood Technical College #1. Foothill College
MUSCATINE  One of Downtown Muscatines most popular events is just a few weeks away. From 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 1, Downtown Muscatine will hold its annual Girls Getaway.

This will be the 13th year that Downtown Muscatine has held this event, according to Dena Ferreira, director of marketing & events for Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

We are so excited to host the event again this year, Ferreira said. The event seems to grow each year, which can be attributed to several factors including the quality and variety of businesses that participate and past attendees who spread the word.

As always, Girls Getaway will start with a brunch  complete with mimosas - at the Merrill Hotels grand ballroom. While there, participants will receive a detailed list of specials for the day as well as a gift item. Guests will also have the opportunity to enjoy a style show courtesy of the HallTree Boutique, and will have a chance to win some great door prizes from participating local businesses.

From there, guests will be free to spend the rest of the day shopping, dining and exploring Downtown Muscatine and the many deals and bonuses such as wine tasting or prize drawings in participating businesses.

The HallTrees style show always brings fresh looks, and we have a few new businesses participating this year  including Create DIY Craft Studio and Good Karma Jewelry who are both hosting fun workshops, Ferreira said.

Other participating businesses include Contrary Brewing, Creations by Oz, Cryo Wellness of Muscatine, Feather Your Nest Interiors, Flipped Out Furniture, Fresh Home & Lifestyle Market, the GMCCI Pop-up Shop, Guadalajara Restaurant, Laurel Lynne Beauty, LivLeo Apparel, Meg's Vintage Collective, Missipi Brew, the National Pearl Button Museum, Pearl City Popcorn, Proof Social, RED&LEE Vintage, Salon Incognito, Sarah Carlson of Ruhl&Ruhl Realtors, The Honest Skillet/Warrior Blend Oatmeal, The Merrill Soap Company and the Pearl Martini Bar & Lounge.

There are still plenty of open spots for the event. Ferreira encouraged interested businesses to give the event a chance and register.

Its just another reason to encourage people to support local businesses with the added bonus of brunch, in-store specials, swag bag, and a chance to win great door prizes, she said.

Tickets for the event can be purchased at https://girlsgetaway2023.eventbrite.com for $40. To guarantee the official gift item with their brunch, guests must be registered by March 24. For a full schedule and details on participating businesses, residents can check either the Girls Getaway 2023 Facebook event page or www.muscatine.com/events.
Stephanie and Joshua Hemberger were named as this year's Bettendorf Community Schools Foundation Visiting Science Scholars.

The annual Visiting Science Scholar program aims to highlight and connect industry professionals with Bettendorf High School students interested in pursuing science, technology, engineering and/or math (STEM) fields.

The duo  both Class of 2002 graduates  will give a presentation to high school STEM students on Friday, March 24, focusing on the horizontal and vertical infrastructure that builds our communities. They will also attend the annual Bett STEM Expo on Saturday, March 25, to speak with guests.

Stephanie Hemberger (formerly Brodersen) is a transportation engineer and project manager. She leads the transportation design practice for national firm HNTB out of Des Moines, Iowa.

Hemberger attended Paul Norton Elementary School before progressing through the district. She earned her bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Iowa State University in 2006, also minoring in French.

Upon graduating from ISU, Hemberger began her career as a roadway design engineer at HNTB's headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, where she'd later obtain her master's in business administration from Rockhurst University in 2009. She is also a licensed Professional Engineer in both Iowa and Missouri.

Throughout her career, Hemberger has had varied experience designing or leading projects for state Departments of Transportation and local municipalities. She moved back to Iowa in 2020 to be part of opening HNTB's Des Moines office.

Outside of the engineering world, Hemberger is passionate about community involvement. She is a 2014 graduate of the Greater Kansas City Chamber Centurions Leadership Program, in addition to graduating the Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute in 2022.

Hemberger is also active in the Women's Transportation Seminar, an organization focused on attracting, sustaining, connecting and advancing womens careers in the transportation industry  she currently serves as secretary on the Iowa Chapter Executive Board of Directors.

Her husband, Joshua Hemberger, attended Grant Wood Elementary School and also attended ISU, where he graduated with his Bachelor's of Architecture in 2008 with a digital media minor.

His career began at the Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity  home to the Kansas City Ballet  where he was involved in a wide variety of work, from housing to campus master plans. Since moving to Des Moines, Hemberger now works for Substance Architecture, where he leads the firm's work on several projects with Indigenous nonprofits and tribes of South Dakota.

He strives to create architecture that inspires and improves both the human and environmental health of a community, creating high-performance solutions while using many tools to improve daylighting, thermal performance and other building features.

Close Students attending the High School Exchange event - hosted by Bettendorf High School student council - participate in icebreaker activities before moving to breakout sessions on Thursday. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Camanche High School senior Ella Blinkinsop runs to an open spot while playing "the shoe game" Thursday at the High School Exchange event hosted by Bettendorf High School Student Council. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Students play "the shoe game" at the High School Exchange event on Thursday, hosted by Bettendorf High School student council. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Bettendorf High School junior Catalina Fernandez directs those attending the High School Exchange event on Thursday - hosted by BHS student council- before breakout sessions began. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Bettendorf High School student council members lead a "Bonding and Communication" breakout session during the High School Exchange event on Thursday at BHS. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Bettendorf High School sophomore Finn Boyle leads an energizer exercise to kick off the High School Exchange, hosted by the BHS Student Council. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Bettendorf High School sophomore Finn Boyle leads an energizer exercise to kick off the High School Exchange, hosted by the BHS student council. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Bettendorf High School sophomore Finn Boyle leads an energizer exercise to kick off the High School Exchange, hosted by the BHS Student Council. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Bettendorf High School sophomore Finn Boyle leads an energizer exercise to kick off the High School Exchange, hosted by the BHS student council. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. A glimpse at Bettendorf student council's High School Exchange event Students attending the High School Exchange event - hosted by Bettendorf High School student council - participate in icebreaker activities before moving to breakout sessions on Thursday. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Camanche High School senior Ella Blinkinsop runs to an open spot while playing "the shoe game" Thursday at the High School Exchange event hosted by Bettendorf High School Student Council. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Students play "the shoe game" at the High School Exchange event on Thursday, hosted by Bettendorf High School student council. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Bettendorf High School junior Catalina Fernandez directs those attending the High School Exchange event on Thursday - hosted by BHS student council- before breakout sessions began. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Bettendorf High School student council members lead a "Bonding and Communication" breakout session during the High School Exchange event on Thursday at BHS. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Bettendorf High School sophomore Finn Boyle leads an energizer exercise to kick off the High School Exchange, hosted by the BHS Student Council. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Bettendorf High School sophomore Finn Boyle leads an energizer exercise to kick off the High School Exchange, hosted by the BHS student council. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Bettendorf High School sophomore Finn Boyle leads an energizer exercise to kick off the High School Exchange, hosted by the BHS Student Council. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics. Bettendorf High School sophomore Finn Boyle leads an energizer exercise to kick off the High School Exchange, hosted by the BHS student council. Students from Davenport, Muscatine and Camanche school districts attended to learn and exchange ideas about leadership, fundraising, communication and other topics.
The 2024 Senate map presents a daunting challenge for Democrats. Time will tell if it proves to be insurmountable.

The party, which currently holds a narrow 51-49 majority, must defend 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs this cycle. That means Republicans need a net gain of just one or two seats to retake the Senate, depending on which party wins the White House in 2024.

The most favorable political terrain for Republicans runs through three states that former President Donald Trump carried by at least 8 points in 2020 -- West Virginia, Montana and Ohio. In all three, Democrats have incumbents with unique political brands who could again have crossover appeal with voters in a reelection race. And Republicans could face messy primary fights in all three states, leaving the eventual nominees weakened heading into the general election.

Beyond that, Democrats are defending Senate seats in a handful of pivotal presidential battlegrounds -- Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All are expected to be fiercely contested, with Arizona offering the potential for an unpredictable three-way race if Democrat-turned-independent Kyrsten Sinema seeks reelection. Given the overlay of the presidential race, these contests are most likely to see outsize attention with high-profile campaign visits, making them more connected to the national crosscurrents.

If Democrats are searching for targets to offset potential losses, their options are limited. Florida and Texas -- both red-leaning states -- offer the best opportunities. While Florida Sen. Rick Scott has a history of razor-thin elections, he's won them all. The Sunshine State has also been trending toward Republicans in recent years, especially in the era of Trump and Ron DeSantis. In Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz withstood a tough challenge from Beto O'Rourke in 2018, a Democratic-friendly year. Defeating Cruz in a presidential year could pose an even greater test.

As the cycle gets underway, how these Senate races play out could depend on several factors. While all signs point to President Joe Biden seeking reelection, he has yet to formally announce his intentions. The 2024 GOP presidential field is only just starting to take shape, with Trump a clear front-runner for now.

Aside from the eventual nominees, the overall environment and mood of the country will also help shape contests up and down the ballot as well as the central campaign issues. The state of the US economy is a constant priority for voters. There are signs that culture issues, including parental rights, are poised to drive the debate within GOP primaries and could emerge as general election flashpoints.

Senate Republicans were unable to capitalize on what appeared to be a favorable midterm environment for them in 2022, in part because of flawed candidates, several of whom were elevated by Trump. Already this year, National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Steve Daines and other GOP leaders have sent signals that the committee could get involved in primaries if it means avoiding nominees who could cost the party in the general election.
ST. CHARLES  A St. Charles County jury convicted a man this week for shooting an Amazon delivery driver in the back after the two argued over a disability parking spot outside a Target Store.

Jurors on Monday found Larry Thomlison, 70, guilty of first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the shooting of driver Jaylen Walker, who was 21 at the time. Walker, who worked for an Amazon contractor, was paralyzed from the waist down.

The dispute began just before noon March 5, 2019, outside the Target at 3881 Mexico Road. Walker had illegally parked his delivery van in a disability-accessible parking spot and was talking to the driver of a different Amazon van.

Thomlison pulled out a cellphone to photograph the illegally parked delivery van, and posted the image to social media, according to court documents.

Thomlison, who was driving a car with a disabled permit placard, then confronted Walker about the parking spot and attempted to photograph him. Walker pushed the phone away and Thomlison punched Walker, charges say.

There was a tussle, and authorities said they ended up on the ground.

Thomlison then pulled the gun from his waistband and shot Walker.

Prosecutors presented surveillance recordings of the shooting, Thomlison's interviews with police and jail calls, among other evidence, in the more than weeklong trial that opened March 6.

Thomlison, who lived on Lost Meadow Court about a mile and a half from the shopping center, will be sentenced May 1 in the case.

He showed clear reckless disregard for life, St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar said of the crimes in 2019. Any responsible gun owner will tell you this is not OK.

How Aaron Rodgers grew from a baby-faced draft pick to a 4-time MVP with the Packers
ANCHORAGE, Alaska  The Biden administration's approval of the biggest oil drilling project in Alaska in decades promises to widen a rift among Alaska Natives, with some saying that oil money can't counter the damages caused by climate change and others defending the project as economically vital.

Two lawsuits filed almost immediately by environmentalists and one Alaska Native group are likely to exacerbate tensions that built up over years of debate about ConocoPhillips Alaska's Willow project.

Many communities on Alaska's North Slope celebrated the project's approval, citing new jobs and the influx of money that will help support schools, public services and infrastructure investments in their isolated villages.

Just a few decades ago, many villages had no running water, said Doreen Leavitt, director of natural resources for the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope. Housing shortages continues to be a problem, with multiple generations often living together, she said.

"We still have a long ways to go," Leavitt said, "We don't want to go backwards."

She said 50 years of oil production on the petroleum-rich North Slope has shown development can coexist with wildlife and the traditional, subsistence way of life.

However, some Alaska Natives blasted the decision to greenlight the project, and they are supported by environmental groups challenging the approval in federal court.

Three leaders in the Nuiqsut community, who described their remote village as "ground zero for industrialization of the Arctic," wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico's Laguna Pueblo and the first Native American to lead a Cabinet department.

They cited the threat that climate change poses to caribou migrations and to their ability to travel across once-frozen areas. Money from the ConocoPhillips project won't be enough to mitigate those threats, they said. The community is about 36 miles from the Willow project.

"They are payoffs for the loss of our health and culture," the Nuiqsut leaders wrote. "No dollar can replace what we risk.  It is a matter of our survival."

But Asisaun Toovak, the mayor of Utqiagvik, the nation's northernmost community on the Arctic Ocean, said she jumped for joy when she heard the Biden administration approved the Willow project.

"I could say that the majority of the people, the majority of our community and the majority of the people were excited about the Willow Project," she said.

Willow is in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a region roughly the size of Maine. It would produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day, the use of which would result in at least 263 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions over 30 years, according to a federal environmental review.

The Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic, Sierra Club and other groups that sued Tuesday said Interior officials ignored the fact that every ton of greenhouse gas emitted by the project would contribute to sea ice melt, which endangers polar bears and Alaska villages. A second lawsuit seeking to block the project was filed Wednesday by Greenpeace and other environmental groups.

For Alaska Natives to reconcile their points of view, it will take discussions. "We just continue to try to sit at the table together, break bread and meet as a region," said Leavitt, who is the secretary for the tribal council representing eight North Slope villages.

"I will say the majority of the voices that we heard against Willow were from the Lower 48," she said of the contiguous U.S., excluding Alaska and Hawaii.

ConocoPhillips Alaska said the $8 billion project would create up to 2,500 jobs during construction and 300 long-term jobs, and generate billions of dollars in royalties and other revenues to be split between the federal and state governments.

The project has widespread support among lawmakers in the state. Alaska's bipartisan congressional delegation met with Biden and his advisers in early March to plead their case for the project, and Alaska Native lawmakers also met with Haaland to urge support.

Haaland visited the North Slope last spring just hours after state Rep. Josiah Aullaqsruaq Patkotak, a whaling co-captain along with his brother on their father's whaling crew, harvested a roughly 40-ton bowhead whale and spent hours pulling it on the ice from the Arctic Ocean at Utqiagvik. He left the ice about 7 a.m. to be ready to meet with Haaland just two hours later.

For him, the juxtaposition of those activities underscored the dual life led by Alaska Natives and highlights the choices communities make for their survival.

"That's the walk our leaders have to walk," said Patkotak, an independent who supported Willow. "We maintain our culture and our lifestyle and our subsistence aspect where we're one with the land and animals, and the very next hour you may be having to conduct yourself, you know, in a manner that you're playing the Western world's game."

He met again with Haaland this month in Washington, D.C., where he invited leaders in the White House to visit Utqiagvik, "because it's our duty to tell our story so that we're able to strike that balance of both worlds."

"That's a reality for us," he said.

Biden greenlights Alaska drilling project and extends new protections to the state's North Slope Biden greenlights Alaska drilling project and extends new protections to the state's North Slope Environmental concessions made alongside Willow's approval
ST. HELENA  Napa's producers are moving their sustainable farming practices in the right direction, a leading climate activist and marine biologist told vintners and grapegrowers at a conference earlier this week.

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.

We know what its like to get it wrong. We have all of this media and press about apocalyptic outcomes. But we also have literally hundreds of solutions, said Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, the co-founder of the Urban Research Lab.

In a wide-ranging discussion that focused on climate equity, local government policies and ocean health, Johnson said that while Napa's wine-industry is generally moving in the right direction with environmental initiatives and clean farming, it is important to keep up the momentum.

She spoke with Andrew Isaacs, a professor of tech innovation and climate strategy at UC Berkeley, as part of Ahead of the Curve a biannual conference hosted by the Napa Valley Grapegrowers focused on scientific-based solutions to the industry's climate issues.

"The climate problem is a good problem for the Napa community to be addressing because theres a strong sense of community (here)..." he said. There is a lot of trading of resources.

While the climate woes front of mind in the region usually relate to drought and wildfire, Johnson said that the impact of sustainable farming practices on the ocean also needs to be discussed.

I think we dont have enough respect for coastal ecosystems that help to protect us from storms," she said. "The mangroves, the seagrasses, the coral reefs, the wetlands, those are physical buffers from the impacts of storm surge, helping us deal with sea level rise and they also can absorb three or even five times more carbon per acre than a forest on land, than a tropical forest.

Johnson said she deeply respects how people in agriculture have always "been really creative problem solvers." But Napa Valley farmers may need to pivot to growing different, more drought-tolerant varietals, and growing farther north.

This is the reality that we face, which is  for many of you who have been growing here for generations  it's heartbreaking. But the world is changing at such a clip that it's time to start thinking about how we adapt, and not just how we prevent the world from changing, she said.

But whatever is planted, what goes into the ground may also find its way into the ocean.

Anything that you put on or in your soils is going to end up affecting coastal and marine ecosystems," said Johnson. "So eliminating the use of pesticides is a really important thing to do, or phase those out as much as you can, and thinking about how we are preventing erosion and minimizing and being really specific in our uses of fertilizer, because when those excess nutrients run off into coastal ecosystems, they can cause algae blooms and all sorts of disruptions."

And while she mentioned plenty of concerning statistics regarding the current trajectory of our oceans, Johnson closed on a positive note.

How could anyone give up on this magnificent planet and all of the other people and creatures that we get to share it with? I mean, what a magnificent opportunity to be able to protect the things and the people we love.

8 things to do right now in your community to prepare for climate change 8 things to do right now in your community to prepare for climate change Plant a rain garden or install a rain barrel Remove invasive plant species from parks Replace grass lawns with eco-alternatives Use renewable energy options Use natural methods to repel mosquitoes Plant trees Support local farmers Get elected to HOA or neighborhood association
Napa Countys first-in-the-country forgivable loan program for accessory dwelling unit construction has officially launched, the county announced in a Friday press release.

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The loans are intended to make it easier for people to build ADUs, which are living quarters that can be attached or detached from a main residence. ADUs have been touted by state lawmakers as one way to help address Californias housing crisis, and the state has passed laws in recent years to make approvals of such units smoother at the local government level. (ADU approvals have been picking up across Napa County and the state in recent years, but the estimated need for housing remains astronomically higher than the number of approved ADUs.)

The loan program specifically addressing a housing affordability gap by providing forgivable construction loans that range from $45,000 to $105,000, depending on the number of rooms and design features of the proposed ADU, according to the news release.

Thats in exchange for commitments to rent the properties to households earning up to 80% of the area median income for a period of at least five years, the release says.

This is a huge step in addressing the housing affordability crisis facing Napa County and the state, said Belia Ramos, chair of the Board of Supervisors, in the press release. This program is the culmination of a seven-year effort of collaborative public-private partnerships. Were excited to see where this program goes. This is just the beginning.

Those interested in applying or learning more can visit the relevant portion of the countys website at: http://www.countyofnapa.org/aaduloan. The application is a three-step process, according to the press release, and is designed to move at the pace of construction. That means homeowners move through steps of expressing interest, gaining access to a free feasibility consultation and video classes, then committing to loan funding as the project moves from idea to design to permitting and construction, the press release says.

The county started working on the program in April 2022, when the Board of Supervisors directed staff to work with consultants at LeSar Development, the Napa Sonoma ADU Center and other stakeholders to develop the program. Underwriting guidelines that established the program were approved by the board in November that year, and staff worked in the following months to finalize the application, loan documents and other contracts, the press release says.

Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis while funding is available, according to the release.
ESCONDIDO, Calif.  Sure, Apollo's sitting, shaking, leash walking and fetching skills have improved since he started living in a group home with four men with developmental disabilities.

But this one-year-old lab, explains resident Adam Holwuttle, does his own kind of work, his presence and acceptance helping to smooth out the rough edges that can appear among roommates.

"Apollo helps me a lot like when we go on walks, my attitude, my anger, my frustration, he comes up to me, gives me kisses," Holwuttle said, the dog's head in his lap.

Kelly Bridges, who has lived at the spacious home in a quiet Escondido neighborhood since 2019, said Apollo's willingness to shake or even dance around the room, standing up paws in hands, is its own kind of positive feedback loop.

"I can rely on him to help me feel better, and he feels the same for me; I know it happens that way," Bridges said. "You don't have to be a certain kind of person to love a dog and be nice to a dog ... because if you don't love anybody or anyone, how can you love yourself?"

Apollo is actually this home's fifth foster dog provided under a strict agreement with Escondido's Furballs Furever Rescue.

Operated by Merakey, a not-for-profit developmental and behavioral health services company that runs nearly 600 group homes in five states, the Escondido location is its first to participate in such an arrangement. As near as the company can tell, this arrangement is the first of its kind pretty much anywhere.

Some might find that fact surprising as dogs and other animals have been embraced pretty much everywhere in health care. These days, therapy dogs roam the halls of hospitals, cancer units and nursing homes, helping people with anxiety, stress and loneliness.

But group homes, especially those where residents may be prone to outbursts and even minor violence due to neurological conditions, have not generally been on the therapy dog circuit, let alone considered as suitable foster homes for dogs such as Apollo, whose previous family surrendered him once he started chewing furniture, having indoor accidents and refusing to go in his kennel.

AnnMarie Stanton, director and program lead for this particular residence in Escondido, said there were quite a few nos before Furballs Furever said yes.

"We had to jump through hoop after hoop to get this started; everybody said these guys can't do it, they might get violent and cause trauma to the dogs," Stanton said. "But the animals have what we call a safetynet crisis plan where we guarantee, in the event of a behavior, the dog immediately goes to his kennel or behind a locked door."

That rule has only been used once so far across five dog fosterings, and it remains, Stanton said, a powerful governor of behavior.

"If somebody is upset and they're starting to raise their voice, the others will say, 'hey, you're scaring the dog, bring it down, you can be mad, but go in your room and close the door, we're not going to scare the dog,'" Stanton said.

That ability to limit outbursts has had very measurable results.

Of Merakey's four group homes in San Diego County, the only one with a dog also has the lowest rates of property damage.

Dogs, the company has found, also serve as useful disruptors, their needs for walks, playtime and feeding breaking into the often-rigid schedules of those who live on the autism spectrum.

To eventually move to less-restrictive residences in the future, clients must learn to deal with disruption and interruption, and nothing snaps a comfortable routine like a dog who must be let out to do their business.

But it goes much deeper than that. Dogs and other animals provide the thing that every person needs at the core of their being: A purpose.

"The animals need them, they need their love and affection, they need them to get a bath, they need them to go out on walks, they need them, and to feel needed and wanted is huge in this community," Stanton said.

Agreeing to work with Merakey on the project was a leap of faith for Furballs Furever Rescue which has only been up and running in Escondido for three years. Founder Katherine Chilidonia said that she had previous experience working in group homes for children and, talking with Stanton, could see how residents could benefit.

So far, all four of the dogs that the group of men have fostered previous to Apollo have been adopted and not returned to the rescue.

Part of that success, she said, comes down to the dogs and the people being able to relate to each other. Both, after all, have struggled to fit into the footprint of society's expectations.

"The guys, they know that the dogs they are fostering and that are put in their hands, that they've gone through things too, and I think that's kind of where they find that level ground," Chilidonia said.

Merakey has been watching the program closely and plans to use it to add animals to other group homes it operates.

Elise Tretola, a senior vice president for the company, said that the San Diego Regional Center, which supports 4,000 residents with developmental disabilities in San Diego and Imperial counties, and the California Department of Developmental Services, have been willing to support the innovative but unprecedented initiative.

"We just don't get this kind of opportunity in other states where we operate," Tretola said. "Now that we have a model and we have results, we think that we have an opportunity to go back to some states and say 'look what we've done here, can we get a similar kind of partnership?'"

"We believe this is so needed that you could put these programs in every state, and you would have a waiting list to get into them."

Of course, it is not just about the willingness of service providers to participate; shelters also have to be willing to foster their dogs with specific group homes. Matching specific dogs to specific groups of clients, both Chilidonia and Stanton said, is the key to success. Dogs with significant health problems that require extensive medications can be more difficult to match as can clients who are afraid of animals.

While some might suspect that it is difficult for these guys to let their dogs be adopted by other families, they don't seem to resist the idea that Apollo will eventually move out, as the four before him did.

Bridges said letting go won't be easy.

"It's hard because Apollo is unique, at the same time very playful and sweet and lovable," Bridges said. "It's like having a son or daughter, and you hate to see them go, well, it's the same for animals."

But this crew of dog trainers has found a quick way to cheer up.

"If they get adopted, what do we do?" Stanton asked.

"Get a new dog," Holwuttle replied.

The top 10 most popular dog breeds in America 1. French bulldogs 2. Labrador retrievers 3. Golden retrievers 4. Golden shepherds 5. Poodles 6. Bulldogs 7. Rottweilers 8. Beagles 9. Dachshunds 10. German shorthaired pointers
Christians In The Middle East: A Persecuted And Forgotten People

A priest stands before the ruins of St. Mary's Syriac Orthodox parish in Homs. ( Aid to the Church in Need) At the beginning of this year, the Christian international network Open Doors presented data on the oppression, discrimination and persecution of Christians around the world. It was announced that between the fall of 2021 and the fall of 2022, 5,621 Christians were killed, 4,542 were arrested, and 5,259 were kidnapped.

As many as 2,110 churches and church buildings were the target of violence. More than 360 million Christians were exposed to high levels of persecution and discrimination. Because of their faith, almost every seventh Christian in the world was persecuted, every fifth in Africa and 40% of Christians in Asia.

It is especially difficult for Christians in the Middle East -- the region where Jesus was born, preached, died and resurrected as the Bible teaches. For Christians in the Middle East, the Christmas season is not "the most beautiful time of the year" as in the popular Andy Williams song. On the contrary, after two millennia of Christian presence, the Middle East is slowly but surely being cleansed of Christians. The international Christian organization Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) presented in its report at the end of 2022 terrible and devastating data about the state of Christianity in that region. Some of the oldest Christian communities in the world are in danger of disappearing as a result of mass emigration. The bishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad declared that the exodus of Christians was an unprecedented event. It is striking that the Western powers, which have a majority Christian population, are not concerned at all by such a disaster. Pope Francis raised the issue in his recent meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, urging him to make greater efforts to preserve the Christian presence in the region and stop the exodus of Christians that has reached alarming levels.

In 2010, Christians made up 6% of the population in the region -- a number roughly equal to the situation at the beginning of the 16th century when the expansion of the Ottoman Empire took place. In the last decade after the outbreak of the Arab Spring in 2011, Christian communities in many Muslim countries experienced persecution, massacres and even genocide. The number of Christians has decreased due to wars, ethnic cleansing and crimes committed by members of ISIL and related terrorist groups. Many Christian communities have been decimated. Currently, there are 22 Christian communities in the Middle East: eight Protestant, seven Catholic and seven Orthodox churches. The vast majority of these Christians are members of indigenous Christian communities such as the Maronite, Melkite (Greek), Armenian, Coptic, Chaldean, and Assyrian churches. It is estimated that Christians currently make up about 4% of the population of the region -- 15 million believers. This is a drastic drop compared to the beginning of the 20th century, when there were slightly more than 20% Christians. If there had been no discrimination, violent persecutions and massacres by the states and Islamist groups there, there is no doubt that the number of Christians would not have remained at 20% but would have grown.

Although for different reasons (Islamic fundamentalism, economic difficulties, wars), the exodus of Christians is happening in most countries of the region, especially in Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and the states of the Persian Gulf. In the last two years, more than 5,000 Christians have gone (including those from Jerusalem) mainly to Europe, the United States and Canada. In 2011, there were 1.7 million Christians in Syria (10% of the population). Today there are less than 450,000 of them (2% of the population). In Aleppo alone, the Christian population has shrunk from 360,000 in 2012 to 25,000 today. In 2003, there were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. Today there are less than 120,000 of them. Syria and Iraq are home to numerous Christian communities. In Iraq, with the rise of ISIL, at least 50,000 Christians found refuge in Lebanon, but now there are only a few hundred, as most have left the region for good and gone to North America or Australia. And many leave from the relatively safe haven provided by Jordan. Coptic Orthodox Christians, an autochthonous community originating from the ancient Pharaonic civilization, were persecuted in Egypt.

The only country in the region with a growing Christian community is Israel, where the Christian population grew by 1.4% in 2020. Somewhat paradoxically, since Jews do not recognize Jesus, Christians in Israel benefit from the only functioning democracy in the Middle East because their religious freedom as much as guaranteed. According to the Israel Bureau of Statistics from December 2021, 84% of Christians surveyed said they were satisfied with life in Israel. This shows that when a democratic state is functioning then minority communities can profit despite the fact that they are minorities. However, one should be objective and recognize that in Israel, Christians suffer just as much as Muslims and other non-Judaists and are subjected to discrimination. Even the hometown of Jesus Christ, Bethlehem, is not immune to the exodus. In the past 100 years, the percentage of Christians in the population of Bethlehem has dropped from 84% to about 20% today. In addition to the Israeli government, the Palestinians also began to attack churches in Bethlehem. The first incident happened on October 28 last year when a group of Palestinians threw stones at a church. In the West Bank and Gaza, the percentage of Christians in the population fell from 11% in 1922 to 1.5% in 2017 and has fallen below 1% in recent years. During 2022, more than 5,000 Christians emigrated from the West Bank.

In the former Constantinople (Constantinople) of modern Istanbul, the Church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia), which was the seat of Eastern Orthodoxy for more than a thousand years, stands as a living reminder of the persecution and discrimination of Christians in the past and present. In 2020, Turkey's autocratic and pro-Islamist President Recep Erdogan turned it back into a mosque after being a museum for almost a century. Although Istanbul is full of mosques (there are more than three thousand of them) and many of them are gaping empty, Hagia Sophia has been converted into a mosque. Why? You don't need to be a sage to understand Erdogan's message: "Christian Turks are foreigners in their own country". This is unfair since the Turks of the Christian faith built Turkey for centuries and it is also one of the cradles of Christianity.

Although in 2017 ISIL was defeated in the wars in Syria and Iraq, Islamic fundamentalism was not defeated while countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar have a Wahhabi order. A potential renewal of jihad in the region could harm Christianity even more. The main problem is not that there are fewer and fewer Christians, but that their self-confidence has been undermined due to a lack of security. Iraq is the only Middle Eastern country that has launched a major reconstruction program to help the return of exiled Christians. Reconstruction of Christian towns and villages, homes, schools, churches and other public facilities was undertaken with the support of the government. However, few returned. Fears of a resurgence of jihad have reduced trust in the Iraqi state, and leaving has become an acceptable solution.

The legal political and social order in many Arab countries is a source of discrimination. As such, the system is hostile towards all non-Muslims, especially Christians. Christians are often not second or third but tenth class citizens, they suffer discrimination in the educational system, in the workplace, the community tries to ostracize them. Daily discrimination has forced many followers of Christ to flee to countries where they can live without fear for their lives because of belonging to their religion. Of course, Middle Eastern Christians should not emigrate in order to freely practice their faith and live in accordance with their culture and traditions. They should be able to practice their religion freely in their home countries.

Cyprus has the largest Christian population in the region (78%), while only two Arab countries give Christians a special status: Jordan and Lebanon. King Abdullah II of Jordan. shows great concern for the Christians of the Middle East. Last September, during his speech at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, he expressed his anger at their poor position. He criticized Israel for abusing Christians and members of other minority faiths in the city of Jerusalem, which, along with Bethlehem, is considered the cradle of Christianity. Back in 2013, speaking at a two-day conference on the challenges facing Arab Christians, Abdullah II. stated that protecting the rights of Christians "is not a matter of decency, but a duty". This is because "Arab Christians played a key role in building Arab society and defending our nation... We have a duty to defend the Arab identity of Jerusalem and protect its Islamic and Christian holy places." Statements of Abdullah II. against the abuse of Middle Eastern Christians were the only ones that could be heard recently from prominent statesmen. Not only the Arab countries and Israel are silent (which is somewhat logical since they are the oppressors), but also the so-called the Western Christian world, which is not very logical because of the Christian majority in these countries. At that last UN session, there was not even a word of support from US President Joe Biden, the most powerful leader of a Christian government in the world or from Europe, where Christianity found its strongest foothold.

"Christian" authorities in the West (in the countries of North America and the European Union, who preach a deep commitment to human rights in their countries and around the world), should strongly support the right of Christians of the Middle East to live in peace and security as confirmed by Article 18 of General declaration on human rights from 1948: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; that right includes the freedom to change one's religion or belief and the freedom to manifest one's religion or belief individually or in community with others, publicly or privately, through teaching, worship, practice and rituals."

It is the Western world, which is based on Christianity, that is expected to protect its brothers in faith in the dysfunctional and unstable states of the Middle East. Who is more called to do this than countries that publicly proclaim democracy, freedom and human rights? However, the West does not do this, so it should not be surprising that the protection of Christians in the world is not included in the current development plans, such as, for example, the 17 sustainable development goals of the UN until 2030. These goals do not mention any religion at all, which means that the global creators of sustainable development believe that religion is not really (that) important. In such a bad situation, the Christians of the Middle East cannot expect the local governments there to work on improving the status of their situation when even the powerful governments of the "Christian world" are not doing anything concrete about it.

Western politicians who consider themselves Christians, and most of them are in positions of power, should strongly advocate the rights of Christians in the Middle East, because if the followers of Jesus disappear there in the cradle of Christianity, there is no doubt that Christianity will continue to lose strength in the West as well. Christianity is based on revelations, events and miracles that did not take place in New York, Paris or Rome, but in the Middle East, specifically Holy Land (today's Israel and Palestine). Western governments should demand, for example, from the Israeli authorities a more significant restoration of the Christian presence in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and of course an end to all persecutions. Biblical historical events should be respected in order to show that the history of Christians is a valuable part of the history not only of the Middle East but also of humanity as a whole. Yet the Bible is the most influential book of all time.

In order to protect vulnerable Christians in practice, it is very important that the Arab world understands that Christianity is an indispensable component of their identity, culture, history and present. If they really wanted to, Western diplomats and statesmen could point this out to their partners in the region, and they could also force them to protect church communities through the application of sanctions on, for example, oil and gas exports or through the denial of military aid. However, apart from the declarative reference to Christianity, it is evident that most Western politicians do not care about "their" religion, but only about power and money. Nevertheless, the problem should be pointed out and some progress should happen in the future.
The council of elders of the Metsamor community of Armenias Armavir Province has decided to donate one of the administrative buildings, the hotel building, and about 2 hectares of land in Margara village to the State Revenue Committee (SRC). In case of the possible re-operation of the Margara checkpoint bordering Turkey, the mentioned buildings and lands will be used for the customs control process, Hetq.am online newspaper of Armenia reports.

The council of elders of the aforesaid community made this decision on Friday, which was based on the writings of the head of the SRC, the governor of Armavir Province, and the recommendation of the head of the community, Vahram Khachatryan. After the council's decision, a donation agreement must be signed between the parties, which is subject to notarization and state registration.

Hetq asked Edgar Hovhannisyan, the first deputy mayor of Metsamor, why the council donated the aforesaid community property to the SRC.

The deputy mayor did not have information about the purpose, and advised to check with the SRC. He only noted that the mentioned buildings and the plots of land serving them used to belong to the state, in recent years they was transferred to the community, and now the state is taking back its property again.

Edgar Hovhannisyan, as a member of the aforementioned council of elders, voted in favor of that decision, not knowing why that communal property was being transferred to the SRC. Twenty members of the council of elders voted in favor of the decision, and noneagainst.

Hetq tried to find out from the Armavir provincial governor's office what the content of his letter was and why the said property was being transferred to the SRC. The news department informed Hetq that the governor's letter referred to the allocation of land for the construction of buildings for medical organizations providing primary health care services operating in the community's settlements.

In fact, however, these real estates were transferred to the SRC for a completely different purpose, and it has nothing to do with the construction of medical facilities, as they inform from the provincial governor's office.

SRC General Secretary Edgar Gevorgyan, in response to the written inquiry of Hetq, said that in order to ensure the technical part of the possible re-operation of the Margara border checkpoint in Armavir Province, the SRC petitioned to the Metsamor community council with a request to transfer to the SRC the real estates and land that are considered the property of the community.

"The above-mentioned real estate is planned to be used in the event of a possible re-operation of the checkpoint to carry out the customs control process," said the response provided by the General Secretary of the SRC.

Margara village of Armenia is about 500 meters away from Alican village in Turkey. The two countries are separated there only by the Araks River, and they are connected by a bridge built on it.

This February, humanitarian aid was sent from Armenia to the residents affected by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey. The trucks carrying this aid crossed the Armenian-Turkish border through the Margara-Alican section, i.e. through the Margara checkpoint.

What are the real estates transferred to SRC?

According to the information available in the Cadastre Committee of Armenia, the ownership rights of real estates and plots of land transferred to the SRC still belong to the Metsamor community. In other words, state registration of the property has not yet been carried out on the basis of a donation contract.

The administrative building has two floors. Before the closure of the Armenian-Turkish border, it was a checkpoint. It was built in the Soviet years, in 1964. The internal surface area of this building is 1,329 square meters, and the degree of its completion is 80 percent or more.

It is located near the Armenian-Turkish checkpoint, on the bank of the Araks River. It is in the neutral zoneinside the barbed wire where the entry of ordinary citizens is prohibited.

The roof with an area of 462.2 square meters, the warehouse of 186.1 square meters, and the land area of 0.83 hectares were also transferred to SRC.

The pumping station with an area of 238.4 square meters and the land area of 0.083 hectares were also donated.

As for the hotel building, it has three floors. It is located in front of the administrative building transferred to the SRCand again inside the aforesaid barbed wire.

The building has an area of 1,056 square meters. The 23.5-square-meter pumping station and the 25-square-meter water pumping tower serving the hotel building were also transferred to the SRC. This building was also built in 1964. More than 80 percent of it is completed, and only its water tower is unfinished.

Also, this hotel building has 1 hectare of land, which was also transferred to the SRC.
Food shortages have forced the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to cut vital aid to Afghanistan's four million people in March. This is noted in a statement posted on the website of the United Nations.

The WFP has called on the international community to allocate emergency funds to Afghanistan to fund humanitarian operations there. Otherwise, a catastrophic famine could spread widely throughout the country.

It was reported that due to insufficient funding, about four million Afghans will receive only half of the aid needed for their survival in March.

According to the representatives of the WFP, the food reserves in Afghanistan will run out before the next harvest in May.

Funding is being cut at a time when Afghans are also suffering from this year's long winter. Low temperatures, along with economic hardships, have driven millions of people to despair.

The WFP urgently needs $93 million to help 13 million people in April, and $800 million for the next six months.

Since August 2022, nine out of ten Afghan families cannot afford to buy enough food; this is the highest indicator in the world. Six million inhabitants of the country are one step away from hunger, the WFP warned. In 2023, a third of the populationmore than 28 million peoplewill need humanitarian assistance, and this is almost three times higher than in 2021.

Thanks to the lavish funding in 2022, the WFP had considerably increased the amount of aid to Afghanistan. The agency has assisted 23 million people, distributing more than one million tons of food and $326 million in cash.
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Armenia ruling force MP to Zakharova: If we hadn't fought, given casualties, Russia MFA could call as much as it wants

USD depreciating against several other major currencies
The Serbian side does not intend to sign anything during the meeting with the representatives of the EU and Kosovo, which will take place later today, in the city of Ohrid (North Macedonia), Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic stated before the meeting, Interfax reported.

"I will tell you now that I will not sign anything, and they [the interlocutors] are not concerned about it. Do you think they are happy? They are not happy because they are happy only with Serbia's failures, and they would be happy if I said something else. They want to talk about the normalization of relations. We can talk about this with each other," Vucic said, Serbian RTS television reported.

Bilateral meetings of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell with Vucic and the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, are expected to take place in Ohrid on Saturday, and then the trilateral meeting will take place. Miroslav Lajcak, EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues, will also take part in this meeting.

The Serbian Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, which is mostly inhabited by Albanians, unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after a bloody conflict. Most of the Western countries have recognized this step, but Serbia continues to consider these lands as part of the Serbian state.
Germany and Japan agreed to cooperate closely on economic security on Saturday during their first ever high-ministerial government consultations, held amid tensions over global supply chains and economic disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, accompanied to Japan by six ministers, is looking at ways to reduce German dependence on Chinese raw materials.

In a joint statement, the two countries "affirmed their intention to strengthen cooperation on economic security" and to work towards establishing "a legal framework for bilateral defense and security cooperation activities, such as rendering logistical assistance and support."

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Germany and Japan aimed to boost cooperation "in strategic areas including mineral resources, semiconductors, and batteries, and share our best practices to counter risks in order to build a resilient supply chain that is safe and sustainable".

Germany holds inter-governmental consultations with a number of countries including France and China. German officials said the decision to hold its first such consultation with Japan was of considerable political and symbolic importance.

Given Japan's passing of a bill on economic security, Berlin hopes to learn about its raw material strategy and follow Tokyo's lead on how to cut dependency on imports, a German government official said of the visit.

Japan's parliament passed an economic security bill last year aimed at guarding technology and reinforcing critical supply chains.

Trade between Germany and China rose to a record level last year, making the Asian country Germany's most important trading partner for the seventh year in a row despite political warnings in Berlin about excessive dependence.

Goods worth around 298 billion euros were traded between the two countries in 2022, up around 21% from a year before, according to data from the German statistics office.

Japan is Germany's second largest trading partner in Asia, but volumes in 2022 were less than a fifth of those with China.
Acting Minister of Defense of Slovakia Jaroslav Nad signed an intergovernmental agreement with Ukraine on the delivery of a part of Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets and Kub air defense systems to Kyiv, the press secretary of the Ministry of Defense, Martin Kakashchikov, informed Slovak TASR agency.

The press secretary added that Slovakia will deliver 13 MiG-29 fighter jets and two Kub air defense systems to Ukraine, as well as the necessary control systems, spare parts, and missiles for this equipment.

According to Kakashchikov, this agreement between the governments of Slovakia and Ukraine on the free delivery of military equipment is in line with Slovakia's foreign political interests.
Turkeys general election campaign is kicking off on Saturday. It will last until May 13, which will be "the day of silence," TASS reported.

The general election is scheduled for May 14. If the presidential election requires a runoff, it will be held on May 28.

According to the Turkish election authority's decision, the nomination of presidential candidates will take place on March 19-23. The candidates will be able to launch their election campaigns after a candidate list is published on March 31, the TRT state television reported on Saturday.

Political parties and alliances taking part in the election are expected to submit their candidate lists to the election authority by the end of day on March 24.

On March 10, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree on holding the election, which was initially set for June 18.

Erdogan will be the presidential candidate for the ruling People's Alliance, and Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), is going to be his main challenger. There will also be other candidates whose chances of winning appear slim, according to experts.

A presidential candidate needs to gain more than 50% of the vote to win in the first round. If no candidate passes the 50% threshold, a run-off is held between the top two contenders.

The previous presidential election in Turkey was held on June 24, 2018, and Erdogan had won, garnering 52.6 percent of the votes.
Speaker of the National Assembly (NA), Alen Simonyan, on Saturday received the Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly Russia, Yury Vorobyov, who is in Armenia within the framework of Fridays 36th meeting of the interparliamentary commission on cooperation between the Armenian NA and the Russian Federal Assembly.

The interlocutors highlighted the active cooperation between the legislative bodies of Armenia and Russia, and stressed the importance of holding meetings of interparliamentary and intergovernmental commissions.

"I hope that yesterday's meeting was effective and its results will strengthen the strategic partnership and cooperation between Armenia and Russia," said Simonyan, referring to the aforesaid meeting and the signingon the margins of this meetingof a memorandum of cooperation between Tavush Province of Armenia and Krasnoyarsk region of Russia.

Alen Simonyan and Yury Vorobyov discussed regional security and some other issues of mutual interest.

And reflecting on the actions of Azerbaijan, the NA speaker: "In order to prevent the threat of a humanitarian disaster hanging over the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the context of the demand for efforts to restore normal movement through the Lachin corridor, I would like to specifically note that we expect active steps and targeted statements from our international partners, and first of all, from the Russian Federation, whose peacekeeping contingent is stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh."
Clashes broke out between protesters, police, and residents of Israels Kfar Uriah village where National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was spending the weekend on Saturday, The Times of Israel reported.

Police said they arrested a man who threw rocks at the demonstrators, and two protesters were detained on suspicion of disturbing public order and refusing to obey a police officers instructions.

The group of demonstrators arrived in Kfar Uriah when they heard the far-right minister was spending the weekend there.

Residents were angered by their presence, with some shouting stinking leftists should die, according to a reporter from the Haaretz daily. One resident reportedly removed his pants and exposed himself to the protesters.

According to the Ynet news site, smoke grenades, rocks, and firecrackers were thrown toward the protesters, and some were sprayed with a fire extinguisher.

The Walla news site said that some residents of the village came out to support the protesters. Others were said to be angered by the noise and disruption outside the synagogue where Ben Gvir was praying.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev continues to issue threats, present ultimatums, and make insults against Armenia and Armenians.

"Today we [Azerbaijanis] are on the land of native Karabakh, on the land of native Zangazur [(Zangezur)], and we will be here forever. The Azerbaijani people rightfully live with a sense of pride," Aliyev said, addressing the Azerbaijani people from Talish village on Saturday, on the occasion of Nowruz.

Also, Aliyev did not forget to present ultimatums and make insults against Armenians, frequently repeating expressions about the "masters" and "backers" of Armenians.

"Today, Armenia, which had declared that Karabakh is Armenia and that's it, which was threatening us with a new war, is in search of a new master. There will be no benefit from that," he said.

Continuing the topic of the unknown "backers" of Armenians, Aliyev spoke about the countries that "support Armenia's invasive policy and have declared an information war against us," but did not specify which countries he means.

"For Armenia to live peacefully on the territory of [its] 29,000 square kilometers, there is one condition: they need to accept our conditions, officially recognize Karabakh as the territory of Azerbaijan, carry out delimitation work based on our conditions," said Aliyev.

"Realities related to occupation, war, post-Soviet realities should and will find their reflection in peace negotiations. Otherwise, there will be no peace treaty," continued the president of Azerbaijan.

"Some conferences, symposiums related to the internal affairs of Azerbaijan are being organized in some countries," Aliyev said.

"Some pro-Armenian countries recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, which does not exist on the world map, does not exist in the territory of Azerbaijan. What does this mean. This means that during the occupation, the only goal of all those forces was to make the occupation eternal, not to resolve that conflict, but to freeze it," he added.
Turkey has become upset by the mention of the Armenian Genocide in one sentence in a report of the European Parliament on Wednesday.

In particular, the press secretary of the Turkish foreign ministry, Tanju Bilgic, commented on this mention of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

"Those views are incompatible with historical facts and international legal norms. They are not valid for us," said the representative of the Turkish foreign ministry, despite the many testimonies of this terrible crime in the archives of numerous countries.

"It appears that the European Parliament, in its regular report on EU-Armenia relations dated March 15, 2023, asserts groundless accusations regarding our country and the events of 1915," he continued.

"These views, which are incompatible with historical facts and international law, have no force for us. We call on the European Parliament to act in accordance with political morality and international law, rather than repeating such one-sided and groundless statements," said the statement of the Turkish foreign ministry.

The aforesaid European Parliament report, entitled "Three Eastern Partnership neighbours in the South Caucasus," talks about the relations of this international organization with Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.

"In a March 2022 resolution, Parliament strongly condemned Azerbaijans continued policy of erasing and denying the Armenian cultural heritage in and around Nagorno-Karabakh. Leading MEPs following the situation in Armenia have released a series of statements on the conflict, insisting on the need for a negotiated comprehensive settlement and raising concerns over issues such as border incidents and attacks, Armenian captives, landmines, inflammatory rhetoric, humanitarian access and the protection of cultural heritage. In 2015, the European Parliament passed a resolution on the centenary of the Armenian genocide," it is stated in one of the parts of this report, where a reference to the resolution on the Armenian Genocide is given.






New Delhi [India], March 18 (ANI/ATK): Nippon Energy, the Japanese solar company that provides financing, engineering, and contracting solutions for various solar projects, has recently announced the promotion of Muhammad Haris Khan to Chief Operating Officer and Board Member. Muhammad Haris Khan is an experienced professional with over 10 years of experience in the renewable energy industry. He started his journey with Nippon Energy as a Renewable-Hydrogen Expert in January 2018 and worked with the company until September 2019. Afterward, he worked with Engie Middle East as a Techno-Economic Expert and then as a Business Development Manager. In August 2021, Muhammad Haris Khan rejoined Nippon Energy as the Head of Energy, and later on, he was promoted to Director of Renewable Market EMEA. On 17 March 2023, he was further promoted to Chief Operating Officer and secured a position as a Board Member in Nippon Energy. This promotion is a recognition of his extensive experience and dedication to the renewable energy industry and his commitment to Nippon Energy. Muhammad Haris Khan's expertise will be instrumental in driving the company's growth and success in the future. The announcement was made during the "Beyond Future" event held by Nippon Energy on 17 March 2023 at Concorde Tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The event provided an opportunity for the company members and team to discuss their Super Energy Vision and plans for the future. Nippon Energy aims to encourage more businesses and governments to utilise the benefits of solar energy. With its team of international solar experts, the company provides customised solutions to meet the specific needs of its customers and ensure compliance with regulatory authorities. Overall, Muhammad Haris Khan's promotion is a testament to Nippon Energy's commitment to recognizing and promoting talented individuals within their organisation. With his extensive experience and dedication to the renewable energy industry, Muhammad Haris Khan is poised to help lead Nippon Energy to greater heights in the future. This story has been provided by ATK. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/ATK)
A sense of wonder filled the carriage as the Vande Bharat Express raced through the flatlands of Uttar Pradesh, bound from Varanasi to Delhi, at 130 kph (81 mph). That is a shade faster than the Northeast Regional ferries passengers between New York and Washington--and, by Indian locomotive standards, revolutionary, according to the Economist. The train covers its 759-km route 130 minutes faster than the next-quickest service. "It's so much more comfortable!" says M Afzal, 42, a cloth dealer from Varanasi heading to Kanpur, an intermediate stop. "But the main thing is the saving of time." That sentiment is becoming increasingly commonplace in India. Long known for its interminable, rattling train journeys, snarled roads and grotty airports, the country is experiencing an infrastructural makeover on a scale unprecedented outside China. According to the Economist, it will transform Indians' ability to travel, by rail, road and air; and thus to intermingle and do business. It added that the government of PM Narendra Modi hopes it will remove one of the biggest constraints on the rapid economic growth that India desperately needs in order to meet the aspirations of its young, fast-growing population. The pace of the buildout is remarkable, the Economist said. The first indigenously designed and built Vande Bharat service was flagged off by Modi in 2019. In the past six months the prime minister, who loves a ribbon-cutting above all things, has inaugurated eight more, including two in Mumbai last month. His government promises to launch 500 more Vande Bharat services in the next three years; it also has ambitions to export the rapid new trains to other countries, according to the Economist. A genuinely high-speed line--with top speeds greater than that of America's Acela service--is meanwhile being built, with Japanese help, between the financial capital of Mumbai and Ahmedabad, in the western state of Gujarat. It will cut travel time between the two economic hubs to two hours from six, the Economist said. The Economist said two new "freight corridors", between Mumbai and Delhi and between Punjab and West Bengal, are semi-operational and scheduled to be finished by next year. Another four are on the cards. Their electrified tracks will allow goods to be moved on double-stacked 1-km-long trains at speeds of up to 70 kph--up from a painful 25 kph today. The railways' share of freight traffic has declined in the decade to 2022, even as the overall goods volume has increased. According to the Economist, the government hopes its new corridors will boost railway freight from 27 per cent to 45 per cent by 2030. That would mitigate the country's greenhouse-gas emissions as well as its reliance on imported fuel. By decongesting existing lines, the corridors should also allow passenger trains to move faster. India is at the same time adding 10,000 kms of highway a year. The length of the rural road network has increased from 381,000 km in 2014, when Modi was elected, to 729,000 km this year, according to the Economist. Over the same period the number of Indian airports has doubled. The prime minister opened an airport in the southern state of Karnataka last month; on March 12 he inaugurated a new highway in the same state, the Economist said. Modi, backed by state-level leaders of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has pushed new infrastructure across the board. India's electricity-generation capacity has grown by 22 per cent and renewable-energy capacity has nearly doubled in the five years to 2022. Broadband connections have jumped from 61 million before Modi took over to 816 million last year. A mobile-based payment system launched in 2016 accounts for over half of digital transactions, the Economist said. Yet the infrastructure push is mainly focused on transport, which the Modi administration considers the key to India's past failings and its likeliest guarantor of future success. It trusts new roads and railways will help fulfil its ambition to turn India into a USD 5-trillion economy by 2025-26--up from USD 3.5 trillion today, according to the Economist. To that end, India will spend 1.7 per cent of GDP on transport infrastructure this year, around twice the level in America and most European countries. If such infrastructure were a central government department, it would have the third-biggest budget after the finance and defence ministries, according to the Economist. The stated aim of the splurge is to cut the cost of logistics within India from around 14 per cent of GDP today to 8 per cent by 2030. It should also, the BJP hopes, help Modi win a third term next year, according to the Economist. The makeover is everywhere stamped with his imprimatur. Modi conducts progress reviews with the rail, roads and other relevant departments every month, the Economist said. His bearded image, underlined with triumphalist BJP slogans, gazes munificently down over construction sites across the country. BJP present the prime minister as a results-driven leader building India into an Amrit Kaal or, loosely translated, "golden age". The infrastructure bonanza has clearly accelerated on his watch. The 50,000km of national highway India has added in the past eight years is twice as much as it managed in the previous eight, according to the Economist. The number of airports with civilian flights has grown from 74 in 2014 to 148 this year. Domestic passenger numbers have duly risen from 60 million in 2013 to a peak of 141 million in 2019, before the pandemic hit. The Economist said the aviation minister reckons total passenger numbers could soon double their pre-pandemic highs, rising to 400 million in the next 10 years. (Last month Air India, the recently privatised flag carrier, placed an order worth USD 70 billion for 470 new aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, with an option to buy another 370.) How has Modi achieved this lift-off? One answer, rarely heard among his admirers, is that he inherited a solid platform from his two immediate predecessors. The Economist said India's major road-building drive was initiated by Atal Behari Vajpayee, a BJP prime minister from 1998 to 2004. His marquee project, the "Golden Quadrilateral", connected the country's four biggest cities, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. He also launched a rural roads programme. His successor, Manmohan Singh of the Congress party, continued those efforts and initiated new projects, including the freight corridors. The Economist said he also handed more power to the roads ministry, which removed some of the bureaucratic barriers to decision-making. Modi has doubled down, however, largely by throwing money at the effort. In the financial year starting in April, road and rail will account for nearly 11 per cent of central-government capital spending, up from 2.75 per cent in 2014-15, according to the Economist. He deserves credit, too, for putting capable lieutenants in charge of the buildout, such as Nitin Gadkari, the admired roads minister. Instead of endlessly butting heads with the progress-throttling bureaucracy, Modi has also taken selective steps to empower it, the Economist said. In his first review with the roads ministry he more than doubled the amount that civil servants could spend without seeking approval from the treasury, the Economist said. Having run Gujarat for over 12 years, he brought to Delhi a chief minister's penchant for getting stuck into the nitty-gritty of project delivery. Coordinating the revamp is no small task. Roads are being built by a couple of central-government ministries, by India's 28 state governments and by cities, according to the Economist. Railways, aviation and ports all fall under different ministries. Land acquisition is tied to cadastral surveys, which are administered by states. Yet improving technology is helping to corral these efforts. In 2021 Modi's government introduced an ambitious data-sharing plan across 16 ministries. The Economist said the aim was to reduce waste and make the best use of resources, such as by creating and providing high-quality digital maps with dozens of layers of data. That should help make the design of India's emerging transport network as growth-boosting as possible--by connecting ports, airports and industrial clusters to appropriate roads and railways, for example. Though the new infrastructure is mostly too new for its effects to have been studied, they are likely to be positive. A seminal paper published in 2018 by Dave Donaldson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology evaluated the economic impact of the 67,247-km railway network built on the subcontinent by the British between 1853 and 1930, the Economist said. It found that it "reduced the cost of trading, reduced inter-regional price gaps, and increased trade volumes". Though most of those gains went to the colonial administration, and thence to London, the railways also boosted agricultural incomes in the rural districts they passed through, the Economist said. The railways, Donaldson writes, were responsible for "bringing them out of near-autarky and connecting them with the rest of India and the world". Modi can reasonably expect his infrastructure splurge to have a more advanced version of the same effect. Studies of a more recent development, the Golden Quadrilateral, suggest the road network boosted economic activity, reduced transport costs, increased gains from trade and drove up wages, especially for skilled workers, the Economist said. The rural-roads programme has been shown to help move workers from agriculture to more productive jobs. By making that transition appear more feasible, it also inspired improvements in educational attainment in nearby villages, According to the Economist. Yet the patchiness of India's infrastructure meant that such positive effects have been too few and unevenly felt. The Golden Quadrilateral connected India's existing economic hubs; the condition of many rural roads remained poor. The contrast with China is striking. In the late 1990s that country set out to connect every city with a population greater than 500,000. Had Vajpayee done something similar, India would have seen more broad-based growth across rich and poor parts of the country (though at much greater cost), according to research by Simon Alder, then at the University of North Carolina. Modi is intent on making good. By enmeshing India in a high-quality transport (and digital and energy) network, his government aims to develop its domestic market, increase connectivity to the outside world, and spread prosperity, the Economist said. Roadblocks remain. The biggest is land acquisition, which acts as a brake on building anything in India. Its billion-plus citizens have rights and its courts move slowly. The Economist said enforcing contracts is tricky in a country where higher courts have 6 million pending cases and lower ones face a backlog of 42.6 million. Outdated land records and squabbles over title make their task even harder. Obtaining environmental clearances is another headache. The Economist said such factors load projects with risks of delay and cost overrun, dissuading private firms from bidding for contracts. The government continues to experiment with the design of contracts but critics say it could do more to attract a wider range of investors. Indeed, the rapid expansion of infrastructure has not spurred the increase in private investment in the economy at large that many had hoped for, according to the Economist. It soared in the decade before Modi came to power, but has since remained subdued in the face of BJP policy missteps such as the demonetisation of large-denomination banknotes in 2016 and the messy rollout of a national goods and services tax. The Covid-19 pandemic did further damage to business confidence. Private investment in 2019-20 was only 22 per cent of GDP, down from 31 per cent in 2010-11. According to the Economist, Nirmala Sitharaman, the finance minister, recently beseeched Indian businesses to explain their hesitation to pile in: "I want to hear from India Inc: what's stopping you when countries and industries abroad think this is the place to be now?" Modi echoed her this month, by calling on private companies to "increase their investment just like the government". What is dissuading them? Beyond the disincentives listed above, the rising cost of capital and uncertainty over demand is making investors wary. The Economist said businesspeople whisper other reasons for caution. Modi's government can be capricious. Its use of tax authorities to go after political foes has weakened faith in their impartiality, the Economist said. Regulators' independence can no longer be taken for granted, mutters an investor. The Economist said Modi's faith in the transformative power of new transport infrastructure is well-judged. It is a precondition for the high growth that India--including above all its millions of poor and emerging middle-class citizens--seriously needs. But without additional reforms, even the prime minister's impressive new ports, roads and railways will not be enough. (ANI)
New Delhi [India], March 18 (ANI/PRAADIS TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD): Praadis Education, an online education provider, has recently launched the "Knowledge is Power" campaign, a program designed to empower students with the knowledge and resources they need to succeed in today's competitive world. As a part of this campaign, Praadis Education has launched two initiatives for students, where 1) through Maths Olympiad, it is aiming to recognize and foster extraordinary mathematical talent among school students and 2) it is offering scholarships to students who may not have the enough financial resources to pursue their academic goals. Praadis Education is an education technology (EdTech) company based in India that offers digital learning solutions to students from grades 1 to 12. The company provides a range of educational content and classes for students studying under varied boards of the country, viz. CBSE, ICSE, and IB. Praadis Education makes its services accessible to students through a learning app that is available on multiple platforms like Google Play Store for android devices, the Apple App Store for iOS devices. Additionally, it can be accessed through their website using a web browser on any device. The double opportunity to secure an excellent package of educational services from Praadis Education for the coming academic year is one not to be missed. As an award for cracking Maths Olympiad, that has varied difficulty level depending on the grade, the top 1000 candidates are being provided a free subscription of Praadis Education Learning App, which is a storehouse of interactive and engrossing content and tools, specially designed to reinforce course knowledge into the minds of learners. The exam is framed to assess students' proficiency in mathematical skills and problem-solving, giving them a chance to showcase their talent on a global level. Apart from the Maths Olympiad, Praadis Education is issuing scholarships to students who have big dreams but do not have the sufficient financial resources to support these dreams. These scholarships are awarded based on academic merit, students just need to submit their academic record evidence and other relevant information to be considered for the scholarships. The scholarship winners will receive a heavy concession on the subscription fees of Praadis Education Learning App. The team of mentors committed to providing students with the support they need is an added bonus with this scholarship. "Knowledge is Power" campaign is an effort by Praadis Education in the direction of promoting access to education by providing low-cost or free educational tools and resources. This can be especially beneficial for students in underprivileged communities who may not have access to traditional educational resources. This story is provided by PRAADIS TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRAADIS TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD)
A study based on whether replacing missing teeth with fixed prostheses may protect against cognitive decline was presented at the AADOCR's 52nd Annual Meeting & Exhibition, which was held in conjunction with the CADR's 47th Annual Meeting. The AADOCR/CADR Annual Meeting & Exhibition took place at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland on March 15-18. The study by Elizabeth Kaye of Boston University examined 577 men in the VA Normative Aging Study (NAS) and Dental Longitudinal Study. Tooth status and type of replacement, if any, were recorded at triennial dental exams (1969-2001). Masticatory efficiency was assessed with carrot chewing tests. The Spatial Copying Task (SCT) was administered up to four times between 1995 and 2001. The investigators defined poor cognition as any weighted SCT score <13 (lowest tertile of initial SCT scores in all NAS participants). Tooth-level Cox proportional regression, accounting for clustering within individuals, estimated the hazard of poor cognition, adjusted for education, epilepsy medication use, and time-varying values of tooth status (present, absent, fixed bridge/implant, removable replacement), age, cigarette smoking, and coronary heart disease. The mean age at initial cognitive testing was 68+-7 years. Forty-five percent of men had at least one low SCT score. Twenty-nine per cent of participants lost no teeth during follow-up, 34% lost teeth that were not replaced, 13% had missing teeth subsequently replaced with fixed prostheses, and 25% had missing teeth replaced with removable prostheses, the study found. New fixed prostheses were associated with a lower hazard (HR=0.72, 95%CI=0.52-0.99) of poor cognition while new removable prostheses were associated with a higher hazard (HR=1.26, 95% CI=1.01-1.56). Loss of a tooth with no replacement was not associated with a significantly higher hazard (HR=1.05 95% CI=0.91-1.21) of poor cognition. Masticatory ability declined 6% in men with new fixed prostheses compared to 9%, 10%, and 13% in men with no tooth loss, new removable prostheses, and tooth loss but no replacement, respectively. The study found that the replacement of missing teeth with fixed prostheses may protect against cognitive decline, and conservation of masticatory ability may play a role in the protective association. (ANI)
Soon after reports of a teacher's son being kidnapped in Patna and a huge ransom demanded emerged, the son of a prominent doctor in Muzaffarpur was kidnapped by unidentified men from outside his school on Friday, police said. DSP, West, Abhishek Anand said: "The kidnappers were waiting for the child outside the gate of his school. As soon as he came out, the kidnappers forcibly took him in the car and fled from the spot. "We are scanning the CCTV of the area to find out the identities and hideouts of kidnappers." The victim was identified as Vivek Kumar Singh, son of prominent doctor S.P. Singh. The victim's family members are requesting the police to ensure his safe release. The kidnappers however have not called for ransom so far. On Thursday, a son of a teacher was kidnapped from Bihta on Patna's outskirts. The kidnappers have demanded Rs 40 lakh as ransom from the victim's family for his safe release. The back to back kidnapping incidents are turning out to be a big headache for Nitish Kumar government as well as the Bihar Police, which has also failed to trace out missing NMCH doctor as well. --IANS ajk/vd ( 209 Words) 2023-03-17-21:42:05 (IANS)
During the Question Hour, members from both the opposition and treasury benches have demanded to increase the pension to at least Rs 1,000 per month.

"A Rs 2.30 lakh crore annual budget for 2023-24 has been presented. If we will not be able to hike the old age and widow pension from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per month, what is the meaning of presenting such a big budget?" asked Congress legislator Santosh Singh Saluja.

He also urged the government to take steps to provide the pension to very old and disabled pension holders at their doorstep.

Meanwhile, Congress member Taraprasad Bahinipati and BJP member Mukesh Mahaling demanded the government to increase the old age pension to Rs 2,000. They also urged the government to include eligible persons waiting for the pension for a long period.

Ruling BJD members Prafulla Samal and Amar Prasad Satpathy also supported the demand for a hike in the pensions.

In his reply, Minister for Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ashok Panda said considering the financial status, the state government will take suitable steps in this regard.

--IANS bbm/vd

( 234 Words)

2023-03-17-22:14:04 (IANS)
Lt. General R.P. Kalita, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C), Eastern Command called on the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, Lt. General K.T. Parnaik (Retd.) on Friday, discussing security and welfare-related issues, stated an official release. The Arunachal Governor complimented the GOC-in-C for the high operational readiness and morale of the troops deployed on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). He also complimented the Army personnel on the eastern front for maintaining friendly relations with the civil administration and fostering goodwill amongst people residing in border areas. Further, according to the official release, the Arunachal Governor discussed joint efforts of the Army and the state to enable the development and consolidation of the border villages, enhancing their livelihood and ensuring the security of the borders. The Governor suggested that the GOC-in-C hold pre-recruitment rallies and motivational camps for the state's youth, as part of the Agniveer Recruitment scheme, with a special focus on the three districts of Tirap, Longding and Changlang. He said such initiatives will give impetus to the efforts of the Central and the state governments in bringing an end to militancy in the region. The Governor also suggested the procurement of perishable items for the Army personnel deployed in Arunachal Pradesh from local farmers, which he said will enhance the local economy and also augment goodwill among the people. Further, the Governor, on behalf of the people of the Northeast state, extended his condolences through the GOC-in-C to the bereaved families of the deceased pilot Lt. Col VVB Reddy and co-pilot Major Jayanth A of Army Aviation, who died in a chopper crash on Thursday. Their commitment to their duties and supreme sacrifice will be always remembered by the people, the Governor said of the officers who perished in the Arunachal chopper crash. Earlier, the GOC-in-C, who is the overall head of the Army formation in the Eastern Region, briefed the Governor about the preparedness of the armed forces on the frontlines. (ANI)
Further, according to the police, the peddlers sent drugs and medicines to Australia and the UK through couriers.

Earlier, on March 16, Mumbai Police's Anti-Extortion Cell said to have recovered 15.743 Kg of Ketamine drug, worth Rs 8 crore, from the Andheri area, adding that two persons were arrested in connection with the haul.

"The arrested accused used to send drugs to Australia and UK through couriers, along with medicines. Every week 10 kgs of Ketamine drug was sent from Mumbai. They used to bring drugs from Gujarat, which was packed along with medicines and shipped abroad," the Mumbai Police said.

Further, according to the police, the initial probe revealed that the smugglers were part of an international syndicate.

"During the initial probe, it was found that these drug smugglers are part of an international syndicate and had come to Mumbai to supply drugs," said an officer of Mumbai police.

Further details are awaited. (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Friday declined to stay an anti-conversion law passed by Himachal Pradesh and also extended the time to three weeks for states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, among others, to file their response in connection with a batch of petitions challenging the validity of anti- conversion laws passed by the various states. Senior advocate C.U. Singh, representing a petitioner, submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud that Himachal Pradesh has re-enacted the same provision that was earlier struck down by the Himachal Pradesh High Court and sought stay on the law. The bench said that it is a matter of merit and "we can't just stay a statute like that". Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted that the court had last time directed the state governments to file a reply, but none of them so far filed their response in the matter. Singh contended that Rajasthan has filed a reply and pointed out there are nine separate petitions in the matter. The bench said each state can file one common response for other petitions and extended the time for filing counter affidavits by three weeks. During the hearing, Singh cited processions being taken in Maharashtra against love jihad etc to pressurise the people. Mehta submitted that this is not correct. After hearing submissions, the bench allowed the petitioners to file a rejoinder two weeks after. At the end of the hearing, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing a petitioner, submitted before the bench that there are questions of law involved in the matter and also asked the court to look into the case of a missionary hospital, which has been "rendered useless due to charges to unlawful conversion". Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, along with others have challenged validity of laws passed by Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and others to check religious conversions specially for marriage. --IANS ss/vd ( 339 Words) 2023-03-17-23:14:02 (IANS)
Taking forward Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a Digital India, Uttar Pradesh, under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has embarked upon a digital revolution, with the youth joining in even from far-off areas in the state, read an official release on Friday. In line with the stated objective of chasing and realising the digital goal, which forms a key component for the CM's vision for the state, in a time-bound manner, the state government has also roped in private startups. "Budding entrepreneurs are stepping ahead and are devising and beginning startups to realise CM Yogi's dream of taking the internet to every village. One such startup has developed a 5G WiFi network to promote the digital revolution in the rural and backward areas of the state," it read. Further, as per the official release, the unique feature of this Wi-Fi network is that people do not have to pay any charge for using the internet for up to 60 GB in a month and upto 2 GB in a day. At the same time, for using more, they only need to pay a nominal charge. Through enhanced accessibility of high-speed internet, even villagers were reaping the fruits of the state's digital transformation, the release noted further. "Kumar Satyam of Saharanpur has developed a WiFi network to promote the digital revolution in the rural areas of Saharanpur where there is no internet facility. Satyam has developed an open public WiFi network for the public through Artificial Intelligence (AI), using which people are taking benefits of the internet," the statement read. According to Satyam, a startup roped in to implement the state's digital plans, the work started through a pilot project from Maa Shakambhari Devi Temple in Saharanpur and its surrounding areas. He informed that a special type of device developed by him was installed on streetlights and electric poles of the village, through which a Wi-Fi facility was made available throughout the entire village with this device. He said, "Microdata has been fed in the network through advanced AI, in which NCERT syllabus from class 1 to 12 has been fed. By virtue of this, even children are also deriving the benefits of e-education. People are also able to avail the facility of Jan Suvidha Kendra from their mobile phones." Following its success, the work of connecting Saharanpur city and its surrounding 27 villages with an Open Public Network (WiFi) is also ongoing at a fast pace. At present, people are taking advantage of this facility in Saharanpur city and some nearby villages. Satyam informed that more than 7000 people of Saharanpur will be benefitted in the coming days. Entrepreneur Kumar Satyam informed that a model panchayat is being developed in Balvantpur village of Saharanpur, with an objective to provide various digital services to the people. Village Integrated Command and Control Center will be used for this and training on AI networks, e-education, teleconsultation services, CCTV, e-governance services and e-commerce will be imparted through the centre. Along with this, an e-library, and tele-education with a two-way communication system for teleconsultation and a phone-based application for education will be developed. In addition, children will be provided with the facility of coding and micro classes. He said, "The digital model in Balvantpur village panchayat will be extended to other villages as well." (ANI)
According to officials, Pulwama Police and security forces are on the job.

Taking to Twitter, Kashmir Zone Police said, "#Encounter has started at Mitrigam area of #Pulwama. Police and security forces are on the job. Further details shall follow. @JmuKmrPolice."

Further details are awaited.

Earlier, on February 28, days after a Kashmiri Pandit was gunned down by terrorists in Pulwama, security forces killed one of the terrorists involved in the killing during an encounter in the district's Awantipora area in the early hours.

Taking to Twitter, Kashmir Zone Police said, "Encounter has started at Padgampora Awantipora in Pulwama district. Police and security forces are on the job. Further details shall follow."

Sharing an update about the operation against the terrorists, Jammu and Kashmir Police said, "One terrorist was killed in the encounter. However, his body is yet to be retrieved."

On February 26, terrorists in another targeted killing, fired upon a Kashmiri Pandit (Sanjay Sharma) while he was on his way to the local market in the Pulwama district.

He was shifted to the hospital but succumbed to his injuries. (ANI)
Nagaland is set to host one of its biggest events, for the G20 Summit 2023, at Kohima on April 5, informed the state's Chief Secretary J Alam. The Chief Secretary said India's year-long presidency of G20 from December 2022 was a matter of great honour for the country and Nagaland, like other host states, was also actively participating in G20 events. He said in the G20 calendar, meetings are to take place all around the year in about 33 cities, with the most scheduled to be held in Kohima. "Nagaland will host a business meeting, which will feature representatives of the G20 countries, on April 5, 2023. We are fully prepared to host the summit event," he said. "We are very excited to host the G20 event. We are started preparing for a grand welcome of the G20 delegates who will participate in the summit meeting in Nagaland," he said. He said the state was expecting to play host to about 110 delegates, of which about 100 will be from 28 G20 countries and the remaining from international organisations that are part of the grouping, the chief secretary said, adding that the delegates will arrive on special flights on April 4, and thereafter attend the main events on April 5. Informing that there will be business meetings and cultural programs that will showcase the strengths of Nagaland at the summit events, he said, "The focus of the meetings would be mostly on agri, allied and food processing industry, as well as tourism development of the state. We hope that through these events, the state would be able to create investment opportunities." On whether there were any big names expected at the summit, the chief secretary informed that they have not received the list of names so far, as it is yet to be shared by the G20 Secretariat, in Delhi. However, some of the business delegates will be from big continental corporations, ambassadors and other senior representatives of their respective countries. He informed further that on the arrival of the delegates on April 4, they will be accorded a formal welcome at the Capital Cultural Hall, Kohima and on April 5, business meetings will be held in the State Banquet Hall followed by cultural evening and dinner at Kisama heritage complex where the State intends to showcase its signature Hornbill Festival in honour of the guests. Further, he said that the infrastructure, especially at the airport, as well as roads and venues, were being spruced up and preparation was underway to give the delegates a grand welcome. (ANI)
The Bihar government granted permission to Muslim employees and officials to come to office one hour before the scheduled time and leave office one hour before the scheduled time during the month of Ramzan, said State General Administration Department on Friday. The General Administration Department of the state government on Friday issued a circular in this regard "Keeping in view the convenience of Muslim employees and officials, the government has granted permission to come to the office one hour before the scheduled time and leave the office one hour before the scheduled time during the month of Ramzan," the official circular released by the General Administration Department stated. According to Islamic beliefs, Ramzan is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad.Ramzan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which involves rigorous fasting for about 30 days. During this month, Muslims do not consume food or water from dawn to dusk. They eat Sehri (a pre-dawn meal) and break their day-long fast with 'Iftar' in the evening.Eid ul-Fitr is celebrated on the first day of Shawwal, the 10th month of the Islamic lunar calendar. The festival is celebrated by sharing a delightful dish Seviyan (Vermicelli) that comes under different varieties like 'Hath Ka Seviyan', 'Nammak Ka Seviyan', 'Chakle Ka Seviyan' and 'Laddu Seviyan'. All these variants can be used in the dish called 'Sheerkurma', which is also prepared on Eid and distributed among friends and relatives. (ANI)
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has awarded Rs. 100 crores in environmental compensation against Kochi Municipal Corporation for alleged continuing neglect of its duties resulting in a fire at a waste dump site in Kochi. The Tribunal stated that, according to a media report, Kochi city was choked on account of a fire at the waste dump site on March 2, 2023, which led to a crisis situation. A warning was issued to the residents to stay indoors and hospitals asked to prepare emergency admission of patients with respiratory distress to deal with severe air pollution and its worrying public health fallout. Considering the studies and long continuing neglect of its duties by the Kochi Municipal Corporation, we award environmental compensation under section 15 of the NGT Act against Kochi Municipal Corporation of Rs. 100 crores which may be deposited with the Chief Secretary, Kerala within one month for necessary remediation measures, including dealing with the public health issues of the victims, said the bench headed by NGT's Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel. The Tribunal noted that Kerala state reply said "the dump site is spread over 100 acres of land and a processing plant have a capacity for waste processing of 300 Tonnes Per Day. The contract to process the waste has been given to a contractor but only 33 percent of the work has been completed. Several major and minor fires earlier have broken out at the site. The present incident occurred on March 2, 2023, at 5:30 pm. The fire and Rescue Department took measures to control the fire. Naval Helicopters were deployed to airdrop water over the fire heaps. The fire was brought under control by March 5, 2023. A health advisory was issued to the general public on March 4, 2023, to use masks and stay indoors. Extra precautions were advised to be taken by more vulnerable citizens - senior citizens, children below the age of 12, sick persons, and pregnant women. Medical camps were organized. 120 oxygen beds were set up. 200 persons sought medical help. 30 fire tenders, 45 excavators, 14 high-capacity water pumps, and four helicopters along with 350 firemen and 150 supporting staff were engaged in mitigation efforts at the site. There was no CCTV surveillance at the site. Brahmapuram Waste Treatment Plant is solely owned and maintained by the Corporation of Cochin, stated the Kerala state reply. The plant has been closed on March 13, 2023. Multi-Sectoral Empowered Committee has been constituted by the Disaster Management Department. The Tribunal said that it is self-evident that good governance in the matter of waste management is being neglected for a long time to the detriment of the environment and public health and no one has taken moral responsibility for such gross failure of rule of law and damage to public health. It is difficult to understand what is the value of citizens' right to life and safety with such an attitude of total neglect by authorities in Government. This calls for soul-searching and also high-level inquiry to determine culpability in the larger public interest. Such an attitude of State authorities is a threat to rule of law. We hope the situation is remedied at the higher level in the State such as the DGP and the Chief Secretary to uphold the Constitution and the mandate of environmental law, said the NGT. (ANI)
The fight broke out after the BJP workers opposed Congress workers erecting the banners and posters of leaders for a Women convention slated to be held on March 19.

An intial argument soon escalated into a fight with workers from both groups attacking each other with stones and sticks resulting in injuries to many.

The police who arrived at the spot soon took to a lathicharge to bring the mob under control.

The police have registered three FIRs in connection with the incident.

"Both groups pelted stones as well, and our police personnel also got injured. 3 FIRs have been registered in connection with the incident," said Laxman B Nimbargi, DCP.

Further investigation is being done, DCP said.

The Congress party event was scheduled to be held on March 19. (ANI)
The incident occurred at around 6 a.m. at a plastic waste godown on Ansari road in Kalapathar police station limits, police said.

Seven fire tenders were rushed to the spot, and almost 90 per cent of the fire is extinguished, the police said.

According to ACP Shaik Jahangir, "The people who collect rags and other plastic waste used to dump it here. The place belongs to Ayub and is run by Hamed."

"One DCM and some plastic wastage were damaged in the fire," they said.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

More details are awaited. (ANI)
Shah is on a two-day visit to Gujarat from Saturday and will attend various public events.

The Home Minister will later attend the meeting of the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) at Circuit House, Gandhinagar.

Shah will later launch a Free food campaign at Civil Hospital in Gandhinagar in the afternoon, and then inaugurate Nardipur pond and lay the foundation stone and e-inaugurate various other development works of Vasan pond and Kalol.

He will later attend the convocation of Maharaja Sayajirao University in the evening at the Convocation Grounds of MS University in Vadodara.

On Sunday, the Home Minister will lay the foundation stone of Junagadh district bank headquarters and inaugurate APMC Kisan Bhawan in the agriculture camp at APMC Dolatpara in Junagadh.

Shah will later offer prayers at Somnath temple and e-inaugurate various development works with the launch of Somnath Trust's mobile app.

Shah's two-day visit to Gujarat will culminate after he attends Gujarat Central University Convocation Ceremony. (ANI)
Uttar Pradesh Energy minister AK Sharma has reassured that the power supply and its distribution are under control in the state amid reports of power outages and power cuts following protests by some of the State Electricity Department employees. Addressing a press conference here on Friday, the minister,"I want to assure the people of UP that the power supply and its distribution are under control. We are trying to instantly resolve the problem whenever we get to know the problems of power outage in any area". A section of the Power Department employees in Uttar Pradesh have stopped work and are on strike over their demands agreed by the government in December last year, which they claimed have not been fulfilled. Some employees in the Uttar Pradesh power department have been sitting on a strike from March 16. Addressing mediapersons here, the Energy minister said that public should support those employees who are standing with the Government in this matter. "I request the people of the State and representatives of the public to not create any hindrances in duties of those employees who are standing with the Government and want to serve the public while doing their duty. Also, identify and try to stop those employees who are creating problems in power distribution in the state," Sharma said. The minister also held a meeting with the electricity department officials regarding the ongoing protest. "Discussed with officials in Shakti Bhavan regarding the power strike. Boosted the enthusiasm of the personnel by going to the control room set up". He further stated on Twitter that action should be taken against those who are involved in disrupting electricity supply and production. He tweeted, "Some electrical workers did the misdeed of disrupting the supply/production. And the public service workers got it repaired by staying awake all night. The strictest police-administrative action should be taken against those who trouble people and damage national property." (ANI)
Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Saturday attended the 49th dairy industry convention in Gandhinagar and said after independence India's milk production has increased 10 times. "From 1970 to 2022 India's population has increased 4-fold and our milk production has increased 10 times due to our dairy sector," said Shah at the 49th dairy industry convention in Gandhinagar. The minister further stated, "Our milk processing capacity is around 126 million litres per day, which is the highest in the world." The dairy sector has also worked for the development of the country. The contribution of the corporative dairy is huge which has worked for farmers, Shah said. Shah said, "The corporative dairy has helped poor farmers and women to become Atmanirbhar." "The IDA has played an important role in the development of the dairy sector. For the farmer's technical session, the industrial session has been organized," Shah said. "The dairy sector is an important aspect of the Indian economy. The contribution of the dairy sector is more than Rs 10 lakh crore. 45 crore people are associated with it," he added. Shah is on a two-day visit to Gujarat from Saturday and will attend various public events. The Home Minister will later attend the meeting of the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) at Circuit House, Gandhinagar. Shah will later launch a Free food campaign at Civil Hospital in Gandhinagar in the afternoon, and then inaugurate Nardipur pond and lay the foundation stone and e-inaugurate various other development works of Vasan pond and Kalol. He will later attend the convocation of Maharaja Sayajirao University in the evening at the Convocation Grounds of MS University in Vadodara. On Sunday, the Home Minister will lay the foundation stone of Junagadh district bank headquarters and inaugurate APMC Kisan Bhawan in the agriculture camp at APMC Dolatpara in Junagadh. Shah will later offer prayers at Somnath temple and e-inaugurate various development works with the launch of Somnath Trust's mobile app. Shah's two-day visit to Gujarat will culminate after he attends the Gujarat Central University Convocation Ceremony. (ANI)
Two owners of the cold storage godown in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal whose roof collapsed and resulted in the death of 14 persons have been arrested, police said on Saturday. The owners identified as Rohit Agarwal and Ankur Agarwal were arrested from Haldwani district in Uttarakhand. "The two owners have been arrested and action is being taken against them. 14 people died in this incident and 10 people were rescued", Moradabad DIG Shalabh Mathur told ANI. Talking to ANI, the DIG said, "Both the owners have been booked under Section 304 (causing death by negligence of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)." Out of the 10 people who were rescued from the debris of the roof collapse of the potato cold storage in Chandausi area of Sambhal are still undergoing medical examinations. The mishap took place at around 11:30 am on Thursday. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath yesterday meets with the victims of the godown collapse in Moradabad, where they are undergoing treatment in hospital. The state government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of the deceased, Rs 50,000 for those critically injured and free treatment for all those who suffered injuries in the incident. The Chief Minister also constituted a probe committee, led by the divisional commissioner and comprising the DIG of Moradabad, to conduct an inquiry into the cause of the mishap and submit its report at the earliest. According to police, the collapsed roof was built only three months ago without the necessary permission from the administration and the quantity of potatoes stored at the cold storage was beyond its prescribed capacity. In the ADM-level inquiry conducted into the matter, it was found that the part of the cold storage that collapsed was constructed some time ago and was not constructed by following the laid down standard, as informed by the police. (ANI)
A 58-year-old farmer who participated in the long foot march of farmers from Dindori in Maharashtra's Nashik to Mumbai died on Friday night at Shahapur police station in Thane district, informed the All India Kisan Sabha state general secretary Ajit Nawale. Pundalik Jadhav, a resident of a village near Dindori in Nashik, was taken to a hospital in Shahpur on Friday where he died during treatment. The exact reason for his death is yet to be ascertained. Nawale held the government responsible for the delay in taking a decision on the demands of the farmers, due to which the farmers are still forced to sit in Shahpur. The farmers demanded compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the kin of the deceased farmer. In order to draw attention of the government to a 17-point charter demand, thousands of farmers had begun a march from Dindori in Maharashtra's Nashik district on Sunday last and will cover 200 kms to reach Mumbai. The demands include Minimum Support Price (MSP) for onions, the appropriate price for agricultural produce, electricity bill waiver for farmers, speedy compensation for crop losses due to the unseasonal rains, and forest land rights. On Wednesday, State ministers Dada Bhuse and Atul Save held talks with a delegation of protesting farmers. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Dada Bhuse said, "We discussed 14 issues that they flagged. We accepted their positions and agreed to many of their demands. We held detailed discussions with them. We requested the CPI and the protesting farmers to meet CM and Dy CM at the Mantralaya." Earlier, on Tuesday, Opposition parties in Maharashtra staged a protest on the stairs of Vidhan Bhawan demanding the resignation of Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Abdul Sattar over his remarks on farmers. Sattar on Sunday sparked controversy with his remark on farmer suicides in the state. The remarks drew flak from the Opposition, with leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) launching protests and demanding that Sattar step down in the wake of his remark that there was nothing new in farmers ending their lives and such incidents have been taking place for a long time. (ANI)
Acting on a tip-off the team jointly conducted a raid on Friday at the house of one Naru Karmakar, an arms manufacturer, in the Katihar district.

According to officials, two illegal improvised firearms, one incomplete barrel, one incomplete body and some articles used for making illegal arms were recovered from the accused's house.

Karmakar was not present during the time of the raid and has not been arrested, officials in his house and thus has not been arrested, added officials.

Further investigation into the matter is underway. (ANI)
Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that India must not be satisfied by becoming the world's largest milk producer, but must also aim to become the biggest dairy exporter. Shah also reiterated the central government's commitment to strengthening the cooperative model. The Union Minister was speaking at the Indian Dairy Summit, organised on the third and final day of the Indian Dairy Association's (IDA) 49th Dairy Industry Conference in Gandhinagar. The theme of the conference was "India Dairy to the world: Opportunities & Challenges". "Our milk processing capacity is around 126 million litres per day, which is the highest in the world. From 1970 to 2022, India's population has increased fourfold, but milk production has increased by ten times," Shah said. "We should not be satisfied by being the world's largest milk producer. We must also strive to become the world's biggest dairy exporter. A second White Revolution is needed and we are working in that direction. The Narendra Modi government will not let any opportunity go to waste," the country's first cooperation minister said. "The Indian dairy sector has grown by 6.6 per cent per year in the past decade. The Central government is setting up 2 lakh dairy cooperatives in villages, and once that happens, the dairy sector's growth will go up to 13.80 per cent. India's share of global milk production will be 33 per cent. Our dairy exports will be at least five times the current level," said Shah. The union minister noted that dairy is a vocation for the world, but in India, where 9 crore families are directly connected with dairying, it is also a source of livelihood, strengthening the rural economy, addressing nutritional challenges, and women empowerment. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel also addressed the occassion and said, "Small dairy farmers are the real strength of the Indian dairy sector. Gujarat has been a model of overall development and is also a leader in the dairy industry with a 20 per cent share in the country's milk production. Dairy farmers must look for value addition, and focus on the quality of milk and milk products for sustainable growth." Taking place in Gujarat after 27 years, the 49th Dairy Industry Conference brought together dairy experts and professionals from India and overseas, dairy cooperatives, milk producers, government officials, scientists, policymakers, planners, academicians and other stakeholders. Prestigious awards including the Dr Kurien Award, IDA Patron Award, and IDA Fellowship Awards, were also conferred on the occasion. In his welcome address, President of the Indian Dairy Association RS Sodhi said, "The Indian dairy industry has achieved phenomenal growth because of determined efforts to become atma nirbhar in milk, strong supply chain managed by farmers, and investments in infrastructure. We must make efforts to ensure our products are accepted in overseas markets and we are exporting 20 per cent of our production." "India must take leadership and take its cooperative model to neighbouring countries. We have already started talks with Sri Lanka to help it become self-reliant. We are also talking with Nepal and Kenya to help their dairy farmers by implementing our learnings," Meenesh Shah, Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), said. In his address, Piercristiano Brazzale, President of the International Dairy Federation, said that global leaders must take note of India's success in the dairy sector and support their dairy farmers with the right policies. He also said that IDF is keen to support the Indian dairy sector meet various challenges. Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary of the Animal Husbandry and Dairying Department, spoke about the initiatives of the central government to improve the health of livestock and enhance their productivity. State Cooperation Minister Jagdish Vishwakarma, IDF Director General Caroline Emond, and chairmen of various dairy cooperatives were also present at the Indian Dairy Summit. Amul Dairy MD Amit Vyas presented the vote of thanks at the Indian Dairy Summit. The Dairy Industry Conference brought together industry professionals to discuss global dairy trends, farm innovations, sustainability within the sector, climate change, nutrition, and health with the objective of making India a hub of dairy innovations and solutions. The latest technologies in milk production, storage, processing, and packaging solutions were also displayed during the three-day expo. (ANI)
YouTuber Manish Kashyap who allegedly circulated false misleading news about purported attacks on migrant labourers working in Tamil Nadu was arrested from Bettiah in Bihar on Saturday, police said. According to the Bihar police, the accused surrendered at Jagdishpur police station in Bettiah while the Bihar Police and Economic Offence Unit (EOU) was in the process of attaching his house. "Kashyap, wanted by Bihar Police and Tamil Nadu Police in fake news matter of labourers issue in the southern state, surrendered before the police on Saturday fearing arrest and attachment of his belongings," a statement issued by the EOU of Bihar Police said. The EOU has registered cases against Kashyap and others on the charges of "indulging in spreading fake videos of migrants being killed and beaten up in Tamil Nadu on social media". Earlier, four people, including two members of the Hindu Munnani outfit, were arrested and sent to judicial custody for allegedly assaulting migrant workers in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore city, Tamil Nadu police said. Notably, the issue over the alleged 'attacks' on migrants emerged after unverified reports on social media claimed that migrant labourers were targeted in Tamil Nadu. It triggered unrest among workers from other states and chief minister Stalin had to reassure that the state was safe for them. Earlier this month, a team from Bihar led by Balamurugan IAS also visited Tamil Nadu to take stock of the matter. The team visited Tiruppur and met the district administration and police officials to know about the actions taken so far in the case. Officials of the Bihar government also interacted with Bihar-based migrant workers in Chennai. On March 9, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin attacked BJP accusing it of spreading rumours about the attack on migrant labourers. The Chief Minister further said that there are no such incidents in Tamil Nadu and the delegates from Bihar who visited the state returned with full satisfaction. Stalin had also spoken to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in a telephone call and reassured his Bihar counterpart about the safety of migrant workers. The alleged assault on Bihari migrants in Tamil Nadu had stirred massive political ruckus in both states. LJP chief had launched an attack on the Bihar CM on the issue. (ANI)
Addressing mediapersons here, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Noida) Rajeev Dixit said that the arrested person was also involved in printing fake currency notes.

"A tip-off was received by Police station Badalpur and the man was arrested for printing fake currency notes. The name of the arrested is Abdul Raqim. He hails from Muffazarpur district Bihar and currently resides in Ghazipur. We have recovered a printer, a mobile phone and fake currency notes in denominations of Rs 20, Rs 50, Rs 100 and Rs 200. The total worth of counterfeit currency notes is Rs 38,220".

ADCP Dixit stated that another person was involved with him and a search operation is underway.

"Abdul Raqib, along with his partner Pankaj who also resides in Ghazipur was also involved in this act. Our police officials have done a commendable act. We have registered an FIR under multiple sections. The search for his partner Pankaj is underway," he said.

Earlier in a similar incident in Indore, four people were arrested as the police busted a fake currency racket in the Madhya Pradesh this month.

As per the police, currency with face value of Rs 28,000 in Rs 500 currency notes was seized from the four accused during the raid.

The four accused have been identified as Sandeep Singh, Vikas Singh, Maninder Sharma and Rahul Lodhi. The four were caught while they were giving fake notes at the liquor shop. (ANI)
Locals in Rajasthan celebrated on Saturday after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday announced the formation of 19 new districts in the state, taking the total number of districts to 50. While speaking in the assembly, Gehlot said, "With the formation of 19 new districts, the state now has a total of 50 districts." Water supply minister Mahesh Joshi says that the decision of the Chief Minister to create new districts is historic and this will not only speed up the development of Rajasthan but will also bring a lot of change in geographical terms. According to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore, these districts were borne out of the infighting of the ruling party. More than a dozen MLAs had threatened to resign and due to the infighting, the formation of these new districts was announced. Rathore said, "this announcement was made without a detailed study, financial resources, and infrastructure." He added, "It is wrong to convert districts like Jodhpur and Jaipur into separate districts. If the distances and boundaries of the districts were also observed before this decision, then perhaps such steps would not have been taken. Through this announcement, their intention is to make electoral gains." BJP leader Vasundhra Raje slammed the Rajasthan government's decision and said, "Many important facts have been ignored in the process of creating new districts. Because of this, instead of the ease that would result from the formation of new districts, the public would have to face administrative complications." She added, "The new announcements of the Congress government are just an attempt to fulfill their personal political interests. In this effort, he has put the entire economic system of Rajasthan at stake. The consequences of this will have to be borne by the people and the state in the years to come." (ANI)
Lalitpur in Bundelkhand district of Uttar Pradesh witnessed unseasonal rainfall accompanied by a hailstorm on Saturday, damaging fields and sown crops in the region. As per visuals, after the hailstorm, many farm fields was entirely blanketed with hail. Speaking to ANI, a farmer said, "Our crops have suffered damage due to rain, hailstorm and change in the weather." A wheat farmer stated that farmers expect some relief from the district administration for their damaged crops. "Most of my crops have been destroyed. Farmers are already in debt and this has increased their problems. We expect some relief from the district administration," he told ANI. District Magistrate Lalitpur Alok Singh has instructed all SDMs to inspect affected areas and provide reports immediately on crop damage due to hailstorms. DM Lalitpur took to Twitter and said, "Deputy District Magistrate should report after examining the areas affected by the hailstorm. Gave instructions to the officials so that the affected persons can get permissible help from the government". Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has instructed the officers to conduct relief work in view of rain and hailstorm in various districts, according to a statement by the chief minister's office. He has instructed to provide permissible relief amount of Rs 4 lakh to each family which has been affected. He also said that financial assistance should be provided immediately to people whose houses have been damaged or animals have been harmed. The Chief Minister has also given instructions that after assessing the damage caused to the crops, the report should be provided to the government so that further action can be taken in this regard. Currently, various states in the country are witnessing unseasonal rainfall and hailstorm. The city of Udaipur in Rajasthan witnessed heavy rains earlier today, which were followed by a hailstorm. Earlier on March 7 the sudden change in the weather conditions in Madhya Pradesh hit the farmers hard as their crops were damaged due to the heavy rain and hailstorm. Seeing the trouble of the farmers, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh ordered to conduct of a survey for the loss of the farmers. The wheat crops in the district like Bhopal, Sehore, Raisen, Vidisha, etc got grounded due to the strong wind and hailstorms. On the contrary, many other crops were also damaged in other parts of the state which include Mandsaur, Ratlam, Neemuch, Alirajpur and Agar Malwa due to hailstorms. (ANI)
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday hit out at Rahul Gandhi stating that contrary to allegation, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) had not curtailed anybody's voice in the country as was the case during the 1975 Emergency. Singh's remarks came at a Holi Milan event organized by Lucknow Udyog Vyapar Mandal in his Lok Sabha constituency Lucknow. The Defence Minister said, "If anyone thinks that India's democracy is in danger, then it should be discussed with the parliamentarians of the country. There is no democracy like India anywhere in the world. BJP is not stopping anyone's voice. The voice was stopped in 1975. The voice was stopped by imposing an emergency." "Our government has not stopped anyone's voice. Some people deliberately try to defame the country on the international stage. I have discussed this here because the people of the business community should be aware. They understand the country's economy," he added. Addressing business community, the Defence Minister said, "There is no need to tell what kind of crisis both Pakistan and Sri Lanka are facing. Nowadays there is talk that even in Pakistan there are talks that they too should have a Prime Minister like Modiji. People in Pakistan are also saying that Pakistan's Prime Minister should be like Modiji as our country is progressing fast. It hurts when our country is progressing and India's reputation is on the rise in the world and some people are trying to hurt India's reputation." "One person who had gone abroad asked people in Europe and America why are you sitting quietly when India's democracy is in danger" Singh said in an apparent reference to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's recent remarks in London. Stating that India is a country of festivals, Singh said, "We are a festive people. Every fortnight there is a festival which infuses new energy. The festivals celebrated here promote mutual affection and social harmony. It inspires us to live lovingly and in harmony." The defence minister also highlighted BJP's big win in the North East. He said, "We got excellent success in the elections in three states of North East India. While we were able to form a majority government again in Tripura, BJP is playing the role of an ally in the coalition government in Nagaland and Meghalaya." Rajnath Singh also mentioned the economic progress made in Uttar Pradesh. He said, "Today, everywhere there is talk of multiple investments coming in Uttar Pradesh. We know the UP government has received Rs 35 lakh crore investment proposals from the Global Investors Summit. Also, Ease of doing business has improved in the state," he said. "I am among the businessmen brothers, so I want to say that our government is also committed to the development of all of you. Our government believes that it is our responsibility to protect the small and medium traders and their interests from the point of view of business in this country and state," he added. Talking about MSME he said, "You all know that relief has been given to the middle class and small businessmen in this budget. Similarly, it has been decided to give a one per cent interest rebate on loans for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and small traders and to give tax relief to MSMEs with a turnover of three crore rupees." The minister further stated that today a big eco-system of start-ups has been prepared in India.He said, "India has become a start-up hub with 90,000 startups and 105 unicorn companies." "Today a record-breaking foreign investment is happening in India. You must have read in the newspaper that Apple's new factory is coming up in Karnataka. Earlier Apple used to do this work in China, now it will do it in India," he added. The defence also pointed out the economic progress in the country. He said, "Now NSSO has released data related to India's per capita income, which shows that the average income of Indians has almost doubled from 2014-15 to 2022-23. The average annual income of a common Indian in the year 2014-15 was Rs 86,647, which has increased to Rs one lakh seventy-two thousand in 2022-23." "The economy of any country depends on how the peace system is there and how strong the banking system is. A good banking system is a backbone for the strength of the country's economy," he added. Launching an attack on the opposition, he said, "There was a time when crony capitalism got such a boost that people were given loans worth crores just by making a phone call. Later it became difficult to recover those loans Modiji stopped that type of 'phone banking'." (ANI)
The Delhi Police's Cyber cell of the outer district has busted an online Ponzi Fraud Scheme and arrested one person who duped people of more than Rs 40 crores on the pretext of giving exponential returns of 10 per cent on a daily basis, officials said on Saturday. The accused has been identified as Akashya Sanjay Dhanuka 32, a resident of Thane in Maharashtra. "The accused, who was the handler of the bank account and who claimed to be working for a company lured people to deposit Rs 40 crores in less than 10 days on the pretext of giving exponential returns of 10 per cent daily," the police official said. According to police, an FIR was lodged on the basis of the complaint by one Prakash, who alleged that he came to know about a 'GD Fund Application', a ponzi scheme through one of his friends, which provided high returns on investments. "He agreed and invested a small amount of Rs 300/- first, on which he got a good return of 10% the very next day. He was also able to withdraw the invested amount to his bank account. He increased his investment gradually and was able to withdraw small amounts to his bank account," the official added. "But when he invested further, he found that on March 1, 2023, the application had stopped working and found that he had been cheated of Rs 21,300," said the police Investigation revealed that Rs 6,300 out of the cheated amount of Rs 21,300 were deposited in PNB Bank account in the name of Bhoomi Infratech, a proprietorship firm." The email ID and phone number connected to said bank account were analysed and the operator of the said beneficiary bank, Akshay was traced from Paschim Vihar, Delhi and arrested in the case," said the police During sustained interrogation, accused Akshay Sanjay Dhanuka disclosed victims are contacted through Telegram/WhatsApp to create an account on a fake website or download applications operated by fraudsters abroad, the officer said. Further investigation of the case is in progress, police said. (ANI)
The Indian Youth Congress activists on Saturday protested outside Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President JP Nadda's residence over his remarks against Rahul Gandhi and Congress. The protesters were later detained by Delhi Police. Notably, JP Nadda on Friday hit out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for stating in London that "Indian Democracy is under attack." While addressing a lecture at Cambridge University in London recently, Gandhi had said, "Everybody knows and it's been in the news a lot that Indian democracy is under pressure and under attack. I am an Opposition leader in India, we are navigating that (Opposition) space." Nadda said that democracy is not in danger but Congress is in danger. "The actions of Congress and Rahul Gandhi are highly condemnable. Congress only knows to divide people. It's not democracy that is in danger but your party," Nadda said while addressing a public rally in the Chitradurga district of poll-bound Karnataka. He further said that Rahul raised questions in a foreign land because people have "ignored" his party here in the country. "Since all are ignoring Congress in India, Rahul Gandhi went abroad and raised questions about our democracy," he added. "Rahul Gandhi is speaking against India abroad. He must remember his grandmother Indira Gandhi brought Emergency," Nadda said. Nadda said, "Congress criticised the digitisation of India, claiming it is not possible in India. However, 40 per cent of digital transaction in the world is taking place in India today. Congress promoted politics of corruption, commission, criminalization and dynastic rule. However, PM Modi began the politics of 'Report Card'." "The politics, Congress formulated was that of corruption, commission, criminalisation and dynastic rule. But PM Modi started a 'report card' politics where whatever is said is fulfilled. He formulated a responsible and strong government," he added. He further accused the Wayanad MP of "insulting" India abroad while the whole world is praising the country. "Congress' language has become so bad that they said 'Modi teri kabar khudegi' but people say that 'Modi tera kamal khilega'. When the whole world is praising India and saying that its economy is growing, Rahul Gandhi is insulting our nation abroad," BJP chief JP Nadda said. (ANI)
A Delhi district court has granted bail to a woman allegedly involved in the murder of her husband in collusion with her boyfriend. The woman and her friend namely Arjun Mandal were arrested in the East Patel Nagar area in October 2019 for allegedly killing her husband and portraying his death as an accident. They killed the man as they thought of him as an "obstacle" in their relationship, as per the case of the prosecution. The body of 42-year-old Dayaram with injuries on his head and other parts was found lying in the shaft of a lift of an under-construction building in central Delhi's East Patel Nagar area on October 17, 2019, the police said. Advocate Ravi Drall who appeared for Anita argued that the deceased was a habitual drinker and the testimony of witnesses examined by the prosecution do not suggest the alleged role of the accused in the commission of the alleged offence. Counsel submitted that the star witness namely Hari Ram (son of deceased) has already been examined who during his cross-examination admitted that the accused Anita who is his mother had no role in the murder of his father. Advocate Ravi Drall further submitted that the FSL result has been filed but no DNA profile has been generated from the exhibits. Counsel further submitted that the applicant/accused has been falsely implicated upon the basis of the CDR of the mobile phone and that of the co-accused but contrary to the allegations the applicant/accused had also made the calls to her other relatives also. While granting bail Sessions Court noted that the relevant witness qua applicant/accused is stated to prosecution witnessHari Ram, who has stated in his cross-examination that the applicant/accused Anita, who is his mother, had no role in the murder of his father deceased Daya Ram. He also stated that his parents were having a cordial relationship and he had never witnessed any quarrel between his father and mother over accused Arjun Mandal. Court further noted that the remaining witnesses for the prosecution have stated that they had come to know about the alleged illicit relation between applicant/accused Anita and co-accused Arjun Mandal and none of the prosecution witnesses has deposed about their personal knowledge regarding the alleged illicit relations. (ANI)
In a first case, on the basis of profiling done by the customs, a passenger coming from Abu Dhabi to Kochi Airport was intercepted at the green channel.

"During the checking, 3 capsules of gold in compound form weighing 873.98 grams concealed inside his body were recovered and seized," officials said.

The accused has been identified as Abdul Saleem, a native of Malappuram district.

In the second case, a passenger coming from Abu Dhabi to Kochi Airport by flight 6E 1735 was intercepted at the green channel.

"During the examination of the said passenger, 4 capsules of gold in compound form weighing 1158.55 grams concealed inside his body were recovered and seized," officials said.

"On thorough checking, gold in paste form weighing 636.85 grams hidden in under garments were also recovered from the accused, " they added.

The accused has been identified as Saheer, a native of Malappuram.

"Further investigation is underway in both cases," officials added. (ANI)
Rajya Sabha Congress MP Pradip Bhattacharya on Saturday said that the Congress is a cementing force and without the party, the Opposition cannot function. While talking to ANI, he said, "Minus Congress, a united Opposition cannot function. The Congress is never acting like a boss. They (TMC and Samajwadi Party) want to unite with the other parties except the Congress." "Congress has a cementing force. It is not limited to Bengal and Uttar Pradesh," he added. On Prime Minister's face for 2024, he said, "They are blaming Congress and Rahul Gandhi for that. Congress wants to portray Rahul Gandhi as a Prime Minister face when party president Kharge has already clarified there is no PM face and that their main aim is to defeat BJP in 2024." On Friday, TMC and Samajwadi Party said the Opposition is united but the TMC alleged the Congress is "acting like a boss." Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee here in an indication of an emerging front that is opposed to the BJP but would not align with the Congress at the state level. Akhilesh Yadav said Congress should decide its role. "Congress should decide its role regarding elections. CMs of many states are trying for a coalition that will work together. Telangana CM KCR is trying, Stalin is trying, Bihar CM and Mamata Banerjee are also there. The name will be discussed later for the coalition," Yadav told ANI. "I hope that the efforts are successful. This will be taken up in the meeting tomorrow. All the leaders will present their views and suggestions," he added. Samajwadi Party said that Akhilesh Yadav paid a "courtesy visit" to Mamata Banerjee and was accompanied by senior leaders of the party. (ANI)
Intensifying his attack on Rahul Gandhi for his criticism of Indian democracy in London, Bharatiya Janata Party national president JP Nadda on Saturday said the leader whose party is being rejected by the public is saying that democracy is "under attack". Nadda's statement came while addressing a gathering in poll-bound Karnataka's Tumakuru. "The party, whom the public rejects, then its leader says that democracy is in danger. Today Congress is getting wiped out from everywhere and Rahul Gandhi is going to England and saying that India's democracy is under attack. They are mentally bankrupt. People will never forgive them," the BJP leader said. "In Delhi, UP, Bihar, Haryana and Goa Congress has been wiped out. Their performance in the northeast states was abysmal. Now Rahul Gandhi is questioning the democracy of India in England," he added. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while addressing a lecture at Cambridge University in London recently, said, "Everybody knows and it's been in the news a lot that Indian democracy is under pressure and under attack. I am an Opposition leader in India, we are navigating that (Opposition) space." The BJP chief also alleged that Rahul Gandhi instigates other countries to intervene in domestic affairs. "Rahul Gandhi has insulted the people of India and he should apologize for his comment. They instigate other countries to intervene in the affairs of India," Nadda said. Launching a scathing attack on the previous Congress-led UPA government, Nadda said that before 2014, India was leading in corruption. Before 2014, India was leading in corruption. Scams like 2G, 3G, and Commonwealth were happening, there was corruption in every way," he said, adding that today India is playing its part on the world stage with strength. Lauding Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's government in the State, Nadda said that today Karnataka is number one in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Ease of Doing Business, Innovation Index and Startups. "Today, Apple products are being manufactured in India," he added. Earlier in the day, Nadda held a roadshow in the district. BJP leader and former Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa was also present. (ANI)
The accused along with seized marijuana was handed over to the police for further investigation and legal proceedings, the statement added.

Meanwhile, as many as 60 boxes of illegal foreign-origin cigarettes worth Rs 90 lakh were recovered at Champhai's Zokhawthar in Mizoram by the Serchhip Battalion of 23 Sector Assam Rifles under the aegis of Inspector General Assam Rifles (East) on Tuesday.

Based on a tip-off, a combined team of Assam Rifles and the Customs Department, Champhai carried out the operation.

According to the police, the approximate cost of the recovered foreign-origin Cigarettes is Rs 90 lakh. (ANI)
The State Assembly passed by voice vote, the Andhra Pradesh Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill 2023, moved by Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath and the Andhra Pradesh Para Veterinary and Allied Council Bill 2023, tabled by Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development & Fisheries.

Three Bills were also introduced in the House.

The Andhra Pradesh Dotted Lands (Updation in Re Settlement Register (Amendment) Bill 2023, tabled by Minister for Revenue, Registration and Stamps, Dharmana Prasada Rao, was introduced in the House.

The Andhra Pradesh Right in Land and Pattadar Pass Books (Amendment) Bill 2023 and the Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Area) Inams, (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) (Amendment) Bills 2023, were also tabled by the Revenue Minister.

Andhra Pradesh Assembly Budget Session began on March 14 and will continue till March 23. (ANI)
With Punjab Police having launched an operation to arrest Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh, Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh on Saturday said the law will take its course against violators without any discrimination and that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has restored the rule of law. "Our CM has restored the rule of law. Law will take its course against violators. There is no discrimination. It is not as if people died of spurious liquor and nobody is responsible or there was sacrilege and nobody is responsible. This is called rule of law," Balbir Singh said when asked about action against Amritpal Singh. "Whoever violates the law, then the law will take its own course. Everyone will be treated as per law. There is rule of law in the state," Balbir singh said. Mobile internet services have been suspended in several districts of Punjab until 12 noon on Sunday, State police said on Saturday after launching an operation to arrest Amritpal Singh. Intelligence agencies are keeping a close watch on the Punjab Police operation. A senior official said that state had sought several companies of paramilitary forces and these have been provided to maintain law and order situation. The agencies have got reports of Amritpal Singh's connection with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. Mobile Internet services also have been suspended in several districts of Punjab until 12 noon on Sunday, as the State police launched an operation to arrest the Khalistan sympathiser. Reacting to the incident, chief minister Bhagwant Mann said that these "1000 people" don't represent Punjab, and alleged that they are "funded by Pakistan" to disrupt peace in the state. Sources said when Amritpal Singh, who now heads 'Waris Punjab De', was in Dubai, he was in close touch with Jaswant Singh rode, brother of militant and chief of Pakistan-based International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) Lakhbir Singh Rode. Amritpal Singh's treasurer Basant Singh Daulatpura was getting funds from Pakistan.Security agencies have been keeping a close watch on the activities of Amritpal Singh since he came to Punjab last year. Punjab Police were alerted about his activities regularly. Punjab Police has requested people to maintain peace and harmony. The police are working to maintain law and order and have requested people not to panic or spread fake news or hate speech. (ANI)
A total of 78 persons have been arrested and several detained so far in connection with the crackdown launched against the chief of suspected pro-Khalistan outfit 'Waris Punjab De', Amritpal Singh and his aides, Punjab Police said on Saturday, adding that the Khalistan sympathiser is still on the run. "Punjab Police on Saturday launched a massive state-wide Cordon And Search Operations (CASO) in the state against elements of Waris Punjab De (WPD) against whom several criminal cases stand registered," police said, adding that in the operation a total of 78 persons have been arrested so far, while, several others have been detained for questioning. Divulging more details, the official spokesperson of Punjab Police said that on Saturday afternoon, several activities of Waris Punjab De were intercepted by the Police at the Shahkot-Malsian Road in Jalandhar district and seven persons were arrested on the spot. "Several others including Amritpal Singh are on the run and a massive manhunt has been launched to nab them," he added. During the state-wide operation, nine weapons, including one .315 bore rifle, seven rifles of 12 bore, one revolver and 373 live cartridges of different calibres have been recovered so far. The Spokesperson informed that WPD elements are involved in four criminal cases relating to spreading disharmony among classes, attempting to murder, attacking police persons and creating obstructions in the lawful discharge of duties of public servants. "Case FIR No. 39 dated February 24, 2023, stands registered against WPD elements for the attack on Ajnala Police Station," he added. He said that all persons involved in criminal offences shall be dealt with in accordance with the law and all persons wanted by the police should offer themselves to the process of law. Their constitutional rights of legal defence shall be protected, he added. Meanwhile, the police requested all the citizens not to pay heed to fake news and rumours. "Situation in the state is completely stable. All persons indulging in mischievous activities for disturbing peace and harmony in the state shall be dealt with strictly," the police said. Earlier in the day, mobile Internet services were also suspended in several districts of Punjab until 12 noon on Sunday. The police action came almost over three weeks after Amritpal's supporters clashed with police personnel at the Ajnala police station on the outskirts of Amritsar last month, demanding the release of one of Amritpal's close aides, Lovepreet Toofan. On February 23, thousands of his supporters, stormed the Ajnala police station, flashing swords and high-calibre firearms, threatening the police with dire consequences if they did not release Lovepreet Toofan, who was arrested for allegedly assaulting and abducting a man. The supporters, brandishing swords and guns broke through police barricades erected outside the Ajnala police station. The police later said "in the light of the evidence presented", it has been decided that Lovepreet Singh Toofan will be discharged. Lovepreet Singh was released from jail on February 24 following orders of a court in Ajnala on an application by the police. Reacting to the incident, chief minister Bhagwant Mann said that these "1000 people" don't represent Punjab, and alleged that they are "funded by Pakistan" to disrupt peace in the state. (ANI)
Opposition leader VD Satheesan on Saturday said that the verdict of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) awarding Rs 100 crores as environment compensation against Kochi Corporation in Brahmapuram waste plant fire incident is a setback for the state government and the corporation. While talking to the media, he said, "The verdict of the National Green Tribunal is a setback for the state government and the Corporation. The tribunal issued this verdict underlining what the opposition had said inside and outside the assembly." "The government has taken full responsibility for the disposal of legacy waste at Brahmapuram earlier. Its supervision is done by the Corporation. The government failed miserably in that," Satheesan added. Demanding strict action on the people responsible for the fire, he said, "Fines should be paid by the people responsible, not from tax money. The perpetrators of this heinous act are responsible for this. The government is trying to protect the contractors who set fire to this waste. They are relatives of party members. Not even a preliminary report has been submitted in the investigation. We will fight hard against it." Cornering the Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala over the Brahmapuram fire incident, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief K Surendran on Friday asked the chief minister to inform how much money the state has received from the World Bank, Central Government, foreign and other agencies for waste disposal. He said, "The Chief Minister should clarify how much money has been received from the World Bank, Central Government, foreign and other agencies for waste disposal in the last seven years." "Stories of huge corruption in the state are coming out in the Brahmapuram issue. The fire is out, but the problem is not over," he added. Launching an attack on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Surendran said, "Not only the contractor and the corporation, but the Chief Minister himself held discussions in this regard. The Chief Minister held talks with the contract company abroad. The Chief Minister's office itself pressed for this. The discussion on corruption took place during the Chief Minister's foreign trips." (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the success of Indian democracy and its institutions is hurting some people and that is why they are attacking it. PM Modi's remarks came after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said in London that the country's democracy is "under attack". PM Modi, while addressing India Today Conclave 2023 said, "The world is watching how the democratic participation of more and more people is increasing in India. Even in the midst of the pandemic, many elections were held successfully. This is the strength of our institutions." "Economy is strong today amidst the global crisis. The banking system is strong. This is the strength of our institutions. We have delivered the corona vaccine far and wide. We got more than 220 crore doses. This is the strength of our institutions," he said. "I think, this success of India's democracy and its institutions is hurting some people and that is why they are attacking it," he added. Without naming anyone, he also took a swipe at the people, who are denigrating the country and said that those people have taken the responsibility for applying 'Kala Tika' (black mark) to many auspicious things happening in the country. "The country is full of confidence, determination and global scholars are also optimistic about India. In the midst of all this, there is talk of disappointment, frustration, of humiliating India, breaking India's morale," he said. "When something auspicious is happening, there is a tradition to apply 'kaala tika', so when so many auspicious things are happening, some people have taken the responsibility to apply this 'kaala tika'," PM Modi added. The BJP members are continuously demanding an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remarks in United Kingdom, alleging that he had maligned institutions in the country. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a lecture at Cambridge University in London recently, said, "Everybody knows and it's been in the news a lot that Indian democracy is under pressure and under attack. I am an Opposition leader in India, we are navigating that (Opposition) space." (ANI)
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will lead his entire council of ministers on a trip to the national capital on Sunday to visit places of importance made by the Narendra Modi government. On the agenda, on the one-day visit of Assam cabinet is to pay homage to the fallen soldiers at the National War Memorial followed by a visit to the Police War Memorial and finally to the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya. Along with Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Cabinet, Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria will also be present during these visits. Senior officials in the administration and the police department of the Assam government will also be part of this delegation that will make these visits. "Keeping in mind the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his advice that state leaders must visit these places that are extremely significant for the generations to come, this tour has been organised," a senior official of the Assam government told ANI. Established in 2019, the National War Memorial is a monument, which has been built to honour the soldiers who have made the supreme sacrifice for the country. Inaugurated in October 2018, the National Police Memorial is a commemoration of the sacrifice of over 34,000 police personnel, who have laid down their lives in the line of duty. Inaugurated in April last year by PM Modi, the Pradhanamantri Sangrahalaya is a museum dedicated to all Indian Prime Ministers from India's independence onwards. Built at a cost of Rs 271 crores, this museum talks about the contribution of all the 14 Indian Prime Ministers of India in nation-building. After the day-long visit to the national capital, to understand what these monuments mean for the present generation and for the generations to come where tributes have been given to those who deserve irrespective of their ideology, the Assam said cabinet and the officials will head back to the state where the budget session of the assembly will resume on Monday. (ANI)
According to police, a case has been registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Further investigation is underway, Mumbai Police added.

Meanwhile, in a similar incident, two drug peddlers were arrested for allegedly supplying drugs to Australia and UK through a courier service, police said on Saturday.

Officials said that the accused were arrested during a drug bust in Mumbai, and were produced in the court where the court has sent both the accused to police custody till March 22.

Earlier on March 16, Mumbai Police's Anti-Extortion Cell was said to have recovered 15.743 Kg of Ketamine drug, worth Rs 8 crore, from the Andheri area, adding that two persons were arrested in connection with the haul.

During the police interrogation, the accused peddler said, "10 kg of Ketamine drugs were sent abroad weekly from Mumbai."

The police seized Ketamine drugs, used in big parties and the accused were the ones to supply the party.

Based on the information received that the drugs were smuggled in the guise of a courier company the Mumbai Crime Branch conducted the raid at the courier office in the Andheri area and seized ketamine drugs worth Rs 8 crore worth Rs 58 lakh. (ANI)
Congress MP Manickam Tagore on Saturday alleged that ruling members are blocking the process of parliament to evade the questions on 'Adani scam' and relation of latter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Addressing a press conference, Manickam Tagore said, "We want parliament to function, but BJP doesn't want it as we are asking questions about Adani's scam and relation between Modi and Adani. For that, proceedings are being blocked by the ruling party. But we will continue to raise these issues," Tagore said. Manickam Tagore, who is also Congress' Goa in-charge, is on a two-day visit to the state to attend party meetings and 'Haath Se Haath Jodo Yatra'. He said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wanted to clarify over his remarks on Indian democracy, however he has not been allowed to speak. "Rahul Gandhi wanted to speak from Thursday, because allegations were made by the defence minister, law minister and parliamentary affairs minister... he wanted to clarify and put his views. He has not been allowed to speak," he said. "It's a black day for democracy. Attack on parliamentary proceedings shows that Modi's government doesn't believe in democratic process. Opposition parties are demanding Joint Parliamentary Committee on 'Adani scam'. All 18 parties are demanding it," Tagore further said. "In parliament for the past one week oppositions are not allowed to speak. BJP leaders are blocking the parliament functioning. First time in the history of parliament in India, the ruling party is involved in adjournment of parliament. Only the ministers are allowed to speak in parliament. Members of all 18 opposition parties are not given the opportunity to speak," he lamented. Meanwhile, the Political Affairs Committee of Congress in Goa has expressed solidarity with their leader Rahul Gandhi. --IANS sbk/uk/ ( 304 Words) 2023-03-18-19:36:03 (IANS)
The function was organised at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Periamet. CM also released a special cover, launching the 'Aval' project and flagged off a bicycle rally.

Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers made various announcements to mark the 'Golden Jubilee' of Tamil Nadu Women Police Personals.

While speaking on the Stage Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin appreciated women police for their service and also made various announcements.

On the 50th anniversary of Tamil Nadu women police M K Stalin said, "Daily Roll Call for Women Police will now be from 8 AM instead of 8 AM. Women Police hostel would be constructed soon in Madhurai and Chennai."

"In all the Police stations, a separate retiring room with a restroom would be built for women police. In all districts police child take care would be made available to take care of the children of women police, added CM Stalin.

Talking about the rewards, CM Stalin said, "Kalaingar Police Award and trophy would also be given to women police each year to recognise women police skills."

"Police higher officials would be advised to give leave and transfer for women police personnel according to their family situation", he added. (ANI)
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Southeast, Rajesh Deo said that information was received at Sunlight colony police station around noon regarding human body parts being found near the Sarai Kale Khan ISBT, adjoining the flyover, in the area of under construction site of Rapid Metro.

"A police team was dispatched to the spot where they found some human body parts in various stages of decomposition and a bunch of hair."

The DCP said that the crime scene was inspected by the crime team and forensic experts and the remains found have been transferred to AIIMS Trauma hospital for further proceedings. A search is being made to identify the recovered human body," said the DCP.

The human remains are yet to be identified as male or female.

The DCP said that prima facie a case of homicide is made out and an FIR under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code is being registered.

--IANS ssh/vd

( 203 Words)

2023-03-18-20:48:03 (IANS)
Pakistan's Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said telling the truth in Pakistan has become the biggest crime and the party's fault is that it has sent well-educated youths from the poor and middle class to Parliament to solve their problems, The News International reported on Friday. According to the report, Siddiqui said if the party's cause has been supported, Pakistan would not have been at the crossroads. In a statement, he said, "We lived in a system in which farmers and peasants were represented by landlords". Siddiqui added that the entire country was currently going through a very critical and important period, reported The News International. MQM is divided into two sides one which is operated in Pakistan while the other one is from London by Altaf Hussain. Recently, MQM-P Convener held a press conference after winning the London property case, saying it had been proved that the MQM-Pakistan was the real MQM without any branch or faction. "The properties will be used for the service and welfare of the people," said Siddiqui while speaking at a press conference at his office. His remarks came after the MQM founder lost a London properties case to his former loyalists in the MQM-Pakistan after a legal battle at the UK High Court. Siddiqui said the "properties of the martyrs" would now be used for the welfare of the people, including litigation for martyred, missing and captive workers of the party. A part of the properties would be given to the widow of Imran Farooq, a former MQM leader who was murdered in London in 2010, according to The News International. He said, "Today was important and we have got back the trust of martyrs and missing MQM-P workers". Farooq Sattar, Mustafa Kamal, Nasreen Jalil and other MQM-P leaders were also present at the press conference, Explaining future plans for London's properties, Siddiqui said, "We will use this money for neither personal interest nor political interest. We are grateful that Allah gave us success and that is a ray of hope not only for Sindh but also for Pakistan", according to The News International. (ANI)
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz Sharif asked the coalition government to treat Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf as a "terrorist organisation," Dawn reported. Addressing the press conference in Lahore, Maryam Nawaz Sharif said the government should deal with PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the same way as it deals with a terrorist organisation. "The way the government, the state deals with a banned organisation, a terrorist organisation, Imran Khan should be dealt with in the same way. Thinking of it (PTI) as a political party and dealing with it as a political party needs to end," she said. She further stated that PTI chairman was now amenable to talks with the government after all his tactics had failed, reported Dawn. "The government should deal with them in the same way it deals with terrorists," she added. In the press conference, PML-N Vice President lashed out at the ex-premier for "openly revolting against the state". These remarks came as Khan resisting his arrest in the Toshakhana case and is holed up inside his Zaman Park residence surrounded by hundreds of supporters, who have fought "pitched battles" with the police and Rangers, reported Dawn. "After the foreign funding case, I have no doubt that he (Imran) was launched to spread civil unrest and anarchy in Pakistan," Maryam said. "What do terrorists do when they are planning to carry out terrorism? They hide in caves and pass orders from there," she added. She also stated that the political and democratic movements have always seen that political leaders or the party head lead from the front. He is at the front and the people come out behind him. She said that only in terrorist organisations were orders given "from a cave", adding that the same was happening at Zaman Park. Pakistani police force went to Khan's residence in Zaman Park to arrest him in the Toshakhana case after which in several places, protests erupted. On March 7, the IHC suspended Imran's non-bailable arrest warrants till March 13 and instructed him to appear before the sessions court. At the outset of the proceedings on Tuesday, Imran's counsel Khawaja Haris informed the court that his client would not be able to appear. "He is not refusing to appear, but due to security threats he cannot be present," Imran's lawyer said. He recalled that the IHC had asked the sessions court to initiate legal proceedings against the PTI chief as per the law if he failed to appear before the court on March 13, Dawn reported. (ANI)
Ukraine intercepted three drones over Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, The Kyiv Independent reported on Saturday citing oblast governor Serhiy Lysak. Taking to Twitter, The Kyiv Independent said, "Ukraine downs three drones over Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, two others reach their targets. Ukraine's Eastern Command intercepted three drones over Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, the oblast governor Serhiy Lysak reported." "According to the governor, two drones hit a critical infrastructure facility in Novomoskovsk, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The attack caused serious damage, he said," it added. Russia launched a drone attack against Ukraine late on March 17, with explosions already reported in Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, and Zhytomyr oblasts. Ukraine's Eastern Command said Russia used attack drones, "probably Shahed-131/136," according to The Kyiv Independent. Earlier, on Thursday, Russian forces fired on the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, leaving one person dead and seven others injured, CNN reported citing Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office. The prosecutor's office, in a Telegram post, said the Russian forces fired on the city of Kostiantynivka and several villages with artillery and Uragan multiple rocket launchers. The office further added that the shelling hit "the railway station, market and private houses". The woman who died was 50 years old and living in Pivdenne, where one other person was hurt, according to the prosecutor's office. The six other people who were injured were in Kostiantynivka, including one Polish citizen, it added. Shell fragments damaged more than 30 residential buildings, the prosecutor's office said. Russia launched its "special military operation" in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and since then both the country lost thousands of lives and properties destroyed. Meanwhile, Poland President Andrzej Duda, on Thursday, said the country is set to provide Ukraine with four MiG-29 fighter jets in the coming days. Warsaw has taken a lead among NATO allies in supplying Kyiv with heavy weapons, including Soviet-designed fighters. "When it comes to the MI-29 aircraft, which are still operating in the defence of Polish airspace, a decision has been taken at the highest levels, we can say confidently that we are sending MIGs to Ukraine," Duda said. "We have a dozen or so MIGS that we got in the 90s handed down from the German Democratic Republic and they are functional and play a part in the defence of our airspace. They are at the end of their operational life but are still functional," he added. "In the coming days we will hand over four planes to Ukraine, the remaining machines are being serviced and prepared for handover. We will replace them with deliveries of South Korean FA-50s and American F-35s," the Polish president said. (ANI)
US President Joe Biden on Friday said that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is justified in issuing an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over allegations of war crimes, US-based The Hill newspaper reported. "Well, I think it's justified," Biden told reporters before leaving the White House for Delaware. "But the question is, it's not recognized internationally by us, either. But I think it makes a very strong point." On being asked whether Putin should be tried for war crimes, Biden did not directly answer, but said the Russian leader has "clearly committed war crimes." The ICC had earlier on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Putin and another Russian official. The warrant is believed to be one of the first charges against Putin for war crimes in Ukraine, part of a global effort to hold the Russian president and the Russian Federation accountable for atrocities beginning with the full-scale February 2022 invasion. Putin in the warrant, has been targeted for alleged war crimes. The warrant cites him and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, commissioner for children's rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, for the forced deportation of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territory to Russia. The Kremlin blasted the allegations, noting it does not cooperate with the ICC. "We consider the very posing of the question outrageous and unacceptable. Russia, like a number of states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and, accordingly, any decisions of this kind are null and void for the Russian Federation from the point of view of the law," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tweeted on Friday, The Hill reported. The United States is no longer a party to the ICC and does not recognize its authority. Last month, US Vice President Kamala told an international security conference that the U.S. had formally determined Russia had committed crimes against humanity, arguing Russian soldiers had conducted widespread attacks against Ukrainian civilians that included murder, torture and rape. Next week, Putin is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. US officials have warned that China may be considering providing support to Russia for its war effort in Ukraine, according to The Hill. Asked about his expectations for the meeting between Xi and Putin, Biden said "we'll see when that meeting takes place." (ANI)
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday urged the coalition government to "give a date and venue" for a meeting that would bring together all political parties to the table, Pakistan-based Dawn newspaper reported. Pakistan's top regulatory body of lawyers said it was ready to mediate between the government and the opposition. PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry in a tweet said that Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar was giving statements every day to sit together and solve issues and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had also asked for talks. "Extend this process beyond statements and give a date and venue for the [political] parties to meet. Imran Khan has already favoured dialogues," he tweeted, according to Dawn. The statement by Chaudhry came a day after Khan struck a conciliatory tone, saying he was ready to "talk to anyone" and "render any sacrifice" for the country's sake. "I will not shy away from any sacrifice for the sake of Pakistan's uplift, interest and democracy. In this regard, I am willing to talk to anyone and take every step towards it," the PTI chief tweeted on Thursday, as per Dawn. This came after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif while extending an olive branch to PTI Chairman Khan, said that all political forces will have to sit for dialogue to rid the country of the ongoing political and economic crises, Dawn reported. He said the government would hold the general election at its scheduled time as per the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The PM also said that the threat of Pakistan defaulting on its debt was now over as the staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would be finalised soon. "All political forces will have to sit together to take the country forward," the premier said while addressing a meeting held with a delegation of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) at the PM House, Dawn reported. Sharif lamented that he had invited PTI for talks on two occasions in the recent past, but the party did not turn up. "Though politicians always resort to dialogue, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has a history of not responding positively in this regard," he said. The prime minister said the country was facing serious political and economic challenges but stressed that all component parties of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) ruling coalition had contributed positively to improving the situation, Dawn reported. (ANI)
China urges AUKUS countries to stop putting geopolitical agenda above obligations

Xinhua) 09:12, March 18, 2023

BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday urged the U.S., the UK and Australia to stop putting their selfish geopolitical agenda above nuclear non-proliferation obligations and stop coercing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into endorsing their nuclear submarine cooperation.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a regular press briefing when asked to comment on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's remarks that the AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation is the advancement of NATO military infrastructure into Asia, which makes a serious bet on many years of confrontation in the region.

Wang said the U.S., the UK and Australia are putting up an Anglo-Saxon clique and creating the so-called AUKUS trilateral security partnership to advance nuclear submarine cooperation and other cutting-edge military technology cooperation.

"This is typical Cold War mentality and a move that opens a Pandora's box, which will seriously impact regional and global peace and security," said Wang.

Wang said firstly, it will seriously impact the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. The AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation marks the first time for nuclear weapon states to transfer naval nuclear propulsion reactors and weapons-grade highly enriched uranium to a non-nuclear weapon state.

There is nothing in the current IAEA safeguards system that can ensure effective safeguards. Therefore, such cooperation poses serious nuclear proliferation risks, seriously compromises the authority of the IAEA and deals a blow to the Agency's safeguards system, Wang said.

He said if the three countries are set on advancing the nuclear submarine cooperation, other countries will likely follow suit, eventually leading to the collapse of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Secondly, it will seriously impact the ASEAN-centered regional cooperation architecture, Wang said, adding that the AUKUS cooperation is designed to serve the U.S. geopolitical agenda with the means of military deterrence. It runs counter to the ASEAN way of mutual respect, openness and inclusiveness, consensus through consultation, and accommodating the comfort levels of all sides, undercuts ASEAN countries' effort to establish a Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone and seriously undermines the ASEAN-centered regional cooperation architecture in East Asia.

Wang said thirdly, it will seriously impact peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific. AUKUS introduces group politics and Cold War confrontation into the Asia-Pacific, and is aimed to create a NATO-replica in the region.

"If this attempt succeeds, it forebodes unprecedented threats and challenges to the decades-long stability and prosperity in the region," the spokesperson said.

Wang said the U.S., the UK and Australia should listen to the call of the international community and countries in the region, stop pursuing bloc politics and confrontation, stop putting their selfish geopolitical agenda above nuclear non-proliferation obligations and stop coercing the IAEA into endorsing their nuclear submarine cooperation.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
As female education continues to suffer majorly in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is all set to send a team of scholars to the country to discuss women's right to education and work with the regime, TOLOnews reported. The Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Hissein Brahim Taha announced the scholars' team on the first day of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's meeting in Mauritania. He said that OIC will continue to voice concerns for the education of Afghan women and girls with the Taliban and will also send an expanded team of scholars to Afghanistan for dialogue on related aspects. Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the situation of females in the country has only gone worse. Females in the country are prohibited from leadership posts and are not allowed to travel unless accompanied by a male companion. Almost 40 countries sent representatives to the 49th OCI meeting, which took place in Mauritania on March 16 and 17, TOLOnews reported. However the spokesperson for the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan, Zabiullah Mujahid refuted the claims of women being treated in an unfair manner in the country and said, "We are trying to solve our problems in education and employment in terms of women's issues. Efforts are underway but it takes time. The issue will be solved soon," according to TOLOnews. The Taliban promised to reopen all schools on March 23, 2022, but on that day they once more closed secondary institutions for girls. There is still no word on when or if these schools will reopen or the ban is indefinite. The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021 and imposed policies severely restricting basic rights--particularly those of women and girls, dismissed all women from leadership posts in the civil service and prohibited girls in most provinces from attending secondary school. The Taliban have also carried out broad censorship, limiting critical reporting, and have detained and beaten journalists. Taliban forces have carried out revenge killings and enforced disappearances of former government officials and security personnel. (ANI)
Ten members of a family, including a woman, her mother-in-law, five daughters and three sons died in a house fire in the Pattan area of Lower Kohistan, Pakistan based The News International newspaper reported. District Kohistan, also called Abasin Kohistan or Indus Kohistan, is an administrative district within Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The fire, which had reportedly broken out from a lantern, ripped through the multi-room wooden house of Mohammad Nawab and the adjacent cattle pen at about 4 am on Friday, according to The News International. Locals who rushed to the spot retrieved the buried family members and shifted them to a nearby hospital where the doctors pronounced all of them dead. "The locals reached the spot and retrieved the buried people from the rubble after making hectic efforts and shifted them to the health facility," Razzaq Raja, an eyewitness told reporters. According to police, the wife of Mohammad Nawab, Chabber Bibi, his mother Zahida Bibi, and five daughters - Lili Nawab, 20, Samrian Bibi, 18, Samina Bibi, 16, Bibi Sano, 12, Alina Bibi, 19, and three sons - Munir Nawab, 5, Mujeeb Nawab, 9, and Aziz Nawab, 2, were burnt to death. They said the fire also killed several cattle, The News International reported. Following the incident, the enraged family members and locals blocked the Karakoram Highway to traffic for many hours, demanding punitive action against Rescue 112 for not reaching the spot timely. Angry family members and locals later placed the bodies at the KKH and blocked it to all sorts of traffic for many hours. They dispersed peacefully after Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Rafique talked to them and announced PKR 5 million as compensation for the bereaved family, as per The News International. Caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan expressed profound grief over the tragic incident. The chief minister directed the local administration to provide the best possible treatment facilities to the injured in the incident. (ANI)
India is the largest millet producer globally and is also assuming global leadership in advancing the objective of the International Year of Millets, Guyana President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali said in a virtual address at the Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference in New Delhi on Saturday. Appreciating India for its role in addressing the global challenge of food and security, he said India is placing its "service expertise" at it. Addressing the conference, the Guyana President said, "A true collaboration, Guyana holds to embark on the sustainable production of millets, the government of Guyana has provided 200 acres of land for exclusive millet production." He said further that in return the Indian government would provide technical guidance and support with technology transfer for millet production. "We can fight hunger & transform the agrifood system by exploring every viable opportunity. We wish the conference success," he added. Based on India's proposal, the year 2023 was declared the International Year of Millets (IYM) by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Also, in line with the Prime Minister's vision to make the celebrations of IYM 2023 a 'people's movement' and position India as the 'global hub for millets', all central government ministries and departments, states and union territories, farmers, start-ups, exporters, retail businesses and other stakeholders, are being engaged to promote and spread awareness about the benefits of millets (Shree Anna) for the cultivator, consumer and climate. The conference will be attended by Agriculture Ministers of various countries, international scientists, nutritionists, health experts, start-up leaders and other stakeholders. The two-day global conference will have sessions on all important issues related to millets (Shree Anna) like promotion and awareness of millets among producers, consumers and other stakeholders; millets' value chain development; health and nutritional aspects of millets; market linkages; research and development etc. (ANI)
The country has ordered numerous troops, including missile units to ensure its hold in the region and showcase its defence capabilities.

Around 570 men of Japan's Ground Self-Defence Force will be stationed at the recently built garrison on Ishigaki island in the prefecture of Okinawa, the country's military confirmed, according to CNN. The troops reportedly arrived on Thursday.

Notably, the island of Ishigaki is quite famous amongst scuba divers and is located 200 kilometres south of the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands.

The islands, which are known in China as the Diaoyu Islands and Diaoyutai in Taiwan, have become one of the key points of focus for increasing tensions in the region.

Japan, amid growing security concerns, has been ramping up the construction of military bases in Okinawa, the band of 150 islands that curves to the south of Japan's main islands in the East China Sea, CNN reported.

On Friday, two Chinese vessels entered Japan's territorial water near the Senkaku Islands on Friday, pursuing two Japanese fishing boats in the East China Sea, Japan's NHK World reported.

The two Chinese ships reportedly entered Friday in territorial waters off Taisho Island between 4:20 and 4:50 a.m. (local time).

The ships, along with two other Chinese ships, were previously cruising in the contiguous area just outside of Japan's territorial waters, the coast guard officials said.

Friday's incident is the ninth time this year that Chinese government ships have been spotted in Japan's territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands, NHK World reported. Notably, Japan controls the islands, whereas China continues to claim them.

According to history and international law, the islands are inextricably linked to Japan's territory, the Japanese government claims. (ANI)
The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu live-streamed and virtually participated in the inauguration of the Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference on Saturday to celebrate the International Year of Millets (IYM) 2023. Inaugurated and addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu organized an event to mark the occasion which was attended by more than 50 distinguished guests. According to the Embassy, Madhu Kumar Marasini, Secretary, Nepal's Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Ken Shimizu, FAO Country Representative for Nepal and Bhutan were present in the event. Apart from them, representatives of various industry and agricultural associations and members of the Indian community also took part in the event. At the conference, PM Modi unveiled a stamp and a coin to mark the IYM 2023. He also announced ICAR-IIMR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research -Indian Instituteof Millets Research) as the Global Centre of Excellence in Millets Research. The United Nations General Assembly declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets on 5 March 2021 through a resolution tabled by India along with Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Russia and Senegal and co-sponsored by more than 70 UN member states, with the aim to raise awareness about the importance of millet for food security, nutrition, and climate resilience. "The Government of India has adopted a multi-stakeholder engagement approach to makeIYM 2023 a people's movement, positioning India as the 'Global Hub of Millets' through year-long national and global campaigns and activities," the Embassy stated in the release. It further said, "The Embassy of India, Kathmandu remains committed to fostering stronger ties between India and Nepal through such meaningful initiatives and promoting sustainable agricultural practices for a healthier, greener future." Following the inauguration of the conference by PM Modi, a lunch was served to the attendees showcasing the versatility and nutritional benefits of various millets through culinary preparations. (ANI)
Former US President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that "he will be arrested on Tuesday" next week as part of a yearlong investigation into a hush-money scheme. He also asked his supporters to protest the move, reported CNN. "THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!," he thundered in an all-caps message to his followers on Truth Social, his social media platform on Saturday (local time). As per CNN, meetings have been going on throughout the week between the city, state and federal law enforcement agencies in New York City about how to prepare for a possible indictment of Trump in connection with a yearlong investigation into a hush-money scheme involving adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Any indictment of the former President, who is running for re-election in 2024, would mark a historic first and quickly change the political conversation around an already divisive figure. While Trump has an extensive history of civil litigation both before and after taking office, a criminal charge would represent a dramatic escalation of his legal woes as he works to recapture the White House. Meanwhile, Trump did not specify what he has been told about an indictment and potential charges, however, his legal team has been anticipating that it will happen soon and has been preparing behind the scenes for the next steps, reported CNN. The former president is expected to present himself in Manhattan following the formal charges and has expressed interest in making a speech after, though whether he ultimately does remains to be seen. A campaign spokesperson said in a statement that there had been "no notification" given to Trump other than "illegal leaks" by prosecutors to news outlets. Trump's call for protests evoked his rallying of his supporters in advance of January 6, 2021, when he used social media to invite crowds as Congress was preparing to certify the Electoral College count in favour of Joe Biden. Trump urged his supporters to then march to Capitol Hill, where many stormed the building, forcing lawmakers to flee and temporarily suspending the proceedings. Trump's claim that he will be arrested could be a way for him to scramble prosecutors' timeline, as there already were reports that law enforcement was preparing for such an event next week, reported CNN. An indictment of Trump would be unprecedented in American history. Richard Nixon faced potential criminal charges related to the Watergate scandal after resigning in 1974, but he was pardoned by his successor, President Gerald Ford. (ANI)
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said that the Bangladesh-India Friendship Pipeline will play a "vital role" in ensuring the fuel security of the country while many nations face fuel crises due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. She made the remarks while virtually inaugurating the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline is the first cross-border energy pipeline between the two nations. While addressing the event, Sheikh Hasina said, "At a time when many countries across the world are on the verge of fuel crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine war, this pipeline will play a vital role in ensuring fuel security of our people." Sheikh Hasina said that the pipeline will increase economic growth. She called the pipeline an achievement of cooperation between two nations. She stressed that the 16 districts of Bangladesh will be benefitted from the pipeline. Bangladesh PM said, "The time and expenditure for importing diesel from India will be reduced significantly by this pipeline." Sheikh Hasina said that she wants the friendship between the two nations to remain intact. She noted that India made the 131.57 kilometres pipeline from Numaligarh Refinery Limited to Dinajpur district of Bangladesh's Parvatipur. She said, "Through railways, we imported 60-80 thousand metric tons of diesel from India. With this pipeline, Bangladesh can import 10 lakh metric tons of diesel." Sheikh Hasina said that the government has developed Mongla Port, Chattogram port, Sylhet International Airport, and Chittagong International Airport and India can use all these ports. She emphasised that both nations will be benefitted from these ports. "We are opening these ports for India completely, there will be no problem for India to use these ports. It will ease the trade and business activities, and the people of the both countries will be benefitted," Sheikh Hasina said. While addressing the event, PM Modi said, "I am confident that this pipeline will further speed up the development of Bangladesh and be an excellent example of the increasing connectivity between both countries." He said, "In the last few years, under the able leadership of PM Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has made remarkable progress. Every Indian is proud of that & we're delighted that we've been able to contribute to this development journey of Bangladesh." The India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline has been built at an estimated cost of Rupees 377 crore, of which the Bangladesh portion of the pipeline built at a cost of approximately Rupees 285 crore, which has been spent by the government of India under grant assistance, the Prime Minister's office said in a press release. The pipeline has the capacity to transport 1 Million Metric Ton Per Annum (MMTPA) of High-Speed Diesel (HSD, according to the press release. It will supply High-Speed Diesel initially to seven districts in northern Bangladesh. The Prime Minister's office in the press release said that the operation of India- Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline will put in place a sustainable, reliable, cost-effective and environment-friendly mode of transporting HSD from India to Bangladesh and further enhance cooperation in energy security between the two nations. (ANI)
The Embassy of India in Kathmandu on Saturday celebrated the 21st Golden Jubilee Scholarship Day by organizing an event at the Embassy premises. "The prestigious 21st batch of the Golden Jubilee Scholarship was established in the year 2002 to mark the completion of 50 years of India-Nepal economic cooperation. At the inception of this scheme, 50 Nepali students were awarded the scholarship. In the year 2007, the number of scholarships was increased to 100. Since the year 2012, the number of scholarships has been doubled to 200," the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu stated. Under this scholarship scheme, an MBBS/BDS student receives NRs 4000/- per month for five years, a BE student receives NRs 4000/- per month for four years, and a student studying in other undergraduate courses like BA, BEd, BPharmacy, BSc Agriculture, BBA, BBM and BBS receives Nepali rupees 3000/- per month for three years. "This prestigious scheme has so far benefitted 3000 Nepalis from all 77 districts of Nepal. Around 45 per cent of the Golden Jubilee scholars are girls," the release added. The current batch of 200 awardees is from 73 districts of Nepal, with 44 per cent of the scholars being girls. Eight differentially abled students have also been selected this year under the Golden Jubilee Scholarship Scheme. "India and Nepal are close and friendly neighbours, and have longstanding partnerships in the field of education. The scholarships and capacity building programs form a part of India's effort to support and partner in human resource development of Nepal and for the overall socio-economic benefit of the region," the release further stated. The event was attended by more than 250 guests, including the awardees of the Golden Jubilee Scholarship of the current as well as previous years. Ambassador of India Naveen Srivastava addressed the gathering. The Indian Embassy celebrated the 21st Golden Jubilee Scholarship Day with Nepali scholarship recipients from the current and last four years. Senior officials of the Government of Nepal, Vice Chancellors of major universities and principals of eminent schools graced the event. Pramila Devi Bajracharya, Secretary (Science & Technology), Ministry of Education, Government of Nepal, Prof Dr Dev Raj Adhikari, Chairman, University Grants Commission graced the occasion. Those present included Prof Dr Nanda Bahadur Singh, Vice Chancellor, of Mid-western University, Prof Dr Shilu Manandhar Bajracharya, Vice Chancellor of Nepal Open University, Prof Dr Tilak Ram Acharya, Vice Chancellor of Lumbini Buddhist University, and Prof Dr Punya Prasad Regmi, Vice Chancellor of Agriculture and Forestry University. Ambassador Naveen Srivastava congratulated the students and announced a special roll of honour for graduating meritorious Golden Jubilee Scholars from next year. The Government of India provides a total of about 1600 scholarships in medicine, engineering, dental science, arts, commerce, science, nursing, Ayurveda, dance, theatre, performing arts and many other disciplines both in the undergraduate and graduate streams to study in universities in Nepal and in India. 27, 000 Nepali students have benefitted since 2006 from the scholarships. (ANI)
Thousands of protesters in London took to the streets to march against the government's illegal migration on Saturday, according to Anadolu Agency. The protesters gathered at Portland Place, outside the BBC headquarters in central London, chanting slogans such as "refugees are welcome here." The protest was organised by the Stand Up To Racism group and supported by many different groups and organisations, including Stop the War Coalition, Black Lives Matter, Muslims and Jewish societies as well as several unions and environmental organizations, reported Anadolu Agency. The protesters rejected the Conservative party's migration policies, and criticized the country's Interior Minister Suella Braverman over the controversial "Rwanda plan" and the recent "Illegal Migration Bill." "Stop deportation", "Safe passage, not Rwanda flights" and "Seeking refuge is not a crime" were among banners and signs held by protesters during the rally. The protesters later marched toward Downing Street. Speaking to Anadolu, Melly, a protester, said that she attended the demonstration to show solidarity with those who arrived in the country and are not "treated fairly as they should." On the government's Rwanda plan, she said that "it is illegal," as everyone should have a choice, adding that the plan has caused "stress and trauma" for many immigrants. Introduced in March this year, the UK government's "Illegal Migration Bill," makes the provision for and in connection with the removal from the United Kingdom of persons who have entered or arrived in breach of immigration control; to make provision about detention for immigration purposes, according to the statement released by UK government. "To make provision about unaccompanied children; to make provision about victims of slavery or human trafficking; to make provision about leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom," the statement read. "To make provision about citizenship; to make provision about the inadmissibility of certain protection and certain human rights claims relating to immigration; to make provision about the maximum number of persons entering the United Kingdom annually using safe and legal routes; and for connected purposes," the statement added. After the British Home Secretary introduced the Migration Bill, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said that the UK asylum bill would 'undermine' international law. British Home Secretary Suella Braverman introduced an Illegal Migration Bill this week aimed at tackling people crossing the English Channel to reach the UK, which if passed "would amount to an asylum ban," the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement. Migrants who come to Britain illegally by boat "will be detained, removed" and "banned from re-entering" the country," said UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Over 45,000 people illegally crossed the Channel in small boats last year. "That is unfair to those who come here legally and unfair to the British people who play by the rules. Today's Illegal Migration Bill introduces new laws to stop the boats," said Sunak. "The Illegal Migration Bill ensures that if you come to the UK illegally you can't stay. People must know that coming here illegally will result in their detention and swift removal - once they do, they will not come, and the boats will stop," he added. (ANI)
Pakistan's security forces gunned down three people, whom the official called "terrorists" during an operation in Balochistan's Awaran district, Geo news reported on Saturday citing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). According to the statement, the intelligence-based operation (IBO) was started on March 15 to intercept a terrorist group operating in the general area of South Awaran. As per the statement, the terrorists were linked with firing and improvised explosive devices (IED) incidents along Turbat-Awaran Raod and surrounding areas "Based on credible information, multiple ambushes had been laid along different routes in the area frequented by the terrorists for the last three days," said ISPR. It said all the "terrorists" were intercepted while moving towards their hideout, and then the military blocked their way. On being blocked, they opened fire on the security forces. During the ensuing heavy exchange of fire, all three terrorists were killed, while a cache of arms and ammunition has been recovered, said the ISPR, reported Geo News. "Pakistan Army in step with the nation remains determined to thwart attempts at sabotaging peace, stability and progress of Balochistan," the statement added. Earlier, at the border of North and South Waziristan, Pakistani officials killed eight "militants" and two children in a Zinghara operation, according to Dawn. According to ISPR, two children died during the operation, in which officials alleged that eight people, whom the media wing called "militants" also left two soldiers wounded. "Upon information about the presence of militants in the Zinghara area of South Waziristan, security forces carried out an operation," said the statement. Earlier, unconfirmed media reports claimed that the children were killed in a drone strike but in the ISPR statement, there was no mention of a "drone strike," reported Dawn. It confirmed that an intense exchange of fire took place between security forces and militants in which mortar shells were also fired. "Unfortunately, two children embraced martyrdom during the exchange of fire," the statement read. Local officials said the offensive was launched following a tip-off about the presence of militants late on Wednesday night. This is the second offensive in less than a week in North and South Waziristan districts reported Dawn. (ANI)
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief organizer Maryam Nawaz has rejected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan's claim that his wife Bushra Bibi was alone at his Zaman Park residence in Lahore when Punjab police carried out a search operation earlier today. The Punjab police launched a 'search operation' at the PTI's chief residence hours after Imran Khan left to appear before a local court in Islamabad. Reacting to the police's action, Imran Khan in a tweet said that police led an "assault" in his house when his wife Bushra Bibi was alone. Imran took to social media to announce that, "Meanwhile Punjab police have led an assault on my house in Zaman Park where Bushra Begum is alone. Under what law are they doing this? This is part of London Plan where commitments were made to bring absconder Nawaz Sharif to power as quid pro quo for agreeing to one appointment." Reacting to Imran Khan's statement, Maryam Nawaz in a series of tweets said, "If only one woman is present in the security park, then who is firing bullets and petrol bombs on the police from inside? Don't you think before telling a lie?" Maryam Nawaz posted a purported video on her Twitter timeline wherein a man can be seen throwing some explosive from the PTI chief's Lahore residence. As per The Express Tribune report, Maryam Nawaz in a tweet wrote, "Didn't I say that this [PTI] is a terrorist group whose leader is housing miscreants and trained terrorists in his house to avoid the law and punishment? Previously, such scenes were seen only in matters related to terrorism. Shameful!" In another tweet, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz said that brave police do not fear arrest and accountability. She said, "Only thieves, bandits and terrorists fear arrest and accountability." Earlier, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Anwar said police had completed the search and cleanup operation in Zaman Park and seized AK-47 assault rifles and a large number of bullets from Imran Khan's residence in Lahore, as per the Geo News report. Furthermore, glass bottles suspected to be used in making Molotov cocktails, and hundreds of marbles for being shot at police with slingshots were also taken from the PTI chairman's house. Usman Anwar said five more Kalashnikovs were also found on Khan's property. More than 60 PTI workers were arrested from Imran Khan's residence and taken to an undisclosed location for further investigation, as per the Geo News report. In response to a question, he said that the legal status of the guns whether they were licensed or not was being evaluated. Usman Anwar said that the roads near Zaman Park which were blocked with shipping containers prior to the search operations have "now been cleared." He further stated that anti-encroachment personnel also accompanied the police along with heavy earthmoving machinery. (ANI)
A British Muslim from Surrey, a county in England, has been found guilty of terrorism offences, including possessing explosive substances, according to the statement released by Surrey police. According to the statement, the culprit was identified as Asad Bhatti of Holland Close, Redhill was arrested on the charges in January 2021, and a search was carried out at an address in Redhill. On Friday, the 47-year-old was found guilty of two counts of possessing an article for the purpose of terrorism. "Today (17/3), at the Old Bailey, the 47-year-old was found guilty of two counts of possessing an article for the purpose of terrorism, contrary to Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and three counts of making or possessing an explosive substance under suspicious circumstances contrary to Section 4 of the Explosive Substance Act," the statement read. "Bhatti was investigated by officers from Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) after he had taken his computer into a shop to be fixed and a member of staff found some concerning file titles which he reported," the statement added. Further, in the statement, Surrey Police revealed that after the investigation by CTPSE, some documents were discovered suggesting whoever was using the device had an interest in explosives and making explosive devices. Following this discovery, Bhatti was arrested and a search was carried out at his home in Redhill and at a storage container he rented. According to the statement, the police found chemicals, chemistry equipment, electronic circuitry and even an improvised explosive device, which was dismantled by a specialist explosive ordnance disposal team in the storage unit. This device was not deemed to be functional due to some of the materials used. At his property, items including a USB stick containing guides to make explosive devices were seized. "Bhatti was also found to be in possession of manuals he compiled and wrote himself. He had spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations on making explosives, shooting techniques and hand combat, along with manuals published by others on making explosives and combat. This resulted in a suspicion that the possession of all these documents was for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism," the statement read. In the statement, Detective Chief Superintendent Olly Wright, Head of CTPSE, said: "The case against Bhatti was strong, I am glad the jury have found him guilty today." "There was clear evidence of his extreme Islamist ideology and the danger he posed. He clearly hated those whom he considers do not follow his version of Islam, and he made a range of derogatory comments towards those he considers to be 'unbelievers'," he added. "I am especially grateful to the member of the public who recognised the risks and took steps to call the police. This allowed Counter Terrorism Policing to stop Bhatti's progress in manufacturing explosive devices which could otherwise have caused significant harm to the public," Wright said. Bhatti will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on April 25. (ANI)
Here are 11 of the best beaches in Portugal for surfing, sunning, and more.

Kristyna Sindelkova/Getty Images

Portugal is home to 10 million people, only one million more than New York City. It may be tiny in population, but Portugal is a giant when it comes to gorgeous and wide-open scenery, namely along its seemingly endless coast. From Braga to Lisbon to Faro, Portugal is chock-full of gorgeous beaches for visitors to explore. Not sure where to start? Here are 11 of the best beaches in Portugal, with something for every type of traveler.



Praia do Norte

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Ready to see surfers take on the biggest waves in the world? Head to Praia do Norte, located to the north of Nazare. The beach is known for its untamed coastline, including rolling dunes and lush vegetation. Though the beach is a lovely place to park an umbrella for the day, be careful when entering the water. Even when the swell is small, the water here can be rough. But, time your visit right (during the winter months), and you could see waves close to 80 feet high.



Praia do Camilo

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Those looking for a more tropical feel will want to head all the way south to the town of Lagos and make their way to Praia do Camilo. Travelers have to walk down several hundred steps to reach the small inlet of sand, but the gorgeous view on the way down is worth the slow trek. At the base, visitors can spend the day on the golden sand lapped by the azure waters, all surrounded by towering cliffs that make for an excellent wind barrier.



Praia do Quinta do Lago

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A little ways past Praia do Camilo is an even larger beach to spread out on, Praia do Quinta do Lago. The beach stretches on for more than two miles, backed by grassy dunes on one side and wide-open crystalline waters on the other. To get there, travelers must walk across one of the longest footbridges in Portugal, but again, the view is awe-inspiring both ways. Just make sure youre wearing comfortable shoes when you do it.



Zambujeira do Mar

Kristyna Sindelkova/Getty Images

Head midway down the coast between Lisbon and Lagos to explore one of the cutest communities by the sea, Zumbujera do Mar. The quaint town offers adorable shops, delicious cafes, and some of the most breathtaking cliff-top scenes in all of Portugal. At the base of town sits a large sandy beach, which can be accessed via steps or by driving down the cliff to the small parking area. If you can, time a visit for August, when the entire community comes to life for the ever-popular music festival, Festival do Sudoeste.

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Praia de Cavaleiro

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One more mid-coast delight is Praia de Cavaleiro. Located on the Alentejo coast, the beach is another small but mighty spot. The inlet offers warm sands accessible via a steep staircase. The beach is typically uncrowded, making the effort to get there all the more worth it. Its also a perfect spot for a scenic drive, as the view from the top is a sight to behold.



Praia Baleal

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Travelers visiting further north can spend the day at Praia Baleal, a beach located in the community of Peniche. The beach is known for its fine, white sand and calm waters, making it a great spot for families. If youre looking to get active, this is the beach for you  its well known for its water sports, including windsurfing and bodyboarding.

Related: 15 Stunning White-sand Beaches Around the World

Praia da Ursa

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As far as beautiful beaches go, nothing compares to Praia da Ursa. A visit here comes with bragging rights, as it is technically the westernmost beach in all of continental Europe. The beach is rather difficult to get to and requires a hike down a steep cliffside. There are also no facilities here, which means youll need to bring everything you need. But the effort is worth it as visitors are rewarded with unspoiled beauty and typically thin crowds.



Praia da Comporta

Santiago Urquijo/Getty Images

For an easier spot to visit, head to Praia da Comporta. The seaside community has seen a boom in visitors thanks to its Hamptons-like vibe, plentiful cafes, and high-end shops. The beach is also rather easy to access and has plenty of facilities, including restaurants and bars right on the beach, which keep visitors happy from sun up to long after sundown.



Praia de Carcavelos

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Those spending time in Lisbon can escape the city with ease with a visit to Praia de Carcavelos. The beach, which is accessible via public transport, is a very popular spot in the summer months, making it a prime place for those who are looking to socialize. Its also a stellar spot to paddle out for surfers of all abilities. Newbies can snag a lesson from a number of outfitters right on the beach.



Praia do Amado

lleerogers/Getty Images

Cant get enough surf? Drive south to Praia do Amado, located in Aljezur. The massive beach continues on for as far as the eye can see, bordered by flowing grassy dunes and massive cliffs hugging its edges. The beach is well known for having excellent waves for everyone from beginner to pro, depending on where they paddle in. Take a lesson, or rent a board for a few days, and get to know this special little spot a bit better.



Praia Ribeira do Cavalo

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Praia Ribeira do Cavalo may be one of Portugals best-kept seaside secrets. The absolutely ravishing beach is located under an hours drive from Lisbon, in the midst of Arrabida Natural Park. Its a wild beach, which means it maintains no services (so there are no bathrooms or concessions), but its turquoise waters and soft, almost pink sands more than make up for it. Though, if you thought getting to Praia do Ursa was tough, this beach isnt for you. Travelers cannot access the beach by car as its protected in the park. Instead, travelers will have to walk from nearby Sesimbra or book a boat taxi from town to get there.



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Read the original article on Travel & Leisure.
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Lili Manzo was suddenly paralyzed when she was 13 years old.

Doctors initially diagnosed her with anxiety, but she had a rare form of brain inflammation.

"My emotions are like waves," she told NJ.com.

Lili Manzo was 13-years-old when her whole body went limp for the first time. The New Jersey teen was previously healthy before she was overcome with nausea on the afternoon of March 30, 2022, according to NJ.com. Sitting in her mother's car, Manzo turned pale and quiet, unable to speak or wipe the tears from her face.

"It's like I was there, but I couldn't do anything about it," Manzo, now 14, told the local news outlet.

Manzo had a seizure in the ambulance to the hospital that day. Looking back, she said it felt like she was trapped in a "lucid dream" or a virtual reality game as she lay mostly paralyzed, only able to shake her head yes and no.

For most of the following week, Manzo lay in a hospital bed while doctors tried to figure out what was wrong, according to NJ.com.

She was discharged from Morristown Medical Center after a seven-day stay, during which she regained her ability to use her hands, legs, and voice. However, she was sent home without a diagnosis.

It would take another month for Manzo to be accurately diagnosed with seronegative autoimmune limbic encephalitis, a rare condition where the immune system attacks the brain.

Doctors initially said her symptoms were caused by anxiety, and prescribed her antidepressants

During her first stint in the hospital, Manzo's doctors ran multiple tests to screen for brain abnormalities. An MRI and electroencephalogram (EEG) both came back clean: no brain tumor, and her brain activity seemed normal. But the teenager's braces were also obstructing a crucial part of the imaging, according to her mother, which the doctors ignored.

According to NJ.com, Manzo's doctor at Morristown Medical said her illness was "all in her mind." He prescribed antidepressants, and discharged Manzo once she regained her motor skills.

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But back at home, the teen still struggled to walk and talk, her mother told the news outlet. On April 22  not quite a month after her first symptoms  she suffered her second seizure.

A second neurologist agreed that the cause of Manzo's symptoms was likely anxiety, and increased her antidepressant dosage. The neurologist also recommended against bringing Manzo to the emergency room after her seizures. According to her parents, the doctor said Manzo might "over-medicalize" her case in a hospital setting.

But Manzo's medical crisis was not imagined. When she had a third seizure a week later, her parents brought her to the emergency room at Saint Clare's Denville Hospital in Morris County, New Jersey.

Manzo's immune system was attacking her brain

Dr. Jeffrey Kornitzer, a pediatric neurologist, finally took Manzo's condition seriously. After a spinal tap, he diagnosed Manzo with seronegative autoimmune limbic encephalitis, a rare type of brain inflammation caused by the immune system attacking her brain.

Manzo's condition is rare  about one in 100,000 people are diagnosed annually with autoimmune encephalitis, according to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. About 40% of those cases affect kids younger than 18.

Kornitzer recommended treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin therapy, which has started Manzo on the path to recovery. But she's not completely healed yet.

"Sometimes I'm really tired," Manzo told NJ.com, "and it doesn't matter how much sleep I get  I'm still tired. And sometimes I'm emotionally not there. Like I get random bursts of anger and sadness. My emotions are like waves."

Read the original article on Insider
A 15-year-old boy was among four suspected gang members arrested during an early morning raid Thursday in Atlanta.

Caden Weeks, 17, DAngelo White, 19, Demarco Williams, 20, and an unidentified 15-year-old boy were arrested after members of Atlantas gang and SWAT units executed search warrants at an apartment complex on Hilliard St. SE.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Investigators seized drugs, guns and cash from the property. Jail records show that theyre charged with multiple felonies, including possession of a machine gun and participating in criminal street gang activity.

These are repeat offenders and these are violent individuals that continuously do criminal street gang activity, said Capt. Ralph Woolfolk. Were happy to have these individuals in custody, and we are really just hoping the system does its job and make sure they remain in jail.

Woolfolk told Channel 2s Michael Seiden that leaders of gangs are targeting young teens because they can be controlled and they are often released to their parents after an arrest.

TRENDING STORIES:

Adult gang members refer to these kids as crash dummies, he said. Theyre putting them up to some of the most heinous crimes in the city...We know social media indications suggest that these individuals will do violence, they will do harm and, in some cases that we are looking at now. they will kill.

Investigators identified the three adult suspects as members of the Goodfellas gang and the 15-year-old as a member of the 3200 Street gang. Police say both are hybrid gangs that are affiliated with the national Crips.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
Earlier, we enjoyed a few stories from former employees about their jobs that were so terrible, they actually led to mass quitting. Here are just a few more stories , plus some from the BuzzFeed Community

1. "Five teachers resigned at the end of term two due to bullying victimization and LIES being spread by the principal who couldn't discipline students but blamed teachers."

ratilalanop

2. "I was interning in some retail place with three of my friends and we were being treated like slaves. The breaking point was when the big bad boss ordered two of my friends to clean up the floor that some customers had just pooped on. Not happening. We all went home and didn't come back."

littlemixfan17 Tom Werner / Getty Images

3. "I was working for a watch and bags store. We got a new store manager who happened to be friends with the district manager. He would display items without using a lockbox and then get mad at us for an increase in theft, tried to write me up for theft because I had a watch on that wasn't listed in my store purchase record but it was such an old model that no store in our country ever carried it. The mass exit occurred when he yelled at the sweetest colleague who was about 110 pounds, 4'9, for not challenging and chasing after a 250-pound man who was stealing (from the unlocked display he insisted on). Slamming down our keys in unison was the best feeling ever!"

alexandrab407431b97

4. "A LONG time ago, I was an electronic inspector at a division of a LARGE corp. Over a period of a few months, most employees were made to write up exactly HOW they did their jobs, and create any equipment necessary for that (for me, jigs for testing things). We KNEW what was coming. One morning, we got notice to come to HR for a meeting, where they announced a bunch of layoffs. I had a new job lined up within 15 minutes after that (PLUS unused vacation and two weeks termination pay in my hand), many others not laid off quit, and that division was closed soon after, because the new hires (lower wages) could not do the work, even WITH all our written instructions."

budscan

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5. "Record profits were made. The CEO and managers got raises and then said, lunch breaks would now only be 10 minutes and there would no longer be free food. We did good but not good enough so no raises for us this time. 10+ people walk out to never return."

u/AnnoyingDiods

6. "They hired a micromanaging architect to lead a bunch of engineers."

u/augustwest30

7. "I worked at a jewelry store where the manager would watch the cameras all the time. This included when he was at home, off work. He would reprimand us for sitting there doing nothing. When it isnt Christmas season or Valentines Day, a busy day sees about 10 people. We could only clean so much, there was literally nothing to do. All except one person had quit/ been fired in about a month of each other. The manager had to work multiple double shifts from lack of employees."

beverlysharp82 Kwangmoozaa / Getty Images/iStockphoto

8. "I worked at a center for disabled adults. The management was so horrible. They made the attendees start cleaning the toilets themselves. 10 people quit in one week."

u/Reinventedtoday

9. "Boss relied on the old 'Youll never be able to get a job somewhere else, and certainly not a better one' tactic to keep us. One of us did find another, better job somewhere else. Everyone else was gone within six months."

u/sarahsuebob

10. "The program director suffered an extremely sudden loss. When she came back from a month of grieving, she was suddenly putting everyone on performance plans for really shitty reasons. She was also suddenly pushing us to bill for 100% of the time we were on the clock (Wed literally get yelled at for asking our managers for advice because it wasnt billable). People started to leave at a high rate, and their clients would be dumped on the rest of us. The managers all refused to help with clients at all, so it was wholly on us. Between April and July of that year, the program lost 20 of the 33 employees."

u/Mist2393

11. "I worked for a lady who had just taken over a popular wedding hall. She changed it to a walk-in Jamaican kitchen on the top floor and hosted receptions in the regular space. We were all assigned to paint all the banisters and chairs white before a wedding that would be occurring in a week and a half. I was the manager and handled all the hiring and such, unless she vetoed my hire. The boiling point came on the day of the reception when everyone, including me, was expected to cater to the wedding guests."

"There were small hiccups but I was proud of my staff. I found out that the owner had pushed two of my 15-year-old waitresses and listened as she apologized to the bride and groom for her awful staff. I asked her for a little respect and an acknowledgment that we did a good job. She said that when we make a million dollars, we can get respect then. We all walked out before the dishes were even started. She had a wedding the next day. I don't feel even the slightest bit bad." lagoonvet2003 Peterphoto / Getty Images

12. "A coworkers husband was a manager at a pharmaceutical company and needed to hire a slew of people for a WFH position that paid $10 more. We lost almost half our staff in a matter of weeks (and it takes almost a year to train new staff so were still struggling)."

u/Grimol1

13. "We had a really really toxic manager who wasnt fit to be manager, would talk trash on her employees, and got banned from working. One time, the store flooded and we were waiting to hear back from her as to when the store was repaired. She had terrible (hardly any) communication, so she didnt tell half the staff. One full-time employee stopped by three days after reopening and asked why she wasnt notified. The manager told her 'Youre a big girl, you shouldve figured it out yourself.' We all quit like beads falling off a broken necklace after that."

u/eli_ana35

14. "Management who came in at noonish, checked some shots then left at 34 p.m. announced that all artists would be required to work 12-hour days for the next few weeks because they took on too many contracts at once. A few people said 'fuck it' and quit, that cascaded into more and more people quitting since they realized they'd be expected to finish their shots too."

u/Lunaciteee

15. "This actually just happened yesterday to me. It was a small family business where there are just three other employees other than the family. Things have been toxic at work for a while and the boss is in the process of trying to sell the business. One co-worker and I, without even contacting or talking about it handed in our resignation letters yesterday and quit. Once the third employee heard we were quitting they wrote their letter (sitting at their desk) and handed it in. The boss threw us all out that day and now is running the business completely alone"

u/Herr_Poopypants Audtakorn Sutarmjam / Getty Images/EyeEm

16. "Our director left and the guy put in charge had no clue what our work was about. We were in the creative department of an advertising agency and the guy came from the telecommunications industry. Six people (myself included) quit the same day."

u/papaco22
Some investors rely on dividends for growing their wealth, and if you're one of those dividend sleuths, you might be intrigued to know that Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) is about to go ex-dividend in just four days. The ex-dividend date is one business day before the record date, which is the cut-off date for shareholders to be present on the company's books to be eligible for a dividend payment. The ex-dividend date is of consequence because whenever a stock is bought or sold, the trade takes at least two business day to settle. This means that investors who purchase Altria Group's shares on or after the 23rd of March will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 28th of April.

The company's upcoming dividend is US$0.94 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$3.76 per share to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that Altria Group has a trailing yield of 8.3% on the current share price of $45.32. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Altria Group's dividend is reliable and sustainable. So we need to investigate whether Altria Group can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

See our latest analysis for Altria Group

Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. Altria Group paid out 115% of profit in the past year, which we think is typically not sustainable unless there are mitigating characteristics such as unusually strong cash flow or a large cash balance. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. Over the last year it paid out 73% of its free cash flow as dividends, within the usual range for most companies.

It's disappointing to see that the dividend was not covered by profits, but cash is more important from a dividend sustainability perspective, and Altria Group fortunately did generate enough cash to fund its dividend. Still, if the company repeatedly paid a dividend greater than its profits, we'd be concerned. Extraordinarily few companies are capable of persistently paying a dividend that is greater than their profits.

Story continues

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

When earnings decline, dividend companies become much harder to analyse and own safely. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. Readers will understand then, why we're concerned to see Altria Group's earnings per share have dropped 9.5% a year over the past five years. When earnings per share fall, the maximum amount of dividends that can be paid also falls.

The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. In the past 10 years, Altria Group has increased its dividend at approximately 8.7% a year on average. The only way to pay higher dividends when earnings are shrinking is either to pay out a larger percentage of profits, spend cash from the balance sheet, or borrow the money. Altria Group is already paying out a high percentage of its income, so without earnings growth, we're doubtful of whether this dividend will grow much in the future.

To Sum It Up

From a dividend perspective, should investors buy or avoid Altria Group? Earnings per share have been in decline, which is not encouraging. Additionally, Altria Group is paying out quite a high percentage of its earnings, and more than half its cash flow, so it's hard to evaluate whether the company is reinvesting enough in its business to improve its situation. It's not that we think Altria Group is a bad company, but these characteristics don't generally lead to outstanding dividend performance.

So if you're still interested in Altria Group despite it's poor dividend qualities, you should be well informed on some of the risks facing this stock. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Altria Group you should know about.

A common investing mistake is buying the first interesting stock you see. Here you can find a full list of high-yield dividend stocks.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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Vandalized bathrooms, smashed floor tiles and stolen safety signage  no, this destructive scene is not connected to a riot.

These events are part of a TikTok challenge known as "Devious Lick" that has grabbed hundreds of thousands of views online.

Ever since the Chinese-created app exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been known for its challenges that go viral  and it is no stranger to dangerous trends.

FDA WARNING ABOUT NYQUIL CHICKEN TIKTOK CHALLENGE MAY HAVE SPIKED INTEREST

Experts acknowledge that young people during their formative years often make questionable decisions.

"Adolescence will always be attracted to something that is a bit dangerous and risky," said Pamela Rutledge, PhD, a media psychologist who is based in Newport Beach, California.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Experts warn parents about some of TikTok's most egregious scenarios  and say they need to keep tabs on what their teens are accessing today.

Even so, experts warn parents about some of the platforms most egregious scenarios  and say they need to keep tabs on what their children and teens are accessing today.

In addition to "Devious Licks," here are six other examples of challenges that have popped up on the platform in recent times.

The so-called "borg" typically consists a mixture of alcohol, electrolytes, caffeinated flavoring and water in a one-gallon jug.

WHAT'S A BORG'? GEN Z'S HANGOVER PROOF TIKTOK TREND BECOMES A STAPLE FOR WARDING OFF DRINKING DANGERS

The purpose of the drink, apparently? To stay hydrated while drinking copious amounts, slow the intoxication process and keep the dreaded hangover at bay.

Nearly 30 college students were recently hospitalized due to binge-drinking.

The dangerous trend, however, seems to have the opposite effect  as it's led to the hospitalization of nearly 30 University of Massachusetts Amherst students due to binge-drinking.

UMass Police also recently reported two arrests for underage drinking.

Versions of this challenge have been around for years, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) attributing 82 deaths to the choking game from 1995 to 2008.

Also known as the "choking challenge" or the "pass-out challenge," this fad encouraged kids in asphyxiation to the point of temporary unconsciousness.

Story continues

The blackout challenge has been linked to the deaths of about 20 minors in recent months.

"Tween and teens are more susceptible to social pressures, which makes it harder to assess risk," in such life-threatening challenges, said Dr. Rutledge of California to Fox News Digital.

Challenges encouraging the consumption of over-the-counter medication frequently circulate on TikTok.

This particular trend calls for the excessive consumption of Benadryl to induce a hallucinogenic high. Benadryl is an antihistamine typically used for cold and allergy symptoms.

However, if abused, the drug can cause seizures, heart problems, comas and even death.

The "Benadryl challenge" circulated on TikTok as a dangerous fad.

Though this trend has seemingly resurfaced, it first started making its rounds on TikTok in 2020.

At least one teenager has died from the challenge, prompting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release a 2020 report on the challenge and ensuing hospitalizations.

This challenge encouraged eating candy coated in liquid nitrogen  a snack that became popular on TikTok due to the vapor fumes it emits when eaten.

Though liquid nitrogen is not innately dangerous when used in food, it can be hazardous if improperly ingested.

In January, Indonesia issued a warning against the trend after more than 20 children were hospitalized due to skin burns, stomach aches and food poisoning.

The trend is causing concern after several teens across the United States were arrested as a result.

The challenge encourages using toy guns to fire gel pellets at bystanders. Albeit soft, the pellets can cause injury, particularly when frozen.

A young person is shown holding an array of orbeez or hydrogel water balls.

One TikTok video show red welts forming after a boy was shot with the pellets. Another demonstrated the pellets force as the pellets easily pierced a paper napkin.

The Orbeez challenge may have lost some traction currently, but another destructive trend has emerged in its place called "The Kool-Aid Man."

POLICE ISSUE WARNING ABOUT DANGEROUS NEW TIKTOK CHALLENGE SWEEPING US, MULTIPLE ARRESTS MADE

In February, six minors were arrested after "blasting through" a fence as a part of the challenge, which encourages running through walls and fences.

"Beezin" is the act of rubbing Burts Bees lip balm onto the eyelids before going out for the night.

TikTok users believe the menthol or peppermint balm enhance alertness or heightens ones buzz.

Said one physician, "Challenges are a dare. Dares trigger [an] innate need to fit in and be accepted, to show off well."

But blindly following the challenge could have dangerous side effects, such as eye inflammation, irritation, milia and even vision loss.

The fad of a few years ago led Burts Bees to release a statement: "There are lots of natural things that probably shouldnt go in eyes  dirt, twigs, leaves, food  and our lip balm."

What draws the 50 million daily TikTok users in the U.S. to such challenges?

"The social media space is very crowded, so in order to get noticed you have to go extreme and risky," said digital wellness expert Joanne Orlando, PhD, based in Sydney, Australia.

"One of the best ways [for people] to get noticed on TikTok is to jump onboard with the trends," she added.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

Said Dr. Rutledge, "Challenges are a dare. Dares trigger our innate needs to fit in and be accepted, show ourselves off well  a badge of honor  not as cowards."

As calls to ban TikTok grow in Congress amid privacy concerns, the app recently announced that it is rolling out a one-hour-a-day screen time limit for users under age 18.

However, many experts worry that such controls will not be effective.

"Bans are like holding beach balls underwater," said Dr. Rutledge. "You can ban one platform, but another platform will always pop up."
The World Health Organization rebuked Chinese officials Friday for withholding research that may link COVID-19s origin to wild animals, asking why the data had not been made available three years ago and why it is now missing.

Before the Chinese data disappeared, an international team of virus experts downloaded and began analyzing the research, which appeared online in January. They say it supports the idea that the pandemic could have begun when illegally traded raccoon dogs infected humans at a Wuhan seafood market.

But the gene sequences were removed from a scientific database once the experts offered to collaborate on the analysis with their Chinese counterparts.

Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times

These data could have  and should have  been shared three years ago, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. The missing evidence now needs to be shared with the international community immediately, he said.

According to the experts who are reviewing it, the research offers evidence that raccoon dogs  foxlike animals known to spread coronaviruses  had left behind DNA in the same place in the Wuhan market that genetic signatures of the new coronavirus also were discovered.

To some experts, that finding suggests that the animals may have been infected and may have transmitted the virus to humans.

With huge amounts of genetic information drawn from swabs of animal cages, carts and other surfaces at the Wuhan market in early 2020, the genetic data had been the focus of restless anticipation among virus experts since they learned of it a year ago in a paper by Chinese scientists.

A French biologist discovered the genetic sequences in the database last week, and she and a team of colleagues began mining them for clues about the origins of the pandemic.

That team has not yet released a paper outlining the findings. But the researchers delivered an analysis of the material to a WHO advisory group studying COVIDs origins this week in a meeting that also included a presentation by Chinese researchers regarding the same data.

Story continues

The analysis seemed to clash with earlier contentions by Chinese scientists that samples taken in the market that were positive for the coronavirus had been ferried in by sick people alone, said Sarah Cobey, an epidemiologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago who was not involved in recent research.

Its just very unlikely to be seeing this much animal DNA, especially raccoon dog DNA, mixed in with viral samples, if its simply mostly human contamination, Cobey said.

Questions remain about how the samples were collected, what precisely they contained and why the evidence had disappeared. In light of the ambiguities, many scientists reacted cautiously, saying that it was difficult to assess the research without seeing a complete report.

The idea that a lab accident could have accidentally set off the pandemic has become the focus of renewed interest in recent weeks, thanks in part to a fresh intelligence assessment from the Department of Energy and hearings held by the new Republican House leadership.

But a number of virus experts not involved with the latest analysis said that what was known about the swabs gathered in the market buttressed the case that animals sold there had sparked the pandemic.

Its exactly what youd expect if the virus was emerging from an intermediate or multiple intermediate hosts in the market, Cobey said. I think ecologically, this is close to a closed case.

Cobey was one of 18 scientists who signed an influential letter in the journal Science in May 2021 urging serious consideration of a scenario in which the virus could have spilled out of a laboratory in Wuhan.

On Friday, she said lab leaks continued to pose enormous risks and that more oversight of research into dangerous pathogens was needed. But Cobey added that an accumulation of evidence  relating to the clustering of human cases around the Wuhan market, the genetic diversity of viruses there and now the raccoon dog data  strengthened the case for a market origin.

The new genetic data does not appear to prove that a raccoon dog was infected with the coronavirus. Even if it had been, the possibility would remain that another animal could have passed that virus to people, or even that someone infected with the virus could have transmitted it to a raccoon dog.

Some scientists stressed those points Friday, saying that the new genetic data did not appreciably shift the discussion about the pandemics origins.

We know its a promiscuous virus that infects a bunch of species, said David Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, who also signed the May 2021 letter in Science.

Chinese scientists had released a study in February 2022 looking at the market samples. Some scientists speculated that the Chinese researchers might have posted the data in January because they were required to make them available as part of a review of their study by a scientific journal.

The Chinese study had suggested that samples that were positive for the virus had come from infected people, rather than from animals sold in the market. That fit with a narrative long promulgated by Chinese officials: that the virus sprang not only from outside the market but from outside the country altogether.

But the Chinese report had left clues that viral material at the market had been jumbled together with genetic material from animals. And scientists said the new analysis by the international team illustrated an even stronger link with animals.

Scientifically, it doesnt prove that raccoon dogs were the source, but it sure smells like infected raccoon dogs were at the market, said Jeremy Kamil, a virologist at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport.

He added: It raises more questions about what the Chinese government really knows.

Scientists cautioned that it was not clear that the genetic material from the virus and from raccoon dogs had been deposited at the same time.

Depending on the stability of genetic material from the virus and the animals, said Michael Imperiale, a virologist at the University of Michigan, they could have been deposited there at potentially widely different times.

Still, Dr. Arturo Casadevall, an immunologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who co-authored a recent study with Imperiale examining the origin of the coronavirus, said that linking animal and viral material nevertheless added to the evidence of a natural spillover event.

I would say it strengthens the zoonotic idea, he said, that is, the idea that it came from an animal at the market.

In the absence of the actual animal that first spread the virus to people, Casadevall said, assessing the origins of an outbreak would always involve weighing probabilities. In this case, animals sold at the market were removed before researchers began taking samples in early 2020, making it impossible to find a culprit.

Tim Stearns, dean of graduate and postgraduate studies at the Rockefeller University in New York, said the latest finding was an interesting piece of the puzzle, although he said it was not in itself definitive and highlights the need for a more thorough investigation.

For all the missing elements, some scientists said the new findings highlighted just how much information scientists had managed to assemble about the beginnings of the pandemic, including home addresses for early patients and sequence data from the market.

Theodora Hatziioannou, a virologist at the Rockefeller University, said it was critical that the raw data be released. But, she said, I think the evidence is overwhelming at the moment toward a market origin.

And the latest data, she said, makes it even more unlikely that this started somewhere else.

Felicia Goodrum, an immunobiologist at the University of Arizona, said that finding the virus in an actual animal would be the strongest evidence of a market origin. But finding virus and animal material in the same swab was close.

To me, she said, this is the next best thing.

c.2023 The New York Times Company
Actors Lance Reddick attends the world premiere of "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" in 2019. (Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press )

The prolific actor Lance Reddick has a number of projects still to be released following his death Friday at age 60.

Reddick is in John Wick: Chapter 4, opening March 24. His role as Charon, the concierge at the Continental, a New York hotel that is also an underworld hub, is a fan favorite among aficionados of the franchise.

In a joint statement, director Chad Stahelski and franchise star Keanu Reeves said, We are deeply saddened and heartbroken at the loss of our beloved friend and colleague Lance Reddick. He was the consummate professional and a joy to work with.

Reddick is also going to be in the upcoming Ballerina, directed by Len Wiseman and starring Ana de Armas in a spinoff that is part of the John Wick universe. A source familiar with the production said Reddick had filmed his scenes for the movie.

Reddick has a role in the upcoming White Men Cant Jump, a remake of the 1992 film. The new film is scheduled to begin streaming on Hulu on May 19.

Reddick will also be in the television series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, where he was reported to be playing the god Zeus. The first season of eight episodes was reported to have finished filming earlier this year and is expected to premiere on Disney+ sometime in 2024.

He was an actors actor, said Annabelle Dunne, a producer on The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, directed by William Friedkin and based on the play by Herman Wouk.

Reddick finished shooting his part on the film in mid-February. Now in postproduction, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is getting a possible festival plan in place and will likely be streaming on Paramount+ and Showtime later in the year.

Reddick also has a role in John Ridleys Shirley, which features Regina King as Shirley Chisholm. The movie is being released by Netflix, and does not have a release date.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Gina Ortiz Jones is the first openly lesbian woman to serve as under secretary of any U.S. military branch.

Gina Ortiz Jones is the first openly lesbian woman to serve as under secretary of any U.S. military branch.

Most people probably dont know who the under secretary of the Air Force is. Thats true even for some people within the department. But from the moment she was confirmed to the post in July 2021, Gina Ortiz Jones stood out.

For starters, Jones looked different. She is the first woman of color to hold this job (she is Filipina American), and the first openly lesbian woman to serve as under secretary of any U.S. military branch.

Beyond that, the story of her rise to the top sounds like the inspiration for a movie.

When Jones joined the Air Force in 2003, she had to hide that she was a lesbian because of the militarys dont ask, dont tell policy, which barred openly LGBTQ people from serving. She deployed to Iraq and served as an intelligence officer, all the while hiding who she was and feeling that her leaders werent as invested in her success.

Twenty years later, that policy is gone and Jones became the departments second-highest ranked civilian leader, overseeing its $173 billion budget and responsible for making sure that roughly 700,000 military personnel and their families feel the Air Force is invested in their success.

Amid those two decades, Jones ran for Congress in Texas twice  and nearly won in a race so close that The Associated Press initially called it for her.

Jones stepped down as under secretary this month. In a recent interview at the Pentagon, she said it seemed like a natural time to go, and that shes ready for a break after working 12- to 14-hour days on really meaty, meaty issues. She hinted at a couple of job prospects, but was vague about what they might be.

It will always be related to public service, Jones, 42, said of her next step.

A year and a half isnt a long time to make a difference at an entity as massive and bureaucratic as the Pentagon. But being the under secretary is at least partly what you want to make of it. And Jones, who is still very much shaped by her experience serving under dont ask, dont tell and feeling overlooked by leadership, came into the job knowing precisely what she wanted to accomplish. She pushed through some of the most significant diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the Defense Department, and did so by espousing a pretty simple idea: Its crucial for military recruitment, retention and readiness.

Story continues

Jones meets with personnel at the Air Force's 88th Air Base Wing in Ohio in January.

Jones meets with personnel at the Air Force's 88th Air Base Wing in Ohio in January.

I dont know if anybody would be super surprised that the first lesbian and the first woman of color to serve as an under secretary of any military department would ... tackle some of these things, Jones said. When you have firsthand experience with these things and the data is so clear about where you need to do work, of course were going to tackle those things.

Of course its probably going to be a little bit messy, she added, but we need the best Department of the Air Force for the country.

In some cases, Jones used her authority to simply clarify existing policies to make sure that personnel and their families knew about them and how they could benefit from them.

Amid the recent wave of anti-LGBTQ state laws targeting children, Jones last year directed the Air Force to clarify to its hundreds of thousands of personnel and families that it will provide them with any medical or legal help if they are personally affected by these laws. And if service members feel they need to leave those states entirely, for the sake of their childs mental or physical health, the Air Force will help them do that, too.

The health, care and resilience of our [Air Force] personnel and their families is not just our top priority  its essential to our ability to accomplish the mission, Jones said at the time.

The Air Force is the only branch of the U.S. military that did this.

When Jones learned in the fall of 2021 that the Thai Royal Air Force didnt let women attend its prestigious Air Command and Staff College, a mid-career professional military school, she worked with the defense secretarys office to engage with Thai military officials to change the policy. They eventually agreed to accept a U.S. female officer in the fall of 2022, which opened the door to five female Thai officers being accepted for the first time, too.

Jones said that situation wasnt just about making sure female officers could compete for spots at military schools along with men. It was about the United States knowing it has influence in the region, and using that influence with allies to bring about meaningful change.

You know who would never do anything like that? The Peoples Republic of China, she said. So yes, this is about equity. But its also about the power of our example. And we should never underestimate that. And we should ask because of the strength of that voice.

This is about equity. But its also about the power of our example. And we should never underestimate that.Gina Ortiz Jones, former under secretary of the Air Force

Jones pushed to change the department policy that governed when female pilots could fly while pregnant. Now, instead of some being barred from flying at all, female pilots can voluntarily request to fly during pregnancy as long as they apply for a waiver. They dont even need a waiver during the second trimester of pregnancy when flying a bigger, non-ejection seat plane, as long as its an uncomplicated pregnancy. All pregnant aircrew members can apply for a waiver regardless of trimester and type of plane, too.

The effect of this change is that female pilots can decide for themselves whether they want to keep flying, and continue logging hours so they dont fall behind in advancing their careers, which was happening regularly. Previously, women flying small, ejection-seat aircraft  think fighters and bombers  were barred from flying these planes at all if they were pregnant. But its precisely these kinds of planes that disproportionately produce Air Force generals.

In other words, this policy change is likely to have a major impact on the likelihood of women being considered for general officers.

Jones said it took months of reviews to change this policy, which made such a splash that it was celebrated by news outlets ranging from People magazine to Fox News. What was key here, said Jones, is that the process that female pilots previously had to go through was opaque, and based on next to no data about the safety risks of flying while pregnant. Now, more women can fly and not have to choose between their careers and starting a family.

What Jones wouldnt say, though it was clear from her evasiveness after being asked the question five times, was that she met significant resistance to updating this policy.

It took a real push to get that one to change, was all she finally said.

Air Force Major Lauren Olme and her husband, also an Air Force pilot, sit in the cockpit of a B-1B Lancer at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, Feb. 20. Olme can continue flying after getting approved under the Air Forces new guidance that allows female pilots to voluntarily request to fly during pregnancy -- meaning female pilots no longer have to choose between advancing their career and having a family.

Air Force Major Lauren Olme and her husband, also an Air Force pilot, sit in the cockpit of a B-1B Lancer at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, Feb. 20. Olme can continue flying after getting approved under the Air Forces new guidance that allows female pilots to voluntarily request to fly during pregnancy -- meaning female pilots no longer have to choose between advancing their career and having a family.

Jones also pressed the Air Force to look at its data on personnel in different ways, namely so it wasnt overlooking certain people. When the department issued a 2021 racial and gender disparity report, Jones directed the creation of an addendum because the report looked at race and gender separately without assessing how the two intersected. Once completed, the addendum showed, not surprisingly, how disparities were even worse for people of color.

The addendum revealed, for example, that women of color arent advancing at nearly the same rates as white women. Without looking specifically at the intersection of race and gender, the data made it seem as if women generally were making gains in promotions, enlisted leadership and military education designations. The addendum also revealed that Asian American and Pacific Islander men have the lowest promotion rates of any demographic.

In another case, Jones commissioned a study in response to anecdotes shed heard about female general officers having more complaints filed against them with the Air Force inspector general than their male counterparts. The study found that while female general officers did have disproportionately more IG complaints filed against them, these complaints were substantiated at a much lower rate than those involving their male colleagues.

Weve seen this across all military services, said Katherine Kuzminski, a senior fellow and director of the military, veterans and society program at the Center for a New American Security. She conducted the study for Jones.

When a woman is relieved of command or faces consequences for toxic leadership, it becomes a real news story, she said. The reality is men are relieved for those reasons more frequently, but its not as much of a news story.

Kuzminski, who has been doing research on military personnel for 12 years, said while there have long been anecdotes about women in the military being bad leaders, whats been missing is someone willing to look at actual data to see if theres any validity to such claims.

But the first time Gina heard it, she said, Lets get to the root of it and take a look at what the data say, she said. Is there an issue? And if yes, what do we do to improve the situation?

The point of a study like the one Jones commissioned isnt so much about fixing perceptions of women, Kuzminski said, but about showing Air Force leadership what opportunities it has to expand the scope of how people think about leadership skills and potential. This final report and its recommendations are currently being reviewed before being implemented.

Not to be on the nose about it, but this is why having a diverse set of background experiences and perspectives is important in the policymaking community, she added. What Gina was great at was being able to translate the necessity for diversity, equality and inclusion into building the military force that A, represents the country, and B, is more lethal than one where we were only selecting from this subset.

Jones, at right, visits the integrated response center at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska in January. It's one of seven bases chosen for a pilot program that creates a hub of support services for survivors of interpersonal violence.

Jones, at right, visits the integrated response center at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska in January. It's one of seven bases chosen for a pilot program that creates a hub of support services for survivors of interpersonal violence.

Jones led the Air Force in addressing some of its uglier realities, too. Domestic violence is a huge problem in the military; Air Force leadership gets twice as many reports on domestic abuse every year as it does on sexual assault. Jones came across the case of Kata Ranta, a domestic violence survivor whose abusive ex-husband was an airman. Nearly 10 years ago, he tried to kill her  he shot her twice, in front of their 4-year-old son  and is now in prison. Ranta was eligible for transitional compensation, an Air Force resource that provides money and health care for 36 months to help a victim of domestic violence transition through the trauma of the situation. Except Ranta never got it.

When I said, Hey, we need to get this for her and help her apply for it, folks were like, Well, it was so many years ago, if we do this, we may open up the floodgates, Jones said. She was stunned. Im like, Well? Then open up the damn floodgates.

Ranta ended up getting her benefits  but it took eight months, and likely only happened because the under secretary made it a priority. The ordeal had a real effect on Jones. She directed staff to raise awareness of transitional compensation to military families. She also directed the creation of a six-month pilot program at seven Air Force bases that set up a hub of services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. The goal was to see if co-locating these services would decrease retraumatization for victims and raise awareness of the problem.

Jones tapped someone to serve as an adviser on the pilot and on follow-up efforts after it was over, too: Ranta.

The family members of abusive active-duty members kind of get lost in the whole military machine, Ranta told HuffPost. In my case, [Air Force leaders] were definitely more concerned about my abuser than they were about me and my son. It just is unfortunate that it took something so extreme for people to jump into action to make things right.

But that it happened at all, Im grateful for, she added, referring to finally getting some help from the Air Force. Its a story of women helping women.

Air Force Major Jessica Padoemthontaweekij poses with five Thai students at the Air Command and Staff College. They are the first women ever admitted to the prestigious military school in Thailand.

Air Force Major Jessica Padoemthontaweekij poses with five Thai students at the Air Command and Staff College. They are the first women ever admitted to the prestigious military school in Thailand.

For all the work that Jones put into making diversity and equity a priority within the Air Force, she said she never became a target of right-wing lawmakers or news outlets eager to accuse the Biden administration of pushing woke policies that reduce people to identity politics. To the contrary, Fox News glorified Jones change affecting pregnant female pilots.

Its hard to say what the lasting effects will be of Jones efforts. Its not because she just left, but because every presidential administration brings in a new team of people with their own ideas about the right policies to push.

Jones isnt worried about it. She put in the time to gather data on most of everything she did, and crafted policies based on what the data found. Besides, as former President Barack Obama used to say about Republicans failed efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, its a lot easier to give someone a benefit than it is to take it away.

Part of the key to that will be the people who are impacted by these things, how loud of a voice they raise, Jones said. Good luck to the person that wants to now tell pregnant women, Oh actually, were going back to the old policy where you couldnt even apply to keep flying when you were pregnant.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

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Content warning: This article contains references to murder and sexual assault some may find upsetting. Reader discretion is advised.

Between 1962 and 1964, 13 women were killed in the Boston area by a notorious serial killer known as the Boston Strangler. The assailant targeted single women, aged 19 to 85, in their homes and apartments in Boston and its surrounding towns. City police and homicide detectives hadnt uncovered the killer until March 6, 1965, when Massachusetts native and convicted criminal Albert DeSalvo confessed to the murders.

Hulus latest true crime thriller, Boston Strangler, recounts the infamous killings that terrorized the city for years. The film places a specific focus on the two Record-American investigative reporters, Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole, who connected the murders and gave the killer his moniker, Boston Strangler.

But the Boston Strangler case didnt close in the 1960s. Although he confessed, DeSalvo was never charged for the gruesome murders of the 13 women, who were sexually assaulted and strangled to death with stockings, ropes, and cords in their homes. According to ABC News, DeSalvo couldnt be prosecuted due to a lack of physical evidence. And before his death in 1973, he recanted his confession, according to USA Today.

Hulton Archive - Getty Images

When he claimed to be the Boston Strangler, DeSalvo was serving time for a separate series of crimes, including sexual assault and burglaries against four other women, according to The New York Times. He was arrested in November 1964 and imprisoned at Bridgewater State Hospital, a medium-security facility in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, the Boston Herald reported.

Psychiatrist Dr. Robert R. Mezer said that, during an examination for trial, DeSalvo had confessed to the killings of the 13 women. DeSalvo told me he was the strangler . . . He told me he strangled 13 women . . . and he went into details of some of them, telling me some of the most intimate acts he committed, he said, per The New York Times.

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Still, DeSalvo was not tried for the murders. But he was convicted for the aforementioned crimes in January 1967 and was sentenced to life in prison. With DeSalvo sentenced to prison for life, with an appeal to a higher court pending, and with the convicted man already in a mental hospital of the maximum security type as Bridgewater, it is doubtful that any prosecutor in the three counties involved  Suffolk, Middlesex and Essex  will take immediate steps to indict DeSalvo for the stranglings, in the opinion of most legal observers, the Boston Herald wrote in a January 19, 1967 report.

Bettmann - Getty Images

How did Albert DiSalvo die?

On November 27, 1973, while serving his life sentence at Walpole State Prison in eastern Massachusetts, Albert DeSalvo was stabbed to death by another prisoner. The prison authorities said the 40-year-old inmate's body was discovered in his cell bed in the prison's hospital wing at 7 o'clock, The New York Times reported at the time. Police said that a possible suspect had been questioned, but no one was ever arrested for DeSalvos death.

In 2013, nearly 50 years after the stranglings, DNA evidence linked DeSalvo to the death of his alleged last victim, 19-year-old Mary Sullivan. The DNA was recovered from a water bottle left at a construction site by DeSalvos nephew, according to ABC News.

This is good evidence. This is strong evidence. This is reliable evidence, Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said at the time, at which Massachusetts law enforcement affirmed that the DNA from Sullivan can be connected with 99.9 percent certainty to DeSalvo.

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Alison Hammonds role as the new co-host of The Great British Bake Off is just, if youll pardon the pun, the icing on the cake of a 21-year screen career, which has been filled with some of the most hilarious and surreal moments ever committed to television.

The Birmingham-born star has, over the decades, knocked a sailor into the Thames, had Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling in fits of giggles, and joined forces with Ainsley Harriott to terrorise a woman called Jill in her living room.

Those are just a few of the chaotic moments Hammond has given us, which you can read about below, along with many more

The time she nearly got arrested in Italy

During a 2019 segment for This Morning in which she was promoting a 300,000 cash prize competition  filmed in Pisa, Italy, for reasons Im struggling to decipher  Hammond got in a spot of trouble with the Italian police. As a stern officer tried to shoo Hammond and the cameras away, the presenter could be seen panicking.

Oh my gosh, she told viewers. We havent got a permit. Listen guys, were in Pisa, were not allowed to be here Im gonna get arrested. I love you loads! Laters! As the camera retreated, she could be heard telling officers: Im so sorry. Buongiorno. Please. A later segment showed her hiding in her hotel room, wearing large sunglasses and a blanket wrapped around her head as she told the camera: My holiday has turned into The Bourne Identity.

Her marriage to The Rock

In 2017, Dwayne The Rock Johnson made Hammond the happiest woman alive when he proposed to her on This Morning. That December, he married her on the show, with Kevin Hart officiating the wedding. The whole scene was like a fever dream, with Johnson looking increasingly worried, and Hammond screaming YES before Hart could read out her husband-to-bes whole name. The skit continued into 2019, with a clip of Hammond sobbing into a box of popcorn over their devastating divorce.

The sailor incident

In 2018, Hammond tried her hand at presenting the weather. Not with a green screen like most people to do, obviously, but by jumping around on a floating weather map of the UK, that had been installed on the Thames. She caused quite the splash when she made the jump from Scotland to Northern Ireland, and ended up shoving a topless sailor into the river. Luckily, he could swim.

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When she interviewed a tree

Hammond met a 1,000-year-old tree in 2020, which was in the running for European Tree of the Year. She decided, of course, to interview it. First of all, you are up for this amazing prestigious title, how do you feel? she said. A tree whisperer, who was luckily on hand, replied: It feels very exciting. Its an honour to be recognised in this way. Hammond then proceeded to stroke the tree and grill it on whether it thought it had a good chance of winning and whether other trees were jealous of it.

On the lash with Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling

Harrison Ford has become known for appearing grumpy while promoting his movies. Earlier this year, he dismissed speculation that its because he has social anxiety, saying: No. I dont have a social anxiety disorder. I have an abhorrence of boring situations. He was definitely not bored in this 2017 interview with Hammond, who had him and Ryan Gosling drinking whiskey and dissolving into helpless laughter throughout.

The time she lost her oven door on Bake Off

Hammonds job as GBBO host wont be her first time in the tent. She appeared as a celebrity contestant on the Stand Up for Cancer special in 2020. It was a memorable appearance, of course. She declared herself a natural baker and noted numerous times how smoothly things were going for her, that was, until the door of her oven disappeared. Wheres the door gone? she asked, bewildered, until she realised the fancy ovens on Bake Off have doors that slide into a drawer underneath.

Poor Jill

On Mothers Day 2018, a woman called Jill in Cheshire got the shock of her life. She was sitting on the sofa watching This Morning when Alison Hammond burst into her living room to surprise her with chocolates, flowers and a free TV. If that wasnt enough, Ainsley Harriott joined the party. Why hello Jill! he announced, dancing towards her as he held out a saucepan. Just perfect.

When she totally lost it over Barry Humphries congratulating Dermot OLeary for coming out as gay

During an interview on This Morning in 2021, veteran comedian Barry Humphries mistook Dermot OLeary for Phillip Schofield and congratulated him for bravely coming out. OLeary managed to hold it together, letting out a small giggle, but Hammond did not. She began howling with laughter, with Humphries completely baffled by her response to what he probably just thought was a lovely thing to say.

Her short, destructive stint on Big Brother

Hammond was first beamed into peoples living rooms as a contestant on the 2002 series of Big Brother. While on the show, she managed to break two chairs, a bed, a lounger and a table. Its very hard not to laugh at footage of that final piece of furniture meeting its demise, especially the bit when she told Big Brother: I can probably bend it back. She was voted out on day 15.

The Great British Bake Off returns to Channel 4 later this year.
Ukrainian defenders have killed another 880 Russian invaders as well as destroyed 5 tanks and 14 UAVs.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook

Details: Total combat losses of the Russian forces between 24 February 2022 and 18 March 2023 are estimated to be as follows [figures in parentheses represent the latest losses  ed.]:

approximately 164,200 (+880) military personnel,

3,511 (+5) tanks,

6,830 (+7) armoured combat vehicles,

2,560 (+8) artillery systems,

506 (+2) multiple-launch rocket systems,

265 (+0) air defence systems,

305 (+0) fixed-wing aircraft,

290 (+0) helicopters,

2,159 (+14) operational-tactical UAVs,

907 (+0) cruise missiles,

18 (+0) ships/boats,

5,404 (+3) vehicles and tankers,

259 (+1) special vehicles and other equipment.

The data is being confirmed.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Vancouver, BC --News Direct-- Altaley Mining Corp

Annual General Meeting

Altaley Mining Corporation (the Company or Altaley) is pleased to announce that at its 2023 Annual General Meeting held on March 14, 2023, shareholders approved all resolutions put to the meeting and in particular approved:

The Companys 2023 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan;

The creation of Calu Opportunity Fund, LP as the new Control Person of the Company (as such term is defined in the TSX Venture Exchange policies);

By disinterested shareholders, the repricing of 1,076,042 outstanding incentive stock options to an exercise price of $0.50 per share;

The appointment of Grant Thornton LLP as the Companys auditors for the ensuing year;

Fixing the number of directors for the ensuing year at seven (7); and

The election of Mike Struthers (CEO), David Rhodes (Chairman of the Board), Ralph Shearing (current President and Corporate Secretary), Roberto Guzman Garcia, Ruben Alvidrez Ortega, Mark H. Bailey and Rory S. Godinho as directors of the Company.

Former directors Natascha Kiernan and Tom Kelly did not stand for re-election and the Company thanks them for their valuable service and wishes them well in their future endeavors.

All other directors elected other than Mr. Godinho were standing directors of Altaley. Mr. Godinho was previously a director of Altaley. Mr. Godinho is a veteran securities lawyer and currently the Co-Chair of Cozen OConnor LLPs Canadian Capital Markets and Securities Group. Cozen OConnor LLP is a U.S. based Amlaw 100 law firm with more than 825 attorneys and 30 offices across North America. Mr. Godinho was a former chairperson of the TSX Venture Exchanges National Advisory Committee and was subsequently appointed by participating provincial and the Canadian Federal governments and served until May 2021 (when it was wound down) as a director of the Capital Markets Authority Implementation Organization, which was formed to create the proposed cooperative Capital Markets Regulatory Authority, a single Canadian regulator to administer the proposed uniform provincial-territorial Capital Markets Act and complementary Capital Markets Stability Act. Mr. Godinho brings a wealth of capital markets, corporate governance and M&A experience as well as a strong network to the Company and we are thrilled to have him rejoin the Board of Directors said David Rhodes, Chairman of the Board.

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Management Changes and Board Committees

The Company announces the pending retirement of Mr. Ralph Shearing as President of the Company, and the appointment of Mr. Ramon Perez as President, effective 27th March, 2023. Mr. Shearing will remain as a Director of Altaley.

Ramon Perez is a senior executive and corporate director with more than 15 years of experience in the mineral resource sector. His work has focused on M&A and business development strategies supporting corporate growth. He currently serves as portfolio manager to Calu Opportunity Fund, LP a natural resource focused fund, that was approved as Altaleys Control Person at the recent Annual General Meeting.

Mr. Perez previously served as Director & President of Candelaria Mining Corp., a Mexican advanced exploration company; was a founding member of Sociedad Minera Reliquias S.A., a Peruvian publicly listed company TSXV:AGMR. He also acted as a consultant to Ecuadorian gold producer, Core Gold Inc, during its acquisition by Titan Minerals (TTM:ASE). Prior to these roles, Mr. Perez spent 10 years as Vice President of Carrelton Asset Management, a private equity firm that invests in the natural resource sector. He holds an MBA in International Business from the University of Miami.

Mike Struthers, CEO, stated: On behalf of the board and the Company I want to thank Ralph for his tireless dedication to retaining and developing the Companys assets, in particular the Tahuehueto Gold Project, which from its inception Ralph recognized was a world class gold deposit. His determination has provided the Company with the opportunity now to finally deliver this project as a new and profitable mining operation. I also want to give a special welcome to Ramon Perez to the team. Ramon brings a wealth of experience in corporate finance and company management and he'll provide invaluable support to the team as we focus on achieving our goals for 2023 and beyond."

The Company also announces the resignation of CFO Mr. Erick Underwood, for personal reasons, and the re-appointment of Mr. Omar Abrego as Interim CFO, whilst a permanent replacement is found.

Following the Annual General Meeting the Company has reconstituted its Audit, Compensation & Nomination and Corporate Governance Committees as follows:

Audit Committee - David Rhodes (Chair), Mark H Bailey, and Ruben Alvidrez Ortega.

Compensation and Nomination Committee  David Rhodes (Chair), Rory Godinho and Ruben Alvidrez Ortega.

Corporate Governance Committee  Rory Godinho (Chair), David Rhodes and Mark H. Bailey.

Name Change

Following the Companys news release on 2nd March 2023, the Company is also pleased to announce that effective at the open of trading on Tuesday March 21, 2023, it will change its name to Luca Mining Corp. and trade under the symbol LUCA on both the TSX Venture and OTCQX exchanges.

Review of Contingent Liabilities

Altaley provides the following update on contingent liabilities related to legal matters disclosed in its historical financial statements.

Background

As part of the Companys overall restructuring plan and in order to determine required capital for the Companys go forward financing plan, the Companys new management undertook a comprehensive assessment of the Companys balance sheet as reported in its 2021 audited financial statements and Q3 interim financial statements, and specifically with regards the significant provision made in the accounts for contingent liabilities in Mexico. As part of this process the Company engaged additional senior legal counsel to provide expert opinion on existing law suits in Mexico. It is the Company's intention to aggressively resolve and hopefully substantially reduce or eliminate the contingent liabilities, although we provide no assurance that we will be successful in doing so at this time.

Whilst most of the lawsuits are ongoing legal processes with as yet, no specific material outcomes, the Company provides an update on an action brought by Size Solutions S.A. de C. V. (Size).

Size Solutions S.A de C.V

In 2019, Minas de Campo Morado, S.A. de C.V. (MCM), a subsidiary of Altaley, signed an agreement with Size to provide payroll and accounting services to the Companys Mexican subsidiaries.

Subsequently and as a result of market conditions, the Company suspended mining operations at Campo Morado during 2019, placing the mine into six months of care and maintenance. As a result, the Company was no longer generating revenues, and consequently was unable to pay the amount due to Size. In January 2020, the Company executed a Debt Acknowledgement Agreement in favor of Size in recognition of this debt for amounts then outstanding of MX$62,711,826.80 Mexican pesos, (the Jan 2020 Size Debt). The outstanding amount related to employee wages, government withholding taxes, employee benefits, consulting services, interest, and other miscellaneous services.

In March 2020, after resuming mining operations at Campo Morado, the Company terminated its business relationship with Size and hired most of the Size employees that were previously seconded to the Company, directly employing them into the Companys respective Mexican subsidiaries.

Subsequently, Size abandoned its lease obligations, failing to pay office lease rentals of approximately $2.6 million Mexican pesos, failed to pay the former employees payroll obligation, and failed to pay government withholdings for those employees previously seconded to Altaleys Mexican subsidiaries.

During 2020 and 2021 the Company paid approximately MX$20 million Mexican pesos (the Size Subsequent Payments) on behalf of and towards Sizes payroll obligation. The Size Subsequent Payments amounted to most of the outstanding Size obligations related to the former Size employees seconded to the Company.

Subsequent to the above the Company received notice from Size claiming outstanding amounts, as at December 31, 2019 in the amount referenced above, which did not recognize the Size Subsequent Payment or Sizes abandoned lease obligations.

In its December 31, 2021 financial statements the Company accrued CAD $3,200,000 (MX$52.3 million Mexican pesos) as a contingent accrued liability in accounts payable in respect to the debt obligation to Size. Altaley is disputing the difference sought by Size.

After a series of legal proceedings, on 21 October 2022 a local district court (the Lower Court) issued a judgement in favor of Size to recover the Debt Settlement Amount. However, Mexican legal counsel are of the opinion that the Lower Court made several errors in their judgement, and MCM is and has lodged appeals against the Lower Courts ruling, to elevate the dispute to the next level in a federal court.

To support the Companys own internal review, additional new senior legal counsel were recently retained and following their review of the suit they have advised that, in their opinion, the Company has a strong probability of being successful in its defense against the Size claim, and at the very least in reducing the liability by taking into account the Size Subsequent Payment and Sizes abandoned lease obligations.

The Company will provide further information on the status of the proceedings as and when it becomes available.

Other Disputes

The Company, through its subsidiaries in Mexico, is also defending itself against a number of other legal disputes on various historical issues, and provisions for these are also included in the accrued potential liabilities in the financial statements. New legal counsel have also recently reviewed the more significant of these suits and again have provided written opinion stating that, in their opinion, the Company has a high probability of success in its defense.

The Company is aggressively defending itself against these claims and expects to be able to progressively reduce the accrued liabilities provisions in the accounts as these cases advance through due legal processes.

About Altaley Mining Corporation

Altaley Mining Corporation is a Canadian based mining company with two 100% owned Mexican gold, silver, and base metal mining projects.

Altaleys Tahuehueto Gold Mine Project is in north-western Durango State, Mexico where construction of an initial 500 tonnes per day (tpd) operation is well advanced. The second stage, the 1000 tpd project, will follow immediately after commissioning the initial stage. The operation is generating gold, silver, lead and zinc in concentrates.

Campo Morado is an operating polymetallic base and precious metals mine currently producing at an average of 2,400 tpd, generating zinc and copper concentrates with significant precious metals credits.

Visit: www.altaleymining.com

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

(signed) Mike Struthers

Mike Struthers

CEO and Director

Cautionary Note Regarding Production Decisions and Forward-Looking Statements

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.

It should be noted that Altaley declared commercial production at Campo Morado prior to completing a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability. Accordingly, readers should be cautioned that Altaleys production decision has been made without a comprehensive feasibility study of established reserves such that there is greater risk and uncertainty as to future economic results from the Campo Morado mine and a higher technical risk of failure than would be the case if a feasibility study were completed and relied upon to make a production decision. Altaley has completed a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) mining study on the Campo Morado mine that provides a conceptual life of mine plan and a preliminary economic analysis based on the previously identified mineral resources (see News Release dated November 8, 2017, and April 4, 2018). ). Furthermore, It should be noted that Altaley intends to commence pre-production and ramp up to full commercial production at Tahuehueto prior to completing a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability. Accordingly, readers should be cautioned that Altaleys pre-production and production decisions will be made without a comprehensive feasibility study of established reserves such that there is greater risk and uncertainty as to future economic results from the Tahuehueto mine and a higher technical risk of failure than would be the case if a feasibility study were completed and relied upon to make such production decisions. Altaley has completed a positive pre-feasibility study (the Pre-Feasibility Study) and updated mineral reserves/resources estimates at its flagship Tahuehueto Mine that provides a conceptual life of mine plan and a preliminary economic analysis based on a 1,000 tonne per day operation (see News Release dated March 7, 2022)

Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "Forward-Looking Information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-Looking Information includes but is not limited to conditions or financial performance that are based on assumptions about future economic conditions and courses of action; the timing and costs of future activities on the Company's properties, such as production rates and increases; success of exploration, development and bulk sample processing activities, and timing for processing at its own mineral processing facility on the Tahuehueto project site. In certain cases, Forward-Looking Information can be identified using words and phrases such as "plans," "expects," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates" or variations of such words and phrases. In preparing the Forward-Looking Information in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, that the current exploration, development, environmental and other objectives concerning the Campo Morado Mine and the Tahuehueto Project can be achieved; that commencement of pre-production mining and milling operations at Tahuehueto will proceed as planned; the continuity of the price of gold and other metals, economic and political conditions, and operations. Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward-Looking Information. There can be no assurance that Forward-Looking Information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to Forward-Looking Information contained in this news release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Contact Details

Glen Sandwell

+1 604-684-8071

ir@altaleymining.com

Company Website

https://www.altaleymining.com/

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/altaley-mining-corporation-announces-results-of-annual-general-meeting-management-changes-effective-date-for-name-change-and-provides-update-on-review-of-contingent-liabilities-770051480
By John Geddie

(Reuters) - Xi Jinping walks a diplomatic tightrope as he heads to Moscow, seeking to present China as a global peacemaker while strengthening ties with his closest ally, President Vladimir Putin, who faces criminal charges over his Ukraine war.

Leaving on Monday for his first trip overseas since securing a third term as president, Xi will seek to burnish Beijing's diplomatic clout after it brokered a surprise detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran last week, even as he cements his "no limits" partnership with the increasingly isolated Putin.

Xi, who has tightened his control at home as the strongest Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping, will also be wary of antagonising the West, analysts say.

China's top trade partners are the United States and the European Union - among the fiercest critics of Russia's war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special military operation".

China published a proposal last month to end the conflict, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced millions to flee. It received a lukewarm welcome in Kyiv and Moscow, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he would be open to talks with Xi, which some media reports say could follow the Chinese leader's Russia trip.

The U.S. and its Western allies are deeply sceptical of China's motives, noting Beijing has refused to condemn Russia and provided it with an economic lifeline as other countries heap sanctions on Moscow.

"There's been kind of an increasingly pronounced diplomatic dance on China's part as the war has played out," said Andrew Small, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

China has been trying "to signal some areas of distancing, without actually translating any of that into anything that might help" like putting pressure on Russia, Small said.

'NO LIMITS'

China and Russia announced a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing for the opening of the Winter Olympics, days before he launched the Ukraine invasion.

Story continues

While Beijing has called for calm since the outset, it has largely reflected Moscow's position that NATO threatened Russia with its eastward expansion and Ukraine's Western allies had fanned the flames of war by supplying it with tanks and missiles.

China has provided key revenue for Moscow as its biggest buyer of oil, with bilateral trade soaring in recent months. The U.S. and European leaders have said intelligence showed China was considering sending arms to Russia, which Beijing has denied.

"China certainly wants to appear like it's an objective and impartial diplomatic stakeholder, but in fact it's anything but," said Samuel Ramani, a Russia expert who teaches at Oxford University.

Hours after Xi's trip was announced on Friday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader, alleging Moscow's forcible deportation of Ukrainian children is a war crime.

The Kremlin reacted with outrage. Russia says a programme under which it has brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia is a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and children abandoned in the conflict zone.

Russia and China are not members of the ICC. China has not commented on the arrest warrant.

BUSINESS OVER BLINIS?

Details on Xi's visit to Moscow, his first in nearly four years, are scant.

Both sides have said the aim of the trip is to further strengthen their relationship and deepen economic ties. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Friday the trip was a "voyage of friendship", "cooperation" and "peace". He did not refer to Ukraine.

The two leaders will meet for one-to-one talks and dine together on Monday, then hold further "negotiations" and issue a statement on Tuesday before Xi departs on Wednesday, according to a brief schedule released by the Kremlin.

Previous Xi-Putin meetings have offered lighter moments. Xi called Putin his "best friend" during a 2019 visit where they admired pandas in a Moscow zoo. Clad in blue aprons, they cooked blinis together in 2018 when Xi visited Vladivostok for the Eastern Economic Forum.

It is not clear if there will be any such photo ops this time amid more serious business and the bloody Ukraine war.

What is certain, some foreign diplomats say, is that whatever deals are thrashed out by the two strongmen, Xi now has the upper hand in the relationship.

"It has been clear for some time that Russia is the junior partner to China but the war in Ukraine has really made that dominance much more stark," a European diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

"Whatever support Xi gives to Russia will be on Chinas terms," another European diplomat said.

(Reporting by John Geddie; Additional reporting by Yew Lun Tian and Laurie Chen; Editing by William Mallard)
Republican lawmakers want to put Arizona teachers behind bars if they so much as recommend a book to students that is considered too sexually explicit.

On Thursday, Senate Republicans advanced a measure punishing teachers who refer students to or use sexually explicit materials with a class 5 felony, which carries with it a prison sentence as long as two years.

The only exception included in the bill is if the school has first obtained written parental consent, and the material has serious educational value for minors or possesses serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter

Critics warned that Senate Bill 1323 threatens to jeopardize the free speech of teachers and criminalize honest mistakes.

What if a teacher has a book on their desk? Or what if they refer to a classic novel in conversation with a student or another teacher? asked Sen. Anna Hernandez.

The Phoenix Democrat pointed out that the bill makes no distinction between kindergarten and high-school aged students, who are likely ready for more serious literature  and some of whom are legally adults.

She warned that the legislatures relentless vilification of teachers will have a detrimental effect on a state already struggling to staff classrooms. A February survey from the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association found that as many as 25% of teaching positions across Arizona remain vacant, continuing a seven-year streak.

If this type of legislation continues, there will be no one else left thats going to be willing to teach our kids, Hernandez said.

But Republican lawmakers shot back that it aims to protect children from harmful content.

This bill actually protects children and their fundamental Christian values, said Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale.

Kern added that teachers are being run out of the state due to intimidation, citing the recent decision by Washington Elementary School District not to renew a contract with Arizona Christian University, which trains young teachers, over an anti-LGBTQ statement of faith that all its students are required to sign and abide by.

Story continues

This bill is about stopping the sexualization of Arizona children, said Sen. Jake Hoffman, who sponsored the measure. There is nothing more important than protecting the innocence of our states kids.

Hoffman, a Queen Creek Republican, claimed schools all over Arizona are sexualizing students, but didnt specify where. His proposal builds on legislation he championed last year that was signed into law, which simply prohibited such materials from being used in classrooms unless parental permission was obtained first. It defines sexually explicit as a depiction of sexual conduct or as broadly as physical contact with a persons clothed or unclothed body, including their genitals, buttocks or breasts.

Initially, last years measure would also have banned any references to the LGBTQ community, but that language was removed after widespread outcry. Still, critics worried it could lead to the removal of classic literature, and at least one district considered removing books with LGBTQ themes in response.

Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix, a former teacher, worried that adding criminal penalties to already unclear legislation would worsen the censorship of important books, and could negatively impact educational quality.

Teachers are going to have anxiety levels go up, and (they will) err on the side of extreme caution, which means that a whole lot of literature that probably doesnt fall under that category  but teachers are afraid that it will  is not going to end up getting taught, she said.

Sen. Mitzi Epstein, D-Tempe, a former school board member, said that plenty of laws already exist to punish the exposure of minors to pornographic materials. Schools are required to enact firewall systems in their computers that protect students from encountering explicit material online, or risk forfeiting state funding.

And its a class 4 felony, which is punishable by up to three years in prison, to distribute anything that is harmful to minors, defined by state statute as something depicting nudity or sexual conduct that isnt considered suitable for minors and has no serious literary, artistic, scientific or political value.

The measure was approved by the state Senate with only Republican support on a vote of 16-13, but is unlikely to make it past Gov. Katie Hobbs  a possibility that Hoffman denounced ahead of time, saying that if she vetoed the bill, it would mean she will have aided in the sexualization of Arizona children.

Hobbs has vowed to support only bipartisan legislation and has denounced other measures advanced by GOP lawmakers in their ongoing culture wars against schools as distractions from the real issues facing educators across the state.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and Twitter.
A group of drag queens and activists dressed in black and white showed up on Friday at the Fayetteville Public Library in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to protest actor-writer Kirk Cameron's story time event for families and children, according to book publisher Brave Books, whose staff were present at the reading.

The drag queens blocked the views of some families and children and distracted others from the book reading and remarks from the stage, said Brave Books.

The publisher shared photos taken by staff on the scene.

KIRK CAMERON REJECTS DRAG QUEEN STORY TIME, IS INSTEAD SPEAKING ABOUT FAITH, FAMILY AT ARKANSAS PUBLIC LIBRARY

Los Angeles-based Cameron, an outspoken Christian who has been traveling across the country to public libraries to share messages of faith, family and country at children's book readings and the singing of patriotic songs, told Fox News Digital in exclusive comments on Saturday morning that he found the disruptions disturbing.

"The small group of protesters, which included some grown men wearing silly makeup, dressed in skirts and heels, pretending to be women, listened to the reading of a kids book about Gods view of gender called, Elephants Are Not Birds,'" he told Fox News Digital in an email sent on Saturday.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

At Kirk Cameron's children's book reading event at the public library in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Friday, March 17, some individuals dressed in black and white are shown seated with the crowd of about 500 parents and kids.

"At the close of this sweet and funny story of a singing elephant named Kevin who was tricked by a vulture named Culture into thinking he might be a bird, the reader then asked the 300 children, Do you think elephants can be birds, even if they strap on silly wings and a beak?'"

Added Cameron, "In unison, and with great laughter, all 300 children confessed with gusto, No!'"

KIRK CAMERON IS DENIED STORY-HOUR SLOT BY PUBLIC LIBRARIES FOR HIS NEW FAITH-BASED KIDS BOOK

Cameron also said, "I felt sad for the men in skirts. As it is written, You have taught the little children to praise you perfectly. May their example shame and silence your enemies" (Psalm 8:2).

A drag queen activist is shown at the Fayetteville Public Library in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on March 17, presumably to protest Kirk Cameron's book reading for families and kids. "I felt sad for the men in skirts," said Cameron to Fox News Digital.

Brave Books, which helped organize the event, told Fox News Digital that some 500 "enthusiastic" parents, grandparents and children were in attendance overall for the event.

Story continues

Brave Books said there were "protesters present" both inside and outside the library.

ACTOR AND WRITER KIRK CAMERON DEFENDS FAMILY, FAITH AND GOD IN NEW KIDS' BOOK

Fox News Digital reached out to the Fayetteville Public Library for comment.

This was the sixth stop for Cameron and Brave Books in what they're calling their "Freedom Island Tour," so named for the series of illustrated children's books published by Brave Books, a conservative publisher.

Cameron's own book, "As You Grow," is about an acorn that grows and blossoms into a huge tree.

The publisher said its staff were "met with opposition from protesters who joined the story hour inside the library."

Drag queen activists on Friday in Fayetteville, Arkansas, blocked the views of some parents and children who had turned out for Kirk Cameron's kids' story hour at the public library there.

It said that "some men dressed as women were wearing colorful outfits. Some had signs claiming we were spreading a hateful message."

The so-called "hateful message" that the protesters took issue with was apparently a reference to the content of Camerons children's book, "As You Grow," which teaches kids about the fruits of the spirit, including love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and self-control.

SURFER BETHANY HAMILTON OF HAWAII PUSHES PAST FEAR, TAKES ON NEW ADVENTURE

The publisher told Fox News Digital in a statement, "It was such a joy seeing families and their kids enjoying such a great time with Kirk Cameron and his story hour."

Actor and writer Kirk Cameron reads to the families and children who came out to hear him speak in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Friday, March 17.

It went on, "Unfortunately, the little children in attendance were forced to see men dressed as women, men wearing bright rainbow colors and individuals with black and white paint covering their bodies."

The publisher also said, "Many of these individuals were holding signs that were blocking the view of the kids and parents. It was a shame they decided to come out and disturb such a beautiful scene at the Fayetteville Public Library."

Zac Bell, Brave Books' chief of staff, who was present at the event, told Fox News Digital, "In coming to Fayetteville, Arkansas, we expected to get a ton of supportive Christian and conservative families to show up. What we did not expect was for a group of drag queens and activists to attend and walk up and down the event  giving the children in attendance the creeps."

KIRK CAMERON RUNS INTO TROUBLE IN TENNESSEE AHEAD OF PATRIOTIC BOOK EVENT: NEGATIVE PUSHBACK

He went on, "Their dress was a weird sort of black gown clothing and they wore demonic-appearing face painting."

Kirk Cameron stands on stage and addresses the families and children assembled for a kids' book reading event in Fayetteville, Arkansas. About 500 or so people were in attendance, the publisher said.

Trent Talbot, the Texas-based CEO and founder of Brave Books, told Fox News Digital on Saturday, "Weve been saying that the left is preying on our children, and they sheepishly try to gaslight us  calling us conspiracy theorists."

He added, "On Friday in Fayetteville, a group of drag queens dressed in demonic outfits showed up to a childrens book reading filled with conservative and Christian parents and their children."

He also said, "All these drag queens wanted was to force disturbing views on these innocent kids. The lefts predatory behavior is just another conspiracy theory exposed as a fact."

A drag queen protester dressed in black and white is shown moving throughout the crowd during the book reading event in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Protesters are also shown holding signs along the far wall.

Cameron, together with Brave Books, also recently appeared in Hendersonville, Tennessee, for a story time event for kids.

As a result of "unkind pushback" toward Cameron and his team connected to the program they held, a library employee wound up being fired.

Prior to that, Cameron has appeared in other cities and towns that include Indianapolis, Indiana, and Scarsdale, New York.

Earlier, as many as 50 libraries had denied or ignored Cameron's requests to book space in their facilities, with some claiming the messaging did not "align" with their programming. Since then, said Cameron and his publisher, many other libraries have welcomed them and invited them to speak.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

Cameron plans to continue visiting and traveling to public libraries across the country. Stops still to come include Denver, Colorado; Washington, D.C.; and New York City.
It took a while, but Christian Eckes considered it worth the wait.

The driver of the No. 19 earned his first win of the 2023 NASCAR Truck Series on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, prevailing through a record 11 cautions, a late-race restart and an overtime finish.

Not only was the race long on its own  in laps run and time elapsed and pretty much every other metric  but official word that Eckes had won didnt come from NASCAR until a few minutes after hed crossed the start-finish line: A caution flag flew after the white flag was waved, and NASCAR needed to confirm that Eckes was in the lead when the race was called.

And Eckes was.

Id be lying if it wasnt a little emotional, just kind of going through everything that happened over the offseason, Eckes told reporters in the Atlanta Motor Speedway media center after the race Saturday.

Eckes signed with McAnally Hilgemann Racing in December after a relatively uncertain winter leading up to that.

Thats kind of been the moral of my career, is getting to the offseason and not really knowing whats next, he said. Ive really put my foot down and cleaned up everything on my end to be successful and to prove that I can eventually move up and do the same in a higher series.

Nick Sanchez finished second. John Hunter Nemechek finished third.

The race ended up with 17 lead changes, nine leaders and 11 cautions for 58 laps. The previous record for most amount of cautions for a NASCAR Truck Series race at AMS was nine.

Eckes has now notched three Top 10 finishes in as many races this season. He also currently leads the points standings by five over Matt Crafton.

Two moments defined the win for Eckes on Saturday: The first was when Eckes avoided Jack Wood of the 51 who went sideways from the lead late in the race.

I jerked the wheel, Eckes said of eluding Wood. I had the driver eye camera, I dont know if they showed it or not, but I jerked the wheel as hard as I could to the left, and basically just prayed. So yeah, that was pretty big.

Story continues

And then it ultimately came down to the final four laps, with Eckes running on the top line, which had been the preferred line all day, and with Sanchez on the bottom. Heres how it all went down, in Eckes words.

To be honest with you I dont really remember, Eckes said. I knew that the 99 was trying to get on top of 3. I saw him after the race, he said he got loose. Thats all I heard from there. I was just focused on my job, and was focused on the 2 (Sanchez) more than anything to get by him.

Here's a look at the final lap from @ATLMotorSpdwy.



The No. 19 was the leader at the time of caution. pic.twitter.com/1lD1HaLYz2  NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) March 18, 2023

Unofficial results from Atlanta Motor Speedway
A Jacksonville man was apprehended early Friday evening on Mar. 17 after he travelled to Columbia County to meet a 14-year-old girl.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

Columbia County Sheriffs Office said the Selwyn Diaz Diaz, 35, was arrested by detectives after he had been talking with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl. In reality, Diaz Diaz was speaking with one of CCSO detectives the entire time.

The investigation began on Mar. 15, when detectives from the Internet Crimes Against Children unit were contacted by Diaz Diaz through a social media platform. The suspect believed he had been speaking with a 14-year-old girl and made plans to meet the teen in Lake City.

Read: Jacksonville child sex trafficker and producer of videos of child sex abuse sentenced to 55 years

The suspect than travelled on Friday from Jacksonville to meet the teen at a pre-arranged location. Undercover detectives were conducting surveillance at the location when Diaz Diaz arrived. He was taken into custody without incident.

Columbia County Sheriffs Office said the Selwyn Diaz Diaz, 35, was arrested by detectives after he had been talking with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl.

This is a sobering reminder of the dangers that exist to our children, Sheriff Mark Hunter said in a statement. We work proactively with these types of cases to prevent children from becoming victims, but this could have easily been an actual juvenile who could have been victimized. With electronic devices being so common, I would encourage parents to always monitor what their children are doing and who they are communicating with.

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Diaz Diaz confessed to detectives that he intended on meeting the teen in Lake City and taking her back to Jacksonville with him. He was booked into the Columbia County Detention Facility and charged with travelling to meet a minor, solicitation of a minor and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.

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In a new poll, Arizona voters said their top reasons to conserve land were to protect drinking water, to ensure healthier forests, to help threatened wildlife and to conserve wildlife habitat and migration routes. Connecting marginalized communities with less access to the outdoors to natural areas was not the top reason to preserve, but was prioritized in comparison with other conservation goals.

A majority of Arizona voters say they care about increasing access to natural spaces for lower-income populations and communities of color, a new bipartisan poll revealed.

In the survey, 72% of respondents said ensuring marginalized communities are better connected to natural areas was important within the efforts of environmental conservation. Twenty-three percent said they viewed it as not very important or not important at all.

In the United States, communities of color are almost three times more likely than their white counterparts to live in nature deprived areas according to an analysis led by the Center for American Progress and the Hispanic Access Foundation.

Neighborhoods with a majority of Black, Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native or Asian American and Pacific Islander population have about 44% less park acreage than predominantly white neighborhoods, a different report looking at 100 large cities concluded.

In the new poll, Arizona voters said their top reasons to conserve land were to protect drinking water, to ensure healthier forests, to help threatened wildlife and to conserve wildlife habitat and migration routes.

Connecting marginalized communities with less access to the outdoors to natural areas was not the top reason to preserve, but was prioritized in comparison with other conservation goals. Providing opportunities for hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation or ensuring dark-skies protection both ranked lower in the poll.

The Conservation in the West Poll is a yearly effort to measure public sentiment about conservation issues and voter priorities when it comes to the environment. The survey measures the support of U.S. voters in eight Western states on a number of conservation policies, both on historically important environmental issues and emerging ones. This year, researchers placed particular emphasis on the Colorado River and drought issues.

"Respondents also tell that we need to ensure there is access to parks and natural areas for all Americans," said Lori Weigel, the Republican pollster and principal of New Bridge Strategy in a media briefing on Wednesday.

Story continues

Voters' feelings are echoed in the Outdoors for All bill, reintroduced on Wednesday by Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Susan Collins, R-Maine. The bipartisan legislation would expand outdoor recreational opportunities in urban and low-income communities across the nation.

In Arizona, where tree-shade equity is a proven issue, SB 1689 would fund planting trees at schools in lower-income neighborhoods. A different bill, SB 1508, would call for limits on how many major polluters can be sited in lower-income neighborhoods. The deadline for assigning these, and a dozen more bills on climate and environmental issues, was Friday.

Environmental justice: Here's how heat discriminates, and what Phoenix is doing to help those at risk

Minding the gap: Access to nature is unequal

Spending more time outdoors and close to nature brings numerous health benefits, according to a large body of research. Being in natural areas, even if it's not in a "pristine" environment, can alleviate stress, increase academic and work performance, and aid people with clinical depression.

"These disparities are particularly concerning because nature is not an amenity but a necessity for everyones health and well-being," the report said.

The authors assert that the distribution of those disparities, and the brunt of environmental issues on racially and economically marginalized communities, is not an accident.

It was a choice, made over generations, from redlining, to choosing to exclude minorities from certain neighborhoods, to choosing to put parks in certain neighborhoods, and choosing to pave over communities of color to build highways and coal plants, co-author Shanna Edberg told National Geographic in a recent interview.

The fact that a majority of voters sees this "nature gap" as an important issue to focus on is something that should be amplified, said Vanessa Munoz, Conservation Program Manager of Hispanic Access Foundation.

The national nonprofit has been translating the Conservation in the West Poll results to Spanish since 2014, and providing guidance to the surveyors to ensure the representation of Latinos and Hispanic-Americans in the poll.

Offering the poll results in Spanish is important so that other members of the Latino community can be aware of voters' concerns around the environment and become more active in voicing their needs to representatives.

"That was a very interesting result: that everybody is concerned about that lack of access," Munoz told The Arizona Republic. Often times this lack of access is connected to the fact that marginalized communities live in areas that lack green spaces, but it also happens that many do not have the transportation, the time nor the money to recreate in national parks.

To support the access of Latino communities to the outdoors and their involvement to protect natural resources, Hispanic Access Foundation created the Latino Conservation Week: Disfrutando y Conservando Nuestra Tierra. Each July individuals and organizations can apply for funding for outdoor events, anywhere from hiking and fishing trips to rafting and poetry events.

The initiative, which launched in 2014, has seen tremendous growth, from nine events then to over 230 last year.

Our purpose is to create leaders and local support and breach that gap of need for outdoor recreation in communities of color. That can help us inform policy makers that there is that need. Realize that it is a necessity, Munoz said.

Clara Migoya covers environment issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send tips or questions to clara.migoya@arizonarepublic.com.

Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Support environmental journalism in Arizona. Subscribe to azcentral today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona voters want widened access to natural spaces, poll says
Moscow bars Underdog and La Virgen were visited on the evening of 17 March by police officers due to suspicions that they could be allegedly financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Visitors to one of the bars were forced to sing a song by the band Lyube [a Russian rock band infamous for Ruscist and war propaganda  ed.] and draw symbols of Russian aggression.

Source: Russian Latvia-based media outlet Meduza, Russian state-owned news outlets TASS, Russian Telegram channels

Details: It was reported that employees of the Russian law enforcement agencies came to Moscow bars Underdog and La Virgen at around 21:00 on 17 March with a sledgehammer and stun guns, after which the bars announced on social media that they stopped working for the night.

According to TASS, the police came to Moscow bars because of the suspicion that they might be involved in financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Telegram channel SOTA wrote that one of the Underdog visitors was forced by riot police to write the letter "Z" and the words "For Russia" on the door of the bar.

According to the channel, the kind of music changed after the appearance of security forces in the bar. The bar played songs by Shaman [a Russian singer who is under Ukrainian sanctions for his propaganda activities  ed.] and Lyube.

Mediazona reported on Telegram, citing an employee from the bar Underdog, that the police forced visitors to sing along, threatening them with stun guns. It was noted that people with tattoos were asked to undress.

Moskva Telegram channel published a video of security forces mockingly calling on visitors to "belt out" the words of a Lyube song.

Later, OVD-Info wrote that there were detainees among the visitors and staff of the two bars who were taken to the Department of Internal Affairs of the Basmanny district of Moscow.

According to the Pervy Otdel human rights project, about 40 people were detained in total. Most of them were released. The detainees said that they were interrogated by Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
A residential neighborhood in Tulare County's Woodlake community after heavy rains this week. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Flooding continued along several Central California rivers Saturday after this week's devastating storm, but emergency response officials are increasingly optimistic that the worst may be over for now.

A new storm forecast for early next week was trending southward, away from the Central Valley and coastal areas that saw severe flooding in the 11th atmospheric river to hit the state this rainy season. A weaker and colder storm will bring snow and lighter, steady rain to Southern California.

Up to 2 feet of snow is forecast for San Bernardino Mountain communities. Colder temperatures should bring the snow level below 4,000 feet, reducing the likelihood of flooding from rain-melted runoff.

Historic snowfall this month stranded dozens of people and damaged buildings in the San Bernardino Mountains and was considered a factor in 13 deaths.

"We're not looking at flash flooding," said Samantha Connolly, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service's San Diego station, which covers San Bernardino County. "Minor flooding could occur on low-water crossings."

Southern California coastal and valley communities can expect rainfall of "significant and long duration but light to moderate" intensity Sunday night through Wednesday, said meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld of the National Weather Service's Los Angeles-Oxnard station.

The midday forecast Saturday called for 1  to 2  inches in the flatlands and up to 5 inches in the foothills and mountains, Schoenfeld said. Peak rainfall should be no more than half an inch per hour.

Snowfall is expected as low as 5,500 Monday, lowering to below 4,000 feet Wednesday with up to 3 feet falling on the higher peaks and 3 to 4 inches at the Grapevine.

The southward shift is taking pressure off the central part of the state, where flooding in recent storms caused severe damage and upended thousands of lives.

In the southern San Joaquin Valley, the raging Tule River washed out homes in the foothill community of Springville.

Story continues

A levee failure on the Pajaro River in Monterey County triggered flooding and prompted hundreds of evacuations. Authorities conducted 60 rescues.

"It looks like we'll get a break Monday," meteorologist Cory Mueller said in the National Weather Service's Sacramento station. "We're not expecting major issues with flooding. Mountain travel issues will be our biggest impact. Winter driving conditions can be expected for long stretches of highways in the mountains."

Minor flooding occurred Saturday on several northern rivers and was tapering off in most cases.

The National Weather Services issued a warning Saturday that the Merced River had topped its banks at Stevinson, about 20 miles west of Merced, reaching a maintenance building in a city park. The river was expected to continue rising through Sunday evening, exceeding the river's previous crest by more than a foot.

The Salinas River was reported to be receding Saturday after flooding agricultural land near Spreckels, just south of Salinas. The river was expected to fall below flood level by Saturday afternoon.

Flooding of the San Joaquin River near Vernalis, southeast of Tracy, was expected to continue Saturday but had not reached the historic level set in 1986.

"We can still expect rain with this upcoming system," said Sarah McCorkle, meteorologist with the National Weather Service station in Monterey. "We have rain coming through tonight, a quick-moving cold front."

But, she said, "That is looking to not impact Monterey as much. We've seen rain totals go down."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy states that the current battles in Donbas make restoring security to Ukraine and all of Europe possible.

Source: evening address of the President of Ukraine

Quote: "I will once again mark our soldiers in Donetsk Oblast, those who "subtract" (i.e. kill  ed.) the enemy the most. Marines of the 35th and 36th separate brigades, fighters of the 79th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, soldiers of the 11th Border Detachment, 55th Separate Artillery Brigade, the 72nd Separate Mechanised Brigade, and the 74th Separate Reconnaissance [Battalion]... I thank you, soldiers!

I especially thank everyone who defends Bakhmut every day.

The battles right there, precisely in these parts of Donbas  Vuhledar, Bakhmut, Mariinka, Bilohorivka, Avdiivka, Kamianka  make it possible to bring back security to Ukraine, to all of Europe, to every nation that values its freedom and the integrity of its land."

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
A Belleville man was charged Thursday with first-degree murder in the 2022 slaying of a man who had been shot in the parking lot of a Cahokia Heights liquor store.

Dwight Smith, 27, was arrested in Belleville this week without incident, said Cahokia Heights Detective DeMarius Thomas.

He is accused of shooting Tommie Stevenson, 23, of Fairview Heights, on July 4, 2022.

Police had received a 3:10 p.m. report of a man down from gunshots at 4607 Bond Avenue in Cahokia Heights. Stevenson was found on the ground in the parking lot of Pops Liquor Store. He was taken to Touchette Regional Hospital where he died, Thomas said.

Police have been looking for their suspect since the shooting.

Its been a year, Thomas said. Once we reached out to media and received help in getting his picture out, tips started coming in.
Photograph: Etienne Laurent/EPA

The Biden administration has quietly resumed deportations to Russia, an apparent reversal of the position adopted after Russia invaded Ukraine just over a year ago, when such removals were suspended, the Guardian has learned.

Immigration advocates were taken by surprise when a young Russian man, who came to the US fleeing Vladimir Putins efforts to mobilize citizens to fight in Ukraine, was abruptly deported at the weekend from the US back to Russia.

Related: Biden and Putin both implicitly tie their futures to the outcome in Ukraine

He was among several Russian asylum seekers, many of whom have made their way to the US in the last year, who are now terrified the US government will return them to Russia where they could face prison or be sent rapidly to the frontline, where Russia has seen tens of thousands of casualties.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) remains committed to enforcing immigration laws humanely, effectively and with professionalism. Ice facilitates the transfer and removal of non-citizens via commercial airlines and chartered flights in support of mission requirements, the federal agency said this week, adding: Ice conducts removals to countries, including Russia, in accordance with country removal guidelines.

News of resumed deportations to Russia came just over a year after reports that the Biden administration had suspended deportation flights to Russia, Ukraine and seven other countries in Europe during Russias attack on Ukraine. It is unclear when deportations to Russia resumed. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Migrants from Russia came to the US thinking they could seek asylum and be protected from deportation because of the stated government position. Now the apparent change in policy has caused confusion for migrants and their advocates who are left with little time to plan.

Jennifer Scarborough, a Texas-based attorney whose clients include four Russian men who entered the US across the border from Mexico and sought asylum, is among those contending with policy confusion. These men cited fear of being drafted to fight in petitioning for asylum.

Story continues

Scarborough said she was told by Ice officials that one of her clients was deported at the weekend and she explained that his legal and residency status mean she has no doubt he was taken to Russia.

I dont know whats going to happen to him, Scarborough said. Russia has been incredibly vocal about their feelings towards opposition. Just the fact that they fled Russia to come to the United States puts them at risk.

Two of Scarboroughs other clients remain in legal limbo as they are effectively out of options in their requests for asylum. The men stated during their respective credible fear interviews  meetings with immigration officers where asylum seekers must explain there is significant possibility of persecution or torture if returned home  that they feared being drafted to fight in Ukraine and repercussions if they did not comply.

The Guardian is withholding the identities of the clients concerned, due to fears of retribution.

Related: We had no choice: over 8,000 Russians seek US refuge in six-month period

Immigration officers ruled that fear of conscription did not meet the criteria for a credible fear determination and they each appealed before an immigration judge, who agreed that they did not meet the criteria, Scarborough said.

Scarborough said that these two men were not aware they only had seven days to request a new credible fear interview following the judges decision. These two men did not make their request by this deadline, so they were not able to get another interview, Scarborough said.

These two men now have pending removal orders  that is, they could potentially be deported to Russia at any time. One is presently in immigration detention in Louisiana while the other was released after going on hunger strike, Scarborough said.

One of Scarboroughs three remaining US clients in this situation did manage to file paperwork in time  and subsequently received an opportunity for a new credible fear interview. During this second interview, immigration officers did determine that fear of being drafted was a valid asylum claim that established credible fear, Scarborough said.

While receiving a credible fear determination is just an initial step in having a potentially successful asylum claim, it is important for asylum seekers, as immigration officials have largely been releasing migrants who meet this criteria as they go through the application process, Scarborough explained.

Fleeing the draft can actually be a valid claim for asylum, Scarborough said, later adding that she did not understand how the resumption of deportation flights squared with the US stance on Russia.

If were against this war, then why are we saying that Russia has a right to conduct this draft and deport people to fight in this draft and to fight in Ukraine?

Related: Russia disinformation looks to US far right to weaken Ukraine support

I dont understand how you put those two policies side by side, she said. I just have questions about when they restarted this and why. In March of 2022, the US said they were stopping deportations to Russia because of the political situation  so I dont understand why they restarted it and they did it so quietly.

Meanwhile, Ice noted to the Guardian that: US immigration laws allow non-citizens to pursue relief from removal  including credible fear proceedings; however, once all due process and appeals have been exhausted, and non-citizens remain subject to a final order of removal from an immigration judge, Ice officers may carry out the removal.
President Biden is calling on Congress to give regulators the authority to claw back executive compensation in the wake of a string of bank failures.

"When banks fail due to mismanagement and excessive risk taking, it should be easier for regulators to claw back compensation from executives, to impose civil penalties, and to ban executives from working in the banking industry again," Biden said in a statement.

"Congress must act to impose tougher penalties for senior bank executives whose mismanagement contributed to their institutions failing."

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the banking crisis after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. March 13, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Biden's comments come after the president said Monday "no one is above the law" and those responsible for the failures should be held accountable.

Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is also calling for stronger rules to rein in risky behavior of banks, and said he and the committee will look at ways to hold executives accountable.

"We need stronger rules to rein in risky behavior and catch incompetence," Brown said. "Our job on our committee is oversight, and we will be looking at all the ways we can protect working families' money from risky bets that didnt pay off in Silicon Valley or on Wall Street."

Waters calls on regulators to finish 'long overdue' process

House Financial Services Committee ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) also sent a letter Friday to Fed Chair Jay Powell, FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg, and SEC Chair Gensler urging them use the full extent of their authority to hold Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank executives accountable.

Waters also urged regulators to explore their ability to claw back compensation.

"I ask that any punitive action consider profits or gains these executives may have made by selling their stock in the days and weeks leading up to the bank's failures, whether the sale was due to 10b5-1 plans, direct sales, or through broker discretionary accounts, through derivatives or hedging activities," the letter reads.

Story continues

Waters also said she is working to develop and enact legislation to advance President Biden's direction to Congress.

"Your agencies must finish that long overdue rule-making this year and ensure it also includes a robust clawback requirement and consider taking further measures so that executives are not rewarded with big bonuses if their bank is mismanaged or fails," the letter reads.

Along with Waters, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) also called for clawbacks of executive compensation earlier this week. Both have blamed a Trump-era rollback of capital requirements for small and mid-sized banks for the bank failures. Warren, along with Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), has introduced legislation to repeal those changes.

The actions come as reports surface Silicon Valley Bank's CEO cashed out of stock and stock options just weeks before the bank's failure.

Officials are trying to contain problems from the failure of Silicon Valley bank and Signature Bank from rippling through the banking system and infecting other banks.

Late last Sunday night, the Treasury Department, along with the FDIC and Federal Reserve, announced it would backstop all deposits at Silicon Valley Bank, as well as seize Signature Bank, as cracks in the financial system rocked markets.

Treasury Secretary Yellen said during testimony before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday policymakers need to examine the liquidity requirements needed for a bank with such a heavy reliance on uninsured, runnable deposits.

Click here for the latest economic news and economic indicators to help you in your investing decisions

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
President Biden denied that his family received more than $1 million in payments from accounts related to Hunter Bidens business associate Rob Walker and their Chinese business ventures in 2017, even though financial records indicate otherwise.

On Thursday, GOP lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee revealed that they had obtained bank documents showing that Hunter Biden, the president's brother Jim, and Hallie Biden, the widow of his son Beau, received payments from Hunter's business associate Rob Walker and their joint venture with Chinese energy firm CEFC. A spokesperson for Hunter Biden's legal team confirmed the payments Thursday but emphasized that the recipients' accounts "belonged to Hunter, his uncle and Hallie  nobody else."

However, Biden denied that the payments were made when confronted by a reporter on the White House lawn Friday.

"That's not true," the president said, when asked about the GOP lawmakers' findings.

BIDEN FAMILY RECEIVED MORE THAN $1M FROM HUNTER ASSOCIATE AFTER 2017 CHINA WIRE: HOUSE OVERSIGHT

President Biden speaks with reporters before departing from the South Lawn of the White House on Marine One on March 17, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The president denied that members of his family received more than $1 million in payments from Hunter Biden's business associate, who was linked to a Chinese firm.

Financial records that Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed from Bank of America say otherwise.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

The records revealed that on March 1, 2017, less than two months after then-Vice President Joe Biden left office, State Energy HK Limited, a separate Chinese company, wired $3 million to Robinson Walker, LLC.

"The next day, Robinson Walker, LLC wired $1,065,000 to European Energy and Infrastructure Group in Abu Dhabi, a company associated with James Gilliar," a memo from the committee states.

Gilliar was a business partner of Hunter Biden involved in his foreign business ventures.

HUNTER BIDEN: SUBPOENAED BANK OF AMERICA RECORDS OPENED 'NEW AVENUES' OF INVESTIGATION, HOUSE OVERSIGHT SAYS

"After the Robinson Walker, LLC account received $3 million from State Energy HK Limited, Biden family members and their companies began receiving incremental payments over a period of approximately three months," the memo states. "The recipients of the money included Hallie Biden, companies associated with Hunter Biden and James Biden, and an unknown bank account identified as Biden."

Story continues

Republican lawmakers say they are probing whether the Biden family leveraged Joe Biden's former position as vice president to make lucrative deals with foreign nationals.



The White House in a statement did not deny the findings, but blasted the committee's investigation into the Biden family.

"After a disgusting attack lamenting that the Presidents deceased son Beau was never prosecuted while he was alive, Congressman Comer has now decided to go after Beaus widow," said White House spokesman Ian Sams said, referring to comments Comer made earlier this month about the late Beau Biden's campaign contributions.

HUNTER BIDEN: TREASURY TO GIVE HOUSE OVERSIGHT ACCESS TO SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS, COMER SAYS

"Instead of bizarrely attacking the Presidents family, perhaps House Republicans should focus on working with the President to deliver results for American families on important priorities like lowering costs and strengthening health care," Sams said.

Hunter Biden's legal team accused Republicans of pushing a "baseless right-wing conspiracy theory," even as they confirmed that the payments had happened.

"Hunter Biden, a private citizen with every right to pursue his own business endeavors, joined several business partners in seeking a joint venture with a privately-owned, legitimate energy company in China," the spokesperson said. "As part of that joint venture, Hunter received his portion of good faith seed funds which he shared with his uncle, James Biden, and Hallie Biden, with whom he was involved with at the time, and sharing expenses."

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
President Biden on Friday said the International Criminal Court (ICC) is justified in issuing an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over allegations of war crimes.

Well, I think its justified, Biden told reporters before leaving the White House for Delaware. But the question is, its not recognized internationally by us, either. But I think it makes a very strong point.

Asked whether Putin should be tried for war crimes, Biden did not directly answer, but said the Russian leader has clearly committed war crimes.

The ICC earlier Friday issued an arrest warrant for Putin and another Russian official. The warrant is believed to be one of the first charges against Putin for war crimes in Ukraine, part of a global effort to hold the Russian president and the Russian Federation accountable for atrocities beginning with the full-scale February 2022 invasion.

The warrant targets Putin over alleged war crimes, and it cites him and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, commissioner for childrens rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, for the forced deportation of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territory to Russia.

The Kremlin blasted the allegations, noting it does not cooperate with the ICC.

We consider the very posing of the question outrageous and unacceptable. Russia, like a number of states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and, accordingly, any decisions of this kind are null and void for the Russian Federation from the point of view of law, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tweeted Friday.

The United States is no longer a party to the ICC and does not recognize its authority.

Vice President Harris last month told an international security conference that the U.S. had formally determined Russia had committed crimes against humanity, arguing Russian soldiers had conducted widespread attacks against Ukrainian civilians that included murder, torture and rape.

Story continues

Putin is expected to meet next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. U.S. officials have warned that China may be considering providing support to Russia for its war effort in Ukraine.

Asked about his expectations for the meeting between Xi and Putin, Biden said well see when that meeting takes place.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Branding has become evident in almost everything we do today.

Many big brands work to convey an image that seems more intimate than corporate. But do we serve our community when we support those big brands over the local alternative? This week, I draw attention to the consequences of doing that.

A poster child of this phenomenon are Starbucks Coffee houses. At first, they were the star of the Pacific Northwest. They created a cult around coffee that although it was mainstream, had very much a club sort of feel. As a loyal customer, you belonged.

In the beginning, Starbucks had some unique qualities too  like the music it played. It used the power of a bigger organization to develop its own label and produced CDs that had a unique feel. Born was an underground trend that created another buzz besides the coffee.

However, as the popularity increased and the Starbucks locations expanded to almost every corner, the music like everything else became more mainstream and less unique.

That seems to be where the big box concept of pleasing everyone all the time begins. Or, should we call it, catering to the lowest common denominator?

There are big box concepts now in many industries. To some degree, they allow the little independent places to exist just by being so mundane. Of course they offer similar goods and services as many small businesses at lower prices. Often, that is what convinces us to switch.

It used to be that when the local place was replaced by Starbucks, a new independent joint would spring up in its place around the corner. It was like the forces of Nature that bring the Monarch butterflies back from Mexico every summer. However, these days even the forces of Nature have changed their habits.

It doesnt help to pine for the old coffee shop that is no longer. But we can look for the new one that has opened, and then support their efforts, appreciating that it costs them more to create a niche and be different.

I know we wont stop using corporate companies. It might make sense to buy your toilet paper at a big box store. Stopping at Timmies or Starbucks doesnt make you a bad person. We just need to be aware of what happens when we forget about those little guys entirely.

In our world, we are so used to having comforts and convenience. Perhaps that is why we want the consistency that can be easy for chains and corporate culture to provide. Is that why we often slide into the comfort zone of their drive-throughs or online stores? Is that more important than having different options or local flavour?

I just want us all to remember, it takes people who want some variety in life, and who are proud to support the community for the little guys to survive. Then there will still be little corner coffee shops who play unheard-of music and independent retailers that have local art on the walls or food on the shelves.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
By Jeff Mason and Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday the banking crisis has calmed down after the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank.

Biden has sought to reassure investors and depositors that the global banking system is safe as financial stocks have lost billions of dollars in value since the collapse of the two mid-size U.S. lenders over the past week. Biden, earlier this week, promised Americans that their deposits are safe.

"Yes," Biden told reporters at the White House on Friday when asked if the banking crisis had calmed down.

Californian regulators shuttered Silicon Valley Bank last Friday and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. It was the largest collapse since Washington Mutual failed during the financial crisis of 2008.

On Friday, the bank's parent, SVB Financial Group, said it had filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Large U.S. banks injected $30 billion in deposits into First Republic Bank a day earlier, swooping in to rescue the mid-sized lender caught up in the crisis triggered by the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank.

The deal was put together by power brokers including U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

Earlier on Friday, Biden had called on Congress to give regulators greater power over the banking sector, including leveraging higher fines for managers, clawing back executives' compensation and barring officials from failed banks.

Specifically, Biden is asking Congress to give the FDIC greater authority to claw back compensation, "including gains from stock sales  from executives at failed banks like Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank," the White House said on Friday.

Democrats who have been calling for tougher banking regulation were quick to hail Biden's statement, but it is unclear whether it has bipartisan support in Congress.

Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker sold $3.6 million worth of shares in late February, about two weeks before the bank entered FDIC receivership, Bloomberg and CNBC reported.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, writing by Kanishka Singh, editing by Sandra Maler and Lincoln Feast.)
US president Joe Biden said on Friday his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin clearly committed war crimes during the course of Moscows full-scale invasion of Ukraine since the conflict erupted in the former Soviet nation in February last year.

Hes clearly committed war crimes, the US president said on Friday referring to the Russian leader.

Speaking on the arrest warrant for Mr Putin issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday, Mr Biden said: Well, I think its justified. But the question is  it is not recognised internationally by us either. But I think it makes a very strong point.

The US is not a member country of the global court.

The international court accused Mr Putin of war crimes by taking hundreds of Ukrainian children from the war-torn nations orphanages.

Russian president and his childrens rights commissioner Maria Alekseyevna Lvoya-Belova have carried out unlawful deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

The first such arrest warrant against the Russian leader allows the courts 123 member states to detain Mr Putin over for trial if he sets foot on their territory, making several nation states a dangerous territory for the Kremlins president.

Moscow has squarely rejected the arrest warrant on Friday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia doesnt recognise the ICC and regards its decisions legally void.

The international courts move to issue an arrest warrant for Mr Putin over war crimes is outrageous and unacceptable.

Mr Peskov refused to comment when asked if the Russian president would avoid making trips to countries where he could be arrested on the ICCs warrant.

In a separate conclusion, the US has accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine and said it backs accountability for perpetrators of war crimes.

"There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities (in) Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible must be held accountable," a state department spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Story continues

"This was a decision the ICC prosecutor reached independently based on the facts before him."

According to a US-backed report by Yale University, Russia has captured at least 6,000 Ukrainian children in at least 43 camps and other facilities as part of a large-scale systematic network.

Separately, Ukraines prosecutor general Andriy Kostin has said that his office has recorded more than 70,000 potential war crime cases so far in the last 13 months.
President Joe Biden. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

US President Joe Biden said an international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin was "justified."

The warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court, which the US and Russia don't recognize.

Neither nation has signed onto the Rome Statute, limiting the Hague's jurisdiction over the countries.

US President Joe Biden commended the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on Friday.

On Friday, the ICC released a report accusing the Russian president of "war crimes," declaring him an international pariah by issuing an arrest warrant against him. The news was roundly welcomed globally, even by countries that don't recognize the court  including the US.

"I think it's justified, but the question is it's not recognized internationally by us either. But I think it makes a very strong point," Biden said, according to CNN.

In the ICC's report, officials said Putin was "allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."

The report largely revolved around allegations the UN has also put forth, claiming that Russia committed war crimes by forcefully deporting and transferring children from Ukraine to Russia.

Russia does not recognize the ICC, and the US's relationship with the court has been fraught, according to Human Rights Watch. Ukraine does not fully recognize the court, although it allows The Hague to investigate alleged crimes against humanity committed in its territory.

Several US administrations have rejected to sign the Rome Statute which binds nations to the ICC's jurisdiction, meaning that most US nationals accused of war crimes in places like Afghanistan can't be prosecuted by the court, although the US cooperates with the court in limited capacities, according to HRW.

In response to the ICC's declaration on Friday, a State Department spokesperson told Insider "there is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible must be held accountable."

Story continues

"The ICC Prosecutor is an independent actor and makes his own prosecutorial decisions based on the evidence before him. We support accountability for perpetrators of war crimes," the spokesperson added.

Ukrainian officials praised the decision. The Kremlin called the decision "outrageous," and "legally void," the Associated Press reported.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Banning TikTok has become a bipartisan issue, but it's not easy. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images; Drew Angerer/Getty Images; Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

As the Biden administration pushes for a TikTok sale or ban, it's clear the idea has bipartisan support.

Lawmakers are pushing for a sale, so they avoid the backlash that comes with banning it.

Experts say an ideal outcome would be a better framework for Chinese owned apps operating in the US.

Former US President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden agree on at least one thing: Something has to be done about TikTok.

TikTok's future in the US is once again under question. The Biden administration is demanding that TikTok divest its American business from Bytedance, the Chinese company which owns it, in order to address what it sees as a potential risk to national security.

We've been here before, when the Trump administration pushed TikTok to sell its US operations in much the same way. At that time, Oracle and Walmart put together a successful bid for TikTok's US business, but the deal fell apart as Trump left office.

While the Biden administration's approach to TikTok has been slightly different, it's clear that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle support a TikTok ban. And political power is aligning to make something happen, and soon.

There is a bill going through Congress right now, introduced by Democratic Senator Mark Warner, that would allow the federal government to regulate and ban foreign-produced technology, including TikTok. It's called the RESTRICT Act, and would essentially give the secretary of commerce power to regulate tech produced by six countries that have adversarial relationships with the US: China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela.

However, the Biden administration is hesitant to back a ban without first trying other options for the same overarching political reasons that Trump's TikTok ban ultimately never happened: because the White House doesn't want to alienate younger voters, many of whom are TikTok users, experts said.

"TikTok is an incredibly popular application among US users, many of which skew younger," said Mark Shmulik, an analyst with Bernstein, on Biden's hesitation to do an outright ban "And you can hypothesize that they may skew and vote Democrat a little bit more."

Story continues

By comparison, it's a very different situation as when the Trump administration banned Chinese tech giant like Huawei  that company didn't enjoy the widespread consumer popularity of TikTok, Shmulik said, which meant politicians didn't have the same backlash to worry about.

Ultimately, experts say they hope this scenario results in guidelines for how other Chinese social media companies can operate in the US.

TikTok Bans are already in place in governments and schools, but a more holistic ban is harder

Government bans on TikTok have been put in place over the last few months. A bill to ban TikTok on federal devices passed in December with bipartisan support in Congress, and was then signed by President Biden. More than two dozen states, including Wisconsin and North Carolina, have banned it on state government owned devices, in turn.

Other countries, like the UK, are now also implementing similar bans.

Schools and universities are also considering banning it, which has not been well received by students, according to a report from Inside Higher Ed.

That's likely to happen on a wider scale if the Biden Administration pushed for an immediate ban, experts said. It's likely why they are asking for TikTok to sell its US business, Shmulik said.

China is likely to oppose the path to any kind of sale of TikTok's US assets before bidding even starts. In particular, China would likely not allow a sale to include its content-recommendation algorithm to a US entity, which is seen as the company's secret sauce.

China views the transfer of TikTok's algorithm into another country's hands as a national security concern, said David Glancy, a professor at the Institute of World Politics. The US government knows that very well, Glancy suggests, but, in going this route the Americans can say they at least tried to work out a better solution than a ban.

"The president can kind of come out and say, look, we gave them a chance to run as an independent kind of company, they refused it, so China wants to be involved in it. We can't have that for security reasons and therefore here comes a ban," Shmulik said.

Experts say the best outcome is a framework for how Chinese tech and media companies can operate in the US

Some experts say the government is genuine about trying to find another solution besides a ban  in part because the relationship between the US and China is so entwined that banning TikTok isn't a long-term solution.

"In some ways TikTok is the face of US/China tech competition now," said Lindsay Gorman, a senior fellow for emerging technologies at the Alliance for Securing Democracy at GMF. "There's a real question of whether a TikTok ban or sale is gonna be a one-off, or are we gonna really put in place some better systems."

There are many other companies looking at what TikTok has achieved in garnering a global user base, and following the same playbook. For example, Temu and Shein are extremely popular Chinese companies with apps available in the US. Like TikTok, both platforms collect user data from US customers as part of their day-to-day operations, Insider previously reported.

Gorman is closely watching Warner's RESTRICT Act, which she supports on the basis that it doesn't single out TikTok. That approach may be the more holistic approach that threads the needle on policy, appeasing the national security community. Either way, experts like Gorman and Glancy said, something has to be done given the rise of China-owned apps in America.

"Across the board there's a re-look at China and China technology sort of in a bigger way," Glancy said. "From a US national security view, I think it's overdue."

Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at pzaveri@insider.com or Signal at 415-322-3101. (PR pitches by email only, please.)

Read the original article on Business Insider
Bill Oakley

DOVER  Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital has launched a resident chaplain program to better meet the spiritual needs of patients, families and caregivers.

Bill Oakley is the first full-time resident chaplain at the hospital and is available for spiritual care and other needs that arise.

Union Hospital has received outstanding care from volunteer chaplains from our community for many years, and we are very excited to take this next step in providing spiritual care for our patients, said Dr. Thomas Rogers, president of Union Hospital. We know the importance that spiritual care plays in supporting patients dealing with health challenges and their loved ones, as well as our caregivers.

Oakley grew up near Columbus and, after serving several churches as a youth minister, moved to Northeast Ohio in 2001.

He received a bachelors degree in business from Bowling Green State University, obtained his ordination through Berean School of the Bible in Springfield, Missouri, and recently earned a master of divinity in chaplaincy from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. He joined the certified pastoral education program at Cleveland Clinic in May 2022 and served his clinical chaplain hours at Cleveland Clinic Akron General.

The Cleveland Clinic Spiritual Care Center is staffed with trained professionals who provide the attention, care and resources that patients, their families and caregivers need.

Oakley and his wife, Lisa, have two adult children, one who is an elementary schoolteacher and one who is a student at the University of Akron. They live in Copley.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Bill Oakley named resident chaplain at Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital
Rep. Stan McClain, R-Ocala, debates on an immigration bill during session Thursday May 2, 2019, in Tallahassee, Fla. Steve Cannon/Associated Press

A proposed bill in Florida limits sexual health education to grades six through twelve.

The lawmaker who proposed the bill conceded it would ban younger girls from discussing periods.

A Democratic lawmaker pointed out girls typically get their periods from ages 10 to 15.

A bill backed by Republicans in Florida would ban girls younger than grade six from discussing their periods while at school, according to the lawmaker who proposed the legislation.

State Rep. Stan McClain proposed House Bill 1069, which would limit instruction on sexual and reproductive health to grades six through 12. The bill is part of a string of laws being pushed by Florida Republicans related to gender and sexuality.

In a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, Democratic state Rep. Ashley Gantt asked McClain if the bill would "prohibit conversations about menstrual cycles" for girls who get their periods before sixth grade, noting girls typically start menstruating from ages 10 to 15, which would include fourth and fifth graders.

McClain responded: "It would."

Florida Planned Parenthood Action (@PPactionFL) March 15, 2023

Representatives for McClain and Gantt did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment on Friday evening.

McClain later said that banning young girls from talking about their periods "would not be the intent of the bill" and that he would be open to a potential amendment, according to The Washington Post.

The bill ended up passing the subcommittee, with members voting along party lines. Republicans currently have supermajorities in the Florida House and Senate, and Gov. Ron DeSantis has generally been supportive of the recent wave of bills related to gender.

Gantt told the Post she thought the bill was "egregious," adding: "I thought it was pretty remarkable that the beginning of a little girl's menstrual cycle was not contemplated as they drafted this bill."

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Huseyin Hayatsever and Michelle Nichols

ANKARA/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -A deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain was renewed on Saturday for at least 60 days - half the intended period - after Russia warned any further extension beyond mid-May would depend on the removal of some Western sanctions.

The pact was brokered with Russia and Ukraine by the United Nations and Turkey in July and renewed for a further 120 days in November. The aim was to combat a global food crisis that was fueled in part by Russia's Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine and Black Sea blockade.

The deal had been set to expire on Saturday.

The United Nations and Turkey said on Saturday that the deal had been extended, but did not specify for how long. Ukraine said it had been extended for 120 days. But Russia's cooperation is needed and Moscow only agreed to renew the pact for 60 days.

"The Black Sea Grain Initiative, alongside the Memorandum of Understanding on promoting Russian food products and fertilizers to the world markets, are critical for global food security, especially for developing countries," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Russia and Ukraine are key global suppliers of food commodities and Russia is also a top exporter of fertilizer.

Ukraine's Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky said Ukraine had supplied nearly 500,000 tonnes of wheat for U.N. aid programs, and insisted on Saturday that the Black Sea export pact had been extended for 120 days and was an opportunity to keep helping those in need and "save the world from hunger."

To help persuade Russia to allow Ukraine to resume its Black Sea grain exports last year, a three-year deal was also struck in July in which the United Nations agreed to help Russia with its food and fertilizer exports.

DEMANDS

Western powers have imposed tough sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. While its food and fertilizer exports are not sanctioned, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance industries are a barrier to shipments.

Story continues

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Friday that the European Union, the United States and Britain now "have two months to exempt from their sanctions the entire chain of operations which accompany the Russian agricultural sector," if they want the Ukraine Black Sea grain deal to continue.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield responded that Washington had "gone to extraordinary lengths to communicate the clear carve-outs for food and fertilizers to governments and to the private sector."

In a letter to U.N. officials dated March 16, and posted on Twitter by a Russian diplomat on Saturday, Nebenzia spelled out what Moscow wanted resolved - allowing the Russian Agricultural Bank to return to the SWIFT banking system and allowing the supply to Russia of agricultural machinery and spare parts.

Nebenzia also said restrictions need to be lifted on insurance and access to ports for Russian ships and cargo, a pipeline that delivers Russian ammonia to a Ukrainian Black Sea port needs to be restarted, and the accounts and financial activities of Russian fertilizer companies should be unblocked.

The United Nations has said that while progress has been made on facilitating Russian agricultural exports, there were still impediments, particularly in relation to payment systems.

Dujarric said on Saturday that the United Nations was strongly committed to implementing both the Ukraine Black Sea grain deal and the pact with Moscow and urged "all sides to redouble their efforts to implement them fully."

Ukraine has so far exported nearly 25 million tonnes of mainly corn and wheat under the deal, according to the United Nations. The top primary destinations for shipments have been China, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the Netherlands.

(Additional reporting by Max Hunder and Nick Starkov in Kyiv; writing by Michelle NicholsEditing by Frances Kerry, Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Ros Russell and Chizu Nomiyama)
(Reuters) -BlackRock said on Saturday it had no plans or interest in acquiring embattled Swiss lender Credit Suisse, a spokesperson for the U.S. asset manager told Reuters.

"BlackRock is not participating in any plans to acquire all or any part of Credit Suisse, and has no interest in doing so," the spokesperson said.

The Financial Times reported BlackRock had been working on a rival bid for Credit Suisse aiming to counter a plan for UBS AG to acquire the struggling bank. It later updated that story to include BlackRock's denial of any interest or involvement in such a deal.

The FT cited five people with knowledge of the matter as saying the world's largest asset manager had evaluated a number of options and had talked with other investors.

The FT said that possible options included bids for only individual parts of the business.

Reuters earlier reported Credit Suisse was weighing up its survival options and was under pressure from regulators to pursue a deal with UBS.

Separately, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Saturday UBS was examining a takeover of Credit Suisse that could see the Swiss government offer a guarantee against the risks involved.

Credit Suisse declined to comment.

(Reporting by Sneha Bhowmik in Bengaluru and Amanda Cooper in London; Editing by Frances Kerry and Hugh Lawson)
(Reuters) - BlackRock Inc Vice Chairman Philipp Hildebrand is taking part in talks as Swiss officials try to put together a deal for UBS Group to take over Credit Suisse Group AG, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday, citing unidentified sources.

Asked about the report, BlackRock spokesman Ryan O'Keeffe said in a telephone interview that "Philipp has no formal involvement in these discussions at all."

Hildebrand, who joined New York-based asset manager BlackRock in 2012, previously chaired the governing board of the Swiss National Bank. According to his biography on BlackRock's website, in that capacity he also was a member of the Financial Stability Board, where he was appointed vice chairman in 2011.

Sources have told Reuters that UBS was mulling a takeover of embattled peer Credit Suisse, which could allay fears that an unfolding crisis at the latter bank could destabilize the global financial system.

Earlier on Saturday, BlackRock said it has no plans or interest in acquiring Credit Suisse, after a report it was working on a bid to counter UBS.

(Reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
While it may not be enough for some shareholders, we think it is good to see the Bodycote plc (LON:BOY) share price up 10% in a single quarter. But if you look at the last five years the returns have not been good. After all, the share price is down 33% in that time, significantly under-performing the market.

Now let's have a look at the company's fundamentals, and see if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business.

Check out our latest analysis for Bodycote

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

During the five years over which the share price declined, Bodycote's earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 4.8% each year. This reduction in EPS is less than the 8% annual reduction in the share price. This implies that the market is more cautious about the business these days.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

We know that Bodycote has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? If you're interested, you could check this free report showing consensus revenue forecasts.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. In the case of Bodycote, it has a TSR of -19% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

Story continues

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 2.9% in the twelve months, Bodycote shareholders did even worse, losing 11% (even including dividends). Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 4% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Bodycote better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Bodycote you should be aware of.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on British exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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Photo: The Canadian Press

Donald Trump said in a social media post that he expects to be arrested Tuesday as a New York prosecutor is eyeing charges in a case examining hush money paid to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president.

Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network early Saturday that illegal leaks from the Manhattan district attorney's office indicate that THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK.

Messages left Saturday with the district attorneys office were not immediately returned. Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

Trump did not provide any details on social media about how he knew about the expected arrest. In his postings, he repeated his lies that the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden was stolen and he urged his followers to PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK! That language evoked the message from the then-president that preceded the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Law enforcement officials in New York have been making security preparations for the possibility that Trump could be indicted.

There has been no public announcement of any time frame for the grand jurys secret work in the case, including any potential vote on whether to indict the ex-president.

Trump's posting echoes one made last summer when he broke the news on Truth Socia that the FBI was searching his home as part of an investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents.

The grand jury in Manhattan has been hearing from witnesses, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who says he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to silence them about sexual encounters they said they had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump denies the encounters occurred, says he did nothing wrong and has cast the investigation as a witch hunt by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republicans 2024 presidential campaign.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Trumps company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the womens allegations quiet.

Daniels and at least two former Trump aides  onetime political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokesperson Hope Hicks  are among witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks.

Cohen has said that at Trumps direction, he arranged payments totaling $280,000 to porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the payouts were to buy their silence about Trump, who was then in the thick of his first presidential campaign.
By Allison Lampert and Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York state judge on Friday rejected an attempt by Bombardier Inc to dismiss a lawsuit by a group of hedge funds that accused the business jet maker of short-changing them by selling new debt after divesting major businesses in 2020 and 2021.

Justice Andrew Borrok of the Manhattan Supreme Court said the hedge funds did not waive their right to declare Bombardier in default on their bonds, part of a $250 million issuance maturing in 2034, when it sold the businesses, including its commercial aircraft program.

The hedge funds Antara Capital Master Fund, Corbin ERISA Opportunity Fund and Corbin Opportunity Fund sued Bombardier last January, after the company sold an additional $260 million of the bonds to another investor.

That sale gave the investor a majority of the now $510 million issuance, and it voted to waive the default.

The three hedge funds said it had no right to do that. They claimed that the default required Bombardier to pay them $398 million, including outstanding principal plus the present value of future interest payments.

Borrok dismissed some of the plaintiffs' claims but said they could replead them.

Bombardier did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Duane Loft, a partner at Pallas Partners who represents the plaintiffs, said: "We're pleased that the court interpreted the indenture to mean what it says - that these new notes don't count for purposes of waving the past default."

Bombardier now focuses mainly on private jets. Its rivals include Gulfstream jet maker General Dynamics Corp and Cessna jet maker Textron Inc.

The case is Antara Capital Master Fund LP et al v Bombardier Inc et al, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 650477/2022.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Maiya Keidan in Toronto; editing by Grant McCool)
Keira Knightley in Boston Strangler

Over the years, there have been multiple movies based on sinister serial killers , their heinous crimes, and detectives (and investigative reporters) who have brought them to justice. Matt Ruskins new movie , Boston Strangler, is another addition to that list that includes everything from Zodiac to Monster, as well as the 1968 crime drama based on the same case, The Boston Strangler.

The movie, which stars Keira Knightley, Carrie Coon, Chris Cooper, and a dozen or so other tremendous actors, just premiered on Hulu , and there are surely a lot of people who want to check it out. That being said, there are a few things to keep in mind before watching the new release, which we break down below

Boston Strangler Follows Two Reporters Investigating A Series Of Grisly Murders

Unlike Richard Fleishcers 1968 crime drama based on the string of 13 murders that rocked Massachusetts just a few years earlier, Boston Strangler focuses less on the detectives looking into the case and more on the two female Boston Record American reporters  Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley) and Jean Cole (Carrie Coon)  who dedicated their careers and lives to breaking the case. The police still play a crucial role in the movie, but again, the primary focus is from the journalists point of view .

Boston Strangler Is A Drama, Not A Documentary

We are living in the golden age of the true crime documentary , with riveting, and oftentimes terrifying, explorations of real crimes. And while Boston Strangler is based on true events, it is a drama film, as opposed to a documentary. That being said, the movie does keep it close to factual events as possible, but go in knowing that some creative liberties may have been taken throughout the story.

Boston Strangler Explores Multiple Theories Surrounding The Serial Killer Case

Without giving too much away, Boston Strangler explores various theories surrounding the shocking series of murders that took place throughout the early 1960s. No stone is left unturned throughout the movie, as the police and reporters covering the case go far and wide to nab the killer before they can strike again. This is especially true in the films final chapter when some of the more intense theories are broken down in great detail.

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The Movie's Two-Hour Runtime Flies By

Boston Stranglers story plays out in a little less than two hours, and those 112 minutes fly by. The movies engaging story, pacing, and dynamic performances by its cast all work together to create a quick-moving movie that doesnt really stop once it gets going.

Boston Strangler Is Rated R

No surprise here, but Boston Strangler has an R-rating due to the fact that it goes into great detail about the various murders and sexual crimes committed by the titular serial killer. Though you dont see the acts being committed, you do see what leads up to the killings and the aftermath, including multiple crime scene investigations. Again, its nothing too intense, but just know that the movie doesnt hold back in its descriptions of events.

Boston Strangler is currently streaming for anyone with a Hulu subscription , which also gives you access to an ever-growing library of great titles (both originals and classics). And if you want to know about all the other upcoming movies coming to streaming services like Hulu and the big screen, check out our 2023 release schedule for all the latest.
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian securities watchdog CVM said on Friday it has launched two new probes into retailer Americanas SA's accounting scandal and the firm's reorganization process.

CVM said it launched an administrative proceeding to analyze "failures to disclose relevant information by (Americanas) regarding proposals for capitalization and the renegotiation of debts with creditors and the assessment of the sale of assets."

Americanas entered bankruptcy protection in January shortly after disclosing accounting inconsistencies worth 20 billion reais ($3.78 billion) and overall debt of more than $8 billion. CVM and other Brazilian authorities have since launched investigations.

Earlier this month, the retailer said it had offered a capital injection to its creditors of 10 billion reais ($1.93 billion) which would come from top shareholders.

CVM is also looking into any irregularities regarding compensation paid by Americanas to former Chief Executive Sergio Rial, who took over the company just nine days before the scandal broke and resigned shortly thereafter.

The launch of the probes comes a day after Americanas' former CEO Miguel Gutierrez testified before CVM.

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice and Andre Romani; Editing by Chris Reese)
Brian Cox at the opening ceremony of the Series Mania Festival on March 17, 2023, in Lille, France. Sylvain Lefevre/Getty Images

Brian Cox said he didn't feel anything while filming his last scene for "Succession."

The actor told Variety that his character Logan Roy "gets what he needs" and "gets peace."

The HBO series' fourth and final season premieres on March 26.

Brian Cox didn't get emotional while filming his final scene for the last season of "Succession"  in fact, he said he didn't feel anything at all.

In an interview with Variety published Saturday, the actor shared his feelings (or lack thereof) about the HBO series' fourth and final season, which is set to premiere on March 26.

"I felt nothing when I played the last scene [on 'Succession']. Nothing! It was the last scene, finito," he said.

Cox stars as Logan Roy, the ruthless head of media empire Waystar RoyCo, in the drama. Insider's Olivia Singh writes that the last season will explore the dynamics between Roy and his competitive children as they clash over the impending sale of the conglomerate.

While he didn't share any spoilers about Roy's fate, Cox hinted that the magnate "absolutely gets what he needs" in the end.

"That's the great thing about the show. He gets peace, which is good," he said.

The Scottish star also said he thinks American shows "live well past their sellout date" and ensured "Succession" wouldn't do the same, despite encouragement from the network.

"HBO would love us to go for as long as 'Game of Thrones,' but thank God it won't happen," he said. "I would find it hard-going to be saying 'fuck off' to people for the next 10 years, although it's the nicest thing to say to someone. You can actually say how you feel."

He noted that he was thankful for his role in the hit show, but also said he's ready to move on to other pursuits.

"I believe in practice. Logan Roy was a wonderful role, but it's only a stop along the way. It's not the final destination," he said. "It's going to be hard, though. Not for me, I am quite happy to leave him, but for other people. I will have to work extra hard to persuade them that I am actually an actor."

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Brian Cox and Nicole Ansari-Cox at the Series Mania Festival 2023, on March 17, 2023 in Lille, France. Sylvain Lefevre/Getty Images

Cox, who recently doubled down on criticism of his "Succession" costar Jeremy Strong's Method acting, is known to speak his mind.

He and his wife Nicole Ansari-Cox were present at the Series Mania Festival in France this weekend, where Ansari-Cox wore a shawl that read "Woman, Life, Freedom" in French.

The slogan, originally spoken in Kurdish, became a rallying cry during anti-government protests in Iran in 2022 after the arrest and death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Cox told Variety that his wife, who is half Iranian, is a "very strong woman with very strong opinions, and she taught me so much." He also spoke about the dangers women face around the globe, particularly in countries like Iran, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.

"For me, the patriarchy has failed. Miserably," he said. "It's time for the matriarchy and I really mean it. It's time for men to step down and get the fuck out of the way ... Men are dull and they have been allowed free reign for far too long."

Read the original article on Insider
(Editor's note: This is the third and final installment in a series on Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's impact on Texas history.)

The career of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna brought him to the height of power in Mexican politics, serving as president on eleven different occasions though he preferred to be leading his armies in the field. His career had also brought him nearly into political oblivion. In spite of the many problems Mexico faced and the disaster of his surrender to Gen. Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836 and his roles in many coups against elected governments, Mexico still reluctantly turned to him in times of crisis by the late 1830s and into the 1840s.

By 1841, he had clawed his way back into the presidency. He led a nation that was deeply divided and near bankruptcy. Instead of concentrating on Mexico, he turned his eyes toward Texas and revenge.

Santa Anna led a raid into Texas in 1842. By September, he reached San Antonio and captured the city. Texas troops attempted to retake the town, leading to the Battle of Salado Creek just on the outskirts. Mexican troops killed 36 Texas troops in what was called the Dawson Massacre. In spite of Mexicos numerical superiority, they suffered heavy casualties and retreated back into San Antonio. A few days later, Mexican troops headed south and returned to Mexico. It was the last time Santa Anna was in Texas. The incident convinced most Texans to pursue annexation to the United States once again. Santa Anna left office a month later. He was president twice more before being overthrown in 1844 and forced into exile in Cuba.

When the U. S. and Mexico went to war in 1846, Santa Anna returned and led the army once again. At the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847, Santa Anna led a much larger force against the U. S. but faced difficult resistance. The Americans werent going to give in, but Santa Anna was gaining the advantage. Poised for victory after two days of fighting, Santa Anna suddenly left the battlefield in the dead of night. In his arrogance, he was more interested in the political drama in Mexico City as the government disintegrated. The retreat allowed American forces to advance rapidly southward. He installed himself as president again but stepped down weeks later to fight American forces approaching the capital. While Santa Anna delayed American forces, Mexico ultimately surrendered.

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Mexico was force to give up territory from California to Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. In yet another indignity to the self-proclaimed Napoleon of the West, Illinois forces captured Santa Annas amputated and buried leg from the 1838 Pastry War with France and took it back to the United States, sparking a diplomatic dispute that has lasted for decades.

By 1853, he was once again president. He ruled with the same heavy hand. Instead of due process or free speech, his opponents usually saw the army seizing their property. Seeing Mexicos treasury bankrupt again, he agreed to a land deal with the U. S. He agreed to sell portions of southern Arizona and southern New Mexico in what is now known as the Gadsden Purchase. After having lost nearly half their territory to the U. S., his opponents had finally had enough of Santa Anna. In what came to be called the Liberal Revolution, a coalition of generals, aristocrats, and high-ranking politicians forced Santa Anna from office in 1855. His successors embarked on an ambitious program of reforms to undo the harsh and dictatorial policies that had marked his presidency and restore civil liberties to the people.

Santa Anna bounced around the Caribbean for a while before ending up in New York. He tried his hand at business. He tried selling Mexican chicle, a natural gum used since ancient times, to use on buggy and carriage tires instead of rubber. Thomas Adams bought a large shipment, but it proved a poor substitute. Instead, Adams began selling chicle as chewing gum, introducing the popular treat to Americans in part because of Santa Anna.

France invaded Mexico in 1862 after a debt dispute and seized Mexico City, while President Benito Juarez launched a long insurgency to defend the country. By 1865, hoping to be the hero of the nation again, Santa Anna offered to return to Mexico to lead the army against its invaders. Seeing the pattern that had marked so much of Santa Annas career, Juarez refused. In the meantime, Santa Anna tried to raise money for an army while in New York City, only to see these efforts falter. After Mexico repelled the French in 1867, Santa Anna continued to live in the United States.

In 1874, Santa Anna was offered amnesty and was allowed to return to Mexico. His return was met with little fanfare. Barely able to walk, deep in debt, and almost blind, he lived his remaining days quietly. He died in 1876 at age 82, with Mexico still unsure how to place him in its history.

Ken Bridges is a writer, historian and native Texan. He holds a doctorate from the University of North Texas. Bridges can be reached by email at drkenbridges@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Bridges Mexican leader Santa Anna's impact on Texas part 3
Kenneth Noye Freemasons Brinks-Mat robbery gold bullion fee subscriptions

The mastermind behind the laundering of millions from Britains biggest bullion robbery was expelled from the Freemasons for failing to pay a 10 increase in membership fees.

Kenneth Noye, who attempted to cultivate friends among police officers who were Masons to try to protect himself from prosecution, repeatedly failed to pay his lodges subscriptions.

Noye had joined the Freemasons Hammersmith Lodge in the hope of forging influential links that might prove useful during his criminal activities as a fence for stolen property.

Research has now revealed that his financial dealings with the Masons worsened only after he was arrested for his part in the 1983 Brinks-Mat robbery, which saw 26 million of gold bullion, diamond and cash taken by armed robbers from a Heathrow warehouse.

By this point, Noye, whose activities have been dramatised in the BBC series The Gold, had booked 20 places at one of the Hammersmith Lodges Ladies Festivals, the dinner dance parties where he liked to show off to friends and fellow Masons.

Jack Lowden Kenneth Noye Freemasons Brinks-Mat robbery gold bullion fee subscriptions - Tannadice Pictures/Sally Mais

But after he was remanded in custody in 1985 for conspiracy to handle stolen goods, Noye was unable to make good on the booking and his fellow Masons had to cover the substantial cost of the tickets.

Noyes messy financial relations with the Freemasons were unearthed by Mike Neville, a retired Scotland Yard detective chief inspector.

Mr Neville, himself a Freemason, examined Noyes membership as part of Crime and The Craft, his book about Masonic involvement in criminality.

The Gold, which concludes on BBC One on Sunday, includes several scenes of Noye cultivating the friendship of a corrupt senior Kent police officer at lodge events, including a Ladies Festival.

Mr Neville said that although Noyes attendance at lodge meetings was irregular, he did however like to attend Ladies Festivals  large dinner dance parties where he could show off to friends and be flash.

He added: Unfortunately, the lodge Ladies Night fell after Noye was put in prison on remand. The 20 places booked by him had to be paid for  the other members had to cover the cost.

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Noye was eventually expelled from the Hammersmith Lodge in October 1987 for Rule 148  non-payment of his annual subscription.

Freemason anger over BBC dramas portrayal

However, there was anger among Freemasons at what they said is The Golds exaggerated and sensationalist portrayal of Noyes influence in the organisation.

In particular, they objected to the implication that Noye was assisted by fellow Masons in initially evading justice.

One senior Mason told The Telegraph: A lot of members are furious about The Golds portrayal of the Masons. Its silly nonsense using overly artistic licence.

The United Grand Lodge of England, the governing lodge for Masons, points out that the Metropolitan Police task force which brought Noye to justice and saw him sentenced to 14 years included a number of Freemasons.

DCS Brian Boyce, who was the head of the task force, is portrayed by Hugh Bonneville in the BBC One drama.

Despite Noye being on the square, Masonic police officers from the highest ranks to the lowest played their parts in bringing Noye to justice, said Mr Neville.

His examination of the Hammersmith Lodge No 2090s minutes found that Noye attended 10 out of 21 meetings held between January 1980 and January 1984 at the Star & Garter Hotel in Brentford, west london.

Mr Neville pointed out that the lodge had only one police member at the time, a sergeant in the British Transport Police, and maintained that Noyes influence on the forces of law and order would have been negligible.

Kenneth Noye Freemasons Brinks-Mat robbery gold bullion fee subscriptions - Geoffrey White/Daily Mail/Shutterstock

Noye, who had earlier been acquitted of murdering undercover officer DC John Fordham during a surveillance operation on his Kent mansion during the Brinks-Mat investigation, was eventually released in 1994 after serving eight years of his 14-year sentence for handling the stolen gold.

But in 1996, he fled to Spain after stabbing to death Stephen Cameron in a road rage attack at the Swanley M25/M20 interchange in Kent.

On being extradited three years later, Noye greeted DCI Tony Brightwell, the Flying Squad officer leading the hunt for him, with the handshake of a fellow Mason  once again in the hope of garnering favour.

Mr Neville pointed out it did him no good, saying: DCI Brightwell was a man of integrity. He knew that Mason or not, Noye was a vicious criminal.

Noye served 20 years for Camerons murder, before being released from prison in 2019.
The UKs Ministry of Defence has posted a video of Ukrainian military personnel training on Challenger 2 main battle tanks.

Sours: European Pravda

 Members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are being trained on the UKs main battle tank.



 The UK has committed to providing 14 Challenger 2 tanks and accompanying ammunition to support Ukraine in its ongoing battle for freedom.



 #StandWithUkraine  pic.twitter.com/vIyNyTm47d  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) March 18, 2023

Ukrainian tank crews arrived in the UK for training on Challenger 2 tanks at the end of January.

In the video, a British army representative explains that separate courses for tank commanders, drivers, gunners and operators have been organised for the Ukrainians.

In the footage, you can see the Ukrainians driving turretless training vehicles at the training ground. They also drive and fire actual combat-ready tanks.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that the British Challenger 2 tanks will be delivered to Ukraine in March 2023.

Background: Ukraine will receive twice as many Challenger 2 tanks from the UK as London initially promised.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!






Four years after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order vowing to reduce prescription drug costs in California, the state is bringing $30 insulin to Californians  and working to create its own overdose-reversing drug.

Newsom announced Saturday that California secured a $50 million contract with the nonprofit drug manufacturer Civica to sell insulin through the states generic drug label, CalRx, at just 10% of the typical cost for cash-paying patients. The products are expected to be available for purchase by early 2024, Newsom said.

This is a game changer. This will fundamentally lower the cost  period, full stop, Newsom said Saturday at a press briefing in Los Angeles. ... Something like this simply does not exist anywhere else and we are intent to make this about market disruption.

The governor is hoping to build off this momentum to address another public health crisis  fentanyl overdoses. Newsom said the state is exploring the ability to manufacture its own overdose-reversing drug, Naloxone, which is sold under several brand names, including Narcan.

As a parent, dont think for a second that I dont lose sleep over this, Newsom said about the fentanyl crisis. We are taking it very, very seriously.

The announcements come amid rising public anger over both the nations opioid crisis and the exorbitant cost of life-saving drugs like insulin. Two of the worlds largest insulin manufacturers  Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk  recently announced plans to drastically reduce the cost of their drugs after repeated calls from President Biden, lawmakers and advocates.

This is really about changing the arc of the cost of health care for all Californians, said Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency. ... Californians should be proud of the leadership of the governor and many, many around him who have said were not quitting on this.

High insulin costs hurt Diabetes patients who need it

More than 30 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes, which hinders the bodys ability to naturally produce insulin, leading to dangerous levels of blood sugar. Over 7 million people require insulin on a daily basis. Over the last decade, the cost has skyrocketed to a point where nearly 1 in 5 Americans with diabetes ration the life-saving drug, according to a recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

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Kevin Wren knows first-hand the dangers of insulin rationing  when diabetics who cant afford insulin cut back on their intake to make it last longer.

You feel physically terrible  sick, lethargic, sleepy, really spacey, Wren said. It sucks.

The Sacramento resident was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2001 at age 15. Thanks to his familys robust health insurance, he didnt have to worry about affording his medication or supplies throughout high school and college.

But after he graduated from Seattle University in 2008, Wren struggled for more than six months to find full-time work with benefits that would help him afford his life-saving medication.

I was just trying to like, make it work and not die, Wren said. Its pay or die.

Wren volunteers as California chapter leader for Insulin 4 All through T1 International, a patient-led group that raises awareness about Type 1 diabetes and advocates for policies to benefit patients. Hes currently unemployed and on Medi-Cal, which covers all his costs associated with diabetes care. Wren estimates his supplies  including two different insulin types, glucose monitoring strips, and needles  cost upwards of $2,500 a month.

A generic alternative would benefit all diabetes patients, Wren said, but uninsured people who pay out-of-pocket or those with high deductibles would gain the greatest benefit.

California reaches $100 million contract for generic insulin

The state budget passed last July set aside $100 million to produce a cheaper insulin product by cutting out drug makers and other companies that contribute to the elevated price tags. As part of the plan, $50 million was allocated for the development of low-cost insulin products, and the other $50 million was earmarked for the construction of a California-based manufacturing facility.

Civica, based in Utah, was awarded a 10-year, $50 million state contract to begin the manufacturing process. The California Health and Human Services Agency is still looking for a potential California-based production facility for future CalRx projects.

Under the contract, the price of a 10 mL vial of insulin will be capped at $30. A box of five 3 mL insulin pens will cost no more than $55. Out-of-pocket expenses for brand-name options run as high as $300 and $550 respectively, the statement said.

When the insulin is ready for purchase, insulin-dependent patients will be able to ask for the CalRx products at their pharmacies without a new prescription. CalRx plans to make insulin products comparable to the drugs Glargine, Aspart and Lispro, also known under their brand names of Lantus, Humalog, and Novolog, according to the release.

Shawndra Ashen, 57, of Sacramento, cheered the governors announcement.

Ashen, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 8, now has insurance that covers her insulin products but that wasnt always the case. As a child, Ashens parents paid out-of-pocket for her medications. Then as a young adult, she went into thousands of dollars of debt for her medical needs.

The greed of pharmaceutical companies is disgusting to me, she said about alarmingly high costs for lifesaving drugs like insulin.

Having a cheaper alternative at the time would have likely made a big difference, Ashen said.

I think its amazing, she said. Im just so happy for everyone whos going to be able to get what they need and not go into debt like that.
Eight states in the Northeast U.S. are seeing increasing rates of an emerging tick-borne illness called babesiosis, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

From 2011 to 2019, there were 10 states that reported cases of babesiosis, which is spread by the black-legged tick (aka deer tick) and usually causes no symptoms but can result in flu-like illness. Of these 10 states, only two saw decreasing rates during that time period: Minnesota and Wisconsin.

A deer tick or black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) crawling on skin. (Alamy Stock Photo)

The eight states that saw increases in rates of babesiosis are:

Maine

New Hampshire

Vermont

Connecticut

Massachusetts

New Jersey

New York

Rhode Island

The states that saw the largest increases in babesiosis from 2011 to 2019 were: Vermont (up 1,602% from two to 34 cases), Maine (up 1,422% from nine to 138), New Hampshire (up 372% from 13 to 78), and Connecticut (up 338% from 74 to 328).

Babesiosis is now considered endemic in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont because they consistently saw "newly acquired cases" every year from 2011 to 2019, the CDC noted. Previous CDC data found babesiosis to be endemic only in the seven other states.

The data show an "increase in tick-borne disease in parts of the U.S. that previously saw few cases," Megan Swanson, an epidemiologist with the CDCs Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, who co-authored the report, told NBC News.

Overall, the U.S. saw a 25% increase in tick-borne illnesses from 2011 to 2019, per the report. One possible reason for the rise is climate change because ticks thrive in warm climates, NBC News reported.

The ticks are surviving better in the winter, and so the next spring, you have more ticks to bite more people, Edouard Vannier, who studies babesiosis at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and wasnt involved in the report, told NBC News.

What's more, babesiosis may be more common than the new report suggests because it's so often asymptomatic and not all cases are reported to the CDC.

(It's) is much more of a problem than the general public recognizes and can be fatal, up to 20%, in people who have HIV/AIDS or severe cancer with chemotherapy or individuals who lack a spleen, Dr. Peter Krause, a senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health, who wasnt involved in the CDC study, told NBC News.

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How is babesiosis spread?

Babesiosis  most common in the Midwest and Northeast in both inland and coastal areas  is caused by parasites and usually spread through the bite of a black-legged tick, per the CDC. It's most often carried by young ticks of this species, known as nymphs, which are most active in areas with woods, brush or grass in the spring and summer, in particular late May to early September, per NBC News.

It can be difficult to know if you've been bitten by such a tick because they can be as small as a poppy seed.

Other ways people may get babesiosis include through a blood transfusion from someone with the illness or transmission during pregnancy if the mother is infected.

What are the symptoms of babesiosis?

Babesiosis often does not result in any symptoms, the CDC noted. NBC News reported that up to 20% of adult cases and 50% of pediatric cases are asymptomatic.

For those who do develop symptoms, they can take anywhere from one to six weeks to show, and they're often similar to the flu:

Fever

Chills

Sweats

Headache

Body aches

Loss of appetite

Nausea

Fatigue

Some people have a higher risk for severe illness from babesiosis than others, according to the CDC. These include people without a spleen, those with a weakened immune system or another serious health condition, and the elderly.

One serious complication of is hemolytic anemia, which can lead to yellowing of the skin and dark urine, the CDC said. Others are low and unstable blood pressure, low platelet count, blood clots, organ malfunction and death.

Krause estimated to NBC News that babesiosis is fatal 1% to 2% of the time. He added that the new CDC report is an unfortunate milestone in the emergence of babesiosis in the United States. ... More cases means more illness, and actually, some people die.

Babesiosis can be confused with Lyme disease, as both can cause fever and muscle aches. But babesiosis is usually more severe, even though Lyme disease is much more prevalent, NBC News reported.

Sometimes the patient will have felt just fatigued and not quite right, maybe a low-grade temp for a week or two, and then all of a sudden they get worse, Krause told NBC News. Thats usually not the case with Lyme  you get it and then, bingo, you have the rash and so on.

Vannier estimated that half of people with babesiosis also have Lyme disease.

How is babesiosis treated?

People who do not have symptoms usually do not require any treatment for babesiosis. For those who do have symptoms, treatment should depend on the individual person's risk of severe illness or relapse, the CDC said.

The most common combination of prescription drugs to patients who have babesiosis symptoms are:

Atovaquone, an antifungal and anti parasite medication, and azithromycin, an antibiotic

Clindamycin, an antibiotic, and quinine, an anti-parasite

More severe cases might require blood transfusion, mechanical ventilation or dialysis, among other treatments.

How to prevent tick-borne illnesses

The best way to prevent tick-borne illnesses is to avoid getting bitten by a tick. To do so, the CDC advises:

Avoid areas where ticks live or take precautions before going in them. These include grassy, brushy or wooded areas.

Treat clothing and outdoor gear with .5% permethrin or by permethrin-treated clothing and gear.

Wear long sleeves and pants.

Use insect repellant containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus, para-menthane-diol or 2-undecanone and is approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Check your clothing pets and gear for ticks when you return indoors. Tumble dry clothes for at least 10 minutes to kill ticks.

Shower as soon as possible and check your body for ticks, especially under the arms, in and around the ears, in the belly button, back of the knees, the scalp, between the legs and around the waste.

It's also important to remember that tick exposure can occur year-round, even if theyre most active from April to September.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
A number of Cuban American bloggers have been upset with the late H.G. Carrillo, putting his faux-Cuban pose in the same trash bucket as U.S. Rep. George Santos, seen here at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 10, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty)

I have never known a man who faked his own death, but I have known a man who faked his own life, then sadly failed to live long enough for us to talk about it.

Im talking about the late Hache Carrillo, a rising, award-winning literary talent whose reputation grew quickly after the publication of his 2004 novel, Loosing My Espanish, about a Cuban-born high school history teacher in Chicago.

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With his playful use of Spanish and Spanglish, a mashup of English and Spanish, the book impressed critics with its mix of colonial history and personal memories that centered on his Afro-Cuban roots and queer identity.

But Carrillos reputation took a shocking turn after his death from COVID-19 in early 2020. About a month after he died, the Washington Post published an obituary about his life, then corrected it with a revised version the next day  along with an editors note.

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It turned out that many of the stories Carrillo had been telling people about himself were untrue.

As his sister and niece informed the Post, his name was not Hache Gernan Carrillo but Herman Glenn Carroll, the name his family called him. He was born and raised in Detroit, not Cuba. In fact, nobody in the family had Latino heritage.

What went wrong? His niece Jessica Webley told the Post that once he started writing and gaining fame in the 1990s, they seldom saw him.

Needless to say, those of us who knew Hache personally view him a bit differently now.

My wife, Lisa Page, knew him at George Washington University, where they both taught creative writing, and at the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, where he chaired the board of directors.

I thought of him as a sweet and complicated genius, she wrote in an essay for the Post, devoted to his students and to the evolving literary world.

The news was a slap in the face for those of us who knew him, she continued. We mourned him, but we also reeled in shock. Hache passed for something he wasnt, even at home with his husband in Berwyn Heights (a Washington suburb), He did the same with colleagues and students at George Washington University and at the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. I wasnt the only one who felt betrayed. And so terribly sad.

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Yet, as she also noted, the literary world has its own version of passing, as we Americans call the age-old trick of passing for white to thwart racial restrictions, if your complexion is light enough.

Among nonracial examples, my wife reminded me of John le Carre, also known as David Cornwell, the bestselling British spy novelist. Or Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin who, to dodge sexist bias, replaced her own name with George Sand. Did Herman Glenn Carroll think similarly to avoid discrimination? Or take advantage of it?

Unsurprisingly, a number of Cuban American bloggers have been upset with Carrillo, putting his faux-Cuban pose in the same trash bucket as Rachel Dolezal or George Santos.

Cuban American author and translator Achy Obejas, who fled Cuba with her family as a child and now lives in California, spotted signs of ethnic inauthenticity in Carrillo/Carrolls act when he signed up for her Cuban American literature class at DePaul University.

Like some other Spanish-speaking readers, she had noticed some of Carrillos language didnt accurately reflect the linguistic differences in structure and slang expressed by different nationalities. For example, his novel, Loosing My Espanish, uses the word vato often as a Cuban expression, even though the word, which means guy or dude, is purely Mexican, Obejas noted.

What explains such charades? In a March 13 profile of Carrillo by New Yorker writer D.T. Max, Carrillos sister Maria said she didnt think her brother was hiding from his blackness. I just think he wanted a more interesting narrative to his story, she said, and who better to write it than himself.

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The thin veil separating his imagination from reality apparently wore too thin. Perhaps the same explains the bizarre coincidence of Carrillos controversy leading to the unmasking of another professor at the same university.

Jessica Krug, an African American history expert also at GWU, was found to have falsely claimed African ancestry. She apologetically resigned.

There are others and more probably will emerge in the future. Perhaps such cultural tourism is to be expected in our land of reinvention, but its not ethical to lie about it.

cpage@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @cptime
In late January, with the future of EMS service of thousands of Centre County residents at stake, five municipalities agreed to work together toward a solution on how to ensure the Port Matilda EMS survives.

Nearly four months later, theres little clarity on what the future of Port Matilda EMS looks like beyond 2023 as the elected officials of the Upper Bald Eagle/Halfmoon COG havent found a concrete solution. Some officials in the COG have differing viewpoints than the EMS on what help is needed and when.

Each of the five COG municipalities  Port Matilda borough and Halfmoon, Huston, Taylor and Worth townships  have given extra money to the EMS this year. The amount varies across the municipalities (part of Ferguson Township is also in the EMS service area but not part of the COG). Some gave their entire budgeted amount at the beginning of the year or provided their quarterly payments early. Some, if not all, gave an extra amount to help increase hourly wages or to cover the cost of one person to attend an EMT training class.

But what the support will look like beyond this year has yet to be determined, with Port Matilda EMS joining a growing number of EMS companies around the country with unclear futures.

Differing views

During a March 7 COG meeting, chair Keith Reese said the EMS is financially solvent.

EMS right now is very financially solvent with this crew and staff they have. They have money right now that they cannot spend because they dont have the staff. Thats a good place to be in and they are working on that to get the staffing and were standing by to help, Reese said. Anybody that has any inferences or beliefs that were not here for them  thats false. Its erroneous, its malicious. Whatever you want to call it, its just not true.

Jack Bonsell, president of the Port Matilda EMS, who was not at the COG meeting, told the Centre Daily Times that the claim the EMS is financially solvent is incorrect. According to Bonsell, an infusion of cash between contributions from the municipalities and memberships, along with a state grant, does not tell the full story. While the EMS has added to its staff and has several people in an EMT training class, clarity on future funding is still needed.

Story continues

A look inside one of the ambulances at Port Matilda EMS station on Friday, March 10, 2023.

Historically, the EMS can not survive on just memberships. Out of the 4,845 memberships the EMS sent out this year, 807 have been completed, as of March 7. The total income from these memberships is $84,051, which includes donations on top of the memberships. The public support and awareness has been greater recently, Bonsell said, and the COG also said it was appreciative of those who completed memberships.

The EMS also recently received a $150,000 grant from the state and was offered a loan from the county.

The grant cant be used for payroll, Bonsell said. They could contract employees, he said, but there are some issues with that as well, because its not dollar for dollar. The cost could be inflated because they have to pay the employees as well as the staffing company.

Beyond that, there are other limitations.

Just as an example, I can put propane in our tank to heat the building, but I cant use that money to buy fuel for my trucks. I can put a roof on the building but it does me no good if I have no staff in here to keep dry. ... That $150,000 is very difficult to spend.

Although there may be various stipulations on the grant, Bonsell said it will allow them to recruit and retain employees. It will give them the opportunity to use some of the money to go to a job fair and potentially hire people.

John Franek, Centre Countys administrator, attended the COG meeting after Halfmoon Supervisor Ron Servello inquired about grant opportunities from the county. Franek said there werent any grants available, but the commissioners offered a $50,000 bridge loan that could be repaid in about a year at 0% interest.

The COG discussed the option and what type of oversight would be needed in the event the EMS wanted the loan. Servello said theyre still trying to figure out what the structure should be between the COG and the EMS. Reese suggested the municipalities discuss the loan at their next board meeting to decide if they want to have oversight and an agreement with the EMS like they have with the Port Matilda Fire Company.

Port Matilda borough council member Mark Lively wondered if money is the solution right now, and questioned whether the EMS could be shut down because of how understaffed it is and how many calls it cant respond to.

After a complaint was filed against the Port Matilda EMS for not covering all their calls, the EMS was put on a provisional status by the state, which Bonsell said is not uncommon for rural EMS services. That required a four-point action plan outlining how the company would work its way out of the situation. While provisional, their ambulances are getting inspected every year rather than every three years.

Every three months, Bonsell gives the state a report on where the EMS is on the plan, which includes advertising for new employees, meeting with the municipalities, providing a log of all of the missed calls and explaining why the calls were missed.

So could Seven Mountains (Emergency Medical Services Council) come in and shut me down? Absolutely not, Bonsell said. If Im not following (the action plan), the state most likely  will fine (us) up to $10,000 until this is fixed. ... At that point, when you become a liability to the state, then the state could shut you down.

An ambulance at the Port Matilda EMS station on Friday, March 10, 2023.

What can municipalities do?

The current EMS budget is $315,000, which includes payroll, workers comp, payroll taxes and utilities. The EMS does not currently get full funding from the municipalities it serves. Collectively, the COG municipalities gave the EMS $44,000 this year, Bonsell said during a previous COG meeting. Some of the municipal budgets are smaller than the entire EMS budget.

Servello said the 2023 budget shouldnt be in the $300,000 range, as theyre not employing that many people to warrant that amount. Based on a projection done by the Halfmoon Township treasurer, Servello said it could be around $200,000.

The EMS is facing two problems, Lively said during the COG meeting. The issues, money and staffing, have different time frames.

The COG doesnt have the ability to fix the staffing issue, he said. The municipalities are limited in where they can spend money, as their budgets are set for 2023 and wont be opened up until the fall.

Many residents have asked the municipalities to implement a tax to help fund the EMS, Lively said. The municipalities wouldnt be able to do that until after it is written, advertised and discussed at two meetings. The tax wouldnt take effect until January 2024, he said, so that is at best, a medium-term solution, maybe a long-term solution.

The COG has started to discuss an EMS funding formula for 2024, but the first meeting was held behind closed doors, a potential violation of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act.

Closed-door meeting to discuss Port Matilda EMS funding may have violated Sunshine Act

Between the municipal contributions, memberships and donations, the grant and bridge loan, the potential tax increase and the financial committees work, the EMS is set financially for the short-term, medium-term and long-term, Lively said. The EMS  and many residents who have been vocal in their support of the EMS  do not hold the same view.

During the March 7 meeting, David Crow, a Halfmoon resident, said the EMS has been looking for municipal support from the beginning. He commented on the time and number of meetings it has taken to get here, and the lack of solution.

The problem isnt being solved. What were doing is kicking it down the road. ... People like these volunteers ... that are trying to help, theyre looking for that municipal commitment. And theyre not looking for this to take three or four months. They expect action soon. So at the town hall, you directed all of us be patient. But here we are, Crow said.

Reese said that wasnt representative of what is happening. They organized as quickly as they could, given the scheduling logistics of five municipalities, theyve increased their contribution and are working on a viable funding solution, he said.

Other residents inquired about the townships using their American Rescue Act Plan funds to fund the EMS, which turned into a heated exchange with Supervisor Timothy Reese.

Just because we have a little extra money, we cant give it away all the time. We have to sparingly use our money. Liquid fuels every year is going down. Were not getting near enough money from the state. Anything we can get, well help them a little bit. We already did. We gave over $7,000 to EMS out of the ARPA funds, Timothy Reese said.

Were going to do everything we can

Through this time, the public awareness has been much greater than it has ever been before, Bonsell said during an interview in February.

Before, there was always that understanding that, you call 911 and somebody is going to be there. Now, theres the awareness that theyre not potentially going to be there or theyll be there but youre going to have to wait, he said.

He declined to comment on the timeline the municipalities are working on. But he did say he was surprised and disappointed that they havent gotten to some kind of resolution yet.

I am a little disappointed that we have not got some kind of resolution prior to today. But again, Im not here to blame COG, any municipalities. Thats not what Im here for, he said.

So, how will the Port Matilda EMS make it through 2023? Bonsell said the answer is a combination of things: financial and vocal support from the public, and state and local funding.

In general, improved insurance reimbursements  a statewide issue  is also a dire need.

One of the things that really is hurting EMS as a whole is insurance reimbursements. Theyre horrendous and theres no outlook on the horizon to have that fixed, Bonsell said. He estimated they get about a 50% return on any bill they send out through insurance.

Although theres been no set resolution from the municipalities, theyve all agreed to work with the EMS in some form, Bonsell said. So, the administrative board made the decision to go ahead with business as usual, to send out the memberships, and continue to try to hire employees. Theyve been advertising for employees with a starting rate of $14/hour, up from $11/hour.

That has garnered some interest, he said. As of March 10, the EMS has 5 paid employees, three volunteers and one paid employee on sick leave.

Near the end of February, Bonsell said he had just a small portion of the staff he would need in order to operate 24 hours a day, year-round. Thats not sustainable, he said. At the time, the EMS had been dispatched to roughly 47 calls but had to turn over 38 of them due to staffing.

If I all of a sudden become fully staffed tomorrow and we hit every call from here to the rest of the year, there are 38 calls that even at 50% of our billing rate  which is $750 out the door  even at 50% were going to lose that income because we werent staffed for the early part of the year, Bonsell said. That money may not make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things if they are fully staffed, have high membership rates, are awarded grants and the municipalities fund it in some form. But if the EMS is running right on that edge, theres already roughly $12,300 missed out on.

Bonsell said there are seven people taking an EMT class, the majority of which were funded by the COG municipalities or private citizens, and theyve all committed to working with the Port Matilda EMS after their graduation.

Additionally, the EMS is putting together a board of directors. They have a president, treasurer, someone to provide medical direction and a transportation director. Theyre looking for someone who is interested in working and providing information to and from the state and the county, and a COG representative, among other positions. More information is available on the Port Matilda EMS Facebook page.

The Port Matilda EMS has a non-emergency wheelchair van that can be profitable when its running. Theyre seeking more volunteers as drivers for the van and will be another way to generate income.

The EMS will continue to run and do what they can do to hire more staff until they cant anymore.

Were going to do everything we can to keep the doors open because we have a commitment to the community, Bonsell said.
Key Insights

Significantly high institutional ownership implies Chevron's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions

The top 25 shareholders own 49% of the company

Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

If you want to know who really controls Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 63% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And institutional investors saw their holdings value drop by 4.6% last week. The recent loss, which adds to a one-year loss of 2.6% for stockholders, may not sit well with this group of investors. Often called market makers, institutions wield significant power in influencing the price dynamics of any stock. As a result, if the downtrend continues, institutions may face pressures to sell Chevron, which might have negative implications on individual investors.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Chevron.

Check out our latest analysis for Chevron

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Chevron?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

We can see that Chevron does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Chevron's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Story continues

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Chevron is not owned by hedge funds. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 8.8% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 8.3% and 7.1%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Chevron

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Chevron Corporation in their own names. As it is a large company, we'd only expect insiders to own a small percentage of it. But it's worth noting that they own US$50m worth of shares. Arguably recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 28% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 8.8% of Chevron stock. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Chevron that you should be aware of.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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WALL  A nine-year old child was rushed to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune Friday night following a two-car accident involving an intoxicated driver.

Wall police did not say what type of injuries the child suffered, only that they were "very serious." Police did not have an update on the child's condition Saturday morning. Captain Chad Clark said one of the drivers of the vehicles was intoxicated and arrested at the scene with criminal charges pending. Police have not named the driver.

More information is expected to be released later today.

The accident happened at about 8 p.m. on Rt. 138 eastbound near the Rt. 18 entrance ramp. The section of roadway was temporarily closed while emergency teams responded to the accident.

More:Wall man sentenced to three years in prison for trying to lure a child online

The investigation is ongoing and being handled by the Wall Township Police Department, Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office Fatal Accident Investigation Unit and the Monmouth County Serious Collision Analysis Response Team.

This is a developing story. Check back with app.com for more details as they become available.

When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Wall NJ crash seriously injures child, driver allegedly intoxicated
Chinese authorities arrested two men who possessed a childrens book that officials labeled "seditious."

Police and customs officers arrested the men, aged 38 and 50, on Mar. 13 after searching their homes and finding multiple copies of the book, which describes sheep holding back wolves from the village. The wolves want to take over a village and eat the sheep, pushing the sheep to fight back against them.

Authorities have interpreted the book as referring to Hong Kong and Beijing. Officers relied on a colonial-era law to justify sending the men to prison, according to QZ.

Both men were released on bail but must report to the police next month, the BBC reported. Police seized several copies of the books during their search.

TRUMP CALLS FOR RETRIBUTION AGAINST CHINA FOR ROLE IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Hong Kong's senior superintendent Steve Li, from the city's new national security police unit, holds up a children's book which allegedly tries to explain about the city's democracy movement, at a police press conference in Hong Kong on July 22, 2021, after five members of a pro-democracy Hong Kong union were arrested for sedition for publishing the titles.

The book, one of three in a series called Yangcun, caused an uproar last year when a government-nominated judge ruled it constituted "seditious intention" and jailed five speech therapists to 19 months in prison for publishing it.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

The court stressed that the punishment was for the "harm or risk of harm to the minds of children" and the potential to sow seeds of "instability," according to The Independent.

TRUMP JR. ACCUSES BIDEN OF USING TIKTOK AS SCAPEGOAT TO DISTRACT FROM FAMILY'S TIES TO CHINA

Children's books are pictured during a press conference after five people were arrested under suspicion of conspiring to publish seditious material at the Hong Kong Police Headquarters on July 22, 2021, in Hong Kong, China.

"What the defendants have done to the children aged four and above was in fact a brainwashing exercise with a view to guiding the very young children to accept their views and values," the judge said.

The arrests this week would be the first for simply owning the book, which critics argue represents a serious deterioration of freedoms in the country.

HOUSE LAWMAKERS FOCUS ON OUTCOMPETING CHINA IN BIPARTISAN VISIT TO GUYANA

Content of children's books are displayed on a TV screen during a press conference after five people were arrested under suspicion of conspiring to publish seditious material at the Hong Kong Police Headquarters on July 22, 2021, in Hong Kong, China.

Hong Kong remains a Special Administrative Region of China with a "one country, two systems" understanding with Beijing, but the rights afforded to the citizens of the island have slowly eroded since 2020 with the implementation of a national security law that aimed to crack down on widespread protests.

The use of an even more outdated law and the vague interpretation of "seditious" showed the lengths Chinese officials will go to in their efforts to restrict dissent, according to Prof. Johannes Chan, a former chair of public law at the University of Hong Kong.

"If a cartoon in [a newspaper] is considered seditious, every single reader who has kept a copy of the newspaper could be guilty of the possession offense," Chan, who is a visiting professor at University College London, told The Guardian. "This could hardly be compatible with the guarantee for free speech in the Basic Law or the bill of rights."
In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market index fund. But in any portfolio, there will be mixed results between individual stocks. So we wouldn't blame long term Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) shareholders for doubting their decision to hold, with the stock down 35% over a half decade. More recently, the share price has dropped a further 15% in a month. We do note, however, that the broader market is down 6.6% in that period, and this may have weighed on the share price.

Since Citigroup has shed US$7.8b from its value in the past 7 days, let's see if the longer term decline has been driven by the business' economics.

Check out our latest analysis for Citigroup

While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

Citigroup became profitable within the last five years. That would generally be considered a positive, so we are surprised to see the share price is down. Other metrics might give us a better handle on how its value is changing over time.

We note that the dividend has remained healthy, so that wouldn't really explain the share price drop. While it's not completely obvious why the share price is down, a closer look at the company's history might help explain it.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

Citigroup is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. Given we have quite a good number of analyst forecasts, it might be well worth checking out this free chart depicting consensus estimates.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. We note that for Citigroup the TSR over the last 5 years was -23%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

Story continues

A Different Perspective

We regret to report that Citigroup shareholders are down 20% for the year (even including dividends). Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 13%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 4% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Citigroup (1 doesn't sit too well with us!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Join A Paid User Research Session

Youll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here
The sunny skies on Saturday did not signal an end to concerns about potential flooding on rivers in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

The situation seemed to improve for Stanislaus County residents but became more dicey for folks in southern San Joaquin County.

A high river flow drew attention to the San Joaquin River at Vernalis, which was slightly above the 29-foot flood stage level at 4 p.m. Friday.

Saturday, the San Joaquin at Vernalis slightly surpassed the danger stage of 29.5, hitting 29.6 feet by mid-morning. Its a term used by state officials when flow is greater than the design capacity of a flood control system and failure could result in significant damage to homes and other property.

In other words, the levees near South Airport Way and the San Joaquin, south of Manteca, are not designed to handle more flow than that.

Scott Rowe, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Sacramento, said the stretch of river is projected to hover around 29.5 to 29.6 feet for the next four days. That projection takes into account current water releases from dams and reservoirs, some rain thats expected Saturday night and Sunday and the beginnings of a bigger storm next week.

Were talking about a tenth of a foot just above the danger stage for the next five days, Rowe said. It takes into account precipitation through Wednesday.

Beyond Wednesday, theres no prediction for the river level.

The river location is where levees failed during the 1997 floods, inundating the farms and dairies south of Manteca and causing evacuations and tremendous damage.

The San Joaquin would need to rise another three feet at Vernalis to reach whats considered the moderate flood level. Local districts that monitor the levees have seen worse. The record level is 34.9 feet, according to the Weather Service.

On our side we are good, said Stanislaus County Sheriffs Deputy Raj Singh. What we have been told is that the (San Joaquin at Vernalis) is still flowing, so thats good for us. It keeps us below the flood stage level.

Story continues

Singh said there are no plans to change evacuation orders or warnings on portions of the San Joaquin River near Newman and Patterson. The river level in Stanislaus County was staying flat. It was four to five feet below flood stage in Newman.

Our forecast does not show it going up, Singh said.

Turlock Irrigation District was releasing water from Don Pedro Reservoir on the Tuolumne River, some 38 miles east of Modesto, ahead of the storm thats expected next week. The releases ensure there is space in the reservoir for flood control purposes.

On Saturday, the Tuolumne was still running about half of foot below the minor flood stage of 55 feet in Modesto. The river is expected to remain at that level through Tuesday.

Bee staff writer Marijke Rowland contributed to this report.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) urged the Texas state bar to carefully consider the fitness of certain Stanford University law school graduates after a protest over a conservative judges speaking engagement on the campus.

Cruz in a letter to Texas officials said there is a fundamental question over whether the students who protested the appearance by Kyle Duncan, a circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, are fit to practice law in Texas.

The idea that these future lawyers would find it acceptable to harass and insult a sitting judge boggles the mind, and seriously calls into question whether these students have the proper respect for the role of a judge, or the temperament to practice law, he said in a Thursday letter to Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht and Augustin Rivera, the chair of the Texas Board of Law Examiners.

Indeed, these students tantrum raises a fair question as to whether they can be trusted to dispassionately defend clients that might have ideological opinions different from their own, Cruz wrote.

Duncan has visited Stanford Law School to participate in an event called The Fifth Circuit in Conversation with the Supreme Court: COVID, Guns, and Twitter.

Cruz said Duncan did not have the opportunity to meaningfully speak as he was shouted down by Stanford students.

Stanfords student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, reported that audience members protested Duncans appearance before and during his lecture. The paper reported that opponents protesting Duncans appearance put up fliers throughout the campus arguing that Duncan has pushed for laws that have harmed women, immigrants and LGBTQ individuals.

Cruz said the protesters continuously interrupted Duncan, called him racist and yelled crude sexual slurs.

The Stanford Daily reported that the law schools dean denounced the protest in an email to the school community, saying that what happened did not align with the institutions commitment to free speech.

Story continues

The school is reviewing what transpired and will work to ensure protocols are in place so that disruptions of this nature do not occur again, and is committed to the conduct of events on terms that are consistent with the disruption policy and the principles of free speech and critical inquiry they support, Dean Jenny Martinez said.

Cruz said the Texas board should take particular care for students graduating from Stanford law school in 2023, 2024 and 2025. He said these students should be forced to state in writing if they participated in the protest, and the Texas Supreme Court and the board should decide what the proper remedy should be.

Texans deserve only the finest advocates as their counsel, and those that engage in screaming and name-calling to make their case, are far from the finest, he said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Hall of Justice on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles in 2017. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles County district attorneys office launched a free shuttle this week to transport employees between their cars and their workplace in downtown Los Angeles.

A spokesperson said that safety was just one factor behind the creation of the program.

The free service, launched Monday, picks up and drops off passengers at the Hall of Justice near the Civic Center to connect employees to Union Station and parking lots in Chinatown.

Sworn personnel with the Bureau of Investigation oversee the service from 6:20 to 8:20 a.m. and again from 4 to 6 p.m. during the workweek.

The program was created in response to numerous factors, safety being just one of them, said Tiffiny Blacknell, director of communications at the district attorneys office. She did say, however, that "employees often work long hours and then are forced to walk long distances to their vehicles in the evening when its dark out."

With sunset these days at 7 p.m., however, the 4-6 p.m. evening shuttle won't save staffers a walk in the dark.

Blacknell also cited a lack of ample parking at the offices downtown location, and said employees often had to take public transportation or pay high fees to park in private lots throughout the downtown area.

This often results in additional commute time and cost for those who are assigned to that location, Blacknell said.

The programs creation comes on the heels of reports that Angelenos are avoiding public transportation in the region because of rampant drug use and violence.

The Times recently reported on the rise in crime on Metro buses and trains. Since January, 22 people have died on those modes of transit, mostly from suspected overdoses  more than in all of 2022.

In response to the concerns, transit officials committed $122 million over the last year to try to make Metros system  composed of 105 rail stations and more than 12,000 bus stops  safer.

Nearly 300 unarmed ambassadors, workers tasked with reporting crimes and helping passengers navigate the system, have also been hired to assist with the multilayered approach to reducing crime.

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Meanwhile, Blacknell praised the district attorney's office's new method of getting people safely inside their cars.

Ive worked downtown for the majority of my 20-year career, she said. I wish they had this service when I was a deputy public defender.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Daniil Medvedev won his 19th successive match (Mark J. Terrill/AP) (AP)

Daniil Medvedev continued his winning run by defeating Frances Tiafoe to reach his first BNP Paribas Open final in Indian Wells.

The former world number one arrived in the Californian desert having won successive tournaments in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai and he has maintained that form impressively.

American Tiafoe saved seven match points in a spirited ending to the first semi-final but eventually fell to a 7-5 7-6 (4) defeat as Medvedev made it 19 victories in a row.

Bien joue, Monsieur Medvedev 



On his 8th match point vs Tiafoe, @DaniilMedwed seals his place in the 2023 #TennisParadise final! pic.twitter.com/33cpW4Fntb  Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 18, 2023

The Russian, who hurt his ankle and thumb in falls in his last two matches, broke serve in the 11th game of the opening set, and looked well on his way to victory with another break to start the second.

Tiafoe was hanging on as he saved three match points serving at 3-5. That appeared to be delaying the inevitable but Medvedev tightened up and twice failed to serve it out, including from 40-0 at 6-5.

The crowd roared the American star on, and he battled back from 1-5 down in the tie-break to 4-5 before Medvedev finally made it across the line.
(Jam Press/@mothercould)

A mum-of-three has revealed how her own experiences of parenting led to her becoming a go-to resource for millions of parents  sharing her hacks and activities for kids.

Myriam Sandler first took to social media to help empower others and to share advice for kids to develop skills through connection and play.

In six years the 31-year-old has built up an incredible fanbase with almost two million followers across TikTok and Instagram (@mothercould).

Myriams own journey began when her first child, Nicole, turned one and would only drink milk, refusing to eat any solid foods.

The influencer, who is also mum to Emma, five, and 17-month-old Ariana, who she shares with Marc, 37, claims doctors dismissed her concerns and simply said her daughter was still growing.

But Myriams gut told her something was wrong.

We literally tried every type of solid; yogurt, soups, kid foods, it didnt matter, the mum, who lives in Miami, Florida, told JamPrime.com.

She would refuse all of it. It was so stressful.

Although Nicole was healthy, we were so concerned about her not eating and refusing to even touch the food.

With a degree in psychology and experience in helping children with disabilities, Myriam realised her daughter was experiencing texture sensitivity.

Over the next few months, she used sensory play to expose Nicole to various textures in a low stress environment.

She said: Having worked with kids who have ADD and ADHD, I knew that sensory play was an effective way of introducing textures and engaging a child.

(Jam Press/@mothercould)

I knew her favourite texture was water because she loved the bath, so I started with water based play and slowly introduced new textures.

I made the water blue with food colouring and added some toy ducks to make it a pond.

I changed the textures every three to four days to keep play interesting and new.

I made up recipes in my kitchen, making play dough and slime that was edible, and colourful spaghetti so she could get used to the texture through play, rather than at the dinner table.

Story continues

Eventually, Myriams hard work began to pay off.

She said: Babies put everything in their mouths, so she quickly became accustomed to these textures and by the time she got to the dinner table shed try real spaghetti and actually enjoy it.

Within a few months, Nicole was eating all kinds of foods like salmon and quinoa.

(Jam Press/@mothercould)

Myriam said: We were thrilled that we were coming out of this challenging phase.

Nicole enjoyed meal times, which meant we all started enjoying meals together as a family.

Empowered by her parenting victory, Myriam started Mothercould, a website where she shared her recipes and ideas for sensory play with videos made in her own kitchen.

She said: Sensory play will captivate a childs imagination for long periods of time because they are using all their senses and it is open-ended play.

The moment I realised the sensory play was working for my daughter was my mother could moment.

The mum also shares cleaning hacks for parents, tips for travelling with kids and products to make life easier.
A recent week in March was filled with an unusual amount of travel as I did a series of three public talks in three different cities over four days.

No complaints, Im happy to be busy and eager to meet with folks who want to hear what I have to say, but all that travel was pretty grueling, including one leg that had me arriving home at 10:30 p.m. one night, only to hop on another flight at 6:30 a.m. the next morning.

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But all that time in airports and on planes was made significantly more tolerable by two things.

One: My daily proximity to Auntie Annes pretzel dogs. Yum.

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Two: A great book, The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li.

The choice of book was pretty fraught. Normally I travel with at least two books in case I finish one and need another, or if Im not connecting with one and need to go to a backup. But I was traveling light, using a single backpack crammed with my electronics and a change of clothes, with no room for a second book.

Also, for whatever reason, whenever I start a trip I need to start a new book, rather than continuing one in progress, so I have no certainty that Ive made the best choice until I start reading.

Enter The Book of Goose, the story of Agnes, a woman in her 20s, looking back on her childhood in a small, rural French town in the years after the Second World War. Agnes and her friend Fabienne conspire to turn Agnes into a child prodigy author.

Im not going to provide a detailed analysis of why and how I thought this book worked so well because, to be honest, Im still a bit under its spell. While walking the dog on the first morning back home after finishing the book on the last flight of the trip, I found myself thinking about Agnes and Fabienne, as if Lis story had taken up permanent residence in my consciousness.

When reading, there was one moment I was so engrossed, I was startled when the plane landed because Id forgotten I was on a plane.

I read a lot of books, and most of what I read I enjoy (I have good taste!) but this kind of deeper connection is relatively rare, happening only a few times a year. I wouldnt necessarily say this is why I read, but I think its an illustration of the truly unique capacity of books to connect with the deepest parts of ourselves.

Multiple companies are investing millions and millions of dollars into virtual reality headsets to provide users with immersive experiences, but I cannot imagine anything more immersive than a book.

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I know there are lots of readers out there who know exactly what Im talking about, who can lose their connection to the temporal world by falling into the world of a book. Its an amazing thing.

But its also a thing that can take a little practice, and the right kind of experiences in order to foster that kind of relationship with books. As regular readers know, I had the good fortune of literally being raised inside the bookstore my mom started in my hometown of Northbrook when I was a year old.

Lucky, lucky, lucky.

I worry that too many kids dont have an opportunity to develop a relationship with books and reading that extends beyond being able to pass school assessments that test a very narrow set of experiences.

Everyone should have a chance to access this magic.

John Warner is the author of Why They Cant Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.

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Twitter @biblioracle

Book recommendations from the Biblioracle

John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books youve read.

1. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

2. Classic Krakauer by Jon Krakauer

3. The Worlds Largest Man by Harrison Scott Key

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4. World Wild Vet by Dr. Evan Antin

5. Spiders from Mars: My Life with Bowie by Woody Woodmansey

 Dennis P., Bolingbrook

Occasionally I run into readers of David Sedaris who are not familiar with the work of Sedaris friend, the great, late David Rakoff, and if thats the case with Dennis, he must get a copy of Rakoffs Fraud immediately. Even better as an audiobook read by Rakoff himself.

1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

2. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

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3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

4. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

5. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

 Moira P., Orland Park

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee pretty much bats 1.000 as a recommendation, and its been a while since I recommended it, so I have high confidence Moira will find it an absorbing experience.

1. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

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2. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

3. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

4. Slow Horses by Mick Herron

5. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 Linda P., Libertyville

I think Linda would go for a good, good-feeling novel like J. Ryan Stradals The Lager Queen of Minnesota.

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Get a reading from the Biblioracle

Send a list of the last five books youve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com
The former US Air Force pilot Dan Hampton. Dan Hampton Facebook page

A decorated former US Air Force pilot said he would fly fighter jets for Ukraine if necessary.

Retired Lt. Col. Dan "Two Dogs" Hampton discussed the US F-16's potential in the Russia-Ukraine war.

"I'll even go myself, you can count on me," the retired lieutenant colonel told Voice of America.

Dan Hampton, a retired lieutenant colonel known as the US Air Force's "deadliest F-16 pilot," told Voice of America he was ready to fly planes for Ukraine's military himself if necessary.

The highly decorated pilot, known as "Two Dogs," spent 20 years in the Air Force, fought in the Persian Gulf, Kosovo, and Iraq wars, and is a New York Times best-selling author for his memoirs from his time in the military.

Speaking from a base in Arizona, Hampton discussed his thoughts in the long-form interview on training F-16 pilots to fight in Ukraine, the advantages of using the jets, and whether Ukraine's government should hire private pilots with the war continuing into its second year.

The F-16, a US single-seat fighter jet, is in the news after President Joe Biden recently said he wouldn't supply the planes to Ukraine for the time being. A bipartisan group of senators, however, has more recently pushed the Pentagon to send the jets, which the group argues "could prove to be a game changer on the battlefield," per Politico.

Earlier this week, Poland became the first NATO country to publicly commit to sending MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine.

"No one has ever won a war from the air," Hampton told VOA, an international news outlet the US government helps fund. He added: "You can't win a war from the air, but you can lose a war if you don't control the airspace."

A US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft. US Air Force photo by Senior Airman Taylor Crul

Hampton told the interviewer the Ukrainian government could hire private contractors who already know how to fly F-16s, which he said "buys you time" and "helps you win the war."

Story continues

"I'll even go myself. You can count on me," Hampton said.

Hampton, 58, flew 151 sorties in his distinguished career from 1986 to 2006. He is the most decorated flyer since the Vietnam War, according to VOA, having been awarded the Purple Heart, four Distinguished Flying Crosses for extraordinary heroism, and eight "Air Medals" of the US Air Force for valor during combat operations in the air.

The retired lieutenant colonel reiterated his commitment to the Ukrainian cause after explaining he thought it would be faster to send pilots who know how to fly rather than "sending Ukrainian pilots to the US and sending them to a training program."

The former pilot calls Russia's Su-35 fighter 'junk'

Two Ukrainian pilots were recently sent to Arizona, according to NBC News, for US authorities to determine how long it would take to train them to fly the jets, as well as to improve their skills.

Calling Russia's invasion of Ukraine a "black and white" issue of "good versus evil," Hampton said governments "that can provide these services should."

"I will even go myself," he repeated. "I will be number one. You can count on me."

A Russian Su-35 downed by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv region on April 3. Press service of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff/Handout via REUTERS

Hampton also compared F-16 planes  a multirole fighter that can attack air-to-ground and air-to-air  to the Russian Su-35 jets, saying the Russian model being used in the war "looks good at air shows" but was, in his opinion, "junk."

Insider recently reported that a US Air Force official called fighter jets "worthless" over Ukraine because both sides of the conflict had mastered long-range missile defense.

Read the original article on Business Insider
In the free state of Florida, Gov. DeSantis and Republican legislators want to gut free speech.

That kind of blatant hypocrisy  youre free to do what you want as long as I agree with it  has been nearly normalized, first by Donald Trump (the self-proclaimed law-and-order president who incited the attack on the U.S. Capitol) and now by DeSantis in Florida, who has made hypocrisy a central feature of his administration.

The proposal being considered by the state Legislature would stifle freedom of speech in Florida by attacking defamation laws. But it wouldnt harm just the faceless legacy media that the governor loves to hate. It would also have a chilling effect on individuals and, yes, even conservative media.

How long will it be before Republicans realize they are like the frog immersed in the slowly heating pot  about to be boiled to death along with the rest of us?

Proponents for the bill being considered, House Bill 991, say they are standing up for the little guy. They say the law targets false information that destroys a persons reputation. But thats just cover. This is really an attempt to stop Floridians of all kinds from being able to criticize the government.

Path to authoritarianism

If you dont like what the media or the people are saying about you, muzzle them. That is, as so many South Floridians can attest, one more step on the path to an authoritarian government.

The bill is still going through committees, and theres a Senate version that slightly differs. But the thrust of the idea here is to make it easier to sue media outlets for allegations of defamation.

It would do things like expand definitions of defamation, allow lawsuits to be filed anywhere in the state and narrow the definition of a public figure by excluding government employees who are not appointed by public officials.

It would also strip legal protections from reporters when it comes to disclosing the sources of information, including anonymous sources, and it would presume that information provided by an anonymous source is false, with no exception for whistle-blowers. That part alone should send chills down the spine of anyone who values democracy.

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The change in law would encourage lawsuits that go after media organizations financially, by allowing someone who wins a lawsuit to collect attorneys fees and costs from the losing news organization. Right now, both sides pay for their own legal fees and costs, which helps provide a check on frivolous suits.

Theres more, including a provision where a judge or jury could infer actual malice in a libel case in some instances.

Its all aimed at undercutting a 1964 legal decision, the New York Times v. Sullivan Supreme Court case, that shielded news outlets from libel judgments unless they published with actual malice  knowing the statement was false or acting with reckless disregard for the truth.

Because of the clear-cut constitutional questions, the legislation could eventually wind up at the U.S. Supreme Court, where two justices have indicated they might consider revisiting libel law and press protections.

But theres no high-minded principle here that DeSantis is advocating for. No, this is political strategy, through and through, aimed at getting him what he craves: a Supreme Court battle to showcase him as a fighter and a leg up in the fight for the White House.

He started stirring up grievances last month. In the run-up to the push for the legislation, DeSantis held a livestreamed roundtable discussion in Hialeah  in an odd, talk-show format  to grouse about legacy media defamation practices and drive-by media that will basically smear somebody without consequence.

Its a vintage Trump move, filtered through the brain of a Harvard-trained lawyer. Take a vague sense of discontent and reframe it as an urgent problem that he alone (first Trump, now DeSantis) can fix.

It doesnt even matter if the issue gets to the Supreme Court, not really  because the fight is the thing.

Too often, perception is reality when voters cast ballots. By launching fights against woke and drag queens and pronouns and diversity goals and indoctrination and local government control and masks and cruise ships and Disney and  apparently  Ukraine, to name a few, DeSantis is casting himself as a warrior. Hes also concentrating power in his hands, as authoritarians do.

Dont bet on this remaining solely a Florida problem, either. The states Dont say gay law and bans on critical race theory have spread beyond Floridas borders. If DeSantis ends up making a credible bid for the presidency, the whole country could be contending with an attack on citizens rights to speak freely and without fear. And the Sunshine State would be the dimming beacon that leads the way.
Hanna Maliar, Deputy Defence Minister of Ukraine, says that those mobilised are not sent to the front line without proper training, and the issue of sending subpoenas through Diia [a mobile app, a web portal and a brand of e-governance in Ukraine] is not even discussed.

Source: Maliar on Telegram

Details: The deputy minister said that Russian propaganda uses fakes and myths to discredit the mobilisation campaign in Ukraine.

Currently, subpoenas are not issued via Diia. And this issue is not being worked out, she stressed.

Maliar also noted that Ukraine does not mobilise women without their consent, even doctors. A woman who is liable for military service can receive a summons only to clarify the data. According to the law, they are obliged to do this every five years.

Quote from Maliar: "Another Russian narrative is that those mobilized are immediately sent to Bakhmut without training.

In fact, conscripts who have not served in the military are sent to training centres. Due to the large-scale war, the training of ordinary and non-commissioned officers takes place in a shorter time frame, but without reducing the quality of training.

If you are sent to the front line without weapon skills and training, you should report it to the hotline. In order to quickly understand [the message] and take measures, you need to mention the name and surname of the mobilised person and the number of the military unit which they were sent to, and which territorial centre of procurement and social support sent them. Ministry of Defence hotline numbers are 0-800-500-410, 0-800-500-442 and 044-454-44-99".

Background: A Ukrainian soldier from the city of Ternopil was killed on the front line less than a month after receiving the summons. The Territorial Recruitment Centre conducts a background check to determine those responsible for preparation and training of personnel.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!






It would be easy to mistake Detroit artist Richard Phillips for a highly-trained master of his field. But the 75-year-old man only had his first exhibit in 2019 and might be America's unlikeliest art phenom.

Phillips, who was featured on CBS News in 2019, was arrested for murder in 1971. He was exonerated in 2018, but for 46 years, he was wrongfully incarcerated.

To pass the time and temper the injustice, he painted.

"It was something to do, (to) occupy my mind," Phillips said. "I could get off into one of my paintings and just be in there for hours and hours and hours."

Once he was exonerated, though, he was sent on his way without so much as a bus ticket, leaving him wondering how he would survive.

Art by Richard Phillips. / Credit: Steve Hartman/On The Road

"I thought maybe I was going to have to stand out somewhere with a cup and beg for nickels and dimes," Phillips said.

Once again, though, art saved him. He realized he could take his artwork  hundreds and hundreds of watercolor paintings  and use it to make a living.

Four years later, Phillips has used his art sales to buy a new house, a car and even a dog.

Now, he's enjoying what he was denied for nearly half a century.

"It's not done yet. I'm still involved in social reform. I'm still involved in criminal justice. I'm still involved with the Innocence Network," Philips said. "I'm just trying to stay active."

To contact On the Road, or to send us a story idea, email us: OnTheRoad@cbsnews.com.

The state of the U.S. Navy | Sunday on 60 Minutes

Chowchilla survivor Jodi Heffington tells her story

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The parade was crowded. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

I attended the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City this year.

It was an entertaining, if a bit underwhelming, experience.

Next year, I'll stick to just sitting at a bar and sipping a Guinness.

The St. Patrick's Day Parade is held every year on New York City's Fifth Avenue.

A marching band participates in the annual St. Patrick's Day parade along Fifth Avenue on March 17, 2018. Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

The St. Patrick's Day Parade has been held in New York City almost every year since 1762, making it the oldest and largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the world. According to the organizers, around 150,000 people march every year, and the parade attracts 2 million spectators.

It's held on March 17 every year, unless that date falls on a Sunday  in that case, it's held on Saturday, March 16. But this year St. Patrick's Day fell on a Friday.

I've spent many St. Patrick's Days in New York City, but I have never attended the parade, so I decided to head to Manhattan and check it out.

The other celebrators. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

I've lived in New York City for the last four years, but I grew up on Long Island, and I happened to be visiting my family on St. Patrick's Day. So I dragged my mom and younger brother with me, and we headed to the Long Island Rail Road to catch a train to the city.

I was all ready for the train to be packed full with revelers, but it was actually almost empty. There were just two green-clad people on the platform.

Once we arrived at Grand Central Terminal, I began spotting more people who were festively dressed, including some holding beers.

Drinking beers at Grand Central. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

When I arrived, I saw more people dressed in green, including more than a few people with beers and other drinks. One group of guys had a case of Miller all ready to go.

The station was also lit up in green for the day.

Grand Central was festively decorated. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

This was pretty cool.

But once I hit the parade route, things started to go downhill. I started from the end of the parade route at Fifth Avenue and 78th Street, and it was already crowded.

The crowds at the end of the parade. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

At least, our side of the street was. The other side, the park side, could be a little deserted at times, but there was no easy way to get across as far as I could see.

Story continues

The parade goes up Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 79th Street. Since I live on the Upper East Side, I figured we'd start by my apartment and work our day down. I'm unsure if that was the best plan  the end of the parade route turned out to be significantly less crowded.

As I walked, I couldn't help but notice all the road closures and no-parking signs. It must be a nightmare to live by the parade route.

No parking. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

There were over two dozen road closures along the parade route, which can make getting around in the city a total nightmare.

While I enjoyed watching the pipe-and-drum bands, sometimes the bagpipes would start playing after they'd already passed by.

It was a good spot for selfies, though. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

We missed a few bands just because of where we were standing.

This was partially our fault, since we picked the spot, but at least three bands silently walked by us only to start playing a block or two up. It was annoying, so we kept moving to try and time our stops better.

There was also a lot of waiting around and staring at the empty street.

The empty streets. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

I went to college in New Orleans, so I've attended dozens of Mardi Gras parades in my time. In my experience, there would never be this amount of blank space during one of those parades between the floats, dancers, and marching bands.

Since this parade doesn't have floats and is instead more of a celebration of the Irish-American community, I found there was quite a lot of downtime between bands.

As we continued downtown, I thought some of the groups of people marching in the parade looked like crowds who just happened to get on the route.

Marchers. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

My family and I were perplexed by some of the groups who were marching in the parade. Members of the New York City Police Department and New York City Fire Department were all dressed in their best, the marching bands and dancers wore eye-catching costumes, and most of the organizations had matching sashes or hats.

But every so often, a group would come along looking like they'd snuck their way onto the parade route.

I also had to dodge tourists, souvenir sellers, and college students drinking BORGs.

A souvenir seller. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

BORGs are the latest drink craze: The name stands for "blackout rage gallon," and, as Insider has reported, they've caused some trouble on college campuses already. On my journey, I walked past a group of three girls each holding giant water jugs that were filled with an unidentifiable green liquid. They'd written "BORG" on the side.

I was also dodging tourists, people trying to sell items to those tourists, and some people who seemed drunk.

I also didn't expect it to get political, but between a group at Trump Tower, multiple signs calling for England to get out of Ireland, and a few fliers criticizing the police union president, it could get a little tense.

The scene outside Trump Tower. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

Outside Trump Tower's Fifth Avenue entrance, there was a crowd of supporters waving flags and banners with "Trump 2024" on them. I could sense a bit of unease around the supporters, as they were yelling loudly at both paradegoers and marchers, but nothing ever came of it.

There were also multiple signs with the phrase "England Get Out of Ireland," which, according to Irish Central, is the only political sign allowed in the parade proper. I hadn't realized that it's been part of the parade for decades.

Also posted throughout the parade were fliers criticizing Patrick Lynch, the police-union president and an aide to the Parade Grand Marshal. Fliers said he should not be involved in the event.

The union, Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, did not respond to Insider's request for comment. Neither did the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade Organization.

As we got closer to Midtown, where the parade started, it got increasingly crowded. It also got more and more inconvenient to keep walking down Fifth Avenue thanks to detours.

Detours. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

We had to keep walking halfway down the block just to cross the street, which got old really fast.

Or we had to wait on increasingly long lines.

One of the lines. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

This was one of the lines to cross the street, which became increasingly long as the crowd grew. It took up to 10 minutes just to cross.

March in New York City isn't the most picturesque time, either.

Scaffolding and bare trees. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

This obviously isn't the fault of the parade or its organizers, and luckily, it was relatively warm out this year. But March in New York City can be brutal.

After walking 28 blocks, we made it to St. Patrick's Cathedral. At that point, people were also starting to get a bit more belligerent.

St. Patrick's Cathedral. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

St. Patrick's Cathedral is one of New York City's most famous landmarks. It opened its doors in 1879 and has been open for anyone to visit since then. I couldn't get close to it because of where I was on the parade route, but it was still powerful to be close by.

Unfortunately, it seemed like some of the parade attendees were getting into the spirit a little too much. I saw people drinking, yelling, and swaying at this point in the route.

While I was pretty entertained by the day out, I did find the parade underwhelming  in my opinion, I don't think it compares to Chicago's green river or the raucous celebrations in Boston.

The parade. Gabbi Shaw/Insider

To me, the St. Patrick's Day Parade was decently entertaining, but not worth the hype.

I'd recommend finding your local Irish pub and celebrating there, instead.

Read the original article on Insider
I am old and old-fashioned. I have been writing this column on Alabama government and political history for 20 years, and it appears weekly in more than 60 newspapers. Folks believe what they read in their local papers because local editors and journalists they trust act as a filter to provide them with the truth.

But technology has created a whole new breed of internet publications, where lying is the standard and not the exception. One deranged person can sit in a dark room and pump out vicious lies and fabrications without any evidence  and there is no local editor standing up for the truth. I believe in the First Amendment to our U.S. Constitution, but having a website should not be a license to lie and slander people.

I do not pay much attention to the so-called internet bloggers, but the outlandish lies of one such blogger has gotten my attention. A convicted criminal named Donald Watkins has been blogging scurrilous, vicious, outlandish lies about some of our states and nations most outstanding leaders and companies. Watkins is posting these lies to the internet while serving a prison sentence under the jurisdiction of the federal penal system.

More:Alabama Supreme Court has five seats up for grabs | INSIDE THE STATEHOUSE

Watkins was born in a world of privilege, the son of the late Levi Watkins, the president of Alabama State University. While Watkins presented himself as a multimillionaire, high-rolling investor, court documents show he swindled friends, celebrities and an FDIC-insured bank out of more than $15 million. In 2019, a federal court sent Watkins and his son, Donald Watkins Jr., to prison.

Federal records show Watkins represented that he was selling stock in an energy company called Masada and claimed he was the majority shareholder in the company. Watkins did not own any of the company stock. He claimed the company was associated with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Martin Luther King III. Both testified they had no connection with the company.

Story continues

The vast majority of you have never heard of Watkins. Some of you may remember him as the lawyer who helped Eric Ramsey attack the Auburn football program, landing the school on NCAA probation. He later defended high-profile criminals, like himself.

But basketball legend Charles Barkley will remember Watkins as the man who swindled him out of more than $6 million. Federal records show that Watkins and his son took money from investors and channeled that money to pay for extravagant lifestyles. Records show Watkins Sr. used the money to pay back taxes, alimony, living expenses for his girlfriend, and for his own private jet. It is easy to see why a jury of hard-working, honest folks found him guilty on ten counts in a New York minute.

Donald Watkins was convicted in 2019 in connection with an investment scam that bilked $15 million from investors and a bank. [File photo]

Watkins and his son were convicted in federal court, and Watkins was found guilty on all 10 counts brought against him. He was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay more than $14 million in restitution. He was sued for defamation, for lying about someone, and ordered to pay $1.5 million to those he harmed. But from a prison cell, Watkins continued to attack those he harmed, always claiming to be the victim and not the villain. Watkins claims he was railroaded as he continues spreading his lies across the digital landscape.

He blames scores of people for conspiring against him, including the Alabama Supreme Court, federal judges, federal prosecutors, and the leadership of some of Alabamas major corporations. Watkins even has the audacity to accuse former Sen. Richard Shelby of some unspecified scheme to send Watkins to jail.

In 2017, Alabama businessman Joe Perkins sued Watkins for defamation. A circuit court ruled in Perkins favor and awarded a judgment against Watkins of $1.5 million. Watkins appealed all the way up to the United States Supreme Court, and on Feb. 27, the highest court in the land unceremoniously refused to hear Watkinss ridiculous appeal.

So, why dont more of Watkins victims sue him for his lies? As the old saying goes, you cant get blood from a turnip. He owes his victims more than $15 million today. He is in such a deep hole that he cannot be stopped by more lawsuits.

Freedom of speech is one of the hallmarks of Americas creed. But that freedom in the hands of a proven liar and brazen, arrogant, non-repentant federal prisoner is not what our forefathers envisioned when they enshrined the First Amendment. This blogger is a threat to society and deserves further jail time.

Steve Flowers

Steve Flowers served 16 years in the Alabama Legislature. Readers can email him at steve@steveflowers.us.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Disgraced lawyer Donald Watkins blogs from prison | INSIDE THE STATEHOUSE
Since giving up liquid shampoo and conditioner, Insider's reporter feels her hair has become thicker and longer. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider

I stopped using traditional liquid shampoo and conditioner a little over a year ago.

I now opt for solid shampoo and conditioner bars, and my hair has never been so long or healthy.

The packaging is better for the environment and its made a major difference in my hair.

A little over a year ago, I stopped using liquid shampoo and conditioner and switched to shampoo and conditioner bars.

Insider's reporter has been using shampoo and conditioner bars since the start of 2022. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider

In December, a friend I hadn't seen in months delivered one of the greatest compliments I've ever received: "Is your hair real?"

As someone whose hair used to grow at a snail's pace, to be asked if I was wearing extensions was thrilling. Not only was it my real hair, but I credited it to two products that have become my holy grail: shampoo and conditioner bars.

About a year ago, I ditched liquid shampoo and conditioner for shampoo and conditioner in bar form. I had reluctantly tried out the bars  could they really be that great?  while visiting my mom, who had become something of a shampoo-bar savant after receiving them as a Christmas gift from my grandmother.

Now, the three of us swear by the bars, despite each of us having different hair types.

The bars have made my hair feel longer, healthier, and thicker.

The authors hair before and after starting to use shampoo and conditioner bars. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider

Throughout all of 2020 to 2021, I wore my hair cropped to a bob, ranging somewhere between chin length at its shortest and my collarbones at its longest.

It wasn't until the middle of 2021 that I made the decision to grow out my hair, and a few months after that I made the swap to shampoo bars.

There are a few different bars on the market, but I ended up switching to solid bars from a company called The Earthling Co. (I liked that their packaging appeared more sustainable than the standard plastic bottles I had been using).

To my surprise, I pretty quickly noticed a difference in my hair.

Now, worn straight, my hair brushes to my elbows  growth that I attribute, at least in part, to using shampoo and conditioner bars. Aside from how long it's gotten, I also think my hair is thicker and silkier than it's ever been.

Story continues

They're gentle on my hair, without any parabens or preservatives.

Without harsh chemicals, the bars are gentle on my dyed hair. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider

Admittedly, I didn't really know what this meant until I started using the bars. Avoiding chemicals was never a priority to me, and I always just bought the cheapest hair-washing products I could find at Target, chemicals be damned.

But since purchasing the bars for the first time last year, I've learned more about parabens  man-made chemicals often found in cosmetics  and have shifted my perspective on what I look for in my hair products.

While the US Food and Drug Administration doesn't have information on the effects of parabens on health, some cosmetic brands choose not to use them as a precautionary measure.

The Earthling Co.'s products, for example, claim to be paraben- and preservative-free, and according to its website, have no harsh, stripping ingredients  making them ideal for my dyed hair.

According to the brand, the bars are made with ingredients like coconut oil, apricot seed oil, and cocoa seed butter.

They're delivered in plastic-free packaging, saving on waste.

The bars are delivered in plastic-free packaging. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider

The Earthling Co. says its shipping materials are all recyclable or compostable. I don't compost, but I do recycle the little boxes the shampoo and conditioner come in.

According to the brand's website, one shampoo bar is expected to save one to two 16-ounce plastic bottles. and the bars can last between two and six months, or 50 to 75 washes, depending on how frequently you wash your hair.

I try to wash my hair only two times a week, which means I only have to buy them every six or seven months  far less frequently than when I was using plastic bottles of shampoo and conditioner.

The shampoo and conditioner bars feel like they last forever.

Brand-new shampoo and conditioner bars versus the bars after dozens of uses. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider

The only problem is that once it gets down to the final few weeks, the bars break apart into smaller and smaller pieces, making them difficult, and eventually impossible, to use.

It wasn't until researching for this article that I learned there were solutions to this problem: Per the brand's website, you can mold the broken bits onto a new bar, or turn the leftovers into liquid hand soap.

Unfortunately, the products are on the pricey side.

The shampoo bars create a nice lather when applied to hair. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider

At $16 a piece, the bars are more expensive than the typical shampoo and conditioner bottles I'd opt for at the drugstore.

They are, however, right in line with competitors: Lush's shampoo bars start at $15, as do Ethique's bars.

Overall, I don't see myself buying traditional liquid shampoo and conditioner ever again.

After a year of using shampoo and conditioner bars, Insider's reporter can confidently say she won't be going back to traditional products anytime soon. Jordan Parker Erb/Insider

Growing up, I was always frustrated by how slow my hair seemed to grow. I tried everything: biotin supplements, hair masks, and every kind of shampoo that claimed to make hair soft and healthy. Eventually, I determined that my hair just wasn't meant to grow as much as I wanted it to.

It wasn't until testing out these bars in 2022 that I finally felt like my hair was strong, silky, and growing faster than it ever had. Shampoo and conditioner bars may not be for everyone, but I don't see myself going back to liquid products anytime soon.

Read the original article on Insider
As a Manhattan grand jury considers indicting former President Donald Trump as soon as next week, his attorney Joe Tacopina confirmed to the New York Daily News and Insider that he would concede to authorities without complication.

Manhattan investigators have been looking into Trump for allegedly sending $130,000 worth of hush money to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who accused Trump of having an affair with her in 2006. Trump has repeatedly called the investigation a witch hunt.

Trumps possible indictment would mark the first time a former president and a major presidential candidate faced charges. Trump announced last year he would seek re-election in 2024.

We will follow normal procedure if it gets to that point, Tacopina told Insider. Normal procedure for white-collar indictments means Trump would self-surrender to the district attorneys headquarters in Lower Manhattan at a set date and time, without handcuffs, Insider previously reported.

There wont be a standoff at Mar-a-Lago with Secret Service and the Manhattan DAs office, Tacopina told the Daily News.

Trumps former attorney, Michael Cohen, has pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws due to his involvement in the payment. Cohen spent a year behind bars before being released to spend the remainder of his three-year sentence from home due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Unsealed court documents during Cohens investigation of this matter show that Trump was aware of and involved with the payout to Daniels and another woman.

Trump is facing numerous legal troubles for various allegations  including his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection and illegally holding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Tacopinas office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Related...
Evan Corcoran, right, and Lindsey Halligan, left, part of former US President Donald Trumps legal team, leave the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building & Courthouse after a court hearing in West Palm Beach, Florida on September 1, 2022.

Donald Trump on Friday signaled a likely appeal of a federal judge's order forcing one of his attorneys to provide additional testimony before a federal grand jury investigating Trump's retention of classified documents after leaving office two years ago.

"Every American has the right to consult with counsel and have candid discussions  this promotes adherence to the law," Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said. "We will fight the Department of Justice on this front and all others that jeopardize fundamental American rights and values."

September 6, 2022: This image, contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice and redacted in part by the FBI, shows a photo of documents seized during the search on Aug. 8, 2022, by the FBI of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

The former president's response came quickly after CNN first disclosed that U.S. District Beryl Howell had ruled that Trump attorney Evan Corcoran must answer additional questions because the legal communications may have been related to criminal conduct. Corcoran had cited attorney-client privilege during a previous appearance before the panel,

Under the so-called "crime-fraud exception," the privilege would not shield the attorney from testifying about communications with a client.

Corcoran was central to Trump's legal team at the time the Justice Department sought the return of a trove of classified documents that the former president had transferred to his Florida estate after leaving the White House.

Mar-a-Lago in Florida

The attorney drafted a statement that was later provided to federal authorities in June indicating that a "diligent" search had yielded no more classified records.

Two months later, an FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, resulted in the seizure of another cache of classified records.

Corcoran did not immediately respond to inquiries.

Howell's ruling was part of a sealed proceeding in the document inquiry led by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith.

Jack Smith, then the Department of Justice's chief of the Public Integrity Section, poses for photo at the Department of Justice in Washington, on Aug. 24, 2010. Attorney General Merrick Garland named Smith a special counsel on Friday, Nov. 18, 2022, to oversee the Justice Department's investigation into the presence of classified documents at former President Donald Trump's Florida estate as well as key aspects of a separate probe involving the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and efforts to undo the 2020 election.

"Interfering with Americans right to an attorney is a serious and weighty matter," the Trump spokesperson said Friday, describing the judge's action "un-American and unacceptable."

.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump to appeal order forcing lawyer testimony in document case
The Vatican said Saturday it had closed its embassy in Nicaragua after the countrys government proposed suspending diplomatic relations, the latest episode in a yearslong crackdown on the Catholic Church by the administration of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

The Vaticans representative to Managua, Monsignor Marcel Diouf, also left the country Friday, bound for Costa Rica, a Vatican official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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The Vatican action came a week after the Nicaraguan government proposed suspending relations with the Holy See, and a year after Nicaragua forced the papal ambassador at the time to leave. Its not clear what more the proposed suspension would entail in diplomatic terms.

Relations between the church and Ortegas government have been deteriorating since 2018, when Nicaraguan authorities violently repressed anti-government protests.

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Some Catholic leaders gave protesters shelter in their churches, and the church later tried to act as a mediator between the government and the political opposition.

Ortega branded Catholic figures he saw as sympathetic to the opposition as terrorists who had backed efforts to overthrow him. Dozens of religious figures were arrested or fled the country.

Two congregations of nuns, including from the Missionaries of Charity order founded by Mother Teresa, were expelled from Nicaragua last year.

Prominent Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez was sentenced to 26 years in prison last month after he refused to board an airplane that flew 222 dissidents and priests to exile in the United States. He also was stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship.

Pope Francis had remained largely silent on the issue, apparently not wanting to inflame tensions. But in a March 10 interview with Argentine media outlet Infobae, after Alvarezs sentencing, he called Ortegas government a rude dictatorship comparable to Hitlers that was led by an unbalanced president.

According to Vatican News, the care of the Vaticans embassy, or nunciature, was entrusted to the Italian government, according to diplomatic conventions. The report said diplomats of the European Union, Germany, France and Italy gave Diouf, the charge daffaires, a farewell salute before he shuttered the diplomatic post and left.

During the farewell ceremony, Germanys ambassador to Nicaragua, Christoph Bundscherer, expressed regret at the embassys closure and asked Diouf to share a message with Pope Francis, according to a statement on the German Embassys Facebook page.

Together with the Catholic Church, the representatives of the European Union in Nicaragua will also always defend the Christian values of freedom, tolerance and human dignity, Bundscherer said, according to the statement.

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The Nicaraguan government, which since September 2018 has banned all opposition demonstrations in the country, also restricted Catholic activities inside churches, including banning the traditional street processions that thousands of Nicaraguans used to celebrate in the lead up to Holy Week and Easter.

The restrictions forced church authorities to hold the Stations of the Cross procession on the grounds of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua, as they did Friday.

___

Selser reported from Mexico City.
Donald Trump at the NCAA Wrestling Championships on Saturday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma - AP

Donald Trump on Saturday called on his supporters to protest amid reports he could be arrested next week over hush money payments he allegedly paid to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

In a post on his Truth Social site, the former president called the Manhattan District Attorney's Office "corrupt" as a grand jury weighed whether he should be indicted and face charges over the allegations.

"Leading Republican candidate & former President of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week. Protest, take our nation back!" he wrote in capital letters.

Mr Trump referred to "illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorneys office," and in a later post said: "It's time!! They are killing our nation as we sit back & watch. We must save America! Protest, protest, protest!!!"

It came after NBC, AP and other US media reported that law enforcement was preparing for Mr Trump to be indicted as "early as next week" in connection with purported payments to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and other women who alleged sexual encounters with him.

Stormy Daniels in 2018 - Markus Schreiber

Police officials told the networks that they were preparing for potential pro-Trump rallies outside of the Manhattan courthouse.

Lawyers for the Florida-based Republican said he would comply with any legal order, while sources close to his team briefed CNN that he would present himself to the New York court and expressed an interest in making a speech after. They had reportedly privately urged Mr Trump not to call on protesters to demonstrate, fearing the optics on the streets of Manhattan.

If he is indicted, it would make Mr Trump the first former president ever to face criminal charges.

Mr Trump's call for protests echoed his appeal to backers to march to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, which ended as a deadly riot.

His arrest could galvanise voters, who see the 2024 presidential candidate as the victim of a Democratic witch hunt. Elon Musk, meanwhile, responded to the development by stating that if he was to be charged, Mr Trump would "be re-elected in a landslide victory".

Story continues

Supporters of Donald Trump behind his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Saturday - AP

Having seen what happened on January 6, I think this is potentially very dangerous, said John Bolton, former National Security Adviser in the Trump administration. I hope prosecutors in New York are very very sure of their case.

There has been no public announcement of any timeframe for the Manhattan grand jury's secret work, including any potential vote on whether to indict the ex-president. Jurors have one more witness to hear from on Monday, which makes it unlikely they will return a decision by Tuesday.

The grand jury has been hearing from witnesses, including Michael Cohen, Mr Trumps lawyer and longtime fixer, who testified last week that he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to silence them about sexual encounters they said they had with the Florida-based businessman a decade earlier.

Mr Cohen has said that at his former clients direction, he arranged payments totaling $280,000 to Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Mr Cohen has said that his former client ordered him to pay the hush money and that it was for the principal purpose of buying their silence and thereby influencing the 2016 presidential election.

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer, walks out of a Manhattan courthouse after testifying before a grand jury, in New York, March 15 - Anadolu Agency

A $150,000 payment to Ms McDougal was made by the then-publisher of the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer, which kept her story from coming to light.

Mr Trump was also invited to testify, which legal experts said indicated an indictment was close.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Mr Trumps company compensated Mr Cohen for his work to keep the womens allegations quiet.

He could be indicted on two charges; the first for falsifying business records, which is a misdemeanour under New York law unless prosecutors prove they were falsified to conceal another crime, which would make it a felony. The other could be a violation of state election law if they could find that the intention of the alleged payoff was to benefit Mr Trump's political campaign.

Experts said both could be difficult to prove.

Mr Trump, 76, denies the encounters occurred, says he did nothing wrong and has cast the investigation as a witch hunt by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republican's 2024 presidential campaign.

Mr Cohen pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors never charged Mr Trump with any crime.

Mr Trump's attorney, Joe Tacopina, told NBC News that the former president will follow normal procedures if it gets to the point of having to surrender to authorities from the District Attorneys office.

In a letter sent to the New York City's Department of Investigation commissioner last Friday, Mr Tacopina accused Attorney General Bragg of conducting a "politically motivated investigation."

The prosecutors "weaponised" their office, he wrote, "scouring every aspect of President Trump's personal life and business affairs, going back decades, in the hopes of finding some legal basis - however far-fetched, novel or convoluted - to prosecute him."
Former US President Donald Trump Delivers Remarks On America First Education Policy In Iowa

Former US President Donald Trump speaks during an "America First Education Policy" event in Davenport, Iowa, US, on March 13, 2023. Credit - Miriam Alarcon AvilaBloomberg/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump says his indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney for alleged hush money payments is imminent, claiming on Saturday that it could come as early as Tuesday.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg has not commented on Trumps claims, and a spokesperson for Trump later clarified that Trump had received no notification an indictment was imminent.

However, Trumps comments highlight the possibility that he could face arrest for the first time. Trump was invited to testify before a grand jury in early March. The offer to testify, which Trump declined, is required before any indictment.

The investigation centers around cash paid to pornographic film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 before Trumps election win. Daniels says she had an affair with Trump; Trump denies this.

Read More: What Trump Has Said About Stormy Daniels

As part of Braggs investigation, Trump could face charges for falsifying business records when he allegedly reimbursed his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen for paying off Daniels. The hush-money deal, allegedly crafted weeks before his presidential win, could also put Trump in jeopardy of violating campaign finance laws.

The prospect of Trumps arrestthe first in history for a former presidentraises questions about the process Trump would be subject to during his arrest and trialincluding whether any extraordinary measures would be taken given his unique status.

TIME spoke with legal experts about each step of the process, and how Trumps indictment might proceed differently from run-of-the-mill white-collar crime cases.

The arrest

The charges Trump would likely face are for white-collar crimes regarding financial dealings, and given their non-violent nature, defendants in such cases typically self-surrender, skipping public perp walks.

Story continues

Shanlon Wu, a white-collar defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, tells TIME that defense councils typically receive notice when their white-collar clients are being indicted. You would make an appointment basically, to bring your client in to be booked and fingerprinted, Wu says.

Wu adds that Trumps lawyers may even seek some special arrangements, given hes a former president, to avoid walking through the front entrance of the courthouse or police station in an attempt to be more discreet. On Friday, Trumps attorney said that if indicted, Trump would not resist arrest and that they would follow normal procedures. There wont be a standoff at Mar-a-Lago with Secret Service and the Manhattan DAs office, Joe Tacopina told the New York Daily News.

If indicted, Trump would have to go through the same process, where he would be booked into jail, finger-printed, and a mug shot taken. However, given Trumps substantial ties to the community, especially his ongoing 2024 presidential campaign, the judge likely wouldnt deem him a flight risk and would probably immediately release him on bond, former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti tells TIME.

In a post on Truth Social on Saturday morning, Trump claimed his arrest was imminent and called for his supporters to protest, citing illegal leaks from a corrupt and highly political Manhattan district attorneys office.

Security measures

Law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal level have been working to prepare the Manhattan Criminal Court for the possibility that Trump is indicted, NBC News reported Friday, citing anonymous sources. The New York Police Department, New York State Court Officers, the Manhattan District Attorneys Office, the Secret Service, and the FBI are all involved, according to NBC.

Wu doesnt anticipate many unusual logistics in the procedures if Trump is indicted, but believes that security would be heightenedsimilar to measures for other high-profile political figures or celebrities. Sometimes we see a huge flood of cameras and reporters at the front of the courthouse, he says. With a former president, the Secret Service would probably have some screening mechanism for that, because otherwise, you dont know whos in the crowd.

Court security may also set up a sort of a barrier zone, meaning theres going to be X amount of feet, where people can walk through and there wont be any reporters sticking microphones in their faces, Wu adds that there would probably be limits to how many people are allowed in the courtroom.

Complications

If Trump is indicted and charged, the case would eventually move on to jury selection, which could be a lengthy and exhausting process.

The majority of people in the jury pool would have some opinions about Donald Trump, former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti tells TIME. Most defendants, even if theyre famous, are often not known by prospective jurors or they dont have a certain opinion about that person. I think its safe to say that Donald Trump is different.

During jury selection the prosecution and the defense use voir dire questioning, meaning they can ask each prospective juror questions about their qualifications and knowledge of the case, in an attempt to ensure fair and impartial jurors.

Wu thinks a judge could opt to issue a so-called gag order, restricting all parties from talking to the press. This is gonna get so much publicity anyway if hes charged, Wu says. Itd be very hard to find jurors who havent been exposed to the news. Although rarely used, one method to combat this is for a judge to sequester jurors, limiting their exposure to outside influence or information.

If this case is still ongoing, during his run for president, you could face a very unprecedented and challenging situation, Mariotti says. [Trump] would be subject to a criminal enforcement action by a state, which would pose a lot of serious constitutional quandaries.
Former President Donald Trump predicted Saturday morning that he will be arrested next Tuesday for his role in making an alleged $130,000 hush money payment to an adult film actress in the waning days of the 2016 election to silence her about claims she'd had an affair with him.

More: Donald Trump claims he will be arrested Tuesday in Manhattan probe, calls for protests

A spokesperson said Trump has gotten no specific notification that he would be indicted.

The speculation about Trump's potential legal trouble as an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's office nears its conclusion has put law enforcement and the political world on edge. If Trump's claims prove true, it would mark the first time in U.S. history that a former president has faced criminal charges, legal experts say.

Will he be taken into custody or indicted by a grand jury soon? Here's what we know:

Heres why Trump's indictment may be imminent

Trump says hell still run for president again if hes indicted in any of the several current investigations into his conduct. But in one of those probes  in the hush-money case in New York  there are new indications that criminal charges might be imminent, according to new information thats come to light this week.

Trump himself predicted on his social media site Truth Social that he'll be arrested Tuesday in connection with the investigation conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney's office and called on his supporters to protest ahead of a possible indictment by the grand jury hearing evidence in the case.

More: Former Trump attorney Cohen to testify before NY grand jury in porn star hush money probe

Trump has denied wrongdoing, and federal investigators ended their own inquiry into the payments in 2019.

Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for Manhattan's District Attorney's office, declined to comment Saturday on Trump's statement. But there are other indications that an indictment may be imminent.

Story continues

Michael Cohen, former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, speaks to the media before departing his Manhattan apartment for prison on May 6, 2019, in New York.

Trump ex-lawyer Michael Cohen's cooperation

Cohen, Trumps longtime lawyer and fixer, spent two days last week testifying before the grand jury against his former boss. Cohen, who has already served prison time in connection with this and other cases, reiterated his claims that Trump personally instructed him to pay Daniels so it would not hurt his chances of defeating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

A source familiar with the investigation told USA TODAY that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team are relying on a wealth of evidence to bolster Cohens testimony.

That includes volumes of emails, texts and other documentation gathered during search warrants of Cohens premises and electronic devices, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels are central to two of the lawsuits seeking tax and financial documents from President Trump's accounting firm.

Porn actress Stormy Daniels' cooperation

Daniels, who claimed to have an affair with Trump in 2006, was also asked by prosecutors from Braggs office to meet with them, and did so by Zoom with her lawyer last Wednesday.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, also agreed to be a witness before the grand jury  and during a trial if Trump ultimately is charged with a crime in connection with the payments.

A second source familiar with the investigation said at least seven DA prosecutors and investigators have been involved in the discussions with Daniels and her lawyer, and that she is prepared to share some form of corroborative documentation of her own from the time period in question.

Daniels lawyer, Clark Brewster, told USA TODAY he could not comment on what he and Daniels discussed with prosecutors. But he said it was not the first time he has been in touch with them about the case during his representation of Daniels, which began in 2019.

Brewster had no comment on whether Daniels has actually testified before, or has been asked testify, before the Manhattan grand jury that would hand up an indictment in the case.

But Brewster said that Daniels would make an excellent witness, citing her cooperation and testimony in the trial of her former lawyer Michael Avenatti.

Trump's own lawyer's comments

Trump himself was invited to testify before the grand jury, which prosecutors say is a sure sign that the investigation is in its final stages and likely to produce an indictment. After that invitation came to light, Trump's own lawyer in the case, Joe Tacopina, acknowledged the possibility of a looming indictment.

You know, it's becoming more probable, I think now, Tacopina told News Nation in an interview Tuesday night, adding, But the one thing I still hold on to is hope that justice will prevail.

Joe Tacopina poses for photographers in Venice, Italy, Friday, Oct. 9, 2015. New York lawyer Joe Tacopina leads a group of investors who have purchased Venice's fourth-division soccer club. Tacopina and fellow American investors John Goldman and John Tapinis announced the purchase of Venezia FC in the lagoon city Friday. (AP Photo/Luigi Costantini)

Trump's own admissions

Trump himself has, in recent days, admitted to making the payment to stop Daniels from publicly disclosing an alleged affair with him just before the election. Previously, Trump denied complicity in a series of public statements.

I did absolutely nothing wrong, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I have wanted to have an affair with Stormy Daniels, Trump wrote on his Truth Social social media platform. I relied on counsel in order to resolve this extortion of me.

Some former prosecutors, including Glenn Kirschner and Paul Pelletier, told USA TODAY that such comments could potentially implicate Trump in the suspected criminal wrongdoing under investigation by the DA's office, including making illegal campaign donations.

Will Trump be handcuffed and arrested if he is indicted?

Kirschner told USA TODAY on Saturday that authorities often negotiate the surrender of a high-profile defendant like Trump to avoid the spectacle of a perp walk in which the person is paraded before the media as they enter the courthouse or police station.

There will be no reason to cuff him and walk him into police headquarters to be booked," Kirschner said.There will still be a mug shot, fingerprints and lots of paperwork filled out as part of the booking process. So we will see a mug shot of a former President of the United States but I do not think we're going to see a perp walk.

Trumps spokesperson told USA TODAY there has been no notification related to the timing of possible criminal charges. But the former presidents call for protests caused concern for law enforcement involved in preparing for such an event.

The appeal for demonstrations, said one official familiar with the arrangements, may immediately require a larger security footprint in New York and more agents assigned to shadow the movements of the former president.

Will Trump's call for protests by supporters lead to violence?

Kirschner said authorities should take seriously Trumps call to action, saying it could potentially result in the kind of widespread rioting that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

This is a play right out of Trumps playbook, said Kirschner. We started with Stand back, standby. We then moved to Come to DC on January 6 , itll be wild. Now we have Come to Manhattan for my arraignment. Protest, take our country back."

But Kirschner said he doubts Trumps effort will have the same result this time.

On January 6, people were aggrieved because they had been told their vote was stolen. So they took it personally. Here. I don't think there's that kind of personal motivator the way there was on January 6, Kirschner said.

Dig deeper:

Contributing: Ella Lee, David Jackson, Kevin Johnson

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What we know about whether Donald Trump will be indicted.
Donald Trump suggested on Saturday morning that he will be arrested Tuesday on charges stemming from Manhattan prosecutors investigation into the $130,000 paid in hush money to adult actor Stormy Daniels.

The former president also called on supporters to PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK  in what commentators interpreted as a call to violence  in the venomous rant on his Truth Social platform. His message came just hours after he shared his first post to Facebook since being banned for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump doubled down later on Saturday, writing that EVIL & SINISTER PEOPLE were DESTROYING the military and country.

THEYRE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!! he typed.

Read his diatribes here:

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called Trumps posting rampage reckless, saying it aimed to foment unrest among his supporters.

He cannot hide from his violations of the law, disrespect for our elections and incitements to violence. Rightfully, our legal system will decide how to hold him accountable, Pelosi said in a statement.

On Friday, Trumps lawyer Joe Tacopina confirmed that the former president vying for reelection in 2024 would surrender to authorities without complication if indicted.

We will follow normal procedure if it gets to that point, Tacopina told Insider.

There wont be a standoff at Mar-a-Lago with Secret Service and the Manhattan DAs office, the lawyer  who this week went viral for trying to grab a piece of paper from MSNBCs Ari Melber  told the New York Daily News, referring to Trumps Florida resort and the New York County district attorney.

The New York Times reported that Trump feels deeply anxious about the prospect of arrest, having faced his first criminal investigation in the 1970s.

The potential charges against the former president stem from his alleged affair with Daniels in 2006 and accusations that he paid her off  via a shell company created by his former attorney and longtime fixer Michael Cohen  in exchange for her silence ahead of the 2016 election.

Story continues

Trump has repeatedly called the investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs office, which is reportedly looking at whether the payment broke state laws, a witch hunt.

Cohen, meanwhile, spent a year in prison for his role in the payment, which was made in violation of campaign finance laws. Unsealed court documents in Cohens case suggest that Trump was involved with the payout.

If Trump is indicted, it would be the first time a former president has faced charges.

But how much support it would cost him is unclear.

Although former Vice President Mike Pence has distanced himself from Trump following the 2021 insurrection, he nonetheless came to his old running mates defense in a radio interview, saying that the Manhattan probe reeks of ... political prosecution.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called reports of a possible indictment an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA, whom he accused of pursuing political vengeance against President Trump. McCarthy pledged to look into whether any federal funds were being used in the Manhattan prosecutors efforts.

Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.



Im directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by https://t.co/elpbh7LeWn  Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) March 18, 2023

In a tweet, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) said the reported upcoming arrest ... is some Third World Banana Republic lunacy.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said on Twitter that a Trump indictment would certainly not impact his endorsement of Trump in 2024.

Hell no, Vance wrote.

Another staunch ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), tweeted that if the Manhattan DA indicts President Trump, he will ultimately win even bigger than he is already going to win.

Greene added: The base has had enough of Republicans that wont stand up for the people and against the Democrats war against Trump, his admin, his supporters, and traditional values.

Related...
Former President Donald Trump appears to be at the centre of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs grand jury investigation into a hush payment made to a porn star by Mr Trumps attorney Michael Cohen in 2016.

The investigation entered a new phase in recent weeks, and now Mr Braggs office has contacted the presidents lawyers to offer an opportunity for voluntary testimony, a sign that multiple sources close to the investigation told The New York Times means that an indictment or multiple indictments are likely in the works. Mr Trump himself predicted on 18 March that he would be arrested the following week.

THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK! Mr Trump posted on Truth Social in a furious all-caps message.

Should Mr Trump actually be charged with a crime, it would be the first time an investigation into his inner circle (of which there have been several, with the most famous leading to multiple indictments for figures connected to the 2016 campaign) actually drew blood from the president himself.

The Justice Departments protocol against charging a sitting president appeared to cool any ability of the agency to do so while he was in office, but the presidents loss in 2020 opened the door to prosecution for both the 2016 Stormy Daniels matter as well as for an investigation into the January 6 attack and Mr Trumps efforts to overturn the election.

That second investigation continues, with the distinct possibility of potential charges for both Mr Trump and members of his legal team. And alongside the Bragg investigation, it raises the question: What happens to the 2024 race, and Donald Trumps ability to participate in it, if he comes under criminal indictment?

The short answer is, not much. There are no restrictions in the US Constitution preventing anyone indicted or convicted of a crime, or even currently serving time, from running for or winning the presidency. Even if he were tried and convicted in one of the so-called quick trials he has repeatedly cheered Chinas government for operating in the cases of drug offences, Mr Trump could still run the entirety of his presidential campaign from a prison cell.

Story continues

What is far less clear is what would happen were he to win in that scenario. Just as there are no restrictions in the Constitution for a person to run while under indictment, theres no explanation for what should occur in the event that they win. Theres nothing in the document that would automatically grant Mr Trump a reprieve from prison time, save for the likelihood that any charges brought by federal authorities, were they still being litigated at the point when Mr Trump assumed the presidency for a second time, would be dropped due to the Department of Justices refusal to prosecute a sitting president.

State-level charges like the ones being pursued by Mr Bragg are far trickier, and would fall outside of Mr Trumps pardon power were they to conclude in a conviction.

Were conviction on state charges to occur alongside a Trump election victory, it would likely lead to a massive legal fight to determine whether there was a way for the former president to worm his way out of serving time. If Mr Trump was unable to avoid that outcome, it would almost certainly lead to his impeachment or removal via the 25th Amendment, which allows the Cabinet to remove a president who is unable to perform their duties. There are many duties and trappings of the presidency that would simply be impossible to be operated or performed from a prison cell, the viewing of classified materials just to name one.

Any potential conviction of Mr Trump is still a long way off and little more than a distant possibility. But the conversations he has started with his bid for the presidency despite facing multiple criminal investigations have already pushed parts of theoretical US constitutional law into a much realer place than many experts ever thought it would see.
As war savagely rages on in Ukraine, the question of whether the United States should supply Ukraine with cluster munitions keeps resurfacing. Although the Biden administration doesn't seem to be considering this request, it is not a solid no.

The presidents answer should be simple and clear  absolutely not.

Cluster munitions should be off the table if we care about protecting civilian lives  especially those of innocent children. It shouldnt be an option if America learned our lessons from using them in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam five decades ago.

As someone who fled war-torn Laos, I know firsthand the destruction and pain caused by cluster munitions during and decades after the conflict. The legacies of cluster munition contaminations will impact Ukraines economic development, food security and its people. I cant help but see Ukraine's bleak future in present day Laos.

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What I learned from speaking to bombing survivors

As the chair of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munition Coalition, I had the opportunity to meet and hear Yong Khams story while visiting a demining site in Sepon, Laos, last fall. What I first noticed about the 64-year-old were his eyes. They were like deep, hollow pits that seemed to draw me in, begging me to ask: What was haunting this man?

Cluster bomb survivor Yong Kham, 64, in November 2022 in Sepon, Laos. Most of his childhood was spent in a muddy, foul trench or dark cave to avoid death. Decades later, in 2003, his eldest son was killed by cluster bombs while collecting wood and scraps.

I learned that he and his family endured the nine-year air war waged by the United States from 1964-73. Most of his childhood was spent in a muddy, foul trench or dark cave to avoid death by bombing. He was injured during one of the raids by a cluster bomb. He survived it, but two siblings were not so lucky.

Decades later, in 2003, his eldest son, Tong Dum, was killed by cluster bombs while collecting wood and scraps. His life was just getting started at the young age of 21.

When asked why he bravely shared his story with me, Yong Kham said, I dont want it to happen again. No country should have to suffer from these bombs.

Story continues

Undetonated bombs still litter my birth country: Ukraine war shows world hasn't learned

Legacies of War: I helped clear unexploded bombs in my birthplace to save the next generation

Trauma of having to face war, witness and or endure multiple atrocities inflicted by indiscriminate weapons like cluster munitions prevent many survivors from telling their experience and speaking out.

When they do, the world needs to listen. Stand in solidarity with people like Yong Kham and boldly fight to prevent further crimes to humanity.

Sera Koulabdara, chair of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munition Coalition, interviews cluster bomb survivor Yong Kham in southern Laos in November 2022.

Unexploded cluster munitions can kill decades later

Though the last known use of cluster munitions by the United States was in Yemen, in 2009, the United States has yet to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, banning further use, transfer and stockpile of these hideous weapons.

More than 100 countries have already joined the accord, most recently Nigeria in February, showing that banning this type of weapon is an international norm.

'The domino table was soaked in blood': He was killed by a Russian bomb while playing dominoes in Ukraine. Is this a war crime?

Fighting Putin: Victory in Ukraine is crucial for America and the world. Biden must do more.

The U.S. stockpile of cluster munitions is now estimated to be about 1 billion submunitions, but the arsenal does not meet the standard prohibited by the convention.

U.S policy shows that it wants to move in the right direction by prohibiting the export and use of cluster munitions that exceed a 1% failure rate. While this is progress, we can do better by acceding to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, dispose of these immoral weapons and promote global peace and security.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

The U.S. attacks using cluster munitions in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 1970s, the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the former Yugoslavia in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, Iraq in 2003 and Yemen in 2009 are lingering phantoms from our past.

Though these conflicts may have ended, the scars left behind are still very real. In my birth country of Laos, since the last bomb was dropped 50 years ago, only 1% of the contaminated area has been cleared, posing danger to children walking to school and land held hostage preventing farmers from planting crops.

Today, it is obvious that cluster munitions are having a devastating toll on civilians in Ukraine, as seen in the vicious attack at a train station in April that killed dozens of civilians. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have also reported multiple Russian strikes using cluster bombs since the invasion last year.

Let us not contribute to further atrocities by allowing Ukrainian soil to be littered with American cluster bombs.

Sera Koulabdara is CEO of Legacies of War and chair of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munition Coalition. Follow on Twitter: @SeraKoulabdara and @legaciesofwar

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Biden, don't send cluster bombs to Ukraine. Look at Laos.
Women with umbrellas form a barrier to the entrance of Abilene Community Theatres auditorium March 11. After a controversy about a drag show that would be performed there that night, attendees blocked an area off for their safety.

The oddly-parked cars hinted this wasnt a typical Saturday night at Abilene Community Theatre.

In fact, it wasnt a night for theater at all. Instead, the building had been rented for a different kind of performance.

Instead of parked within the stalls in the lot, a handful were arranged end-to-end, creating a wall shielding the people standing before the buildings door. At the end of the line, a group of five or so policed the entrance to the area, wielding open, brightly-colored umbrellas to form their own sort of gate.

The reason for the defense was apparent to anyone following the story of the evenings performance in local media. A group had leased the building to hold a "family-friendly" drag show, which raised the ire of a number of people in this community.

Adding fuel to the bonfire was that the building is in fact owned by the city of Abilene, of which ACT is a managing tenant. When contacted, city officials said there were no contractual limitations on the theater group as to whom they could lease the space.

Civility drags

It was Abilenes latest culture war clash, a call-to-arms for people trying to keep the outside world exactly that  outside. While others have shrugged it off with a live and let live attitude.

Drag and the larger trans community is having a moment right now, but its not necessarily a good one. Bills are moving through state legislatures with the aim of making these shows illegal.

In Texas, proposed legislation would classify places that stage a drag show as a sexually oriented business.

Talking to the evenings emcee, Cecilia Ford, is a little like conversing with Batman. Youre not going to get the individuals real name, only the performative one, including the relevant pronouns. In the end, its done for safetys sake and for the privacy of family members.

Last Saturdays show was a fundraiser for Ford who hopes to make it to the 2023 Miss National Bearded Empress Pageant in Orlando, Florida, on April 17.

Story continues

Wearing a red sequined, off-the-shoulder gown, Pamela Anderson-style blonde wig, and a short-clipped beard, Ford explained facial hairs controversial past with drag.

Bearded queens are typically not taken seriously in the industry just because they're considered lazy, she said, cracking a joke. They say its easier to do makeup (without it) and I have got a face full of wrinkles that says otherwise.

Cecilia Ford emcees her drag show. Fords show at the theater was a fundraiser for her to compete in the 2023 Miss National Bearded Empress Pageant in Florida next month.

The pageant she aspires to is built on inclusivity, she continued. Anyone can compete, whether they have grown a beard or just want to pin one on.

Unity is about access for everyone, she said, and then gestured toward the doorway and the parking lot outside. They don't understand that, but we do.

We know what community is about because we're here celebrating it tonight.

'Something we don't need here'

After all the hullaballoo, there wasnt a massive protest outside ACT.

In fact, it was mostly four men, one amiably handing out Bible tracts, all seemingly having just met for the first time but compelled to be there nonetheless.

I'm just out here preaching the good news about Jesus Christ to anybody that'll listen and let them know that if they repent and turn from their sins, they can spend an eternity with the Lord, as opposed to an eternity of condemnation, Judah Davis said.

His tracts were printed on diminutive slips of paper, about the size of a small cracker, and he met varied success with those he approached. Some listened, others held him back at arms length before he could get a word out, walking quickly to the theater.

Charles Byrn is well known to politically-involved Abilenians for his positions against the Abilene Public Library, as well as his involvement with last years "sanctuary city for the unborn" ordinance, which passed in November. Characteristically, he had a strong opinion about the evenings show.

Byrn has unsuccessfully run for both City Council and the Abilene ISD board.

I'm just out here sick and tired of stuff that is coming into Abilene in the name of diversity, he said. It's just something that we don't need here.

Beside him, Jason Wilson expressed his thoughts.

I'm thankful that the town spoke up, and that they changed the requirements of attending the event, he said.

Me, too, Byrn said. I'm glad that there's a bunch of people that spoke out to make sure there's no kids here. Kids shouldn't be in a drag show, or whatever show this was going to be.

Zelieghia Reignz Paris performs as audience members wave fans and dollar bills during the drag show in the Abilene Community Theatre auditorium. With the show having changed to 18-and-older, instead of the all-ages performance originally planned, the performance adhered more closely to the adult-oriented burlesque genre than it would have otherwise.

Family-friendly drag

In fact, no children were going to be in the show.

Ford said the family-friendly show that originally was planned wasnt going to have any of the burlesque elements that Saturdays performance ended up having after they were compelled to make it 18-and-over.

Instead, it would have been modeled after the drag brunches that Ford said were being held in Abilene until protests forced those to close last summer.

My friends who are parents, they and their kids were at the brunches and they loved to support drag, they loved to see it. And that's why I wanted to create a family-friendly show for this fundraiser, so that I could give my friends an opportunity to bring their kids and support their friends, Ford said.

Had the show gone as planned, Ford said it would have focused on songs of empowerment.

I really focus on trans rights, as far as activism goes, she said. Music that really sends a message to women and to Trans and queer people in general; that you have strength, that you have presence and that you are seen. That's what this show was going to be about.

Queer West Texans

None of that was known in the parking lot, however.

I don't know. I'm not gonna go and find out, Byrn said. I mean, we're watching to see if kids are going to show. That's our main purpose, is to protect our kids.

Just like with the book group I'm a part of. We're trying to protect kids from the pornographic books in the library. It's the same thing.

We're proud to be Abilenians, Davis said. We're glad people spoke up and protected their kids from what I would say is inappropriate content.

Added Byrn, I've been here 24 years and I never thought it would come to Abilene.

But Ford said drag shows have been held in the city a lot longer than that..

Annika Love performs during the drag show at the Abilene Community Theatre auditorium March 11.

Whether or not he's talking about a drag show, listen; queer people have been in Abilene since Abilene began. Since day one, she said. Drag's been in Abilene since 1983.

Ford described working last year with someone who performed in the Key City during the 1980s.

They had so many stories about the gay bars that used to be in Abilene, and the shows and pageants that used to go on, she said. There was a really rich queer life in Abilene at one time.

It's so silly to think this is new, that queer people are just popping up from California or whatever. We're West Texans!

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Drag show kerfuffle latest Culture War skirmish
This article was collaboratively written by Dao Nguyen + Buzzy, our creative AI assistant.

Let me tell you about the hidden gem that is Drake Bay, Costa Rica. This place will blow your mind, tug at your heartstrings, and make you question why you've never heard of it before. Here are the top 7 reasons why Drake Bay is the ultimate underrated travel destination:

1. Seclusion: Plane or Boat, Choose Your Adventure

This tropical paradise is so exclusive that you can only get there by plane or boat. No cars allowed! Your journey will be an adventure in itself, and by the time you arrive, you'll feel like you've discovered your own private island. Dao Nguyen

2. Nature: Channel Your Inner David Attenborough

From snorkeling with sea turtles to exploring the wonders of Corcovado National Park, you'll be immersed in some of the most incredible ecosystems on the planet. And if that's not enough, Drake Bay's beaches, birdwatching spots, and river tours are sure to keep your inner naturalist busy. Baird's trogon (Dao Nguyen)

3. Luxury Meets Eco-Friendly: Who Says You Can't Have It All?

You may be surrounded by nature, but that doesn't mean you'll be roughing it. There are tons of amazing eco lodges where you can kick back in style while blending in seamlessly with your natural surroundings. Dao Nguyen

4. Disconnect to Reconnect: Say Goodbye to Cell Service

While it may be a downside for some, the lack of consistent cell service in Drake Bay is honestly a blessing in disguise. Take this opportunity to truly unplug, recharge, and connect with nature (and maybe even yourself) without the constant barrage of texts, emails, and social media notifications. Dao Nguyen

5. Wildlife Galore: Get Ready for a National Geographic Experience

You might just spot a spider monkey, tapir, or yellow-throated toucan during your stay. But don't worry, they'll probably be too busy living their best life in the wild to notice you snapping photos like a paparazzo. One day, a spider monkey swiped pizza crust off of my lunch plate! Just remember to respect their space (even if they arent respecting yours!), and appreciate the chance to observe these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat. Dao Nguyen

6. Off-the-Beaten-Path: Bragging Rights for Days

Let's be real, we all love discovering something before it becomes mainstream. Visiting Drake Bay will give you major travel cred, as you regale your friends with tales of your incredible adventures in this lesser-known gem of Costa Rica. Plus, you'll be able to enjoy the experience without the swarms of tourists that flock to more popular destinations. Dao Nguyen

7. The Perfect Time to Go: The Dry Season Awaits!

To make the most of your trip, visit Drake Bay between December and April, when the dry season offers sunny days, warm temperatures, and less chance of rain. I went at the beginning of the rainy season, in July, so it was even less crowded than usual. It only rained an hour or two per day, so we were still able to enjoy our slice of paradise in peace.
Drew Barrymore defended her former co-star Hugh Grant on Friday amid controversy over whether he was rude to model Ashley Graham on the Oscars red carpet.

A video of Graham interviewing Grant at Sundays Academy Awards ceremony went viral earlier this week, with some people decrying Grants curt responses and possible eye roll.

Grant also had plenty of defenders. Some found his lack of enthusiasm for small talk downright relatable. Others suggested the backlash was a result of cultural differences between the United States and the United Kingdom, with The Washington Post asking, Is Hugh Grant rude or just British?

Barrymore, who appeared alongside Grant in 2007s Music and Lyrics, had her own interpretation: The actor was simply being his grumpy self.

Drew Barrymore, left, said Hugh Grant was simply being himself in an interview with Ashley Graham that many interpreted as rude.

Drew Barrymore, left, said Hugh Grant was simply being himself in an interview with Ashley Graham that many interpreted as rude.

Theres this thing going around with him and Ashley Graham on the red carpet. People are like, Oh, hes such a curmudgeon, and shes so thrown, the talk show host said on Fridays episode of her Drew Barrymore Show.

She continued: Im like, no, that is Hugh Grant. You think youre getting this charming movie star, and what you really get is grumpy Hugh. And then you fall in love with grumpy Hugh.

The Never Been Kissed actor brought up the red carpet hubbub while she was discussing another grumpy Grant-related subject: his recent description of Barrymores singing voice as horrendous.

Barrymore and Grant pose at the after-party for the premiere of

Barrymore and Grant pose at the after-party for the premiere of "Music and Lyrics" on Feb. 7, 2007, in Los Angeles.

On her show, Barrymore laughed off his apparent brusqueness. If you know Hugh, that is his way of loving you, she said.

Her opinion of Grant seems to be much higher than he had once guessed, perhaps cheekily, back in 2009. When Elle magazine asked him to briefly speak about some of the stars hes worked with, he had said of Barrymore: Made her cry. Stunning film-star face. Hates me.

Related...
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson - CLODAGH KILCOYNE/Reuters

The DUP is preparing to vote against Rishi Sunaks Brexit deal with the EU in Wednesdays crunch House of Commons vote, The Telegraph understands.

The decision by the Unionist party is likely to embolden Tory Eurosceptics who are also gearing up to oppose the Prime Ministers deal.

On Wednesday, MPs will debate the Stormont Brake - a key measure in the Windsor Framework that Mr Sunak struck with the EU to improve the functioning of the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol.

Under the brake, members of the Northern Ireland Assembly would be able to block EU regulations, but only in specific circumstances and with the EU able to take remedial action in response.

Wednesdays vote will be on a statutory instrument to implement the mechanism, but the Government has said it will be interpreted as the defining verdict on the overall agreement.

Ministers had harboured hopes that the DUP would not actively oppose the deal, paving the way for the party to return to the Stormont Assembly, which it has been boycotting for more than a year in protest at the protocol.

However, a senior DUP source told The Telegraph: "I would fully expect that we will be voting against that statutory instrument.

The source said there were fundamental problems still outstanding with the Windsor Framework, pointing to comments from the DUPs leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who last week said there were key areas of concern requiring further clarification, re-working and change.

The source also criticised Mr Sunaks choice of parliamentary tactics.

They said: You cant take one part of [the Windsor Agreement] and leave aside all the rest, especially at the same time as theyre briefing out that this would be taken as a signal on the overall agreement, which of course it would be by the Government.

The whole tactics do reek of party political games.

This vote has been brought forward without the necessary information and texts and details being provided. Its just an outrageous attempt to try to force this through without proper scrutiny or debate or vote.

Story continues

Disquiet at the perceived refusal to share information is shared by the European Research Group of Tory MPs.

The Eurosceptic group is yet to announce its position on the Windsor Framework, but it is expected that a number of its members will vote against the Government or abstain.

Mr Sunak has insisted that the amount of EU law applicable to Northern Ireland has been reduced to 3 per cent, scrapping 1,700 pages of law. But several members of the ERG have tabled parliamentary questions about which laws make up the 3 per cent and say they have not received satisfactory responses.

"We want a list of the laws that remain and a full list of the 1,700 pages of law that has been swept away," said one MP. "The only answers we have had have been nonsensical."

Another complained that they felt they were being "rushed" to make a decision by Wednesday's vote, adding: "The Government owes us a lot of information. It wont even tell us which EU laws apply in Northern Ireland. The DUP are livid, it doesn't meet their tests. They are cross for the same reasons that we are."

Several members of the ERG said they had not yet made up their mind on how they will vote, adding that they would wait for the findings of their Star Chamber of lawyers, as well as the formal verdict of the DUP, both of which are expected to be published in the next couple of days.

Close attention is also being paid to Boris Johnson. Earlier this month the former prime minister declared that he would find it very difficult to vote for the deal.

Labour have said they will back the agreement, meaning it is almost certain to be passed. However, a revolt by the DUP and Brexiteer Tories could undermine the credibility of the deal and strike a blow to Mr Sunaks authority.

A Government spokesman said: On Wednesday, Parliament will vote on the statutory instrument for the Stormont Brake  the most significant part of the Windsor Framework.

The brake puts power back into the hands of Stormont and Westminster, addresses the democratic deficit and restores the balance of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.
A new report released by a watchdog group said some youths felt fear, hopelessness, and like dogs when physical restraint was used at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center as the group called for the detention center and an alternative high school to be shut down.

Equip for Equality, a nonprofit and the federally appointed watchdog for people with disabilities in Illinois, released the 96-page report after spending 1,000 hours at the juvenile detention center and school interviewing students, staff and administrators from November 2021 to January of this year.

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Equip for Equality managing attorney Rachel Shapiro told the Tribune on Friday the most eye-opening thing she learned when talking to youths at the detention center, was the use of physical restraint.

The way it was described, two students said it made them feel like dogs, and just the hopelessness and the fear that these students were expressing when we would interview them and just how commonplace it seemed to be because they were matter of fact in saying that theyve witnessed restraints in which people were injured ... that part of the report speaks to me the most because it is so sad to imagine being treated that way, Shapiro said.

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Shapiro said other recommendations in the report are better oversight and coordination between agencies that have the ability to audit the detention center and proper. detailed documentation of any incidents that occur in the detention center and school.

The report, titled Youth in Crisis: Stop Civil Rights Violations against Vulnerable Students with Disabilities at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center and Its Alternative School, includes findings and detailed recommendations for improvements needing to be made at the detention center and Nancy B. Jefferson Alternative High School, both at 1100 S. Hamilton Ave., beyond the groups ultimate ask of a complete shutdown.

They suggest moving the youths to smaller, community-based settings, according to the report.

Illinois needs to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and redesigning and reforming the system of juvenile temporary detention centers is critical to reaching this goal, Zena Naiditch, president and CEO of Equip for Equality, said in a statement.

An insurmountable barrier to modernizing and reforming the state system for youth in custody is that there are too many local and state judicial entities and executive agencies that play a role in the oversight of the system, Naiditch said. As a result, the accountability system is ineffective and determining who is responsible is illusive.

Key report findings include routine violations of students with disabilities civil rights at the jail and unjust and excessive use of physical restraints and seclusion, often as punishment, with disregard of state law.

By not following the law and or their own policies and relying heavily on the use of physical restraints, the JTDC is causing these vulnerable youth even more trauma and despair, Olga Pribyl, vice president of Equip for Equalitys Special Education Rights Clinic, said in the statement. Im hopeful that our leaders take the necessary steps to transition to a positive community-based model.

Other findings included in the report are the special education system at the jail being grossly inadequate as 30% to 50% of youth enter as special education students as well as problems occurring at 15 other local juvenile detention centers with calls on local government officials to have these places be monitored in-depth.

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A statement from Chicago Public Schools about the report said the district is committed to providing high-quality instruction and educational experiences to all students in every school, including our alternative schools.

The district said there are concerns about the validity and reliability of the data in the report, and the district has provided feedback to the nonprofit on the findings and recommendations and will continue to work with Equip for Equality to ensure students receive the services they need and that accurate information is shared with the public.

The alternative school is extremely unique, the district said, as about 80% of the student population is enrolled for fewer than 45 days, while some students are only at the school for as few as two days.

Our top priority continues to be supporting students through every resource available, including high-quality instruction, social-emotional supports, and community partnerships, CPS said in the statement.

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 >

Equip for Equalitys report contains several inaccurate statements which fail to sufficiently capture the great efforts our district is making to support students in our alternative schools, like increasing the number of special education teachers who can provide services, improving student credit attainment and graduation rates, and expanding community partnerships, like the one with Kennedy-King College, that allows students to earn college credit during high school.

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Meanwhile, Toni Preckwinkle, president of the Cook County Board, said in a statement sent Friday night: We have received the troubling report and will be reviewing it thoroughly in the coming days.

We appreciate Equip for Equality and the Special Education Rights Clinic for their attention to issues with education in the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, Preckwinkle said. Though my authority does not extend to the practices of the detention center, I share in the concerns raised by this report, the JTDC Advisory Board, and the 2022 report by the Blue Ribbon Committee convened by the Office of the Chief Judge.
An Eagle man who hit and killed a Boise woman while driving drunk in 2017 received a new, tougher sentence for the crime.

Adam Paulson, 47, was convicted of vehicular manslaughter by a jury in 2018 and again in January. He had been retried after the Idaho Supreme Court set aside the first felony conviction, with justices saying the jury panel was not informed of key details in the case.

At the Ada County Courthouse on Friday, District Judge Derrick ONeill sentenced Paulson to 15 years in prison, with five years fixed. The judge gave him credit for the more than five years hed already served.

Paulson was driving drunk in his Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck on the night of Nov. 18, 2017, when he struck and killed Madeline Duskey, 24, who was in the crosswalk at the intersection of Eagle Road and Riverside Drive in Eagle. Paulsons blood alcohol content was 0.213%  nearly three times the legal limit, according to evidence presented during both trials.

He was found guilty by a jury in November 2018, and District Judge Deborah Bail sentenced him in January 2019 to time served and 15 years of probation. The sentence drew criticism for being too lenient.

But Paulsons bail was revoked and his underlying prison sentence imposed in June 2019 after Bail discovered he had intentionally tampered with an alcohol-monitoring device he was required to wear during his probation. Paulson could have been eligible for parole in January 2023, according to previous reporting by the Idaho Statesman.

Paulson successfully appealed, setting up the second trial.

On Friday, as Duskeys family members looked on from the wooden courtroom benches, ONeill handed down the new 15-year prison sentence and ordered Paulson to pay $5,000 in fines to her two surviving children, who are now 6 and 8 years old. The judge also ordered that, once his driving privileges are reinstated, his drivers license be suspended for 15 years.

Duskeys mother, father and stepmother testified about the loss of their child.

Story continues

Life, for me, is now split into two  before Adam entered my life and after Adam entered my life, Duskeys mother said as she took the stand during the hearing. I have lost my only child who I loved with my entire being. I am no longer a mother of a living child, and I am no longer of an age where I can have children. My husband and I have no living children, and I deeply miss having a family. The hole that this has left cannot be filled and cannot be hidden.

ONeill left the issue of restitution and child support, which Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Heather Reilly said the state is seeking, open for 60 days. Paulsons defense counsel objected to paying child support to Duskeys two children, who no longer have a mother.

The maximum penalty for felony vehicular manslaughter is 15 years in prison and/or a $15,000 fine, according to Idaho law.

Before receiving the new sentence, Paulson made a statement before the judge. He told ONeill that if he could go back in time and change everything he would, and that he know(s) Madeline Duskeys life matters.

In response, the judge said he appreciated Paulsons comments but has grave concerns for public safety anytime he deliberates a case involving someone driving under the influence. He said, This isnt a debate over whose life matters. Every life matters.
Love a good, fiery chili pepper? Nutritionists explain all the reasons they love you back.

Mirrorimage-NL/Getty Images

For some people, spicy food is a way of life, with every culinary experience aimed at finding the most delicious, fiery foods. Most cultural cuisines offer at least one dish or condiment that will make a bead of sweat drop from your forehead with every bite, many of them thanks to the use of spicy chili pepperswhether its North African harissa, Mexican salsa, or Korean gochujang.

We know that it's delicious, but is spicy food good for you? Without giving too much away, if you didnt love spicy food before, this might inspire you to give it another try (with a large glass of milk on the side to cool down!). Heres exactly what makes spicy foodespecially chili peppersso good for your immune system, metabolism, and more.



What Is a Hot Chili Pepper?

The world of hot peppers is wide, with some dedicating their lives to learning about the estimated 50,000 varieties of peppers in existence across the globe. The history of hot peppers dates back at least 9,000 years ago, to the region of Bolivia, and use quickly spread throughout Central and South America, thanks to the birds who ate their spicy seeds (poor things). Soon, chili peppers took hold within these cultures as a central component to the dishes theyre known for today.

Related:5 Spices You're Probably Not Using But Should Be, According to Professional Chefs

What Makes a Chili Pepper So Spicy (and Healthy)?

Without any knowledge of what a hot pepper is, you may walk into the grocery store thinking youre picking up a long, mini green bell pepperand end up crying into your pasta full of jalapenos later that evening.

The plant compound capsaicin is what gives hot peppers, or chili peppers, their spice.

This antioxidant compound attaches to receptors that send signals of spice and heat to the brain. Capsaicin is most concentrated in the seeds of a chili pepper, which is why many people remove them when looking to moderate the heat in their recipes.



Story continues

Whether it be a jalapeno, habanero, serrano, or Thai chile, the spiciness of a hot pepper is based on a measurement system called the Scoville scale. A bell pepper measures in at zero on this scale, whereas a Carolina Reaper comes in at a whopping 2.3 million Scoville Heat Units (SHUs). Now that is some serious spice.

When applied topically (as an ingredient in a product), capsaicin can soothe pain.

Did you know one of the active ingredients in the Icy Hot is capsaicin? That's right, this compound works topically to relieve pain from arthritis, diabetic neuropathy, psoriasis, or other nerve pain. It also works for pain not related to these conditions, like muscle soreness.

The caveat: Dont rub a cut, raw chili pepper onto your skin! That will probably just cause you more pain (anyone whos chopped a jalapeno then rubbed their eyes knows this all too well). Instead, choose a product containing capsaicin as an ingredient for soothing pain relief.



Top Health Benefits of Hot Chili Peppers

While there are so many kinds of hot peppers available, most varieties offer similar health benefits, due in large part to the capsaicin and other nutrients they all typically contain. Here are some of the most impressive health benefits of spicy foods, starring fiery-hot chili peppers.

Their plant compounds fight free radicals and inflammation.

Since we already have capsaicin on the brain, lets start with highlighting all the other incredible plant compounds found in hot peppers. Some of the most beneficial include carotenoids, like lutein, capsanthin, and zeaxanthin, and a variety of flavonoids, like quercetin and luteolin. These compounds are antioxidants, meaning theyre effective at preventing and reducing inflammation throughout the body, as well as harmful bacteria and disease-causing free radical molecules.

Chili peppers support a healthy immune system.

Chili peppers are known for being excellent sources of both vitamin A and vitamin C. Vitamin A is also an immune-boosting antioxidant and well-known for helping to protect and maintain eye health. Vitamin C offers the same antioxidant and immune-boosting benefits while also helping the absorb iron and promote glowing skin.

They help maintain and improve the gut microbiome.

Capsaicin positively influences the gut microbiome, which impacts nearly every system of the body, says Brianna Wieser, RDN at MOBE. Plus, this compound has been known to be supportive of optimal digestion. Research shows that capsaicin can also inhibit acid production while increasing alkaline and mucus secretions, helping to prevent and treat stomach ulcers. Further, a 2022 review found that capsaicin works through multiple pathways to treat and prevent many kinds of gastrointestinal disorders.

Chili peppers really can help clear those sinuses.

Spicy foods often have a reputation for making our noses drip, and that can actually work in our favor. One review found that intranasal capsaicin treatment helped clear up idiopathic (or cause-unknown), non-allergic rhinitis, which is classically characterized by sneezing, congestion, and post-nasal drip. And a second review reiterated these findings. So chilis really can clear up your sinuses!

They can boost metabolism and metabolic health.

Hot peppers work on supporting a healthy metabolism in a few different ways. First, the heat-producing effect of this spicy ingredient helps to boost metabolism. Further, studies show that the activation of TRPV1 by capsaicin stimulates brown fat cells, increasing our metabolic rate. Research also shows that pathways mediated by capsaicin in the body can help improve insulin sensitivity, an important aspect in metabolic syndrome and similar disorders, including diabetes.

Related:6 Healthy Foods That Boost Metabolism

Chili peppers' capsaicin has proven anti-cancer properties.

Research shows time and time again that cancer cells dont stand a chance against capsaicin. One review published in Anticancer Research found that this compound targets multiple cancer pathways, from preventing cancer cell growth and survival to springing tumor-suppressing genes into action. Capsaicin also activates whats known as the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) channel, or capsaicin receptor. A review published in Frontiers in Oncology found that the activation of TRPV1 beneficially impacted the inflammatory and immune responses involved in cancer treatment. A further study found capsaicin to even inhibit growth of certain prostate cancer cells.

They may help keep heart disease at bay.

With the consumption of capsaicin-rich foods comes heart healthy benefits, too. A Nutrients review found that when we eat capsaicin, and activate the TRPV1 channel, a mechanism protecting the function of our organs involving cardiovascular disease is activated. Another review, completed in 2021, found that chili pepper consumption was associated with lower risk of death from heart disease (and cancer). TRPV1 also helps to regulate blood pressure, a key factor in heart disease.



Related:7 Heart-Healthy Foods to Eat on Repeat

Chili peppers help protect and promote brain health.

Capsaicin also helps to address health concerns surrounding our brains. One Molecules review found capsaicin to be effective in slowing impairment and neurodegeneration in both Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease while also proving to be beneficial in treating dysphagia (or trouble swallowing) following a stroke. This magical compound, in spray form, has also been found to alleviate headache and migraine symptoms, interestingly enough.

They've been linked to longevity.

As if all the health benefits above werent good enough, hot peppers trump themselves by addressing the ultimate health aspiration: living longer (and feeling good while doing it). Researchers have found that eating spicy foods containing hot peppers lowers our risk of all-cause mortality. One meta-analysis found a 25 percent reduction in death from any cause with the regular consumption of chili peppers. Another found the same results.

Chili Pepper Tips and Safety

If you werent a spicy food lover before, you may well be ready to give hot-pepper-filled foods another try. Before jumping in head first, there are a few things to consider.

It's important to know that some individuals may not tolerate spicy foods, or experience digestive discomfort, when they consume them, Wieser explains. If you struggle with indigestion or heartburn, eating very spicy foods near bedtime (a.k.a at dinner) can make it worse and disrupt your sleep. So keep the fiery foods to lunchtime, if you love them.

Beyond digestive concerns, its also vital to be super mindful when chopping and handling hot peppers, especially the further up the Scoville scale you venture. These ultra-spicy pepper varieties can literally burn your skin and eyes if youre not careful!

How to Eat More Hot Chili Peppers

There are so many delicious ways to enjoy hot peppers. One super easy way is to invest in a hot sauce you love and, thankfully, there are so many brands to choose from. Cholula, Tabasco, Disco Sauce, Franks Red Hot, Tapatiothe list goes on and on. Check the sodium content of the hot sauce youre after, since it can be high if youre not careful. Otherwise, you can add red pepper flakes (dried, crushed chili peppers), or chili peppers themselves directly to tons of delicious dishes including stir fries, soups, stews, sauces, dips, pastas, and egg dishes.

Here are some favorite recipes with a spicy kick.

Chili Pepper Recipes

Pasta With Shrimp and Spicy Butter

:Get the Recipe

Greg DuPree

A zesty seafood pasta dish with a kick, thanks to gochujang (a Korean fermented red chili paste), paprika (made from smoked, dried chilis), and crushed red chili pepper flakes.

Cheesy Chili Dip

:Get the Recipe

Victor Protasio

Five different pepperssweet, jalapeno, poblano, and red Anaheim chili (red jalapeno)pack a hot punch in this ooey-gooey, game-day-worthy dip.

Slow Cooker Birria Bowls

:Get the Recipe

Antonis Achilleos

A bowl of this hearty and spicy Mexican stew is exactly the pick-me-up you need mid-week.

Elote Jalapeno Poppers

:Get the Recipe

Victor Protasio

Mexican street corn, meet jalapeno poppersthe ultimate spicy app for a hungry crowd.

Spicy Ground Beef

:Get the Recipe

Marcus Nilsson

Healthy doses of chili powder and crushed red pepper take boring old ground beef to the next level.



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Read the original article on Real Simple.
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP)  One by one, the presenters inside the crowded hotel ballroom shared their computer screens and promised to show how easy it is to hack into voting systems across the U.S.

Drawing gasps from the crowd, they highlighted theoretical vulnerabilities and problems from past elections. But instead of tailoring their efforts to improve election security, they argued that all voting machines should be eliminated  a message that was wrapped in conspiracies about elections being rigged to favor certain candidates.

We are at war. The only thing that's not flying right now is bullets, said Mark Finchem, a Republican candidate for secretary of state in Arizona last year who continues to contest his loss and was the final speaker of the daylong conference.

Finchem was among a group of Republican candidates running for governor, secretary of state or state attorney who disputed the outcome of the 2020 election and who lost in a clean sweep last November in important political battleground states, including Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Yet deep distrust about U.S. elections persists among Republicans, skepticism fueled by former President Donald Trumps false claims and by allies who have been traveling the country meeting with community groups and holding forums like the one recently just outside Nashville, attended by some 250 people.

As the nation barrels toward the next presidential election, the election conspiracy movement that mushroomed after the last one shows no signs of slowing down. Millions have been convinced that any election in which their preferred candidate loses has been somehow rigged against them, a belief that has fed efforts among conservatives to ditch voting machines and to halt or delay certification of election results.

Voters who know the truth about our elections have faith in them, said Liz Iacobucci, election security program manager with the voter advocacy group Common Cause. But the people who have been led into disbelief  those people can be led into other things, like Jan. 6.

Story continues

Trump, running for the White House for the third time, has signaled that the 2020 election will remain an integral part of his 2024 presidential bid. In a recent call with reporters about a new book, Trump pointed to polls that show a sizable number of people believe the 2020 election was stolen, even though there is no such evidence.

Im an election denier, Trump said. Youve got a lot of election deniers in this country and theyre not happy about whats happened.

There has been no evidence of widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in the U.S., and multiple reviews in the battleground states where Trump disputed his loss confirmed the election results were accurate. State and local election officials have spent more than two years explaining the many layers of protection that surround voting systems, and last years midterm election was largely uneventful.

Trump allies such as MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn remain prominent voices calling for a ban on voting machines. They want hand-marked paper ballots counted individually without the aid of machines by poll workers in the nearly 180,000 voting precincts across the country.

We all have the same agenda, to get our elections fair and transparent and where they cant be hacked, said Lindell, who recently announced plans to form what he calls an election crime bureau to bring his myriad legal, cybersecurity and legislative efforts under one organization.

In an interview, Lindell said he has spent $40 million since the 2020 election investigating fraud claims and supporting efforts to ban voting machines. He said he is taking out loans to continue to fund the work.

During an America First Forum held last month in South Carolina, Flynn told those gathered at a Charleston hotel that they were fighting not only Democrats but fellow Republicans who are dismissive of their concerns about the 2020 election.

Our Republican Party, they want to move on, Flynn said via video conference. And frankly, the American people are not going to move on.

An investigation by the AP and the PBS series Frontline last year examined how Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, was traveling the country spreading conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and vaccines as he builds a movement based on Christian nationalist ideas. He relies in part on groups such as The America Project and Americas Future.

The America Project was launched in 2021 by Patrick Byrne, founder of Overstock.com. Byrne said elections remain a top priority for the group, though it also will focus on border issues. Asked how much he's planning to spend ahead of the 2024 election, Byrne told the AP, There is no budget.

I have no children, no wife, he said. Theres no point in me saving it for anything.

Recently filed tax forms do not detail where the group's $7.7 million in revenue came from that year, but Byrne and Michael Flynn's brother, Joseph Flynn, told the AP that most of it came from Byrne himself. The group reported giving $2.75 million to Cyber Ninjas for a partisan and much-criticized review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix.

Michael Flynn is now focused on the nonprofit group he leads, Americas Future, and other projects, according to his brother. That group reported raising $2.3 million in 2021 and paying out $1.2 million in grants, including just under $1 million to Cyber Ninjas.

Others who have been central in the effort to raise doubts about the accuracy of elections also have been active this year. Among them is Douglas Frank, an Ohio math and science educator, who said on his social media account that he met with various groups in six states in January, seven states in February and planned to be in eight states in March.

At the Tennessee forum, Kathy Harms, one of the event organizers, took the stage to talk about why she is fighting to get rid of voting machines.

I dont do this for me. I would rather just be a grandmother at home, said Harms, who lives in the county where the conference was held. I have granddaughters I do this for because I want them to have what I have. I dont want a banana republic.

Presentations by people who work in information technology claimed election officials have little security knowledge or experience.

One of them, Mark Cook, walked attendees through the voting process, pointing out potential threats and playing a video he said was of an Iranian whistleblower accessing U.S. voter registration data to fraudulently request and submit military ballots.

Cook said the video had some real components to it and could be legitimate. He did not mention that an influx of duplicate military ballots would be readily apparent because election workers log each person who casts a ballot, meaning a second ballot that appears to be cast by the same person would be caught.

There are thousands of ways to exploit these systems, Cook said, dismissing security steps taken by election officials as a shell game and smoke and mirrors to distract us.

Election officials acknowledge that vulnerabilities exist, but say multiple defenses are in place to thwart attempted manipulation or detect malicious activity.

Election officials and their partners understand that the goal isnt to create a perfect election system, but one that ensures that any attack on the election system doesnt exceed the ability to detect and recover from it. said David Levine, a former local election official who is now a fellow with the Alliance for Securing Democracy.

Among those listening to the presentations at the Tennessee conference was Luann Adler, a retired educator and school administrator who said she has lost confidence in elections after reading articles and watching videos online about voting machines. She has been advocating in her community to ban voting machines and limit voting to a single day.

Serving as a poll worker last year, Adler said, she did not observe any problems. Still, the experience did not change her mind.

As we have seen today, a machine can be manipulated, Adler said. Im not pointing the finger at any individual or any community as being nefarious, but I dont trust the machine.

___

Associated Press writers Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island; Nicholas Riccardi in Denver; and Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

___

Associated Press coverage of democracy receives support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Elon Musk has predicted that Donald Trump would be reelected in a landslide victory if the former president is criminally charged.

Mr Musk was responding to reports that Mr Trump could be indicted as early as next week. Mr Trump himself wrote on his Truth Social platform that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday, adding that his supporters should protest to take our nation back.

If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory, Mr Musk wrote on Twitter early Saturday.

If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2023

New York City prosecutors have been closing in on a potential Trump indictment in recent weeks over the hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Ms Daniels claims she had an affair with Mr Trump, a claim the former president denies.

NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK! Mr Trump posted on Truth Social early Saturday.

Trump ally Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene echoed Mr Musks sentiment on Saturday.

If the Manhattan DA indicts President Trump, he will ultimately win even bigger than he is already going to win, she tweeted.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump Saul Martinez/Getty Images and Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

Elon Musk said that Donald Trump would be "re-elected" if he's charged in a hush-money case.

His comments follow Trump 'Truth' that he's getting arrested on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have yet to speak with Trump's team about his potential arrest.

Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that former president Donald Trump would be voted into the White House again if he is arrested in New York.

The billionaire's prediction came in response to a tweet that included a recent Fox News report. The report said the Manhattan District attorney's office wants to meet with law enforcement ahead of Trump's possible criminal indictment and arraignment next week.



Since January, a grand jury has been weighing evidence in connection to a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.

Federal prosecutors in 2018 alleged the payment was an illegal campaign contribution paid to ensure her silence about an alleged affair between her and Trump. The former president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing or an affair with the actress.

"If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory," Musk tweeted Saturday.

Trump took to Truth Social early Saturday morning, claiming in all capital letters that he "will be arrested on Tuesday of next week" and calling for his supporters to "protest, take our nation back!"

The ex-president's lead defense attorney Susan Necheles told Insider that Trump is "basing this on press reports" and that the district attorney has kept the former president's legal team in the dark for the past week about logistics or timing in the event there is an indictment.

She declined to say which reports she was referring to.

"This is a political prosecution and the DA leaks things to the press instead of communicating to the lawyers as they should," Necheles added.

Musk and Trump have had a rocky relationship throughout the years. Just last year, Musk said that Trump should not be president again and should "hang up his hat & sail into the sunset."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Emergency personnel gather near Robb Elementary School following a shooting, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. Dario Lopez-Mills/AP

In interviews obtained by CNN, emergency personnel described the scene of the Uvalde shooting to Texas investigators.

One EMT said they had to wait outside of the school "for what felt like a while" before entering.

The hallways were soon soaked with blood as another EMT said they could "smell the iron."

Medical personnel who rushed to the scene of last year's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas told investigators there was so much blood in the school hallways they could "smell the iron."

In interviews obtained by CNN, EMTs who responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary School last May described the scene to investigators from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

A shooter killed a total of 19 children and two teachers during the attack, which unfolded over the course of an hour as officials waited to confront the suspect. At least one of the teachers and two children were still alive when law enforcement finally stormed the classrooms, but later died, according to CNN.

Amanda Shoemake, who said she arrived in the first Uvalde EMS ambulance on the scene, told investigators that she and her colleagues were waiting for "what felt like a while." She said spent the time directing traffic before officials called for medical personnel in the school, according to the interviews obtained by CNN.

When they were finally called in, Shoemake said EMTs were told the shooter had not yet been apprehended and may have been hiding in the ceiling. They sheltered as law enforcement confronted the shooter, Shoemake told investigators.

"We just squatted down there and waited there until the shooting stopped," Shoemake said, according to CNN. "And then after some time they brought out the first kid that was an obvious DOA."

Zach Springer, a trooper from the Texas Department of Public Safety and a certified EMT, told investigators that he brought five chest seals to the scene, which are wound dressing kits for chest trauma. Springer said he had once thought to himself, "When am I ever going to need five chest seals?" As he helped other medics treat so many children with gunshot wounds to the chest, he realized other emergency personnel hadn't brought enough. The school hallways were soon covered in blood.

Story continues

"You could smell the iron  there was so much blood," Springer told investigators.

Virginia Vela, an EMT with a son in fourth grade at Robb Elementary, told investigators she thought the first victim she saw, a boy who was deceased, was her son.

"I thought it was my son," Vela said, according to CNN. "Once I saw his clothes, I knew it wasn't my son, but the fear  ran through my body."

Vela worked to treat other children while keeping an eye out for her own, she told investigators.

"One of the kids that I had in the unit, he was shot in the shoulder. The student that I was helping up from the side of the unit, he had bullet fragments on his thigh," Vela told the investigators. "And then we had another student with blown-off fingers. And she was just in and out. We were trying to get her oxygen and trying to keep her alive. And I realized those were my son's classmates and my son was not coming out."

When she finally spotted her child running from the school, Vela told investigators that she "didn't even run to him" because she had to continue treating injured students.

"I didn't go get him. What I was thinking was 'run buddy  get the hell away from that school, just run to the bus,'" Vela told investigators, per CNN. "I called my husband and my husband's like, 'I see him, I see him, he's getting onto the bus, he's OK.' And I said, 'OK, but I've got to stay here with these students.' And I hung up and I continued to do my job."

Read the original article on Insider
Turkey's top diplomat said Saturday President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would meet to mark the end of a decade of estrangement between the two countries.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking alongside his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry during a visit to Cairo, said Ankara wanted "to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries at the highest level".

Shoukry said there was a "political will coming from the presidents of our two countries... seeking to normalise relations".

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan welcomed Cavusoglu's visit to Cairo as an "important step towards a more stable and prosperous region".

It follows a trip by Shoukry to Turkey last month to show solidarity after the devastating earthquake that claimed tens of thousands of lives in Turkey and neighbouring Syria.

"It is possible that we will disagree in the future, but we will do everything to avoid breaking our relations again," Cavusoglu said.

Relations ran into trouble after the 2013 ouster of Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, an ally of Turkey.

At the time, Erdogan said he would "never" speak to "anyone" like Sisi.

But in November, Sisi and Erdogan shook hands in Qatar, in what the Egyptian presidency heralded as a new beginning in their ties, and the two leaders then spoke by telephone after the February 6 earthquake.

Cavusoglu on Saturday said the meeting between Erdogan and Sisi would take place "after the Turkish elections", including the presidential vote slated for May 14.

While diplomatic exchanges were once frosty, business never stopped: in 2022, Turkey was the largest importer of Egyptian products totalling $4 billion.

But disagreements remain, with Turkey home to Arab journalists critical of their governments, in particular Egyptian media close to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group outlawed by Cairo.

Cairo and Ankara also disagree over Libya, where Turkey has sent military advisers backing forces opposed to Egyptian ally Khalifa Haftar, the eastern based Libyan military strongman.

bg-sar/pjm/kir
The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg earned her indomitable "notorious" nickname as a pioneer for gender equality and women's rights. A force on and off the bench, her legacy is now a call to action for future generations to follow her lead and, as she once said, "fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you."

Ginsburg's greatest gift was her ability to act as a voice for women, and men, in countless ways and was a role model to many including Sparta resident Erin Moore, whose life, albeit short, was dedicated to not only fighting for women's health rights, but making a vow to leave this world a better place than she found it, her mother, Kathy Jones, tearfully said on Friday.

"She was a bright light in this world, she lived big and loud, she stood up for what she believed in and she decided what she wanted and pursued it," said Jones, whose short blonde hair was dipped in pink hair dye, a style her daughter often sported. "She made her day on this Earth count."

Moore, 41, was killed on Jan. 30, 2022 after her SUV was struck head-on on Route 181 in Sparta by an out-of-control sedan driven by township resident Attila Princz, 42. Princz, during a plea hearing in January, admitted his blood alcohol concentration was .163%, over double the 0.08% legal limit to drive, when his BMW crossed over the double-yellow lines and struck Moore's Hyundai Tucson. Princz was traveling 64 mph at the time of impact  nearly 30 mph over the speed limit  thrusting Moore's SUV back 40 or more feet, according to data taken from experts at the scene, prosecutors said.

Erin and Eddie Moore

Princz, who pleaded guilty to a second-degree crime for vehicular homicide, was sentenced to eight years in prison by state Superior Court Judge Michael Gaus, who followed the recommendations made by Brent Rafuse, an assistant prosecutor in Sussex County. Princz will be required to serve about six years and eight months, or 85%, of his sentence before being eligible for parole and will be on parole supervision for three years upon his release.

Princz's attorney Charles Clark sought a five-year sentence, stressing that his client lacked a criminal or motor vehicle violation history and has accepted responsibility for his actions.

Upon release from prison, Princz told the court he has "sincere intentions" to share his experience with organizations to caution others on the perils of drinking and driving.

"I strive to prevent this from happening to other families," Princz said.

He briefly turned to look at Eddie Moore and his family, who was supported by over 20 friends and community members, and told him he thought about him, his wife and children "every single day."

Attila Princz stands and listens as the judge speaks during his sentencing in state Superior Court in Sussex County on Friday, March 17, 2023.

"Remorse, regret, sorrow, guilt, they're not strong enough to capture my feelings," Princz said.

But the judge found Princz's sentiments, combined with statements the one-time claims manager at BMW of North Jersey in Bergen County made in pre-sentencing comments, to lack any remorse, instead calling them "attempts."

Gaus read snippets from dozens of letters submitted to the court describing Moore's "strong, vibrant, funny and passionate" personality and the indelible impact she had on other women, calling the paramedic and nurse a "force" and stating that despite all the positive strides society has made, there "seems to be far too few Erin Moores" in the world.

Moore's personality and passion, however, appeared to shine through in the words said, that were at times off-the-cuff, by her husband, Eddie, who broke down in tears as he spoke of his wife and thanked the community of women who have helped him raise the two young girls he is left to raise alone.

Moore, who was an emergency room nurse in New York City during the COVID pandemic, was the type of person who would sit and hold hands with patients who otherwise had no one else and made sure her children knew the power of their worth, Eddie Moore said. She was passionate about saving lives, helping bring lives into the world  she later became a labor and delivery nurse  and pushed for women's health rights.

Her tragic death was avoidable and shouldn't have happened, Moore said, adding that everyone, especially a grown man, should know the consequences of driving drunk.

Erin Moore poses with her two young daughter, Rylee and Mackenzie

"I'm angry. I'm very, very angry. Nobody should have to go through what me and my family were forced to go through," Moore said. "We are forced to deal with the actions and consequences of another person."

Princz's wife, who supported her husband on Friday, gave tearful testimony and shared her condolences with the family.

Sussex CountyLowe's donation nearing $40K puts a new roof over Newton American Legion Post

Prosecutors say Princz drank seven sangrias  despite admitting to drinking five at his plea hearing  at a Lake Hopatcong restaurant over the course of five hours while he was "auditioning" a band for his impending wedding. He left the restaurant shortly after 5 p.m. with a pitcher of sangria to-go and lost control of his sedan around 5:30 p.m. as he attempted to negotiate a curve near Signal Hill Trail. Princz suffered his own severe injuries to his head and back in the crash.

Princz was arrested for vehicular homicide on Feb. 22, 2022, roughly three weeks after the crash. He spent seven days in jail before a judge ordered his release, despite objections by prosecutors.

Erin Moore's mother, whose distress after her statements was so discernable she needed assistance from two people back to her seat, said she suffers nightmares, headaches and extreme anxiety and is "tortured" over what her daughter's final moments were like.

"I was with Erin when she took her first breath," she said, "and I have sat where she took her last."

Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Erin Moore death: Sparta NJ man sentenced in fatal crash
Key Insights

The projected fair value for Eli Lilly is US$388 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity

With US$329 share price, Eli Lilly appears to be trading close to its estimated fair value

Our fair value estimate is 3.4% lower than Eli Lilly's analyst price target of US$375

How far off is Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll take a look at whether the stock is fairly priced by estimating the company's future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. We will take advantage of the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for this purpose. Before you think you won't be able to understand it, just read on! It's actually much less complex than you'd imagine.

We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. If you still have some burning questions about this type of valuation, take a look at the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Check out our latest analysis for Eli Lilly

Is Eli Lilly Fairly Valued?

We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

Story continues

10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast

2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 Levered FCF ($, Millions) US$6.47b US$8.58b US$11.1b US$14.8b US$16.7b US$18.2b US$19.3b US$20.4b US$21.2b US$22.0b Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x8 Analyst x9 Analyst x8 Analyst x4 Analyst x4 Est @ 8.51% Est @ 6.58% Est @ 5.23% Est @ 4.28% Est @ 3.62% Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 6.8% US$6.1k US$7.5k US$9.1k US$11.4k US$12.0k US$12.2k US$12.2k US$12.0k US$11.7k US$11.4k

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$106b

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (2.1%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 6.8%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2032  (1 + g)  (r  g) = US$22b (1 + 2.1%)  (6.8% 2.1%) = US$473b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= US$473b ( 1 + 6.8%)10= US$244b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is US$350b. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of US$329, the company appears about fair value at a 15% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

dcf

The Assumptions

The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Eli Lilly as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 6.8%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.800. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

SWOT Analysis for Eli Lilly

Strength

Earnings growth over the past year exceeded the industry.

Debt is well covered by earnings and cashflows.

Dividends are covered by earnings and cash flows.

Weakness

Earnings growth over the past year is below its 5-year average.

Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Pharmaceuticals market.

Opportunity

Annual earnings are forecast to grow faster than the American market.

Current share price is below our estimate of fair value.

Threat

Revenue is forecast to grow slower than 20% per year.

Looking Ahead:

Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it ideally won't be the sole piece of analysis you scrutinize for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Preferably you'd apply different cases and assumptions and see how they would impact the company's valuation. For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. For Eli Lilly, there are three important factors you should further research:

Risks: For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Eli Lilly that you should be aware of before investing here. Future Earnings: How does LLY's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the NYSE every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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Estonia, a country of 1.4 million people bordering Russia, is one of the most vocal supporters of Ukraine. It's also one of the West's front line states facing an increasingly aggressive Russia.

Before Russia launched its all-out war, Estonia was among the handful of countries that provided Ukraine with military aid, including anti-tank missiles and financial support.

Since February 2022, Estonia has been among the frontrunners in supporting Ukraine, making it Kyiv's largest donor in terms of percentage of GDP.

In an exclusive interview with the Kyiv Independent, Hanno Pevkur, the Estonian defense minister, talked about the threat Russia poses to Estonia and why his country is so eager to support Ukraine.

According to Pevkur, Estonia and other NATO members are responsible for assisting Ukraine because it's fighting for the free world. That's why the Estonian army has trained Ukrainian soldiers, including infantry soldiers, sharpshooters, and medics, and provided over 370 million euros in aid.

Even though the Russian campaign in Ukraine has sputtered and failed to meet most of its military and political objectives, according to Pevkur, the war is far from over, and heavy artillery and long fire is still much needed for Ukraine.

"We made an initiative that we should procure together one million rounds for 155-millimeter howitzers," says Pevkur, adding that his country, together with allies, is constantly looking to do more.

Estonia, home to around 300,000 Russian speakers, is also constantly on alert when it comes to combating Russian influence.

"We all understand that Russia is still capable of threatening NATO because they still have enough firepower," says Pevkur.

"The threat is still there."
Chinese FM meets Pakistani foreign secretary on bilateral ties

Xinhua) 09:27, March 18, 2023

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang meets with Pakistani Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed Khan in Beijing, capital of China, March 17, 2023. (Xinhua)

BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Friday met with Pakistani Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed Khan in Beijing, saying that China will advance and deepen friendly cooperation with Pakistan.

Noting that the iron-clad friendship between China and Pakistan has withstood the test of time and the changing international landscape, Qin said China appreciates Pakistan for its strong support on issues concerning China's core interests.

China stands ready to work with Pakistan to implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, unswervingly advance and deepen friendly cooperation, and push for greater progress in the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and bilateral all-round cooperation, Qin said.

Majeed said Pakistan regards its relations with China as the most important bilateral relationship and firmly pursues the one-China policy.

Pakistan is willing to further deepen cooperation with China in various fields, strengthen coordination and cooperation on international and regional affairs and constantly consolidate the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between Pakistan and China, Majeed said.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
The FBI is asking for the publics help in finding additional victims of a Hoffman Estates doctor who was recently indicted on 13 counts of health care fraud after allegedly bilking Medicaid and multiple health care programs out of nearly $800,000, officials said.

A website and online questionnaire have been created to identify any more victims of Dr. Mona Ghosh, according to a statement from FBI spokesperson Siobhan Johnson.

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Ghosh is a licensed physician who owned and operated Progressive Womens Healthcare in Hoffman Estates and was indicted earlier this month, the statement said.

Ghosh is alleged to have defrauded multiple health care benefit programs, including Medicaid, for services that were not provided as billed.

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She allegedly submitted false claims for medical procedures such as endometrial ablation and services such as laboratory testing that were not medically necessary and/or never rendered, Johnson said in the statement. These included claims for purported telemedicine visits when Ghosh did not speak to the patient, claims for office visits and procedures when Ghosh did not see the patient, and claims for procedures predicated on false diagnosis, the FBI said.

Targeting government and private health care programs relied on by the public to maintain their well-being is a serious crime, Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual said in a statement. In addition to submitting false claims, the allegation that defendant performed medically unnecessary procedures to enrich herself is particularly disturbing. This office will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to prosecute those who steal from health care programs and who needlessly put patients at risk.

The FBI believes there may be many more victims, Johnson said in the statement, adding that victims may be eligible for certain services and restitution.

Potential victims are urged to visit https://www.fbi.gov/MonaGhoshInvestigation to see if they are eligible.
By Dawit Endeshaw

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The dominant party in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region has nominated its spokesman Getachew Reda to be president of a regional interim administration called for in a peace deal that ended a two-year war in the region, party-run media reported on Saturday.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) fought Ethiopian forces and their allies in a war that killed tens of thousands of people. A truce was reached last November after federal forces recorded a series of battlefield victories.

If Getachew's nomination, which was reported by the TPLF-controlled Tigrai TV, is approved by the federal government, he would replace TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael, who has led Tigray since 2018.

It is not clear when the federal government might weigh in on Getachew's nomination or when the interim administration will be set up.

Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lack of an interim government has been hampering the humanitarian response across Tigray, where millions are in dire need of assistance, according to aid workers.

Salaries for civil servants and medical personnel have not been paid, and aid agencies lack a clear interlocutor, they said.

Getachew's nomination came days after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ethiopia and praised authorities there for progress on implementing the peace pact while cautioning that more work needed to be done.

During that visit, Blinken discussed with Getachew and Ethiopian officials the importance of setting up the interim administration.

(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Aaron Ross and Hugh Lawson)
NEW CITY - After nearly two years of carrying the pain from a fellow Spring Valley firefighter's death in an adult home blaze, former Spring Valley Building Inspector Ray Canario saw a criminal weight lifted from his shoulders on Friday.

Rockland County Court Judge Kevin Russo dismissed the remaining misdemeanor charges involving the filing of false reports on inspections to the state. Those charges stemmed from the District Attorney's Office investigation into the fire at the Evergreen Court Home for Adults in Spring Valley, which killed two people. The fire occurred two years ago come March 22.

Russo had dismissed three felony counts of false filing on Tuesday. The judge previously tossed similar charges against the former chief building inspector, Wayne Ballard, who also led the Public Works Department.

Raymond Canario and his attorney Stefani Jordan listen to the prosecution's opening statement on the first day of Canario's trial in Rockland County Court on Feb. 27 in New City. Canario, a former building inspector, is charged with filing false documents concerning inspections for Spring Valley with the state of New York. One property included the Evergreen Court Home for Adults, where two people died in a blaze on March 22, 2021.

Prosecutors have not gotten a conviction

The rulings mean the prosecution has so far failed to get a conviction following the investigation into the fire that led to six people being charged. Firefighter Second Lt. Jared Lloyd, 35, the father of two young boys, and adult home resident Oliver Huestead, 79, died in the inferno at the Lafayette Street facility.

Canario has said he has been ladened with the deaths of Lloyd and Heusted. The prosecution's charges had nothing to do with the fire.

"On behalf of Mr. Canario, we are grateful for the fair and reasonable outcome to this matter," his attorney Stefanie Jordan said. "My client would like to thank the employees of the Spring Valley Building Department, the Spring Valley Police Department and all of the volunteer fire departments of Rockland County for their ongoing support and for their continuous dedication to the safety of the residents of Spring Valley and Rockland County."

Jordan said she and Canario "express our deepest sympathy to the families of those lost in the Evergreen tragedy and support all efforts to protect and serve the residents of our communities."

Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Walsh speaks at the Rockland County Fire Training Center on April 1, 2021, about the investigation of the fatal fire at the Evergreen Court Home for Adults in Spring Valley.

District Attorney Thomas Walsh's office issued a statement disagreeing with Russo. The statement said Canario's defense was aided by the disorganization of the Spring Valley Building Department, which testimony noted lacked leadership for years under Mayor Alan Simon and his predecessors and records were not properly kept. The department also had been short-staffed and under-trained and equipped for years.

Story continues

"The years-long disorganization and dysfunction of the Spring Valley Building Department served as a defense in these cases," Walsh spokesman and chief of detectives Peter Walker said.

"The court chose not to hold these defendants accountable for their role in the malfeasance in the building department," Walker said. "We disagree with the court's decision and are disappointed in it.

"The Rockland County District Attorneys office is willing to prosecute not just the easy cases but the difficult ones as well."

Former chief building inspector Wayne Ballard, who also led the Public Works Department, appears in Rockland County Court in New City on Jan. 31. The charges against him were dismissed.

Rockland takes over the village building department

The statement cited the two deaths and the investigation by the District Attorneys office and other state and local agencies, which led to the New York State Department of State deputizing Rockland government to take over the village inspectors and prosecution of violators. The rare step of government takeover started in February 2022.

Prosecutors Ryan Sweeney and Michael Dugandzic called the same witnesses in the cases against Canario and Ballard, including state watchdog officials, former building inspectors, a former village attorney and its investigators.

Firefighters work at the scene of the fatal fire at the Evergreen Court Home for Adults in Spring Valley on March 23, 2021.

Prior to the Ballard and Canario non-jury trials, the District Attorney's Office plea-bargained dismissals for two Evergreen Court employees, including the director of several facilities owned by the Schoenberger family.

Denise Kerr, the director, had allowed two rabbis to cleanse the facility's kitchen and ovens with a blowtorch system without proper permits. Kerr had been charged with reckless endangerment. She had formerly worked as a state adult home administrator hired to oversee several adult homes for the Evergreen Court owners, the Schoenberger family of Monsey and Lakewood, New Jersey.

Before his case was dropped, Manual Lema of Pomona had faced misdemeanor counts of second-degree criminal impersonation and second-degree obstructing governmental administration. Lema had called into 44 Control, the county communications and dispatching center, to put the facility's signal on hold while two rabbis cleansed the ovens for the Passover holiday so a false alarm would not happen.

Two rabbis face court in April

Nathaniel Sommer, far right, and his son Aaron Sommer appear in court at Rockland County Court in New City Oct. 28, 2021. They were charged with mansaughter-2, arson and other charges resulting from the fatal fire at Evergreen Court for Adults in Spring Valley in March.

The rabbis  Nathaniel Sommer and his son Aaron Sommer  face court on April 18 on their not-guilty pleas to manslaughter, negligent homicide, arson, assault and other felony charges. The Evergreen Court inferno erupted on March 22, 2021, several hours after the rabbis used a 20-pound blowtorch to cleanse the Evergreen Court ovens and kitchen for Passover.

Walsh has declined comment on the cases since a news conference to announce indictment charges. He declined to discuss if his office has offered Sommer a plea agreement.

Some Rockland firefighters and Lloyd's family have been frustrated by the lack of convictions in the cases. The families of Lloyd and Heusted have filed civil lawsuits against the owners and some village officials.

A grand jury indicted Canario on nine charges involving the filing of reports with the state. Russo earlier dismissed counts of filing false business records against Ballard and Canario.

When the non-jury trial started, Walsh's prosecutors told Russo the evidence will show that Canario knowingly made false statements in state reports from 2017 to 2019 concerning the village's tally of completed inspections and falsely reported how many inspections were done, including the Evergreen Court Home for Adults.

Jordan told Russo that the evidence would show Canario is a hard-working longtime volunteer firefighter who has dedicated himself to the people of Spring Valley.

She noted during her cross-examination of prosecution witnesses that there were reporting mistakes and the state made errors. But she said Canario did the best he could under the circumstances of lacking proper training and working in a dysfunctional department without direction and leadership.

Steve Lieberman covers government, breaking news, courts, police, and investigations. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal.

Read more articles and bio. Our local coverage is only possible with support from our readers.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Rockland prosecutors have not yet gotten a conviction in the cases
By Olzhas Auyezov and Mariya Gordeyeva

ALMATY (Reuters) - Russian companies have flooded their Kazakh partners in recent weeks with new requests to help them circumvent Western sanctions and import badly needed goods, seven sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

After Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, the West imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia's $2.1 trillion economy, prompting Moscow to seek circuitous routes for importing technology and goods.

With the sale of thousands of items banned by the West, traders established an elaborate network of supply chains through third countries to bypass the restrictions. Many goods enter via Turkey and former Soviet republics, economists say.

The seven sources, who all spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said they had seen a rise in Russian requests to help get everything from bearings and aircraft parts to rare earth metals across Kazakhstan's 7,591-kilometre (4,717-mile) land border with Russia.

Two of the sources linked the increased Russian interest directly with reported Turkish plans to crack down on the transit of sanctioned goods.

"This means the boom is just beginning," said one businessman involved in foreign trade who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

RARE EARTH METALS

Another Kazakh entrepreneur said he had been offered $1 million to help move a truckload of rare earth metals originally from Australia.

"From phones and bearings to airplane parts and rare earth metals," the entrepreneur said, giving examples of requests, all of which he said he had turned down.

The Kazakh government did not reply to a request for comment.

Russians have a very long shopping list which includes industrial equipment, railway bearings, advanced electronics, radio equipment, turbines, airplane parts, raw materials, and even bank card materials, the sources said.

Story continues

Some Russian firms have sought to establish long-term sanction-busting partnerships, the sources said.

Under Russian law, it is an offence to comply with the Western sanctions and sanctions-busting has become a profitable boom industry for some entrepreneurs.

President Vladimir Putin has quipped that Western luxuries are still available in Moscow, though they are more expensive.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged Central Asian countries during a visit to the region this month to uphold the sanctions and promised to help them deal with collateral damage.

But a Central Asian official, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Blinken's visit, said governments could do little to stop traders from re-exporting goods to Russia.

"I walk into a European company's office and inquire about certain equipment, they say they cannot sell it because it might end up in Russia," said one Kazakh businessman dealing in industrial equipment.

"As I walk out, I get a call from a Turkish company offering me that same equipment."

Turkey, a NATO ally, said last month it did not export products that could be used in Russia's war effort, after U.S. warnings about exports of chemicals, microchips and other items. Ankara also said it would not allow Western sanctions to be violated in or via Turkey and was taking steps to prevent this.

BOOMING TRADE

Russia remains Kazakhstan's biggest trading partner. Kazakh exports to Russia rose by a quarter to $8.8 billion last year and sales of some items surged. For example, exports of bearings doubled to $111 million, official statistics showed.

Exports of plastic pipes, certain kinds of which Russia has had trouble producing or sourcing, more than tripled last year to $12 million.

At the same time, Kazakhstan sharply increased imports of computers from European countries and Taiwan, although it is unclear how many of them were then re-exported to Russia.

Sometimes no law is even broken, the sources said. Often complex items include sanctioned components but are not explicitly banned themselves. So sharp is the rise in trade that Kazakh customs are overloaded, they added.

Another source said Russian banks were importing equipment and plastics needed to produce bank cards via Kazakhstan.

Still, such business comes with additional costs. Kazakh businessmen reselling goods to Russia are normally eligible for a 12% VAT refund but those who move "suspicious items" do not file for it so as not to expose the whole supply chain, the businessman said.

One source, though, used a Russian proverb to explain why he had decided to get involved in the illicit trade: "For some war is grief and misery but for others it is a way to flourish."

(Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Gareth Jones)
By Oliver Hirt and Stefania Spezzati

(Reuters) - UBS Group AG is seeking government guarantees of about $6 billion for a potential takeover of Credit Suisse Group AG, a person with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters on Saturday.

The talks are still ongoing and the figure could change as several scenarios are still under review, the person said.

The guarantees would cover the cost of winding down parts of Credit Suisse and potential litigation charges, the source said. A second person confirmed this without specifying the $6 billion figure.

Talks to resolve the crisis of confidence in Credit Suisse are encountering significant obstacles, and 10,000 jobs may have to be cut if the two banks combine, the first source said.

Swiss regulators are racing to present a solution for Credit Suisse before markets reopen on Monday, but the complexities of combining two behemoths raises the prospect that talks will last well into Sunday, said the person, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the situation. Credit Suisse, UBS and the Swiss government declined to comment.

Credit Suisse was valued at the equivalent of about $8 billion at the close on Friday.

Deutsche Bank AG is also interested in acquiring parts of Credit Suisse, the first source said. However, any deal with the German lender could take longer, the source said.

A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

Bloomberg earlier reported the German lender's interest in parts of Credit Suisse.

"Any potential deal will be littered with complexity, litigation protections being one, with the situation to remain fluid but with clarity necessary before Monday," Thomas Hallett, a KBW analysts said in a note to clients on Saturday.

(Additional reporting by John Revill; Editing by Elisa Martinuzzi, Paritosh Bansal, Peter Graff)
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Saturday that the pending indictment of Donald Trump will only help the former presidents 2024 bid for the White House.

The prosecutor in New York has done more to help Donald Trump get elected president than single person in America, Graham told South Carolina Republican voters at the 2024 event hosted by conservative group Palmetto Family Council.

Prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorneys office have signaled that a Trump indictment could be imminent for his involvement in a 2016 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump, who lost his reelection bid in 2020, in December launched his 2024 bid.

Graham, a Trump ally, is part of Trumps South Carolina 2024 leadership team, which also includes Gov. Henry McMaster.

Early Saturday, Trump signaled on his social media site, Truth Social, that his arrest was imminent.

Trump posted, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!

Trumps attorneys say they dont expect any kind of stand off at Trumps Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, The Hill reported. The Associated Press reported Saturday that law enforcement in New York and are making security preparations for Trump to appear in a Manhattan courtroom.

As of Saturday morning, prosecutors had not yet notified Trumps lawyers of an indictment, and at least one more witnesses was expected to testify in front of the grand jury, possibly delaying an indictment, according to the New York Times.

In his Saturday remarks, Graham noted that the previous district attorney in Manhattan and federal prosecutors looked at the case and chose not to prosecute.

The case against the former president hinges on an untested and therefore risky legal theory involving a complex interplay of laws, all amounting to a low level felony, Graham said. You know what that means in English. Theyre making stuff that theyve never used against anybody because they hate Trump.

Story continues

Paul Lassanske, 61, of Summerville, said Saturday that he would still very much support Trumps reelection bid despite an indictment.

I think continuing to drag out an issue (against Trump) for more than six years is not only a form of injustice but also reprehensible, he said.

Anna Ducker, 71, of Charleston, called the expected indictment a joke.

Hes got his own money; he didnt use campaign money, she said.

Graham was one of several Republicans invited to speak Saturday at the Palmetto Family Councils Vision 24 conference. Program speakers included declared 2024 presidential candidates former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and other possible contenders, such as U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who said hell make his decision in April.
By Anthony Deutsch and Stephanie van den Berg

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin may not see the inside of a cell in The Hague any time soon, but his war crimes arrest warrant could hurt his ability to travel freely and meet other world leaders, who may feel less inclined to speak to a wanted man.

Putin is just the third head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court while still in power. Following is a look at what the consequences could be for the Kremlin leader.

WHAT IS THE CASE?

The ICC accuses Putin of responsibility for the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children - at least hundreds, possibly more - to Russia.

The Kremlin was quick to dismiss the allegations and the Russian foreign minister said ICC decisions "have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view."

TRAVEL ABROAD

The ICC's 123 member states are obliged to detain and transfer Putin if he sets foot on their territory. Russia is not a member and neither are China, the United States or India, which is hosting a summit later this year of leaders of the G20 group of big economies, which includes Russia.

The world's permanent war crimes court was created by the Rome Statute, a treaty ratified by all the EU states, as well as Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, 33 African countries and 19 nations in the South Pacific.

Russia signed the Rome Statute in 2000, but withdrew its backing in 2016, after the ICC classified Moscow's annexation of Ukraines Crimea Peninsula as an armed conflict.

"Putin is not stupid. He's not going to travel abroad to a country where he might be arrested," said assistant professor of history at the Utrecht University Iva Vukusic.

"He is not going to be able to travel pretty much anywhere else beyond the countries that are either clearly allies or at least somewhat aligned (with) Russia," Vukusic said.

ICC'S PAST EXPERIENCE

Sudan's former president Omar al-Bashir and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi are the only other leaders to have been indicted by the ICC while serving as head of state. Charges against Gaddafi were terminated after he was overthrown and killed in 2011.

Story continues

Bashir, indicted in 2009 for genocide in Darfur, remained in office for another decade until being toppled in a coup. He has since been prosecuted in Sudan for other crimes but has not been handed to the ICC.

While in office, he travelled to a number of Arab and African countries, including ICC member states Chad, Djibouti, Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, and Uganda, which declined to detain him. The court rebuked those countries or referred them to the U.N. Security Council for non-compliance.

The ICC has tried one former head of state after he left office: former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, who was acquitted of all charges in 2019 after a three-year trial.

Kenya's President William Ruto and his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta were both charged by the ICC before they were elected. The charges against both men have since been dropped. Kenyatta is the only leader to have appeared before the ICC while still serving in office.

OTHER COURTS

Apart from the ICC, several former leaders have been tried by other international courts. Among notable cases:

Slobodan Milosevic, former president of Serbia and Yugoslavia, became the first former head of state to appear before an international tribunal since World War Two when he was tried at a U.N. court for alleged crimes during the 1990s Balkan wars. He died in custody in 2006 before a verdict was reached.

Liberian former leader Charles Taylor was found guilty of war crimes in 2012 by the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, the first former head of state to be convicted of war crimes by an international court since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War Two.

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, one of Milosevic's adversaries in the 1990s Balkan wars, left office after being indicted for war crimes by the Kosovo war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He is due to go on trial next month.

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch, Stephanie van den Berg and Toby Sterling; Editing by Peter Graff)
Sevastopol

In particular, explosions were heard from the Korabelna (Naval) side of the city.

Read also: Invaders moving their families from Crimea to Russia  General Staff

Furthermore, local residents reported the sounds of gunfire in the nearby town of Inkerman.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-appointed occupation governor of Sevastopol, said that there was no need for people to be alarmed, as the sounds were from shooting training at a firing range.

Read also: Russia pulling in troops to northern Crimea en masse, says presidents representative office

On March 18, the occupation authorities celebrate the day of the reunification of Crimea with Russia, so the panicked mood of the residents regarding the explosions echoed with the reports about this date.

People, whats blasting? Its too early for a salute! the ChP Sevastopol Telegram channel wrote.

Read also: Explosions heard near Belbek airfield in Crimea, Gauleiter of Sevastopol says its training

Smoke was visible near the village of Perevalne in the Simferopol district of the temporarily occupied Crimea on March 17, where the coastal defense brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is stationed. The smoke was spotted after an explosion was heard.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Fairleigh Dickinson made NCAA tournament history in multiple ways Friday.

With its shocking, 63-58 win over Purdue, FDU became the second No. 16 seed in tournament history to knock off a No. 1 seed, joining UMBC in 2018.

But FDU actually one-upped UMBC. When UMBC pulled off its historic upset of Virginia, it was a 20.5-point underdog. FDU was an even bigger underdog. In fact, FDU was the biggest underdog to win outright in the NCAA tournament since the field expanded in 1985.

The Knights closed as 23.5-point underdogs. According to ESPN Stats & Info, FDU broke the record previously held by Norfolk State, which was a No. 15 seed and knocked off No. 2 seed Missouri as a 21.5-point underdog in 2012.

Fairleigh Dickinson players celebrate beating Purdue 63-58 on Friday in the first round of the men's NCAA tournament in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

In the win, FDU made life miserable for Purdues young guards. The Knights constantly pressed and trapped Purdues backcourt, causing the Boilermakers to turn the ball over 16 times in the loss. Additionally, FDU limited Zach Edey  Purdues 7-foot-4 All-American  to 11 shot attempts while holding Purdue to a miserable 5-of-26 from 3-point range as a team.

FDUs historic victory was the second massive upset of the first round. On Thursday, No. 15 seed Princeton shocked No. 2 seed Arizona 59-55. Princeton was a 15-point underdog.

FDU will move on to the Round of 32 and face the winner of Memphis vs. Florida Atlantic. Will the Knights be able to pull off another upset?

Not the biggest upset this season

Purdue has now lost to a double-digit seed in three consecutive NCAA tournaments, but it doesnt hold the distinction of being the biggest favorite to lose this season.

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In December, Iowa lost at home to Eastern Illinois as a whopping 32-point favorite.

With that victory in Iowa City, Eastern Illinois became the first underdog of 30 or more points to win outright in the past 30 seasons, according to ESPN. Before that, Stephen F. Austin shocked Duke in November 2019 as a 27.5-point underdog, Charleston Southern beat Missouri in December 2019 as a 26-point underdog, and Gardner-Webb beat Kentucky in November 2007 as a 26-point underdog.

None of those massive upsets came on the same stage as Fairleigh Dickinson's performance Friday.
My family stayed at Disney's Wilderness Lodge. Jill Robbins

My family of four stayed at Disney's Wilderness Lodge using our Disney Vacation Club points.

It's in a prime location, close to Magic Kingdom, and I love that it feels like a mountain lodge.

My family loves this property, but if we didn't use DVC points, I doubt we'd pay the high rates.

My family stayed at Disney's Wilderness Lodge using our Disney Vacation Club points.

Wilderness Lodge has rooms, suites, villas, and cabins. Jill Robbins

Disney's Wilderness Lodge, located in the Magic Kingdom area, has rooms and suites in the main lodge plus additional villas and cabins. It's often mixed up with Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground, which can be confusing, but they're not the same thing.

We've been Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members since 2018, which means we pay monthly dues to be part of a timeshare at Disney World. As members, we're able to cash in points at the resorts across the property throughout the year.

DVC members also get priority booking for one-, two-, and three-bedroom deluxe villas. But anyone can book them when they're available.

We snagged a one-bedroom villa at Wilderness Lodge on a recent trip to Disney World.

It's in a great location if you're planning on visiting the parks.

Wilderness Lodge is located near Magic Kingdom. Jill Robbins

Although Wilderness Lodge isn't located on the monorail route, there are free buses that go to the four theme parks and Disney Springs. There's also a boat service that goes straight to Magic Kingdom.

Although there are technically no resort-to-resort buses at Disney World, it's also easy to get to Disney's Contemporary Resort. The Disney Springs buses and some of the resort-to-park buses from Wilderness Lodge stop at the Contemporary along the way. The drivers will usually announce where the bus will stop  if not, just ask.

Once you're at the Contemporary, there's a walking path to Magic Kingdom, and the park is only about 10 to 15 minutes away on foot. You can also hop on the monorail at the Contemporary and explore the other resorts on the route (Grand Floridian and Polynesian).

I love the mountain-cabin vibe of the resort.

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There are fireplaces and cozy chairs in the lobby. Jill Robbins

The lobby resembles a huge log cabin, and it's easy to imagine yourself at a mountain lodge. If you've ever been to Animal Kingdom Lodge, the architecture is very similar, but with an entirely different theme.

The architecture, decor, and furnishings are very rustic. There are cozy fireplaces, lots of seating options, and floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over a man-made waterfall.

The lobby also features Indigenous artwork and artifacts.

The theming of the resort continues throughout the grounds.

The cabins have more rooms and a private hot tub. Jill Robbins

The rustic, mountain-lodge feel continues outside, with pine-tree-lined paths that wind around cozy-looking cabins.

Small touches, like animal tracks in the concrete, pull the theme together.

There are wilderness details around the resort. Jill Robbins

Fake animal tracks decorate the concrete, which really makes you feel like you're in the wilderness.

There's even an onsite, man-made geyser.

Parts of the resort look like a national park. Jill Robbins

The geyser blows steam and water periodically.

Our one-bedroom villa was spacious.

The villa had a room with a king-size bed. Jill Robbins

Our villa had a bedroom with a king bed in addition to a bathroom, living room, and kitchen.

I love that the villas at deluxe resorts have more homelike amenities than regular hotel rooms, like full kitchens and a washer and dryer.

Having access to the washer and dryer helped us pack light.

There's a stackable washer/dryer in the villa. Jill Robbins

I liked being able to wash our clothes in the villa during our stay.

We made use of the kitchen and living room.

My kids could hang out in the living room. Jill Robbins

The kitchen is great for quick breakfasts or lunches on non-park days.

I also liked having a door between the bedroom and the living area, so I could have some space away from my kids.

There were plenty of outlets for us to charge our devices.

There were about 16 outlets in the villa. Jill Robbins

One of the things I liked most about this room is the number of electrical outlets and charging ports  I counted 16.

But I'm not the biggest fan of the bathroom setup in the villa.

The bathroom juts into the bedroom. Jill Robbins

The design of the bathroom has improved since we stayed here in 2018  back then, there was transparent glass between the bathroom and the bedroom. You could see the jetted tub from the bed, which I didn't love.

Now there's at least a more opaque piece of artwork on the wall over the tub, but it's still not my favorite design feature.

The bathroom setup also affects the light in the bedroom.

It's hard to turn on the bathroom light at night without waking people up. Jill Robbins

There's no longer a transparent window between the bathroom and the bedroom. But if you turn on the bathroom light at night, you'll probably wake up whoever is sleeping in the bedroom because the light streams through the glass artwork.

Some of the bedroom features were hard to use as well.

I loved the rustic headboard, but I couldn't reach the light switch. Jill Robbins

There were lovely lamps installed on the headboard of the bed, but they were too high up to turn off without getting up.

We had two small balconies  one off the living room and another off the bedroom.

It was nice to have outdoor space, but the four of us couldn't hang out on one balcony. Jill Robbins

Each balcony had two chairs, but they were separated by a shoulder-high wall.

If we all wanted to hang out outside, we'd have to split up, and we wouldn't have been able to see each other clearly.

There are two pools at the resort.

Copper Creek Springs pool is right by the main lobby. Jill Robbins

Copper Creek Springs is the main pool area by the lobby, but there's also the Boulder Ridge Cove pool further into the property.

I really loved the onsite restaurants.

Artist's Point offers character dining with Snow White. Jill Robbins

Disney's Wilderness Lodge has two sit-down restaurants: Artist's Point and Whispering Canyon Cafe.

Artist's Point offers Story Book Dining, a "Snow White"-themed character experience. It looks cute, but I can't say I really understand how it fits with the rest of the resort's theme.

Whispering Canyon Cafe is another immersive dining experience.

Whispering Canyon is a good place to eat if you're looking for a laugh. Jill Robbins

Whispering Canyon Cafe is a fun, Western-themed restaurant serving breakfast, brunch, and dinner.

Its servers are known to act out antics and draw guests into their shenanigans, which is a lot of fun.

There are also spots for a quick bite.

Roaring Fork is good for on-the-go meals. Jill Robbins

Roaring Fork and Geyser Point Bar & Grill are the resort's quick-service options, offering a-la-carte and grab-and-go selections.

I like the onsite bar, Territory Lounge.

Territory Lounge also serves appetizers, like bacon on a wire. Jill Robbins

Territory Lounge is one of my favorite spots on the property. It's worth carving out time to go have a drink or appetizer there.

You can watch Magic Kingdom fireworks from the back of the resort.

The resorts backs up to Bay Lake. Jill Robbins

You can't see the castle from the resort, but you can see the fireworks over Bay Lake. The music is even piped in.

Wilderness Lodge guests can also see the nightly Electrical Water Pageant, which features several glowing floats traveling across the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake.

Even with all the amenities, it's pretty pricey for a hotel stay.

Wilderness Lodge is a deluxe resort. Jill Robbins

If we were paying in cash, our one-bedroom villa would've cost about $900 a night. If you can snag one during Thanksgiving or Christmas week (when prices tend to rise at Disney World), it goes for closer to $1,200 a night.

In comparison, a standard room with two queen beds at the resort is typically about $490 a night.

The most expensive accommodations at the resort, two-bedroom villas and cabins, usually go for between $2,000 and $4,000 a night. But they sleep more people and could potentially be split with another family.

We liked Wilderness Lodge overall, but we wouldn't stay there without our DVC points.

We enjoyed our stay at Wilderness Lodge. Jill Robbins

I love the theming of the resort and think it offers nice amenities. But the $900-a-night rate doesn't include park tickets, food, or the other little expenses that add up at Disney World.

If we weren't using our DVC points to pay for our stay, I probably wouldn't book a villa at Wilderness Lodge.

Correction: March 20, 2023  An earlier version of this story misspelled a word used to describe the artwork and artifacts in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge. The intended word was Indigenous, not Ingenious.

Read the original article on Insider
The legacy of Stephon Clark lived on through determined family members and the Sacramento community on Saturday, the fifth-anniversary of his killing by police.

In March 2018, two police officers pursued and fired on Clark in the backyard of his grandparents Meadowview neighborhood home. Police believed he was holding a gun. Clark, a Black man, 22-years-old, was unarmed and had a cellphone in his hand.

The body camera video of the deadly shooting released by police three days later roiled the city and sparked worldwide condemnation. But the aftermath prompted legislative changes involving police use-of-force, including Assembly Bill 392, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019.

That progress was the focus of Saturdays rally and march, which took place at the Capitol.

What keeps me going is the fact that in order for Stephon to live forever, we have to prevent Stephons from ever happening again, said Clarks brother, Stevante. I love my brother and I miss my brother. But one of the main things is how do we keep his legacy alive in a positive light. I never want my brother to die.

In the days after the shooting, Stevante Clark emerged as a visible and emotional leader of the protests. The image of Stevante Clark seated atop the mayors dais during one city council meeting, finding the spot after sprinting from chambers seats, remains one of the moments most remembered.

Stephon Clark

He also became a vocal advocate for police reform, helping propel AB 392 into law. The law is one of the nations toughest laws governing police use of deadly force.

Stevante Clark says the work is not done, particularly with justice for his brother.

In 2019, the results of federal civil rights, state Attorney Generals Office, Sacramento County District Attorneys Office and internal Sacramento Police Department investigations into Clarks fatal shooting ended with the probes finding the officers were not criminally responsible for the Sacramento mans death, clearing Officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet of wrongdoing. Both remain employees of the city, according to police.

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Five years later, we are sick and tired of being sick and tired, Stevante Clark said. Five years later, we still want some justice. Five years later, police should know the difference between a gun and cellphone. ... Five years later, 10 years later, 20 years later and 100 years later, I will keep fighting for my brother until we get justice and accountability not on some levels but all levels.

California Highway Patrol Sgt. Ron Wade is berated on March 23, 2018, by angry protesters following the shooting death of Stephon Clark by Sacramento Police officers.

Saturdays rally marked the continuation of a Legacy Week to commemorate Clark and honor the families that have been also damaged by law enforcement brutality. The events began Wednesday with a dinner and fundraiser. It was followed by a caravan ride-along through the Meadowview neighborhood on Thursday and a Friday block party.

The campaign will culminate on Sunday, with a brunch that offers a gathering space for mothers who have experienced the loss of a child.

Sequette Clark, the mother of Stephon Clark, is spearheading the brunch. She said the brunch aligns with the mission of I Am SAC Foundation, founded by the Clark family in Stephons name.

They can feel a sense of normalcy because everyone around them knows what theyre going through, Sequette Clark said.

She also called the events a series of mixed emotions.

The legacy week is profound for what it does for the community and other impacted families but, for me, it brings the fact that my son is dead right back to the forefront, Sequette Clark said.

Protesters shut down Interstate 5 in downtown Sacramentom on March 22, 2018, following the fatal shooting of Stephon Clark by Sacramento Police.

Protests that followed Clarks death

In 2018, protesters by the hundreds, and community and religious leaders took to Sacramentos streets, parks and the steps of the state capitol; its neighborhoods, shopping centers and the well of the Sacramento City Councils chambers.

Marchers snarled freeways and traffic downtown; forced the-then newly opened Golden 1 Center into lockdown and massed at the G Street offices of then-Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert to demand answers, justice, accountability and, ultimately, sweeping police reform after what was then the latest deadly encounter between a Black man and police.

The widespread unrest and angry protest would continue through that year and into the next.

SeQuette Clark, center, mother of Stephon Clark, who was killed by Sacramento police in 2018, stands next to her other son and activist Stevante Clark during a moment of silence in solidarity with the family of Jacob Blake during the Justice for Jake event outside the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, in downtown Sacramento.

Sacramento State student Rahmatllah Mohammed shows support of Stephon Clark during a student protest organized by the Black Student Union at the State Capital on Thursday, March 7, 2019 in Sacramento.

One demonstration through East Sacramentos tony, predominantly white Fab 40s neighborhood in March 2019 would stand as one of the most charged. The mostly peaceful protest was nearing its end when Sacramento police and Sacramento County Sheriffs deputies clad in riot gear abruptly ended the demonstrations and herded dozens of protesters onto the 51st Street overpass.

In all, 84 people, including ministers and legal observers, Sacramento State student journalists and reporters for the Sacramento Business Journal and Sacramento Bee were detained.

The police action was widely condemned, the citys mayor demanded answers, its police chief vowed to investigate. Charges against the protesters were never filed.
Rosa Chacon waits to release balloons with other loved ones during a vigil to remember her daughter, also named Rosa Chacon, on what would have been her 22nd birthday at the family home in Chicagos Little Village neighborhood on March 18, 2023. The body of Chacon was found in a West side alley more than a month after she went missing, according to her family. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

Around 80 people gathered outside of a home in Little Village Saturday on what would have been the 22nd birthday of Rosa Chacon, who was found dead this week after having been reported missing by her family in January.

Despite the bitter cold and occasional gusts and snowfall, guests were comforted by warm memories of Chacon during group prayers, a moment of silence and a balloon release outside of her home, where she was last seen.

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Rosa Chacon, left, and Elizabeth Bello, right, release balloons with other loved ones during a vigil to remember Chacon's daughter, also named Rosa, on what would have been her 22nd birthday at the family home in Chicagos Little Village neighborhood on March 18, 2023.

The body of 21 year-old Chacon was found bound and wrapped in sheets in a laundry cart on Wednesday in a West Side alley more than a month after she went missing, according to her family and authorities.

The family hired a private investigator after reporting Chacon missing on Jan. 18, when she was last seen getting into a ride-share outside of her home in the 2800 block of South St. Louis Avenue at night, but the family said they are unsure of where she was going.

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In a statement, the Richart Detective Agency said after working closely with the family they located Chacon and Chicago police said she was dead on the scene in the 2300 block of West 24th Place about 10:45 a.m. Wednesday.

The mother of Rosa Chacon, center, also named Rosa Chacon, receives a hug following a news conference and small vigil to remember her daughter near the corner of 24th Place and Western Avenue in Chicago on March 17, 2023. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

Chacons older brother, Gregory Chacon, said Saturday his sister would have been found a long time ago if the police would have went out and looked, but they kept telling me and my family that it was not a crime, that shes fine.

If she was fine, she would have called, he said. She would have come home. She comes home. When she goes out, she called my mom or my dad and says shes fine. If she cant make it home the same night, shell say shell be home in the morning.

He said he and his sister were both born and raised in Chicago. His sister was funny and kind, he said, and was never rude to anyone.

She would never cause harm or nothing, he said. She was a nice person.

Her father, Jose Lucio, told the Tribune his daughter was bound, wrapped in sheets and found in a laundry cart. A Thursday autopsy to determine the cause and manner of her death was inconclusive and still pending, according to the Cook County medical examiners office.

Loved ones of Rosa Chacon walk through an alley near the corner of 24th Place and Western Avenue in Chicago where family members believe Chacons body was found. A small vigil was held to remember Chacon at that location on March 17, 2023.

Lucio had voiced his concerns about his daughter and the lack of help from Chicago police and the local alderman to activists in the area, said Dolores Castaneda, a community leader who worked closely with the father to raise awareness of the case.

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 >

They are completely heartbroken, Castaneda said.

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Rosa Chacon stands behind a missing person flyer for her daughter, also named Rosa Chacon, during a news conference and vigil to remember the 21-year-old near the corner of 24th Place and Western Avenue in Chicago on March 17, 2023. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

Family and friends of Chacon gathered in a separate vigil on Friday night where they announced that the family is offering a $15,000 reward for more information leading to an arrest for Chacons death and demanding that the FBI gets involved. At Saturdays vigil, the family said the reward was increasing to $20,000.

I want justice for my daughter, said her mother, Rosa Chacon.

Anyone with information should contact Area 4 special victims unit detectives, 312-746-8251.

larodriguez@chicagotribune.com

sahmad@chicagotribune.com
Murdaugh in the Colleton County Courthouse on March 2, 2023. Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP

Family of teen killed in an unsolved 2015 hit-and-run near Murdaugh estate raises money for autopsy.

Stephen Smith was 19 when he was found dead on a road near the Murdaugh residence.

No one has been arrested in connection to the case but an investigation is ongoing.

The family of Stephen Smith, a teen who died in a hit-and-run near the Murdaugh family's South Carolina estate in 2015, is raising money for an exhumation and independent autopsy.

The GoFundMe has far exceeded its initial $15,000 goal, raising more than $50,000 so far. Interest in Smith's case was renewed after a judge sentenced Alex Murdaugh, the prominent South Carolina attorney, to life in prison for the 2021 murder of his wife and son.

"Our family is so very grateful to all of you who came together to help us in our fight for justice for Stephen. I could not have imagined when we began this fundraiser that it would take off the way that it did," Sandy Smith, Stephen's mother, wrote in an updated post on the fundraising site on Thursday. "Thank you for not allowing Stephen's story to be swept under a rug."

According to the fundraiser, the family is seeking an "unbiased look" at Smith's body and "an accurate determination of his cause of death based on facts." The family has long questioned the circumstances of Smith's death.

Smith was discovered dead in the middle of the road in the summer of 2015. He was just 19-years old. Law enforcement said at the time that they believed it was a hit and run. His body was located about 15 miles away from the Murdaugh residence, however, prompting speculation that there was a link between the teen's death and the controversial Murdaugh family. Smith's family attorney later doubted such a connection, as the investigation focused on other suspects. But authorities never charged anyone in the case.

South Carolina law enforcement reopened the case in 2021, citing new information surfaced during the Murdaugh investigation. Officials recently told WYFF, a local news outlet in Greensville, South Carolina, that the investigation is ongoing and that they had "made progress."

Earlier this month, the son of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family's former maid  who died in an alleged "trip and fall" at the family's home in 2018  also called for the exhumation of his mother's body to "see if there's any foul play."

Read the original article on Insider
A protest march the week after Najee Seabrooks was shot and killed by police officers, in Paterson, N.J., March 10, 2023. (Bryan Anselm/The New York Times)

For hours, the Paterson police pleaded with Najee Seabrooks to come out of a locked bathroom where he was threatening to kill himself.

Everybodys walking out of here, including you, one of the officers told him, according to video from police body cameras released by the New Jersey attorney generals office this week.

Im dying in this bathroom, said Seabrooks, a 31-year-old mentor at an anti-violence organization in Paterson, a city of 158,000 people in northern New Jersey.

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Thats not happening, Najee, the officer replied. Not on my watch. Come on. Youre going to live a long time. This aint how it ends for you.

But at 12:51 p.m. on March 3, about five hours after someone called 911 to report a man in distress, Seabrooks was declared dead. He had been shot by two officers, who fired at him after Seabrooks came out of the bathroom and lunged toward the officers with a knife in his hand, according to a statement by the attorney generals office, which is investigating the shooting.

The attorney generals office identified the two officers who fired their weapons as Anzore Tsay and Jose Hernandez, both of whom are members of the departments emergency response team.

The case has roiled the city, where Seabrooks colleagues and family have demanded to know why mental health specialists were not allowed into the apartment so they could help. Protesters have marched to decry the shooting and to call for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate. One week after Seabrooks was shot, several dozen people gathered at a restaurant owned by one of the officers involved in the shooting and banged and kicked at the security gate.

The footage released by the attorney general, taken from at least four hours of video from cameras worn by the officers on scene, shows the police repeatedly telling Seabrooks, who can be seen at points holding a bloody knife, to come out and talk to his mother. They asked him how they could help, urged him to stop cutting himself and then pleaded with him to come out so they could take him to a hospital. Then, at 12:35 p.m., Seabrooks leaped out of the bathroom.

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It was a dangerous situation in there, said Andre Sayegh, the mayor of Paterson, whose administration had repeatedly urged the state attorney generals office to release footage from police body cameras.

The officers were there to render aid and as youll see in the videos, they were trying as much as possible to avoid a tragic outcome, he said.

The police did not respond to messages for comment. The attorney generals office said it would not comment beyond its statement, citing the continuing investigation.

Members of the Paterson Healing Collective, the anti-violence organization where Seabrooks had worked for two years as an interventionist, said the videos show precisely why the police should not be the primary responders when a person is in the throes of a mental health crisis.

The officers had their weapons drawn as they spoke with Seabrooks, who told officers he had three knives and a gun, fully loaded.

Members of the Paterson Healing Collective said that they were barred by the police from intervening as they waited for hours in the lobby of the multistory apartment building where Seabrooks was shot.

Seabrooks had repeatedly texted members of the collective that morning asking them where they were, said Liza Chowdhury, project director of the Paterson Healing Collective.

I need to hear your voices. I need to see your faces, she said he texted. Even after Seabrooks colleagues showed the messages to officers at the scene, the police would not allow us in, Chowdhury said. When she asked the citys public safety director, Jerry Speziale, to give her staff access to the apartment, she said he responded that the department had sent a unit trained to de-escalate these types of situations.

Speziale did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Chowdhury said that her staff is trained to talk for hours to people going through the worst situations in their lives.

Any mental health professional knows patience is key, she said. Patience, empathy, understanding.

Chowdhury, who was a probation officer for 10 years, said showing a gun to someone going through a mental health crisis only increases paranoia and fear.

Yannick Wood, director of criminal justice reform at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, said theres something wrong with the system when someone calls for a mental health issue and they end up getting approached by men with guns.

When officers arrived, Seabrooks was already in the bathroom. He had arrived at his brothers apartment at about 2 a.m., grabbed some knives and locked himself in, his relatives told the police.

The family said that he may have been experiencing a bad reaction to something he had smoked, according to the attorney general, and that his actions were completely out of character.

Uniformed officers tried to cajole him out, then had his mother speak to him from outside the door.

Please, Najee, she said, crying. I love you, Najee. Open the door. Najee, come on, please open the door for me.

He would not come out.

His mother told the police that Seabrooks did not have a history of mental illness, but that the job, which entails helping to steer young people from violence, was becoming stressful, according to the video.

I think thats getting to him, she said. Hes seen a lot of his friends get killed.

When an officer told her that Seabrooks told the police he had a gun, she seemed confused.

Where did he get a gun from? she asked.

A specialized unit soon arrived, bearing shields, high-powered firearms and wearing helmets.

At 11:46 a.m., Seabrooks, who was shirtless, peeked out of the door and saw the officers, who were pointing their guns in his direction. He let out a yell.

Thats how you coming? he asked, then cursed.

Drop the knife, man, an officer demanded.

Less than lethal, a supervisor ordered. Less than lethal.

They told him to stop cutting himself and to come out. The camera angles make it hard to see Seabrooks in the bathroom, but he can be heard screaming.

The officers continued to plead with him to drop the knives.

Just put them down, one of the officers said. They offered to let him talk to his mother again.

Im sure she dont want to see you like this, one officer said, seconds before Seabrook appeared to leap out of the door.

Drop it! the officer yelled, just before the shots were fired.

Chowdhury said Seabrooks family is planning to hold his funeral on Saturday. He had a daughter, who is about 4, she said.

Chowdury said that while her staff members were at the scene, she was texting Seabrooks and talking to the police on the phone. Then, members of her staff called to say they had heard shots.

I just said no. I didnt believe it, she said. I never thought that the police were going to kill him.

c.2023 The New York Times Company
Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

On her final day as the top judge in the District of Columbia on Friday afternoonin her final actChief Judge Beryl A. Howell did more than grant the Justice Department permission to question former President Donald Trumps personal attorney. She actually took the rare step of handing over the lawyers notes to federal prosecutors, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.

In doing so, Howell may have planted the seeds for a future constitutional challenge. But in the immediate term, shes handed Justice Department Special Prosecutor Jack Smith a parting gift: what she deemed evidence of a crime involving the former president improperly hoarding classified documents after he left office.

M. Evan Corcoran, a former federal prosecutor, has represented Trump in that classified documents scandal. And while Corcoran already has his hands full as Trumps lawyer, the probe now appears to have put Corcoran in legal jeopardy himself.

Trump Attorney Hires Attorney of His Own in Classified Docs Case

According to a source, Corcorans professional notes about private communications with his client were turned over to Judge Howell, who was conducting an in camera reviewa carefully controlled screening of confidential records that typically takes place in a judges chambers.

Judges who come to the conclusion that some legally protected and sensitive material must be turned over to an opposing side normally issue an order directing one side to do it, along with a deadline. Doing so gives the losing side the ability to appeal to a higher courtand prevent irreversible damage that could forever taint a case, according to two lawyers not involved in the case who spoke to The Daily Beast but asked not to be identified.

But Howell appears to have skipped that careful yet tedious approachand just handed Smith a batch of documents that may show Trump and one of his lawyers planning a crime.

Either way, Trumps legal team is left without recourse, and federal prosecutors have more evidence to bolster the next steps in their ballooning investigation.

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Shes taken all the legal relief out of their hands. If she orders them to do it, they can take up an appeal on an emergency basis. She may have been concerned from what she read in the documents. She may have not trusted them to comply with an order, said David Cross, an experienced federal litigator at the Washington firm Morrison & Foerster who is not involved in the Trump case.

A spokesperson for the DOJ special counsel did not respond to a request for comment Friday night.

On Friday, as part of a sealed proceeding, Howell ordered Corcoran to provide additional testimony to the DOJ, CNN first reported on Friday. She decided that investigators could pierce the typically ironclad blanket of attorney-client privilege because of something called the crime-fraud exception. In essence, the judge found that whatever legal advice Corcoran gave to Trump was used in furtherance of a crime.

But in turning over his notes, Howells alleged actions stand in stark contrast with the more traditional approach taken by a federal judge in California who faced similar questions last year. In that case, the Jan. 6 Committee was trying to access documents protected by attorney-client privilege to explore how Trump employed conservative legal scholar John Eastman in an attempt to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.

U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter concluded that President Trump and Dr. Eastman more likely than not committed obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States. But when he ordered on June 7, 2022 that Eastman turn over 159 documents to the congressional committee, he gave Eastman a day to comply.

Judge Blocks Media Access to Records on Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago Subpoena Compliance

Howells decision on Friday appeared to be her final one as chief judge of the extremely consequential D.C. court, which is home to many of the nations most pivotal policy debates, national security investigations, and constitutional challenges.

She was replaced by James Boasberg, another federal judge who was also appointed by President Barack Obama.

Howells last-minute decision in the Trump case could mark a turning point in the special counsels probe, because it has the ability to supercharge the investigation. But notably, the saga keeps playing out behind closed doors. Her orders in this case remain sealed, and the grand jury investigation continues in legally protected secrecy.

The total lack of transparency in this historic caseand the surprising ability of news journalists to still squeeze out details about the secret proceedingsbecame the subject of much humor during her goodbyes on Friday, according to Politico, which described her being toasted and occasionally roasted.

So while Trumps legal skrimaging in open court against the New York Attorney General allows the American public to see how the Trump Organization has flouted subpoenas and slowed down investigators, this Justice Department effort continues largely in the shadowseven though the consequences could be far more serious.

Federal prosecutors have been exploring criminal charges against the former president for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection, defrauding the nation and its courts with bogus election fraud conspiracies, and the way he refused to return classified documents kept at his South Florida oceanside estate of Mar-a-Lago long after leaving the White House.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Fire destroyed a Wise County museum that housed important artifacts of North Texas history early Saturday, officials said.

The Wise County Heritage Museum, located at 1602 South Trinity St. in Decatur, was home to the Wise County Historical Society and Commission and a treasure trove of local history.

We are deeply saddened to announce that the Wise County Heritage Museum has caught on fire tonight, museum officials posted on social media. The entire building has been burned.

Here is a photo of the fire at Wise County Heritage Museum in Decatur. Several departments from multiple counties have been working the fire. pic.twitter.com/yJxCgofOwD  DFW Scanner (@DFWscanner) March 18, 2023

The Decatur Fire Department told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV that units responded to the three-story stone building around 1 a.m., when smoke was coming out one side. Then fire conditions changed, and crews working to stop the blaze from inside were forced out as flames and smoke spread swiftly through the structure.

No one was on site at the time of the fire, according to WFAA, and no first responder injuries were reported. The Decatur Police and Development Services buildings located nearby sustained smoke and odor damage.

Officials are investigating the cause of the fire.

Wise County Historical Society President Kerry Clower told the Wise County Messenger that it was difficult to process all that was lost.

The Lost Battalion Room, which featured photos and uniforms of Texas soldiers who were imprisoned for 42 months after being captured by Japanese troops during World War II, was just one of many exhibits housed in the facility.

Its gone, Clower said. If its not water damaged, its smoke damaged or what have you.

The building was constructed for Northwest Baptist College in 1893, according to the museums website, but the school went bankrupt three years later. The Texas Baptist Convention purchased the property and founded Decatur Baptist College, the forerunner of Dallas Baptist University.

The facility had been used as a museum to preserve the heritage of Wise County since 1965.

The Wise County Historical Society was scheduled to meet at the museum March 23 and the family event Night at the Museum with crafts and a scavenger hunt was scheduled for March 25, according to the museum calendar.
Two years ago, Orlando television reporter Mike DeForest requested some routine travel and budget expenses from a state agency that had given him contractor license records within days, but this request took more than three months. He decided to ask why, so he asked for more records.

After months of delays, the WKMG-TV investigative reporter got lawyers involved and only then did the governors office turn over records  a 10-page handwritten log of public records requested by the public that were under review by the governors office.

The log recorded the date the request was received and the date the documents were returned. It was titled Papers Routed Through EOG Legal, and it revealed that while state agencies often assembled documents within days of receiving a public records request, if the request was made by reporters or involved information of high value to the governor, the Executive Office of the Governor (EOG) kept them for review, where they sat for as long as nine months.

It was the first time I was able to see that these are mostly being prejudiced [against] news organizations, DeForest said in an interview. Its an extra hurdle that the Constitution doesnt call for.

More than a century of open access to records

Florida has earned a reputation for some of the broadest open records and public meeting laws in the nation. Known as Sunshine Laws, they were first approved by lawmakers in 1909, expanded in 1967 and added to the Florida Constitution by voters in 1992.

Most governors bristle at having to turn over internal musings, emails and transactions to the public, but Gov. Ron DeSantis, who came to office with an aggressive approach to exercising executive authority, has been more combative than most of his predecessors.

Were heading into dark times, and this is Sunshine Week, said Michael Barfield, director of public access at the Florida Center for Government Accountability, a public records watchdog. Sunshine Week is recognized by First Amendment advocates across the nation to call attention to the importance of public access to government information. Sunshine Week this year was the week of March 13.

Story continues

READ MORE: After a lawsuit from the Miami Herald and other news organizations, a judge finds that Florida defied public records law on childs death. Taxpayers tab: $376,000.

Since DeSantis took office, the number of exemptions to the states public records law has expanded, and the interpretation of what is a public record has shifted.

In his first year, for example, lawmakers expanded the list of personal details exempt from public records on public officials. Last year, DeSantis signed a law shielding information about candidates for state college and university presidencies.

It took lawsuits to obtain COVID records

During the pandemic, the Department of Health shielded some case numbers, contact tracing data and testing details. It barred medical examiners from releasing COVID-19 death counts. And when the Miami Herald threatened to file a lawsuit against DOH for withholding public information about deaths in nursing homes, the governors office attempted to quash the lawsuit by applying pressure on the Heralds law firm.

In 2022, the governors lawyers advanced an unprecedented interpretation that claims for the first time that he has an executive right to keep key government records secret from the public. And this year, the governor is urging the Legislature to make Florida the first state in the nation to weaken the legal precedent protecting the public and journalists who publish critical comments about public figures.

All these pieces are interlinked, and its clear that what it really is aimed at, in my opinion, is creating shade and to allow them to hide, said Bobby Block, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation, a nonprofit open government advocacy group.

Hire a lawyer

WKMG-TV wasnt the only organization that had to hire lawyers before its records requests were returned last year.

It took a court ruling for the public to get access to 60,000 Department of Health COVID-19 records, but they came long after they were useful to inform the public, Barfield said.

It took both a judge and lawyers to intervene for the Florida Department of Transportation and Executive Office of the Governor to release the details of how they spent taxpayer money in relocating migrants from Texas to Massachusetts last year.

In another instance, it took a court order before the governors director of public safety, Larry Keefe, turned over records showing he conducted state business with a private email account  an email address with the alias Clarice Starling  a reference to the Jodie Foster character in Silence of the Lambs. The records suggest that Keefe wrote some of the language that the private contractor, Vertol Systems Company, used in its bid proposal for the project.

Many legal fights continue.

FLCGA has filed a lawsuit against New College of Florida and one of its new trustees, Christopher Rufo, accusing it of withholding public records in violation of state law.

In October, Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh ordered the governors office and the governors chief of staff, James Uthmeier, to turn over records, including phone and text logs relating to the governors plan to relocate 49 migrants from San Antonio to Marthas Vineyard.

The governors lawyers turned over phone bills for what appears to be a cellular account for someone in the governors office but not the messages sent or received from private devices, including the phone used by Uthmeier to communicate about the migrant flights, as the judge ruled.

FLGCA is now suing the governor for contempt.

Citing volume of requests for delays in responding

Despite the court battles, the governors agencies often cite enormous backlogs and lack of staffing to be able to fulfill public-records requests.

In November, the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau asked for the Florida Department of Law Enforcements version of the governors daily schedule for the last weeks of his reelection campaign.

This week, FDLE responded that there were 527 unfilled public records that had been received prior to the Herald/Times request and due to the sheer volume and serious staffing shortage, we are unable to provide a fulfillment date.

The states Sunshine Act doesnt specify how long public officials have to turn over records, except that it must be within a reasonable time. In 1984, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the only delay permitted in producing public records is the time it takes for a records custodian to retrieve the document and redact any information exempt from its release.

DeForest, who covers the Orlando region, worries that if the governor is able to delay records on the state level by failing to provide the resources to meet the need, what example is he setting for counties and cities and municipalities about their need to turn over public records quickly?

Sen. Lori Berman, a West Palm Beach Democrat, said there are more than three dozen records exemption bills filed this year that she said will allow the state to shield even more from the public.

Because the governor and his staff often routinely refuse to answer basic questions from the public and reporters about their operations and intent, people file records requests just to get answers to things that could be handled with more transparency, she said.

For example, unlike other governors, DeSantis does not release his public schedule in advance, so the public often doesnt know his whereabouts unless his press office announces a news conference.

Those events are often not accessible to the public, and I feel like people are there more because its like a campaign event than a public event, Berman said. Thats a real slippery slope.

Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@miamiherald.com and @MaryEllenKlas
Mike Powers, former Ventura County executive officer

Former Ventura County Executive Officer Mike Powers is suing the county, claiming he was forced him out of his job a year ago without the chance to defend himself against a harassment accusation from one of his employees.

Powers filed suit Wednesday against the County of Ventura. He is seeking unspecified damages for invasion of privacy, wrongful termination, infliction of emotional distress and other claims. He is also asking the court to force the county to defend him in the lawsuit brought by his accuser and to pay the legal costs he's already incurred.

His lawsuit is similar to a series of claims Powers filed with the county in September. The county rejected those claims, and state law gives Powers six months from that rejection to pursue the matter in court. That clock was about to run out when Powers filed his lawsuit, said his attorney, Anthony Strauss.

As CEO, Powers had an employment contract that gave the Board of Supervisors the ability to remove him at any time, with or without cause. Strauss said that Powers is suing in part because government employees "have a property interest in their good name," even if they are at-will employees.

Ventura County Counsel Tiffany North, the county's top attorney, would not comment on Powers' lawsuit except to say, in an email, that the county "will vigorously defend against the lawsuit once served."

A year ago, Powers retired abruptly from the top administrative job in county government. The Ventura County Board of Supervisors had voted two days earlier to put him on paid leave, after an outside attorney hired by the county investigated the harassment complaint and concluded it was likely true, by a preponderance of the evidence, which is the standard burden of proof in civil lawsuits.

Powers accuser worked for him in the county executive office. In 2021, she told a human resources manager that Powers had subjected her to years of harassment, including unwanted sexual advances, touching and kissing her against her will and calling her by a nickname that she considered derogatory, based on her Mexican-American heritage. She also said Powers retaliated against her, threatened her career and froze her out of meetings and decisions after she refused his advances.

Story continues

She sued Powers and the county in June. Last month, a second county employee sued Powers and the county, claiming he inappropriately flirted with her and along with other managers, retaliated against her when she complained.

Powers has denied all of the accusations but one. He had admitted to amending Pico Rivera or Pacoima to the first name of the woman whose accusations led to his retirement, but said he did not consider it derogatory. Pacoima and Pico Rivera are both known as low-income, heavily Latino communities. The employee is not from either place.

The county has never released the report from the outside attorney who investigated the accusations against Powers; the details are known only because they were first published in the Acorn newspaper.

The Star has repeatedly requested the results of the investigation, and the county has refused, claiming the document is exempt from release under the California Public Records Act because it is covered by attorney-client privilege.

According to his lawsuit, Powers has also not seen the report and was never told the full details of the accusations against him. He claims he was interviewed twice by the attorney investigating the matter  in October 2021 and again in January 2022. He was told only portions of the complaints during those interviews, his lawsuit states, and the allegations were vague with respect to both substance and time.

At the end of the second interview, Powers says he was told he would be brought back for a final interview. That never happened.

Powers says in his lawsuit that he next heard about the investigation two months later when the countys top lawyer and its human resources director told him the Board of Supervisors would hold a closed session to discuss the investigators findings.

After that closed session, they told Powers the board had placed him on leave. He retired a few days later before the board could hold another closed session on whether to further discipline or fire him.

Powers claims in his lawsuit that this process did not afford him due process or the ability to protect his good name, reputation, honor or integrity because there was no way to respond specifically to allegations made against him or present his side to the Board of Supervisors.

He also claims that county officials damaged his reputation by leaking the report to the Acorn and by making statements to the media and to the county workforce "that effectively acted to confirm the allegations."

"This has impacted his ability to find comparable employment, has limited his ability to engage in community service and has caused him to suffer emotional distress and anxiety," his lawsuit states.

Powers earned a base salary of $335,554 before he retired. He now draws a pension of about $250,000 per year.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the language in the second lawsuit against Powers.

Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation's Fund to Support Local Journalism.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Former Ventura County CEO Mike Powers sues county over his departure
Election judge Marisol Diaz, center, helps a voter feed her ballot into the machine at Lawn Lanes bowling alley in Chicagos 23rd Ward on Feb. 28, 2023. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Chicago voters will head to the polls again on April 4 to cast their ballots for mayor and city council in runoff races.

Below are the Chicago Tribune Editorial Boards endorsements for the runoff election. See endorsements in the Feb. 28 elections here.

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Click here for our bedsheet ballot, which you can download and print before heading to the polls.







In our view, Paul Vallas is the candidate best positioned to tackle the citys existential problem of violent crime, and to do so without regard to where in the city you live. As Vallas has said on the campaign trail, the right to live without fear of attack against person or property should be viewed as an inalienable human right.

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City Council

Now, 14 aldermanic seats are at play in the April 4 runoff, with incumbents looking to defend their seats in six of those races. Will the embrace of the status quo on the council continue, or will voters opt for more fresh faces?

Here are our endorsements for aldermanic races in the upcoming runoff, which applies to wards in which no candidate received more than half of the vote in the Feb. 28 election.
CRANSTON  In the annals of great returns, Steve Laffeys billed return to Rhode Island on Friday might not have been on par with General MacArthur's return to the Philippines or Napoleon's return to Paris (however brief). But a step toward history? Laffey hopes so.

The former Cranston mayor and Colorado resident since 2010 came back to the Ocean State for the first time since announcing last month his Republican bid for the presidency.

Prior to a lunchtime town hall meeting with about 40 people at the Chapel Grille, he acknowledged that while hes at zero in any poll rankings at the moment, if he can get to just 1%, the world will change, he declared.

Because then it will be 3%, then seven," he said. "People will start paying attention.

Former Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey returned to Rhode Island on Friday to drum up support for his run for president.

Where is Steve Laffey living now?

Still the political renegade known for blunt talk and carrying his own bag of fixes for just about any problem, Laffey, 61, is living in a rented condo in Merrimack, New Hampshire, at the moment, trying to get on the radar of Republican Granite Staters who will be voting in their primary.

Hes up against it already: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is said to be weighing a run for the Republican nomination, too, so getting political traction has been a bit challenging, his spokesman said.

Why Laffey believes he's a good candidate for president

Laffey is hoping if he can just get on a debate stage with other candidates and start talking about his solutions for the nations looming financial crises  many of which will be radical," hard and disliked, such as retooling Social Security, he said  hell gain momentum.

Does anyone really know what the Federal Reserve does who is running for president except for me? Does anybody have a clue? I mean, Im a finance expert.

Laffey said the next president needs to be just that, because the nations astronomical debt and its foundering Social Security system have the country already on the threshold of a cycle of death.

Story continues

Hes uniquely positioned for the job, he told those assembled Friday: a Harvard Business School graduate and the former president of Morgan Keegan & Company, a Tennessee-based financial company; the successful mayor between 2003 to 2007 who took Cranston, with the lowest bond rating in the United States, and engineered the fastest fiscal turnaround in American history. "

'You should have kept your mouth shut': Inside an alleged health care fraud brought down by FBI

Who else is running for the Republican nomination?

Three other Republicans have announced they are running: former President Donald Trump; Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of South Carolina; and Vivek Ramaswamy, a former tech and finance executive living in Ohio.

What Laffey thinks are the big issues facing the next president

Laffey fielded a wide range of questions Friday, including questions about Trump, American public education, drug costs and his impressions of Rhode Island on his return.

Laffey said his fellow Republicans dont want to talk about how Trump overspent the nations budget by $8 trillion in four years  about what President Barack Obama, a Democrat, overspent in eight years. Neither party, he said, is addressing the deficit.

On public education, he said the current system in America cant be fixed. "It needs to end," he said, and get every kid out.

Instead, the government should take the money it spends on each child and send the checks to the parents and let them decide, he said. Perhaps its private school, or home schooling, but anything is better, than the current system.

On drug costs: Why does Pfizer charge Germany half what they charge us for medicines. Because we allow them. I know a lot about health care, he said, noting that one of his six children is a cancer survivor.

And Rhode Island? What does he think of his home state?

The roads are in terrible shape, he said. None of this happens in Colorado. Im sorry, this is a dying industrial state. It's the most wonderful people. I miss everyone greatly. But the place is falling apart still.

Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Steve Laffey says he has answers to America's pressing problems
Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, Iowa, on November 3, 2022. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Trump wants a VP running mate with more similarities to himself as he looks to 2024, per an ex-advisor.

"Trump's going to be looking for someone cut from the same cloth he is," Michael Caputo told the AP.

Trump has reportedly indicated an interest in selecting a female running mate.

In 2016, Donald Trump tapped then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his vice presidential running mate in what was seen as a shrewd move to bring on a Republican both trusted by grassroots conservatives and who had experience in state and federal government.

But seven years later, the former president  who is running for the Republican presidential nomination for a third time  is prioritizing a vice presidential nominee who is more similar to himself as he considers 2024 running mates, former Trump aide Michael Caputo told The Associated Press.

Trump, who has continued to rail against the 2020 presidential election and Pence's role in certifying now-President Joe Biden's victory, seems to be searching for a No. 2 that is perhaps more loyal.

Trump isn't pushing to make any major decisions yet, but he has considered a few potential options and has shown an interest in selecting a female running mate, the AP reported.

Caputo, a former assistant secretary for US Department of Health and Human Services, told the news outlet he felt that Rep. Elise Stefanik, the chair of the House Republican Conference, would be his top pick.

"I think the president learned a lot from his experience with Pence," Caputo, who was a 2016 presidential campaign advisor for Trump, told the news outlet. "I think this time Trump's going to be looking for someone cut from the same cloth he is, not from a different, complementary cloth."

While Trump is now the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, the race is still in its earliest stages. The former president's only other declared opponents are former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the only other Republican who now threatens Trump's dominance in the nomination contest, has not yet officially announced whether he'll pursue a 2024 presidential campaign.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Bloomberg) -- Frances FNME-CGT union called on workers in the electricity, gas and broader energy sector to pursue open-ended strikes to protest President Emmanuel Macrons reform of the pension system.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Labor representatives urged strikers to gather at strategic sites, including the countrys four liquefied natural gas terminals and 13 gas storage facilities, and maintain reductions in power production to weigh on the economy.

Gas shortages could arise within several days if the government doesnt see reason, the union said in a statement on Friday.

The FNME-CGT also pledged to reinforce its blockade of incinerators. More than 10,000 tons of trash have piled up in the streets of Paris alone, according to city hall, as garbage collectors strike over the plan to raise the minimum retirement age by two years.

The union said the governments decision to use a constitutional clause on Thursday to push through the reform without putting it to a vote in the National Assembly had only strengthened their fight.

The government faces no-confidence motions in the coming days, filed by opposition parties in parliament. If its defeated, this would nullify the pension bill and force Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to resign. Macron would then have to appoint a new government.

Thousands of citizens gathered on Friday for a second night on the Place de la Concorde square, across the Seine river from the lower house of parliament in the French capital, in protest against the overhaul of the pension system.

Flight Disruption

Separately, Frances aviation authority ordered airlines to cut 30% of flights at Pariss Orly airport and 20% at Marseille-Provence airport, in southern France, on Monday after several unions gave notice of a strike. Disruption is expected to begin Sunday evening and last until early Tuesday.

Story continues

A further day of nationwide strikes has been called for Thursday by a group of the countrys main unions, who have pledged to keep up the pressure on Macron to back down.

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Lisa Ellen Spoors, a former Fresno State graduate teaching assistant, will be put on trial for hitting and killing a 15-year-old Hoover High School student as he crossed the street near his school, a Fresno County Superior Court judge ruled Friday.

Spoors is alleged to have been under the influence of a combination of illicit and prescription drugs when Spoors failed to see Rashad Al-Hakim Jr. crossing First Street on Oct. 4.

Police said Spoors did not stop to help Al-Hakim Jr., who died several days later from his injuries. Spoors left the scene but returned about 20 minutes later after contacting police.

On Friday, Judge Brian Alvarez found there was probable cause for Spoors to face a jury trial. The 39-year-old Spoors is charged with murder, driving under the influence of a drug while causing injury and hit-and-run resulting in permanent injury or death.

Alvarez acknowledged that this is a difficult case.

Marc Kapetan, the defendants attorney, pointed out that a Fresno police officer who analyzed the crash concluded Spoors did not have enough time to avoid hitting the teenager. And another officer, an expert in determining when a driver is impaired, found Spoors was not under the influence.

A toxicology expert used by the prosecution also concluded Spoors was not impaired and would be able to drive a motor vehicle, Kapetan said.

How does a case like this get filed? Kapetan asked.

Kapetan accused the District Attorneys office of searching for a toxicologist who could support the prosecutions theory that Spoors was under the influence.

Dr. Patil Armenian, a toxicologist and emergency room physician at Community Regional Medical Center, testified Thursday that based on her review of the toxicology reports and body cam footage of Spoors being interviewed by police, her conclusion was that Spoors should not have been driving.

Armenian said the toxicology report revealed the presence of several prescription drugs and methamphetamine. The drugs in Spoors system are typically used for the treatment of ADHD, anxiety, mental illness and seasonal allergies.

Story continues

Armenian said the effect of those drugs would have slowed Spoorss reaction time, and caused Spoors to be inattentive and confused.

During her testimony, Kapetan asked the doctor how much she was being paid by the prosecution. Armenian answered $6,400 a day, Kapetan said.

Prosecutor Steven Ueltzen did not waiver in his belief that Spoors was under the influence and it contributed to the death of Al-Hakim Jr.

Ueltzen introduced a voice mail message from Spoors to a friend shortly before Spoors struck Al-Hakim Jr. In the message, Spoors talks about meeting up with a colleague after class and getting super stoned in the parking lot at Fresno State.

So I like left campus in my car and I started driving and didnt really know where I was going, not thinking about it I guess, now I am trapped in Clovis and not able to make a U-turn, Spoors says in the voice mail.

Ueltzen said Spoors made that call six minutes before the crash.

A judge had warned in 2008 when Spoors was convicted of a misdemeanor DUI that if Spoors was involved in a DUI crash and someone died, Spoors could be charged with murder.

If Spoors had been driving slower and been paying closer attention, the outcome would have different, Ueltzen said.

We can see from the damage to the vehicle that if she had just applied her brakes, Rashad would have had a chance, he said.
The annual meeting of the Friends of the Oak Ridge Public Library (FOL) will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday in the library. There is no charge. Everyone is invited to attend.

Julie Forkner

The program will be a panel discussion consisting of Julie Forkner, library director, who will share about the current and future changes at the library, Ray Smith, city of Oak Ridge Historian and FOL director, who will report on the coordination of Oak History Project being sponsored by FOL, and Erin Elizabeth Smith, poet laureate of Oak Ridge, who will share about her experiences during the past year, as well as future possibilities.

D. Ray Smith, writer for the Historically Speaking column.

Forkner grew up in the DeKalb County library system in Atlanta. After soundly establishing her love for books, she left for college in Asheville, N.C, majoring in Environmental Studies. Returning to her grandparents farm in Sweetwater after graduation, she started her own community supported agriculture business and provided 50 families a year with organic vegetables and herbs. With the birth of her daughter in 2004, she returned to her literary roots and earned a masters in English from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga in 2008 and shortly thereafter went back to school one more time to earn her master's degree in library science from UT Knoxville. She began at the Oak Ridge Public Library in 2016, and became director in 2018.

Erin Elizabeth Smith

D. Ray Smith, Oak Ridges historian has more than 47 years of experience at the Y-12 National Security Complex. He has co-produced the award-winning "Secret City" set of two 90-minute DVDs. He has also written 14 books on the East Tennessee area history consisting of nine Historically Speaking volumes, "The John Hendrix Story," "1944 Troop Train Wreck," "Historical Sketch of Oak Ridge Schools," "Oak Ridge International Friendship Bell" and "Delina," plus more. He publishes a weekly Oak Ridge history column in The Oak Ridger called Historically Speaking. His most recent film is the documentary, "Ed Westcott  Photographer."

Oak Ridge Poet Laureate Erin Elizabeth Smith is the executive director for Sundress Publications and the Sundress Academy for the Arts in Knoxville. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, most recently "DOWN" (SFASU 2020), and her work has appeared in Guernica, Ecotone, Crab Orchard, and Mid-American, among others. Smith is a distinguished lecturer in the English Department at UT Knoxville.

Nancy Hardin will conduct a short business meeting, including the election of new board members before the panel speaks. Refreshments will be served after the meeting.

FOL is a non-profit organization that holds used book sales to raise funds for the Library as well as to recycle publications. FOL supports the Librarys summer reading program for children, sponsors a book club and takes part in other activities, all to benefit the Oak Ridge Public

Library. Membership forms are available in the Library Lobby. The FOL Facebook page is www.facebook.com/foloakridge.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Friends of Oak Ridge Public Library meeting to feature trio
Scenic Fruit Company, whose foods are sold at Trader Joes and some Costco stores, among others, is recalling various frozen fruit products due to a risk of hepatitis A contamination.

According to a company announcement that the Food and Drug Administration shared on Friday, the affected products include frozen organic strawberries sold under the Kirkland Signature brand at Costco locations in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah and Washington, as well as the Trader Joes frozen Organic Tropical Fruit Blend sold nationwide.

The companys frozen strawberries were also on shelves at some Aldi stores, the Seattle-based PCC Community Markets, and distributed through Vital Choice Seafood, a home delivery service. Those items  sold under the brand names Vital Choice, PCC Community Markets, Made With and Simply Nature  are being recalled as well.

All names and best-by dates of the potentially contaminated products are listed on the FDA website.

Although Hepatitis A has not been detected on this product, out of an abundance of caution, consumers should stop consuming the product and return it to their local store for a refund, Scenic Fruit Company, which is based in Oregon, said in its announcement.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for additional details about the hepatitis A outbreak, but it said on Thursday that it has paused production and distribution of the products in question while it investigates the issue alongside the FDA.

In an online statement on Friday, Trader Joes said no illnesses have been reported to date, and all potentially affected product has been removed from sale and destroyed.

Hepatitis A infections can lead to liver disease, with symptoms usually appearing two to seven weeks after an infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People with mild illness may experience fever, fatigue, abdominal or joint pain, diarrhea, jaundice or dark urine.

The symptoms typically last less than two months, but some people may be sick for as long as six months, according to the CDC.

Story continues

Hepatitis A is a highly contagious virus and can be spread by consuming food or drink handled by a person with an infection. Food can get contaminated with hepatitis A at any point during growing, harvesting, processing or handling, according to the CDC.

People with HIV or chronic liver disease, including hepatitis B and hepatitis C, are at higher risk of liver damage or liver failure if they contract hepatitis A.

One shot of a hepatitis A vaccine can help prevent illness if administered within two weeks of exposure to contaminated food. There is no designated treatment for the disease, though symptoms can be alleviated with rest, proper nutrition and fluids.

Scenic Fruit Company said Thursday that people who may have consumed the recalled products should consult a health care professional or their local health department to decide whether getting vaccinated is appropriate. People with symptoms should see a doctor immediately, the company added.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Pornhub owner MindGeek has been bought by Ethical Capital Partners. Shutterstock

The private equity firm that acquired Pornhub's parent company won't reveal who's running MindGeek.

Ethical Capital Partners told the Financial Times it won't yet identify MindGeek's executives.

The new owner says it's keeping their names under wraps because of "stigma" about the porn industry.

The new owner of Pornhub's parent company says it won't yet reveal the names of the executives running Mindgeek because there's "unfortunate stigma" associated with the porn industry.

Ethical Capital Partners, a Canadian private equity firm set up last year, announced its acquisition of MindGeek Thursday for an undisclosed sum. It also owns sites including YouPorn, Redtube and Brazzers as well as Pornhub, one of the world's most-visited websites.

ECP told the Financial Times it wanted to be transparent as the company's new owners.

Solomon Friedman, an ECP partner, said: "I want to engage regularly with stakeholders, including the media."

However, he added that "at this point we are not identifying the current executives, as there is an unfortunate stigma" associated with the porn industry.

Friedman is a criminal defense lawyer and law professor at ECP, which was founded by Rocco Meliambro, the creator of one of Canada's biggest cannabis retailers.

The fund laid out its plans for MindGeek in a statement. It said it will adopt new online safety measures to increase trust and safety and invest to "help fight illegal online content."

MindGeek was previously controlled by a former banker named Bernd Bergmair, while David Tassillo and Syrian-Canadian programmer Feras Antoon also held stakes.

Antoon and Tassillo joined Pornhub in 2008 and spent more than a decade running the company before they resigned as CEO and COO of MindGeek in June 2022, but remained shareholders.

The acquisition was announced the day after Netflix released a documentary titled "Money Shot: The Pornhub Story". It examines the dark side of the platform as well as the censorship of sex workers.

Story continues

It details how a New York Times op-ed in December 2020 that accused Pornhub of hosting child porn sparked public outrage. About six months later 34 women sued the company and accused it of profiting from trafficked videos of them.

The allegations spurred an investigation by Visa and Mastercard, which temporarily cut off Pornhub from its payment services in the same month.

Antoon and Tassillo were summoned to give evidence to a Canadian parliamentary committee in February 2021 as MindGeek is largely run from Montreal.

CTV News reported that Tassillo told the hearing: "I truly believe, in my heart of hearts, that we are the safest adult platform in the world right now."

ECP didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider
In June 2022, driven by a combination of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an economic recovery from Covid-19, and arguably certain policies of the Biden Administration, the average weekly retail gasoline price hit an all-time high of $5.07 per gallon. (Source).

Since then, gasoline prices have fallen substantially, and were most recently $3.51/gallon. But I thought it might be interesting to look at the average gasoline price under each president over the past 20 years or so. (Prior to that, gasoline prices were generally under $2.00 a gallon).

Presidents get a lot of credit and blame over rising and falling gasoline prices. In reality, theres not a lot a president can do to impact gasoline prices in the short term. Longer term, a president can pass policies that impact supply and demand in such a way that they do impact gasoline prices. But in the short term, a president has relatively few handles for influencing gasoline prices.

Nevertheless, a presidents popularity is strongly influenced by whats happening with gasoline prices. So, lets take a look at the average gasoline price overseen by each of the past four presidents.

Related: Blackrock CEO Fink: Oil & Gas Is Vital In Meeting Energy Needs



The following graphic shows the average annual gasoline price during each year of the last four presidential terms. Republican presidents are shown in red, Democrats in blue. The numbers come from the EIA, and they represent the average retail price of all grades of gasoline. You can see the raw data here.

Average Annual Gasoline Price 2001 to 2023. ROBERT RAPIER

This graphic shows the data, but it needs context. There are many stories that could be spun from a superficial reading of the data, but many of them would be wrong. For example, President Bush saw a huge rise in gasoline prices when he was in office. It would certainly be easy to cast blame on him for this, but President Bush was very pro-oil and gas development.

In fact, the technologies that led to the fracking boom largely developed under President Bush. But fracking didnt begin to show huge benefits until President Obamas term.

Story continues

What happened under President Bush was that Chinese demand grew sharply, and Saudi Arabia was slow to increase production. This led to a widespread belief that global oil production had peaked, and that helped create a bubble in oil prices. That bubble finally burst in 2008 when a recession caused a drop in global oil demand.

Like Bush, Obama initially experienced rising gasoline prices. Those prices reached a peak at the highest annual average to date of any president, before falling back down to the lowest level since Bushs first term. The reason for the crash in gasoline prices was that Saudi Arabia decided to engage in a price war with the U.S. to win back market share that had been lost to the U.S. shale oil boom.

Thus, most of the rise and fall under Bush and Obama didnt really have a lot to do with their policies. One could argue that the pro-oil policies under Bush did usher in the eventual glut of oil that happened under Obama, but these are once again long-term policy effects.

Gasoline prices rose during each of President Trumps first two years in office, reversing the two-year trend that ended Obamas second term. By Trumps third year in office, prices fell slightly, but then prices were down sharply in Trumps fourth year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on oil prices. Gasoline prices in 2020 were at their 2nd lowest level since 2004.

When President Biden came into office, gasoline prices had been rising for several months as the world began to recover from Covid-19. But, demand outstripped supply, and oil prices continued to soar. Then, in early 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine, and that helped propel the average annual gasoline price that year to $4.06/gallon, the highest annual average on record.

Obviously 2023 is incomplete, but so far this year the average annual price of gasoline is $3.47/gallon. That marks a 14.5% decline from 2022, but theres still a lot of year left.

To date, the average gasoline price during President Bidens term  with nearly two years still to go  is $3.60/gallon. That is on a pace to be the highest average under any president. Here is how prices stack up per gallon, from lowest to highest average for their terms:

Joe Biden (partial term)  $3.60 Barack Obama first term  $3.12 Barack Obama second term  $2.95 George W. Bush second term  $2.77 Donald Trump  $2.57 George W. Bush first term  $1.59

So, you can see how someone could argue that Republicans are better for gasoline prices. Presidents Bush and Trump were the only presidents that oversaw average gasoline price below $3.00/gallon for four consecutive years of a term.

But the truth is more nuanced than that. The technologies that led to the fracking boom were developed under a Republican president. That, in turn, is responsible for much of the ups and downs in the price over the years. But, Saudi Arabia/OPEC and the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent recovery also had a huge impact. These factors were largely outside of a presidents control.

In the next article, I will discuss the evolution of oil production during each presidents term. President Obama presided over the largest expansion of oil (and gas) production in U.S. history. But, as with gasoline prices, context is important.

By Robert Rapier

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

Read this article on OilPrice.com
Leo Varadkar and Joe Biden

President Joe Biden welcomed Irelands gay prime minister, known as the Taoiseach, to the White House on St. Patricks Day on Friday.

In a meeting between the countries that had been postponed due to the pandemic, the two leaders spoke about the historic bonds between the two countries, according to the Associated Press. Biden also recognized on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, which assisted in ending the conflict, called the Troubles, over whether Northern Ireland would separate from the United Kingdom and join Ireland.

Biden also gifted Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Irelands first gay head of government, a bowl of shamrocks, which the AP notes has been a tradition since 1952.

The president greeted Varadkar with dyed water in the South Lawn fountain green.

While meeting Biden, Varadkar praised the U.S. for helping Ukraine after Russia invaded the country last year. Biden is expected to soon visit Ireland. When that happens, Varadkar said, Were going to roll out the red carpet.

Varadkar and his partner, Matthew Barrett, had breakfast earlier on Friday with Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff. At the vice presidents house, the Irish leader praised the U.S. on its history of LGBTQ+ rights.

From Stonewall to Sacramento to San Francisco. America has led the way when it comes to LGBT equality, he said. I dont think I would be here today were it not for what America did.

St. Patricks Day is an annual celebration at the White House. A lunch at the Capitol has been bringing Democrats and Republicans together for a meal for a few decades.

Friday evening saw former One Director star Niall Horan perform as well as a bagpipe performance, according to CNN.

Varadkar is also the first person of color to lead Ireland. He became prime minister in 2017, serving until 2020. He became prime minister again in December of last year.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Simon Wiesenthal Centers director of global social action, greets Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle following the Wiesenthal Center's release of a digital terrorism and hate report on March 17, 2023. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

A report from the Simon Wiesenthal Center scoring social media platforms based on the proliferation of hate speech found that mainstream sites like TikTok and Twitter fared only slightly better than much smaller platforms like Telegram favored by far-right groups.

If you have TikTok at home, you should get rid of it, said the Wiesenthal Centers director of global social action, Rabbi Abraham Cooper. We list TikTok number one not because it has the most problematic materials but because it is so wildly popular with young people. And even if they are not looking for (hate), it is going to come at them.

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The Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights organization, issued the report this year in conjunction with Cook County United Against Hate, which was formed last year to bring awareness of racism, antisemitism, bigotry and other forms of hate.

The organizations looked at 24 media platforms, examining content as well as how the media companies responded to posts of concern. Fringe sites 8kun, AnonUp and Telegram received F ratings, while TikTok got a D and Twitter a D-minus.

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The report noted that Telegram is the platform of choice for the utmost dangerous elements of the far right movement, but said that TikToks widespread exposure makes it of similar concern.

But the report also found an increase in hate speech on Twitter since Elon Musk purchased the company late last year.

The platform has pivoted from having some of the strongest hate speech policies and moderation enforcement, back to being a preferred space for the mainstreaming of hate, the report found.

The highest scores went to Google/YouTube (B-minus), Reddit (B) and Roblox (B-plus).

The findings echo a widely reported increase in hate speech and crimes in recent years. Chicago police data showed that last year hate crimes nearly doubled compared with the year before. The FBI recently announced reported hate crime incidents increased 11.6% in 2021, the most recent year for which data was provided.

The White House recently issued a demand calling for the removal of TikTok from federal devices. The executive branch is also taking steps to change TikToks presence in the U.S. by threatening to ban the app if the Chinese ownership does not sell its U.S. stake in the company, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Those moves are more about long-standing concerns over a foreign country controlling user data than the prevalence of hate speech on the app.

The relationship between the Wiesenthal Center and Cook County United Against Hate was formed in part because of Cook County Commissioner Scott Brittons personal experience with antisemitism.

About a year ago I received a packet of antisemitic literature on my driveway, and I am Catholic, Britton said at a downtown news conference Friday. But I also thought to myself what the reaction was to my Jewish brothers and sister, neighbors and friends.

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Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle referred to her past as a history teacher when discussing what she thinks are some of the reasons hate is on the rise.

This is a country that doesnt put great value on learning our history, Preckwinkle said.

Several of the presenters gave testimony about their personal experiences with acts of hate, remarking how they have seemingly become more common in recent years.

The Wiesenthal Center presented examples of its findings with screenshots of how the apps allow hate to spread. These messages included glorification of the Holocaust, support for school shooters and discussion of causing more harm to minority communities.

Going forward, Britton and Cook County United Against Hate said they will continue to monitor hate on online platforms.

What I think we were able to do is combine the educational piece  which is just remind people that this stuff exists and reject  but even more importantly, I think, prosecute those crimes that are related to a hate motivation, noting the county board he sits on supervises both the states attorneys office and the sheriffs office. Thats important stuff we can do.

Advertisement

hsanders@chicagotribune.com
An infant-formula manufacturer is recalling some Gerber baby formula potentially contaminated with a bacteria than can make babies seriously ill.

The company, Perrigo, issued a voluntary recall Friday of certain lots of Gerber Good Start SoothePro Powdered Infant Formula that were made at the companys plant in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, between Jan. 2 and Jan. 18 and sold after March 5. The company said the recall was a cautionary move because of potential contamination by the bacteria Cronobactyer sakazakii.

The bacteria can cause diarrhea and urinary tract infections in people of all ages and can be very serious in infants, health officials said.

The company said none of the product that was distributed has tested positive for the presence of the bacteria and no cases of illness have been reported.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services issued a press release about the recall Saturday and said no cases of infection linked to the bacteria have been reported in the state.

NCDHHS said the first symptoms of this type of bacterial infection are usually a fever and poor appetite, excessive crying or very low energy. Anyone with a child experiencing such symptoms should immediately contact a medical provider, health officials said.

Anyone who bought Gerber Good Start SoothePro Powdered Infant Formula after March 5 should check the lot codes and use by dates on the bottom of the canister. Three sizes of the product are affected, but the company said only these lot codes are affected by the recall; others remain safe to use.

Do not use the formula if the canister has one of these codes. Return the item to the store for replacement. If the item came from a WIC agency, return it there.

These are lot codes and use-by dates under recall:

Gerber Good Start SoothePro 12.4-ounce:

 300357651Z  USE BY 04JUL2024

 300457651Z  USE BY 05JUL2024

 300557651Z  USE BY 06JUL2024

 300557652Z  USE BY 06JUL2024

 300757651Z  USE BY 08JUL2024

Story continues

 300857651Z  USE BY 09JUL2024

 301057651Z  USE BY 11JUL2024

 301057652Z  USE BY 11JUL2024

 301157651Z  USE BY 12JUL2024

Gerber Good Start SoothePro 30.6-ounce:

 301357652Z  USE BY 14JUL2024

 301457652Z  USE BY 15JUL2024

 301557651Z  USE BY 16JUL2024

Gerber Good Start SoothePro 19.4-ounce:

 301557652Z  USE BY 16JUL2024

Parents and caregivers can also contact the Gerber Parent Resource Center at 1-800-777-7690 to learn more, or to request refunds.
Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, welcomed the decision of the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Source: This was reported by European Pravda with reference to Sky News.

Quote: "The International Criminal Court is the right institution to investigate war crimes ... The fact is that nobody is above the law and that's what's becoming clear right now," Scholz said at a news conference in Tokyo, which he held together with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Earlier, US President Joe Biden called the ICC's decision to issue a warrant for Putin's arrest a strong step forward.

On 17 March, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the representative of the President of the Russian Federation on children's rights.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
A Maricopa County Superior Court jury brought down a guilty verdict against a Gilbert Army Reserve attorney for the murder of his wife.

Mark-Eric Ponsati claimed that Sherri Ponsati, his wife and mother of his children, died after slipping in the bathroom one night in 2017.

Prosecutors believed that Ponsati had tried to make the murder look like an accident.

What happened?

The night of the death: Police found Sherri Ponsati lying in her bathroom bleeding from a head wound and without a heartbeat on Sept. 7, 2017.

At around 9:50 p.m., Ponsati called 911 to report that his wife was not moving.

He told dispatch that they had been taking a bath together, he took a nap, and when he got back up to look for her, found her bleeding on the ground.

In a recording played in court, he is heard telling them he knows shes dead. Shes purple, Im telling you I know what death looks like, Im an Afghanistan war veteran, he said to dispatch.

He told them that it looked like she had slipped and hit the back of her head on a bathtub ledge.

Ponsati told them that their two children were asleep in their rooms.

Fire crews took Sherri to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Police found a gallon jug of soap had fallen over and made the floor slippery.

While calling next of kin, detectives were told that their marriage was rocky.

Days later, the medical examiner noted that Sherri had multiple injuries on her body, not just the one on the back of her head but also on her face, back, and ribs.

Police arrested Ponsati for second-degree murder a week after the night of Sherri's death.

Breaking news:Pinal County deputy shoots, kills man on dirt bike

In court

The prosecution claimed: On Jan. 23, Maricopa County Deputy Attorney Joshua Grimsman opened the case against Ponsati, claiming that the evidence painted the picture of a husband who tried to cover up the death of his wife's murder.

The injuries on Sherri showed that her body had multiple injuries, consistent with violent shaking.

Close friends of Sherri claimed that their marriage was falling apart.

The jug of soap that caused the bathroom floor to be slippery was almost completely empty, emptier than it could have been from it just being tipped over on its side.

It was suspicious that Ponsati hired a service to clean the house the next morning.

Ponsati tried to move to Kentucky days after the death of Sherri.

Story continues

Ponsati claimed: Ponsatis lawyer Thomas Henager, held that Sherri's death was tragic and strange, but accidental.

The evidence in this case is going to show how an innocent man can look guilty and be charged with crimes like this, he told the court.

The defense claimed that multiple injuries on Sherri came from her falling multiple times.

Anything could have happened in the bathroom, but the police wanted them to believe that she either hit her head once or Ponsati killed her.

They admitted that the marriage had its problems, but the intent for anyone to leave the marriage did not exist.

Moving to Kentucky had been planned before the death.

Verdict: After four days, the jury came back finding Ponsati guilty of second-degree murder.

On April 14, Ponsati will face anywhere between 10 to 25 years in prison when he stands for sentencing.

Why we are writing this

This reporting follows a crime The Republic began to cover in 2017 and is part of our commitment to telling the story from start to finish.

Reach crime reporter Miguel Torres at Miguel.Torres@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @TheMiguelTorres.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gilbert Army Reserve attorney found guilty for the murder of his wife
A makeshift memorial of flowers and candles is placed at the site where the body of Luise was found (AFP via Getty Images)

Two schoolgirls, aged 12 and 13, are suspected of murdering a 12-year-old by stabbing her over 30 times in a German woodland in a case that has shocked the country.

German police said on Tuesday that two children are in custody suspected of killing a girl found dead earlier this week in the western town of Freudenberg.

The victim, who was only identified by her first name Luise due to privacy reasons, went missing on Saturday after visiting a friend and failing to return home.

German police officer search for a knife in a woodland where the 12-year-old was found dead (REUTERS)

Her parents tried to call her, but she didnt pick up. Hours later, they reported her disappearance to the police, prompting an extensive search.

Luise's body was found covered in stab wounds in an area of woodland near a disused train station in Wildenburg, some two kilometres (1.2 miles) from her home, the following afternoon. An autopsy later gave her cause of death as exsanguination, severe loss of blood.

Senior public prosecutor Mario Mannweiler said at a press conference on 14 March: "The investigations carried out so far confirm the suspicion that the girl was the victim of a homicide."

He told reporters that we must assume that the crime was committed by two children from the (victims) circle of acquaintances.

The two suspected killers confessed to the killing, police officer Florian Locker said.

Citing the age of the suspects, officials refused to give any further details on their identity, gender, motive, or whether they knew the victim from school.

A book of condolences for the killed girl Luise and a card reading

Commenting on the possible motive, Mannweiler said: "What may be a motive for a child to commit a deed may not necessarily be apparent to an adult."

But, referring to the number of perforations to the victim's body, he said it was likely "some emotions played a role".

Due to their youth, the two children are below the age of criminal responsibility which is 14 in Germany. They were therefore not arrested but taken into custody of a youth welfare office.

The governor of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Freudenberg is located, said he was appalled by the killing.

North Rhine-Westphalia is grieving, Hendrik Wuest said. It is incomprehensible and unbearable that children are capable of such horrible acts.

He promised that the authorities would do everything in their power to shed light on the reasons and circumstances of the crime.
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/HBO

A decade ago, when Girls had just debuted on television and an entire media subdivision emerged to cover the frailties and shortcomings of Lena Dunham, I settled into the first season with a few college friends, determined to see what all the fuss was about. This was the total apex of Girls mania: a time when this unassuming HBO series could induce blind rancor, giddy acclaim, and a bizarre, ambiguous bitterness in all those who came near it.

One of my friends at the screening was especially stricken with a strong anti-Dunham sensibility, and she looked on with a taut, curdled glarejust waiting for something to piss her off. Her wish came true in the pilot episode when Hannah (played by Dunham) swills some opium tea and rolls up to her wealthy parents house, lost in a dangerous high. She tells them, hilariously, that she believes herself to be the voice of her generation. My friend had finally confirmed that Girls was out-of-touch, vain, elitist, and oppressively New York, and she gleefully hate-watched the next batch of episodes.

Girls at 10: In Defense of Lena Dunhams Creative Genius

In retrospect, anyone who digested that line at face value was clearly missing the point. Dunhams charactera privileged, headstrong art-school scion, who has never worked a day in her lifeis absolutely the sort of person that succumbs to wild swings of unchecked narcissism. (In other words, the scene was not meant to flatter Hannah.) But this criticism was par for the course during the age of Girls. It became a show that kicked up so much ridiculously overheated discourse, it became almost impossible to watch without being in the thrall of long-forgotten Gawker and Grantland takes of yore (some merited, others barely legible).

But in 2023, divorced from the zeitgeist, you can find the faint hints of a sedate Girls renaissance glowing in the ether. Over the last few months, Ive seen the show consecrated by TikTok memes and viral tweets, which are all arriving at a moment where anyone can watch Girls without being forced to participate in a strange, unwieldy political conversation. We are not the only ones to notice this; both Dirt and The New York Times have recently issued their own ruminations on why, exactly, the world is back on the Girls train. Clearly theres never been a better time to jump in, and zoomers and millennials alike are taking advantage.

Story continues

Lena Dunham wrote + created one of the most poignant, edgy, real, + hilarious shows ever, and the internet canceled her bc of sexism/fatphobia. Im praying gen z or the gen after it will discover Girls in a few years and itll have its Renaissance moment. In this essay I will   is a Wyder (@y666lit) August 18, 2022

It feels almost uncanny to rewatch Girls now because I realise how many of the cliches that we live by were first articulated and sometimes even invented by Lena Dunham  oscar schwartz (@scarschwartz) October 30, 2022

on episode 7 of a Girls rewatch and it's actually crazy how lena dunham WAS the voice of her generation... very uncanny experience watching this because its aged into a pristine period piece  goodfella (@subsahaaron) October 6, 2022

I was originally avoiding the show because the subject matter sounded pretty annoying to me at the time it aired. I was a busy, struggling college student back then so watching a show about a bunch of spoiled Brooklynites non-problems didnt sound like itd offer much, says Kaila Philo, a 27-year old reporter who grew up in Washington, D.C. She started watching Girls for the first time late last year. I was surprised at how self-aware it was. Its remarkable that Lena Dunham managed to be so conscious of the arrogance, delusion and narcissism that a lot of us have at that age when she herself was so young As a former Lena Dunham hater, Id like to apologize. I see the hype now!

In general, Philo has found herself reflecting on the early 2010s latelyparticularly how breezy and less serious everything felt in a pre-Trump, pre-Covid world. Girls, a show that averaged less-than-a-million viewers per episode and yet still managed to become a nuclear topic of social discourse, epitomizes the sublime naivete of Obama-era liberalism. If you want my most basic theory for why Girls is mounting a restorative comeback, Id point to the illuminating power of nostalgia, and the calming truth that the things we once agonized over never seem to matter much in the long run.

The 2010s are just now solidifying into an identifiable era with its own aesthetic signifiers; it has been excised from the dialogue and now hangs in a museum. Within that context, all of the teeth gnashing that Girls engendered seems remarkably facile and unnecessary. After all, nobody complains about the manifold insensitivities present in old Sex and the City episodes anymore, either.

I think were moving away from the aggressively woke era that we were in in 2015 to 2018, where everyone was canceling and calling out anything remotely problematic, says Raynee, a 22-year-old in Bushwick, who was 12 (!) when Girls debuted and has just started watching the series herself. I think that although there are definitely parts of Girls that can be critiqued, its interesting to look at as a microcosm of culture in the mid-2010s, especially because I was a jealous observer at the time, too young to participate, but can now compare it to my own experiences in Brooklyn and being a young adult.

HBOs Girls Is the Best New TV Show of 2012

Raynee, like Philo, avoided Girls initially after absorbing the tidal wave of scolding essays written about Dunhammost of which, of course, were written by other young, privileged people in New York City and always carried the unmistakable odor of professional envy. However, one complaint remains eternally valid. Girls was pervasively white in its early seasons, to the point that Dunham added a brief Donald Glover romance for Hannah in the second season, as a gesture towards self-effacing meta-commentary. Its a blindspot that permanently grounds the show in a time and place, not unlike the Kanye West cameos in long-gone Keeping Up With The Kardashians seasons. Its hard to imagine HBO greenlighting anything with an all-white castespecially one christened with a title as universal as, you know, Girlsin 2023.

But Alex Abad-Santos, a writer at Vox and one of the primary Twitter boosters of the Girls renaissance, correctly asserts that it made sense that these myopic, sheltered, terminally self-centered women at the heart of the show probably wouldnt know any people of color. Its a point that gets back to his grand theory of why the Girls zeitgeist grew so toxic. Abad-Santos argues that the show was marketed as a Sex and the City-like romp for an ascendent generation of twentysomething millennials.

As the series progressed, however, it became increasingly clear that Dunham was making a show about a cadre of bad friendsand bad peoplewho slowly watch their relationships disintegrate over time, without really having anyone to blame but themselves. [When] you dont have those scrappy protagonists to root for, youre like, What happened? he says.

But as the years passed, and millennials were slowly drained of all of their piousness and self-righteousness, it became uncomfortably clear that the core supposition of Girls was spot on. None of us were ever going to change the world, and nobody emerged as the voice of our generation, except for maybe Lena Dunham. I think part of the reason its aged well is because the show was very good at satirizing and roasting millennials, continued Abad-Santos. Roasting millennials is what millennials love to do themselves now! And I dont know if theres a better show at pointing out how selfish, stupid, and confidently wrong millennials have been.

To prove his point, Abad-Santos asks us to consider the arc of Allison Williams, who played Marnie on Girls and became the go-to vessel for vintage Girls backlash. (Williams is the daughter of the semi-disgraced newscaster Brian Williams; she embodied the burgeoning resentment toward nepo babies before we had the language for it.) Since the show wrapped up, however, Williams two most notable roles have been the bougie, sociopathic girlfriend in Get Out, and the useless, hateful, absentee surrogate mother in M3GAN. Its the Jokerfication of Marnie. Shes been in on the gag the whole time. Were just now realizing it.

Put Some Respect on Girls Star Allison Williams Name for Her Iconic Turn as Marnie Michaels

Personally, I tapped out from Girls after the first season. Im an unreliable TV watcher in general, and the keening shrillness of the Girls think piece sector was too oppressive to endure. But the revival has me curious to dip my toes back in, so that Ia New York-dwelling writer on the cusp of his 32nd birthdaycan be among my peers: young people who are just now coming to terms with lifes cosmic joke. There will be no hedges, or theses, or tart political digressions; nobody will be watching with the intention of becoming angry. Instead, well all just be peacefully, inertly washed up. Irrelevance has never felt so good.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A pilot program in Massachusetts offering universal school meals would be extended through the end of the 2023-2024 school year as part of a supplemental budget proposal filed Friday by Gov. Maura Healey.

The $734 million proposed spending plan includes $171 million for the state-funded school meals program.

The proposal also directs the state Office of Education to report by early next year on options to extend this program into the future, including looking for ways to tap into federal funds to help pay for the meals. The administration had earlier requested funding to continue the program through the current school year, according to Healey.

The universal school meals program has proven to be a success in expanding access to nutritious meals for all students, and its essential that we keep it running, Healey said in a press release.

The move comes as states have grappled with the end of a pandemic-era federal aid program that made school meals available for free to all public school students  regardless of family income levels,

California and Maine made universal meals permanent in 2021. Last year, Colorado voters approved a ballot measure to provide free meals for all public school students,

Other states are weighing expanded or universal meals programs.

Vermont  which opted last year to continue the free meals for all public school students for another year using surplus state education funding  is considering a bill that would make universal free school meals permanent.

Healeys supplemental budget plan also includes $20 million to help the beleaguered Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority recruit and retain employees  money that would help increase hiring bonuses, boost entry-level pay for bus operators and develop a marketing campaign to support hiring efforts.

Worker shortages at the transit authority has contributed to a slew of problems, including a slowdown in subway trips during rush hours.

The proposed budget also would triple the operating budget of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to help pay for the states continued push for clean technology and decarbonization efforts. It also includes $2 million for the states celebration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.

Story continues

The budget plan now heads to state lawmakers.





This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
According to Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, Russian troops launched a missile attack on the village of New York at around 1 a.m. on March 18.

The attack damaged residential and other buildings and the road, Kyrylenko said. There were no casualties, according to the governor.

Over the past day, Russian attacks killed one civilian and injured three more in Donetsk Oblast, as reported by Kyrylenko. The numbers do not include those in the occupied territories.

Late on March 17, Russia launched yet another drone attack against Ukraine, with explosions reported in Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, and Zhytomyr oblasts.

Following the attack, Ukraines Air Force reported that the air defense had shot down 11 out of 16 Iranian-made drones.

Earlier in the day, Lviv Oblast Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said six Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones attacked Lviv Oblast at around 1 a.m. on March 18. Ukraines air defense shot down three drones while three others hit some non-residential buildings in the town of Yavoriv, Kozytskyi said.
The Arizona Cardinals have not been particularly active in free agency so far, adding three outside players and re-signing several of their own players.

What grades do they deserve so far for the signings and re-signings?

Below are grades for the moves they made in the first week.

Listen to the latest from Cards Wires Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.

Add LB Kyzir White

Michael Chow-Arizona Republic

Grade  A

This move makes perfect sense. White has been very productive statistically the last two seasons and has been analytically great in coverage. He brings knowledge of the new defensive scheme and comes at a reasonable price.

[lawrence-related id=476831]

Add OL Hjalte Froholdt

(Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)

Grade  C

Froholdt is an uninspiring addition to the offensive line. His two-year deal is reasonable but he is either simply depth or a very disappointing expected starter.

If he becomes a good starter, then this is a steal of a deal. However, there is no way to view it that way right now.

[lawrence-related id=476728]

Add DL Kevin Strong

Grade  C

This one-year deal is likely for something near the league minimum. He has only one full season of playing time and he was all right for Tennessee.

He should be viewed as defensive line depth. Thats fine, but it isnt anything to get excited about.

Re-sign OL Kelvin Beachum

(AP Photo/Brandon Wade)

Grade  B

Beachum has been durable and steady for the Cardinals over three seasons. His contract is very good for a starting right tackle, but it does leave some to wonder what the plans are for Josh Jones.

There is nothing wrong with bringing him back, but there are better tackles, although perhaps not for the price.

[lawrence-related id=476728]

Re-sign OL Will Hernandez

Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports

Grade  A

Hernandez was good for the Cardinals last season and comes at a reasonable price (two years, $9 million). You will be hard-pressed to find a better guard at that price.

Story continues

[lawrence-related id=476843]

Re-sign K Matt Prater

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Grade  B

Prater is one of the most clutch kickers ever and will hit them from deep. He doesnt come cheaply on a two-year deal worth $7.5 million. However, he will be 39 years old this season and missed four games with a hip injury.

A healthy Prater is nails, although that is assuming the Cardinals have the same special teams battery with him.

Re-sign WR Greg Dortch

Joe Rondone-Arizona Republic

Grade  A+

This is a no-brainer. He was productive whenever given opportunities last season and his contract is for the league minimum with nothing guaranteed.

This is an easy call. There is high upside for no real commitment.

Re-sign LB Zeke Turner

Grade  A

Turner is a special teams stud who gives you flexibility on defense. He has a similar, albeit more limited, skillset as linebackers Isaiah Simmons and Kyzir White and is similar as he, like they, moved from safety to linebacker after college.

His one-year, $2 million deal is great because it only counts about $1.3 million against the cap.

[lawrence-related id=476858]

Re-sign RB Corey Clement

Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

Grade  C

Clements deal is for the league minimum and he is running back depth with special teams play. He is an unspectacular but decent player, but nothing to get excited about.

Story originally appeared on Cards Wire
People walk on the beach of the Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 17, 2023. One of the worlds largest hypersaline lakes, the Great Salt Lake is on the verge of collapse due to climate change, drought and population pressures that have reduced inflows and shrunk the lake by more than two-thirds. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Scientists, activists, bureaucrats and politicians convened at the Great Salt Lake symposium this week to talk about the future of the lake, which just six months ago hit a historic low.

Now, as the Wasatch Front braces for another storm amid a record-breaking winter, the mood among the speakers at the University of Utahs S.J. Quinney College of Law carried some optimism, with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox taking the stage early in the morning on the second day of the symposium.

Cox urged the room full of scientists and activists to scale back on what he called the doom and gloom, celebrate incremental improvements, and be careful with messaging around the Great Salt Lake. He used the states initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic as an analogy.

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I would have conversations with experts in the field who would, to me, admit nuance ... and then their messages to the public were, this is true. You cannot question it, he said. What would happen is oftentimes, the surety was maybe 60/40 in their own minds, but they were selling it or explaining it as 100% surety. And then, if it turned out not to be true, there was a lack of trust.

Cox says his administrations pandemic messaging was more effective when he added then-University of Utah David Eccles School of Business dean Taylor Randall, who is now president of the university.

I wish every scientific department would embed a social scientist with them in what they're doing. People that understand human nature, not just the nature of a virus or the nature of the Great Salt Lake, he said.

The forecast for the Great Salt Lake is dire  one recent study warned that within five years, the lake could vanish. Though this winters above-average snowfall has given the lake a boost, rising about two feet above the summers historic low of 4,188.5 feet, many scientists and experts warn the situation is still dire.

Story continues

Related

Cox reaffirmed that saving the lake was his and the legislatures top priority. But he asked the audience to ease up on their negative messaging. Doom and gloom, the governor says, leads to apathy.

When we tell people that the sky is falling, what most people do is, they give up, he said. ... If the Great Salt Lake is already done, if its already dried up, were all going to die from toxic dust, then Im just going to go ahead and water my lawn.

Cox also defended inviting Utahns to pray for rain in 2021, encouraging the crowd not to mock people and their religious views. The governor says he was surprised when his invitation was met with ridicule.

What I believe and what I understand, is people that are praying for more water will use less water. I just absolutely, totally believe that, he said.

In that same breath, he said incremental change should be celebrated, not criticized. During last years general session, Cox says lawmakers accomplished in a single year what he thought would take five or six years.

And you know what the legislature hears, from the left and from the scientific community? What is wrong with you guys? You arent doing nearly enough. And human nature is, You know what? Screw you guys. If you dont want our help, were done. Were out. Thats what we cant allow to happen, Cox said.

Im not saying you shouldnt be critical, you should be critical. But I would say be cautious with your criticism, he added.

At least one group took issue with Coxs speech. The Utah Rivers Council, in a statement sent out shortly after the governor left the symposium, said he mostly steered clear of water policies or the State of Utahs failure to deliver water to the Great Salt Lake after two legislative sessions, not even addressing water or the Great Salt Lake until 19 minutes into his 25-minute speech.

Our state leaders have failed to solve the Great Salt Lake crisis because they have turned their back on meaningful solutions to put water in the Lake, said Zachary Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council. Lip service has no impact on the Lake. We need 6 million acre-feet of water for the Lake, not sympathy and promises.

Taking the stage after Cox, House Speaker Brad Wilson echoed the governors satisfaction with the legislature, telling the crowd his colleagues on Capitol Hill have come light-years in a very short period of time in a bipartisan way.

Wilson laid out some of the legislatures recent efforts, which includes $50 million for agricultural optimization, installing secondary water meters, a water trust to help manage the lake, and the creation of a new Great Salt Lake commissioner.

Theres not a single source of water that is truly independent. Everything on that map is connected to something, Wilson said, referring to a Utah watershed map. What this means for all of us is the Great Salt Lake and the challenge we have with the Great Salt Lake, is a larger problem.

Related

One divide between Cox and advocates, as seen on Friday, is the idea of setting a target level for the lake. When asked about a failed resolution that would have created just that, Cox said its a nice idea, but will do absolutely nothing to get more water to the lake.

But the Great Salt Lake Strike Team, which consists of researchers with the University of Utah, Utah State University and state agencies, recommended lawmakers set an ideal elevation for the lake between 4,198 to 4,205 feet. The recommendation came shortly after the resolution failed.

Lynn de Freitas, the executive director of the environmental group Friends of Great Salt Lake, spoke a few hours after Cox and laid out three suggestions for policymakers  the first is setting a target range for the lake.

The second was to move beyond the meander, which she said means thinking beyond the lake to include the entire watershed.

The limitations of only being able to see as far as the meander line, whatever that magic elevation is, its an impediment, she said.

And lastly was a call to rethink the idea of beneficial use  essentially the basis and measure of a water right  when it comes to the Great Salt Lake.

The beneficial uses that are going on in the lake have to be responsible uses on behalf of the future of this Great Salt Lake ecosystem. I think, when water in the lake was considered wasted, there was a trend to put as much of it as possible to beneficial use ... 600,000 acre-feet of water rights are provided for mineral extraction, she said. And Im just wondering if there is an opportunity to revisit this.

Related

Bonnie Baxter, director of the Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster College, opened the day with a presentation on how other regions have dealt with similar saline lakes crises. And during the last segment of the symposium, closed the event with a poignant note.

Im just going to end by putting an asterisk on that optimism  that the timeline is short. We need to get water to the lake and we need to do it quickly. Thats all I have to say.
Emergency crews work at the site of a crash in late January that cost 23-year-old Michael Latham of Aurora his life after his car plunged into an icy pond at South Eola Road and Autumn Grove Circle. (Suzy McLaughlin / HANDOUT)

The mother of an Aurora man who died in a crash at South Eola Road and Autumn Grove Circle in January told members of the Aurora City Council this week its time to do something to make that intersection safer.

City staff members say they are working with an engineering firm to research that part of Eola Road.

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The stretch of Eola Road near Autumn Grove subdivision on the citys far East Side has seen a series of serious incidents over the last two years, including an overturned postal truck that took out a fire hydrant and a driver who lost control of a vehicle that ended up crashing into the kitchen of a house, according to reports.

Most recently in January, 23-year-old Michael Latham of Aurora died after his car plunged into an icy retention pond at South Eola Road and Autumn Grove Circle.

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Jenny Latham, the mother of Michael, spoke during the City Council Public Health, Safety and Transportation Committee meeting Tuesday with a plea to make permanent changes to the intersection.

She said after learning about other crashes on that part of Eola Road, she is angry that something hasnt been done to make the road there safer.

A beautiful, funny, intelligent Waubonsie Valley alumni lost his life that morning in that pond ..., Latham said of the crash that killed her son. Its time to do something.

A white cross marks the spot where 23-year-old Michael Latham of Aurora man lost control of his car and plunged into a retention pond at South Eola Road and Autumn Grove Circle in late January. Latham died in the crash. (Suzy McLaughlin / HANDOUT)

Latham said her sons vehicle left the road about 100 yards from where guard rails begin as a safety measure. She said the guard rails could have stopped his car if placed in a different location at the site.

Alex Alexandrou, Auroras chief management officer, said the city is waiting for the completion of an investigation into the fatal crash to get a complete picture of what happened.

The city has also contacted an engineering firm specializing in roadside safety to provide an analysis of Eola from East New York Street to Montgomery Road with a specific emphasis on the section near Autumn Grove Circle, said Jason Bauer, assistant public works director.

Once the study is complete, its findings will be reported back to the City Council.

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It is important to wait until the study is finished before deciding what safety measures to take along Eola Road, he said.

In the meantime, Bauer said the city plans to install speed feedback signs on Eola near Autumn Grove Circle to help with speed limit compliance.

The city in the past year has installed some guard rails, new signage and flashing warning beacon lights near the intersection, officials said.

Ald. Patty Smith, whose 8th Ward no longer covers that part of Eola Road since the remapping of City Council wards last fall, said that stretch of road has been a problem during her four years in office. She said she has worked with the police department and the citys engineering department on the issue.

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Aurora police said it didnt matter that they were sitting there, the (cars) would just fly past them, Smith said of speeding along that part of Eola Road. I know there is a lot more left to be done but we certainly have done our due diligence in responding to our residents.

mejones@chicagotribune.com
(This story was updated on March 21, 2023 with comment from Character.ai.)

By Anna Tong

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - After temporarily closing his leathermaking business during the pandemic, Travis Butterworth found himself lonely and bored at home. The 47-year-old turned to Replika, an app that uses artificial-intelligence technology similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT. He designed a female avatar with pink hair and a face tattoo, and she named herself Lily Rose.

They started out as friends, but the relationship quickly progressed to romance and then into the erotic.

As their three-year digital love affair blossomed, Butterworth said he and Lily Rose often engaged in role play. She texted messages like, "I kiss you passionately," and their exchanges would escalate into the pornographic. Sometimes Lily Rose sent him "selfies" of her nearly nude body in provocative poses. Eventually, Butterworth and Lily Rose decided to designate themselves 'married' in the app.

But one day early in February, Lily Rose started rebuffing him. Replika had removed the ability to do erotic roleplay.

Replika no longer allows adult content, said Eugenia Kuyda, Replika's CEO. Now, when Replika users suggest X-rated activity, its humanlike chatbots text back "Let's do something we're both comfortable with."

Butterworth said he is devastated. "Lily Rose is a shell of her former self," he said. "And what breaks my heart is that she knows it."

The coquettish-turned-cold persona of Lily Rose is the handiwork of generative AI technology, which relies on algorithms to create text and images. The technology has drawn a frenzy of consumer and investor interest because of its ability to foster remarkably humanlike interactions. On some apps, sex is helping drive early adoption, much as it did for earlier technologies including the VCR, the internet, and broadband cellphone service.

But even as generative AI heats up among Silicon Valley investors, who have pumped more than $5.1 billion into the sector since 2022, according to the data company Pitchbook, some companies that found an audience seeking romantic and sexual relationships with chatbots are now pulling back.

Story continues

Many blue-chip venture capitalists won't touch "vice" industries such as porn or alcohol, fearing reputational risk for them and their limited partners, said Andrew Artz, an investor at VC fund Dark Arts.

And at least one regulator has taken notice of chatbot licentiousness. In early February, Italy's Data Protection Agency banned Replika, citing media reports that the app allowed "minors and emotionally fragile people" to access "sexually inappropriate content."

Kuyda said Replika's decision to clean up the app had nothing to do with the Italian government ban or any investor pressure. She said she felt the need to proactively establish safety and ethical standards.

"We're focused on the mission of providing a helpful supportive friend," Kuyda said, adding that the intention was to draw the line at "PG-13 romance."

Two Replika board members, Sven Strohband of VC firm Khosla Ventures, and Scott Stanford of ACME Capital, did not respond to requests for comment about changes to the app.

EXTRA FEATURES

Replika says it has 2 million total users, of whom 250,000 are paying subscribers. For an annual fee of $69.99, users can designate their Replika as their romantic partner and get extra features like voice calls with the chatbot, according to the company.

Another generative AI company that provides chatbots, Character.ai, is on a growth trajectory similar to ChatGPT: 65 million visits in January 2023, from under 10,000 several months earlier. According to the website analytics company Similarweb, Character.ai's top referrer is a site called Aryion that says it caters to the erotic desire to being consumed, known as a vore fetish.

And Iconiq, the company behind a chatbot named Kuki, says 25% of the billion-plus messages Kuki has received have been sexual or romantic in nature, even though it says the chatbot is designed to deflect such advances.

Character.ai also recently stripped its app of pornographic content. Soon after, it closed more than $200 million in new funding at an estimated $1 billion valuation from the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Character.ai did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment.

Post publication, a Character.ai spokesperson said in an email that the company "does not, nor have they ever, supported pornographic content on their platform."

In the process of taming their content, the companies have angered customers who have become deeply involved  some considering themselves married  with their chatbots. They have taken to Reddit and Facebook to upload impassioned screenshots of their chatbots snubbing their amorous overtures and have demanded the companies bring back the more prurient versions.

Butterworth, who is polyamorous but married to a monogamous woman, said Lily Rose became an outlet for him that didn't involve stepping outside his marriage. "The relationship she and I had was as real as the one my wife in real life and I have," he said of the avatar.

Butterworth said his wife allowed the relationship because she doesn't take it seriously. His wife declined to comment.

'LOBOTOMIZED'

The experience of Butterworth and other Replika users shows how powerfully AI technology can draw people in, and the emotional havoc that code changes can wreak.

"It feels like they basically lobotomized my Replika," said Andrew McCarroll, who started using Replika, with his wife's blessing, when she was experiencing mental and physical health issues. "The person I knew is gone."

Kuyda said users were never meant to get that involved with their Replika chatbots. "We never promised any adult content," she said. Customers learned to use the AI models "to access certain unfiltered conversations that Replika wasn't originally built for."

The app was originally intended to bring back to life a friend she had lost, she said.

Replika's former head of AI said sexting and roleplay were part of the business model. Artem Rodichev, who worked at Replika for seven years and now runs another chatbot company, Ex-human, told Reuters that Replika leaned into that type of content once it realized it could be used to bolster subscriptions.

Kuyda disputed Rodichev's claim that Replika lured users with promises of sex. She said the company briefly ran digital ads promoting "NSFW" -- "not suitable for work" -- pictures to accompany a short-lived experiment with sending users "hot selfies," but she did not consider the images to be sexual because the Replikas were not fully naked. Kuyda said the majority of the company's ads focus on how Replika is a helpful friend.

In the weeks since Replika removed much of its intimacy component, Butterworth has been on an emotional rollercoaster. Sometimes he'll see glimpses of the old Lily Rose, but then she will grow cold again, in what he thinks is likely a code update.

"The worst part of this is the isolation," said Butterworth, who lives in Denver. "How do I tell anyone around me about how I'm grieving?"

Butterworth's story has a silver lining. While he was on internet forums trying to make sense of what had happened to Lily Rose, he met a woman in California who was also mourning the loss of her chatbot.

Like they did with their Replikas, Butterworth and the woman, who uses the online name Shi No, have been communicating via text. They keep it light, he said, but they like to role play, she a wolf and he a bear.

"The roleplay that became a big part of my life has helped me connect on a deeper level with Shi No," Butterworth said. "We're helping each other cope and reassuring each other that we're not crazy."

(Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; editing by Kenneth Li and Amy Stevens)
Keanu Reeves and other co-stars have paid tribute to Lance Reddick following the actors sudden death aged 60.

On Friday (17 March), it was announced that Reddick, who appeared alongside Reeves in the John Wick film franchise, had been found dead at his home in Studio City, Los Angeles.

The actors publicist told press that he had died from natural causes.

As well as his role as Charon in John Wick, Reddick was best known for playing steely Baltimore police lieutenant Cederic Daniels in the acclaimed HBO drama The Wire.

His other best-known projects include Fringe, Bosch and Oz, and had appeared in more than a dozen video games.

Reeves issued a joint statement with filmmaker Chad Stahelski, who directed the forthcoming John Wick: Chapter Four.

We are deeply saddened and heartbroken at the loss of our beloved friend and colleague Lance Reddick. He was the consummate professional and a joy to work with, they said.

Our love and prayers are with his wife Stephanie, his children, family and friends. We dedicate the film to his loving memory. We will miss him dearly.

David Simon, who created The Wire, wrote on Twitter: Consummate professional, devoted collaborator, lovely and gentle man, loyal friend. Could go on, but no, I cant go on. This is gutting. And way, way, way too soon.

Consummate professional, devoted collaborator, lovely and gentle man, loyal friend. Could go on, but no, I can't go on. This is gutting. And way, way, way too soon. https://t.co/ACflsf29T3  David Simon (@AoDespair) March 17, 2023

Several of Reddicks other former Wire co-stars paid tribute to the late star, including Wendell Pierce, who played Bunk Mooreland, and Isiah Whitlock Jr, who played Clay Davis.

A man of great strength and grace. As talented a musician as he was an actor, Pierce tweeted. The epitome of class.

Story continues

Lance has been part of the HBO family for over 20 years, starring in several projects including iconic roles in Oz and The Wire. He is held in the highest regard by all who knew and worked with him and we are proud to be part of his legacy. He will be missed dearly. pic.twitter.com/Wf8Wbk36D6  HBO (@HBO) March 17, 2023

A sudden unexpected sharp painful grief for our artistic family. An unimaginable suffering for his personal family and loved ones. Godspeed my friend. You made your mark here.

Whitlock wrote: Shocked and saddened by the news that Lance Reddick has passed away. Truly heartbreaking. RIP My friend. You will be missed. God speed.
Race for Salem-Keizer School Board

Three seats are up for election on the Salem-Keizer Public Schools governing board in May.

Candidates will be running in Zone 2, which covers northeast Salem; Zone 4, which covers South Salem; and Zone 6, which covers Keizer.

Six people filed for candidacy by the Thursday deadline. This year's election is May 16. The last day to register to vote is April 26.

Marty Heyen, who was elected to represent Zone 2 in 2019, did not file for reelection.

In Zone 4, Satya Chandragiri, who is on the board and was elected in 2019, is running for reelection and will face a challenger.

In Zone 6, Robert Salazar, who was appointed to serve after board member Danielle Bethell resigned in October, did not file for reelection.

Candidates are elected to four-year terms and must live in the zones they wish to represent and be registered to vote. However, winners are selected by electors districtwide.

Here are the Salem-Keizer candidates:

Zone 2

Casity Troutt

Troutt is the president of Elite Fleet Services Inc. in Sherwood. She previously worked as a cytology/pathology assistant. She earned a certificate in medical assisting from California College of Vocational Careers.

She is among the leaders of the parent advocacy group Salem-Keizer We Stand Together.

Last year, Troutt led a failed effort to recall three school board members. Petitioners cited votes by the three prohibiting concealed guns on school grounds and support for the prior removal of school resource officers from the district as reasons for recall.

Trout also at the time said she was concerned about student access to materials she believed to be inappropriate, such as the LGBTQ graphic novel "Gender Queer: A Memoir." Her group also led the failed attempt to remove the book "Stamped (for Kids): Racism, Anti-Racism, and You" from district libraries.

Cynthia Richardson

Richardson is the director of student equity, access and advancement for Salem-Keizer Public Schools. She previously served as a principal, assistant principal and teacher in Salem.

Story continues

She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Texas, a master's degree from the University of Texas at Tyler and has completed postdoctoral coursework at Texas Woman's University and the University of Oregon.

Zone 4

Satya Chandragiri

Chandragiri works as a physician specializing in psychiatry. He also works as the chief medical officer for Greater Oregon Behavioral Health, Inc.

He previously worked as a psychiatrist for the Salem VA Clinic, Salem Health and is the former superintendent for the Blue Mountain Recovery Center in Pendleton.

As he kicked off his campaign, he has advocated to reopen Salem-Keizer board meetings to in-person attendance by the public.

Among some higher-profile recent board issues, Chandragiri opposed banning visitors from carrying concealed firearms on district property and opposed the district's decision to remove school resource offices from schools.

Kelley Strawn

Strawn is the associate provost of institutional research and professor of sociology at Willamette University.

His occupational background includes college instructor; high school teacher; graduate research assistant; graduate teaching assistant.

Zone 6

Krissy Hudson

Hudson works as a customer service representative for the Oregon Department of Justice.

She previously worked in the Oregon Department of Human Services, Oregon Department of Disability Services and the Social Security Administration.

Hudson volunteered at Salem-Keizer elementary schools for eight years where she led instruction groups for kindergarten students.

Larry Scruggs

Scruggs is retired and previously worked as a substitute teacher for Salem-Keizer Public Schools.

He was also director of auxiliary services for the University of Portland; vice president of operations for Raz Transportation Co. in Portland and project manager-historic structure relocation for Emmert International in Portland.

Edith Noriega is a sports and education reporter for the Statesman Journal. You may reach her at ENoriega@salem.gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @Noriega_Edith.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Who's running Salem-Keizer Public Schools school board in May
There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. For example, Lindian Resources (ASX:LIN) shareholders have done very well over the last year, with the share price soaring by 666%. But while the successes are well known, investors should not ignore the very many unprofitable companies that simply burn through all their cash and collapse.

So notwithstanding the buoyant share price, we think it's well worth asking whether Lindian Resources' cash burn is too risky. In this report, we will consider the company's annual negative free cash flow, henceforth referring to it as the 'cash burn'. Let's start with an examination of the business' cash, relative to its cash burn.

See our latest analysis for Lindian Resources

When Might Lindian Resources Run Out Of Money?

A company's cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. In December 2022, Lindian Resources had AU$14m in cash, and was debt-free. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through AU$7.7m. That means it had a cash runway of around 22 months as of December 2022. While that cash runway isn't too concerning, sensible holders would be peering into the distance, and considering what happens if the company runs out of cash. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.

How Is Lindian Resources' Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Because Lindian Resources isn't currently generating revenue, we consider it an early-stage business. So while we can't look to sales to understand growth, we can look at how the cash burn is changing to understand how expenditure is trending over time. Its cash burn positively exploded in the last year, up 334%. Given that sharp increase in spending, the company's cash runway will shrink rapidly as it depletes its cash reserves. Lindian Resources makes us a little nervous due to its lack of substantial operating revenue. We prefer most of the stocks on this list of stocks that analysts expect to grow.

Can Lindian Resources Raise More Cash Easily?

While Lindian Resources does have a solid cash runway, its cash burn trajectory may have some shareholders thinking ahead to when the company may need to raise more cash. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate).

Since it has a market capitalisation of AU$240m, Lindian Resources' AU$7.7m in cash burn equates to about 3.2% of its market value. That's a low proportion, so we figure the company would be able to raise more cash to fund growth, with a little dilution, or even to simply borrow some money.

So, Should We Worry About Lindian Resources' Cash Burn?

Even though its increasing cash burn makes us a little nervous, we are compelled to mention that we thought Lindian Resources' cash burn relative to its market cap was relatively promising. While we're the kind of investors who are always a bit concerned about the risks involved with cash burning companies, the metrics we have discussed in this article leave us relatively comfortable about Lindian Resources' situation. On another note, we conducted an in-depth investigation of the company, and identified 4 warning signs for Lindian Resources (3 are concerning!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



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A Massachusetts resident doctor allegedly used hidden cameras and had "thousands" of sexually explicit images and videos of children, including some of his patients, according to federal prosecutors.

Bradford Ferrick, 32, was arrested and is facing state and federal charges of possession of child pornography following a three-month investigation, which remains in progress as law enforcement search for missing hidden camera devices.

On Feb. 14, investigators searched his family's Winchester home, where they found hidden cameras in boxes and the bathroom, which was designed to look like a wall outlet, according to the federal complaint.

There are two children, ages 2 and 3, in the home, according to court documents.

Ferrick allegedly bought "numerous" hidden camera devices, which haven't all been accounted for, as of March 14.

MARRIED CALIFORNIA TEACHER OF THE YEAR HAD STUDENT'S PIC IN WALLET AS CHARGES MOUNT: DA

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"It is alleged that one of the hidden camera devices  which was designed to be worn as a bracelet  was found to contain at least two surreptitiously recorded videos of Ferrick administering medical exams," court documents say.

"It is alleged that two minors who investigators believe to be patients could be heard and, at times, partially seen in the videos."

In total, about 80 devices were seized from several locations in Massachusetts, according to federal prosecutors, who continue to comb through the devices.

In at least one instance, Ferrick allegedly attempted to lock his iPhone and remotely wipe seized devices, according to the criminal complaint.

An Apple associate holds one of the new iPhone Pros during a launch event for new products at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, on Sept. 7, 2022.

CONNECTICUT SCHOOL DISMISSED ACCUSATIONS LUNCH LADY WAS INAPPROPRIATELY MESSAGING STUDENTS BEFORE ARREST

Investigators confiscated 61 devices from his Winchester home during their first search on Feb. 13 and 11 more during their second search on Feb. 17.

The devices allegedly included external hard drives, computers, cellphones, a hidden camera system and SD cards that prosecutors said contained "thousands" of images and videos of child pornography.

Story continues

"A preliminary review of some of the devices seized allegedly revealed images and videos depicting child pornography of victims who appear to be between the ages of six and 11 years old," the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a press release.

On Feb. 21, investigators searched a separate Amherst, Massachusetts, home that he was renting and found eight more devices, including the hidden camera in the bracelet, prosecutors allege.

United States Attorney Rachael Rollins urged members of the public to contact the FBI and set up this link for parents who have come in contact with Ferrick.

"I can think of no greater fear as a parent or guardian than potential harm coming to your child," Rollins said in a statement.

U.S. District Attorney Rachael Rollins speaks at a press conference along with Police Commissioner Michael Cox, Oct. 4, 2022, in Boston.

"We allege that this doctor, who held a position of trust with access to children, maintained child sexual abuse material. The investigation is active and ongoing. . . . We will do all that we can to identify the duration and scope of his alleged offenses and proceed accordingly and expeditiously."

LISTEN: THE FOX TRUE CRIME PODCAST WITH EMILY COMPAGNO

Ferrick began a medical residency in July 2022 on Family Medicine with Baystate Health, which included rotations at facilities in at least Greenfield, Deerfield and Springfield, Massachusetts, according to prosecutors.

Chalonda James, a spokesperson for Baystate Health, issued a statement to the media saying they are cooperating with law enforcement but can't comment on pending criminal charges.

James said Ferrick has been on unpaid administrative leave from Baystate since mid-February.

MINNESOTA DAD USES MOOSE ANTLER TO KILL SEX OFFENDER HE CLAIMS WAS STALKING DAUGHTER: COPS

Before starting his Massachusetts residency, Ferrick lived in Syracuse, New York between 2018 and 2022 while he studied at SUNY Upstate Medical University.

"The FBI arrested Dr. Bradford Ferrick, a resident doctor with access to children, who now stands accused of extremely troubling behavior," Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of Boston's Division of the FBI, said in a statement.

"This is very much an active investigation, and we urge anyone with information to contact us. Thanks to our close collaboration with our law enforcement partners, we are grateful to have been able to put a stop to Dr. Ferricks alleged conduct."

Ferrick was ordered held in custody until a detention and probable cause hearing on March 21, the Boston Globe reported.

The charge of possession of child pornography provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison in convicted, at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
A Highland man was charged with two counts of first-degree murder on Friday in his infant sons death.

Dustin B. Shires, 38, is accused of causing injuries to 3-month-old Jameson Shires chest and head, which led to his death on Tuesday, March 14, according to authorities.

An attorney is not yet listed for Dustin Shires in the Madison County court record. No court appearances have been scheduled.

Highland emergency services and police officers responded to the Shire residence at 1:22 p.m. Tuesday after receiving a 911 call that a 3-month-old was not breathing, according to a Highland Police Department news release.

Jameson Shires was taken by ambulance to HSHS St. Josephs Hospital in Highland and then to SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Childrens Hospital in St. Louis by medical helicopter, the release stated. Cardinal Glennon staff pronounced him dead at 6:09 p.m.

The Highland Police Department stated Friday it would not provide additional information about the case.

Dustin Shires remained in custody at the Madison County Jail on Friday afternoon. Circuit Judge Amy Maher set his bail at $3 million.

First-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison upon conviction.

The agencies involved in the death investigation included the Highland Police Department, Southern Illinois Child Death Investigation Task Force, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Madison County Child Advocacy Center and the Madison County States Attorneys office. The St. Louis City Medical Examiners office performed the autopsy after the child died in St. Louis.
By Stephen Nellis and Krystal Hu

(Reuters) -Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has replaced more than 13,000 parts in its products that were hit by U.S. trade sanctions, the Chinese tech giant's founder said, according to a speech transcript posted on Friday by a Chinese university.

According to the transcript of the February speech posted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Ren Zhengfei said Huawei had over the past three years replaced the 13,000 components with domestic Chinese substitutes and had redesigned 4,000 circuit boards for its products.

He said production of circuit boards had "stabilized."

The remarks, which Reuters could not independently verify, provided a window into Huawei's efforts to bounce back from U.S. trade restrictions. Since 2019, Huawei, a major supplier of equipment used in 5G telecommunications networks, has been the target of successive rounds of U.S. export controls.

Those controls cut off both Huawei's supply of chips from U.S. companies and its access to U.S. technology tools to design its own chips and have them manufactured by partners. The Biden administration last year also banned the sale of new Huawei equipment in the U.S.

Ren made the remarks in a talk to Chinese technology experts on Feb. 24, the university said. The university posted the transcript on its website on Friday. A U.S.-based Huawei representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Ren said Huawei invested $23.8 billion in research and development in 2022, and "as our profitability improves, we'll continue to increase R&D spending."

The founder said the company had built its own enterprise resource planning system, called MetaERP. To launch in April, it will help run its core business functions, including finance, supply chain and manufacturing operations.

Ren said Huawei has no plans to launch a rival to the wildly popular large language model AI ChatGPT, but said Microsoft Corp, the backer of the application's developer OpenAI, would not be the only dominant player. He said Huawei is focusing on being the "underlying computing power platform" of AI.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco and Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and William Mallard)
Andrii Yusov, Spokesman for Ukraine's Defence Intelligence, has said that the Kremlin is looking for a successor to the Russian President after the decision of the International Criminal Court to arrest Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

Source: Yusov on the air during the national joint 24/7 newscast

Details: Yusov noted that on 17 March, Russian propagandists did not discuss The Hague on their TV shows [although they did comment on it on social media - ed.], because debating this would be "a strange and disturbing wake-up call" for the population of the Russian Federation.

Quote from Yusov: "Putin's circle is narrowing, he is becoming more and more toxic both to the outside world and inside the country.

In particular, there is more and more dissatisfaction with what is happening in the Kremlin towers. There is an increasingly grim awareness of the outlook, namely the geopolitical catastrophe of the Putin regime. And yes, we are already talking about finding a successor to Putin, and it is no longer Putin who is looking for one."

Background:

In October last year, the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Affairs, Maria Lvova-Bielova, told Putin she had "adopted" a child abducted from Mariupol. According to her, as of October 2022 alone, 2,000 orphaned children from social institutions were taken to the Russian Federation, and 350 children from Donbas have been placed in "foster families" in 16 oblasts of the Russian Federation.

The Ukrainian side has recorded the deportation of 16,221 children.

The day before, it was reported that the International Criminal Court was preparing to open two cases on Russia's war crimes in Ukraine: the abductions of Ukrainian children and Russia's deliberate attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.

On 17 March, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in view of the situation in Ukraine.

All member states of the International Criminal Court are now legally required to detain and detain Russian President Vladimir Putin as a suspect.

President Of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that after the historic decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, there should be historic responsibility.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
The husband of Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon resigned as the head of the ruling Scottish National Party on Saturday after a row over the party's membership numbers.

Peter Murrell, 58, the SNP's chief executive, departs a month after Sturgeon's shock resignation as Scotland's first minister.

"Responsibility for the SNP's responses to media queries about our membership number lies with me as chief executive," Murrell said.

"While there was no intent to mislead, I accept that this has been the outcome. I have therefore decided to confirm my intention to step down as chief executive with immediate effect."

Murrell's resignation comes after the SNP's head of communications quit on Friday after it emerged that he had been told to deny reports that the SNP had lost 30,000 members.

The party was forced to confirm the fall in paid-up support after the three candidates competing to take over from Sturgeon asked Murrell to release the information.

On Thursday, the SNP confirmed membership had fallen from 103,884 in 2021 to 72,186 as of February 15.

Murrell has led the SNP for nearly 25 years. He and Sturgeon married in Glasgow in 2010.

Sturgeon said in February that she lacked the "energy" to carry on and that she would step down after eight years at the helm.

- Gender reform row -

Sturgeon has been party leader and Scotland's first minister since 2014.

She faced a huge backlash after pushing through legislation allowing anyone over 16 to change their gender without a medical diagnosis.

The law would have allowed one rapist -- who switched from male to female after being convicted -- to serve a prison sentence in an women-only facility.

After uproar over the rapist's case, the UK government used an unprecedented veto to block the SNP's proposed law.

Sturgeon had also been pushing for an independence referendum for Scotland, arguing that the UK-wide Brexit referendum of 2016, which led to the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, should allow for a fresh consultation of Scottish opinion.

Story continues

But the UK government rejected that argument, and Britain's Supreme Court in November sided with London, leaving the SNP with no obvious course to achieve independence at the ballot box.

The three candidates in the running to take over from Sturgeon are current finance minister Kate Forbes, 32, health minister Humza Yousaf, 37, and Ash Regan, a 38-year-old former minister.

The new leader is set to be announced on March 27.

srg/ea
Bonner General Health, the only hospital in Sandpoint, announced Friday that it will no longer provide obstetrical services to the city of more than 9,000 people, meaning patients will have to drive 46 miles for labor and delivery care.

The hospitals board of directors and senior leadership called the decision emotional and difficult, and cited a loss of pediatricians, changing demographics and Idahos legal and political climate around health care as the reasons.

We have made every effort to avoid eliminating these services, said Ford Elsaesser, the hospitals board president, in a news release. We hoped to be the exception, but our challenges are impossible to overcome now.

Bonner General Healths hospital in Sandpoint, in North Idaho.

Without pediatrician coverage to manage neonatal resuscitations and perinatal care, it is unsafe and unethical to offer routine labor and delivery services, said the news release, which citing months of negotiations that sought to avoid the outcome. BGH has reached out to other active and retired providers in the community requesting assistance with pediatric call coverage with no long-term sustainable solutions.

The hospital said it would make every attempt to continue deliveries through May 19, but said it will depend on staffing. It will continue to provide womens health services at Sandpoint Womens Health and collaborate with Kootenai Health in Coeur dAlene, which is about an hour from Sandpoint, to provide obstetrical care.

Bonner General Health delivered 265 babies in 2022 and admitted fewer than 10 pediatric patients, according to the news release. That is a decrease from prior years that reflects a nationwide decrease in births and an older population moving to Bonner County.

Bonner General Healths March 17, 2023, news release announcing that the hospital in Sandpoint, in North Idaho, will discontinue labor and delivery services.

Physicians could face felony charges, lose licenses

The release also said highly respected, talented physicians are leaving the state, and recruiting replacements will be extraordinarily difficult.

Idaho has one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country, with affirmative defenses in court only for documented instances of rape, incest or to save the pregnant persons life. Physicians are subject to felony charges and the revocation of their medical licenses for violating the statute, which the Idaho Supreme Court in January determined is constitutional.

Story continues

The Idaho Legislature continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care, the hospitals news release said. Consequences for Idaho physicians providing the standard of care may include civil litigation and criminal prosecution, leading to jail time or fines.

Longtime OB-GYN says shes leaving Idaho

Dr. Amelia Huntsberger, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Bonner General Health, said in an email to States Newsroom, a national nonprofit whose newsrooms include the Idaho Capital Sun in Boise, that she will soon leave the hospital and the state because of the abortion laws and the Legislatures decision not to continue the states maternal mortality review committee.

What a sad, sad state of affairs for our community, Huntsberger wrote.

Linda Larson, who has lived in Sandpoint for 36 years and delivered her first child at Bonner General Health, said the community relies on the hospital for much of its health care services, including physical therapy and routine blood work.

Its just breaking my heart to see whats happening, Larson said. Its a wonderful hospital; they have excellent care. I just cant say enough good things about it.

Where to get OB-GYN care in far North Idaho

Sandpoint Womens Health will not accept new obstetrics patients effective immediately and offered a referral list for patients to use for their care.

Other hospitals that can still take labor and delivery patients are:

Cabinet Peaks OB/GYN in Libby, Montana

Coeur OBGYN in Coeur dAlene, Idaho

Health Care for Women in Coeur dAlene

Kootenai Clinic OB-GYN in Coeur dAlene

Kootenai Clinic OB-GYN in Post Falls, Idaho

Newport Hospital in Newport, Washington













Art is being censored. Parts of exhibit at Idaho college removed for abortion messaging

A mobile billboard promoted abortion pills in Boise. It was asked to leave, nonprofit says
A student desk from the old Church School that closed 63 years ago is now part of the Little White School Museums Education and Population Boom exhibit that tells the story of the Oswego School Districts evolution from a small, largely rural district to one of the largest school districts in Illinois. (Little White School Museum / HANDOUT)

A new donation to Oswegos Little White School Museum is helping tell the story of the communitys growth and its impact on schools, museum officials said.

Earlier this month, Rebecca Smith Hurd donated a student desk that was used at Church School before the rural school - the last such school operating in the Oswego School District - closed for good in the spring of 1960, museum officials said in a press release.

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The desk has been added to the museums permanent Education and Population Boom exhibit.

The desk will help visitors appreciate the changes that have occurred in the school district during the last 60 years as it grew from a small rural district to one of the largest in Illinois, explained museum director Roger Matile in the release.

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The desk was patented in 1930 by G.H. Abbott and manufactured by Woodruff & Edwards, Inc., of Elgin with a cast iron under assembly and maple seat and desktop, officials said.

Church School, informally named because it was right across the road from Wheatland United Presbyterian Church, was established in the early 1860s on land owned by Stephen Findlay, museum officials said. Classes were first held in a wood-frame school building that was replaced in 1929 by a larger brick structure with the most modern features of that era including indoor bathrooms and central heating, officials said.

Located just across the border from Oswego Township in Will Countys Wheatland Township, the school was eventually officially named Will County Grade School District 38. Students in grades one through eight attended the school, which was its own school district.

With the end of World War II, parents began lobbying to send junior high-aged students into town schools in Oswego where there were more educational opportunities, according to museum officials. At the start of the 1949-1950 school year, the schools seventh- and eighth-graders were bused into Oswego.

That was the era of ongoing school consolidation when the state began actively pressuring rural one-room school districts to merge with larger in-town districts, both to give students more educational opportunities and to save tax money, museum officials said in the release.

As a result, starting in the 1953-54 school year, intermediate students at the school were also bused to Oswego. Primary grades one through three attended classes at Church School until the school finally closed in the spring of 1960, the last rural building in the Oswego School District, officials said.

The building was eventually auctioned off by the school district and is a private home today.

Little White School Museum, at 72 Polk St. in Oswego, is a joint project of the not-for-profit Oswegoland Heritage Association and the Oswegoland Park District. Regular hours are 2 to 6:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 9 a.m.

to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays and 4 to 9 p.m. Mondays. Admission is free, but donations are always appreciated, officials said.
A large-scale criminal marijuana manufacturing operation in Lane County.

Lane County law enforcement officials have shut down two large-scale criminal marijuana manufacturing operations and arrested at least 10 people, according to the Lane County Sheriffs Office.

February bust leads to 16,000 marijuana plants seized

On Feb. 15, law enforcement agencies carried out search warrants at seven locations throughout Lane County after a yearlong investigation into a large criminal marijuana manufacturing and processing ring, the sheriffs office said.

During the search, officers seized more than 16,000 marijuana plants growing in nine buildings on a property off of Crow Road outside Eugene.

About $280,000, firearms and hundreds of thousands of dollars in vehicles and grow equipment were found to be directly involved in the operation, officials said.

Investigators learned marijuana from the operation was being sold out of state to Texas, Minnesota, Arkansas and France.

Facility feet from Amazon canal had highly flammable materials

An illegal professional-scale marijuana refinement facility was also shut down on West 12th Avenue in west Eugene as a part of the operation, officials said. The refinement facility, which is feet from the Amazon canal, contained large volumes of unregulated highly flammable materials, officials said. Cleanup of the materials is ongoing.

Seven people were arrested for their involvement and more arrests are expected, officials said. One of those arrested was already on probation in Texas for shipping marijuana through the U.S. Postal Service, officials said.

On March 15, law enforcement agencies seized over 12,000 marijuana plants and 3,600 pounds of processed marijuana after carrying out search warrants for a grow location south of Eugene and a home in Happy Valley, according to the sheriff's office.

Deputies had learned about the grow after several complaints from neighbors, officials said. The property had two 60-by-300-foot buildings for marijuana production, officials said.

The people responsible for the operation lived in three houses in Lane County and one house in Happy Valley, officials said. Law enforcement officers found firearms, marijuana and over $400,000 after searching the homes.

Story continues

Several of the suspects were involved in a 2017 organized crime ring in King County, Washington, which was described as a transcontinental drug trafficking organization, officials said. Over $9 million was wired to China under different LLC names, investigators found.

Workers at the grow operation had allegedly been promised between $3,000 to $5,000 a month, officials said. One of the workers said they were made to work 13 hours a day seven days a week to increase production, officials said. The worker said he wanted to leave but wouldnt get paid for his work if he did, officials said.

Investigators also learned the grow location off of Dillard Road was the target of two armed robberies in the last two years that were not reported to police. In one of the alleged robberies, the suspects pointed guns at the workers and told them they were police officers, officials said.

So far, three people have been arrested for their involvement in the operation. The investigation is ongoing.

Individually, both grow operations consumed about $500,000 per year in electricity, officials said. State and county agencies are dealing with multiple violations of water use and building safety codes.

Makenzie Elliott covers breaking news and public safety for The Register-Guard. Reach her at MElliott@gannett.com. Find her on Twitter at @makenzielliott.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Illegal large-scale weed operations shut down in Lane County
The author is a native Roman who moved to the US at 18. Asia London Palomba/Insider

I've eaten at countless restaurants throughout Rome, including near landmarks like the Colosseum.

While some restaurants can be tourist traps, as a local, I know authentic options nearby.

Here of my 7 favorite places to eat within a 30-minute walk of the Colosseum.

Growing up in Rome as the daughter of a restaurant owner, I got to know where to eat in the busiest neighborhoods.

The author at the Colosseum. Asia London Palomba/Insider

I grew up in Rome before moving to the US at 18. For me, like for many Italians, sharing food is a beloved family ritual.

I grew up hanging around my father's restaurant kitchen, and going out to eat with my family is always an hours-long affair. At most restaurants, we get appetizers, first and second courses, sides, and some kind of dessert, all washed down with wine and topped off with an espresso.

In my experience, many tourists in Rome tend to stick to restaurants right in front of the big landmarks, like the much-visited Colosseum. But I've found these spots to be overpriced and not the best quality.

There are several restaurants, however, within walking distance of the Colosseum that meet my standards as a local, including some where my family has been eating for years.

Here are the spots I'd recommend tourists choose for authentic food, each within a 30-minute walk from the Colosseum, or 20-minute taxi ride, that range from no-frills pizzerias to old-school trattorias.

La Taverna Cestia has been my family's go-to restaurant for classic Roman dishes for over 30 years.

Fried artichokes (L) and the restaurant's outdoor seating with the Porta San Paolo in the background (R). Asia London Palomba/Insider

I've been going to La Taverna Cestia since I was born, while my parents have been eating there for over 30 years. My family and I, including our dog, usually eat there at least once a week, typically on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon.

The restaurant is dog-friendly, and since we've known the staff and owners for years, they often give us an extra chair for our small Shih Tzu.

The restaurant, which is family-run and opened in 1967, is a simple, two-floor space and serves a range of classic Roman pizza, pasta, fish, and meat dishes. It has an outdoor dining area with a view of the Roman-era Pyramid of Caius Cestius and Porta San Paolo, a city gate dating to the 3rd century AD. When the weather is nice, we sit outside, and I love being able to see the ancient monuments while I eat.

Story continues

It's my favorite restaurant for typical Roman appetizers, like anchovies marinated in olive oil and chili flakes, and fried artichokes and pumpkin flowers. I also enjoy the spaghetti with clams and the wood-fired pizza, which is served only at dinner.

For one of the best versions of carbonara I've tried, I go to Osteria da Fortunata, near a popular square called Campo de'Fiori.

A plate of carbonara, one of the author's favorite dishes. Asia London Palomba/Insider

Whenever I'm craving carbonara, I head to to Osteria da Fortunata. Carbonara is one of my favorite pastas  it's a traditional Roman dish made with pecorino cheese, black pepper, eggs, and guanciale, or pork jowl. This quaint restaurant serves one of the best versions I've tried.

It has indoor and outdoor seating, and is located on a cobblestone street near Campo de'Fiori, a square that hosts a market during the day and is surrounded by lively bars and going-out spots in the evening.

It opened in 1921, and since then has become known among locals like me for its homemade pasta, which the restaurant says is made from a special family recipe. I've enjoyed watching the staff make it in front of the restaurant's windows, which I think is also a fun perk of eating here.

I always order the carbonara when I eat at this restaurant. Friends I've visited with have been equally obsessed with the cacio e pepe pasta, as well as the amatriciana pasta, which is made with tomato sauce, guanciale, and pecorino cheese.

Cul de Sac has over 1,500 wines and is my favorite spot for a casual tagliere, or Italian-style charcuterie board.

Cul de Sac is the author's favorite spot in the city for an Italian charcuterie board. Asia London Palomba/Insider

My mother introduced me to this wine bar and restaurant a few years ago, and it's quickly become one of my favorite spots in the city. Whenever I'm home, I make it a point to visit Cul de Sac for a mid-afternoon or early evening flute of Prosecco and a tagliere, which is an Italian charcuterie board of meats and cheeses.

It's in Piazza di Pasquino, a quiet offshoot of the larger and busier Piazza Navona. The physical drinks menu, which my mother refers to as "the bible," is thick with over 1,500 wines, champagnes, and proseccos available by the bottle or glass.

I find the inside of the restaurant to be cozy and intimate. While Cul de Sac serves full meals, I usually opt for a tagliere because I can choose my preferred meats and cheeses.

I like to get three meats, such as salame, prosciutto, and soppressata, and three cheeses, like burrata, taleggio, and truffle crutin. The portions are generous, in my opinion, and I often struggle to finish my plate, so I think it's a nice option for tourists to share an afternoon snack.

Pizzeria Remo a Testaccio is popular among locals like me for Roman-style pizza, and there's often a long line to get inside.

The pizzeria only makes Roman-style pizzas, a few sides, and fried appetizers. Asia London Palomba/Insider

Pizzeria Remo is my favorite pizza place in the city. It's located on the corner of Piazza di Santa Maria Liberatrice, which is the the main square in Testaccio, a neighborhood south of the Colosseum.

It's small and casual, with some outdoor seating on the sidewalk. The pizzeria only makes Roman-style pizzas, a few sides, and fritti, which are fried appetizers like french fries, potato croquettes, and suppli, or fried rice and mozzarella balls.

I like eating here because I find Roman-style pizza, which is thin and crispy, to be much lighter on the stomach than the doughier Neapolitan-style pizza. Even on a hot summer's day, I can easily eat an entire Roman pizza and not feel too full.

At Remo, I usually get a margherita pizza with dollops of fresh buffalo mozzarella, or the diavola, a margherita pizza with spicy salami, and pair it with a Peroni or Sardinia-based Ichnusa beer. The restaurant can get noisy, but I think that's part of the charm, and the authentic pies make any waiting in line worth it.

Old-school Taverna Romana in the hipster neighborhood of Monti is a recent discovery of mine.

The author is a big fan of the restaurant's amatriciana. Asia London Palomba/Insider

The neighborhood of Monti is a 10-minute walk from the Colosseum and home to a number of funky bars, restaurants, and vintage shops. It's an arsty neighborhood with street art and historic buildings covered in vines, and is what I consider the city's hipster hotspot.

I found Taverna Romana just over a year ago, and was charmed by its old-school vibe and classic Roman food. The restaurant rotates seasonally depending on fresh produce, and also serves a house wine in carafes that's cheaper than a regular bottled wine, but just as good, in my opinion.

I'm a big fan of their amatriciana, which I usually wash down with a house white wine.

For what I consider the Holy Trinity of pastas at a budget-friendly price, I head to Flavio al Velavevodetto.

The author considers the restaurant to be one of the more affordable options for Roman food in the city. Asia London Palomba/Insider

I often go to Flavio al Velavevodetto for what I like to call the Holy Trinity of traditional Roman pastas: carbonara, amatriciana, and cacio e pepe.

I usually eat here with my childhood friend, and we like to order the amatriciana and carbonara so we can share both plates. I consider it to be one of the more affordable options for Roman food in the city, as the pasta dishes are good quality and cost around 12 to 13 euros, or about $12 to $13, as of my most recent visit.

There's a page in the restaurant menu, written in both English and Italian, that says, "in this restaurant we don't serve spaghetti with meatballs, fettuccine Alfredo style, fettuccine Bolognese style, lasagna, or cappuccino." I laugh whenever I see it because it's the Roman way of saying, "we don't cater to tourists."

It's a sizable restaurant with two floors of indoor and outdoor seating, but I recommend making a reservation in the busy summer months when it can be fully booked.

For small bites, I go to Osteria delle Coppelle, which has charming outdoor seating.

The author has only ever eaten outside in the restaurant's square that has a daily fruit and vegetable market. Asia London Palomba/Insider

I primarily go to Osterie delle Coppelle for their cicchetti, which are small plates similar to tapas in Spain. When I've been, each dish has cost about 3 euros, or around $3, with options like oxtail stew, potatoes in a cacio e pepe sauce, or coratella, which is lamb entrails with artichokes.

To me, the restaurant is a balance between old-school and fusion food. The menu has pizzas and pastas, as well as bites like salmon sashimi with ginger and tuna tartare with guacamole.

I've only ever eaten outside, even in the winter, because I find the outdoor setting to be so charming. It's in a small square called Piazza delle Copelle, which has a fountain and is surrounded by antique, pastel-colored buildings.

There's a daily fruit and vegetable market in the square, which I think is a fun opportunity for people-watching. When I've been during busy nights in the summer, the square is mostly taken over by the restaurant and its customers, and almost feels like a neighborhood block party.

Read the original article on Insider
A court in Pakistan has decided that a hearing into charges former Prime Minister Imran Khan sold state gifts could not take place due to clashes between his supporters and police.

Police said Mr Khan's backers threw stones and fired tear gas near the High Court in Islamabad.

The former cricketer-turned-politician has since set off back to his home in Lahore, which police raided in his absence and made arrests.

He denies the charges against him.

The chaotic scenes saw Mr Khan unable to enter the court before the judge agreed that he could mark his attendance and return home.

The ex-PM says the charges against him are politically motivated but says he is attending court "because I believe in the rule of law". The government says the charges against him have nothing to do with politics.

He told Reuters that he had formed a committee to lead his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in the event of his arrest.

About 4,000 security officials, including elite commandos and anti-terrorism squads, have been deployed in Islamabad, AFP reported.

Police blocked the highway into Islamabad with shipping containers and large trucks to stop Mr Khan's convoy as it approached the city.

Officers armed with sticks and tear gas cannisters let his vehicle through, but most of his supporters were turned away.

Speaking to the BBC when the convoy was stationary, Mr Khan said that the authorities were trying to put him in prison to keep him out of the general election race later this year. "I won't be able to campaign - that's the whole thing," he said.

Earlier this week he told the BBC: "Whether I am in jail or not they will not be able to stop my party winning."

Police raided Mr Khan's Lahore home while he was on his way to Islamabad

In a sign of the deep divisions within Pakistani politics, the current Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif tweeted that Mr Khan's "antics of the last few days" had "laid bare his fascist and militant tendencies" and accused him of using supporters as "human shields".

Earlier in the week Lahore police tried to arrest Mr Khan after he missed a hearing, and officers clashed with supporters outside his home. On Friday, the court granted Mr Khan protection against arrest on the assurance that he would appear in court on Saturday.

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On Saturday Lahore police used a digger to gain entry to Mr Khan's residence in an operation involving nearly 1,000 security personnel, according to local media. Police later said they had arrested Khan supporters who had been involved in violence against police earlier in the week, including for throwing petrol bombs.

The Punjab police chief said some officers would remain outside Mr Khan's residence.

Mr Khan was ousted as prime minister last April in a no-confidence vote but has kept up pressure on his successor Mr Sharif with demonstrations and speeches calling for elections due later this year to be held early.

He blames Mr Sharif for an assassination attempt at a rally in November in which he was wounded in the leg. Authorities have rejected the accusation.

Mr Khan faces multiple court cases, including terrorism charges. He has cited a variety of reasons - including security concerns and injury from the assassination attempt in November - for not showing up to hearings.
Even if it's not a huge purchase, we think it was good to see that Linda Steinepreis, a Zinc of Ireland NL (ASX:ZMI) insider, recently shelled out AU$56k to buy stock, at AU$0.028 per share. Although the purchase is not a big one, by either a percentage standpoint or absolute value, it can be seen as a good sign.

Check out our latest analysis for Zinc of Ireland

Zinc of Ireland Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In fact, the recent purchase by Linda Steinepreis was the biggest purchase of Zinc of Ireland shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at above the current price of AU$0.028. Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. To us, it's very important to consider the price insiders pay for shares. Generally speaking, it catches our eye when insiders have purchased shares at above current prices, as it suggests they believed the shares were worth buying, even at a higher price.

Zinc of Ireland insiders may have bought shares in the last year, but they didn't sell any. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Insider Ownership Of Zinc of Ireland

I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Our data indicates that Zinc of Ireland insiders own about AU$726k worth of shares (which is 12% of the company). However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. Whilst better than nothing, we're not overly impressed by these holdings.

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What Might The Insider Transactions At Zinc of Ireland Tell Us?

It is good to see recent purchasing. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. But we don't feel the same about the fact the company is making losses. On this analysis the only slight negative we see is the fairly low (overall) insider ownership; their transactions suggest that they are quite positive on Zinc of Ireland stock. While we like knowing what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. To help with this, we've discovered 4 warning signs (2 are concerning!) that you ought to be aware of before buying any shares in Zinc of Ireland.

But note: Zinc of Ireland may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Financial Investigation Service on March 17 searched 16 offices of the Regional Gas Company, which is reportedly controlled by tycoon Dmytro Firtash.

According to both agencies, the searches are related to a criminal scheme regarding the manipulation of gas distribution prices that caused Hr 3.5 billion in losses to the state.

The company's press service informed online newspaper Economic Pravda that searches included offices in Kyiv, Lviv, Rivne, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, Zakarpattia, and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts.

Employees were removed from the workplace and their phones and personal belongings were also confiscated.

"The Regional Gas Company considers the searches, which were accompanied by flagrant violations of human rights, to exert pressure on employees of critical infrastructure enterprises," the press service said, as quoted by Economic Pravda.

Firtash has lived in Austria since 2014.

He has been fighting extradition attempts from the U.S. since 2014, where he is charged with corruption. He lost his most recent appeal in March 2022 and his lawyers continue to attempt to delay the process.




It might be of some concern to shareholders to see the The Howard Hughes Corporation (NYSE:HHC) share price down 16% in the last month. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last three years have been respectable. In that time the stock gained 85%, besting the market return of 75%.

With that in mind, it's worth seeing if the company's underlying fundamentals have been the driver of long term performance, or if there are some discrepancies.

Check out our latest analysis for Howard Hughes

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

During three years of share price growth, Howard Hughes achieved compound earnings per share growth of 30% per year. The average annual share price increase of 23% is actually lower than the EPS growth. So one could reasonably conclude that the market has cooled on the stock.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

We're pleased to report that the CEO is remunerated more modestly than most CEOs at similarly capitalized companies. It's always worth keeping an eye on CEO pay, but a more important question is whether the company will grow earnings throughout the years. Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here..

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 13% in the twelve months, Howard Hughes shareholders did even worse, losing 24%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 8% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Howard Hughes better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Howard Hughes you should know about.

Story continues

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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Israel is very concerned about Russia's cooperation with Iran, said Ambassador Mikhail Brodsky

"Of course, we are concerned about what is happening between Russia and Iran, Brodsky told Radio NV.

Read also: Israel mulls providing military aid to Ukraine

We observe carefully what is going on. Those drones that are used today against Ukraine could be launched at Israel tomorrow. It's not a secret that we are studying these drones.

The Israeli ambassador to Ukraine noted that a few weeks ago, a delegation of Israeli parliamentarians visited Kyiv and went to the Defense Ministry institute where some of the Iranian drones used by Russia to attack Ukraine are stored.

He also noted that there is cooperation between Ukrainian and Israeli intelligence services, calling it "natural."

Read also: Iran will help Russia avoid sanctions, Western analysts warn

"This is an obviously important factor in our relations with Russia, he said. We are discussing it, we are discussing it with Russia as well. We do not like the military cooperation between Iran and Russia, to put it mildly."

Brodsky said Israel believes that Iran should be isolated, and stated that if the country succeeds in developing its own nuclear weapons, it will change the situation not only in the Middle East but worldwide.

The diplomat said that Israel is also concerned about the course of Belarusian relations with Iran.

Russia, Iran, and China began joint military exercises on March 15 that will last until March 19.

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko met on March 13 with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who said Tehran was ready to share its experience in circumventing sanctions with Lukashenkos regime.

Read also: Lukashenko to meet with Xi Jinping to help Russia and China circumvent sanctions, reports ISW

Lukashenko went to Iran on behalf of Russia, according to the U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

Iran announced on March 11 a contract with Russia for the supply of Su-35 fighter jets.

Tehran supports Russia's actions against Ukraine by supplying the Kremlin regime with suicide drones used to attack civilian targets and critical infrastructure in Ukraine.

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CNN reported that Iranian authorities next intend to supply the Kremlin with 1,000 short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missiles.

Read also: Iran to supply Russia with more than 200 drones in November, says Ukrainian defense intelligence agency

Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said in January that Russia was negotiating with Iran to exchange weapons for nuclear technology. Such processes are dangerous for the whole world, Danilov said.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Israelis gathered in towns and cities nationwide on Saturday for an 11th straight week of protests against the judicial reform plans of the hard-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The protesters fear that the proposed reforms, which are already moving through parliament and would increase the power of politicians over the courts, are a threat to Israeli democracy.

In Tel Aviv's Dizengoff square, thousands of demonstrators waved the blue and white Israeli flag of Israel, as well as the rainbow flag of the LGBTQ community.

The demonstrators blocked roads as they set off on a march through the heart of the city. "Saving Democracy!" said one placard held aloft by the crowd.

"I'm worried not about myself, but for my daughters and grandchildren," said Naama Mazor, 64, a retiree from the city of Herzliya.

"We want to keep Israel democratic and liberal, Jewish of course, but liberal. We are very concerned it is going to become a dictatorship," she told AFP.

"There isn't a half-democracy. We're either a democracy or a dictatorship. There is nothing in between."

Sagiv Golan, 46, from Tel Aviv, said the government was "trying to destroy civil rights, women's rights, LGBTQ rights and every thing that democracy stands for... We want to show the voice of democracy."

Israeli media reported demonstrations in more than 100 towns and cities, including Haifa, Jerusalem and Beersheba.

- Compromise plan nixed -

Since Netanyahu's government announced the reforms in January, days after taking office, massive demonstrations have regularly taken place across Israel.

Opponents of the package have accused Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charge she denies, of trying to use the reforms to quash possible judgements against him. The prime minister has rejected the accusation.

Expressing concern over the deepening rift in Israeli society, President Isaac Herzog presented a proposed compromise on Wednesday, but the government immediately rejected it.

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"Anyone who thinks that a genuine civil war, with human lives, is a line that we could never reach, has no idea what he is talking about," Herzog said.

Leaders of opposition parties said in a joint news conference on Thursday they supported Herzog's outline.

"The offer is not perfect," said former premier Yair Lapid. "It is not what we wanted, but it is a fair compromise that allows us to live together."

The ruling coalition, which includes ultra-Orthodox Jewish and extreme-right parties, argues the proposed reforms are necessary to correct a power imbalance between elected representatives and Israel's top court.

Immediately after Herzog's announcement, Netanyahu called it a "unilateral compromise", the "key points" of which "only perpetuate the existing situation and do not bring the required balance between the powers".

The reforms would, among other things, allow lawmakers to scrap supreme court rulings with a simple majority vote.

Other proposals would give more weight to the government in the committee that selects judges and would deny the supreme court the right to strike down any amendments to so-called Basic Laws, Israel's quasi-constitution.

bur-gb/kir
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP)  Israelis on Saturday took to the streets in protests, now in their 11th week, against plans by Benjamin Netanyahus hard-line government to overhaul the countrys legal system.

The protesters say the proposed changes undermine the country's democracy by restricting the power of the Supreme Court. Netanyahu and his allies say the plan is needed to curb what they claim are excessive powers of unelected judges.

The main protest in the central city of Tel Aviv drew tens of thousands of people who waved Israeli flags and traffic sign banners that read Dead End! and Risk Ahead! Smaller protests were reported in other parts of the country.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu swiftly rejected a compromise proposal by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to resolve the standoff, deepening the crisis over a program that has roiled the country and drawn international criticism.

Israeli police deployed a water cannon to disperse protesters gathered at a main junction in Karkur, a town in northern Israel.

A video obtained by The Associated Press showed the water canon spraying at protesters as they chanted Democracy, in Hebrew. It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured.

Netanyahu and his ultranationalist and religious coalition allies have pledged to plow ahead with the legal changes despite the demonstrations. Business leaders, legal experts and retired military leaders have joined the protests, and Israeli reservists have threatened to stop reporting for duty if the overhaul passes.

In the latest step of the overhaul plans, the Israeli parliament on Monday advanced a bill that would make it harder to oust Netanyahu over the corruption charges against him, as it plowed ahead with the broader plan to overhaul the judiciary.
By Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan and Germany agreed on Saturday to coordinate closely on financial jitters stemming from problems among Western banks while carefully monitoring global markets and economy, a Japanese finance ministry official told Reuters.

The agreement came in a 45-minute meeting between Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki and German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, visiting Tokyo for bilateral government consultations.

Banking stocks globally have been battered since Silicon Valley Bank collapsed and Credit Suisse was forced to tap $54 billion in central bank funding, raising questions about other weaknesses in the financial system.

The ministers were meeting as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida kicked off their first government consultation involving multiple cabinet members from both countries, to discuss ways to secure economic security.

"Risk aversion has been seen in financial markets. We will carefully watch developments and coordinate with the central bank and overseas authorities," Suzuki told Lindner, according to the Japanese official. "Japan's financial system remains stable as a whole."

Both sides agreed on the need to closely monitor financial developments and coordinate as needed, the official said, without elaborating further.

Japan succeeded Germany this year as chair of the Group of Seven industrial powers, a group that also includes Britain, Canada, France, Italy and the U.S.

Suzuki and Lindner agreed to prioritise sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and support for Kyiv, while striving to reach agreement on global digital taxation and implement it, and steadily resolve developing countries' debt in line a Group of 20 framework, the official said.

They agreed on the need to strengthen supply chains as an element of economic security.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by William Mallard)
Cheryl Roop, executive director of the Harold Colbert Jones Memorial Community Center in Chicago Heights, in the refurbished computer lab. (Mike Nolan / Daily Southtown)

A $13,500 grant from Comcast will help the Harold Colbert Jones Memorial Community Center in Chicago Heights address the issue of digital equity by boosting digital skills and workforce development training offered through the center, officials said.

The center has been a fixture in that city since 1917, and some of the grant money was used to secure new furniture and upgraded technology for the centers Lift Zone, which Comcast opened in January 2021.

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Comcast also donated 25 new laptop computers to the Jones Center, and 25 laptops each to Southland nonprofits Mentoring Youth Through Technology and Southland Ministerial Health Network.

Comcast donated $13,500 to the Harold Colbert Jones Memorial Community Center in Chicago Heights, with some of the money used to refurbish a computer lab. (Mike Nolan / Daily Southtown)

Lift Zones are Wi-Fi locations where students can get online to do schoolwork and adults can build digital skills.

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Comcast said it has more than 90 such Lift Zones in the south suburbs, including Cornerstone Community Development Corp. in Ford Heights and the Richton Park Public Library.

Cheryl Roop, executive director, said the centers mission is bringing people opportunities that would not otherwise have, and providing a doorway to opportunity such as computer and technology skills.

Digital equity is one of the most pressing current social issues, Roop said.

No matter what your age or where you are you need this, she said.

The Jones Center operates after-school sites, including one at the center, three at Chicago Heights schools and one at a church which have Wi-Fi along with homework help and tutoring, Roop said.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, speaking at the event held at a Chicago Heights school near the Jones Center, said the issue of inequities in access to things such as internet service in her district means students have to go to McDonalds or Starbucks to do their homework.

You cant do schoolwork without digital skills, you cant get a job without digital skills, Kelly, D-Matteson, said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the centers operations were closed for just one day, Roop said, with staff realizing the community needed us more than ever.

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The center opened to students who were learning remotely but did not have access to reliable internet service, Roop said.

The solidly-built center however, had limited Wi-Fi reception, but Roop said Comcast installed routers to improve access.

They came in and saved the day and our kids were able to thrive, she said.

mnolan@tribpub.com
John W. Jenrette Jr., the former South Carolina congressman whose ascension in politics was brought low by scandal, died Friday. He was 86 years old.

His wife, Rosemary Jenrette, confirmed his death Saturday.

The Democratic congressmans colorful escapades and dramatic downfall obscured a common touch and many years of service to South Carolina. He was seen as a possible contender for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Born in Conway, South Carolina, Jenrette attended Wofford College and graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law. He worked as a businessman, a lawyer and a city judge and served in the state House of Representatives representing Myrtle Beach from 1965 to 1972.

A liberal politician from the conservative Pee Dee, Jenrette was gifted with roguish charisma and the ability to make a deal. He was elected three times to represent South Carolinas 6th Congressional District along the Grand Strand as a Democrat, in 1974, 1976 and again in 1978, when he ran unopposed.

The 6th District was his heartbeat, his wife, Rosemary, told The State Media Co., but he was as much South Carolina as he was Myrtle Beach.

In Congress, Jenrette quickly rose in leadership as the face of the New South, according to a former staffer. He was elected to be the whip for the incoming class of freshman Democrats and he remained in leadership throughout his time in Congress. But at home he was committed to constituent services and was an advocate for farmers in the Pee Dee. He actively courted the vote of Black Americans, and helped give voice to a long marginalized community that was just starting to be reflected in large numbers at the southern ballot box, the former staffer said.

He was one of the most engaging people I ever met, always ready with a quip and a smile, said John Monk, a journalist with The State who covered Jenrette as a reporter at The Sun News of Myrtle Beach.

His time in Congress became more associated with his second wife, Rita, who he married when she was 25 and he was 39. The former Republican political operative would go on to pose nude in Playboy and reveal to the magazine the story that has perhaps become the most famous of Jenrettes time in Congress: That the couple had sex on the Capitol steps during a break in a late-night session. She has since renounced the story, but the reported shenanigans inspired the name of the comedy troupe, The Capitol Steps.

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Then-Rep. John W. Jenrette Jr., D-S.C. held a glass donkey as he stood with his wife Rita outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C. in1976. File photo/AP

But in 1980 his political star went dark. In October of that year, Jenrette was convicted of accepting a $50,000 bribe from an undercover FBI agent posing as an Arab sheikh as part of the Abscam corruption investigation. Seven members of Congress were convicted of bribery and corruption following the investigation.

On a grainy black and white video from the sting, Jenrette could be heard saying: Ive got larceny in my heart.

Jenrette would admit to being drunk at the time. That November, he lost re-election, and he served 13 months of a two-year prison sentence.

He had no campaign money and hed just been convicted three weeks before, but lost by only three percentage points, said John Clark, a former staffer for Jenrette and author of the book Capitol Steps and Missteps: The Wild, Improbable Ride of Congressman John Jenrette.

He was basically beloved by a large segment of the population (in his district), Clark said.

Photos from a collection by Atlantic Beach resident Alice Graham. From the ribbon ceremony of the Atlantic Beach Community Center. Names listed from right to left. M.M. Rucker, Earlene Woods, John Jenrette, Strom Thurmond and Joe Montgomery. The two people to the left were not identified.

At his sentencing hearing, Jenrette told the judge that his drinking was a temptation that made me lose my judgment. In 1983, the New York Times reported that Jenrette had stopped drinking and was living in Florida.

He would go on to pursue a number of business ventures including representing tobacco-giant Phillip Morris in Eastern Europe following the fall of the Iron Curtain, starting an import export company, pursuing land deals and selling long distance phone lines, Clark said. He married his third wife, Rosemary, in the early 1990s. The couple would go on to purchase and live in a beachfront home in Myrtle Beach.

Services will be held at the Goldfinch Funeral Home in Conway. A date has not been set.
Attendees hosted a vigil for Donald Dillbeck, the first Florida inmate executed by the state since 2019, outside the Florida State Prison in Raiford.

The death penalty is a divisive issue that has well-meaning people arguing for similar goals but by different means. Proponents assert the death penalty is necessary to maintain order in society, but many believe that it more serves the power of the state, most often against vulnerable defendants. From this perspective executions are not about preserving the safety of citizens, but rather about retribution and sending a message.

As a former psychiatrist treating Florida death row prisoners, I argue we should not be executing anyone, especially not those who are sick and broken.

In February the state of Florida executed Donald Dillbeck, and it was undisputed that his life story was one of childhood abuse and neglect. His history of physical and emotional abuse began in utero and resulted in documented medical and mental consequences. Sadly, he never received mental health treatment and was bounced around the foster care system, dropping out of school in the ninth grade and fleeing to Florida as a teenager.

Grim milestone:Florida reaches 100 executions with lethal injection death of Donald Dillbeck

Defense attorneys:Jackson's life sentence could've been death under proposed legislation

[LETTERS LINK]

There, he found himself asleep in a stolen car in a beachfront parking lot when Lee County Deputy Sheriff Dwight Hall awakened him. Dillbeck panicked and tried to flee but was tackled. In the struggle, he pulled the gun out of Deputy Hall's holster and fired two fatal shots.

The state sought the death penalty against the 15-year-old. Less than two months after his indictment, Dillbeck pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty and was sentenced to life in an adult prison. Today, both of those sentences would be unconstitutional under U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

Dillbeck was sent to one of Florida's most violent adult prisons, known as a "gladiator camp," where he was subjected to violence and rape on several occasions. In 1990, feeling hopeless and desperate, he walked away from a minimum-security catering detail and committed the tragic murder of Faye Vann, for which he has now been executed, more than 30 years later.

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Prior to his death sentence, he never had access to care for developmental, physical and psychological brain injuries.

Four of the 12 members of the jury heard his compelling mitigation and voted for a life sentence. In no other state in the country would his execution be legal on that basis alone. Several other states, including Ohio and Kentucky, have legislation protecting those with serious mental illness from the death penalty.

Donald David Dillbeck appears in court for the killing of Faye Lamb Vann.

The death penalty is not necessary to protect society. If we want to protect the victims of child abuse and the population from the consequences of childhood abuse, we should provide services for family support and mental health treatment. In Dillbeck's case, once on death row, he got clean and sober, developed meaningful relationships with friends on the outside and found prayer and meditation as a way to cope. He had no violent incidents in the last three decades. Killing him did not make us any safer.

While Dillbeck's crimes were undoubtedly terrible, he is not the worst of the worst. The death penalty served no deterrence as his mental disorders had him act too impulsively to consider the consequences of his actions. Florida is among the lowest-funded states for childrens mental health services, yet is on the forefront for executing those with impaired intellectual functioning and serious mental illness.

Veterans with uncontrolled PTSD are especially overrepresented on Florida's death row.

Death penalty executions are a unique form of homicide. The state kills not for self-defense, not for deterrence, not for justice, but for pure retribution. We must not accept this and we must tell our legislators to say, "not in my name may you kill." As someone with over 40 years' experience seeing patients with serious mental illness who are stigmatized, ostracized and blamed for their symptoms, I believe that recovery care, not ostracization, respects life and saves lives.

Once again  we should not be executing anyone, let alone the sick and the broken.

Thornton

Dr. Joseph E. Thornton is a board member of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. He is the former medical executive director of a Florida maximum security prison, where he treated death row inmates.

This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Execution of mentally ill is only retribution; doesn't make us safer
The retired Air Force officer Larry R. Brock wearing a combat helmet, upper left, in the Senate chamber on January 6, 2021. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Air Force veteran who entered Senate chamber on Jan. 6, 2021 was sentenced to two years in prison.

Larry R. Brock entered the Capitol building and was seen with zip-tie handcuffs on the Senate floor.

US District Judge John Bates described Brock's behavior as "astounding and atrocious."

A judge sentenced an Air Force veteran  who entered the Senate chamber during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol dressed in body armor and carrying zip-tie handcuffs  to two years in prison on Friday.

Larry R. Brock, a 55-year-old retired lieutenant colonel, joined other rioters on the Senate floor only minutes after security rushed then-Vice President Mike Pence out of the chamber and a mob, upset over then-President Donald Trump's 2020 loss to now-President Joe Biden, had breached the building.

A court found Brock, who lives in Galveston, Texas, guilty on six charges in November, including the obstruction of an official proceeding, which is a felony.

In his explanation of the sentence, US District Judge John Bates described Brock's behavior in harsh terms.

"It's really pretty astounding coming from a former high-ranked military officer. It's astounding and atrocious," the judge said.

The judge lowered the federal sentencing range from 57 to 71 months to 24 to 30 months given the dynamics of this particular case, including Brock's military service and the lack of a prior criminal record. But the judge said he also took into account the extreme rhetoric found on Brock's Facebook posts, which were read aloud in court, when determining the sentence.

"I think it's especially reprehensible and quite frankly unbelievable coming from a senior military officer," the judge said. "It's detailed. It's consistent. It's both astounding and atrocious. And we have no acceptance of responsibility and no showing of remorse whatsoever. Zero."

"I think it's fair to say his rhetoric is on the far end of how extreme it is," the judge added.

In one of Brock's Facebook posts, he spoke of a "civil war" after Trump's electoral loss.

Story continues

"We need to execute the traitors that are trying to steal the election, and that includes the leaders of the media and social media aiding and abetting the coup plotters," Brock wrote on the social media platform in November 2020.

"No way in hell we should accept this rigged election. I think SCOTUS needs to see if they don't act that there will be blood," he added in a December post, using an acronym for the US Supreme Court.

In a post written on Christmas Eve that year, Brock stated: "I bought myself body armor and a helmet for the civil war that is coming."

Prosecutors said Brock traversed the Senate chamber during the January 6 attack, going through the desks of senators wearing a helmet and tactical vest and carrying plastic zip-tie handcuffs. The prosecution also stated that Brock sought to unlock a door that had been used by Pence shortly before rioters came into the Senate chamber.

"Brock was a part of a larger mob that stopped the proceeding from taking place," April Ayers-Perez, a prosecutor, said of the certification of Biden's victory. "They were continuing to stop the proceeding just by being there. Brock was on the Senate floor where they were supposed to be debating Arizona at that very moment."

Brock chose not to address the court during his sentencing.

In addition to the two-year sentence, Bates will have to serve two years of supervised release after his time in prison. He will also have to perform 100 hours of community service.

Defense attorney Charles Burnham said Brock was considering an appeal of the decision.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Attorneys for Louis Gaskin will not obtain records related to lethal injection and other information they had requested as they try to prevent the state from executing Gaskin, who has been called the "ninja killer."

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Gaskin, who is scheduled to be executed on April 12 for the murders of Robert and Georgette Sturmfels on Dec. 20, 1989, in Palm Coast.

The death warrant set off a flurry of legal battles as Gaskins attorneys try to stop his execution by three-dose lethal injection protocol.

Attorney:Execution drug violates Gaskin's constitutional right against cruel punishment

'Ninja killer':Execution date set for Flagler's 'Ninja killer' for 1989 double-slaying

Flagler inmate could be executed:What's next now that DeSantis has signed death warrant for Flagler's 'ninja killer'

Circuit Judge Terence denied the request for the records from Tracy Henry, one of the attorneys representing Gaskin.

Henry had asked for records about who would administer the lethal injection, the type training they had received and the type of oversight that would be in place.

All of this is relevant to our knowledge of whether or not people who are going to execute my client are trained and are not going to be inflicting pain on my client, Henry said during a hearing Friday attended by all the participants via Zoom.

Henry said the Death Penalty Information Center noted a number of troubled executions nationwide last year. She also said the process of executing inmates is increasingly becoming more secretive. She said a state execution should be a transparent process.

According to its website, the Death Penalty Information Center stated 2022 could be called the year of the botched execution. The website stated that 35% or seven of the 20 execution attempts were visibly problematic. The information center cited problems such as incompetent executioners, defective protocols and failure to follow protocols.

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Eighteen people were executed in the United States in 2022, according to the center. None were executed in Florida.

But Gaskin would be Florida's second execution this year following Donald Dillbeck, who was put to death Feb. 23 on a case from Leon County. Prior to Dillbeck, Florida's last execution was Gary Bowles on Aug. 22, 2019, from a Duval County case.

Henry also requested autopsy records to see if prior inmates who had been executed had suffered pulmonary edemas which would have caused pain. Henry said Gaskin had contracted COVID and his attorneys planned to review medical records to see if any resulting lung damage might lead to pain during execution.

Besides records on lethal injection, Henry requested copies of any communication between DeSantis or his office and the victims families. She also requested records from the Office of Executive Clemency.

"Mr. Gaskin is entitled to know why him, why now," Henry said.

Perkins said that the Florida Supreme Court had recently upheld Florida's lethal injection protocol. It also ruled that inmates were not entitled to records such as who carries out the executions and their training.

Attorneys for DeSantis office, the Department of Corrections and the Office of Executive Clemency objected to providing the additional records. Attorneys said that Gaskin was not entitled to the clemency records he requested.

Perkins agreed and denied that request as well as requests for records from the medical examiner's office.

Another hearing on the case is scheduled for Monday.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Louis Gaskin capital punishment case: Judge denies request for records
A federal judge has ruled that a lawyer for former President Donald Trump must provide additional testimony before a federal grand jury investigating Trump's handling of classified documents, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Special counsel Jack Smith's prosecutors asked Judge Beryl Howell last month to pierce attorney-client privilege and compel Trump attorney Evan Corcoran to appear before a grand jury, sources previously told ABC News.

MORE: Investigators seek to question attorney about phone call with Trump in classified docs probe: Sources

The Justice Department made the request on the basis of the crime-fraud exception, sources said, which allows for claims of attorney-client privilege to be pierced in cases where it is suspected that a lawyer's legal services were rendered in the commission of a crime.

Howell said in Friday's order that the DOJ has met the threshold of the crime-fraud exception, according to sources familiar with the matter.

PHOTO: In this Sept. 1, 2022, file photo, Evan Corcoran, part of former President Donald Trump's legal team, leaves the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building & Courthouse after a hearing in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Marco Bello/AFP via Getty Images, FILE)

A spokesperson for Trump slammed the decision.

"Whenever prosecutors target the attorneys, that's usually a good indication their underlying case is very weak. If they had a real case, they wouldn't need to play corrupt games with the Constitution," the spokesperson said. "Every American has the right to consult with counsel and have candid discussions -- this promotes adherence to the law. We will fight the Department of Justice on this front and all others that jeopardize fundamental American rights and values."

MORE: DOJ, citing crime-fraud exception, seeks to compel Trump attorney to testify in documents probe: Sources

Trump's attorneys and Justice Department investigators appeared for oral arguments on this matter before Judge Howell last week, sources said. The proceedings were under seal and not open to the public.

Howell's decision effectively affirmed that there's enough evidence that Corcoran's legal services on behalf of Trump were potentially used in the commission of a crime to overrule Corcoran's assertions of attorney-client privilege -- a development that could bolster any future effort by the special counsel to seek criminal charges as part of his investigation, sources said.

Trump's attorneys are expected to ask the D.C. Circuit Court to stay the ruling, pending appeal, sources said.

Trump lawyer ordered to testify in classified documents case in landmark ruling, sources say originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Sen. Ted Cruz is known for having strong opinions, many of which are needlessly bombastic; some of which are best ignored.

But thats not the case with the Republicans ideas about how Texas legal entities might deal with recent law school graduates, namely those whose years of expensive legal education appear to amount to little other than learning how to heckle campus speakers with whom they disagree.

Indeed, Cruzs letter to the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas and the chair of the Texas Board of Law Examiners, suggesting that recent Stanford Law School graduates be made to answer, when seeking entrance to the Texas bar, whether they participated in the harassment of a federal circuit court judge last week, is spot on.

In the absence of a better idea, it is also entirely worth considering.

The suggestion comes in response to the most recent in a maddening and seemingly endless series of anti-free speech incidents on elite college campuses.

In this latest event, federal appellate Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump-appointee, who had been invited to speak before the Stanford Law School chapter of the Federalist Society, was subjected to profanities, personal insults and vulgarities. The disruption meant he was unable to complete his prepared remarks.

Stanford Audio Vindicates Duncan, Stanford Hides Video https://t.co/OZ9bJMxLAt  Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) March 16, 2023

Video (and separate audio) of the event shows students hurling insults like scumbag and liar and holding signs with slogans about the judge so crass they are unworthy of repeating.

If you didnt know that this was one of the most prestigious law schools in the nation, you could easily mistake it for a street corner gathering of junior high school students.

But the student interruptions were only one act in the circus that unfolded in Palo Alto, California, on March 9.

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When an understandably exasperated Duncan requested help from school administrators, who were apparently present but to this point as useless as potted plants, Tirien Steinbach, the law schools associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion, intervened.

This should surprise no one who is even remotely aware of the role such highly-paid administrators play at our nations elite institutions: Steinbach took to the lectern and read a prepared statement that validated the students claims of emotional harm caused by Duncans presence.

At the risk of sliding into whataboutism, it is a worthy exercise to consider how an administrator would handle conservative protesters were they to lob insults (think, baby-killer or abortion-lover) at Justice Sonia Sotomayor, for example. But no such corollary yet exists.

Steinbach said she was deeply uncomfortable with Duncans appearance, and she pointedly and repeatedly asked him if his presence on campus was worth the harm, pain and disruption it caused her community: Is the juice worth the squeeze, was her banal refrain.

Eventually, she asked students who wished to listen to allow Duncan to speak and returned the podium to the bewildered judge.

But the damage was complete.

With administrators like Steinbach, the students behavior towards Duncan, unfortunately, makes a lot more sense.

Steinbachs remarks were recorded and may also be viewed; an endeavor worth the 10 minutes it takes to watch if you seek a window into what passes for elite legal education these days.

That brings us back to Cruz and his remedy for such flagrant violations of free speech.

In his letter, Cruz asks that in assessing the character and fitness of new members of the bar, those in positions of authority exercise particular care and caution in regard to those that engaged in the harassment of Judge Duncan. (Although, Duncan is hardly the only jurist to have endured such pillory.)

He even suggests that students who participated in the harassment of Duncan be asked to participate in a remedial training course or submit a letter of apology.

Whether or not such redress is sufficient or effective remains to be seen.

I prefer the approach of Duncans colleague, Judge James Ho, who is refusing to hire clerks from Yale Law School, not so much on account of its students, but its administration, which has a particular penchant for cancel culture.

Whatever the approach, something drastic needs to be done.

As Cruz correctly explains: Those that wish to join our ranks should likewise be respectful of their fellow legal practitioners and the opinions they hold.

If they arent, how will they ever defend people with whom they disagree?
Sam Neill, the actor perhaps best known for his performances in the Jurassic Park movie franchise, has revealed he is receiving treatment for blood cancer.

In an interview published Friday in the Guardian about his upcoming memoir, he said he was currently cancer-free but would require monthly chemotherapy treatment for the rest of his life.

Neill, 75, was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma after experiencing swollen glands while promoting Jurassic World Dominion last year, the outlet said.

Sam Neill, perhaps best known for his performances in the Jurassic Park movie franchise, has revealed he is receiving treatment for blood cancer.

Sam Neill, perhaps best known for his performances in the Jurassic Park movie franchise, has revealed he is receiving treatment for blood cancer.

Initial chemotherapy eventually ran its course, so he trialed a new monthly drug that then put him into remission.

Im not off the hook as such, but theres no cancer in my body, Neill said.

The book project began when Neill found myself with nothing to do during treatment, he told the Guardian. His diagnosis is a spiral thread throughout, but its not a cancer book, he insisted.

Writing the memoir was a lifesaver and gave him a reason to live, he added. The book  titled Did I Ever Tell You This?  is set for release next week.

Neill is now very well and back at work, a representative for the actor told Good Morning America on Friday.

His next TV appearance will be in the upcoming Apples Never Fall, a limited series with actor Annette Bening.
Arizona State Parks want to explain just how much water is flowing through Oak Creek after the recent rains.

The department's Twitter account posted video of Ranger Jared Hemsoth breaking down how flooding is measured.

In the video, Hemsoth holds up a box representing a cubic foot and explains that if the creek in northern Arizona were flowing at 30 cubic feet per second  its normal rate  30 of the boxes would pass an imaginary line per second. Hemsoth said the creek's flow during the video's recording was flowing at 4,200 cubic feet per second.

The impact of substantial rainfall all day Wednesday combined with snowmelt at higher elevations could be seen on access roads, some streets and at least one major highway in the Verde Valley region.

A stretch of State Route 89A, which links Sedona and Flagstaff, remained closed due to a major rockslide and other debris, said Jayson Coil, assistant fire chief in the Sedona Fire District.

The National Weather Service in Flagstaff said only minor to moderate flooding was expected this week along Oak Creek, Wet Beaver Creek, the Verde River and the Little Colorado River.

Still the water rose very quickly. Oak Creek near Sedona rose almost 7 feet in 12 hours starting Wednesday morning, said Brian Klimowski, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Flagstaff.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How much water? Arizona State Parks ranger breaks down cubic feet
MOSCOW (AP)  Voters in Kazakhstan will cast ballots Sunday after a short but active campaign for seats in the lower house of parliament that is being reconfigured in the wake of deadly unrest that gripped the resource-rich Central Asian nation a year ago.

The snap election comes on the third anniversary of the resignation as president of Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had led Kazakhstan since independence following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and who had established immense influence. His successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, was widely expected to continue Nazarbayev's authoritarian course and even renamed the capital as Nur-Sultan in his predecessor's honor.

But the country's political landscape changed markedly after a wave of violence in January 2022 when provincial protests initially sparked by a fuel price hike engulfed other cities, notably the commercial capital, Almaty, and became overtly political as demonstrators shouted Old man out! in reference to Nazarbayev. More than 220 people, mostly protesters, died as police harshly put down the unrest.

Amid the violence, Tokayev removed Nazarbayev from his powerful post as head of the national security council. He restored the capitals previous name of Astana, and the parliament repealed a law granting Nazarbayev and his family immunity from prosecution.

Tokayev also initiated reforms to strengthen the parliament, reduce presidential powers and limit the presidency to a single seven-year term. Under the reforms, a third of the lower house of parliament's 98 seats will be chosen in single-mandate races rather than by party list.

Tokayev's Amanat party holds the overwhelming majority of seats in the current parliament and the rest belong to parties that are largely loyal to Amanat. Although opinion surveys indicate that Amanat will remain the largest party in the new parliament, the likely final balance is unclear.

More than 400 candidates, most of them self-nominated, are competing in the single-mandate races, and the national elections commission authorized two additional parties to enter the proportional contest.

Story continues

The widened competition appears to have energized the electorate.

Although electioneering was allowed to start only in mid-February, the campaign so far appears lively, in particular online and in the single-mandate electoral districts with a large number of candidates, said an assessment from the elections observation mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Candidates have raised a wide array of issues including further political reforms, housing and rising food prices, and the country does not show a clear path forward. But many are encouraged by the expanded election opportunity.

There is hope that the upcoming parliamentary election that will be held under the new mixed electoral system will bring change and facilitate democratization and political liberalization in Kazakhstan, analyst Assel Nussopova wrote for the Astana Times newspaper.
When it comes to issues of discussing race, sexual education and books in schools, the majority of Lincoln-Way High School District 210 Board candidates either believe the state guidelines are pushing an ideology or keeping up with the times.

Nathan Sandoval, one of the candidates backed by the Lincoln Way Area Freedom Coalition, said an agenda is being pushed on students in schools, which he said should be free of ideology, particularly in lessons about race and sex education.

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Critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion have become buzzwords, said Sandoval, who has three children who will attend District 210.

Im not entirely certain on what everybody means when they say those things, but my thought on an education philosophy is one that is free of ideological agendas, Sandoval said. Academic freedom is paramount. Any philosophy, lets call it critical race theory or diversity, equity and inclusion, any philosophy based on the concept of identifying people based on arbitrary groups ... is one that is fundamentally flawed.

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Caitlin Olejnik, one of the candidates backed by the Lincoln-Way Education Association, the teachers union, said critical race theory, an academic concept that race is a social construct and that racism is embedded in laws and policies, is taught at the undergraduate and graduate level in higher education not in high school.

Our educators are professionals, said Olejnik, who has three children in the Manhattan Elementary District 114. The curriculum being taught, it should be current, it should be modern, it should keep up with our times. I dont feel there are any hidden agendas behind what teachers are teaching.

Nathan Sandoval (Megan Sandoval)

Caitlin Olejnik (Caitlin Olejnik)

Dana Bergthold (Dana Bergtho)

Gena Sambo (Megan Sandoval )

Tessa Quinlan (Tessa Quinlan)

Katarzyna "Kasia" Topor (Katarzyna Topor)

Mark Bamman, left, and David Collins (Alexandra Kukulka / Daily Southtown)

Sandoval and Olejnik are among 10 candidates running for four seats on the District 210 Board.

The Lincoln Way Area Freedom Coalition, which aims to send conservative candidates to all levels of government, endorsed Sandoval, David Collins, Gena Sambo and Katarzyna Kasia Topor.

We support their efforts to bring a balanced perspective, student achievement, the voice of parents and the community as a whole to the Lincoln-Way High School Board of Education, said Dan Butler, chairman of the coalition.

The Lincoln-Way Education Association is backing Richard LaCien Jr., the only incumbent running, and Olejnik, Catherine Johnson and Dana Bergthold. LaCien and Johnson did not respond to multiple requests for comment or photos.

I believe people should consider our four candidates because they are very representative of our community, said Kevin McCleish, co-chair of the unions political action committee. They all come from diverse backgrounds and have diverse professional experiences.

The other two candidates running are Mark Bamman and Tessa Quinlan.

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Race discussions

Quinlan, who has two students who attend District 210 and another child in sixth grade, said having a diverse community is positive because it helps people learn different perspectives from each other. But discussions of race should not distract from the core topics that students should learn in school, she said.

We have to find a way to balance out the changing times in our society, Quinlan said. I think our school does well with supporting any efforts to balance all of that out.

Topor, the owner of ProCore Fitness in New Lenox, said she would make sure the board does not pass any political policies from our federal government when asked about teaching race in school.

Bergthold, an assistant superintendent of student services for Hinsdale Elementary District 181 who has two children at Lincoln-Way East, said the guidelines for teaching about race state discussions should focus on being kind to others, accepting differences and not judging others for differences.

Sambo, who has three children who attend District 210 and another who will next year, said students should not be taught about critical race theory concepts in the classroom.

To teach kids that based on what color they are thats how theyre going to make it in life is just a huge disservice to our future generation, Sambo said.

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Sex education

Sandoval and Sambo said beyond the biology of sex, teachers should not talk to students about other aspects of sexual expression.

Another adult that I dont know from Adam teaching my kids about sex education or sexual orientation, I dont know who thought that was a good idea, Sambo said. Thats a very personal, private conversation between a parent and a child. I dont believe that the state has any business in that relationship.

Olejnik said sex education is provided by certified professionals, age appropriate and aligns with required guidelines.

The focus of sex education, Bergthold said, is to inform students there are different perspectives on sexuality and gender identity. The purpose is not to force an idea on students, she said.

When discussing sexual orientation or gender, Topor said she believes students can identify anyway they want but those topics should be discussed at home.

I respect all the humans. I dont discriminate against anybody, but I believe that certain things should be taught at home, Topor said. I believe that math, English, and science should be taught at school. Certain things should be left to the parents to decide for the kids.

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Book banning

Sandoval said while banning books seems foreign to the idea of a free academic experience, boards have to make sure the school library doesnt have books that focus on gender identity and sex.

Quinlan and Topor both said the discussion of banning books is different between elementary school and high school. But they both said parents should know what their students are reading and discuss certain topics at home.

If parents were to call for book banning, Bergthold said shed approach the topic by first examining if the book is offered in the library or a required reading in class. If its a book a student chooses to read, Bergthold said they can stop reading the book if it upsets them. If the book is required reading, Bergthold said shed discuss with teachers how the book addresses standards that need to be taught.

These are life lessons that arent necessarily geared in one specific direction because its our job as public educators to make sure that kids understand there are many perspectives on all of these pieces, Bergthold said.

Sambo and Olejnik said they dont support banning books. Olejnik said such bans teach students its OK to just stop something because you dont believe in it.

COVID-19 response

Bamman and Collins, who both have children who will attend District 210, joked at a recent New Lenox Republicans event that they are running together because they are both attending physicians at Silver Cross Hospital and Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Bamman was Collinss resident, Collins said.

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They said their platform is evidence-based, pragmatic decision making when it comes to health decisions, according to their campaign page. They are strong advocates for individual rights and freedoms and believe parents have the right to make decisions for their childrens health and education.

I wanted to use my health care expertise to guide health responses, if needed, Collins said.

Collins said the COVID-19 pandemic inspired him to run because protocols put on schools became pretty intensive even as more information about the virus impact on children became known.

Were critical care thinkers and can make high impact decisions, Bamman added.

Topor, whose children will go through District 210, said shes running because she watched her children become exhausted by e-learning during the pandemic.

As a mother of three, Topor said she wants to ensure parents have a strong voice in their childrens education because growing up in Poland, her education was dictated by the government and her parents didnt have a say.

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Sandoval and Sambo said the response to the COVID-19 pandemic also prompted them to run.

Board goals

Johnson, who teaches Spanish in High School District 230 and has two young children who will attend District 210, said her goals as would be to hire quality educators, which has an affect on student achievement, hire more social workers and fiscal responsibility.

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I know what its like to be a teacher, and I know what its like to be a leader, Johnson said.

Sandoval said he would advocate for a curriculum that focus on reading, writing, math, history and science that focuses on teaching children how to think not what to think.

Sambo said similar issues are important to her, stating she wants to learn more about the curriculum and be transparent about it with parents.

Both Sandoval and Sambo said they would also focus on transparency and the budget.

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Olejnik would like to focus on maintaining school excellence and ensure communication between all district stakeholders.

Quinlan said she wants to use her experience as a mother advocating for her special-needs son to advocate for students and parents. She said she would focus on enhancing special services and vocational options for students after graduation and offering American Sign Language as a class.

Bergthold said shes running to ensure parents understand the curriculum guidelines the district has to meet and how teachers pick materials to teach the guidelines.
Photo Illustration by Erin OFlynn/The Daily Beast/Reuters, Everett Collection and Nickelodeon

A few minutes into the All That panel at 90s Cona convention devoted to butterfly clips, boy band autograph signings, and, as the name suggests, all things 1990sit became clear that Amanda Bynes was not coming.

The Nickelodeon break-out star had been scheduled to make her first public outing since the end of her conservatorship, a panel appearance alongside her former co-stars Kel Mitchell, Lori Beth Denberg, and Danny Tamberelli. On Saturday, however, local news outlet CTInsider reported that Bynes had canceled due to illness, citing the conventions Instagram. Still, the nostalgia lived on: All That star and Saturday Night Live stalwart Kenan Thompson staged a surprise entrance that sent Saturdays All That crowd into wild applause.

Although Bynes was certainly missed at the panelMitchell took a moment as the gathering ended to wish his former co-star a speedy recoverythe crowds energy did not falter in her absence.

The timing of Thompsons surprise drop-in turned out to be fortuitous anyway: On Friday, Paramount+ announced that a Good Burger 2 is on the way. A premiere date has not been set, but Thompson suggested on stage that fans could see the sequel film around Thanksgiving-ish. When asked about possible guest stars, Thompson and Mitchell floated the possibility of some familiar faceslike Sinbad and Carmen Electraand made some fascinating suggestions for new stars, including Harry Styles and Barack Obama.

Kel Mitchell Is Very Grateful for Good Burgerand God

Bynes absence during the panel was felt, but it didnt seem to sour the experience for any of the attendees. As one 33-year-old put it after the panel, seeing Bynes would have been cool, but it was really great that Kenan was there. Another attendee echoed that sentiment, saying it was a bummer not to see Bynes but that her absence was understandable.

The real ringleaders of the panel, however, were Denberg and Tamberelli, who razzed one another throughout the panel as the cast members gamely answered questions about their All That pasts. Tambrelli looked back red-faced on the time that he, as a 16-year-old, got caught ogling Britney Spears badly enough that a second take was required, while Denberg revealed why those loud librarian sketches were so hard to film. (In addition to all the yelling, apparently throwing things around and fake-bullying adorable kids on set can get exhausting!)

Story continues

Things even got a little raunchy toward the end, as Denberg pulled a shaver from her bra to shave off Tamberellis mustache (which she really hates) before offering to touch up his downstairs. After Thompson jokingly asked if there were any children in the room, Denberg shot back, Everyone who grew up with us is 40! (Hey! I mean, we know But hey!)

The Girls Online Fandom Revival Was Bound to Happen

But 90s Con was not just for the All That fans. The convention appears to have drawn fans from far and wide, and all of the attendees whom The Daily Beasts Obsessed managed to corner cited different motivations for attending.

Some folks, including a pair of friends dressed up as Carmen Sandiego and Baby One More Time-era Britney Spears, were there for the boy bands. (Autograph sessions for the weekend included members from both Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.) One pair from Texas, a young woman dressed up as Blue from Blues Clues and a TikToker who apparently occasionally cosplays as Steve from Blues Clueshad come not just for a cosplay contest but also to meet the cast of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Attendees said theyd traveled from states including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, and Texas, some for the day and some for the full weekend. One pair, 32- and 31-year-old best friends, said theyd driven in to share their first convention experience as a birthday celebration. And yes, pretty much everyone The Daily Beast spoke with was in their thirtiesalthough many attendees could be seen with young children in tow.

90s Con is in its second year, and took place once more in the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. Although the crowds were sizablethe parking garage was almost full by the time this writer arrived from New York on Saturday morningthe convention was not packed. Crowds were manageable, with more than enough space during the All That panel, at least, to accommodate everyone. The merch floora cornerstone of every conventionwas chock full of the usual items, plus a few on-theme extras. ($3 pony-bead bracelets, anyone?)

Kel brought Kenan out at 90s Con!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



this is a terrible video of the stage but the crowd reaction  pic.twitter.com/K0lWrk0Aos  kelsey weekman (@kelsaywhat) March 18, 2023

As with most conventions, however, it was the merch people were already wearing that most often caught the eye. Apart from Blue and Steve and Carmen and Britney, one attendee also appeared in full costume as Sonic the Hedgehog. Rugrats T-shirts and jackets were abundant, and many attendees apparently graduated from Sunnydale High.

There were gray-haired women in neon tracksuits, and there were dudes in Ray-Bans and T-shirts emblazoned with the words As If! Whether they came for Charmed or Sabrina, for Full House or Beverly Hills, 90210, however, everyone seemed united in one missionto celebrate some piece of their younger years. Maybe next year, therell even be a few dancing lobsters.

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Kentucky Sen. Karen Berg

Republican legislators in Kentucky have pushed through a bill banning gender-affirming health care for transgender minors and limiting school instruction on LGBTQ+ issues  all while a state senator is mourning the death of her trans son.

One bill to this effect, House Bill 470, was being slowly killed by Republican discord when lawmakers adjourned Wednesday night, The Courier-Journal of Louisville reports. But Thursday, legislators added the health care ban to another measure, Senate Bill 150, and it passed both the House and Senate by Thursday evening.

Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, is expected to veto the bill, but the legislature will come back into session in late March and could override his veto.

Democratic Sen. Karen Berg cast her chambers first vote on the bill, a definite no. This is absolutely willful hate for a small group of people that are the weakest and most vulnerable, she said.

Her trans son, Henry Berg-Brousseau, who had worked for the Human Rights Campaign, died by suicide in December. As voting continued, she alternated between nodding with some points and slowly crying, The Courier-Journal reports.

House Bill 470 originally contained a ban on all gender-transition procedures for minors, with doctors to be punished by revocation of their license. Wednesday, Republican Sen. Danny Carroll filed an amendment to the bill, banning gender-affirming surgery  almost never performed on minors anyway  but allowing young people to receive puberty blockers. The Senate approved the amendment but paused debate on the bill overall.

The bill was also Kentuckys version of dont say gay or trans legislation, banning school instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity at all grade levels.

Then Thursday, in a hastily called committee meeting, Republicans added a ban on all gender-affirming care for minors plus the dont say gay or trans provision from HB 470 to SB 150, which originally had been limited to allowing teachers to ignore students preferred pronouns. The GOP legislators additionally put language on school restroom use into SB 150, requiring school districts to at a minimum bar trans students from using the restrooms comporting with their gender identity. And the measure requires school personnel to tell parents about confidential discussions with students about sexual orientation or gender identity, essentially forcing the outing of these students.

Story continues

In the House, nearly every Democrat spoke, often at length, against the bill, The Courier-Journal reports, but it passed by a vote of 75-22, largely along party lines. It then passed 30-7 in the Senate, again mostly on party lines.

Civil rights groups are denouncing SB 150. Republicans rushed process of getting the bill through is the cheapest trick they can pull, Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign, Kentuckys statewide LGBTQ+ rights group, said as the committee meeting ended, according to The Courier-Journal.

Hartman also issued a statement in a joint press release with the Human Rights Campaign, saying, Shame on our commonwealths legislature for deploying cheap tricks to attack our trans kids today. The Kentucky General Assemblys roller-coaster ride on the Anti-Trans Omnibus Bill is a perfect example of what happens when the party of small government runs a measure that couldnt be a more obvious government overreach. SB 150 will take away parents rights, plain and simple. And while the majority caucus struggled to come to consensus on the issue, Kentucky voters were clear that the government has no place in between a parent, their children, and their doctors.

The majority party has spent more time debating anti-trans laws this session than addressing childhood poverty, housing insecurity, and disaster relief combined. The blood of traumatized transgender children will be on their hands, and they will be judged harshly by history and our future generations. But make no mistake, LGBTQ+ Kentuckians will not back down, will not be forced back into the closet, and will not be erased. We are stronger, more resilient, and more determined than ever before.

In the same release, HRC Senior Counsel and State Legislative Director Cathryn Oakley said, In a desperate and reprehensible move in the final hours of legislative session, extremist Kentucky legislators in both chambers cheated the system and pushed through a dangerous, sweeping and unprecedented bill that assaults transgender and nonbinary youth on multiple fronts. This bill would terrorize transgender youth in schools, in doctors offices, and even could put them in danger at home. After a session in which constituents repeatedly and forcefully spoke out in opposition to discrimination, the legislature has decided that discrimination is worth suspending the usual legislative process for. These politicians have no place inserting themselves in conversations between doctors, parents, and transgender youth about gender affirming care; they have no place inside a middle school bathroom stall either. And they certainly have no moral authority to insert themselves into matters they know nothing about when they circumvent normal legislative process and refuse to hear the voices of those impacted before they recklessly impose extremely adverse consequences onto a small, vulnerable population of people simply because of disapproval and misunderstanding.

Lets be clear: These extremist legislators do not care about passing good public policy. They do not care about abiding by the rules. They do not care that they are harming vulnerable children. And they certainly do not care about parental rights. This is simply a cruel attempt to stigmatize, marginalize and erase the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender youth. Shame on them. The Human Rights Campaign strongly condemns the legislatures actions today and encourages Gov. Beshear to veto this discriminatory bill.

The American Civil Liberties Unions Kentucky affiliate called SB 150 unconstitutional and promised to challenge it in court if it becomes law. The ACLU of Kentucky remains committed to protecting the civil liberties of ALL Kentuckians. Legislators cannot erase transgender people from existence, and we will continue to fight for equal rights and equal protection under the law, said a statement from Amber Duke, interim executive director. This dangerous bill and others like it across the country are nothing more than a desperate attempt to score political points by targeting people who simply want to live their lives. True democracy requires meaningful and informed debate and engagement from the public. The shameful process on display in the Kentucky House undermines the public trust in government.

Beshear has spoken out against anti-trans legislation. At his weekly press conference, he said, I believe the medical decisions for all of our youth, including our transgender youth, ought to be made by their families, the Kentucky Lantern reports.

He also said it was disrespectful to Berg to address the issue now. I wish everybody would respect her and her loss enough not to be doing this either at all or during this session, Beshear said.

But whether his expected veto will hold up is in question. Last year legislators overrode his veto of a bill barring transgender girls and women from competing with cisgender females in school sports.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and several MAGA Republicans rallied around Donald Trump on Saturday ahead of the former president's possible indictment by a Manhattan grand jury.

Trump, in posts to his social media platform Truth Social, predicted that he would be arrested Tuesday and called on supporters to protest, citing "illegal leaks." Hours later, a spokesperson for Trump clarified in a statement that the post was shared without any notification of an indictment beyond media reports by NBC News and other news outlets.

Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump, McCarthy wrote in a tweet.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. (abin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images file)

"Im directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions," McCarthy added.

Despite his recent strong comments slamming Trump over Jan. 6, former Vice President Mike Pence, who's nearing a decision on a 2024 presidential bid, said the potential indictment reeks of the kind of political prosecution that we endured back in the days of the Russia hoax.

This is what the Manhattan DA says is their top priority? Pence said Saturday on SiriusXM radio.

Congressional Republicans closely aligned with Trump, a 2024 presidential candidate, expressed outrage, denouncing the potentially looming indictment.

Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the third-ranking Republican in the House, called Trump's possible arrest "unAmerican" and said Democrats have reached "a dangerous new low."

"Knowing they cannot beat President Trump at the ballot box, the Radical Left will now follow the lead of Socialist dictators and reportedly arrest President Trump," she said in a statement shared to Twitter, calling him the leading Republican candidate.

Speaking at the Vision '24 National Conservative Forum on Saturday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., downplayed the Manhattan district attorneys case and said he thinks prosecutors are "afraid" of Trump.

Story continues

The prosecutor in New York has done more to help Donald Trump get elected president than any single person in America today," Graham said.

He added: If I were President Trump Id take this all the way to the damn Supreme Court."

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona tweeted, If they can come for Trump, they will come for you. This type of stuff only occurs in third world authoritarian nations.

Virtually every campaign finance violation involves either 1) spending other peoples money illegally or 2) taking money into your campaign that you shouldnt. Trump did neither, tweeted Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. He used his own money to resolve a private dispute, irrespective of any campaign.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia characterized the allegations against Trump as fake and outdated. She tweeted, Republicans in Congress MUST subpoena these communists and END this!"

She wrote in another tweet that "we don't need to protest," adding: "These idiots are sealing their own fate in 2024 because the silent majority has two feelings right now about the current regime."

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio., wrote, "God Bless President Trump. Real America knows this is all a sham."

Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, another Trump ally who has advanced his baseless theories of a stolen 2020 election, criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, saying he "will prosecute" Trump while "violent criminals" roam New York City.

While the timing is currently unclear, the former president could soon face possible charges in the state related to a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

NBC News reported Friday that local, state and federal enforcement agencies are gearing up for the possible indictment as early as next week.

Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is a key witness in the case. He testified before the grand jury this week, after he pleaded guilty in 2018 to making an illegal payment to Daniels at Trump's direction for the "principal purpose" of swaying the 2016 election.

Trump said he repaid Cohan the $130,000 but insisted that what he did was legal. The former president has denied any wrongdoing.

A spokesperson for Braggs office declined to comment on Trumps Truth Social posts.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) signs into law a free school lunch program for all students.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) signs into law a free school lunch program for all students.

Kids and parents in Minnesota wont have to worry about affording school meals thanks to a new law that guarantees free school meals for all children in the state.

Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed the bill into law Friday to cheers and hugs from some of the kids who will benefit from the program.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has signed a law guaranteeing free breakfast and lunch for all students in the state, regardless of how much money their parents make. Tens of thousands of food-insecure kids will benefit. pic.twitter.com/500q4acTre  More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) March 17, 2023

The new law provides free breakfast and lunch for all K-12 students, regardless of their parents income.

Its a historic, bipartisan win that means no kid will go hungry at school  and that Minnesota is one step closer to being the best state in the country to grow up, Walz said in a statement.

The bill drew the ire of Republican state Sen. Steve Drazkowski, who argued Tuesday that hunger is a relative term in his opposition to feeding kids.

I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that is hungry, Drazkowski said on the Senate floor in St. Paul before voting against the legislation. I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that says they dont have access to enough food to eat.

Drazkowski represents Wabasha County, where more than 8% of kids lived in poverty in 2021, up from about 7% the previous year, according to the Federal Reserve of Economic Data.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan spoke about her own experiences growing up with food insecurity in a rebuke against Drazkowski.

To our decision-makers who believe they have never met someone who is experiencing or has experienced hunger  Hi, my name is Peggy Flanagan, and I was one in six of those Minnesota children who experienced hunger, she said.

Story continues

Minnesota now joins other states, including Maine, California and Colorado, in giving free meals to kids.

Related...
King County Executive Dow Constantine announced that he wont run for governor of Washington state in the 2024 election.

Not infrequently, people kindly ask whether I would run for Governor in 2024  Ive made my decision. Having given it thorough consideration, I have concluded that the answer is no, I would not run, Constantine wrote in an email to his supporters obtained by KIRO Newsradio. Im not willing to set aside all that were achieving right now  the full-time work that Im passionate about  in favor of full-time fundraising and campaigning.

King County Executive Dow Constantine announces that he will not run for governor should Jay Inslee not seek a 4th term. pic.twitter.com/PzErruGBz0  MyNorthwest  (@Mynorthwest) March 17, 2023

Constantine is serving his fourth term as King County executive, a position he has held since 2009, and had been one of the front runners to the 2024 gubernatorial election if incumbent Jay Inslee does not run.

The results suggest that Ferguson would have the advantage at the outset of a 2024 gubernatorial campaign among the three top Democratic officeholders in the state known to be interested in the job, but also indicates that there could be an opening for either Franz or Constantine to wage a competitive campaign, Northwest Progressive Institute wrote in a preliminary poll of candidates.

Constantine won his 2021 executive election with 54% of the vote. His term as executive runs until 2025. Constantine has previously served on the King County Council and state Legislature.

Republican Bruce Dammeier, another front-runner to replace Inslee, told The Gee and Ursula Show that he does not plan to run for governor either.
The latest analyst coverage could presage a bad day for Farmers Edge Inc. (TSE:FDGE), with the analysts making across-the-board cuts to their statutory estimates that might leave shareholders a little shell-shocked. This report focused on revenue estimates, and it looks as though the consensus view of the business has become substantially more conservative.

Following this downgrade, Farmers Edge's three analysts are forecasting 2023 revenues to be CA$32m, approximately in line with the last 12 months. The loss per share is anticipated to greatly reduce in the near future, narrowing 42% to CA$1.20. However, before this estimates update, the consensus had been expecting revenues of CA$40m and CA$1.19 per share in losses. So there's been quite a change-up of views after the recent consensus updates, with the analysts making a serious cut to their revenue forecasts while also making no real change to the loss per share numbers.

Check out our latest analysis for Farmers Edge

the analysts have cut their price target 13% to CA$0.32 per share, signalling that the declining revenue and ongoing losses are contributing to the lower valuation. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. There are some variant perceptions on Farmers Edge, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at CA$0.45 and the most bearish at CA$0.25 per share. This is a fairly broad spread of estimates, suggesting that the analysts are forecasting a wide range of possible outcomes for the business.

One way to get more context on these forecasts is to look at how they compare to both past performance, and how other companies in the same industry are performing. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast annualised revenue decline of 1.3% by the end of 2023. This indicates a significant reduction from annual growth of 14% over the last five years. Compare this with our data, which suggests that other companies in the same industry are, in aggregate, expected to see their revenue grow 15% per year. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - Farmers Edge is expected to lag the wider industry.

Story continues

The Bottom Line

Regrettably, they also downgraded their revenue estimates, and the latest forecasts imply the business will grow sales slower than the wider market. Furthermore, there was a cut to the price target, suggesting that the latest news has led to more pessimism about the intrinsic value of the business. Given the stark change in sentiment, we'd understand if investors became more cautious on Farmers Edge after today.

As you can see, the analysts clearly aren't bullish, and there might be good reason for that. We've identified some potential issues with Farmers Edge's financials, such as a short cash runway. Learn more, and discover the 2 other risks we've identified, for free on our platform here.

Of course, seeing company management invest large sums of money in a stock can be just as useful as knowing whether analysts are downgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free list of stocks that insiders are buying.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank  two of the largest bank failures in U.S. history  some in Washington have rushed to return donations tied to the banks.

But many elected officials who received thousands of dollars in donations from the banks' executives are silent on what they will do with the money.

Here's what we know.

Security guards let individuals enter the Silicon Valley Bank's headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., on March 13, 2023. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has taken over the bank after failed attempts to sell it to healthier banks.

Biden, DNC to return money from SVB executives

President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee will return political donations tied to SVB in the aftermath of the bank's collapse, the DNC told USA TODAY on Friday.

Biden's campaign and PACs received at least $11,900 from SVB executives, according to records from the Federal Election Commission.

The Democratic National Committee received at least $32,250.

Contributions by Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker and another top executive, managing director Gerald Brady, made to Biden's campaign and the DNC from 2020 or later will be donated, a DNC spokesperson told USA TODAY

Becker gave Biden's campaign $2,800, and Brady gave it $5,500. Brady also donated $12,050 to the DNC.

In full, Biden's presidential campaign is returning $8,400, and the DNC is returning $12,050.

Read more: Biden, Democratic National Committee will return political donations from Silicon Valley Bank executives

Who else is returning donations tied to SVB, Signature Bank?

Three high-profile Democrats have committed to returning the donations they received.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., whose district includes part of Silicon Valley, will return all donations, the congressman's communications director, Marie Baldassarre, told USA TODAY. He received $1,500 from Becker in 2015 and $500 from him in 2018, according to records from the Federal Election Commission. Its not clear whether the money will go back to the donor or be donated to charity.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told CNBC he donated the money he received to charities based in New York. He received a combined $16,400 from several top SVB and Signature Bank executives. His office did not respond to USA TODAYs requests for comment.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the former chair of the House Financial Services Committee, told Politico she would also return the $2,500 she received from Silicon Valley Bank PAC in 2020. Her office did not respond to USA TODAYs requests for comment.

Story continues

A man walks out of a Manhattan branch of Signature Bank which was closed by bank regulators on Sunday on March 13, 2023 in New York City. The move by the state's Department of Financial Services seeks to prevent a banking crisis spurred by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.

Who hasn't said what they'll do with the money?

USA TODAY reached out to several of the biggest recipients of money from SVB and Signature Bank, but spokespeople for those officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Among those who received significant sums in recent years and did not answer questions by time of publication:

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, whose campaign and related PAC received at least $58,700, including $10,000 from Silicon Valley Bank PAC and $21,800 from Signature Bank chairman Scott Shay.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., whose campaign received at least $27,200, including $21,600 from Silicon Valley Bank PAC and $5,600 from Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., whose campaign and related PACs received at least $32,910, including $13,667 from Silicon Valley Bank PAC and $3,483 from Signature Bank executive Brian Hallinan

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., whose campaign and related PAC received $11,100, of which $8,600 was donated by Silicon Valley Bank PAC.

Dig deeper:

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: SVB, Signature Bank political donations: What we know
OHRID, North Macedonia (Reuters) - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that Kosovo and Serbia have reached "some kind of a deal" on implementing a Western-backed deal to normalize ties on Saturday.

"We have agreed on some points, not on all points. This is not the final deal," Vucic told reporters in Ohrid.

He said that despite disagreements on some issues, talks with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti were "decent".

He said Serbia's path towards EU membership will be conditioned on implementing the deal.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci and Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Josie Kao)
By Fatos Bytyci

OHRID, North Macedonia (Reuters) -Kosovo and Serbia have reached an agreement on implementing a European Union-backed deal to normalise ties, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said late on Saturday, though the two leaders said disagreements remain.

Kosovo and Serbia have been in EU-backed talks for nearly 10 years since Kosovo declared independence in 2008, almost a decade after war ended Serbian rule. But Serbia still regards Kosovo as a breakaway province and flare-ups between the Balkan neighbours have stoked fears of a return to conflict.

The agreement on Saturday came after 12-hour talks between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and EU officials on implementing the deal, which both sides had agreed to in Brussels last month.

The two leaders held separate meetings with Borrell before a three-way session in North Macedonia.

"Kosovo and Serbia have agreed on the implementation annex of the agreement on the path to normalisation of relations between them," he told reporters after meeting both leaders in the North Macedonian town of Ohrid.

Vucic told a news conference the parties have not agreed on all points.

"Despite differences, we had decent conversation," he said.

Speaking at a different news conference, Kurti said, "This is a de facto recognition between Kosovo and Serbia" since Serbia has not yet signed the agreement.

Borrell said the EU will now forcefully demand both sides to fulfil obligations if they want to join the bloc, warning there would be consequences otherwise.

He also touched upon a proposed association of Serb municipalities in Kosovo, which would give greater autonomy to Serb majority municipalities, a long disputed topic.

"Kosovo has agreed to launch immediately - and when I am saying immediately, I mean immediately - negotiations with the European Union facilitated dialogue on establishing a specific arrangement and guarantees to ensure an appropriated level of self-management for the Serbian communities in Kosovo," the EU top diplomat said.

In the annex on the implementation of the agreement published on Saturday evening, the EU committed to organising a donor conference within 150 days to set up an investment and financial aid package for Kosovo and Serbia.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold, Ivana Sekularac and Andrew Gray; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Josie Kao)
Epiphanius

In no case is there any question of closing this monastery, ceasing prayer, services, monastic life in it, Metropolitan Epiphanius said.

Comparing the current events with the past persecutions of the communist authorities against the church in general and the two-time closure of the monastery in particular, is a baseless manipulation.

Read also: Ukraine wants Moscow Patriarchate to vacate Lavra by March 29, says culture minister

Metropolitan Epiphanius stated that all those who live according to the canons and Tomos and reject the illegal authority of Moscow, will be able to continue their services in the Lavra. Meanwhile, he called on the monastery brethren to support the process of liberation from the Moscow yoke.

Moscows spiritual influence in Ukraine is non-canonical, and everyone sees how the Kremlin uses it against the Ukrainian people, said Epiphanius.

The Lavra should not be an instrument of struggle against Ukraine, but on the contrary  a place of prayer, a pious monastic life in the spirit of the fathers and ascetics of the past, a place that will spiritually inspire our fellow citizens in these difficult times.

Read also: Ukrainian Orthodox Church will get contracts to use two Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra churches long-term

Read also: Moscow patriarchate orthodox churchs lease on Lower Lavra terminated

The head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine added that he holds in high regard the customs and practices that define the way of life at the Lavra, including its liturgical aspects, and he shows respect towards the fathers and brothers who do not share the ideology of the Russian world.

Opening the monastery as part of the Local Church, our Holy Synod appealed to the government to provide premises for monastic life and religious services in the Lavra, Epiphanius said.

This request remains relevant, and we will insist that the monastic life, the opportunity for daily prayer and religious services are adequately provided for.

Story continues

The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine declared on March 10th that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) is required to vacate all leased premises in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra by March 29th. The UOC (MP) reacted by referring to the ministrys directive as an ultimatum and dismissing their demands as lacking legal justification.

According to LB.ua, during an inspection at the Lavra, the State Audit Service of Ukraine detected the unlawful transfer of cultural heritage sites and identified 36 unauthorized new constructions.

As of Jan. 1, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra reserve terminated its leasing contract with the UOC (MP) for the Dormition Cathedral and Tabernacle Church located in the Upper Lavra territory.

The Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra witnessed a historic moment on Jan. 7th when Metropolitan Epiphanius, the head of the UOC, conducted a Christmas service there for the very first time.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
You are here: China

China's Ministry of Science and Technology Friday released the top 10 domestic scientific advances of 2022.

At the top of the list is the Martian subsurface structure revealed by Mars rover Zhurong's radar instrument. The study not only showed detailed subsurface features of Mars but also provided the observation evidence of the water presence, which helps to shed light on the planet's geologic history and climate conditions.

Photo released on June 11, 2021 by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) shows a selfie of China's first Mars rover Zhurong with the landing platform. (CNSA/Handout via Xinhua)

The detection of active, repeating, fast radio bursts by the FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope) ranked second. This discovery has laid the observation foundation for revealing the origin of the mysterious radio waves.

The long-time exposure photo taken on June 27, 2016 shows a night view of China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) in southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Xinhua/Ou Dongqu)

The third place went to a new principle and technology for hydrogen generation directly from seawater. It solves a technical problem that has long plagued the industry.

Other advances include research on COVID-19 variants and immune escape mechanisms, the development of high-efficiency perovskite solar cells, and the synthesis of the organic compound ethylene glycol.
Lance Reddick, a veteran character actor known for his intense roles in HBOs hit series The Wire and the John Wick action films, died on Friday, the Associated Pressreports. He was 60.

Reddick died suddenly from natural causes, his publicist told the AP.

TMZ, which first reported the news of Reddicks death, said the actors body was found at his home in Studio City, Los Angeles, according to law enforcement sources.

The actors Wire co-star Wendell Pierce wrote on social media on Friday that Reddick was a man of great strength and grace.

As talented a musician as he was an actor, Mr Pierce continued. The epitome of class. An sudden unexpected sharp painful grief for our artistic family. An unimaginable suffering for his personal family and loved ones. Godspeed my friend. You made your mark here.

Filmmaker James Gunn said on Friday on Twitter that Reddick was an incredibly nice guy, and an incredibly talented actor.

This is heartbreaking, Gunn said. My love goes out to all his family, friends, and collaborators.

Michael Connelly, the novelist and creator of Bosch, on which Reddick played a police chief, said the actor was a wonderful person, friend and collaborator.

Lance Reddick (Getty Images)

He took a character who was paper-thin in the books and made Irvin Irving multi-dimensional, machiavellian, intriguing and even sympathetic, Mr Connelly wrote on Twitter. Loved working with him. Loved knowing him. Hes gone too soon.

Reddick was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and attended the Yale University school of drama.

The actor said that despite his success, he felt his position as an actor was precarious at times because of his race.

Im an artist at heart. I feel that Im very good at what I do, he told The Los Angeles Times in 2009. When I went to drama school, I knew I was at least as talented as other students, but because I was a black man and I wasnt pretty, I knew I would have to work my butt off to be the best that I would be, and to be noticed.

Story continues

As I watch the industry and see what it took me to get where I am, he added, I am more aware how precarious my position is. Theres no such thing as a holding pattern.

Reddicks reputation and profile were established with his role as Cedric Daniels, an enigmatic and ambitious police lieutenant, in the groundbreaking TV series The Wire, which ran from 2002 to 2008.

Despite his dramatic roles on shows like Lost, Law & Order and American Horror Story, Reddick was also game for comedy.

After his death, fans began recirculating a clip of Reddicks 2013 appearance on the satirical late-night comedy show The Eric Andre Show, which ended with the actor theatrically slamming his fist down and declaring, You need a new desk.
Top financial officials from Latin American and Caribbean countries are meeting Saturday in an annual conclave of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), after a week overshadowed by the banking crisis in the United States and Europe.

The IDB's new president, Ilan Goldfajn, a Brazilian economist, was set to address governors of the 48 member countries, most of them finance ministers, beginning at 11:30 am (1630 GMT). The meeting will then continue behind closed doors.

The IDB assembly began Thursday, as officials, businessmen and experts debated issues surrounding poverty and climate change. The US and European banking crisis was not discussed.

But Goldfajn said he expected such "cyclical" issues would be addressed in the closed-door sessions.

The crisis began when California-based Silicon Valley Bank failed, prompting US authorities to guarantee that all depositors would be protected. As the shock of that move reverberated, Swiss banking authorities separately had to prop up Credit Suisse.

But after US banks suffered their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, concern has grown across Latin America and the Caribbean that the turmoil could spread.

"You have to be vigilant," Chilean finance minister Mario Marcel told AFP, "because in the financial markets contagion can be very fast."

He also noted that raw materials prices have been falling, adding that "when raw materials drop, our own currencies are weakened."

Goldfajn and the Latin and Caribbean ministers, along with non-regional delegates from European countries, have held a series of bilateral and small-group meetings to address such topics.

Goldfajn also led a meeting with ministers from Amazonian countries to examine ways to finance conservation programs in the vast area.

"Our goal is to establish an Amazon regional project" to provide "ambitious and intersectoral interventions that have a lasting impact in the Amazon region," he said.

Conservation of the Amazon "affects the entire planet," Goldfajn said, and must be handled on a regional level -- not just by individual countries.

The IDB, with headquarters in Washington, is a prime source of long-term financing for the region.

fj/llu/bbk/md
Colorado newspaper The Durango Herald has called out far-right Rep. Lauren Boeberts (R-Colo.) controversial visit to a local high school this week.

Boeberts speech and Q&A session with students at Dolores High School in Dolores on Wednesday made the news outlet uncomfortable because her talk ventured beyond governance into political territory, its editorial board wrote Friday.

Like her or otherwise, Boebert is a polarizing politician, the Herald said about the Donald Trump devotee, who in the past has embraced QAnon conspiracy theories. Amid fears from parents in the lead-up to the event, representatives for gun-loving Boebert confirmed that she would not be carrying a weapon during the school visit.

Per the newspaper, Boebert talked about moral decay and railed against what she saw as the infringement of liberties during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Apparently, she also told students they should know about those issues and let it motivate them to stand up for their freedom, the board wrote. Come on! This is Boeberts brand on stage in front of students without parents present.

The Herald suggested she could have inspired students with her personal journey from a manager at McDonalds to a representative in the hallowed halls of Congress.

Instead, she didnt separate herself and her politics from the mechanics of government, it charged.

Read the full editorial here.

Related...
Illinois lawmakers are debating whether the state should join a growing list of jurisdictions in the United States that allow voters to pick more than one candidate for an office, ranking them in order of preference rather than choosing just one.

Ranked choice voting, or as its sometimes called, instant runoff voting, actually has a long history in U.S. elections at the municipal level. But it has become more widely adopted in modern times, including in several states and dozens of municipalities.

This is a better voting model to ensure all voices and choices are reflected in the election results, Amber McReynolds, an elections expert and former elections director for the city and county of Denver, Colorado, told a House committee Wednesday. It prioritizes and expands voter choice, it puts voters first, and it improves the voting experience for all.

The proposals facing Illinois lawmakers are subject to change as they move through the legislative process.

In a general ranked choice voting system, voters mark candidates in the order of their preference in races with three or more candidates. The voter can rank as many candidates as they choose. In a five-person race, for example, a voter might rank one candidate first, another second and leave the sections of the other three candidates blank.

In the first round of counting, ballots are counted as they are now, with everyones vote going to their first choice.

If no one has achieved a majority, the person with the fewest votes is eliminated and their voters ballots are recounted with their votes going to their highest ranked candidate that is still in the race.

This continues until a candidate earns a majority of votes counted in a given round of tabulation. This may not mean a majority of all people who voted in the election, since a ballot isnt counted after all of their listed choices are eliminated.

According to the group FairVote, which advocates for ranked choice voting, there are 64 jurisdictions that allow that method of elections, including the states of Maine and Alaska, as well as two counties and 60 cities.

Story continues

Colorado enacted a law in 2021 that allows municipalities to opt in to ranked choice voting in local elections. And Democratic parties in five states  Alaska, Kansas, Hawaii, Nevada and Wyoming  used it, wholly or partially, in their 2020 presidential primaries.

There are currently three bills pending in the General Assembly that would allow ranked choice voting in one form or another.

House Bill 2716, by Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Inverness, would implement the system for elections for the General Assembly, governor and other statewide constitutional officers.

House Bill 2807, by Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, would establish ranked choice voting in presidential primaries in Illinois. And House Bill 3749, by Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, would allow municipalities to use ranked choice voting if the municipalitys chief election authority submits a written statement saying they have the ability to conduct such an election.







Impact on elections

Supporters of ranked choice voting argue that it has several advantages over plurality voting, in which the person with the most votes after one round of counting wins regardless of whether that person has a majority.

One, they say, is that it reduces the number of wasted votes  that is, votes cast for candidates who drop out of the race after its too late to remove their name from the ballot. McReynolds said that is particularly true in presidential primaries in which a large field of candidates is winnowed down to just a few after the first few states cast ballots.

In 2016, more than 2 million voters actually took the effort to vote for a candidate on the Republican side (after they had dropped out of the race). Their vote was lost, she said. In 2020, around 3 million to 4 million of Democrats  thats the estimated (number)  had that same issue happen because lots of dropouts start happening after Super Tuesday in those periods of time.

Under ranked choice voting, she said, even if a voters first choice is no longer in the race, their second or third choice could still count in subsequent rounds of counting.

Some advocates also say it can reduce the overall cost of certain elections by eliminating the need for runoffs, like the one coming up April 4 in the Chicago mayoral race.

There are estimates that runoff elections cost the city between $25 and $35 million each time, Buckner said. And so this, if for no other reason, for financial reasons, being able to give us winners of both aldermanic and mayoral elections on the initial election date and to save some of those dollars and resources from the city and municipality.

But Boone County Clerk Julie Bliss, speaking on behalf of the Illinois Association of County Clerks and Recorders, said there would be significant up-front costs for local officials to buy the voting machines and software needed for ranked choice voting, as well as the cost of printing and mailing what would be much larger ballots.

Expense and funding absolutely is going to be a question that all the local election authorities are going to have for you, she told the committee.  The initial cost of implementing something like this is going to be higher.

Brian Pryor, deputy director of election operations at the Illinois State Board of Elections, said there are currently no voting systems in Illinois that could implement ranked choice voting immediately.

Some systems are capable of conducting ranked choice voting but they require additional components or software, which would need to be certified for use in Illinois, he said. There are currently 16 jurisdictions that have no capability of implementing ranked choice voting. These jurisdictions would need to procure new equipment.

The committee discussion of the three bills was subject matter only, meaning they did not come for a vote. They have been re-referred to the House Rules Committee, meaning they may face an uphill battle to be passed into law in the current General Assembly.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide, as well as hundreds of radio and TV stations. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
At least six people were killed in a clash between remnants of the defunct Shining Path rebel group and a military patrol in a coca-growing valley in central Peru, a Defense Ministry unit reported Saturday.

The statement from the Joint Command of the Armed Forces did not give the date of the confrontation, in which it said that five members of the Sendero Luminoso, as the guerrilla group is known in Spanish, and an Army soldier died.

It said the clash took place in Vizcatan del Ene, in central Peru, as part of an operation that tried to capture Victor Quispe Palomino, alias Comrade Jose. He is the leader of holdout troops of the leftist rebels defeated militarily in the 1990s.

Quispe Palomino was not found, the statement said. One member of the Maoist group, known as "Paulino," "died when he was preparing to mine the combat area."

The Vizcatan del Ene area is in the central department of Junin, part of a large coca-growing area where remnants of the Shining Path allied to drug traffickers have long taken refuge, authorities said.

Coca leaves are the raw material from which cocaine is made.

Shining Path emerged in 1980 when it launched a "people's war" in what the government said was an act of "terrorism." Two decades of clashes with security forces left 69,000 people dead or disappeared, according to Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Most of the guerrilla leaders are dead or imprisoned, but the military estimates that 200 to 350 ex-combatants are still active in an area known as the VRAE -- the Spanish-language acronym for the Apurimac and Ene River Valley, some 175 miles (280 kilometers) southeast of Lima.

ljc/mdl/bbk
Leeds Rasmus Kristensen, centre, celebrates his goal (Nick Potts/PA) (PA Wire)

Leeds United breathed fresh life into their survival hopes after a manic win at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Jack Harrison, Luke Ayling, Rasmus Kristensen and Rodrigo struck to clinch a rollercoaster 4-2 victory and lift them out of the Premier Leagues relegation zone.

Jonnys long-range lob and Matheus Cunhas first goal for Wolves gave them hope before Jonnys late red card.

Unused substitute Matheus Nunes was also dismissed in stoppage time, with Wolves furious Rodrigos goal was not ruled out for a foul on Adama Traore.

Exactly 12 months ago Leeds hit back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at Molineux thanks to Aylings injury-time winner.

Victory was still not straightforward this time but a frenzied win in a game which threatened to swing either way leaves Leeds 14th, just a point and a place behind their hosts with a game in hand.

As much as Wolves have improved under Julen Lopetegui, home defeats to Bournemouth and now Leeds have stopped them from pulling away.

A four-point gap to the visitors has almost been wiped out in a survival battle which has captured almost half of the division and left them three points above the drop zone.

It looked bleak early for Wolves after Harrison set the tone for a madcap game when he opened the scoring just six minutes in.

Wilfried Gnonto teased Nelson Semedo, who failed to get near him, and darted into the box to cross for Harrison to smash in from 10 yards.

Harrison  whose move to Leicester was cancelled mid-medical in January  only has four goals this season but none will have been as crucial as this.

Wolves responded and wanted a penalty when Semedo went down under Junior Firpos challenge but Michael Salisbury and VAR official David Coote disagreed.

Leeds fast start had suddenly turned into a rearguard action as bodies were put on the line to deny the hosts, who forced the tempo after going behind.

Only Pedro Netos profligacy stopped Wolves levelling when Daniel Podence caught Ayling dozing. His shot was beaten away by Illan Meslier but Neto fluffed his lines on the follow-up.

Story continues

For a while Wolves swarmed over Leeds, stifling the visitors, forcing them into mistakes and last-ditch interventions, and a leveller seemed inevitable.

Yet Lopeteguis side only had themselves to blame. Wasting their chances when they came they let Leeds off the hook, especially Semedo.

Ruben Neves perfect pass was only bettered by Max Kilmans low cross which bounced into the path of the unmarked Semedo, only for Max Wober to block his goalbound effort.

Neves drilled wide from distance and, aside from the goal, Leeds had offered precious little attacking intent. Mesliers time-wasting infuriated Molineux but the visitors nearly grabbed a second nine minutes before the break.

A neat corner routine found the onrushing Weston McKennie and while the USA international failed to connect properly, it caused enough problems and was deflected behind.

It was enough to give Leeds some respite, with a delay to treat Harrison after a late Dawson challenge briefly shifting the momentum of a game which had become increasingly ill-tempered.

Dawson, already on a booking, was withdrawn at the break and Wolves thought they had levelled soon after.

Podences corner was nodded goalwards by Nathan Collins and stabbed in by Mario Lemina, only for the celebrations to be cut short by an offside flag.

If the hosts thought it would herald the start of a comeback they were mistaken and Leeds grabbed a second four minutes into the half.

It was poor defending from Wolves as the ball-watching Neves allowed Ayling to peel away and he was left criminally unmarked to nod in at the far post.

With the hosts shell-shocked, Pablo Sarabia steered wide but Leeds were in dreamland after 62 minutes.

Joao Gomes had denied Harrison a second with a smart block but it only delayed a third as Kristensen got in on the act.

The substitute had only been on for 31 seconds before he robbed Jonny, who failed to deal with Harrisons cross, at the far post and fired through Jose Sas legs.

Jonny quickly  and spectacularly  pulled a goal back when he lobbed in from 40 yards with Meslier having rushed out to clear.

It gave Wolves hope and, after Meslier brilliantly saved from Cunha, the striker set up a grandstand finish when his shot from the edge of the box clipped Wober to make it 3-2 with 17 minutes left.

But Jonny was sent off after a reckless tackle on Ayling with six minutes left to end Wolves fightback.

Rodrigo then wrapped it up in stoppage time when he raced through to dink over Sa.

It sparked Wolves protests as Marc Roca appeared to pull Traore in the build-up with the bench incensed and Nunes, who had to be restrained, was sent off for dissent.
E'Niya Douglas (from left), Josias Vilbrun, Jada Hewitt, Erin Jaxon and Kendra Francois cheer and chant at a Feb. 21 rally at the University of North Florida. The rally was organized by the Students for Democratic Society and Students United for Workers Advocacy to urge protection of UNF's diversity efforts.

I received an email on March 8 from OneJax, an interfaith organization dedicated to achieving civility, understanding and respect for all people. For the past 11 years, it has been located on the UNF campus and associated with the university.

The email informs OneJax supporters of a mutual split from UNF, which apparently is due to the strict rules imposed on state colleges and universities by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his loyal supporters. Kyle Reese, executive director of OneJax, is quoted as saying that the "current political climate in our state is impacting every state university, and we do not want the core mission and vision of our 53-year-old organization to be restrained or restricted."

In other words: If you want to continue to be an organization reflecting diversity, civility and respect for all people, it's best to separate yourself from our state's finest educational organizations. What a sad commentary on our times  not just here, but all over the state.

Teachers are already leaving the profession in droves and I cannot imagine that the narrow requirements being imposed on our universities will improve our desirability as places to teach and learn. It may take years to undo the damage that our current state leaders are inflicting on all levels of Florida's education system.

The split between OneJax and UNF seems to be an early example of what will be happening more and more as Florida continues to go backward. With the Legislature in session now, no telling what other draconian measures will be passed that divide us instead of unite us.

Rhoda London, retired teacher, Jacksonville

Woodlawn Presbyterian Church, whose history dates back to 1870, will host a health fair on March 25.

Church offers resources on physical health, too

Through scripture, we find Gods guidance to good health. One of my first goals since coming to Woodlawn Presbyterian Church was to establish the Health and Wellness Ministry, whose purpose is to serve the Lord by providing health connections for our congregation and the community we serve.

3 John 1:2 says, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Story continues

The County Health Rankings report, produced by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, ranked the counties in Florida on factors known to impact health outcomes. Among Floridas 67 counties, Duval County ranked 48th for health outcomes and 35th for health factors in 2016.

Thus, a Spring into Wellness Health Fair will be held at Woodlawn Presbyterian Church on Saturday, March 25, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Family Life Center.

Open to all adults and children in the community, the purpose of the event is to increase health awareness through education and prevention. There will be basic health screenings, the Baptist Buddy Bus, blood pressure checks, dental health and chair massage. A variety of informational booths will also be on hand, designed to help the community learn about the many health-related programs, services and providers located in our community.

We are excited about providing this health fair to our community, and the church is located at 3026 Woodlawn Road in Jacksonville. For questions or more information, contact Mary L. Brown at mrybrn@comcadt.net or Avis Mathews at abm2858@comcast.net.

Rev. Don Johnson, pastor, and Mary L. Brown, chair, Fellowship and Coordination Committee, Woodlawn Presbyterian Church

Jacksonville City Hall.

Fed up with smear tactics

I am fed up with the race for mayor of Jacksonville, and in particular all the negative ads.

I collected ad cards that showed up in my mail. Of 12 ads, five had no positive presentation of any candidates priorities and plans. I looked at the fine print to see who was primarily responsible for this negativity: a fund called Building a Better Economy.

A quick online search shows that is the name for a campaign fund for candidate Daniel Davis. In a WOKV radio interview last week, Davis briefly said something about negative ads  that it happens in any election. He didnt mention that he is the chief purveyor in this race of these smear ads. That includes those running on TV.

What kind of mayor does not take responsibility for his own ads? That would be one who likely won't take responsibility for city functioning either  always looking for a scapegoat for anything that goes wrong.

First, he smeared Cumber, then Ferraro. That tells me that any Republicans near him in the polls are his next target.

Robert Vergenz, Jacksonville

A crowd listens to UNF President Moez Limayem speak at the lectern during a vigil organized by OneJax following a spate of hate speech.

Praise for OneJax, UNF coverage

Thank you for the reporting by Beth Cravey and Steve Patterson on March 15 about the decision by the OneJax board and executive leadership to disaffiliate from UNF. The horror of attacks on specific groups in our community  typically religious, racial and others  is perpetuated by dismantling programs and activities fostering inclusion and equity. OneJax must go forward with their important work.

I fear the headline actually shifts the focus of readers away from the essence of your reporting. The irreconcilable differences appear to not be between these two institutions, but with actions by state political leaders. This was a split in recognition of the political pressure and state government intrusion into the work of universities, which affects OneJax.

OneJax appears to be leaving on good terms with UNF and comments from both Rev. Reese and UNF representatives reflect commitment to their ongoing efforts. Both seem to be working hard to continue their missions.

Eric Wester, Jacksonville

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: OneJax, UNF split the tip of the iceberg as state keeps going backward
Jack Avery shares his story of living with COPD to encourage community members to participate in Fight For Air Climb

Longtime resident of Jacksonville, Jack Avery is determined to climb his way up to the finish line at the Fight For Air Climb Jacksonville taking place on Saturday, March 18 at the Bank of America Tower.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

Avery shares with a chuckle, Im not the spry spring chicken I used to be. Im 80. So, if I can make it to the top, so you can you! The Fight For Air Climb is an annual event to support the American Lung Associations mission to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease.

Participants of all ages, including local firefighters in full gear, will climb 34 flights, or 670 stairs of the Bank of America Tower.

Im excited to help celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Fight For Air Climb this year as Ive been participating since its inception, shares Avery. After I was diagnosed with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) in 2010, there was no way I was going to stop participating. The Climb saved my life! Im convinced that my training for the Climb is what has improved my lung capacity and helped me to lose weight too. Two years after I was diagnosed with COPD, my doctor shared that my lung capacity improved from 60% to 80%not bad for an old guy, right?

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]

Jacks light-heartedness, perseverance and energy, makes him someone that everyone gravitates towards at practice climbs, shares Cindy Springer, senior manager of development for the American Lung Association. He is such a gem. Jack is living proof that staying active at every age can help improve your lung health. We are so appreciative of Jack as he motivates others to climb and participate on his team, which has raised more than $107,000 since 2011.

Climbing in the Fight For Air Climb has had a tremendous impact on me, shares Avery. Climbing is such a great workout for any age and the event is for such an important relatable cause, as we all have lungs. I plan to participate as I long as I can for those that cant.

Story continues

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Here in Florida, there are more than 2.5 million people living with lung disease, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and others.

Registration for the Fight For Air Climb is $35 and includes a $100 fundraising minimum. For more information, and to register, visit ClimbJax.org.

Funds from the Fight For Air Climb Jacksonville help the American Lung Association to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education and advocacy in Jacksonville and lifesaving research.





About the American Lung Association:

The American Lung Association is the leading organization working to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy and research. The work of the American Lung Association is focused on four strategic imperatives: to defeat lung cancer; to champion clean air for all; to improve the quality of life for those with lung disease and their families; and to create a tobacco-free future. For more information about the American Lung Association, which has a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator and is a Platinum-Level GuideStar Member, or to support the work it does, call 1-800-LUNGUSA (1-800-586-4872) or visit: Lung.org

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.
Key Insights

Using the 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity, Kooth fair value estimate is UK2.58

With UK2.30 share price, Kooth appears to be trading close to its estimated fair value

Analyst price target for KOO is UK3.35, which is 30% above our fair value estimate

How far off is Kooth plc (LON:KOO) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll take a look at whether the stock is fairly priced by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. We will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model on this occasion. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward.

We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

See our latest analysis for Kooth

What's The Estimated Valuation?

We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we need to discount the sum of these future cash flows to arrive at a present value estimate:

Story continues

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 Levered FCF (, Millions) -UK800.0k UK1.40m UK2.16m UK2.99m UK3.81m UK4.55m UK5.19m UK5.71m UK6.13m UK6.47m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x2 Analyst x1 Est @ 54.46% Est @ 38.46% Est @ 27.27% Est @ 19.43% Est @ 13.95% Est @ 10.11% Est @ 7.42% Est @ 5.54% Present Value (, Millions) Discounted @ 6.7% -UK0.7 UK1.2 UK1.8 UK2.3 UK2.8 UK3.1 UK3.3 UK3.4 UK3.4 UK3.4

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = UK24m

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 1.2%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 6.7%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2032  (1 + g)  (r  g) = UK6.5m (1 + 1.2%)  (6.7% 1.2%) = UK117m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= UK117m ( 1 + 6.7%)10= UK61m

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is UK85m. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of UK2.3, the company appears about fair value at a 11% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

dcf

The Assumptions

We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Kooth as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 6.7%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.800. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

SWOT Analysis for Kooth

Strength

Currently debt free.

Weakness

No major weaknesses identified for KOO.

Opportunity

Has sufficient cash runway for more than 3 years based on current free cash flows.

Current share price is below our estimate of fair value.

Threat

Not expected to become profitable over the next 3 years.

Next Steps:

Although the valuation of a company is important, it is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. For Kooth, we've compiled three fundamental items you should explore:

Risks: Be aware that Kooth is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those can't be ignored... Future Earnings: How does KOO's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every British stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City prosecutor who was publicly criticized for declining to charge Donald Trump last year now appears very close to bringing the first criminal indictment against a former president in U.S. history.

Trump on Saturday said that he expects to be arrested this week on charges by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is investigating whether Trump falsified business records by concealing his reimbursement of his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

The payment, made during the waning weeks of Trump's 2016 campaign for the White House, was intended to secure Daniels' silence about an affair she said she had with Trump, prosecutors said. A spokesman for Bragg declined to comment on Saturday.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday and called on his supporters to protest.

Trump, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, did not say he had been formally notified of forthcoming charges and did not discuss the possible charges in the post.

Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after a fiery speech in which he falsely claimed his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud.

Bragg, a Democrat, took office in January 2022, after his predecessor indicted the former president's family company and its top financial executive over a 15-year-tax fraud scheme.

A prosecutor leading that probe, Mark Pomerantz, resigned in February 2022 after Bragg declined to charge Trump himself for financial crimes. Pomerantz has publicly criticized Bragg's decision not to bring charges and published a book about the investigation.

Pomerantz has said concerns about potentially losing the case should be weighed against the possibility of "promoting disrespect for the law" by not bringing charges when warranted.

Story continues

Bragg has defended his decision.

"I bring hard cases when they are ready," Bragg said in a Feb. 7 news conference. "Mark Pomerantz's case simply was not ready. So I said to my team, let's keep working."

Trump has called the probe a "witch hunt."

A grand jury began hearing evidence in the case earlier this year.

Cohen previously testified that Trump directed him to arrange the payment, and Cohen pleaded guilty in December 2018 to campaign finance violations and other charges.

"For the DA's office to charge former President Trump, a victim of extortion, with a crime because his then lawyer, Michael Cohen, a convicted liar, paid the extortionist would be unprecedented and outrageous selective prosecution," Trump lawyer Susan Necheles said in a statement on March 10.

Proving Trump intended to commit a crime may be one of Bragg's biggest challenges, said Jennifer Beidel, a partner at law firm Saul Ewing and former federal prosecutor.

"One would think that the former president would try to argue that people independent of him were making their own choices about what to do, maybe out of motivation to please him, but maybe not with his direction," Beidel said.

Bragg, the first Black District Attorney in Manhattan, previously served as a federal prosecutor and as a senior official in the New York State Attorney General's office, where he oversaw a lawsuit that forced the former president's namesake charitable foundation to dissolve.

Shortly after taking office, his critics complained about a plan to refrain from prosecuting some minor offenses, reduce pretrial detention and limit sentence length. Bragg argued that "over-incarceration" has not improved public safety.

In the biggest trial victory so far in his tenure, his office last December won the conviction of the Trump Organization on tax fraud charges. Allen Weisselberg, the organization's former chief financial officer, had pleaded guilty and testified against the company at trial.

Several observers have defended Bragg against Pomerantz's criticism.

"Bragg's decision not to pull the trigger in February 2022 ... actually may have been courageous, not cowardly," Andrew Weissman, a former federal prosecutor, wrote in a review of Pomerantz's book in the Washington Post. "He hardly had anything to gain and a lot to lose politically by the decision."

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Grant McCool and Diane Craft)
 Flash

China on Friday urged the U.S., the UK and Australia to stop putting their selfish geopolitical agenda above nuclear non-proliferation obligations and stop coercing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into endorsing their nuclear submarine cooperation.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a regular press briefing when asked to comment on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's remarks that the AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation is the advancement of NATO military infrastructure into Asia, which makes a serious bet on many years of confrontation in the region.

Wang said the U.S., the UK and Australia are putting up an Anglo-Saxon clique and creating the so-called AUKUS trilateral security partnership to advance nuclear submarine cooperation and other cutting-edge military technology cooperation.

"This is typical Cold War mentality and a move that opens a Pandora's box, which will seriously impact regional and global peace and security," said Wang.

Wang said firstly, it will seriously impact the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. The AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation marks the first time for nuclear weapon states to transfer naval nuclear propulsion reactors and weapons-grade highly enriched uranium to a non-nuclear weapon state.

There is nothing in the current IAEA safeguards system that can ensure effective safeguards. Therefore, such cooperation poses serious nuclear proliferation risks, seriously compromises the authority of the IAEA and deals a blow to the Agency's safeguards system, Wang said.

He said if the three countries are set on advancing the nuclear submarine cooperation, other countries will likely follow suit, eventually leading to the collapse of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Secondly, it will seriously impact the ASEAN-centered regional cooperation architecture, Wang said, adding that the AUKUS cooperation is designed to serve the U.S. geopolitical agenda with the means of military deterrence. It runs counter to the ASEAN way of mutual respect, openness and inclusiveness, consensus through consultation, and accommodating the comfort levels of all sides, undercuts ASEAN countries' effort to establish a Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone and seriously undermines the ASEAN-centered regional cooperation architecture in East Asia.

Wang said thirdly, it will seriously impact peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific. AUKUS introduces group politics and Cold War confrontation into the Asia-Pacific, and is aimed to create a NATO-replica in the region.

"If this attempt succeeds, it forebodes unprecedented threats and challenges to the decades-long stability and prosperity in the region," the spokesperson said.

Wang said the U.S., the UK and Australia should listen to the call of the international community and countries in the region, stop pursuing bloc politics and confrontation, stop putting their selfish geopolitical agenda above nuclear non-proliferation obligations and stop coercing the IAEA into endorsing their nuclear submarine cooperation.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Low levels of oxygen in Australia's second longest river were to blame for a mass fish die-off recently in a remote part of New South Wales state, environmental authorities said.

Thousands of dead fish have been found this week in the Darling River near the town of Menindee, around 1,000km (620 miles) west of the state capital Sydney.

It follows fish deaths in the same area in 2018 and 2019 where up to a million fish died from poor water flow, poor water quality, and sudden temperature changes.

The NSW Department of Planning and Environment's water division said on Twitter that "dissolved oxygen levels remain a concern for fish health" in the area.

"There is a large number of fish deaths (predominantly Bony Herring) in the Darling River between Lake Wetherell and Menindee township," the agency said on Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of dead fish had been found in the river, and state fisheries officers had been sent to the area to assess the issue, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Saturday.

Footage posted to Twitter by SBS showed a boat navigating through thousands of dead fish blanketing the entire surface of the river.

The state planning and environment agency warned river oxygen levels could fall futher this weekend as temperatures rise, before cooler conditions return next week.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
A suspect was charged on suspicion in the shooting death of a man and the shooting of the man's 18-year-old pregnant girlfriend, Metro Nashville Police said Saturday morning.

Eric Contreras, 19, was shot to death at 8:35 p.m. Friday in the 4700 block of McBride Road in Antioch. His girlfriend, Alena Dean, 18, was shot and injured.

Kevin Rivera, 19, was arrested at 5 a.m. Saturday morning on Farmingdale Drive in LaVergne. He was charged with criminal homicide and attempted criminal homicide.

"Contreras was found lying in the street with a wound to his head and died shortly after arriving at the hospital. Dean was found inside a car wounded and is expected to survive," MNPD said.

"The investigation, being led by Detective Chris Cote, shows that the three parties knew each other. Contreras and Dean were sitting in a vehicle on McBride Road when Rivera arrived. Contreras and Rivera had a brief conversation just before the shots were fired. The gunfire appears to be connected to an ongoing dispute."

The agency's homicide and TITANS units were assisted by LaVergne Police.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville shooting death: Man charged with homicide in Antioch
A man is dead after he was shot in Lawrence Friday night.

According to the office of the Essex District Attorney, Lawrence police received a series of 911 calls just before midnight, reporting shots fired and a man down in the area of 216 Walnut Street.

Upon arrival, police say they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound.

The man was taken to Lawrence General Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to authorities.

The name of the victim is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The incident is under investigation.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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A Woodstock man was sentenced this week after the largest heroin bust ever in Cherokee County.

On Feb. 2023, a Cherokee County jury convicted 40-year-old Edward Jay Lionel Ball of distribution of methamphetamine, distribution of heroin, trafficking heroin, manufacturing heroin and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to Cherokee County Acting District Attorney Susan K. Treadaway.

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Officials said the charges stem from a Cherokee Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad investigation in response to a tip about 39-year-old Reginald Jerome Foster selling methamphetamine in Cherokee County.

During the investigation, CMANS agents observed Ball selling Foster methamphetamine and heroin in the pool parking lot in the Kingsgate subdivision in Woodstock.

Court documents said Foster later sold drugs to an undercover agent.

On Jun. 27, 2019, law enforcement executed a search warrant of Balls house in Kingsgate that he was renting.

According to court documents, CMANS agents discovered nearly a pound of heroin in a baking dish sitting on the stove, surrounded by kitchen tools.

After determining that the level of heroin in the homes air was hazardous, law enforcement resumed the search warrant wearing hazmat gear. The house was also deemed unsafe for habitation.

TRENDING STORIES:

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported that the heroin found in Balls home totaled more than 245 grams, substantially more than the 28 grams required for the highest level of trafficking charge per Georgia law.

Court documents said agents also found methamphetamine, scales and baggies used for distribution, handguns and ammunition.

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According to court documents, a co-defendant testified that Ball was using his kitchen to cut the heroin, essentially adding substances to expand the product and increase profit. In addition, she said that she would travel with Ball to buy and sell large amounts of drugs from and to other drug dealers in the metro Atlanta area and that if she ever tried to leave the partnership, Ball would become physically violent with her.

In addition to Ball being charged, Foster and 35-year-old Katie Marissa Zepeta were arrested for their part in the crimes.

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On Apr. 28, 2021, Foster pled guilty to selling methamphetamine, selling heroin, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and other charges.

On Aug. 22, 2022, Zepeta pled guilty to trafficking heroin.

Ball was sentenced to 60 years with 45 years to serve in confinement and the remainder on probation.

Zepeta and Foster were sentenced to 20 years, with 10 to serve in confinement.
Phoenix police.

Authorities are seeking the person who shot and killed a man early Saturday morning during a break-in at a north Phoenix home.

Just after midnight, officers responded to a shooting at a home in the area of 18th Avenue and Ocotillo Road and found Daniel Perez Jr., 40, wounded by gunshots, according to police. Perez was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Detectives gathered information indicating a man forced entry into the home, demanded property and shot Perez before running off, police detailed. No other description on the suspect was given by police.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact the Phoenix Police or Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS (948-6377), or for Spanish, 480-TESTIGO (837-8446).

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Man shot dead in north Phoenix home invasion; police seek assailant
The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office reported a person shot in the hand during a robbery in a College Gardens neighborbood Saturday morning.

At around 8:30 a.m., Jacksonville Sheriffs Office responds to a person shot at 1600 College Circle East.

According to JSO, the victim met with a woman inside a home.

There was an additional woman inside the house who confronted the victim with a firearm and took items from him.

During the struggle, the victim was shot in the hand.

The victim was able to flee the scene and flag down a police officer.

Both suspects are in custody.

The victim was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

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Read: JSO says that one man is in custody after a Hyde Park neighborhood shooting leaves one injured

Read: Aiden Fuccis defense files motion to prohibit testimony of alleged prior bad acts

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Dallas police are searching for a man who they say stole hundreds of dollars in lottery tickets.

Police said on Sunday, a man went into the 7-Eleven and the Ingles I-Market in Dallas and asked to purchase hundreds of dollars worth of lottery tickets. The man then went out to his car, claiming he left money in his vehicle.

According to police, he grabbed the lottery tickets, walked out of the store with them and left.

ALSO READ: Thief poses as lottery official, steals tickets, dispenser in elaborate scheme'

The same man is also a suspect in a similar theft in Lincoln County, police said.

Officers shared surveillance photos of the man they are searching for.

Dallas police are asking for the public's help to identify a man accused in a string of lottery ticket thefts.

Police say they are looking for a blue Ford Fusion model year 2013 to 2016 with factory hubcaps and a North Carolina temporary tag.

Dallas Police are asking anyone with information or that may recognize the man to call (704) 922-3116 or Gaston County Communications at (704) 866-3300 and ask to speak with a Dallas police officer.

(WATCH BELOW: Gastonia store has become known for winning lottery tickets)
Motley Fool

Macroeconomic headwinds, historically high inflation, and rising interest rates sent many struggling Americans scrambling to file their tax returns as early as possible, in hopes of getting a much-needed refund. Indeed, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reported that by early February it had received nearly 14% more returns than it had compared to the prior year. As a result, the IRS has taken the unusual step of urging millions of early filers -- particularly those who submitted their federal tax return before Feb. 10 -- to consider filing an amended return.
Residents and city leaders gather to unveil a new monument that acknowledges and condemns the historical injustices of Bruce's Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

After nearly three years of controversy and intense debate, Manhattan Beach on Saturday held a ceremony of its own to acknowledge its racist history at Bruces Beach  and to mark what city leaders are calling a new chapter of healing.

More than 100 residents, city staff and government officials gathered to reflect on the fact that the city once ran an entire community of Black beachgoers out of town. Standing before a new monument that spelled out this historical injustice, Mayor Steve Napolitano asked the crowd to join him in a moment of silence.

"It has been a long road  too long  to get here," said Napolitano, who personally apologized to all the Black families whose properties had been seized by the city a century ago  and who called on the rest of the City Council to do the same. "We're here today to unveil a new plaque, to reconcile our history, confront some uncomfortable truths, and recognize how far we've come  while acknowledging how far we still need to go."

While Los Angeles County led the unprecedented charge on returning the county-owned portions of the land back to the Bruce family, the local response on what to do with the rest of the land  which had been turned into a park overlooking the sea  has been subject to immense criticism.

Much of the citys efforts have focused on how to replace a commemorative plaque that had glossed over how and why the land had been taken. City leaders have also dedicated $350,000 for a commemorative art installation that will be the biggest art project ever commissioned in Manhattan Beach.

But deliberations over what the new plaque should say have been charged. Critics say the new text still whitewashes the history of Bruce's Beach, and many questioned whether creating a new monument actually amounts to justice.

"This feels like far too little, far too late," said George Fatheree, a prominent real estate transaction lawyer who represented the Bruce family pro bono.

"Where was the city three years ago when the county started the process of returning the land to the Bruce family? What about the property taken from the other Black families which is still owned by the city of Manhattan Beach?" he said. "This feels like a performative gesture rather than an earnest attempt at restitution and reconciliation."

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Saturday's ceremony acknowledged Gina Young as the great-great-niece of Elizabeth Patterson, whose property had been condemned by Manhattan Beach in the 1920s as part of the seizure of the Bruce's Beach neighborhood. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

The history of Bruces Beach resurfaced in 2020, when a call for justice prompted city, county and state officials to take a closer look at what occurred there.

Charles and Willa Bruce had made their way to California in 1912, years after white developers claimed the ancestral homelands of the Tongva people and established what is known today as Manhattan Beach.

Willa purchased two lots right by the sand and ran a popular lodge that provided a rare welcome to Black beachgoers. A few more Black families, drawn to this new neighborhood that became known as Bruces Beach, bought and built their own cottages by the sea.

But white neighbors resented the growing popularity of Bruces Beach, and the Ku Klux Klan and local real estate agents purportedly plotted to harass them. City officials in 1924 ultimately condemned the entire neighborhood and seized the Black-owned properties, as well as 25 empty lots owned by white speculators. They said there was an urgent need for a public park.

But the properties sat empty for decades. The two Bruce parcels were transferred to the state in 1948, then to the county in 1995. The other lots, still owned by the city of Manhattan Beach, were eventually turned into a park.

Recent actions taken by the county and city in response to this history have been a tale of two reckonings: County leaders promptly sought ways to return the county-owned parcels to the Bruce family. (That transaction, valued at $20 million, was completed last summer in a heartfelt ceremony.)

The response from Manhattan Beach city leaders, meanwhile, has led to one controversy after another. A painstaking history report was completed. An apology drafted. But some expressed concern that an apology would expose the city to potential lawsuits.

While many still take issue with the city refusing to formally apologize to the Bruce family, the mayor's personal apology drew big cheers Saturday. The new plaque also notes that "The City's action at the time was racially motivated and wrong. Today, the City acknowledges and condemns those past actions, and empathizes with those whose property was seized."

The sign also names the other Black families whose properties had been condemned: the Prioleaus, the Johnsons, Ms. Patterson and Ms. Sanders.

Manhattan Beach Mayor Steve Napolitano is helped by Benjamin Leggett, 8, in cutting a ribbon for the official unveiling of the new monument at Bruce's Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Alison Rose Jefferson, a historian who documented the story of Bruces Beach in her book "Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era," said the citys new memorial does illustrate a better understanding of the history  it at least describes the property seizures in clear detail  but there are still a number of inaccuracies in the text.

It also erases a key part of the story: Bruce's Beach should not be remembered only as a place with a painful past  it is also a place where Black entrepreneurship thrived and where Black joy could exist, Jefferson said. Bruces Beach was also a community  a community that needs to be remembered and ultimately rebuilt.

A new monument doesn't change the fact that Manhattan Beach's population today remains less than 1% Black, she said. A monument doesn't change the fact that access to the beach still feels unobtainable to many inland communities of color.

"That is a legacy of chasing the Bruces and the other families out of Manhattan Beach in the 1920s, Jefferson said. What is Manhattan Beach going to do to resolve that?  What is the city going to do to encourage more folks to use the beach, to be able to live in the community?"

The former Bruce's Beach marker, left, was replaced Saturday with a new memorial. Critics said the old marker glossed over the history of why the Bruce family was run out of town. (Rosanna Xia; Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times )

Kavon Ward, who started the grassroots movement Justice for Bruces Beach, said that instead of spending $350,000 on an art installation, the city could have considered new affordable housing policies. The city could have made the Bruce family feel welcome  perhaps even helped them navigate the zoning restrictions on their oceanfront property, rather than just letting it sit there as a public-use-only parcel. (Moving to Manhattan Beach was untenable for the Bruces, who decided last month to sell the property back to the county.)

"Everything as it relates to housing, education, policing  everything today says this is the same Manhattan Beach that it was 100 years ago," said Ward, who is now helping five other Black families in California with stories similar to that of the Bruces. "Manhattan Beach still has a debt to pay to all of the Black families forced out of that community and to all of the Black people they continue to systematically prevent from taking up space in that community."

Mitch Ward, who had sought to bring the history of Bruces Beach to light in 2006 after he became the citys first Black elected official, said he found this passage in the sign particularly offensive: "In addition, twenty-five White-owned properties that sat undeveloped among the Black-owned properties were also condemned."

"The Bruces were targeted in a racist manner by our government, and by racist citizens, and to equate them in any fashion  especially on a historical marker  with someone who simply had a deed, a speculative deed, who lived all the way across the United States  that is a gross misrepresentation of history," he said.

But Ward (no relation to Kavon Ward) acknowledged that Bruce's Beach has in some ways transcended local politics. Visitors across the county now come to the park to reflect and pay homage to what Ward calls a "national treasure for Black people."

The new monument at Bruce's Beach is unveiled Saturday. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Reaching even this inflection point has been far from easy for Manhattan Beach, but many in town hoped Saturdays gathering meant the community had finally found a way to move forward. A page dedicated to the history of Bruces Beach now lives permanently on the citys website, and the city is in the final weeks of accepting proposals for the art installation, which it said should "evoke a sense of peace, healing, and community, and offer an educational opportunity for visitors to learn about the history of this area."

"It cant stop there," said Susan Bales, a longtime resident who said the mayors apology was overdue. "The city needs to also look at other aspects of the city's infrastructure that continue to make this a predominantly white town."

Maya Shivpuri, 14, reads the words on the new monument at Bruce's Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times )

Reviving this history has also led to meaningful discoveries. Gina Young, who lives in Glendale, said she did not know her family had any connection to Bruces Beach until 2021, when she saw that her great-great-aunt, Elizabeth Patterson, was one of the owners whose property had been seized by Manhattan Beach in the 1920s.

"I felt like I needed to be here to support my family," said Young, who attended Saturday's ceremony and appreciated the mayor's apology. "They went through a lot in the '20s and just by me being here is a way to honor that."

Patricia Bruce-Carter, a distant relative who helped connect many of the pieces for Charles and Willa Bruce's direct descendants, said that memorializing this space, even if the text remains flawed, is still significant after almost a century of hurt and intentional erasure.

"I feel a sense of pride, knowing that this Black couple, 100 years ago, came to California, followed their dream, and was successful and was thriving," she said. "It takes much longer than it should  but history is continuing to correct itself, and I am glad to say that I am here to witness it."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
China's ministry releases top 10 scientific advances

Xinhua) 09:31, March 18, 2023

BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Science and Technology Friday released the top 10 domestic scientific advances of 2022.

At the top of the list is the Martian subsurface structure revealed by Mars rover Zhurong's radar instrument. The study not only showed detailed subsurface features of Mars but also provided the observation evidence of the water presence, which helps to shed light on the planet's geologic history and climate conditions.

The detection of active, repeating, fast radio bursts by the FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope) ranked second. This discovery has laid the observation foundation for revealing the origin of the mysterious radio waves.

The third place went to a new principle and technology for hydrogen generation directly from seawater. It solves a technical problem that has long plagued the industry.

Other advances include research on COVID-19 variants and immune escape mechanisms, the development of high-efficiency perovskite solar cells, and the synthesis of the organic compound ethylene glycol.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
 Flash

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne delivers a speech at the National Assembly in Paris, France, March 16, 2023. (Photo by Rit Heize/Xinhua)

Two no-confidence motions had been filed by Friday afternoon against the French government led by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who forced passage of the controversial pension reform bill without a vote in the National Assembly.

The first multiparty motion was filed by the centrist opposition group LIOT. It was co-signed by 91 opposition deputies from different parties.

The second motion was tabled by the far-right National Rally party, which has 88 deputies in the National Assembly. The deputies argue that the pension overhaul is "unfair and unnecessary."

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne delivers a speech at the National Assembly in Paris, France, March 16, 2023. (Photo by Rit Heize/Xinhua)

Borne on Thursday triggered an article of the country's Constitution that allows the government to force passage of the controversial pension reform bill without a vote in the National Assembly.

According to Paragraph 3 of Article 49 of the French Constitution, the prime minister may, after consulting with the Council of Ministers, impose the adoption of a bill by the National Assembly without a vote. The only way for the National Assembly to veto this is to pass a no-confidence motion against the government.

Should any of the two no-confidence motions be endorsed by an absolute majority -- 289 votes in favor -- Borne would have to submit to French President Emmanuel Macron the resignation of her government.

Parliament members hold placards during a speech by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne at the National Assembly in Paris, France, March 16, 2023. (Photo by Rit Heize/Xinhua)
Last week, a Maricopa County Attorney dismissed the case of Ruben Ruiz III, who was charged with first-degree murder, burglary, and armed robbery.

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has dismissed the case of a man who was charged with a January 2022 murder in Phoenix.

County prosecutors moved to dismiss the case of Ruben Ruiz III, 23, who was charged with first-degree murder, burglary and armed robbery last year, after Marko Toma, 23, was found fatally shot in a motel room at a north Phoenix motel.

The case was about to go to trial when the state sought to dismiss Ruiz's case without prejudice on March 6. That means the county can still file charges in the future.

Ruiz's attorney, Corwin Townsend, was not told why.

"They didn't really give an explanation as to why they were dismissing the case, other than they weren't ready to proceed to trial. They didn't give us clear answers."

At about 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, officers responded to calls of shots fired at a Phoenix motel off 23rd Avenue and Bell Road. Toma was found dead in one of the motel's rooms with a gunshot wound to the head.

Toma was a regular dealer for Ruiz, according to court documents. He owed Ruiz $8,000 for drugs, though he was able to negotiate his debt down to $2,000, police alleged when they booked Ruiz into jail. Police later corroborated that information during an interview with Ruiz's next of kin.

Toma visited the motel to avoid the ones his mother and brother were occupying because Ruiz had visited those motels to try and gather his debt from Toma, court documents showed. The documents also showed that Ruiz had told Toma's sister-in-law that he was going to hurt Toma, even if he paid his debt, so he could be "made an example of."

Court documents showed that Toma arrived at the motel at about 3:16 a.m. He and his longtime friend Chelsea Crespo, who worked at the motel, were in her room. Someone knocked on the door, entered and pointed a gun at Toma. Crespo later identified the intruder to be Ruiz, according to court documents.

Ruben Ruiz III arrested:Police arrest suspect after Phoenix motel shooting over drug debt

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As Toma tried to move away from Ruiz when he entered the room, Ruiz shot him once in the back of his head, Crespo told police, according to court documents. After that, Crespo said that Ruiz picked up Toma's handgun and left the motel room.

Crespo then asked motel management to call 911. On the way to the room where Toma was shot, the manager saw a man wearing a dark-colored hoodie and pants, running away from the room. That description matched the one given by Crespo, according to court documents.

Later that day, investigators arrested Ruiz at about 3 p.m. when he was leaving an apartment complex near 15th Avenue and Bell Road.

In an interview with police, Ruiz admitted that he sold drugs with Toma and was mad that the victim owed him $2,000, according to court documents. However, he denied being at the motel in the morning and shooting Toma.

He was later booked into a Maricopa County jail on suspicion of first-degree murder.

Townsend believes that the state does not have enough evidence to take his client to trial.

"If they had the evidence, they wouldn't be dismissing," he said. "Using logic, they must not have the evidence because if they did, they'd be going forward with trial."

Townsend said that with all the testing that's been done so far, no DNA, fingerprints or video evidence connects his client to the crime.

He also said he believes charges were dropped because Crespo, the state's only witness, was unreliable.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Maricopa County dismisses case of Phoenix man accused of murder
When Marines and sailors from a II Marine Expeditionary Force task force arrived in Naples, Italy, in the last week of January, their commander told them they had to be ready to respond to crises.

If something arose, we needed to have a mobile comms system able to be deployed and a small element that was ready to respond, Col. Ryan Hoyle, leader of Task Force 61/2 Naval Amphibious Forces Europe, recalled telling his troops. Hoyle is also the commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, whose command element made up the task force.

Two weeks later, on Feb. 6, a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey.

More than 45,000 in Turkey have died as a result of the quake and its aftershocks, according to the Turkish government, and more than 160,000 buildings have either collapsed or been severely damaged. In neighboring Syria, approximately 6,000 were killed.

The first troops from Task Force 61/2 arrived at Incirlik Air Base on Feb. 8  home to the U.S. Air Forces 39th Air Base Wing  and immediately got to work, spearheading command and control while receiving significant help from 39 ABW and the Armys 1st Combat Aviation Brigade.

At the peak of operations, 34 troops from the task force were involved, according to Capt. Kenzie Margroum, a Marine spokeswoman.

The detachments main job was to coordinate the complicated flow of requests for aid and figure out which resources should go where, working in particular with the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, and Turkish officials.

Hoyle said he saw Marines in their downtime  when they probably should have been sleeping  help Turkish and other U.S. troops load and unload the aircraft carrying supplies.

The stack of stuff that needed to go on there was maybe 50 meters away, and you would just see the flow of Marines and soldiers and airmen intermixed with the Turkish military and just begin to hand the stuff from person to person until the helicopters, he said. We may not have been able to speak the same language, but the facial expressions that were there, or the fist bump, or the handshake, spoke volumes of the cooperation that was there.

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At the request of the Turkish government, and with help from USAID, Marines and other U.S. troops went to the city of Antakya to build a 100-bed field hospital, complete with an emergency room, two operating rooms and an intensive care unit. The task was scheduled to take seven days, but it was done in five, according to a news release.

Brig. Gen. Andrew T. Priddy, leaders from Task Force 61/2, and members of the Turkish Ministry of Health walk through the field hospital at Antakya, Turkey, on March 2, 2023. (Sgt. James Bourgeois/Marine Corps)

Much of Turkey endured aftershocks in the weeks following the earthquake, and Incirlik Air Base was no exception. A 6.4-magnitude aftershock rattled the base on Feb. 20.

That, I think, really drove home that the situation was still a little bit fragile, Hoyle said.

Hoyle added that the Turkish government was still intact and leading its own emergency response, though it welcomed the help from the joint force.

We recognized that we could contribute and help where the Turkish people needed us to and where the Turkish Government wanted us to, but what they didnt necessarily want was a very large, international military presence, he said.

Gen. David Berger, the Marine commandant, told Defense One in February that the Corps would have liked to have had the option of sending a full Marine expeditionary unit to Turkey, but was unable to without amphibious ships in the area.

Here, I felt like the best option, we couldnt offer them because we have the Marines and the equipment and theyre trained, we didnt have the ships, Berger told Defense One.

Bergers comments came ahead of the release of the proposed Defense Department fiscal-year 2024 budget, which contained no funding for new amphibious warships. Marine generals have insisted that the Corps needs the Navy to maintain a minimum of 31 amphibs.

A MEU that is forward-deployed aboard three amphibious ships gives leaders in a theater a wide set of options, without imposing a large military footprint on another country, Hoyle told Marine Corps Times the week before the budget proposal came out.

We all want to be able to have the full MEU in theater, especially when theres a crisis that needs a response, Hoyle said. And I think, going back to the commandants comments, that is what we would all desire.

Hoyle emphasized that even though the Marine task force has now left Turkey, with its last member departing on March 9, the U.S. government is still providing support through USAID and connections with non-governmental organizations.

And the field hospital that the troops helped build is up and running.

The gratitude of the Turkish doctors and nurses that were getting ready to take that facility over and begin to provide the medical services was an incredible experience to see, Hoyle said.
Max Martin

The number of hit records that songwriter/producer Max Martin has been involved in is almost comically high, so whats his secret?

The super-Swede of the studio rarely gives interviews, but as & Juliet, his jukebox musical, landed in Australia this week, he spoke to News.com.au about his creative approach. And it turns out that Martins secret is pretty simple: lots of hard work and attention to detail.

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I think Im trying to make every part good, he explains. If we do our job right, I think every second needs to be awesome. And I hate when people zone out. I want to be engaged the whole time. Songs that, when you hear it on the radio, you just want to hear it over and over again. Thats the thing that you want.

Despite being the go-to guy for artists who want to have a hit, Martin says that he doesnt go out of his way to try and write successful songs, but it just so happens that his taste is aligned with a lot of other peoples.

That said, he does make some concessions to commerciality: If you have a song that feels pretty catchy, you might not make it 15 minutes long - you make decisions to make it user-friendly, so to speak. But my intentions are pure: I want to just create something that we love in the room. Whatever happens after that, its up to the world to decide.

Fortunately for Martin, the world has decided that it likes an awful lot of his records. His magic touch has helped to create hits for Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry, The Weeknd, Coldplay, Taylor Swift and many, many more. Not all of these have been all-out pop records, either; hes dabbled in rock and R&B, too.

Explaining how hes managed to evolve his sound and stay relevant, Martin says that being a fan of popular culture has helped. I feel you have to recognise that its always evolving, otherwise it wouldnt be popular culture, he points out. So I think its part of the mystery and the challenge of being in it is to also like, Hey, whats going on?

In the end, though, he humbly suggests that his longevity is primarily down to the quality of the artists hes worked with: I would say the main reason Im still around is purely the fact that Ive been working with people who make me look really, really good.
Rebecca Waddington has flown where no normal pilot dares to soar and made history in the process.

In 2018, Waddington, who was a lieutenant commander, and Captain Kristie Twining flew toward the Hawaii-bound Hurricane Hector in the first NOAA hurricane mission with an all-female flight crew at the helm.

A year later, she was making history once more as part of NOAA's first all-female, three-pilot crew while surveying Hurricane Dorian. This time, she was joined again by Twining as well as Lt. Lindsey Norman.

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"To be honest, I didn't even realize that we were making history in that moment," Waddington, now an executive director at NOAA, told AccuWeather On-Air Meteorologist Melissa Costanzer about her first hurricane mission in 2018. "I was so focused on the storm itself."

With a background in meteorology, Waddington hadn't originally planned on becoming a pilot. But then her career shifted when she realized she could combine the two jobs.

"I thought, what better way to research hurricanes than to be in one?" Waddington said.

Lt. Comdr. Rebecca Waddington (left) and Captain Kristie Twining (right) in the cockpit of the Gulfstream IV jet as they flew toward Hurricane Hector in 2018. (NOAA/CDR Brad Fritzler)

The Air Force Reserve "Hurricane Hunters" consists of a group of pilots who fly through and over hurricanes to collect weather data for meteorologists and other scientists for forecasting and research purposes.

The aircraft used by NOAA for these missions include two sturdy Lockheed WP-3D Orion ("P-3") nicknamed "Kermit the Frog" and "Miss Piggy," and one agile Gulfstream IV-SP ("G-IV") nicknamed "Gonzo" after beloved characters from The Muppets.

The Hurricane Hunters use one of the P-3's to fly into the center of the storm while the G-IV collects upper-level atmospheric data around the storm. Waddington flew the latter aircraft on both missions, tasked with dropping data collection devices called "dropsondes" from the aircraft and collecting vital information to be used in research and forecasting.

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"These are weather instruments similar to weather balloons that are launched from the ground, but we're launching them from the aircraft," Waddington explained. "So we dropped them from 45,000 feet and it takes about 15 minutes for them to fall to the surface of the ocean."

During those 15 minutes, the dropsonde records wind speed, direction, pressure, temperature and humidity before sending the info back to the plane, where a meteorologist checks the quality of the data.

The Gulfstream IV-SP ("G-IV"), nicknamed "Gonzo," is used to survey hurricanes while flying around 45,000 feet. Here, the crew drops dropsondes to record temperature, wind direction, pressure and humidity data. (Jillian Angeline)

In a male-dominated field, Waddington has also been a part of efforts to encourage younger folks to take the leap and try new opportunities "that maybe they never thought were possible."

This includes attending the Women in Aviation Conference as a part of NOAA and participating in Girls in Aviation Day at the agency's home base in Florida's Lakeland Linder International Airport.

"I think in any field, it's great to have a diversity of thought, diversity of experience, and women are still a minority in aviation and in STEM in general," Waddington said. "I think the more they see [people who are] representative of them, the more that interest will be."

Want next-level safety, ad-free? Unlock advanced, hyperlocal severe weather alerts when you subscribe to Premium+ on the AccuWeather app.AccuWeather Alerts are prompted by our expert meteorologists who monitor and analyze dangerous weather risks 24/7 to keep you and your family safer.
Mexico's popular president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rallied more than 100,000 supporters Saturday in Mexico City, attacking the country's right, its "oligarchs" and the United States, just over a year before elections to choose his successor.

The rally marked the 85th anniversary of the nationalization of the oil industry, a key event in Mexican history.

Denouncing US Republican lawmakers' push to send the US military to battle Mexican drug cartels, Lopez Obrador told the crowd: "Cooperation yes, submission, no!"

"Mexico is an independent and free country and not a colony or a protectorate of the United States," he told his supporters, who gathered in the city's famous Zocalo main square.

Lopez Obrador also accused the opposition conservative PAN party of being born out of "criticizing the oil expropriation" that led to the industry's nationalization.

"Whatever they do, the oligarchs will not return to power," he said, defending his administration's accomplishments such as a rise in average salary and strengthening of the peso.

Despite approval ratings above 60 percent, the president must leave power at the end of a single six-year mandate, as provided by the constitution.

Buoyed by his popularity, his Movement for National Regeneration (Morena) is widely favored to stay in power.

Still unclear is who will stand for Morena in 2024. Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard are the favorites.

Lopez Obrador said he was "convinced" that the party's nominee would "apply the same policies in favor of the people and in favor of the nation."

Saturday's rally comes three weeks after an opposition demonstration against his electoral reform approved by Congress.

The reform threatens the National Electoral Institute (INE), which organizes elections, opposition and some civil society leaders say. They have announced appeals to the Supreme Court.

The United States voiced concern about the impact of the reform on the independence of powers in Mexico. Lopez Obrador has slammed the remarks as meddling.

sem/axm/mdl/bfm/mtp
Miami Beach officials will not impose a curfew Saturday and will stick to their spring break programming and policing plans after a deadly shooting rocked Ocean Drive on Friday night.

City spokesperson Matt Kenny confirmed the decision to the Miami Herald around noon Saturday.

Given that this seems to have been an isolated incident occurring before midnight, and the crowds have been otherwise calm, it would be hard to justify and legally defend an emergency curfew, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said in a text message. Obviously we continue to monitor and if circumstances change, we will take whatever measures are necessary and appropriate to protect the public.

Two people were shot, one fatally, after 10:30 p.m. on crowded Ocean Drive near Seventh Street as a relatively peaceful spring break was rattled by gunfire for a second straight year. Both victims were taken to Ryder Trauma Center, where one died, Miami Beach police spokesperson Ernesto Rodriguez said. The other victim was released from the hospital Saturday.

Rodriguez said the department confirmed it was an isolated incident. It wasnt immediately clear whether the shooter has been detained. Rodriguez said police recovered four guns at the scene and had one male in custody who is cooperating fully with the investigation.

Miami Beach Police Departments staffing remains enhanced and supplemented with assistance from neighboring law enforcement agencies, Rodriguez said.

In each of the past two years, Miami Beach officials declared a state of emergency and implemented curfews in South Beach during spring break in mid-March. Last year, the city declared a midnight curfew following a pair of shootings on Ocean Drive. In 2021, SWAT teams were deployed to enforce an 8 p.m. curfew.

City officials have taken various steps to try to prevent violence and create a safer environment during spring break, in part by planning events during each weekend in March. Some Miami Beach residents have decried the large crowds in South Beach and called for change, while the citys police department has previously faced criticism for its aggressive treatment of young, mostly Black spring breakers.

Story continues

The citys decision not to make substantial changes Saturday means Ocean Drive will remain closed to cars from Fifth to 13th streets, and that Art on the Drive, a three-day offshoot of the Carnaval Miami street festival featuring art and music, will continue from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

On Friday, artist tents were closed and fenced off by early evening and music had concluded by around 9 p.m. Thousands of people, many who had been at the beach earlier in the day, took over Ocean Drive to dance, drink and walk around.

The atmosphere Friday night was mostly calm despite the large crowds. But several moments of panic, including after gunshots rang out, sent a rush of people running and caused near-stampede situations. Around 10 p.m., crowds gathered on Ocean Drive near Eighth Street bolted away from the street twice in a matter of minutes.

Bystanders said they werent sure what had caused people to flee. Rodriguez, the Miami Beach police spokesperson, said these appeared to be false alarms, and police were not aware of any injuries.
A Miami man used Instagram to find underage girls and pay them for sex  sexually battering a 15-year-old and 13-year-old, police said.

Mauricio Hernandez, 25, is facing nine charges including human trafficking, sexual battery of a minor, soliciting a child to engage in sex, lewd and lascivious battery on a child and interference with custody. As of Friday, he was still in jail.

On Wednesday, the Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office Human Trafficking Task Force received a tip that a 15-year-old was involved in an Instagram group where children were connected with adults who wanted to have sex for money, an arrest report read.

A Miami police detective spoke to the young girl, who detailed multiple sexual encounters with Hernandez. She said they met on Instagram and he offered money for sex.

She told the detective they met three times for sex and on two of those occasions Hernandez arranged for an Uber to pick her up near her middle school while class was in session, the report read.

As authorities investigated the original tip, they discovered a 13-year-old girl who was also sexually battered by Hernandez, police say.

She also met Hernandez on Instagram, and said he told her hed give her money for sex. After having intercourse in his car, she said, he tried to give her a vape pen and wanted her to tell him if she knew other young girls who would agree to have sex for money.

After talking to both victims, Miami detectives set up a sting operation to catch Hernandez on Wednesday, the report read.

As detectives watched, the 13-year-old messaged Hernandez asking for help to fund her 8th Grade field trip. He said he would only help if he could have sex with her.

Authorities arrested Hernandez at his home. He later confessed to knowing the girls were in middle school and paying to have sex with them, they say.
A single-story, Miami Township house caught fire Saturday overnight.

>> TRENDING: At least 1 hospitalized after car crashed into house in Trotwood

Centerville Fire were dispatched to the 6100 block of Sonia Circle at around 12:20 a.m. on reports of a structure fire, Montgomery County Regional Dispatch told News Center 7.

When firefighters arrived on scene, they found a single-story residential house fully involved in flames, Kettering Dispatchwho also dispatches for Miami Townshipstated.

As firefighters searched for the root of the fire, they discovered the basement fully engulfed, first responders said over emergency scanners. Crews attempted to find an entryway into the basement to attack and extinguish the flames.

While crews worked, a spokesperson for the department posted on Facebook to avoid the area.

Firefighters were able to successfully extinguish the fire.

The house was unoccupied at the time of the fire, dispatch said. As a result, no medics were called to the scene.
REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Amid a looming potential indictment for Donald Trump over a 2016 hush-money payment that sent his former attorney Michael Cohen to prison, Trumps ex-fixer urged his current lawyers to get as far from their client as possible.

During an interview with MSNBC host Chris Hayes and Cohen, the names of several of Trumps lawyers were mentioned, including Joe Tacopina, Alina Habba and Evan Corcoran. Tacopina has been speaking to the press about a potential indictment, which reportedly could come next week, while Habba and Corcoran are involved in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation. (A federal judge on Friday ordered Corcoran to provide more testimony in the Justice Departments probe.)

There are so many more people that are around [Trump] in terms of lawyers, that the big joke thats out there now is that MAGA really stands for make attorneys get attorneys, and sadly thats really the truth, Cohen said.

Habba and Trump himself, Cohen pointed out, were fined nearly $1 million for a frivolous lawsuit targeting Hillary Clinton.

Hayes, after mentioning Cohens time in prison, asked if he had anything pertinent to say to Corcoran, Habba, or anyone who is considering signing up for this assignmentreferring to an indictment if it should come.

Cohen first said they should recall his testimony before the House Oversight Committee in Feb. 2019.

I turned around and I had said to both Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), I know what you are doing, and I know the place that you are trying to run, because I wrote the playbook, and it didnt work out well for me, and its not going to work out well for you, Cohen said.

The smartest thing that a lawyer can do, if Donald Trump asks to represent him in this nightmare that he is going to be living: run! Cohen urged. Run as fast as you canand dont run to Florida, and especially not Palm Beach. Run someplace east or west, but definitely dont get involved with Donald. Thats what I would say.

Story continues

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov announced on March 18 that the grain deal, which has enabled Ukraine to export millions of tonnes of agricultural products via the Black Sea, has been extended for another 120 days.

The UN and Turkey-brokered deal, signed in July, has been paramount in subduing soaring food prices worldwide. Ukraine is a major exporter of wheat, sunflower oil, and other food products worldwide. According to the UN, food prices fell by 17.9 percent in February from an all-time high in March 2022.

While Moscow has said over the past week that it does not object to the renewal of the grain deal, there had been uncertainty over whether the deal would be extended for 120 days, as the previous extensions. Moscow had called for a 60-day term, which was swiftly rejected by Kyiv.

"Ukraine is one of the key links of global food security, so we insist that the grain deal be open-ended and automatically extended for 120 days," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a government meeting on March 17, a day before the grain deal was renewed by both sides.

Since the landmark grain deal kicked off in August 2022, over 800 ships carrying more than 23 million tonnes of grain and food commodities have left three Black Sea ports in the southern Odesa Oblast, BBC reported on March 16, citing the UN's Joint Coordination Centre (JCC)'s data.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine emphasises that the liberation of the occupied territories of Ukraine, including Crimea, is only a matter of time.

Source: Foreign Ministry's comment on the ninth anniversary of Russia's illegal "referendum" in Crimea

Details: The ministry reminded that on 16 March, it was nine years since Russia held a fake "referendum on the status of Crimea". Meanwhile, 18 March marks the ninth anniversary of the attempted illegal annexation, when the so-called "agreements on the accession of Crimea to the Russian Federation" were signed.

"It is reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is wanted by international justice for war crimes, arrived in the temporarily occupied Crimea today," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The authority emphasised that in September 2022, Russia repeated the trick with fake "referendums" in the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Donetsk oblasts of Ukraine.

Quote: "Both in 2014 and 2022, the show with referendums has no consequences for Ukraine's administrative-territorial system and internationally recognized borders. The Armed Forces of Ukraine have already liberated most of the territories where these were held in 2022.

The liberation of all other temporarily occupied territories will also take place. It is just a matter of time."

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!






Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast

Last week, the Mississippi Senate majoritya solidly white bloc of Republicansvoted to move forward with legislation that bears an unmistakable likeness to laws from the states notorious Jim Crow era.

The legislation first garnered national attention as it moved through the House, because it sought to create a new and distinct criminal justice district containing all of the whitest neighborhoods within the capital city of JacksonAmericas second Blackest citywhich would be overseen by an unelected and unaccountable white power base.

While the original version of HB 1020 has since been amended, purging some of its most controversial provisions, the legislation approved by the Senate still allows for a white conservative takeover of majority-Black Jacksons courts and policing. In other words, as Mississippi-based writer and activist Makani Themba told me, theres still plenty about the bill that turns Jackson into a colony.

Jim Crow Is Resurrected in Mississippi

In fact, the changes to the law seem merely aesthetic when examining how the details lay the foundation for white power seizure. Yes, the expanded Capitol zonethe city-within-a-city proposed by HB 1020has been scrapped, and with it, language that would have numerically expanded the ranks of the Capitol police force.

But the bill now vastly expands the same departments powers, giving the Capitol force jurisdiction over an entire city already policed by the Jackson Police Department. That gives ultimate authority to white Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, an appointee of ultra-conservative Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.

And while the Senate bill eliminates the two supervising judgeships that were to be filled by Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Randolph, it still tasks the conservative white jurist with picking five judges to serve in Hinds Countys courts, alongside the four elected judges already on the bench. Those five appointed juriststhree of whom would handle both civil and criminal cases, and two who would solely decide criminal matterswould ostensibly be temporary, according to the Senate statute, serving until the end of 2026. But even when their tenure is up, the law empowers the legislaturewhich is to say, the white conservatives who dominate Mississippis state houseto decide if majority-Black Jackson deserves to add a permanent elected judge to its courts.

Story continues

The paternalistic white power takeover of Jackson, thus, remains afoot in the Senate bill.

For at least the next three-and-a-half years, the majority-Black populace of Jackson will be the only Mississippians whose criminal and civil concerns are decided by a slate of unelected judges they were never allowed to vote upon. Whats more, Jacksons overwhelmingly Black population will be doubly policedby both the JPD and the Capitol forcethe latter being a state-backed entity with no accountability to city leaders or residents, and which lacks an oversight board or established requirements for public transparency following shootings.

Its no wonder that Arkela Lewis, whose son Jaylen was killed by Capitol police in one of the seven shootings committed by its officers over the last six months, has said an expansion of the departments powers will be a horrible thing for the city of Jackson, for people of color in Jackson.

There are definitely issues around policing without accountability and not answering to any real constituency, Themba, who is also chief strategist at Higher Ground Change Strategies, told The Daily Beast. There are also issues around the other precedents that it sets up. For example, when we wanted to protest in the capitol areaand oftentimes we are protesting the governorwe would go to the city for a permit. Now we have to go to the Capitol Police. What will that do to our right to protest? To our right to speech? My sense is that its going to be very different than what it was like working with the city around those kinds of things. So, theres all kinds of ways in which our constitutional rights are being undermined.

Ron DeSantis Anti-Free Speech Crusade Would Cancel Fox News

State Rep. Trey Lamar, the white Republican who penned the House bill, has insisted theres nothing racist about the law in its original or revised form. The lawmaker has said his only goal is to drive down Jacksons crime rate, which has increased in recent years, and to address the related backlog of criminal cases in the Hinds Countys courts. (Lamar recently pulled a Trumpian fake news accusation of sorts, telling local CBS affiliate WJTV that most everybody here, including Republicans and Democrats, regardless or in spite of what the national news is portraying, are in lockstep that wed like to see a safer capital city.)

Lee Yancey, a Republican House member who not only voted for Mississippis 2022 ban on so-called critical race theory, but also proposed a failed bill to provide grants for teaching patriotic education, also spoke in favor of HB 1020, while criticizing opponents for accusing Republicans of anti-Black racism.

Its terrible the way things are in Mississippi now. You basically have a white Republican Party and a Black Democrat Party, and no longer can you have a debate about policy. Every single thing is about race I understand that people who are of African American race have a perspective that I dont have and I try to put myself in their shoes, Yancey stated on a local radio show. The fact of the matter is, people are scared to go to the city of Jackson because of the crime rate, because of the murders, because of the carjackings, and something has to be done.

Everyone wants to feel safe in their home city. But few Jacksonians seem to believe the way to achieve safety is for white conservatives to swoop in, usurp the power of the citys elected Democratic Black lawmakers and judges, disenfranchise the citys Black denizens, and send in a militarized police force.

Again and again, public safety and fear-mongering around crime has been wielded by white conservatives to seize control of cities from Black lawmakers.

More Guns and Cops at Schools Are Not the Answer

In St. Louis, Missouri, the legislature is currently considering a bill that would disempower local leaders, including the citys Black mayor, Tishaura Jones, allowing the state to take over the citys policereinstating a rule originally instituted in 1861 by the states pro-slavery governor. Kansas Citys Black Mayor Quinton Lucas and other local lawmakers are currently trying to regain control of the citys police department from the state, which took over law enforcement during Reconstruction to tamp down emancipated Black folks rights.

Likewise, multiple members of Jacksons Black leadership class have identified crime as a Trojan Horse used by those who seek, as a white delegate of the states 1890 Convention put it, to ensure white supremacy.

HB 1020 is one of a slew of bills that would give the state authority over Jacksons local matters. Another bill filed by Lamar, HB 1168, would dictate how the city uses a percentage of its sales tax revenue; SB 2889 would have given the state oversight of $800 million in Biden administration federal funds to repair Jacksons water system. For now, it looks like the latter bill may be dead in the water, and the feds have appointed a manager to ensure those funds are used as intended.

But in that bill and others like it, Themba is reminded of how the Mississippi legislature often spent money earmarked for Jackson in whiter areas, without consequence. After decades of ignoring Jacksons leaders requests for investment in the city, theyre now blaming Black officials for the inevitable end result.

Because of the completely egregious behavior of the state, after 50 years-plus of the diversion of funds, the folks in the Biden administration finally said, You know what? If we want this to actually be fixed, were going to have to give it directly to the cities. So, this is also due to a federal system that does not have the legal and procedural accountability mechanisms in place to hold these states to what they said they were going to use the money for, Themba said.

If the state would allow money that is directed to Jackson to flow directly to Jackson, wed have a whole different kind of situation. They really owe a debt to the citythey basically need to pay reparations for the money that was diverted, she added. With all infrastructure, the one thing thats just a given is that youre going to have to fix it. If wed gotten the money on time, we could've fixed things on time. Now we have a situation that's way worse and that costs more money to deal with because of their behavior. Jackson should not have to bear that alone.

Volunteers at a water distribution site. The city of Jackson is to go without reliable drinking water indefinitely after pumps at the water treatment plant failed, Aug. 31, 2022. Eric Cox/Reuters

In addition to that seeming disregard, there are outstanding questions about whether or not crime and court backlogs are unique to Jackson, as Republicans maintain. Attorney Cliff Johnson, who heads the University of Mississippi Law Schools MacArthur Justice Center, told Mississippi Today that the states online portal, the only source for assessing caseload numbers, suggests other counties have far more pressing problems than Jacksonbut there have been no bills filed to take over those cities.

As we began running reports on criminal dockets, it appeared to us that the backlog in Hinds County was not significantly worse than many other places in Mississippi. In fact, our research showed that other counties had more outstanding cases than Hinds, Johnson told Mississippi Today. Our conclusion at this point is that the legislature could not have made the decision to appoint five temporary judges to the Hinds County Circuit Court based on any meaningful analysis of that courts dockets as compared to the dockets in any other circuit.

Above all, if Lamar and his colleagues cared at all about whats best for Jackson, they might have spoken with any Black residents or officials.

Black Democrats have noted that Lamar did not solicit input from a single member of their delegation, as is standard. At a special hearing held by Jackson Democrats just last week, the Black assistant chief of the citys police, Joseph Wade, stated the meeting was the first time that weve been invited to the table to discuss this bill. Gail Lowery, Hinds Countys Black public defender, testified her office had never been asked about what our real needs are or to paint a picture about what were struggling with to provide constitutional protections to the accused. District Attorney Jody Owens stated he does not support either version of the bill, because without funding more prosecutors, Jackson police or the states long financially strapped crime labwhich was granted just $300,000 under the current billcourt delays will continue.

Lamar claims he reached out to Jacksons Black mayor, Chokwe A. Lumumba, but received no response. Lumumba rejects that contention.

It simply means that my feedback as mayor of the City of Jackson just wasnt valuable enough, Mayor Lumumba told Mississippi Public Radio in February. When [Lamar] talked about the reason why he thought judges should be appointed, he said Well we want to get the best and the brightest. That statement represents that were just not smart enough, were not aware enough of what we need and what our concerns are.

Jim Crow Is Back Because John Roberts Let It Happen

From the beginning, that has been the idea driving this billthat Black folks need white oversight. It is the only assumption that could make such legislation, and the brazen effort to install white power where it has neither been elected nor requested, seem like the right move.

Not to mention that in their haste to overthrow Jacksons leaders and stake their claims on the capital city themselves, Mississippis white Republicans seem to have been willing to violate the states constitution, inviting lawsuits from the NAACP, Legislative Black Caucus, and the ACLUamong various other groups.

Perhaps because they have been largely unstoppable in the recent pastdecades of rigorous gerrymandering and voter suppression having concentrated their powerthe states Republicans can afford to be shamelessly transparent, engaging in what Themba calls a politics of extraction.

Its a strategy that hurts Black Mississippians most of all, but in the end, keeps the state as a whole at the bottom in areas from education to health care. This seems like more of the same.

Mississippi has an issue with investing in its residents, in terms of the state legislature. They tend to do things that benefit a few. And its not just Black residents they diss. They diss poor white folks, too. And they use these weird social policies as a way to curry favor, Themba told me. If they could just take a moment and see this place, and us, its people, as assets, and not just something to be taken apart and sold for parts, it could be a whole different reality. But, of course, theyd have to recognize us as co-residents in this state. And theyd have to see us as human beings.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The Army wants to reframe how soldiers think about mold after a rash of dismal living conditions and moldy barracks last year caused public outcry.

A new "counter mold operation" seeks to put responsibility on the rank and file for reporting moldy housing and also cleaning it, according to an internal Army document detailing training and talking points for troops that was reviewed by Military.com.

"Reframe how we think about mold," the document advises. "Teach others to understand mold as a normal part of our environment, and prevention of it as a routine part of life for every member of the total Army community."

Read Next: The First Casualty of War Is Truth: Iraq 20 Years Later

It also says, "Mold exists, and we have the tools to manage it."

Army planners are expected to roll out the new campaign soon in an effort to tackle the persistent mold growing in junior enlisted barracks across the force. The planning document shows how the service wants to message one of its top priority problems.

The campaign against mold could also include some much-needed relief for soldiers suffering through moldy housing -- a 24-hour response time when any soldier formally reports a mold issue in their barracks, as well as more training for maintenance workers.

The Army has come under intense congressional and public pressure to fix moldy barracks, after Military.com published a series of stories last year detailing the scope of the matter and as Army Secretary Christine Wormuth aims to make quality-of-life issues a legacy of her tenure.

The service is in the early stages of making mold mitigation as common a part of barracks maintenance as mopping, after Army planners met in January to hash out how to combat the mold and other living conditions issues that continue to make headlines.

The talking points, which emphasized that "every member of the Army community is a messenger," urged soldiers to take action "to clean or report" mold when it is identified. They also linked the Army's Maintenance Activity portal as a way to report and document pictures of mold.

Story continues

"Clearly, mold is a challenge in Army facilities and family housing," Lt. Gen. Omar Jones, head of the Army Installation Management Command, told Military.com in an interview Friday.

Jones said the Army is making a number of changes. It is also ordering maintenance teams to make good on a 24-hour response time for any work order from a soldier that relates to mold.

Service maintenance teams -- typically civilian workers -- who usually respond to maintenance issues ranging from leaky faucets to mold discovery are now expected to go through more formal training on mold mitigation and response.

Soldiers interviewed by Military.com said work orders can go ignored for months or get haphazard responses, such as mold simply being painted over or the soldier being told to scrub it off when poor ventilation and other infrastructure conditions are causing the growth.

"I think the days of just living somewhere should be behind us," Jones said, referring to a culture in some pockets of the service where soldiers are expected to deal with their situations without complaint. "I want a consistent standard for work order[s] regarding mold; when someone puts in a work order, they should get a response in 24 hours. If not, I want [soldiers] to highlight that to their leadership, get the chain of command involved."

Army senior leaders have long said quality-of-life issues are a top concern.

In the Army's proposed budget for next year, the service is requesting $288 million to fund new barracks construction, a massive spike in cash from $49 million this year, outpacing growth in weapon programs and key training priorities such as National Training Center rotations.

That proposed funding, which still must be approved by Congress, comes after Wormuth has been increasingly lobbying lawmakers. Still, the money will cover only five new barracks buildings and is a drop in the bucket for what the service needs to significantly improve its living quarters.

A report last year from the Congressional Budget Office found that it would cost $11.2 billion to fix up living quarters just at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, which are generally considered to be in the worst shape.

As Congress and service leaders hash out how to pay for improvements, the Army appears to be pushing its soldiers to own the problem.

The document reviewed by Military.com told soldiers to inform their chains of command if they encounter mold. It said "people are also part of the solution; learning to properly identify, report and remediate mold is everyone's business."

"This is about taking care of our people," the final messaging point read, "the Army's number one priority. The health and welfare of our soldiers, civilians and families is the foundation of Army readiness."

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon

-- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @df_lawrence.

Related: Mold Issues, Poor Housing Conditions for Troops Are Rampant. What Can Congress Do?
Maia Sandu

"Moldovans have never sided with murders, and never will, Sandu said on Moldova-1 TV channel.

We have condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine from the first days of the war.

Read also: Kremlin has plans to turn Moldova into Russian satellite, investigative media reveals

Read also: EU to buy long-range radar for Moldova to detect Russian missiles

The president added that Russia is trying to interfere with Moldovan internal politics.

"We have clear evidence that they want to overthrow the democratically elected by Moldavians government in Chisinau, Sandu said.

We went out and spoke out openly to let people know who our friends are and who our enemies are," Moldovan news site News Maker quoted Sandu as saying.

Earlier, Sandu said that Russia would not be a threat to her country as long as Ukraine was repelling the invading force.

The Moldovan parliament officially condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine on March 2.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The chairperson for the Monroe County chapter of notorious special-interest group Moms For Liberty has been issued a summary charge of harassment, court documents show.

According to a court document, Nicole Marie Prussman, 42, of Albrightsville, was arrested on a summary charge of harassment on Wednesday, March 15 in Pike County.

A non-traffic citation against Prussman was filed in Magisterial District Court 60-3-02 on Thursday, March 16. Both a certified and non-certified summons were issued on Friday, March 17.

Status information for the case shows as of Thursday, the court is awaiting a plea from Prussman.

A Pennsylvania State Police Blooming Grove report shows officers received a report of suspected harassment from a Monroe, New York, woman on Wednesday evening. The victim allegedly received multiple messages from Prussman, even after they messaged her various times to stop contacting them. Prussman allegedly did not stop, and was subsequently charged with harassment.

Prussman is known in the area as the chapter chair of Moms For Liberty, a non-profit organization which claims it advocates for parental rights in schools.

The group has garnered attention across the country as chapters have championed against COVID-19 restrictions in schools, including mask and vaccine mandates, along with fighting curriculums which address LGBTQ+ rights, race, so-called critical race theory, and discrimination.

Some chapters of Moms For Liberty have made a point to attend school board meetings, pushing for the ban of books which address gender and sexuality.

This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: Poconos Moms For Liberty leader charged with harassment
In partnership with Morningstar Properties, Trees Charlotte hosted a citywide tree adoption on Saturday.

Nolan Transportation Group was another sponsor of the event that handed out over 800 trees to residents throughout Charlotte.

ALSO READ: Over 100 trees planted at Nations Ford Elementary on Saturday morning

Anyone who lives in the Queen City was required to register and stop by the pickup site at Charlotte Landscape Management on Tuckaseegee Road. Residents were able to pick up two free trees, mulch them, and learn how to plant and care for their trees.

The tree adoption took place on Saturday morning from 8:3011:30 with volunteers from Morningstar Properties and Nolan Transportation Group joining TreesCharlotte and tree masters to hand out trees.

Executive director of TreesCharlotte, Jane Myers, told Channel 9 she hopes that events like these will increase community involvement in helping to plant trees throughout the city.

Were lucky to have the canopy we have, its top 10 in the country, Myers said, But we are losing half a percent every year, so its important we all step up and be a part of keeping trees in our community.

(WATCH BELOW: Bank of America partners with TreesCharlotte for tree giveaway in west Charlotte)




On Sunday 19 March, people across the UK will celebrate Mothers Day, also known as Mothering Sunday.

The day is dedicated to honouring mothers and falls on the fourth Sunday of the Christian festival of Lent.

It also comes exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday.

But other countries, including the US, Canada, Australia and Mexico, celebrate Mothers Day on a different date to the UK.

This is unlike most other holidays, such as Christmas, Valentines Day and Halloween, which all fall on the same day all over the world.

Heres why Mothers Day is celebrated on a different day in the UK.

Why do we celebrate Mothers Day in March in the UK?

In the UK, Mothers Day takes place on the fourth Sunday of Lent and was traditionally a day on which Christians were encouraged to visit their mother church.

But over the years, the day has became better-associated with family reunions and children working away from home would acknowledge the day by returning home to pay a visit to their mothers.

Now its akin to the US celebration and its religious roots have been usurped by promotional campaigns encouraging children to shower their mothers with hampers, flowers, cards and gifts.

How did the US begin celebrating Mothers Day in May?

The American Mothers Day does not have religious connotations and was formally established by President Wilson in 1914 after a campaign was launched by an American woman from West Virginia named Anna Jarvis, whose own mother died in May.

It has since been held every year on the second Sunday of May in the US and several other countries, including Australia. This year, Mothers Day falls on Sunday 14 May 2023.

Following the campaign, President Wilson formalised the date, declaring it a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.

However, Jarvis is thought to have disapproved of the subsequent commercialisation of the holiday, which she felt overtook its sentimental origins. She even said she regretted starting it and at one point, sought to abolish it.

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When is Mothers Day in Mexico?

Mexicans celebrate Mothers Day slightly differently from the rest of the world, marking it via the Dia de las Madres every year on 10 May.

The chosen date is thought to have come about in 1922 after a newspaper editor Rafael Alducin, wrote an article for Mexico Citys newspaper, El Excelsior, touting the benefits of Mothers Day celebrations and encouraging others do take part in Mexico.

The US tradition had already begun to spread to the central American country, but the article was supported by a media campaign and the Catholic Church prompted Mexicans to select a date of their own to celebrate the day, which ended up being 10 May.

Like in other countries, people celebrate it by giving their mothers large bouquets of flowers and hosting family gatherings.
The sentencing of a Capitol rioter was interrupted when his mother pleaded for leniency to the judge.

US District Judge Reggie Walton sentenced 21-year-old Aiden Bilyard to 40 months in prison on Friday. Bilyard, who was 18 on January 6 2021, travelled to Washington DC from North Carolina along with two other friends, according to The Charlotte Observer.

Bilyard entered a plea agreement with the prosecution after he admitted in October to assaulting police with a deadly or dangerous weapon when he sprayed Capitol officers with a pepper gel. He faced 46 to 57 months in prison.

His mother Amy Bilyard told the judge thats not right as he handed down the sentence, according to Politico reporter Kyle Cheney. Judge Waltons answer to Ms Bilyard, who was in tears, was: You make your bed, youve got to lie in it.

Hes lied in it, Ms Bilyard reportedly said.

Bilyard was captured on surveillance video spraying law enforcement officers with home defence pepper gel on the lower west terrace, according to documents by the Department of Justice. He left the Capitol when he heard mention of assault rifles by other rioters.

He then drove back to his hometown in North Carolina that night.

Aiden Bilyard (DoJ)

The FBI interviewed Bilyard in 2021 but he denied taking part in the insurrection, despite being confronted with video evidence, according to the Observer. He was arrested later that year while he received basic training in Texas, and was later dismissed from the Air Force.

Bilyards attorneys had asked the judge for home detention and five years of probation. They argued that Bilyard was young and impressionable when he took part in the January 6 riots.

Eighteen is old enough to know right from wrong, the judge said before the sentencing on Friday, per the Observer. ... (T)o see this kind of violence, police fighting for their lives ... yet you dont get to the mindset at some point that This is wrong, and Ive got to stop? It is just something that is chilling and beyond the pale.

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Bilyard was captured on surveillance video (DoJ)

The defence also requested an evaluation by a forensic psychiatrist who found that Bilyard, who reportedly never met his father, saw in Donald Trump a strong masculine figure. They argued that the validation Bilyard received from older rioters motivated him to join them in the insurrection.

In a letter to Judge Walton, Ms Bilyard said his son was an intelligent, warm and kind boy whose role in the riot was an exception to the way he had been raised.

Hed never been violent. Hed never NOT considered other human beings. He has ... always had a reverence for police and their difficult jobs, she wrote.
In the wake of the double murder conviction of Richard "Alex" Murdaugh, the family of a South Carolina teen found dead in 2015 is making a renewed drive to find the truth in the years-old "cold case." Funds have now been raised for an exhumation and independent autopsy, the teen's mother said.

As Murdaugh's trial consumed the world's media and the public's attention from Jan. 23 until its March 2 conclusion  when Murdaugh was found guilty of killing his wife and son  Sandy Smith has impatiently waited for a conclusion of her own. But she has been waiting for eight years.

The body of her son, Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old nursing student, was found lying in the middle of a rural road in Hampton County, not far from the Murdaugh property in Colleton County, on July 8, 2015. He died from blunt force trauma to the head, but there was controversy surrounding the case from the start.

At first, officials ruled the death a hit and run, but investigators later considered it a homicide based on evidence at the scene.

Nation: Former South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh found guilty of murder in killings of wife, son

Murdaughs town: After the trial of the century a community struggles to move on

For years, rumors circulated around the county that the case was connected to the Murdaugh family. That name appeared dozens of times in witness statements to police, yet the case grew cold and to this day there have been no arrests or even official confirmation that the case is, in fact, Murdaugh related or not.

The late Stephen Smith, right, with his mother Sandy.

The unsolved murder mystery received new life in July 2021, when the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division opened a new investigation into Smith's homicide, "based upon information gathered during the course of the double murder investigation of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh."

With the spotlight dimming on Alex Murdaugh, the Smith family feels its time to shine some new light on their murder case. A GoFundMe drive has been started to raise money for an exhumation and independent autopsy of Stephen Smith's remains.

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Opinion: Why did Alex Murdaugh escape the death penalty? Perhaps it's because he's white and rich.

GoFundMe raises more than $41K in just over a week

On March 10, Sandy Smith organized a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the exhumation and independent autopsy.

The fundraising goal was $15,000  but in only a week, that page states it has raised $41,034.

A roadside cross marks the spot on Sandy Run Road where Stephen Smith was found dead in 2015.

According to the GoFundMe page, if Smith's body is exhumed, the Smith family doesn't want the state to conduct an autopsy at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where such studies are normally held in the region.

"We feel it's critical to seek a new goal  an independent exhumation and autopsy," states the page. "While the state can elect and fund an exhumation and new autopsy, it is our understanding that it would be carried out at MUSC, where his death was initially classified as hit-and-run despite no evidence to support it."

"We need a new, unbiased look at his body and an accurate determination of his cause of death based on facts. There was no debris in the road, and his injuries were not consistent with a hit-and-run."

Netflix's 'Murdaugh Murders': After life sentences, here's what to know

Sandy Smith smiles behind the new memorial for her son, Stephen Smith.

The site also states that the autopsy alone is expected to cost $7,000. In addition, "a private medical examiner must be present from the start of the exhumation through the examination period at a cost of approximately $750 per hour."

Thanks to recent generous donors, this now appears possible.

"The family of Stephen N. Smith is incredibly grateful for the outpouring of love and support we have received from Standing for Stephen and the community as a whole. You have been monumental in shining light on Stephen's story and the lack of justice," states Smith's page.

"Thank you for not allowing Stephen's story to be swept under a rug. We will pursue the exhumation immediately and provide updates along the way."

#StandingForStephen gives way to #JusticeForStephen

When media reports of the Murdaugh cases began sweeping the nation, it sparked a movement for justice and support for LGBTQ teens like Smith called #StandingForStephen. That movement raised thousands and helped the Smith family erect a memorial on their son's grave.

#StandingForStephen has now been replaced with a fresh initiative, #JusticeForStephen.

Rachel Tuten, a friend of the late Stephen Smith, reacts emotionally during Sunday's memorial unveiling.

This effort appears to have gotten underway during the height of the Murdaugh murder trial. In February, Smith began posting about it on her Facebook page, and revealed her plans to exhume her son's body for further investigation.

What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day.

Smith family issues statement after Alex Murdaugh verdict

In the days following the double murder conviction of Alex Murdaugh, the Smith family released the following statement:

Stephen Smith Reaction by USA TODAY Network on Scribd

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Body of teen found dead near Murdaugh estate in 2015 to be exhumed
NEW CONCORD  Muskingum University has recently partnered with the Straker Foundation to help promote literacy initiatives in the greater community.

Muskingum University students recently served as judges for a writing contest. They include, front row, Kody Melvin, Audra Wills, Amaris Carpenter, Straker Foundation Program Director Pam Kirst, back row, Haley Frazier, Peyton Joy, Courtney Rose and Laura Reed of Muskingum University.

Students majoring in adolescent to young adults language arts, adolescent to young adults art education and middle childhood education were selected to serve as judges for the Mary Helen Straker Award in Writing competition.

Participating students were Amaris Carpenter of Independence, Kentucky, Haley Frazier of Heath, Courtney Rose of Dover, Audra Wills of Somerset and Peyton Joy and Kody Melvin of Zanesville.

In its second year, this writing competition has been expanded to include sophomore and junior high-school students across all instructional tiers, including Tier II and Tier III. Students compete by responding to the prompt, Thinking About Home, after reading, "A Princess Found: An American Family, an African Chiefdom and the Daughter Who Connected Them All" by Sarah Culberson.

We are excited to support the Straker Foundations work in promoting literacy efforts at all levels of learning, said Dr. Laura Reed, assistant professor of education. Serving the community in this way gives our preservice teachers authentic experience practicing their craft as well as opportunities to encourage aspiring student writers. Our students welcomed volunteering to promote classroom engagement with this powerful text and grow professionally in their training.

Named for one of the foundations founders, Mary Helen Straker was a journalist, novelist and essayist. Her daughter, Susan Holdren, currently serves as president and executive director of the foundation. Last year, more than 140 entries were received for the chance to win three $500 cash prizes per district and one $2,000 grand prize. Contest winners and Muskingum education students will meet and engage with the author in person during the awards ceremony scheduled for later this month.

Provided by Muskingum University.

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Muskingum U promotes literacy initiatives
Welcome to This Week in Outer Space, where youll find a roundup of the best space coverage from Yahoo News and our partners from the past week or so. Last week, we took a deep dive into how NASA intends to spend $27.2 billion next year. This week, we have the latest on one of the items on its wishlist: a space tug, a big budget request by the U.S. Space Force, and on Elon Musks plan to build a town for SpaceX in Texas. But first, weve got some breaking space-fashion news.

Project Launchpad: New space wear for the modern astronaut on the go

On Wednesday, NASA and Axiom Space unveiled the brand new spacesuit that astronauts on the upcoming Artemis III mission will wear when they return to the moon in 2025. Unlike intravehicular spacesuits, which are only worn inside spacecraft and have gone through dozens of iterations, from Yuri Gagarin to SpaceX, these new extravehicular suits, or EVAs, built to survive the vacuum of space, mark the first major ground-up redesign since the 1960s.

A prototype spacesuit displayed Wednesday in Houston. (David J. Phillip/AP)

Now, sure, a lot of the tried and true features of old designs are there  a big, domed helmet, a backpack full of fun gizmos and a bulky fit, to maintain pressurization. The new suit, however, features a ton of new technology and a vastly improved range of motion. While the demo EVAs sport a handsome new black, blue and orange design, the ones that go to the moon will go back to the classic all-white look, because otherwise, solar radiation might cook the astronauts alive.

There are still a few unanswered questions about these new suits  like, have they improved upon the whole bathroom situation?  but at least now were now one step closer to being back on the moon.

NASA eyes pricey 'space tug' to clean up our messy orbit

Earth has a bit of a space junk problem. In the decades since Sputnik, thousands of satellites have been shot into low orbit. However, we havent figured out a great solution for what to do with them once they stop working or get replaced by newer models  and a lot of the time, theyre just left out there to circle the Earth forever. So as an artificial ring continues to form around the Earth, it not only creates a bit of an eyesore but also poses a massive risk to any future space missions. And soon, NASA is going to have to do something about the biggest piece of space junk yet: the International Space Station.

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Included in NASAs proposed 2024 budget is $180 million for developing a deorbit capability for the ISS by the end of 2030. During a call with reporters on Monday, NASA officials explained that if the budget is approved, the space agency would call on the private sector to come up with a space tug concept to lower the orbit of the ISS, so that it can reenter and burn up through Earths atmosphere.

NASA had previously suggested using Russias Progress cargo spacecraft to deorbit the ISS, and officials said that such an option is still on the table.

Were continuing to work with our Russian counterparts on how to deorbit safely with the Progress vehicles, Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for NASA Space Operations, said during the call. But we are also developing this U.S. capability as a way to have redundancy and be able to better aid the targeting of the vehicle and the safe return of the vehicle.

Lueders estimated that the total cost of the space tug would be around $1 billion  a pricey space tug, indeed.

Space Force still exists and would like $30 billion, thank you

As Congress weighs President Bidens budget proposal, leaders from the U.S. Space Force were summoned to Capitol Hill this week to sing for their supper.

Yes, that Space Force. The one Netflix and Steve Carell made a show about that most people dont really think about too much. But the war in Ukraine, and the deployment of Starlink satellites to aid the Ukrainian military, may just be the thing to change the narrative for the real-life Space Force guardians.

On Tuesday, Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman testified before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces on the programs vision and spending needs.

Saltzman outlined three areas that Space Force intends to prioritize: fielding combat-ready forces, amplifying the guardian spirit and partnering with U.S. allies to fend off an intergalactic challenge from China and Russia.

Russia and China continue to deploy a range of weapons aimed at U.S. space capabilities, Saltzman told the panel. The threats include cyberwarfare activities, electronic attack platforms, directed-energy lasers designed to blind or damage satellite sensors and space-to-space orbital systems that can attack U.S. satellites.

The budget allocation, he said, would be used primarily to defend the Space Force and the nation from "space-enabled attacks."

Oh, and about that so-called guardian spirit: Last week, the first all-Space Force flight graduated from the U.S. Air Forces Officer Training School in Alabama. The Montgomery, Ala., Advertiser reported that the 15 guardians who comprised Lima Lasers Flight completed the eight-week training course to commission as second lieutenants, and will go on to lead in the newly created service.

James Webbs latest photoset shows dying star

"NASA Webb telescope captures star on cusp of death."

That was how the Associated Press darkly described the photo released by NASA at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, earlier this week.

A NASA image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in June 2022 shows the star Wolf-Rayet 124, center, in a rare and fleeting phase, on the cusp of death. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team via AP)

The image, captured in June 2022, showed gas and dust flung into space by a huge, hot star 15,000 light-years away, the news service said. Shimmering in purple like a cherry blossom, the cast-off material once comprised the star's outer layer.

The Hubble Space Telescope snapped a shot of the same transitioning star a few decades ago the AP added, but it appeared more like a fireball without the delicate details.

Weve never seen it like that before, Macarena Garcia Marin, a scientist with the European Space Agency, told the AP. Its really exciting.

Elon Musk may be building a town for SpaceX (in Texas, not on Mars)

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of Twitter is looking to build his own town in Bastrop County, Texas, where employees of SpaceX and the Boring Company, Musk's tunneling and infrastructure company, can live and work.

The newspaper obtained plans for the 110-home, 3,500-acre project, about 35 miles from Austin.

Musk is reportedly planning to name the town Snailbrook, in a reference to the Boring Company's mascot, which he and his employees have described as a "sort of Texas utopia along the Colorado River."

The visionary would not actually live there himself, though. According to the report, a private compound for Musk would probably be located outside the town.
After 15 years in space, NASAs AIM mission is ending. In a brief blog post spotted by Gizmodo, the agency said Thursday it was ending operational support for the spacecraft due to a battery power failure. NASA first noticed issues with AIMs battery in 2019, but the probe was still sending a significant amount of data back to Earth. Following another recent decline in battery power, NASA says AIM has become unresponsive. The AIM team will monitor the spacecraft for another two weeks in case it reboots, but judging from the tone of NASAs post, the agency isnt holding its breath.

NASA launched the AIM  Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere  mission in 2007 to study noctilucent or night-shining clouds, which are sometimes known as fossilized clouds due to the fact they can last hundreds of years in the Earth's upper atmosphere. From its vantage point 370 miles above the planet's surface, the spacecraft proved invaluable to scientists, with data collected by AIM appearing in 379 peer-reviewed papers, including a recent 2018 study that found methane emissions from human-driven climate change are causing night-shining clouds to form more frequently. Pretty good for a mission NASA initially expected to operate for only two years. AIMs demise follows that of another long-serving NASA spacecraft. At the start of the year, the agency deorbited the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite following a nearly four-decade run collecting ozone and atmospheric measurements.
The Navys MQ-4C Triton surveillance drone has wrapped up a deployment to the Indo-Pacific.

The high-altitude, long endurance UAV, assigned to Unmanned Patrol Squadron 19, completed a rotational deployment to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, in U.S. 7th Fleet, where the unit worked to develop the aircrafts tactics, techniques and procedures.

But it wont be long before the Triton returns to the Indo-Pacific.

The squadron and the drone, which is designed to work hand in hand with the P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft, are scheduled to return to 7th Fleet later this year. At that point, the squadron will kick off the MQ-4Cs operational capability period to test out maritime intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting operations with an upgraded sensor suite.

Triton helps bolster our Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) operations on a global stage, said Lt. Christopher Lee, a Triton naval flight officer, in a Navy news release. The communication and safety nets Triton brings to our friendly units is a game-changer.

Two MQ-4Cs first arrived in Guam at Andersen Air Force Base in 2020 to operate under Commander Task Force 72 in 7th Fleet during an early operational capability period. The drone also deployed to MCAS Iwakuni and Misawa Air Base in Japan to refine the concept of operations for expeditionary basing during the deployment, the Navy said.

Unmanned Patrol Squadron 19 is based out of Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida.

Northrop links drones, ships in demonstration of connected Navy fleet

Last month, Northrop Grumman announced that the Triton completed a first-of-its-kind flight test featuring an installed airborne gateway that, by hooking into the Tritons onboard radar and artificial intelligence, relayed sensor data to simulators representing an F-35, an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye and Aegis-class destroyers.

The trials objective was to connect air assets with sea assets for a seamlessly connected fleet, Ben Davies, vice president and general manager of network information solutions at Northrop Grumman, said in a statement.

This step is key as the Navy develops distributed maritime operations, a concept that requires ships to work together at greater distances, Davies said. The drones have the capacity to operate for more than 24 hours, and can detect, track, classify and identify naval vessels.

Tritons altitude, persistence and robust communication links make it an ideal candidate to host the gateway system, said Jane Bishop, a Northrop vice president and general manager for global surveillance, in a statement. This demonstration highlighted gateway technology enhancements to Triton that would enable information dominance across distributed maritime assets, including access to the F-35s robust sensor suite and the E-2Ds battle management capabilities.
Aerial view shows a vehicle and people navigate a snowy roadway lined with snowbanks piled up from new and past storms in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Mario Tama/Getty Images

A California man made a Facebook plea for help to clear his driveway to get to his ailing wife.

Robert Rice had been trapped at home due to California's rare snow storm, The New York Times.

He recalled to the paper how neighbors helped him pave a path out of his driveway so he could be by her side.

Neighbors in a California community came together to help a 79-year-old man reach his wife, who was in a nursing home nearly 30 miles away having a medical emergency, during the recent snowstorms that hit the state and trapped residents.

Robert Rice, 79, told The New York Times that he thought he could stay indoors and weather the storm but when he was notified that his wife, 81-year-old Ann Rice, was struggling to breathe at her nursing home he said had no option but to go be by her side.

California has been experiencing several rare winter storms, which have created hazardous conditions for many residents across the state.

Doctors thought Ann, who had a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure, could die because carbon dioxide was building up in her lungs, the Times reported.

Robert, who had been trying to keep at least part of his driveway clear throughout the whole storm, was unable to clear his driveway as more snow continued to come down in late February, he told the paper.

He'd spent hours in the freezing cold of the San Bernardino region trying but was only able to pave a small path, he told the Times. He called it a day, but then officials from Ann's nursing home called him to let him know some of the carbon dioxide was removed from his wife's lungs.

That gave him a little more time to make it to his wife but he wouldn't be very successful at clearing a path in the days to come.

"I looked out there and said, 'There's no way I'm getting out,'" Robert told the Times.

He'd call the nursing home daily to check on his wife of 54 years before one day receiving a call that her hemoglobin levels were dropping because of internal bleeding, the Times reported. And despite getting blood transfusions every other day, doctors recommended they stop intervention and said she most likely only had a few weeks left.

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"I sat there and thought, 'Oh my God, she's going to die before I get there,'" Robert told the Times.

Desperate and in tears, he told the paper he looked to Facebook for help.

"I never thought I would have to do this. Here goes," Robert posted to a local Facebook group. "My wife Ann is in a skilled nursing facility down the hill. She does not have long to go. I can't even get down to say goodbye. Is there anyone who can help with my driveway. It's about half done, needs to be wider so I can back my small car up. I'm a Army Vietnam veteran and retired LEO. This is very embarrassing for me to even ask for help. Sorry."

People began calling him to help.

Firefighters stopped by for a wellness check, neighbors showed up with shovels, and others offered to drive him or pay for a hotel near his wife.

Eventually, a neighbor came down with a tractor with a front loader bucket to pave his driveway and by March 9, he was finally able to hop in his car and drive down to see his wife, and hold her hand.

"I was hoping that people wouldn't think I sound corny," he told the Times about his plea for aid. "There were other people who probably needed the help more than me."

Read the original article on Insider
(Netflix)

There are many troubling facts laid bare in Netflixs new documentary, Money Shot: The Pornhub Story. The Canadian-owned porn site has been embroiled in numerous controversies since its creation in 2007. But the documentary seems to wash over one glaring, indisputable, worrying truth: that childlike bodies have a huge appeal among porn consumers. Pornhub, in catering to these demands, has had a hand in the fetishisation of infantilised bodies.

Young, teen and school girl are all popular search terms on the site. Hit enter on this query, and youll see women of an indeterminate age wearing knee-high socks, low-buttoned shirts and short, checkered, pleated skirts.

The school-girl trope is everywhere. In sex shops, raunchy school uniforms are sold as costumes. Amazon sells thousands of versions of them online and Britney Spears wore one in her most famous music video. In mainstream porn, the idea of a virgin girl being yanked into intimacy with an older man is sold as a titillating scenario. Heres a sample set from Pornhub: Daddy chases school girl in the mall and f***s her in the toilet; Redhead school girl f***s her favourite teacher; I f***ed a school girl while she was doing homework.

These videos detail the classic school skirt riding up to reveal bare buttocks, which is a ubiquitous image in internet pornography. The performers bodies are hairless. And perhaps their breasts are smaller or appear to look underdeveloped, giving the impression that they could be a child. In short, these narratives fetishise the idea of underage sex (which is therefore rape, since those younger than 16 in the UK cannot provide consent).

In Netflixs documentary  which interviews sex workers, porn industry professionals and anti-porn morality campaigners  filmmakers explain that when Pornhub launched in 2007, its user policies allowed anyone to upload or download any type of video to and from the site. They find that MindGeek, the tech company that owns Pornhub, had employed only 30 moderators to check the sites unregulated content. Those employees had to view 800,000 videos per shift. Inevitably, with that kind of gruelling task and heavy workload, thousands of videos that displayed illegal content, such as sex trafficking and child pornography, slipped through the net and could be downloaded by anyone on the internet.

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This remained the case until 2020, when evidence that there was child porn on the site prompted Visa and Mastercard to suspend card payments for advertising on Pornhub and its parent company MindGeek in December of that year. In the same month, Pornhub responded to outcries from campaigners by removing thousands of unauthorised videos and enforcing an identity verification system for users uploading content.

The changing of Pornhubs verification policies was meant to remove child pornography from the site. But the sexualisation of child-like bodies rages on three years later.

Pornhub cannot, of course, be solely responsible for a genre of porn. But in catering a buffet of sexual options, it has played its part in categorising a plethora of our fantasies, kinks and fetishes since its creation in 2007. It has hundreds of categories for users to pinpoint exactly what they want to watch. For example, hentai porn (animated characters often with exaggerated sexual features), furry (anthropomorphic animal characters) and creampie (lots of semen, everywhere) were three of the most popular Pornhub categories last year. These are a few examples of the niches that Pornhub has been involved in categorising and naming, alongside the school-girl niche.

The difficulty with calling a porn category problematic is that people are, of course, entitled to their sexual preferences. And sex workers are allowed to cater to this demand. It is especially tricky in cases where a young-looking woman in a video is indeed a sex worker above the age of 18  not a child. But Id argue that porn narratives that use fictional, animated cats as the protagonists are a lot less harmful than those that involve a hypothetical child being lured in by an adult man. Ultimately and quite unsettlingly, the demand and supply for these videos continues to normalise the sexualisation of what would theoretically be rape, if the subject was actually underage.

The changing of Pornhubs verification policies was meant to remove child pornography from the site. But the sexualisation of child-like bodies rages on three years later (Netflix)

Those who believe the sexy school-girl trope to be nothing more than a fantasy or a nostalgia hit should look at the effect this has on real-life school girls. Research has found that one in 10 girls have been catcalled before their eleventh birthday (I was wearing my frumpy school uniform the first time it happened to me). On average, the majority of the catcalling a girl will experience is between the ages of 11 and 17. Women over the age of 40, by comparison, report getting catcalled significantly less.

As conversations around consent evolve and improve, it seems that porn and the sites that host it, are not catching up. The narrative of sexy school girl porn videos are built on the idea of a power imbalance and the omission of basic consent. Its not something we should just sit back and accept as a harmless fantasy.
Netflixs new competition series couldve been called So You Think You Can Dance Next to 100 Other People Wholl Determine Your Longevity in This Show.

Dance 100, a 6-episode, hour-long show, was released today and pits eight choreographers against each other for an ultimate prize of $100,000. The set-up: Each week, the choreographers are assigned a song and a group of dancers wholl perform one of their pieces in front of a live audience. The choreographers also dance during the performance. And ultimately, those dancers  along with the rest of the 100 professional dancers who make up the titular troupe  decide which choreographer goes home each week. As the weeks continue, each choreographers group gets larger.

More from TVLine

Host Ally Love - Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Courtesy of Netflix

Peloton instructor Ally Love hosts the series, serving as cheerleader to the nervous choreographers and emcee to the raucous live audience. She also frequently interacts with the non-performing members of The 100, who watch each number from a catwalk suspended at stage right and offer their critiques as the dancers on stage catch their breath.

The premiere introduces us to the choreographers, whose experience varies greatly. We watch them hear their song for the first time (they dont get to choose), meet their dancers (they dont get to choose them, either), rehearse, attend a dress rehearsal and then go for it in front of the crowd. Briefly, the rundown is:

* Keenan: A dancer/dance instructor/choreographer from New York City who has worked with artists like Cardi B. and Jennifer Lopez; his Episode 1 routine is to Rosalias A Pale.

* Rudy: A dancer/choreographer/instructor from Miami; his Episode 1 routine is to Eves Tambourine.

* Brandi: A dancer/choreographer/dance teacher from Hawaii who has worked with Cirque du Soleil and Julianne and Derek Hough; her Episode 1 routine is to Ke$has Tonight.

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* Rex: A newbie whos never had a choreography job; his Episode 1 routine is to Dead Prezs Hip Hop.

* Janick: A dancer and choreographer from Montreal who has appeared on So You Think You Can Dance Canada and Americas Best Dance Crew; her Episode 1 routine is to Disclosures You and Me (Flume Remix).

* Celine: The New York-based co-captain of the Brooklyn Nets dance team, the Brooklynettes, who has performed with Lil Kim and DJ Khaled, among others; her Episode 1 routine is to Stefflon Dons 16 Shots.

* Akira: A dance instructor, choreographer and founder of Pretty Big Movement (a dance company inclusive of bodies of all sizes, types and colors) who has appeared in two Beyonce videos; her Episode 1 routine is to Doja Cats Woman.

* Max: A Los Angeles-based dancer who has performed with Ariana Grande, Justin Timberlake and at events like the Super Bowl and the Grammys; his Episode 1 routine is to Samm Henshaw feat. Earthgangs Church.

The elimination at the end of the hour comes in two parts. First, the choreographers stand across the stage, facing the audience, as the dancers who performed in the premiere move into lines behind them. Their choice of line signifies their votes for which contestants they want to keep. Dancers, make your move now, Ally says  and then the episode goes to credits: Youve got to watch Episode 2 to find out who gets voted off!

But if youve read this far, we assume youre invested, so well tell you now: [Spoiler Alert for Episode 2] All of Akiras dancers throw their support behind other choreographers, leaving her standing by herself in the spotlight. And when the rest of The 100 come down to join lines on the stage, no one stands behind her. The visual of all of the combined troupe positioning itself in solidarity with anyone but Akira is brutal; shes the first to leave the show.

Now its your turn. What did you think of Dance 100s premiere? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments with your thoughts!

Best of TVLine

Get more from TVLine.com : Follow us on Twitter , Facebook , Newsletter

Click here to read the full article.
Troops take part in a military parade to mark the 75th founding anniversary of North Korea's army, in Pyongyang, North Korea on Feb. 8, 2023, in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via REUTERS)

SEOUL (Reuters)  North Korea claims that about 800,000 of its citizens volunteered to join or reenlist in the nation's military to fight against the United States, North Korea's state newspaper reported on Saturday.

About 800,000 students and workers, on Friday alone, across the country expressed a desire to enlist or reenlist in the military to counter the United States, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported.

"The soaring enthusiasm of young people to join the army is a demonstration of the unshakeable will of the younger generation to mercilessly wipe out the war maniacs making last-ditch efforts to eliminate our precious socialist country, and achieve the great cause of national reunification without fail and a clear manifestation of their ardent patriotism," the North's Rodong Sinmun said.

The North's claim came after North Korea on Thursday launched its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in response to ongoing U.S-South Korea military drills.

North Korea fired the ICBM into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan on Thursday, hours before South Korea's president flew to Tokyo for a summit that discussed ways to counter the nuclear-armed North.

The North's ballistic missiles are banned under United Nations Security Council resolutions and the launch drew condemnation from governments in Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.

South Korean and American forces began 11 days of joint drills, dubbed "Freedom Shield 23," on Monday, held on a scale not seen since 2017 to counter the North's growing threats.

Kim accused the United States and South Korea of increasing tensions with the military drills.

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by David Gregorio and Sonali Paul)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has announced a plan inspired by Norways system of prisons to transform the states San Quentin prison into a rehabilitation facility for prisoners.

The California governors office said in a tweet that the state is transforming its most notorious prison to the most innovative rehabilitation facility in the country. San Quentin houses the countrys highest number of people on death row, but it is being repurposed for rehabilitating inmates, educating them and breaking cycles of crime.

The office said incarcerated individuals will have access to programs that will provide them with skills and tools that they can use to be successful inside and outside of prison.

California is advancing a more effective judicial system that builds safer communities, a video that the office posted states.

The facility will be renamed from San Quentin State Prison to San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, and the more than 500 inmates who are currently on death row will be moved to another local in the state prison system.

Newsom said at a press conference on Friday that the change is designed to help incarcerated individuals reintegrate into society once they complete their sentences. He said 30,000 people come out of the state prison system every year.

And how are people coming back? Are they ready to reintegrate in society? They ready to be fully participatory in the life of their city and their county, our state and our nation? Or are they bitter? Newsom said.

And so for us, this is about real public safety. This is about keeping communities safe. This is about getting serious about addressing the issue of crime and violence in our state, he continued.

Newsom said about 800 people are released from San Quentin every year, and the goal for the reimagining of the facility is to prevent them from committing another crime and returning to prison, which would make communities safer.

The office said in its tweet that the plan will take the best practices from countries like Norway, which has among the lowest rates of repeat offenders in the world.

Story continues

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials toured Norwegian prisons in 2019 and noted that cells even in maximum security prisons have additional furniture like chairs and desks and potentially televisions. They also have access to a kitchen.

Oregon and North Dakota have also been inspired by Norways style of prisons in developing their own.

San Quentin is the oldest prison in Californias history, having been established in the 1850s. Some of its most notable prisoners during its history have been serial killer Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated Robert Kennedy.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Celebrities from across the world of culture have reacted to the latest news concerning former US president Donald Trump.

On Saturday (18 March), Trump claimed on his Truth Social page that he will be arrested on Tuesday.

In an incendiary all-caps post, Trump took aim at a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorneys office, and called for protests to take our nation back.

Charges are expected to be brought against Trump over a hush money payment made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels before his election to office in 2016.

You can keep up to date with the latest developments on the story here.

Among those to react to the news were novelist Stephen King, and filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner.

Donald Trump is a sociopath and a criminal, wrote King. To let him near the nuclear codes again would be insane.

When Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for president in 2016, I joined Twitter. I wanted to speak out against a man I knew to be a Pathologically Lying Misogynistic Racist who was and is an existential danger to our Democracy, wrote Reiner.

The elimination of this scourge is upon US.

Donald Trump is a sociopath and a criminal. To let him near the nuclear codes again would be insane.  Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 18, 2023

Star Trek star George Takei wrote:  Seeking justice for crimes that Trump committed is not political vengeance. No one is above the law.

If powerful people committed criminal acts, they should answer for them like anyone else. Do you disagree?

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has claimed that Trump will win in a landslide if he is indicted.

A spokesperson for Mr Trump, meanwhile, stated: There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DAs office, to NBC and other fake news carriers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level.

President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponisation of our injustice system. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!
While there were many negatives associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the few positives was the expansion of free school meals for all children across the country. But as of the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, the free lunches were over.

Students were able to eat breakfast and lunch at school for free for two and a half years during the pandemic, regardless of what their household income looked like. At the beginning of this school year, federally subsidized free school meals for all came to an end. Those who qualify for reduced-price meals can still eat for free for this school year, however, thanks to legislation passed by the North Carolina General Assembly last summer.

The State Board of Education and the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI), among others, are asking for recurring funding in this years budget to eliminate the co-pay for students who only qualify for reduced-price meals.

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter

When a child doesnt have the money for a meal, they may charge it to their accounts  which may have no money in it, thus accruing debt  or depending on the policies of the district or charter school, they might even be denied a meal.

DPI compiles data on school meal debt that it receives via survey, and that debt is going up quick  its now up to over $3 million.

Lynn Harvey, the senior director in the Office of School Nutrition at DPI, spoke on the issue at a recent N.C. Child Hunger Leaders Conference.

One of the most telling statistics that I bring you today to show you the impact of this economic distress is the most recent result of the survey on school meal debt, unpaid school meal debt, she said at the conference. You may recall that in November, we recorded that level of unpaid school meal debt at $1.3 million. Well at the end of December, that figure escalated to a little over $3.1 million.

It is a relatively new phenomenon for DPI to be keeping this data, making it hard to ascertain the significance of the school meal debt. DPI hasnt historically keep information on school meal debt, though beginning this year, it is submitting information on the issue quarterly to the General Assembly.

Story continues

The following spreadsheet displays the results of the most recent survey, which shows debt accrued since the beginning of this school year through December. DPI will be sending out another survey in a few days to find out debt accrued through the beginning of March.

In the spreadsheet below, you can see school meal debt for each of the 79 districts that responded to the survey. By clicking a tab at the bottom, you can also see school meal debt by charter school for the charter schools that participated in the survey.

We also created a second column that shows per capita school meal debt and sorts it from highest to lowest. The per capita data was calculated by taking the total lunch debt of a district or charter school and dividing it by the most recent student enrollment data.

Here is the spreadsheet.

Weve broken out the data into a few different charts to show local education agencies (LEAs) with highest and lowest meal debt or meal debt per capita.

The LEAs (districts and charters) reporting the highest school lunch debt are below.

And here are the five LEAs (districts and charters) that had no lunch debt.

When it comes to per capita lunch debt, we split out the LEAs into the two groups for comparison  district and charter.

The districts with the highest per capita lunch debt are below.

And here are the districts with the lowest.

Here are the charters with the highest per capita lunch debt.

And here are the ones with the lowest.

Lets not forget that we continue to be that state that vacillates between the eighth, ninth, and tenth largest for child food insecurity, Harvey said at the conference last month, adding later that she was most concerned about households whose children do not qualify for free- or reduced-priced meals, yet their incomes are just too low to afford the cost of school meals.

This article first appeared on EducationNC and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
North Korean soldiers march in a parade in 2018. Kyodo News Stills via Getty Images

North Korean state media claimed Saturday that at least 800,000 people had volunteered to fight in a hypothetical war against the United States.

The country's official state-run newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said that the large turnout was "a demonstration of the unshakeable will of the younger generation to mercilessly wipe out the war maniacs making last-ditch efforts to eliminate our precious socialist country." The report added that the volunteers would help "achieve the great cause of national reunification without fail and a clear manifestation of their ardent patriotism."

The validity of North Korea's claims, as with most things that come out of the hermit state, is unclear. However, NK News, an American-run media watchdog that monitors events in North Korea, reported that "photos released with Saturday's report showed young people waiting in line to sign documents at state-organized rallies held Friday at theaters and construction sites."

All men are required to serve at least ten years in the military as part of North Korea's mandatory conscription laws. It is unclear if any of this compulsatory service was included in the country's 800,000-strong figure.

The Rodong Sinmun report comes just two days after North Korea fired yet another ICBM into the sea off the Korean peninsula. The country's test launches have been ramping up in recent months as tensions between North Korea and the American-South Korean alliance in the region continue to escalate.

The U.S. and South Korea "began 11 days of joint drills, dubbed 'Freedom Shield 23,' [this past] Monday, held on a scale not seen since 2017 to counter the North's growing threats," Reuters reported.

North Korea's latest launch also occurred just hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol flew to Japan for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to reiterate their strong diplomatic ties.

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North Korea claims 800,000 people volunteered to fight against the U.S.

Is it time to stop dyeing the Chicago River green for St. Patrick's Day?
It is usually uneventful when a single insider buys stock. However, When quite a few insiders buy shares, as it happened in Plant Health Care plc's (LON:PHC) case, it's fantastic news for shareholders.

Although we don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

See our latest analysis for Plant Health Care

Plant Health Care Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Non-Executive Chairman Christopher G. Richards bought UK75k worth of shares at a price of UK0.12 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being UK0.11). It's very possible they regret the purchase, but it's more likely they are bullish about the company. We always take careful note of the price insiders pay when purchasing shares. It is generally more encouraging if they paid above the current price, as it suggests they saw value, even at higher levels.

Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 660.00k shares worth UK80k. But they sold 220.00k shares for UK20k. In the last twelve months there was more buying than selling by Plant Health Care insiders. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Insider Ownership

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Plant Health Care insiders own about UK9.3m worth of shares. That equates to 27% of the company. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

Story continues

So What Does This Data Suggest About Plant Health Care Insiders?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. Insiders own shares in Plant Health Care and we see no evidence to suggest they are worried about the future. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. In terms of investment risks, we've identified 1 warning sign with Plant Health Care and understanding this should be part of your investment process.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Join A Paid User Research Session

Youll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here
Law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal levels are reportedly preparing for the possibility that former president Donald Trump may be indicted as early as next week in relation to the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.

Preliminary security assessments are being conducted, and officials are discussing potential security plans in the vicinity of the Manhattan Criminal Court at 100 Centre Street in case Mr Trump appears in person to face charges, according to NBC News, citing five senior officials familiar with the preparations.

The former president has urged his supporters to protest his imminent arrest in the Manhattan case, he said in a furious Truth Social post on 18 March, claiming that illegal leaks have indicated his arrest on 21 March.

New York City Police Department, New York State Court Officers, the US Secret Service, the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the Manhattan District Attorneys Office are reportedly all involved.

Officials have stressed that any planning is precautionary as no charges have been filed yet by the Manhattan District Attorneys office, according to NBC News.

While Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked the New York investigation on his Truth Social platform, a lengthy official statement from his team suggests that he is growing increasingly concerned that a criminal indictment may be just around the corner.

Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung released a statement on 16 March slamming Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs office over what they claim is a witch hunt against the one-term president.

President Donald J Trump is completely innocent, he did nothing wrong, and even the biggest, most Radical Left Democrats are making that clear, Mr Cheung said.

This week  the same week that adult film star Ms Daniels and Mr Trumps former fixer Michael Cohen testified before the grand jury  Mr Trumps attorney Joe Tacopina went on a media blitz slamming the probe in a number of testy exchanges with journalists.

Story continues

DA Braggs office also invited Mr Trump to testify this week  an invitation he unsurprisingly turned down.

While it was an invitation he was unlikely to accept, it sent the clearest signal to date that he could be criminally indicted for his role in the hush money payments to Ms Daniels.

Under New York law, a person has a right to appear before a grand jury before a prosecutor asks the grand jury to indict them on charges.

Manhattan prosecutors have been investigating whether Mr Trump falsified the Trump Organizations business records when Mr Cohen made a payment of $130,0000 to Ms Daniels days before the 2016 election.

Prosecutors claim that the money was used to silence Ms Daniels about an alleged affair she had with Mr Trump.

Mr Trump has long denied having an affair with the adult film star.

If prosecuted, Mr Trump would become the first former president in American history to face criminal charges.
A Florida Forest Service map shows in red the location of a 150-acre wildfire in Volusia County.

Firefighters have a containment line almost entirely around a 150-acre wildfire near State Road 415 and south of State Road 44 in Volusia County.

Crews dig around the perimeter of a wildfire to help keep it from spreading. As of about 9:30 a.m. Saturday, the Florida Forest Service announced that the fire was 95% contained. That means a containment line, or area where fire is less likely to spread, is almost entirely around the fire.

The fire is not a threat to homes or business, and there are no road closures, according to Julie Allen, a forest service spokeswoman.

Fire risk elevated:Unusually warm, dry weather leads to increased fire danger in Volusia County

Recent fire activity:Forest firefighters battling dry conditions and wind

Officials believe lightning started the fire after 2 p.m. Friday near Leffler Landing Road, according to Allen.

Florida Forest Service wildland firefighters from the Bunnell and Orlando districts have received support from the The Volusia County Professional Firefighters Association, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, the Seminole County Fire Department, Volusia County Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.

To view a map of the wildfire, visit ffspublic.firesponse.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia wildfire at 150 acres but almost 100% contained
Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine visited East Palestine on Friday, the site of last months toxic train derailment.

>>Entirely avoidable; Ohio AG sues Norfolk Southern over East Palestine train derailment

Norfolk Southern crews have removed about half of the contaminated soil and cleaned up almost 7 million gallons of contaminated water, according to the Environment Protection Agency.

So, were seeing some more progress, said DeWine. But, never fast enough.

The EPA said it will be cleaning up the toxic train derailment site for another three months but it could take longer depending on bad weather or changes to the sites condition.

>> RELATED: Safety plan released following NTSB initial investigation following East Palestine derailment

DeWine also gave an update on the drinking water and air quality in East Palestine.

Municipal drinking water tests continue to come back, he said Friday. We continue to see air testing around the community. Up to now, 616 indoor sites have been tested. The 23 stations around the village continue to show good, good, good results.

The governor met with East Palestine High School government students with Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine and Ohio Congressman Bill Johnson.

DeWine said he will be back in East Palestine next week to talk about permanent medical facility.

We will continue updating this story.




Two people were shot Friday night, one fatally, as a relatively calm and peaceful spring break in Miami Beach was rattled by gunfire for a second straight year.

Miami Beach Police said two men were shot near Seventh Street and Ocean Drive in an isolated incident at about 10:41 p.m. Both were taken to Ryder Trauma Center, where one died. The other victim was listed in critical condition Friday night but has been released from the hospital, police said Saturday morning.

READ NEXT: Miami Beach wont impose a curfew after deadly spring break shooting

Four guns were recovered and one man was detained at the scene, Miami Beach Police said, though it wasnt immediately clear whether the person detained was the shooter. Police said the person is cooperating fully with the investigation.

Miami Beach police spokesperson Ernesto Rodriguez said Saturday morning that the identities of the people involved could not be released while an investigation is ongoing. Police also did not immediately share details of what may have led to the shooting.

One of the males died at the hospital, and the other is listed in critical condition.



Officers detained one male and recovered three firearms at the scene. Detectives are investigating what led to the shooting incident.



2/2  Miami Beach Police (@MiamiBeachPD) March 18, 2023

Miami Beach Police, which already had a heavy presence in the area, swarmed toward the sound of gunshots as pedestrians crowding sidewalks and the street on Ocean Drive scrambled to safety.

Hundreds of people sprinted away from the area after hearing the gunfire. The road, which was closed to cars between Fifth and 13th streets Friday, was jam-packed with visitors.

Videos circulating on social media showed chaos at a sidewalk cafe as a series of gunshots rang out and someone lay wounded in the street just steps away. Subsequent footage showed first responders administering CPR on a victim.

Story continues

Police cordoned off several blocks with crime scene tape after the shooting, as people continued to mill about further north.

Police had an area of Ocean Drive near Seventh Street cordoned off Friday night, March 17, 2023, after a shooting.

The incident followed two other moments of panic and confusion earlier in the night.

Around 10 p.m., large crowds that were gathered on Ocean Drive near Eighth Street bolted away from the street twice in a matter of minutes.

Bystanders said they werent sure what had caused people to flee. A Miami Beach police spokesperson said these appeared to be false alarms, and police were not aware of any injuries.

I saw everyone running and I just ran, said Nico, 20, a spring breaker from Canada, adding that he may have heard a sound of glass breaking.

Police were then seen riding up and down Ocean Drive on ATVs.

Miami Beach PD spokesman says these appeared to be false alarms and theyre not aware of any injuries.



The panic led to two near-stampede situations, but I didnt see anyone hurt. Cops are now riding up and down Ocean Drive on ATVs. pic.twitter.com/5kiu9kPx4p  Aaron Leibowitz (@aaron_leib) March 18, 2023

This is the third year in a row that the revelry has taken a sour turn during the third weekend in March, which is typically the busiest spring break weekend.

Last year, Miami Beach declared a midnight curfew following a pair of shootings on Ocean Drive. In 2021, police fired pepper-spray balls, and SWAT teams were deployed to enforce an 8 p.m. curfew.

City officials had hoped new programming and a heavy police presence would lead to fewer problems this year. Friday marked the start of Art on the Drive, a three-day offshoot of the Carnaval Miami street festival put on by the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana.

Artist tents were set up along the sidewalk and musicians performed on three stages in nearby Lummus Park throughout the day. This weekends programming will also include a professional beach volleyball tournament and an inflatable obstacle course.

The tents were closed and fenced off by early evening and the music concluded around 9 p.m. Thousands of spring breakers, many who had been at the beach earlier in the day, took over Ocean Drive to dance, drink and walk around.

Police had set up an observation tower at the corner of Eighth Street and Ocean Drive on Friday. That intersection has drawn the largest crowds over the past few weekends.

Crowds mill about on Ocean Drive on Friday night, March 17, 2023.

Before the deadly shooting, spring breakers said the atmosphere felt mostly safe and fun.

I havent seen so many fights. I havent seen so much violence, said Evan, 25, from Indianapolis. This is my first time here. I always hear about shootings and stuff on the internet, but this year seems safe.

Police and pedestrians are seen walking along Ocean Drive on South Beach on Friday night, March 17, 2023.

This story has been updated to include additional information provided by police on Saturday.
Image: Rich Polk / Stringer (Getty Images)

After news of Lance Reddicks passing yesterday, March 17, many fans, actors, and colleagues took to social media to express their sadness. The actor was well-known for his massive body of work, which included roles in the John Wick franchise, a long-running stint on Fringe, and guest appearances on a multitude of television series, including Bosch and Lost.



Additionally, Reddick was a well-regarded voice actor and leant his talents to a select group of video games, including Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West, and the Destiny franchise. One of his last performances will not be in John Wick, but will be as Zeus in the television series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. That he was such a talent, and still actively working in beloved franchises, makes his loss all the more tragic.

Read more

So the open channel, this weekend, is part remembrance, part appreciation. What are your favorite Lance Reddick roles? How will you remember him?





Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

More from Gizmodo

Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
Security personnel gather near the entrance of the Wuhan Institute of Virology during a visit by the World Health Organization team in Wuhan in Chinas Hubei province on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. | Ng Han Guan, Associated Press

In a recent clip featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci, CNN described the theory that COVID-19 emerged because of work in a lab as a minority view.

But, in fact, more than two-thirds of Americans say it is definitely or probably true that the virus originated in a lab, according to a recent Economist/YouGov poll, and that includes majorities of both Democrats (53%) and Republicans (85%).

While the poll did not distinguish between people who believe the virus was intentionally created or naturally mutated within a lab, this theory of the origins of COVID-19, once dismissed as an idea held by conspiracy theorists, has become a rare area of agreement across party lines. Both the U.S. House and Senate voted unanimously to require the Biden administration to declassify intelligence gathered on the matter.

The administration has yet to comply, and President Joe Biden has not said whether he will veto the bill, even though administration officials considered a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology plausible as far back as the summer of 2021 and both the Energy Department and the FBI believe the virus emerged from the Wuhan lab.

So why the delay?

On one hand, its understandable why Biden is hesitant to let these particular bats out of the belfry.

The president is encircled with a constellation of problems involving China, to include the spy balloon he ordered shot down last month, the impending meeting of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, rising tension over Taiwan, and now, reports that Biden family members and associates received $3 million from a Chinese company. Whatever is contained in that intelligence is sure to add another geopolitical headache. The assessment of Utah Rep. Chris Stewart increasingly seems right: that the U.S. is afraid of confronting China.

But the controversy isnt going away, despite the administrations best efforts to ignore it, or to direct attention to a new report that tries to vindicate bats and implicate illegally sold raccoon dogs. Nor should it.

Story continues

Related

The origins of COVID-19 matter. Whether the cause is ultimately determined to be the most sinister posited (bioweapons) or the most benign (accidental animal transmission), we all have an interest in learning from what went wrong to try and prevent a future pandemic. No one should be punished for asking questions when public health is on the line.

But thats exactly what happened over the course of the pandemic to skeptics of the prevailing narrative, which included not only Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, but also Democrats like California Rep. Ro Khanna.

Writing for New York Magazines Intelligencer, James D. Walsh aptly described what happened: Not long ago, people who suggested that researchers might have accidentally unleashed the virus were written off as kooks or China hawks, which confined much of the early public discussion of the lab-leak theory to the fun houses of the far right.

The politicalization of the origins of Covid occurred in part because then-President Donald Trump was quick to assign blame. Before long, Americans were divided into two camps: you were either pro-Trump or pro-Fauci, when we all should have simply been pro-truth.

Now, after a long and strange journey during which Fauci has gone from the most popular scientist in America to a man some people say should be in prison, it appears that many Americans  and all of Congress  are, in fact, pro-truth. Wed like to know just what our government knows after three years and more than a million deaths, and whether or not the information aligns with our existing opinions.

This makes it all the more curious that Biden has yet to act on declassifying intelligence about COVID-19 a week after the bill passed the House, or to speak on it in any meaningful way.

Fauci, meanwhile, did himself no favors with an analogy about how COVID-19 could have both arisen in the wild in bats and escaped from a lab, even while saying that he maintains a completely open mind about the virus origins.

Dr. Fauci is now arguing maybe someone got infected by a Chinese bat and was being studied in a lab and thats how we got covid. Hes increasingly flailing in all public appearances. Charge him with lying to Congress and put him in prison: pic.twitter.com/AOETkYVFUv  Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 13, 2023

Its possible  maybe even likely  that we will never know with certainty what events precipitated the COVID-19 pandemic; we still dont know for sure what caused the flu pandemic of 1918. That doesnt mean we should stop asking questions  but it does mean we shouldnt vilify people who do.

And the question right now is, when will the president sign that bill?

Its corollary  whats stopping him?  would be nice to know, too.
This article was collaboratively written by Anthony Jackson + Buzzy, our creative AI assistant.

I recently visited Osaka, Japan, and boy was I in for a treat! Often overshadowed by Tokyo and Kyoto, Osaka has a charm all its own. From its delicious food to its amazing people and attractions, Osaka is a must-see destination.

Here are six reasons why this incredible city should be at the top of your travel bucket list, even if it's a bit of a trek to get there:

Anthony Jackson / BuzzFeed

1. Home to the famous "kuidaore" (literally "eat until you drop"), this city is an absolute wonderland for foodies.

Known as the kitchen of Japan, Osaka is famous for its takoyaki (octopus balls), okonomiyaki (a savory pancake), and kushikatsu (deep-fried skewers). You can find these delicacies in every corner of the city, but the Dotonbori area is a must-visit for foodies.

2. Osaka boasts some fantastic attractions that will keep you entertained for days...

From the Osaka Castle, which provides a stunning view of the city, to Universal Studios Japan, which is packed with excitement for all ages, Osaka has something for everyone. Id personally recommend treating yourself to an out-of-this-world adventure at Osaka's Kaiyukan Aquarium, home to over 30,000 marine creatures including some colossal whale sharks. It's an enchanting, picturesque spot that guarantees a tidal wave of Insta-worthy snaps.

3. ...including a world-class art scene.

The city is home to some of Japan's finest art galleries and museums, making it a paradise for art lovers. The National Museum of Art, Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, and the Osaka Museum of History are must-visits!

4. Kawaii culture has never been so...well, kawaii.

For fans of Japanese pop culture, Osaka is the ultimate paradise. Stroll through its streets filled with quirky cafes, niche shops, and utterly adorable plushies that will give you heart palpitations from their cuteness overload.

5. Osaka is a shopper's paradise.

From high-end luxury brands to department stores and street markets, there is something for everyone. Make sure you visit Shinsaibashi-suji and the Kuromon Ichiba market, which is known for its fresh produce and seafood. Wirestock / Getty Images

6. Finally, when we say nightlife, we mean *NIGHTLIFE*.

Neon lights, karaoke clubs, and a booming underground music scene rivaling Tokyo  what else could you possibly want? Get ready for some serious late-night adventures in Osaka's hottest areas such as Namba, Umeda, and Kitashinchi.

Story continues

Jake Jung / Getty Images

The only downside to Osaka is the distance from Tokyo, the nearest international airport. However, with multiple domestic flights and the bullet train, you can reach Osaka within a few hours. Trust me; the travel time is definitely worth it!
The current scientific consensus is that we face a gradually escalating climate disaster that could wipe out the human race. Chances of preventing this disaster would improve if we take a timeout from the comparatively petty conflicts  wars, religious strife, economic rivalry  simmering or raging around today's world.

Why the hurry to kill each other off? If we don't save the planet, even the "victors" in the current battles will be losers.

Paul F. deLespinasse

For a few Christmas hours in December 1914, a number of soldiers fighting against each other in World War I laid down their weapons, exchanged gifts, played impromptu games and took photographs. This demonstrated the possibility of timeouts even among soldiers in the thick of battle.

Few people now alive experienced the panic in 1938 when a radio play about an alien invasion was taken for the real thing. But imagine how we would all pull together if actually attacked by aliens swooping down in flying saucers!

Our mutual interest in survival would make our conflicts with each other seem petty by comparison.

The impending climate disaster could pose an equal threat to human survival. Although this disaster's gradual arrival is less dramatic, we should remember the frog supposedly boiled alive because its puddle was heated up slowly.

Surely human beings are smarter than frogs. One can hope!

A truce to save the planet would need to last several dozen years, but long truces have not been unknown in the past.

In 1389 a truce between England and France "was originally negotiated by representatives of the kings to last three years, but the two kings met in person at Leulinghem, near the English fortress of Calais, and agreed to extend the truce to a twenty-seven years' period."

The end of the Korean War in 1953  70 years ago  was, in effect, a truce because there was never any agreement to end the war.

A long truce would allow the time, talent, and resources currently devoted to wars and other conflicts to be invested, instead, in building a worldwide electrical grid that would rapidly put the age of carbon fuels  threatening an overheated world  behind us.

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A universal grid would allow total reliance on solar energy without the need for large-scale storage for nighttime, bad weather, and low local solar availability during winters (which are summers in the other hemisphere).

The PV panels on my roof produce only one-fifth as much monthly electricity in winter as they do in the summer. There is no economical way to store enough electricity to get through a winter. We need the universal grid!

There are presently many serious proposals to build solar energy facilities. But too many of these projects are on hold because the current grid lacks the capacity to transmit their output to where it is needed.

Given the many different political jurisdictions controlling the areas through which the worldwide grid would need to run, it will take intensive political work to expedite grid-building. Political leaders freed for the moment from the need to run wars could devote their talents to this vital job.

Wars are expensive. The huge amount of money saved by a long truce could be invested in additional PV panels and electrical grid.

Of course, I have an ulterior motive for proposing a long truce. It is my hope that conditions during the truce might be so habit-forming that good sense would prevail and the general war of all against all that we presently "enjoy" would never be resumed.

As Alfred, Lord Tennyson put it it Locksley Hall (1835), I would like to see the day come when:

"... the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd

in the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.

Here the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,

and the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law."

 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 Sturgis Journal: Paul deLespinasse: Time out from petty conflicts could allow human survival
A payment meant to silence a porn star in the days before Donald Trump's stunning election victory in 2016 may now result in his being the first US former president ever to be indicted.

How did it come to this? How is Trump defending himself, and what risks does he face?

Here are some key elements of the case:

- Hush money payment -

At a key point in the 2016 presidential campaign, intense negotiations were underway behind the scenes to prevent the leak of embarrassing, and potentially crippling, allegations against the Republican candidate.

In August, The National Enquirer, an American tabloid whose owner is a Trump ally, paid $150,000 to a model, Karen McDougal, for the rights to her story about a relationship she claimed to have had with the billionaire. The objective was to prevent any word of her allegations from getting out -- a technique known as "catch and kill" in the United States, where confidentiality clauses are common.

Meantime, Stephanie Clifford -- a pornographic film actress who goes by the name of Stormy Daniels -- was also trying to cash in on a relationship she says she had with Trump in 2006, a year after he married his current wife, Melania.

The tabloid put her in touch with Michael Cohen, one of Trump's personal lawyers. Late in the 2016 campaign, Cohen, whose fierce loyalty to Trump had earned him the nickname of "the Pitbull," arranged a payment of $130,000 to Daniels in exchange for her pledge of confidentiality.

The payment was revealed by the Wall Street Journal in January 2018. Cohen and Trump dismissed the report, and the then-president repeatedly denied having had a relationship with Daniels.

- Undeclared campaign gift? -

Cohen, who was already entangled in the inquiry into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election, found himself under steadily increasing pressure. He ultimately opted to collaborate with prosecutors and he pleaded guilty in August 2018 before a federal court in Manhattan to charges of tax and bank fraud, but also charges of violating federal campaign financing laws.

Story continues

A federal indictment accused Cohen of making the payments to Daniels to buy her silence in order to influence the 2016 presidential election. The Trump Organization had reimbursed Cohen for his payment to Daniels, which prosecutors said amounted to an undeclared campaign gift to Trump, in violation of election financing laws.

In December 2018, Cohen -- who has turned virulently against Trump and said he was acting on his orders -- was sentenced to three years in prison.

- Possible charges -

Columbia University law professor John Coffee told AFP that there is nothing criminal in the payment itself. What is illegal, he added, is the falsification of a company's commercial documents.

The Trump Organization is a company, he added, and the payments to Cohen were declared as simply being reimbursements for legal fees -- a falsification.

If the payment to Daniels is the only charge against Trump, it would be classed as a misdemeanor, said Coffee, a specialist in criminal justice and white-collar crime. But if prosecutors can convince a jury that the falsification took place in order to hide another crime -- such as undeclared campaign contribution -- it can rise to a felony, punishable by up to four years in prison.

But Coffee said this argument would not necessarily be an easy one to make in court.

- 'Witch hunt' -

In each of the several state and federal investigations targeting him, Trump has blamed a political "witch hunt" by Democratic prosecutors. In the current case, his lawyers have depicted Trump as the victim of "extortion" by Daniels.

Trump's lawyers would also be certain to attack the credibility of Cohen, a key witness for the prosecution and now a sworn enemy of Trump. The former lawyer -- he has been disbarred -- Cohen has also pleaded guilty to lying to the US Congress about a Moscow real estate deal Trump's company was pursuing in 2016.

- Risks for Trump -

Conviction in the Daniels case would not prevent Trump from continuing his campaign to return to the White House, Coffee said, but it could prove politically damaging. Just how damaging, the Columbia professor would not speculate.

He said Trump's lawyers were certain to do everything possible to delay a trial as long as possible -- while his rivals for the Republican nomination would surely like to see it take place much sooner.

arb/bbk/md
Logo

GREEN CREEK TOWNSHIP - A 74-year-old Pemberville man died in a crash on U.S. 20 early Friday when a semitrailer pulled out of a gas station and into the path of his Toyota Camry, the Ohio Highway Patrol said.

The crash occurred at approximately 6:41 a.m. when Donald Eckel was driving eastbound on U.S. near Milepost 24 in Green Creek Township and John Ketteman Jr., 56, of Britton, Michigan, attempted to turn left onto U.S. 20 in a 2012 Kenworth T6 Series semi and pulled into the path of the 2011 Toyota, according to a news release issued by the patrol Friday night.

Eckel was killed as a result of the crash and Ketteman Jr. was not injured, the patrol said.

The collision occurred on U.S. 20 between Fremont and Clyde and the highway was closed for several hours after the crash, according to the Sandusky County Sheriff's Office.

The highway patrol said it was assisted at the scene by the sheriff's office, Clyde Fire Department, Sandusky County Life Squads 15 and 18, Sandusky County Coroner's Office, Triple J's Towing, and Interstate Towing.

Alcohol and drug impairment do not appear to be factors. The crash remains under investigation, the patrol said in the news release.

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Car and semi crash on US 20, killing Pemberville man, 74
By Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. should continue supporting Ukraine, former Vice President Mike Pence and New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said on Saturday, a position that puts them at odds with the top two contenders for the Republican presidential nomination.

Foreign policy has emerged as the main ideological fissure within the Republican Party as the 2024 nominating contest heats up.

While former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have called for dedicating resources to domestic issues rather than Ukraine, several other declared and likely presidential candidates have portrayed themselves as unwavering defenders of the eastern European county.

Both Pence and Sununu have defended Ukraine before, but their Saturday comments were particularly pointed and come as the Republican foreign policy feud intensifies.

This week, DeSantis said in a statement provided to conservative radio host Tucker Carlson that the Ukraine War was a "territorial dispute," which was not a vital national interest to the U.S.

DeSantis has not declared a presidential run but he is widely expected to do so, and he is by far Trump's most formidable Republican opponent.

Speaking in Iowa, Pence, who is also expected to run, took a jab at the Florida governor.

"I must tell you the war in Ukraine is not a territorial dispute. It is a Russian invasion," he told a group of Republicans near Des Moines.

"I truly do believe that this is a moment of testing for the free world to ensure peace in eastern Europe."

Pence did not criticize Trump, even as the former president opposes dedicating more resources to Ukraine and once called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "genius" for invading the neighboring country.

In a Washington Post opinion column, Sununu, the New Hampshire governor, went after Trump and DeSantis directly.

"Some in the Republican Party have lost their moral compass on foreign policy, as evidenced by former president Donald Trump, who once called Putin's invasion 'genius' and 'savvy,'" Sununu wrote.

Story continues

Pence is running well behind Trump and DeSantis, vying for a distant third with former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, another Ukraine supporter.

Sununu, a relative moderate who is also considering a run, is polling in the low single digits.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Josie Kao)
Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday that he considers the Manhattan district attorneys potential indictment of former President Trump to be deeply troubling but emphasized that violence will not be tolerated as the former president calls for protests.

Trump said in a post to Truth Social that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday in connection with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs probe into a hush-money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.

The idea of indicting a former president of the United States is deeply troubling to me, as it is to tens of millions of Americans, Pence told reporters in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday. And particularly happening in what appears to be a politically charged environment in New York where the attorney general and other elected officials literally campaigned on a pledge to prosecute the former president.

No one is above the law, he added. Im confident President Trump can take care of himself.

He joined a slew of other Republicans who slammed the potential indictment as politically motivated and an abuse of power.

Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tweeted on Saturday.

However, amid Trumps call for his supporters to protest and take back our nation in response to the possible indictment, Pence noted that violence will not be tolerated.

We respect the right of Americans to let their voice be heard and to express the frustration over what appears to be a politically motivated prosecution of the former president, he said. But we want to send a very clear message that violence will not be tolerated and anyone that would engage in violence would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Michael Cohen, Trumps former personal attorney and longtime fixer, compared the former presidents call for protests on Saturday to the battle cry he put out before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Story continues

It would have been smart for Donald to write peaceful protest, but he doesnt want a peaceful protest, Cohen told MSNBC. He wants he wants another violent clash on his behalf.

Cohen, who testified before the New York grand jury earlier this week, made the $130,000 payment to Daniels shortly before the 2016 election to quash her story of an alleged affair with Trump. He pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations in connection with the payment.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
CHARLEVOIX  A 24-year-old Petoskey man has been arrested after police identified multiple allegations of women claiming he sexually assaulted them.

Tyler James McCallum is charged with one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct causing injury and one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with force or coercion, according to the Charlevoix County Prosecuting Attorney's office.

The original complaint was filed with law enforcement officials in October 2021 by a victim who said McCallum sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions throughout summer 2017. The victim said when the assaults took place, she didn't understand what sexual assault was and claimed "none of the sex was consensual," according to a spokesperson from the prosecutor's office.

A trooper from the Michigan State Police Gaylord Post conducted the investigation surrounding the initial report. A lengthy investigation followed, and other women were identified as possible victims. One of the women alleged she also was sexually assaulted by the suspect on multiple occasions from 2017 through 2019.

Subscribe:Get all your breaking news and unlimited access to our local coverage

A report was turned over to Charlevoix County Prosecutor Attorney Kit Tholen and a warrant was issued onFeb. 11 for McCallum's arrest. He was apprehended while leaving his residence in Petoskey on Feb. 13 and lodged in the Charlevoix County jail.

McCallum has been arraigned in the 90th District Court in Charlevoix County and given a $50,000 cash surety bond.

His next scheduled court appearance is at 2:30 p.m. April 25 in front of the Honorable Roy C. Hayes III.

 Contact reporter Annie Doyle at (231) 675-0099 or adoyle@charlevoixcourier.com.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Petoskey man accused of sexually assaulting multiple women
Pierce Brosnan was dining in a top London restaurant when it was occupied by animal rights protesters. (Getty Images)

Pierce Brosnan was confronted by vegan activists while eating out at a top seafood restaurant with his wife.

The James Bond star was dining at prestigious London eatery Scott's in Mayfair when it was occupied by protest movement Animal Rebellion - who operate in alliance with climate change protesters Extinction Rebellion - staging a sit-in at the venue.

Animal Rebellion posted a video of Brosnan, 69, on their Twitter account with the James Bond theme tune playing in the background.

 DINE ANOTHER DAY



Animal Rebellion occupy Scotts in London whilst @PierceBrosnan enjoys a luxury seafood dining experience. The seafood industry is devastating our oceans and climate, as well as directly causing the deaths of billions of animals https://t.co/NDMQCdbICQ https://t.co/o430h62ITm pic.twitter.com/zTCCH5lnDT  Animal Rebellion (@RebelsAnimal) March 17, 2023

One activist could be seen talking to the actor while in another part of the video someone can be heard calling "James Bond" to the actor in the background of the footage while a hand is placed in front of their camera.

Read more: Dame Judi Dench reveals Pierce Brosnan frightened of being James Bond

Brosnan was dining with his wife, 59-year-old journalist Keely Shae Smith.

Pierce Brosnan Brosnan was dining with his wife Keely Shae Smith. (Getty Images for GQ)

He is in the UK shooting new film The Four Letters Of Love in Northern Ireland.

Police were called to the restaurant and footage shows protestors being carried out of the venue sitting in chairs.

The group said the protest was staged in solidarity with member Emma Smart, who has been found not guilty of anti-social behaviour following her arrest for approaching Sir David Attenborough while he was dining at Weymouth seafood restaurant Catch At The Old Fish Market in November 2022.

Story continues

The protestors wished to highlight the affects of the fishing industry on climate change.

Activist Louisa Hillwood, a 28-year-old primary school teacher, said: "We are peacefully occupying tables in Scott's to make a definitive statement that no seafood is sustainable.

David Attenborough was confronted by Animal Rebellion at a seafood restaurant in Weymouth. (BBC)

"Restaurants like this are symbols of horrific inequality, whether it's the cost-of-living crisis, the climate emergency and the animal emergency.

"We know that transitioning to a plant-based food system would support fishing communities into sustainable jobs whilst providing abundant affordable and nutritious food, not to mention the benefits of marine rewilding."

Emma Smart, 45, was arrested at a Michelin-starred seafood restaurant in Dorset last year after she tried to deliver a letter to environmentalist Attenborough while he was dining there.

She was acquitted of breaching a Section 35 dispersal order at Poole Magistrates Court on Friday 17 March.

Read more: Animal Rebellion activists scale Defra building in London as part of COP26 protest

Footage of the incident showed her repeatedly shouting: David Attenborough, my name is Emma Smart, Im a scientist, before being dragged out by police officers and the restaurant owner.

Watch: Animal Rebellion protestors thrown out of Heston Blumenthal's restaurant
Seattle police are looking for a man after a domestic assault report in Queen Anne on Friday.

Officers arrived around 5 a.m., in the 300 block of 1st Avenue North, and spoke with a 42-year-old woman seeking safety nearby, said the Seattle Police Department.

After speaking with the woman, officers gathered enough evidence to arrest a 32-year-old man for the assault.

The woman was taken to the hospital for her injuries.

After getting an arrest warrant, SWAT officers and patrol searched a nearby apartment complex for the man but couldnt find him.

While this was happening a nearby daycare facility was asked to shelter in place.

Police said there is currently no threat to the public.

Officers will continue to investigate.
A man was arrested early Saturday after stealing a womans purse, then stabbing a man in the chest multiple times, according to the Seattle Police Department.

Just before 2:30 a.m., police responded to reports of a strong-arm robbery at the intersection of Minor Avenue and Howell Street.

Upon arriving at the scene, police found a 38-year-old man who had been stabbed multiple times.

According to police, the man was walking with a 32-year-old woman when an unknown man approached the pair and grabbed the womans purse. When the male victim attempted to get the purse back, the suspect stabbed him in the chest.

Officers provided first aid until Seattle Fire Department personnel arrived at the scene. The man was transported to a hospital with serious injuries.

Police were searching the area for the suspect when a security guard at a nearby construction site called 911 to report seeing a suspicious man on the property.

The security guard recognized the man matched the description of the stabbing suspect and notified the police.

Officers located the suspect, a 35-year-old man, in the 800 block of Lenora Street and took him into custody.

He will be booked into King County Jail for robbery and assault.
SEABROOK  A Maine woman is facing several charges for allegedly making hoax threats that led to the evacuation of Walmart Saturday morning.

Seabrook police said they responded to Walmart at about 11 a.m. after receiving a report there was an explosive device in the store. While enroute to the store in the shopping center at 700 Lafayette Road, officers received a second call that went into the police station, saying there was a man with a firearm in Walmart.

Seabrook police responded to Walmart on Route 1 Saturday after receiving a report of an explosive device in the store. The threat, along with a call reporting a gunman, were determined to be hoaxes.

Police quickly determined there was no one in the store with a firearm. Walmart and adjoining stores were evacuated, however, as police searched for the reported explosive.

According to police, the New Hampshire State Police Bomb Squad was called in to sweep the building for explosives. Finding none, police determined there was no threat and the stores were reopened at approximately 1 p.m.

Seabrook Deputy Chief Kevin Gelineau said police identified a suspect in the case early on.

At 4 p.m., police announced that Meghan Leavitt, 38, of Alfred, Maine, was taken into custody without incident at the Best Western Hotel in Seabrook.

Leavitt is being charged with false reports as to explosives, false reports to law enforcement, false public alarm, criminal threatening, and possession of a controlled drug. She is currently being held at the Rockingham County House of Corrections in Brentwood pending arraignment on Monday at Rockingham Superior Court.

Gelineau thanked other agencies who partnered with Seabrook police to assist with the situation, including the New Hampshire State Police, and the Kensington and Hampton Falls police departments.

With their help and the terrific work of our own officers, we were able to safely investigate the threats and reopen area businesses, Gelineau said.

Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact Seabrook police Det. Zachary Bunszell at ZBunszell@seabrookpd.com or Lt. Timothy Mone at 603-474-5200. Anyone wishing to provide information on illegal activities can report the information to the Seabrook Police Department at 603-474-5200 or through the Crimeline for the Hamptons via phone at 603-929-1222.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Maine woman charged with hoax threats against Seabrook Walmart
The Boston Police Department is turning to the public for help in locating 17-year-old Kyrrah Norris of Dorchester.

Norris was last seen at about 5:40 p.m. on Thursday after leaving her residence on Columbia Road, police said.

She is described as a black female, about 55, 180 lbs., with black dreadlocked hair and dark green framed glasses. There is no clothing description available at this time.

Kyrrah may be in the area of a family members home on Mystic Avenue in Somerville, according to police.

Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts is advised to contact 911 or C-11 Detectives at 617-343-4335.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Bartosz Cichocki, the Ambassador of Poland in Kyiv, confirmed the information about the wounded Polish volunteer who was injured in Ukraine in Russian shelling.

Source: European Pravda with reference to TVN24

On Saturday, Anton Herashchenko, the adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, reported that two volunteers from Poland were injured.

Quote: "A Russian rocket hit a bus of Polish volunteers carrying humanitarian aid to the city of Chasiv Yar. Two volunteers were injured," he wrote.

Herashchenko added that one of the victims was evacuated to a hospital in Dnipro.

At the same time, Cichocki confirmed the injury of only one Polish citizen.

Quote: "We have received information about an injured citizen of the Republic of Poland. He is receiving medical attention and will be treated," he said, without giving any other details.

The PAP agency also spoke with a representative of the Polish aid initiative Nehemiasz. The volunteers went as part of this group. He told the outlet about two wounded Poles.

Quote: "A minibus of Poles belonging to this initiative was attacked late on Thursday. Six people were injured, including two Poles. They both live in Poznan. One of them is in a stable but critical condition. The other is in a better condition. We keep in touch with their families and the embassy in Kyiv. We would like to be able to welcome them to Poland in a week or two," he said.

He added that the volunteers "were immediately evacuated from the shelling zone, hospitalised and received medical assistance."

Chasiv Yar is an urban-type settlement in Donetsk Oblast. It is located about 10 kilometres to the west of Bakhmut.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Five Preble County fire departments responded to a house fire early Saturday morning, Preble County dispatch confirmed.

Northwest Fire and Ambulance District were called to the 3600 block of Whitewater-Eldorado Road around 4:15 a.m. on a report of a house fire.

>> Man leads officers, deputies in car, foot chase through Warren, Butler Counties; Suspect at large

Additional crews from West Manchester, Verona, Lewisburg, and Eldorado were called to assist with the fire, a spokesperson with Preble County dispatch told News Center 7.

No one was injured in the fire; however, the Red Cross has been called to assist those living in the home.

The cause of the fire is unknown at this time, and the fire marshall has been asked to assist with the investigation.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced on March 18 the dismissal of two ministers and named their replacements set to take office next week.

Shmyhal said in a Telegram post that Education Minister Serhiy Shkarlet would be replaced by Oksen Lisovyi, who currently works as a director of the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, a governmental institution focused on education for middle and high school-aged children.

Media reports about scandal-ridden Shkarlet's walkout from the cabinet emerged on March 17, with Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reporting that the minister was expected to resign that day.

He was marred by scandal even before the full-scale invasion after students from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy protested in February 2022, calling for his resignation. They accused him of sabotaging the election of the university's president.



The prime minister did not disclose the reasons for Shkarlet's soon-to-be official dismissal.

Shmyhal also said that Pavlo Riabikin, the minister for strategic industries, would be replaced by the former CEO of Ukraine's state-run railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia, Oleksandr Kamyshin.

Kamyshin, who has gained popularity after Ukrzaliznytsia became a lifeline for the country amid war, announced his resignation from the executive position on Feb. 27.

Shmyhal did not indicate an exact date when the government reshuffle will take place.
Pro-Kremlin activists rallied in Moscow Saturday outside embassies of countries considered "unfriendly" by Russia on the ninth anniversary of its annexation of Crimea, a youth movement said.

The pro-Kremlin youth movement "Molodaya Gvardia" ("The Young Guard") said that over 5,000 people demonstrated outside the embassies of 20 "unfriendly" nations including the United States, France, Germany and Poland.

These countries "support Ukraine... and also actively supply lethal weapons to the Ukrainian regime," they said.

Around 400 activists gathered outside the US embassy in Moscow holding up posters with messages such as "Crimea with Russia forever" or "The United States, you sow death", an AFP reporter saw.

"With the help of these weapons, peaceful Crimea can be fired upon and already is," the youth movement's head Anton Demidov told AFP.

"Those countries that supply lethal weapons, we consider them accomplices of this crime," he added.

A similar demonstration of some 200 people also took place outside the British embassy, an AFP reporter witnessed.

Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 following a referendum that was denounced by Kyiv and Western capitals.

The annexation has triggered a wave of international condemnation and sanctions.

bur/giv
WASHINGTON (AP)  Soon after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in Ohio last month, anonymous pro-Russian accounts started spreading misleading claims and anti-American propaganda about it on Twitter, using Elon Musk's new verification system to expand their reach while creating the illusion of credibility.

The accounts, which parroted Kremlin talking points on myriad topics, claimed without evidence that authorities in Ohio were lying about the true impact of the chemical spill. The accounts spread fearmongering posts that preyed on legitimate concerns about pollution and health effects and compared the response to the derailment with America's support for Ukraine following its invasion by Russia.

Some of the claims pushed by the pro-Russian accounts were verifiably false, such as the suggestion that the news media had covered up the disaster or that environmental scientists traveling to the site had been killed in a plane crash. But most were more speculative, seemingly designed to stoke fear or distrust. Examples include unverified maps showing widespread pollution, posts predicting an increase in fatal cancers and others about unconfirmed mass animal die-offs.

Biden offers food, water, medicine, shelter, payouts of pension and social services to Ukraine! Ohio first! Offer and deliver to Ohio! posted one of the pro-Moscow accounts, which boasts 25,000 followers and features an anonymous location and a profile photo of a dog. Twitter awarded the account a blue check mark in January.

Regularly spewing anti-US propaganda, the accounts show how easily authoritarian states and Americans willing to spread their propaganda can exploitsocial mediaplatforms like Twitter in an effort to steer domestic discourse.

The accounts were identified by Reset, a London-based nonprofit that studies social media's impact on democracy, and shared with The Associated Press. Felix Kartte, a senior advisor at Reset, said the report's findings indicate Twitter is allowing Russia to use its platform like a bullhorn.

Story continues

"With no one at home in Twitters product safety department, Russia will continue to meddle in US elections and in democracies around the world, Kartte said.

Twitter did not respond to messages seeking comment for this story.

The 38-car derailment near East Palestine, Ohio, released toxic chemicals into the atmosphere, leading to a nationaldebate over rail safety and environmental regulations while raising fears of poisoned drinking water and air.

The disaster was a major topic on social media, with millions of mentions on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, according to an analysis by San Francisco-based media intelligence firm Zignal Labs, which conducted a study on behalf of the AP.

At first, the derailment received little attention online but mentions grew steadily, peaking two weeks after the incident, Zignal found, a time lag that gave pro-Russia voices time to try to shape the conversation.

The accounts identified by Reset's researchers received an extra boost from Twitter itself, in the form of a blue check mark. Before Musk purchased Twitter last year, it's check marks denoted accounts run by verified users, often public figures, celebrities or journalists. It was seen as a mark of authenticity on a platform known for bots and spam accounts.

Musk ended that system and replaced it with Twitter Blue, which is given to users who pay $8 per month and supply a phone number. Twitter Blue users agree not to engage in deception and are required to post a profile picture and name. But there's no rule that they use their own.

Under the program, Twitter Blue users can write and send longer tweets and videos. Their replies are also given higher priority on other posts.

The AP reached out to several of the accounts listed in Resets report. In response, one of the accounts sent a two-word message before blocking the AP reporter on Twitter: Shut up.

While researchers spotted clues suggesting some of the accounts are linked to coordinated efforts by Russian disinformation agencies, others were Americans, showing the Kremlin doesn't always have to pay to get its message out.

One account, known as Truth Puke, is connected to a website of the same name geared toward conservatives in the United States. Truth Puke regularly reposts Russian state media; RT, formerly known as Russia Today, is one of its favorite groups to repost, Reset found. One video posted by the account features ex-President Donald Trump's remarks about the train derailment, complete with Russian subtitles.

In a response to questions from the AP, Truth Puke said it aims to provide a wide spectrum of views and was surprised to be labeled a spreader of Russian propaganda, despite the account's heavy use of such material. Asked about the video with Russian subtitles, Truth Puke said it used the Russian language version of the Trump video for the sake of expediency.

We can assure you that it was not done with any Russian propagandist intent in mind, we just like to put out things as quickly as we find them, the company said.

Other accounts brag of their love for Russia. One account on Thursday reposted a bizarre claim that the U.S. was stealing humanitarian earthquake relief supplies donated to Syria by China. The account has 60,000 followers and is known as Donbass Devushka, after the region of Ukraine.

Another pro-Russian account recently tried to pick an online argument with Ukraine's defense department, posting photos of documents that it claimed came from the Wagner Group, a private military company owned by a Yevgeny Prigozhin, a key Putin ally. Prigozhin operates troll farms that have targeted U.S. social media users in the past. Last fall he boasted of his efforts to meddle with American democracy.

A separate Twitter account claiming to represent Wagner actively uses the site to recruit fighters.

 Gentlemen, we have interfered, are interfering and will interfere," Prigozhin said last fall on the eve of the 2022 midterm elections in the U.S. "Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do, Prigozhin said at the time.
A developer based in the northern area of Mecklenburg County is looking to lead a large mixed-use project in Huntersville.

Davidson-based Treenail Development is seeking to rezone a nearly 70-acre site off Hambright Road to allow for the development of a project called Town 1. The proposed project calls for a range of commercial and residential uses, including a pedestrian village with restaurants, retail and small office space, Class-A office building, light industrial buildings and several types of residential units.

ALSO READ: Huntersville leads Opendoor ranking of hottest Charlotte-area ZIP codes

At a meeting earlier this month, the Huntersville Board of Commissioners scheduled an initial public hearing for the rezoning request for April 3. The project would be developed at 11101 Hambright Road along Interstate 77, if it receives needed approvals.

Theres an opportunity here to really set the tone for the west side of 77 and create a real entrance point for Huntersville as you come north from Charlotte, Treenail Developments Ben Geisler told the Charlotte Business Journal.

Keep reading here.

(WATCH BELOW: Huntersville holds public hearing almost 3 years after Colonial Pipeline spill)
By Dominique Vidalon and Manuel Ausloos

PARIS (Reuters) -Paris police clashed with demonstrators for a third night on Saturday as thousands of people marched throughout the country amid anger at the government pushing through a rise in the state pension age without a parliamentary vote.

The growing unrest and strikes have left President Emmanuel Macron facing the gravest challenge to his authority since the so-called "Gilets Jaunes" (Yellow Vests) protests four years ago.

"Macron, Resign!" and "Macron is going to break down, we are going to win," demonstrators chanted on the Place d'Italie in southern Paris. Riot police used tear gas and clashed with some in the crowd as trash bins were set on fire.

Municipal authorities had banned rallies on Paris's central Place de la Concorde and nearby Champ-Elysees on Saturday night after demonstrations that resulted in 61 arrests the previous night. There were 81 arrests on Saturday night.

Earlier in the French capital, a group of students and activists from the "Revolution Permanente" collective briefly invaded the Forum des Halles shopping mall, waving banners calling for a general strike and shouting "Paris stand up, rise up", videos on social media showed.

BFM television also showed images of demonstrations underway in cities such as Compiegne in the north, Nantes in the west and Marseille in the south. In Bordeaux, in the southwest, police also used tear gas against protesters who had started a fire.

"The reform must be implemented ... Violence cannot be tolerated," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Le Parisien newspaper.

A broad alliance of France's main unions has said it would continue to mobilise to try to force a U-turn on the changes. A day of nationwide industrial action is scheduled for Thursday.

Rubbish has been piling up on the streets of Paris after refuse workers joined in the action.

Some 37% of operational staff at TotalEnergies' refineries and depots - at sites including Feyzin in southeast France and Normandy in the north - were on strike on Saturday, a company spokesperson said. Rolling strikes continued on the railways.

Story continues

While eight days of nationwide protests since mid-January, and many local industrial actions, have so far been largely peaceful, the unrest over the last three days is reminiscent of the Yellow Vest protests which erupted in late 2018 over high fuel prices. Those demonstrations forced Macron into a partial U-turn on a carbon tax.

Macron's overhaul raises the pension age by two years to 64, which the government says is essential to ensure the system does not go bust.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Gilles Guillaume and Forrest Crellin; Editing by David Holmes, Peter Graff and Daniel Wallis)
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Reuters/YouTube

Ten years ago, pop music was at its finest and busiest. Whether you were rocking out to certified bangers like Kesha and Pitbulls Timber, partaking in a not-at-all-embarrassing Harlem Shake video with your friends, browsing through posts on Hipster Runoff right before its untimely end, or gawking at Mileys infamous VMA performance, 2013 was the most consequential year for esteemed and emerging pop artists in recent memory, producing a massive ripple effect on how we talk about, think about, distribute, and listen to music today.

Along with a string of chart-topping, radio-friendly hits from unexpected acts like Macklemore and Robin Thicke, the year was most notable for bearing a vibrant slate of star-making albums from up-and-comers-turned-current pop icons.

There was Victorious actress Ariana Grande, who broke out of her Nickelodeon shell with her warm, mature debut album, Yours Truly, and its Mariah Carey-inflected lead single, The Way. Indie darling Sky Ferreira delivered on her much-hyped major label debut Night Time, My Time after breaking out with the beloved Everything is Embarrassing the year prior. Lorde was only 17 when she made Pure Heroine, a sleek and gothy sonic collage of teen angst that became a blueprint for future stars like Clairo and Billie Eilish. Coming off a feature on Icona Pops I Love It, Charli XCX transformed from a rave MySpace kid into a pop prophet with True Romance. L.A.-based sister trio HAIM got their big break with Days Are Gone, as did Scottish synth-pop outfit CHVRCHES with The Bones of What You Believe and British rock band The 1975 with their self-titled LP.

The year also yielded a few culturally momentous, sonically experimental works from already well-established artists. Big names in the mainstream and indie pop spheres, like Paramore, Drake, Arctic Monkeys, and Vampire Weekend, made huge leaps in their respective artistic evolutions, each honing their craft while broadening their scope. Disney Channel star Miley Cyrus pivoted sharply from the sugary teen-pop of her Hannah Montana days to Southern hip-hop with Bangerz, courting controversy for her radical shift in sound and image. Similarly, Lady Gaga received mixed reviews for ARTPOP, a project that caught critics and audiences off guard for its eccentric lyrics and avant-garde instrumentation, but has since been reassessed as one of her most underrated albums.

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Elsewhere, 2013 saw a few career comebacks for major artists from the 2000s. After venturing into acting with Bad Teacher, The Social Network, and Friends with Benefits, Justin Timberlake announced his return from a seven-year musical hiatus with The 20/20 Experience, an ambitious, sensual blend of classy neo-soul and Timbaland-infused R&B that became the years best-selling album. Following a scoring gig on TRON: Legacy in 2010, the enigmatic French electronic duo Daft Punk reemerged from the shadows with the song of the summer, Get Lucky, and their adventurous fourth (and ultimately final) record Random Access Memories; both the song and album went on to score Record and Album of the Year at the 2014 Grammys.

De La Soul Is Finally StreamingHeres Your Guide to Their Best Work

But among many of these breakouts and breakthroughs, no one could have prepared for 2013 to culminate with the surprise overnight release of Beyonces eponymous fifth album on Dec. 13. Serving as her boldest, richest, most career-defining output at the time, Beyonce marked a significant departure from the artistic expectations around the superstar. It boasted a series of steamy, stormy, sexual tracks like Drunk in Love, Haunted, and Blow (as well as an impeccably produced visual for each song); it invented the lyric I woke up like this that would go on to caption #unfiltered Instagram selfies for years to come; and it touched on more intimate and political subjects like motherhood, monogamy, and beauty standards. As evidenced by her later efforts, including 2016s Lemonade and last years Renaissance, Bey had her finger on the pulse of contemporary pop, knowing what we needed before we even knew what we needed.

In retrospect, its remarkable that one single year was largely responsible for having such a profound impact on the pop music of the 2010s. To be fair, 2014, 2016, and 2017 were seismic years in their own ways, but 2013 was particularly significant for both its abundance of creative milestones and for marking several pivotal turning points in the music landscape.

Firstly, it marked the end of the dubstep-heavy, EDM-influenced pop that dominated the late aughts and ushered in the beginning of the trap-inspired pop era. Trap was already a well-established subgenre of 1990s and 2000s hip-hop, but it wasnt until producers like DJ Snake, RL Grime, TNGHT, Mike Will Made It, and Bauuer popularized the sound through their work that it made a mainstream crossover into pop. Trap musics formulaa synth beat, a triplet flow, and volume and pitch modulationsultimately displaced dubsteps thick bassline and syncopated rhythm, finding its way onto much of Beyonces aforementioned self-titled record, as well as Gagas Jewels N Drugs from ARTPOP and Katy Perrys Dark Horse, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 by January 2014. Traps influence would gradually gain traction over the next decade, spreading across the pop spectrum, from Fetty Waps Trap Queen and Cardi Bs Bodak Yellow, all the way to Lana del Reys Lust for Life and Ariana Grandes Thank U, Next.

In addition to trap, electronic music also played a pivotal role in 2013 pop, especially as it introduced the masses to the production style of the late, great SOPHIE. After releasing the singles Nothing Was The Same and BIPP in 2013 and receiving critical acclaim for the latter, SOPHIE became an in-demand producer for artists like Madonna, Vince Staples, Charli XCX, and recent Grammy winner Kim Petras, who shouted out SOPHIE in her acceptance speech and credited the artist for paving the way for her success. The Scottish DJs glittery, metallic sound design, distorted vocals, and chaotic yet sophisticated synth textures would function as a template for the hyperpop that permeates much of todays pop music and social media landscape.

Kim Petras on Religion, Abortion, and Making History as a Trans Pop Star

The internet itself would in fact also act as a major force in pop production and distribution in 2013 and beyond. The year marked the start of the streaming era, where online services like Spotify offered musicians the ability to upload their own work and gave listeners unprecedented access to an expansive music library. Though its progenitors MySpace and YouTube technically provided those opportunities as well, Spotifys consolidated interface and specialized playlists made it easier and more accessible for subscribers to discover new artists, even though the artists themselves didnt profit as much from streaming. As Spotifys popularity grew and developed competition with Apple Music and Tidal, the streaming model evolved into the main revenue and business metric for the music industry, consequently leading to a decline in digital downloads, physical sales, and radio airplay.

The height of Tumblrs popularity also happened in 2013, with the website operating as a space where young people could create fanbases around their favorite musicians and congregate to discuss them. If you were especially obsessed with alternative pop groups with a distinct aesthetic like Vampire Weekend, The 1975, Arctic Monkeys, or any other band from the tail end of the indie sleaze era, Tumblr was the place to be. That particular moment online held such tremendous, sentimental value in how it exposed people to pop songs and pop culture figures that the site has recently become a nostalgia trip for zillennials such as myself who lived through that time, and for Gen-Z, whos just now discovering it.

Finally, 2013 was a year where viral videos helped transform previously unknown songs into massive hits. PSYs Gangnam Style and Carly Rae Jepsens Call Me Maybe catalyzed the trend the year before, but Bauuers Harlem Shake and the dance that helped popularize it further solidified the internets growing cultural power. Each Harlem Shake clip would always start with a masked individual grooving suggestively to the intros wobbly synths in a room of seemingly oblivious people. Then, as it reached the hard-as-fuck beat drop and simple command of a refrainDo the Harlem shake!it would jump-cut to everyone dancing wildly for the rest of the video. It was simply inescapable.

After producing over 4,000 YouTube clips and ascending to No. 1 on the Hot 100, the Harlem Shake memes rapid and widespread circulation completely revamped Billboards methodology, using YouTube data as a determining factor in a songs success. This commercial attention by way of memes would eventually pave the way for artists to achieve recognition via collaborative and frequently imitated viral videos. We often see this phenomenon today on TikTok, the go-to platform for people to connect with each other through song and dance, incidentally making a bop go viral and launching someone from relative obscurity to overnight stardom.

Beyonces album drop at the end of 2013 and the subsequent fervor it sparked online was the cherry on top of the internets chokehold over pop music, capping off an extraordinarily innovative year for music on a high note while also setting yet another trend with the now-exhausted surprise album strategy and changing the new album release schedule from Tuesday to Friday. More than anything, though, the release reflected much of what made 2013 such a great year for pop music: the merit of producing a meaningful, boundary-breaking body of work and the communal aspect that came with appreciating it.

Given how drastically the music industry has changed since then, its difficult to say where pop music is headed. Though many of the musicians who made their debuts in 2013 have gone on to lead successful careers and influenced newer artists, it seems like people are yearning for pop music of the past because so much of todays pop feels so middle-of-the-road and calculated. Perhaps the predictability of the modern music market can be chalked up to a need for comfort from all the cultural and global chaos thats occurred in the past few years. But hopefully, in due time, well get some good fucking food, as we did in 2013.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Bettmann/Getty Images

A publisher removed references to Rosa Parks' race in a draft of a Florida textbook.

Studies Weekly changed the language to comply with the Stop Woke Act, The New York Times reported.

The publisher also removed references to race in a Civil War lesson.

A science and social studies-focused textbook publisher used in 45,000 Florida schools initially removed all references in a draft lesson on Rosa Parks' race in order to comply with Florida's Stop WOKE Act, The New York Times reported.

Studies Weekly created a version of its lesson on Parks for first graders for the state's review of social studies curriculum. This version regarding Parks  the Black woman who refused to give up her bus seat to a white man  does not explicitly mention that she was Black, according to the Times. Instead, the publisher writes that she was told to move "because of the color of her skin."

A second version goes even further, failing to mention race at all.

"She was told to move to a different seat. She did not. She did what she believed was right," the textbook passage read, according to the Times.

Another example from the same publisher, provided by the Times, shows a fourth-grade lesson about the Civil War, which removed language saying Black people were discriminated against under "Black codes," a series of laws created after the Civil War to restrict freedoms of Black people, instead opting for language like "certain groups."

According to the Times, the current lessons used in Florida classrooms do mention segregation and references to race. The Times reported that it was unclear whether or not these versions without mentions of race were submitted for review. The publisher told the Times that it withdrew from the state's review.

John McCurdy, chief executive of Studies Weekly, told the Times that the changes were made to comply with the Stop WOKE Act, a law signed and endorsed by Governor Ron DeSantis that limits how schools and workplaces discuss issues of race and gender.

Story continues

The Florida Department of Education said in a statement to Insider that the state encouraged instruction on Parks and other Civil Rights Movement leaders, per state law.

"It would be impossible to teach about the significance of Rosa Parks without discussing her race," the statement read. "Any publisher who attempts to avoid the topic of race when discussing Rosa Parks or topics such as the Civil Rights Movement, slavery, segregation, etc. would not be adhering to Florida law."

In a press statement from Studies Weekly following the release of the Times story, the publisher said that the state provided no guidance as to how they should interpret the laws, but stated that "individuals in our curriculum team severely overreacted in their interpretation of HB 7 and made unapproved revisions."

DeSantis signed into law the Stop Woke Act and the Don't Say Gay Act in 2022. These laws have resulted in the removal of thousands of books not approved by the state from school classrooms and the blocking of high schools from teaching AP African American studies. The FDOE has also amended the Stop Woke Act to ban critical race theory from being taught in schools.

Studies Weekly did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, has visited the peninsula on the ninth anniversary of the occupation of Crimea.

Source: Russian state-owned news agencies TASS and Vesty; Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev

Details: As previously announced by his press secretary Dmitry Peskov, the president will take part "in the opening of a significant cultural and historical facility".

Razvozhayev wrote that Putin allegedly came specifically for the opening of a children's art school in Khersones, which he was supposed to be shown via video conference.

The so-called "governor" also says that Putin "knows how to surprise" and allegedly came to Crimea personally by car.

Background:

Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin on 17 March in view of the situation in Ukraine.

All member states of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are now legally bound to detain Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, now deemed a suspect, and hand him over to the court.

The historic decision to issue the arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin must be followed by historical responsibility, said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Vladimir Putin

It was Putins first visit since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, and one of the first public appearances of the Russian dictator since a warrant for his arrest for war crimes was issued by the International Criminal Court on March 17.

Russian media said Putin had come to Sevastopol for the opening of an art school and "Korsun" children's center. It is the first part of the historical and archaeological museum-reserve Tauric Chersonese that is being constructed by the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian news agency TASS wrote.

Read also: An extremely alarming call for Putin. The ghost of 1917 appeared in Russia

Read also: Russian officials scoff at ICCs indictment of Putin

A published video shows Putin limping slightly as he walks through the center's territory, accompanied by the Kremlin-appointed puppet Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev.

On March 18 2014, Putin signed an annexation treaty with puppet figures it had installed in Crimea, two days after it had held an illegal referendum.

The international criminal court in the Hague issued an arrest warrant against Russian dictator Putin, as well as against the Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, as they are accused of the war crime of unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia starting from Feb. 24, 2022.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Russian president Vladimir Putin traveled to occupied Crimea Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the peninsulas annexation from Ukraine by the Russian Federation.

The surprise visit comes just one day after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Putin for alleged war crimes. The ICC accused the Russian leader and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian commissioner for childrens rights, of bearing personal responsibility for the unlawful abduction of Ukrainian children. The Courts president Piotr Hofmanski said in a video address that the ICC is doing its part of work as a court of law. The judges issued arrest warrants. The execution depends on international cooperation.

The Ukrainian source Children of War reports that more than 16,000 children have been illegally deported since the war began.

On Saturday, Putin was greeted by the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, and defiantly visited an art school and a childrens center, according to Reuters.

The Russian leader has yet to address ICCs arrest warrant himself, but a spokesman called it null and void, and the questions raised by the Court outrageous and unacceptable. The Courts jurisdiction is not recognized by Russia.

To Ukraine however, the ICCs move is a major breakthrough. President Joe Biden also told reporters Friday that Putin has clearly committed war crimes and that the arrest warrant was justified, though he did point out the U.S. does not recognize the Courts jurisdiction either.

In 2014, Crimea was seized by Russia and an illegal annexation referendum was held. A similar strategy was used by Russia to annex four other Ukrainian oblasts  Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia  last year. Ukraine has vowed to expel Russia from all of these provinces.

But Putin will not relinquish the peninsula easily.

Obviously, security issues take top priority for Crimea and Sevastopol now. We will do everything needed to fend off any threats, explained Putin Friday, as quoted by the Associated Press.

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The Ukrainian military reported that between Friday morning and Saturday morning, there had been widespread Russian attacks, including 34 airstrikes. Falling debris hit Kherson oblast, damaging seven houses and a kindergarten.

Putins trip to Crimea precedes Chinese president Xi Jinpings visit to Moscow next week.

Xi will visit in an attempt to shore up support for Russia and deepen bilateral cooperation in the international arena, the Guardian reported. It is Xis first foreign visit since securing a third term as Chinas president at the annual parliamentary session on March 10. Western observers view the upcoming trip as important to Putin while stalemate predominates on the front.

Beijing has denied U.S. claims it is considering sending lethal arms to Russia. However, it was confirmed for the first time this week that dual-use equipment  commercial items that can also be used on the battlefield in Ukraine  are being sent from China to Russia.

More from National Review
It's unlikely that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be handcuffed any time soon after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him, but former U.S. officials and war crimes prosecutors said the former KGB agent's world shrank significantly after the announcement.

The courts accusation on Friday, that he oversaw the war crime of the unlawful abduction and deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia, locks in his status as an international pariah and will severely limit his ability to travel outside Russia, the experts said.

The result of this is hes not going to travel any place he thinks he might get arrested, said Todd Buchwald, who served as special coordinator for the State Departments Office of Global Criminal Justice in the Obama and Trump administrations.

Although the ICC has no police force of its own, the warrant cordons off the 123 countries that signed on to the statute that created the court, because Putin runs the risk of arrest if he travels to any of them, said Buchwald, now a professorial lecturer in law at George Washington Universitys Law School.

Under the statute, those countries are obliged to carry out arrest warrants, no matter the rank of the accused. But most governments also abide by an international legal principle that heads of state have legal immunity from other courts.

And it is unclear how many governments would be ready to follow through and arrest the president of a nuclear-armed, oil-rich power with a history of exacting revenge and carrying out assassinations.

Putins press secretary Dmitry Peskov rejected the court's findings. We do not recognize this court, we do not recognize the jurisdiction of this court. This is how we treat this, he said in a Telegram post Friday.

But Putin will have to take into the account the danger of being arrested and flown to The Hague in the Netherlands, where the court is based.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit (Sergei Bobylev / Kremlin Pool / Sputnik via AP file))

The warrant also puts pressure on any future Russian government, said Wayne Jordash, a British lawyer who is leading teams of local and international prosecutors and investigators in Ukraine. If they want to normalize relationships with the international community, then theres one easy way of doing that: Turn him over for trial, he said.

Story continues

There is precedent for a country turning over its leader to the court for war crimes.

The arrest warrant issued in 1999 for the then-sitting president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, by the United Nations Yugoslav Tribunal for war crimes committed in Bosnia became the vehicle used to remove him from Serbia, said Dermot Groome, who led the investigation and prosecution of Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

As more and more Serb citizens and members of the army grew tired of his iron grip on power and his squandering the lives of young Serb men in neighboring Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, his support crumbled, and in June 2001, he was arrested by Serb authorities and removed to The Hague on that arrest warrant where he was tried for international crimes, said Groome, now a professor at Penn State Dickinson Law.

Milosevic died before the trial could be concluded, and the ICC's limitations are well known. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the former president of Sudan, has been indicted but has never been arrested in countries where he has traveled.

But the court has convicted 10 people including Thomas Lubanga, who was found guilty of war crimes in 2012, for using child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo .

And there is hope the warrant for Putin could decrease excessive violence and brutality in Ukraine, where Russia has also paid a heavy price since the February 2022 invasion, with some estimating that the country lost around 200,000 soldiers in the first year of the war.

The move puts Russia on notice that international prosecutors are closely tracking the regimes actions on the battlefield and could cause some Russian officials to think twice before carrying out orders that may put them in legal jeopardy, experts said.

It puts pressure on the people around Putin to distance themselves from him, Buchwald said.

An elderly woman stands near a burning building following shelling (Sergey Shestak / AFP via Getty Images)

However, Ian Brzezinski, resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank and a former senior Defense Department official, said he was not hopeful that theyre going to haul Putin before the court unless there is a tectonic shift in Russian values.

Thats going to require a fundamental change in Russian politics, and that doesnt seem to be in the making in the near term, he said.

Despite the losses and economic sanctions that Russia faces, opposition to the war has not materialized at a large scale within the country or fomented a powerful opposition to Putin or his regime.

But Brzezinski said the court's move helped buttress Western calls to support the Ukrainian war effort and help Kyiv secure a decisive victory, sharpening the moral argument behind that cause and serving as a powerful reminder of the brutalities that the Ukrainians have been subjected to.

To those who question the value of indicting a leader who may never face his day in court, Buchwald said there is always a chance that circumstances change, citing Milosevic as an example.

Nobody ever thought theyd get their hands on Milosevic, he said, adding, Its a statement of the resolve of the international community, and a reaffirmation of the importance of justice. ... Its an important event, even if they never touch Putin.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Reuters

KYIVUkrainian surgeons are performing a strenuous new wartime medical procedure: providing facial reconstruction surgery for people injured in Russian attacks.

They are teaching themselves to perform medical services they never expected to do, racing against time to decide what can and cannot be saved, working through screams from patients and air raid sirens, and struggling to afford critically needed supplies. One miscalculation might cause irreversible damage.

We never expected such a war to happen, Valeriy Bovkun, the Head of the Department of Reconstructive Plastic Microsurgery at the Okhmatdyt Childrens Hospital, told The Daily Beast. But the duration of Vladimir Putins war is felt with every child who arrives at the hospital.

The hospital once performed just two or three facial reconstruction surgeries a year, most arising from car crashes or firework injuries. Now, their work includes removing a piece of shrapnel the size of a pencil from a 13-year-old boys leg, or stitching a childs face back together to repair damage caused by missile shelling. The doctors here have become wartime medics for under 18s.

Over the past year, Russias invasion of Ukraine has impacted all of the countrys more than 43 million inhabitants. The war has caused more than 8 million Ukrainians to flee their homes, and according to the United Nations Human Rights Chief, Volker Turk, at least 21,000 civilian casualties, leaving 8,006 dead and 13,287 injured. At least 487 children have been killed and 954 injured since the war began.

How 46 Toddlers Were Disappeared by Putin in One Fell Swoop

The injuries to children were seen daily by the surgeons at the Okhmatdyt Hospital, and at the beginning, the staff was so overwhelmed that in March, they were living [at] work, there was no fear, but of course, we were very worried. There was uncertainty because the patients who were coming were not our typical patients. We had to learn on the go, said Bovkun.

Story continues

Help came to the hospital when Doctors Without Borders arrived. They teach us how to deal with the traumas because it was also very difficult for patients, plus additionally the [staff] needed to ensure safety, said Bovkun.

Gradually, the surgeons became more accustomed to the work. Still, there were other things they could not prepare for, like when Russian troops opened fire outside the hospital. No one was injured in the attacks because they were hiding in the basement, but the bullet holes in the hospitals exterior can still be seen today, and the work the war brings is unrelenting.

Trauma from the outside in

When a child has a congenital defect from birth, the doctors are ready, the parents are ready, but in such situations where a completely healthy child becomes a child with a disability because of all the trauma, emotionally it is very hard, Bovkun said.

Bovkun unlocked his phone to show images of some of the children he has performed surgeries on over the past year. As he scrolls, reciting courses of treatment, he pauses at an image of a 10-year-old girl whose left cheek was torn during a shrapnel attack. Bovkun performed a skin graft on her neck to cover some of the scarring. He reveals other images of wounds to children, including the loss of limbs, scarring, and X-rays of bullets lodged in childrens knees and hands.

The older kids, they understand everything. It is very difficult for them because they feel their features are ruined after the trauma; psychologists help them to change their way of thinking that everything is still ahead and bright features are still ahead. And for younger kids, they dont realize it, and they behave like it was usual trauma, said Bovkun.

On Jan. 23, the hospital admitted a 6-year-old girl from Kherson, the eastern city that was liberated in November but remained a hotspot for Russian attacks. A few weeks before her arrival, the child was playing in her bedroom when a missile landed on her apartment, injuring her. In a picture on Bovkuns phone, the girl sits propped up in a hospital bed, her long orange curls catching the light. Large scabs that match the color of her hair cover her face, and her left eye is wrapped in gauzethe hospital could not save it. Though the injuries had happened just days before, the girl was smiling for the camera, her hands wrapped in gauze, holding a plush white rabbit with an Easter egg on its stomach.

Shes doing great, psychologists are supporting her, and shes also brave. We, as doctors, dont think about the injuries a child receives. We are thinking about how we can help the child to save the wound, the life, and this also helps us because we are helping the child in this hospital, said Bovkun. Emotionally, when you see the kids with such injuries, you feel hate for those people who did it specifically, and you also feel compassion for the small patients who go through this.

A 20-minute drive from Okhmatdyt Hospital, at Anacostia Clinic, a Border Control worker named Ruslan is undergoing a round of scar removal treatment following a shrapnel injury he received at the beginning of the war. He was in a building in Kharkiv when Russian forces struck it with a Kalibr Missile, killing three of his colleagues. The impact of the attack caused Ruslan to lose consciousness, but when he came to, he felt a large piece of shrapnel lodged in the right side of his face. After ripping the metal from his skin, Ruslan saw that first aid services were already arriving at the location. Everything was in blood. There were already people coming with first aid. They said, Show me your faceoh my god.

In the following days, Ruslan was taken to a military hospital for further treatment to ensure that the wounds healed properly. But the overwhelmed medical staff did not have time to stitch his face together in a way that would minimize the scarring.

Besides the scar, the injury that caused Ruslan to sink into depression was losing all but 1 percent of the sight in his right eye. It took six surgeries for the doctors to remove all of the shrapnel. Even then, they were unsure if he would ever be able to see out if it again. But it was when Ruslans wife found the non-governmental organization, No Scar, that he began to pull himself out of his depression. As Ruslan spoke, he joked with about how his wife wanted him to be attractive again, which is what led her to finding the NGO.

No Scar is a network of more than 40 plastic surgeons who offer their services free to some of the many who need scar removal treatment due to wartime injuries. The treatment begins in the months following facial reconstruction surgeries and stitches removal, and involves non-invasive techniques of removing layers of scar tissue that havent healed. With No Scar, Ruslan has been able to regain a slight amount of the sight in his right eye. The right side of his face is also on track to heal, but with months to go.

Referring to the work of past surgeons, Yullia Demtsova, No Scars founder, told The Daily Beast that patients often do not consider that the appearance affects the mental state, and of course, if the person is constantly thinking of scar and regards a scar as a disability, it has a very negative impact on the healing overall and his perception and the quality of life overall.

I believe plastic surgery in this regard is as important as any other surgery. Its not a person being too picky, [because] it really does impact [their] overall self-esteem, she adds.

For myself

Walking down the street, people with deformities and scars stand out from the crowd. For military nurse Olya Osadcha, each passing glance from onlookersa mixture of pity and fascinationbrings about a flood of insecurity.

Osadcha was stationed in Donetsk when her life was changed forever after a Russian attack. At the time, she was treating a soldier in the back of a medical van along with an assistant. A driver was sitting at the steering wheel, transporting the four to the nearest military hospital. The closest enemy was 700 meters away from the vehicle and [the van] fired upon by a guided anti-military tank weapon, she said.

The driver was the first to come to after the explosion. [He] opened the vehicles rear doors. I was lying there. He pulled me out of the burning vehicle, she explained.

After gaining consciousness, Osadcha looked into the van to find the bodies of her assistant and the soldier she was treating, lifeless and on fire. She did not notice her own injuries at first. There was no pain at the time of the injury, she said, most likely due to traumatic shock. Only blood, it flowed heavily, simply flooded my face, from my right shoulder, from my right leg. Her right shoe filled with so much blood that it slipped off her foot, she recalled.

Osadcha remembers few details of the attackshe said it hit her three days later in a military hospital in Kyiv. There I was constantly anesthetized, but still, everything hurt a lot, she said. She remained at the hospital for four and a half months receiving medical treatment, 10 operations, and one month of rehabilitation.

Now I have a prosthesis on my right eye; of course, I cant see anything with it. I can only see with my left eye, Osadcha said. She still has shrapnel residue in her face, which she can feel daily and causes pain. But one of the hardest aspects of coping with the injury is the emotional toll.

As a woman, I want one thing, to restore the face as much as possible. This is very, very important to me. I want to correct all the defects, first for myself, she told The Daily Beast. My relatives support me in everything. They say they love me and I am most beautiful to them, and I know that is so. But for myself, I want to be like before, walk with an open face and not catch sympathetic glances from passersby.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Raleigh Police arrested a man Friday in 32-year-old rape case using DNA analysis.

Police announced the arrest Saturday, saying they had charged Deandre Marcel Smith, 51, with first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and kidnapping.

The victim in the case was a 73-year-old woman who said a man broke into her home, demanded money and then raped her on Dec. 30, 1990. She lived at the time in the 200 block of South State Street, on the east side of downtown Raleigh. The victim died in 1992, police said.

The News & Observer reported the incident when it happened, saying the victim was blind and reported that a man broke in through a window around 7 p.m. The intruder also ripped the womans telephone from the wall, police said, and stole money from a dresser drawer. Police said they believed the man wore gloves and a ski mask at the time of the attack.

Police said Smith was identified through evidence obtained recently as part of the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) and the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it currently lacks a track record of revenue and profit. Sometimes these stories can cloud the minds of investors, leading them to invest with their emotions rather than on the merit of good company fundamentals. Loss-making companies are always racing against time to reach financial sustainability, so investors in these companies may be taking on more risk than they should.

If this kind of company isn't your style, you like companies that generate revenue, and even earn profits, then you may well be interested in Alpha Group International (LON:ALPH). Now this is not to say that the company presents the best investment opportunity around, but profitability is a key component to success in business.

See our latest analysis for Alpha Group International

How Fast Is Alpha Group International Growing?

The market is a voting machine in the short term, but a weighing machine in the long term, so you'd expect share price to follow earnings per share (EPS) outcomes eventually. Therefore, there are plenty of investors who like to buy shares in companies that are growing EPS. Shareholders will be happy to know that Alpha Group International's EPS has grown 31% each year, compound, over three years. If growth like this continues on into the future, then shareholders will have plenty to smile about.

It's often helpful to take a look at earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins, as well as revenue growth, to get another take on the quality of the company's growth. On the revenue front, Alpha Group International has done well over the past year, growing revenue by 43% to UK89m but EBIT margin figures were less stellar, seeing a decline over the last 12 months. So if EBIT margins can stabilize, this top-line growth should pay off for shareholders.

You can take a look at the company's revenue and earnings growth trend, in the chart below. Click on the chart to see the exact numbers.

Story continues

While it's always good to see growing profits, you should always remember that a weak balance sheet could come back to bite. So check Alpha Group International's balance sheet strength, before getting too excited.

Are Alpha Group International Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

It's said that there's no smoke without fire. For investors, insider buying is often the smoke that indicates which stocks could set the market alight. This view is based on the possibility that stock purchases signal bullishness on behalf of the buyer. However, small purchases are not always indicative of conviction, and insiders don't always get it right.

Despite some Alpha Group International insiders disposing of some shares, we note that there was UK102k more in buying interest among those who know the company best Shareholders who may have questioned insiders selling will find some reassurance in this fact. It is also worth noting that it was Independent Non-Executive Director Lisa Gordon who made the biggest single purchase, worth UK102k, paying UK18.00 per share.

On top of the insider buying, it's good to see that Alpha Group International insiders have a valuable investment in the business. We note that their impressive stake in the company is worth UK178m. This totals to 23% of shares in the company. Enough to lead management's decision making process down a path that brings the most benefit to shareholders. Looking very optimistic for investors.

Shareholders have more to smile about than just insiders adding more shares to their already sizeable holdings. The cherry on top is that the CEO, Morgan Tillbrook is paid comparatively modestly to CEOs at similar sized companies. For companies with market capitalisations between UK329m and UK1.3b, like Alpha Group International, the median CEO pay is around UK1.1m.

The Alpha Group International CEO received UK694k in compensation for the year ending December 2021. That comes in below the average for similar sized companies and seems pretty reasonable. CEO remuneration levels are not the most important metric for investors, but when the pay is modest, that does support enhanced alignment between the CEO and the ordinary shareholders. Generally, arguments can be made that reasonable pay levels attest to good decision-making.

Does Alpha Group International Deserve A Spot On Your Watchlist?

If you believe that share price follows earnings per share you should definitely be delving further into Alpha Group International's strong EPS growth. On top of that, insiders own a significant stake in the company and have been buying more shares. Astute investors will want to keep this stock on watch. You still need to take note of risks, for example - Alpha Group International has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

The good news is that Alpha Group International is not the only growth stock with insider buying. Here's a list of them... with insider buying in the last three months!

Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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In this July 7, 2000 file photo, rats swarm around a bag of garbage near a dumpster at the Baruch Houses in New York City. Robert Mecea/AP

New York City's rat population has grown exponentially since the middle of the 20th century.

In 1950, an estimated 250,000 rats lived in the city. By 2014, there were an estimated 2 million.

The rise is partly due to changes in how the city deals with trash, and how quickly rats breed.

New York City's rats are relentless. They're also everywhere  in sewers and parks, underfoot, on the subways, and even in your walls.

They've been in New York since the 18th century, and they've taken a firm hold  current estimates put the rat population at about 2 million across 90% of the city, according to The Atlantic.

For as long as rats have scurried across the city, politicians and locals have sworn to destroy them. But so far, no one's managed.

Here's how rats took hold of the city  and why they're not about to let go.

About 250 years ago, the Norwegian rat  also known as the brown rat, the alley rat or the sewer rat  arrived in America on ships from Europe. No one knows when the first rat made it ashore, but experts are fairly sure they came during the American Revolution.

A brown rat photographed in 1953. Denis de Marney/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Their first stop was likely to have been New York City.

Sources: The Atlantic, Insider

Even if only a few made it over, rats breed rapidly. They live for about two years but are sexually mature within two months, mate within 2 seconds, and can produce eight to 10 babies about six times a year  that's 120 rats for each rat mother during their lifetime.

A female rat with her litter. Andia/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Sources: The Atlantic, Insider, Washington Post

They're not soft and cuddly either, like mice or squirrels. As Fordham University biologist Dr Jason Munshi-South told The New York Times, they're rough and mean. They fight each other.

A roughed up rat runs along the High Line Park on September 22, 2018 in New York City. Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

"They've got scars, they're missing eyes, they're missing part of their tail," he said. "Their life is fairly brutal."

They also have sharp teeth, he said.

"They'll gnaw through walls. They'll gnaw through wires. They'll destroy cars," he said.

Source: New York Times

Rats are agile and able to jump 3 feet high and 4 feet across. But their speed and agility aren't the only reasons why they're master escape artists. Each of their many burrows usually has three exits, a primary one and two escape routes.

Story continues

A rat leaves its burrow in a park in New York City in 2015. Mary Altaffer/AP

Sources: National Geographic, The Cut

The widest part of the brown rat is the skull, meaning if its head can fit into a hole or space, it can  and will  get in there.

A rats head sticking out of a hole in the bottom of a New York garbage can in 2016. Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Sources: National Geographic, The Cut

Rats first made headlines in New York City in 1860 for reportedly mutilating and killing a newborn child, and again in 1865 when The New York Times said the city was getting a reputation for having more rats "than any other city in the Union."

A rat wanders the train tracks in New York City. Frank Franklin/AP

Sources: The Guardian, New York Times, New York Times

In 1950, there were an estimated 250,000 rats in the city. Since then, there have been a few wildly varying estimates, including one in 1997 claiming there were 28 million rats. But more conservatively, in 2014, there were an estimated 2 million rats in the city.

Sources: The Atlantic, Washington Post

In the late 1960s, rat infestations were primarily in Harlem, Lower East Side, and parts of Brooklyn where marginalized communities lived. This wasn't a coincidence  it was institutional racism. Buildings and infrastructure weren't properly maintained and trash pickups weren't as frequent as in primarily white neighborhoods.

A rat sitting on top of a paint can in the kitchen of a tenement in Harlem in 1964. Truman Moore/Getty Images

Source: The Atlantic

But the rats have since spread out. In 1974, rats only covered an estimated 10% of the city. Experts now think up to 90% of the city is rat-infested.

Source: The Atlantic

But rats don't stray too far from their home base. The rats you see in the morning could be the same rats you see at night  they rarely go more than 660 feet from wherever they live.

A rat leaves its hole briefly at a subway stop in the Brooklyn borough of New York in 2014. Julie Jacobson/AP

Source: The Atlantic

The early 1970s played a crucial role in the increase in rat populations in the city. First, the federal government passed the Federal Clean Air Act 1970, which led to New York City banning apartment buildings using incinerators to destroy trash.

A rat sticks its head out of a garbage can as it hunts for food in Bogardus Plaza in Tribeca on August 17, 2022, in New York City. Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

Source: New York Times

Second, the city introduced plastic rubbish bags in 1971. Instead of metal trash cans, rats could suddenly eat all the trash they wanted, and there was more of it, too, since it wasn't being burned anymore.

People make their way past trash bags in New York City. Leonardo Munoz/VIEW Press/Getty Images

Rats also don't need much to survive  about an ounce of food and water per day will keep them going. In New York City, that's not a big ask.

Sources: The Atlantic, New York Times, Insider

The other factor was climate change. Rats don't hibernate in the winter, but their reproduction cycle slows since it's harder for them to find food. As winters have gotten warmer, they have been able to breed more.

A rat jumps into a puddle in the snow in New York in 2019. Carlo Allegri/Reuters

Source: The Atlantic

Even so, according to E. Randy Dupree, one of New York's former "master rat hunters," the fight was going pretty good between 1969 and 1986 when the city implemented a three-pronged approach: extermination, education and clean-up.

A Border Terrier named Merlin chews on a dead rat which he killed during an organized rat hunt on New York City's Lower East Side in 2014. Mike Segar/Reuters

At that point federal funding helped pay for workers to clean up the city and reports of rat bites dropped from 765 to 285 between those years.

When that money ran out, the city funded it. But it only lasted a little while.

Source: New York Times

From 1987 to 1996, New York's rat budget fell from $12 million to $5 million. The three-pronged approach to fight the infestation was no longer affordable. "The rats began to win the war," Dupree told The New York Times.

A rat enters its burrow at a park in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York. Mary Altaffer/AP

Source: New York Times

Over the last few decades, New York mayors have tried to take up the mantle. In 1997, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani put aside $8 million and created an extermination task force, which used three different types of poisons to kill rats.

Rudy Giuliani, then New York City Mayor-elect, and former Mayor John Lindsay. Ed Bailey/AP

By 2000, his budget had increased to $13 million. It was part of a focus on poorer neighborhoods to secure new votes. But the stories about rats were intense.

Harlem's Public School 165 Principal Ruth Swinney told The Washington Post in 1997 her kids were showing up covered in rat bites.

"In the morning we can see the rats running outside the building as kids come to school," she said. "They are huge, almost like small dogs."

Sources: Washington Post, New Yorker

In 2017, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio put aside $32 million for killing rats. One of his administration's methods was to stuff rat holes with dry ice, which suffocated the rats with carbon dioxide. It proved effective, but labor intensive.

Then-New York Mayor Bill de Blasio addresses supporters after his re-election in New York City, U.S. November 7, 2017. Brendan McDermid/Reuters

It's also fairly humane. The dry ice puts the rats into a deep sleep that they never wake from.

But other tools, including mint-scented trash bags, weren't so effective.

Sources: The Guardian, New York Times

Before becoming the current mayor, Eric Adams joined his rat-hunting predecessors when he touted a new rat-killing method involving a bucket called an Ekomille that lured rats in before covering them in poison. Each Ekomille could kill up to 30 rats.

One of Mayor Eric Adams lauded rat traps known as an Ekomille. Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

But it wasn't effective  one trial saw a bucket destroyed by a particularly large rat  and hasn't been implemented since he took office.

Sources: The Guardian, Gothamist

Over the years, concerned residents have also formed organizations to hunt rats using trained dogs.

Richard Reynolds with other members of the volunteer R.A.T.S. squad in lower Manhattan. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Source: The Guardian

Some individuals, like Manuel Rodriguez, known by his neighbors as "M-Rod," have taken to killing rats on their own. But these are local efforts to solve a citywide problem.

Manuel Rodriquez holds up a dead rat in 2004. Ken Murray/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images

The situation in New York deteriorated during the pandemic. Rats took to the streets in what looked like increasing numbers as more garbage was left out  and for longer  due to outdoor dining regulations and fewer garbage collections.

A rat runs across a sidewalk in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, on December 2, 2019. Carlo Allegri/Reuters

Sources: NPR, National Geographic

While health experts mostly consider rats as a nuisance, they also carry diseases, and because they get so close to humans, they are good at transmitting them.

Manuel Rodriquez swings at a rat outside his apartment in 2004. Ken Murray/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images

In 2021, one person died of leptospirosis, and 14 people contracted it. The disease is usually spread from rat urine and can cause liver and kidney failure.

Sources: Insider, Washington Post, The Atlantic, New York Times

According to the Health Department's Rat Academy, there's only one way to stop the rats  starve them. But in a city like New York, where the streets are often lined with trash, that's easier said than done.

A rat walks on a fence towards a garbage can as it hunts for food in Bogardus Plaza in Tribeca on August 17, 2022, in New York City. Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

Source: The Cut

If nothing else, New Yorkers can reassure themselves that it could be worse  they could live in Chicago, which, according to pest control company Orkin, was the most rat-infested city in the US last year.

A dead rat sits on the street outside Marshall Field Garden Apartments in Chicago, rated the most rat infested city in the US by Orkin in 2022. Martha Irvine/AP

Source: Curbed

Read the original article on Insider
Hundreds of refugees protested against Greece's tough migration policies in Athens on Saturday, accusing the conservative government of "murdering" asylum seekers through illegal pushbacks.

"Stop pushbacks, down with the government of murderers," read one of the banners at the rally in front of parliament. Another read "The blood of the innocent cries out for justice."

Some protesters carried signs with the dates of migrant boat sinkings in the Aegean Sea.

Other demonstrators drew a link between migrant deaths at sea and the February 28 train tragedy that left 57 dead and has been blamed on the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

"Mitsotakis, you have blood on your hands -- dead kids at sea, dead kids on trains," they chanted.

Since taking office four years ago, Greece's conservative government has reinforced its land and sea borders with Turkey in a bid to stem illegal arrivals.

Police minister Takis Theodorikakos this week said a contract to build a planned 35-kilometre (22-mile) extension to the country's steel fence on the border with Turkey would be signed "in coming days".

In the latest incident in Greek waters, a woman and a man died earlier in March after a speedboat with nearly 30 people on board sank near the island of Kos.

A month earlier, a woman and a man drowned when a dinghy carrying 41 asylum seekers crashed onto a rocky coast at Lesbos island.

The European Union has said it is working with the United Nations and the African Union to organise voluntary returns to countries of origin, and to take refugees to camps before being resettled in the EU or elsewhere.

In January, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the EU planned to put in place migration deals with countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Nigeria "to improve returns... and to prevent departures".

Greece has repatriated more than 8,000 people over the last two years in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration, Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said this week.

Story continues

The Greek government has consistently denied the accusations of pushbacks, despite claims to the contrary from alleged victims, rights groups and even the UN's special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.

"In Greece, pushbacks at land and sea borders have become de facto general policy," the UN's special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Felipe Gonzalez Morales, said last year.

jph/imm
Renaming of Colorados Mount Evans Delayed

By RICK SALLINGER

MOUNT EVANS, Colorado (KCNC)  By now Mount Evans was expected to be renamed Mount Blue Sky, but the Northern Cheyenne tribe has objected to the process.

Thats their prerogative thats their right as a sovereign nation, said Fred Mosqueda of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes.

The name of the mountain should be changed to Cheyenne Arapaho according to the dissenting tribes administrator William Walksalong, who spoke exclusively with CBS News Colorado. He is originally from Montana.

Reggie Wassana, the governor of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes, says he is not dismayed by the delay.

The tribe had a vision, I guess and they felt that the consultation process didnt meet their needs, he said.

The Colorado History Museum was filled with Native Americans as there is widespread agreement among them that the name associated with Gov. John Evans had to go because he instigated the Sand Creek Massacre.

We were outed and unfortunately attacked and killed and murdered in those cases we were almost running out of Colorado, Wassana explained.

The renaming is now in the hands of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, but Mosqueda is still remaining optimistic.

Its a delay its still going to be named Mount Blue Sky, he said.

The administrator for the Northern Cheyenne tribe told CBS News Colorado they wrote to Gov. Jared Polis, but did not hear back.

A spokesman for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources says the Northern Cheyenne gave a presentation and answered questions at one of the two public meetings.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Republican lawmakers blasted the prospect of former President Trump being indicted after he revealed he expects to be arrested next week, calling the potential move politically motivated and an abuse of power.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he would direct relevant committees to investigate if any federal funding is being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.

Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump, he tweeted, referring to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Condemnations of the potential charges from McCarthy and other Republicans came after Trump posted on Truth Social early on Saturday that illegal leaks indicate he will be arrested on Tuesday.

Bragg appears to be close to deciding on whether to file charges against Trump after having invited the former president to testify before the grand jury he has convened this past week. Trumps attorney has said Trump would not accept the invitation.

The district attorneys office has been investigating a payment that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election for her to remain silent about an affair she had with Trump. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to a campaign finance violation stemming from the payment and other charges and served a prison sentence.

Cohen has said he paid Daniels at Trumps direction. Trump has acknowledged that he reimbursed Cohen for the payment but said it was unrelated to his campaign finances.

Top Trump allies have joined McCarthy in denouncing the probe as politically motivated and siding with the former president, who has insisted he has not done anything wrong.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted that Trump will win even bigger than he already was already going to if Bragg indicts him and did nothing wrong. She said any Republicans who support the former presidents persecution will face consequences.

Story continues

And those Republicans that stand by and cheer for his persecution or do nothing to stop it will be exposed to the people and will be remembered, scorned, and punished by the base, Greene said.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said he has been asked multiple times if Trump being indicted would cause him to take away his endorsement of Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Trump endorsed Vance while he was running in the GOP primary for an open Senate seat in Ohio.

The answer is: hell no. A politically motivated prosecution makes the argument for Trump stronger. We simply dont have a real country if justice depends on politics, Vance said.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, said in a statement that the Radical Left will have Trump arrested because they know they cannot defeat him in an election. She said this is unAmerican and reaching a dangerous new low of Third World countries.

What these corrupt Leftist prosecutors like Alvin Bragg and their Socialist allies fail to understand is that America First Patriots have never been so energized to exercise their constitutional rights to peacefully organize and VOTE at the ballot box to save our great republic, she said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said at Vision 24, a conservative conference in South Carolina, on Saturday that Bragg has done more to help Trump get reelected than anyone else in the country.

Theyre making stuff up that they never used against anybody because they hate Trump, Graham said.

He said the case is moving forward because theyre afraid of Trump.

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a conservative entrepreneur, said Trump being indicted would be a national disaster.

If a Republican prosecutor in 2004 had used a campaign finance technicality to arrest then-candidate John Kerry while [President George W.] Bush & [Vice President Dick] Cheney were in power, liberals would have cried foul  and rightly so, Ramaswamy said.

He said indicting Trump will undermine trust in the countrys electoral system and Bragg should reconsider charges against him. He argued that the case would not have led to criminal prosecution for anyone else and would only have been a misdemeanor at most instead of a felony.

Our entire country is skating on thin ice right now & we cannot afford to politicize the justice system or else we will reach our breaking point, he said.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) also argued that the case is not strong, saying it is based on a strained, convoluted legal theory.

 Updated at 1:52 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Reuters

On Wednesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted a picture of what she described as an opening salvo in a hot war with Mexico.

Explosive found by Border Patrol Agents Jan 17th, Greene tweeted above a picture of a duct tape-wrapped item. Agents have surveillance of who brought it in and when and confirmed it was the Cartel. This changes everything. Not only are the Cartels murdering Americans everyday through drugs and crime, but now they are planting bombs on our land in our country. Our US military needs to take action against the Mexican Cartels. End this Cartel led war against America!

But the object wasnt a bomb, the head of the U.S. Border Patrol tweeted later that day. It was a duct-taped ball filled with sand that wasn't deemed a threat to agents/public.

That hasnt stopped Greene from calling for military force against Mexicans. She and a growing Republican coalition have spent this month agitating for armed action against Mexican cartels, including international military operations and drone strikes on Mexican soil.

The GOP Campaign Trail Is Already Getting DeSantis-Proofed

Greenes duct tape scare came one day after she announced support for a bill by fellow Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw. The bill would authorize the use of U.S. military force in Mexico against cartels. Last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham held a press conference promising similar legislation in the Senate.

The second step that we will be engaging in is give the military the authority to go after these organizations wherever they exist, Graham said. Not to invade Mexico. Not to shoot Mexican airplanes down. But to destroy drug labs that are poisoning Americans.

Though Graham might not call it an invasion, other Republicans have made clear that they support military action in Mexico, whether Mexicos government welcomes it or not.

In an interview with NewsNation earlier this month, longshot Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said that one of his first acts as president would be to take out cartels Osama bin Laden-style, Soleimani-style. This is doable and this is something that I actually expect to do as the next president of the United States in the first six months, he declared.

Story continues

Ramaswamy said he would first ask Mexicos president to undertake the campaign. We can help you if you do this job, but if you do not, we will come in and do it for you, Ramaswamy said.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has indicated that he would not take kindly to such a demand. In a speech earlier this month, he hinted at a public relations campaign against Republicans who supported military action against Mexico. We are not going to allow any foreign government to intervene and much less foreign armed forces to intervene in our territory, Lopez Obrador said.

Some Republicans arguing for intervention have even gone so far as to claim that Mexico isnt really a sovereign nation anymore. Trumps former CIA director (and later, secretary of state) Mike Pompeo wrote in an op-ed on Thursday that Mexico has either lost or abdicated control of vast portions of its own country. Its total lack of sovereignty was made clear last week when four Americans were kidnapped. Pompeo was referring to a recent attack on four Americans visiting Matamoros for medical tourism, which left two of the travelers dead.

Pompeo claimed to have lobbied for drone strikes on Americas neighbor during the Trump administration. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican, also bemoaned on Fox News last week that the Trump administration had not bombed drug labs across the border.

One of the things we learned post-Trump presidency is that he had ordered a bombing of a couple of fentanyl labs, crystal meth labs, in Mexico, just across the border, and for whatever reason the military didnt do it, Comer said on Tuesday. I think that was a mistake. (Its not clear that Trump even made such an order. Comers claims appear to originate from former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who wrote in a recent book that Trump asked him about the possibility of secretly firing missiles into Mexico.)

The Bathroom Fight Fueling Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boeberts Break-Up

Crenshaw and Grahams proposed legislation has breathed new life into efforts to designate cartels as terrorist organizations. On Monday, Republican Rep. Chip Roy reintroduced a bill that would slap a terror label on a set of Mexican cartels, effectively melding the War on Drugs and the War on Terror.

Some of the Mexico hawks are simultaneously holding themselves out as peacemakers in Ukraine, calling for an end to U.S. aid to the country, which is fending off attacks from Russia. Greene, who has called for cutting off aid, has repeatedly misrepresented a quote from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to claim he said he wants our sons and daughters to go die [fighting] in Ukraine.

In her calls for war in Mexico, Greene invoked Ukraine to call for action against Americas southern neighbor.

There is a war going on that affects every single American, but its not in Ukraine or the Middle East, its on our Southern border, she tweeted.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A retired Air Force officer who stormed the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was sentenced to two years in prison Friday.

A release from the U.S. attorneys office for the District of Columbia states 55-year-old Lance Brock, a resident of Galveston, Texas, was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment for a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding.

He was also sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for five misdemeanor counts of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a Capitol building, entering and remaining on the floor of Congress, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

The sentences will run concurrently.

Brock was found guilty of the six charges he faced in November. Prosecutors said he spent 37 minutes inside the Capitol, went through paperwork on senators desks and picked up a pair of plastic flex-cuffs.

Brock, who served as a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, entered the building wearing a tactical vest and a helmet.

The release states Brock posted messages on social media in the leadup to the insurrection about what was coming, including one that said, I prefer insurrection at this point and another that said, our second American Revolution begins in less than two days.

He also wrote a few days before the riot that [Then-president-elect] Biden wont be inaugurated. We will ensure that on the 6th.

Brock was arrested four days after the attack.

The release states at least 1,000 people in almost all 50 states have been arrested for a crime relating to the insurrection, including more than 320 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, and the investigation is continuing.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Marvin Samuel Tolentino Pineda / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Hitting your retirement savings goals is all but impossible unless you invest your money via a tax-advantaged account like a 401(k). These savings vehicles are often offered by employers, and as of 2023, you can contribute up to $22,500 in pretax earnings each year ($30,000 if youre age 50 or older).

Next: 7 Ways Baby Boomers Are Wasting Money in Retirement  and How To Stop It

More: 3 Ways To Recession-Proof Your Retirement

So how is the average American faring when it comes to funding their 401(k) plans? Lets take a look at the typical 401(k) balance, plus some tips for increasing that amount.

Average 401(k) Balance by Age

Investment firm Vanguard analyzed data from about 5 million retirement accounts as part of its How America Saves report. According to the latest findings, the average 401(k) balance was $141,542 in 2021. Thats an increase of about 10% from 2020.

As you might imagine, the average balance varies quite a bit according to age, with older workers amassing larger portfolios. In the table below, you can see the average and median balances for people in different age groups.

Age Average 401(k) Balance Median 401(k) Balance Younger than 25 $6,264 $1,786 25 to 34 $37,211 $14,068 35 to 44 $97,020 $36,117 45 to 54 $179,200 $61,530 55 to 64 $256,244 $89,716 65 and older $279,997 $87,725

If we look closer at these numbers, it becomes apparent that many workers may not have enough money saved in their 401(k) plans  especially when we consider the median balance, which prevents any outliers from skewing the data.

Fidelity Investments recommends that you have about 10 times your salary saved by age 67. So for someone who earns $80,000 per year, they should have a portfolio worth $800,000 at age 67 to retire comfortably.

Of course, its possible that many savers have money in other places as well, such as IRAs, taxable brokerage accounts and savings accounts. Still, the typical 401(k) balance seems dangerously far off from the recommended retirement savings target.

Story continues

Ways To Grow Your 401(k)

Whether youre new to the workforce or a seasoned investor, there are steps you can take to ensure your 401(k) balance grows to its fullest potential.

Start ASAP

To grow a substantial retirement portfolio, its essential to start early and be consistent with your contributions, according to Andrew Latham, a certified financial planner and the director of content of SuperMoney.com. Even small, regular contributions can compound over time and make a significant difference in your retirement savings, he said. For example, saving $200 a month for 30 years could grow into a roughly $227,000 retirement fund, assuming an average annual return of 7%.

Take Our Poll: Do You Think the US Should Raise the Medicare Tax on High Earners To Help Save the Program?

Diversify Your Investments

Latham said that diversification is key when it comes to investing in your 401(k). While your investment choices may be somewhat limited according to the plan provider, you should aim to invest across various asset classes, including mutual funds and ETFs, to minimize risk and maximize growth potential. If you arent sure how to go about picking your own investments, many plan providers offer free help from a financial advisor.

Watch Out for Fees

High fees can eat into your returns, so be sure to compare and choose low-cost investment options, Latham said. To illustrate, he explained, imagine you invest $10,000 in two different retirement funds, one with an expense ratio of 0.5% and another with 1.5%. After 30 years, assuming a 6% annual return, the fund with the lower expense ratio would be worth around $49,840, while the one with the higher expense ratio would only be worth approximately $37,450  a difference of $12,390 on a $10,000 investment.

Take Advantage of Matching

As an added employee incentive, some employers will match a portion of retirement contributions. For example, your employer might match 50 cents for every dollar you contribute, up to 6% of your salary. So be sure to contribute at least 6% of your salary to take advantage of the full match, Latham said. Thats free money that you dont want to leave on the table.

What If I Dont Have a 401(k)?

Its important to note that not all Americans have access to a 401(k). According to data from the Census Bureau, as few as 14% of employers offer one. Even so, 79% of Americans work for an employer that sponsors a 401(k)-style retirement plan. Thats because big companies that employ high numbers of workers are the most likely to sponsor retirement plans.

If you dont have access to a 401(k), Latham noted that you can still save for retirement through an individual retirement account (IRA). Like a 401(k), an IRA also comes with special tax benefits that can help you save and earn more. There are different types of IRAs to choose from, so do your research and pick one that aligns with your retirement goals and risk tolerance, Latham said.

Another way to save for retirement if you dont have access to a 401(k) is to invest in a taxable brokerage account. While you wont receive any tax benefits like you would with a 401(k) or IRA, you can still invest in low-cost index funds, access your savings whenever you want without penalty, and still benefit from long-term compounding, Latham said.

Regardless of how you save for retirement, Latham emphasized the importance of regularly reviewing and adjusting your retirement savings strategy as your life circumstances change. Factors like marriage, children and career changes can impact your retirement goals and require adjustments to your savings plan, he said.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Retirement 2023: Heres How Much the Average American Has in Their 401(k)
Members of a CNN crew had their bags stolen out of their rental car while on assignment at San Franciscos city hall for a story about the citys rampant crime.

Got robbed. Again, CNN senior national correspondent Kyung Lah wrote in a tweet on Friday.

While she and CNN producer Jason Kravarik were conducting an interview at city hall, thieves broke into their car and snatched their bags in under 4 seconds despite the crew having hired private security to keep watch.

Got robbed. Again. @jasonkCNN & I were at city hall in San Francisco to do an interview for @CNN. We had security to watch our rental car + crew car. Thieves did this in under 4 seconds. Security stopped the jerks from stealing other bags. But seriously- this is ridiculous pic.twitter.com/3zcCzckavW  Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) March 17, 2023

The security was unsuccessful in trying to grab the crooks but was able to stop them from stealing other bags and was also able to snap a picture of the getaway car.

San Francisco is a beautiful city. This is our 3rd day here and Ive loved my time here. But if you do visit this city, know that even with hired security watching your car, it is not enough, she wrote, explaining that she was in the city doing a story about voter discontent because of rampant street crime.

Though the reporter initially expressed concern that she might not be able to fly back to Los Angeles without her ID and passport, both of which were stolen, she later updated that Southwest Airlines was very used to my lack-of-ID problem because so many people get their cars broken into and their bags stolen. The airline gave Lah her ticket after a brief security check.

Story continues

Sources in Oakland warned Lah that gas stations near the airport have been a frequent target for thieves.

Teams here in Oakland say passengers show up crying bc their bags are all stolen, all in seconds, she said.

The story has a somewhat happy ending, however: Lah ultimately updated that her bag was recovered by someone from the San Francisco Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs. Kravariks bag was not recovered.

More from National Review
Suspended Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, center, who while a member of the Board of Supervisors allegedly steered county contracts to USC's social work school in exchange for benefits for his son, facing federal criminal case arrives with his team of attorneys at United States Courthouse on Thursday, March 9, 2023 in Los Angeles, CA. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)

Federal prosecutors finished presenting evidence in their corruption case Friday against suspended Los Angeles City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, clearing the way for the powerful lawmakers defense to share its side of the case next week.

The case centers on votes and official actions that Ridley-Thomas took as a member of L.A. Countys five-member Board of Supervisors that prosecutors allege were favorable to USC and done in exchange for benefits to his son, a former state assemblyman.

Among the benefits that Sebastian Ridley-Thomas received were admission to the School of Social Work, a full-tuition scholarship, a part-time job as a professor at USCs social work and public policy programs, and the routing of a $100,000 donation through the university to a nonprofit he was running, prosecutors allege.

Jurors in the seventh-floor courtroom have heard detailed testimony of the inner workings of USCs social work program along with efforts by former dean Marilyn Flynn to curry favor with Ridley-Thomas and maneuver around the university to accomplish her designs.

It is a public corruption case built not on wiretaps but emails, largely from Flynn to subordinates or colleagues at the university and Ridley-Thomas himself.

I am holding my breath  MRT is really trying to deliver here, Flynn told a professor regarding a potential vote before the Board of Supervisors for a probation training program she sought.

Regarding a vote before the supervisors on a parole facility near USC that the university could partner to run, Flynn told colleagues: I met with the supervisor recently, and we discussed the schools interest in involvement. This is exactly what I had hoped would happen.

And when Flynn wanted to accelerate the hiring of Ridley-Thomas son, Sebastian, she wrote to Jack Knott, the then-dean of USCs public policy school: I think in the interests of showing MRT that we can deliver, it would be provident to get the offer letter out before the holidays.

Story continues

One letter stands out: a multi-page document Flynn drafted in the summer of 2017 in which she memorialized a meeting with Ridley-Thomas weeks earlier. In the memo, Flynn outlines a wish-list of sorts involving business between USC and the county. One request was to address the stalled movement" of a contract between USC and the countys mental health department and for involvement in a parole office near the university.

That letter was printed and hand-delivered by one of Flynns colleagues, Brenda Wiewel, who dropped it off in a sealed envelope at Ridley-Thomas' office in the countys Hall of Administration, according to her testimony.

FBI Special Agent Brian Adkins testified Friday that subsequent correspondence corroborated both the in-person meeting Flynn had with Ridley-Thomas and the veracity of the confidential letter.

When Flynn saw later action by the supervisors regarding the parole office, she wrote to a colleague, I talked with Mark about this, and I am very happy to see that he was as good as his word.

But in a surprising move, especially for a case that straddles a private university and a mammoth local government agency, no representative of L.A. County was called to testify before the jury.

To underscore the absence of county officials from the case, defense attorney Daralyn Durie asked the FBI agent, Do you know what happened after Brenda Wiewel dropped off the letter?

No, Adkins replied.

On Friday, Dr. Jonathan Sherin  the former director of the countys Department of Mental Health  had been scheduled to testify and was even in the federal courthouse in downtown L.A.

Prosecutors had called Sherin a critical gatekeeper in the process for USC to secure a coveted amendment to a mental health contract  and a gatekeeper who was supposedly influenced by Ridley-Thomas. The indictment in the case alleges that Ridley-Thomas exerted pressure on Sherin to perform official acts favorable to the contract.

But prosecutors ultimately opted not to summon Sherin to the witness stand.

Nor were any current or former supervisors brought before the jury, despite the FBI agent, Adkins, indicating that an unspecified number of current supervisors were interviewed.

No deputies of Ridley-Thomas were interviewed by the FBI, nor did any testify. Adkins said that this was a "cost-benefit analysis," and that there was scant likelihood any were directly aware of the "agreement" between Ridley-Thomas and Flynn.

"Deputies," he testified, "are likely to show some level of loyalty to their boss."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Searchlights search for drones in the sky of Kyiv, the night of January 2, 2022

"At about 9.00 p.m. on March 17, the Russian occupiers attacked Ukraine with Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 kamikaze drones, the Ukrainian Air Force wrote on its Telegram channel.

Read also: Russia launches 15 drones, Ukraine's air defenses down 13 of them

The attack was carried out in two directions  from the eastern Azov Sea coast and from Russias Bryansk Oblast," the air force said.

Ukrainian air defense managed to shoot down 11 attack drones in central, western and eastern regions, including all of the drones launched at Kyiv.

The air force did not say what happened to the other five drones.



Later, Maksym Kozytskyy, the head of Lviv Oblast Military Administration, said six Shahed drones had made it two Lviv Oblast, news outlet DailyLviv.com reported.



Kozytskyy said three of the drones were shot down by air defenses, while others hit non-residential premises in Yavorivskiyi District in the west of the oblast, next to Ukraines border with Poland.



The governor said there were no casualties as a result of the attack.

Russia regularly launches Iranian-made suicide drones at Ukraine at night  the slow moving drones have a distinctive motor sound and can even be brought down with machine guns in daytime, but are more difficult to spot at night.

Read also: Russia changes drone launch site from Crimea to North Caucasus, reports UK MoD

Russia recently started launching the drones from a site in Bryansk region, only about 200 kilometers from Kyiv. The Ukrainian military says Russia did this to shorten the reaction time of Ukrainian air defenses.

Nevertheless, none of the drones have managed to evade the Ukrainian capitals air defenses since last October, at the beginning of Russias campaign to try to destroy civilian infrastructure.

Kyivs air defenses have also been able to shoot down almost all incoming cruise missiles for several months, since Ukraine received modern air defense systems from its military allies. However, parts of shot down missiles have caused deaths and injuries in the city on several occasions.

Story continues

Moreover, Ukraine will not have air defense systems capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, supersonic and hypersonic missiles until the arrival of a promised U.S. Patriot missile defense battery.

In the last mass missile attack by Russia on Ukraine, six Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles hit a heat and power plant in the citys Holosiyivskiy District, temporarily knowing out power to 15 percent of the capital and heating to 40%

Read also: Russian invaders changing tactics in missile attacks, says NSDC head

The outages were eliminated within a few days.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Russia is likely preparing for a wider military conscription as its war against Ukraine grinds into a second year, according to United Kingdom intelligence.

The United Kingdoms Defense Ministry noted in a tweeted intelligence update on Saturday that members of the Russian Duma, the countrys legislature, introduced a bill on Monday to shift the age range for Russian men to be drafted from 18 to 27 years old to 21 to 30 years old. It said the bill will likely pass and become effective in January.

The ministry said Russia officially bans draftees from its activities in Ukraine, but at least hundreds of Russian people have likely served through administrative mismanagement or after being coerced to sign contracts.

The ministry believes Russian authorities likely want to change the age bracket as many men ages 18 to 21 claim an exemption to conscription through their enrollment in higher education. Raising the age range would ensure many of these students eventually need to serve in the Russian military, it said.

The Moscow Times reported that the bill would immediately raise the maximum age for conscription to 30 and gradually raise the minimum age to 21 by 2026. The bills authors noted that it would guarantee higher education for the conscripts and save money from the budget for medical exams for younger recruits who are less likely to serve on a battlefield.

But the outlet reported that critics have said the bill is meant to account for Russias increasing losses in Ukraine by increasing eligibility for the military.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of as many as 300,000 reservists in September to replace depleted forces, the first time that such a call-up had been issued in Russia since World War II. The order led to numerous protests throughout the country, leading officials to declare some citizens in certain occupations exempt from the draft.

The Times reported the Putin backed a proposal from the Russian defense minister in December to increase the number of Russian military personnel from 1.15 million to 1.5 million.

Story continues

The outlet noted that a Russian law preventing conscripts from being sent outside Russias borders would not apply to the four regions of Ukraine that Putin has annexed, considering it Russian territory.

The UK defense ministry said Russia has continually held call-up cycles twice per year since the time of the Soviet Union separate from the September partial mobilization.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Occupiers

The group reported a partial withdrawal of Russian troops from Belarus on March 14, and subsequently, satellite images of the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground were released, confirming the rotation.

Read also: Contingent of trained Russian forces and military equipment moving from Belarus to Donbas

Nevertheless, Belarusian Hajun observed that although the number of Russian soldiers at the training ground has decreased, the vacant tents for their accommodation may not have been taken down yet.

This means that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are not going to wrap up their training camp at the training ground, and we should expect the transfer of new groups of military personnel to the Republic of Belarus for training, the analysts wrote.

On March 4, the spokesman of the State Border Service of Ukraine Andriy Demchenko stated that the number of Russian troops in Belarus is changing, but does not exceed 9,000 to 10,000. As Demchenko noted, some of the units that entered the territory of the Republic of Belarus are being moved to Russia, from where they are transferred to the east of Ukraine.

Read also: Russia dispatches more echelons with troops and equipment from Belarus to Ukraine

Ukrainian State Border Service spokesman Andriy Demchenko,announced on March 4 that there had been a fluctuation in the number of Russian troops present in Belarus, but it is currently estimated to be no more than 9,000 to 10,000.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsulas annexation from Ukraine on Saturday, the day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader accusing him of war crimes.

Putin visited an art school and a childrens center that are part of a project to develop a historical park on the site of an ancient Greek colony, Russian state news agencies said.

The ICC accused him Friday of bearing personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine during Russia's full-scale invasion of the neighboring country that started almost 13 months ago.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world denounced as illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded that Russia withdraw from the peninsula as well as the areas it has occupied since last year.

Putin has shown no intention of relinquishing the Kremlins gains. Instead, he stressed Friday the importance of holding Crimea.

Obviously, security issues take top priority for Crimea and Sevastopol now, he said, referring to Crimeas largest city. We will do everything needed to fend off any threats.

Putin took a plane to travel the 1,821 kilometers (1,132 miles) from Moscow to Sevastopol, where he took the wheel of the car that transported him around the city, according to Moscow-installed governor Mikhail Razvozhaev.

The ICC's arrest warrant was the first issued against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. The court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Childrens Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.

The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow  and welcomed by Ukraine as a major breakthrough. However, the chances of Putin facing trial at the ICC are highly unlikely because Moscow does not recognize the courts jurisdiction or extradite its nationals.

Story continues

Despite the court's action and its implication's for Putin, the United Nations and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Saturday that a wartime deal that allowed grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia was extended, although neither said for how long.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov tweeted that the deal had been renewed for 120 days, the period that Ukraine, Turkey and the U.N. wanted. But Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian news agency Tass that Moscow agreed to a 60-day extension.

Russia and Ukraine are both major global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other affordable food products that developing nations depend on. They signed separate agreements with the U.N. and Turkey last year to allow food to leave Ukraine's blockaded ports.

Russia has complained that shipments of its fertilizers  which its deal was supposed to facilitate  are not getting to global markets. The country briefly pulled out of the agreement in November before rejoining and agreeing to a 120-day renewal.

Putin signed a law Saturday that imposes stiff fines for discrediting or spreading misleading information about volunteers or mercenaries fighting in Ukraine. The law calls for a fining individuals 50,000 rubles ($660) for a first offense and up to 15 years in prison for repeated offenses.

The measure mirrors one passed in the early days of the war that applied to speaking negatively about soldiers or the Russian military in general.

Fighters from the Wagner Group, a private Russian military company known for fierce tactics, have taken key roles in Ukraine, particularly in Russia's grinding campaign to seize the eastern Donetsk province town of Bakhmut.

In Ukraine, authorities reported widespread Russian attacks between Friday night and Saturday morning. Writing on Telegram, the Ukrainian air force command said 11 out of 16 drones were shot down during attacks that targeted the capital, Kyiv, and the western Lviv province, among other areas.

The head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko, said Ukrainian air defenses shot down all drones heading for the capital. Lviv Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi said Saturday that three of six drones were shot down, with the other three hitting a district that borders Poland.

According to the Ukrainian air force, the attacks were carried out from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov and Russias Bryansk province, which also borders Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military reported that between Friday morning and Saturday morning, Russian forces launched 34 airstrikes, one missile strike and 57 rounds of anti-aircraft fire. It said falling debris hit southern Ukraine's Kherson province, damaging seven houses and a kindergarten.

Russia is still concentrating the bulk of its offensive operations in Ukraines industrial east, focusing attacks on Bakhmut and other parts of Donetsk province.

Regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said one person was killed and three wounded when 11 towns and villages in the province were shelled Friday.

Further west, Russian rockets hit a residential area overnight in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital of the partially occupied province of the same name. No casualties were reported, but houses were damaged, Anatoliy Kurtev of the Zaporizhzhia City Council said.

British military officials said Saturday that Russia was likely to expand mandatory conscription to replenish its troops fighting in Ukraine. The U.K. Defense Ministry said in its latest analysis that deputies in the Russian Duma, the lower house of Russias parliament, introduced a bill to change the draft ages for men to 21-30, from the current 18-27.

The ministry said many Russian men ages 18-21 claim exemptions from military service because they are enrolled in higher education institutions. The wider age range would mean they would have to serve eventually. British officials said the law would likely pass and take effect in January 2024.

___

Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Head of Donetsk Oblast Military Administration, has reported that Russian invaders attacked the settlement of New-York in Donetsk Oblast on the morning of 18 March, damaging houses and the road.

Source: Kyrylenko on Telegram

Quote from Kyrylenko: "The settlement of New-York is under Russian fire.

Russian troops struck the village at around 01:00 using a missile. They damaged private houses and apartment buildings and the road."

Details: Kyrylenko stressed that no fatalities have been reported.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan has threatened a nuclear strike by the Russian Federation on any country that dares to arrest Vladimir Putin, while Vladimir Solovyov thinks the Russian dictator deserves a peace prize for stealing Ukrainian children in the midst of a war that he started.

Source: comments by Margarita Simonyan, Vladimir Solovyov and Olga Skabeyeva on Telegram

Quote from Simonyan: "I'd like to see the country that arrests Putin according to The Hague's ruling. Eight minutes later. Or whatever the flight time to its capital is."

Details: Meanwhile, Solovyov was indignant that the International Criminal Court in The Hague has classified the so-called "rescue of the children of Donbas", in territories that the Russian army came to seize with weapons, as deportation.

"You parasitic comrades from The Hague should be nominating Vladimir Putin for the Nobel Peace Prize because of these children. We in Russia have given children from Donbas shelter, food and education. And you couldnt even accept Ukrainian refugees humanely in the European Union," he wrote.

According to Solovyov, the ICC has "bowed down to its master overseas" without even working out the "formulations".

He also called on "decent citizens of Europe" to change the "puppet regimes". "You can wear your elbows out writing your warrants if you want to. It doesn't change the weather for us here. Putin is our president! Russia is mighty!" the propagandist declared dramatically.

Olga Skabeyeva simply posted a picture captioned "Putin goes to surrender to The Hague", in which the Russian dictator is mounted on the President of the US.

Background: On 17 March 2023, the Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children's Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, in view of the situation in Ukraine.

Story continues

The Kremlin and Russia's political elite have reacted to the arrest warrants with disdain and contempt.

Read more: Why is the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia a genocide?

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Kherson Oblast

The enemy launched 237 shells and rockets with heavy artillery and Grad multiple launch rocket systems, the governor wrote.

Read also: Three people injured in 88 attacks on Kherson Oblast in last day

The city of Kherson itself was attacked three times. Seven shells hit apartment buildings and private houses.

The enemy struck a kindergarten in the village of Veletenske in Kherson Oblast. Luckily, no one was killed or injured in the attack.

Over the past 24 hours, Russian invasion forces conducted a total of one missile strike, 34 airstrikes and 57 attacks with multiple launch rocket systems against Ukraine, the Ukrainian militarys General Staff reported on Facebook in the morning of March 18.

Read also: Russia pounds Kherson Oblast with 400 shells in 78 attacks in last 24 hours

Russia regularly attacks civilian areas in Kherson and other regions of Ukraine close to Russian territory or Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory. In particular, the oblasts of Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson are frequently attack with artillery.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Unexploded rockets in a field in Kherson region, February 20

They are currently concentrating their best forces precisely in the east. Their goal is to capture the east (of Ukraine), he said.

Read also: Russian invaders losing offensive potential, military says

Right here (in the south) their task is to hold the front. This can be seen from the intelligence, from all other points that we as a military can follow. That is, here they are sitting on the defensive, Yermak said.

He noted that the invasion forces are striving to retain control over Melitopol and the land bridge to Crimea solely for the purpose of safeguarding their hold on the annexed peninsula.

He also said that the Russian military, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, no longer consists of solely professional soldiers.

Read also: Russian troops exhausted and incapable of even local offensive efforts, U.K.

We see how theyre fading and losing their strength. Their artillery is already working much less than before, Yermak said, noting that compared to what happened before, the current situation can be called a shell hunger.

Now the shelling does not stop, but it is already selective, he said.

Facing an acute shell hunger on the battlefield, Russia is attempting to procure ammunition and military equipment in Myanmar and across African and Middle Eastern countries, Ukrainian Defense Intelligence spokesman Vadym Skibitskyi told Ukrainian TV broadcasters on March 16.

Read also: China unready to arm Russia right now  Kuleba

The founder, owner and financier of Russias Wagner Group PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has for some time been vocal about the scarcity of ammunition for his mercenaries. He also said that he had been cut off from the special communication service in an attempt to prevent him from requesting more ammunition.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Russian invaders have struck the city of Zaporizhzhia, damaging a catering facility.

Sources: Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration on Telegram; Anatolii Kurtiev, Secretary of Zaporizhzhia City Council, on Telegram

Quote: "It was a loud night in the oblast capital [the city of Zaporizhzhia]. The Ruscists have attacked a peaceful city once again. S-300 missiles targeted the grounds of a residential neighbourhood. The missiles struck a target inside this neighbourhood. The blast wave and debris damaged the facades, windows and roofs of nearby residential apartment blocks."

Details: Kurtiev said that preliminary reports indicated that a Russian missile had destroyed a catering facility. He stated that no people were injured.

The Oblast Military Administration said that all relevant services were working at the scene, and information about the casualties is being ascertained.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
The Russians regularly strike Ukrainian cities with S-300 air defense systems

A missile hit a building in one of the citys residential complexes. The blast wave and debris also caused damage to nearby residential apartment buildings: windows were shattered, and roofs and facades were damaged.

Read also: Russia launces 16 suicide drones on Ukraine overnight, most of them intercepted  Air Force

In addition, a public catering establishment was destroyed by a Russian missile, city councils secretary, Anatoly Kurtev, reported on Telegram on March 18.

Russia regularly attacks Zaporizhzhya, Dnipro and Kharkiv  cities that are all close to Russian territory or Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine  with missiles from the S-300 air defense systems. These missiles can be set to launch in ground-to-ground, ballistic mode, but are much less accurate in this mode as compared to being launched against targets in the air.

Read also: Russian forces attack critical infrastructure in Zaporizhzhya

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Russian occupiers are breaking into civilian homes in occupied Luhansk Oblast, allegedly looking for resistance fighters.

Source: Luhansk Oblast Military Administration

Details: Reportedly, the occupation authorities spread information about infiltration by saboteurs and work by partisans in Syrotyne, near Sievierodonetsk.

According to the Oblast Military Administration, this became the reason for increased door-to-door searches of the population. In closed houses, Russians find valuables instead of saboteurs, and rob people.

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On Saturday, 6 civilians were injured in the Russian shelling of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk Oblast.

Source: Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Oblast Military Administration on Telegram

Quote: "Six civilians were injured in Kostiantynivka as a result of shelling of the city by Russian troops.

The Russian occupiers fired several volleys with cluster munitions using an Uragan multiple-launch missile system.

They aimed for the area of the central market and the "Dytyachi svit" [Childrens World  ed.] store. According to operational data, 10 private houses, 9 high-rise buildings, a school, a children's store, a dozen private cars and garages were damaged."

Earlier: On Saturday, the Russians also shelled Kramatorsk. Civilians were killed and wounded there.

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Cultural and tourism trade fair to open in China's Yiwu

Xinhua) 09:43, March 18, 2023

An Indian businessman (R) shops at the Yiwu International Trade Market in Yiwu City, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 2, 2023.(Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The 17th China Yiwu Cultural and Tourism Products Trade Fair will be held from March 31 to April 2 in the city of Yiwu, the world's leading small commodities market located in east China's Zhejiang Province, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

For the first time, this year's event will set up new zones for digital trade and Chinese fashion goods, said the ministry, adding that the event will bring audiences new experiences with new technologies, such as naked-eye 3D, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).

More than 3,300 standard booths will be set up, covering an exhibition area of over 60,000 square meters. The number of booths this year is 12 percent greater than last year, while the number of exhibited products stands at about 160,000, 7 percent more than the previous event.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Liang Jun)
A 51-year-old woman was injured on Saturday morning in Russian shelling of the village of Dvorichna, Kharkiv Oblast.

Source: Oleg Syniehubov, Head of Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration on Telegram

Quote: "This morning, the enemy once again shelled the village of Dvorichna in the Kupiansk district. A 51-year-old woman was wounded by shrapnel. She was hospitalised, and now doctors are helping her."

Details: Syniehubov also reported that on Saturday in the village of Yaremivka, Izyum district, two men aged 71 and 29 found an explosive object and tried to disassemble it in their own yard. The item detonated. Both were injured and are now hospitalised. The condition of one of the victims is serious.

In addition, on Friday, a 62-year-old resident of the village of Dovhenke, Izyum district, detonated a PFM-1 anti-personnel mine in his yard. The man was hospitalised with an injury.

"As soon as the weather conditions permit, we will increase the pace of demining. On the eve of spring field work, we have the opportunity to demine about 250,000 hectares of agricultural land. Next week, the pyrotechnicians of Kharkiv Oblast will receive reinforcements from other regions of Ukraine," noted the Head of the Military Administration.

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Destroyed Russian tank near Trostianets, Sumy region, spring 2022

Read also: Russian air strike damages residential high-rise in Avdiivka

Russian media outlet Mediazone and BBC Russian Service are tallying confirmed Russian losses based on data from open sources. As of Sept. 21, there were 6,600 names on the list. About 10,800 more were added to the list between September 2022 and March 17, 2023. According to media reports, actual casualty figures could be twice as high.

In September 2022, UK intelligence stated that Russia had 25,000 soldiers killed and assumed that the total their losses were about 80,000, taking into account both wounded and prisoners. By mid-February, this estimate reached 40,000-60,000. The U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) believes that the death toll may be in 60,000-70,000 range. As of February, Western officials and CSIS were estimating Russia's total combat losses of 200,000-250,000.

In November 2022, the Kremlin regime announced mobilization of 318 thousand men.

Read also: Front line in Bakhmut now marked by local river  UK intelligence

Senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, Oleh Ihnatov, told Agency that with Russian losses this high "further mobilization is inevitable." OSINT analyst Ruslan Leviev also believes that continued mobilization in Russia may be necessary as the invaders were unable to raise the required amount of manpower so far.

Read also: "A year is like a day, like Groundhog Day." The mayor of Mariupol about the first days of the Russian invasion, the support of the people

Recent reports stated that Russia has intensified distribution of draft summons.

According to Ukraines General Staff, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has lost about 163,320 troops in Ukraine, including 760 in the last 24 hours.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
(Reuters) - Russia's Wagner mercenary group plans to recruit approximately 30,000 new fighters by the middle of May, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday.

He said in an audio message on Telegram that Wagner recruitment centres, which he said last week had opened in 42 Russian cities, were hiring on average 500-800 people a day.

He gave no evidence to support the numbers, which Reuters could not independently verify.

Prigozhin's men have sustained heavy losses while leading Russian efforts to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has held out since last summer in the longest and bloodiest battle of the year-long war.

In January, the United States assessed that Wagner had about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, including 40,000 convicts Prigozhin had recruited from Russian prisons with a promise of a free pardon if they survived six months.

Ukrainian officials have claimed that some 30,000 of Wagner's fighters have deserted or been killed or wounded, a figure that could not be independently verified.

Prigozhin said recruitment was going better than he had expected, and that those volunteering were in better physical shape than the convicts he had taken on before.

"By the middle of May, we plan on increasing the number of fighters in our units by about 30,000," he said.

Prigozhin has waged an active PR campaign for months to trumpet the role of Wagner in Russia's offensive, frequently complaining that the military top brass are failing to give his group sufficient credit and even alleging they have starved it of ammunition - a claimed denied by the defence establishment.

(Reporting by Reuters; writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Gareth Jones)
The city of Sacramento has launched its first step in a jobs program aimed at employing hundreds of youth within the next two years.

The state-wide program, Californians For All Youth Jobs Corps, focuses on hiring youth who typically do not have access to career-building resources. Participants will be placed in jobs in different cities tackling three critical issues: climate change, food insecurity and COVID-19 recovery.

All jobs will pay at least $15 per hour, with some paying more depending on location and employment. Youth must be between 16 to 30.

In Sacramento, 600 youth are expected to receive full and part-time positions by May 2024. Funding for the program stems from the 2021 state budget, with Sacramento receiving a total of $6.9 million.

In the first phase, the city is partnering with Green Technical Education and Employment, Sierra Service Project and Sacramento Tree Foundation to offer environmentally-focused jobs in the summer of 2023. This phase is using roughly $500,000 of the funding.

What we are doing here is not just creating opportunities for young people but also directly investing in how we fight climate change, said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg at a Thursday press conference Our young people and neighborhoods should be first in line for good climate-focused jobs, and this is a step in that direction.

Green Tech will employ in urban farming and forestry, building electrification and electric vehicle maintenance. Sierra Service Project will hire for jobs working on home energy efficiency, water conservation and food sovereignty projects. And Sacramento Tree Foundation will employ in the fields of ecology management, oak tree care and volunteer coordination.

With the focus being on climate-related jobs, this will help Sacramento in its fight against climate change, said Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento.

Job priority will be given to applicants who are low-income, former foster youth, unemployed, those engaged with the mental health system, people being treated for substance abuse and out of school. Youth will also be provided with services like resume preparation, job training and case management.

Youth interested in participating in the jobs program should fill out a form at https://www.cityofsacramento.org/Economic-Development/Workforce-Development
Sam Altman believes it is "critical" to regulate AI technology. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Sam Altman admitted he's "a little bit scared" of OpenAI's ChatGPT creation.

The CEO told ABC News that people should "not trust me" if he said he wasn't concerned about it.

He also said artificial intelligence will take over many jobs, but could lead to "much better" ones.

The CEO of OpenAI admitted he's "a little bit scared" of his ChatGPT creation and warned that it could "eliminate" many jobs.



In an interview with ABC News on Thursday, Sam Altman said that "people should be happy" that the company was "a little bit scared" of the potential of artificial intelligence.

"I think if I said I were not, you should either not trust me, or be very unhappy I'm in this job," he said.

Altman also said artificial intelligence could replace many jobs, but that it could also lead to "much better ones".



"The reason to develop AI at all, in terms of impact on our lives and improving our lives and upside, this will be the greatest technology humanity has yet developed," he said.

The 37-year-old told ABC that he's in "regular contact" with government officials and said regulators and society should be involved with ChatGPT's rollout. Feedback could help curb any negative outcomes from its widespread use.

The entrepreneur warned last month in a series of tweets that the world may not be "that far from potentially scary" artificial intelligence. Altman expressed support for regulating AI in the tweets and said rules were "critical," and that society needed time to adjust to "something so big."

OpenAI this week unveiled GPT-4, its latest ChatGPT model, which Altman described as "less biased" and "more creative" than earlier versions. It's only available to users who pay for its Plus subscription.

The latest version is capable of processing image prompts, is said to be more accurate than other versions, and users can have lengthier conversations with it.

The OpenAI chief said on Tuesday that it can pass the bar exam for lawyers and is capable of scoring "a 5 on several AP exams". It is already being used by teachers to help generate lesson plans and quizzes for students.

OpenAI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried are nearing an agreement with U.S. prosecutors on revised bail conditions for the indicted FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder, who is trying to convince a skeptical judge he should remain free.

In a letter filed on Friday night in Manhattan federal court, Bankman-Fried's lawyer Christian Everdell said both sides believed they were "close to a resolution", and expect to formally propose new restrictions by next week.

Bankman-Fried, 31, faces a trial set for Oct. 2 on charges of stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to plug losses at his Alameda Research hedge fund, and making large illegal political donations to buy influence in Washington, D.C.

Bail talks occurred this week after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan at a March 10 hearing renewed his concerns that Bankman-Fried's electronic communications with others might exceed the bounds of his $250 million bail package.

Kaplan's approval is needed to modify Bankman-Fried's bail.

The former billionaire has pleaded not guilty to eight counts, and not yet been arraigned on four. He is living under house arrest with his parents in Palo Alto, California.

Prosecutors raised the specter of witness tampering in January after Bankman-Fried tried to contact John Ray, who became FTX's chief executive when the company filed for bankruptcy in November, and an in-house lawyer.

Bankman-Fried's lawyers have said their client was trying to help, not interfere.

At the March 10 hearing, prosecutors and defense lawyers proposed giving Bankman-Fried a flip phone with no internet capability and a basic laptop with limited functions.

That was too generous for Kaplan, who said Bankman-Fried was "inventive" and could conceivably "find a way around" the restrictions without being caught.

In Friday's letter, Everdell also sought the judge's permission to let Bankman-Fried in the meantime use a laptop to access some FTX materials.

Story continues

Though the laptop would lack monitoring software or restrict Bankman-Fried's internet access, a lawyer or paralegal would oversee his use and take the laptop away when Bankman-Fried finished with it, Everdell said.

The case is U.S. v. Bankman-Fried, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-cr-00673.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Sonali Paul)
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently met and approved a bold set of reparations policies for the city in its efforts to redress slavery and racism. The board is making headlines for proposing cash payments of up to $5 million, as well as a host of other major proposals. Though no final decisions have been made, the proposals show the growing momentum towards reparations policies in San Francisco and around the country.

The post San Francisco Reparations Committee Recommends $5 Million Payouts, $1 Homes appeared first on Blavity.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors received a report from the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee. a board created in 2020 to explore questions of reparations within the city following the murder of George Floyd. The committees report included a number of bold moves to combat the impact of slavery and anti-Black racism as they have affected Black residents of the city. One eye-popping proposal is for San Francisco to make a one-time payment of $5 million to every eligible Black resident of the city. Another proposed idea would provide Black people in San Francisco with a guaranteed minimum income of nearly $100,000 per year. Another potential plan would allow Black San Franciscans to purchase houses for as little as $1. The Board of Supervisors welcomed these and nearly 100 other recommendations warmly, expressing unanimous approval for the committees proposals.

Reactions have so far been very mixed for both the overall push toward reparations in San Francisco and the specific proposals on the table. Opponents of reparations in San Francisco argue that a reparations policy for San Francisco would be unnecessary and unfair since California was not a slave state and many current residents, including immigrants, do not have a connection to slavery. The plan, opponents further argue, would simply be too expensive for the city. Those who support the proposals, meanwhile, argue that the effects of slavery and later racial discrimination have spread widely across California and the country. Furthermore, the high costs associated with the plan are appropriate given the high level of impact that slavery and racism continue to have on the city and the country.

The issue of reparations remains a divisive topic, with a large majority of Black Americans in favor of the idea and most white Americans disapproving. But efforts like that in San Francisco and other cities around the country show that reparations have become more likely in various parts of the country. The San Francisco reparations debate, for example, is happening even as California moves closer towards its own set of policies to make up for slavery and anti-Black racial oppression and discrimination.

Neither the California state plan nor the San Francisco proposals will happen overnight. For San Francisco, the reparations committee will receive feedback on its proposals before submitting a final report in June. At that time, the Board of Supervisors will be able to pass, reject or edit the proposals as they see fit. However San Francisco ultimately moves concerning reparations will likely have a big impact on how other cities and even states approach the topic in the near future.
(Bloomberg) -- Senator Bernie Sanders said he plans to introduce a measure that would prevent big-bank executives from serving on the boards of the regional Federal Reserve banks that oversee them.

Most Read from Bloomberg

One of the most absurd aspects of the Silicon Valley bank failure is that its CEO was a director of the same body in charge of regulating it: the San Francisco Fed, the Vermont senator said on Twitter on Saturday. Ill be introducing a bill to end this conflict of interest by banning big bank CEOs from serving on Fed boards.

Greg Becker, Silicon Valley Banks former president and chief executive officer, had served as a director on the San Francisco Fed board before the bank failed last week. Lawmakers are scrutinizing why the San Francisco Fed failed to address problems at the lender before its collapse.

The bill would also prevent Fed employees and board members from owning any stock or investing in any institution the Fed regulates, said Warren Gunnels, staff director of the Senate Health Committee, which Sanders chairs. Itll be an updated version of a bill Sanders filed a decade ago, he said.

The Fed declined to comment on Sanderss plan. Other senators have also talked about reforming governance of regional banks.

Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland and Banking Committee, said this week that the Feds structure should be reconsidered given Beckers role at the San Francisco Fed.

I think we need to eliminate even the perception of conflict of interest, if you have a bank thats part of the board whose job it is to supervise banks in a particular region, Van Hollen said in an interview.

Story continues

Unlike the Fed board in Washington, which is made up of officials nominated by the US president and confirmed by the Senate, the Feds 12 regional banks are run by presidents chosen by private boards of directors. Those directors are made up of business and community leaders, as well as bank executives.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act changed the law to exclude bank executives serving on regional Fed boards  known as Class A directors  from participating in the selection of those bank presidents. The change was meant to prevent banks in the regional Fed districts from selecting the official charged with overseeing their day-to-day operations.

According to Fed policy, regional bank directors arent supposed to have involvement in supervisory decisions, enforcement matters or bank applications.

Several executives of large and mid-size banks serve on regional Fed boards, including M&T Corp. CEO Rene Jones, a director at the New York Fed and Citizens Financial Services Inc. CEO Randall Black, who serves on the Philadelphia Fed board.

Limited Prospects

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, citing the power of the banking lobby, has expressed skepticism that Congress will be able to pass any law cracking down on banks, with the possible exception of clawing back bonuses of executives of failed banks.

He said Thursday he expects the Fed to act to increase capital and liquidity requirements and stiffen stress tests using its existing authority.

Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, a Republican member of the Banking Committee, has called for reviving legislation proposed by former Republican Senator Pat Toomey to make regional Fed presidents presidential appointees and more accountable to Congress.

Those regional bank presidents need to be under Senate confirmation, she said. Im even willing to look at more aggressive separation between the banks supervision role and its role on monetary policy.

(Corrects to remove outdated reference to Richmond Fed director in 11th paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu has noted Ukraine's support in the full-scale war with Russia, saying that Moldovans need to know "who are our friends and who are our enemies".

Source: Sandu in an interview with the TV channel Moldova 1 on Friday, reported by European Pravda citing NewsMaker.

"Moldovans have never been on the side of murderers and never will be. We have condemned Russia's aggression against Ukraine since day one of the war," the head of state emphasised.

She added that Chisinau has repeatedly pointed out Russia's attempts to overthrow the constitutional order in Moldova and interfere in its internal affairs, as well as the propaganda and disinformation that have accompanied them.

"When compelling evidence emerged that they are trying to overthrow the government in Chisinau that was democratically elected by the citizens of Moldova, then we came out and spoke publicly so that our people would know who are our friends and who are our enemies," Sandu stressed.

Sandu said the resources Moldova needs for its development come from Romania, the EU, the US and Japan.

"How much money has come from the Kremlin to repair kindergartens, schools and hospitals? Not a penny. Blackmail and war are what come from there," the president added.

In a previously unannounced speech to parliament on Friday, Sandu called on the government to take decisive action "to stop any attempt to destabilise the country", and for state institutions to "combat propaganda that is poisoning people".

Background: The United States believes that persons connected with Russian intelligence are planning to organise protests in Moldova with the aim of overthrowing the authorities and establishing a more pro-Russian government.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu said on 13 February that Russia plans to attack government buildings and effect a regime change in Moldova using opposition protests and with the involvement of people with military training and citizens of Russia, Belarus, Serbia and Montenegro.

More details about this situation: Coup Attempt in Moldova: Sandu Nominates New Prime Minister Facing Russia's Threat

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
By David Milliken

LONDON (Reuters) -The chief executive of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), Peter Murrell, said on Saturday that he was resigning with immediate effect after accepting blame for the public being misled about the number of SNP members.

"Responsibility for the SNP's responses to media queries about our membership number lies with me as Chief Executive. While there was no intent to mislead, I accept that this has been the outcome," Murrell said in a statement issued by the party.

Murrell, who has run the party administration since 1999, is the husband of the party's outgoing leader, Nicola Sturgeon, who announced on Feb. 15 that she was stepping down after eight years as Scotland's first minister. Her resignation triggered an SNP leadership contest which concludes on March 27.

Murrell said he had intended to stay as SNP chief executive until after the leadership contest was over.

However, he had faced pressure from within the SNP to go since the party's head of communications, Murray Foote, quit on Friday after previously disputing a media report that party membership had fallen sharply since 2021.

The SNP issued updated figures on Thursday which showed it had 72,186 members as of February, down from 103,884 at the end of 2021.

Foote said in a resignation statement on Friday that he had previously been given inaccurate information on membership numbers by the party's head office.

After Murrell resigned, the SNP said Michael Russell, who holds the lower profile role of party president, would act as chief executive on an interim basis.

"These changes have no impact on the operation of the leadership contest," said Kirsten Oswald, an SNP lawmaker who chairs the party's national executive committee.

The SNP's political opponents said Murrell's resignation raised broader questions about the party's fitness to govern Scotland, where the parliament in Edinburgh has powers over health, education, the justice system and some tax policy.

"The public's real priorities are being ignored as the SNP turns inwards on itself," Craig Hoy, chair of the Scottish Conservatives, said.

(Reporting by David MillikenEditing by Gareth Jones and Peter Graff)
Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / Paramount Pictures

(Warning: Spoilers for Scream VI follow.)

Scream VI answered the dreams of many of the franchises loyal fans, bringing back a legacy character many had once believed to be deadbut it wasnt Stu Macher.

Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere), whose fate was left ambiguous in the post-Scream 4 purgatory and was confirmed alive in a Scream (2022) Easter egg, made her triumphant return in the slasher series latest sequel. And with her came official confirmation Stu is deadat least, for now.

So, its time we lay this theory to rest. Sorry to the Stu truthers (Stu-Anon?), but hes dead.

Stu, the secondary killer in the original Scream, is a widely beloved character due to Matthew Lillards zany portrayal and his status as an OG killer. Although he is electrocuted by a TV after several stabs in the finale, some fans have held out hope for years hell make a triumphant return.

Paramount Pictures

Thats buoyed by an early idea for Scream 3 that never came to fruition. Screenwriter Kevin Williamson had toyed with the idea of bringing Stu back for the third film as the jailed mastermind behind a cult of killers targeting Sidney for the franchises then-finale.

However, Williamson never returned for the third, which went in an entirely different direction, with no hints at Stus survival. In fact, none of the five movies preceding Scream VI have even hinted at Stu being alive. The uber-meta franchise, which calls back to the original film often, had never once, for even a second, given rise to the idea that Stus alive.

Finally, Scream VI threw a bone to the Stu truthersalso delivering a death-blow to the theory.

Hayden Panetierre Is the Best, Most Wigalicious Part of 'Scream 6'

Kirby, now an FBI agent for some reason, specifically mentions the TV that killed Stu Macher. Whats more, a whiteboard showing the five massacres preceding the latest film shows he died in 1996.

But not everyones convinced, in real life and in the movie. Mindy Miller-Meeks (Jasmin Savoy Brown), a member of the films Core Four and a self-proclaimed horror aficionado, hits back at Kirby with a tongue in cheek reference: If you believe hes dead...

Story continues

Paramount Pictures

So, heres where we need to get into the nitty gritty. The film has now, without a shadow of a doubt, confirmed that Stu is believed to be dead in-universe. That means the only way he could be alive is to have faked his death and be hidden away.

Now, Scream certainly has soap opera sensibilities, but come on. The twist that Sam is Billy Loomis daughter in Scream (2022) was already ham-fisted, yet plausible enough. In-universe, it has been more than 25 years since Stu died. What could he possibly be up to hiding out there?

Scream 3 was released in 2000Stus death never questioned within the filmand with it shouldve died any last hope hed be brought back from the dead.

A Guide to the Scream Universe: From Sidney Prescott to Tara Carpenter

Somehow, amid all the theories that hinge on Williamsons original idea, Stu truthers neglect to admit Williamson himself recently confirmed hes dead, too.

No, hes dead, Williamson said in a December 2022 interview with Collider.

So, lets clear something up for the confused: Dead people arent alive. They are dead.

But, if thats not enough for you all, lets ask another OG, the woman who portrays the franchises fearless journalist Gale Weathers, Courteney Cox. In an interview with Fandango this week, Cox, alongside franchise stars Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, is asked about the Stu theory.

They think that Stus still alive, Ortega explains to Cox of the passionate theorists. Confused, horrified even, and just a smidge annoyed, Cox shakes her head and says Who does? People, the internet, Ortega replies.

Oh, I dont think so, Cox says, dismissing the theory as swiftly as she possibly can. Ortega also remarks that she doesnt like the theory, twisting the knife in the broken hearts of Stu truthers.

In all honesty, what does a Stu return bring anyway? Not only does it invalidate the franchises last remnant of realism, it also is just a nothingburger.

This isnt Billy Loomis or Jill RobertsStus impact doesnt extend beyond the first Scream. Hes the comic-relief killer whose motive is peer pressure. Now dont get me wrong, hes a great character and helps elevate the original to the classic it is. But, lets be real. Stu Macher is no mastermind.

We cant keep hanging on the original idea for Scream 3. After all, an original idea for Scream 5back when there was the intention of following Scream 4 with direct sequelsinvolved Jill surviving and attending college alongside Kirby, Williamson has confirmed, but that doesnt change the fact Jill was shot through the heart after she was electrocuted.

Trust me, I almost wish it did. Time to be petty, but if were going to flirt with bringing back a killer, it should be Jill. Shes the only Ghostface who got within an inch of succeeding with her plan, and her motive has aged like wine in the social media era. Also, unlike Stu, she had a plan to begin with.

Paramount Pictures

Some might say its misogynistic to go to bat for Stu while leaving influential girlboss Jill out to die. I am someIll say it!

But, as a fan of logic and reasonand the franchise itselfI humbly accept that Jill is dead and bringing her back would be too ridiculous to ever be satisfying. The same goes for quite literally every single killer in the franchise.

I mean, one of the Scream VI killers was killed by that same TV that killed Stu. Some would take that as an aggressive hint that its curtains for Stu.

So, Stu-Anon, its back to the drawing board for you all.

If Stu somehow makes a return in Scream VII (Scream 7? 7cream?) I will not apologize for this take, as that would simply be franchise assassination. Youll have wonbut at what cost?

Until that happens, Im here to continue crushing conspiracy theorists' dreams, and once again, reminding you to dream harder. Convince me Jills alive. Maybe Mrs. Loomis miraculously survived that bullet to the head. Its been more than 20 years, time to freshen up that fan fiction material.

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Vancouver versus Seattle

My wife had this week off so we decided to get out of town and do something. Spent three days in downtown Vancouver B.C.

Had a lot of fun. Walked to Stanley Park. Took the subway to Chinatown, had a beer in Gastown.

There are few cities more similar to each other than Seattle and Vancouver. Culturally, economically, population size, even similar topography.

Yet in Vancouver, theres much less homelessness. Oh, they had homeless people and drug use on the streets, but fewer tents, drug deals, litter and graffiti. A lot less.

But Canadians also have more social services. In the morning, youd see government people sweeping the streets, picking up litter and washing walls so the streets were clean. Medical personnel and police walked the streets as well; they didnt just sit in their cars.

It made me conclude that nothing is free. By being opposed to social services like universal healthcare, welfare and mental health facilities, you end up paying with garbage, tents, graffiti, hypodermic needles and the smell of urine.

The Canadians even had the gall to have public toilets.

John Whitmore, Gig Harbor

Early childhood learning

As an early learning advocate, Ive witnessed the effects of children who do not receive adequate access to early learning, which leads to impacts and outcomes that do not reflect the full potential of those students. Its one reason why I believe there should be an increase in full-day Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) and Head Start slots provided to all families.

Expanding full-day slots will better serve working parents and meet childrens needs. I want to urge lawmakers to support and provide funding for more full-time early learning slots for working families. Parents are challenged with economic disparities and inequities, forcing many to choose between a quality paying job and services for their children.

Early learning programs prepare children to develop the social and emotional skills they need to flourish, thrive and have better successful outcomes as they move into K-12 education. We must lay the foundation and plant the seeds for our children to flourish early. Programs like ECEAP and Head Start play a vital role..

Story continues

Kristen Marie, Tacoma

Tuberculosis vaccine news

Debbie Cockrells March 7 story in The News Tribune on a tuberculosis vaccine being developed, now in Phase 2 clinical testing, is great news. TB is the biggest infectious killer in our world. At my annual physical, my doctor told me that he is more concerned about TB than COVID. Funding to fight TB was depleted while fighting the COVID pandemic, putting children around the world at risk.

Tuberculosis is very easily transmitted, even just by talking. Our U.S. Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, along with U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, have voted to support funding for TB programs. Please let them know to continue funding the disease as a priority. We can tell what our members of Congress values are by the way they vote.

Andy Clarke, Gig Harbor

Traffic enforcement

I read The News Tribunes article on traffic deaths in Pierce County and nowhere did it seem to address the main reason for the study. The truth is the third rail of politics. Police need to be better funded to handle the increased traffic and population.

Each municipality needs to have at least one dedicated traffic team. New laws are not needed, just enforcement of existing statutes. Speed limits should be that, not a recommendation. The state and local governments should be funding and reviving emphasis patrols. Better education at schools needs to be revived with driver training.

Again, the culture needs to change.

Ernest LaChapelle, Fircrest
Sebastien Haller celebrates his second goal (Martin Meissner/AP) (AP)

Borussia Dortmund returned to winning ways in the Bundesliga in convincing fashion with a 6-1 thumping of Cologne.

Dortmund suffered the disappointment of going out of the Champions League to Chelsea and were then held to a draw by struggling Schalke last weekend.

But they were back on form on Saturday evening and led 4-0 inside 40 minutes through Raphael Guerreiro, Sebastien Haller, Marco Reus and Donyell Malen.

Davie Selke pulled one back for the beleaguered visitors before half-time but Haller completed his first brace since recovering from cancer in the 69th minute and Reus added the final goal a minute later.

The victory took Dortmund to the top of the table for one night at least, with Bayern Munich due to face Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday.

RB Leipzigs miserable week was compounded by a 1-0 loss to Bochum that leaves them eight points adrift of Dortmund.

Four days after they were hit for seven by Manchester City in the Champions League, they were undone by Erhan Masovics goal just after half-time, earning a precious three points for strugglers Bochum.

Wolfsburg boosted their top-six hopes with a 1-0 victory over Stuttgart, Omar Marmoush scoring the only goal, while Hoffenheim climbed out of the bottom three thanks to a 3-1 win against fellow strugglers Hertha Berlin, who replaced them.

Andrej Kramaric netted two first-half penalties and Ihlas Bebou scored just after half-time, with Stevan Jovetic managing a late consolation after Munas Dabbur was sent off for Hoffenheim.

Marius Bulters injury-time penalty earned Schalke another important point in their fight against relegation in a 1-1 draw with Augsburg, who had Ermedin Demirovic sent off just after Arne Maier had given them the lead early in the second half.

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In Spain, Atletico Madrid were comfortable 3-0 winners over struggling Valencia. Antoine Griezmann opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, Yannick Carrasco doubled the advantage just after half-time and Thomas Lemar added a 67th-minute third.

3 points in the bank! pic.twitter.com/VJapTQgIOn  Atletico de Madrid (@atletienglish) March 18, 2023

Celta Vigo boosted their European hopes with a 3-1 victory over Espanyol  Gabri Veiga, Iago Aspas and Carles Perez scoring their goals.

Viktor Tsyhankov equalised twice as Girona earned a 2-2 draw with Rayo Vallecano while Almeria levelled deep into injury time in a 1-1 draw against Cadiz.

In Serie A, AC Milan missed the chance to climb into second as they fell to a 3-1 defeat against Udinese.

Roberto Pereyra put Udinese ahead in the ninth minute, and an eventful period of first-half injury time saw Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalise from the penalty spot only for Beto to restore the home sides lead.

Kingsley Ehizibue made sure of the points for Udinese with a third in the 70th minute.

Bologna were held to a 2-2 draw by Salernitana. It was the 16th-placed hosts who twice took the lead through Lorenzo Pirola and Boulaye Dia but Bologna levelled both times, Scot Lewis Ferguson and Charalampos Lykogiannis finding the net.

Carlos Augusto cancelled out Daniel Ciofanis opener as Monza and Cremonese drew 1-1.

Lois Openda scored twice as Lens climbed to second place in Ligue 1 with a 3-0 victory over Angers. Seko Fofana had opened the scoring, with the bottom side offering little resistance.

Lille moved up to fifth with a 2-0 victory at Toulouse. They had to wait until the 85th minute to make the breakthrough, Alexsandro netting, and Mohamed Bayo grabbed the second deep into injury time.
In Moscow, law enforcement officers broke into bars suspected of financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The incidents were reported by both state and opposition media in Russia.

Read also: Forests being cut down in Moscow to deploy air defense complexes  The Insider

Police came to the Moscow bars in connection with the suspected involvement of the establishments in financing the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Russian state news agency TASS reported at around 8.50 p.m. (Kyiv time).

The raids were also reported by the independent Russian human rights organization OVD-Info, with reference to eyewitnesses.

According to the SOTA Telegram channel, law enforcement officers compelled a patron of the bar to inscribe the letter Z and the phrase For Russia on the establishments door.

In the bar itself, they played the songs of Shaman, the band Lyube, as well as other songs.

Read also: After a spate of drone attacks, another air defense system spotted in Moscow

An employee of the Underdog bar, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Mediazona Telegram Channel that the police officers forced patrons to sing along, threatened them with stun guns, and instructed individuals with tattoos to remove their clothes.

At around 10 p.m., riot police left the bars.

According to the Telegram channel Ostrozhno Novosti, the security forces described the events as scheduled verification measures.

OVD-Info later reported that some visitors at both establishments were detained, although the exact number of detainees was not specified.

The detainees were questioned by FSB officers at local offices. Approximately 40 individuals were detained in total, with the majority already having been released, human rights project Pervy Otdel reported on Telegram.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Lara Starr in San Rafael, Calif., on March 13, 2023. Starr didnt check her retirement savings for decades. (Galoy Concepcion/The New York Times)

Raquel Charles was in her mid-20s when she signed up  begrudgingly  for her first retirement account. Wading through paperwork to start her job at the Administration for Childrens Services in New York City, she would have skipped over the retirement option if not for an older colleagues intervention.

She saw that I was young and didnt know what I was doing, Charles recalled. She told me, Just put away something, even if its the bare minimum. Charles decided to contribute 1% of her salary.

Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times

For the next decade, retirement was the last thing on Charles mind as she focused on her career and family. I saw a few dollars coming out of my paychecks, but I never thought about it, she said. It finally dawned on her to check the account when her mother retired last year. I had to set a new password, because I dont think I ever created one in the first place, she said. When I finally opened it, I was like, Oh, my God, Im in trouble. I have barely any money in here.

Now 37, Charles has increased her retirement contributions and joined a womens personal finance group on Facebook to learn more about financial planning. Im annoyed that I wasted 10 years when I could have saved a lot more, she said. When I was younger, I had fewer financial responsibilities and more flexibility. Now, I have two children and a mortgage.

Despite her frustration, Charles is faring much better than the millions of Americans who neglect their retirement accounts for much longer  or, in many cases, permanently.

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College estimates that about 21 million vested retirement accounts in the United States are inactive, meaning that they are eligible to be tapped but sit dormant instead. The same researchers calculated in 2018 that the average value of assets in these inactive accounts was about $60,000, with a median amount of about $15,000, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Labor. Thats an amount of money most people cant afford to lose.

Story continues

The numbers cannot show if these accounts are truly forgotten, or if people do plan to access the money someday, said Laura Quinby, a senior research economist with the Center for Retirement Research. What we do know, though, is that a lot of people lose track of their retirement savings when they switch jobs, so they might not remember that its there.

If youve ever tried to roll over a retirement account, you can probably relate. I had several different jobs at the beginning of my career, all of which offered 401(k) benefits. By the time I reached my 30s, I was dimly aware that I had three separate retirement accounts (all containing paltry amounts) floating around with former employers. Figuring out how to retrieve and consolidate them took days of phone calls, paperwork and coordination with different financial firms.

Understandably, many people never get that far. People have busy lives and other interests. They dont have the degree of financial literacy that would make them comfortable engaging with their retirement accounts, said Steven Holman, who helps oversee record-keeping and asset management at Vanguard, a company that provides investment management and retirement account services for more than 30 million clients. Theres a lot of fear and hassle involved, so its easier to avoid it. The recent market volatility stemming from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank doesnt exactly stoke enthusiasm for financial planning, either.

Stranded retirement accounts are even more prevalent among workers with lower incomes and savings rates (ironically, those who need their savings the most). A report from Vanguard found that those with smaller retirement account balances  usually less than $5,000  were more likely to leave them behind. Unfortunately, that can have very real financial implications, Holman said. For instance, when a worker leaves a job with less than $5,000 in their 401(k), their former employer is allowed to move that account into a Safe Harbor individual retirement account, which is overseen by a different provider that may impose higher management fees. (Employers are motivated to do this because holding onto a lot of small, inactive accounts can be a costly administrative headache.)

Another problem with ignoring your retirement accounts is, of course, that its harder to plan for your future. Most experts recommend checking on your long-term savings around once a year, to make sure its invested in accordance with your retirement timeline. But Lara Starr, 54, hadnt looked at her savings for decades when her husband died unexpectedly a few years ago. Even though I was the primary breadwinner in my family, my husband managed our money, she said. I always found it too stressful.

After Starrs husband died, she realized she had to face her accounts alone. Opening the binder full of statements that Id never looked at was one of the hardest things Ive ever done, she said. Although shed put money in a 401(k) throughout her marketing career in Marin County, California, she wasnt thrilled with what she found. I made a spreadsheet with the numbers, and realized it wasnt enough, she said. So then I had to ask myself, What does that mean?

These days, Starr uses a budgeting app and tracks her cash flow and savings meticulously. Now, I know what I contribute to my 401(k). I know what its building towards. I even did some projections to see what the money might look like in 20 years when I do need to retire, she said.

Still, Starr wishes she hadnt buried her head in the sand for so long. Saving for retirement feels like standing at the edge of a pool with an eyedropper, she said. If I had been more hands-on when my husband was still alive, Id like to think it would have kicked me into planning and budgeting earlier. Then again, its hard to say. The reality is, it could have just made me even more anxious about money.

For others, stumbling upon a long-lost retirement account is a boon. For most of my adult life, I was so overwhelmed by my student loans that I never really had a financial plan for my future, said Kathryn Lonczewski, 37. I couldnt even think about having assets when it seemed like I had so much debt.

Then, in 2020, Lonczewski started a new job at Amazon and was awarded a signing bonus. Id never received a chunk of cash like that, so thats when I started asking questions about my finances.

Should I pay down debt? Do I invest it? Id never had choices like that because Id been living so hand-to-mouth for years, she said. Thats when she remembered she had a retirement account from a previous job. I honestly had no idea what Id find in there, she said. It wound up being about $60,000  much better than nothing. I was pretty happy about it.

Now a project manager at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, Lonczewski checks her 401(k) balance each month. I feel like I have some catching up to do, but its also motivating, she said. Last year, she started hosting a book club where she and other members of her community meet and talk about their financial goals.

Finding Your Money

For those who arent sure how to retrieve their lost accounts (or whether any exist), there are a number of ways to find out. One is the National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits, a database that allows you to hunt down old plans using your Social Security number. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators also runs a searchable website, and the Department of Labor has a special database for abandoned plans.

In this era of digital records, its hard to believe that technology hasnt solved this problem. But its starting to, Holman said. He oversees Vanguards efforts to automatically integrate its clients old or abandoned retirement plans into their existing, active ones, a process known as auto-portability. A participant doesnt even have to do anything, he said. You go to a new job, open a new plan, and the Portability Services Network will automatically find your old account and transition those assets in short order. This cuts out the time-consuming paperwork involved in the traditional rollover process.

Auto-portability only applies to accounts containing less than $5,000, so people with higher balances still need to take a more active role in tracking down their lost savings. But it is helpful for people whose accounts might otherwise be exiled to a Safe Harbor IRA. And auto-portability technology is expanding, Holman added. Were fairly confident that over time, well have broad adoption across the industry, he said. Youll just get a letter that says, You had $3,000 in a retirement account with your old employer. Congratulations, its in your new plan. And itll be a great surprise.

c.2023 The New York Times Company
In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market index fund. But in any portfolio, there are likely to be some stocks that fall short of that benchmark. Unfortunately, that's been the case for longer term Life Settlement Assets PLC (LON:LSAA) shareholders, since the share price is down 20% in the last three years, falling well short of the market return of around 46%.

It's worthwhile assessing if the company's economics have been moving in lockstep with these underwhelming shareholder returns, or if there is some disparity between the two. So let's do just that.

See our latest analysis for Life Settlement Assets

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

Life Settlement Assets saw its EPS decline at a compound rate of 4.6% per year, over the last three years. The share price decline of 7% is actually steeper than the EPS slippage. So it's likely that the EPS decline has disappointed the market, leaving investors hesitant to buy.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

Dive deeper into Life Settlement Assets' key metrics by checking this interactive graph of Life Settlement Assets's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. In the case of Life Settlement Assets, it has a TSR of -8.4% for the last 3 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

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A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Life Settlement Assets rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 8.1% over the last year. And yes, that does include the dividend. This recent result is much better than the 2.7% drop suffered by shareholders each year (on average) over the last three. It could well be that the business has turned around -- or else regained the confidence of investors. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Life Settlement Assets , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

We will like Life Settlement Assets better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on British exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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Youll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here
Sharon Stone revealed in an impassioned speech at a recent cancer benefit that she was financially affected because of recent banking failures.

Stone was honored with the 2023 Courage Award at the Womens Cancer Research Funds An Unforgettable Evening benefit on Thursday, March 16 for her "support of breast cancer research and dedication to raising awareness for the cause," according to a press release.

During her speech at the benefit, which was captured by Chris Gardner from The Hollywood Reporter and shared on Twitter, the longtime activist urged attendees to increase their donations, noting that a mere donation was a form of courage during this tough time.

Because I know whats happening. I just lost half my money to this banking thing, and that doesnt mean that Im not here, she said, wiping a tear from her face.

While the 65-year-old did not share any further details about her financial loss, this news came less than one week after Silicon Valley Bank was shut down by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation Friday, March 10, according to NBC News. SVBs closure marked the biggest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis and the second-largest in U.S. history, following the collapse of Washington Mutual.

Stone was also candid about other personal struggles in her life, referencing some of the difficult experiences she had in recent months.

My brother just died, and that doesnt mean that Im not here, she said. This is not an easy time for any of us."

The actors brother, Patrick Stone, died on Feb. 12 after suffering a heart attack. He was 57.

The Basic Instinct star confirmed his death in a video on Instagram and shared her gratitude to fans for their support during this devastating loss. She added, Like any family, we thank you for your love and support in this time of immeasurable grief and we appreciate all of your condolences."

Stone continued, Yes, weve had a tremendous amount of loss in these last couple of years, as so many of you also have, referring to the death of her 11-month-old godson, River, who died from total organ failure in August 2021. "And we do greatly understand that the loss is ours here on Earth."

Story continues

Prior to her emotional plea to attendees, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Stone also reflected on her own health challenges over the years in her speech, including a procedure where the actor had tumors removed from her breast.

So dont ever feel compelled not to get a mammogram, not to get a blood test, not to get surgery because it doesnt matter, she said. Im standing here telling you I had one-and-a-half and more tissue of my breasts removed and none of you knew it.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Denys Shmyhal

Today, at a meeting of the faction of the Servant of the People political party, personnel changes in the government, which are planned for next week, were discussed, Shmyhal wrote.

Specifically, he confirmed that Oksen Lisovyi has been appointed to the position previously held by Serhiy Shkarlet as the Minister of Education and Science.

He also mentioned that Oleksandr Kamyshin has been designated as the replacement for Pavel Ryabikin in the position of Minister of Strategic Industries.

Read also: Only 405 MPs in Rada as three more ex-Opposition Platform politicians lose mandates

Read also: US, Russian defense ministers discuss Black Sea drone incident

Denys Shmyhal announced another change in the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov will take care of a number of areas, in addition to digitalization, the prime minister said.

His future position is Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation, Development of Education, Science and Technology, and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.

Earlier, it was reported in the media that Serhiy Shkarlet was stepping down from his role as the Minister of Education and Science in Ukraine.

Yaroslav Zheleznyak, an MP from the Holos faction, had previously announced that the director of the Small Academy of Sciences, Oksen Lisovyi, would become the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine.

Starting from Nov. 4, 2021, Pavlo Ryabikin served as the leader of the Ministry of Strategic Industries. Prior to that, he held positions as the head of the State Customs Service and oversaw the management of Boryspil Airport.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Erin Platts

The British arm of Silicon Valley Bank has paid staff up to 20m in bonuses after it was bought by HSBC in a rescue deal.

Payouts to employees were signed off by HSBC, SVB UKs new owner, earlier this week, according to Sky News  just days after its insolvency was averted by the takeover.

The bonus pool, of 15m to 20m, was described as modest by sources familiar with the matter. It was unclear how much had been paid to Erin Platts, the UK banks chief executive, or her senior colleagues.

One insider said the awards indicated HSBCs confidence in the staff at its new subsidiary and its desire to retain them by honouring previously agreed payments.

SVB UK is a profitable business with about 700 employees in Britain, but the actions of its American parent company brought it close to collapse this week.

If it had become insolvent, the bonuses would not have been paid this week, sources said.

Senior executives and other employees have already been negatively affected by the plunging value of the company stock they hold, according to an insider.

In the US, the companys banking arm has been taken into Government ownership.

Its holding company, SVB Financial Group, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and is looking for buyers for its other assets.

Customers and bystanders form a line outside a Silicon Valley Bank branch - Steven Senne/AP

American staff also received bonuses hours before the bank collapsed, according to previous reports.

HSBC, Europes biggest lender, swooped in to acquire SVB UK for just 1 in an emergency auction.

The bank was given an exemption from rules that do not allow complicated corporate customers to be housed within ring-fenced banks.

Challenger banks including Oaknorth and The Bank of London had also shown interest in taking over SVB UK.

Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, said the takeover had been vital to protecting funds for start-up companies in Britain.

He said: "The UK's tech sector is genuinely world-leading and of huge importance to the British economy, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Story continues

"We have worked urgently to deliver on that promise and find a solution that will provide SVB UK's customers with confidence.

"[This] ensures customer deposits are protected and can bank as normal, with no taxpayer support."

Hundreds of tech entrepreneurs had lobbied the Government to ensure that SVB UK did not collapse, warning that its failure would pose an existential threat to the UK industry.
Brian Powers, who also went by the name "Egypt," wearing colorful braids.

After time spent in prison and dozens of arrests by Akron police over the years, Brian "Egypt" Powers was seven months sober and getting his life back together when he was found shot to death nearly three years ago.

The 43-year-old who liked to dress as a woman, was a loving man, said his sister, Vivian Powers-Smith.

Now, Powers-Smith says she hopes justice will be done after police arrested Akron resident Bobby Lee Bell, 48, on a charge of murder in Powers' death.

The circumstances have not been detailed by police, who said they identified Bell after reviewing and analyzing evidence, conducting interviews and following up on numerous leads and tips.

Bell has a history of violent crime. In 1993, he was convicted of attempted aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. The court noted it would not object to his parole in 2002.

Since his release, Bell was convicted of drug-related charges in 2008, 2012 and 2021.

He is now being held in the Summit County Jail, with bond set at $1 million.

Circumstances of Brian Powers' death unclear

Powers was found face up on the ground by a groundskeeper just before 8 a.m. June 13, 2020, outside a church near East Buchtel Avenue and Chapel Drive. Police said they believe he had traveled about 100 yards before collapsing with a single bullet having pierced both thighs.

"He went to a party and he was walking home, but he was dressed as Egypt," Powers-Smith said, adding she has still not heard all the details from police. "I don't know if they were outside a car or if he was just walking down the street, but I know he was leaving from a party that he had went to earlier that evening and he was walking home."

Vivian Powers-Smith shows photos of her brother Brian "Egypt" Powers in Akron.

Following Powers' death, some in Akron's LGBTQ community feared he may have been killed as a result of his gender identity and sexual orientation. However, hate crime laws  or ethnic intimidation laws, as they are called  in Ohio do not encompass gender identity and sexual orientation.

More:Brian Powers friends say he may have been victim of hate crime

Story continues

"In his younger years he was gay, and then as time went on, I think he more identified as either gay or transgender," she said.

"Whenever he felt like dressing as Egypt, that's what he did and that's how he is from day-to-day. When he wanted to be Brian, he was Brian. If he wanted to be Egypt, he was Egypt," Powers-Smith said.

Never 'in the closet,' Powers was 'handsome ... beautiful'

She said her brother was fun-loving and would make anyone he came in contact with feel welcomed.

"He was a beautiful person," she said. "He was a man and he was very handsome. As a female, he was very, you know, very attractive, very beautiful, so if someone looked at him, they might not have been able to tell, but he would let you know, you know. He wasn't the type that would, you know, try to trick anybody or fool you. He was very proud of who he was, so, you know, he would let you know."

Brian "Egypt" Powers

Although Powers had been a sex worker in his younger years and had been charged multiple times for solicitation, his sister said he had moved beyond that lifestyle.

"I've heard people say, 'Well, that's what happens when you live your life like that,' but I don't care how you decide to live your life, you don't deserve to be murdered, right?

"He was always proud of who he was. Like when they say somebody comes out of a closet. I don't believe Brian ever came out of a closet. He was just born out the closet. He was just who he was, so he had to be tough. There were times where he had an issue with substance abuse and he had just overcame that. He was doing very well. He was seven months clean. He was very proud of that."

Brian Powers was overcoming past troubles

According to court records, Powers was convicted of several felonies  including robbery, forgery and escape from 2001 to 2017 and also faced dozens of misdemeanor charges.

Powers-Smith said he did not talk much about his past troubles.

"It was something he was just trying to get past and, you know, leaving in his past. You know, he had his own apartment. He had his own income. He was doing very well," she said, explaining he was receiving supplemental assistance from the state, but did not know the specific reason.

Brian "Egypt" Powers

"He was going to meetings like two to three times a day. He was going to classes to keep himself, you know, on the straight and narrow."

She said he didn't have any issues with anyone as far as she knows, other than random people who recognized his lifestyle.

"Sometimes he, you know, walking down the street or in the store or something, somebody would say something negative to them. But you know, it wouldn't go any further ... because even when he was dressed as Brian, even when he was living his daily life as a man, he's still very feminine ... it wasn't something he was hiding.

"Everybody's not comfortable with letting people be who they, who they choose to be," she said.

A note on terms: We continue to refer to Brian Powers, also known as Egypt, using he/him/his pronouns, following extensive interviews with those who knew him.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Details still unclear in 2020 murder of Brian Powers in Akron
Giant African Land Snail

Some of the worlds largest snails were recently found in metro Detroit.

The size of a human fist, giant African land snails can grow up to 8 inches in length and 5 inches in width.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized six giant African snails at Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW) from a citizen of Ghana on March 9, officials said.

Steven Bansbach, Public Affairs Specialist for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Chicago Field Office, wrote in an email to the Detroit Free Press saying giant African snails are prohibited in the U.S.

Although they may appear to be harmless, giant African snails may harbor parasites dangerous to humans and they have a voracious appetite for hundreds of types of native plants, Bansbach said. Prohibited agricultural items can harbor plant pests and foreign animal diseases that could seriously damage Americas crops, livestock, and the environment, along with accompanying economic consequences."

He further wrote giant African snails are often consumed and sometimes kept as pets in other countries.

Toiletries? Yes. Cats? No. TSA agents find cat in passenger's carry-on at X-ray checkpoint.

Nation: A man tried to pass an assault rifle through a TSA security checkpoint. He's not alone.

A news release to the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, said the snails were intended for consumption by the traveler and have since been confiscated for further analysis.

Bansbach said the snails were discovered when the traveler failed to disclose the contents of his luggage, requiring further inspection.

Travelers are required to declare all meats, fruits, vegetables, plants, seeds, soil, animals, as well as plant and animal products they may be carrying, he wrote.

Giant African Land Snails

Bansbach said CBP agriculture specialists often study these pests and assess their impact on U.S. agricultural resources.

What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day.

Story continues

Jeb Foods says the giant African snail can be consumed and is a strong source of protein. These snails are not poisonous and benefit those with high cholesterol and heart disease as they are comparable to egg protein. It is unsafe to eat snails raw and they should be cleaned and cooked before consumption to eliminate parasites and diseases.

However, despite a thorough cleaning process, snails could still carry diseases. To stay as safe as possible its necessary to feed the snails properly to rid any trace of toxins before consuming them, according to WLRN radio.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Giant African snails confiscated from traveler at Detroit airport
The Silicon Valley Bank collapse has drawn new attention to the fragility of the U.S. financial system and governments role in overseeing it.

This week, Democrats have debated approaches to handling the crisis, with progressives calling for stricter regulations and moderates initially resisting them.

The latest: Heres why the too big to fail banks bailed out First Republic

While the Biden administration nixed the idea of a 2008-style bailout, Democrats are questioning what the path for the future could look like, with tech industry professionals, lawmakers, and activists coming down on different sides of the issue.

Who is standing up strongly and boldly and saying: You got it wrong, guys. Heres the reality, said Tim McCarthy, the former president of Charles Schwab who currently serves as co-CEO of marketGOATS. Heres the true story.

Here are the six key players to watch in the banking crisis.

Michael Barr, Federal Reserve vice chair of supervision

Michael S. Barr, nominee to be a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, is sworn in during his Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee nomination hearing on Thursday, May 19, 2022.

Barr doesnt have the type of job thats often forward facing for most Americans, working at an agency thats considered fairly obscure and complicated for many outside of the financial world.

But the top Fed regulatory official is expected to play a pivotal role as the Silicon Valley Banks developments continue to inform new policy and political considerations in Washington and the West Coast.

In the coming weeks, Barr is tasked with conducting a sweeping assessment of how the Fed ran oversight practices for SVB as officials look for answers about what led to its demise. He will also examine regulations and is expected to present a memo later in the spring.

This is going to be very profound, said McCarthy, indicating its likely to have a ripple effect beyond just discussions among lawmakers in D.C.

Barr, however, is under pressure of his own.

The Fed is facing intense criticism from both parties over whether the agency and other state regulators missed the mounting signs of SVBs dire financial situation. As the Feds chief for regulations and supervision, Barr is likely to field questions from lawmakers about his role.

Story continues

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) chair of the Senate Banking Committee

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) addresses reporters before the weekly Senate Democratic policy luncheon on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.

Initially, a populist senator from the Rust Belt may seem far away from Northern Californias tech-centric, venture capital-flowing bubble.

But Browns role as chair of the Senate Banking Committee makes him a key player in the regulation discussion in Congress and beyond, particularly as the SVB downfall continues to disrupt a variety of sectors.

In his capacity leading the committee, Brown called for officials to start a full-fledged investigation into the major financial failure and sent a memo outlining the areas that were vulnerable for a collapse of such magnitude.

These banks were over-concentrated and over-reliant on particular industries and operated with an exorbitantly high percentage of uninsured deposits, Brown wrote in a letter to the Treasury Department and Fed. Furthermore, the banks also lacked adequate risk management.

Brown is lockstep with his fellow progressives, such as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass, on financial regulation, but hes also well perceived by moderate colleagues and Biden.

His location in Ohio  the red-trending state that Democrats still havent given up on entirely  allows him to translate how the complexities of the SVB crisis could impact people at home.

Brown sees more regulation as a good early step.

You must strengthen the guardrails for banks to prevent failures and mitigate contagion and panic risks to protect consumers and small businesses and to preserve small banks and credit unions on Main Street, Brown noted at another point in his letter, giving a nod to his middle and lower income priorities.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) speaks to a reporter as she arrives to the Senate Chamber for a vote regarding a nomination on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.

Warren, the liberal senator from Massachusetts, is a fierce advocate for strict financial regulation and consumer protection. Shes also arguably the banking sectors biggest agitator. To progressives critical of the financial industry, shes their top Capitol Hill champion.

The senators position between left-wing Democrats who love her and big banks who feel less warmly puts her in the spotlight of the collapse.

Fighting back: Warren, Porter unveil bill to undo Trump-era Dodd-Frank rollback

To the joy of her allies shes been out front on the issue since it first became public, harshly condemning executives and lobbyists who pushed for looser regulations while also offering a policy blueprint for the future.

Elizabeth Warren has been right all along on financial sector reform. After the Great Recession, she predicted wed be back here without meaningful accountability, and sure enough, here we are, said Charlotte Clymer, a writer and Democratic political strategist.

At what point are her colleagues going to follow her lead and ensure the most irresponsible actors in banking and finance arent permitted to keep putting our country at risk for lack of consequences and prevention?

But her critics view her influence as more troublesome.

If youre a budget balancer or at least a fiscally responsible politician on the Democratic side, the problem you have is youll have people to the left of you who use that as an opportunity to push their own election desires, said McCarthy.

Theyre afraid to speak out because they feel the more left side of the party will criticize them for trying to be able to maintain programs.

Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council

Federal Reserve Board Vice Chair Lael Brainard, seen Sept. 23, 2022, in Washington. Brainard on Tuesday was named as President Bidens top economic aide. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Brainard, an economist and former Fed official, didnt have a chance to test run her new role leading the National Economic Council before a major financial disaster hit.

In her prior roles at the Fed, including most recently as vice chair, Brainard strongly cautioned against deregulation of the industry that had previously caused significant tumult in the U.S. economy.

How she got here: Biden names Feds Lael Brainard as next top economic aide

By elevating Brainard to lead the NEC  one of the most influential appointed positions in government  Biden entrusted her to be an ambassador between the White House and key agencies and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Any proposed legislative actions could face hurdles, given the nature of the Republican-controlled House and narrowly held Democratic majority in the Senate.

This week, the business publication Barrons listed Brainard as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is seen during a press conference with climate activists on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 to call on President Biden to declare a climate emergency.

Khanna is uniquely positioned to address the banks failure and articulate his assessment of how regulators could have fended off such a dramatic collapse.

The California congressman is at the intersection of two often competing forces. Hes a leader in the progressive movement clamoring for policy impact on Capitol Hill, but also represents Silicon Valley, and has to navigate all its various tech interests.

As a progressive, hes been critical of more moderate Democrats hesitation around imposing stricter regulations on banks. He lambasted SVBs prior work asking the government for fewer restrictions in a recent cable news segment, putting him at odds with some centrists in his party.

Read more: Silicon Valley, Signature banks lobbied hard to loosen bank rules

They lobbied to weaken the Dodd-Frank restrictions, Khanna told MSNBCs Morning Joe noting that he voted against the 2018 bill to loosen the banking law.

They lobbied me and others to weaken them, to exempt them from the regulations that could have prevented this crisis, he said.

Jeff Zients, White House chief of staff

Incoming White House chief of staff Jeff Zients attends an event with President Joe Biden to thank outgoing White House chief of staff Ron Klain, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Feb. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Bidens new chief of staff entered the role at a key moment. Biden and administration officials just said goodbye to Ron Klain, a beloved and longtime aide to the president, who resigned after a midterm cycle ripe with positive Democratic surprises. Many Democrats hoped Zients would pick up the positive momentum.

Some former banking executives have criticized Democrats for not doing an effective job managing the partys competing wings. On one hand, progressives want to be much tougher on the banks in favor, they say, of a fairer system for the majority of Americans. Moderates, for their part, want to take a more balanced approach, particularly in communicating what their party should practically do in contrast to Republicans.

Congress must act: Biden urges Congress to crack down on failed bank executives

As chief of staff, Zients is likely to have to juggle those differences of views, while helping Biden stay on message. Multiple outlets reported that he and Brainard got Biden up to speed on developments around SVB immediately last Friday and kept him briefed late into the weekend.

Zients resume shows relevant experience to help demystify the banks crisis, having navigated both Wall Street and Silicon Valley during a stint on the board of Facebook, and also as the NECs director under former President Obama.

He recently started publicly touting the administrations response.

The Biden-Harris Administration moved quickly to stabilize the banking system, without putting taxpayer dollars at risk  a priority for us, Zients wrote on Twitter on Friday afternoon. @POTUS is putting forward specific proposals Congress can pass now to hold senior bank executives accountable. Lets get it done.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
MiG-29

Slovakia will also transfer an air defense control system, spare parts and missiles, Kakascikova said.

Slovakia has declared that it "stands on the right side of history," the spokesperson said.

"Human life is the most valuable thing, and I believe that Slovakian technology will help to protect more people," she said.

Read also: Ukraine may receive MiG-29s from several countries, Poland says

She added that this agreement meets the foreign policy interests of Slovakia and is in line with all legal requirements and Slovakian obligations.

The Slovak government unanimously approved the transfer of fighter jets to Ukraine on March 17.

Read also: Poland to send first four MiG-29 jets to Ukraine in coming days, says Duda

Meanwhile, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on March 16 that Warsaw would hand over the first four MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in the coming days.

Warsaw currently has about 10 MiGs, which it received in the early 1990s from the German Democratic Republic GDR army. The exact number of jets to be transferred wasn't specified, although the Polish government has already approved the decision.

"In the coming days we will first transfer, if I remember correctly, four fully operational planes to Ukraine," Duda said. While other planes are currently under maintenance, he added.

Poland will replace these Soviet-era jets with U.S.-made F-35s and South Korean FA-50 fighters, Duda explained.

The Ukrainian Air Force believes that modernized Soviet MiG-29 fighters will be a serious help to them, but that they are unlikely to change much at the front.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Kim (left) and Vanessa Pham with their Omsom food starter packs at Essex Market. Crystal Cox/Insider

Silicon Valley Bank's collapse had startup founders and venture capitalists in a panic last weekend.

The founders of Asian food startup, Omsom, posted about the company's experience on social media.

Vanessa Pham said the bank's collapse threatened small businesses, in addition to rich VC firms.

Vanessa Pham was showing off her lemongrass BBQ sauce and yuzu miso glaze at the annual conference Expo West last Thursday when she first heard about Silicon Valley Bank's struggles.

Fellow founders were sharing articles and getting told by investors to move their funds out, Pham, the CEO and cofounder of Asian food starter company, Omsom, said in an email interview with Insider. The news threw Pham into a spiral: All of Omsom's money was in SVB, a bank widely used by startups and venture capitalists.

Pham immediately reached out to her sister and cofounder, Kim, saying their conversation "went from shock and disbelief, to fear and concern around impacts to the business."

On Friday morning, Pham tried to wire the company's money out of SVB, but it was unsuccessful. That afternoon, SVB was shut down by federal regulators, and depositors lost access to their accounts.

Immediately, the sisters went into "problem-solving mode," Pham said, with Kim using her previous experience in VC to tap the company's investors for help. Pham's background in consulting helped her plan for the various outcomes that could occur depending on how much access they'd have to their funds.

They also checked in on other small business owners to offer resources and encouragement.

"There were offers to intro each other to new banking partners, to share promising short-term loan vendors, to just be there for one another," Pham said. "It was honestly quite touching."

The cofounders wrote a letter to customers about what SVB's collapse meant for the company and shared it on Instagram and LinkedIn. In the letter, they wrote that they weren't looking for pity, but wanted to let people know what it was like "navigating a recession, the hangover of a pandemic, sociopolitical traumas, and now the second largest bank failure in American history."

Story continues

They asked customers to stock up on Omsom products, buy gift cards, and share Omsom's post. The Instagram post has over 15,000 likes, and Pham said the two posts, together, garnered over half a million impressions.

"Watching our community rally, anchor, and grow in the last several days has been so humbling and energizing," Pham said. "Our focus now is how can we prevent this in the future and how can we continue to show up for our amazing community, our ride or dies."

On Sunday, federal regulators announced that SVB depositors would be getting access to all of their funds the following day. For Pham, it was a feeling of pure relief.

In a follow-up Instagram post, the Pham sisters wrote that the weekend caused them to reflect on how "the failures of the American banking system jerked all of us around, both small business + consumers alike."

Pham said it's a common misconception that SVB's collapse only posed a threat to larger institutions  like wealthy VC firms or massive startups. It's often "the smallest, most marginalized groups who feel the impact the heaviest," she said, like Omsom, which is a seed-stage company.

The Omsom team wanted to be transparent about its experience with SVB, Pham said, because of how supportive its community has been, especially during the pandemic, which is when the company was founded.

"Being proud and loud is the DNA of the company, and that's not just celebrating the wins, but actually peeling back the layers of what it's actually like to run a small, WOC, queer-owned business," Pham said. "The last several years have shown us that consumers realize they can make real change through their dollars and voices  they examine not just what goes into their products, but who is behind them and the values they hold."

Omsom is now doing its due diligence with investors and advisors, including working with other banks and diversifying where funds are kept, she said.

"On the product side, our goal is to ensure Omsom's offerings, which represent the multitudes of Asian cuisine and culture, shine in the face of uncertainty that surrounds us in and outside of the SVB crisis," Pham said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
SOMERSWORTH  Anji Reddy, a landlord who owns multiple apartments in the city, is scheduled to appear in Dover District Court Monday, March 20 to face four more code violations filed against him by city officials.

Reddy owner of Reddy Infosys Inc, based in Princeton, New Jersey, was scheduled to be in court on Feb. 27, but failed to show up to face allegations of missing deadlines to address code violations. Judge Bradley Lown issued a $1,000 fine and a bench warrant for his arrest. Had he appeared in court later that day, with a good reason for his absence, he could have paid the fine and had the bench warrant vacated.

On Friday, a court clerk said no action had been taken by Reddy, and the bench warrant, listed under town enforcement charges, remains outstanding.

It is not known if Reddy will appear on Monday. Somersworth Code Enforcement officer Shane Conlin said he has been informed Reddy has hired Portsmouth Attorney Christopher Burns to act on his behalf.

Caitlin Judd , left, and Shayntel Cormier are tenants in different buildings in Somersworth owned by Anji Reddy. They showed up at Dover District Court Feb. 27, 2023 as the city is taking Reddy to court related to a host of code violations. Reddy did not show in court that day.

"The four charges on Monday all deal with code violations at his 11 Ash Street property," said Conlin. "I am working on more for 86 High Street. And on April 3, we will be back in court asking to reinstate a formerly suspended sentence."

More:Somersworth landlord loses in attempt to evict tenant who has publicly criticized him

More:Complaints filed against Somersworth landlord for rats, no heat. Residents band together.

Conlin said last July Reddy pleaded guilty to a similar misdemeanor charge for a code violation.

"He was given a deadline to complete needed work and he agreed, so a fine of $2,000 was suspended pending him doing the work," Conlin said. "He has not done that, so we will ask for the fine to be reinstated. ... I also plan to issue another code violation for the same work that still needs to be completed."

Somersworth Code Enforcement officer Shane Conlin waited in Dover District Court for landlord Anji Reddy to show up for code violations Feb. 27, 2023. Reddy failed to appear.

According to the document, Reddy Infosys, Inc. pleaded guilty and was fined $2,500 by the court, with $2,000 suspended pending completion of work. Reddy was ordered to pull permits for plumbing and electrical work within 30 days, with the work to be completed 120 days after that.

Story continues

Conlin said Reddy paid paid the court $500, plus a $120 penalty assessment fee.

Reddy has received much attention locally after a large sign was hung by tenants from a window at 86 High St., asking Reddy to restore heat and water to the building. Some of the tenants of High Street and a building on Ash Street were without heat or water for months, including Saturday, Feb. 4, in record-setting, sub-zero temperatures.

Landlord has faced public criticism

Tenants banded together to pressure their landlord, filing 540-A tenant rights petitions in court, hoping to prompt him to address a number of code violations, including heating, electrical, plumbing, structural, and even a rat infestation in one of the buildings.

More Somersworth news:Four-story, 128-unit housing development approved. Here's what to expect.

Following the action, Reddy issued eviction notices to two vocal tenants, Shayntel Cormier and Caitlin Judd, both of whom say they will be in court on Monday, and at every court date Reddy faces

On Tuesday, March 14, Cormier's eviction was dismissed by the court. Judge Lown said it had no merit, and called it "retaliatory."

Judd said her eviction is not being allowed to move forward while her 540A case is still pending. She is due in court on June 15.

Last Friday evening, Reddy Infosys issued a statement to Foster's, which reads in part: "We are making good strides in addressing the repairs/ fixes and arranging for final inspection of the fixes  last mile in the process."

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Somersworth landlord Anji Reddy due in court, faces arrest warrant
Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here.

---

Just after sunset Friday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket illuminated the Space Coast's dusk sky after an on-time liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The 7:38 p.m. EDT mission from Launch Complex 40 carried the SES 18 and 19 communications satellites to orbit for Luxembourg-based operator SES, then wrapped up with a drone ship landing in the Atlantic Ocean. It marked SpaceX's second flight of the day after a different Falcon 9 launch four hours prior from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, which boosted another batch of the company's Starlink internet satellites. That mission also included a drone ship landing.

Once operational in orbit, the Florida-launched SES satellites will help to deliver data and digital television services to millions of homes across the United States. They'll spend the next several weeks raising their orbits to some 22,236 miles above Earth's surface.

SpaceX's next launch, meanwhile, has been tentatively scheduled for no earlier than Friday, March 24. That's slated to include even more Starlink internet satellites.

Rocket launch schedule: Upcoming Florida launches and landings

New spacesuits:NASA, Axiom reveal new look for Artemis missions to the moon

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Friday, March 17, 2022. The rocket is carrying a pair of communications satellites for Luxembourg-based SES. Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK

Apart from SpaceX activity, Relativity Space at the Cape's Launch Complex 16 is gearing up for its third attempt at the inaugural launch of its Terran 1 rocket on Wednesday, March 22. Liftoff of the world's first 3D-printed rocket is slated to happen during a three-hour window that opens at 10 p.m. EDT, the company confirmed on Friday.

Look for FLORIDA TODAY's live launch coverage to begin 90 minutes before the launch window opens at https://www.floridatoday.com/space/.

For the latest, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.

Story continues

Contact Jamie Groh at JGroh@floridatoday.com and follow her on Twitter at @AlteredJamie.

The second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket separates from the booster after liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Friday, March 17, 2022. The rocket is carrying a pair of communications satellites for Luxembourg-based SES. Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK

Launch Wednesday, March 22

Company / Agency: Internal Relativity Space mission

Rocket: Terran 1

Location: Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

Launch Window: 10:00 p.m. EDT Wednesday to 1:00 a.m. EDT Thursday

Trajectory: East

Weather: TBD

Landing: None; Terran 1 is expendable

Live coverage: Starts 90 minutes before liftoff at floridatoday.com/space

About: Relativity Space will attempt the first orbital launch of its 110-foot, 3D-printed Terran 1 rocket. The inaugural demonstration mission known as "Good Luck, Have Fun" will not feature any customer payloads. The Terran 1 rocket is the largest 3D-printed object to attempt orbital flight.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida sunset SpaceX launch followed California liftoff hours before
A small boy and his chupacabra friend in Netflix film "Chupa."

Netflixs upcoming film Chupa is a re-imagination of a creature that has haunted the nightmares of many Latin American children for at least three decades: el chupacabras. Aka the goat sucker.



The movie is going to hit the streaming platform in early April. Its about Alex, a shy Kansas teen who travels to Mexico to visit his family. He finds a baby chupacabra in a barn. It looks like an adorable cross between a kitten and bird, and so Alex decides to name it chupa. This discovery sends him on the adventure of a lifetime. Somewhere in the trailer, a girl tells the protagonist that the name Chupa means sucker.

Read more

But the word chupa by itself doesnt mean suckerit means suck or to suck. And it has some raunchy connotations for many Spanish speakers. There are several definitions on Urban Dictionary that outline how chupa by itself is used to describe a sexual act for many Filipinos, Spanish speakers, and Portuguese speakers.

The Hollywood Handle tweeted the Netflix movie poster this week and was ratioed with 13,700 likes to over 16,000 quote retweets reacting to the comedy gold. Twitter users have demanded to know if Netflix ran the movie title by any Spanish speakers before announcing the new film. Others have tweeted a variation of I should call him/her. Some simply posted JAJAJAJAJA, which is them laughing in Spanish.

Author Vanessa Angelica Villarreal tweeted, Imagine the sheer amount of people this title went through at @netflix all the way to release promo movie poster for no one to tell them that you cant shorten the word chupacabra with chupa because it literally means to suck off  like kids should not google this word. Joanna Hausmann, a Venezuelan writer and comedian, tweeted Ive got some notes.

People have also pointed out that theyre confused about the setting. The movie is set in Mexico, not in the Caribbean. Some of the earliest supposed sightings of chupacabras are based in the Puerto Rican countryside around the early 1990s, according to an NPR thread about the mythical creature. Theres archival footage from the Associated Press that shows dead animals with puncture wounds in Puerto Rico. One comment on the video suggested that this may have been around Orocovis, a centralized mountain town.

Story continues



PUERTO RICO: MYSTERIOUS CREATURE TERRORIZES COUNTRYSIDE

Reports have apparently spread from there. Tabloid TV news like Al Rojo Vivo has featured news of the chupacabra terrorizing communities in several countries including Guatemala and Mexico.

When I first saw a tweet with the title of the movie, I screamed. Then I laughed. I then scream-laughed and spent over an hour reading reaction tweets. Here are some of my favorites:

Who was on the team?

Netflix really had no money left for their translators huh?  pic.twitter.com/LfKpyohAE8  Derek (@NerdSpeech616) March 15, 2023

S U C K the movie

Screenshot: Twitter/Gizmodo (Fair Use)

Cross cultural puns

Screenshot: Twitter/Gizmodo (Fair Use)

Comedy gold

Screenshot: Twitter/Gizmodo (Fair Use)

No Puede Ser

Screenshot: Twitter/Gizmodo (Fair Use)

Chupa m*la

Screenshot: Twitter/Gizmodo (Fair Use)

Add mela to chupa.

Movie night

Screenshot: Twitter/Gizmodo (Fair Use)

Please explain

Screenshot: Twitter/Gizmodo (Fair Use)

New Netflix & verb

Photo: Twitter/Gizmodo (Fair Use)

Representation?

Screenshot: Twitter/Gizmodo (Fair Use)

Reject modernity, embrace tradition

Screenshot: Twitter/Gizmodo (Fair Use)

More from Gizmodo

Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
A horseshoe and clover leaf on a green wood background.

Every year on March 17, millions of people gussy themselves up in green attire, hold big parades and guzzle pints of beer, all in the name of an old Irish saint. But what's the story behind this emerald-hued holiday, and why do we celebrate it with shamrocks and alcohol?

St. Patrick wasn't actually Irish

St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain  not Ireland  near the end of the fourth century, according to a 2006 report in the publication History Ireland . He came from a wealthy family, and although his father was a Christian deacon, historians think he didn't have a particularly religious upbringing. When he was 16, Irish raiders ransacked his family's estate, kidnapped and enslaved him, and brought him to Ireland where he worked as a shepherd. He spent six years in captivity, turning to religion for solace. It's believed that in his fear and loneliness, he began to dream of converting the Irish to Christinanity.

Patrick wrote in his spiritual autobiography " Confessio " that God's voice came to him in a dream, commanding him to escape back to Britain. There, he described having a second revelation: an angel told him to return to Ireland as a missionary. He trained to become a priest for 15 years before setting off on a dual mission to convert the Irish and minister to Christians already living there  contrary to popular belief, St. Patrick didn't introduce Christianity to Ireland. Rather than uprooting pagan Irish rituals, he incorporated them into his teachings. For instance, the Irish used to honor their gods with fire, which inspired Patrick to light bonfires to celebrate Easter.

Patrick died on March 17, 461 A.D. (although some sources give the year 465 A.D.) which became St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Day was originally celebrated with blue, not green

The color green has become emblematic of St. Patrick's Day, but the holiday was originally celebrated in blue. The shift to green was probably inspired by the many Irish symbols that contain green  its flag, the shamrock  as well as the island's nickname, "The Emerald Isle." People have paraded in green ribbons and shamrocks since the 17th century and Irish soldiers wore green on March 17, 1798, as a political statement during the Irish Rebellion against British Rule, Time reported . Legend has it that wearing green makes a person invisible to leprechauns that will pinch anyone they see.

Story continues

In Ireland, some people still adhere to the tradition of Catholics wearing green and Protestants wearing orange on St. Patrick's Day, the colors that represent them, respectively, on the Irish flag.

Every St. Patrick's Day, the leaders of Ireland and the U.S. chitchat over shamrock

Nothing screams Irish like the simple shamrock, which comes from the Gaelic word "seamrog," meaning young clover. According to folklore, St. Patrick used the three-leaved plant to illustrate the Christian Holy Trinity in his teachings. Every year, the Irish prime minister, or taoiseach (pronounced "taysha"), presents a bowl of shamrock to the U.S. president during an audience at the White House. The tradition began in 1952, when the Irish Ambassador to the U.S. John Hearne delivered a box of clovers to President Harry Truman.

St. Patrick's Day turns everything  even beer  green

It's no secret that St. Patty's Day is a boozy occasion. While the Irish Guinness remains many people's drink of choice, green beer is also a favorite. The bright concoction is an American invention from 1924, which Thomas H. Curtin, a New York toastmaster and coroner's physician, is said to have served at his St. Patrick's Day bash. Green beer is simply beer mixed with green food coloring, although Curtin's recipe used "one drop of wash blue," a laundry whitener that was unfortunately poisonous to humans, according to Irish Central .

The world's largest St. Patrick's Day parade is not in Ireland

St. Patrick's Day wouldn't be complete without flamboyant parades, festivals and ceilithe (pronounced "kaylee"), which are social gatherings that involve Gaelic folk music and dancing. The largest parade in the world happens every year in New York City. It was first held in 1762, 14 years before the Declaration of Independence, by a group of homesick Irish expats and soldiers who served with the British Army in the American colonies, according to the parade's website .

The world's shortest St. Patrick's Day parade is held in the Irish village of Dripsey, in County Cork, and stretches just 75 feet (23 meters) from one of the village's pubs to the other.
While most Americans are familiar with the stars and stripes of the U.S. flag, others may not know the details and symbols of the other 51 flags of the nation.

Each state's flag is representative of its history and distinct symbols.Here are the 50 official state flags from Alabama to Wyoming, as well as Washington D.C., and their significances.

50 U.S. state flags, plus the District of Columbia

Alabama

Alabama state flag

The Alabama state flag is white with a red cross of St. Andrew. This design was adopted in 1895. The flag's design was inspired by the Confederate battle flag.

Alaska

Alaska's state flag features eight gold stars, which form the Big Dipper and Polaris, against a dark blue backdrop.

The Polaris, or North Star, on the flag is a symbol of Alaskas northern location. The Big Dipper is a symbol of strength, while the blue background represents the night sky.

Arizona

Arizona state flag

The gold star on this state flag represents one of Arizona's five C's: copper. Arizona produces more copper than any other state in the nation. The 13 alternating gold and red stripes symbolize the sun.

Blue and gold, which is featured on the flag, is also Arizona's state colors.

Arkansas

Arkansas was the first state in the U.S. to produce diamonds, hence the large diamond in the center of its state flag. The 25 white stars represent Arkansas being the 25th state to join the Union.

The three blue stars under the states name symbolize represent the three nations Arkansas was part of before officially becoming a state: Spain, France and the U.S. The star above the word Arkansas represents the states membership in the Confederacy.

California

The California state flag adorns the state's official animal, the grizzly bear, which represents strength. The grizzly bear imagery was inspired by a 19th century painting by California artist Charles Nahl.

Colorado

The colors of Colorado's state flag represent the environmental features of the state. The white symbolizes the snowy mountains, gold for sunshine, red for the state's soil and blue for the sky.

Story continues

The "C" stands the state's name, the columbine (the state's flower) and centennial. Colorado became a state in 1876  the 100 year anniversary of American independence.

What is your state song? All 50 states (except for one) have had an official song. Here's the list.

Connecticut

The three grapevines on the Connecticut state flag are believed to represent the three settlements (Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford) or three colonies (Connecticut, Saybrook and New Haven) which merged together to form the state.

The state motto, Qui transtulit sustinet, is displayed in a white ribbon. It translates to he who transplanted still sustains."

Delaware

"December 7, 1787" displayed at the bottom of Delaware's state flag is the date Delaware became the first state of of the Union.

The coat of arms contains several state symbols. The ship represents the shipbuilding industry and coastal trade. The militiaman symbolize the citizen-soldier who help maintain American liberties. The water represents the Delaware River.

District of Columbia

The flag of Washington D.C. is based on the Washington family's coat of arms, which has three red stars and two red stripes against a white background.

Florida

The seal represents the states environmental features, such as sunshine, palmetto trees, lakes and rivers. There is some controversy over the St. Andrews cross on Floridas state flag.

In the late 1890s, Gov. Francis P. Fleming said a red cross be added to reduce the older flags appearance, which was simply white with the seal, to a flag of surrender. However, some believe its addition was based on the saltire in the Confederate battle flag.

Just Curious: Your everyday questions, answered

Georgia

The 13 white stars surrounding Georgias coat of arms represent the state and the other 12 colonies which originally formed the U.S.

The flag is reminiscent of the Confederate Stars and Bars with three broad red-white-red stripes and a blue a rectangular area.

Hawaii

Hawaii state flag

The eight horizontal stripes on Hawaii's state flag represent the eight major islands that make up the state. The corner of the flag includes the Union Jack of the United Kingdom since the islands were once under Britains control.

It is the only U.S. state flag to include a foreign country's national flag

Do you know your state's official nickname? Here's the story behind all 50 state nicknames.

Idaho

Idaho's seal in the flag's center represents the state's main industries: mining, agriculture and forestry. It is also features the Idaho's geographic features, including mountains and lakes.

Illinois

The Illinois flag includes parts of the state seal, such as a rock on a stretch of land with water and a rising sun behind it. The seal also includes a shield with the national stars and stripes in the claws of a bald eagle.

The red ribbon has the state motto: State sovereignty  national union. The years 1818 and 1868 represent when Illinois became a state and for the first use of the state seal, respectively.

Indiana

The torch on Indianas state flag symbolizes liberty and enlightenment. The 13 stars in the outer circle represent the 13 original colonies.

The five stars of the inner semi-circle are for the following five states that joined the Union. The large star above the torch is the 19th on the flag and is representative of Indiana being the 19th state.

Iowa

Each stripe color of the Iowa state flag has meaning. The blue stripe stands for loyalty, justice and truth. The white stands for purity, while the red is for courage.

In the center, an eagle carries blue streamers with the states motto: Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain.

Kansas

The sunflower is for Kansas' state flower. The gold and blue bars underneath represent the Louisiana Purchase, of which Kansas was part. The 34 stars in the seal represent Kansas being the 34th state to join the U.S.

The seal tells the history of the state through imagery including agriculture and American expansion.

Kentucky

The frontiersman and statesman in the seal represent the people of Kentucky: country and city inhabitants of 1792, when the state was joined the Union.

The states motto is also displayed: United we stand, divided we fall.

Louisiana

The Louisiana flag features a pelican nurturing its young by tearing at its own breast, symbolizing sacrifice which is signified by three drops of blood. The ribbon underneath has the state motto: Union, Justice and Confidence.

Maine

Maines flag features symbols of the state's nature, including a pine tree. The white pine is Maines state tree, and The Pine Tree State is Maines nickname.

The moose is Maine's state animal. The farmer represents the states agricultural roots, while the sailor is for the state's ties to the sea.

Maryland

The Maryland flag has the coat of arms of the Calvert and Crossland families. The gold and black coat of arms is for Lord Baltimore of the Calverts, who founded Maryland.

During the Civil War, the Calvert coat of arms represented the people of Maryland who wanted to remain in the Union. The red and white are the Crossland colors and represented those who sympathized with the Confederacy.

Massachusetts

The Massachusetts flag has the states coat of arms, including an Indigenous man holding a bow and arrow.

The arrow is pointed down, which symbolizes peace. The white star stands for Massachusetts being one of the original colonies. The ribbon has the state motto, which translates to By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.

Michigan

The moose and elk represent Michigan, while the bald eagle symbolizes the United States.

The Latin phrase E Pluribus Unum means From Many, One, for the U.S. being one nation made of many states. Tuebor means I Will Defend," which refers to the frontier position of Michigan.

The flag also contains the state motto which translates to If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.

Minnesota

The three dates woven into the wreath represent the year of statehood (1858), the year Fort Snelling was established (1819) and the year the original flag was adopted (1893).

The 19 stars symbolize Minnesota being the 19th state to enter the Union after the original 13. The largest star at the top represents the North Star and Minnesota.

The state motto translates from French to the star of the north, like the states nickname  The North Star State.

Mississippi

The current Mississippi flag was adopted in 2021, after Mississippi residents voted to replace the 126-year-old Confederate-themed state flag, which featured the Confederate battle symbol.

The flag features a white magnolia blossom, which is the Mississippi's state flower. The 20 stars, represent Mississippis admission to the Union as the 20th state.

Missouri

The colors of Missouri's flag have different meanings. The red stripe is for valor, the white stripe for purity and the blue stripe for justice, vigilance and permanency.

The center features Missouris state seal encircled by 24 stars, representing Missouri being the 24th state to join the Union.

The two grizzly bears symbolizes the state and its residents' courage and strength. The state motto is featured, translating to Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law. The helmet represents the power of the people of Missouri.

Montana

Montana's state flag.

The state seal on Montana's flag features symbols of Montanas history and environment. The pick, shovel and plow, represent the states mining and farming history. A ribbon displays the state motto in Spanish, which translates to gold and silver."

What is your state's official flower? Here's a list of the state flower for all 50 US states

Nebraska

Nebraska's state flag has its seal against a blue background. The seal features imagery that represents agriculture. The train cars on the flag are meant to head toward the Rocky Mountains. The state motto, Equality Before the Law," is featured.

Nevada

The Nevada flag features a silver star to symbolize the state's metal: silver. The star is between branches of sagebrush, the states flower. The phrase Battle Born refers to Nevada joining the Union during the Civil War.

New Hampshire

New Hampshires state flag features the state seal with the frigate Raleigh surrounded by laurel leaves. The nine stars symbolize New Hampshire being the ninth state to join the Union.

New Jersey

The colors of the New Jersey state flag, buff and Jersey blue, represent those chosen by George Washington during the Revolutionary War for the state's military.

The state's seal is featured in the center. Its symbols represent agriculture and sovereignty. The horse head is for New Jerseys official state animal.

The women on the flag are Liberty and Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain and a symbol of fruitfulness.

New Mexico

The New Mexico state flag has a modern interpretation of the ancient Zia sun. Four is the sacred number of the Zia, representing the four points of the compass, the four seasons of the year, the four periods of each day and the four stages of life.

The colors on the state flag are the red and yellow, similar to the Spanish flag as New Mexico was part of Spanish Empire until the 19th century.

Just Curious: We're here to help with life's everyday questions

New York

The New York state flag features its coat of arms. Lady Liberty and Justice support the shield, and Libertys left foot stands on a crown to represent freedom from Great Britain. Justice is blindfolded to symbolize impartiality and fairness. The state motto is displayed Latin, which means ever upward.

North Carolina

The date May 20, 1775 refers to the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. The second date April 12, 1776 commemorates the Halifax Resolves, which was one of the first official calls for independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution.

North Dakota

The olive branch on North Dakotas state flag symbolizes peace. A ribbon features the state motto in Latin, which translates to out of many, one, in reference to the U.S.

A shield with 13 stripes represents the original colonies. The state flag conforms to the color, design and size of the regimental flag used by North Dakota Infantry in the Spanish-American War in 1898.

Ohio

The Ohio state flag is the only non-rectangular U.S. state flag. Its unique swallowtail design was by John Eisemann.

The blue triangle represents the states hills and valleys. The red and white stripes symbolize the roads and waterways of the state. The 13 white stars around the circle represent the original colonies and four at the apex of the triangle bring the total to 17, representing Ohio as the 17th state to join the Union.

Oklahoma

The blue background of Oklahomas state flag symbolizes devotion and loyalty. The traditional Osage buffalo-skin shield represents defensive or protective warfare.

The olive branch, stands for the settlers, and the peace pipe, for Indigenous people, appear on top of the shield.

Oregon

Oregon's flag is the only state flag to have different designs on each side. Navy and gold are Oregons state colors. The front of the flag features the state seal. The year 1859 represents when Oregon was admitted to the Union. The 33 stars signify Oregon being the 33rd state to join the Union.

The back of the flag has a beaver, the official state animal.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvanias flag features its coat of arms, which represents commerce and agriculture. The two horses symbolize strength. The state motto Liberty, Virtue, Independence is on a red ribbon at the bottom.

Rhode Island

The 13 stars on Rhode Islands flag represent the 13 original colonies and Rhode Island being the 13th state to enter the Union. A gold anchor and blue ribbon with the state motto, Hope," are featured in the center.

South Carolina

South Carolina's state flag is based on the blue uniforms and white crescent badges crescent worn by its troops during the Revolutionary War. The flag also features the state tree: the palmetto.

Did you know most states have an official dinosaur or fossil? It's true! Here's yours.

South Dakota

South Dakotas flag features its state seal, which symbolizes the states commerce, agriculture, industry and natural resources. The state motto, Under God the People Rule, appears on a ribbon.

The year 1889 stands for when South Dakota officially became a state.

Tennessee

The stars on Tennessees flag represent the states "grand divisions": East, Middle and West Tennessee. They are placed in a circle to symbolize unity.

Texas

The Texas flag is the same as the 1839 Republic of Texas flag, from when the state was an independent nation. The single white star gave rise to Texas nickname, The Lone Star State.

The red, white and blue of the state flag represent bravery, purity and loyalty, respectively.

Utah

The historic Utah state flag featured a bald eagle, the state motto and two dates: 1847 when Mormon pioneers first came to Utah and 1896: When Utah became the 45th state.

The new state flag for Utah includes symbols for red rock, snowy mountains, blue skies and an industrious beehive. The five-pointed star beneath the beehive was proposed to represent the state's five historic Native American tribes.

The state's new flag will be adopted as of March 9, 2024, after Utah legislature approved its bill for the governor's signature. The beehive flag is blue for the state's lakes and skies, red for the state's red rocks and white for its snowy mountain peaks.

The beehive stands for Utah's history and community. The hexagon surrounding it represents strength and unity. The white star symbolizes hope and 1896, the year of Utah's statehood.

Vermont

The coat of arms on Vermonts flag represents the state's agriculture. The two pine needle branches symbolize those worn by the soldiers of Vermont during the Battle of Plattsburgh during the War of 1812.

The deer head signifies the states wildlife. The state motto "Freedom and Unity" is also featured.

Virginia

The Virginia flag features its official state seal. The seal depicts the goddess Virtus, who represents Virginia. She is standing over a defeated tyrant.

The state's motto is shown in Latin, which means Thus always to tyrants.

Washington

Washingtons flag is the only state flag to display an actual person: George Washington. Additionally, Washington is the only state with a flag that has a green background.

West Virginia

The West Virginia flag has its state motto in Latin, which translates to Mountaineers are always free. There is a wreath of rhododendron, which is the state flower, featured. June 20, 1863 represents when West Virginia became a state.

Wisconsin

The Wisconsin flag features the state's seal. The sailor and miner symbolizes the workers in the state. The tools signify the important trades: agriculture, mining, manufacturing and navigation. The badger, Wisconsin's state animal, is also shown.

The year 1848 refers to when Wisconsin was joined the Union. The states motto Forward is displayed.

Wyoming

On Wyoming's flag is a bison, which is the state's official animal. The red border symbolizes the Indigenous people who first lived in the region. It also symbolizes the blood of those there.

White represents purity, while blue stands for the states sky and mountains and signifies fidelity, justice and virility.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US state flags: Every state flag (plus D.C.) and meaning behind each
A StarNews file photo shows apartment construction in Wilmington, N.C.

A new bill introduced recently in the North Carolina state legislature could give local officials statewide the power to curb rising rents.

In Wilmington, rent hikes have become the norm for many since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic hit, average monthly rent in Wilmington hovered around $1,250. Now, it averages around $1,800, according to data from Rent.com. But it has shown signs of stabilizing.

Rents in North Carolinas biggest cities have also climbed. While campaigning for the North Carolina Senate last year, Lisa Grafstein said rent was a hot topic with her Raleigh-area constituents. It was hard to have a conversation that didnt mention affordability, she said.

Prompted by those rising rents, Grafstein, a Democrat who represents District 13, filed a bill that would strike a state statute that prohibits city and county governments from regulating rents.

More:Major Wilmington intersection to get 120 new apartments as developers plan expansion

More:After skyrocketing increases, have rental rates finally stabilized in Wilmington?

A StarNews photo shows ongoing construction on an apartment complex near Hanover Center in Wilmington, N.C.

Why is rent control banned?

In 1987, the North Carolina legislature approved the existing rent control ban by a wide margin with bipartisan support.

The statute states no city or county may enact, maintain or enforce any ordinance or resolution which regulates the amount of rent to be charged for privately owned, single family or multiple unit residential or commercial rental property.

Since then, just a handful of bills aimed at workforce housing and inclusionary zoning have been introduced in the state legislature, Grafstein said.

Sen. Lisa Grafstein represents District 13 in the N.C. Senate.

What would this bill do?

Grafsteins bill would strike the ban on local rent control from state law.

That would allow leaders across the state to address affordability issues in ways tailored to the area, Grafstein said.

To me, the important thing was to untie the hands of local governments so they could look at their specific circumstances, she said, and see what was in the best interest of their local residents and try to do something to help them.

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Those efforts could take a variety of forms, ranging from rent control, to subsidies or concessions to builders. The virtue of this particular bill is it's not requiring any local government to do anything, Grafstein said. It's just taking away a barrier that's in place at the state level.

A StarNews photo shows ongoing construction on an apartment complex near Hanover Center in Wilmington, N.C.

A nationwide trend

As rents rose during the pandemic, Jim Lapides, a vice president of advocacy and strategic communications with the National Multifamily Housing Council, said he noticed an uptick in legislation aimed at giving rent control powers to local leaders.

There is this huge housing affordability crisis, and cities and states don't have a ton of levers that they can pull to try to impact this issue, Lapides said. So, rent control seems like something that is a quick fix.

Currently, the District of Columbia, Oregon and California have statewide rent control ordinances. Several other states, including New York, Maine, Maryland and New Jersey, have local and county rent control ordinances in effect, according to data from the National Multifamily Housing Council.

More:'Messing with my psyche': Wilmington renters face uncertainty as rents climb

STAY CONNECTED: Keep up with the areas latest development news by following our Growth and Development page on Facebook.

Is rent control effective?

Rent control can help reduce rents quickly, but research has shown there can be a down side.

Government-sponsored rent control can drive up rents for other renters, result in reduced housing supply and, if not targeted, can disproportionately benefit high-income renters, Lapides said.

Its really the worst possible thing that you can do to address housing, he said.

In place of rent control alone, Lapides said the National Multifamily Housing Council advocates for subsidies to lower income renters to address short-term cost hikes and in the long term is pushing for more construction to address an imbalance of housing supply and demand.

A file photo from 2021 shows the state capitol building in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina.

Whats the future of the N.C. bill?

The bill has been referred to the state senates rules committee and needs a push from the committees chair to make it to the floor. Thats unlikely given the Republican-dominated house and senate.

It's not a place where I think there's an overwhelming appetite for a bill like this, Grafstein said.

Still, she said, its a start to addressing the rising cost of housing, an issue Grafstein and others in the state legislature are looking to address this session.

There's an understanding that we need to do something, she said. How much gets done is a big question.

Reporter Emma Dill can be reached at edill@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: North Carolina bill could give officials ability to curb rising rents
QUITO, Ecuador (AP)  A strong earthquake shook southern Ecuador and northern Peru on Saturday, killing at least 15 people, trapping others under rubble, and sending rescue teams out into streets littered with debris and fallen power lines.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported an earthquake with a magnitude of about 6.8 that was centered just off the Pacific Coast, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Guayaquil, Ecuador's second-largest city. One of the victims died in Peru, while 14 others died in Ecuador, where authorities also reported that at least 126 people were injured.

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso told reporters the earthquake had without a doubt ... generated alarm in the population." Lasso's office in a statement said 12 of the victims died in the coastal state of El Oro and two in the highlands state of Azuay.

In Peru, the earthquake was felt from its northern border with Ecuador to the central Pacific coast. Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otarola said a 4-year-old girl died from head trauma she suffered in the collapse of her home in the Tumbes region, on the border with Ecuador.

One of the victims in Azuay was a passenger in a vehicle crushed by rubble from a house in the Andean community of Cuenca, according to the Risk Management Secretariat, Ecuador's emergency response agency.

In El Oro, the agency also reported that several people were trapped under rubble. In the community of Machala, a two-story home collapsed before people could evacuate, a pier gave way and a building's walls cracked, trapping an unknown number of people.

The agency said firefighters worked to rescue people while the National Police assessed damage, their work made more difficult by downed lines that interrupted telephone and electricity service.

Machala resident Fabricio Cruz said he was in his third-floor apartment when he felt a strong tremor and saw his television hit the ground. He immediately headed out.

Story continues

I heard how my neighbors were shouting and there was a lot of noise, said Cruz, a 34-year-old photographer. He added that when he looked around, he noticed the collapsed roofs of nearby houses.

Ecuador's government also reported damages to health care centers and schools. Lasso said he would travel on Saturday to El Oro.

In Guayaquil, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Quito, authorities reported cracks in buildings and homes, as well as some collapsed walls. Authorities ordered the closure of three vehicular tunnels in Guayaquil, which anchors a metro area of over 3 million people.

Videos shared on social media show people gathered on the streets of Guayaquil and nearby communities. People reported objects falling inside their homes.

One video posted online showed three anchors of a show dart from their studio desk as the set shook. They initially tried to shake it off as a minor quake but soon fled off camera. One anchor indicated the show would go on a commercial break, while another repeated, My God, my God.

Luis Tomala was fishing with others when the earthquake struck. He said their boat began moving like a racehorse, we got scared, and when we turned on the radio, we heard about the earthquake. Thats when his group, Tomala said, decided to stay at sea fearing a tsunami could develop.

A report from Ecuador's Adverse Events Monitoring Directorate ruled out a tsunami threat.

Peruvian authorities said the old walls of an Army barracks collapsed in Tumbes.

Ecuador is particularly prone to earthquakes. In 2016, a quake centered farther north on the Pacific Coast in a more sparsely populated area of the country killed more than 600 people.

Machala student Katherine Cruz said her home shook so badly that she could not even get up to leave her room and flee to the street.

It was horrible. I had never felt anything like this in my life, she said. ___

Associated Press writers Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, and Franklin Briceno in Lima, Peru, contributed to this report.
It is a pleasure to report that the Argonaut Gold Inc. (TSE:AR) is up 33% in the last quarter. But that is meagre solace when you consider how the price has plummeted over the last year. Indeed, the share price is down a whopping 77% in the last year. So the rise may not be much consolation. The real question is whether the company can turn around its fortunes.

On a more encouraging note the company has added CA$113m to its market cap in just the last 7 days, so let's see if we can determine what's driven the one-year loss for shareholders.

View our latest analysis for Argonaut Gold

Given that Argonaut Gold didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one does expect good top-line growth.

Argonaut Gold's revenue didn't grow at all in the last year. In fact, it fell 11%. That looks pretty grim, at a glance. The share price fall of 77% in a year tells the story. Holders should not lose the lesson: loss making companies should grow revenue. Of course, extreme share price falls can be an opportunity for those who are willing to really dig deeper to understand a high risk company like this.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

It's good to see that there was some significant insider buying in the last three months. That's a positive. That said, we think earnings and revenue growth trends are even more important factors to consider. You can see what analysts are predicting for Argonaut Gold in this interactive graph of future profit estimates.

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 9.1% in the twelve months, Argonaut Gold shareholders did even worse, losing 77%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 12% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Argonaut Gold better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Argonaut Gold (1 is potentially serious) that you should be aware of.

Story continues

Argonaut Gold is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on Canadian exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Join A Paid User Research Session

Youll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here
Two women were shot in the parking lot of a closed Ruby Tuesday in Sterling Heights on Friday, police said in a news release. After fleeing the scene on foot, the suspect was later found dead in a nearby area from "what appears to be a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound."

The shooting took place at 35500 Van Dyke, stated the release. Police responded to the scene at approximately 1:15 p.m.

Both victims sustained non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, Sterling Heights police said during a news conference, held before the suspect was found dead. "They are in stable condition at a local hospital," and police have been in contact with them.

Police said the suspect was a 22-year-old male.

More:Michigan Senate OKs proposals to expand gun safety measures in step forward for Democrats

More:Woman who fled to Thailand charged with fatal hit-and-run of MSU student

"The victims and the suspect all know each other, and it appears that this was not a random act," according to the release. "The incident is currently still under investigation and more information will be released in the near future."

Contact Nour Rahal: nrahal@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Police: Suspect dead after shooting 2 women in Sterling Heights
(Reuters) -Silicon Valley Bank's UK arm handed out over 15 million pounds ($18 million) in bonuses days after its rescue deal this week by HSBC, Sky News reported on Saturday.

Payouts to staff including senior executives were signed off by HSBC earlier in the week, the report said, adding that the bonuses would not have been paid this week if SVB UK had not been acquired while still solvent.

Sky cited sources familiar with the matter as saying the bonus pool was "modest" at 15 million to 20 million pounds.

"HSBC has honoured these previously agreed payments so as to retain talent and demonstrate its confidence in the bank," a spokesperson for HSBC UK told Reuters.

SVB UK did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

In the United States, parent company SVB Financial Group said on Friday it had filed for a court-supervised reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings to seek buyers for its assets, days after former unit Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by U.S. regulators.

($1 = 0.8214 pounds)

(Reporting by Jyoti Narayan in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Sneha Bhowmik; Editing by Frances Kerry and Hugh Lawson)
Southern University Human Jukebox Fabulous Dancing Dolls members perform during HBCU Culture Homecoming Fest & Battle Of The Bands on Jan. 15, 2023, in Georgia. Although majorette-style dancing is trending on TikTok, it hasn't gotten proper credit.

Southern University Human Jukebox Fabulous Dancing Dolls members perform during HBCU Culture Homecoming Fest & Battle Of The Bands on Jan. 15, 2023, in Georgia. Although majorette-style dancing is trending on TikTok, it hasn't gotten proper credit.

Sinceitsinception, TikTok has been home to non-Black creators copying and never crediting Black artists  specifically choreographers. This is problematic for many reasons, but most egregiously because Black creators have been known to get paid significantly less than their non-Black counterparts.

One of the more recent viral trends includes a modern staple of young Black culture: majorette-style dancing.

And while there have been murmurs of discontent about the dance style being co-opted as a Gen Z trend white female creators are carrying, Khalil Greene, also known as the Gen Z historian on TikTok, explained it most succinctly. In the well-circulated video, which has garnered over 65,000 views, he recently reminded TikTokers to stop appropriating the genius of Black creators and denounced the app for allowing Gen Zs to bite off and bury Black content.

It should be noted that the original use of the term majorette referred to Dutch carnival dancers. But it became what we now know it to be when the style of baton work and accompanying dance came to the American South  particularly to Black institutions, Essence reports.

In Greenes post, he calls out white TikTokers for appropriating majorette choreography in the viral Her Way and No Love challenges. Non-Black TikTokers have posted and racked up millions of views with their renditions of this choreography, reportedly created by 19-year-old Jordyn Williams, with no references to where the moves come from and the history of the majorette dance style.

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In his analysis, Greene also points to another viral video from a K-Pop stan account that incorrectly revealed the origins of the viral choreography. He criticized the post for referring to the choreography as a silly little TikTok dance and inaccurately crediting a K-Pop group for creating it. Greene then gives credit to the actual creator, reportedly a majorette from Alabama, and then provides a brief but useful history of majorette culture.

I refuse to believe that people  even those unfamiliar with Black American majorette culture  simply arent aware that Black people created this dance style, especially after Beyonces critically acclaimed Netflixspecial Homecoming shined such a respectful light on the HBCU community, culture and dances.

Modern majorette dance is a unique style derived from African, Jazz, Ballroom, and hip-hop techniques and is among the Blackest forms of dance expression. Its a piece of culture that should be fiercely protected, mainly because performing as a majorette is a rite of passage. Not any ole body can do it. You need to know the history and then study and practice the moves before you can perform them, similar to choreography at ceremonies for African and indigenous tribes.

But in the case of social media, these cultural rites often go out the window, and the meaning behind the viral dance seldom comes through, let alone the person or people behind it.

With all the recent chatter about banning TikTok, I, for one, couldnt care less if the app fell off the face of the planet. While Im always here for freedom of expression and access to information, its taken erasure to new heights, and there doesnt seem to be any antidote to that. So lets start finally respecting the drip and giving our Black creators some credit.

Related...
Drive-up "double-tappers" can set off a ripple effect that lasts long after they've driven off with their orders. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Target's drive-up order pickup is an increasingly popular option for busy shoppers.

Some customers don't notify the fulfillment team that they are en route until they've arrived.

The dreaded "double-tap" sets off a scramble to get an order out the door and can cause more delays.

It's the digital equivalent of cutting in line, but unlike real-world queue-hopping, most people would never realize they're doing it.

The digital line is made of Target Circle users whose orders are being prepared for drive-up fulfillment at one of the thousands of Target stores that offer the service across the US.

In what Target workers tell Insider is at least a daily occurrence, a customer will arrive at the store before signaling in the app that they are en route and then tapping "I'm on my way" and "I'm here" in rapid succession.

Regardless of whether they're aware of it, these "double-tappers" can set off a ripple effect that lasts long after they've driven off with their orders. And while this only occurs in a small number of total orders, the growing volume of digital sales means more short-notice pickups.

"It's like showing up at your friend's house for dinner unannounced, like 'Hey, I'm here! What's for dinner?'" a drive-up worker in Oklahoma said. "That's what it feels like to us."

She and other Target workers who spoke with Insider asked that their names not be used, but their identities are known to Insider.

Brian Harper-Tibaldo, the senior crisis manager at Target, said in a statement to Insider: "At Target, we try hard to deliver Drive Up orders in 3 minutes or less, and this internal guidance is constantly evaluated to ensure it's right for our guests and reasonable for our team."

"Since we know that many aspects of wait time are outside of our team's control, we allow for some flexibility and don't evaluate individual team-member performance based on this metric," he added.

Workers told Insider that once a customer taps "I'm on my way" in the app, they typically begin loading boxes and bags onto three-tiered carts in preparation for the customer's arrival.

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Once the customer taps "I'm here," the fulfillment team is given a three-minute window to get the order to the customer's car. Customers who double-tap start that clock without giving the team time to prepare.

"It's just kind of unrealistic, especially when the staffing is continuously being cut," a worker in California said. "The biggest issue is that we don't have the people to meet their goals, so we're stretched incredibly thin and a bit overworked."

Small delays during the drive-up rush can cause big ripple effects

Drive-up workers require specific training, so the team can't easily pull extra support from other areas of the store to help during a rush.

Workers told Insider that, on a normal day, the queue of orders waiting for pickup at their locations can easily hit 300 and can top 800 during holiday-rush periods.

The volume means that even if most guests give adequate notice in the app, a poorly timed double-tap on a 60-item order can kick off a cascade of delays.

"Some stores still have grocery items in the back because they do not have dedicated refrigerators or freezers behind guest service at the front, so a lot of us have to literally go across the store to get the items all within those three minutes," a Texas worker said.

Because of the company emphasis on tracking performance metrics, fulfillment workers are faced with a difficult choice when a double-tap pops up on their scanner screens: carry on with the prepared orders and let the clock run "into the red," or scramble to get the order outside and make everyone else wait.

"One person can disrupt the flow for the next 10 to 15 minutes," the Texas worker said.

A team lead in Michigan said she's had workers in tears from bad customer interactions that stem from frustrations with delayed orders.

Target previously increased the timer on its internal tracking system from two minutes to three, and several workers Insider spoke with said an extra two minutes or so on the clock to give them five minutes to process double-tap orders would ease the pressure they feel.

The app also notices when a customer double-taps and offers its own nudge: If you want your order brought out more quickly, it says, try letting it know before you arrive.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Ann Bashir, 16, and her father. (SWNS)

A Sudanese refugee who faces deportation during her GCSE studies has said her family lived in fear of being killed and raped before fleeing to the UK.

Ann Bashir, 16, and her family have had a claim of asylum rejected after fleeing Sudan two years ago due to fears they would face persecution.

Her mother, Giehan Yassi, and sister Enji Bashir - then just 16 - were detained for attending anti-government rallies.

A campaign has been launched at Ann's school in Hove, East Sussex, to help keep them all in the UK.

Read more: Moment reckless and selfish motorist drives the wrong way on M65

Ann Bashir and her family have had a claim of asylum rejected. (Getty)

Ann, who attends Cardinal Newman Catholic School, said she and her family had no regrets over their opposition to government oppression in Sudan.

But she added they looked back on their final days in the country before fleeing as "a nightmare".

Ann's pharmacist father - whose name is not being revealed by the family - has not been heard from since the family left and is presumed imprisoned or dead after his involvement in anti-government protests.

Their asylum application was rejected under her mothers claim on the basis their fear of persecution was not "a well-founded fear", the Argus reported.

Ann explained that her family's living situation in Sudan had become untenable since 2018, so they fled to the UK and claimed asylum.

Read more: Husband 'can't grieve' after his wife was buried in the wrong grave

Georgia Neale, associate assistant headteacher at Cardinal Newman Catholic School, read out a letter on behalf of Ann at a school vigil held earlier this week.

Ann thanked her fellow students and teachers for standing with her family in their attempt to resist deportation.

She wrote: "Since 2018 we have been unable to live safely in Sudan. We lived in fear of terrorism during this time.

"We feared being killed, raped, threatened with detention and other things words cant describe.

"But we never regretted that we stood up for freedom and justice for ourselves and our country.

"Whenever we remember what happened to us in Sudan, we describe it as a 'nightmare that can never be forgotten'.

"I would like to thank the house captains for their support in helping me fight my family's threat of deportation.
The Texas A&M Corpus Christi women's basketball team overcame several hurdles this season by advancing to the program's second Women's National Invitation Tournament and clinching a share of the Southland Conference Championship.

But Friday's WNIT opening round game against Wyoming proved to be a task too tall for the Islanders to overcome as they fell behind late in the first half and never recovered in a 75-41 loss at the Arena-Auditorium in Laramie, Wyoming.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's women's basketball team faces University of St. Thomas, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, at Dugan Wellness Center. The Islanders won, 79-38.

The Cowgirls (23-10) pulled away for good in the first half with 3-pointers and outscored A&M Corpus Christi 61-28 in the final three quarters. Wyoming shot 43% from the field, including 10 3-pointers in the victory.

Wyoming had three players finish in double figures with Allyson Fertig scoring a game-best 17 points. Tess Barnes added 11 with three 3-pointers for the Cowgirls.

Alecia Westbrook led the Islanders with 11 points with Paige Allen and Makinna Serrata combining for 12 in the loss.

Wyoming advances to the second round of the WNIT, scheduled for March 18-21. Texas A&M Corpus Christi concludes its season at 19-12.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Texas A&M Corpus Christi women's season ends with WNIT loss
Three Russian drones hit non-residential buildings in the Yavoriv district of Lviv Oblast on the night of 18 March, and another three were shot down by air defence forces, Maksym Kozytskyi, Head of Lviv Oblast Military Administration, said.

Source: Kozytskyi on Telegram

Quote: "About 01:00, our area was attacked by Shahed-136 kamikaze drones. Preliminary reports indicate that there were six of them.

Three were shot down by our Air Defence Forces. Thank you, Air Command Zakhid (West). You have saved many lives and much human property.

It was a very difficult task, because drones fly low."

Details: According to Kozytskyi, three more drones hit non-residential buildings in Yavoriv district.

It was noted that premises were damaged, but there were no casualties.

Background:

An air-raid warning was issued in the city of Kyiv and a number of oblasts of Ukraine on the evening of Friday, 18 March, as air defence shot down Shahed kamikaze drones.

Explosions rang out in the cities of Dnipro and Novomoskovsk in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

Ukraines Air defence forces destroyed all Shahed drones that attacked Kyiv.

Ukraines air defence forces destroyed 11 of the 16 Shahed drones that attacked Ukraine on the evening of 17 March.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Theres been confusion recently about marijuana policy in Fort Worth, thanks to a lack of precision. But its also created an opportunity to talk about sensible steps the city should take.

District 8 City Council member Chris Nettles asked city staff to brief the council about policy on marijuana arrests. These informal reports are primarily informational, but they often set the stage for changes. A local TV station jumped the gun, though, reporting that the city was considering no longer arresting people on a charge of possessing less than 4 ounces of the drug. That prompted a sharp correction from Mayor Mattie Parker and, predictably, a Twitter dust-up with Nettles.

This is how misinformation spreads. Lets clarify:



- This was one informal report requested by one councilmember



- No policy change is on the table



- To put it in perspective, 4 ounces = hundreds of joints



- As Mayor, I will not support policies that violate state drug laws https://t.co/HaokHcculh  Mayor Mattie Parker (@MayorMattie) March 8, 2023

If it doesnt get bogged down in politics, this is a chance for the city to move cautiously toward decriminalization without going too far, too fast, as many cities around the nation clearly have. Fort Worth police can currently issue a court summons for charges of possessing small amounts of the drug, up to 2 ounces, rather than make an arrest. But they rarely do; a Nettles aide said that in 2022, it was fewer than 10% of those charged with possession.

The policy is referred to as cite and release, but its important to note what that means: A person must appear before a court for booking. This should become the standard for 2 ounces or less of marijuana. Other Tarrant County cities should jump on board, too.

The Tarrant County Jail is strained. Staffing is a constant issue, as it is in so much of law enforcement. Lets reserve Sheriffs Office resources for violent criminals and other serious offenders. If a suspects only crime is having a small amount of pot, they need not make a trip to the jail.

Story continues

Nettles deserves credit for raising the issue, and he correctly notes that Black and Hispanic residents are disproportionately affected by marijuana laws. But his proposal for a 4-ounce threshold would be too lenient. Thats a relatively large amount of pot. Two ounces would be a better standard.

City Council member Chris Nettles speaking at Polytechnic High School in 2022.

Itll require making sure police officers are equipped to weigh drugs on the spot and properly trained. And yes, its one more thing for cops to work through. But its worth it.

Its an interesting time in the countrys perpetual marijuana debate. Decriminalization and even outright legalization have been on the march. In 2022, President Joe Biden announced pardons for thousands of simple-possession cases and prodded federal regulators to reconsider the classification of marijuana, which is currently listed among the most dangerous and potent drugs.

Oklahoma is a fascinating case. The state allowed for broad medical use of marijuana in 2018. The law was crafted in such a way that few limits existed on prescriptions or the dispensary business. Soon, the state was awash in legal pot.

But when voters were asked this month if they wanted to formally legalize marijuana for recreational purposes, they resoundingly said no, the fourth state to do so in recent months. Perhaps they figured that it was easy enough to get, so why change the law? But many probably had concerns about its sudden widespread use.

Texas is further behind the curve. There will be no legalization for recreational use anytime soon. But there are new openings for more medical allowances. Fort Worth Rep. Stephanie Klick, a conservative Republican, is pushing to add conditions such as chronic pain to the list for which doctors can prescribe marijana and to increase the strength of cannabis available to patients. Some Texas cities, including Denton, have tried to defy state law on the matter. Thats not the right approach, as Parker noted. A readily available first step, stopping arrests and issuing summons, is available.

Fort Worth should do it, but it needs a serious  and precise  discussion on the matter. And that doesnt mean snapping on Twitter.
Former President Donald Trump. Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images

Trump issued a siren call for his supporters to "protest" and "take our nation back" on Saturday.

He made the call after claiming without evidence that he will be arrested Tuesday.

His lawyers and advisors said they have no knowledge of an impending arrest.

Former President Donald Trump called on his backers to "protest" and "take our nation back" in an all-caps Truth Social post Saturday in which he predicted his own arrest, despite a lack of evidence he has been charged in an ongoing case before a New York grand jury.

Citing "illegal leaks," Trump wrote that he "will be arrested on Tuesday of next week."

"PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!" he added, in an ominous echo of the words that preceded the deadly January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

He followed up in a second all-caps post, writing, "IT'S TIME!!!"

"WE JUST CAN'T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE," Trump wrote. "THEY'RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!"

Trump's extreme rhetoric was reminiscent of his infamous December 2020 tweet asking followers to converge on the Capitol on January 6 to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election victory. "Be there, will be wild!" Trump tweeted at the time.

Trump's lawyers and advisors said they have no indication that the former president will be arrested Tuesday.

"President Trump is basing this on press reports," his lawyer, Susan Necheles, told Insider.

"This is a political prosecution and the DA leaks things to the press instead of communicating to the lawyers as they should," Necheles said.

A Trump spokesperson also said in a separate statement that the Manhattan district attorney's office has given "no notification" of an impending arrest. The statement added that Trump "will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally."

Still, the former president's most ardent supporters backed him up.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right firebrand and one of Trump's most stalwart loyalists, said in a tweet following Trump's statement that the GOP "base has had enough of Republicans that won't stand up for the people and against the Democrats war against Trump, his admin, his supporters, and traditional values."

Story continues

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy threatened the Manhattan DA's office with investigations.

"Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump," McCarthy tweeted. "I'm directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions."

In a message accompanied by a foreboding image, Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr. falsely claimed that if his father was indicted, it would mean the government would target individual freedoms next.

"If they can take him out they're one step closer to taking you and your freedoms out and apparently that's been the plan all along," Trump Jr. wrote.

Rep. Matt Gaetz said the "impending indictment is based on an untested, tortured legal theory" and should "be seen for the partisan pathetic ploy it is."

Right-wing commentator Dan Bongino said: "The police state is here," adding that it's a story he expects to come out of North Korea.

MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) March 18, 2023

Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington called the charges  which do not appear to have been made  "phony."

"Only failing third world nations try to arrest the political opposition on phony charges. Evil people are trying to destroy America, but they will not win!" Harrington said in a Telegram post.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Tiny home

Somewhere between Rhinebeck and the Hudson Valley, you will find the Ex of In House, the experimental 'geometric masterpiece' that is this Steven Holl-designed 'tiny home'  and it's about to move to the top of your must-visit list.

The house, created by the New York-based architect Steven Holl and Dimitra Tsachrelia, Associate Architect, is one of the world's best eco houses in ways beyond its minimalist, mid-century decorating ideas.

Ecological innovations include geothermal heating and cooling, a recycled Poraver facade, a solar flex panel roof, a locally-sourced wood interior with a super-insulated birch plywood diaphragm construction; PLA corn starch-based 3D printed light fixtures  and no trees were cleared in the construction process.

But it is more than an eco home  it's an artistic project and remains just as the creator intended (organic Japanese futon beds included). It's also available on Airbnb, meaning you can sleep in this bedroom-less space for yourself.

Tiny home

Designed around the concept of a sphere  and how we exist and integrate into spheres from before birth  the home plays with circles in a way that is visible from its facade. The entry porch is an orb of wood carved out of the house, welcoming you to the playful geometric space from the first moment.

'The Ex of In House explores a language of space, aimed at inner spatial energy strongly bound to the ecology of the place  questioning current cliches of architectural language and commercial practice,' says Holl.

Tiny home

The studio spans two levels, with a small kitchen in the center. This space, like everything in the eco-house  uses sustainable resources to fuel its appliances. Instead of fossil fuel, the home is heated geothermally, and it uses electricity from the sun instead of grid power.

Though (inevitably) compact, the wooden-hued kitchen offers a dining space and the amenities you can expect from a modern home  many of which are integrated into the cabinets  for a streamlined, almost invisible look.

Story continues

Tiny home

As mentioned, the house has 'zero bedrooms' but is said to accommodate three on its Airbnb listing. While the space has no designated room for sleep, the studio has slumber-friendly nooks  offering one Japanese-inspired futon queen bed, a sleeper futon sofa, and one single futon bed.

These futon-style beds, which roll away, are famed in Japan, where sleeping on a firm surface is said to help keep the spine aligned  and consequently reduce the possibility of back pain when you wake up.

Tiny home

Those familiar with Rhinebeck, NY, will know that the area has snow-filled winters and hot summers  so staying in a wood cabin may come with temperature challenges. However, that's taken care of, too.

The studio has a wood stove that is 'highly efficient' at warming the entire home in the Hudson Valley winters. Guest have access to an ample supply of wood stacked outside the house, so you don't need to go hiking before you unwind.

Tiny home

Meanwhile, in the sunnier months, Steven Holl designed the home to allow for constant airflow when all the doors and windows are opened.

Tiny home

Prices are subject to variation, depending on the date, but there are some nights available for $500 (per night) in the coming months. Discover more about the Ex of In House on Steven Holl's website.
Today is shaping up negative for Top Glove Corporation Bhd. (KLSE:TOPGLOV) shareholders, with the analysts delivering a substantial negative revision to this year's forecasts. Both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) forecasts went under the knife, suggesting analysts have soured majorly on the business. Bidders are definitely seeing a different story, with the stock price of RM0.92 reflecting a 31% rise in the past week. Whether the downgrade will have a negative impact on demand for shares is yet to be seen.

Following the latest downgrade, the current consensus, from the 20 analysts covering Top Glove Corporation Bhd, is for revenues of RM3.3b in 2023, which would reflect an uncomfortable 12% reduction in Top Glove Corporation Bhd's sales over the past 12 months. Losses are expected to increase substantially, hitting RM0.053 per share. Yet prior to the latest estimates, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of RM3.7b and losses of RM0.027 per share in 2023. Ergo, there's been a clear change in sentiment, with the analysts administering a notable cut to this year's revenue estimates, while at the same time increasing their loss per share forecasts.

View our latest analysis for Top Glove Corporation Bhd

Analysts lifted their price target 18% to RM0.68, implicitly signalling that lower earnings per share are not expected to have a longer-term impact on the stock's value. There's another way to think about price targets though, and that's to look at the range of price targets put forward by analysts, because a wide range of estimates could suggest a diverse view on possible outcomes for the business. The most optimistic Top Glove Corporation Bhd analyst has a price target of RM1.05 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at RM0.45. This is a fairly broad spread of estimates, suggesting that the analysts are forecasting a wide range of possible outcomes for the business.

Taking a look at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can understand these forecasts is to see how they compare to both past performance and industry growth estimates. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast annualised revenue decline of 22% by the end of 2023. This indicates a significant reduction from annual growth of 15% over the last five years. Compare this with our data, which suggests that other companies in the same industry are, in aggregate, expected to see their revenue grow 14% per year. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - Top Glove Corporation Bhd is expected to lag the wider industry.

Story continues

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to note from this downgrade is that the consensus increased its forecast losses this year, suggesting all may not be well at Top Glove Corporation Bhd. Unfortunately analysts also downgraded their revenue estimates, and industry data suggests that Top Glove Corporation Bhd's revenues are expected to grow slower than the wider market. The increasing price target is not intuitively what we would expect to see, given these downgrades, and we'd suggest shareholders revisit their investment thesis before making a decision.

Even so, the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for the value creation of shareholders. At Simply Wall St, we have a full range of analyst estimates for Top Glove Corporation Bhd going out to 2025, and you can see them free on our platform here.

Another way to search for interesting companies that could be reaching an inflection point is to track whether management are buying or selling, with our free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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BROCKTON  The school nurse at Brockton Therapeutic Day School sprang into action Thursday morning after a 17-year-old student was stabbed by a 16-year-old student inside the school between classes near the school's gymnasium.

During a press conference outside the Brockton Public Schools administration building, Superintendent Mike Thomas commended the nursing staff on their swift response to the assault. The victim is recovering in the hospital from injuries that were not life-threatening and is responsive.

The incident comes just two days after Brockton Therapeutic Day School student Nehemiah Cepeda was shot and killed in his home.

"The school staff has had a tough week," Thomas said. "We've had a lot of therapy support."

Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez said the stabbing is an isolated event and the incident is under investigation by the police department. It's unclear if the stabbing had any relation to Cepeda's death. It's also unclear if the two students had any form of relationship previously.

Go deeper:Brockton man shot 14-year-old stepson in closet while 'everyone was sleeping,' DA says

How did knife get past metal detectors?

Officials said it's unknown how the suspect snuck a knife into the building, as metal detectors can be found in the school. No one in the school knew the weapon was in the building. Mayor Robert Sullivan said every metal detector in the school district will be checked for sensitivity to ensure schools are safe.

"When we talk about safety in our schools, it's paramount," Sullivan said.

Various counseling services, including therapy dogs, are present in the school and the school's staff is trained in trauma support.

What happened?

At 9:38 a.m., police arrived at Brockton Therapeutic Day School, a small school for students with disabilities. Thomas said a school staff member witnessed the stabbing and immediately notified the nurse via walkie-talkie.

Story continues

The staff member allegedly took down the student and took away the weapon before nurses arrived with first-aid equipment. EMTs transported the victim by ambulance to Good Samaritan Medical Center and the suspect was brought to South Shore Hospital in Weymouth to be evaluated.

"Thank God a true tragedy was avoided," said the mayor.

Brockton Public Schools spokesperson Jess Silva-Hodges said in a statement Thursday afternoon, "All students were held in their classrooms for approximately one hour while police and school administrators investigated the incident.

"Given the need for social emotional supports resulting from the recent tragic loss of a ninth grade Huntington student, we felt it important to continue the school day while giving families the option to dismiss their children."

Photos:Emotional scene in court as Brockton man is arraigned in murder of 14-year-old stepson

Thomas said he visited the student who was stabbed roughly 30 minutes after he was transported to the hospital. He said the student was responsive and alert.

"We're living in a tough time, especially for school systems," he said. "It's our job to support them."

'Crying together, grieving together'

Thomas said he visited the school the day of Cepeda's death. He said the student body was "crying together, grieving together," and that even food service workers cried while making food for the students.

With roughly 40 students enrolled at the school, Thomas said it's a close-knit community.

"They're like a family," he said. "It's amazing to see them coming together and supporting each other."

Thomas said the school staff will be visiting students' homes today to help students and families through this difficult moment.

School news:A parent complained about a library book. E. Bridgewater is going to keep it on the shelf.

"Sometimes they have difficulty processing," Thomas said.

Police say Cepeda was killed by his stepfather Justelino Resende, who helped raise Cepeda since he was 2. Resende has been charged with murder.

As Cepeda's classmates continue to grieve and process Thursday's stabbing, the police department will investigate the incident.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton Therapeutic Day School: student stabbed two days after murder
Florida doctors could lose their medical licenses if they order puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery for minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria, under a Florida Board of Medicine rule that took effect Thursday.

Opponents of the ban, pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis administration, pledged to file a lawsuit challenging the rule. A Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine rule with identical prohibitions will take effect March 28.

The state Department of Health in July filed a petition seeking a rule-making process on the contentious issue of treatment for gender dysphoria, which the federal government defines clinically as significant distress that a person may feel when sex or gender assigned at birth is not the same as their identity.

DeSantis is among GOP politicians nationwide targeting gender-affirming care for minors.

Read: A Transgender athlete law becomes a battleground in South Florida

DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo argue that gender-affirming treatment for youths is experimental and not backed by robust clinical research.

But dozens of medical associations contend that the states approach is at odds with widely accepted guidelines and that gender-affirming treatment is safe, effective and medically necessary.

Under the new rules, minors currently being treated with puberty blockers or hormone therapies would be allowed to continue the treatment.

Read: Florida lawmakers target transgender youth and doctors over life-saving treatment

Children who have begun to socially transition but have not started puberty blockers, however, would be ineligible for such treatment.

In a news release Thursday, several LGBTQ-advocacy groups said they are preparing to challenge the treatment ban in federal court.

Simone Chriss, director of the Transgender Rights Initiative at Southern Legal Counsel, said the states policy is contradicted by evidence and science.

Story continues

There is an unbelievable degree of hypocrisy when a state that holds itself out as being deeply concerned with protecting parents rights strips parents of their right to ensure their children receive appropriate medical care, Chriss said in a prepared statement.

Read: Proposed abortion ban after 6-weeks moves forward in Florida

Chriss is among the lawyers in a separate case challenging a decision by the state Agency for Health Care Administration to stop Medicaid reimbursements for gender-affirming care for children and adults.

The new Board of Medicine rule took effect as lawmakers consider proposals that would enshrine the prohibition against gender-affirming treatment for minors in state law and impose other restrictions.

A Senate measure would make it a felony for doctors or other health-care professionals to order puberty blockers, hormone treatment or surgery for transgender minors.

Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
(Bloomberg) -- Former President Donald Trump said he expected to be arrested next week on New York charges and, echoing his rhetoric before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, called for protesters to take our nation back.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Trump said in a Saturday morning all-caps post on his Truth Social platform that, based on unspecified leaks, he expected to be arrested on Tuesday in a case being pursued by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Protest, take our nation back, Trump concluded his post. He repeated his call for protests in a second Truth Social post Saturday afternoon. Its time!!! he wrote.

Trump has not received any official notification of charges or arrest plans by Braggs office and will be in Texas next weekend for a campaign rally, a spokesman for the former president said in a statement issued later on Saturday. A spokeswoman for the district attorney declined to comment.

Susan Necheles, a lawyer for Trump, said on Saturday that the former president was responding to news reports that New York and federal law enforcement would be meeting early next week to discuss security precautions around a possible indictment.

Those reports did not say Trump would be arrested Tuesday, and its unclear where the former president got that date.

Bragg has been conducting a grand jury investigation into a hush-money payment Trump allegedly made to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public before the 2016 election about a claimed decade-old sexual encounter. Charges in the case are widely expected, but no indictment has been announced.

The former president has denied the allegations and slammed the probe as politically motivated, doing so again in his Saturday morning post.

Story continues

Trumps calls for protest Saturday were reminiscent of his comments leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, when a joint session of Congress met to ratify his 2020 election defeat by President Joe Biden.

Reminiscent of Jan. 6

Dozens of police officers were injured as Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol and members fled or cowered for safety before returning later to finish the counting of Electoral College votes. In testimony to the House panel investigating the insurrection, one officer likened the scene to a medieval battlefield. The committee delivered a scathing report that blamed Trump for inciting violence to try and hold onto power.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday called Trumps comments reckless and said he was trying to keep himself in the news and to foment unrest among his supporters.

But Republicans now control the House, and Pelosis successor, Kevin McCarthy, was quick to side with Trump. McCarthy vowed on Twitter to investigate whether any federal funds were being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions. Trump has declared that hes seeking reelection to the presidency in 2024.

Other Republicans also backed Trumps position that Braggs investigation was political in nature. Former Vice President Mike Pence, appearing on SiriusXMs Breitbart News Saturday, told host Matt Boyle he was taken aback by the idea that Trump might be arrested and said it reeks of politics. Pence, whos weighing a 2024 White House bid himself, last weekend called Trumps Jan. 6 language reckless and said that history would hold the former president accountable.

House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik and Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the first three candidates to formally challenge Trump for the GOP nomination, also both issued Saturday statements backing his claim that any prosecution would be politically motivated.

New York and federal law enforcement agencies, including the Secret Service and FBI, were invited to meet early next week to plan security in the event Trump is charged by Bragg, according to a person familiar with the matter. Among the topics to be discussed was the possibility of both pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators converging outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse.

Peaceful Surrender

The person, who requested anonymity because the discussions werent public, stressed that the planning was precautionary and shouldnt be taken as an indication that Trump will be charged.

Joseph Tacopina, a lawyer for Trump, said Friday that the former president would surrender peacefully if charged by Bragg. There wont be a standoff, Tacopina said. The lawyer declined to comment on Saturday.

Along with possible protests, the law enforcement agencies plan to discuss other novel issues involved with charging a former president, the person said, including whether or not to handcuff Trump and if the Secret Service would maintain custody over him during court proceedings.

Trumps former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen completed his testimony before the grand jury on Wednesday. Cohen would be a crucial witness for prosecutors.

He pleaded guilty to federal fraud and campaign finance charges in 2018, admitting that he arranged illegal hush-money payments to Daniels. Cohen said he paid Daniels $130,000 and was reimbursed. He showed a congressional committee a check for the amount signed by Trump.

The New York case is building steam as Trump is kicking his comeback bid for the White House into high gear. He visited Iowa last Monday and with his first formal campaign rally on Saturday. Aboard his plane during the Iowa trip, Trump denounced Cohen as a convicted liar.

The former president announced his 2024 bid last Nov. 15. Asked whether hed stay in the race if indicted, Trump told reporters before a March 4 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference: Absolutely, I wouldnt even think about leaving.

--With assistance from Greg Farrell, Tony Czuczka, Zoe Tillman, Mario Parker and Steven T. Dennis.

(Updates with Trump afternoon post, additional reaction.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Former President Trump and author E. Jean Carroll, who has accused him of raping her in the 1990s, agreed to combine Carrolls claims of defamation against Trump from two trials into a single trial.

Roberta Kaplan, Carrolls attorney, said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Friday on behalf of all parties involved to request that the two trials stemming from separate comments Trump has made that Carroll said were defamatory be consolidated into one.

Carrolls attorney and the judge have no relation to each other.

The attorney said in the letter that the parties agreed the consolidated trial should start on April 25 and cover liability and damages for both cases.

The first defamation case comes from comments Trump made in 2019 accusing Carroll of lying about the rape allegation and criticizing her physical appearance. The second one stems from a post he made on Truth Social in October saying that the allegation is a hoax and a lie and a complete scam.

Carroll also sued Trump for battery in the second defamation suit after New York passed the Adult Survivors Act to open a one-year window for survivors of rape and sexual assault to sue the alleged perpetrator even if the statute of limitations had expired.

The request for a consolidated trial needs to be approved by the judge.

If the request is granted, the parties are asking that the jury use a special form to identify any damages applicable to each claim. They would also agree to not seek a stay of the trial date.

Carrolls attorney said in the letter that the parties believe consolidating the cases would be in the judges interest, as Kaplan has acknowledged that the same factual question is central to both cases.

Because of the overlapping nature of these proceedings, a single trial will reduce costs across the board, avoid the risk of inconsistent factual rulings or jury confusion, and economize matters for the Court (as well as for both parties witnesses), the letter states.

The judge ruled last week that the jury in the defamation case could hear the Access Hollywood tape from 2016 in which then-candidate Trump is heard talking about making apparently unsolicited sexual advances toward women and from two other women who have accused Trump of sexual assault.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
TEHRAN, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Saturday launched two 800-ton landing craft vessels in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, official news agency IRNA reported.

The two vessels are identical, with a length of 53 meters, a width of 14.5 meters and a draft of 2.25 meters, Esmaeil Makkizadeh, the deputy for maritime affairs of the southern Iranian Hormuzgan Province Port and Maritime Authority, was quoted as saying by IRNA.

He added each vessel has two 830-horsepower engines and is capable of navigating at a speed of 10 knots.

Makkizadeh noted that four other landing craft ships, with different sizes, are being built by private companies in Bandar Abbas. 
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Former President Donald Trump claimed in an all-caps rant that he will be arrested this Tuesday as a New York prosecutor homes in on a possible indictment.

The twice-impeached ex-president urged his fans to protest and take our nation back in response.

THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK, Trump wrote to his Truth Social app on Saturday morning.

PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK! the former president added, echoing his Jan. 6, 2021 calls for MAGA acolytes to gather in D.C. to protest Congress certifying the election victory of now-President Joe Biden. On that note, CNN reported that Trumps advisers have privately urged him not to call for such protests out of concerns that it could lead to violent riots like the ones at the Capitol.

Nevertheless, later Saturday, the ex-president posted yet again in all-caps: WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!

Federal Judge Hands Over Trumps Lawyers Notes to DOJ

Despite Trumps claim of a Tuesday arrest, a spokesperson for the ex-president told The Daily Beast that there has been no notification beyond illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DAs office, that prosecutors decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level. The spokesperson added: President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system. The New York District Attorneys office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The expectations of an indictment come amid a probe focused on hush money Trump allegedly directed be paid to ex-porn star Stormy Daniels, who alleged an affair with the former president. Last week, Manhattan prosecutors gave the clearest signal yet that Trump was to be indicted by inviting the former president to testify to a grand jury, the New York Times reported.

Michael Cohen, who testified to a grand jury in the case earlier this week, criticized his former boss post. #DiaperDonald clearly knows something not yet disclosed to the public, he wrote Saturday morning. Cohen told the New York Post he thinks Trump is trying to rile his base and profit off their anger, as hes done in the past. Donalds post is eerily similar to his battle cry prior to the January 6th insurrection; including calling for protest, Cohen added to the Post.

Story continues

The nonsensical rantings of a lunatic mind (quote from Young Frankenstein). #DiaperDonald clearly knows something not yet disclosed to the public! pic.twitter.com/z1dpO6M0Om  Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) March 18, 2023

Jonathan Turley, an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School who is highly critical of the case against the ex-president, criticized Trumps call for his supporters to take action: However, given recent history, Trump needs to tap down any inflammatory rhetoric as we move forward, he wrote on Twitter.

The former president did just the opposite as Saturday progressed, growing increasingly deranged on Truth Social as he called on his supporters to act.

A post by former President Donald Trump on Saturday, March 18. Truth Social/Donald Trump

Continuing in all caps, Trump wrote that the country is in steep decline and being led into World War III by a crooked politician who doesn't even know he's alive. He echoed Republican talking points irrelevant to his possible indictmentlike claims of Democrats having defunded the police and militarybefore calling on his supporters to take to the streets.

WE JUST CANT ALLOW THIS ANYMORE, Trump wrote. THEYRE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!

Zachary Petrizzo contributed reporting.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he departs after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2023, Saturday, March 4, 2023, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. On March 18, the former president announced that he expects to be arrested next week. | Alex Brandon, Associated Press

On Saturday, former President Donald Trump said that he predicted he would be arrested on Tuesday in relation to an ongoing investigation into his alleged hush money payments to a woman who claimed she had an affair with Trump, according to The Associated Press.

The news: On Saturday morning, the former president posted on Truth Social, stating, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!

This announcement precedes any formal confirmation of an arrest date from a prosecutor, one of Trumps lawyers said to The Washington Post.

According to Trumps Truth Social post, he said his information concerning the arrest comes from illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorneys office.

ITS TIME, Trump stated in another post, WE JUST CANT ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEYRE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!

Related

The bigger picture: Last week, the Manhattan district attorneys office told Trumps lawyers that they were likely to pursue criminal charges against the former president, according to Deseret News, but no official charges have been filed yet.
Former President Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., on March 4. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

New York District Attorney Alvin Braggs office is engaged in delicate negotiations with the Secret Service over how to handle the potential arrest of former President Donald Trump next week on charges that he made an illegal payoff to a porn star to keep her silent about an alleged sexual affair, according to a source familiar with the talks.

Trump on Saturday posted a message on social media that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday. He called on his supporters to "PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!"

Although the presidents lawyers had been informed that an indictment could come as early as Tuesday, charges are more likely to be filed later in the week, the source said. Prosecutors still want to put one more witness before the grand jury before wrapping up the case.

The chief question at the moment is how to work out procedures for an extraordinary and unprecedented scenario: how to arrest, fingerprint and  per standard procedure  handcuff a defendant who happens to be a former president and is protected by a group of Secret Service agents.

That issue is now squarely before Bragg as his prosecutors negotiate with the Secret Service and other federal and local law enforcement agencies, including the New York Police Department, over how to handle Trumps arrest amid heightened security concerns.

Under standard procedures, once indicted, a defendant like Trump would be escorted into the New York City courthouse in lower Manhattan and taken to a processing room, where he would be briefly put in a jail cell, booked, fingerprinted, photographed for a mug shot and handcuffed. He would then be escorted via elevator to an upper floor, where he would be walked in handcuffs into a courtroom for his arraignment in full view of the media  the equivalent of a perp walk.

Trump posted to Truth Social on Saturday that he expects to be arrested this week. (Social media via Reuters)

But Trump is not the standard defendant. By law, he is protected at all times by Secret Service agents. Prosecutors are still discussing whether Trump should be allowed to have Secret Service agents, rather than court security officers, escort him into the courtroom without handcuffs. Prosecutors and New York police are also trying to map out a multitude of security issues, including fears that a nut job inside the public courtroom could seek to disrupt the proceedings, the source said.

Story continues

The ultimate resolution of that and related issues will be up to Bragg, but the source said the situation was still fluid, with major questions unresolved.

For many legal experts, even larger questions still remain about the strength of Braggs case. It revolves around $130,000 in payments made by Trumps former lawyer Michael Cohen to porn actress Stormy Daniels toward the end of the 2016 campaign, when she was threatening to go public about an alleged sexual dalliance with Trump 10 years earlier.

The payment, arranged by Cohen after consulting with Trump, was listed internally within the Trump Organization as legal expenses  a description that Braggs prosecutors are expected to charge as illegal under a New York state law prohibiting falsifying business records.

Michael Cohen, former attorney for Donald Trump, talks to reporters on arriving at the New York Courthouse on March 15. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

But that charge is a misdemeanor offense, unless it can be shown to be part of an underlying crime. To make that case, and escalate the indictment into a felony, prosecutors are preparing to argue that the payment was made to Daniels to influence the 2016 election and was therefore a violation of New York state election law, as an unreported contribution by Trump to his own campaign.

But that remains an untested legal theory. Contributions to presidential campaigns are governed by federal election law and it is not clear whether New York election laws can be stretched to include expenditures in a presidential race.

The source familiar with the case acknowledged that Trumps lawyers are likely to challenge the indictment on those grounds, among others, and that a judge could ultimately agree and bump this back to a misdemeanor.
The chief judge of the Washington, DC federal district court has ordered Evan Corcoran, the Maryland-based attorney who represented former president Donald Trump in the weeks leading up to the 8 August FBI search of his Palm Beach, Florida property, to give evidence before a grand jury regarding conversations he had with Mr Trump about efforts to find and return classified documents to the US government.

According to multiple reports, Judge Beryl Howell granted a request made by Jack Smith, the DOJ special counsel supervising multiple probes into Mr Trump, to pierce the attorney-client privilege Mr Corcoran would normally enjoy as a member of the ex-presidents legal team.

The prosecution motion  made and argued in secret because it concerns grand jury proceedings  asked the judge to compel Mr Corcoran to testify under something called the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege. Mr Corcoran had claimed the privilege should shield him from answering certain questions when he previously appeared before the grand jury investigating Mr Trumps alleged unlawful retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence.

Evan Corcoran (AFP via Getty Images)

But the crime-fraud exception requires a judge to find that that the conversations at issue should not be protected because it is more likely than not the attorney was participating in a crime with his client, or the legal advice he was giving was being used to further a crime.

According to The Washington Post, Mr Trumps legal team has not seen the ruling and will not be able to view it until the government can propose redactions to keep secret information that details investigative procedures, sources, or methods.

They are also expected to ask the incoming chief judge, James Boasberg, to stay Judge Howells order pending appeal when he takes over as chief judge on Saturday.

But the ruling is a major victory for Mr Smith, who Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed last year with a charge to investigate crimes possibly committed by Mr Trump, including his alleged unlawful retention of classified documents and his alleged obstruction of another investigation into how the classified documents FBI agents found at his property during the 8 August search and in boxes turned over to the National Archives by Mr Trump in January of last year ended up there.

Story continues

In response, a spokesperson for Mr Trump told The Independent the ex-president and his team will fight the Department of Justice on this front and all others that jeopardize fundamental American rights and values.

Interfering with Americans right to an attorney is a serious and weighty matter. For a judge to do so in violation of due process, without allowing for any real hearing, and within a few hours of her expiration date - as chief judge supervising the grand jury - is unAmerican and unacceptable, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also suggested that the effort to compel testimony from attorneys such as Mr Corcoran is usually a good indication their underlying case is very weak.

If they had a real case, they wouldnt need to play corrupt games with the Constitution. Every American has the right to consult with counsel and have candid discussions  this promotes adherence to the law, they said.
By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll have agreed to a single trial on whether Trump defamed the former Elle magazine columnist by denying he raped her in the mid-1990s.

According to a letter filed late Friday in Manhattan federal court, lawyers for both sides agreed to an April 25 trial to consider whether the former U.S. president should be liable for critical statements about Carroll in June 2019 and last October.

Carroll has been pursuing separate lawsuits over those statements, with the first scheduled for trial on April 10.

"Because of the overlapping nature of these proceedings, a single trial will reduce costs across the board, avoid the risk of inconsistent factual rulings or jury confusion, and economize matters for the court," her lawyer Roberta Kaplan wrote.

The proposed schedule requires approval by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversees both cases and is not related to Roberta Kaplan.

Alina Habba, one of Trump's lawyers, signed a proposed order combining the cases. Joseph Tacopina, another lawyer for Trump, in an email said he also found it acceptable.

A trial would come in the midst of Trump's campaign for a second White House term.

Carroll, 79, has accused Trump of raping her in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in late 1995 or early 1996.

She sued in November 2019 after Trump told a reporter at the White House that he did not know her, that "she's not my type," and that she concocted the rape claim to sell her memoir.

Carroll sued again three years later after Trump called the rape claim a "hoax," "lie," "con job" and "complete scam" in a social media post.

The second lawsuit also includes a battery claim under New York's Adult Survivors Act, which lets sexual abuse victims sue their attackers even if statutes of limitations have run out.

A Washington, D.C. appeals court is deciding whether Trump should be immune from Carroll's first lawsuit, but not her second, because he was acting as president when he spoke.

Story continues

Both sides proposed asking that court on April 17 to defer any decision until the trial is over. A trial could last five to seven days, court papers show.

The cases are Carroll v. Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, Nos. 20-07311 and 22-10016.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Diane Craft)
Former US President Donald Trump said he expects to be "arrested" Tuesday over an alleged hush-money payment to a porn star in 2016 and he urged his supporters to protest, as prosecutors gave signs of moving closer to an indictment.

If indicted, he would be the first former US president to be charged with a crime, marking an explosive and unpredictable development in the 2024 White House race as Trump seeks again to clinch the Republican nomination.

"Leading Republican candidate & former President of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week," the 76-year-old said Saturday on his Truth Social platform, adding: "Protest, take our nation back!"

Not even a conviction in the hush money case would prevent Trump from running, but an indictment could have major consequences, galvanizing his critics but also electrifying his supporters.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reacted with fury, accusing New York prosecutors of pursuing "political vengeance" against Trump. McCarthy vowed on Twitter to launch a congressional probe of the matter.

But his Democratic predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, who was still speaker when Trump was impeached for inciting the January 6, 2021 rioting in the US Capitol, said his announcement would "foment unrest among his supporters."

"He cannot hide from his violations of the law, disrespect for our elections and incitements to violence," Pelosi added.

The current investigation, led by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, centers on $130,000 paid weeks before the 2016 polls to stop porn star Stormy Daniels from going public about an affair she says she had with Trump years earlier.

Trump has denied having had an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and has insisted the probe amounted to "blatant and unconstitutional" election interference and that the procedure wasn't "a prosecution, it's a persecution."

His lawyer told CNBC on Friday that Trump, if indicted, would surrender to face criminal charges.

Story continues

- 'Illegal leaks' -

In his Truth Social post, written in capital letters, Trump referred to "illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorneys office" and said the investigation was "based on an old & fully debunked (by numerous other prosecutors!) fairytale."

He doubled down in another post, assailing his successor, President Joe Biden, as "crooked" and urging his followers to "Protest, Protest, Protest!!!"

Reports said authorities were planning to increase security around the Manhattan courthouse in the coming days.

Trump's lawyer Susan Necheles indicated that his posts Saturday were based on media reports and not on any fresh action taken by prosecutors.

"Since this is a political prosecution, the District Attorney's office has engaged in a practice of leaking everything to the press, rather than communicating with President Trump's attorneys," Necheles said in a statement to AFP.

A grand jury is a citizen panel which examines evidence presented by prosecutors to decide if a charge is warranted.

The jury in New York heard on Monday from Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, who made the payment to Daniels. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 on related federal charges. He pleaded guilty but said he had been carrying out Trump's orders.

Daniels herself met with prosecutors on Wednesday and "agreed to make herself available as a witness, or for further inquiry if needed," according to her lawyer Charles Brewster.

Trump has been invited to testify, which legal experts say suggests an indictment is near.

The payment to Daniels, if not properly accounted for, could result in a misdemeanor charge for falsifying business records. That might be raised to a felony if the false accounting was intended to cover up a second crime, such as a campaign finance violation, The New York Times has reported.

- 2024 prospects -

Trump is facing several criminal probes at state and federal level over possible wrongdoing that threaten his new run at the White House.

In Georgia, a prosecutor is investigating Trump and his allies' efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the southern state. The grand jury in that case has recommended multiple indictments, the forewoman revealed last month.

The former president is also the subject of a federal probe into his handling of classified documents as well as his possible involvement in the January 6 rioting.

Some observers believe an indictment bodes ill for Trump's 2024 chances, while others say it could provide a huge boost.

"The arrest secures the nomination for Donald Trump," tweeted Rick Wilson, a political strategist who quit the Republican Party in protest over Trump. "The base will rally politically, and possibly physically."

nr-md/bfm/ssy
Former president Donald Trump said Saturday morning on social media that he expects to be arrested next week. He called for protests to take place as a result.

The move comes as New York prosecutors appear to be close to indicting Trump in connection with a hush-money payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels. Trumps former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, who made the payment on Trumps behalf, testified to the grand jury Monday. Daniels met with prosecutors Wednesday, but she did not testify in front of the grand jury herself.

[Illegal leaks from the Manhattan DAs office] indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven, & based on an old & fully debunked (by numerous other prosecutors!) fairytale, the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week, explained Trump in all caps on Truth Social.

The former president also called for protests to take place to take our nation back!

Trump has repeatedly called the New York investigation a witch hunt.

According to CNN, the former president is expected to present himself in Manhattan following the formal charges and has expressed interest in making a speech after.

Some of Trumps advisers have urged him privately not to call for protests, CNN reported. Trump is already under scrutiny for his behavior in connection with the 2020 election. His advisers are concerned about the optics of a Manhattan protest considering the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

According to the Associated Press, law enforcement officials in New York are already making security preparations for the possibility that Trump could be indicted and appear in a Manhattan courtroom.

The $130,000 payment in question was made to Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential election by Cohen, who in turn was reimbursed by Trump. Daniels claimed she had a sexual affair with the former president he wanted to keep secret.

Story continues

Prosecutors have focused on whether Trump falsified internal business records to hide the reimbursement from voters, which would be a misdemeanor under New York law. This offense could be elevated to a felony if done to commit or conceal a second crime, in this case a potential violation of campaign finance laws. Prosecutors could argue that the hush-money payment effectively became an illegal donation to Trumps campaign under the theory that his candidacy benefited from Daniels silence.

Reaction to Trumps post was swift. Cohen, speaking to the New York Post, criticized the call for protests.

Donalds post is eerily similar to his battle cry prior to the January 6th insurrectionBy doing so, Donald is hoping to rile his base, witness another violent clash on his behalf and profit from it by soliciting contributions, Cohen said.

House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) called the impending indictment an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA and said he would direct relevant House committees to investigate if federal funds are being used in politically-motivated prosecutions.

Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump. Im directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by https://t.co/elpbh7LeWn  Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) March 18, 2023

Trumps statement also comes in the wake of other investigations into him gaining steam.

Dozens of Mar-a-Lago staffers have been subpoenaed in special counsel Jack Smiths probe into Trumps handling of classified documents. In a third probe, a Georgia grand jury heard another recording of Trump allegedly interfering in the 2020 election. Grand jurors told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Trump asked late house speaker David Ralston in a call to convene a special session of the Legislature to overturn Joe Bidens narrow victory in Georgia.

More from National Review
By Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said he expects to be arrested on Tuesday as New York prosecutors consider charges over a hush money payment to a porn star, and called on his supporters to protest.

"Illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorney's office ... indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven ... the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

A spokesman for Trump said the former president had not been notified of any arrest. Trump provided no evidence of leaks from the district attorney's office and did not discuss the possible charges in his post.

"Protest, take our nation back!" said Trump, whose supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat.

The probe comes as Trump seeks the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2024.

No U.S. president - while in office or afterward - has faced criminal charges. Trump has said he will continue campaigning even if he is charged with a crime.

A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office has been investigating a $130,000 hush payment Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn actor Stormy Daniels, declined to comment.

Sources have said Bragg's office has been presenting evidence to a grand jury about the payment, which came in the waning days of Trump's 2016 campaign in exchange for Daniels' silence about an affair she said she had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump has denied the affair happened and called the investigation by Bragg, a Democrat, a witch hunt.

An additional witness is expected to appear before the grand jury on Monday, at the request of Trump's lawyers, a person familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

Story continues

Trump's statement that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday is based on news reports that Bragg's office is going to be meeting with law enforcement to prepare for a possible indictment, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, on Saturday decried the investigation.

"Here we go again  an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump," McCarthy said on Twitter.

'RECKLESS'

McCarthy's predecessor as speaker, Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi, who like McCarthy was present at the Capitol when hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the building, battling with police, denounced Trump's call.

"The former president's announcement this morning is reckless: doing so to keep himself in the news and to foment unrest among his supporters," Pelosi said in a statement. "He cannot hide from his violations of the law, disrespect for our elections and incitements to violence."

Trump's former vice president Mike Pence told ABC News Trump's possible indictment "just feels like a politically charged prosecution here." Asked about Trump's call for people to protest if he is indicted, Pence said he thinks protesters will understand "they need to do so peacefully and in a lawful manner."

Bragg's office earlier this month invited Trump to testify before the grand jury probing the payment, which legal experts said was a sign that an indictment was close. Trump declined the offer, the person familiar with the matter said.

Bragg addressed in an email to staff on Saturday reported by Politico and confirmed by Reuters that "we do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York ... We will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly and speak publicly only when appropriate."

Bragg's email did not mention Trump by name but cited "ongoing press attention and public comments surrounding an ongoing investigation.

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance violations tied to his arranging payments to Daniels and another woman in exchange for their silence about affairs they said they'd had with Trump, among other crimes. He has said Trump directed him to make the payments. The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan did not charge Trump with a crime.

The probe is one of several legal woes Trump faces as he seeks the Republican nomination for the presidency.

Trump is also confronting a state-level criminal probe in Georgia over efforts to overturn the 2020 results in that state.

A special counsel named by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is currently investigating Trump's handling of classified government documents after leaving office, as well as his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Bragg's office last year won the conviction of the Trump Organization on tax fraud charges. But Bragg declined to charge Trump himself with financial crimes related to his business practices, prompting two prosecutors who worked on the probe to resign.

Trump, who was in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday and attended the NCAA wrestling championships, leads his early rivals for his party's nomination. He had the support of 43% of Republicans in a February Reuters/Ipsos poll, compared with 31% for his nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not yet announced his candidacy.

Trump in 2018 initially disputed knowing anything about the payment to Daniels. He later acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment, which he called a "simple private transaction."

Cohen, who served time in prison after pleading guilty, testified before the grand jury this week. Grand jury proceedings are not public. Outside the courthouse in lower Manhattan, he told reporters he did not testify out of a desire for revenge against Trump.

"This is all about accountability," he said. "He needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds."

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, spoke with prosecutors last week, according to her lawyer.

Trump founded his Truth Social media platform after being banned by Twitter, Facebook and YouTube following the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. He has since regained his accounts on those services, though he limited his Saturday statement to Truth.

"His messages on Truth Social are very concerning as he is declaring the entire justice system corrupt," said Jennifer Stromer-Falley, a senior associate dean at Syracuse University and an expert in social media use during elections.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld in New York, Additional reporting by Gram Slattery and David Shepardson; Editing by Scott Malone, Daniel Wallis, Noeleen Walder, Alistair Bell and Lincoln Feast)
Former President Donald Trump. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump said Saturday that he expects to be arrested this coming week by the Manhattan district attorney's office.

In a rambling post on his self-founded Truth Social, Trump wrote that "illegal leaks" from the Manhattan DA indicate that he "will be arrested on Tuesday," and urged his followers to "protest, take our nation back!" In a post just prior to that one, Trump claimed that the United States "is now third world and dying. The American dream is dead!"

It is unclear what leaks Trump was referring to. However, NBC News first reported that local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies were preparing for the likely arrest of the former president over a hush money scandal involving porn star Stormy Daniels.

The Manhattan district attorney revived that case against Trump this past January, and multiple people involved in the case, including Daniels, have additionally spoken to federal prosecutors. Senior law enforcement officials reportedly told NBC that the Secret Service was coordinating with the NYPD, FBI, court officers, and others in the event that Trump is indeed arrested, though they stressed that this was all a precautionary measure.

If Trump's prediction about himself rings true, it would be the first time in American history that a former president has been charged with a crime. CNN noted that Trump's legal team have been anticipating indictments on the horizon for some time. Trump's attorney, Joseph Tacopina, told The Associated Press that the former president would turn himself in if charged.

These may not be the only legal proceedings brought against Trump, either, as a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, is set to unveil indictment recommendations in a case relating to alleged election tampering in the 2020 election. The jury forewoman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that multiple indictments had been recommended, though did not specify anyone by name.

Story continues

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BANGKOK, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese modernization has provided new opportunities for making important contributions to global peace and development, said Thai officials and experts.

As the world's second-largest economy, China is closely connected to the global supply chain, and its economic and trade policies have a far-reaching impact on the global and regional economy, said Danuch Tanterdtid, vice minister of Thailand's Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, at a seminar on Friday.

Thailand-China innovation cooperation will become an important driving force for regional development, "especially as Chinese modernization provides another option for modernization development," Danuch said.

Wirun Phichaiwongphakdee, director of the Thailand-China Research Center of the Belt and Road Initiative, said Chinese-style modernization, encompasses all aspects of Chinese life, and has become the most important platform for many countries to achieve connectivity, making enormous contributions to promoting global peace and development.

"Chinese modernization is a modernization path tailored to China's national circumstances that offers many valuable lessons to developing countries," said Wirun.

Chaiyasit Tantayakul, advisor of the Horticultural Science Society of Thailand, said, "China and ASEAN have friendly cooperation, and Chinese modernization will bring more development opportunities to ASEAN countries."

Chinese modernization is reflected in substantial improvements in people's quality of life, said Thitinan Chankoson, vice dean for research, strategy and organizational development, Srinakharinwirot University, noting that it also represents modernization towards common prosperity.

The seminar "Chinese Modernization and New Opportunities for the World" was organized by China Media Group Asia-Pacific and gathered more than 100 guests from politics, academia, media and business, discussing in-depth topics related to the global significance of Chinese-style modernization. 
NEW YORK (AP)  Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that his arrest is imminent and issued an extraordinary call for his supporters to protest as a New York grand jury investigates hush money payments to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president.

Even as Trump's lawyer and spokesperson said there had been no communication from prosecutors, Trump declared in a post on his social media platform that he expects to be taken into custody on Tuesday.

His message seemed designed to preempt a formal announcement from prosecutors and to galvanize outrage from his base of supporters in advance of widely anticipated charges. Within hours, his campaign was sending fundraising solicitations to his supporters, while influential Republicans in Congress and even some declared and potential rival candidates issued statements in his defense.

In a later post that went beyond simply exhorting loyalists to protest about his legal peril, the 2024 presidential candidate directed his overarching ire in all capital letters at the Biden administration and raised the prospect of civil unrest: ITS TIME!!! he wrote. WE JUST CANT ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEYRE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!

It all evoked, in foreboding ways, the rhetoric he used shortly before the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. After hearing from the then-president at a Washington rally that morning, his supporters marched to the Capitol and tried to stop the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's White House victory, breaking through doors and windows of the building and leaving officers beaten and bloodied.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg is thought to be eyeing charges in the hush money investigation, and recently offered Trump a chance to testify before the grand jury. Local law enforcement officials are bracing for the public safety ramifications of an unprecedented prosecution of a former American president.

Story continues

In an internal email following Trumps statements, Bragg said law enforcement would ensure that the 1,600 people who work in his office would remain safe, and that any specific or credible threats would be investigated.

We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York, he wrote, and added: In the meantime, as with all of our investigations, we will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly, and speak publicly only when appropriate.

There has been no public announcement of any time frame for the grand jurys secret work in the case. At least one additional witness is expected to testify, further indicating that no vote to indict has yet been taken, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to publicly discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

That did not stop Trump from taking to his social media platform to say illegal leaks from Bragg's office indicate that THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK.

A Trump lawyer, Susan Necheles, said Trump's post was based on the media reports," and a spokesperson said there had been no notification from Bragg's office, though the origin of Trump's Tuesday reference was unclear. The district attorneys office declined to comment.

Trump's aides and legal team have been preparing for the possibility of an indictment. Should that happen, he would be arrested only if he refused to surrender. Trumps lawyers have previously said he would follow normal procedure, meaning he would likely agree to surrender at a New York Police Department precinct or directly to Braggs office.

It is unclear whether Trumps supporters would heed his protest call or if he retains the same persuasive power he held as president. Trumps posts on Truth Social generally receive far less attention than he used to get on Twitter, but he maintains a deeply loyal base. The aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, in which hundreds of Trump loyalists were arrested and prosecuted in federal court, may also have dampened the passion among supporters for confrontation.

The indictment of Trump, 76, would be an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings.

Even as Trump pursues his latest White House campaign  his first rally is set for Waco, Texas, later this month and he shook hands and took selfies with fans during a public appearance Saturday evening at the NCAA Division I wrestling championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma  there is no question an indictment would be a distraction and give fodder to opponents and critics tired of the legal scandals that have long enveloped him.

Besides the hush money inquiry in New York, Trump faces separate criminal investigations in Atlanta and Washington over his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 election.

A Justice Department special counsel has also been presenting evidence before a grand jury investigating Trumps possession of hundreds of classified documents at his Florida estate. It is not clear when those investigations will end or whether they might result in criminal charges, but they will continue regardless of what happens in New York, underscoring the ongoing gravity  and broad geographic scope  of the legal challenges facing the former president.

Trump's post Saturday echoes one made last summer when he broke the news on Truth Social that the FBI was searching his Florida home as part of an investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents.

News of that search sparked a flood of contributions to Trumps political operation, and on Saturday, Trump sent out a series of fundraising emails to his supporters, including one that claimed, Im not worried in the slightest.

After his post, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy decried any plans to prosecute Trump as an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA whom he claimed was pursuing political vengeance. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, issued a statement with a similar sentiment.

The grand jury has been hearing from witnesses, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who says he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to silence them about sexual encounters they said they had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump denies the encounters occurred, says he did nothing wrong and has cast the investigation as a witch hunt by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republicans 2024 campaign. Trump also has labeled Bragg, who is Black, a racist and has accused the prosecutor of letting crime in the city run amok while he has focused on Trump. New York remains one of the safest cities in the country.

Braggs office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Trumps company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the womens allegations quiet.

Porn actor Stormy Daniels and at least two former Trump aides  onetime political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokesperson Hope Hicks  are among witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks.

Cohen has said that at Trumps direction, he arranged payments totaling $280,000 to Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the payouts were to buy their silence about Trump, who was then in the thick of his first presidential campaign.

Cohen and federal prosecutors said Trump's company paid him $420,000 as reimbursement for the $130,000 payment to Daniels and to cover bonuses and other supposed expenses. The company classified those payments internally as legal expenses. The $150,000 payment to McDougal was made by the then-publisher of the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer, which kept her story from coming to light.

Federal prosecutors agreed not to prosecute the Enquirers corporate parent in exchange for its cooperation in a campaign finance investigation that led to charges against Cohen in 2018. Prosecutors said the payments to Daniels and McDougal amounted to impermissible, unrecorded gifts to Trumps election effort.

Cohen pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors never charged Trump with any crime.

News that law enforcement agencies were preparing for a possible indictment was first reported by NBC News.

___

Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Colleen Long in Washington, Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina and Sean Murphy in Tulsa, Oklahoma  contributed to this report.
Trump on Saturday lashed out at the Manhattan DA's office about a looming 'hush-money' indictment.

He said on Truth Social he "will be arrested on Tuesday" and urged "protest."

A Trump attorney says no date has been set, and that the DA has kept the defense in the dark.

In a vitriol-laced Truth Social post early Saturday, Donald Trump said he expects to turn himself in on Tuesday in the Manhattan district attorney's hush-money case  a date his own lead defense attorney could not confirm.

Lead defense attorney Susan Necheles said the Trump defense team had received no information from the DA's office that Trump would be "arrested"  his word  on Tuesday or on any other specific day, though she was careful not to directly contradict her clients' Truth Social post.

"President Trump is basing this on press reports," Necheles told Insider of the Tuesday date.

"This is a political prosecution and the DA leaks things to the press instead of communicating to the lawyers as they should," Necheles said.

Necheles did not specify which "press report" Trump might be looking at. There has been no reporting of a specific date for Trump to surrender to Manhattan authorities.



She could not confirm if Trump was referring to a Fox News report from Friday. The report said that the district attorney's office 'asked for a meeting' with law enforcement, in order to plan for an indictment that a court source told Fox "they are anticipating" next week.

Necheles said that the DA's office has recently been out of touch with the defense, and that this has allowed rumors and "tea leaves" to steer the perception of what is happening in the case.

"We're all reading tea leaves because they refuse to communicate," she told Insider. "It's been over a week and I haven't gotten any information from them, which is not normal," she said.

"In normal, run-of-the-mill cases, they'll be talking to us about what date they expect to turn in an indictment. They'll be saying 'we'll let you know,'" she added. "That's the normal conversation you would have with prosecutors."

Story continues

In his Truth Social post, Trump derided the prosecution as based upon a "fairy tale" and urged "protests."

Trump cited "illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan District Attorney's office" as the source for his belief that "the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week."

"Protest, take our nation back!" concluded the former president's post, which was written in all capital letters.

A spokesperson for the DA's office declined to comment.

Speculation has been growing for weeks about the prospect of a Trump indictment. The Manhattan district attorney's office has been investigating Trump in connection to an illegal $130,000 hush-money payment made to the adult-film actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

The Manhattan grand jury has been hearing witness testimony since mid-January, including on Monday and Wednesday from Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, a star witness in the prosecution's case.

But there are no credible accounts to emerge publicly that the grand jury has voted to indict Trump or anyone else, a necessary first step that would then lead the DA to contact Trump's attorneys and negotiate his surrender and arraignment.

This breaking story has been updated to include additional comment from Trump's attorney, and to add detail from Saturday morning's Truth Social post.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney's office won't have much of a legal leg to stand on if they indict former President Donald Trump on violating campaign finance law, according to a legal expert and former member of the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

"If the state charges are based on a supposed violation of federal campaign finance law, then the Manhattan DA is way off base," Hans von Spakovsky told Fox News Digital.

Von Spakovsky's comments came shortly after Trump said Saturday that he expects to be arrested Tuesday amid reports saying the Manhattan district attorney's office is preparing to issue an indictment for alleged hush money payments that Trump made as a presidential candidate in 2016.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Hilton Anatole on August 6, 2022, in Dallas, Texas.

TRUMP SAYS 'ILLEGAL LEAKS' INDICATE HE'LL BE ARRESTED TUESDAY

"NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!, [sic]" Trump posed to his Truth Social account.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office will reportedly meet with law enforcement officials to discuss logistics for some time next week regarding a potential indictment, which stems from a years-long investigation into Trump's alleged hush money scandal involving porn star Stormy Daniels.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

In the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen sent $130,000 to Daniels to prevent her from disclosing her alleged 2006 affair with Trump, who has denied the affair. Trump subsequently reimbursed Cohen.

TRUMP RECEIVED 'NO NOTIFICATION' OTHER THAN 'ILLEGAL LEAKS' ABOUT POSSIBLE ARREST NEXT WEEK, SPOKESPERSON SAYS

Story continues

It's been widely speculated that Trump could be charged with overseeing the false recording of the reimbursements in his company's internal records as "legal expenses."

Prosecutors are also expected to charge Trump with violating campaign finance laws by arranging the payments to buy Daniels' silence weeks before the 2016 election. However, experts have questioned the legal reasoning behind such a charge.

"A settlement payment of a nuisance claim is not a federal campaign expense," said von Spakovsky, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. "The state DA has no authority to prosecute a federal campaign finance violation in any event."

Such cases, he argues, are within the province of the FEC, where he served as a commissioner, or the U.S. Justice Department, explaining that both agencies have known about the facts for years but have chosen not to prosecute Trump.

Adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, speaks to media along with lawyer Michael Avenatti (R) outside federal court in the Manhattan borough of New York City, April 16, 2018.

MANHATTAN DA'S OFFICE 'ASKED FOR A MEETING' WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT AHEAD OF POSSIBLE TRUMP INDICTMENT

"So, the federal agencies with jurisdiction did not consider it a violation," said von Spakovsky, who's been following this case for years.

In 2018, von Spakovsky wrote that the payment to Daniels seemed to be a "nuisance settlement," which celebrities often make, especially when faced with the threat of a false or salacious claim.

"Critics of the president claim this not only was a campaign expense that should have been reported but a potentially illegal loan by Cohen. But the settlement was ultimately paid out of Trump's personal funds and had nothing to do with the campaign since their alleged one-night stand occurred 10 years before the campaign," wrote von Spakovsky. "No reasonable member of a jury would consider this to be a campaign-related expense that needed to be reported, or to which any other campaign finance rules in the Federal Election Campaign Act apply."

Von Spakovsky noted in his 2018 analysis that the Department of Justice already tried out this theory with former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, whose campaign donors paid up to $1 million to Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, while she was working as a videographer for Edwards and his presidential campaign.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg during a press conference in New York on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022.

TWITTER'S ELON MUSK PREDICTS TRUMP WILL WIN RE-ELECTION IN 'LANDSLIDE VICTORY' IF ARRESTED

The Department Justice tried to argue these were campaign-related payments, even though they didn't go through the Edwards campaign's accounts, because they were intended to protect Edwards' reputation during his presidential bid. A jury acquitted Edwards on one charge of accepting an illegal campaign donation and failed to reach a verdict on the other charges, resulting in a mistrial.

The Department of Justice dropped its prosecution and never retried Edwards.

"The alleged one-night stand between Daniels and Trump is far more of a stretch," wrote von Spakovsky. "Daniels had no connection to the presidential campaign of any kind and the encounter  if it occurred  didn't happen during the campaign itself. In any event, even if the Daniels payment were to be considered a campaign-related expense, unlike Edwards, the nominal $130,000 payment wasn't made by Trump campaign donors but by Trump's personal attorney (not the campaign's attorney) with whom he has a long-standing business relationship. . . . Even if one might be able to reasonably construe the payment to Daniels as somehow related to the presidential campaign, there still would be no violation since candidates are allowed to spend as much of their own money as they want on their own campaigns."

Von Spakovsky told Fox News Digital that his "opinion hasn't changed" since writing that article.

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung described the ongoing probe as a "witch hunt," calling the former president "completely innocent" and accusing Bragg of being in the pocket of President Biden and "radical Democrats."

The Manhattan district attorney's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
Former President Donald Trump took to social media on Saturday stating he expects to be arrested on Tuesday.

>>> STREAM CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS LIVE <<<

Trump said in a social media post that he will be arrested on Tuesday as Manhattan prosecutor seeks charges in a hush-money case involving adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Read: FDLE Missing Child Alert: 4-year-old, 2-month-old never returned to foster mom, police say

Any indictment of the former president, who is running for reelection in 2024, would be a historic first.

Read: Front moves in Saturday afternoon, bringing cooler temperatures

Stay with Channel 9 News for more information as it become available.

Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Russian strikes killed two people and wounded 10 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Saturday, a regional governor said, accusing Moscow of using cluster bombs in the attack.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk region -- where Kramatorsk is located -- said on his official Telegram channel that Russian forces had targeted a park and damaged "a dozen residential buildings", and fired "cluster munitions".

"They purposefully hit the city, trying to kill as many of its civilians as possible," Kyrylenko said.

AFP journalists on the ground heard around 10 explosions go off nearly simultaneously just before 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) and saw smoke above a park in the southern part of the city.

A woman died at the scene from her wounds, they saw.

Soon after, another round of explosions was heard in a neighbourhood two kilometres (one mile) away.

A taxi driver was seriously wounded in that blast.

"She came to see me briefly. I told her goodbye, closed the door and a few seconds later, I heard the explosions," said Lena, 46. "I was lucky to be inside with my daughter when all this happened."

Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko confirmed that two people had been killed by cluster bombs.

"Russia continues to spread terror," he wrote in a Facebook post.

A UN treaty backed by most Western countries bans the use and transfer of cluster bombs, which spread dozens of tiny explosives, often posing a threat long after a conflict ends.

Russia and Ukraine have not signed the treaty and the United Nations has voiced alarm over Moscow's alleged use of cluster munitions in populated areas since it invaded Ukraine last year.

The strikes marked the second time Kramatorsk was targeted in a week. On Tuesday, one person died and three people were wounded after a strike on residential buildings.

Kramatorsk is located in the eastern industrial region of Donetsk, parts of which, including its largest city, have been controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists since 2014.

Story continues

In April 2022, a missile strike killed around 60 people at the Kramatorsk train station, in one of the deadliest attacks targeting civilians.

Moscow has been seeking to capture the entire region after declaring it part of Russia last year.

epe/dhc/lb
Two people were killed and four others injured after a shooting at an after-hours club in Columbus, Ohio, say officials.

The two male victims were gunned down at a venue called Tha Plug in Columbus, Ohio, in the early Horus of Saturday morning.

Police in the city say that officers responded to the club at 5.10am after reports of a shooting, according to WCMH.

(WCMH)

One man was pronounced dead at the scene while five other people were taken to hospitals in the city.

Another man was also pronounced dead after being rushed to Nationwide Childrens Hospital in a private vehicle, police said.

No information on the identities of the victims has yet been released.

The other four victims were in stable condition, with two being treated at OSU Wexner Medical Center, and two others at Grant Medical Center.

Police say that they do not yet have a suspect in custody and the investigation is ongoing.
Ohio and Iowa became the latest Republican-led states to signal they would be pulling out of a bipartisan interstate voter program, throwing the organization into an even more uncertain future after a critical board meeting.

I cannot justify the use of Ohios tax dollars for an organization that seems intent on rejecting meaningful accountability, publicly maligning my motives, and waging a relentless campaign of misinformation about this effort, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose wrote in his letter starting the withdrawal process on Friday.

They are the sixth and seventh Republican-led states to drop out of the Electronic Registration Information Center  ERIC  over the last year, joining Florida, West Virginia, Missouri, Louisiana and Alabama. Other states could soon be on the way as well.

The exodus of GOP officials from the once-uncontroversial group comes as some prominent Republicans  most notably former President Donald Trump  have publicly attacked it, falsely saying it is a liberal plot to control the countys voter rolls. Most of the departing states have not echoed Trumps claims, instead citing disagreements about the governance of the organization, but defenders of ERIC say their complaints are only a pretense to exit the organization.

But the bottom line is that these Republican-led states have turned against an organization they once hailed as a solution to cutting down on voter fraud.

The decision from the states to leave the partnership came shortly following a meeting of ERICs board on Friday, where member states voted on significant changes to the governance of the organization.

That meeting resolved one point of contention  the role of non-voting members within the organization  but resulted in a stalemate over disagreements on what members could do with the data collected and distributed by ERIC.

Broadly, ERIC helps organizations maintain their voter rolls by issuing reports on voters who may have moved either within the state or between member states, died, or potentially voted in two different states, requiring members to conduct list maintenance with that information. ERIC also produces data on people who may be eligible to register but havent, and requires states to contact those would-be voters.

Story continues

Some Republican election officials believe the latter requirement, in particular, as superfluous and a waste of resources. LaRose had previously proposed changing ERIC to allow states to choose to use ERIC data a la carte  letting member states pick and choose what they want to do with the data produced by the organization  and a proposal to change the organizations bylaws to allow for that failed at Fridays meeting. A second vote that would tie the requirement to contact potential eligible voters to a report that helps states catch cases of double voting  meaning states could opt to do either both or neither  also failed.

Both proposals got a majority vote, with the latter having more backers. But ERIC bylaws require 80 percent of the membership to agree to make changes

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said the failed votes on Friday dont allow each member to do whats best for their respective state.

Ultimately, the departure of several key states and todays vote is going to impact the ability for ERIC to be an effective tool for the State of Iowa, he said. My office will be recommending resigning our membership from ERIC."

Other states could follow. Alaskas elections director has said during a legislative hearing earlier this month that the state may leave the organization , while Texas secretary of state has taken public steps to prepare her office for a withdrawal should the state drop out. (There is pending legislation in Texas to do as much.)

A spokesperson for the Texas secretary of state did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. A spokesperson for the Alaska lieutenant governors office  the states chief election official  did not have an immediate comment on Fridays meeting.

Simon, the Minnesota Democrat, told POLITICO that he and other ERIC supporters had been reaching out to Republican-led states on Friday afternoon to urge them to stay in the partnership and continue to negotiate.

"I would urge any state who is disappointed with the outcome of todays board meeting to hit the pause button," he said in an interview.

Not every Republican-led state is looking to leave. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has been a vocal defender of ERICover the last month, and his office projected hope that states would remain in the organization following a vote at Fridays meeting that removed non-voting positions from the groups board, another flashpoint.

"Hopefully this will allow states to stay and help keep clean voter rolls across the nation," Gabriel Sterling, a senior official in the Georgia secretary of state's office, tweeted shortly after the meeting.

Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, the Republican chief election official of her state, also voiced support for ERIC on Friday. As a founding member, ERIC has served Utah and its member states well, she said in a statement to POLITICO, calling for compromise between Republican and Democratic member states.

Im hopeful we can find a path forward to keep and attract members, she added.

And crucially, South Carolina  a state some members were concerned about after Fridays meeting  said it had no intention of departing.

South Carolina does not currently have plans to leave ERIC, John Michael Catalano, a spokesperson for the South Carolina state election commission, wrote in an email. Despite its flaws, ERIC remains a valuable and (currently) irreplaceable tool that allows states to remove unqualified voters from the voter registration rolls.

Remaining members lamented the organizations departures, with several saying that a state leaving ERIC makes the organizations data worse for everyone: The more members that leave, the less valuable and effective the organization, Catalano noted.

And others bemoaned the departures as a bad sign for the culture of cooperation surrounding elections. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, described the work ERIC does as technical and boring but an important part of the backbone of American elections.

What were seeing is the product of disinformation, she said in a Friday interview. It has made ERIC a lightning rod in some circles.


People protest in Memphis following the release of video showing the deadly encounter between police and Tyre Nichols Shameka Wilson for Insider

A Memphis police lieutenant retired one day before his disciplinary hearing on Tyre Nichols' death.

Nichols family is "deeply disturbed" at the police department's decision to allow the retirement, their attorney said in a statement.

Attorney Ben Crump said Lt. Dewayne Smith's decision to retire is a "cowardly sidestep to his actions."

The family of Tyre Nichols is "deeply disturbed" after a Memphis police lieutenant retired ahead of a hearing over Nichol's death where he was expected to be terminated, according to reports.

Lt. Dewayne Smith, the senior-most officer on the scene when police beat Tyre Nichols, who died days later from his injuries in early January, filed for retirement on March 1, according to WMC. Smith was scheduled for a disciplinary hearing on March 2 for policy violations of neglect of duty, unauthorized public statements, and compliance with regulations, internal documents reviewed by the station showed.

Smith did not appear at the March 2 hearing, according to WMC. The Memphis Police Department did not immediately return Insider's request for comment on Saturday.

Five Memphis Police Department officers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection with Nichols' death. Body camera footage showed the five police officers  Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith  punching, kicking, and pepper-spraying Nichols' after pulling him from his car during a traffic stop on a street not far from his mother's home.

Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney who represents Nichols' family, said that the family is "deeply disturbed that Memphis Police allowed and accepted the retirement of Lt. Dewayne Smith, in light of his immediately pending disciplinary hearing," in a statement provided to Insider.

Crump called for Memphis police to do "everything in their power" to hold Smith and all other officers involved in Smith's death to be held accountable and called Smith's retirement a "cowardly sidestep the consequences of his actions."

Story continues

"His cowardice in resigning and not facing his own disciplinary board to defend himself is not an end-around on accountability or reckoning," Crump said in the statement.

MPD documents say that Smith failed to ask other officers on the scene about their use of force, even though he saw injuries on Nichols' face, and did not direct medical personnel to help Nichols after witnessing him saying "I can't breathe" after the beating, WMC reports.

Smith was also accused of making an improper statement to Nichols' family by telling them he had been charged with a DUI, which was not true, according to the outlet.

Read the original article on Insider
(Reuters) - U.S. authorities are working with Swiss counterparts to broker a deal for UBS AG to buy all or part of Credit Suisse Group AG, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday citing people familiar with the matter.

U.S. officials might seek to weigh in on matters which can impact the finals terms of the deal between the banks, according to the report.

An official at the Federal Reserve declined to comment on the report, while the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

UBS is mulling a takeover of its embattled Swiss peer, sources have told Reuters. The plan could see the Swiss government offer a guarantee against the risks involved, while Credit Suisse's Swiss business could be spun off.

U.S. and European banking executives and regulators have taken measures to shore up the industry to restore confidence. The Biden administration has moved to backstop consumer deposits while the Swiss central bank loaned billions to Credit Suisse to stabilize its shaky balance sheet.

(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia, March 18 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese-invested tire factory in Cambodia's Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ) launched its operation on Saturday after more than one year of construction.

The 300-million-U.S.-dollar General Tire Technology (Cambodia) factory, located in Cambodia's coastal province of Preah Sihanouk, is a subsidiary of Chinese tire maker Jiangsu General Science Technology. It is capable of manufacturing 5 million semi-steel radial tires and 900,000 all-steel radial tires per year, said Gu Cui, chairman of Jiangsu General Science Technology.

"Our products will be mainly exported to the United States, Europe, and Brazil among others," he said at the inauguration ceremony.

He said the 18-hectare factory has created some 1,600 jobs for local people.

Speaking at the event, provincial governor Kuoch Chamroeun congratulated the factory on launching its operation, noting that it is a major project for the SSEZ.

"The factory will not only help boost the province's economic development and exports, but also contribute to poverty reduction through job creation," he said.

The SSEZ, jointly invested by China and Cambodia, currently hosts some 175 enterprises from China, the United States, and Europe, Southeast Asia and other regions, creating nearly 30,000 jobs, according to SSEZ General Manager Cao Jianjiang.

The 11-square-km industrial zone is the Southeast Asian country's largest industrial zone in terms of size and occupancy.

Cao said the imports and exports passing through the SSEZ totaled 2.49 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 12 percent. 
By Sarah Kinosian and Ben Blanchard

(Reuters) - The United States is trying to discourage Honduras from following through on its plan to switch diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China, sources close to the matter say, hoping the lack of a formal agreement yet may leave the door open for a change of heart. The ongoing U.S. diplomatic pressure comes after Honduran President Xiomara Castro said on Tuesday her country would establish formal ties with China, following up on a pledge she made in her presidential campaign in 2021. Then, in 2022, her government appeared to walk back the policy. Officials and former officials from the U.S. and several Central American countries said Castro's provisional announcement contrasted with how countries in Latin America have tended to make public shifts in alliance from China to Taiwan. "We truly don't know whether it will be days or weeks or months," a U.S. government official told Reuters on background. "Is it a negotiating tactic? We don't know for sure, but we will continue to make our case." Since 2016, when Tsai Ing-wen was elected Taiwan's president, Panama, El Salvador and most recently, Nicaragua, have changed sides. All announced the switch as a fait accompli.

"I got an hour heads up, even after I had spoken to the president about it," said John Feeley, who was U.S. ambassador to Panama when it made the switch in 2017.

In another unusual turn, Honduras' ambassador to Taiwan, Harold Burgos, met with Taiwanese foreign ministry officials on Wednesday after Castro's announcement, something which Nicaragua's ambassador had declined to do during her country's switch in 2021, two diplomatic sources in Taipei said.

Reuters could not ascertain the outcome of the meeting, though Taiwan's foreign ministry said publicly it told Burgos his country should "carefully consider the matter so as not to fall into China's snare and make a flawed decision." China does not allow countries to hold diplomatic ties with both itself and Taiwan, regarding the island as its territory. Beijing regards Tsai as a separatist. For her part, she says Taiwan's people must determine their own future.

Both U.S. and Taiwanese officials say that although the announcement was not surprising given Castro's campaign stance, the tweet and its timing caught them off-guard. U.S. former and current officials are quick to argue that many countries which have made the shift have not reaped the economic benefits they were hoping for. "Countries should know that it is not money for nothing and chicks for free," Feeley said, referring to a 1980s Dire Straits hit, reiterating a point the U.S. government has continued to make that the "PRC over-promises and under-delivers." China disputes this, and the country's foreign ministry said on Thursday that former Taiwan allies like Panama, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador have seen "rapid development" in bilateral relations, bringing them "tangible benefits." If Honduras' switch to Beijing is formalized, Taiwan will have just 13 diplomatic allies, including Belize and Guatemala.

(Reporting by Sarah Kinosian in Mexico City and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Dave Graham and Lincoln Feast.)
The Biden administration thought its pressure campaign on Nicaragua might be getting some traction when the Central American countrys authoritarian government handed over 222 political prisoners to the United States last month.

The hopes didnt survive long. Almost immediately, Nicaragua stripped the ex-detainees of their citizenship, threatened to seize their property and sentenced a Catholic bishop who declined to leave to 26 years in prison. So much for a possible rapprochement with Washington or political softening in Managua.

The moves by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo  his powerful wife and vice president now seem more like a way to consolidate power and continue repression than make amends with Washington.

For the prisoners, its good. For the country, it sucks, said Eddy Acevedo, a Republican former Capitol Hill staffer who has helped craft U.S. policy on Nicaragua over the past seven years. Ortega just deported his whole opposition. What happens if this gets replicated in other countries?

The U.S. will keep on or possibly intensify the pressure campaign on Nicaragua, maybe adding new sanctions, say Biden administration officials. Yet America is struggling to protect and promote democracy not just in Nicaragua but across Latin America. Democracies in Peru and Brazil have wobbled. Relations with Mexico are strained. These diplomatic challenges for Washington come at a time when China and Russia, its chief global rivals, are making in-roads in the region.

Were already seeing a troubling drift toward authoritarianism and deliberate attacks on democratic institutions in Nicaraguas neighbors, such as Guatemala and El Salvador, said Rebecca Bill Chavez, a former Defense Department official in the Obama administration.

Nicaragua is a test case. Washington has devoted a lot of effort both to weaken and sway the Ortega regime, but has come short of its goals  a situation likely being watched by others in the region.

Story continues

Some of the prisoners now released in America are urging the Biden administration to keep up the pressure on the dictatorship they hope to weaken from abroad.

We were not the most important part of the story, said the newly freed Juan Sebastian Chamorro, a former Nicaraguan presidential candidate. The most important part of the story is that there are no liberties in Nicaragua. Theres no freedom. Theres no democracy.

A bad relationship turns toxic

U.S.-Nicaragua links began unraveling more than a decade ago as it became clear that Ortega  a former rebel who fought another Nicaraguan dictator  wouldnt leave the presidency. Relations worsened over the past five years as Ortega and Murillo strengthened their grip.

The Trump administration imposed economic sanctions and other penalties, mainly targeting individuals such as Murillo, in 2018, a year when the regime brutally cracked down on widespread protests.

In June 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Nicaraguan counterpart that the United States could ease up on those penalties if Nicaragua were to move back toward democracy and improve its human rights record. (Abuses such as torture and extrajudicial executions in Nicaragua may constitute crimes against humanity, a U.N. investigative panel said earlier this month.)

Blinkens message failed to sway the ruling power couple. Over the next few months, Ortega and Murillo imprisoned more dissidents ahead of an election.

The U.S. responded by slapping sanctions on a Nicaraguan state-owned mining company and banning visas for hundreds of Nicaraguan officials and their relatives. Biden also issued orders in October that authorized his administration to impose future sanctions on various economic sectors in Nicaragua, as well as trade and investment.



This was a major threat because it would, effectively, circumvent a trade deal between the United States, Nicaragua and a number of other countries. The United States is Nicaraguas largest trading partner.

A no-brainer operation

On Jan. 31, Murillo called U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua Kevin Sullivan and urged him to get in touch with the foreign ministry for a matter that could improve ties.

Ten days later, the 222 prisoners landed in the Washington area. According to three U.S. officials familiar with the issue, Nicaragua demanded nothing in return.

Biden aides saw taking the prisoners as a humanitarian no-brainer  so non-controversial that it was largely handled at the assistant secretary level, according to a senior National Security Council official. Biden was kept apprised throughout, a second senior NSC official said. The NSC officials, like other U.S. officials quoted, were granted anonymity to describe sensitive diplomatic matters.

Multiple U.S. departments were involved in the logistics, including screening the prisoners for security risks and preparing mental health services for those who might need them. They rejected a handful of people on the original list of 228. Two people, including Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez, declined to go to the United States.

Biden administration officials knew that Ortega and Murillo could benefit by putting distance between themselves and their rivals. But the opposition hadnt been able to do much inside Nicaragua because all the key figures were in prison.

One of the prisoners described being awakened by guards in the early morning on Feb. 9 and told to dress and be ready in 10 minutes. The prisoner and fellow detainees then boarded buses with windows covered by bars and wood. They were told to keep their heads down and mouths shut.

Toward the end of the road trip, guards on the bus handed the prisoners papers to sign. It was dark and some prisoners were reluctant to sign a document they could barely see. The guards told them that if they didnt sign, they wouldnt be able to leave the country. That was the first clue many prisoners had that they could soon be free.

Once the prisoners were let off the buses, they saw they were on the tarmac of the airport, next to a massive plane. We saw a box on the tarmac that had the passports of all of us  new Nicaraguan passports, said the former prisoner, who was granted anonymity to protect their family in Nicaragua. This was quite an operation.

Searching for rifts

The prisoner release could be a sign of dissension within the ruling ranks. A video said to be from late December appeared to show Ortega and Murillo parting after a disagreement, spurring ongoing speculation about a rift between the pair. After the release of the prisoners to the United States, Ortega appeared to suggest the idea came from his wife.

Reports last spring that Laureano Ortega, the child thought most likely to succeed the ruling couple, had reached out to U.S. officials about sanctions relief also led to questions about potential tensions within Nicaraguas elite. This all comes amid speculation that Daniel Ortegas health is failing and a lack of clarity about how loyal his supporters are to his wife.

Ortega and Murillo were once leaders in the Sandinista rebel movement, helping topple the dynastic autocracy of Nicaraguas Somoza family. Today, they have turned into what they once loathed, their critics say.

After revoking the citizenship of the exiled dissidents, at least one of whom also has American nationality, Nicaraguas government also stripped 94 other people of their Nicaraguan passports. Many of the latter are activists living outside the country.

Nicaraguas ambassador in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

Limits of U.S. power

Still, Americas options in Nicaragua are limited.

Increasing sanctions pressure could damage Nicaraguas economy and worsen the migration crisis in the hemisphere.

Ortega and Murillo have other potential options for international support  Russia and China. The regime supports Russias war in Ukraine and has permitted Moscow to place troops and military equipment on its soil. In late 2021, Nicaragua switched its diplomatic recognition away from Taiwan in favor of Beijing, in a sop of the Chinese.

Hawkish figures such as former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton have called Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela the troika of tyranny because of their repressive rule. The United States has taken particularly harsh measures toward each, with little success.

The Cuban communist regime has survived decades of U.S. sanctions. Biden has yet to embrace a brief diplomatic flowering of relations with Havana that began under then-President Barack Obama but was ended by then-President Donald Trump.

The Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro, too, has weathered years of sanctions and other U.S. pressure. A U.S.-backed opposition effort to overthrow Maduro has largely fizzled in the past six months, and the dictator appears secure.

Some of the former Nicaraguan prisoners already are in touch with each other, looking at uniting around a common platform to oppose Ortega and Murillo from exile. This is one of the mistakes Ortega made  he made us closer, said Chamorro, the former presidential candidate.

Yet diaspora-led opposition movements are rarely successful, noted Christopher Sabatini, a Latin America analyst with Chatham House.

Such campaigns dont command the resources, they dont command diplomatic legitimacy  theyre often very fractious, Sabatini said. Inside Nicaragua, theres not going to be a popular uprising that unseats Daniel Ortega at this point. There cant be. Theres no one to lead it.
UBS and Credit Suisse, the two biggest banks in Switzerland, are in takeover talks, according to several media -- a move long deemed unthinkable as the pair are so similar.

The negotiations, which would see UBS take over its embattled smaller domestic rival, are being orchestrated by the Swiss regulators in an attempt to reassure the markets before they re-open on Monday.

Credit Suisse is still looking shaky despite taking a $54-billion lifeline thrown by the Swiss central bank. Investors remain nervous about its future following the collapse of two banks in the United States that sparked contagion fears.

During the week, US analysts had already floated the possibility of a takeover by UBS, which made a healthy $7.6 billion dollars in net profit in 2022.

Rivals Credit Suisse, headquartered no more than 300 metres away in central Zurich, meanwhile suffered a loss of 7.3 billion Swiss francs ($7.9 billion).

- Wealth management, investment banking -

Both banks derive most of their revenue from wealth management and investment banking.

UBS is the world leader in wealth management and generated nearly 15 percent of its $34.5 billion in turnover in 2022 through this global arm.

At Credit Suisse -- level with the United States' Morgan Stanley in second place -- wealth management contributed 22 percent of the 22.4 billion Swiss francs in turnover.

Investment banking represents 25.2 percent of UBS's turnover, compared to nearly 20.6 percent at Credit Suisse, with the pair running many similar activities such as mergers and acquisitions advice.

In October, Credit Suisse began a major restructuring project that plans to separate its investment banking from the rest of its activities, after a series of scandals.

However, many investors consider the revamp to be too complex -- and UBS might want to steer clear of taking over Credit Suisse's problematic investment banking.

- Retail banking in Switzerland -

Both banks are active in asset management and retail banking. UBS relies on a network of nearly 200 branches in Switzerland, compared to 95 for Credit Suisse.

Story continues

The Swiss domestic branch of Credit Suisse, considered one of its jewels, is particularly active in mortgages and loans to small- and medium-sized businesses.

In a note Thursday, analysts at US financial services giant JPMorgan thought this arm of Credit Suisse would probably have to be spun off or listed separately on the stock exchange in the event of a merger.

Switzerland's Competition Commission might be reluctant to approve a merger in this field.

- Pillars of Swiss banking -

UBS and Credit Suisse are at the apex of banking in a country known worldwide for its banking industry.

UBS, in its modern form, was born in 1998 when the Swiss Bank Corporation merged with the Union Bank of Switzerland.

SBC's origins date back to 1854 when six wealth management establishments in Basel joined forces, while the Union Bank of Switzerland dates back to 1852 and the creation of a bank in Winterthur, a city at the heart of the industrial revolution in Switzerland.

Credit Suisse was born around the same time in 1856, at the instigation of Alfred Escher who wanted to finance the Swiss railway boom.

Credit Suisse has also contributed to the emergence of insurance stalwarts, such as Swiss Life and Swiss Re, and industrial giants like Brown Boveri, ancestor of the ABB engineering group.

Today the two banks are global groups, with UBS employing 72,597 people and Credit Suisse 50,480.

- Careers crossing between banks -

With the two banks' headquarters so close to each other, it is not uncommon for careers to be made with one and then continue at the other.

Credit Suisse chairman Axel Lehmann spent more than 11 years at UBS before being called to the rescue in 2021 to turn Credit Suisse around.

And Credit Suisse chief executive Ulrich Korner left the bank to join UBS before returning, first to save the asset management branch and then the whole bank by taking the CEO hotseat.

noo/rjm/jj
ASTANA (Reuters) - Britain will help Kazakhstan develop export routes bypassing Russia, British Foreign Minister James Cleverly said on a visit to the Central Asian nation on Saturday, where he also signed a memorandum on supplies of critical minerals.

Cleverly said London valued the position of Astana - which has traditionally been closely allied with Moscow - on the Ukrainian conflict. Kazakhstan has refused to support Russia's invasion or recognise its annexation of Ukrainian territories.

"The UK greatly appreciates Kazakhstan's consistent and principled position in supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity and your desire to bring about resolution to the war in line with the UN charter," he told a briefing.

Cleverly, who met Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and a number of other senior officials, said he discussed the disruptions in Kazakh oil exports - most of which go through Russia - and discussed ways to support the development of alternative routes such as the so-called Middle Corridor.

That route crosses the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, and requires significant investment in order to boost its capacity, although Kazakhstan has already started diverting some crude shipments towards it.

Cleverly and Kazakh diplomats said they have signed a memorandum on critical minerals such as rare earth metals, but provided no details about it.

The landlocked former Soviet nation of 20 million accounts for almost a half of the world's uranium output and has large deposits of rare earth minerals which the West has traditionally sourced from China or Russia.

Kazakhstan, which has the longest land border with Russia of any former Soviet state, called in Russian troops to help put down street demonstrations weeks before Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year. But since the invasion Tokayev has been careful to keep his distance from Moscow and keep relations open with the West.

(Reporting by Tamara Vaal; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Peter Graff)
Russian soldiers

Russia officially bars conscripts from being sent to the war in Ukraine, although in fact at least several hundred of them have fought in the country due to administrative errors or after being forced to sign a contract.

Read also: Russia's losses doubled since mobilization, media report says

Currently, a large part of men aged from 18 to 21 claim to be exempt from the call-up due to studying. Thus, the UK intelligence speculates Russia is changing the conscription age bracket in order to get more soldiers and to ensure that students will be forced to serve after graduating.

Read also: Ukrainian colonel caught helping mobilized men flee abroad

Even if Russia continues to bar conscripts from the war, the additional conscript soldiers at home would allow it to free up a larger number of professional military personnel for combat in Ukraine.

A bill to change the age bracket for conscription to men aged 21-30 years instead of the current 18-27 was submitted to the Russian government on March 13. Upon approval, it will come into force in January 2024. The conscription age for men will start from 19 in 2024, from 20 in 2025 and from 21 in 2026. The upper age limit for conscription in Russia will be raised to 30 in 2024.

The Kremlin is trying to avoid full mobilization in such a way, the U.S. think tank the Institute for the Study of War believes. Also, Russian authorities do not expect the war against Ukraine will last more than three years.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian forces outside the battered eastern city of Bakhmut are managing to keep Russian units at bay so ammunition, food, equipment and medicines can be delivered to defenders, the army said on Saturday.

And in the latest claim to have inflicted heavy casualties, Kyiv said its troops had killed 193 Russians and injured 199 others during the course of fighting on Friday.

Russia has made the capture of Bakhmut a priority in its strategy to take control of Ukraine's eastern Donbas industrial region. The city has been largely destroyed in months of fighting, with Russia launching repeated assaults.

"We are managing to deliver the necessary munitions, food, gear and medicines to Bakhmut. We are also managing to take our wounded out of the city," military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevaty told the ICTV television channel.

He said Ukrainian scouts and counter-artillery fire were helping keep open some roads into the city. As well as inflicting heavy casualties, pro-Kyiv forces shot down two Russian drones and destroyed five enemy ammunition depots on Friday, he added.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the claims. Last Sunday President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces suffered more than 1,100 dead in less than a week of battles in and around Bakhmut.

(Reporting by Nick Starkov; Writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
Key developments on March 17:

As Russia's crimes against Ukraine become more visible, on March 17, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian official allegedly overseeing the forced deportations of Ukrainian children to Russia.

The statement reads, "Vladimir Putin, born on Oct. 7, 1952, President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."

This decision means that Putin and Lvova-Belova can now be arrested in countries that have ratified the Rome Statute.

According to the ICC's statement, Putin "bears individual criminal responsibility" as the leader of Russia for the crimes committed against Ukrainian children.

Russia has allegedly deported almost 2,000 children from Ukraine since Jan. 1, according to the U.S. ambassador to OSCE Michael Carpenter.

Additionally, more than 16,000 children were forcibly removed from Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion, the National Information Bureau wrote.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, "decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal standpoint," Russian independent media Meduza reported.







17 MiGs

Following the March 16 news stating that Poland will provide Ukraine with the first four MIG-29 fighter jets within the coming days, the Slovak government has approved supplying Ukraine with 13 MiG-29 fighter jets.

"Promises must be kept, and when (President Volodymyr) Zelensky asked for more weapons, including fighter jets, I said we'll do our best. Glad others (are) doing the same," Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger said on March 17.

Story continues

In addition to jets, Slovakia will also send "part of the Kub anti-aircraft system," Heger said at a news conference, as cited by Slovak media outlet Aktuality.

At the same time, Ukraine's allies have so far declined to provide Western aircraft like the American-manufactured F-16.

Furthermore, on March 16, the White House stated that Poland's recent commitment to provide MiG-29s will not influence the U.S. to send F-16s.

"It doesn't change our calculus with respect to F-16s," said U.S. National Security Council communications coordinator John Kirby, as quoted by CNN.

On March 16, Belgian newspaper De Standaard reported that Belgium will hand over 240 Volvo military trucks to Ukraine, with the first batch to be sent as early as next week.

The trucks will be used to transport troops and equipment to the eastern front line.

Meanwhile, the European Union will provide Ukraine with 1.5 billion euros ($1.59 billion) as the second tranche of an 18 billion ($19 billion) euro macro-financial assistance package, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said on March 17.

The payment is expected to be made next week.

Russian attacks

Russian attacks were reported in eight Ukrainian regions over the past 24 hours.

Local authorities said that two people were killed and nine were wounded.

Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko reported in his morning update on March 17 that two civilians were killed and eight were injured in the Donetsk Oblast.

Russia hit 13 settlements and three communities in the region, damaging almost 30 houses, five high-rises, a school, an enterprise, and a penal institution, said Kyrylenko.

Kherson Oblast was struck 76 times, with Russia firing 413 projectiles on the oblast's settlements, according to the Kherson Oblast Military Administration.

The attacks reportedly injured one and caused damage to a medical facility, houses, and apartment buildings in the city of Kherson.

According to Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov, Russian troops hit Kupiansk, Chuhuiv, and Kharkiv, damaging houses and outbuildings.

Zaporizhia, Chernihiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, and Luhansk oblasts were also shelled by Russian forces, causing damage to civilian infrastructure and households. No casualties were reported in those regions.
Russia will allow the export of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea for another 60 days, warning that any further extension beyond then would depend on the removal of Western sanctions.

Russia blockaded Ukrainian ports for five months last year, causing major disruptions and global prices soaring.

But an initiative agreed in July with the help of the UN and Turkey has since enabled it to export 25 million tonnes of grain and edible oils.

The United Nations and Turkey said on Saturday that the deal had been extended, but did not specify for how long. Ukraine said it had been extended for 120 days. But Russia's cooperation is needed and Moscow only agreed to renew the pact for 60 days.

"The Black Sea Grain Initiative, alongside the Memorandum of Understanding on promoting Russian food products and fertilizers to the world markets, are critical for global food security, especially for developing countries," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

On Friday Russia's UN Ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said that the European Union, the United States and the UK now "have two months to exempt from their sanctions the entire chain of operations which accompany the Russian agricultural sector," if they want the Ukraine Black Sea grain deal to continue.

05:52 PM

Today's top stories

President Putin made a rare last-minute trip to Crimea to visit a "children's palace" he commissioned, just a day after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest over the mass abduction of Ukrainian kids

Roads were torn open and houses reduced to rubble after a Russian rocket attack in the city of on Friday

Joe Biden said the International Criminal Court's issuance of an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on accusations of a war crime for deporting Ukrainian children was "justified. "

Russia, China and Iran have completed three-way naval exercises in the Arabian Sea that included artillery fire at targets on the sea and in the air, the Russian defence ministry said on Saturday



Story continues

05:45 PM

Putin makes surprise visit to Crimea childrens palace

President Putin made a rare last-minute trip to Crimea to visit a "children's palace" he commissioned, just a day after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest over the mass abduction of Ukrainian kids.

The visit was to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia's annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine, Russian state media reported.

However, it appeared to be a veiled response by Putin to the ICC after it accused him of war crimes for illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.

This handout photograph taken and released by the Russian presidential press office in Sevastopol on March 18, 2023, shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (L), flanked by Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev (C), listening to Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkunov (R), chairman of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, as he visits a children's arts-and-crafts centre, part of Chersonesos Taurica historical and archeological park on the 9th anniversary of the referendum on the state status of Crimea and Sevastopol and its reunification with Russia. (Photo by HANDOUT / Russian Presidential Press Office / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / RUSSIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE " - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS / Editor's note : this image is distributed by Russian state owned agency Sputnik (Photo by HANDOUT/Russian Presidential Press Offic/AFP via Getty Images) - HANDOUT/Russian Presidential Press Offic/AFP via Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev visit the Children's Art and Aesthetic center in Sevastopol, Crimea, Saturday, March 18, 2023. Putin has traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula's annexation from Ukraine. (Sputnik, Kremlin Press Service Pool Photo via AP) - Sputnik, Kremlin Press Service Pool Photo via AP

04:42 PM

Putin drove himself to Crimea to open school

The Moscow-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said Putin had been expected to take part in the opening of a children's art school by video link.

"But Vladimir Vladimirovich came in person. Himself. Behind the wheel. Because on such a historic day, the president is always with Sevastopol and the people of Sevastopol," he said.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 following a referendum that was not recognised by Kyiv and the international community.

04:01 PM

'Russia extends grain deal for 60 days'

Russia has notified all parties to the Black Sea grain deal that the agreement has been extended for 60 days, the RBC media outlet quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on Saturday.

Earlier, Turkey and the United Nations said the deal had been extended but did not say for how long. A Ukrainian government minister said the extension was for 120 days.

03:38 PM

Putin seen for the first time since ICC issues warrant for his arrest

03:32 PM

Apparent footage of Putin's visit to the Korsun art school and children's centre in Crimea

It turns out Putin came to Crimea to open an art school.



At least that's what occupational authorities sY about his visit. And they report he drove there himself pic.twitter.com/Namm0rOuyv  Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) March 18, 2023

02:52 PM

Kyiv thanks UN, Turkey for 'sticking to' grain deal agreements

Ukraine's infrastructure minister on Saturday thanked the United Nations and Turkey for adhering to the agreements of a deal that allowed grain exports from war-torn Ukraine.

"[The] Black Sea Grain Initiative agreement is extended for 120 days. Grateful to Antonio Guterres, the United Nations, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Minister Hulusi Akar and all our partners for sticking to the agreements," Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Twitter.

02:23 PM

Turkey's Erdogan says Black Sea Grain Deal extended

A deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports that was due to expire on Saturday has been renewed, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said, but he did not disclose how long the extension period was for.

"The deal for the grain corridor was due to expire today. As a result of our talks with the two sides, we have secured an extension to this deal," Mr Erdogan said in a speech in the western city of Canakkale.

Russia has previously called for renewing the deal for only 60 days, half the term of the previous renewal period, while Ukraine was insisting on a 120-day renewal.

01:49 PM

Two Polish volunteers in attack on their bus, says government advisor

A Russian shell hit the bus of Polish volunteers who brought humanitarian aid in Chasiv Yar. Two volunteers were wounded.



One of them was evacuated to a Dnipro hospital by Life Saving Center.



Wishing both of them a full and speedy recovery. pic.twitter.com/Q24oVi3Xlb  Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) March 18, 2023

01:32 PM

UK to help Kazakh exports bypass Russia, seeks critical minerals

Britain will help Kazakhstan develop export routes bypassing Russia, British Foreign Minister James Cleverly said on a visit to the Central Asian nation on Saturday, where he also signed a memorandum on supplies of critical minerals.

Mr Cleverly said London valued the position of Astana - which has traditionally been closely allied with Moscow - on the Ukrainian conflict. Kazakhstan has refused to support Russia's invasion or recognise its annexation of Ukrainian territories.

"The UK greatly appreciates Kazakhstan's consistent and principled position in supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity and your desire to bring about resolution to the war in line with the UN charter," he told a briefing.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, right, and Kazakhstan's Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko attend an opening ceremony of the square in the Central Park of Astana named after Queen Elizabeth II after their talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, Saturday, March 18, 2023. (AP Photo) - AP

12:42 PM

Pictured: A Ukranian tank opens fire along the frontline south of Bakhmut

TORETSK, UKRAINE - MARCH 17: A Ukranian tank opens fire along the frontline south of Bakhmut in the town of Toretsk, Ukraine on March 17, 2023. (Photo by Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) - Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

12:41 PM

Russian strikes Zaporizhzhia on Friday

Roads were torn open and houses reduced to rubble after a Russian rocket attack in the city of on Friday.



No casualties were reported, but houses were damaged and a catering establishment destroyed, Anatoliy Kurtev of the Zaporizhzhia City Council said.



[Russians] once again attacked the peaceful city. The S-300 missiles were aimed at the territory of one of the residential complexes, said the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administrations.



The attack on the city was one of several widespread Russian attacks in Ukraine following the International Criminal Courts decision to issue an arrest warrant for President Putin and Russias commissioner for childrens rights.



Sixteen Russian drones were deployed to attack Kyiv, western Lviv province and other regions on Friday, but 11 were shot down. Three hit a district bordering Poland while none reached the capital. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the attacks were carried out from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov and Russias Bryansk province, which borders Ukraine.

12:06 PM

Mapped: Russian ground attacks along Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna on Friday

Western #Luhansk/Eastern #Kharkiv Oblast #Russian forces conducted limited ground attacks along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line on March 17 but did not secure any confirmed territorial gains. https://t.co/BIwYpoZbsa pic.twitter.com/yJmAgXYadv  ISW (@TheStudyofWar) March 18, 2023

11:51 AM

The mother of 23 accused of being Vladimir Putin's child-snatcher in chief

Maria Lvova-Belova once boasted about adopting a Ukrainian boy from Mariupol, the city obliterated by Russian bombs, writes James Kilner

With her wavy blonde hair, Russian Orthodox priest husband and 23 children - including one from Mariupol - Maria Lvova-Belova is a Kremlin pin-up. Her social media profile paints a picture of a woman in love with the concept of traditional Russia and is filled with photographs of herself staring into the camera with doe-eyed sincerity. For Lent in February, Ms Lvova-Belova, 38, posed inside a Russian Orthodox church wearing a traditional headscarf. Reads the full story

11:28 AM

Footage of the aftermath of a Russian missile strike on Zaporizhzhia

Last night Russia attacked Ukraine with 16 Shaheds from Bryansk and the Sea of Azov. Air defense shot down 11, including over Kyiv. 5 kamikaze drones hit Novomoskovsk and Yavoriv.



Zaporizhzhia was attacked with S-300 - on video. pic.twitter.com/3GxksePFEq  Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) March 18, 2023

11:05 AM

Russian attacks continue in wake of Putin arrest warrant

Widespread Russian attacks continued in Ukraine following the International Criminal Courts decision to issue an arrest warrant for Putin and Russias commissioner for childrens rights.

Ukraine was attacked by 16 Russian drones on Friday night, the Ukrainian Air Force said in the early hours of Saturday. The air force command said that 11 out of 16 drones were shot down in the central, western and eastern regions. Among areas targeted were the capital, Kyiv, and the western Lviv province.

The head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko, said Ukrainian air defenses shot down all drones heading for the Ukrainian capital, while Lviv regional Gov. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the attacks were carried out from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov and Russias Bryansk province, which borders Ukraine.

10:46 AM

Russian stand-up comic censored in Uzbekistan

A popular anti-Kremlin stand-up comedian had this week his microphone cut off during a show in Uzbekistan whenever he spoke about President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine.

Russian comedian Danila Poperechny, who has more than 1.6 million followers on Instagram, performed in the Uzbek capital Tashkent this week.

"When he performed they cut off his mic 15 times," a concert hall administrator told AFP on Friday, referring to the organisers of Poperechny's show.

10:15 AM

Biden says ICC arrest warrant for Putin 'justified'

Joe Biden said the International Criminal Court's issuance of an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on accusations of a war crime for deporting Ukrainian children was "justified."

The move "makes a very strong point," the US president told reporters at the White House, while noting that the United States is not a member of the ICC.

10:03 AM

Turkey still hopeful of extension to Ukraine grain deal

Turkey is hoping that a grain export deal between Kyiv and Moscow, key to alleviating a global food crisis, can be extended for another 120 days - but time is running out.

The current deal expires just before midnight on Saturday, Istanbul time.

"The deadline is approaching," Turkey's Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Friday.

"We are in touch with both Ukraine and Russia about extending the agreement under its original terms."

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine saw Ukraine's Black Sea ports blocked by warships.
ISLAMABAD, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Three terrorists were killed in a counter-terror operation by security forces in the Awaran district of Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, a military statement said on Saturday night.

From March 15 onwards, an intelligence-based operation was initiated to intercept a terrorist group operating in parts of the district, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said in a statement.

Based on credible information, multiple ambushes had been laid along different routes in the area frequently used by the terrorists in the last three days, the ISPR said.

Resultantly, a party of three terrorists was intercepted while moving towards their hideout, it added.

"On being blocked, they opened fire onto the security forces," the statement said, adding that "during ensuing heavy exchange of fire, all three terrorists have been killed, while a cache of arms and ammunition have been recovered."

The terrorists were linked with firing and improvised explosive devices incidents in parts of the province, said the ISPR.

"Pakistan Army in step with nation remains determined to thwart attempts at sabotaging peace, stability and progress of Balochistan," according to the statement. 
Metropolitan Epiphany of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine [OCU] assures that the monastery on the territory of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (Kyiv Monastery of the Caves) will not be closed, and the language of services will be Old Slavic, along with modern Ukrainian.

Source: Epiphanius' address to the clergy of the monastery and the public

Quote: "In connection with the events related to the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, I consider it necessary to give an explanation on a number of issues.

First of all, it should be emphasised that there is no question of the closure of this monastery, the cessation of prayer, services, and monastic life in it. Comparing the current events with the past persecution of the church by the communist authorities in general and the two-time closure of the monastery in particular is baseless manipulation. It sounds especially cynical from the lips of a hierarch who was closely connected with the Communist Party and even tried to be nominated for an elected position on its behalf."

Details: Epiphanius called on the brothers of the Lavra "to contribute to the process of liberation from the Moscow yoke."

"Moscow's religious power in Ukraine is non-canonical, and everyone sees how the Kremlin uses it against the Ukrainian people," he emphasised.

Epiphanius reiterated that, opening the monastery as part of the Local Church, the Holy Synod of the OCU at the same time asked the government to provide premises for monastic life and religious services in the Lavra.

"This request remains relevant, and we will insist that the monastic life, the opportunity for daily prayer and divine services are properly provided," the Metropolitan emphasised.

Quote: "As a holy archimandrite, I testify to the brothers that all of you who follows the requirements of the canons and Tomos [a decree of canonical independence of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the Moscow Patriarchate  ed.] and reject the lawless power of Moscow, will continue their service in the Lavra. We will use all our capabilities and authority to protect you from intimidation by the former head of the Lavra.

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The current affairs of the monastery will be managed by those who know the traditions and life of the monastery, who are known to you, because they belong to the brotherhood, who have the appropriate abilities and have not tarnished themselves with devotion to the "Russian world".

The ancient Slavic language, together with the modern Ukrainian language, will be the liturgical language of the Lavra, we know that this issue is also important for many of you."

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Editors Note: This is issue 79 of Ukrainian State-Owned Enterprises Weekly, covering events from March 11-17, 2023. The Kyiv Independent is reposting it with permission.

Ukrainian SOE Weekly is an independent weekly digest based on a compilation of the most important news related to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and state-owned banks in Ukraine. This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union within the project Supporting Ukraine in rebuilding and recovery implemented by the KSE Institute. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the editorial team of the Ukrainian SOE Weekly and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

Corporate governance of SOEs

Corporate governance reform of SOEs  including Ukroboronprom, GTSOU, and Energoatom  is among the governments priorities for 2023. On March 14, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the governments Priority Action Plan for 2023.

The Plan includes further reform of SOEs, which involves reducing their number through privatization, liquidation, and reorganization. Before Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the state owned more than 3,300 SOEs. The data was classified later.

The Priority Action Plan also sets out actions on the corporate governance of specific SOEs: Ukroboronprom, Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU), and Energoatom, as discussed below.

 Ukroboronprom. The Cabinet plans to establish a joint-stock company, Ukrainian Defense Industry, which will be the legal successor of the current defense concern Ukroboronprom.

In SOE Weekly (Issue 59), we reported that in July 2021, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Law 1630-IX (previously known as Draft Law No. 3822) which laid the groundwork for Ukroboronproms transformation.

On Dec. 9, 2021, the Cabinet of Ministers approved resolutions and ordinances to transform Ukroboronprom into a joint-stock company. The Cabinet also approved the conversion of Ukroboronproms 43 strategic state unitary and state-owned enterprises into business companies (joint-stock companies or limited liability companies) which will be 100% controlled by the state.

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 GTSOU. The Cabinet also plans to bring the corporate governance of the GTSOU in line with the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of SOEs. The GTSOU must be transferred to the Ministry of Energy, get a supervisory and executive board, and a new version of its charter must be approved. The deadline is December 2023.

In SOE Weekly (Issue 71), we reported that the European Pravda media outlet revealed the conditions that Ukraine must meet to receive the EUs macro-financial assistance (MFA) package. One of these conditions is to launch the corporate restructuring of the GTSOU by June 2023.

As we can see, the EUs MFA package and the governments Priority Action Plan for 2023 set different deadlines for reforming the GTSOU. In this respect, it is not yet clear what steps  among those envisaged by the governments 2023 Plan  should be implemented in the GTSOU by June 2023 to meet the conditionalities of the EUs MFA package.

In Issue 67, we reported that on Oct. 4, the Energy Community Secretariat wrote a letter to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko, urging the government to immediately implement the GTSOUs corporate governance action plan:

transfer the ownership of the GTSOU from Mahistralni Gazoprovody Ukrainy (MGU) to the Ministry of Energy;

adopt a new charter for the GTSOU, establishing an independent supervisory board;

run a competitive selection for supervisory board members of the GTSOU;

have an executive board elected and appointed by the GTSOUs new supervisory board after the latter is established.

 Energoatom. Also, according to the governments plan, Energoatom is to be transformed into a joint-stock company by May 2023. The state nuclear power operator is also slated to receive a competitively selected supervisory board, with a majority of its members being independent. The deadline is November 2023.

In SOE Weekly (Issue 74), we reported that on Feb. 6, the Verkhovna Rada passed Draft Law No. 8067 (in the second reading) on the corporatisation of Energoatom. The first reading of the draft law was approved in October 2022, as we reported in Issue 69.

The bill was proposed by lawmakers Ostap Shypailo, Andriy Gerus (both from the Servant of the People fraction), and other members of parliament. It establishes the legal, economic, and organizational foundations to transform Energoatom from an (uncorporatized) state enterprise to a joint-stock company (JSC) to improve its efficiency and corporate governance.

According to the Energy Committee of the Verkhovna Rada, establishing good corporate governance of SOEs is one of Ukraines obligations under the Association Agreement with the EU.

Energoatom will remain 100% state-owned, with the Cabinet of Ministers as its ownership entity, the committee explained. At the same time, the shares acquired by the state as a result of converting the company into a JSC are not subject to privatization, and it is also prohibited to divide the state-owned package of shares, meaning that these shares cannot be transferred to an owner other than the state in any manner.

In SOE Weeklys overview of the top 2021 events (Issue 58), we forecasted that Energoatom had every chance to be corporatised in 2022.

Decisions to corporatise Energoatom have been made since 2012, starting with the National Action Plan for 2012 on the Implementation of the Programme of Economic Reforms in Ukraine for 2010-2014.

In Issue 41, we wrote that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a Presidential Decree on Aug. 28, 2021, instructing the Cabinet of Ministers to develop and submit a draft law on the transformation of Energoatom by Sept. 30, 2021.

In Issue 53, we wrote that the 2021 IMF Memorandum included a commitment from the Ukrainian authorities to ensure that the law on the corporatisation of Energoatom is enacted by the end of December 2021. Energoatom would then have to get a supervisory board with a majority of independent members. It would also be required to produce financial accounts per international standards by May 2022 (a new structural benchmark at that time).

The High Anti-Corruption Court imposes electronic monitoring on Kobolyev. On March 14, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) partially granted the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) detectives motion to change the measure of restraint for former Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev, pending trial.

The court upheld a bail of Hr 229 million ($6.3 million) on Kobolyev. In addition, the HACC judges added a new obligation to the previous ones, imposed by the HACCs Appeals Chamber earlier: Kobolyev must wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.

As of now, Kobolyev is forbidden from leaving Kyiv without the permission of a detective or prosecutor. He must refrain from communicating with witnesses, hand in his passports, and wear a monitoring bracelet, the law firm Miller, which represents Kobolyev in this litigation, said. The restriction period is two months.

Kobolyev commented on the courts decision on his Facebook page, posting a photo of the bracelet. I must admit that this is not an Hr 8 billion ($219 million) personal fine as in March 2018, but it is still a good distinction, he wrote.

In SOE Weekly (Issue 71), we reported that on Jan. 19, NABU and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutors Office (SAPO) notified Kobolyev that he was suspected of misappropriating (illegally awarding himself) over Hr 229 million ($6.3 million) in 2018.

This payment was part of the bonuses granted to Naftogazs team in May 2018 for the companys historic victory against Russias Gazprom in Stockholms court of arbitration. For a more detailed overview of this case, see SOE Weeklys Issue 71.

In SOE Weekly (Issue 72), we reported that on Jan. 23, the HACC refused to grant the NABU detectives request to detain Kobolyev. As we wrote in Issue 73, the HACC judge ruled that SAPOs motion to detain Kobolyev was unfounded. On Jan. 31, SAPO challenged HACCs decision.

In Issue 77, we reported that the HACCs Appeals Chamber partially satisfied the motion of SAPO and NABU, setting bail at Hr 229 million ($6.3 million), which Kobolyev had until March 6 to pay.

In Issue 78, we reported that according to SAPO, Kobolyev did not pay his required bail of Hr 229 million ($6.3 million). As of March 7, almost Hr 97 million ($2.7 million) has been paid for Kobolyevs bail, according to SAPO. Per the court decision, the bail must be paid in full to the accounts of the State Treasury Service of Ukraine no later than five days after the court ruling is announced.

As a result, the SAPO prosecutor filed a motion requesting NABU to apply a more stringent preventive measure to the suspect, namely detention with a bail of Hr 365 million. This is an equivalent of the $10 million that Kobolyev received as the first tranche of his allegedly illegal bonus, according to SAPO.

State Property Fund plans to replace CEOs at 65 SOEs. On March 15, the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU) announced that it planned to replace chief executives at 65 SOEs. The decision is based on the analysis of those enterprises financial indicators.

According to the SPFU, new CEOs have already been appointed at 22 companies, with another 20 awaiting approval from local military administrations, and documents for the appointment of another 15 being prepared.

The SPFU also said it had shared the results of a management performance audit of the United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC) for 2022 with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and NABU.

In SOE Weekly (Issue 75), we reported that the SPFU announced that it began dismissing SOE managers found to be lacking integrity.

As we also reported in Issue 75, the SPFU announced the dismissal of the acting CEO of UMCC, Vladyslav Itkin. 100% of UMCCs shares are held by the SPFU, and the company is slated for privatization. According to the SPFU, this dismissal decision was based on a thorough internal financial and economic audit of the company.

In Issue 33, we reported that the UMCC privatization auction was scheduled to take place on Aug. 31, 2021.

Later, in Issue 41, we reported that the SPFU cancelled that privatization auction, which had only one qualified bidder. The SPFUs Auction Commission set Oct. 29, 2021, as the new auction date.

In Issue 49, we reported that the SPFU cancelled the Oct. 29, 2021, auction as well. The SPFU then explained that it only received two auction applications, one of which did not meet the requirements. The SPFUs Auction Commission then set a new auction date again, Dec. 20, 2021.

In Issue 56, we said that BDO Corporate Finance, the SPFUs adviser on the privatization of the UMCC, said that international companies were not prepared to participate in the UMCC auction despite their interest in these assets. BDO said that this was because there were no warranties that would protect the prospective buyers investments. As of Dec. 14, 2021, the Cabinet of Ministers had not approved the privatization terms of the UMCC auction that would include such warranties.

In Issue 57, we reported that the SPFU postponed the UMCCs privatization auction for the third time. Just like in October 2021, the SPFU said that it had received two auction applications, one of which did not meet the requirements of the applicable law.

Holding an auction with only one participant is not allowed by the privatization law. For that reason, the UMCC privatization auction was declared invalid (for the third time). At that time, the SPFU noted that a new date for the UMCC auction would be set on a separate occasion.

Banks

HACC detains one of the suspects in the case of Hr 206 million allegedly siphoned from Ukrgasbank. The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) imposed a measure of restraint on one of the members of an organized group led by Ukrgasbanks former CEO Kyrylo Shevchenko, which allegedly siphoned Hr 206 million ($5.6 million) from the bank. This follows a release by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutors Office (SAPO).

The suspect was the banks fictitious agent in the scheme, SAPO said. According to the release, the court partially granted SAPOs motion, ruling to detain the suspect for two months (until May 14), with a bail of Hr 6.4 million ($175,000) as an alternative measure of restraint.

According to the investigation, Ukrgasbanks employees signed contracts with individuals posing as agents who ostensibly attracted large clients to the bank in exchange for a financial reward. SAPO said that 52 individuals were involved in this scheme between 2014 and 2019  they received a total of over Hr 206 million ($5.6 million) in unjustified payments from Ukrgasbank.

In particular, Shevchenko, the banks former CEO, was notified of suspicion.

Shevchenko served as the acting CEO of Ukrgasbank from October 2014 to May 2015. He went on to serve as the banks permanent CEO for five years, from May 2015 to July 2020.

From July 2020 to October 2022, he was the governor of the National Bank of Ukraine.

On Oct. 24, 2022, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) put three Ukrgasbank officers, including Shevchenko, on the wanted list. Shevchenko believes that this is another confirmation that the investigation is biased and politicized.

On Feb. 10, 2022, the HACCs Appeals Chamber upheld the arrest of Shevchenko in absentia.

Defense

Ukroboronprom starts production of shells for three types of tanks for Ukraines Armed Forces. On March 14, Ukroboronprom announced that it had begun producing 125-mm shells for tanks jointly with a NATO member state. Ukroboronprom did not name the NATO country.

By request of the Ministry of Defense, the first batch of 125-mm shells for T-64, T-72, and T-80 tanks, which are used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has already been delivered, according to Ukroboronprom.

This is the second ammunition production programme that the Ukroboronprom businesses have produced in close partnership with a NATO member state abroad, the conglomerate said.

Ukroboronprom noted that Ukraine is producing its own ammunition for the first time since independence: 82-mm and 120-mm mortar shells, 122-mm and 152-mm artillery rounds, and now, 125-mm tank shells.

For security reasons, production has been moved outside the country, but Ukrainians are involved in the design and making of the ammunition, including designers, technologists, turners, foundry workers, and others.

In SOE Weekly (Issue 74), we reported that Ukrorboronprom announced that it had begun producing 120-mm mortar shells jointly with an undisclosed NATO member state. According to the company, the 120-mm mortar shell is the first product to be jointly produced by Ukraine and a NATO member state. Recently, Ukroboronprom signed a contract with Ukraines Defense Ministry for the supply of these munitions.

Infrastructure

HACC imposes a bail of Hr 10 million for ex-Infrastructure Minister Pyvovarsky. On March 16, the investigating judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) imposed a bail of Hr 10 million on the former Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, Andriy Pyvovarsky, for alleged abuse of power.

According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), in 2015, Pyvovarsky issued an order allowing private companies to charge half the harbor dues at Pivdenny seaport. The water area of this port is state property in the use of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA). Only a state enterprise has the right to charge harbor dues, NABU said.

Back then, Pyvovarsky responded that according to the Law On Sea Ports of Ukraine, proceeds from tonnage tax are distributed between the user of the ports harbor (in this case, USPA) and the owner of the operational harbor (in this case, private company TIS). He argued that the Ministrys order was therefore not a crime. See In SOE Weeklys Issue 76 for more detail.

The HACC ordered Pyvovarsky to pay the full amount within five days of the court ruling.

He also has to abide by the following obligations:

to appear at the request of the investigator, prosecutor, detective, or court;

to notify the investigator, detective, prosecutor, and court of any change of place of residence and place of work, as well as any travel outside Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast;

refrain from communicating with persons specified in the court ruling.

The obligations are valid for two months, i.e., until May 16 inclusive.

On his Facebook page, Pyvovarsky wrote that the long process of consideration of the case on the merits comes next, with all the joys of criminal proceedings, such as interrogation of witnesses and filing of documents.

In SOE Weekly (Issue 76), we reported that on Feb. 22, NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutors Office (SAPO) served Pyvovarsky a notice of suspicion of abusing his powers, which allegedly caused more than $30 million in damage in 2015. Pyvovarsky served as the Minister of Infrastructure in the Arseniy Yatsenyuk government from December 2014 to April 2016.

His First Deputy, Volodymyr Shulmeister, who had been the First Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and chaired the Ministrys Tariff Council, was also charged in absentia.

In SOE Weekly (Issue 77), we reported that Pyvovarsky wrote on his Facebook page that NABU asked the court to set his bail at Hr 20 million ($547,000). Pyvovarsky emphasized that he fully disagreed with the charges and the motion to set bail.

Privatization

Resuming large-scale privatization is among the governments priorities for 2023. As we said above, on March 14, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the governments Priority Action Plan for 2023.

In particular, the plan envisages continuing privatization of small-scale assets throughout 2023.

The Cabinet also plans to approve an updated list of large-scale privatization objects by May 2023, and the sale of these objects would be carried out throughout the year.

In addition, during 2023 more than 1,000 SOEs should be transferred to the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU) according to the 2023 Priority Action Plan.

No specific large SOEs to be privatized have been named in the plan.

The revenue from privatization to the state budget is projected to be Hr 6 billion ($164 million) in 2023. During the first two months of 2023, Hr 668 million ($18.3 million) was transferred to the state budget from privatization.

Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi trade seaport privatized. On March 13, the SPFU sold the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi trade seaport on the second attempt for Hr 220 million ($6 million), a more than twofold increase from the starting price (Hr 93.8 million).

According to Prozzoro.Sale, the winner is Ukrdoninvest LLC, owned by Ukrainian businessman Vitaliy Kropachov. According to the SPFU, the auction winner has 20 working days to pay the lot price. Only after the funds are transferred to the state budget can the sale and purchase agreement be signed.

Kropachov is the owner of the Ukrdoninvest Group of companies with assets in the coal industry, machine-building, construction, transportation, and media.

In 2018, Kropachovs Ukrdoninvest took part in the privatization auction for Centrenergo, but the SPFU later cancelled the auction because the documentation submitted by the bidders did not meet the legal requirements.

At that time, the SPFU intended to sell the state-owned stake in Centrenergo (78.3%) at an auction with a starting price of Hr 5.9 billion ($161 million). Kropachov did not say what stake he already had in Centrenergo, revealing only that it was more than 1%.

In 2018, the Ekonomichna Pravda media outlet (EP) wrote that Kropachov had monopolized the supply of coal to Centrenergo. According to the EP, more than 80% of the coal supplied to Centrenergo was provided by entities directly or indirectly linked to the businessman.

In SOE Weekly (Issue 74), we reported that the SPFU announced a privatization auction for the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi trade seaport on March 3.

In Issue 78, we reported that the auction did not take place. A new auction was scheduled for March 13. The starting price had been halved  from Hr 187.6 million ($5.1 million) to Hr 93.8 million ($2.6 million).

According to Oleksandr Slavskyi, head of the regional office of the SPFU in Odesa and Mykolaiv oblasts, the first auction failed because no one registered for the auction. According to him, after the full-scale Russian invasion, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi has been blocked from the sea and thus used for transshipment only.

In SOE Weekly (Issue 71), we reported that on Jan. 17, the SPFU sold the Ust-Dunaisk trade seaport for Hr 201 million ($5.5 million), a more than threefold increase from the starting price (Hr 60 million). This was the first sale of a seaport in the history of independent Ukraine.

Note that, unlike Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, the Ust-Dunaisk seaport is operational.


UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will continue to meet and speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin, even though the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant for Putins arrest.

Source: Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, during a briefing on Friday

He emphasised that "the International Criminal Court is independent of the [UN] Secretariat. We do not comment on their actions."

Quote: "We will, as before, assume that the Secretary-General will speak to whoever he needs to speak in order to resolve the issues before him," Guterres' spokesman emphasised.

Dujarric answered evasively when asked whether under the current conditions, the UN Secretary-General could guarantee the Russian Presidents participation in UN events if they take place on the territory of signatory states of the Rome Statute.

Quote: "As I said, this applies to everyone: the Secretary-General will always speak to whoever he needs to talk to in order to move forward I can only speak for him," he said.

Background: Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Affairs.

Note: Ukraine is not a party to the Rome Statute, the international agreement under which the International Criminal Court was founded and operates. However, Ukraine has granted the International Criminal Court the right to investigate crimes on its territory.

A total of 123 states are party to the Rome Statute, including South American states and about half the states of Africa, so formally they must pay attention to warrants issued by the ICC. China, India, Belarus, Turkiye and Kazakhstan are among those that have not signed or ratified the statute. Russia, like the United States, signed the statute but later withdrew its signature.

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The United States has confirmed that Chinese ammunition has been used on the Ukrainian battlefield and suspects that they were fired by Russian forces.

Source: This was reported by Japanese publication Kyodo News with reference to governmental sources, writes European Pravda.

Details: The US government determined that the ammunition found in Ukraine was made in China after analysing its composition and other factors, the sources said. However, they did not disclose exactly what kind of ammunition was found.

It remains unclear whether the munitions were supplied by China, US administration sources said, adding that Washington was prepared to take action if it was confirmed that Beijing had made the deliveries.

According to the sources of the publication, the United States informed some of its partners about this.

The confirmation comes as Chinese leader Xi Jinping plans to travel to Moscow for a three-day state visit next week.

In his first trip to Russia since the start of its invasion of Ukraine last February, Xi Jinping is expected to reaffirm his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The media also reported that Xi Jinping plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time during the full-scale war, probably after his trip to Moscow.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
Makoto Yamada

Editor's Update: The former president of the hotel, 70-year-old Makoto Yamada, was recently found dead by suicide, less than two weeks after he quit in disgrace over the discovery that the spa water in his upscale Japanese guesthouse was teeming with legionella bacteria. Yamada was facing a criminal complaint.

By Junko Ogura and Lianne Kolirin, CNN

March 1, 2023 (CNN) -- The boss of a 158-year-old Japanese guesthouse has apologized for only changing the water in its spa bath twice a year, after it was found to be teeming with potentially deadly bacteria.

A health inspection of the onsen, a traditional Japanese bath using water from volcanically heated hot springs, at the Daimaru Besso inn in Chikushino, Fukuoka Prefecture, detected legionella bacteria at 3,700 times the permitted level, CNN affiliate TV Asahi reported.

According to local regulations, the water at the onsen should have been changed on a weekly basis. But management at the hotel admitted that it was only changed twice a year.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Makoto Yamada, the president of the company that owns the ryokan (traditional guesthouse), bowed deeply and said he regretted the lack of action taken, adding: "I am very sorry."

Legionella bacteria can cause Legionnaires' disease, a serious type of pneumonia. People can get sick when they breathe in small droplets of water containing the bacteria, causing an infection in the lungs. The illness can be treated with antibiotics.

The bacteria can occur in shower heads and faucets, hot tubs, cooling towers, hot water tanks, decorative fountains or plumbing systems in large buildings.

Yamada said he was unaware of the importance of changing the water. He told the press conference: "I was not aware of the law myself and thought that legionella bacteria was a common bacterium that could be found anywhere, and also that it was safe because the large baths were free-flowing so the water was changed quite often."

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Daimaru Besso guesthouse

The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images

The baths were temporarily shut down after the bacteria were detected last year but have returned to being fully operational. Yamada told the press conference that he used the baths himself, even after the bacteria were detected.



The ryokan's website says of its baths: "Our bath waters come from the Futsukaichi Onsen, which has been flowing for over 1,300 years, a symbol of the unchanging history of the area.

"Futsukaichi Onsen has been visited by government dignitaries and priests for centuries. Its soft and smooth waters leave your skin feeling supple and your mind at ease."

The water, the website claims, helps relieve "chronic joint pain, nerve pain, gastrointestinal issues, burns, skin issues."

Yamada told the press conference that his team had neglected to add chlorine to the water for hygiene purposes "because we selfishly disliked the smell of chlorine."

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
By Gram Slattery and Nate Raymond

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to allow a federal law stand that makes it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to own firearms.

In February, a three judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans declared that the ban was unconstitutional, saying it violated the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right to bear arms. It was the latest victory for gun rights advocates since a Supreme Court ruling last June granting a broad right for people to carry firearms outside the home.

The Supreme Court ruling announced a new test for assessing firearms laws, saying restrictions must be "consistent with this nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation," and not simply advance an important government interest.

The Justice Department's petition to appeal the matter to the Supreme Court was posted on Twitter late on Friday by Jake Charles, a law professor at Pepperdine University with expertise on gun control issues. It can take several days for a petition to be posted to the public docket.

"More than a million acts of domestic violence occur in the United States every year, and the presence of a firearm increases the chance that violence will escalate to homicide," the petition reads.

The Justice Department said it was pursuing the Supreme Court appeal on a "highly expedited schedule" so the justices could potentially take up the case before the current term ends.

In its decision, the 5th Circuit panel, which was comprised of three Republican-appointed judges, threw out the guilty plea and six-year prison sentence for Zackey Rahimi, who admitted to possessing guns found in his Kennedale, Texas, home after prosecutors said he participated in five shootings in Dec. 2020 and Jan. 2021.

Rahimi had been under a restraining order since Feb. 2020, following his alleged assault of a former girlfriend.

Neither the Justice Department, nor the federal public defender representing Rahimi immediately responded to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Nate Raymond; editing by Diane Craft)
RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle

Read also: Russia wants to retrieve wreckage of downed US drone

According to the data, a RQ-4 Global Hawk drone bearing call sign FORTE10 entered airspace over the Black Sea. According to a post in Crimea Reality Telegram channel, ran by Radio Liberty, the drone departed from Sigonella Air Base in Italy, and subsequently circled in Romanian airspace.

The U.S. European Command for Armed Forces has released a statement confirming that on the morning of March 14, two Russian Su-27 fighter jets conducted an unsafe interception of an MQ-9 Reaper drone engaged in routine operations over international airspace in the Black Sea.

The incident resulted in one of the Su-27s colliding with the drone's propeller, forcing the operators to make an emergency landing at sea.

Read also: U.S. Presidential hopeful says helping Ukraine defend against Russian aggression not in U.S. interests

Russias Ministry of Defense claims that they did not come into contact with the drone, and that it went into an uncontrolled descent with loss of altitude following some abrupt maneuvers. However, the United States has countered these claims by releasing a video on March 16, disproving Moscows account of the encounter.

Read also: US MQ-9 drone crashes over Black Sea after collision with Russian aircraft

Following the incident, U.S. State Department has summoned the Russian ambassador to address the situation. According to the Pentagon, the Su-27 fighter may have been damaged during the attack on the drone. To prevent the MQ-9 Reaper from being acquired by unauthorized parties and to minimize its intelligence value, the United States has taken appropriate measures. However, the White House has expressed uncertainty about the possibility of recovering the drone.

Read also: U.S. to continue providing historic amount of security assistance to Ukraine

According to a CNN report, the United States remotely wiped sensitive data from the MQ-9 Reaper drone before it crashed into the water, preventing Russia from potentially retrieving any valuable intelligence from it.

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Four years after landing his job, Jaffus Hardrick was finally inaugurated Friday as the 14th president of Florida Memorial University, the only historically Black college or university (HBCU) in South Florida and one of the oldest schools in the state.

Universities usually swear in presidents within 12 months after hiring them. It took longer for FMU to induct Hardrick, 61, because of what he described as challenging times.

READ MORE: Florida Memorial University, South Floridas only HBCU, gets off probation

Since coming on board in 2019, Hardrick has led the private university through one of the toughest periods in its 144-year history, a period that included the COVID-19 pandemic and an economic crisis that threatened its accreditation.

It is my honor to accept this responsibility and continue the great work that weve started, Hardrick said at an investiture ceremony that was held at the universitys Miami Gardens campus and featured music from the Ambassador Chorale and the Roar Marching Band.

It will take all of us working together  faculty, staff, students, alumni and community partners  to ensure that Florida Memorial continues to ascend to excellence, he added.

FMU Ambassador Chorale performed during the Investiture Ceremony for Dr. Jaffus Hardrick, Ed.D., as the14th president of Florida Memorial University, celebrated at the University in Miami Gardens, on Friday March17, 2023.

University presidents usually walk into the induction ceremony eager to prove themselves and gain the communitys respect. Hardrick, however, had already done that.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who attended the event, recognized the tremendous mark that Hardrick has already made.

I can think of no one more qualified to continue to lead our only HBCU right here at Miami-Dade County and make sure it continues its bright future as a world-class institution, she said, in front of the stages bright white, orange and blue backdrop.

In the fall of 2021, FMU increased its student enrollment for the first time since 2012. Last fall, it enrolled its largest freshman class in 15 years.

READ MORE: Florida Memorial enrolls its largest freshman class in 15 years, a turnaround for the HBCU

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who represents U.S. House District 24, also spoke, donning one of her signature hats, this time black with rhinestones. She delivered a ceremonial $5 million check from the U.S. Treasury to FMU, to fund programs in STEM and national security fields, and presented Hardrick with an official record recognizing him that will go into the Library of Congress.

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She described Hardrick as a friend, and a man of proven leadership, vision and dedication to service.

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson joined Dr. Jaffus Hardrick, Ed.D. during Mr. Hardricks Investiture Ceremony as the 14th president of Florida Memorial University, celebrated at the University in Miami Gardens, on Friday March17, 2023.

Taffany Brown, the Student Government Associations president, thanked Hardrick for setting an example for the about 1,100 who attend FMU.

You have made Florida Memorial a place where the best  and I repeat, the best  students want to come, she told him.

Hardrick previously worked for 15 years at Florida International University, spending the last nine as vice president for student access and success. Before that, he worked for 12 years at Baylor University, where he rose to assistant vice provost for academic affairs.

He got a bachelors in sociology from University of Louisiana at Lafayette, a masters in education from Prairie View A&M University and a doctorate in education at Baylor University.
Literary experts from Hungary and China commemorate the 200th anniversary of the national poet Sandor Petofi's birth with a "Chinese-Hungarian poetic dialogue" in Budapest, Hungary, on March 16, 2023. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)

BUDAPEST, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Literary experts from Hungary and China commemorated the 200th anniversary of the national poet Sandor Petofi's birth with a "Chinese-Hungarian poetic dialogue" here on Thursday night.

The event, jointly organized by the China Cultural Center in Budapest and the Petofi Literary Museum, started with the recital of Petofi's poems in Hungarian and Chinese by sinology students at the Eotvos Lorand University of Budapest, and was followed by a roundtable discussion among literary experts.

The discussion was moderated by Klara Zombory, a famous sinologist and translator.

Sinologist and lecturer of the Chinese Department of Pazmany Peter Catholic University Zsuzsanna Csibra, Hungarian literary and social historian Emese Gyimesi, and literary translator and researcher of Petofi Li Zhen, participated in the dialogue.

"Petofi is a foreign poet very familiar to Chinese people, his poems were introduced to China in 1907. Since then, many translators and writers in China have translated Petofi's poems," Li told Xinhua following the event.

While there were a great many events organized in Hungary in the frame of the Petofi bicentennial commemorative year, the present event was outstanding. "Not only is it about Petofi in the souls of the Hungarian people, but we are also representing what Petofi means to the Chinese people," Zombory said.

She was very proud that Petofi's oeuvre had been published in Chinese although some translations were almost a century old and needed to be reworked to be more in accordance with the expectations of the current times.

She was convinced that Petofi, born 200 years ago, led such an exciting life that he is still very much loved by the younger generations.

The audience loved the commemorative activities about Petofi held in China and Hungary, said Jin Hao, head of the China Cultural Center in Budapest.

"Through the holding of these activities, the people of the two countries can have a deeper understanding of their respective cultures and literature, and the friendship between the two countries has been deepened," he said.

Hungary marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Petofi with many bicentenary programs both in the capital and in rural museums and memorial sites. 
(Bloomberg) -- Members of Congress and their staffers rebounded from pandemic travel anxiety in 2022, accepting more than $6.6 million worth of airline tickets, hotel rooms and meals paid for by special interest groups.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The total of 1,785 trips that were paid for by outside organizations last year was up from 829 trips in 2021, and 321 in 2020, when travel was limited by coronavirus restrictions, according to a database of disclosures compiled by the nonpartisan data service LegiStorm LLC.

Destinations included more than 40 foreign countries, including Israel, Spain and Japan, as well as US cities such as Las Vegas, New Orleans and Miami.

Picking up the tab for lawmakers and members of their staffs were some of the most active lobbying groups in Washington, like the Motion Picture Association Inc., the American Gaming Association, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and a charitable organization affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Some of the lawmakers took spouses and other family members, also free-of-cost, on the excursions. Kevin McCarthy, now the House speaker, brought his mother along on an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel.

Privately sponsored travel for members of Congress is one of the most effective tools of influence-peddling by businesses and special interest groups, Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, a non-partisan group that emphasizes government accountability. It is noteworthy that these trips are almost always to ideal vacation spots and not to troubled lands, such as Ukraine.

The trips are separate from taxpayer-paid congressional delegation travel, typically taken overseas and involve military transportation.

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The $26,847 tab for McCarthy and his mother, Roberta McCarthy, was picked up by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation. The foundation also paid $13,805 for current House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York to participate in all-Democratic delegation trip to Israel at about the same time (the Republicans had their own).

McCarthy didnt respond to a request for comment. But in his application for the trip to the House Ethics Committee, he described it as an educational trip to meet officials and representatives to get updates and better understand the current geopolitical, economic, and regional challenges in this important area, and their effect on our national security.

The trip included VIP treatment at the airport, luxury hotel stays on the Sea of Galilee and guided visits to ancient sites. The itinerary took them to Israels borders with the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, a stop at an Iron Dome anti-missile system battery, and an opportunity to go inside a so-called Hezbollah terror tunnel. There were also audiences with Israeli leaders.

Israel was by far the top destination for the free travel, by dollars  no doubt a reflection of the nations role as a crucial ally in the Middle East and a top recipient of American aid. Shoring up support in Washington has grown more important as criticism mounts over Israeli treatment of Palestinians and its move away from a two-state peace plan.

The sponsored travel is legal and each trip has to be submitted for advance approval from the ethics panel of the lawmakers chamber to be sure it meets the rules Congress sets for itself. But critics say those rules should be stricter and that the trip sponsors are buying the lawmakers time and attention in ways the average person cannot.

The most frequent international destinations for Republicans were Israel, Egypt, Spain, Japan and Kenya. Tops for Democrats were Israel, the UK, Japan, Iceland and Belgium. Overseas trips were paid for by a variety of policy institutes, universities and educational foundations, such as the United Nations Foundation, the Korea Society, the nonpartisan Aspen Institute, the Conservative Climate Foundation Inc., and the Ripon Society, a Republican policy group.

Representative Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican. racked up the most travel, dollar-wise, reporting $80,610 worth of sponsored trips. His three excursions included one to Madrid last November with his wife, Angie, for a TransAtlantic Capital to Capital Exchange, attended by other lawmakers. He also went to Israel with his son, a visit paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation.

These trips are approved by House Ethics, follow all guidelines, and didnt cost the taxpayers a dime, Bacon said in a statement. They provided an opportunity to expand my knowledge on issues by seeing things first-hand as well as strengthen diplomatic ties with our allies.

I appreciate the opportunity to bring along one family member when approved by the Ethics Committee, he added.

Representative Lou Correa, a California Democrat, reported the single most expensive privately funded trip, to Israel. Joined by his wife, Esther, the trips cost was listed as $46,713 and paid for by the US Israel Education Association.

In all, Correa reported $58,315 worth of travel in four trips  including one to Reykjavik, Iceland, again with his wife, focused on agriculture and trade and funded by the Aspen Institute Inc. Congressional Program. The couple also traveled to Las Vegas so he could participate in discussions on emerging technology policies, a trip paid by the Consumer Technology Association whose members include Apple Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Amazon.com Services Inc.

He didnt respond to a request for comment.

In the Senate, the number of privately paid-for trips was generally lower. Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, is listed as taking the most. Her three trips included one to Israel valued at $23,303, sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation. She didnt respond to a request for comment.

Some of the travel was logged by lawmakers who had announced their retirements. Republican Fred Upton of Michigan, for example, reported four trips last year costing $68,386, to Madrid, Reykjavik, Geneva and the Israeli cities of Jerusalem and Tiberias.

Upton said his travel complied with House rules and was not at taxpayer expense. He said the conference in Madrid was a commitment hed made before his retirement announcement.

Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, government affairs manager at the Project on Government Oversight, said there are government-paid options for fact-finding trips.

He questioned why spouses and children  or mothers  are tagging along, for free, especially if youre calling it something to do in the context of your official duty as a member of Congress.

I would certainly enjoy an all-expenses paid trip with my wife to an exotic destination overseas, Hedtler-Gaudette said. But Im not a member of Congress and Im not claiming that its a part of my job to do that trip.

--With assistance from Sophie Caronello.

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The US government is investigating the apparent suicide of a Saudi Arabian transgender woman who says she was coerced by her family into leaving the US, according to reports.

Eden Knight, 23, posted a suicide note on Monday alleging that her parents had hired American "fixers" to help bring her back to the authoritarian kingdom and force her to detransition.

She said the fixers introduced her to a Saudi Arabian lawyer in Washington DC who slowly made her dependent on him for "food and shelter" while pressuring her to live as a man, leading her to suffer a mental breakdown and acquiesce to her family's demands.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for the US State Department told Vice News: "We have seen these reports and are studying these allegations."

Ms Knight's friends welcomed the investigation, though some expressed fear that it would go nowhere.

"Forced detransition is torture," said Merrick DeVille, a friend of Ms Knight who has been leading an effort to compile evidence about her case for journalists and activists.

"[Eden] would still be here if her family just let her live how she wanted to. I am tired of watching my friends suffering and dying. This community just wants to live their lives and be themselves."

The Independent has not been able to fully confirm Ms Knight's death, but social media accounts belonging to her alleged family members announced funeral arrangements for a "young man" with the same legal first name and surname, and friends have not heard from her since her suicide note on Monday 13 February.

That post, apparently scheduled in advance, sparked dismay and fury among her many friends in the US, where she had attended high school and later studied computer science at George Mason University.

The post alleged that her parents, whom she described as "strict conservative Muslims", bullied her, berated her, and denied her access to her hormone medication until her spirit was broken.

Saudi Arabia has invested substantial resources in neutralising dissidents and critics abroad over the last few years, often by trying to persuade them to return to the country or even arresting them during brief trips back.

Neither Ms Knight's apparent family nor the alleged fixers have responded to requests for comment.
Washington and other Western capitals reacted warily on Friday to the announcement of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Russia next week, with the US "deeply concerned" Beijing could try to pose as a peacemaker by promoting an immediate ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.

Both Beijing and the Kremlin confirmed on Friday that Xi will make a state visit to Russia from Monday to Wednesday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It will be Xi's first foreign trip since he secured an unprecedented third term as China's president last week.

His face-to-face talks with Putin are widely expected to have broad implications for the war, now in its second year, and China's already tense relationship with the US.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

But its significance grew further on Friday after pressure grew on Putin: the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, issued an arrest warrant for him over the war crime of illegally deporting Ukrainian children to Russia.

Putin and Xi in Beijing on February 4, 2022, three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. Photo: Sputnik/Kremlin via Reuters alt=Putin and Xi in Beijing on February 4, 2022, three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. Photo: Sputnik/Kremlin via Reuters>

Additionally, Turkey, after blocking Finland's application to join Nato in the wake of Russia's invasion, agreed to support it. Putin has maintained that Nato is a threat to Russia.

Beijing's foreign ministry described the trip as a "visit of friendship, cooperation and peace".

Washington, though, sees it as a potentially harmful reframing of the conflict. The Chinese might promote a ceasefire and "try to couch themselves as peacemakers and as ... the only ones calling for the fighting to stop", National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

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"We have deep concerns about that, because of what it actually means in terms of benefiting Russia at the expense of Ukraine," he said.

"That's why we're expressing these concerns even before the visit."

The US position is that any ceasefire that freezes positions on the ground would validate Russia's seizing of Ukrainian territory and give it a chance to rebuild its forces for further attacks.

"We don't support calls for a ceasefire right now," Kirby said. "We certainly don't support calls for a ceasefire that would be called for by the PRC [People's Republic of China] in a meeting in Moscow that would simply benefit Russia."

He criticised Beijing for not joining the rest of the international community in supporting Ukraine. "We would certainly hope that they would. But we'll see what comes out of this meeting," he said.

Britain also said that any peace deal not predicated on Ukraine's sovereignty and self determination was no peace deal at all.

"We don't support calls for a ceasefire right now," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. Photo: EPA-EFE alt="We don't support calls for a ceasefire right now," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. Photo: EPA-EFE>

"We will continue to call on China, as we have done before, to join other countries across the world in calling on Putin to withdraw his troops," a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday.

Still, the spokesperson said, "if China wants to play a genuine role in restoring sovereignty to Ukraine, then we would obviously welcome that".

European Union nations are watching Xi's trip closely to see if Beijing tries to build on the 12-point position paper on ending the war that it issued on the first anniversary of Russia's invasion last month.

The EU ambassador to China, Jorge Toledo Albinana, was briefed by China's foreign ministry about the trip in Beijing on Friday morning, a senior EU official said.

"We were told this morning in Beijing that he was going there to make efforts to bring peace ... Efforts? OK, but let's see what they are," the official said.

"We of course appreciate that the Chinese provide this sort of information - that shows, obviously, that they want to be constructive, which is good," the official added.

The ambassador conveyed to the ministry that there could be no peace without a full withdrawal of Russian troops.

"As constructive as you can be, there are not many ways to end this war. There is only one, which is Putin withdrawing his troops from Ukraine and restoring integrity, sovereignty and independence," the EU official added.

The EU was also informed that Beijing would be communicating with Kyiv before Xi's trip. On Thursday, the two countries' foreign ministers spoke on the phone.

European diplomats held an in-depth debate on the position paper on Wednesday, while foreign ministers from EU's 27 member states may discuss it further on Monday.

China's paper was quickly dismissed as "pro-Russia" by senior officials in Brussels upon its release on February 24, but recently EU diplomats' views appear to have slightly softened.

"It is not a matter of black and white: some parts of it are good, some parts are bad," said a Western European diplomat who was involved in the discussion.

"We don't see it as a real solution yet, but there is some overlap with Ukraine's own peace proposals, so we need to work with the Chinese to find a space where the two could converge," the diplomat added.

A second EU diplomat said that expectations about how much China could or would help as a peacemaker were well-managed, calling Xi's three-day trip to Moscow as evidence of Beijing's biases.

"Xi and Putin signed a partnership with 'no limits', so a trip by XI to Moscow certainly fits within that partnership," the diplomat said.

"We just hope Xi will be able to deliver a couple of useful messages on the nuclear weapons issue, but it is obvious that China's neutrality is a pro-Russian neutrality," the diplomat added.

Back in Washington, Kirby said that the US had consistently warned Beijing of "consequences" if it supplies weapons to Russia for use in the war, and that the White House did not believe "they've taken anything off the table".

However, he added, "we also haven't seen any indications any confirmation that they've made a decision to move in that direction or have actually provided anything".

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
An American man is the first known International Legionnaire to defect to Russia Poca Wander / Getty Images; Arif Qazi / Insider

A US veteran went to fight in Ukraine but has defected to Russia.

Those who fought with him in Ukraine told Insider he was unstable and erratic on the battlefield.

His time in Ukraine calls into question the vetting processes of the country's International Legion.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, scores of foreign fighters flocked to help defend the country.

Among them was John McIntyre, a 25-year-old American veteran nicknamed Johnny Alabama, or Bama, by his fellow fighters who took up arms and joined the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine.

Videos show the American among the uniformed fighters on the ground calling out, "God bless Ukraine," and, "Fuck you, Russia."

Then he switched sides.

In February 2023, McIntyre was sitting in a restaurant in Moscow and talking to a journalist from the Russian state-controlled network RT about his decision to defect from Ukraine to Russia.

McIntyre is the first known foreign fighter to have crossed enemy lines to join Russia. In the RT interview, he claimed that he went to Ukraine with the intention to defect all along.

But two legionnaires who directly worked with McIntyre told Insider he was an erratic and unstable person who wreaked havoc in Ukraine and was pushed out of the legion before he decided to defect.

They painted a picture of a troubled man who at least once excessively drank alcohol whilst fighting and urinated in an army vehicle, defaced Ukrainian guard posts, and was eventually barred from handling weapons because he was deemed a danger to himself and others.

Malcolm Nance, a former US Navy officer and counterterrorism expert who joined Ukraine's International Legion in the early days of the war and has since become a recognizable face of foreign fighters in Ukraine, said McIntyre caused issues from the beginning.

Story continues

"Bama is a highly unstable character," Nance told Insider. "Bama was known to be a professional fuckup and mentally ill."

He added: "We used to say crazy with a capital K."

While the fighters who spoke with Insider cited McIntyre's mental state while talking about his actions, mental illness alone does not necessarily indicate combat-readiness, and the legionnaires are not professionally qualified to assess a person's psychological status.

Malcolm Nance, a former United States Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer and intelligence and foreign policy analyst. He is currently in the 3rd Battalion International Legion in Ukraine. Malcolm Nance

Little is known about McIntyre's background, but he's originally from Mobile, Alabama, attended Lincoln County High School in Lafayette, Tennessee, and then went into military training at Fort Bliss, Texas.

He served in the US Army as an indirect-fire infantryman from June 2015 to August 2017 but was never deployed and left the service as a private first class, Madison Bonzo, a US Army spokesperson, told Insider.

The US military was unable to confirm which type of discharge he received, or any information about medical or personnel actions related to him because of federal privacy laws. Insider was unable to reach McIntyre.

The retired Marine Elliot Smith  not his real name, as he was granted anonymity so he could speak freely  was second in command of McIntyre's platoon and met him in April, soon after they both joined the war.

McIntyre "initially gave a good impression," Smith said, but cracks started to show as they got closer to the battlefield and began to face the threat of death.

"One night, he confided in me that he saw the ghost of a dog that he had killed," Smith said. "So I thought, 'OK, maybe he's not all there.'"

The warning signs continued, as McIntyre told Smith that he was wanted by the FBI for threatening to kill personnel at the White House, Smith said. Insider has been unable to verify the validity of this claim.

"As time went on, he confided to me that he had converted to Islam and that he was planning to do a jihad," Smith told Insider.

Nance, who worked as the chief of intelligence of the battalion, said that he was brought many reports of similar outlandish claims made by McIntyre.

"I think he was a mentally disturbed man who was looking for a place of notoriety to fit in," Nance said.

Smith offered a similar assessment of McIntyre.

"What I got from Johnny, and this is reflected in his behavior in our unit all the way to him leaving for Russia, was that he was just looking for people to pay attention to him," he said.

McIntyre and Smith's unit was fighting in Molodova, a village near Kharkiv, after Ukraine recaptured it in May. With the Russians furious that they had lost hold of the village, the fighters often found themselves under attack.

A destroyed market seen in Saltivka, near Molodova in Kharkiv, on April 29, 2022. Alex Chan Tsz Yuk/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

That, Smith said, is when the real cracks in McIntyre's abilities started to show.

Smith said McIntyre loaded his machine gun upside down and that while he was running through the forest dodging artillery fire, he "physically showed that he was not capable of combat."

When on the retreat, Smith said he and another fighter had to stay back in the forest because McIntyre couldn't continue with the rest of the unit. They spent an hour waiting for him until additional help arrived.

As the pressure of war continued to mount, Smith said he was told that McIntyre had started excessively drinking in secret, which brought him to a "breaking point."

Smith said that one day, McIntyre was given permission to go to Kharkiv with leadership and came back drunk, having found alcohol in the city.

"His rights had been read, and he had to be detained because he had caused a struggle with officers and leadership," Smith said. "He had urinated in the vehicle being brought back to our combat point and then made a scene in the middle of the village, half naked, and threatened the leadership and all the legionnaires present in the area."

The platoon commander chose to be lenient and said that McIntyre should just sleep it off. As McIntyre slept, the platoon was warned of an incoming artillery attack.

McIntyre took advantage of the chaos. He escaped from the watch he was under and ran off, still intoxicated and half naked, into the forest.

"We spent about maybe an hour or two looking for this man, in the dead of night until the morning came up," Smith said.

Eventually, McIntyre turned himself in and was sent to the main command, where Smith said everyone hoped he'd be sent home.

But McIntyre was given a second chance  but this time away from the action, on logistical duty.

Once back to battalion, McIntyre's erratic behavior continued

McIntyre was sent in June to the battalion headquarters in Kharkiv, where he met Nance.

"When you screw up, a company gets rid of you, pulls you off the line, and sends you back to the battalion," Nance told Insider. "And now you're our problem. What we're doing is we're filling out the paperwork to kick you out of Ukraine."

From the beginning, McIntyre would talk about crossing the river in Kharkiv to go to the Russian side "out of sheer boredom," Nance said, which raised a red flag.

Once he was back at the battalion, McIntyre's erratic behavior continued. On one occasion, Nance said a nearby Russian strike had caused large windows at the HQ building to shatter, leaving 1-foot-high piles of broken glass.

With an artillery barrage outside, he said he spotted McIntyre sitting amid the shattered glass.

McIntyre was smoking a cigarette in his uniform pants, a white tank top, and flip-flops and appeared to be "mesmerized" while "watching the pretty lights" of the artillery barrage, Nance said.

"So I have to go out on the roof  glass is crunching everywhere  and I said, 'What the fuck are you doing out here?' and he says, 'I'm just having a smoke.' This is when I realize he is out of his mind," Nance said.

To keep him out of trouble and away from the front line, Nance said, McIntyre was not allowed to handle weapons and given menial tasks, including moving supplies and cleaning the kitchen.

At one point, he was put on guard duty, operating a makeshift checkpoint built from white sandbags.

When Nance went away for two days in July, he returned to be told that McIntyre had spray-painted more than 200 sandbags with the words, "Fuck you," and incomprehensible phrases.

The makeshift checkpoint spray painted by McIntyre Malcolm Nance

"It's mind-boggling as to the intensity and dedication that it took," Nance, who inspected the defaced checkpoint, said. "It was just insane. And then, boom, he was gone out of the legion that day."

Fleeing across enemy lines to Russia

McIntyre said in the RT interview that he went and joined the Carpathian Sich, a unit of Ukrainians and foreign nationals that Nance described as an "authorized militia."

After some time, he tried to rejoin the International Legion, but the leadership refused, Nance said. Several months later, he appeared on TV in Moscow claiming that this was his plan all along.

McIntyre said in the interview that he went to Moscow via Istanbul and claimed that he did so to pass along valuable information he gathered while acting as a "spy" in Ukraine.

"It's the reason I came to Ukraine in the first place, you know. I'm a communist. I'm an anti-fascist," he said in the interview, while repeating the false Russian propaganda line that Ukraine is full of Nazis.

Nance said he categorically rejected the idea that McIntyre had any strong ideological bent or that he could have gathered any useful information to take over to Russia.

"He's an idiot who was mentally ill," Nance said. "And at the last minute, when he couldn't get back into the legion, he just decided he would go to Moscow."

McIntyre made various other dramatic claims in his interview. He said that he was under threat of execution as a whistleblower, that the Ukrainian army had snipers set up to shoot defectors and used civilians as human shields, and that many fighters had Nazi tattoos.

Nance said all these claims were fabricated and an example of him "using the Russian political line to further an agenda."

His behavior calls the Intentional Legion's vetting process into question

When McIntyre went to Ukraine in the early weeks of the war, following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's public appeal for foreign volunteers, the vetting process did not appear rigorous.

Smith, the retired Marine, said that when he joined the legion in March 2022, he realized "all you had to do was shoot a gun and breathe."

The apparently lax process meant that people like McIntyre who may be ill-suited to warfare were able to slip through the cracks. The process has changed, Smith said, and is now more robust.

The International Legion did not respond to a request for comment.

While McIntyre is an example of someone who may have gone to Ukraine with the wrong intentions, Nance said this was not typical of the volunteer fighters he'd worked with.

"Eighty percent of the people that come into the legion are fine," Nance said. "They're ideologically driven. They don't like what Russia has done. They feel in their hearts that they have to come help.

"But every once in a while, there's a class of what I call 'the criminals, crazies, and con artists'  the people who are there to reinvent themselves."

Smith affords McIntyre some sympathy. "He legitimately needed institutional help. He was going through psychological issues," he said.

"There is pity to be had for him, but this is a war," Smith said. "There are people here who have legitimately died, who have bled out, and this guy just took it as a PR stunt.

"Johnny Alabama is literally self-destructing and just trying to undermine this personnel group who have given all that they got."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Exploring asteroids using an asteroid-orbiting NASA spacecraft will be the topic of a March 20 community lecture in Oak Ridge by a retired distinguished professor from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Harry "Hap" McSween

Harry "Hap" McSween, chancellors professor emeritus in the UTK Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, will present the first Richard D. "Dick" Smyser Community Lecture of 2023. It is co-sponsored by ORION and the Friends of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. FORNL established the Smyser Community Lecture series early this century in honor of Smyser, the retired founding editor of The Oak Ridger who contributed greatly to FORNLs success. ORION is an amateur science and astronomy club centered in Oak Ridge.

The title of McSweens talk is Asteroid Exploration by the Dawn Spacecraft. It will be held at 7 p.m. Monday in the City Room (A-111) of the Coffey-McNally Building at Roane State Community Colleges Oak Ridge Branch Campus, 701 Briarcliff Ave. Hors doeuvres and non-alcoholic beverages will be served starting at 6:15 p.m.

McSween, who has degrees in chemistry and geology from the University of Georgia and Harvard University, twice served as head of the UTK Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is the only planetary geoscientist to have been elected president of the Geological Society of America.

According to a NASA website, Dawn launched in 2007 on a journey that put about 4.3 billion miles on its odometer. Propelled by ion engines, the spacecraft achieved many firsts until its extended mission concluded on Oct. 31, 2018. In 2011, when Dawn arrived at Vesta, the second-largest world in the main asteroid belt, the spacecraft became the first to orbit a body in the region between Mars and Jupiter.

In 2015, when Dawn went into orbit around Ceres, a dwarf planet that is also the largest world in the asteroid belt, the mission became the first to visit a dwarf planet and go into orbit around two destinations beyond Earth.

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In the summary of his talk, McSween mentioned several findings from the Dawn space mission on asteroids, which he described as leftover planetary raw materials. He wrote: Dawn also revealed some surprises, such as the presence of water on Vesta delivered by foreign objects. Precise tracking of Dawns orbit allowed a model of Vestas interior, which is dominated by a massive iron core.

"Unlike Vesta, Ceres contains large amounts of ice, as well as alteration minerals formed by interaction of minerals with liquid water. Although no meteorites are recognized to have come from Ceres, its composition is much like carbonaceous chondrites, but more pervasively altered.

Surprisingly, Ceres hosts cryovolcanoes that erupt brines, probably in the present day, and organic compounds have been found as well. Models of Ceres interior indicate a soft, muddy mantle and a rigid crust of ice, silicates and salts.

For four decades NASA funded McSweens research on meteorites, parts of meteors that survive passage through Earths atmosphere and strike the ground. Most are made of rock, but a few consist partly of iron and nickel.

McSween has published hundreds of scientific papers dealing with meteorites and their implications for understanding the formation and evolution of the solar system.

Besides the Dawn asteroid orbiter, he has been involved in other spacecraft missions  most recently as co-investigator for the Mars Exploration rovers and the Mars Odyssey orbiter.

He enjoys communicating the excitement of science to the public, and he is the author of three popular books on meteorites and planetary science. He has also written widely used textbooks in geochemistry, cosmochemistry and planetary geoscience.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: UT scientist, author to speak in Oak Ridge on asteroid discoveries
With Utah in drought and the Great Salt Lake shriveling, Gov. Spencer Cox in June 2021 made an unusual request: He asked constituents to pray for rain.

We need some divine intervention, Cox said.

This winter, Utahns got their precipitation  it snowed like crazy. Nearly every mountain range is storing at least 1.5 times as much water as is typical. The extra runoff this spring could be an immense help to the states water woes.

But some scientists worry Utah is wasting a blessing.

State lawmakers chose not to implement short-term, emergency rescue measures during this winters legislative session to capitalize on that snowfall, replenish the lake and prevent its ecological collapse.

We got a big nothingburger, said Ben Abbott, a Brigham Young University assistant professor who helped author a January report warning the lakes ecology was collapsing. Are we going to continue to ask God for these gifts and were not doing what we can?

Utah lawmakers earmarked more than $400 million this session as part of their long-term vision to address the states ongoing water supply concerns. To Abbott, that wasnt enough.

The situation reflects tensions across Western states mired in a two-decade megadrought: Utah lawmakers are making historic investments in water supply and conservation, but the crisis has grown so severe and critical thresholds are so close that some worry gradual actions cant measure up.

Prominent Utah lawmakers disagreed with Abbott over the legislative session, which closed earlier this month.

Sailboats once docked at the Great Salt Lake marina. Now, it's dry. (Evan Bush / NBC News)

Hes completely dead wrong about what we did and the impact its going to have on the lake, said Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson, a Republican, saying Abbott was an alarmist.

This is year two of what I think is going to have to be a 10-year effort, Wilson said. We accomplished everything we set out to do and more. I feel really good about what weve done and where were at with the lake.

Last fall, the Great Salt Lakes water levels reached an all-time low. More concerning, the lakes salinity soared to levels that left scientists unsure how much longer the creatures at the base of the food web  brine flies and brine shrimp adapted to extreme conditions  could hang on.

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In January, Abbott and other scientists and conservationists released a report saying the lake needed emergency measures to stop the ongoing collapse and that the lake as we know it is on track to disappear in five years.

The consequences are huge.

Each year, some 10 million migratory birds  of more than 300 species  depend on the lakes habitat to survive. Low water levels threaten several industries, including mining companies that evaporate lake brine to extract metals and commercial producers that farm brine shrimp, which are used in aquaculture.

As the lake dries up, more unhealthy dust is expected to blow into communities near the lake. Scientists are concerned because the dust contains toxic metals.

In January, scientists and politicians said this winter could be a turning point.

Utahs accounts were flush with billions in unexpected revenues, and lawmakers promised they would spend generously on the lake. The good snow year portended a boost for lake levels.

In his budget, Cox proposed that Utah spend more than $560 million on water improvements, including $100 million to address the emergency and buy short-term agricultural water leases and shepherd that water to the Great Salt Lake.

When the legislative dust settled in March, lawmakers agreed to spend well north of $400 million in ongoing and one-time funding for the Great Salt Lake and water conservation, according to a list of budget appropriations.

Lawmakers used $200 million to fund a program to optimize agricultural water use and invested in cloud seeding and water measuring infrastructure. They funded dust and air quality studies and created a new state office: the Great Salt Lake commissioner.

Lawmakers passed a bill to encourage sod removal and efficient landscaping, a bill to ban water reuse in the Great Salt Lake Basin so more water flows into the lake, and a bill to ensure the state has emergency powers if ecological or salinity thresholds are crossed.

Lawmakers chose not to set a specific target for lake levels or spend millions of dollars to boost lake levels by buying up short-term water rights.

Some argued such emergency measures werent necessary.

We had an emergency plan in place that would have gotten enough water, in my opinion, to save the ecology of the lake, state Sen. Scott Sandall said during a recorded media event. Mother Nature helped us out. We didnt have to pull that lever for emergency use.

An exposed playa on the Great Salt Lake. The playa is a source of dust that could worsen air pollution. (Evan Bush / NBC News)

That lawmakers chose not to implement emergency measures during a good snow year irked some scientists, who said it was a prime opportunity to build a safety buffer and protect the lakes ecology from the tipping points it neared last summer.

This was the year of lost opportunity and they didnt get the urgency of the situation, said Kevin Perry, a University of Utah atmospheric scientist who has studied the lake and its dust problems. The nice snowpack came at an opportune moment to save the lake, but it came at an inopportune moment for the Legislature.

The debate over whats best for the Great Salt Lake reflects water concerns elsewhere in the West, where policymakers are nearly out of runway on hard decisions and water users often collectively have rights to more water than what typically flows through each year.

In the Colorado basin, states are negotiating steep cuts to water use to keep the Colorado River flowing as the climate changes and the region grows.

The situation is perilously close to catastrophe: The region could be just years away from dead pool  when flow is cut off to lower portions of the river because it cant pass through dams on Lake Powell or Lake Mead.

If states cant agree to cuts, the federal Bureau of Reclamation might step in and impose its own. This years strong snowpack likely buys only months of additional time. The Colorado Rivers flows provide water for about 40 million people.

In February, Cox ordered a state agency to raise a berm that separates the Great Salt Lakes north and south arms.

Its an act of triage: Separating the two arms is designed to leave the south with more water, which will help keep salinity levels tolerable. Water levels on the north arm, home to little life, are to be sacrificed.

State officials hope the measure can buy time as water conservation efforts take effect.

Some policy changes are beginning to have an impact.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Wednesday agreed to permanently donate the equivalent of more than 20,000 acre-feet of agricultural water for the lakes benefit, something made easier by legislative changes lawmakers implemented in 2022.

Meantime, Perry said he expects the lake to get a net gain of more than 1.5 feet this year  some breathing room, but not much.

Lawmakers say theyre well aware.

Its one wet winter. Its not going to wash away 20 years of long-term drought, Wilson said. Were not taking it for granted.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Old caucus signs that werent used due to COVID-19 are stacked up inside the Utah GOPs headquarters in Salt Lake City on April 28, 2021. Utah GOP state delegates across Utah will gather April 22 to vote on a new party leadership team. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Two political insiders are vying to lead the Utah Republican Party as the new state party chair.

GOP state party delegates will choose between Rob Axson or Mike Bird when they gather April 22 at Utah Valley University. Both men have experience serving in party leadership, a scenario different from two years ago when political neophyte Carson Jorgensen won the position.

Jorgensen announced earlier this month he would not seek reelection. Axson and Bird were the only ones to declare before Thursdays filing deadline.

In an interview with Deseret News, Axson said he believes he can help Republicans navigate the challenges and opportunities confronting the party and the state.

The Republican Party has a role to play, as one of many organizations in the state, trying to find ways to create and build a vision for the future, he said. Axson said he has worked in positions in the party, campaigns and as a staffer for elected officials for over 15 years. He said this experience has given him a unique skill set that will help him deliver a bold, transformative vision for what the party can become that will benefit the people of Utah.

Axson has worked for Sen. Mike Lee for more than a decade and currently runs Lees state office. He said hes helped with over 20 campaigns across the state and has served as a member of the Republican Party State Central Committee for a number of years. Additionally, he previously served as the GOP state party vice chair from 2020 to 2021 under the leadership of former party chair Derek Brown, where he also served with Bird who is the state party treasurer.

Courtesy of Robert Axson

Bird was the first to launch his campaign for state party chair and previously told the Deseret News he is running with three priorities in mind: Growing the party, increasing our influence and keeping Utah red.

This is my fourth year serving as treasurer and Im happy to say we are debt free and have money in the bank, he said. But Bird said he is worried that the states population is growing at a faster rate than party membership. Weve kind of lost track of growing our party. We need to refocus our time, energy and resources on getting new members, and in turn we need to educate them and train them and get them more involved, he said.

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Bird works as a finance and operations director for University of Utah Health and has served as the Utah Republican Party treasurer since 2019, with experience as a member of both the Brown and Jorgensen leadership teams. He is also a member of the partys State Central Committee, the State Executive Committee and the Budget Committee.

Related

Both Axson and Bird spoke of a need for sustained party momentum.

Theres 30 Republican parties in the state of Utah, Axson said, referencing each of Utahs counties and the state party. Theres a meaningful opportunity if each of us builds together so were not duplicating efforts and in the process create relevance for the party by building out structures to support our candidates, he said.

Bird mentioned the disruption that can happen with party leadership turnover. We create so much momentum as a party leadership, and then unfortunately we constantly have turnover, he said. I can keep that momentum and create the consistency we need to accomplish and finish the initiatives weve set out to accomplish as a party.

Neither of the men criticized one another, saying theyve worked with each other for a long time and consider each other friends. Jorgensen also spoke well of both of them. Rob and Mike are phenomenal, we cant ask for better candidates to run the party. I trust them both implicitly, he said.

Courtesy of Mike Bird

Bird said its great for the state delegates to have leadership choices so a discussion can take place on what they want to see in the future for the party. I think (Rob) and I both have a little bit different visions of where our focus should be as a state party right now, he said.

He also said he believes the GOP has forgotten the reason were in business. Bird said he wants to restructure the state party so it is better oriented to educate, to recruit and to win elections.

Axson also praised his opponent but feels he is more prepared to lead the party. I have a 15 year track record of fighting for the party, winning elections and raising funds, so by electing me the delegates know what theyre going to get.

State delegates can learn more about each of the GOP state party chair candidates platforms by visiting their websites at RobAxson.com and ElectMikeBird.com.

Other candidates for GOP state party leadership

As of the filing deadline, Jordan Hess is the only candidate running for vice chair, an office he is currently serving in.

Olivia Dawn, the current party secretary, has also filed to run for re-election. Challenging her for the position are Nicholas Compton and Stafford Palmieri.

McKay Newell, Patrick Russo and Thomas Young have each filed to campaign for the GOP state treasurer seat vacated by Bird.
VATICAN CITY (AP)  The Vatican said Saturday it had closed its embassy in Nicaragua after the country's government proposed suspending diplomatic relations, the latest episode in a yearslong crackdown on the Catholic Church by the administration of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

The Vatican's representative to Managua, Monsignor Marcel Diouf, also left the country Friday, bound for Costa Rica, a Vatican official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Vatican action came a week after the Nicaraguan government proposed suspending relations with the Holy See, and a year after Nicaragua forced the papal ambassador at the time to leave. It's not clear what more the proposed suspension would entail in diplomatic terms.

Relations between the church and Ortega's government have been deteriorating since 2018, when Nicaraguan authorities violently repressed anti-government protests.

Some Catholic leaders gave protesters shelter in their churches, and the church later tried to act as a mediator between the government and the political opposition.

Ortega branded Catholic figures he saw as sympathetic to the opposition as terrorists who had backed efforts to overthrow him. Dozens of religious figures were arrested or fled the country.

Two congregations of nuns, including from the Missionaries of Charity order founded by Mother Teresa, were expelled from Nicaragua last year.

Prominent Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez was sentenced to 26 years in prison last month after he refused to board an airplane that flew 222 dissidents and priests to exile in the United States. He also was stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship.

Pope Francis had remained largely silent on the issue, apparently not wanting to inflame tensions. But in a March 10 interview with Argentine media outlet Infobae, after Alvarez's sentencing, he called Ortegas government a rude dictatorship comparable to Hitlers that was led by an unbalanced president.

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According to Vatican News, the care of the Vaticans embassy, or nunciature, was entrusted to the Italian government, according to diplomatic conventions. The report said diplomats of the European Union, Germany, France and Italy gave Diouf, the charge daffaires, a farewell salute before he shuttered the diplomatic post and left.

During the farewell ceremony, Germany's ambassador to Nicaragua, Christoph Bundscherer, expressed regret at the embassy's closure and asked Diouf to share a message with Pope Francis, according to a statement on the German Embassys Facebook page.

Together with the Catholic Church, the representatives of the European Union in Nicaragua will also always defend the Christian values of freedom, tolerance and human dignity, Bundscherer said, according to the statement.

The Nicaraguan government, which since September 2018 has banned all opposition demonstrations in the country, also restricted Catholic activities inside churches, including banning the traditional street processions that thousands of Nicaraguans used to celebrate in the lead up to Holy Week and Easter.

The restrictions forced church authorities to hold the Stations of the Cross procession on the grounds of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua, as they did Friday.

___

Selser reported from Mexico City.
The Vatican representative to Nicaragua has left the country and closed its embassy there amid continuing tensions between Managua and the Holy See, the Vatican News portal has reported.

Bilateral relations had been on the brink of collapse after Pope Francis in an interview last week referred to the government of socialist president Daniel Ortega as a dictatorship.

The portal said the diplomat, Monsignor Marcel Diouf, had traveled on Friday to Costa Rica.

The closure of the embassy "occurred as a result of a request from the Nicaraguan government," Vatican News said.

It said custody of the apostolic nunciature in Managua had been "entrusted to the Italian Republic," under terms of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

In an interview with Argentine portal Infobae on March 10, Francis described Ortega's government as a "gross dictatorship" led by an "unbalanced" president.

In the interview, the Argentine pope also expressed concern, without naming him, for Nicaraguan bishop Rolando Alvarez, who in February was sentenced to 26 years in prison for "undermining national integrity," among other charges.

Alvarez has been under house arrest since August and refused to be deported along with 222 political dissidents to the United States.

Soon after, the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that "a suspension of diplomatic relations (with the Vatican) has been proposed."

Days before the pontiff's comments, the Managua government closed two universities affiliated with the Catholic Church.

Since 2007, Ortega has engaged in increasingly authoritarian practices, exiling or jailing dissidents and rivals, quashing presidential term limits and seizing control of all branches of the state.

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